😍Virtual Worship 8_9_2020 | How Lovely is His Church Part 3: Assurance | Dr Mike Woods Sr.

Well, praise the Lord, everybody. Welcome to our virtual worship experience. Welcome to Rhoda Church. My name is Dr. Mike Woods, and I'm super excited that you are here with me on today. Listen, there is a word from the Lord, and I'm gonna share with you just what thus saith the Lord on today. But before we do, we're gonna share just a few things off the top. The first thing we're gonna do, like we always do each and every week, we're gonna start off with the word of God and read our scripture for today's service. And you can find that in Psalms chapter 9, verses 1 through 4. Let's read it. The scripture declares, I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. My enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before you, for you have upheld my right and my cause, sitting enthroned as the righteous judge. Listen, in times like these, I don't care what it looks like, guys, I want to encourage you to give give thanks to the Lord. He's a good God, he's a great God, and his wonderful deeds are eternal. They never run out. Glory to the name of God. So I challenge you right now today to just begin to praise God and thank him for his goodness. You know, if it had not been for the Lord that was on our side, where would we be? Let's pray, and glory to God, we're going to continue on in our service today. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this day that you made. And Father, I rejoice. Thank you, Jesus, and I am glad in it. Thank you for your anointing that destroys every yoke and removes every burden. God, I give you praise and glory for every person listening now. I give you thanks, Lord, that your wonderful deeds, even as we just read, will be manifested in their lives. God, Father, your credit is good with us, so we thank you in advance. Thank you, God, for what you're getting ready to do. We thank you in advance for healing. We thank you in advance for deliverance. We thank you in advance for life in the midst of a coronavirus, a pandemic in our country. We thank you for the victory in our nation. We thank you that coronavirus is being pulverized right now in our world by the blood of Jesus. And Father, we plead the blood against the enemy now. And we decree and declare that we are better than we've ever been, and we thank you for it now. We give you thanks, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Would you do me a favor and just right where you are clap those hands and give God praise? Glory to God. I dare you, take about 60 seconds and give God your best Praise right there. Come on, right where you are, clap your hands and say, thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your grace. Hallelujah. We thank you for your favor. Oh, come on, right where you are. We give you glory and we say thank you, God. We thank you for your loving kindness. We thank you for your tender mercy, God. We praise you now, God, for you are the true God, and we give you all the glory, all of the honor, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah! Glory to God! He's worthy to be praised, y'all. Hallelujah! He's worthy to be praised, and he's worthy to be praised with all of our heart. Glory to God. I'm so glad to be here today. Glory to God. I'm excited. I was glad when they said unto me, glory to the name of God, let us go to the house of God. And you know what, y'all already know, I cannot wait to get back into the house of God. I just want to give you, praise the Lord, a few announcements this morning concerning some things that are going on in and around Roddell Church. Glory to God! Oh, I'm excited, I'm excited, I'm excited because in the month of September— as a matter of fact, Friday, September 11th, 2020 will be our first day back into the church building. And you know what? I am super excited. We are con— currently undergoing some construction and some remodeling for our church, and we're working diligently to get everything completed by this date, September 11th, so we can launch back in the new building. Listen, I'm excited, man. You know, September 11th through— hallelujah— Sunday, September 13th, we're going to have a weekend filled with power and glory and anointing. Oh my God, I'm super amped. I'm super amped. We're calling this meeting, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we're calling it Emergence. Yeah, Emergence, bounce back better. We're gonna come back better than we ever been from, oh my God, this crisis the country has been experiencing. So I want you to go ahead right now, put those dates down, September 11th, 12th, and 13th. And then I want you to be on the lookout for information, okay, on how you need to get involved with these services. Listen, registration will be required. It will be free, but it will be required. Let me tell you why. We need every person to pre-register and fill out the questionnaire. We want everybody to be safe. When you show up at the church, your temperature will be taken. Glory to God. At the door, we'll distribute a mask to you. Glory to the name of God. And we're going to make sure that every person coming in the building is safe. Listen, we've already decreed by the power and the blood of Jesus Christ that our church is a COVID-free zone. It is a cancer-free zone. It is a diabetes-free zone. Listen, that means if you have any sickness in your body, the glory of God yet rests in that facility. Let me tell you something, if you come in with anything, you're gonna be healed. If you do not have it when you enter our facility, you'll never get it. This is our faith, this is our trust, and this, my friends, is what we believe. So listen, we want you to keep those dates in mind: September 11th through September 13th. 5 powerful services. Friday night, then Saturday at 12 noon, Saturday evening— glory to the name of God— at 6 o'clock, Sunday morning— praise the name of God— at 10 o'clock AM, and then closing it out on Sunday night at 6 o'clock PM. Be on the lookout in this week for all of the details pertaining to this meeting. You want to register, seating is limited, so you want to get registered and you want to make sure you can reserve your spot. It's going to be powerful. We're going to celebrate and the glory of God is going to meet us there, and we're going to emerge and we're going to bounce back better than we've ever been. We got some of the most anointed apostles in this country coming to share with us. I'm excited. I want you to get excited and come and make sure you're in the house. It's gonna be important that every member of Roddell Church is there, that all of our partners, all of our friends, wherever you are, get to Atlanta and come and experience the glory of God with us, because we're about to emerge. And let me tell you something, the— and I'm not talking about Roddell Church, I'm talking about the body of Christ. This is the time for emergence, and when we bounce back, we're gonna bounce back better than we've ever, ever been. I hope I can see you. Glory to the name of God. September 11th through the 13th is going to be awesome. Secondly, this morning I want to challenge you guys. This is how you keep up with everything we're doing. Follow us on social media. Please guys, follow us on Twitter @RhodaChurch. Follow us, praise God, on Instagram @RhodaChurch. Follow us on Facebook at Roddell Church 1. Follow us, praise the name of God, hallelujah, on every social media outlet out there at Roddell Church. And really, it's simple. You can go to roddellchurch.com and you can follow all of our pages right from our website. Isn't that awesome? So listen, make sure you're following us on social media. And I want to invite you to follow me personally on Instagram @apostlemike, on Facebook @drmikewoodsjr. Follow us so you can catch all of the things that we do on a day-to-day basis, and you can keep up with all of the things that are happening in and around our church. Praise God. Listen, I want you also— glory to the name of God— so you can be notified every single time we live. We've launched a new program Monday through Friday that we run at 12 noon daily. It's called The Apostle's Table. We need the audience to grow. We need it to grow on Facebook. We need it to grow on YouTube. So if you're watching me right now, please by all means make sure you text the word RADA TV to 31996. 31996, and you're going to get information every time we go live on how to watch us and how to follow us. Praise God. So listen, with that said, we're getting one step closer to getting this word out. I'm super amped about this word, man. But before we do, I want us to receive our tithe and our offering. It's time to give. Praise God. I want to read a scripture to you. Praise the name of God. From Malachi, uh, it's a scripture you all have heard quoted, but I want to read it today as we prepare our hearts to give. Glory to God. Malachi, Malachi 3, is the last book in the Old Testament. Glory to God. Malachi 3, and I want to read I'm gonna start, praise God, at verse number 8. It says, will a mere mortal rob God? Hear this, yet you rob me, but you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings. Verse 9, you are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are robbing me. Verse 10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there be— oh my God— that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, said the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven. Lord, I love that language. And pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to restore it. Verse 11: I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, says the Lord Almighty. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land. Says the Lord Almighty. Wow, listen to me guys, let me tell you something. Tithing and giving is the way we get heaven to respond. It's, it's God's exchange system between heaven and earth. So I want to challenge you this morning before we get in the word to prepare your tithe tonight to prepare your offering. Glory to God. And give unto the Lord. Glory to the name of God. The Bible said he'll rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that as soon as you get something, you won't lose it, that you'll have increase and you'll continue to grow and grow and grow and grow. Listen, that's God's plan, that's God's will for your life. So the ways to give are real simple at Rhoda Church. Number one, you could give via Cash App. It's the most convenient way to give right now during this pandemic. You give via Cash App straight from your telephone. The money goes from your phone to the Rhoda Church account. Glory to God. And you are helping us do the things that God has called us to do as a church in the earth when you do that. So Cash App. Rada Church, R-A-D-A-H C-H-U-R-C-H, is on the screen. Secondly, you can give at our website, radachurch.com/donate. I'll say it again, radachurch.com/donate. And then thirdly, you can give via text. Simply text the words RADA give to the shortcode 31996. All the information is on the screen. Please, ladies and gentlemen, prepare your tithe, give your offering, and I promise you, praise God, you are going to be blessed just like the scripture we just read in Malachi. Don't live under the curse because you draw back. The Bible said God takes no pleasure in those who will draw back. He loves the tither. Praise God. As you're preparing your giving, glory to God, let me pray with you right now. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for the opportunity to give today. I praise you for every gift and every giver. Give it back to them 1,000 times more than it is right now. I thank you, God, that no weapon formed against them can prosper. I thank you, God, that they are overcomers in Jesus' name. And I decree and declare, dear God, that as they sow their seed today, that they will be blessed. Oh my God, in their going and in their coming. And we praise you for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen. Glory to God. Well, listen, while you're preparing your hearts to give, glory to the name of God, we're going to worship a little. And listen, and right after the worship, I'm going to come back and we're going to share the word of the living God.

<LYRICS>My heart is yours completely. My heart is yours totally. You love with no reservation. You're not looking for perfection.</LYRICS> There's no need in me pretending. I'll give you everything. I'll give you everything. You deserve my full attention. Nothing less than my devotion. Speak to me and I will listen. I'll give you everything. I'll give you everything. Lift it up. Oh, oh, you can have my heart. Yes, you can have my heart. Oh, oh, oh. You can have my heart. You can have my heart. Be the Lord of my emotions. Set me free from selfish motives. Search me till there's nothing hidden, and I'll give you Everything. Yes, I'll give you everything. Sing. You can have my heart. You can have my heart. I belong to you. You can, you can have my heart. Every part. Have my heart. Sing it again. You can have my heart. It belongs to you anyway. My heart. Yeah. You can have my heart. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Have my heart. My heart is yours forever. Yes, it is. My heart is yours forever. Yes, it is. My heart is yours forever. My heart, my mind, my soul. My heart is yours forever. My emotions are yours, yeah. My heart is yours forever. All my dreams are yours, yeah. My heart is yours forever. All of my plans are yours. My heart is yours forever. Yeah, yeah. If you want my heart, you got it. Oh, you got it, you got it. If you want my heart, you got it, you got it. Yeah, you got it. If you want my —my heart? You got it! You got it! If you want my heart... —you've got it! Hey hey ho!...if you want my heart... —Hey yeah yo!...you got it! Hey heyo!...hey, if you wanna hear me sing this song again today at home or wherever else I'm gonna post that video on YouTube for all to see so please do check out our channel there too. So we're going through some of these songs from "If You Want My Heart." And then after those 2 weeks when they come around next week Friday night, Sunday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday evening, Thursday midnight, Saturday noonday... We'll be back here doing more worship together live right now online because Jesus loves us guys. Amen?! He wants your yes! Yes Lord God! Come forth Holy Spirit!

Hallelujah!

<LYRICS>If you want my You got it, you got it. You can have my heart. Oh yeah, you can have my heart. You can have my heart. You can, you can, you can have my heart. Say whoa, whoa. You care, I belong to you, I belong to you. You care, I belong to you. I belong to you, every part of my heart. I belong to you, nothing missing. I belong to you, nothing hidden. I belong to you. Yes, I belong. I cry out, Abba, Abba, Abba. I belong to you. I belong to you. My heart is yours, Lord. My heart is yours forever. My heart is yours. My heart is yours forever. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. My heart is yours forever. Even the parts I don't like. My heart is yours forever. Even the parts I try to hide. My heart Every room, every room belongs to you. Come, man, consume every room. It all belongs to you. It all belongs to you. Come, man, consume every room. It all belongs to you. It all belongs to you. Oh yeah, come and consume every rule. It all belongs to you. Yeah, come and consume every rule. All belongs to you. All belongs to you. All belongs to you. When you call me I will respond! When you call me I will respond! Yeah— when you call me I will respond! You'll be my Lord? If you call me I will respond! Oh yeah... oh yes God we want to hear from ya'ahh! Yes Jesus come on let's sing it out together now! Hallelujah hallelujah hey-hey-ho ho ha ah ooh whoa woop woo woooowwwoooowwwwww Oh! Oh! With no competition— With no distractions. You can't— no competition. With no distractions. You can't— no competition. No distraction ever. You can have my heart. Yeah, have my heart. You can have my heart. Have my heart. If you want my heart? You got it! Yeah yeah if you— If you wanna break me down to pieces... Want my yes?! Yes!!! You gotta have it! Oh oh ho hah ha ah haha! You gotta have it! Ahaha! Hahaha! Ha! You got it! You got time for that!? I don't know what y'all talking about up there but we're gonna get this done today! You got it!

Yup yup! You got it!

You got it! Yep yep! You got it! If you want my plans, you got them, you got 'em, you got— if you want my dreams, you got it, you got it! There's nothing I withhold from you, you got it, yeah, you got it, yeah, yeah, there's nothing I withhold from you, you got it, you got it, you got There's nothing I withhold from you! You got it— yeah, you got it— yes, you got it! There's nothing I withhold from you! You got it here now—you've gotta ya-you got it there's nothin' that we hold from me! You got it, you got it, you got it! Nothing to behold for your God... Yes, present your bodies, living sacrifices, holy and acceptable. It's our reasonable service, it's the least we can do. Give our hearts to you, it's the least we can do. Give our lives to One more time. Whoa!

Well, praise God! Hallelujah! Yeah, if you want my heart, glory to God, you got it. Glory to the name of God. You ought to lift your hands to Jesus right now and just tell him, if you want my heart, you got it. Glory to the name of God. Well, it's preaching time, and I'm super excited to share the word of the living God with you today. Listen, there's a word from the Lord. I don't want you to leave. Glory to God. I want you to say this with me as we begin to declare the word. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, say, touch my mind. My head to discern your word. Touch my ears to receive your word. Touch my mouth to speak your word. I say, God, touch my heart to live your word. And say, Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe your word is true. So right now I receive it by faith in the name of Jesus, and I declare after this word I will never be the same again. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, glory to God, it's preacher time, and I'm super excited again to share the word of the Lord with you today. You know, I started teaching a series a couple of weeks ago entitled How Lovely Is His Church. Of course, uh, we're not going to teach that again, praise God. All right, and, uh, but what we do know, praise the Lord, is that the church indeed is lovely. And I want to just review a few of the main points that we shared over the last couple of weeks, but please, all of the messages are on YouTube, they're on our website. You could go and watch those messages so that you can kind of plug into the flow that we're going in with this. Listen, the church is necessary, and you got all kind of stuff going on that really is a ploy of the enemy to drive us out of the church so that the church does not have the significance it once had. But I'm here to tell you, devil, Hallelujah! The church is not only gonna be as significant as it was, but the church is getting ready to emerge from this situation better than it's ever been before. I'm telling you right now, we're coming back and we're gonna be better than ever. Glory to God! Hallelujah. Listen, you know, you got lobbyists lobbying that during the pandemic you cannot sing during worship because they're saying it'll spread the virus. And this— God commanded us to praise the Lord in song. Listen, you got lobbyists lobbying to keep the church doors closed. Inevitably, that is ridiculous. They want to take the total religious right of humans to worship God eternally. I mean, they want to do away with it totally. You got some crazy atheists that have— are taking advantage of this time to completely destroy the church. So as I began teaching this, I wanted to really remind us of how amiable, how lovely the church really is. The, the foundational text for this series, glory to God, is Psalm 84, where David talks about how miable are your tabernacles, or how lovely or worthy of love are thy tabernacles, O Lord. And I start sharing out of this text. One, I talked about how COVID has affected the church. One, it has created fear. It has created stress. It has caused the deliberate deprivation of corporate assembly as commanded of us in Hebrews 10:25. Again, I'm not going to teach this again. Secondly, I gave you— I gave you in the first message 4 benefits of corporate worship. The first was awakening. We talked about awakening last week and divine disruption, how God's trying to wake us up so we can emerge better. The second was assurance. The third was advancement, and the fourth was alignment with leadership. So what I'm doing through this series, I'm going back through those four necessities for corporate worship and teaching them all individually. So last week again, we talked about divine disruption and awakening and how God has had to disrupt the church so that we can be awakened, so we can awaken the world and get their focus back on God. Because I'm telling you right now, their focus really is not on God. Are you, are you hearing me? That their focus is more on themselves than it is God. And most people are— I'm talking about believers now— most believers are eating this up, this right here, having to watch me teach, having to watch their pastor teach, not having to get up and put on clothes and go to the church and worship God and make the sacrifice. Oh my God, to travel from their house to the church You know, at the end of the day, they're taking advantage of this, and most people are not even watching this at the time allotted. They're watching it in convenience. But God says, I need to wake the church up to understand just how powerful they really are. So God brought a divine disruption, and I read to you last week out of 2 Chronicles 15:3 that he sent the disruption because the earth has been without number one, according to the text last week, 2 Chronicles 15:3, a teaching priest, without two— watch this— a true God. They don't know the true God. Hallelujah. And kingdom law. And again, I'm not going to teach these again, but I need you to understand, we got to have those three entities. We got to have the true God. The earth cannot survive without the true God, not religion, but relationship with the true and living God, where our life is governed under the premise of God and, and the tenets of his word. But when you're building something around a false premise, listen to me, you're going to always arise with erroneous ways of doing things like polygamy and homosexuality and lesbianism. When you start declaring that these things are right when the Bible clearly says they're wrong, okay? When you start declaring there is no hell when the Bible clearly says there is a hell. Listen, at the end of the day, when you're rooted in the premise that you have not had a real encounter— see, anybody that's running around teaching and talking that foolishness is because they have not had a real encounter with God. They've been religious, they've been imitating, they've been faking the folk. Because if you were once preaching this and now all of a sudden you're trying to change the word of God because you don't know the true God, and now you're teaching that homosexuality and two men can get married, you're teaching it's okay for two lesbians to get married You're teaching— glory to the name of God, oh Jesus— that there is no hell. It's because your premise is not rooted in relationship with the true and living God. Ah, but I'm here to tell you today that we're getting ready to emerge, and the world's gonna know God for real, not out of religion. We gotta emerge better church than we've been. Not religious. Hopefully to God, please God, I hope, please Jesus, that you've been using this time. Are y'all hearing me? That you've been using this time that you have been allotted to get to know God more. Get to know the people you love more. Oh my God, I have— you know what, through this pandemic, I've had— I have fallen in love with the Lord Jesus Christ over and over again. And listen, it gets better and better. The old mother used to say, gooder and gooder every single day. Are you hearing me? Ah, glory to God. So tonight I want to talk about this second point, assurance. Okay, I'm gonna tell you why. Oh my God, because on Sunday you got 60% plus of our nation that rise up early, ladies and gentlemen, and post-pre-COVID and will go to the church. That was a big confirmation to the world that somebody believes in God. And secondly, it was assurance to you and I that we were not the only people who believe this. We have a large number, astronomical number, of human beings who believe in God. And when we come together into church, it is assurance that we pull from each other through our worshiping together, through our testimonies to one another. Oh my God, through the preaching of assurance through the word that God is God. Oh my God. So today I want to talk about assurance in these terms. I want to talk about deploying diamonds. That's why I got diamonds behind me today. Glory to God. I want to talk about deploying diamonds. Praise God. Because I believe what the world needs— we got to bounce back better. We got to give the world something they never received from the church. We got to tap them into a glory that Azusa didn't give them back in the 1900s. We gotta tap them into a glory that Pentecost did not give the world. We must release something that is a sign and a confirmation that the God we serve is real and he is progressive. God always does something better than what he did before. And so today I want to talk about the diamond that God wants to produce in the world that will give the world something they never had. So I want to talk about deploying diamonds today, and we got two texts I want to infer upon each other, one old, one new. I want to run an inference on both to build this message today. I dare you touch yourself and say, I am a diamond. Glory to God. Watch yourself now, but I want you to say it. Say, I am. Hallelujah. A diamond. Glory to God. Come on, say it again. Say, I am a diamond. Whoa, my God. I, I, listen, that's a powerful statement, and you may not understand what you just said, but by the time I'm done, you will. Let's look first at Isaiah 48, verse number 10. You'll find these words. The Bible says, behold, I have refined thee but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah! Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. We'll come back to that. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 1 and verse number 8. Here's what it says. It says, for we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of the trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength, insomuch that we despaired— hear this— even to life. Hallelujah. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. Are y'all hearing me? So now, if you take a look at your screen, what you see on your screen right now is a coal mine. A coal miner who is holding a piece of coal that, glory to the name of God, is used in the processing of a diamond. What you're looking at, ladies and gentlemen, is the beginning of a process. Coal is a very common thing, okay? And I need you to understand that coal was used in the scripture as well. According to Leviticus 16, verses 11 and 12, the Bible says, and Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself. Hear me, glory to God. And his— and for his house. And shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself. Verse 12: And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beat small, and bring it within the veil. Just a piece of coal, okay? Just what the man on the screen is holding. It's made of carbon, oxygen, sulfur, and a few other things. Just listen to me, a piece of coal. But it's extremely useful. Coal can be used to make oil, it's used for dyes, it's used for the making of asphalt, gas, ammonia, and so many other uses by coal. Now hear me, guys, all coal, however, is not created equal. Some coal, through God in his infinite wisdom— because he's the true God— he mysteriously chose for the specific task— watch this— of making a diamond. This is just some coal in particular. So what in the world is God doing? So God takes this coal that the coal miner is holding in the photo again, and he takes this material, compresses it in the ground, and he causes this particular coal to be under intensive heat Heavy heat, heavy pressure. And after that piece of coal goes through the fire for hours, days, weeks, months, years, and decades— hear this— it becomes what you see the coal miner holding in his hand. Listen, the ingredients in this piece of coal you're looking at, hear me, And the ingredients in a diamond are the same. I'm gonna say it again. The ingredients in the coal and the ingredients in a diamond are the same. There's only one difference between a piece of coal and what you're looking at on the screen right now is my wife's engagement ring. Actually, when I proposed to her, this is the day I proposed, I gave her this ring. That ring is 5 3/4 carats of solitaire diamond. It appraises for like $29,000. Let me, let me help you. The coal, once again, that the coal miner was holding is only worth about $152. $1,000. But that diamond you're looking at started off as a piece of coal, probably much smaller than that piece he's holding. But it's something about how the process happened that makes this— oh my God— such a powerful way to look at deploying a diamond. Just a piece of coal. And you may feel like, hey, my life doesn't have that much significance. Glory to God. You may feel like I'm in a crisis and I may never come out of this process. I'm under pressure, I'm in the heat. Let me give you a few things about crisis I want to share with you, and then we're going to get right in this and I'm going to be done. Don't curse your crisis. Don't curse this pandemic. I told you last week it was a divine disruption. Don't curse what you're going through. Many of you are distraught right now because they took back that $600 that you were making extra over unemployment. Some people never made that much money in their life. Some people were maxing out the unemployment at $395, getting $600 on top, almost $1,000 a week, $4,000 a month. Some people never made that. After 3 months, you will make— I pray to God you did the right thing. Listen, but let me tell you something. Let me, let me tell you something. You don't panic because you lost that $600. Listen, you need to make some decisions to bounce back better. Don't curse the crisis. Emerge from the crisis and make something happen. Let me give you 4 reasons why you shouldn't curse your crisis. Number 1, don't curse your crisis because it may just take you where you want to go. I'll say it again, don't curse your crisis. It may take you where you want to go. Are you hearing me? See, the crisis many times is preparing you under pressure to— watch this— release something that you could not have released in the future except you went through the season of pressure. The word pressure is two words: press and uray. It means to push or to apply tightness. Ure is a French word which means to extract. So God would take us through pressure, push on us to extract something out of us. There's something in you that has never been seen before, but God has allowed you to be placed under pressure so he can get out of you— oh my God— that thing that's been laying dormant in you that the world actually needs. Oh. Oh my God. So don't curse the crisis. It may just take you where you want to go. Everybody has dreams, everybody has visions, but the crisis, the pressure— listen, watch this— at the end of everything is the greatest pressure. At the end of a baseball game, a basketball game, a football game, the greatest pressure is on the athlete. The game could be tied, uh, a basketball game could be tied 100-200 with 1 minute left on the clock. The best player comes down with the ball, shoots a 3. There's more pressure on him doing that shot than it is any other time in the game because he's trying to win the ball game. Watch this, the greater the pressure, also the greater the glory. So you can hit a 3-pointer with 5 seconds on the clock, and you can hit a 3-pointer with 48 minutes left to play in the game in the first quarter and not get the same celebration or the same glory that you got for hitting that buzzer beater. So you don't realize that you're under great pressure. You're being pushed, you're being squeezed. Because God is trying to get something out. Oshkita bai brikila monsurabokushkata. He's trying to get something out of you. Glory to God.

Woo!

That's been laying there that the world needs. Number 2, God knows this ain't my message. I'm— this is an introduction. I may not get to finish this. Number 2, watch this. Don't curse your crisis. Because through it you will discover your true identity. See, crisis has a way of revealing who you are. Not only will it reveal who you are, but crisis will also reveal what you can do. See, identity doesn't just deal with your name and your address and where you were born. Identity also deals with what you can do. It also deals with your gifting and your ability. So when you're going through crisis and glory to— and seasons of pressure, you're going through it, glory to the name of God, because God is trying to get to you a revelation of who you really are. Are y'all hearing me today? Glory to God. See, there's so many people who are victims of spiritual identity theft. Uh-oh, uh-oh. The Bible said the thief come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. So the enemy, the first thing he wants to do in your life— he's not really concerned about you sitting. That's not his MO. The devil's MO— we, we talk so much about sin and we're so sin-conscious, and we think the devil's MO is to get us to fall into sin. That's not it. The first line, he said he come to steal, kill, and destroy, not to make you get in the bed with somebody you ain't supposed to be in the bed with. That's not what he comes to do. The Bible said when you sin, you're drawn away your own lust and enticed. Whole nother message Not what we're talking about today. Hear me. It's not the devil's M.O. The devil's M.O. is to steal your identity. The first thing he's coming for is who you really are. He wants to steal your identity.

Ooh-wee!

I'm gonna say that one more time. He wants to steal your identity. He wants you to start looking at yourself as less than who God says you are. He— as my son Apostle Brandon Cornelius always says, we are new creation sons. He don't want you to see yourself as that true son of the living God that you are. Are y'all hearing this? He wants you to start believing you're something you're not. My wife and I was talking about this. We were way on our, our anniversary vacation last week, and we just kind of went somewhere and got on a resort, isolated, enjoyed each other. And we were having a conversation and we were talking about how people just start calling themselves something and they create an identity based on their insecurity. Oh my God. They created identity based on their insecurity. And so they feel like if I identify myself, let's, let's do this. As an apostle. There are some people I know personally who carry the name apostle in front of their name. First of all, a real apostle doesn't need to call themselves apostle. If you're a real apostle, nobody has to address you as an apostle. That's why you don't see Apostle Michael Woods on my Facebook page, on on my stuff because I don't need you to call me Apostle for me to be Apostle. I'm going to do the work because that's who I am. I cannot escape it. Have tried to escape it. Oh, glory! I've tried to run and just could not. So I don't need to be called Apostle to be an apostle. But what people will do because they're insecure with who they are and they are not clear because the enemy has stolen their identity. They create an identity and they become their own victims of identity theft. I know some people who call themselves apostle, and my son, my youngest boy Alexander, is more apostolic than they will ever be. That's the truth, y'all, because They just woke up one morning, said, this is what I'm gonna call myself because I think this is the highest rank of it, and didn't even understand what they was doing. Listen, you cannot create an identity. Me and my wife was talking about that, and what happened, my wife said, what happens when people do that, which is powerful revelation. She said, when people create an identity outside of who they really are They rob the people they serve of not only their true value, but they rob them— watch this— they rob them of truth. Everything they share, glory to God, is built on a lie because they're really not an apostle, they're really not a pastor, they're really not a prophet. Oh my God. But they created an identity. Oh, based in their insecurity.

Wow.

So don't curse your crisis, because in crisis you find out who you really are. Adversity will teach you what you really believe. The root word of adversity is ad. An ad is a projection that leads to— watch this— a product. It's a projection that leads to a product, whether it's on a billboard, a flyer, a Facebook ad, wherever you see it. An ad is a projection that's projected before you to lead to a product. So adversity advertises, it projects who you really are, the product— oh God— of who you really are and what you really believe. God, let me get out of here, man. Number 3, don't curse your crisis. Hear me, because it will show you who's really on your side. So crisis not only reveals who you are, but it also reveals who they are, who the people around you are. It reveals to you who's really down with you, who's your bottom people, who's willing to walk with you through thick and thin. Yeah, what— that's at the end of the day. I appreciate God for my wife. She's my bottom chick. Are you hearing me? Because at the end of the day, she has been— and by bottom, I mean she's been down with me through thick and thin, and she has stood her ground and many times have loved me in spite of me. And this is one of the chief reasons I married her, because at the end of the day You gotta understand who's with you, and crisis teaches you that. Yeah, I know some people that have said they were with me. Oh, y'all not talking to me here. But when your life gets in a certain position and you're going through something, you know who's really with you. So don't curse the crisis because you really want to know who with All right, I got to go. Number 4: don't curse your crisis, because crisis will always enable you to handle truth. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing me? So I'm not gonna get through this, so I'm gonna give you the first point. So there are a few points in the deployment of a diamond that we, we really need to take a close look at. All right, first of all, in the— we— let's look at this phase right here, the development of the diamond. Somebody say process. Say development. Say, Lord, in the name of Jesus, I'm developing right now. Say, in the name of Jesus, I am growing right now. So let's look at this development of a diamond. First of all, a diamond— because remember the coal miner, there he is, hallelujah— that rock must go through extreme pressure and heat. That's the first phase. I already talked about that. So you can't tell me you're a diamond if you ain't willing to go through something. Something.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

Are you hearing what I'm saying? Let's go back to the, the text we read in the beginning. All right, so in 2 Corinthians 1:8, he says, for we would not, brethren— that word brethren in Greek is adolphos— have you ignorant— ignosis. So adolphos means brethren, those that are close, those that are intimate with me, those that are in my inner circle. All right, so he's not talking to sinners, he's talking to saints. He says, I'm talking to— and I'm talking to you right now, believer. We will not have you ignosis— ignorant— ignore the truth. Ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure. Oh my God, watch this. Out of measure— metron in Greek— we were pressed out of our measure, which means we were pushed into a place that we were not trained to handle, that we did not understand. Extreme measures. And sometimes to get out of you what God has to get out of you, he takes us through extreme measures. And church, This is why we've been out of church for all these months, because God says, I want to press you. Now, for those of you that don't want to go to church anyway, that means nothing. But God has had us here and had us trouble— in Greek, toraso, which means we're agitated, we're on edge, we're frustrated. Watch this, we're indecisive. That's what toraso means. So, so we got trouble because we're We don't know what's gonna happen. We're pressed out of measure because we don't know how to judge a natural thing, because that— they're exciting fear, trying to run us totally out of the church. Out of measure, above strength, even so much that we despair even of life. You know how many people are giving up on the church now because the doors are not open? They're pressed. There's some people that have decided, I ain't serving God no more. They're doing their own thing, and they're comfortable doing it because they ain't had the accountability to the church. Oh, they had the assurance that they can live and not die. See, when all you got being thrown at you every day is CNN talking about how bad the virus is— okay, we get it, it's real. God is more real. God is more real. I'll say it again, God is more real. And the church gives us the assurance. Hallelujah. And when we go— I'm telling you, when we emerge, we're going to see so many miracles, signs, and wonders. You know, this whole thing is a setup to give God glory. You know, they're praying— they're, they're, they're not praying, they're working on a vaccine. I'm praying for it to be clobbered. It— watch this— totally kicked to the dirt, kicked to the curb. I'm praying for coronavirus to dissipate. Glory to God. And I'm— and I already told you, I've already declared that any space we go in for ministry, our church, anywhere I travel, it is a COVID-19 free zone. And if you have it, you're going to be healed. If you don't have it, you'll never get it. Yes, God! Yes, God! I dare you touch your body and say, my body, oh, is a COVID-free zone. Say, if I, I, if I have it, I'm healed. Say, if I don't have it, I'll never get it. In Jesus' name. Hallelujah! The apostle said we were pressed, man, beyond measure. Oh my God, because God was trying to get the diamond out of them. He said, look, I need you to be A-level apostles. I need to increase your measure. In other words, God was saying, your measure ain't deep enough. I need to expand your metron. God's trying to expand our metron so that when we touch the world, we touch them in such a huge way that it changes everything that the world has ever known, seen, or heard. Glory to God, that they have real encounters with God because we've allowed God to stretch our measure. Oh my God, listen, let me tell you some more people that were under intense heat and fire and pressure. The three Hebrew men in Daniel chapter 3, verses 20 through 27. You ain't— I'm— it's not on the screen, but you can read it later. You know the story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Glory to God. Hallelujah! They were thrown in the fire because they refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar and what he wanted. They refused to surrender to his way of doing things, so he threw them in a fiery furnace. The Bible said Jesus jumped in the furnace with them, the Son of Man, and because Jesus was there they could not burn up. I'll say it again: because Jesus was in the fire with them, under the pressure with them, they could not be consumed. Even the man that threw them in the fire was consumed. Oh my God! But Jesus walk around in the fire with them because he's eternal. Watch this, let me, let me give you the principle, let me get a revelation. Translation. Time, hallelujah, is created, number one, by God for man to fulfill purpose. Chronos time is natural time by the clock as we know it. Kairos time is God's timing, and it is measured from eternity. Jesus is eternal. The Son of Man is eternal. He steps in, he suspends Chronos. So now fire can't consume them because you need time. Nothing is just consumed in fire. It takes time for something to burn up. Takes time for a house to burn down. Takes time for a car to burn up. Takes time for garbage to burn up. Watch this. It takes— it would have took time for those men to burn up. Burn up. But when Jesus bends time, oh my God, and they can't burn up because eternity is in the fire. Can I tell you something? The eternal God is with us in this world, believer. If you will embrace faith in God, I want to submit to you, you cannot be destroyed by coronavirus. Urakashi If you were rejected and reject fear— oh my God, oh my God, the Eternal One. Hallelujah. It takes