The Power and Necessity of Evangelism, Part 7 | Dr. Mike Woods Sr | 26 MARCH 25

Oh boy. Well, praise God! Hallelujah! Welcome to 12 Noon. A lot going on. Glory to the name of God. Pray you guys are well this afternoon. Joyfully-yam. Glory to Jesus. God is so good. He's so wonderful. He's so mighty. He's so good. And beside him, there is not another God like him. Man, we had such a good time in 5 o'clock prayer this morning. So glad you're back with us today. Uh, do me a fine— a kind favor, family. Please like, share, and comment below. Let us know that you are here. Uh, welcome, glory to the name of God, to our 12 Noon Bible Immersion. Glory to God, we're continuing our series right here on day 7. Glory to the name of God, and we are looking forward to an exciting and a powerful move of the Spirit of the Living God on today. So please guys, be kind, be kind, be kind and share. Speak below again, engage throughout this teaching. It's going to be a good one today. We're excited to be here. We believe God, hallelujah, and we believe that God's going to move and meet us in his word today. Glory to the name of God. What a great God we serve. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Welcome to everybody, welcome to everybody. I pray that you will experience the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow. Glory to the name of God. God bless you too, Pastor Jeffrey Jasper. Good to see you today. Glory to the name of God. Thank you for being here. Thank you for engaging. Thank you for sharing. Glory to God. Sharing is important. Glory to God. Hello to everyone. I'm going to dive into this, man, because I believe We're going to be blessed today for real, and I want to make sure we cover everything we got to cover today. So if you don't mind, uh, we're going to go into a moment of prayer. Praise God! And we're going to trust God that he will meet us here and that we will experience his goodness, we will experience his mercy, we'll experience his power. Amen. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, We thank you for another opportunity to teach your word. Thank you for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. And so, Father, even as we disseminate what you will have us to say today, I pray moreover for the ears of the hearer, that they will hear what the Spirit says to the church. And Father, that something inside of us will be ignited, internalized, And Father, that we will begin to be contagious evangelists, that we will synergize around this cause of the salvation of souls. I truly believe, God, that when we unify, when we have a synergy around your plan to bring many to you, and that your desire is that none should perish but that all should come to repentance, I believe our world will be a better place when we rally around this idea. So Father, in Jesus' name, may the anointing of God destroy every yoke, every yoke, may it destroy every yoke that would hinder and stop us from being people who are effective witnesses for you. And we praise you, we praise you for the harvest that's now upon us. Your word told us, God, that the harvest is great but the laborers are few. And so, Father, I'm asking you today to change that scenario. And I'm asking you, God, that the laborers will increase, because you told us to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he may send laborers. Hallelujah! So I'm praying today for laborers, God, that people will come to you and they will begin to minister to others. And we praise you for it now. We thank you for the many that'll be saved, that'll repent of their sins, that'll be baptized in water. Glory to God. And that'll be discipled to reduplicate the very same thing that happened to them. And we bless you for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Man, oh my God, God bless you today. I mean, I feel good in my soul. Praise God. Hallelujah. Did you— have you guys been enjoying, uh, these teachings? Praise God. Hallelujah. If you had, just hit the like button, uh, put some hands up or something in the comments. Just let us know you've been enjoying these teachings. And you know, I pray you've been being challenged. Glory to God. Hey Zion, God bless you. Good to see you as well today. Praise God. Hallelujah. Good to see everyone that's here. It's such a blessing, praise God, to be in the presence of God. Hallelujah. It's such a blessing to, um, be challenged in our comfort zone and then respond to that challenge. And the greatest part of it is when, after we respond to the challenge and begin to do what the Spirit of God is challenging us to do, we start seeing results. Glory to God from that response. So, glory to God, so glad, hallelujah, that you guys are here. God bless you, Prophetess Lanfair. Good to see you. Glory to God. God bless you, Sharia. Good to see you, daughter. God bless you all that are coming in. Praise God. Hallelujah. God bless you, Melanie. Good to see you. Glory to the name of God. Always good to see family connecting. Praise God. Hallelujah. We love Jesus. We love Jesus. Hallelujah. God bless you, Vern. Good to see you today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just so grateful to God. Hallelujah. As you guys are coming in, share. It's gonna be good today, I promise you. It's gonna be real good. It's gonna challenge us some more, but we're gonna be— it's gonna be good. We love him. Hallelujah. We love him so much. He's such a good God. Hallelujah. All right, let's get into this, man. Hallelujah. We're going to go to 1 Peter. Glory to God today. And we're going to start reading at verse number 1, and I'm just going to prophetically plow through these verses that God has given me. And, um, we're going to begin to just kind of pick up where we've been. We've been talking about internalizing— glory to the name of God— a burden for souls. Having a desire not to keep this thing to ourselves and making sure that we are being responsible disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and sharing our faith with other people. And one of the main things we've established, family, throughout this teaching is that evangelism or soul winning, it's not optional. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna say it's not optional. Glory to God. Hallelujah. It's not optional. Praise God. So winning is not optional. You have been commanded. You have been given a mandate. So we've been talking a lot about that mandate. We've been talking a lot about what evangelism means. And so yesterday we started getting to some of the methods, and so today we're going to kind of get into another method that's kind of a foundation, I believe, to the other— to these other methods we talked about: operating your gifts, you know, teaching people, loving all people. But I think today what we're going to share is vitally important to whatever we do being received. Touch yourself and say this. Say, when I share the word with someone that doesn't know God. Say, I want to be received. Come on, say it again. So I want to be received. See, it's effective when it's received, because if we, we're sharing things with people and they're not get— they're not receiving it, you know, it's, it's literally, glory to the name of God, a waste of time. And there's one of the key reasons that people don't receive, and we're about to get into it. When we begin to share with them is that, glory to God, many times our life as they know it doesn't line up with what we're saying. All right, if you're still operating in the tenets of who you used to be and you— your old man is still constantly alive and you're trying to witness to people, it's going to be hard to reach them, ladies and gentlemen. So let's, um, let's jump in this, and I'm going to be reading through, uh, the NIV as we read today. But we're going again, we're going to, uh, praise God, 1 Peter chapter number 2. God is good and he's good all the time. Glory to God. Hallelujah. So praise God. Good to see you, wife. I always— my biggest fan. Thank God for that lady. Glory to God. So let's jump in it. Let's jump in it. It's gonna be wonderful. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be great. So stay with us. Praise God. All right, so again, we're getting into some methods. Say methods. Say methods. Glory to God. So behavior, right? There's a word in the Greek called pneumaticos, which is the behavior, pneuma, of spirit field, pneuma. Atticus is, is how we act, how we behave. Pneuma is spirit. So pneumaticos is the behavior of spiritual people. So those of us who say we're spiritual, there's just a way we ought to act. That's just the way we ought to show up in the world. We ought to be different. I'm not going to go here, but Leviticus 10:10 says that you may put difference between that which is holy and that which is unholy, that which is clean and that which is unclean. So you got to show up in the world and make a difference. Glory to the name of God. So that people will know that, hallelujah, there's something available that's not like what's going on. You can't reach folk smoking reefer or weed if you out there smoking reefer and weed with them. You, you, you just can't do it because they're not going to receive you, and you diminish the power. Hear me, you diminish the power of the gospel to transform from darkness to light. See, we can't have all this talk about light and not understand that darkness does exist. There are people that live in darkness. As a matter of fact, the Bible says when you and I got saved, we were translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the dear son— of his dear son, which is Jesus Christ. So we left one kingdom, which is the kingdom of darkness, and came under the regime of the rule of a new king, the King of Kings. The king that holds all authority and power. So we gotta have difference, we gotta have behavior. Pneumaticos, that's a new word for somebody that didn't know that word today. Pneumaticos, the behavior of spiritual people. See, the behavior of spiritual people is not just you speaking in tongues, you dancing, you shouting, you crying, you rolling on the floor. No ma'am, no sir. The behavior of spiritual people is the lifestyle you live in alignment and accordance to the word of the living God. Are we here today? So 1 Peter 2, and we live in a time and somebody's got to preach this, so I'm just gonna be the one. I already know I'm not gonna be very popular for teaching this about evangelism, number one, because nobody wants to take this responsibility to be disciplined. They'll call themselves a disciple and never disciple anyone else and never bring anyone else into the kingdom. They'll call themselves saved and never talk to anyone about God, but it's a command. And when you're not doing it, again, you're missing the mark. And so as we do it, we gotta get our pneumaticos, our spiritual behavior in line. And if I was gonna title this teaching today, it'll be the power and necessity of evangelism, part 7, pneumaticos, just one word, 'cause that's what we're gonna talk about, the behavior, of spiritual people. There's a way you should act if you're going to be light. Glory to God. Somebody said, well, that's a given, Apostle. Yeah, I know, but we're going to talk about it. Glory to God. So here we go, 2 Peter— 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. So again, I, I want to effectively equip you to effectively engage— glory to God— in soul winning by understanding your call to holiness. That's the whole purpose of this. And you're called to operate in the identity of Christ, not to make excuses, not to, oh, I'm just human. No, you need to be a light. Glory to God. So here we go. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. The Bible says, wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. So let's just break that down. So first of all, he says you gotta lay this aside. I want to help you. He's not talking to people who are in sin right here. He's talking to folk that are already saved, that have already been converted. And so Peter finds— this is a part of that group that 5,000, and then that second 3,000. So this is part of those 8,000 that got born again on the day of Pentecost and shortly after the day of Pentecost. He's saying to them, now you're born again, you're filled with the Holy Ghost, but you got to do some work. You got to lay aside some things. To lay aside means to remove it, extrapolate it from your way of life. In other words, you don't— you're new now, so you don't participate in these things anymore. So he specifically identifies malice. The word malice is kakia in Greek, K-A-K-I-A, kakia. And this word kakia, hear me guys, it means wickedness. It means the desire to injure. Oh my God, it means the desire to break law. Watch this. So he said, lay aside the desire to not only injure others but injure yourself now that you're saved by breaking the laws of God. Oh my God. By doing things you know God is not pleased with. And you know, we got some bold folks in this hour, y'all. They will just rewrite the Bible. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to fix the Bible to make it fit what they want to do. The devil is a liar, man. That's not what we're called to do. We're not called to change scripture. We're not called to write a new canon for all you inclusionists out there. No, you're going to be held accountable for what you know, and you're trying to change what you know so it fits what you cannot— what you refuse to be delivered from in your flesh. But the Bible says here, lay it aside. Now I'm just going to choose to believe the Bible. So every day you wake up, you should be making sure that you're putting off things that don't represent God. So mainly here he's saying you got to get rid of that desire to be wicked, that desire to sin. And remember yesterday we defined wickedness as anything aligned with darkness that goes against God. So sin is an act of wickedness. So we should be working— come on, man— not to be wicked, especially if we want to reach people, right? So he says, lay aside malice and all guile. Here we go. Guile is dolos, D-O-L-O. Oh, here we go, here we go. Dolos in Greek, and this, this word is so powerful. It means to be deceitful, to be crafty, to be manipulative. So watch this, which means you one way in front of some people, and then when that person is not looking, under your breath you're doing or saying something else. Listen, you may not think that you're seen, but if you're in a prophetic company— oh my God, I'm telling one of the The challenges in being in a prophetic culture is that there's very little that prophetic people in that culture is not gonna see if they truly prophetic. And watch this, this dolos, this guile where you are all happy-go-lucky and smiling, but then behind their back, you're sticking daggers. Behind their back, you're making comments. Oh, y'all ain't got to say nothing. That goes against the grain. Oh my God. Or what God's trying to accomplish. Oh boy. And what you think is, many times you're not seen, but when you're in prophetic company, people can see you. Okay, so you might want to work on gal. And here's the, uh, here's the biggest piece. I said this yesterday, I'll say it again. When you show up in the midst of sinners, people who ain't saved, They know you playing. Most of the time they can tell you ain't real. They could tell, glory to the name of God, that you're operating in fakery. You're pseudo. Glory to God, you're not the person that you're talking about. So if we're going to show up in the world, we got to get the gal out of our life. You know, this— these, these words are just telling us we cannot be what we used to be if we're going to be light And then we're gonna affect people 'cause this stuff can be seen. Watch this, hypocrisy is hypocrisy. Now, very close to guile, but it's a little different because a hypocrite intentionally studies a script to be something they're not. So it's like an actor studying a script to play something on the screen. So you're working on your presentation to be fake. All right, you know, guile deals with— it's a spirit that influences it that you need deliverance from because you can't submit to God's way, and so you kind of rebel, only deceiving yourself, injuring yourself. But hypocrisy is an attempt to make others really believe and buy into that you're something you know behind closed doors you're not. So how about this? How about not even be out here trying to lead people to God? We said it yesterday, if you want to lead people to God, you got to be born again. Part of being born again is you choose to work on you. Let's get you together. Let's, let's— because people know if you've been hypocritical. You again, you out here smoking reefer, smoking crack, fornicating with them and then try to witness to them. That, that don't fit. Glory to the name of God. That, that, that's good. That's going to be a hard win. It's going to be a hard sell. Glory to God. Because there's no conviction. Because you're leading with— oh my God— a loose life. And they see that because you're participating. They see the hypocrisy. You out here— oh my God— you're out here cussing and drinking and doing everything they're doing. But you want to reach them for God, it's not going to be— hallelujah— something that's going to— oh man, you're going to be able to accomplish. Glory to God. Oh, it's quiet in the chat. Glory to God. It's okay, God, we're going to keep going. Hallelujah. So he says, and envy— oh, here we go— uh, uh, pythonos, which is— glory to God— jealousy, uh, that is prompted by you envying somebody, because envy has an undercurrent of dislike and even hatred. You start disliking people because you envy them. Watch this, you can't win people to God that you envy. Oh my God, you envy what they have, you envy their house, their car, their money. You can't be intimidated by that because guess what? You got what they need. Glory to God. You can't envy folk because of their lifestyle. Glory to God. And expect to win them. God says lay that aside. Lay that aside. You can't have— because you, you got an ill will to start with. So you gotta lay aside envy. And then all evil speaking. Now I wanted, I wanted to get here so bad because It said all evil speaking. So that means now you can't cuss a little bit every now and then with sinners and think you're gonna reach them just cause y'all playing a card game or y'all in the gym or whatever and everybody's having fun. No, you got to be a light. Watch this, you can't lie in the midst of trying to win people. You can't do it. All evil. Watch this, you can't talk negative, that's evil speaking. When you're talking like a doubter, while everybody at the water cooler and in the break room talking a lot of like a doubter and, and not knowing how things are going to turn out, you can't join that conversation and talking afraid and talking in fear. Get all that doubt and fear out your mouth. Are y'all hearing me? And you got to start declaring the truth of God and saying what God says about your life and speak those things that are not as though they were. I pray y'all getting something. Glory to God. Eba samuntiaya. We give you praise. We give you glory. We give you glory, God. God is so good. I'm telling you, man, you can't do what everybody else does when you're born again. You have to show difference. And these 5 basic classes are basically classes of sin that kind of covers everything, 'cause the evil speaking kind leads to any other sin you're gonna end up doing because it comes out your mouth first. It— oh, glory to God— and then it manifests into an actual thing. So the reality here, you got to put sin aside, you got to put that old man aside and decide, I want to be an effective witness, I want people to be saved because of my life, so I'm going to be different. All right, watch this. Verse number 2, it says, as newborn babes— hear this— He says, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Verse 3, he says, if so be ye tasted that the Lord— hallelujah— is glorious. Now these first 3 verses, glory to God, what they deal with— hear me— is purity for proclamation. Put that in the chat. Purity for proclamation. So in order to proclaim the truth of Christ and who Christ is, there's got to be an element of purity that operates in your life. Purity for proclamation. Now here's some key points in these 3 verses. One, you gotta purge the past. We already broke that down. So to, so to proclaim Christ effectively, I gotta rid myself of malice, of mischief and malcontent. And I got to be satisfied with what God is doing in my life. So you got to purge the past. But secondly, we got to be passionate, according to verse 2, like a newborn baby for purity. Watch this. You ain't got to tell a baby— my little grandson Maverick, you ain't got to tell him when it's time to eat. You ain't got to tell him to eat. 'Cause guess what? When he is hungry and he is ready to eat, he is gonna make you very aware. 'Cause that little brother got some pipes on him. And if you take too long and delay getting him that bottle or that food that he wants, he gonna let you know that, hey, you're taking too long. My body needs nourishment. And it's amazing to me that if we say as newborn babies we desire, so what that means that when we know it's time to eat as people of God, nobody should not have to tell us to eat. But you know what we gotta do? We gotta tell you to come to Bible study. We gotta tell you to get on 12 Noon Teaching. We gotta tell you to show up at church. Listen, we gotta tell you that you need more than hooping and hollering And we gotta tell you how important it is for you to get nourished spiritually. And you ain't got to tell that baby, but if you want to obey this word as newborn babies, you should desire the sincere milk of the word so you can mature. Glory to God. Because it's only the teaching and the preaching, glory to God, of the word of God, hallelujah, with power and anointing under the auspices of the Holy Ghost, who is the master teacher, that's going to cause you to really mature and grow. I don't understand how some folk do it. You will sit up in a dead, dry, uh, church that's not giving you no word because you got emotional attachment to it. Something's wrong with that. It says that you have not tapped into, like a baby, the nourishment that you need. And then when you look at your life and you wonder why you're not growing, it's because you're not being taught. It's because your attention span— oh God, yeah, I told you this is— yeah, it's going, it's going to get us today, but stay with me. Don't you dare scroll because at the end of the day you need this. Our attention span is a minute to a minute and 30 seconds. If it goes past that, we tap out. Glory to God. Because we're not eager to learn, we're not eager to grow. We're— ah God, I feel the anointing of God. We're not eager to get Glory to God, what we need. But in order for us to be effective, we gotta grow. The best evangelists are those that know the word, that mature in the things of God. Because guess what? When you evangelize, when you go out to get people who need to be saved and you start talking to them, guess what starts happening to you? You start growing spiritually, and there's a hunger in you for more because you want to be able to share your experiences and your encounters in growth with other people. Again, like that baby, you ain't got to tell him it's time to eat. Shouldn't have to tell saints, children of God, it's time to get word. We ought to make that a priority. And guess what? I'm a grown man. You ain't never got to tell— you know, we on this fast. I'm telling you right now, I'll be looking forward to the time we come off because it's time to eat. Glory to the name of God. Because, because I, I want to make sure my physical body is nourished, but I also know I got to study the word. I gotta hear the word so my faith will grow, so I'll go into maturity. So purity for proclamation, again, it involves purging the past, it involves a passion for purity. But watch this, also verse 3 showed us that it involves a praise toward the provider. So we praise The provider, the one that we have tasted. Oh my God. So when we get the word, the Bible said we taste that the Lord is gracious. So we testify now to the goodness of God. Hear me, because we are received and tasted of God. Or the psalmist put it like this, he said, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. It is he that has made us and not we ourselves. Glory to the name of God. Come before his presence with singing, enter his courts with praise. We will say that this is the day that the Lord has made. Why do we do that? Because we've tasted. We don't just gather for religious reasons, but we come together corporately for teachings like this. We come together for 5 o'clock prayer. We meet on Sundays, glory to God, for corporate worship. Why? Because we've tasted of God. Not so we can see our favorite person at church, not so we could be a part of a clique or club, but we get together so that we can be empowered and testify to the— you know what, just the very assembling of yourself, glory to God, is a testimony to the world that we all believe the same thing. That synergy, that's coming together. Hear me and listen, we have to come together around this idea Listen, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's read verse 4. Let's keep moving. So, so again, God wants us to have purity in proclamation. Let's read verses— ah, my God, hallelujah, hallelujah— 4 through 8. Here we go. He says, as you come— watch this, watch this— he says, as you come— my God, we love you. Ah, come on, Bible, it's trying to get stuck. We love you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Here we go, here we go. 4 through 8, y'all with me? He says, as you come to him— watch this— the living stone— I'm reading out the NIV, so I switched versions. I was in King James first, now I'm in the NIV. So as you come to him, the living stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him. You also— watch this— like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I love this. So we come to him as living stones. This— the idea in the Greek is that we're imperishable stones. So when I come to God and I receive Jesus as my Savior and I become one that follows him, now I have taken on an imperishable nature. What does that mean? That means I cannot expire. That means I cannot die. Okay, John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth— that's you and I— apostuo, put our confidence in him, should not perish but have everlasting life. We're imperishable. So watch this. So the first part of this is purity and proclamation. Next part of this is we have to have identity as imperishable stones. Touch yourself, say, I'm imperishable. So I can't die. You know what? The more you know that, the better witness you're gonna be. The more you become one with that. See, I think the re— again, I talked about this early in the series. Most people don't witness because they don't know how powerful that is. Because all you got to do really is to think about the other part of that. Because guess what? You could either be imperishable and have everlasting life or you could be condemned for eternity, who— and perish. So when you think about the fact that your identity in Christ, for real, for real, somebody shout for real! Oh my God, for real, you cannot perish, you cannot die, you cannot lose, for real. When you received him, you're imperishable. Whoa, watch this. And you may be rejected by humans. Join the club, you're in good company. Jesus was despised and rejected of men. He came to his own and his own received him not. Listen, there are people that will never accept who you have become in God, and you got to be good with that, and you got to continue still to let love be shed abroad in your heart and continue to be Christ-like toward people who even reject you. Because here's a reality: you're chosen by him because you're elected, selected, and protected to live for God. Hallelujah! You're precious to him according to this text. Hallelujah! The Bible says you are living stones, imperishable stones, being built into a spiritual house. Here's what I like about that. Watch this. He didn't say houses. He said house. Oh boy, he said house. So that means now we got to have a synergy Yes, around this idea of winning people to God, we got to get on the same page. We gotta say the same things. Glory to God. We should be living the same way. We should be speaking the same stuff. That's— oh my God, that's why, glory to God, even the devil says that a house divided against itself cannot stand. See, when you read those words, that's the enemy talking about unity in his own house. He's speaking— the words there is Jesus making reference to Satan, making sure that they stay together in the kingdom of darkness. But watch this, the enemy will stay unified in his camp and divide you and I who are believers and get us debating over what's right and what's wrong and what's Bible and what ain't. And the reality is we just gotta— we need to stick with the book. Listen, hallelujah, we need to stick with this book. We need to stick with this book, man. There's a sacredness connected to this book. This book is alive, and God says he wants to build spiritual house— not houses, one spiritual house— so that people Hallelujah! Can see the light magnified that comes through us all together. Oh God! Well, so here's the key points in these few verses, verses 4 through 8. First, he wants us to be— so we are, we have an identity as imperishable stones. So the first thing is We are solid stones. We're strong. We're sanctified by God for a purpose that's authentic and unique to us. That's what makes you strong, is your uniqueness, is your individuality, is your testimony, is your story, is when you can look back. And that's why you got to be transparent about what God has brought you through and what God has brought you out of. And what God wants to do in your life. You got to be transparent about that. Glory to God. You got to be transparent about the fact that through this book, hallelujah, everything in life, hallelujah, manifests for you. Oh boy. For in it, the Bible says, search the scriptures, for in it you think you have life. Life is here. Glory to God. And that's what makes you solid. Secondly, in these verses, we see that we have sacred service. So we're to serve as a spiritual priesthood, sanctified to serve, sanctified to sacrifice and share the Savior. See, that's your priesthood. So when you operate in a holy place and you've been cleansed by God, your priesthood— see, a priest is an intercessor. That's what it should be. And we know most modern-day priests in title in Catholicism, you know, they operate religiously as intercessors and as intermediary for folks' sin that come to the booth. But we also know that they— the life, glory to the name of God, many a times don't line up with what real priesthood is. And so what we have to do is be spiritual priests. And we— that's why we pray for souls, we pray for revival, we pray for our community, because we got to intercede on behalf of others so they can receive us when we show up. Yeah, it's a sacrifice to get up at 5 for many to pray. But you're making a spiritual sacrifice to be a priest, to connect corporately with an anointing. Glory to God, that is destroying the yoke of people that actually need God for real. Oh my God, good God Almighty. So you, you're a solid stone called a sacred service, and you're shaped by the stone. So Jesus, we read here that Jesus is the chief Cornerstone. Glory to God. And that he shapes our lives to reflect his holiness on earth, so that when people encounter us, they encounter someone that's like him. Glory to God. And that's the main goal. So living stones, you and I, we work together to share salvation, our collective identity and service through the word. Hear me, guys. What it does, I need you to hear me, is it draws people to a power that's far greater than anything they've ever known, and it transforms their life. I'm almost done, guys. I got to get through. So say this with me. Say, I have purity for proclamation. Yeah, you need to receive that. You've purged your past, you're passionate to stay pure, and you praise the provider. Say, I identify as an imperishable stone. Yeah, next time somebody asks you, how do you identify? Instead of giving them your pronouns, tell them, tell them, I'm an imperishable stone. I, I identify as I.S. I'm an imperishable stone. I'm gonna live forever because Jesus Christ is in my life. Glory to God! I can't die. Even when this body goes to sleep, hallelujah, my spirit man shall live on. I'm telling you, better place, high value. And finally, here we go, here we go, here we go. Glory to God. We are called to communicate Christ's calling. Let's read Verses 9 and 10 of 1 Peter 2. He says, but you are chosen people, called, hallelujah, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Say, I am called to communicate Christ's calling. Third point. So here we go. This is again pneumatikos. You, every one of us, you don't have to have a title. You don't have to be Reverend Such-and-Such or Reverend Doctor or Most Righteous Reverend or Apostle or Prophet or Evangelist or Bishop or Teacher. No, every one of you that believe, you are called to communicate Christ's call. You're chosen. You are handpicked by God to handle the task. You were chosen actually before the foundation of the world. He said you are a chosen generation. What does that mean? That means you are a chosen— here we go— champion. I need you to say that. Say, I'm a champion. Glory to God. Say, I'm a champion. Glory to Jesus. You are chosen by God to be a champion, and guess what? Champions never lose. Champions always win. Glory to God. Even if in the process of getting to the championship, to the title, they may lose a game or two or a battle or two along the way, but ultimately they win. Can I tell you, with Christ you never lose because he's on your team. Glory to God. And as long as you accept him as the teammate and the captain of the team, you're never gonna lose. You're chosen. You're a royal priesthood. Glory to God. You're a holy nation. Watch the next part of that, that you may declare the praises of him. So not only am I a chosen champion, but that says to me I have to become a courageous communicator. You got to have courage, you got to be bold. Hallelujah! To declare the praises of God that called you out of darkness into the marvelous light. You must be courageous in sharing that reality. I mean, you got to really look at where God brought you from as a dark place. And value what has happened. It's not just a religious activity because you showed up at a church and shook the preacher's hand and sat in a chair or tearing on the altar. No, something greater occurred when you gave your life to God and you received the baptism in the Holy Ghost. God now wants you to communicate that experience. All right, you are courageous communicator. And you need to be sharing how you came out of darkness, how your life was jacked up until Christ came. And you may not have been the chiefest of sinner, but rest assured, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you got a testimony that God brought you out of sin. You were born in sin, shaping in iniquity. So the reality is The work of the cross, the work of Jesus Christ while on earth, in his resurrection, in his ascension, they are valuable to who you are today. And it's a story worth telling. It's a part of your pneumaticos. You got to become a courageous communicator. You got to be a chosen champion. Thirdly, you are called to contrast. We're called to live distinct— effectively and draw others from darkness to divine life. So we're the contrasting piece in a world where everybody is chasing darkness. We should be the contrast. We should be standing out in the crowd. We should be something that's palatable and appetizing to the world, that they will desire to live as we live. And that's why we got to be effective in every area of our lives. That's why we got to work hard to be successful. We gotta work hard to walk by faith and not by sight and achieve the dreams that God has given us. So watch this, so we can give him credit. So when people see us operating in excellence, operating in authority, operating in supernatural ability, we can give him the glory because of where he has brought us from. We're called to contrast, contrast, I'm sorry. We're called to be champions. Glory to God. We're courageous communicators. Let's read 1 Peter verses 11 and 12. Last point. He says, dear friends— and I'm still in the NIV— he said, I urge you as foreigners and exiles— hear this— to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. In other words, he's saying, look, as foreigners and exiles as people— glory to the name of God— who are in basically who once was exiled and foreign to heavenly things, through to spiritual things. He says you cannot bring what you used to be into this world. He says abstain from sinful desire, even, even though you might desire it. Watch this. And I believe you should mature enough in the word that you don't even desire no more. Yeah, there's some things that you just, through maturity and growth in the word, that should shift your desire because your delight is in him and your heart's desire become his heart's desire. So the Bible says here you got to abstain from these things when they're still present because they war against your soul. I've been teaching this forever, but you are trichotomy. You are body, you are soul, you are spirit. Your trichotomy, your three parts. You are a tripartite being. Your body is your bios life. It's the flesh. Glory to God. It's where the tenets of spirit and soul are manifested. The things that you do in your body come from a source deeper than what you can see. Let me give you an example. Your brain is in your body. Your mind is in your soul. If you could snatch your brain out of your head and you won't be able to see your mind, it doesn't mean your mind doesn't exist. Oh boy, oh boy, you just can't see it. The most important parts of you are the parts you can't see. Your spirit is Zoe life. Oh God, that's life in the realm of God. That's life with God. That's life living in the Spirit of God. So when you get saved, zoe, your spirit is regenerated, and now the genes from that regeneration influences your soul. Yes, hallelujah! And now your mind, your will, your emotion, your psychology 'Cause your soul is where you taste. Glory to God. Watch this. You can look at a particular food and because your mind works with your tongue, with your mind you can't see, it remembers how a hamburger tastes. God, I'm saying that and you're fasting from meat. Glory to God. Listen, but your mind remembers how it tastes, right? So your mind remembers how broccoli tastes, even if you don't like it. It remembers it. That's why many people won't eat it even though it's great for you. Your mind, if you've eaten a beet and didn't like it, remembers how beets taste. And maybe you don't like how they taste, but the entity that you cannot see is what controls that taste that you remember. It's not the perception of the red beet or the green broccoli or the red meat. It's the invisible thing that has influenced, glory to the name of God, a memory, glory to God, that is unseen. And that's why if you want to be a champion at controlling what comes out of your body, You have to lean on being led by the Holy Spirit, who will communicate to your soul how to react to things that show up in your life. Oh boy. So you got to abstain when you have that desire to do things that felt good in sin. I done told y'all to stop saying God delivered you from a miserable life of sin. Listen. Sin wasn't miserable. That's why many people in the church still sin, because it wasn't miserable. The reality is we need to get deliverance from the taste. Oh, but when you taste God— and we've read that earlier— when you get a taste of him and you become a lively stone, it will take the taste from your appetite, from your soul, for things. And that's how you abstain. By spending time with God and getting a transition in taste. Because guess what? You learn that God tastes better. Glory— oh, glory to God! He tastes better. He does you better. He, he will do more for you than your sinful appetites. Matter of fact, while sin was pleasurable, it ain't never really did nothing good for us. Never. Are y'all hearing this? Glory to God. That's why we need to spend time with Jesus and in this book, so we can abstain from sinful lusts. Glory to God, because they war against our soul. Watch it, he says, live such good lives among pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us. So our lifestyle, our pneumatikos, and I'm closing with this it ultimately brings people that worship other gods to our God. The Bible did say that he is the God of gods. So I don't deny that Sun Moon Li is a god. I don't deny that Hare Krishna is a type of god, small g. Don't deny that Buddha is a small g god. Don't deny that Buddha is a small g god. But the God I serve, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the God of gods. And so ultimately we wanna live in such power, such spiritual prowess, that those people that serve those dead demigods, that they will ultimately see the light that flows out of our life and come to the God that we, woo-wee, I feel like running, and come to the God we serve. That's the power of pneumaticos of behavior. Do you realize that there's a way you can evangelize so effectively that the power of God is so in your life that people will come up to you and say, how do I get what you got? What must I do to be saved? Glory to the name of God. You remember Nicodemus? He went to Jesus by night. He saw Jesus's works. He saw Jesus's power. He heard what Jesus was doing. And Nicodemus said, hey, I want this. What must I do to be saved? You can live in that Manna. It's happened to me. I've had people come on me and say, what must I do to be saved? How, how do I serve this God that you live for? That was present in the military because you had all kinds of people from everywhere. And I was living for God and I was serving God, and people will often come to me and say, teach me about Jesus. Can you have Bible study with me? I just don't understand the Bible. I'm telling you, your light will draw people to you if you let it shine. Glory to God. I learned a song in Sunday school that's ringing in my soul. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. That, that's— that song is what we ought to be doing. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Oh, Mother would say, round my neighbor's door, <LYRICS>I'm gonna let it shine around my neighbor's door. I'm gonna let it shine.</LYRICS> I'm not singing it the best, but I'm telling you right now, that's what we ought to be doing so that those that need him will come to him. So here's the 4 points. First one, purity for proclamation. Touch yourself, say, I have purity for proclamation. Point number 2, say, I identify as an imperishable stone. Glory to God. Point number 3, say, I'm called to communicate Christ's calling. Now here in these last 2 verses, you're called to live as a lighthouse. If you know anything about a lighthouse, glory to God, it is a navigational device for those traveling at sea. It gives those that are in the sea traveling indication that there is a shore, that there is land, that there is safety in the place where this lighthouse stands. In the midst of a dark society, you ought to be a living lighthouse. That's number one, a lone light. Glory to God. Which means you stand up in a dark world as a lone light. When people are wandering, they ought to be able to run into you and see Jesus through you because you're living a righteous life. Are y'all with me? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Our world will be different If we stand up and be lone lights, if we live this book and do what God says, our world will be different. Why? Because our heart beats, man. I said it yesterday, you want to live a long time, start living according to this book and sharing this word with other people, because your purpose will be necessary. God will use you as long as you desire. Glory to God. But you gotta decide that you want to fulfill this purpose by sharing the gospel. Oh my God, help us. So not only do I need to be a long light, number 2, I need to live loudly even in the face of accusations where the church is being ridiculed. Our life testimony can't be taken from us, and we should keep that testimony loud so everybody can hear how God changed you, how God transformed your life. Woo! Gotamansiya! Lebandiose! Yes, God. Thirdly, you gotta allow your good deeds to lead others to the light. So you gotta be a lone light You got to be who, God? A person that lives out loud, and you gotta lead others to the light deliberately, on purpose. You gotta be a one that points people not to you but to him. I'm done, guys. Listen, I want to just give you a call to action real quick. I want you to embrace Your identity, man. I, I said the same thing 4 different ways. I told you to be, glory to God, a purity for proclamation, to purify yourself so you can proclaim this message with purity. I told you to identify as an imperishable stone. I told you to communicate Christ's calling. I told you to be a lighthouse. Same thing, 4 different ways. I need you to make a decision to embrace your identity as someone who is chosen. Glory to God, glory to God. Embrace that you're chosen, you're elected, selected, and protected. And I need you to decide, because you're chosen, that you're gonna live with purity. That you're going to work hard to eradicate sin from your life. Yeah, yeah, that you're gonna live with purity. You're gonna proclaim Christ to all. Listen, evangelism is not just about words. It's about being an epistle written and read of men. It's about living a life that reflects his glory, and that glory you reflect draws people to him. You're not necessarily reflecting the glory because everybody in the church fell on the floor, or because you're prophesying and whooping and hollering and running in a lot of gifts. I mean, you're having good church, but are you really reflecting the glory by showing up in the world and taking those same gifts to the world? Embrace it, man. Listen, as living stones, I want to challenge you, man. Glory to God, to go into the world and show other people how they can be imperishable stones, understanding that together when we do this, for real, man, we can actually change the world. For real, we, we could. For real, for real, we could. For real. Change the world. We will no longer have to complain about it, man. You can really see a better world if we did what I just taught. If we do what I've been teaching. I want to pray really quickly. Don't go, stay with me. Glory to the name of God. Stay with me. Stay with me. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Father, we give you praise. We thank you that we are imperishable stones. We cannot die. And you're trying to use each one of us, each stone, to build one spiritual house. So Father, I'm asking you for a synergy. I'm amongst your people, that we'll understand that we're in this thing together, that all the isms and the schisms and the fighting that happens among people in the body— maybe realize that we are here to be a blessing to each other and to change our world. May we realize that our best days are still in front of us and that no weapon formed against us can prosper. Secondly, God, we are called to communicate your calling. And so, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that as we've studied this today, that we will leave this live as effective communicators who communicate your call effectively. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we give you praise, God. We give you praise, Father. And, and thirdly, we are here to proclaim with purity. God, help us to lay aside the malice, the guile, the hypocrisy, and any sin that so easily besets us from your kingdom and from this assignment. And finally, God, you have brought us into this world literally to utilize our purpose to live as a lighthouse. And so may through your word, huh, we create a path for others' feet that they may find you. And we praise you for it now, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thanks be to God, man. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for listening. Glory to God. Thank you for receiving the word. Glory to Jesus. I love y'all so much, and I love this work. Praise God. And I'm believing God that we'll be able to do some major things to reach souls as this weather has changed. I'm thanking God that collectively, even in our church, we're going to be able to reach our community in a great way. I'm excited about that. Would you do me a favor, guys, and get seed in the ground today? I'm gonna keep saying it whether people do it or not. I appreciate those of you do that do respond and give, but we want you to continue to get seed in the ground. It's the way you get blessed, man. It's how God opens up the windows of heaven for you. So the ways to give are on the screen. If this word has blessed you, this book says if I communicate to you spiritual things, you should communicate your natural things. Would you be a blessing to ministry you today. Get seed in the ground. Father, bless every gift and every giver. May it come back to them a thousand times more, in Jesus' name. I love you all. Y'all be blessed. Glory to God. Enjoy the rest of your day. Glory to the name of God. Enjoy this fast. We got a few more days. I want to challenge you, glory to God, to meet me in the morning Glory to God. At 5 AM, glory to God, we'll be praying, we'll be seeking the face of God once again. 5 o'clock prayer has been absolutely great, so join us. If you want to join this fast on this last leg, you can just go to rhodochurch.com/fast25. Glory to God. And you can join this fast, uh, just download it, get involved. With the prayers and the teachings every day. And I promise you, your life will be blessed because of it. Y'all be good, man. Have a smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.