Michael Todd - Bamboozled By The Blessing - Part 2
I hope you are having an amazing day, but if you're not, I promise you it's going to get better after this. Thank you for joining us because we have been walking through a crazy series called crazier faith. See, I don't want you to miss one minute of this series because it has the opportunity and possibility to transform your entire life, so if you're ready to experience a faith walk you'll never ever forget, stay with me for today's message.
The backside of the blessing always come with 3 things you have to watch out for. It tries to give you an opportunity to walk away from God and to establish independence, identity, and entitlement. Whenever God blesses you, it does amazing things. What ends up happening is you have an opportunity to walk away from God and declare your independence, to find your identity and to walk in entitlement. Let me break it down just a little more. Your independence from God is always an option after God uses you beyond what you deserve. Every day I get up here and minister to you, I can go to Instagram afterwards and get filled with people saying how amazing I am that would give me the opportunity to declare my independence from God. Yeah, I did do good on that sermon. Those analogies was... Did you see the farmer and, ahh. That boy he killed that.
Every Sunday when I get off this stage and before anybody in the room knows I get, I don't care what I have on. I get on my hands and my knees and I ask God in humility, father, if you would just one more time use this broken shell of a man that is me.? And would you speak through me and take all of my ignorance and all of my know how, and would you form it together somehow? God, I'm dependent on you. If you used to watch back in the day, I would say tag team back again. Holy Spirit, I need you to do this with me. I am completely dependent on God. And when God blesses you, you get an opportunity to be independent. And some of y'all God's done it and he don't hear from you until you need him to do it again. This is the backside of the blessing. It doesn't just come with independence from God. Then you start trying to find your identity in the blessing.
I can't tell you how many times people have now gotten a car or a home or a corner office, and now they are... oh, can I be real? Or they become a pastor, and now their identity is not from who called them. Their identity is in what they do. The reason I respect bishop Macintosh so much is because while he was still able to walk in the office of pastor, his identity was only found in Christ, so what he had been doing for 16 plus years, he was able to hand to somebody else and walk away from. Why? Because his identity was not in the title. Uh-oh. Some of y'alls identity is in title. Wife. Who are you if you're not a wife? Uh-oh. Who are you if you're not a husband? Who are you if you're not a CEO or an athlete? Who are you if you're not, and the biggest plague on the world today is that when God blesses us, then somehow we attach our identity to it.
"I'm a musician. I'm a fashion designer. I'm an author". God said, "You're my child. And before you were any of that and after you're all of that, you'll still be my child." And the reason why people cannot walk away from what has been successful is because the backside of the blessing has been they have formed their identity in the thing God blessed them with. I tell my team all the time, I don't know how long I'm going to do this. I know it's cracking right now, but if the Holy Spirit tells me five years from now, ten years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, Mike, start over and go be a plumber, I'm going to do it with all my might. Crack and everything. I'm going to pull it out. I'm going to do... Why do plumbers, they don't feel like, it just almost like comes with the job. Any plumbers out there, dm me. Why could I walk away and be a plumber? It's because my identity is not in the platform or the position. My identity is in a person. And his name is, somebody shout at me, "Jesus".
So you cannot declare your independence from God and you cannot find your identity in the blessing, see, because then this last one takes over a lot of people. If you do not watch yourself you will be bamboozled by the blessing because then you start walking in entitlement because of the blessing. I deserved that. It's about time they recognized who I am. If God didn't do it now, I promise you he was gonna do it somewhere else. The exact opposite of gratefulness, thankfulness, like and there are so many people acting like God owes them something past the breath that you took to get up this morning. That was grace and mercy and it's new what? Every morning. Everything after that is his favor and his kindness and his goodness and his grace on our life.
See, nobody wants to talk about this. You think you deserve a new house. You deserve to be in leadership. Hold up. What? It is a blessing and a privilege, but that spirit of entitlement comes in, and see, this equation that I just gave you, you didn't know it was an equation but I want to put it in an equation for you, if you have independence plus identity found in the blessing plus entitlement found out of the blessing, it equals the same thing every time. It's one big word the Lord hates. Pride. This is the problem with the backside of the blessing. When God does it, you have an opportunity to walk in pride. And this is what stops, Charles, unusual acceleration fast every than anything else. When God starts doing it, start feeling entitled. Attach your identity to it. Stop praying and acknowledging God in all your ways so he can direct your path. Be independent. And what creeps into your life is pride. Put that big pride up there.
What is right in the middle of the P, R and the D, E? "I". When I takes over, you are about to be shut down from heaven. And I've watched it over and over. I've watched ministry rise, and ministry fall, business rise and business fall, first marriage, second marriage, third marriage, fourth marriage because of pride. I know nobody talks about this no more because your graphic was dope but we don't have to use it. It was a privilege that God put you in a position to use the skill of your hand and it actually blessed somebody, but you think it's all of that and now you don't have to do it on time and put it on the deadline? Oh, I'm talking to a couple of people right now. Because you that dope. You're walking in pride. I've been married for five years. I don't need no marriage counseling. What are they going to tell me? How they know what I'm going through?
And I'm doing this, and you won't even sit down with the person you committed your entire life to to become better, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in the good and in the bad and you won't even listen to somebody who has way more training than you? The only reason you won't sit down is because of pride. The reason you've been in that church for 15 years and ain't picked up nothing, won't open the door, you're so entitled at that church that you think you should be praised for coming. We don't care if you come. I'm going to say what your pastor should say to you. I don't care, after COVID I'm a little ignorant. Like I ain't had, I don't care if you come. As long as he comes it don't matter who else show up. But you are shutting down the blessing of your own life because of pride. And when you make the blessing that God has given you the thing that you have independence from him for, you find your identity in the blessing, and you feel entitled to the blessing, what you form is an idol.
Some of y'all live in the thing you worship. Oh, that's nasty. Some of y'all drove to work this week the thing that gets more of your worship. "Here's my worship. All of my worship. Receive my worship, all of my worship". You give more time to that steel, rubber, and metal. You have a house for it. You built a garage. You built an altar for it. And God is saying to you, you should have no other God. I ain't got no other Gods. If you worship it more than you worship God, if you express your love to it more than you express it to God, some of your Bibles are so dusty, you could get a disease just by opening it. But Instagram is nice and lubricated. Facebook is part of your daily foundation. And God is saying I need you to kill the idols because it has you walking in pride. And it has you stopping me from blessing you.
The enemy has not changed the tactic since the garden. Adam and Eve in paradise with God, it's only three of them. Like you can't mess this up. What are we talking about? Every tree except one? Like, come on! Just eat everything else. But what did the enemy come to suggest? Independence from God. Isn't that what he said? He don't, uhh, God. He always talking. Your identity should be in knowing the difference between good and evil. Eat this blessing and your identity will change. And as a matter of fact, why would God say entitlement? Why would he say you can eat from every other tree and not this one? Pride came in. And why did Adam and Eve get kicked out of Eden? Pride. Why did Satan get kicked out of heaven? All he's doing is putting a copy and paste on your life based on what happened in his life. Why would we get kicked out of a season of unusual acceleration? Pride. It's here. It's coming.
The next few days, weeks, years, God is about to blow our minds. How long we stay in this season is dependent on how humble we can be while God continues to open up the windows and pour out a blessing we don't have room enough to receive. James 4:6. This is why pride is so ghetto. God opposes the proud. I can't even, I'm holy. Like I can't even, like, I love you. But that? It's literally repellent from God. Walk in pride. Walk away from God. Think that you're all of that? God says, be it. Have it. Do it. I'll be over here until I smell humility. Humility has an aroma. Have you ever met somebody and they ain't even said nothing to you but you can tell the type of person they are?
Humility leaves a fragrance and God said "I smell pride. Can't do it". He opposes the proud but he shows favor to the what? Humble. Pride will get you kicked out of paradise. Wherever you think God is taking you, if you start walking in pride, I'm just trying to help somebody not lose the thing God is bringing into your life. It's bamboo season. Don't be bamboozled by the blessing. It's bamboo, don't get tricked when it actually happens. Somebody be like it's only crazy until it happens. This is, too. I've seen people be on top and then they asking for $5. Why? Because it was crazy that God did it, and it was crazy that he took it away. Why? Because pride crept in.
This is why we have to tear down every idol and this is why that what you worship is more important than anything else in your life. Why? I say it to my wife all the time. Never worship a noun. Never worship a person, a place or a thing. Don't ever worship, never worship a noun. When people try to, pastor Mike, you were so, you are this and you are that, I tell people to God be the glory. And some of my friends you just always be saying this churchy answer. I say no, no, no, no. That's not a churchy answer for me. For me, that's the thing that keeps me humble because people, situations, other dynamics will have you confused about who you really are. I know me. It is only the grace of God that I'm standing up here and all y'all don't be sending me messages in jail.
Y'all laughing. I'm serious. It is the grace of God, and see, some of all are so bougie, it's like oh my gosh, pastor Mike. But if we opened up your nasty life and really saw what you thought and what you text and deleted, it was in your heart. It came out. If we really saw what you look at...Never mind. But how do we stay in this place? Everybody shout at me, "Humble". Sit down. That prophet Kendrick Lamar he said in there that's not good, but the message is very potent. Can I give you the secret of how to combat pride? I told y'all this is the most important message in the series because whatever you're believing God for in crazy faith can be born in a moment because of pride. All that God has done at Transformation Church, B, from the time we were at 1519 believing God to hire 2 people that they just told me that I think they just told me we have a staff of over 100 now and what is it? 27? 107 people on staff. This time last year, it was half that. How do we go from that?
And God said there's a lot of factors, but the one thing I keep opening up the heart to see is if there's still humility in there, and humility is not based on who you're talking to. Humility is what you think and what you feel when nobody is there and what you think and what you feel when everybody is there. God is looking for a church and a people that will be humble enough to be blessed over and over and over begin. And this is how we keep pride out. How do you combat pride? With humility. How do you stay humble? Here's the secret. Through service. Who are you serving? Not whose serving you because that's the western world of success. We look at success as how many people are serving me. The kingdom looks at the exact opposite.
How many people are you serving? And some of you by world standards would be at the top of the list, and God is going to say get away from me, I don't even know you, because you called my name but never had my posture. You called my name, you shouted and you did all this, but you never had the posture to serve nobody. You were too big to get low. I don't know. I might have called the message drop it low. Somebody needs to hear me say this, you have six figures but who have you served? You prayed for the private practice, but now you won't practice what you preach. You'll tell other people to do it, but you never do. When is the last time you handed somebody money they didn't earn from you? Who you are serving? And I made a decision a long time ago that when ever I show up, I'm going to show up serving.
Somebody say show up. Serving. When you go to the birthday party, show up serving. When you go to your kid's school, show up, what can I do? Can I help? Do you need any help, miss Johnson? Do you need anything and some of y'all be you better treat my kid right. Your kid bad. We all know that. But have you showed up serving? When I walk into something that is made for me, people who are on my team will tell you they be trying to pick up stuff and do stuff I'm like ah! Let me carry my own bag. As a matter of fact, give me your bag because I have to keep myself in a position... Y'all don't hear me. Some of y'all are not prepared for the blessing but this is for the people who are about to go to a whole other level of unusual acceleration, put yourself in a position to serve.
And this ain't sexy. This is serving. Oh. This ain't sexy. This means your hand is going to get dirty. This means that you're going to have to do something that may mess up your outfit. This means that somebody whose not as old as you, I know for the og's this means a lot. What are they going to tell me? They ain't never been through nothing. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, but if God put them in position you do everything you do as unto the... Uh-oh. So you've been Messing up you're season of unusual acceleration because you've been looking at age instead of the anointing. I might be 34 years old but I'm anointed to be people's pastor. If you look at my age and not my qualification, you will miss the thing God wants to do in you because of pride. Oooh! I'm not just a serial sower. I'm a serial server. When I come in I'm not just planting seeds. I'm going to serve somebody in the midst of it.