THE STORY OF A KING, PART 8: "BORN TO BE REJECTED, PART B | DR. MIKE WOODS, SR. | 26 DEC 24

Well, praise the Lord everyone, and I pray, glory to God, that everybody has had a Merry Christmas and that you're still, uh, in the midst of enjoying your family. Uh, indeed, this is the day that the Lord has made, and we rejoice and we are glad in it. Listen, I want to pray really quickly Uh, and we're going to get into this tonight. For those of you that are joining us, again, hello. Uh, please share this video, please like this video, and do me a favor, family, comment below, let us know you're here. Again, I pray that every person under the sound of my voice, live or by replay, I pray to God that you have had a supernatural Christmas. I know we had a blessed Christmas with family. Glory to God. And I'm super excited to come, uh, in your midst today and share what thus saith the Lord. And I need you to do the same. So let's pray. And we're not gonna prolong the time tonight. We're actually gonna get right into the heart of what we got to say and what God wants to say to us. Praise the name of Jesus. Glory to God. Y'all see my wife is speaking. She is on. God bless you, wife. Glory to God. And to Bruce, God bless you, sir. Thank you for being here tonight. Listen, if you're joining us, uh, please say hello. Let us know that you are actually in the building. This is Thursday Thrust. Glory to God. And we believe God is going to minister to us tonight. Um, I, I just don't get it. When people don't find it necessary. Glory to the name of God. Hi Stephanie, God bless you. Welcome tonight. To make the word of God a priority. It's a— it amazes me that people can make everything else a priority and don't make the word a priority. I said something Sunday. I'm gonna pray in a moment, but I really was very emphatic about this. Check your screen time for 2024. And how much time— God bless you, Prophet Shannon, good to see you, woman of God— how much time did you actually spend on social media versus opening up your Bible? And I promise you that probably 80% of you, live or by replay, and even those that won't even listen to this, spent spent more time on social media than they did studying or engaging the word. Now you may say, well, I spend time on social media engaging— where— that's all I'm talking about. I'm talking about studying to show yourself approved. I'm talking about actually spending emphatic, intimate time with God so that you can develop your faith. Glory to the name of God. But the reality is faith and the word is synonymous. And if you don't get in the word, you're not going to be able to believe God for anything. But some of you push that blue F, that orange camera button, and that YouTube button way too much, and you never open the scripture. And, you know, it just got— it troubles me that everything else is a priority. And especially, I mean, I'm gonna say this, uh, directly. And if you get mad about it, you need to go talk to God, because at the end of the day, as a leader, especially those that are connected to me, whether you're a son, a daughter outside of the ministry, I understand everybody's busy. I'm busy. Glory to God. But I have an obligation to be here. Why am I here? Because God has given me a voice to be able to speak into your life. He wants you to hear what is being said.

It.

So you ought to make it a priority, glory to God, to hear the word of God. Amen. All right, so listen, I'm gonna say this and then I'm gonna move. All right, if you're connected to me on Thursdays, this is where we are because we need to hear what God is saying. Um, before I came in the studio and got ready to stream tonight, I was downstairs with both of my grandbabies, my baby Maverick and my grandbaby, granddaughter Kenley, and my wife. We were actually watching a movie. I wanted to stay there and keep watching it. Guess what? I couldn't because I had to come up and start preparing to talk to you. So, you know, you guys are not the only people that are busy, man. I'm busy too. So when I come on It's very important that, you know, I see you, you know, because I promise you, I mean, if we sat down and compare calendars, you know, day by day, you know, I promise you I'm probably going to be a little more busier. But I do what I have to do for God, and I want you guys to take this time seriously because it's important, right? So if you're just joining us, please share. Glory to the name of God. Bruce said, glory to God, this is a testimony. He gave me this testimony already and I want you guys to see it. He posted it last week when we were on, but he says he wants to thank everyone for the prayers 2 weeks ago for his grandson. 10 hours later, his grandson was in the hospital. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And 10 hours later, there was a big turnaround and he was able to go home a crisp Christmas miracle. Thank you, Bruce. It's our pleasure to serve. We believe God hears us when we pray. Amen. And in particular, those like you who are accountable and connected to what God has called us to do, we appreciate you, man, and we keep you in our prayers constantly. So that is an amazing testimony. Glory to God about your grandson. Thank you, sir. For sharing that with the group. Let's pray tonight. Glory to God. And we're going to jump into this. I'm ready to teach. I pray you're ready to hear. Father, we give you praise and we give you glory. We give you honor. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. Glory to God. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your kindness and your favor. And Father, I pray that your word would come into this stream on every end, from every vantage point, every person that will watch live or by replay. Your word declares you sent your word and it healed them. So Father, even as we teach tonight, we thank you for healing, that it will flow through this livestream. We thank you for an anointing that will destroy yokes and remove burdens. God, we thank you that no person will leave this live the way they came. And we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise, we bless your high name. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ we do pray. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Again, guys, welcome tonight, and I need you to do me the kind favor, please, and share this experience, really. I need you to do that for me now. Again, for real, sharing is godly, for real. So I want you to like this, I want you to share it, and I want you to comment below and let us know that you are here with us tonight. Glory to God. Listen, we're going to get into this. I am excited to teach part 8 of the story of a king. Glory to God. And just as excited as I was, uh, 8 weeks ago when we started teaching this. Uh, it's an exciting thing to talk about Jesus Christ. Um, I just— by way of review, and then I'm going to play the opener for this series. Glory to God. Um, we've taught 7 messages. The first message, message 1, was entitled Born to Reign. So Jesus came into the world to show us that he was the king. Glory to God. And we, we talked about in that message some characteristics of kingship and how the characteristics of Jesus' kingship shows up in our life, and it should be exuding through our lives every single day. If you missed that teaching, please go back and watch it. Number 2, we talked about Jesus being born to redeem. Glory to God. He was born to buy us back. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. So, uh, this time of year that we commemorate the birth of Jesus, uh, because honestly, the birth of Jesus was not necessarily on this wise when it comes to, uh, the Gregorian calendar that we use. But when you look at a Jewish or Hebraic calendar, which you have only 9 months, uh, Jesus would have been born at end of that calendar. Glory to God. But because we are under the auspices, glory to God, in the earth of a Gregorian calendar, we have chosen to commemorate his birthday. Glory to God. The time he was given to us in December. But we should be celebrating not around Christmas trees, Santa Claus, or hear me, and presents, but we should be celebrating the idea that God— now, while we love the festivities of the season, I'm not preaching against that. What I am saying is the primary focus should be the fact that for real, a king was born to reign, to buy us back. Hallelujah! To bring his citizens back into true fellowship with God. So he was born to reign. Then thirdly, we taught he was born to restore. You got to go back and watch these messages. Four, he was born to reveal, to bring revelation. Glory to God. To show us our true identity, to show us purpose, to show us destiny. Please go back and watch these teachings. I promise you, if you do and you take notes and you begin to make application, I promise you, you'll take the King and his kingdom and you'll become a citizen like you should. And you're going to actually have a better year in 2025 and 2026 because now you would have begun to take your rightful place as a citizen. Hear me in the Kingdom of God. In Message 6, we talked about the fact that he was born to be rejected. And we're going to talk about part 2 of Born to Be Rejected tonight. Then we talked after that, message 7, which was Sunday, Born to Release. He was born to bring freedom. Glory to God. So tonight we're going to talk about the fact that Jesus was born, glory to God, to be rejected, part 2. And I promise you, you want to stay with me tonight because this is going to be good. Let me put up the opener to this series, and then I'll be back to share with you.

God bless you. Could have been a night just like this one. The air filled with anticipation. And that light, so bright in the night sky that it beckoned for shepherds and wise men to follow. Imagine to their surprise when they arrive and find a tiny baby laying in a manger, surrounded with nothing more than farm animals. How could this be their king? How could the Savior of the world be here in this place? And yet they were compelled. They bowed down right there and worshiped him. You see, they knew that something beyond comprehension had just transpired. The hope of all mankind has just shown up before them, that Jesus, although a baby, had come for you and for me. He came to give us a hope and a future. He came so that we might have joy and light. He came so that no matter what circumstance circumstances we find ourselves in, all we have to do is call on his name and we would be saved. This is a story of Christmas. This is the story of the greatest gift ever given. The story of a king, the savior of the world, born in a manger for you and for me.

My God, well, praise God! And, and that's just the truth. Jesus was born for real. I need you to grab this again. This is not some fairy tale story or some fantasy. Jesus actually was born for you and I, that we could actually have life, and then we can have it more abundantly. So tonight, again, we're going to get into Part B of this rejection piece, that he was actually born to be rejected. And I think the whole part of Jesus being rejected is that he could be a solid example, all right, to show you and I how to handle rejection and Tonight, I just really want to start off by taking a balanced look at rejection, because a lot of times when people reject us, we equate it to hate. We equate it to glory to the name of God, them actually despising and pushing us away like we already kind of defined that. That. And most people take it really bad. And really, honestly, nobody wants to be rejected. And I don't know about you, but I've been in situations where I have felt like people actually rejected me or hated me without a cause. All right, that's what they did to Jesus. They actually hated him without a cause. And there are some people, because they're trying to make excuse for— glory to the name of God— not being able to receive who you really are, they'll even try to create a cause to hate you. But this teaching tonight is going to help somebody that's ever felt like people— all you've done is been nice and then they turn around and hate you without reason, or reject you without reason. You've been good to them and they turn around and be terrible to you. But let me— let me make you aware tonight, if that has happened to you, ladies and gentlemen, you're in good company. Oh my God, tonight I'm telling you right now, you're in good company because the reality is Jesus Christ was hated without a cause. Let's, let's take a balanced look. So does that— sometimes we really do get rejected, hear me, without a cause. And again, I'm telling you, I have felt that. And if anybody in leadership Anybody in ministry, anybody in management, anybody that has ever had to deal with people have felt this. Anybody in a family that's been a person that's always been giving in the family and— oh boy, and let me say, I say that, God, if people show up in your life, hear this, because again, that's what this is all about. And they didn't come to give— hear me, I need you to realize something— they came to take. Yeah, if they didn't come to give, they came to take. And the reality is you got a lot of takers who have a spirit of entitlement, who really feel like in some way you owe them something and you're supposed to be giving them something. The reality is no one has a right to feel entitled to what you bring. Glory to the name of God. They should simply appreciate it when you bring it and not feel like you owe them that. But a lot of times we get rejected when we have a big heart, when we're compassionate, when we're always giving. Glory to the name of God. Uh, my wife made a statement tonight. We were talking about something and I said, well, well, I gave that away. And she said, man, you always giving somebody something, you always blessing. So yeah, because that's just the nature of who I am. That's the nature of who she is. And the reality is, many times when you're like that, you have to walk like Jesus and release it and not expect people to reciprocate— hear me— how you have given. I hope y'all here tonight. Glory to God, this is going to be good. Let's go to John 15, and I'm going to read verses 17 through 25 quickly. The Bible says this, it says, these things I command you— hear this— that you love one another. So let's just make this clear. This is Jesus talking. This ain't no suggestion, it's a command. Glory to the name of God. He said, listen, it's a command. And for you, doesn't need me to break it out a little farther. Enteleomai is the word command in Greek. It is an order, it is a charge that should be obeyed. Oh boy, enteleomai. Glory to God. It is intelligent that comes as an order that should be obeyed, which means it's non-negotiable. So this text right here, and if you and I are believers, if we are kingdom citizens, glory to God, we are commanded to love one another. Does that mean we just supposed to love people who are saved? No, this text is commanding us to love everybody, you know. Okay, let me just be transparent with you about something. Glory to God, because I tried very hard to practice my love walk every single day. It bothers me beyond measure if I allow someone to push my buttons to a point that it causes me not to be a person in tone or in what may come out of my mouth that may not be received as loving, even if they're wrong. Hear me? And so I had an incident This week, earlier this week, I went to get my wife some food. I ordered the food in the app, and when you order the app, it tell you pull into this number. I put the number in, I sat there, and I'm patient, you know, I'm listening to my music. I look, but 30 minutes had passed. I'm like, okay, what, what are they doing? Did they get the order? So I get out, go in, ask for the manager, say, hey, very nicely, I've been sitting in the car. I checked in as your app told me to do. Here you can see on my phone it says you will bring my food out shortly. I've been waiting. Can I pick up my food? The lady, because they're busy, she's under a lot of pressure. She immediately lights into me with this mean, aggressive tone. Hear me? And Immediately I went to that space between stimulus and response and said, Holy Spirit, help me not to respond to this lady the way I'm feeling right now, because she was nasty. And so I said, I said, okay, so to save us from going back and forth about this food, I'll just go somewhere else. Can I please just get a refund? Refund. She yells, no, you— if you want a refund, go on the app, do the refund yourself. Have a nice day. And before I know it, I said two things, glory to God, that I got so convicted of after I said. Number one, because somebody— now y'all want the tea, right? What you say, Apostle? I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell I said, first of all, this kind of customer service and how you're treating me might be the reason why you have a career at McDonald's. And that wasn't nice at all. I know it. Before y'all judge me, I'm telling you right now, I tried, but the lady was beating me down. She would give, as my wife would say, she would browbeat me and give me a tongue-lashing about my order. And even before I know it, it slipped out. And then I said, I said, this is just stupid. We're this little food, you guys are treating me this way. And I just walked out the door. And when I got in the car, I started weeping, man, because I was like, I shouldn't have said that. And I was feeling terrible. So you know what I did? I didn't go back in there and say, yeah, y'all was wrong. I'm sorry. I said, you know what, I could have handled that differently, and I apologize for the words that came out of my mouth. I'm just trying to help you guys. I'm human just like y'all. But, and I tried to work it out, and even when I said what I said, I didn't say it mean. I wasn't yelling. They were yelling at me about the order I placed. But what I'm saying to you is I felt terrible people. Because at the end of the day, I'm trying to practice love. And so the right thing to do would have been to turn the other cheek and just walk away from the situation and get my refund another way. Call the next day, whatever. I shouldn't have said anything. I should have just took the low road. I'm just trying to help somebody that's got a proclivity— y'all ain't got to help me here tonight— to snap glory to God, with some of these people who are uptight this time of year, customer service. Now watch this, it came around again today. My optometrist office called me, and so before I left the optometrist office, the doctor gave me one appointment. He said, I want to do some testing, uh, just to— you're good, your eyes are good, I just want to do some testing to make sure that everything stays good, so I'm going to bring you back. This day. I said, okay, glory to God. He gave me one appointment. The lady called me today and said, okay, I want to confirm your two appointments. I said, ma'am, I don't have two appointments, I got one. Sir, I'm looking at the books, you have two appointments. She started yelling at me. I said, ma'am, I tell you what, I am in the middle of something, I will call back tomorrow. And speak to a manager. You have a great day. And I hung up the phone. You know why? Because that could have became more, because she was already having a bad— maybe she had to work the day out of Christmas and was mad. I don't know what it is, but what I needed to do was extrapolate myself so I can love her in spite of her actions. Are y'all with me? Glory to God. Let me get through this tonight. I'm gonna get through this. Glory to God. Glory to God. Oh boy, y'all, y'all quiet cause maybe y'all judging me a little, but I don't care. Glory. I'm just honest enough to tell mine, you probably not. The reality is I'm working on it every day, but we're commanded not just to love people who treat us right, not to just love folk at the church, not to just love folk that go to church. We're commanded to love all human beings. He wasn't talking about, glory to God, just a group. He's talking about loving everybody. I'm not just called to love Black people. I love all people. I love white people, Asian people. I love everybody— Russians, Italians. I love everybody. And that's what we're commanded to do. Glory to Jesus. Oh boy, that's why there's a problem when there's racism in the church. There's a problem when Christians— let me tell you something, Sunday mornings are the most segregated time in America. Y'all ain't got to say nothing because you got different races in their culture of church. But I believe God is calling us to be a melting pot. I believe God is calling us— glory to the name of God, hallelujah— to be a Shandi tebo so rabanti. To be a— a glory to God— a pot of all races and kindreds so people can see what the kingdom actually looks like. And that we can't do that if we don't love everybody. So Jesus says, love one another. I stay on there longer than I wanted. He says, if the world hates you, listen to this, and I read this for context last week. Ye know that it hated me before it hated you. So if the world hates you, Jesus says, okay, they hate me too, and they hated me before. In other words, again, you're in good company if you're being hated, if you're being rejected. This word hate there, um, missio in Greek, overlooked. That's where we get words like miss or missed. Glory to God. To look beyond, to reject, to— watch this— to reject aggressively because there is no love. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I'm a man. God, I've been through this in my life where people have overlooked me, people have rejected me. Glory to God. People, people who I felt like should have been loving me me, but they were pushing me away. Are you hearing this? You need to understand. Jesus says when that happens to you, you're in good company. I told you tonight I was going to give you another perspective of what it means to be pushed away, what it means to be rejected, what it means to not be appreciated. Hear me. Ah, God help us. Verse 19, it says, if ye were of the world— listen to this— the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So watch this. The world, the cosmos, the cosmopolitan system, the system of carnality, the systems of human nature— the Bible is saying here, Jesus is saying here That system hates you. And that's why you should be operating from a higher system, from a kingdom system, from a kingdom resource. Glory to the name of God. Whoo! Jesus! Glory to God. Because that system is greater anyway. And you should be operating under the auspices of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who, by the way, loves you completely. Can I tell you something? There is nothing you have done and there's nothing you could ever do to make God stop loving you. I'm gonna say that again. There's nothing you have done or nothing you could ever do to make God stop loving you. And I'm telling you something, people who say they love you and could turn love off— y'all ain't got to talk to me, I'm already teaching this tonight. Glory to God. I'm in deeper than I want to be right now, for real. The reality is there are people that will say they love you, but they got an ability to turn it off when they feel like turning it off. That's not love. Agape loves without condition. That's what, that's what the word love is transliterated in this text. Agape, which is unconditional love, which means God says, I love you for love alone. There's nothing you gotta do to make me love you. There are people who love you as long as you're doing what they want you to do. I'm gonna tell you something, that's not love, because love has no condition. A better word is I like you as long as you do what I want, and the moment you stop doing what I want, I'm gonna stop liking you. But that ain't love if you could just cut it off. Love loves at all times. Obam sia, ye bam tu sia. Yes, God tonight, it loves at all times. It loves at all times. I need you to hear this. But the world hates you without a cause. And when people are hating you without a cause, it means they have the world in you. Let me— in them. Let me keep reading. He says, verse 20, remember the word that I said unto you. Listen, guys, he says, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my— if they have kept my saying, they will keep your— oh my God, here we go, here we go. Jesus again is saying, you in good company. Hear me, if they are persecuting me, is what Jesus is saying, they're going to persecute you. So stop whining about it when people persecute you, when people hate on you, when people reject you without a cause. You know what you got to do? Keep loving. All right, we're gonna get some balance here. Glory to God. Oh, Raman Dikoso, Torabaya, Raman Diosa. Some people operate in what is called eros love, which is erotic or need love. Again, as long as you're meeting the need, I love you. Glory to God. They're married people who are married, and watch this, something may happen to the wife or the husband and they may not be able to perform sexually or whatever. Glory to the name of God. The reality is you took a vow for better or for worse. So real love says, even though we can't do this right now, I still love you because it's not based on that. It's based on unconditional circumstances, which means anything can happen. Because for better or worse means I don't get to define what the worst is, just like I can't define what the better is. Oh boy, if you don't like them terms, you don't need to get married. 'Cause that's what marriage is. It's for better, for worse. Glory to God. So, so you don't just walk out when things get hard, when things get worse. Glory to God. You stand through. Glory to the name of God. And you work through the issue, because that's what love does. Oh boy, you're in good company. So stop complaining when they persecute you. Verse 21, he says, but all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. So again, here we go. The people are persecuting you, if people are hating you and rejecting you without a cause— watch this— it's because they don't know God. See, if they knew God for real, they'll know who you are. Let me keep reading. I ain't got time. Oh boy, in verse 22 he said, if I had not come and spoken unto them they had not— they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. For he that hated me hated my Father also. Verse 24: If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. Verse 25, last one. But this cometh to pass— listen to this— that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me— hear this, Jesus said it— without a cause. They hated me without a cause. And that's why I started like that, because I know if you're in God and you're operating in any anointed supernatural assignment, you're gonna have days and seasons even, and months and sometimes years where you feel like people are rejecting you, hating you, when for no reason at all. But the reason is— glory to God— is because you're in him. And he says, you're in good company. They hated him so much they killed him. Religious folk killed Jesus. Oh, shabandia! But that was the fulfillment of his purpose, right? So let's get into this, man. Rejection, guys, rejection is emotionally painful, right? It's tough. Nobody want to be rejected because it's painful, man. You know, it's painful. And most of us— hear me— we work really hard. I don't know about you, but I have in my life trying to avoid being rejected because it's not a good feeling when people won't receive you for who you are. Or when people are trying to change you into what they need you to be to fulfill their need. Y'all need to hear this. Everybody listening to me tonight, I don't care who you are, you want to be well spoken of. And when you leave people presence, you want to be well thought of. Oh boy, let me let you in on a secret, okay? When you leave people's presence, everybody ain't speaking well of you. I'm just gonna let you know right now, even if you're doing the right things, some people out of jealousy and envy are going to speak against you. They're gonna think negative thoughts to soothe— hear me— their perception of you in excellence. So they're going to try to think things bad about you. Oh my God. Because they struggle with insecurity and accepting you. We'll get to that in a moment. I'm almost done, guys. Oh boy. I tell you. I tell you. Glory to the name of God. Just accept that as a fact, man. You leave something. Some of y'all add people out for the holidays. And there were folk that was there that was smiling at you while you were there. I'm gonna tell you right now, but when you left, all right, they had something else to say. Or they, in their conversation on the way home, they were saying something else, stroking their own insecurities about you. Watch this, I posted something to this effect today. Go and look at that post and like like it. Glory to God. I posted a picture. I know what y'all like. I've learned to follow my followers. So I posted something before I post a picture of me and my grandbaby who went out to the movies this afternoon. Uh, I think about 600 people have liked that photo with me and Kelly. I posted this post right here with a picture of me, and I said this. I said, people who— I said, as we swiftly approach— this is what I said. 2025. Listen to this. As we swiftly approach 2025, listen, I need you to understand that people who want to hold you hostage to your history and people who refuse to honor this place that destiny has brought you, I told you to no longer allow them to occupy your space. Matter of fact, the post says, I give you permission to dismiss them. See, there are people who want to hold you hostage to who you used to be. Oh my God, oh my God. They want to hold you in your history because they struggle with the fact that God brought you out, that God delivered you, that you're a new creature, that you're walking in excellence, that you're blessed. That you're prosperous, that you're winning in life. They was okay as long as you were losing, as long as you were struggling as a single mother, as long as you were struggling as a single father, or as long as you were struggling trying to find jobs and didn't have no money. But now that you made it, they want to hold you hostage. Hear me, guys, in that history. Oh, but thank God. He was born to redeem me. Glory to God. He was born to release me. And because he released me, you can't hold me captive to my past. Because if any man be in Christ, glory to God, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. You can look at me if you want to say, oh, that's just Mike. Oh my God. You can look at me and want to say, oh, he's still the same old Mike. Yeah, the devil is a liar. That's what you need me to be. Glory to God. Because you don't want to accept where destiny— whoo— has carried me. Glory to God. You want me to be broke and struggling. You want me to be struggling in my flesh. Glory to the name of God. And full of lust. I got news for you. I ain't that person no more. And I'm telling you, you better announce to folk that you're free. Glory to God. Hallelujah! Because at the end of the day, urandi kan sabaya, rombandia, you are who God says you are. Glory! Lord, I love Jesus, I love him. How about you? Y'all love him tonight? Glory to God, man! If you love God, just throw your hands up in the comments. Glory to God! Hallelujah! If you thank God that you're new, glory to God! If you thank God that your history, hallelujah, was not able to thwart or detour or destroy your destiny, I need you to throw your hands up and thank God that you are able to escape your history. Glory to the name of God. And escape your past and move into the new. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. God, I give you glory. Ushababa Tata. Yes, God, we glorify you. Yes, God, we magnify. We lift you up on this live stream tonight, and we thank you for newness, God. We thank you that tonight we walk in the newness of life, God. And no matter what anybody says, we're free, and your blood has washed us. We've been redeemed. Glory to God, we've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Glory to God. My little sister, when we was growing up in church, she used to sing a song. She'd sing solo for my dad, and she would sing, I've been redeemed, I've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of the Lamb. And she would say, if you want to see the devil run, shoot him in the back. Glory to God, with the gospel gun, because the gospel gun shoots out bullets of blood. I'm telling you right now, The enemy cannot hold you. Shabba! Man, seek— oh, where you used to be. Some of you are worrying about the past, worrying about— hallelujah— what people are thinking, what they're saying. Listen, you're in good company. They hated Jesus, they talked about Jesus, they rejected Jesus, they killed Jesus. So at the end of the day, thank God that you're on the same side. My God, today tonight. Who's Shabiah? That Jesus who is on. Glory to God. Oh, somebody ought to shout, we win tonight! Glory to God, we win! Oh, glory to God. So with all that said, while we know people are thinking— there are some that are going to think bad of you, that are going to speak bad of you. While we want everybody to speak well of us, you could be doing everything right. Jesus did everything right. Hear but people still spoke ill of him without a cause. Liberty, God, we give you the glory, we give you the honor, we give you all the praise. Thank you, God. Hallelujah. All of us want to have a good reputation, right? Yeah, we want to be accepted. We want to be approved. We want to be included. We want to be applauded. We want to— oh my God— want to— want people to feel good when we're around. Unfortunately, it ain't always the case, and we got to accept that. Hear me, amande osaya, as a reality of life. Glory to God. I gotta get out of here. I'm almost done. I got a few minutes. Let me give you a working definition of hate, all right? I think I gave you one when I was reading scripture, but I want to give you another one. Hate is malicious and unjustifiable feelings toward others, whether toward the innocent or by mutual animosity. Hate is also relative preference for one thing over another. Oh, for you— see, I'm— there are people listening to me live or by replay, there's somebody, you still traumatized because you felt like your parents had favorites. You felt like they put one over the other. Mm, the devil is a liar. Listen, that was relative preference, and it was not correct. A parent should never exalt one child over the other. I got 5 children. I've inherited 2 amazing children by marriage. Glory to God. Me and Felicia have a blended family. I have 3 boys, glory to God, in addition to that that came out of my loins. Guess what? I treat them all equal. Matter of fact, this year for Christmas, I equally gave them all the same exact thing. Glory to God. And glory to God, it's an amazing gift. And the reality is, because all of them are my children— Payton is my daughter, she's the only one out of the bunch that's giving me grandbabies. Glory to God. And I'm, I'm appreciative for the gift of those grandbabies. I love them. Like, glory to God, they are just everything to me. The reality is, I need you to hear me, you have to get past that because Jesus— watch this— he loves us all equally. Oh, this is why many times many of us are traumatized because of some relative preference where people preferred other children over you because maybe you didn't look like them. And maybe you got bullied in school, and some of you still carrying trauma from that. Now, I went through some childhood trauma, man. This is why I have to work really hard on my responses and being angry. I mean, I tell God every day because I think back to history, things that I have come out of, and my prayer to God— God, I will never be that guy again. And I declare my anger will never be triggered in the ways it was in past. Glory to God, I was a mess, man. But I'm telling you right now, God will deliver you. Watch this. I'm not knocking therapy because I have a PhD in psychology, but I'm telling you right now, God delivered me. Hear me, he delivered me. And I could have used a whole lot of therapy. With no therapy, you just gotta let the Holy Spirit do it. Glory to God. Ah, he— because he can. And I'm not knocking counseling. Counseling is necessary because in the multitude of counsels there is safety. I'm just saying, for me, I didn't have to get therapy for that. God can deliver you. Glory to the name of God. I gotta get out of here, man. We, we read, hallelujah, in John