Michael Todd - More Contagious Than Corona
Well, is anybody ready for the Word this morning? I’m excited about what God is going to do, and I want to let you know that our church really is built for this. A little over five years ago, I became the senior leader, along with my wife, of Transformation Church. For some reason, God told me that my first act, budget-wise, was to buy new cameras. Some of the people in this room, including some of our lead team, were there when we didn’t have any cameras. I felt like the Holy Spirit said to buy cameras, and people left the church over it.
We spent $80,000 on new cameras, and many of the messages that you watch during the week were filmed on cameras that we bought in faith. This teaches me about God’s goodness when we sit in moments like this, in an arena that God provided for us, which can fit 5,000 people. Less than 200 people are in this room right now, but this is going to the entire world because of the faithfulness of a few. So, for every volunteer, for every person who’s ever given, for everybody who usually works the parking lot but couldn’t come today, I just want to say thank you. Oh, come on! Even if you don’t know them, they’re helping make this happen. Let’s give God praise! I love you and I miss being able to hug your neck, but we’re going to be back as soon as they tell us it’s okay. But that isn’t going to stop this Word from coming forth today.
So, you can text a friend and tell them we’re live right now because we are starting week five of a series that we’ve been calling «Help Me Secure the Bag.» And someone might say, «Mike, shouldn’t you talk about something else instead of 'securing the bag'?» I believe God gave me this message for this day. God knows; He’s not surprised by anything. This is not a shock to Him, and I thought about switching it up, but He said, «No, no, no! I put you on assignment.» What people don’t understand is that this whole thing about generosity and giving really tests you in a season where anxiety tries to make you selfish. Uh-huh. It’s in a season where people fight over little things to test you.
If you’re fighting over tissue, what will you do over real money? God said, «See, Michael, this is all about who people’s provider is right now.» Because we’re out of hand sanitizer, tissue, and stuff like that, people are now becoming their own providers. They said the reason we are talking about stewardship and generosity right when a crisis hits is that this will prove who you trust. I’m coming for you right to your house, in your living room, in your lazy boy. Do you hear me? Who do you trust? I want to let you know that as a church, we’re going to trust God.
When I look through the Scriptures, I see that every famine, every economic downturn, every plague, and every disease could not shake the people of God; they were sustained through every season that the world faced because they put their trust in Him. So, I want you to declare this with your mouth: say, «My trust is in the Lord.» Say it one more time, because some of you are still trying to believe it: «My trust is in the Lord.» The third time’s the charm—say it with all your might: «My trust is in the Lord!» You’re going to have to remind yourself of that every day. You must believe it even when it doesn’t look like it, because when your trust is in the Lord, you are secure.
The whole reason we call this «secure the bag» is that people think they really have to secure the bag themselves. But when you are secured by God, you trust God, and He secures everything about you. This is not just true when things are good; it holds even in this moment right now. Church, do you know that this is the greatest opportunity for us to rise up and truly make a difference? If you respond the same way all your unsaved friends do, you’re not worried about Corona, you’re drinking Corona because you’re worried too! Some of you have been on the Corona. What I’m telling you is we have to respond differently, and you can only do that when you are absolutely resolute in your trust in the Lord.
So today, the title of my message is «More Contagious Than Corona.» Yes, I want to tell you and talk to you about something that’s more contagious than any virus and more transformative than anything transmitted. Uh-huh, okay, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you: do you know what’s more contagious than Corona? It’s extravagant generosity. When people start giving to others, it’s more contagious than any disease.
Do you know why? The opposite is happening even when this plan, Dimmick, is in motion. The enemy wants everyone to withhold and share nothing. That is the opposite of the Spirit of God. He wants people to share; he wants people to give. And what’s happening is that the spirit of fear is trying to grip people.
Let me help everyone understand this whole concept of fear, because fear is different from the spirit of fear. I’m going to teach you something. Fear is a natural emotion we experience. If someone jumped out from behind me unexpectedly, I would feel an emotion of fear. The spirit of fear, however, is the constant anticipation that someone might jump out to scare me, dominating my thoughts to the point where it affects my actions.
Right now, many of us are operating in the spirit of fear, playing out scenarios that will never happen, and it’s dominating our actions and ideas. I went to a quick trip gas station to get something to drink, and there were 70 people in line for the ATM—70 people! The line stretched from one side of the quick trip to the other because the spirit of fear had taken hold. It whispered, «You won’t have access to any money. Withdraw everything right now, or you’ll be stuck!»
But it’s not about the money itself; it’s about the spirit. I came to bind the spirit of fear. God has not given us that spirit; He has given us different spirits: love, power, and a sound mind. That’s why I’m passionately preaching this to you today. What’s more contagious than coronavirus? It’s extravagant generosity! In this season of scarcity, I believe God is challenging the church to be extravagant in giving. I don’t mean Transformation Church as an organization, but the church as an organism. You need to listen to what God tells you to do when you walk into a store. You need to be attentive when God says, «Bless them.»
There you are, thinking, «No, no, no! I came in here for the last roll of toilet paper,» and then God says, «Give it to her right now.» That’s extravagant generosity! God asks, «Do I have your heart?» Many times, He does not have your hand because He does not have your heart. That’s why I want us to reach this place of understanding.
I genuinely pray for this because the church has not reached the point of extreme generosity in our own lives. We, as a church, gave away three hundred thousand dollars during the month of generosity, but did you feel it? After we did this as an example, did you feel the urge to bless someone in your sphere of influence? The truth is, we would rather the organization do it than the organism. God says that’s why I can’t bless you with everything I have for you. If I give it to you, you’ll become a reservoir instead of a river. I’m looking for someone through whom I can pass blessings to make My name great.
But that means we have to elevate ourselves. Somebody say, «Level up!» Yeah, I think Prophetess Sierra had it right when she said we need to level up. We must rise above this low level of giving and helping people, where the mindset is, «That’ll do. You can have that.» We start to judge who deserves our generosity. The truth is we often give to those less fortunate than ourselves, but what happens when God tells you to give to someone who has more than you?
You might think, «Why should I give to them?» But God says, «See, I couldn’t trust you. I wanted to take you to the next level of extravagant generosity, but you’re stuck at this low level.» I’m here to help everyone level up and realize this higher level of generosity. Anytime you’re about to rise to another level, you have to be exposed to that level. That’s why I’m sharing this.
Some of the greatest lessons I learned came from exposure. I thank God for my parents; you saw my mom up here praying with fiery passion a minute ago. I received that same energy from her. My parents had five boys and always ensured we were exposed to new experiences. We traveled all over the country. When they were discussing Mount Rushmore in school, I had seen it twice!
My parents took us to wealthy neighborhoods, and we’d play a game called, «That’s my house.» I later realized they were trying to keep us entertained without taking us to Chuck E. Cheese. We had so much fun driving through affluent areas, shouting, «That’s my house!» By the time I was 19 or 20, I thought I had seen some nice houses. Then we pulled up to this compound— the driveway was two to four miles long, with a limousine out front, like one of those Reader’s Digest cover photos.
We walked up to a nine-car garage with every car painted white. The garage had chandeliers and wallpaper. I turned left to see a master bedroom attached to a two-car garage with a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce sitting there. I was overwhelmed! You know that feeling when you try to act calm, but inside, you’re like, «What is this?» The master bedroom was 10,000 square feet! I don’t know how big your whole house is, but that master bedroom was two stories and immense, complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool!
I didn’t want to go back home after experiencing that! What I realized was that everything I had seen up to that point was at a low level. My exposure to something higher enabled me to desire more. In this series about stewardship and generosity, the goal isn’t simply to start tithing. The goal is to reach extreme generosity. When God looks for someone to bless, may you raise your hand and say, «Pick me! Let me and my family change someone else’s family!»
I believe the church has been stuck in a poverty mindset regarding generosity. Today, I’m going to guide us to understand that there are levels to generosity and it begins with understanding God’s Word concerning finances, generosity, and stewardship. As a pastor, I strive to be clear. I want to share a revelation about Malachi chapter 3, one of the most famous Scriptures pastors use to discuss tithes and offerings, but it’s often misused.
In prayer, God revealed to me that I was teaching it incorrectly and needed to repent. When was the last time you heard a pastor say that? He told me, «You’ve misinterpreted My intent behind the Scripture.» That misunderstanding is why people shy away from church— they think I want something from them, but I don’t. If you teach that again, we will have words, and I don’t want that!
I want us to look at this more deeply. Many people interpret Malachi 3 to mean that if you don’t give your tithe and offerings, you’re robbing God of money. That’s what I thought for a long time, but God said, «You’ve misunderstood. What you’re doing when you don’t give is that you’re robbing Me of an opportunity to bless you.»
So write this down: Don’t rob God of an opportunity to bless you. God doesn’t need your money; you need to give it. Every time you give or return the tithe, you open the door for God to bless you. With that revelation, I want to read Malachi 3 again. I hope you find enlightenment because this is not about God extracting something from you; it’s about God creating a system that allows you to receive blessings whenever you choose to obey His Word.
In Malachi chapter 3, He essentially says, «I want to bless you! I want to open the windows of heaven, but you’re not following My way.» Don’t rob Him of those opportunities! It says, «Will a man rob God of an opportunity to bless him? Yet you have robbed Me of many opportunities to bless you.» But you say, «How have we robbed you?» In tithes and offerings.
See, the concept of tithing and offerings isn’t for God’s sake; it’s for ours! If God wants to get something done in the earth, He can use anything. Was our money around when He created the heavens and the earth? No! It’s not about the money; it’s about the opportunity to bless you. I’m sorry, but the text you provided is too lengthy for me to process all at once. However, I can help you correct a portion of it if you provide a smaller excerpt. Please share a smaller section and I’ll be happy to assist with grammar, spelling, and punctuation corrections!
Sound like what we tell God—this is all we’ve got. Yeah, I think, okay, once we show Jesus this is all we’ve got, He’s definitely going to dismiss everybody and tell them to go into the house. And look what it says: love the Bible! They said, «We have no more than five loaves and two fish unless you want us to go buy food for all the people.»
See, they were at a low level. God could have asked them to go buy food for the people, but they said it sarcastically. They didn’t actually want to meet the people’s needs; they wanted the people to go away so their needs could be met. What would happen if the church started worrying about our needs getting met and we were able to be ones to meet other people’s needs? That’s why we have to get to the level of extreme generosity, because if we don’t, we’re only worried about ourselves. So He said, «Unless you want us to go buy food for all these people, this is all we’ve got.»
Look what Jesus said! He’s so bold. There were about 5,000 men and 20,000 people, and He said, «Yeah, okay.» I think Jesus was thinking at this moment, and the guy speaking to Him, a disciple, was probably like, «That just makes sense. We don’t have enough; there are tons of people. He’s going to dismiss it; it just makes sense.» But the thing you have to understand is that tithing and giving offerings doesn’t make sense; it creates miracles. What God was trying to do was create a miracle while the disciples were trying to make sense of it all. You could even take it further: dollars and cents—we’re always trying to make dollars and cents while God’s trying to create a miracle. Somebody say miracle! And then He said to the disciples, «That’s enough; what you have is enough.»
I came to tell you, working at that job at minimum wage, it’s enough. With you on government assistance, somebody help me say it’s enough. With all the bills you have, and all the mistakes you’ve made, and the grace that God has carried you through all that stuff, He says it’s still enough. And then He tells them to do something that most of us won’t have the audacity to do: He says, «Yeah, tell the people to sit down in groups of 50.» He said, «I want you to organize what doesn’t seem like enough.» Some of you right now, God is asking you not to figure out how it’s all going to work out; He’s like, «Get the bills in order.» He’s like, «Know how much you actually owe.»
Do you know when you’ll be out of your car payment? Do you know how much you have to pay to be out of your school loan? Do you know what your kid needs? Do you know what you need to fix your credit when your parents used your name when you were young to get ahead and they messed it up? Get in order what seems to be enough. He says, «Make them sit down in groups of 50, and then a miracle is about to happen.» Up until a couple of years ago, I thought the miracle happened when Jesus was hanging; remember how we just go, «Then He took the two fish and the five loaves, and He blessed it, and He broke it»? I saw something I’ve never seen before.
Look at verse 16: «Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, He blessed them.» How do our finances get blessed? When we tithe, He blessed it. Then He broke it, and then He gave them a portion back—not the whole thing. He kept the tithe and gave them 90% back, and He told them to go now and give it away. He said, «Give Me what you’ve got, and I’m going to bless it. When you tithe, I’m going to give you back ninety percent with My blessing on it, and now I’m going to challenge you to level up.»
Everybody say level up! In the midst of a crisis, in the midst of a downturn, in the midst of everyone scared, He said, «Level up!» This is when the Church of Jesus Christ stands up; this is when we become the ones who change everything. He said, «Now I want you to give it away. Go give an offering!» I bet the disciples were mad because they were hungry, and I can imagine that they were tempted to eat what they were supposed to give away. They were tempted to not be generous but to eat for themselves. But God said if they would have eaten it, it would have never multiplied. I’m just trying to walk you through the Scriptures.
So what happens is He tells them to go give it to the people, and I can see them going over there scared: «Take just a little. Take just a little.» I said, «Take just a little with your greedy self.» Just imagine it, because that’s how we do. A family member needs some help? «You better pay me back tomorrow!» Oh, come on! You’re still mad at people who owe you ten dollars from high school! «Take just a little!» But God said when you get to the level of giving it away, I can see the disciple at the very last minute when there’s nothing but a crumb left. He says, «Go ahead and take just a little,» and in his hand, it multiplies. Did y’all see?
I looked at the account yesterday, and there was nothing in it, but I got a refund from something I forgot I even did. The thing I thought I was going to have to pay for wasn’t broken; it was just a cord that needed to be switched around, and they did it for free. They walk over, and they’re like, «Take some! Take some!» Attitudes start to change when you know you aren’t the supplier. The way that you give changes when you know you don’t have to provide for it. He’s probably like, «Take something!» And then they start getting into it: «Bread! Bread on top! Anybody want some bread?»
Do you understand what I’m saying? People start—because the same God that multiplied it when it was just a little bit is the same God who’s going to do it if you give it away. That’s why I want you to understand that’s why we have to tithe, because if we tithe, it gives us access to give offerings. When we give offerings, it multiplies and gives us enough resources to go to the last level. And when we go to the last level, I love the last level, and I hate the last level, because the last level is sacrificial offerings. I thought you said it was extravagant generosity? It is! Because you go from tithe to offering to sacrificial offerings.
These are offerings that hurt. These are the offerings that you fast and give. These are those moments of generosity where your body starts telling you you’re making a wrong decision, but you know in your heart that God told you this is what you were supposed to do. But understand, it’s extravagant generosity for the one receiving it, but it’s a sacrificial offering for the one giving it. And what God is saying is, «I want every one of My children to live here.» Let’s stop talking about this low-level stuff: «Oh, you just want the table; you just want to offer.»
No, baby! These are prerequisites. You don’t play Mario Brothers and get to level seven without going through levels one, two, three, four, five, and six! God’s saying, «My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray.» They just want healing in an area of their body, but they need healing in the area of their mind so they can understand that when you do it My way, and you start to be generous, then I get to use you as a blessing to the whole world. What would happen right now if the church stood up together and gave five billion dollars towards the cure for COVID-19? Y’all can’t even clap for it because it’s so far from where we’re trying to convince people.
Do you know that out of the entire world, seven percent of people who call themselves Christians tithe? Seven percent! So, if seven percent of every person in every denomination that calls themselves Christians tithe, do you know how small the number is of people that live here? And I just wanted to come and tell Transformation Church and Transformation Nation, this is where we’re going to camp out. Y’all didn’t hear me! Nobody has the faith to believe me, but we will be a church that lives at the place of sacrificial offerings and extravagant gifts.
I want to tell you that I’m not asking you to do that; I’m leading you in it. I’m going to be real—real. Is it okay if I get really real right now? At the end of the year, we had this thing called the Crazy Faith Offering, and many of us participated in it, and because of everybody’s generosity, we were able to pay off this building! We paid off this building! Yeah, you can give God praise right now! For everybody who hasn’t been here, this building was built for 54 million dollars; we got it for 10.5 million dollars, and we paid it off in seven months! God! But why would God allow us to do that if we weren’t going to live at this level?
So some of your bills are because that’s where you have faith to live. Some of your deficits—God’s saying, «Could I get you to be exposed to a different level?» So God talked to me. He said, «Michael, this is going to be the most sacrificial offering you’ve ever given in your life,» and I was like, «Lord, I really would like you to prepare me for what you’re about to do.» He said, «I’ll tell you.» So I’m praying, I’m seeking God, and God tells me a number, and He says, «Go tell your wife.» At home, I knew by my wife’s response that it was God because she freaked out! Because the sacrificial offering is not something you give that feels comfortable. Oh, see, I forgot—y’all don’t know what sacrifice is!
See, like that extravagant thing—it’s like when David gave the equivalent of 21 billion dollars for a temple he would never see built! His son Solomon was going to build the temple. When it was customary for the king to sacrifice one bull, he gave an extravagant offering or a sacrificial offering. And where their requirement was one, he sacrificed a thousand. There was a woman in the Bible who gave her whole year’s wages of oil and poured it on Jesus’s feet, and the disciples were like, «Y’all should use that for the poor,» and He said, «Y’all better shut up, because this is the only anointing I’m going to get before I go to the cross.»
And the greatest sacrificial gift that was ever given was Jesus, and He was given for us on a maybe! See, the thing that God wants you to understand is it may hurt a little bit, but it’s going to produce the most transformation. So I’m sitting here; I tell my wife what I believe God told us to give. In this year’s offering, she said, «Mike, that’s the devil.» I said, «It can’t be the devil, because the devil has never told anybody to give anything; he only tells people to take.» So me and my wife, for six, seven days, there was tension because I felt like we were supposed to give this amount. But there’s got to be agreement; there’s got to be unity there, because this is my money; this is our money! Seriously! We’d be walking around the kitchen, shouting, «Are you sure?» He’d say, «Okay, no, He couldn’t have said that because we were looking at everything we’ve got going on.» The Holy Spirit said, «Trust Me.» So I said, «I’ll count my trust.»
Let me tell you about the sacrificial gift. On the third day, I go to pray, and He said, «Oh, and by the way, I want you to help that person you’ve been trying to help.» I want you to buy them a car too. «No, no, God; you already know I’m struggling with this! You already know I’m about to give this amount, and now you want us to give a part?» He said, «Do you remember what I’ve done for you in the past?» I went down memory lane just that fast! Because in 2018, God allowed me—some of y’all were there—to give away my Land Rover. I gave away my Land Rover and went without a car for seven months. Then God said, «Hey, I’m going to bless you with a car.» Somebody gave me a new Mercedes, and I got the Mercedes the day they handed me the keys with no payment!
God said, «You’re going to give that one away too.» Because what’s more contagious than generosity—even more contagious than Corona—is generosity! Another person saw that they were giving their car away, and they gave their car away to someone in that same service. And then I gave the Mercedes away last year, and God says, «I’ve given you vehicles to give away; now I’m asking you to give away another one.» And you want to stop Me from having the opportunity to bless you? Okay! I said, «No, no, let me go talk to Natalie.» What, matter of fact, could you talk to Natalie? Yes, I’ve been having some trouble in this area! I’m telling you, the day before the offering, my wife came up to me and she said, «Michael, I don’t know how this is all going to work out, but I trust you. You’ve led this household strong, and I believe if that’s what you’re telling me God told you to give, we’re going to give.»
Now, the reason I’m telling you this story is because of what happened next. What happened next? We’re in the moment of generosity; the bucket is right down here. I have only told two people this story, and I wrote that check with tears in my eyes. I wasn’t crying because I was happy about giving; I was crying because I was sad. But you don’t have to feel it to obey. Oh, let me help you—you don’t have to feel it to obey what God said. I walked off this stage, and my security guy said, «There’s a guy here who wants you to pray over his offering.» I was like, «Okay, let me go give my offering,» and walked down with Bella and my wife. I said, «Father, I’m trusting You with everything, because this is the most sacrificial offering we’ve ever given.»
We dropped it in the bucket, and it felt like power left me. You know how in one of those Space Jam movies, the character loses all their powers? I felt it. I’m just being real. But then God told me, «You just matured, Michael. You went from a low level of just being happy to tithe, moved into offerings, and now you’re at the level where anytime I ask you, at any time I put it on your heart, you’ll give a sacrificial offering.» I turned around, kissed my wife, and this is what I call the 60-second miracle. It wasn’t even one minute later.
As I turned around to come back on the stage, Kordell and Scott were with me, and I stood to pray for this guy. I was like, «What are you believing God for?» He said, «I’m just believing that this will be my month for my business.» I said, «Let’s pray.» I prayed, «God bless this man,» and then I was like, «Let’s go give it together.» He said, «No, no, no, this is for you.» I said, «What do you mean?» He said, «I flew here from the East Coast because three weeks ago the Holy Spirit told me I was supposed to give you a crazy faith offering, but then I was supposed to give above that and give this specifically to you.» I said, «Oh man, God bless you, thank you,» and hugged him. I went to the back, came up here, finished the service, got in my car to go home, and the Holy Spirit said, «Open that envelope.» Not only was it the amount that I gave, but thirty percent more than what I gave, one minute after I gave.
Now, you don’t have to rejoice with me, but what it told me is that God was not concerned about the money; He was concerned about the obedience. He didn’t let me go without it for 60 seconds. I’m believing that for some of you, you thought you were letting it go for a long time. God said, «I’m not trying to get it from you; I’m trying to get it to you.» But if I had not obeyed God, I would have stopped God from the opportunity to bless me. Why are you sharing that, Mike? Because somebody needs to hear me say this. As we are in a time where everybody’s trying to preserve for themselves and hoard for themselves, the Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to walk in extreme generosity, extravagant giving, and sacrificial offerings.
I wish the story had to stop there, but it didn’t. Y’all remember he told me to give a car away? So I called the person from whom I could get the car, and I said, «Hey, I’m trying to get this single mother a car. Could you help me find one?» He said, «You know what? My wife and I just finished talking about how we need to give away a car from our dealership.» He said, «I have a car we’re going to give. Don’t even worry about it.» I said, «Hold on a minute,» and somehow we lost connection. He called me back and said, «Hey, my daughter overheard us talking. I was going to give you this type of car, but she has a brand-new car with leather interior, and the Holy Spirit had been talking to her about giving her car away. She wants to give that single mother her actual car.»
I said, «What are you saying to me?» He said, «That sits at six o’clock tonight. Come pick it up because it’s yours.» He walked up and gave us a 2013 car—low miles, everything fixed on it—and I was able to present it to a single mother. Why? I don’t want you to miss this because God didn’t even want to use my money; He just wanted to use my obedience. At the moment I decided in my heart that I was going to give that sacrificial offering, He already had everything lined up for it. It wouldn’t take a cent out of my account, but I was able to give it to her.
What are you saying, Pastor Mike? If God can get it through you, He’ll get it to you. We’ve been operating at a low-level church; we need to tithe. This is the end of this series. We need to tithe because if we tithe, we move to the next level of giving offerings and obeying God when He says, «Give the fifty, give the hundred, give the thousand, give the two thousand.» Hey, don’t worry. This is not about the tune-off; we’re not taking an offering today. This message is not meant to condemn anybody, but if you feel conviction, the Bible says conviction comes from the Holy Spirit. We’re not going to ask anybody to do anything, but if you feel God’s saying something to you, it’s between you and God. But what I want every person to do is look at me. I want you to live. I want you to take steps.
Some of you are over here saying, «Pastor Mike, I don’t know how to get there.» All I’m asking you to do is make the next step. If you’ve never tithed before, start. If you’ve never given an offering before, start. If you’ve never done a sacrificial offering before, start. Because when we get here, the world’s going to stand up and call this place. Can you do something for me right now? Everybody that’s watching online, will you stand up? Everybody just stand up. Come on, just stand up wherever you are. If you can’t, I want you to stand, because I want you to see what God is doing. He’s trying to allow this to be contagious. He wants this moment of generosity to be more contagious than coronavirus.
Who can you bless this week? Who can you buy toilet paper for? Who can you pay a bill for? What can you do? Don’t buy the shoes; pay somebody’s gas bill. What can you do this month, this week, today, to be generous, and come to a place where God says, «Now I can get them so much more»? I was able to give that young lady a car because I made it up in my heart to be sacrificially generous. You get it to me, God; you can get it. Then it became a thing of our church. On that last Sunday, we gave away 1.2 million dollars. People started being blessed by that. But y’all know because generosity is more contagious than the coronavirus. It just started happening everywhere—stuff we couldn’t report to you at the beginning of this series.
I called a young lady up here who said she only had $25 to her name, and I used her as an example. By the time she walked out the door, she sent me a text message saying Transformation Church had given her $3,000, because generosity is more contagious than anything. The lady last week who needed a van for her special needs son, whose van had been broken, was on the news. We saw that and we gave her $10,000. When she got to the car dealership, they gave her all the work for wholesale prices so she could keep some of the money. Then, when it came time for the title and the tag, the person doing it pulled out their personal checkbook and wrote the money for the title and tag. Y’all don’t hear me because giving is more contagious.
Today, as we stand at the precipice of church being done a completely different way, there are churches right now that may have older congregations or didn’t have the finances to do the technology, and they’re struggling right now. We want to be a church that gives a sacrificial offering to help some churches make it through this moment. This week, I heard about two. We’re going to do something about it as an organization. There’s a church in Tennessee, Venue Church, whose pastor called me earlier this week and said, «I don’t know what to do. We’re going to try to get the stuff together.» They were able to make it happen because their city told them they couldn’t meet with more than 250 people.
So, on behalf of Transformation Nation and everybody that’s watching right now, there’s a check for fifty thousand dollars that we’re sending to you. Oh yeah, but we’re going to live in sacrificial giving. Why does this mean that much to me? Because five years ago, when we took out $80,000 to buy cameras, it was the faith of a few that allowed us to, to dip into what I know what it’s like. My brother on the north side of Tulsa, Pastor Shyne of New Jerusalem Baptist Church, texted me earlier this week. I have the text message in my phone. He said, «Do you know anybody who can help us get our streaming up?»
Many of his members are elderly; it’s better for them not to gather together, but they don’t have any technology. I just bought a camera, but I don’t know, and my heart begins to break. So, Michael, I’ve pledged that Transformation Church will be a blessing. He said what you believed four or five years ago, you can give to somebody today without sweating it. So, New Jerusalem, there’s a $100,000 check being delivered to you, so the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, that extravagant giving. Hands up all over the place, I’m going to pray for you. I declare and believe that we have broken the back of poverty over our mindsets.
Father, I thank You in the name of Jesus that every person will move from just believing that You’re good to trusting You, Father God, in their hearts and tithing. They’ll move from that level to the next, to being able to give offerings, and they’ll go from giving offerings, Father, to being able to live at a place of sacrificial giving. Father, today, what’s more contagious than the coronavirus is extravagant generosity, and I pray it over every person that is watching right now, live or on rebroadcast. Break every chain is my prayer, Father, of poverty, every chain of greed, every chain of shame, every chain, Father, for stewardship. As we end this series, we don’t have to secure the bag because You are securing us. Father, we trust You, we believe You, we thank You, and because we are blessed to be a blessing today, for what You’re about to do, we give You glory, we give You honor, and we give You praise.
Will you give God the biggest clap for a message like this? Now, God’s going to start speaking to you. It may not be a car; it may not be a camera. It may be a Chick-fil-A gift card, it may be the book that you wanted, or it may be an amount of money, but when you obey God, you give Him the opportunity to bless you. I want us all to live a blessed life. Amen.
Some of you are watching right now saying, «Pastor Mike, if you get all that money, my life is still jacked up.» Here’s what I’m saying to you: it’s all about the heart. These principles in here really let me know that Jesus is real. If you’re watching right now and you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, today is the day of salvation. It’s the thing that took me from being addicted to pornography, a manipulator, a liar.
And if right now you’ve already accepted Jesus, you need to be praying. People’s lives are on the line right now. I feel this thing so strong; it’s what took me from being a bad person. It didn’t make me perfect, but it now makes me progress. Because of my relationship with Jesus, I’m not who I used to be. I’m not who I’m going to be, but I’m so much further along. Today, God wants to offer that to you, and He’ll help you take these steps. He’ll get your heart; He’ll change your habits. Today, I want to pray for you. If you’re under the sound of my voice, we’re going to say a prayer, and everybody, everybody watching online, everybody in the building, everybody who’s going to watch our rebroadcast, we’re going to say this together. Because we’re a family at Transformation Church, nobody prays alone. Only you and God know if you really mean this, so let’s pray together. Everybody say:
God, thank You for sending Jesus. That’s the greatest sacrifice just for me. Today, I’m giving You my life; transform me, save me, change me. I believe You lived and died just for me. Today I surrender my life: I’m Yours. In Jesus' name.
Now listen, if you prayed that prayer, on the count of three, I want you to bow your head, no matter if your friends or family are around, no matter if you’re by yourself; I want you to shoot your hand up in the air, and we’re going to start celebrating. Listen, the Bible tells us that if one person gets saved, the entire heavens rejoice. There are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who are about to rejoice with you. What you just made is the greatest decision of your life. God is so proud of you, and so are we. One, two, three—lift your hands in the air right now!