Michael Todd - Are You A Paper Chaser - Part 2
Hey, my friends. I am so glad you made it to today's program, and I am so excited because I know what we're about to talk about, and it's something that can change the trajectory of your life, your church, your family, and it has changed my life. It's learning that God is more concerned with our purpose than he is paper. I'm talking about your money, your career, about your job. You're either one of two things, you're either a purpose chaser or a paper chaser. And I need to know which one are you. God is not concerned with possessions. He doesn't have a problem with them as long as they aren't the priority. God is supposed to be the priority, so on today's show, I'm telling you we're about to transform. I'm Michael Todd, and welcome to the beginning of your transformation.
See, ha ha, you think information. You don't need information. You need an impartation. You need something to jump out of the screen and get up on your mind and your life and your thoughts. This is fresh oil. What we will do at Transformation Church, if you stay with us any length of time we will always give forever truths with brand-new revelation. We're not trying to trick you into something, let me show you something you've never heard. There is nothing new under the sun is what my Bible says, but we want fresh revelation on forever truths.
So as I begin to think about how I was going to represent this message of a blessed life, and I did say a blessed life, not a blessed wallet. Just to make sure this is not about money. This is your life. I began to look at our culture and how everybody is hustling and grinding and positioning themselves and plotting and scheming and manipulating, and other people are tired and missing out on what really matters and they're forfeiting their families. And the Holy Spirit dropped this term in my mind. He said Michael, they're paper chasers. These people are running after something I give to people who are in purpose. They're using all their effort or energy trying to catch and Randy Moss something that I will set in their hands if they'd get in my will for their life.
And then I began to look for scripture, and I could not find one significant man or woman of God that God used to their fullest capacity where their priority was the paper, where the mountain top was money, where the king was cash, where they were committed to the coin. He always used people who were committed to the kingdom. I'm gonna show you my favorite verse of scripture, Matthew 6: 33. This is going to help you. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his right standing or his righteousness, and then I love this part, everything else is going to get added. Like the money, everything else. What do you need? You need connections, you need networking? Everything else can be added if you seek first. Everybody shout at me first.
God doesn't have a problem with paper. He just wants priority. This is the essence of everything that God is trying to teach us through this series. You are paper chasing which makes something else the priority. God does not care about paper. He has paper. The streets of heaven are paved with gold to give us imagery that money don't mean a thing. What he's trying to see is where are your priorities. And for many of us the paper are above parenting. Your kids haven't seen you in two weeks. They are raised by Netflix and you tube. Disney plus is parenting them. The only reason I'm saying this is because somewhere along the way, you bought into the lie that the paper was more important than parenting. And because you can take them to Disney world now, somehow that's going to make up for the affirmation that they need from you being there when they fall.
Some of you have bought into the lie... Oh, I gotta come straight for it today because there are people right now that are sitting here thinking you're doing the noble thing when God says you've chosen the wrong priority. You chose the paper so you could have a 401k plan and do, and there ain't nothing wrong with that but it's out of priority. Your marriage is more important than the money, and now you're going to lose all of it ten years from now because you're going to have to divorce her and you didn't sign a prenup. So she's gonna get 50% anyway because you would not be in the place where you put God as the priority. So you chose, oh, so you chose the avenue where you have to travel every week. And now pornography is the priority. They wanna be fake today and talk about how we have chosen how we look and how people perceive us over the Kingdom of God and the purpose he has for us.
Write this point down, money should never be the focus. It should always be the fruit. Money should never be the focus. It should be the byproduct. It should be the thing that comes after the focus. That's why that scripture says seek first the kingdom, and then I'll make you fruitful. Seek my purpose for you. I'll make you fruitful. You want to do: I am a living testimony of when I sacrificed my plan of what I thought I was going to be and thought I was going to do and thought what I had to sacrifice, God said you did it. You sought first my kingdom so you want to be a producer? I'll do that too. You want to perform on this? I'll do that too. You want to be an author? I'll do that too? You wanna make a movie. That's in the works. Y'all don't hear me. Everybody, seek first. It's not about paper. It's about priority. And we gotta focus back on our purpose on what God has called us to do because if we make money the focus, then we get bad fruit.
That's why people can have 50 million dollars in the bank and kill themselves. Because if the money was the focus, I get bad or rotten fruit. And my question to you is, is money the focus or is it fruit? I can look at your bank account and tell it. I can look at your closet and tell it. How in the world do you have a Mercedes-Benz and no... Let me stop. You don't own a home, yet you have $100 000 car? Something is out of, you've got every new shoe that came out and you still live with your mama? Something is out of priority. You stand in line for a video game, come on. Y'all already know. Some of y'all like uh-oh. Jerome, that's you. Oh my God. Oh my God, Juan, that was you last week. You'll stand in line for a video game that will be outdated in a year, but you won't honor God with the increase of your hands?
Something is out of priority. That's why we can't focus on the money. That has to be the fruit, and that's why Transformation Church is blessed. Because we decided in the dark when none of y'all was here that we'd not focus on finance, that finance would be the fruit of what we focused on. And do you know what focus on? It's so easy it's in the vision, we are representing God to the lost and found for one reason. What? Transformation in Christ. We're gonna focus on transforming people's life. We're gonna focus on giving people encouragement. We're going to focus on giving people Jesus. We're gonna focus on telling people they can make it. We're gonna focus on helping homeless people when it's cold outside and be the hands and feet of Jesus. And if we'd focus on that, then resources and finances would be the, everybody shout at me, fruit. I'm just asking you to lineup with the vision of this house, that it's the vision of God, that we'd seek first.
Our focus would be on him first, his purpose first, and everything else would be planted. So I just have a question for you today, and it's the title of my message, and I can't answer this question for you but you have to answer it for yours, are you a paper chaser? Are you chasing paper? Are you using all your effort and energy to go after something that God will give you if you get in the right positioning? I can't answer that for you, but the thing is if you're in that place, I can identify with you because I used to be a paper chaser. I used to think that it was my job to provide for me so the gifting and the talent God gave me was it. These are your tools, and now go make a name for yourself, and even being an African-American mail in our culture, there's certain things we're taught that are passed down historically that aren't biblical.
So what ends up happening is we say stuff like you're a black man, you gotta work 2 and 3 times harder. And I got this thing on the inside of me that became very performance based, and I had to be the best and walk the best and do the best and out perform and have no sleep and all of those different things. And what it ended up doing is robbing me of what I was doing in the moment. And God said, would you... I'm not saying anything is wrong if that's how you felt and that's where you've been, but I'm saying it's not biblical, and God challenged me. He said, would you give me back your wrong ideas? And would you let me Romans 12:2 you? Could I transform you by renewing your what? Mind. That's all I'm trying to do through this series. That's why you can't miss one week of paper chasers because all I... Oh, I need to tell them.
Let me give you the disclaimer for everybody who is like I knew I shouldn't have watched this thing. I knew all they'd doing is talking about money and I know it's coming. They're going to ask for some money. Let me help you, baby, during this series, there will be no second offerings. We're not in a building campaign. We're not asking anybody for any money. As a matter of fact, because of the generosity of the people who have already bought into The Blessed Life that are part of transformation nation, during this series over the next 4 weeks we're going to give away $500.000.
Oh, I thought it said in the word that we'd lend. Or maybe we don't need it back, so we'll give it to you. Our culture says we give just to give and not to get. And what I'm telling you is I'm not trying to get something from you. I'm trying to get something to you. We're going to help different organizations and we're going to help different people and we're going to help different ministries. Every week we're going to give away money. Why? Because I want you to know this is not about us getting something. This is about you getting something that can change your family, your children, the trajectory of your life.
Something God revealed to PH he is that you either fall in one of 2 categories and I don't know where you fall today, but I need you to decide so we can move from there. You are either a paper chaser or a purpose chaser. Period. Boo. I think that's what they say. Period boo. You're either a purpose chaser or a paper chaser. And I don't know, when God showed me that there was this commercial I saw a long time ago. It's how I used to be. It was I think it was a Geico commercial or something like that, and there was this old man that he had a dollar on like a fishing line, and then he was like putting it up in front, yeah, there it is and the woman is trying. She acting like she didn't need it but she like kept chasing after it. That was me and that's honestly a bunch of y'all right now. Like I'm chasing. No, I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it.
And God began to tell me, he said Michael, that is a representation of what many of us look like day after day, week after week, year after year, that we're chasing paper instead of chasing purpose. How many of you are doing things that you hate doing because of the paycheck? Uh-oh. I'm getting into deep waters right now. How many of us have given up the thing that God told us to do because we didn't see the financial lucrativeness of it in that moment? And God said it was six months up the road but I needed you to commit when it looked like nothing so you could see the benefit. You were looking at the seed. I was looking at the harvest, and right now you can't experience what I had for you because you were a paper chaser instead of a purpose chaser.
Transformation Church right now did not look like this when God asked me to commit to it. Y'all wasn't here. People was talking about me. There was nothing that looked like this. Led wall, we didn't have led lights on our cell phones. I'm trying to be practical with you. Something in me said I'm not going to chase the paper. Practically, I had skills in my hand that I could have gone and chased paper because people think oh, you're a pastor so you had to settle for less. You know what I'm saying. No, no, no, baby. When I was 22 years old, I got offered a $100.000 contract to be able to go produce for a major record company for one year, and they were going to pay me, take care of all my room, my lodging, where I was going to move to New York, and go for 100 thousand dollars and I had the presence of mind to pray because I got a praying mama and father. And I was like yeah, I'm gonna do it.
I was engaged to be married to Natalie. I didn't even talk to her about it because I knew I had to go to God first because I could convince somebody it was God when it wasn't. Uh-oh. Just because it's a good opportunity doesn't mean it's purpose. Just because it looks good and has enough purpose doesn't mean it's God. It look good but it ain't God. There are some of us that has chased the paper because it looked good, but I had the presence of mind to pray, and this is exactly what the Holy Spirit told me in my quiet time, he said if you do this, you will be successful but I'll take my hand off of what you're doing. The scariest place to be is in a place where God isn't. Oh, that's nasty. The scariest place to be is to be in any place that God isn't. And that's why we have to decide we're going to be paper chasers and we're going to go after God. That's why in Luke 16:10, I want to you look at it.
This is talking about stewardship and why we need to examine how we need to. It says: this means that how you deal with what you got now is a preview of how you're going to deal with whatever you think you're going to have, and it says: underline that word Mammon. Write it down because I'm gonna teach you something. This is a vocabulary word of the day. If you have not been faithful in unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? Watch this. No servant, no person, no woman, no man can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other or he will be a paper chaser or a purpose chaser. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
Now, some of y'all are like okay, cool. Yeah. God and Mammon. Let me understand because a lot of people translate that you can't serve God and money but it's so much deeper than just money. You can't be a purpose chaser and a paper chaser. That word Mammon actually is an Aramaic word that Jesus uses and only one other time in the scripture like this to directly contrast himself to something else. Most stuff is not even worth contrasting to God. He said, I'm so much bigger than everything else that it's not even worth the comparison, but when it comes to this word Mammon, he directly wants us to know you cannot serve me and Mammon, so that means we need to know what Mammon is. It's an Aramaic word that means riches.
And in Syria, that was a Syrian God that people worshipped, so he was telling them you cannot worship the God of riches and the God of the universe. You cannot do it. And actually it came from Babylon, and Babylon comes from the Tower of Babel. Y'all remember that in Genesis 11 where there was a group of people that thought they could in their own power make it to heaven without God. And Babel, you need to remember what it is just say it a little differently. Babble on. Have you ever met someone who just Babels on. And the word means confusion or sown in confusion. Babylon was a group of people who felt like they could get to God on their own. Can I tell you what the spirit of Mammon is? The spirit of Mammon is a belief we don't need God if we have riches.
That's what I'm fighting in this series. God don't have no problem with paper. He has a problem with paper replacing him, and some of y'all as soon as you get the check you stop praying. And some of y'all as soon as God gave you the house, it was no longer holy. And as soon as God gave you the relationship, your relationship with him cut off. You have the spirit of Mammon. It believes that I can do it without God. It's an arrogant spirit. It's a prideful spirit. It's a spirit that's sitting right next to some of y'all as you're watching right now, and it looks to riches and money other than God.
Can I tell you something I found out firsthand? And I want you to write this down because I'm telling you from experience, Mammon promises everything only God can deliver. That spirit that comes on us to think we can make it if we have money, we can take care of everything, we can do everything we need to, we can handle our family, we can deal with crisis, God says that is not me. And that spirit promises what only God can give. It promises identity. If I got money, I'm somebody.
Oh, don't act like, y'all everybody know everybody time we get paid, how you feel after you check the account and you've got a fresh wig or a fresh haircut? You're like hey, nobody touch me. You fancy, huh? You fancy huh? I said hair done, nail done, everything. You feel so good, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but on that day, did you pray? Because two days later when you were scraping and eating Ramen Noodles you needed God. Ah. By that spirit of Mammon comes to say, if I got money, if I got things, it will give me identity. It tells us it will give us security. It promises what only God can give. It tells us it will give us significance.
My friends, I hope today's message helped you. And I am believing that something that was said today is going into your heart and it's going to produce much fruit. God wants you to step into purpose like never before and the reason you can step confidently is knowing God loves you, and even when you've been a paper chaser like I was, you can know God has a purpose for you. All you gotta do is repent or turn to him.
Remember, money is not the answer to your problems. God is always the answer to your problems. I am so grateful that you have joined us on this journey and I'm glad that we're going to keep going and progressing because we're going to live The Blessed Life together. I'm praying for you, and I want you to set your DVR and tell everybody it's time for us to transform. This is our time together to go to another level in God. Until next time, I'm Michael, and go out and live a transformed life.