The Spirit of Offense, Part 5: Offense Causes Stagnation | Dr. Mike Woods | 24.FEB.2021

Come on in, everybody. Hallelujah, glory to God. We're gonna share today, and I'm excited about continuing our series on offense. So y'all come on in. Hallelujah, glory be to God. We thank you, Lord. We give you all the praise. We give you all the glory. We give you all the honor. Hallelujah. You guys come in, say hello, let me We know you're here. Hallelujah! Glory to God! We're super excited again to share today. Glory to God! Please share, please share. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Uraba sa tabakoshi abaho. We bless your name, God. We bless your name. There's an anointing here today. Hallelujah! Oshababa boto koshikabaha. We give you the praise, God. Thank you, Jesus. We bless your name. We bless your name. We bless your name, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Oh God. We give you the praise, God. We give you the glory. We give you the honor. We lift you up. We're gonna wait a few moments. You guys come in, please, please. Thank you, Jesus. Mutaba'i. Thank you, Lord. Oh, that's— yes, God. You guys, come on in, please. Wonderful Jesus, we bless you, we bless you, God. We bless you, God. Hallelujah. We give you the praise. We worship and adore you. Hallelujah. We glorify your great name. You're powerful, you're mighty, you're glorious, you're wonderful, you're awesome. Whether you're watching us, guys, listen, on YouTube, Rada Church Facebook page, right here on my personal page, or Dr. Mike Woods Facebook page, wherever you are, or if you're listening to this podcast, do me the favor and share it with somebody. This is going to be a tremendous blessing. I feel the anointing of God here with us even now. Hallelujah! Glory be to God! Glory be to God! We give you praise, God! We give you praise, God! Orasha bakosia! We bless you! Yes, God. Yes, God. My God, we bless you. We honor you. We give you the glory, God. We give you the glory, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We give you the praise, God. Oh God, we bless your name, we bless your name. Thank you, God. You're worthy of praise. You're worthy of glory. Handa Asaya. You're worthy of honor. Handa Asaya. Perfectly and absolutely wise, God. It's in you we live and move and have our being, God. Father, you're everything. Father, you're wonderful. Father, you're mighty. Ela Masaya. Bosi Ataba Soreke Asaya. You're the glory and lifter of our heads, God. We give you the praise, we give you the praise, we give you the praise, God. We give you all the glory. Amen. Yes, God. Yes, God. We bless you, we bless you, we honor you. You guys come in and say hello, guys, wherever you're coming in from. Do me a favor, just say hello. Let me know you're here with me today. Glory to God. And do me a favor, say hello. And the second thing I need you to do is share. Hallelujah. If you're joining us now, please by all means say hello and just share with us today. We love every one of you and we appreciate you and your time. So, um, we're gonna share, we're gonna jump right in here really quick, but I want you to share this. Um, I'm excited to teach these messages about offense because people don't really understand just how dangerous this spirit is. And many people don't even realize that the reason their life is completely and totally stagnated and held up is because there's some level of offense in their life. They've literally been deceived, tricked— oh my God— bamboozled by the enemy. And the reality is it's a strong deception. And I'm super excited again to teach. If you would do me a favor, glory to God, do me a favor, and I need you to share this, all right? I need you to really and truly share this for me. Uh, I'm not going to be long, but I'm just going to wait a few moments and give some more of you a chance to join. That's why I'm looking this way. I'm looking at my, uh, computer screen over here, and, uh, I can kind of see what's happening on Facebook. You guys comment, let me know you're here. Hey, praise God! Say something, let me know you're here. Glory to God, glory to God! Let me know you're watching with us. Say hello. Praise the name of Jesus. Whether you're watching again here or on Rhonda Church page or on our Facebook page, Dr. Mike Woods, or if indeed, hallelujah, you're watching— God bless you, Crystal Elder, love you, God bless you, Cheryl Bell, God bless you, hello. Thank you for being here. We're gonna jump right into this. I'm not going to be long, and I want to respect the time of the people that's on time. So we— many have watched this by replay, but I'm going to share because I believe that this is a real spirit that has to be dealt with in the body of Christ. So let's pray, and then we're going to jump right into the heart of this. So Father, in Jesus' name, we worship you, we adore you today. We thank you for your goodness, your mercy, your favor. Your kindness, your grace. And Father, we, we recognize and are very clear that beside you there is none other. It's in you we live and move and have our being. You're our help, you're our strength, you're the glory. Shabbat. And you are the lifter of our head. So Father, in the name of Jesus, today I decree and declare that as we teach your word It will go out with power. It will go out with the anointing, and that those that hear and those that listen, I decree and declare, God, that their spirit will be enlightened. And God, I thank you that liberty will come in any place we've been offended. I decree and declare, God, in the name of Jesus, that that place will be removed and purified through your word. And we thank you for it today, and we give you praise and glory. God, your credit is good with me. So I thank you in advance for what you're gonna do in this particular teaching, and we bless you now in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. God bless your hearts. Again, we love everybody. God bless you. Welcome to those of you that are here. And do me a kind favor, listen guys, please share this. The Bible said we're blessed to be a blessing, so we want to make sure we bless someone else with this. Praise God. So let's jump right into the heart of this today. I'm not going to be long. I probably sound like I'm gonna be long, but I'm not. Listen, I want you to understand something really clear. I've been teaching this, uh, this is, this is number 5 of this series of teachings, and I just want to back up a little and look at what offense is so that we're all on the same page, so we understand it. I won't just give a little refresher right here that offense again is from the Greek word in the Bible, skandalon. Okay, it's from the Greek word skandalon, and skandalon deals with this: it's the name of the part of a trap on which bait is placed or hung that lures animals into the trap. So skandalon, well, we get words like scandalous. All right, and what Satan does, he often uses offense as bait. To lure us into a lifetime of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, even hatred, and also stagnation. All right, and a lot of times people are bitter, they're resentful, they're unforgiving, primarily, uh, because— hear me— primarily because they are Can y'all— are y'all with me? Okay, let me— this is crazy. On my computer it says that the video is over. I don't get it. Are y'all— y'all still there? Y'all— y'all say something, y'all there? That's crazy, man. Facebook do not like me. They do not like me. I know it's— I see it on my— on the church page. I see it on my other page. I see it on YouTube, but I don't see it on this page. Y'all can still see and hear me? Somebody says yes, yes. Okay, I'm gonna keep going in. It says on my computer the video has ended, so let me just keep moving. So again, the Greek word skandalon— all right guys, skandalon— it's where we get words like scandalous or scandal. And Satan, again, the enemy, our enemy, the devil is real. He uses offense to draw us into bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred, and stagnation. And the word scandalon also continues into the idea of something that is a hindrance or stumbling block. So watch this. Let's use the fish who is lured in to bite the hook. The worm is placed on the hook. The fish bites because he thinks it's food. He thinks it's good for him. And here's, here's a point I want to raise right here. Everything that looks good is not good for you, okay? And everything— watch this— that can be good to you is not good for you. Because some things may not be offensive to you, but if it's offensive to God and not offensive to you, then it also should be offensive to you. And usually it's a trap. Because offense, whether it's toward God, yourself, or someone else, the bottom line is it's a scandal and it's used to lure you away from the purpose, from the destiny, from God's desire, God's heart for your life. Hear me good, all right? So when we allow the spirit of offense to come in It causes us to get stuck in holding patterns. And a lot of times, you ever felt like you were so close to something? And I'm not teaching you something, guys, I ain't lived and been through, okay? I've been through this. That's why I can teach. That's why I understand the solution. I understand why a lot of people are really stuck, okay? Because they're offended and they're walking in offense. But when we allow this spirit to come in, we get stuck, we get stagnated, and we're like— a lot of times we're almost there, we're close. And seem like we just can't cross over, whether it's financially, whether it's in our marriage, whether it's in our ministries. We always seem like we're touching the edge of what we see, and we never fully get there because God loves us so much, and he loves the assignment he's placed in us so much that he's not gonna allow us to cross over into that place where we're moving in our ultimate and optimal reality of God's plan, he's not gonna allow us to get there because he don't want us to embarrass him, because that offense is going to rise up. Offense also, this word scandalon, deals with the idea to displease, to make angry, to affront. So it baits you. You know you've been baited in when you are angry, when you're displeased, when you are accosted in a way that you want to retaliate. Uh, the expression, it deals a lot with incivility, with rudeness, with harsh language. And you got to recognize, ladies and gentlemen, that this really ain't how God wants us to move, because offense puts you in a restraint, all right? And it creates something. It's akin to another spirit, guys, and this is what we're going to talk about, because the spirit of offense often gives birth— watch this— to the spirit of arrested development. The spirit of arrested development. I'm gonna say that again. It gives birth to the spirit of arrested development. Are y'all hearing me? And arrested development is this: it means at some point in your growth, your growth, development, and maturity gets placed under arrest, all right? And you end up with arrested development, and you, you'll continue to age chronologically, chronologically, but you stop aging emotionally. Spiritually, psychologically, which to be debilitated emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically is dangerous because again, you cannot operate at your optimal level of potential if you're not maturing at the right rate. Come on, church, you, you got to make up your mind, ladies and gentlemen, that you got to grow up in all areas. You cannot just age chronologically, and then you cannot buy into the deception that you're growing spiritually, psychologically, and watch this, and emotionally. If you can't buy into the deception that makes you believe you are and you really are not. So you got to take clear— like we said yesterday, you got to get the truth. No matter how gifted you are, no matter how eloquent you are, no matter how beautiful you are, No matter how well you dress, no matter how people gravitate to you, you got to take some honest looks at your heart. You got to take some honest looks at you and make sure that you're actually what you're displaying on the outside. Because if everybody— watch this— was what they looked like on the outside, world probably would be a better place. But that's just unfortunately not the case. And then there would be no room for the text in the Bible that says, Lord, Lord, did not I prophesy in your name? Did not I cast out devils? Did not I preach in your name? And the Lord says, depart from me, I never knew you. Your work was of iniquity. I mean, so in other words, that just says God will use you and then refuse you. And at the end of the day, that's not what we want. We need to mature. We need to grow up. Because God will take your gift and use it for the sake of people and then refuse you because you refuse to get to the place you need to be. So let's do this, let's jump right in. Enough introduction. So the point today is that offense— because yesterday we talked about the truth and that you're not to be offended by the truth, we opened up a big can of worms. I was very transparent about some things in my own life that God brought to me in the message yesterday, and some truths that I had to face so I can progress to the levels I live in now spiritually, the level I live in now financially, the level I live at emotionally. I had to face some real truths about Michael Woods, and I couldn't be offended by it. And we talked about yesterday how the truth is not soft and it's never going to be easy on your flesh. Because the Holy Spirit, when you really spending time with him, he's gonna reveal you to you. And he's not gonna always tell you the great and wonderful things about you. Matter of fact, most people, you already know the great and wonderful stuff. But the Holy Spirit wants you to take a close look at those things that you never really look at, okay? And get those things together, all right? So again, whether you're watching live or by replay, we're getting ready to get into this. Whether you're listening to the podcast whether you're watching us on YouTube, please share this. Send it to somebody because somebody needs— somebody you know is stuck because they got offense in their heart. All right, so let's start, and we're going to look closely at this because we want to make it clear that being offended prevents progress. So let's start right here, okay? Let's start right here. Let's look at— are you hearing me? Let's look at— ladies and gentlemen, let's look at Matthew chapter 15. All right, and I'm gonna start reading at verse number 1, and I'm gonna read kind of till the Holy Spirit tell me to stop, because I want to make sure you grab this. So guys, please share this. We're 20 minutes in, and I promise you it's going to barely take me another 20 minutes to get through this. Enough introduction. I want you to grab this. All right, let's look. Uh, Matthew 15. Matthew 15. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 15. And again, guys, I need you to do me the kind favor. I need you to share this, uh, because somebody needs this. All right, please share it. Please share. Some of y'all won't share it no matter what I say, but at the end of the day, those of you that want to bless somebody else, please share it. All right, listen, Matthew 15, verses 1 through 12. Watch this. And see, a lot of times people don't even share because They're offended. They're afraid somebody might get offended. Or you afraid that your leader might get offended because you share somebody else's post? Yeah, that, that's crazy to me. If it's blessing you, then share it. The Bible said we're blessed to be a blessing. So if it's blessing you, share. And I've said this before and I say again, this is just my reality. It's my truth. Because at the end of the day, I believe that if something is blessing you— I believe the Bible for real. If something is blessing you, you are to share it, right? And I don't believe in that whole you secretly following me and learning from me. Now, if I got to be a secret, you probably need to find somebody else because you're not going to get the full benefit of what you need from me if I'm a secret in your life. That is not going to fly. That's not going to help you. All right, so let's jump into this. I only want those that want to be here and that want to be a blessing to other people. I'm not concerned about anything else. But that, because I know what we're saying indeed is a blessing, and there's people that honestly need it. So share it. You know, I get on people's lives, you know I do. If it's blessing me, I share it, because at the end of the day, I want other people to experience what I experienced from what I'm watching. Now here we go. The Bible says in Matthew 15, verses 1 through 12— enough of that, I'm just gonna teach. Listen, the Bible says then came Jesus— came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem saying. So here comes the scribes and Pharisees, and I want you to keep in mind as we read this, the Pharisees are religious. They are from a religious system and order that operates, guys, with— excuse me— with no power at all, because religion never empowers. It only stagnates. It only keeps you still. All right, so let's look at this. This— the Pharisee says, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the God of your commandment by your tradition? For God commanded you to honor your mother and father, and he that curses father or mother, let him die the death. So Jesus said, now you pointing your finger about something they're not doing in your system, but there's something in your system you're not doing. Let's keep reading, verse 5. But you say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor— listen to this— not his father or mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Let's keep reading. Jesus again— the truth ain't never soft. Watch where Jesus goes right here. He says, you hypocrites, well did Esaias, or Isaiah, Prophesy of you, saying, this people draw nigh to me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips. Watch this, but their heart is far from me. Oh boy. Verse 9, he's coming at them with truth, y'all. He said, but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth out of the mouth that defiles a man— come on here— but that— oh my God— going into the mouth— I'm sorry— that defiles a man, but that which cometh out of his mouth that defiles a man. Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest thou— watch this— that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this teaching. Oh God. So the Pharisees— hear me— were offended by truth. And the Pharisees were often offended by truth because they were so in love with their religious system and their religious way of doing things. And I need you to understand something: when you fall in love with a religious pattern or system of doing things, when something challenges you to change and you do not receive it, you get offended. And guess what? That offense is not helping you to go forward, because the information Jesus is sharing in these 12 verses is designed to help them go forward, but instead they're hindered because they refuse to receive the truth. When the truth comes and you don't receive it, it's going to— oh my God— cause you to not progress. Can I tell you something? God— hear me good— is progressive. Oh my God. So let me put it like this: God doesn't want to do things the same way he did them before. He wants to do them greater than he did them before. Let's go back to Jesus saying, these things I've done, but greater you shall do because I go to my Father. So that's progress. Jesus said, okay, I'm gonna be gone. There's some things that's going to be in the earth with you that's not here with me but you're going to be able to handle them because you got my spirit in you and you walk in the truth. He said greater you'll do. And then watch this, we go to the day of Pentecost, there are 120 there, the Holy Ghost falls, powerful thing in Acts chapter 2. Then watch this, I need you to understand, as powerful as Pentecost was, God wants to do something greater than Pentecost. As powerful as the Azusa Street revivals were in the 1900s, God wants to do something greater than Azusa. He doesn't want us to have another Azusa. He wants us to do something greater than Azusa and progress. But it becomes very impossible, very hard to progress when we are offended, because watch this, we're often offended when we're called outside of our comfort zone. I'm gonna say that again. Most of the time when we get called outside of our comfort zone, we get offended. Let's go to John, John's Gospel, chapter number 6. I'm teaching y'all, press the heart button or something. Glory to God. John 6:48. Let's look at this, because a lot of times God comes in because he's not bound to religious processes. And when he starts changing us and trying to use us for something, he'll come in— watch this— whoo— and cause a radical change to our motives and our purposes. And when, when we have one motive, one purpose, and we thought something was God that really wasn't, and God breaks in and says, okay, I'm changing this right here, you've been off course, Oh, you got in this and you weren't supposed to be there. You know, there are people who are in marriages who ain't supposed to be in their marriages. They married for comfort, they married for convenience, they married— oh my God, oh Jesus— they married because that would be easier. They married to protect themselves in a certain way because they felt like that person was safe. And at the end of the day, their motive and purpose was totally wrong. And the Bible said, that which God joins together, let no man put asunder. Can I tell you today— and I'm going to John 6. God, this just hit me in the head like a ton of bricks, okay? Just like bam, okay? So listen, listen to me, all right? Just listen, okay? Just, just listen, right? If God joins it together, you, you shouldn't put it asunder. It cannot be put asunder. All right, that's the scripture, right? Can I submit to you that every marriage that was performed by a preacher or at a courthouse, just because vows were exchanged, just because a dress and a tux was there, just because there was a honeymoon, there indeed was a wedding. There indeed was a marriage. The question becomes, hmm, was that marriage scandalon? Was it scandalous? Was it something that was done out of offense or out of hurt that caused you to make a decision that you really should not have been making? Come on, come on, y'all. Uh, so then God joined it. Now, the preacher— just because the preacher joined it together doesn't mean God joined it together. That's, that's, that, that's going to challenge something. That's for grown folks because that's going to challenge some of your religious thinking. Now, child, we married. Yeah, you're married, but is that the perfect will of God or is that the permissive will? Who, who, or did the preacher do it or did God join it together in predestination? Ah, okay, okay, okay. I'm gonna keep moving. Uh, John 6:48, because again, we're often offended when God calls us out of our comfort zone and radically changes the motive and purpose. It offends us. It'll offend, and it will offend somebody because God says, okay, I love you so much, I gotta step in, break in, change this radically. So you can do what I called you to do versus what you want to do. Can I submit to you guys, it's a whole lot of people who are not doing what God wants them to do, but they're doing what they want to do. Okay, Matthew 6:48. Let me move. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Verse 49, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Verse 50, this is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. Verse 51, I am the living bread which shall come down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread— God, I want to deal with these verses so bad, but I can't, I don't have time— he shall live forever. Let me just start, let me just, let me just drop this one little thing, okay? See You can go to church— watch this— you can go to a very spiritual church, oh, where the anointing is there, where the glory is there, where power and tongues and gifts are there, and you can be there and never really ate of the bread. Because, oh, shatta, you could be saved and not sat at the table and ate of the bread. Because watch this, religious people won't sit at the table because most of the time the initial bite of that bread is not palatable. Ah, yes, shorty, let me tell you something. The, the— listen, that initial bite of that bread is going to turn truth on you and tell you about you. And most people really ain't got the real scoop on how God views them— watch this— and their activity. And I ain't even talking about sin, I'm just talking about missing the mark in a way where you're not even operating nowhere near what God has assigned you to be. And God starts telling you the reasons why. Some people ain't never ate this bread. You know why? Because the Bible says when you eat of this bread, you will never die. I know you thought that was just heaven, but watch this. When you really partake of this bread, you start walking and operating in heavenly places. You sit in heavenly place. Oh, the Bible did say he would cause us to sit in heavenly places. The prerequisite is sitting at the table and eating the bread. Ha! It's sitting at the table and eating of him. Glory to God! And digesting him. Watch this, and the word eat there, that word in Greek, that's a powerful word in this text, y'all. That word is phago. Phago, P-H-A-G-O. Phago means, watch this, to chew it up to swallow it. Watch this. Wait a minute, don't leave it there. It's almost nasty, but this is what he's saying. Regurgitate it, chew it up some more, swallow it again. Ah, oh my God! Regurgitate it, chew it up some more, swallow it up again. And watch this, until what you ate becomes one with you and you begin to walk out. Oh my God! What you ate. Watch this, it literally takes on a new connotation. You are— I said I wasn't going to unpack this, did I? It takes on a new connotation. You are what you eat. And watch this, Jesus is eternal. He— his existence is eternal. And so when you really eat of him, you start living in the realm of eternity. Ah, oh my goodness! Oh my God! Which means everything you do, you do it from an eternal perspective. Ah, I said I wasn't gonna mess with it. Let me keep reading. He says, I'm the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. So again, I need, I need to hear this. Eternity doesn't start when you leave this earth and go into a grave 6 feet under the earth. Eternity starts when you sit at the table and literally eat Jesus. But part of that is eating the whole truth about yourself. Lord have mercy. I said I wasn't gonna deal with that, did I say that? Let me keep reading. He said, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And the Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how could this man give us flesh to eat? I see they're trying to interpret it in a religious way. Uh, then Jesus said unto him, verily, verily, seriously, seriously, I say to you, you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Wait a minute, religion is dead, right? You got to eat of it. You got to eat of him. You got to sit at the table. Whosoever eateth my flesh— this ain't just a communion scripture— and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up. And some of y'all ain't gonna only hear this at communion, but this is real. You ought to be taking communion every day. I ain't talking about getting out your saltines and some Welch's juice. And we use real wine in our communion. We use Mogen David, the stuff they use in scripture. And you need to get— you— I ain't talking about getting your bread and your wine. I'm talking about fellowshipping with God every day, that you partake of his body, you partake of his blood, that you become like him, and you are the express display of his power, of his personality, of his riches, of his wealth— wait a minute— of his dominion power, of his holiness in the earth. See, the old church told us we got to live holy, but they never really told us how to do it. They never told us how to really be empowered to walk in this. Oh my God, oh my God. And the way you do it is consistent communion. Ah, and often as you do it, you do it in remembrance of him because you're recalling who he is to you, and you eat of him every single day. You eat of his word, you eat of his presence, you eat of his voice. Oh my God, you eat of him. Oh my God, I'm still messing with that. Let me keep reading. Who's up? So he said, for my flesh is meat indeed, verse 55, and indeed my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so that he eateth me— watch this— that he eateth me, he shall live by me. Here we go, here we go, here we go. This is the bread which came down from heaven. I got to get out of here, man. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard it, said, this is a hard saying. This thing is hard, hard. Uh, skleros, S-K-L-E-R-O-S. This word skleros, I want you to be very clear, in this particular text It means it's rough, it's stiff, it's stern. Watch this, it's offensive. Who can hear this? Because how are you telling me I need to— because they're still trying to interpret this from a cannibalistic point of view, that how do we eat this man? No, that's not what he's saying. Listen, when Jesus know— verse 61, this is where I want to get— in himself that his disciples murmured at it He said unto them, does this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing in words that I speak in you. They are spirit, listen, and they're life. See, you're only offended. See, this, this scripture says We get offended many times and often when God calls us out of our comfort zone. Hear me, y'all. When there's such a radical change, that's because this was out of comfort. They were used to religion, they was used to law. Jesus was saying, now you got to fellowship with me, you got to walk in the spirit, you got— you're being called to a higher place, all right? And you got to make up in your mind that this is what I want. Your motive has to be me and me alone. Oh my God. So really, what's your motive, preacher, apostle, evangelist, prophet, teacher? What's your motive for ministry? What's your motive for doing lives? What's your motive— oh my God— for wanting to preach at the church and travel? What is your motive? Is your motive for him and him alone? See, a real expository preacher is not just able to expose the text, but not only does he expose the text, but his whole purpose for exposing the text is to expose God, is to lead people to the Father. Any word that does not culminate with glory to the Father— oh my God— was presented in the flesh. It was presented for the glorification of the deliverer of the message, not the one that provides the message, which is God. So the reason we teach, the reason we preach, the reason we have a church The reason we have a ministry, period, is to expose people not to us but to the Father. Not to boost our network and our popularity, not to build our personal brand, but to build the brand called Jesus. Yeah, yeah. And only people, hear me, who understand this are good for the Jesus brand. There's some people that's not good for the brand because they're still offended, because they don't want their motives changed. They want it— y'all may think I'm talking crazy, but there's a bunch of people out here who wants what they do in ministry to be about them and friends. Come on, Shawty. It ain't about you, it's about God. It's about what he wants. And that can be clichés because people say it and never really make it about him. In their heart, it's still about them because they haven't sat at the table, ate the bread, and listened to the real truth about you. Listen, Shawty, as long as you still thinking you perfect and you ain't got no issues— because guess what the Bible said? All flesh is grass and no good thing come out of flesh. Even if you didn't do it or see it, you, you thought it. It done went through your mind. So your thoughts and your actions need to align itself with the will of God. And again, I'm not necessarily talking about you living in sin. I'm talking about you missing it totally. I'm talking about pride that you don't think you got, arrogance that you think you got. Oh boy, listen, you gotta be honest with yourself. Go to Matthew 16:21. I'm gonna show you something. Let's walk the word a little bit today, y'all. Matthew 16:21. Matthew 16:21 is going to show us Peter who was not being honest with his self. I need you to understand this: you must be honest with yourself. Matthew 16:21, let's read. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again on the third day. Verse 22, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be it far from thee. Am I— oh my God, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Verse 23, but he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense to me. What? Wait a minute, this is Jesus saying you're offending me, so get behind me. All right, he said, thou art an offense to me, but thou savorest not the things that be unto God, but those things that be unto men. So here's what we see in this text. Matter of fact, let me keep reading. Let me, let me just read a little bit more. Verse 24. Because I get stuck right there. Then Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Come on, take up his cross, die— die to you— and follow. In that order. Deny yourself. It ain't about me, it's about him. I'm getting on this cross daily. Suicide mission daily. I'm gonna crucify this flesh. I'm gonna crucify these dreams that didn't come from God. I'm gonna crucify these processes and procedures that God didn't call me into. And I'm gonna follow him. I'm gonna imitate him. That word follow there, the Greek word, literally the Greek word ecoluthio, it means to imitate. Imitate his plan. Imitate what he has laid out. Oh my God, guys. Oh my goodness. You, you— he said kill yourself, your dreams, your selfish ambitions, and imitate him. You're not successful until you imitated him, until you imitated his will and plan. I don't care how much money you got in the bank, I don't care how many people follow you, I don't care how many people register for your conference, I don't care how many calls you get a week to go preach out. You're not successful until you have approximately and accurately imitated him. Following him ain't going to church. That's a small part of it. Following him ain't reading your Bible and having prayer every day. Following him is imitating him in everything you do. Every dream, every aspiration, every desire, every relationship, who you marry. Imitate his will. You can't imitate his will if you don't sit at the table. The will, the purpose, the plan, the destiny, the assignment, huh, it's discussed at the table. Oh boy, it's discussed at the table. What are your motives, man? If you keep doing the same thing and not moving in faith, you're gonna get what you always got. You're gonna always be stuck. You're gonna always be a hireling going in circles, doing what you do for money, for a check, because you refuse to crucify your flesh. You refuse to move in faith to do the things that actually God wants you to imitate, where you won't have to be a hireling. Oh boy, I'm helping somebody today. So the text is clear: for whosoever, verse 25, will save his life shall lose it. Yeah, you out here working to rescue your life. It works two ways. If you save it through Jesus and take his life, you lose that life that you want in your own motives. If you out here trying to purpose— persevere through what you want and totally ignore what he wants, you're gonna lose. You never can win like that. And whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. That's what— that's where— that, that's— I, I really begin to see blessings and glory and prosperity in my own life when I decided it ain't what Michael Woods wants, I gotta line up with what God wants. There's some dreams I had and was at the door of doing it, had deals on the table that I had to walk away from because the Holy Spirit said, look, if you do that, there's a— that's a point of no return. You sign that, you get in bed with this contract, you do this with this company, you, you, you do this in the area of entertainment and media, it's not coming back because you're going to get locked into that dream. And I had to give it up. I had to lose it so I can find. I had to lose it so I can find. Lose it so I can find. See, some of you afraid of letting it go because you're comfortable there. You're comfortable where you've been. You're comfortable where you are. So you're afraid of losing that because you built that. You didn't do it by faith. Don't get tempted. Oh my God, don't get tempted to be offended by the truth. I'm just trying to tell— don't kill the messenger. I'm just telling you what the Holy Ghost says. You gotta lose it. You gotta let it go, because if that wasn't the plan, the way God wanted you to build it, lose it. My God, today in the text, Jesus rebuked the Satan, the devil in Peter, and told him he was an offense. Peter had— was idle in his thinking. So the idle mind is the devil's workshop. So the devil used him to speak to Jesus in an offensive way to try to get Jesus to disdain his purpose. He— the distraction was for disdainment, to get him off course to where he needed to be and where he was going. I got 10 minutes, guys. I got to get out of here. I need you to grab this, man. Satan was trying to prevent progress, Jesus's progress. Do y'all see this? That's what he does to you through offense. Peter was afraid of Jesus going to the cross, and he said, look, don't do this, this is not the way. That was the devil talking. Anything that tries to break your focus is from Satan. Can I tell you something? And I'm getting ready to close. The only desire Satan has in a fight with you is to break your focus. He's not trying to get you to sin. That's, that's the, that's the bait. The reality is he wants to break your focus. He wants to get you off of progressing. Listen, don't be so offended by God's plan that you do things your own way, all right? Don't be so offended by what God has called you to do that you do things your own way. I'm closing, man. Peter wasn't honest with himself, man. And when we're not honest with ourselves about our motives concerning what the real problem is in our lives, we can't go forward. Peter did not want to accept the reality of what he was called to do, who he was to be to Jesus. This is why he denied him 3 times. He still was battling in that. He never had an absolute clarity until really he preached in Acts. He was battling with this. He was afraid always. That's why he reacted in violence. He moved in a level of offense. What's the real problem in your life? I'm telling you, yesterday I opened up about some things that were problems in my life that I had to deal with. I'm telling you, you need to examine yourself. A kingdom life in God has to be rooted in absolute honesty. Especially honesty about yourself. Listen, because when you, when you start walking in who you really are, people who are even close to you— and I'm gonna hit something and I'm gonna close, man. I'm gonna hit this because this is, this is good, because this deals with stopping progress. Because a lot of times your friends and your relatives You won't keep it 100 with them. You won't walk in who you really are around them. I'm saying your family and your relatives, because they offended by you because you're doing what you're supposed to do. So, and because you don't kind of peep that and you know they offended, so you kind of shift and turn the light down, turn the fire down, turn off who you really are. Listen, I ain't ashamed of my, of my, the blessings in my life. I'm not hiding a car, I'm not hiding the house, I'm not hiding no money. Y'all not talking to me here. I'm not hiding nothing. I am who I am. And if you offended by that, what you need to do is start asking some questions. How did you break the cycle and get where you are? You, you got to make up in your mind you're not. And then God knows Don't be the relative that's offended by the other relative or friend that's doing good. Oh my God, oh my God, there are so many people that look and they know they need to learn from you, but because they offended, they can't receive you because they wanted you to stay down. You know why they offended? I know I can't talk to you about the people connected to you. I can talk about folks that's been connected to me and some hypocritical folk, like Jesus said, you hypocrites who've been connected to me. Lord, I don't want to get in this, but I am because I feel the Holy Ghost driving me this way. The reason some of your family members, some of your in-laws can't get with what you're doing— the Negroes is jealous, and that's what it is. And they offended by who you are. And so this is why you have the biggest problems with family connecting to your ministry, connected to your business. You know, I'm involved with some things investing-wise. I've led several of my family members down the road. You can lead folks to the water, but you can't make them drink. The same stuff that blessed me, I open them up to it. It, but you can't make them see it. And many of them don't want to see it because you brought it to them. And then somebody could take them the same thing, and it wasn't you, but because they are offended by you and can't receive you, they'll receive it from them. One time I taught something— I, I taught something, um, probably 3 years prior to what was said to me. So I taught a message, and then, which was 3 years prior, then I— person that's been sitting with me those whole 3 years that heard the messages, hear me preaching and teaching all the time, comes to me and says, Apostle, man, let me tell you about this word that Jake's preached. I'm, you know, I used to be a really big— I love Bishop Jake. She used to be a great fan of his, but I grew, so I'm not interested in— I don't run behind that, okay? So at the end of the day, uh, yeah, he comes to me and said, Apostle, you need to hear this word Jake's preach. I said, man, first of all, I preached that to you guys, did a whole series, remember, in the whole month about this, uh, 3 years ago. And I've been teaching and preaching this for probably a decade. You got it now though, so I'm glad. So Jakes had to say it for him to get it. Then I said, wait a minute, why you didn't receive it then? And then we talked, talked. He said, oh no, Apostle. Then something hit him, and I know it was Holy Spirit. He said, Apostle, I just got to be honest with you. He said, I was dealing with something as far as the ministry was concerned then. You had said something in one service prior to that, and I remember it so clear, and I was really offended. He said, I actually was thinking about leaving. He said, I was coming to church week after week and really wasn't even plugged into nothing you were saying. And he said, Apostle, I'm sorry, I was offended by you and never talked to you about it. That offense delayed a word he could have got 3 years ago to change his situation. He didn't get it to 3 years later from another vessel because he wasn't offended by that vessel. Oh my God, this is why we got to be careful. Let's look at it in scripture because I'm talking too much. Mark, I gotta go, I gotta go, my time is about gone. I got 3 minutes, Lord have mercy. Mark chapter number 6, Mark chapter number 6. Look, look, look, Mark 6, beginning at verse number 1. The Bible said he went out from thence and came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished. Saying, from whence hath this man these sayings? And what wisdom is this that is given to him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? I love it. Is not this the carpenter? Huh? Is this not the carpenter, son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and of Judah and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And watch this. And they were offended at him. And Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. Wait a minute, wait a minute. The relatives of Jesus, while he was in the synagogue teaching, couldn't receive him. His own folk could not receive him. They were offended at him. My God, because guess what? How would they offended? He was doing the work of the Lord. This was Jesus. And don't you think for one minute you're exempt Jesus was not exempt, y'all. Don't you think for one minute that you're not gonna offend somebody when you walk in who you are? And most of the time it's going to be your relatives, it's going to be those good friends. Watch this, because they all right while you just Mike. Yeah, well, that's just Mike right there, you know, that's just Mike. But they can't gravitate to the entrepreneur the, the multi-millionaire Mike. They can't gravitate, glory to God, to the Apostle Mike because they always wanted to see me struggling. They liked it when I was falling on my face, when I was doing stupid stuff and making mistakes. They loved that because it made them feel comfortable. Ah, but you know what? You cannot— oh my God— let that stop you. Let me tell you something. If a preacher's methods of doing something, how they teach, how they preach, uh, if a mentor's methods, uh, how they coach you, offend you, you really can't receive from him or her. Uh, my spiritual father, and I still call him my spiritual father even though I'm not a part of the fellowship today, but I understand who I am apostolically because of this man, Apostle Donald Graham. And but Apostle's methods to a lot of people could have been labeled as offensive, just the way he is. He's very aggressive Apostle, and, um, he, he holds back nothing. He tells the truth. I was mature enough to handle his approach to ministry, which was very effective for me because as an apostle I needed that. An apostle, if you listen to this, man, I love you. I thank you for everything. Oh my God, I don't want to get emotional behind that, but I thank you for helping me become the man of integrity, helping me become the holy man, the praying man that I am today. It was his methods. I wasn't offended, but I know others who are in our fellowship who will constantly tell me, I'm offended. Even when he come to our church and preach, he used to come to Jackson, Mississippi church a lot, and the apostle— a lot of the members possibly, he said that, yeah, I'm offended. But at the end of the day it's hard to receive somebody that offends you. So they couldn't receive him. And the Bible said Jesus couldn't do many works there because they weren't receiving it. You can't— no matter how much power you got, you can't force it on people who will not receive you. I need y'all to grab that. All right, I gotta go, y'all. I gotta go. Listen, if how a preacher dress offend you, you'll stop receiving. Listen, if you Listen, if you're offended by a preacher that comes to church in jeans and a t-shirt, it's going to stop you from receiving that preacher. And on the flip side, for you people that's used to preaching in jeans and t-shirt, you got to grow up and not judge people because they put on a suit. Just because— listen, just because y'all don't want to put on no clothes don't mean nobody else— listen, at the end of the day I most of the time I come live, I done broke down from business the time. I wear suits all the time, all week most of the time. But in the end of the day, that's just who I am. So you gotta let people be who they are and not be offended. I, I can listen to the dude in the jeans and t-shirt, and I can listen to the guy in the suit. I'm not going to judge a man preaching in a suit and say he's religious because he puts on a suit. Something wrong with that. That means you offended, because if he's bringing the word and he's operating in the power and the anointing of God, he's not religious just because he want to put on some clothes. And I, and I want you to be clear, there are some people who the jean and t-shirt guy will never reach because they're offended by that. There's some entrepreneurs, some people that sit in high positions that won't sit under that ministry because the preacher is he offends, and you can't make them accept it, then we're closed. There are some millennials I may not reach because I go to— I go to church how I feel. So if I feel like putting on a suit one Sunday, I'm putting it on, and most of the time I do. If I feel like putting on what I got on now, I'll go in this. I— because that's just me. But— and I'm— I try to be who I am for all people, but I'm just trying to show you the difference. There are some people that will be offended by how you look, and you just got to accept that. You can't say something wrong with them because they don't want to listen to you because you got on a suit. You can't say something wrong with them because they don't want to listen to you because you got on jeans and a t-shirt. Ain't nothing wrong with them, they just can't receive. Just like they couldn't receive Jesus in his own town walking in what he was walking in. All right, let me tell you something. What I'm saying simply, that's why I gave you both sides. Be aware that you don't get offended about anything in the church. It's the devil's plot to hinder your progress. My uncle— this is a true story— my, my uncle Tracy Lentz Sr., bless his heart, he's going to be with the Lord. Very successful businessman. My cousin Tracy Jr. told me a story. And it was a very powerful story. I, I remember it so clearly, and I don't know if my cousin Tracy Jr. understood how powerful this revelation was for me at the time. I needed what he was saying. Uh, Tracy Senior was a rich man. He was a businessman, uh, very strong in his financial position as an entrepreneur. He was, uh, very successful, all right. So Tracy told me a story of how his dad gave him a check, and for a couple of thousand dollars I think it was. And at the time, Tracy was not a part of that particular bank. He went into the bank to cash the check, and that bank had a policy that Tracy had to have 2 IDs to cash a check or something at the time, and he didn't have 2 IDs on him. Matter of fact, I don't think he had 2 IDs. He didn't even have them, period. But he needed to cash the check. He called his dad, and his dad came to the bank and said, listen, you need to cash this check. And the lady said, no, I'm not going to cash the check because he needs 2 forms of ID. His dad simply said, "I'm the ID." He said, "I'm his ID." And the lady said, "Who are you?" She gave him his name. He gave his name and presented his ID and saw all the money that he had in the bank and that that was the name on the check. And watch this— Tracy's dad had on a t-shirt and blue jeans, all right? He didn't have on a three-piece suit. He could have been easily judged by his outer appearance, but when they saw what he was walking with, what he had at his disposal, immediately the check was cashed. Listen, I want to say this to you: it's not what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside that matters. Because you could be— say, same situation, same Tracy went into a car dealership to buy a car, all right? And my cousin told me this story. Didn't have on a suit, had a t-shirt and jeans on. The one salesman refused to work with him, avoided him, treated him like he didn't need to be in that particular dealership of those type cars. Tracy Sr. left the car dealership, went and got the money to buy the car, okay? Came back said, listen, I want to buy this particular car and I'm going to pay cash. And the guy was trying to help him, then he said, no, I don't want you. And he picked another salesman and bought the car from him so that the guy can get commission. The guy missed his commission because he judged this man on out of appearance. So what am I saying? Listen, you can receive something from anybody no matter what they're wearing. So you, you got to make sure that the anointing is on it and what's on the inside. What they're working with is what matters. Make sure that you don't offend. I remember times, man, I was— when I was out there on the road, when I was traveling heavily, uh, and I've been traveling for 30 years, guys, so— and I gotta go, I've been on long, way too long. I remember I used to love to wear cassocks, right? Cassocks to preach. I got cassocks in my closet right now. Um, that's why my wife and I got to move out of this house. We have no— we have an amazing house, but we need more closet space, and primarily because she complains about my clothes taking up all the closets. So at the end of the day, uh We're moving, all right? And I'm grateful to God on how he's blessing us in that area. But at the end of the day, listen to this, listen. I remember wearing cassocks, my cassocks. I love them, I still love them, and we're wearing them today. If people weren't so non-receptive— watch this— because it's comfortable to preach in, I would preach in cassocks everywhere I go. I had all kind of cassocks. Had, had a lady that made them for me. I love my cassocks, all right? And I remember I had got invited to a church in the DC, Maryland area. Um, this particular bishop, he was, uh, out of that regime, Word of Faith. And he was like, look, I know you like to wear those robes, he said, but we don't wear those backwards collars and those robes in our church. My people not going to receive you now. Part of me wanted to say, man, I don't even want to come to your church. I'm not coming if that's the case. But the Holy Ghost said, no, you need this door and they need to hear what you got to say. So preach in your suit, preach in your clothes. And I changed my entire attire to go do that meeting, um, outside of what I would normally do when going to do a meeting. I'm just trying to tell you, you got— if you want people to receive you, you got to learn to adjust, you know, to what's going on. You know, if you're a blue jean and t-shirt preacher, you know, and you traveling to a church where people normally wear suits, then you need some suits for those meetings because they need to hear what you got to say. They need to receive you. Don't say something wrong with them because they won't let you preach, or they, they're gonna— if they say to you You know, we normally dress up for church. Then if you're the guest preacher, ah, when you go among the Jews— come here, Paul, come here, Paul, Paul, please come here, somebody's not getting it— when you go among the Jews, Paul said, I became as the Jews. Yeah. So if I go to a laid-back casual church, I love it. I throw my casual stuff, show them my, my casual clothes. I got plenty of clothes so I can, I can go with the flow. So that's what I do, because the main thing is I want people to receive what I'm saying. Listen, you got— you have to even be careful how you run your services, because how you run your services can offend people and they won't receive nothing. You got people moving around, having moving people from one seat to another, people get offended. You know, God, you got to be careful how you ask people to wear a mask in the sanctuary during these times. 'Cause again, you want people to receive. You got to be careful on what you do, all right? Because the main thing, they need to receive the word so people can progress from the word. Because Satan often uses offense to steal the word. I'm gonna just read this scripture and I'm gonna close. Mark 4, I just got to read it because the Holy Ghost telling me to read it. And 15, watch this, the Bible says And these are they by the wayside where the word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan comes immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. How does Satan get in there to steal it? He uses offense to steal the word. Something's happening inside of the service or inside of where the word is being presented to offend. You gotta be careful when you're witnessing to who are not like you. You know, somebody asked me yesterday, I was having a meeting with, um, actually an executive from an office I'm doing some business with, and the lady said, well, how do you handle people who don't believe what you believe? She said, you're very vocal about your salvation as a businessman. You talk about how God leads you to do certain things. How do you deal with someone that may be a lesbian, a homosexual, that doesn't believe God? I simply told her, I said, hey, God is a God of love, so I have to operate from a standpoint of love with them. And I don't bring that up if we're in a business meeting, but if the Lord leads me— because if I know if the Lord leads me, I'm going to minister in a way to them that doesn't offend them. And then sometimes you can't control it, but if the Spirit is leading You got to be wise on how you present it, and you can't control how people receive it, but you got to do your very best to be yielding and obedient to the Holy Spirit when it comes down to— listen to me— and it comes down to operating in the things of God. I'm done, y'all. I love y'all, man. Y'all, y'all some good people. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, thank you for this word today. I don't know who I helped Ah, I pray that your people received it. I pray, God, in the name of Jesus, that we will not allow offense to stop our progress. And I give you praise and glory that we are progressing more and more, we're increasing more and more, God, and that we're examining our hearts for anything offensive that could hinder us from doing our very best in you. And we give you praise and we give you glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen and thanks be to God. Listen guys, I love y'all. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Listen, you guys be a support to ministry. Listen, you can give a couple of ways. Cash App is simple, Radha Church. You can give via text, just text the word RADHA to the number 77977. I'll make sure I put it up. Glory to God. And you can also give online at radhachurch.com/donate. Joel O'Day. It's my pleasure to serve you. I pray that this word has been a tremendous blessing to you, and I pray that you'll never live your life in offense and you will avoid it at all costs, and that you'll progress in everything you set your hands to. Y'all be blessed today on this Holy Ghost-filled Wednesday, and I'll talk to you soon. Peace. Hallelujah.