Michael Todd - Faith Like A Farmer - Part 2
What's going on, everybody? I hope that you are having an amazing day, and if you're not, it's about to get better because we have a message that is going to change your life today. I believe that this message is specifically for you, so I'm going to ask you to do something. Stop whatever else you're doing. Now, unless you're driving or unless you're with your kids, just keep going, but listen because we're talking about crazy faith. No, scratch that. We're talking about crazier faith, and I believe this is going to transform your life. Let's go.
God said, the principle is that every seed you sow has time attached, that there is a ticking time bomb, uh, on every seed you sow, that if you plant it in right soil, it's just a matter of time that that mud has to, it is a principle in the earth, it has to break through! And many of us have not understood seed, time. 'Cause that's what it feels like sometimes, don't it? You thought it was coming right after you shouted. "He saw the possible not impossible". Ah, I went to church yesterday, got out about 1:15. 1:30! Aah! Got on a call and it was her. Baby, you might be shouting today for what you see in three years. I know, I know, I know. That's why some people's praise is ignorant, 'cause they know the more that they praise, all they're doing is sowing seeds into their future.
Some of you all, you'll only praise when you see it happen. Others of us, we begin to praise God in advance 'cause I know I'm just sowing seed, I'm just sowing seed, and there's going to be time, and I promise, there's going to be a what? Harvest. Yeah? Yeah,. I'm going to walk you through this. Today, if you've got something else to do, if the game is on, go ahead and watch it, but don't, don't play yourself and miss the principle that would change your life. So, then, I cross-referenced this 'cause we don't understand farming. How many farmers do I have watching right now? Hands raised in the chat and in the, mom, put your hands down. My mother-in-law put her hand up. You ain't been on a farm in six decades. She said... no, sit down.
Any farmers in the...? I don't see no hands in here. In the chat, maybe two or three. If you don't understand the parameters of how somebody lives their life, you miss the revelation that may be in there. So, I started studying farming this week, and what I found is that the Bible was not incomplete, but it just left out some details that we remember what I said the formula was? It was seed, time, and what? Harvest. But they forgot something that I found in 2nd Corinthians. It says, remember this, remember our anchor scripture, whoever sows. Hold on, seed, time, harvest. Seed, time, harvest. I don't see sow in there. Seed, time, harvest. So, that means you can have a seed, and if you don't sow it, it doesn't matter how long you wait, you won't see a... Hold on, hold on, no, no, no, I just need to make sure.
The Bible said seed, time, harvest! You can hold your seed. You can eat your seed. You can wear your seed, aah! You can! If you don't sow your seed, you will never reap your harvest. I'm trying to help somebody because, right now, what you've been sowing, you've been seeing, and it's nothing 'cause you ain't sowing nothing. Well, I thought God was for me. He is! And that's why he placed all them seeds in you, and you're at home praying when you should be plowing! Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're praying while you should be plowing! You should be in somebody's field, picking up dirt and planting seeds. Seed, sow, time, harvest. I just expanded it for you, I need you to write that out. Seed, sow, time, and then what? Harvest, okay.
So, write this, write this point down, sowing is implied because everybody has seed. Sowing is implied. Seed, time, and harvest, the reason they didn't put it in there is because sowing is implied. If you've got seed, use it for its purpose. The only purpose of a seed is to sow so that it can produce more after its own kind. Seed, sow, time, harvest. This is why I say all the time, all you have is all you need. Why? 'cause God's not requiring a seed that he has not already given you. Some of you all are so discontent with and God says, you are holding your future right now in the place of seed form, and you're trying to go to that city and work that job, but you'll have the same seed.
God said, I'm not giving you new seed, so if you go there, and the boss, he doesn't recognize me, God said, it don't matter if they recognize you, sow the seed there. Well, they don't see my potential. It don't matter, the seed in the right soil got to produce. It doesn't matter what your family says, sow the seed. Somebody shout at me, sow the seed! Sow the seed of your life. Sow the seed of your influence some of you all won't even invite people to church 'cause it doesn't work with your social media aesthetic. The reason God's not giving you no more influence is 'cause you won't sow the seed of the influence you have. You have what you got and you got what you have 'cause you won't sow. Oh, I'm telling you right now that this principle works in every area of your life.
Can I tell you a personal story? When I started pastoring this church, I stood on the shoulders of two people who literally, in crazy faith, moved to the north side of Tulsa as a white couple in the womb of racial tension. Right where the 1921 race massacre happened is where they had the audacity to build the church and call it greenwood Christian center. I would've called it something else, the circle of hope, or I would have called it something, but they had a mission from God to go in in a place that was devastated by all of this division and be able to be a light right there. 16 years of planting right there.
Did you hear what I just said? 16 years of planting, or can I say it a different way? Sowing. They sowed where nobody else was sowing. They took resources and connections and all that. They went to where it was uncomfortable to sow, they went to where they weren't invited to sow, they went to where there was no red carpet to sow. I'm trying to give somebody a formula. It may not be easy to sow there, but it's where you'll grow. You may not get applause sowing where God tells you to sow. Your family may not understand why you can't go on the vacation, because you gave that to that nonprofit or to that business or to that single mother. They may not get it, but they'll see it one day.
Remember the formula, seed, sow, you all got to help me, time, harvest, say it again. Seed, sow, time, harvest, one more time! Seed, sow, time, harvest. For 16 years, they sowed. They sowed so much that when it was my turn, I started off with the harvest I didn't plant. This is what generational blessing looks like. When I started pastoring, and some of you all adults is so nasty, you want them to get it by their bootstraps. That means you didn't make enough for us to get anything. When you will not generationally think, I'm talking to you right now, no, they got to, they're 18, go figure it out, that means you're a selfish, God bless you, because my God talks about generational blessing. A good man leaves an inheritance for his children, you all better hear me up in here, and you're so stingy and broke and busted, you want your kids to struggle how you struggle. Do you know, experience is not the only way you can learn? It's actually the lowest level of learning. It's actually, no, go out there and figure it out, that's dumb. Look at you.
I started off with a paid-off building. I started off with members. Most of them didn't want to be there. This is honestly. It's about 300 people, but I started off with something. It was crazy faith for bishop McIntosh and pastor Debbie to take out a second mortgage on their house to help the church stay afloat. Can we give God praise for modern-day faith heroes? Oh, you all better. Nothing about transformation church would be what it is without those two people. Yeah, I love you. Now, watch! But then, when God gave me the baton, he said, "Crazier faith". I said, "Hold on, what"? I was just trying to maintain what they was doing. God said, "I go from faith to faith. If this is where you start, guess where I'm taking you". And when I stood up, Bree and Tammy as my witness, that first day, with my knees shaking, I said, "God said that this church is going to be multi-ethnic, multi, wait, what I write down, what I write there"?
That's how I was scared. "Multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multiplying, and multi-campus". Nobody was cheering. Jay, you were cheering. Jay, that's my sister, she was cheering, but most people wasn't cheering. But God showed me something in seed form, so when we went here and he said, "Crazier," I took over the church, and all that bishop and pastor Debbie had done, we had hit a plateau. We had hit a place where it seemed like, if you're going to do good, this is how far you're going to go. Like, money-wise, influence-wise, everything, this is your plateau, and i, in prayer, figured out what was happening. We had come against a principality of poverty.
Now, I know I'm getting deep right now, but where we were in north Tulsa, there was a principality of poverty over our church and over people's minds, and then there was a ceiling of seGregation. I'm just telling you what happened, I'm just giving you the process. I figured out in prayer that there was so much seGregation after that 1921 race massacre, and the railroads came right there, black people and Hispanic people was on this side of the railroad, and white people were on this side of the railroad, and that generational divide was still there in 1999, and still there in 2002, when they started the church over there, and still there, and God said, "We're about to deal with this". I said, "Okay". He said, "There's one more thing, mike. There's restriction on your reach where you're at". I said, "Okay, God, so who do I need to call? Who do I need to partner with? Who needs to come in and bless the church"? He said, "We don't need anybody else. Me and you are the majority. Okay, so what do you want me to do"? He said, "When you hit a plateau, sow".
What? I'm giving you all big keys right now. Whatever area of your life you hit a plateau, sow! Sow right there. Your marriage has no more passion? Send somebody else on a staycation in your city and pay for it. Well, shouldn't I use my resources for my struggling marriage? Mm-mm. You all hit a plateau. Sow. Well, my situation is backed up and jacked up, so shouldn't I...? Whenever you hit a plateau, you do what? Sow. So, first year pastoring, God developing crazy faith in me, he said, "Michael, listen to my instructions. Your church has a poverty principality over it. You're going to break it by sowing". "That doesn't make sense"! He said, "But it makes miracles". I said, "Okay, so what do you want me to do"? He said, "Get up in front of your church".
There are people in this room that were there that Sunday. He said, "Get up in front of your church and tell them you're going to take an offering and every dollar that comes in you're giving to other churches in the community". And I stood up and said, "You all, today," and I think, like in expectation, I think it even might've been an expect effect or something like that, "We're going to sow a seed and give it away," and we raised $8.300 that Sunday. And that week now, that was crazy faith. That wasn't like, no, oh, 8.300. Didn't nobody have $8.300 at the time. We had nobody! That 8.300, we was like, oh, my God, God bless you.
Lord, do the work, do the work, bring it. Like, we was trying to, whoa, ya-ya-ya-ya, yeah-yeah-yeah. We did everything sending that 8.300 away, 'cause at the time, it was completely crazy. But the generosity that people know at transformation church today, I can't fool with you, I've got proof, though. God's been too good, from 8.300 to 3.5! But everybody rejoices over the harvest, but they don't know the seed. We sowed 8.300 in the dark, and it became 3.5 in the light. What are you sowing today? That other thing, about the ceiling of seGregation, first year of my pastoring, Tammy, remember, when I would be coming into the meetings and I'd be like, "We're doing a unite my city event," which was another nonprofit and around the time Terence Crutcher had just been murdered, and our city was in a boiling point of divide, and I partnered with this group called unite my city, with Jason Law and all those guys.
We hosted events at our church, we paid money for stuff, we catered and brought all of these people, and somebody was asking, "Why are you doing all this, do you get anything out of this, all this"? I said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm in the future. I need all these people who look like this to come to the north side of Tulsa, to this church". So, I'm going to invite every different type of person, and we're going to, everybody shout at me, sow. We sowed time, talent, treasure. I was making graphics and videos, didn't nobody pay me. Look at us at the unite my city event. Go back on my social media. You can go all the way back down and see me, "Oh, out of here with Jason Law, out here doing this," just sowing.
And now, when transformation church opens up, do you know that there's as many white people at this church? I'm up here in yeezy shorts and a chain, and Sally likes it. Do you understand what I'm saying? You all fake right here, but this is the most interracial place in our city. Aah! You got to see it before you see it and you got to sow it before you see it! Somebody's going to get me. And that restriction on reach, Jule, that we had, we do great stuff. We did a play called "Ransom". You all, I'm not no cat, "Ransom" could be on Broadway right now. Matter of fact, why don't we just turn this into, yeah, so, so, okay, all right. Somebody saw it. But when we did "Ransom" for the first time, it was like 1200 people that saw "Ransom".
Like, the whole city didn't come out for "Ransom", but God said, "Sow". I said, "How do you want me to do that"? He says, "Sometimes you've got to sow collectively. You've got to get with a circle of faith who will sow with you". I said, "Okay, what's that mean"? He said, "Get up in front of the church, who all of 'em don't like you," and this was real at the time, "And ask them to sow so you can buy new cameras 'cause I need to expand the reach of this church". "Okay, God. Now, you know who I'm talking to, right, God? They don't like me, and some of them are just waiting for the moment to say, 'I knew'". He said, "Obey me, or have what you have". I said, "You know what, look here".
So, I stood up and I said, "You all, we're for brand new cameras. Everybody just, you know, bring your faith, bring your best faith, and let's also..." and we raised, almost to the dollar, $80.000. Now, watch, guess what happened? People left the church. Oh, no, I lost something, in this season, sowing, but do you know what I gained, ooh, on the other side of what seemed like a loss?