Michael Todd - Faith Talk - Part 3
How you doing, friends? I am so glad that you joined us here today and honestly I'm kind of really excited because I know the message you're about to hear and this message comes from my life. One thing God never let's me do is speak a message to you that I'm not living out for real in my life. And today I have experienced some crazy things that have allowed me to be firm in my faith and live in what I like to call crazier faith. That's right. Not just faith, not just crazy faith, but crazier faith. And I believe that's what the Bible says when he tells us he wants to take us from faith to faith. Not just what we've had or what we're believing for right now, even beyond that. So get ready. Get ready. I'm telling you right now, this is going to transform your life. Let's go.
What I want you to see is what you say creates what you see. Write it down. What you say, I want you to think about it from now on. When you say I can't stand this place. That's why I can't stand this place. Uhh. I can't wait to get out of here. I can't stand this place. And there comes a greater disdain for going to that job every day. Why? Because what you say creates what you see. I just think this marriage will never be, this marriage will never be fun again. Huh? Like even if you're angry, I'm going to tell you something your mama said, if you ain't got nothing good to say, shut up. No. That's not what my mom said. Shut up! No. She probably finished it and said if you ain't got nothing good to say, don't say anything at all. I want to be very clear. If you can't speak about it in faith, shut up because your words are working. Somebody say my words are working. Uh-huh. They're framing your world. Your living in what you said or what somebody else said about you that you received.
See, there are so many people that are living in somebody else's words for you. The only way their words can actually come in is if you receive them, and you wear those words, and some of you, you will never be a great leader. Whoever said that was insecure and they didn't know what God put on the inside of you so what you need to do is revoke those words and need to be begin to speak the Word of God. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God will allow my hands to do everything he's called me to do. You need to get faith talk. See, what you say can change the scene. Like whatever scene you're in in your life, when you speak in faith, somebody say by faith, it can change your scene.
I want to give you a practical example right now. This stage is winter. That felt good didn't it, huh. It's like oh! And if I allowed wind to start blowing in here and told them to turned the degrees down to Antarctica, that picture would come to life really quickly, and then you would start getting images of skiing and some of y'all black people be like take me to the sun. Why? It's because when I said it, people knew to start making adjustments not based on what I thought. I've been thinking about this example since before the second service started. It was when I said it, it changed the scene. This stage is paradise.
Now, this is where God speaks to me. But they have other images ready to go, but when I said paradise, it gave specificity not to go to winter. Some of you are not specific with your words. God, give me a husband. No, no. No, no, no. Give you a husband? You want a husband that beats you, a husband that don't care about you? Be specific. Give me a husband, God, that loves you and that will seek you, Father God. And then that can lead me, Father God. And I'm not concerned about what his body looks like but let him love all of me, Father God. Let him love every curve, every stretch Mark, every dimple. Lord, and God, if you could, if you want to put a little sauce on it, what's the worst that can happen? Some of y'all married to what you said. Excuse me. Anyway, I'm gonna need security on the way out.
Here we go. It's the truth anyhow. This stage is a palace. What I'm just trying to tell you is what you say is faith. Your faith talk can change the scene of your life. And I need to talk to my people who are seasoned in age. The Bible tells us that your latter will be greater than your former. This lie that at 35 you've reached all that God wanted to do and it's downhill from there, 40 is the new 20. 50 is the new... Y'all don't hear me. 60. Y'all going to live to be 100. What are y'all talking about? My... Y'all don't... My latter is going to be greater. Y'all thought I looked good. You thought I made a difference in my younger years? Wait on me. I'm getting better. Somebody say I'm getting better. That's the first time some of y'all have spoken to your future. Somebody say I'm getting better. High school wasn't the glory days. College wasn't the pinnacle. But how many of us, oh, if we could just go back to the good old days? Even if they were good, your faith should be speaking better into your future. Somebody shout faith talk.
See, the scene is changed by what you say. Some people in here are like I don't really believe that. I don't know. Okay. I'm going to give you a real life example. On this platform I changed the scene of our church by what I said. When nobody was checking for transformation church, when barely no white people came to our church, bishop, pastor Debbie and Bobby and Darren. Thanks, different, for staying around, Darren. We appreciate you. Darren is still here. Darren. Let's give it up for Darren, guys. Sometimes he was the only hope I had. The reason I'm saying that is because God told me that we'd be a multi ethnic church but what I was, the scene, black fest 99. But will you declare what God said in the face of what you see?
Real life horrible quality, but this is one month after I became the lead pastor of the church. I want you to see what I declared to one service that was not even, in faith about what God was going to do and where he was going to take us as a church to impact the size and all of that. Look at me doing faith talk. And nobody wants to cut off what God is doing, so we have to be multi campuses. This place I'm telling new the next 24 months is not going to be able to hold. I mean, right now you see some seats right here. Y'all are going to have to get here at 9 o'clock to get a seat in this place. I'm speaking it prophetically and I'm telling you what God has already shown me. We're going to go to 2 services. Please record this because I'm about to show you. We're going to 2 services, and we will be packed in both services. And we're going to have to go to another place.
Now watch, at the end you see what I did? Because at that moment nobody was cheering and clapping. But I knew there was something in the invisible that God would release to the visible if I had the faith to say it. 2015 comes and goes. 2016 comes and goes. 2017 comes and goes. We still right here. See, most of us change our language when we don't see it after a certain amount of time. But I just want to prove to you that my language, my faith talk stayed the same over years. In October 2018 we did a series called recalculating, and I would just say in the middle of what I was talking about, when I saw somebody sleeping I'd be like, and one day you're not going to be able to get in here. I would just talk in faith like one day God is going to do something big. When people would leave the church, when it was the opposite, I would speak the opposite. And faith talk, believing on the Word of God and what he said to me in prayer, it created what was in the unseen to come to the scene.
If I could come and beg you, like literally beg you, do not settle for less than what God has promised to transfer from heaven to earth. It was a few months after I told them, this is how it happened, that God was taking us to buildings to look at office space and then to go to other buildings to look for the sanctuary. And he said, how is it going? It was at the bottom of the city plate towers. I outline this whole thing in the book because it actually is pretty funny, but I literally said to him um, sir, don't show me no more buildings, and I pulled it out because I had my faith with me. Until it's this building. He said, well, are you sure? And this is the title of my message. It took me all the way to get here to give it to you. We about to end. I said what I said.
And there is a level of crazier faith that you're going to begin to declare some stuff, and when doubt comes to seed, if you really believe is it you're gonna say, I said what I said. When the enemy comes t remind you of who you used to be and the wedding won't be paid for and you'll never be... I said what I said. I'm talking in faith. And when anything comes to try to stop what God is saying, you stand in authority. I said what I said. Y'all, go search it in the scripture for yourself. Mark 11 I believe it is. Verse 12. I'm going to paraphrase this whole thing so we can go home. Jesus is hangry. Y'all know the difference. He wasn't hungry. Hangry. So he starts walking by. He sees this fig tree that had leaves like it was fruitful but had no fruit on it. Be careful when you look like you have fruit, but there's nothing there.
That's why I want everybody to quit the famous talk. Because I would rather you have some substance that could actually nourish somebody because the Savior's standard is fruit in every season. Y'all didn't know that? Psalms. Y'all read it in Psalms before? Psalms 1: 3? They are like trees planted. That's people who are planted in a church and planted in obedience and planted submitted. They have roots somewhere. They're not just jumping from here. There will be like trees planted along the river banks bearing fruit in each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do. The Savior's standard may not be fair, but he's telling us what it is. I want fruit all the time. So you better get planted. For somebody that was about to give up and stop coming and stop serving and stop giving and stopped all of that stuff, I'm telling you, go ahead and get planted again because you never know when the Savior will need your fruit.
That ain't even a part of the message. But what ends up happening is he goes over to this fig tree, sees that there's no fruit, and it struck a cord in him. He didn't just like oh give it some more time. He said, he what? He what? No one will ever eat your fruit again. And the Bible records and the disciples heard what he said. Okay. I'm going to give you the formula to faith talk. Declare your faith. He said it out loud so that others heard it. Okay. See, when you declare something, it's both vertical and horizontal at the same time. Let me say it like this, declaration let's heaven know. Declaration let's others know. And declaration reinforces what you know. There's some stuff that I don't believe until I say it. I don't know if you've ever not had a morning where you weren't feeling good but you put on your favorite outfit and you look in the mirror and you can declare yourself into feeling better. You look good today. No. You. You look good. Look at you. Do that for 15 reps.
People be like, what you got on? It don't matter. I look good today. Like you will build because it reinforces what you know. That's why I've decided I'm going to talk my faith, I'm going to say my faith, I'm going to state my faith. I'm going to whisper my faith. I'm going to shout my faith. I'm going to scream my faith if I have to because faith talk unlocks what is already prepared photographer me in heaven to come to earth, so I'm going to declare my faith, but the second thing I'm going to do is demonstrate. See, when you do it, the formula of faith is you demonstrate your faith. Ah. It says the next morning, so 24 hours later. This is Mark 11:2.
Now I want you to get the picture. Jesus and his disciples are walking. That's the fig tree, the podium. Jesus is walking. He doesn't even pay it any attention because he knew when he said it, it was done. When you're operating in crazier faith, they'll notice what you already know. It tells us the disciples noticed. His friend group, his people, Jesus was not going, he didn't say like let's go back and see if God did it. He already knew that when he said it, it was done. I'm trying to inspire somebody's faith.
Can I bring it to a point? How you live after you say it matters more than what you say. If Jesus would have came back and would have been like oh guys, we gotta stop by the fig tree. Just need to make sure, his demeanor would have proved, his actions would have proved he didn't actually believed what he was saying. But he walked by and didn't even... Some of y'all need to say this marriage will be healed, and then call the counselor because your actions after you say it matter more than what you said. You waiting for God to do something, and he's saying act like it's done. Oh, I love the word. That's why the Bible says faith word works. Your action after it. So that's why James 2: 26, another translation says faith without corresponding action is dead or faith is lifeless if it is unaccompanied by obedience. What you say has no effect if what God says back to you, you won't obey.
See, the thing about faith is when God talks we gotta listen, too. So there have been times where I said, this is going to be mine, and God says, not if you don't get healthy. God's promises all throughout the word that go beyond salvation are conditional. Nobody likes to talk about this. If you do this, then I'll do, we think, we act like everybody is getting the same thing. No, no, no, no baby. I know people because they want you to come to their church, they want you to give. I don't care. I want you to know the truth. God is just like you are as a parent. If you clean your room, then you can have dessert. If you obey me, then you can have responsibility and take the car out. And everybody is like I can live anyway. But God loves unconditional. You're going to heaven. You just won't have no responsibilities here on earth.