The Spirit of Discontentment | Day 4 of 21 Days of Action | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr.

Well, praise the Lord and grace and peace everyone. Welcome to our 12 noon Bible study. Listen, 5 AM prayer was amazing this morning. We were challenged, glory to the name of God, to another level of righteousness and holiness. And listen, I'm super excited about this fast. For those of you that are just joining us, this is day 4, glory to the name of God, of 21 days of action. We're fasting for fire, glory to God, and we're looking to seek God better, to serve God better, and to share God better. And I'm trusting, glory to the name of God, that as we pursue his face, as we pursue his heart, that our lives will be a direct reflection— hear me— of who he is. Listen, I don't want to prolong the time today. I want to jump right into this. There's a word from the Lord. We're continuing— hear me, guys— our teaching. Glory to the name of God. Oh my God, Taking action against strife, this is a huge part of seeking God. And listen, these messages have been a blessing. Uh, we, we have been talking about the spirits of greed and jealousy and how they tie into this force. Glory to God. We left off yesterday talking about jealousy. As a matter of fact, we're going to jump into jealousy a little more today, and then we're going to dive into a little different subject matter, but we're going to really be in the same vein because at the end of the day, this spirit can be really complex. There's nothing simplex about it because some people think because they don't have obvious jealous— jealousy, obvious jealousy, yeah, flowing through their lives— hear me— that they actually don't deal with it. But we've already found out what the core of this thing comes from. So today we're going to jump in the heart of this and we're going to see the hand of God really move for us. Amen. Glory to God. I pray you're good. I pray you're wonderful. I pray you're mighty. Glory to the name of God. In God. Thank you, Jesus. Wonderful Savior. He's a good God. Glory to God. And one of the things we discovered, glory to God, in this teaching is that jealousy and envy, strife, gossip, slander, they all are cohorts. They're all teammates. Glory to God. In the demonic realm that operate in this spirit of strife and conflict. The stronghold deploys these things to try to keep us focused on what somebody else has, what somebody else is doing. I shared some, uh, very transparent moments about myself yesterday. Uh, please go and watch how I battled in the past with this spirit. Glory to God. And I talked about, and I warned you also how not to allow people into your world, in your life, that carry this demon, that carry this spirit, because they will be dangerous and detrimental to your progress. Glory to God. So let's jump right in here today. We have a strong command from God. Glory to God. And, uh, let's go to Exodus 20:17. I know somebody said this is the law, we don't go by that no more. We go by the whole Bible. Amen. Yes, Lord. If God said it, we believe it, we trust it. Glory to God. Grace has made some provisions for us, right? But at the end of the day, Jesus didn't come to do away with the law. He came that through him the law may be fulfilled. So at the end of the day, we're able to carry out righteous acts and do the things he asks of us because we do have the grace of God on our life. Grace not only forgives, grace empowers. See, that's the missing element of the grace teaching that guys like Creflo Dollar and Joseph Prince— and I say Creflo first, but you know, Creflo started teaching this because, you know, you could tell he started listening to Joseph Prince. You know, at first, pretty much most of Creflo's ministry, seemingly in a lot of ways, Creflo has been a puppet to those he admired. So, you know, in the beginning, you know, he was really Ken Copeland all the way. So much so, this man transformed into a black Kenneth Copeland. He would talk like him. And not, you know, again, Copeland, I don't know if Copeland still is or was his father. At the end of the day, you know, there was a covenant there. So, and hey, Copeland was successful doing that. Creflo became successful doing it. Not mad at him, I'm just saying he became a puppet to the influences that were in— that's in his life. And then he started listening to Joseph Prince, and then he came with this whole grace angle, which a lot of the teaching is correct, but it goes too far, right? So at the end of the day, grace doesn't just forgive sin, but it empowers us to righteousness. The word in Greek, y'all, Joseph Creflo Kref is, glory to the name of God, the word is charis, is where we get words like charisma. It means gift. Grace is a gift that empowers us toward righteousness, that empowers us, not that just makes us right, but empowers us to do right or operate in the things of God. So yeah, we receive both ends of it. Glory to God. Okay, all right, so Exodus 20:17, the Bible says this: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. Now God is simply saying here not to want what others have. I'm just saying, you have everything in you. I said this the other day, to be who you are. No need to lust, desire what someone else has. Be you. Glory to God. Be authentically who God has made you to be. Hear me, hear me. You got to authentically, with all your flaws and all, be who you are. And then you can't covet— oh my God, shamad in Hebrew— lust after, delight in, take pleasure in, partake of what belongs to somebody else. Their property, their land, Well, here's what it says: get your own stuff. Oh my God, yeah, get your own stuff. Matter of fact, somebody type that in the comments right now. Get your own stuff. Get your own stuff. Because guess what? It's available to you. God has no respect of person. If your neighbor has it It's available for you. He wants to bless you. You just got to trust him. Glory to God. Listen, I can desire— watch this— if you have— let's say I'm going give you an example. Glory to God. I saw somebody with a Bugatti, this car was beautiful. Now, and I said to myself, I would love one day to drive one of those. Well, those cars can get up to a half a million dollars. It's starting price tag, brand new, $350,000. But check this out, I didn't lust after that one that the person was driving. I didn't covet it. That was theirs. So what am I saying to you? It's okay to desire to have one of your own. You just can't have what belongs to somebody else. It wouldn't have been righteous or godly for me to get out of my car and start walking around that parked Bugatti 7 times declaring it's mine. That's, that's, that's not going to happen. It belonged to that person driving it. But what I can do is ask God to bless me with one. Are y'all hearing this? Oh boy. Okay, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, you got to be content. That's all I'm saying. Be content with God's ability to provide for you what he wants to give you. What God has for you is for you. Watch this. You brought nothing in this world and you ain't gonna take nothing out of it. It's just the God— I used to hear my grandmother say that you came in this world with nothing, you'll leave with nothing. And it's— and I was a little boy when she was saying that. And it's just the truth. You came here with nothing and you're gonna leave with nothing. Everything you accumulate in this life, hear me, you're going to leave it here. As a matter of fact, if you get a nice house, if you get a nice car, if you get nice clothes, guess what? When you leave this earth, somebody else is going to drive your car. Oh, we— somebody else is going to live in your house. Glory to God. Somebody going— somebody else is going to eat at your table. So you might as well get what belongs to you, be satisfied, content with what God blesses you with, and enjoy life. Matter of fact, go to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. We're moving right along today. Glory to God. 1 Timothy. Oh, glory to God. 1 Timothy 6. Hallelujah. And 6. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. The Bible says, watch this, godliness— oh my God— with contentment is great gain. Let me read verse 5 because that scripture starts with 'but,' so that means there's something before the 'but' that solidifies that this statement after the 'but' is greater. Glory to God. So let's read verse 5. The Bible says, 'Preserve disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth.' Oh my God. 'Supposing gain is godliness,' He says, from such withdraw yourself. The Bible says here, he says, stop— oh my God— having debates and disputes with worldly people or carnal-minded Christians who believe that gain What— watch this, watch this— is godliness. God doesn't mind you having increase, having gain. This doesn't say you need to be poor or you don't need to walk in the blessings of God. This is saying you can't equate what you have or what you accumulate to godliness, because things come and things go. The Bible says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. So no, in other words, he's saying be satisfied with being godly, be satisfied with being a child of the King. If I never get that Bugatti, guess what? I'm satisfied that I'm saved. That keeps me from lusting after somebody else's stuff. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Be satisfied with who you are. Watch this. And even where you are right now in God. Always be where you are. I'll say that again. Always be where you are. Stop trying to be in other places that God didn't ordain you to be. Always be where you are. Be content. With the plan of God. Be at peace with yourself. Are y'all hearing this? Oh my God, I gotta go, I gotta go. Discontentment. Unsatisfied people, they stir up strife in themselves and they stir up strife with others because they're carrying the spirit in them because they're not satisfied. So they're looking to satisfy their hunger for contentment because they're discontent. So the way they do it is trying to make others discontent by bringing their misery into— oh my God— the world of others. Misery— you got it, I was going there— loves company. Hurt people hurt people. Discontent people try to make others discontent. And that's why you got to work hard to keep discontent people out of your world. Your only responsibility is get them on track, is to lead them, to be a light to them. But fellowshipping with folk that ain't satisfied and, and allowing their complaints and their discontent to get in your world— glory to God— is a dangerous piece. I'm gonna give you an example. I was playing golf with a guy one time, and he was so unsatisfied in his marriage, and he's still married to the woman, and it's almost a ashamed, the hypocrisy when I see them, um, because I know he's discontent. He expresses it to me because he doesn't know how to communicate it to her. So at first he would come out, be talking about what she don't do, how she act, how glad he was to get away from her, you know. You know, saying cuss words and things of that nature. Very discontent. Every woman he saw, he was lusting, coveting after a young body. Are you hearing me? And I'm listening to this discontent. You know, most time when I'm playing golf, I do a lot of listening and not a whole lot of talking until I'm done, because I'm really concentrating on trying to play because I'm an athlete and I want to win. And really, this year I'm taking my golf game to a whole nother level. I am very good, but it's about to go to another level. I'm about to enter some, uh, multiple amateur tournaments this year, uh, where I'll be paid when I rank and when I win. Glory to the name of God. I'm gonna do— I've got some trips planned this year where I'm gonna go to different parts of the country and play in amateur tournaments with pros in different pro-ams as well. And so I'm focused on getting better, all right? But this one day, I just was— I just had had enough, and the light came on in me, and I started talking to him about him and how possibly the things he was feeling was not her. This is you unsatisfied with yourself. And I just began to really minister to him. And mind you, my golf game went downhill, but it was worth the exchange because I think I started breaking through to him. Um, now whenever I play with him, there's a whole lot less of that, and his ears are more in tune to, you know, what I have to say. The reality is, you know, it could disrupt your world when you allow that to just be something you constantly intake and you don't flip the script and turn around and turn it into an opportunity for ministry. Because you either need to do that or you need to dismiss that thing from your presence. I am clear, hear me, that this person needs to be a part of my— they don't even see how important it is that they be around me because they think they're okay. That's what religion and deception will do. But at the end of the day Every time they're in my presence, I work hard to be a light. I work hard to set a plumb line and a standard, you know. I don't try to operate in this place that I'm better than you, you know. I let people, you know, state their claim, and I just be a light, and I just be like Jesus in front of them. But at the end of the day, there are some things I can't let in because there are some people that don't receive. And what am I saying to you today? There's some things you got to dismiss. Glory to God. Let me keep reading. Verse 7: For we are— we, we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. So I just said, told you my grandmama said it, but she was quoting the Bible, right? Verse number 8: And having food and raiment, let us be therefore content. So look, you need to be content. Glory to God that you eating, that you got food, that you got clothes. And don't live ungrateful, and don't live with a spirit where you don't have gratitude toward what you've been given. If you be faithful over few, God will trust you to be ruler over much. But don't complain about your present state. Change your present state. You can either complain about it or change it. Those are your choices. If you complain about it, it will never change. But if you take action and change it, I'm telling you now, it will change. My God. Verse 9, it says, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and in a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. That's why if you're rich and got money, you need to be saved. Again, we was watching this documentary. I was, I was talking about this this morning, 5 AM prayer. Listen, rich people who don't have God, this happens. They fall into hurtful lust, they drown in destruction. If they don't find God, they end up in perdition. You know what perdition is, right? Hell. Okay, we're back there. It's real, okay? It's real for real. We can't change the Bible. Perdition is real. Punishment is real. Apoleia. Glory to God. A damnable place, uh, being destroyed, being put into ruin. God doesn't do that. He says we do this when we fall into a snare and we yield to temptation. The rich will— because guess what money does? Money just magnifies— oh my God— your vices. Look, if you're a dude and you like hoes, You got money, you just gonna have more hoes. Y'all like, okay, okay, okay, all right, all right. Yep, I just made a religious demon real mad. But at the end of the day, that's just how it is. If you're an alcoholic, you like to drink, you got money, you're gonna drink more. You like drugs, you got money, you gonna do drugs until it kill you if you don't get saved. Watch this, this is why you see so many stars, so many athletes who end up on drugs and alcohol, they OD. Because they try to drown themselves in their addiction. If you can't stop eating, the more money you get, the more you're gonna eat. Oh my God, oh my God. The reality is you can be rich, but you need to be saved. That's a show, Saved and Rich. Oh, Shia, man, to show people that you can actually be born again and conquer the systems of the world and have behavior that displays godliness with contentment. Oh my God, let me keep moving, let me keep moving. Glory to God. Verse 10, it said, for the love of money— for the love of money is the root of all evil. Now let me correct this for people who have read this wrong. This text does not say that money is evil. Money is a resource that's neither good nor bad. It only takes on character when it connects with the root of the carrier. Ah, ah, I'll say it again. Money only takes on character when it connects to the root of the carrier. The one carrying the money. So if you got bad roots in you, when you get money, that money, that resource is going to again per— oh my God— perpetrate those roots and manifest the life of the root through the money. Oh God. And when you fall in love with it, just so you can do evil. The Bible says it's the root of all evil, the love of it, not money itself. Money actually can be a very good thing because you put it in the hands of someone that's got good roots, good foundation, they want to do the right thing with money, that's got a spirit of gratitude, that wants to bless others. It's a great thing to have. Amen. Glory to God. He said, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So you covered up the money, covered up the lifestyles that other people have, and you pierce your own soul because you chasing money and not God. Can I, can I say something to you? Chase God. Chase his heart. Chase his purpose and not the paper. Oh my God. Oh my God. Chase him. Don't chase the paper. Chase the purpose. Whoo! Ah, don't be out here chasing the paper. There are people that's out here preaching because they're gonna— they feel like they're gonna get an offering. Let me tell you something, I've been doing this 35 years full-time. It's never been about the offering. I've raised a lot of offerings, a lot of big offerings. I've challenged people to give on high levels because they needed to give. It never was about that for me. It has always been about getting people closer to God and getting money to them and understanding that when you release your seed, you release an opportunity to be blessed. Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. When you chase God and seek him first— we, we talked about this one day prior in prayer— he'll add the stuff to you. I think it was yesterday at 5 o'clock prayer. He'll add the stuff to you. You ain't even got to seek after it. So go after the kingdom. Seek the kingdom, not the paper. By default, the paper, the cheese, the cheddar, the money will come because money become— watch this— money will start looking for you when you chase the kingdom first. Can I prophesy to you? Oh, Shia! Oh God, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you. I want to prophesy to somebody right now. Money is looking for you. Property is looking for you. Cars are looking for you. Businesses are looking for you. Why? Because you're seeking the kingdom. Whoo! We gonna be better after this fast, man. How amazing is that? That you never have to ask for anything monetary. That it just looks for you because you're so busy chasing God. Whoo! That the money and the resources start chasing you because it knows. Good God from Zion. You're gonna need the resource to fulfill your kingdom purpose. Lord, have mercy. Here's the, here's the point of 1 Timothy 6:6-10: be content, live your life. That's what he's saying, and not someone else's. Are y'all hearing this? We, we gotta decide to be authentically us. You're perfect for your purpose. You were designed accurately for who God wants you to be. So live your life and don't covet someone else's life. Oh God, there are two ways basically, guys. You don't have to covet things, but the two ways basically it boils down to this: two ways to get things. Number one, seek first the kingdom. I just said it, and God will add to you. That's Matthew 6:33. Seek ye for therefore first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So if you want things, seek kingdom, seek righteousness. And the things will look for you. Secondly, let's go to Psalm 37:4. I want to show it to you. Yeah boy, yeah boy, yeah boy, yeah boy, yeah boy. Y'all know this one. Psalm 37:4. Y'all know it, Bible scholars. Y'all know this one. Hallelujah. Come on, scholars. Hallelujah. Ah, sheteman to do kosiaya. Yeah, man. So to Rebekah, the Bible says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. So the other way— so the first way is to seek the kingdom and righteousness. The second way is to delight yourself in the Lord. What do you mean, Apostle? What is this saying, delight ourself in the Lord? Well, I'm glad you asked. Glory to God. This word is very powerful. It's anag in Hebrew. And it means pamper yourself with the Lord. Find pleasure, complete pleasure even, with the Lord alone. Oh my God, become merry and happy about the things that pertain to the Lord. In other words, he's saying don't serve the Lord with grudging, a grudging heart. He's saying be happy that you're saved. Be delighted that you're a worshiper. Be delighted that you have a chance to read the word and pray and fast and get close to God. He said be delighted about it. Some of y'all on this fast, you waking up early, oh, here we go, another day. It's day 4, we got 7, oh my God, we got 17 more days. I gotta do this 17 more times. Come on, man. Come on, listen. God doesn't change. He's 100% bought into what we need. He just lays out principles so that he can get to us what we want, what we desire, through our actions. Delight. This is a verb. Anag is a verb. Be happy about going to church. Oh, it's another Sunday. Jesus, the week went by so fast. Come on, delight yourself in the Lord, the things that pertain to God, living for him. Glory to God. His ways of doing and being right. Delight your anag. I've watched people for a long time, and I've seen saved people— I mean, it's interesting to me— who get more excited. They're more excited when they're watching a movie or at a ball game, or they're more excited when they're with family and friends. I've seen them be at parties or family reunions, playing Spades. All that stuff is wonderful. But then I've seen them go to church and be like a bump on the log, got a statue ministry, never move. I've seen them, glory to God, never pray. Oh my God, never read their Bible, but they're saved. And then they wonder why they don't have the desires of their heart. Father, I release a spirit of anag, of delight, in you, Father, among this people under the sound of my voice, that there will be a strong spirit of joy that emerges from Holy Spirit, that will flow out of our life. And I decree and declare, God, that through Holy Spirit, through the Spirit of the Living God that lives in us, Because it's— oh my God, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. I declare that this joy will emerge and this delight for the things of God will be a fixture in our life, and we will see the desires of our heart. Glory to God. Listen, so you can delight yourself in God Do it the righteous way, seek God. But then there's really another way. This would be a third way. It's unjust righteous ways, right? It's trying to get it the wrong way, like Jacob and Esau. Jacob wanted Esau's birthright, so he lied, he cheated, and stole to get it. Stole it. He lied, he cheated, stole to get it. But watch this, Jacob ended up reaping fear, hiding. Watch this, and ultimately he reaped from Laban— you can read the story of Jacob and Esau later— he reaped from Laban what he sold to Esau. So you got to be careful obtaining things in an unjust way. And I want you to think about real hard right now while I'm teaching, times in your life where you wanted something so bad, and maybe you never did this, and, and kudos to you, where you wanted something so bad where you lied, you cheated, you deceived to get it. You had an underlying motive. You did things because you knew that person wouldn't be able to resist you or resist what you wanted. Hallelujah! To share with them. So you, you, you became someone else to get it. Listen, any relationship where you can't be authentic and be yourself, it's not worth being in. It's fake, it's falsetto. Listen, let me tell you something. The reality is Be yourself, be authentic. You don't have to lie and cheat to keep nobody. You don't. You just don't, guys. Okay? So if you gotta do that, you need to back up because that means they're not the one. They're not the person that you need to be involved with. Oh my God, I love you, Jesus. Go to Joshua 7. Hallelujah. Joshua 7. Stay with me, guys. Joshua 7, verses 13 through 25. And we're going to really, uh, just put some emphasis on verse 21, but I want to read this. The Bible said, up, sanctify the people. He's talking to Joshua. And sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, for thus said the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of you. Wait a minute. He says to the leadership, I need you to rise up, sanctify the people, uh, kadosh, uh, set them apart, separate them. All right, get their attention. He said, because there's a cursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel, thou canst not stand— watch this— before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing. So in other words, you're going to be powerless in battle against the enemy until you won. Sanctify yourself. Hear me, glory to God. And get the unjust cursed thing out of your midst. Oh my God, he says an accursed thing there. In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof, and The family which the Lord shall take shall come by the households, and the households which the Lord shall take shall come by— come man by man. So the Lord's going to choose— he bring the tribes together, and in front of everybody, we're about to expose where the curse is. Watch this, verse 15: And it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall— oh, here we go. God Old Testament didn't play. Shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he had wrought folly in Israel. Verse 16: So Joshua rose up early in the morning, he did what God said, and brought Israel to their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. Now it's interesting to me, there are 12 tribes here, they've been sanctified, set apart, separated It's an accursed thing among them. And the accursed thing— watch this— was in Judah. Judah was the tribe of purpose. Judah's— Judah means praise. David is in the tribe of Judah. Jesus comes, he's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. So the blessing was in Judah, but the enemy was trying to take it down. Are y'all hearing me? Here we go, let's read. When you're anointed for a work, the enemy hates you. And he took the family of the Zerites, and he brought the family of the Zerites man by man. And Zabdi was taken, and he— oh my God— brought his household man by man. And Achan son of Carmi All these in Judah, the praisers, the ones in the church, the anointed ones that's deep praying, fasting, squinting their eyes, refusing to deal with their issue. My God. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zebdi. Oh my God. So here we go. He was the son of Carmi, which was a— Carmi was a gardener who sowed, all right, in the field, all right. Uh, Zabdi, or Zabadi, glory to God, meant endowment, which means he was wealthy. So this offspring of a fruitful— oh my God— man and woman who had much to bring to the table for the tribe. This offspring was doing something that was wicked, that was out of order. Watch this, verse 19. And Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou has done. Hide it not from me. Achan answered Joshua, So, so I love this kind of carrying on, and this is the kind of stuff that really should happen in the house of the Lord to preserve us, right? To get us free. It should be okay when prophecy comes to expose, correct, and drive you to repentance, not just lead you to blessing and material good. Prophecy also exposes. It exposes flaws, it exposes weaknesses that you're unwilling to deal with. And if prophecy doesn't approach you, you'll keep hiding it. So Joshua says, okay, give glory to God, all right? Let God get the glory out of this. You did it. Confess. Bible said Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed, I've sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. Verse 21: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold and 50 shekels of weight, coveting— yeah, it's the wrong way to get it, right? He said, I coveted them and took them. I stole it. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Oh my God. And Joshua sent the messengers, and they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. Verse 23. And they took them out in the— out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons and daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tents, and all that he had, and they brought them to the valley of Anchor. And verse 25, and Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones and burned them with fire. And they had stoned them with stones. They— listen, told you God of Israel didn't play. And listen, the result of getting things the wrong way doesn't pay off. Achan lost everything. They burned up his profit, even the things that he honestly had— his— all of his cattle, all of his land— so that nothing would even be left for his offspring. It not only killed him, but it killed his future. When you get things the wrong way— oh my God, help us today, God— when you covet things that you shouldn't have It kills your future. You start losing everything. You hit rock bottom. Oh my God, Jesus. All the things that Achan stole were even burned because they were desecrated. When he took them because they represented greed. What am I saying to you? What am I saying? All the unjust things in your life, your unjust ways— again, that manipulative stuff— get it out, you know, and serve God holy. Serve God and do it the right way. I'm not going to read these, but I'm gonna just share them. 1 Samuel 15:3. And 1 Samuel 8:11, write it on the screen, guys. Saul lost his kingdom in these texts due to greed, and his greed caused him to move in disobedience because he was greedy and wanted something that wasn't his. He lost his entire kingdom. Are you hearing this? 2 Kings 6 5:16-27. Come here, Gehazi. Yeah, come here, Gehazi. Gehazi lost his authority, his position. Watch this, and got sick and became a leper due to greed. It's a dangerous thing, man. It's a dangerous thing. This— these spirits of greed, jealousy, coveting, and lust, discontentment, strife, Dangerous. This man became a leper. He got deathly sick. He received a terminal illness. Don't let your greed make you sick in your body. You know how you're supposed to die? You're supposed to die and leave this earth with joy when God comes to take you. Matter of fact, the Bible said Paul finished his course with joy. It is not finishing your course with joy when you have a long spell of sickness before you die. That's not God's will for you. But you cannot die in peace in your body when you live in greed. And watch this, even make yourself sick through food. Or we hit that hard this morning at 5 o'clock prayer, because a lot of time illness is foodborne illness because we haven't protected the temple. Oh God. Go to the New Testament. Oh, that's Old Testament apostle. We go to the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, they lost their lives due to greed. They stole, they lied to the Holy Ghost, they held back their money when they were supposed to be given unto God what he asked for, and they lost their life because they were too greedy to give God what belonged to him. I ain't gonna touch it. I know some of y'all saying, oh God, here we go. No, I'm not gonna touch it. You know what you're supposed to do. You know what you're supposed to do. And now, Sapphire died because they lied to the Holy Ghost, okay? Don't, don't you kill your finances, your resources, lying to the Holy Ghost that you ain't supposed to tithe, you're not supposed to give. Don't do it. Don't do it, okay? All right, I'm done, I'm done. Last thing, greed will cause you to oppress other people. And mistreat them. You know, the whole slavery thing, the whole civil rights issues that we had. Oh my God. Yeah, I'll say that. Holy Spirit, you know, this is the month they gave us to celebrate Black History when we shouldn't just celebrate our history this month. We should be really ecstatic about our history every month. So this is apropos to say, even the whole slavery piece, the whole civil rights piece, it was born out of greed. And so it created a lot of deception on behalf of our white counterparts back then, that where they sought to manipulate and control the Black man through lies and deceit. Hear me. Hear me. By even telling Black people that they weren't even human, that they were one-third of a human, and Black people bought into these lies. The reality is it was born out of greed, it was born out of covetousness, it was born out of— watch this— their insecurities, them wanting what we have. We still fight with it today. Black people are the most intelligent people on this planet. I don't care, I love, I love everybody, but we invented everything, all right? And at the end of the day, even in this day and time, we have to now not be— oh, not be so quick to be deceived by the temptation to stay so connected to our screen time scrolling that we forget we're innovators. This whole thing, the internet— the internet is two words, internet, uh, it was created for you to enter into and become a net to captivate and capture you. Oh my God. And to steal your creativity. And the very deception they're using is saying become a creator, be a content creator, put out content. And many people— you know how many people actually make it from the internet? It's not a whole lot. It may seem that way, you know, and some people appear that they are something that they are not, and they haven't even monetized any of the things they're doing. This whole thing is a net that steals your— it was created, oh my God, to steal your focus by the devil. But we got to get back to our creative edge because we are created because the Holy Spirit lives in us. I love you guys today. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this word, and I pray in the name of Jesus that the spirit of coveting will be broken in every life under the sound of my voice. We will not cover— we will not covet that that belongs to someone else. We will not covet that which belongs to someone else. We will be happy and pleased with the life you have provided for us. And we thank you, God, that we have not because we ask not. It's not wrong to have, and we thank you that we've learned that today. We thank you that it's not wrong to have increase and to have riches and to have wealth. But God, we pray that you keep us bound to you and that our contentment will be in you and not in the material good. We thank you, God, that as we pursue you, you will add the things to us, that you will add the money, you will add the cars, you will add the house. I declare that money is looking for us, property is looking for us. As we pursue you, the things we need to fulfill our creative purpose will find us. I break the spirit of the internet. They talking about breaking the internet. Yeah, I break the spirit of the internet. Where we leverage this tool for the wrong reasons, and where many have been entrapped through connectivity. I break the spirit and I command freedom. And I thank you, God, in the name of Jesus, that we'll be free to create, we'll be free to soar, we'll be free to live, we'll be free to be what you called us to be. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I feel it. I feel the breakthrough. I pray you've been blessed today. Perhaps you've listened to this word and you're not born again. Listen, if you are not saved, stay with me. Glory to God, I want to pray with you. And even if you're saved, I need you to stay with me and let's pray for the unbeliever today. Listen, if you're not born again, that means you do not know Jesus in the pardon of your sin. There's no price you have to pay. He just wants your heart. He just wants you to acknowledge the fact, glory to God, that he's died for you and that he rose again for you. It's a simple prayer. I want to pray for you today. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died and rose again, you shall be saved. And that's what I want to do. I want to pray with you. If that's you, if you know you died right now, you will end up in perdition, you will end up in hell. Listen, I'm telling you, hell is real and there's no place to get right. Matter of fact, hell is beneath the love of God. It's too late at that point to be delivered. But you now can get your life right. I wouldn't take the chance, glory to God, on believing the gainsayers and naysayers saying hell is not real. Matter of fact, many of them that are telling you this, for most of the time, for their own gain and to fulfill their own physical purposes, they believe in hell. Because here's what I know: you can't be that smart— hear me— and understand that you, you cannot have heaven in context and not have hell as a bad— if you got light, you got darkness. If you got good, you got bad. You got heaven, you got hell. It gives heaven context. Otherwise, neither exists. The reality is it's real. And if you want to be saved today, I want you to pray this prayer with me. Just say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, say, I confess I'm a sinner. I want to be saved. Say, I open my heart and I invite you in. Say, come in and live in me. Say, Father, I believe that Jesus died and rose again for my sins, and because of that, I am saved. Listen, if you prayed that prayer, I want you to know your sins are forgiven. And right now, in this moment, you're born again. You are saved. Listen, I love you guys today. This is day 4 of our 21 days. Glory to the name of God. Thank you for joining us. If you prayed that prayer with me, go to rhodachurch.com/contact and say, hey Apostle, I prayed with you today. I'm saved. Can you give me me the next steps. I will gladly send you exactly what you need to take the next steps in your walk with God. Listen, if you're not fasting with us, it's easy. You still have time. You can get involved. It's not too late. Glory to God. Go to roddachurch.com/fast24, download the fast guide. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And get involved now. Listen, I love you guys with the love of the Lord, and guess what? Ain't nothing you could do about it. Y'all have a super day. God bless you. See you on Monday. Peace.