The STORY OF A KING, Part 7, "Born to Release" | Dr Mike Woods, Sr | 22 Dec 2024

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 circumstances we find ourselves in, all we have to do is call on his name and we would be saved. This is the 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.

Hallelujah! He was born for you and me. Glory to God. Hallelujah! So again, we're continuing our series this morning on the story of the King. This is Part 7. Glory to God. And I started talking about born to be rejected on Thursday, and I was going to finish that today, but the Lord took me another direction. So I'm gonna finish that Thursday, this coming Thursday. But today I want to talk about born to release. Say that with me. Say, he was born for me to be released. So today I want to just get a working definition. We're going to put some scripture throughout this from the beginning on release. Glory to God. Say that with me. Say release, because I think it's very important that we understand this. And again, people get caught up in all of the commercialization of this holiday. And they don't really realize that the very purpose that Jesus came into the world was to give us freedom. Glory to God. So let's, let's look at this definition. It means— release means to set free from restraint. Let's just start right there. Say restraint. When you're restrained, that means you cannot move. Say that with me. Say, he came to set me free from restraint. Glory to God. You don't have to be bound. And it's amazing how many people who go to church who are actually still bound, who are still actually— watch this— restrained. But when we come to God, and we're gonna find out in a minute, he comes for real to release us. Glory to God! To set us free from restraint, from confinement. God knows if you're saved and you're born again, you shouldn't be confined. Everything about advancing the kingdom deals with the idea of taking the voice of Jesus Christ and the life of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God that's in us into the world. We can't confine ourselves to church. We can't confine ourselves to these four walls. Glory to God. We have to take who we are every single day in the world. I was out last week, matter of fact, and, um, I, I got some flyers, some square flyers made for the church and for our revival. Make sure we— before you leave today, y'all take some of them. I was out just everywhere I went. I had them in my pocket. I was in Dollar Tree giving them people, talking to people. But I was in line, and then I started ministering to a lady behind me. But I, I saw the lady in front of me in line because the line was so long. She had all of this stuff, but she had this heaviness on her face. She had a little girl with her, and the Lord spoke to me in the line and said When she gets finished ringing up, no matter what it is, you pay for it. And she had her whole Christmas on the thing. And I said, I will do, God. Glory to God. And so when she got through, I said, ma'am, excuse me, do you mind if I pay for your items? She welled up in tears and said, oh my God, you don't know what you've done for me. Her daughter was looking like, nobody's ever done anything like this for us. I just swiped my card, gave her a flyer. She said, I'm coming to church. She said, because nobody's ever treated me like this. Immediately, that was liberty, that was freedom. That's why we can't be confined. Everybody is a candidate for Jesus, so we got to be very proactive in sharing it. It also means freedom from servitude. God knows we shouldn't be serving sin. The only thing we should be serving is God. And so he was born to free us from servitude. It means to let go. It means to dismiss. God knows we got a bad habit of holding on to things we need to let go of. We hold grudges. We got unforgiveness in our heart. We're bitter, we're mad, we're angry. And, and God is saying to us, you got to let it go. And there are people that are actually listening to me now, live or by replay, you're holding on to stuff that God's trying to take. Oh my God, the Bible says if there's any branch in you that's not bearing fruit, he takes it away. So if that thing ain't bringing forth fruit, at some point when the time is up, you got to let it go. That's why you can't sit and have negotiations with people when they talking about they're going to leave you. Or they gonna walk out on you. You got to let them go, cause free people understand that we don't hold people bound where they don't want to be. Oh my God, you ain't got to say nothing here. You, you got to understand, everybody can't go where you're going. Everybody can't walk with you. And the people that need to go need to go. Oh, y'all ain't got to say nothing here. Some people will never see what's on your life. And if you have not been revealed to them, they're going to violate you 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Because where there's no revelation, there's always violation. They're going to stay in your way. They're going to stay an impediment. They're going to continue to hinder you. And when you're free and you accepted the freedom of Jesus, you let go of what you need to let go of. And watch this, you dismiss what needs to be dismissed. You, you've been keeping people in class that it's time for them to go home. You can't keep a student past the class time. You got to dismiss them. You're trying to teach somebody something that they ain't gonna never hear. They have proven that they don't want to hear what you got to say, so dismiss them. If they ain't got enough sense to dismiss themselves because they don't want to hear it anyway, dismiss them. Okay, all right, because, because some— and watch this, I've learned this again. I had to dismiss a family member last week. I blocked them. 'Cause what you're not gonna do is disrespect me on my phone because you're not clear who I am. And what I'm gonna do is help you stay alive. I text them, I said, I'm gonna help you stay alive. I'm gonna help you keep breathing because the Bible said, touch not my anointed, neither do my prophet no harm. The Bible says better for you to tie a rock around your neck and jump in the deepest sea than to mess with the least of his little ones. And here you are coming for me? Let me help your heart keep beating. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here, 'cause I'm about to dismiss you and block you right now. All right, do it, come on. The Bible said, who is my mama? Who is my daddy? Who my sister, who my brother? Them that do the will of God. So you got family, oh my God, of culture that you were born in. But then you got family of covenant, family that God calls you to connect to. And then you got family of choice, people you choose to be family. Ain't nobody ever said you got to keep rolling with them folk you were born in culture with. Y'all ain't got to talk to— family is good, everybody, family is wonderful. Yes, it is. But all— sometimes you got to feed family with a long handle spoon. Okay, all right. Hallelujah. I, I'll show you better than I can tell you. Glory to God. Hallelujah. God came to release us. Touch yourself and say, God came to release me. Oh boy, glory to God. Hallelujah. I just felt somebody watching live cringing, but it's okay. Glory to God. You got to learn how to dismiss folk that need to be dismissed. Glory to God. The first point I want to give you, and I'm just laying the backdrop to really where I'm going— write this down and hit the spacebar— Tony, sin is the source of all bondage. Are y'all hearing this? Sin— I'm gonna say that again— is the source of all bondage. If you're bound in anything, it's sin. Sin is from the Greek word harmesia, and it means to miss the mark, to come short. So watch this, even going back to what I was just saying, and when people are missing the mark on who you are They create a type of bondage, so you got to dismiss them so you don't continue in sin. Do you realize walking with people that ain't called to walk with you and they're causing you to miss the mark, that's sin? And they're causing you to come short. Oh my God, that's not God's plan, that's not God's will for you. It's the source of our bondage. Harmesia. All unrighteousness is sin. So we're not just talking about homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery, fornication. All unrighteousness is sin if it don't align with purpose. If it don't align with who you are, it's sin. Because you're out of agreement. Oh, how can two walk together except they be in agreement? We can't, we can't force people. I remember I was a little boy, because growing up I had to learn patience. But watch this, I love puzzles. So you can't be impatient and put together puzzles. Them two things don't go together. But I will be putting together puzzles, have it almost finished, have about 12, 15, 20 pieces left, and I will come to this piece and I, I got, I ain't got that many left. Couldn't find the piece to fit in this one spot. So here I'm gonna do, I'm gonna take a piece that don't fit And I'm gonna push, keep trying to push it down because it looks like it fits. Oh, y'all ain't got to say nothing here. See, the puzzle of your life, you got to stop trying to fit people in that look like they fit. Just because they look like you or you look like them don't mean that they fit in who you are and where you going. Oh my God, today. But that's my auntie, that's my mama. I don't care. Auntie and mama need to get, get saved and aligned with God's plan for your life. But that's my boo. Okay, boo need to get delivered. Okay, all right. Okay, I'm gonna leave that alone. So let me show you what this looks like. So Israel is a type and shadow of what this bondage looks like. Hear me. So if you look at Israel, the Bible says that God spoke to Moses, said, go down, tell Pharaoh, let my people go, right? Go down, tell Pharaoh, release my people. Are y'all hearing this? Free my people. So that tells me that Egypt represents bondage, or Egypt represents sin. When he got there, he talked to Pharaoh. Pharaoh let them go, but watch this, he delivered them to the wilderness. So from sin to deliverance. But most people in the church, they're delivered in wilderness, because in wilderness you get manna from heaven. In wilderness you get quail raining down from heaven. In wilderness your clothes grow with you. Watch this. In wilderness you only know the acts of God. The Bible said Moses knew the ways of God, but Israel knew the acts. So they only served him on what he was doing, which is where we find the church in many instances. In the body of Christ, people are in wilderness. They came out of sin, but they're wandering in wilderness, and all they want is signs. All they want is their clothes to grow with them. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. All they want is quail from heaven and manna, when the word manna means what is it. So all they want is stuff they can't even identify with. Watch this, the Bible said, Jesus said it, an adulterous generation seeketh a sign. So if all we're looking for is signs and wonders— here we go— I know those are appropriate, they're important, but guess what those are for really? They're to show the world that God is God. We should be mature enough and in God enough where we don't need signs to stay safe. Oh, y'all ain't got to talk to me here. Some people don't feel like they in God unless they done floated around church. Are they floating around life all day? That's, that's why I like Shannon, the name of your new ministry, Practical Prophetic. You ain't got to be spooky and scary and squint your eyes. This thing is practical, it makes sense. That's why people won't get saved, they scared of you. 'Cause you're weird, and we, we got to be relevant and not weird. Oh God, have mercy. The church is too weird, and God is saying the way we do it, we got to get out of deliverance mode. Well, all we want to do is buck and shout and, and fall out and roll in the floor and do all that stuff. Y'all, that's, that's, that's immature wilderness. Yes, but God didn't tell them, I was going to bring you to the wilderness. He said, I'm going to bring you out of Egypt into a land that flows with milk and honey. Oh boy, here we go. So the third part of that, I got to get out of wilderness into freedom. The promised land is freedom. Oh, glory to God. It's the land that flows with milk and honey. And you know what? There's a responsibility that comes with release. When I get released, glory to God, I gotta milk them cows. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. I gotta go get that honey out the hive. I gotta pick them big grapes. See, the responsibility to me, when you get in freedom, you got to work. Ain't no more quail. Come on now, ain't no more clothes growing with you. You gotta work the works of him that sent you. So that you could fulfill the promise. And this is why people really don't want to be free, because they just want the fishes and loaves. Oh, are you hearing this? They just want their clothes to grow with them. They want it to fall out the sky when God says if a man doesn't work, he should not eat. So some grown man that's scrolling past this, get your lazy hind parts, gluteus maximus, up off off the couch and go to work where you can take care of your family. God never called a woman to take care of you. You sitting on the couch on your gluteus maximus with a PlayStation controller in your hand all day. May your hands get arthritis and get stuck if you don't get up and take your lazy tail to work. Okay, listen, women, stop marrying these men that won't work. You signing up for— why are you signing up for that? You ain't got no magic on your body that gonna make him to go to work. Y'all ain't talking. If he didn't go to work before— come on now— before you married him, That negro ain't going to work when he say I do. Your stuff ain't that good, I'm just going to tell you right now, it ain't that good. That's a part of his character. Glory to God. The lazy man is ideal to the laziness in the world because a man is the head. And so people don't want to do anything because men— oh God— want to scroll on their phone all day with the remote all day, just click it, click it all day long. And then you get home and one wants you to cook. Come on now, that's a problem. God wants to move us in freedom, and we got to take responsibility and work in our area of purpose, work in the area that God has planned for us, and stop looking for these fishes and loaves. Oh, glory to God. Next thing, I want you to write this down. So if, if sin is the source of all bondage, here's what I want you to understand, and I'm going to say this probably 10 different ways today. Jesus came to free us from all bondage. So if I'm saved, I shouldn't still be bound. Oh, okay, because you got some folk— glory to God— they're saved, still bound. Glory to God. Because you can get saved and still be in wilderness, which is why you stay sick, which is why you're broke. Are y'all hearing this? Which is why you stay down and depressed, because you won't move to freedom. I am free. Hashabaya! Praise the Lord, I'm free. No longer bound. Ah, yes. Okay, go to 2 Corinthians 3:17. Let's, let's, let's get in this. Glory to God. Hit it, hit it. Yeah, 2 Corinthians 3:17. Glory to God. I want to show you that the King is the source of all freedom. Say that with me. Say, the King is the source of all freedom. Glory to God. So that means when I encounter the King, I have encountered freedom. Glory to God. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So that means if you got Holy Spirit inside of you You ought to be free, because this scripture tells me wherever the Spirit of God is, there's liberty. Wait a minute, you got a lot of people that say they got the Holy Ghost, that say the Spirit of God living in them, but they're still bound. So one is the question based on this verse: is God really there? Because when he comes, there's freedom. Oh boy, I could just testify for myself. I know God lives in me because there's some stuff I used to do I loved doing. Y'all ain't got to talk to me. I could tell you about some sins that'll take your whole check. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. I enjoyed it, but when the Spirit of the Lord showed up, I don't desire to do those things anymore. There are places I won't go anymore. Gloria, I'll be coming from the arena from basketball games at— whenever I go see the Hawks, and I pass Magic City often, so I'll be riding by Magic City rebuking the whole building. I'll be pointing, as I commanded to close down in Jesus' name, because the parking lot stay full and ain't nothing in there but men taking their whole check. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. Imagining something they want, then they ain't gonna be able to get. See, here's the— here's the problem. If you really got the Spirit of God in you, you ought to be free. You ought to be liberated. You ought not have desires. Well, what you saying, I'm supposed to be perfect? Well, the Bible did say, be ye therefore perfect, for I am perfect. We gotta stop making excuses and try. Are y'all hearing this? We ought to wake up every day trying to be free. Because he was born to release us. Okay, I'm gonna go there, God. I wasn't— I was trying to avoid it, but since you keep bringing it to me. So let's talk about some of these churches that say the Spirit of the Lord is in their church, and they bucking and shouting, having praise breaks, and the preacher hollering and sweating. And, and every Sunday the same homosexual comes in and never gets free. Homosexuals dancing all over the place. Lesbians, transgenders dancing everywhere. Whores and liars. Nobody's changing, but everybody's entertained. Yeah, ain't no spirit there. Not the Spirit of the Lord. There's a spirit there. but it ain't the Spirit of God. And let me just let y'all in on something. You go in the church and you see a bunch of homosexuals, a bunch of whores, a bunch of lesbians, a bunch of people living in sin— it is a reflection of the person holding the mic. The king always influences the kingdom. Oh boy, if that person is not pure, the folk ain't gonna be pure. You know why? Because Beelzebub cannot cast out Beelzebub. You— if the preacher full of demons, he can't help you with yours. Oh boy. Okay, I know they scrolling past this now. Yeah, but if your preacher cussing, he can't help you with your cussing. Oh boy, I wish I had some help. Glory to the name of God. If the preacher cheating on his wife He cannot help you with your fornication issues. If the preacher is a man and he sleeps with men, he cannot help you with your homosexual issues. And you know what he does once he realizes it? He starts justifying homosexuality and trying to play the grace card. If your preacher a pedophile, he can't get you delivered from pedophilia. Okay, okay, I'm gonna go home. I know y'all saying, Apostle, okay, it's Christmas time. Really? Yeah, it's— this is why Jesus came. Go to Colossians 1:13. Colossians 1:13. Watch this, this is power. Say, the King is the source of all freedom. Colossians 1:13, it says he has delivered us from the power of darkness. He's freed us from the power of darkness. So you shouldn't have no excuse when you still want to do dark things. If you're saved, it means you ain't been delivered yet from the power, the clutches, the exousia, the authority of that darkness. But when the King shows up, he breaks the power of that. Somebody's, oh, I got Jesus in my heart. You know, my wife's so full of compassion. She always— I will be— we'll see some people that's supposed to be saved, and I'm saying, why are they on there all on Facebook drinking and drunk and partying? They supposed to be saved. My wife's so full— well, she is saved, she just— no, she ain't saved, she need deliverance. They need rescuing. They need freedom. We gotta stop making excuses for people. Glory to God. I'm saved. Why would I be under the influence of spirits and trying to make— oh, I got Jesus in my heart. I got a personal relationship. That's what they like to say. That's the biggest lie that's being told. Because at the end of the day, if you really had a personal relationship The light of Jesus and your relationship with him would drive all that darkness out of your life. You wouldn't know God if he sat in your lap and breathed in your ear. Okay, somebody says Christmas time, away in a manger. No crib for his rest. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Bless his name. He's delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed or translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. That's powerful, man. So when I really get free, he translates me, conveys me. You know what conveyor belt does? You don't have to do nothing. You just sit whatever's on the belt, on the belt, and the belt moves it. So when I sit in Jesus, he conveys me, he translates me into another kingdom. I ain't got to put no effort into that. I just got to surrender and stay on the belt. And I go into a new kingdom of his loving Son. Listen, when you really experience the love of God, he loves you so strong you don't want to disappoint him. You don't want to err to the left nor to the right. Somebody said, 'Posse, you're supposed to be preaching a holiday message. What's going on, man?' Yeah, he, he was born to free us, to put us in a new kingdom so we can live differently, so we can experience the abundance of his kingdom. I don't know about you, I want that. The biggest hindrance to that is sin. Amen. Go to John 8:36, and I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna move on. John 8:36 says, therefore, if the Son makes you free you shall be free indeed. So wait a minute, free indeed, this idea that I don't go back, I'm free and I ain't going back. So in my life, I've been to jail, I don't need to go back to jail once they let me out. Y'all got to talk to me here. I already— I don't know what— I don't know about this recidivism that people be going through. I'm like, at the end of the day, why are you going back to jail and you've been in there? I couldn't wait for them to open the door. Now, I ain't do no prison time. I just got locked up for suspended license. But in the end of the day, that was too long. Okay, I made sure from that day forward my license was good all the time. And then my license wasn't good, y'all ain't got to talk to me. I ain't getting behind the wheel. I'm riding with somebody because at the end of the day, I'm free and I want to go back in there because they strip you of your ability and your your identity to move as yourself. You have to do what somebody else says. You gotta go to sleep when they tell you go to sleep. You gotta eat when they tell you to eat. You gotta get up when they tell— I like my freedom. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. And so the same thing in God. If God has brought you out of sin, you shouldn't want to go back to it. Once, once you have been freed by God and you have experienced the blessings of freedom, you don't want to go back to bondage or the guilt and the shame that sin causes. Somebody said, well, what? You don't know what you're talking about, Apostle, because grace says once I got saved, I'm always saved. Pull it in close to my face. Let me help you today. Once saved, always saved is not biblical. It's deception. You can backslide. You have a free will. You can turn away from God. Watch this. The doctrine of inclusion is a lie. You ain't already saved neither. You gotta get saved. And you are responsible, which brings me to my next point, for maintaining your salvation. Are y'all hearing this? You are responsible to maintain your freedom. Say that with me. Say, I am responsible. To maintain my freedom, because watch this, Jesus is not going to make you stay free. You must choose freedom instead of choosing to go back to the jail, back to Egypt, back to deliverance and wilderness. You got to choose to be free. You got to maintain it. You have a responsibility to live in a way that is shackle-free. Say shackle-free. Remember we said the word release means to release from confinement. Shackles are a type of confinement. It slows down your pace. It keeps you neutralized, stuck. You got to decide you don't want to be stuck anymore and you want the best of everything God has planned for you. Glory to God. Go, go. Okay, let's keep moving. Go to Galatians 5 and verse number 1, and I'm gonna drop down to verse number 13. Say that with me again. I have the responsibility to maintain my freedom. Because, because you got people running around here thinking, I got saved, I'm saved, I can do what I want to, I'm just play this grace card. That's not what grace is about. I talked about that on Thursday. Grace really carries— is a gift that empowers you toward righteousness, that empowers you toward the promise of God. It— watch this— it really empowers you not to live in sin. Not to live in sin and then seek grace every time you sin. Grace limits sinful activity. Oh boy, when you really experience real grace, you don't want to sin because you want to keep going through that godly sorrow. You don't want to keep going through that brokenness because you know every time you sin, you separate yourself from God. Galatians 5, the Bible says, stand fast therefore in the liberty, the freedom— there it is— by which Christ has made us free. So Christ made us free, right? On the cross, his efficacious vicarious of Calvary set us free. Say, I'm free. Glory to God. Freedom, freedom. He did it on the cross. He shed his blood. He rose again. So that we could be free. Now guess what it tells us to do though? It says stand fast in that freedom. Why would he tell us to do that if it was okay to keep going back and forth in sin? Why would this God die if he wants us to continue to live in sin? I know it's Christmas. I feel you, I feel you. Okay, I'm gonna just keep on giving you a little Christmas in between all of this so you'll feel better. Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him, him Christ the Lord. Okay, now God doesn't want you to continue in sin. He was born that you could stand fast in the work of the cross. Well, you could be stable in it, not straddling the fence. Oh God, have mercy. The Bible says in Revelation that you can't be lukewarm. You need to be either hot or cold. The Bible said lukewarm, he'll spew you out of his mouth. I hear that, God. The church is— when you spew something out, that word literally means to vomit. To throw up, to become nauseated. God says, the church makes me sick with this lukewarm self. God said, at least if you decide to be cold, at least you made a decision. But what he's saying, don't play with me. I don't want you to be in the middle of this thing lukewarm. You need to be hot. You get on fire. Stand fast. Somebody say stand fast. Look at the next part of it. It says, and do not be entangled again. Wait a minute, Jada Smith, with your entanglements. That set a standard in that among women that is okay to have an entanglement. Probably the best thing for Will is that they ain't together, because Will really got a heart for God, and I believe he'll get saved outside of that kind of open activity that she lured him into. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. Okay, I'm gonna move, I'm gonna move. Okay, so it's Christmas. What are you doing about it? I know. This is what he came for. He said, don't be entangled again to the yoke of bondage. Women, don't go back to sin and hook up, because somebody said, I'm gonna just get hooked up one, this one little time. I'm gonna do it one time, ain't gonna do it no more, then I'm gonna repent. No, every time you're entangling yourself with bondage. What if you don't make it out? And the fight to get back to— even though God's grace is so sufficient, he forgives you immediately. But if you really love God, it's gonna break something in you. You ain't gonna feel right. So don't do it. He's saying don't be entangled again. Again means no more, never. Somebody said, oh wow, I can't— no, you're saved. There's a different set of principles you live by. So that means if I'm putting difference— come here, Leviticus 10:10— between that which is holy and that which is unholy, and that which is clean and that which is unclean, then there's got to be something different in me. Come here, Apostle Paul. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I know you say, I'm saved, Apostle. Yeah, but what are you saved from? Because if you're still entangled, you haven't become new. He said old things have passed away. You know, passed away has been executed. Old things have been executed. They're dead. You know, y'all, when somebody died, that's what y'all say, they passed away. Okay, your sin, when you come to God, passes away. It ain't passed away if you resurrecting it every night. Okay, you keep calling it back from the dead. Let it stay dead. No good thing comes out of the flesh. So why would you want to continue to operate in the flesh and nothing good can come out of it? You say you want good, you say you want the best, but nothing good can come out of your flesh if you keep operating in it. Somebody say, Apostle, you ain't gonna never fill up this church preaching like this. I don't care, because I'm gonna keep telling the truth until somebody hears it. Because I believe that there's a people that want to serve God. I believe there's a people that purely want to love God. I believe there's a people that really want to walk with God. I believe there's a people that want to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service. And I'm gonna keep preaching it because somebody's gonna hear it. Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus, my God. Drop down verse 13, Galatians 5. It says, for you, brethren, have been called to freedom. Somebody said, oh no, I'm called to the ministry, I'm called to be an apostle. I am called to be a prophet. I'm called to evangelize and go to the nations. I'm called to be a teacher. I teach the word, I don't sweat. I'm called to be a pastor. No, you are appointed to those offices. You are called to freedom. You've been called to live as a free person, free from sin, free from the system of the world. That's what you're called to, because you don't need to walk in none of that if you ain't accepted your call to freedom. Because quite honestly, we got too many preachers that don't live what they preach. Oh boy, I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say it again. We got too many preachers who don't live what they preach. Let me just drop this. I ain't gonna call any name because I'm praying, because my role as an apostle in this region— I told somebody the other night, I was talking to them, they're bringing a conference here, big meeting they're bringing. They asked me to do something on the meeting, and I told them about this territory. I said, you better be very deliberate, you better be very strategic, and you better be very prayerful because This city is something different when it comes to the church world. This city is divided. You have a multiplicity of people who are building kingdoms to themselves. And God showed me— y'all think we don't see some exposures this year? We're gonna see some more in this city next year. I'm prophesying to you, watch what I tell you. God showed me there, and I'm praying for him because I really don't want this to happen. There's one big preacher that pastors one of the largest churches here He's married. You look at him, he appears stable. God showed me this man is a homosexual and he sleeps with children, teenage boys. And so I'm praying and I shot— and I'm binding that thing up because God showed it to me, because the body of Christ cannot stand another one of these things. But I'm telling you right now, they ain't gonna stop because they're not free. They accepted the call. They're charismatic, they speak well, they're articulate, but they have no oil, they have no glory, and they have no real relationship with God that has liberated them from their flesh. I shot a documentary a couple of years ago, and the owner of the business that I was shooting the documentary for told me— I'm really seasoned in my words because I don't want people to connect who he is— but he said to me, he said, listen, he said, man, I was a police officer. He said, we were surveillancing this preacher, this preacher, and I'm talking about big name preachers. He said in this city. We were following them because there was stuff they was doing in the reports of pedophilia. I'm telling you right now, and I didn't want to believe it when he said it, but then I was in prayer. God said, no, that one right there, he doing it for real. And I'm telling you guys, it's not enough to be gifted. You gotta be free, because when you're free, you can help God as a vessel to set others free. That's why you stand up in front of your church and you look out in front of your church and you don't see no changes in your people. Your bank account's getting fat, people still coming, that your church is growing because it looks like you fit, it looks like you can help them. But years people have sat and have not gotten help. Oh boy. He says, I've called you to liberty. Listen to this part: only do not use liberty, freedom— watch this— as an opportunity for the flesh. Some of these folks that's teaching grace, they done took that and made that their opportunity for the flesh. That's how they live. Oh, I got grace, so I can just do— I'm gonna just cuss you out because I got grace. I'm gonna just sleep with this woman because I got— the devil is a liar. We don't use this liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. God have mercy. But through love, watch this, we serve each other. You know what he's saying there? Because in Galatia they were having— they were bewitched, they were having some issues. And Paul says, okay, instead of using this as an opportunity for y'all to be violent and to be confrontational and to do what you want to do, when you see a flaw in another, serve that flaw and help that person through it. See, while I'm preaching, I'm always also thinking about how I can help these people that's in these bondages. But you think this guy with 15,000, 20,000 members, he gonna think I'm beneath him? Because he don't understand the power I flow in, because he has no discernment. But he needs deliverance. So my prayer is, God, open the door. I don't need to preach for him, I just need some time with him. To make him clear, buddy, you're in bondage and you're about to create a mess in the body of Christ if you don't get free. Yeah, TikTok that. Okay, okay, Jesus. Okay, go to Romans 6. I'm almost out of here. Say, I have a responsibility to maintain My freedom. God help us. Jesus Christ. Shannon was praying today. She was praying that this word— I'm telling you, that was a good prayer because this word here is tough. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Romans 6. Romans 6:18. Watch this. And having been set free from sin, you become slaves to righteousness. So when I get saved, this is, this is how I know you ain't really free from sin or born again, because you ain't a slave to righteousness. Because no man can serve two masters. I feel like running. No man can serve Jesus and the devil. No man can serve darkness and light. You can't serve God and mammon. Either you're gonna love the one and hate the other. So if I'm a slave, I can't have but one master. So the question is, who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? Who's your master? And I'm telling you, for some of y'all, the devil's your daddy and you don't even realize it. You sitting there thinking God's your Father and you still a slave to sin? No. When you've been free from sin, the next verse, a part of that verse says you now become a slave. Doulos in Greek, bond servant, which means I do whatever the master says. To righteousness. When you're a slave to righteousness, even when you're tempted You understand? I can't disobey my master. My master is what is right. I— listen, I, I have learned to live my life in this manner because here what I know: temptation ain't going away. I always tell my wife, I said, listen, as long as we're married, you're gonna always see a man that's finer than me. It may not happen much, but you're gonna see that, okay? And when you do, it's okay, because I know you coming home. Are y'all hearing this? I know you're a slave to righteousness. I know you love God and you love me. And I told her, I'm gonna see somebody that's finer than you, but that doesn't mean I'm supposed to touch it. Are y'all hearing this? That doesn't mean I'm supposed to lust after it and entertain it, because at the end of the day, I'm a slave to righteousness. No matter how good it look, I'm going home. No matter what you put in my inbox, I'm deleting it and blocking you. Y'all, I got to talk. You, you'll be amazed. People could see on your page you're a preacher. I post pictures of my wife all the time. I talk about how much I love her. Some of these women don't care. I had one woman send me a message. I know you're married, I see you there with your wife, y'all look happy, but I love that and that makes you more attractive to me, and that just lets me know when I'm not with you, you're at home. What kind of demon are you? I blocked her immediately. I didn't even answer because I don't have time, because I'm a slave to righteousness. Now, if I was this person running around playing the Grace card, I could have been scrolling to a page. Oh yeah, chick look fine, she look a little good, so Man, we can play with this. The devil is a liar. My wife said the devil's a liar and the truth ain't in it. Because yeah, see, I'm gonna get in trouble with God and my wife is violent and I don't want to get beat up. So in the end, yes, she violent. Don't get it twisted. Glory to God. I'm saying we got to become slaves to what's right. January, February is coming up. When it's time to do your taxes, be a slave to what's right. Don't lie on them taxes. You stop it in the name of Jesus. You ain't got no children claiming 5. That stole somebody else's Social Security numbers. Come on, listen, you talking about you not want to be free. Them folk will come get you for real. So I need you to be a slave to righteousness. Glory to God. He said— now let me keep reading. He said, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God— so not only am I a slave to do what's right, but if I'm free from sin, I'm also a slave to God. He's my master. He said, you have your fruit fruit. Here we go, to holiness. Because somebody been watching this saying, oh, Apostle, God ain't requiring all that holiness you talking about. Your fruit is to holiness. Because guess what? There are people who don't go to church, they're looking inside the house trying to see what's going on in the house. And if you look like them They not coming to Jesus because I don't need me doing that. They doing the same stuff we doing. Even on social media, you got to be careful how you post and you say you saved. You say, but you posting demonic crap. Let me check. I got convicted of something yesterday. Let me just confess to you, I posted something yesterday And the Holy— after I posted the whole— I— my TikTok, man, I had never seen people like my TikTok videos that fast. And Holy Spirit said, take that down, that's not of me. And I thought it was what people need to see. He said, now if you want to say that when you're preaching, you say it, but don't post that because it looks like you're against those men. I posted a video of Mike Todd and, uh, and Pastor Morris, who Mike Todd was mimicking. So Mike Todd, they were bouncing back and forth. Mike Todd was at his church, Morris at his church. Mike Todd was saying everything word for word, the illustration, everything, just like Pastor Morris. I mean, Mike Todd was a parrot, just saying everything he said. And people like that because they want to come against preachers because they say, oh, he— but my point, when I wrote in the caption, if you pray, God will speak to you, you ain't got to mimic nobody else. But God said, because it looks like you're an advocate to be against people who do what you do. So I took it down on Facebook, I took it down on TikTok. The reality is I'm a slave to God. I probably— my TikTok probably would have went viral because it— because I had like 400 people like it in like 7 minutes. Are y'all hearing this? So God said, no, take that down. I'm a slave to what's right. The Holy Spirit looked at the big picture and said, you don't want that to be a reflection on you, because when sinners look at that, all they see is preachers fighting. Are y'all hearing this? So you gotta be careful of what you say, what you post. You, you, you've been saved all week, posting scripture. As soon as somebody's crossed you, here you go posting and going off and got a beef with somebody on Facebook. And your sinner friends say, oh, I thought they was all about Jesus. They going in. Then some folk got the nerve to go live. Listen, everything people don't need to see— if it's something that will offend people that you're doing and you're saved, if it's something that will weaken your testimony, don't post it. Y'all going to these Christmas parties around other people drinking, be careful, because you posting stuff, they're gonna say you were drinking. Y'all ain't gonna talk— you live in there, they're gonna say, oh, they was in the party party. 'Cause they're looking in the house. Your fruit is the holiness. Your fruit is not to how good you could preach, how good you could sing. It's the holiness. I'm almost done, y'all. Somebody say, I wish you get through for real. Glory to God. It's just the nature of a pastor. Apostles. When Pastor Jeffrey get here next month, y'all get some pastor preaching. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Because I'm gonna be gone being an apostle sometime, so he'll be here, he'll be able to preach. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. I need you to understand something: God is looking for light in the world. He's looking for people that will represent him as he is, not these people that want to change him to suit what they want to do. Listen, if you got a struggle, stop trying to change God's perspective of it. God's only perspective of your struggle is to help you with it, not to change what he thinks about the sin to accommodate you. Oh boy, y'all don't believe people doing that. You got people out here talking about they want to change the Bible. They said we need a new canon, we need to revisit the Bible, rewrite it. The Bible is truth. The Bible is the most powerful book on the earth. And people that say that have not had a real encounter with this word. They've only encountered it through religion. And through academia. But if you really had an encounter with the living word, you will never make a statement like that. Glory to God. Your fruit is the holiness. And the end— so you want the fruit to be in the end. Watch this— everlasting life. So if you're not a slave, a righteous slave of God— wait a minute, inclusionists, people that play the grace card— you could still go to hell. Oh boy, oh boy. If you got— you're gonna, you're gonna stand before him, and when you stand before him, the book is gonna be open and you're gonna be judged for your sin. Your fruit better be found to holiness, because if you've lived in sin You cannot enter the kingdom of God. You cannot have eternal life. Watch this. I want eternity while I'm on earth, so I'm going to live holy so heaven can superimpose itself on my life here. All right, Sharia. Glory to God. I'm talking to Felicia. Glory to God. Listen, you got to understand that your life should be one that's filled with freedom. Last scripture and we out of here. Go to Luke 4:17. Say, he was born to release. What a Christmas message, my God. Oh, come, oh Ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Hey, I'm trying to keep you in the holiday spirit, but this really is the holiday spirit right here, this word. Watch this. So Jesus— I'm gonna catch you up to where this is. Jesus was born, he lived 30 years, after his birth, and then he went in the temple— watch this— to take the role of the Messiah. Glory to God. And when he walked in the temple, there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. So first of all, we need prophecy. Prophecy brings liberty. Prophecy brings freedom. Prophets are important. If you're in a church that don't celebrate the office of a prophet, you're in the wrong church, because prophets are necessary. Prophets have their ear to God's mouth. Prophets can see what God is saying and articulate it in words that you can understand, and they edify and catapult you into your future. Prophets are necessary. And watch this, it's important that when the prophet speaks, you align yourself with what the prophet is saying as if God said it, and you move in obedience. Because prophetic words bring liberty. Like, like that word the Holy Spirit released to us before I started preaching about execution. That's real, man. If we execute, God said we will experience what we never experienced. If we get the discipline of execution, to take what we learn and apply it, to not just be a hearer but be a doer— if we actually do that, we'll see what we never saw. Are y'all here? He said he got the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he opened the book— say, open the book. Can I encourage some people in this room and that's watching me live? Don't let a week go by that you don't open the book. Oh my God, people live their lives. This is most— this— the Bible is the most important book on earth. You shouldn't let a day go by that you don't open the book. Oh boy, you shouldn't wait to Sunday to Sunday. There are some people that don't read their Bible to Sunday. Oh, just pull it in close because all you do is work and scroll. You have no dedicated deliberate study time. But God says part of your execution into this next year— I hear you, Father— you got to open the book. Book instead of pressing that blue F and that TikTok symbol. Y'all ain't got to say— and that Instagram symbol and that YouTube symbol. Check your screen time. How much time this year did you spend on social media versus your YouVersion app versus your Bible app? And really I start missing this week paper Bible because I done got so accustomed to electronic, but I started missing the pages. So I picked up my Bible. It's just some power in holding the book, man. We had respect growing up for the book, man. We came in the house, Grandma had a big old coffee table Bible. Bible big as the whole table. It was always open to a passage. But now you're going some folk house, they don't cover that Bible up with jets and ebony. They got everything else on the Bible because they don't open the book no more. And then when it's time to go to church, they can't even find their Bible. Talking to the children, fussing at the children. Jumbo, where did you move my Bible? Junebug ain't moved that Bible. You— it's in the car because you ain't take it out when you got out of church last week. Somebody shout, open the book! Glory to God! Because we open up everything else. And watch this: faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So how you gonna have faith and you ain't opening the book? Open the book and read it out loud so you can hear it. It ain't just the preacher preaching. You read it, you're gonna get some faith if you read it out loud. Open the book. And he found the place where it's written. Here we go. And he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. Oh boy, let me, let me just say this right here. You cannot be anointed without the Spirit of God. There are some people that are saying, I'm anointed, I'm anointed, like a robot. I'm anointed, I'm anointed. No, if you ain't got the Spirit of God and you ain't been free from sin— because remember, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty— there's no anointing. Okay, all right, all right. Because we sometimes, we put the cart before the horse. Sometimes what we view as gifting, we call it anointed. Somebody— Tanya is anointed to sing. Felicia is anointed. They have anointings in their voice. They can get up on the wrong side of the bed and sing with the anointing, with no music, with none of that. They are anointed. I feel the anointing when they sing. There are other singers that sing. My son Ben, anointed to sing. We could be in the car riding, the boy start humming, and I start crying because there's an anointing. And part of that is my intimate attachment to him as my son and the prayers I prayed over him to become a worshiper when he was a baby. But he's anointed to sing. But we'll hear somebody sing and they sound good, and the first thing we'll do, we'll say, oh, they was anointed. Now child, they was just gifted. They weren't anointed because the anointing removes burdens. There ain't been a time I've came to church and Tanya or Felicia's song, and I'll be dealing with something, and after they got through, it was gone. Because I tapped into what they were doing. Glory! I tapped into the anointing on their life because the anointing destroys yokes and it removes burdens. Hallelujah! So Jesus said, you have anointed me to preach. Now I learned how to preach. Now I listen to somebody else's sermon and preach what they preach. But no, the anointing to preach shifts things. The anointing to preach changes lives. It brings transformation. And can I tell you something? There's a time for preaching and there's a time for teaching. Can I tell you something? Doctrine has to be taught, but the gospel should be preached. Jesus preached the gospel. Glory to God. And I'm telling you, when there's anointed preaching, things change. People change. And that's why our goal is to get people under the anointing of anointed preaching in an anointed church and anointed worship so their life can be changed. We don't want people in here just because we don't like being in here just— we want people in here because we want people to experience what we experience. We want people to tap into the God we know because that's what they need. Because most people are— glory to God— ah, all they get is hype and entertainment with no oil, with no change. And preach the gospel to the poor. Wait a minute, that's not just destitute of money, but that's also poor in spirit. People that lack fullness of God, we got to preach this thing to them, and we do it through the anointing, and they will change. Watch this. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. So when people come in your presence, if you free, they shouldn't leave worse than they came. Oh God, have mercy. How you saved and when people in your presence they don't feel joy? Their heart is not healed when they come in your presence because you got the healer inside of you. Hit this place, boy, to preach deliverance to the captives. So them that are bound and need deliverance, we got to get them out of Egypt. The anointing gets them out of Pharaoh's hands. Are y'all hearing this? Jesus says, I'm here to deliver people who are bound. Not so we stay the same. And the recovering of sight to the blind, both naturally and spiritually. I hear that, God. We're going to make history in this room, in this very room right here. We'll see blinded eyes opened, not just spiritually but naturally. There are people who will walk in this building who cannot see. They will leave with their sight 20/20. Because we are anointed to recover sight to the blind. We're anointed to show people who are blind spiritually how to see God in a different light, to set at liberty, freedom, them that are bruised. Somebody said, well, Apostle, you need to get me free right now because you done bruised me today. Now I Yeah, talk to your daddy. I ain't did nothing. But if you're bruised, you can be free right now. You can be whole right now. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now watch this. And he closed the book. Hallelujah. Look, look at all happening between opening and closing. When you open the book, in between open and close the book, some folks ought to get changed. Changed. So you don't need to close the book until you start seeing manifestation of those results in your life. Blind eyes open and captives being made free. Glory to God! Brokenhearted people being healed. And he closed the book and he gave it to the minister and sat down. Listen, with some things You got to close the book. Don't close the Bible, but there's some books you got to close. There's some chapters in your life you got to close. And I'm closing with this, and you got to sit down and let God do his job. You got your hands in it too much, and God says take your hands out of it. Close the book. You prayed, you fasted, You believe God. Close the book. Stop stressing yourself out over them. Sit down, close the book. Maybe you've been in God's way all this time with your children, with your finances. Close the book. You did all you can. Now let God do what you can't. Close the book. Stop beating yourself up. Over what you don't have and trust him. Close the book and sit down. Close the book and trust him to set you free, because he came to release you from sin. He came to release you from debt. God, I feel that there's an anointing being released even while I'm talking. For those of you here, those of you watching, that God wants to remove the burden of debt off your life. He came to release you. Debt is a type of confinement. The borrower is slave to the lender. I trust God in 2025 that all of my debt will be alleviated. My cars, my house, totally free in the name of Jesus. I believe that for you. Your credit card debt, I command it to dissolve in the name of Jesus. He came to free you. Oh, shabba bata. You got to receive it. Close the book and sit down and just let him do what he does. He came to free your children. Stop worrying about them and will they get saved. And when they come to God, God says yes. I'm believing that 2025 will be the year of harvest, that our grown children will come to Jesus, that our siblings will come to Jesus. I believe God for my siblings. I believe God for my children. That Jesus will be their portion. In the name of Jesus, he came to release you from the bondage and the slave ship of labor and toil. Do you know toil is under the curse? Labor is under the curse. What you should be doing is working, not laboring. Labor is transactional. You, you change, you exchange your body and your mind for resources. Work is anything that is exerted mentally, physically, spiritually that is a means to a permanent end. God wants to eliminate work. He says go into the vineyard, the marketplace, going to where you you're supposed to be and work and what's right, I'll pay. I pray y'all got something out of this today. Step into the new year with power, with purpose, and with prophecy. The word Sturgis, er, you are, which means literally to turn on. So your gift is really off until you encounter an apostle. The apostle has to flip the switch. Stop making this my goal and my go-to. Let God raise you up in the marketplaces. Let God raise you up in government. Let God raise you up in the school system. As perverted as these school systems are now, they need a voice from the Joyfully-yam. Church invites you to New Year's 2025 Revival Fire for powerful and dynamic encounters that will transform your life. Mark your calendars now, from January 2nd to January 5th. Immerse yourself in dynamic worship, prophetic teaching, and heavenly encounters. Come with expectation and receive personal prophecy to start your year with divine navigation and direction. Hear what God has to say about your purpose and destiny for 2025. Seating is limited, so RSVP today. By texting 2025 to the phone number 470-777-8279 to reserve your VIP seat today. This is your moment. Nothing. Don't worry about what's in the bank. Don't worry about who's with you. He says step out. And start creating. He's going to supply every need because of your heart.