Michael Todd - The Upgrade - Part 3
Hey, friends. I am so grateful that you're joining us today. And I got a question. Are you ready to receive God's powerful upgrade for your life? If so, I want you to stay tuned cause today we're talking about the Trinity and maybe like, you've never heard it before. God the Father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit. But the truth of the matter is we need all three. Think about this. If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to live out a victorious life on earth, I'm pretty sure we do too. Today I'm talking about the three persons of God. Let's get the upgrade.
Well today I want to welcome you to week three of a series we're calling, somebody help me "The upgrade", and if you feel what we feeling here right now, I'm already sweating. I've already come out of my glasses and I ain't even started nothing. But we need the power of the Holy Spirit to live our everyday lives. And what I've been tasked with bishop, what I've been tasked with Charles, is I want to take away the miscommunication or the misrepresentation of the Holy Spirit. Like my job, can I be very frank with you guys? Can I be frank? I need to take the fear out of the Holy Spirit. Because you flee from what you feel, and because many of us has feared what would happen if the Holy Spirit took over we have fled from him but that is the very thing that gives us power to live an overcoming Christian life.
The reason why you're still struggling with the addictions is because you've shut up the Holy Spirit in your life. Today I want to take away the mystery and I want to take, no we can't take away the mystery cause we're not even going to understand all of it. But I want to take a way, the misunderstandings and more than anything, the fear of the Holy Spirit. Can you write down my first point real quick? The Holy Spirit is your friend and he's not weird. I have to be this practical with the point because everybody needs to understand no matter what your big mama did and no matter what they did at that one church or no matter those people who brought pets in and started doing stuff with snakes that ain't the Holy Spirit. And some of us equate that with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is my friend. Somebody say, "The Holy Spirit is my friend".
And watch this. He's not weird. Can I tell you the truth about it. The people are weird and can I be very frank? They will be weird with, or without the Holy Spirit. People are weird, let me tell you, I heard this poll that it said one in three people are weird. So look to your left and look to your right. If neither one of them look weird, it's you I'm just playing. The actual statistic is one in two. But anyway, but what I'm saying to you is the Holy Spirit is not weird. He's a gentleman. And can I say something else? He's not forceful. He's faithful. He's not about to force his way in the reason why I'm up here sweating. And I'm begging you to accept the person of the Holy Spirit is because he not going to force his way in. He's a gentleman. He's going to stand at the door of your life and he's going to knock and he's going to be faithful. He's going to keep knocking.
When you was at that job, he knocked. When you were with that group of friends he knocked, when you were in jail, he knocked. And when you were in the penthouse, he knocked. He's been knocking at the door of your heart and the door of your life. And he say, "Will you let me in"? He is faithful but he's not forceful. And this is where a lot of believers like, "Well if God wants to do something, just tell him to take over". The greatest thing that God gave all of us. And you see it traced all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden is choice. The reason why God gave us choice is because he did not want to be worshiped by robots. Robots don't have a choice. Let me say very clearly, it can't be love, if you can't choose. If the person you're in relationship with didn't choose to love you. You wouldn't want that unauthentic relationship and God wants a real or an authenticated relationship with you. So he has to put on the table, the option.
That's why Adam and Eve, somebody once told me like "Why didn't he just take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil out of the garden"? Because that would have negated love out of their relationship. Cause they had to choose to obey him. They had to choose to love him. And that's where God is saying to you, "Choose the Holy Spirit, choose the upgrade". And I don't know maybe you're like the people that that are listening right now. There's three types of people that are listening. See, we're on week three, everybody say, "Week three". So we have weeded out all the people who don't really want to go to the next level now. The only people that are on and watching this and re-watching this is the people that really want to check in to the upgrade. Isn't statistically known from the people in the data that we get that in the first two weeks of the series, that's when the crowd is there. They trying to see what it is. But once we get into it, then we'll know by week three who's about to actually progress in their journey through this topic.
And so I just want to, can we give it up for everybody who is a part of service today? Come on, in the chat I want you to give some claps. Because you're willing to transform. And today I didn't come to play with the revelation. I got to go deep with it today. So I need you to understand where we are and what we're doing. And if you haven't watched the other two I want you to go back and get them. But today everybody's saying, "We're going to the deep". The only reason we can go to the deep because we know at transformation church the word of the year is, anchor. And if we're going to be anchored you don't need an anchor in shallow water. So God has told us to go to the deep. So today we're going to the deep.
And now three types of people that are watching and participating in this series. When the Holy Spirit is knocking on your life, I want to know, are you a door shutter? You all know what a door shutter is, right? You know, when somebody comes to visit your house or to deliver a package or try to come sell you something you don't even go to the door to figure out who it is. You say the door's shut. Leave it at the door. I'll get it when I want to, but I'm not going to have any interaction with that person or these people. And the crazy thing about it is that's what some people have done to the door of their life and the room, the house of their life. As the Holy Spirit through this series is trying to come knock on the door. Let me give you a picture of it right now. This is the door of your life. And the Holy Spirit is trying to deliver some gifts to you. He's trying to give you something and he knocks on the door of your life.
Is somebody at the door? I'm sleep. I'm not, I ain't, the upgrade. Oh no, I ain't open the door for him. He been chasing me down since I was in high school. No, that's mm mm I'm not here. Nah, oh shoot. He keep coming back. It's been six days, he'd been trying to let me see if it's the same one. Oh, that's him, that's him, that's him. And the crazy thing about it is this will be the picture of your life for the next decade. Every day the Holy Spirit is coming through television, through books, through Instagram posts, through friends, through people. He's trying to get your attention. He's knocking at the door of your heart. He's trying to lead you to Jesus. But the problem is you're a door shutter. And the problem is that the gifts that he has for you are going to transform your life.
So you can't see them from the outside right now but he has gifts that will change the quality of everything around you, but you have to open the door. And the problem is spiritually, so many of you have been shut off. Maybe because of tradition, maybe because of religion maybe because of even hurt. But today I'm asking you don't be a door shutter. Don't keep the only one who can come and clean your house out of your house. The only one that can come and repair what's broken. You've tried out alcohol, you've tried sex, you tried success, you've tried notoriety, and none of them can fix the walls of your emotions. But the Holy Spirit is knocking at the door and you still ignoring him. But see, that's not the only person watching. That's the only one type of person.
There's some other people that are watching today. And some of you all are what I call. Your door openers but you're not like go actually open to let him in, your door blockers. So the Holy Spirit comes to your door. Hold up, I'm coming. Hold on, hold on, hold on I got Instagram. I got friends, I got family. It ain't my priority, I'm coming, I promise I'm coming. Let me go, hold on. You all hold on one second. Cause I'll be right back. I'm on alive. Hold on let me go answer the door real quick. Hello. And what you do is you stand in the door. You're letting them know you're letting the Holy Spirit know very clearly, "I'm here, but you ain't getting in".
This is what I call the lukewarm Christian. I need you to see this. I need you to see this that you'll stay in here all day and you'll listen. "Oh really? Oh, you want to help"? Okay, that's great. No, no, no, no. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, yeah. I'll go to service. I'll watch online. I'll post scriptures. That's awesome. I still go club on the weekends. Oh really? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I'll make other things a priority. No, that's really cool that you would like to come in. But I really know that right here is kind of where I want our relationship to stay. And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. To my family members who are less saved I'll quote scriptures, but to my friends and family who still like to turn up I don't want to be fake around them. So I'll just stay in this lukewarm door blocking situation.
And what God is saying to us as a church is how long will we keep the Holy Spirit at the door? How long will you stay lukewarm in your pursuit of God? How long will you be able to act like he's the Lord but he's actually just an option. And the Holy Spirit continues to come in and he's trying to let you know that he has something for you but he's a gentleman. He's not going to be forceful, he's going to be faithful. And there's other people that are watching today. And these my type of people, these are the people that when the Holy Spirit knocks, they anticipating the knock "You, oh, how are you doing? Holy Spirit"? You are the ones who are door openers, "Come in, come on in, do whatever you want to do. Matter of fact, do you need something I'm at your service"?
And when he comes back the next day, come on. When he comes back the next day, oh, the door's open. "Come on in the Holy Spirit". And when he comes with another package and when he tries to come through the door is open, he already knows. He already knows. My question to you is will you be one that says this one phrase by the end of this series, welcome Holy Spirit. See the person who is the door shutter and the person who's the door blocker. They're not saying welcome. Only the person who is the door opener and what God has put a burden on my heart. That every person in this whole world that watches this would say if somebody just say, "Welcome Holy Spirit". The crazy thing about when you welcome somebody, watch this. You have to move out of the way. There's people that until you move out of the way and say, "God, whatever you want to do".
You have to move your pride. You have to move tradition. You have to move religion. You have to move, being able to try to figure it out and explain everything. Somebody just say, "Welcome Holy Spirit". And I'm not telling you which one you are today. But if you are a door shutter or a door blocker, it's time for you to get an upgrade revelation so that you can welcome the Holy Spirit into your life. This is week three of the series. And I say, "God, so how do you want me to help help them get a welcome"? You all know those people, you don't want to come to the house. Come on, let's be honest, like you made a date and you told them you was, they could come over. And then when they show up, you like, patter! I wonder is that how the Holy Spirit feels in your life? That today you're saying, "Holy Spirit, you are welcome here".
And tomorrow when he tells you, don't go on that lunch date, patter! "Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere". Don't go on that vacation. I planned this pre-pandemic. And this is a year after I thought I was, patter! And the Holy Spirit's saying to you today, "It doesn't matter how you feel about it, welcome me in cause I need something that I can own. There is something that only I can fix". And I'm just been hearing the Holy Spirit say, "I can fix, I can fix that, I can fix that". Say it with me, I can fix you can't but he can. And as I was looking at this, God said, "Michael I want you to stay on the number three today". And I said, "Okay, this is week three of the series". There's a fact that three is the biblical number of harmony completeness and God's presence. God is three in one, go back and watch the past two series. You'll find that out.
When Jesus was born in the manger, they brought three gifts. Jesus lived 33 years. And Jesus rose on the third day. What I found is you need all three. The title of my message today is you need all 3 say that with me, you need all 3. That's going to make a lot of sense here in just a minute. When I found out about the Holy Spirit and I started to really understand you need all three persons of God you need God the Father, God the Son that's Jesus and God, Holy Spirit. Somebody say, "You need all three". And as I begin to drill down on the Holy Spirit and go deeper, I found out that there's three things that the Holy Spirit has been commissioned initially to do in our lives. I want you to go to John 16:8 we're just going to get to know about the Holy Spirit today.
Okay, John 16:8 and it says, "And when he comes the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment". And the reason why I put this here is because in our day and age, we have a bad view of the word convict. Anytime you hear the word convict you think it's a bad thing. It's like, oh, they got convicted or not. But let me redeem that word for you. Another word that could help you real quick is convince. The Holy Spirit's job is to convince you of these three things. The first thing the Holy Spirit is trying to convince you is that you have sin and you need a Savior. You never ask for somebody to fix something that you don't think is broken.
There are some of you all right now in your homes. There are things that broken, but you have jar lid them so long that you don't even think that they broken no more. It's not until somebody else comes in and says, "You know that ain't supposed to work like that". You'd be like, "Man, it's been like that for six years". The Holy Spirit is trying to convince you of your sin and trying to lead you to a Savior. The second thing that the Holy Spirit, I want you to understand these foundational things, cause let me just give you scripture 1 Corinthians 12:3 it says, "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit".
You meet the Holy Spirit before you meet anybody else in the Trinity. He's trying to draw you from a young age. He's trying to say, and you'd be like, something told me that was the Holy Spirit. I just felt that was the Holy Spirit. I don't even know why that was the Holy Spirit. And what he's trying to do is lead you to Jesus. The second job of the Holy Spirit. And I like this one is to convince you that we are the righteousness of Christ. See, this one is a hard thing to believe that when you get saved by faith, after he does the first thing and convinces you, you have sinned and you need a Savior. Then he's going to convince you that hey, you're righteous, you're in right standing with God "No, man, I messed up again". No, I'm telling you what Jesus did for the propitiation of your sins.
There is nothing you can do, "But God, I looked at it again". There's nothing you can do. The Holy Spirit is fighting your own thoughts about your salvation. Do you know how many days the Holy Spirit has to remind me that God called me to be the pastor of transformation church and I didn't call myself. He was convincing me. I was a bad dad this week. I wasn't a present husband this week, or I didn't do enough this week. And the Holy Spirit said, "Boy, snap out of it".
When you gave your life by faith to Jesus you have been made righteous. Now watch this, not by performance by position. And any other foundation that you've built your life on, other than that is a toxic theology. Well, now I need to do this so God will accept me. When you put your life in his hands by faith, your eternity was secured. Now you got to figure out how to live. And the Holy Spirit knew that we would doubt ourselves that we were down ourself that we would listen to the lies of the enemy. So the Holy Spirit's second job is to convince you that you have been made right with God. No, you've been made right with God. No, I know you messed up, but you are right with God. Like I know you got drunk last night but you are right with God.
When you repent, when you turn, you are right with God. And I know this is Messing with some people's religion because at your church they kept you coming back to God through manipulation. So they made you think that every bad thing that you did meant that you needed to redo every good thing that you've done. But what that is, is demonic. What Christ said was, "Any man that be in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away". Behold, tar aa, abracadabra, everything has become new. And now we have to be regenerated or or transformed into the image of Christ. But my eternity is secure when I put my faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is trying to convince me, you need a Savior cause you're a sinner. But after you put your faith in him, you're right. You're in right standing with God. That's the second job.
Can I tell you the third job? The reason I'm going so lineup online and systematic is so many people have been robbed of these truths and they lived their life trying to earn what has already been freely given. And this is the third job of the Holy Spirit is to convince us that Satan has been defeated. We give the enemy so much dead on credit. Well, what if the enemy f him... Forget him. Thank you, mom all I'm saying to you is that the Holy Spirit was there when he fell like lightning. The Holy Spirit was there when Jesus went down. Remember three in one, he went down and snatched the keys of death hell and the grave. The Holy Spirit knows he's like, "The enemy ain't got no power over you".