Michael Todd - In The Middle (Easter at Transformation Church
I said, «Happy Resurrection Sunday!» Hey, I am so excited about what God is about to do for everybody that is watching. They just told me there are over 50,000 people right now, just on one platform, watching. There are families gathered right now; there are people in hospitals; there are first responders; there are people watching alone, and there are people watching with a group. I want to say welcome to the biggest church service you’ve ever attended in your entire life.
The Kingdom of God is expanding, and I know this is a completely different way of doing this amazing moment of Easter, but I want to let you know that God uses everything. He’s the only one who tells you that He’ll take all the mess-ups, all the mistakes, and all the inconveniences, and He’ll turn them into a masterpiece. So today, as you are watching here with your family, I’m pumped up because this is the Super Bowl of our Christian faith, where we celebrate not just the death, not just the burial, but the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I dare somebody to say, «He lives!» Come on, say it out loud. Just say, «He lives!» I’m looking at you all right now in the chat; come on, somebody say, «He lives!» And that’s why we celebrate today, and I’m so grateful.
If you’re wondering who this Black dude in a purple Barney suit is, this is called «Purple Rain.» Um, the guy yelling at you is someone who was broken, lost, jacked up, and addicted to all kinds of things. But because of what I’m about to tell you today—the love of Jesus—it transformed my life. And today, with everything that’s in me, with every fiber I have, going through technology, I’m about to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t want to sugarcoat it; I don’t want to act like I’m a preacher of something else and come with a nice little hook at the end. No, no! Today, my whole goal—I don’t care what you did last night, what you did today, or what you’re planning on doing tomorrow—my whole goal is that in this moment you would find the cure for everything that humanity has been looking for, and His name is Jesus.
Today, I feel the presence of God because I’m in a big room by myself preaching to you, but that’s how intentional God is. He cares about the details of your life, and today I’m just grateful that you gave us the opportunity to present the truth to you. I love you, because there’s somebody right here right now who feels uncomfortable. I want you to know I love you, and God loves you. Right now, God is coming to turn situations around. People who have lost jobs this week, God is coming to turn those situations around. People who have been hurting and needing hope, I’m telling you right now that God is coming to turn that situation around. Somebody just say, «God’s turning it around!» Come on, say it one more time: «God’s turning it around!»
Today, I’m about to show you how to get out of the place and the spot you’ve been in. For all of us, the spot and the place are not the same, but the God who’s with us in that spot and place is the same. Today, I want us to figure out what to do in the middle because the truth is this is one of the craziest moments in human history. To be honest, this doesn’t account for what happened at the cross, but outside of the cross, I think this may be the craziest moment in church history—there is nobody meeting in buildings today. God has shut down everything to bring a word to you in the place where you’re most comfortable. Wherever you’re most comfortable, you’re at that place right now, and He’s trying to open your heart. Whether it’s in your home or in your bed, He is opening your heart right now, and He said, «Can I tell you a message in the most comfortable place you’ve ever heard it?»
When I think about what God wants to do today, He told me, «Michael, My people—the ones who have been with Me, the ones who are just coming to Me, and the ones who have been running from Me—everyone is stuck in the middle.» And at this moment, as we’re sitting at home right now because of COVID-19, some of us have lost jobs, and things have been shifting. I came to give a message of hope today. God has something specific and exact that He wants to tell you, and He wants you to get out of the place that has had you stuck.
Because even in this moment right now, as we’re standing in history, it doesn’t feel like history because it’s our reality. If we talk about all the great moments in the world, it’s like, «Oh, you are a part of history!» No, no, no; I was a part of my reality. And my reality right now, for many of us, is not good. The reality for many of us is uncertain; the reality for many of us is not knowing what’s to come. But I came to tell you that God is not just standing in your reality; He’s standing in eternity, looking down at your situation. He’s looking at your pain; He’s looking at your family, and He’s saying, «I got it. I’m Alpha and Omega; I’m the beginning and the end, but I still care about you in the middle.» So today, that’s the title of the message I want to share with you for the next few minutes: «In The Middle.»
I really believe that if we don’t take this Easter story from a historical perspective like we often do—looking at this story and saying, «Oh yeah, that was crazy what happened in history"—I want you today to act like this is something that really happened, like it was your reality, like you were one of the disciples, like you were walking with Jesus all those years, and He just got crucified. If we take it from a real perspective, maybe we’ll be able to understand some situations that apply to our lives right here in 2020, where many of us are stuck in the middle.
I want you to think about walking with Jesus, giving up everything you had, leaving your business and your family. I want you to think about being at the Last Supper, eating with Jesus, Him actually saying, «Hey, this is My body; this is My blood.» I want you to think about watching Judas walk out the door and knowing he was about to betray Him. You might be thinking, «I want to confront Judas right now!» I want you to think about being there in that moment. Think about when they came to get Jesus, how they mocked Him, and then they beat Him. Think about having walked with Him, being around Him, hearing all the stories, and witnessing the miracles—not just history, but making it reality. This really happened!
Now, I want you to think about seeing the man you put all your time, treasure, and talent into hanging on a cross, someone you thought was going to conquer the world, and then He ends up dying next to regular criminals. I want you to think of Easter in reality—not just a scripture saying, «Oh, He has risen!» No, no, no! They just lost who they thought was going to save them.
This is where we pick up the story in John chapter 19. I want you to see something maybe you’ve never seen before. It says, «Now this was the place of crucifixion, and it was near a garden where there was a new tomb, never used before.» Verse 42: «And so because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover, and since the tomb was closed at hand, they laid Jesus there.» That is John chapter 19.
Now, in John chapter 20, the very next chapter and the very next verse, it says, «Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the stone had been rolled away.» Hallelujah! Up until the end of John 19, it said it was Friday; they put Him in a tomb. Then it jumps to John 20 and says, «Early Sunday morning.»
So, let me put this in another way, because some of you are dealing with this right now: on Friday, you’re dealing with reality. You’re dealing with not being able to pay your bills; you’re dealing with a dysfunctional family; you’re dealing with having been abused as a child and having to grow up with anger and rage in your life. Yes, I’m talking about real stuff right now. You’re dealing with the pain of not being supported. You are in reality. But then they just skip over and they say «Early Sunday morning,» and they say it’s a resurrection. What in the world do I do with the middle?
That’s what I came to talk to you about because many of you want to shout this morning, but you have not gotten to the place of resurrection yet. You’re still stuck in the pain; you’re still in the middle of the hurt; you’re still in the middle of feeling like you won’t be provided for. So many times in church, we shout about the resurrection and we cry about the reality of the death, but we don’t know how to navigate in the middle.
I’m about to preach right now, because I want to help you figure out how to conduct your life when you’re in the middle. Everybody say, «The middle.» I don’t know about you, but there are some areas in my life where I’m still in the middle. But this is the thing I found out about the middle: it’s not for anybody else to respond to. The middle is your responsibility.
Write this point down: My response is more important than the reason why. When you’re in the middle, see, your response in the middle is more important than the reason why you’re in that spot. Many times, we start complaining and getting frustrated because our reality is not good. We get mad about what happened to us, the job we didn’t get, or why our family doesn’t support us. Everybody looks at us through the lens of our habits, not how far we’ve come. That’s the reality of it, and we can’t control the reality.
We can’t control the reality of COVID-19. We don’t know when we’re going back to work, going back to school; we can’t control the reality. And we are not over the resurrection, but we can do something about our response in the middle. Somebody needs to hear me say this: you’re not helpless. You’re not hopeless. You can’t dictate what happens to you, but you can dictate what you do with what happens to you. And somebody needs to know, who is in the middle right now, I feel the presence of God coming into this place.
The person who’s in the middle right now, you need to make a decision: my response is more important than the reason why. Because so many times, the enemy tries to get us distracted, trying to figure out why it happened: why did I lose it? Why did they cheat on me? Why am I hurting like this? The enemy says, «Yes, great! They’re going to keep going in circles in a thing they’ll never figure out, when God did not send this, but He’s trying to make them in this situation and bring them to another place.»
I’m encouraging you right now, no matter how you’re feeling, if you’re in the middle in any area of your life—in business, in relationships, in your marriage, in your heart—if you’re in the middle, stop trying to figure out why you’re there and start giving the right response while you’re there. Romans 12 tells us that if you’re in the middle, you need to rejoice in our confident hope that’s in Jesus, be patient in trouble. That means this may last a while; that means I know the disciples really wished it would have gone from putting Him in the tomb straight to Sunday. But why did Saturday have to be there? Why did I have to go through those 24 hours of not knowing what was going to happen? Because there’s a deepening of your faith in the part of your life where you are not in control.
I just said a mouthful right there! You’re going to grow more in the middle; you’re going to love more in the middle; you’re going to become who God created you to be in the middle. But you have to go through the suffering of Saturday if you’re going to see the resurrection on Sunday. So many of us don’t want to face the reality, so we try to skip over Saturday, and God’s saying right now, I don’t know who you are, but you may have to go to counseling. You may have to be patient in this thing. Maybe in this season, it’s going to take something that you never thought you would have to do to be who God has created you to be. Rejoice in our confident hope, which is Jesus; be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. That’s the right response.
«Pastor Mike, that’s the churchy thing I’m supposed to do. Well, how do I really respond in the middle?» Well, here’s the thing I’ve figured out about our response: when we’re scared, when we’re fearful, when we’re hurting, how we respond in the middle shows what we actually worry about. And the thing that I’m concerned about with everybody who’s watching right now is, a lot of us are dealing with worries we’re not discussing. Many of us are silently suffering. I know there are tons of people; I can feel you right now, pulling on me. I’m telling you, you’ve been silently suffering with thoughts of suicide. You’ve been silently suffering with feelings of inferiority.
You’ve been silently suffering with hurt and pain, and God is saying, «I don’t want you to worry about that anymore. I did something for you that would take away that worry; you just have to believe in Me. I didn’t come so that you could have worry and worry more abundantly.» The Bible says, «I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly.» Somebody needs to put in the chat, «I will have life.» Oh, I feel that in my spirit! Even when it looks like it’s dead, even when the tomb has been sealed, somebody shout, «I will have life!» When your reality hasn’t lined up with the resurrection, you still have to speak life while it’s in the tomb. Some of your businesses seem like they’re in the tomb. Some of your relationships seem like they’re in the tomb. Some of the relationships between a father and a son, and a daughter and a mother, seem like they’re over. But God says, «I need you to speak life while it looks like it’s in the tomb.»
And that’s why Matthew chapter 6, verse 31 says, «That’s why I tell you not to worry.» This is Jesus talking. «Don’t worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink.» Isn’t that applicable right now during this pandemic? «Don’t worry about whether you have enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food and drink, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds.» He gave us a powerful illustration. Today, if you’re in a place where it’s not raining, I want you to go outside and listen for birds. I want you to see that God is telling you that no matter what you’re going through, He’s still providing for inanimate animals in the middle of this epidemic, and you don’t think He would provide for you, your family, and your heart? Look at it! I love the Bible! It says, «Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store up food in barns. They don’t have 401(k)s; they don’t have retirement plans.» And He says, «And your heavenly Father feeds them.»
I’m here to tell somebody all the things you’ve been worrying about in the middle. God says, «I thought that I’d take care of that if you would just trust Me and put your hope in Me. I will take care of you in the middle.» He says, «And by the way, aren’t you more valuable to Him than they are?» I came to tell you that God cares about you more than He cares about the birds out there or the flowers in the ground. He cares about you even if you’re in the middle! I feel the presence of God right now. Somebody’s heart is coming back alive right now, and somebody’s faith is being changed in this moment. God is saying, «Can all your worries, listen to this, add a single moment to your life?»
What I’m a little afraid of is that worry is actually depleting you of the life that you do have. Instead of you giving God the worry and living the life that you do have, He says you can’t add time to your life. «And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies.» He gives us another example. He said, «The lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory, or Beyoncé and Jay-Z in all their glory, or Kim and Kanye in all of their splendor, were not dressed as beautifully as they are. If God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown away in a fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you.»
The right response in the middle has to be anchored in who cares for you. I came to tell you that if you felt like nobody cares for you, if you’re in the middle thinking that you have to figure it all out by yourself to prove you’re a real man, a real woman, or a boss, God says, «Will you lay all those burdens down and give them to Me? Because the only anchor you’ll have in the middle is that I care for you. I was thinking about you when you weren’t thinking about Me. I’ve made plans and ordered your steps.» And God’s saying, «I care for you.»
Some of you are saying, «That’s great, Pastor Mike, but how do I really apply that in the middle?» I am so glad you asked! I like breaking things down to understand them, so we can see patterns. So, I want to introduce to you something I call the Method of the Middle. Because if you get the Method of the Middle, then you’ll be able to manage in the middle. What I found, no matter if you’re a CEO, or someone living on the street, or on government assistance, or someone who’s had a lot, or somebody who lives with a little, no matter what you’re going through right now, the middle still has the same things happening in it. Let me prove it to you.
So, everybody’s middle and everybody’s life starts with their reality. Right now, many of us are dealing with a reality that we don’t like. Can I just say to you that for every person who is struggling and you clicked on to this live feed as a last attempt to trust God, I have not slept most of this week, listening to God for each person who is tuned into this message, because God is so concerned about you. He cares so much! That’s why I’m up here sweating in a purple suit with a turtleneck on in the springtime. He cares about you. And listen, whatever your reality is, you’ve got to understand what comes after your reality.
Because anytime you have a reality, you then get presented with a dilemma. When you get in a dilemma, this is where it becomes very important that you make sure you are listening to the right things. Because in the middle, when you get into a dilemma, that’s where the enemy tries to come in and present deception. This is what happened all the way back in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Remember, they were in a perfect place, and all they had was a dilemma that honestly was protection for them. But they saw it with the wrong perspective. When God was saying, «Don’t eat from this one tree,» they asked, «Why would God not let us eat from that one tree?» And it became a dilemma when it was actually protection. That’s when the enemy came in with deception. «Did God really say you were going to do that? Did God really say your marriage was going to last? Did God really say nobody cares about you? You’re too fat, too young, too this, too that.»
Listen, if you listen to the enemy’s deception when you’re in a dilemma, it will lead you to make the wrong decisions. This is what happens in everybody’s middle. It starts with something that is reality to you, and it’s real, and it hurts, and it’s frustrating. Then it turns into a dilemma that turns into deception that leads to a decision. Now, I don’t know about you; I’ll tell on myself. But if you are out there watching this and you’ve made some bad decisions, could you raise your hand right now? Come on! If you’ve made bad decisions, raise your hand right now! Come on, in the chat! And if you did, I see you right now! I see you! You’ve made a whole bunch of bad decisions.
The reason why we have to know what happens in the middle is because anytime you make a decision, the next thing that comes after any decision is death. When you make a decision, something’s going to die. If you make the wrong decision, purpose dies, dreams die, relationships die. If you make the right decision, pride dies, preference dies, your plans die. Whenever you make a decision that aligns with God’s Word, the decision that seeks the Kingdom, then God promises there will be deliverance.
This is what this Easter story is all about — how to navigate the middle. Like all of these disciples, the middle had a dilemma in it. The middle had deception in it. The middle had a decision in it. The middle had death in it. And the middle ultimately will have deliverance and there will be a resurrection. But it can only be a resurrection if I outlast the middle.
I know there are people here like, «Pastor Mike, that sounds great, but can you give me more than that?» Because I’m really trying to figure out how to make this happen. I love the Bible. The reason I love the Bible is because God gives us examples of real people who were around when this happened and got caught in the middle. Let’s use Jesus' mother, Mary, as an example. Let me show you how this works. Mary, the mother of Jesus, her reality at this moment was a reality that nobody else could understand because Mary’s reality was that her son was dead. Just like some of our dreams have been dead, some of our business plans have been dead, the things we thought we were going to do are dead, and it presented a dilemma.
Do you know what Mary’s dilemma was? What she had to work through in the middle? Her dilemma went against everything that God promised her. Do you remember in the beginning of Luke, I believe it was, when Mary was minding her own business, and the angel Gabriel popped up on her and said, «Hey Mary»? She was like, «What are you doing in my house?» He was like, «Hey, I’m about to let you know that you’re pregnant by the Holy Spirit. I haven’t even been with anybody.» He was like, «Yeah, this is a miraculous conception.» The thing I kept thinking about is she did not ask for Jesus; she was chosen to carry this.
And I don’t know who this is for, but there are some people right now who are going through something in the middle that you didn’t even ask for. «I didn’t ask to go through this! I didn’t ask to just start that business! You gave me the business! I didn’t ask to be abused! I didn’t ask to be hurt like that! I didn’t ask for this!» And what the enemy tries to do is come in with deception like he did for Mary. This is the thing I need you to understand. When you’re in the middle, the devil tries to convince Mary that this was the end, that God’s promise wasn’t going to come to pass, that her son was really dead.
But I came to encourage somebody who’s in the middle right now: the promise is not void because of the pain! Somebody needs to understand that the promise is not void because the pain is real. See, if Mary had gotten to this place of doubt right here, she would have thought what God said to her before Jesus was born was void. But I came to tell somebody today that just because we’re in the middle and it looks dead, there’s more to the story! If it’s not over, that means God’s not done with it! That means there are more chapters to be written!
And I’m telling you right now, God’s trying to do a work even in the middle. I thought about my wife. She’s the best person in the world that I know. And I thought about how many times you never need to make a decision in the heat of pain. That’s where people are right now. Somebody’s about to close their business! Somebody’s about to leave their family! Somebody’s about to give up on their marriage! And it’s the wrong time to do that because you’re still in the middle. You’ve listened to the dilemma, and you’ve entertained the deception, and now you’re about to make a wrong decision.
I thought about this: My wife and I have three beautiful kids. We have always talked about having three or four children. When we went in to have our first daughter, Isabella, we were trying to have her naturally. Then they came in and said, «Something cannot happen naturally, so we’re going to have to do a c-section.» I thought about this — it would have been the wrong time to bring up the promise. «Hey babe, I know you’re going through the greatest pain you’ve ever had right now, but do you want to have some more kids?»
I knew she wanted to have more kids, but her vision and perspective were blurry because she was in the middle of pain. Some of you are making decisions right now in the middle of the dilemma, and you’ve listened to the deceptions. And God’s saying don’t make the decision now to abort the promise that I gave you. You will produce fruit! Your family will be saved! Your business will be successful! Your life will be whole! But you cannot make the wrong decision if you’ve listened to the lies and the deception.
The crazy thing about Mary is that she wasn’t the only one in the middle. Let me go back down here. Love this Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples. He was in the middle—yeah, yeah, Peter, Peter. The reality was that he was the only man Jesus ever actually cared for, loved, and looked past all his faults and saw his needs. He is now dead. That’s his reality, and the dilemma is that Peter was a classic mess-up. I don’t know about you, but your boy has messed up tons of times, like many people who are watching right now. Have you ever done something that you said you would never do, and then you did it? Well, you’re in good company because Peter did the exact same thing. See, Peter’s dilemma was that they were at a dinner table with Jesus, and Jesus told them what was going to happen. He told them, and that’s the beautiful thing about it. It’s crazy that Jesus tells us where we’re at in reality. He’s like, «Hey, you’re going to make it to the resurrection. There’s going to be victory on the other side of it. You’re going to make it!» But when it’s real to us, somehow that’s not enough to carry us in the middle.
Peter sat with Jesus after the Last Supper. He even cut off a dude’s ear; he was like, «Don’t come at my God!» Peter was like a gangster. I don’t know; I feel like Peter stood like this and was like, «What up, fool?» When the guards came to get Jesus, he was like, «Shank, shank!» and he shanked the dude. Jesus was like, «Peter, calm down!» He picked up the ear and was like, «My bad, bro,» putting it back on because Peter was always messing up. And that guy is dead. Now he has a dilemma because when he was sitting with Jesus, Jesus said, «Peter, I know you’re ride or die for me, but when it all goes down, you’re going to deny me three times.» Jesus said, «Don’t even talk like that, bro. Don’t even talk like that! Be God, you know I’m down for you! Ride or die, ride or die!» He literally said, «Peter, calm down. I know the beginning from the end. You’re going to deny me three times.» He was like, «Don’t ever test my loyalty to you like that.»
Then Peter started walking away and everything. And Jesus said, «We’ll see.» You know what Peter’s dilemma was? When they actually came and got Jesus, when he was arrested, Peter did what he said he’d never do! I don’t know if any of y’all can relate to that in the middle, but sometimes when you get desperate, and sometimes when you’re in a spot you never thought you would be in, and sometimes when the way money was coming in is not coming in anymore, and when an old girlfriend from high school starts reaching out while you and your wife are in disagreement—or I’m coming to your house right now when you’re spending most of your time on Facebook, and God’s trying to tell you, «Hey, I’m trying to do something for you right now,» and you do the thing you said you would never do.
See, the problem with Peter is that now that he did it, see, some Christians and some people are all like, «I’ve never done anything; that ain’t my testimony.» I have messed up a million times, and what the enemy tries to do in this moment of deception is make you think that your worth is connected to your works. I know that’s how some of you feel. That’s why some of you have never come to an actual physical location, because you know you’ve done some stuff that doesn’t line up with what you really wanted to do. But you did it because you were in the middle; you were desperate; you were searching. Now, people have made you feel judged, and I’m here to tell you that the grace of God is available for you. The grace of God is here right now for every mess-up, for every person who’s done what they said they would never do, for every person who had an abortion, for every person that cheated on their wife, for every person who still takes medication to go to sleep and abuses it, for every person who has lived in an alternate lifestyle, for every person who has lied and cheated.
See, the enemy wants you to believe that there are degrees to sin, but God said, «When I saw you, I saw my passion, and I was going to take the punishment so that the enemy could not deceive you another day.» I feel the presence of God; somebody has been believing, and I hear your heart beating fast. Tears are flowing down some people’s faces right now because you’ve believed that you’re only worth it if your works are good. Peter had to make a decision in the middle of what he was going through. Peter had to decide— and I feel this so strongly—that he was going to focus on the character of Jesus and not focus on the concerns of critics. That’s what you’re going to have to do in this season, because some of you are about to make a decision to change your whole life in the middle of what you’re doing. In the middle of going in the wrong direction, you’re about to repent; you’re about to turn. I feel that thing so strong that some of y’all have plans to do stuff that you know goes against the will of God for your life, knowing that it’s going to hurt your family. God said this is going to be the time where you repent, and all that word means is «turn».
Somebody say «turn.» I feel a turn in this world; somebody’s life is about to change because you clicked on this live stream. You’re watching this rebroadcast. Everything is about to touch your heart, and the only way it can turn is if, while you’re in the middle, you focus on the character of Jesus and not the concerns of the critics. You know critics can be family members. Oh, critics can be the very people who were in the club with you, popping bottles and doing everything else. Those will be the same people who will say, «You have changed! What’s wrong with you now? How old are you?» No, no, no! What you’ve got to understand is that at some point, you have to make a decision that lines up with the purpose God sent you to earth for, and not for popularity with people.
Peter had to trust and focus his eyes on the character of Jesus and not the chattering of critics. I feel this so strongly because somebody is about to make a decision that your whole family is not going to go with. But through your decision, through your desire to actually make it out of the middle and not just exist—y’all know this is the enemy’s plan for families and generations. Some of y’all’s families can literally mark this: this was their dilemma, this was the deception, this is the decision, that’s the death that happened, this is the dilemma. That’s what Big Mama did; that’s the decision they made, and that’s where death happened. And it’s been cycles and years and generations of the same curses. Your mama was molested, and now you start feeling insecurity, then you make a decision to find love in all the wrong places. Then you feel dead and worthless and useless.
This is what I’m telling you right now: the enemy doesn’t have new tricks! But right now, I feel the faith of God rising up in somebody, and we’re going to make different decisions in the middle! Somebody say, «I’m making a different decision in the middle!» Somebody say it one more time, «I’m making a different decision in the middle!»
You might be wondering why I’m preaching so passionately. It’s because I’ve had conversations with people who felt like when they make the right decision, they are going to get ostracized. I want to apologize; you know this all came to life for me this past year. I actually had the opportunity to connect with my bro Kanye West, and I got to speak at the Sunday service in the forum to a bunch of people. When I was doing that, I was sitting there telling people about the good news of Jesus Christ in this huge arena that so many people have played in before. They started singing this song called «Hands On,» and it convicted me.
I want you to look at the lyrics of this song because it’s one thing to be criticized by people who don’t believe and who don’t have your best interest at heart, but it is a totally different thing to be criticized, ostracized, and made to feel lower and less than by people who are supposed to be Christ followers. Many of you watching right now stopped messing with God because of Christians; you stopped having anything to do with the relationship you really need in your life because you were hurt by people. That’s why next week, I’m doing a series that starts called «Deliver Us from People,» and I believe that there’s going to be healing. I want you to come back for that! We’re going to start talking about relationships, and I believe God is going to peel back the layers of your life, and you’re going to get free right there in your bedroom. I feel the presence of God on that.
But they started playing these songs, and I want to put some lyrics up. It said, «I’m fitting to do a gospel album. What have you been hearing from the Christians? They’ll be the first ones to judge me, make it feel like nobody loves me.» That is the deception of the enemy, to make you feel like when you make this decision, people who love God are going to think you’re not worthy enough. Then people who don’t know God are just going to think you’re weird. This was the same thing he pinned; he told people God was his mission. «What have you been hearing from the Christians? They’ll be the first ones to judge me and make it feel like nobody loves me.»
This is what I want to do, and I want to be so sincere in this moment because I don’t know if I’ll ever have your attention again. But right now, in this moment, if you have ever been hurt by somebody wearing the badge of a Christian, Christ follower, pastor, preacher, or someone who knows the Bible, if you’ve ever been hurt by them or criticized by them, I want to apologize to you on behalf of every person who hurt you. This is from my heart because that hurt has kept you away from healing. Today, I feel the Spirit of God coming to your home and coming to your life. Some of you have thought they just want me for my money, or this— listen—anybody who has misused power, manipulated, or done anything to make you feel like God is not who He is, and His character is good, and His character is love, and His character is for you, I want to say I’m sorry because that is not the character of our God.
The character of our God is found in the Scriptures when it talks to us in 2 Corinthians. I believe it is… I don’t know. Let’s just go to John 3:16. Let me make it very plain. Let me make it the most famous scripture: «For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.» Everybody knows verse 16, but the character of God is revealed in verse 17. «For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but He came to save the world through Him.»
If you have been held down because of anybody’s criticism, right now, I want to ask you, could you please just focus on the character of Jesus? The reason why this is so real to me is because Michael has a middle. I’m not just talking about old Bible characters; right now, in this moment, I am dealing with a reality that hits my heart to the core. Some of you may not know this, but I’m going to go ahead and be hot, humble, open, and transparent. I’m going to be a real man up here that happens to be a pastor, and I’m going to tell you that me and my wife right now have a son who has minimal verbal skills. He is four years old, and he has autism. Every day, I wake up, and my son cannot verbally tell me what he wants to eat or what he wants to drink or what he wants to do.
There’s something in my heart that begins to penetrate. MJ is my namesake. I’m getting emotional right now because I know that every day, when I wake up, I have to deal with that reality. No matter how many people get saved, no matter how many people fill auditoriums, no matter how much money I make, my reality is I want my son to be able to function in a way that he can support his life, and he can’t at this moment. And the dilemma is that I teach faith to everybody else. So the dilemma is I have a reality that doesn’t look like the resurrection. He is sitting in front of me, and I rock him to sleep every night. My dilemma is I have to get up every week and tell everybody God can do it; God can make a way! I have to look at my wife when she’s in bed, fighting depression off of her because she thinks it’s something that she did, and I have to say, «No, God is still good!»
The dilemma is I have to teach and live something that is contrary to what I’m experiencing at this moment, and that is where the enemy tries to come in with deception. He tries several times every week to make me feel like God can do miracles through me but not for me. Miracles for me, and I know this may not be your situation, but you can plug and play your situation in here. For me, that’s my reality; that’s my dilemma, and that’s my deception. But, baby, I get to make a decision, and Natalie and I have made a decision: as for me and my house, I feel this thing. No matter what happens, no matter who comes, no matter what goes, no matter if he never speaks a whole sentence, I have made a decision that I will serve Him.
That doesn’t make my situation feel any better; it doesn’t change the fact that after this, I’m going to go to his playroom, and he’s not going to know I preached today. All he will be looking for is love from his father. That doesn’t make it any less real. But when I make the right decision, then comes the death of some things. My pride has died because of the decision I’ve made. The enemy used to say, «You can’t tell anybody that. You can’t do that.» Oh yes, baby, I’m using everything the Bible tells me: I overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the words of my testimony. This is what we are really going through, and there have been some things. My pride has died here; my plan has died here; my preferences have died here.
Now, when something dies, it creates an opportunity for God to do a miracle, for Him to deliver, for Him to do what seems impossible. And when there’s death and deliverance, that’s the only time there can be a resurrection. I don’t know what your reality is; I don’t know what your dilemma is; I don’t know what deception you have believed. But today, I want you to know there’s a decision you can make in the middle that can change everything. The reason I know this is because your middle, my middle, and Peter’s middle all have the same thing in common: that God stepped into our middle.
Some of you don’t understand, but God was faced with a dilemma as well. The reality was—oh, I feel the presence of God—in the garden, Adam and Eve made a decision that separated humanity from the Creator, and that was reality. Eden was shut down, like all your favorite clothing stores. That’s why I’m glad everybody’s at home on Easter, because we would be looking like a Target ad and a Walmart poster at this current moment. The reality was, Eden was shut down and we were separated from God, and God had a dilemma: God was separated from us, but He wanted to be with us. He said, «There’s no way, because I’m holy, that I can go and be with them unless a sacrifice is made.»
And this is the thing that you need to know; I need you to write this down: God always makes a way in the middle. No matter what your reality is, and no matter if it doesn’t line up with the resurrection, no matter what your expectation was and it has not lined up with your experience, no matter what’s going on right now, God always steps into reality. In fact, He steps from eternity. He isn’t just in this; He’s all around it, and He’ll step into your dilemma. He said, «I’m not just going to stay here in this dilemma, because the enemy has been deceived. He thinks he won; the enemy thinks, and that’s the same thing he thinks for your life. Because you’ve been addicted to drugs, that’s the same thing he thinks about your family, that he’s won. I got them forever!
Hey! God said the enemy really thinks that he has outmatched me, but one of my names is Matchless God; that means nobody can step to me—not a sickness, not a disease, not diabetes, not coronavirus. He says I have the name above every name. I’m the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one that sits on high but works in the details of my children’s lives. The deception is that the enemy thought he won. But then God made a decision, and when God made a decision, He decided to send Jesus. I’m about to preach this right here! When He sent Jesus to earth, He sent Jesus so that you and I could have the ability to be back in a right relationship with God.
That’s why 2 Corinthians 5:19 tells us that God was in Christ. So when He sent him, He was in Christ and He was working through Christ to reconcile the entire world back to Him. But the only way this could work is that His decision to send Jesus had to move to a place of death. That’s why the cross is the symbol of our freedom. It’s not just a medallion that we wear; it’s not just something we put on T-shirts and outside of churches. This is the symbol that represents your payment: the cross is your receipt for salvation; it’s what proves that God made a way in the middle.
That’s why, as He sat there and took the scourging for us, as He sat there and had a crown of thorns put on His head, as He sat there and allowed them to abuse Him, the Bible says that He could have called legions of angels to save Him. But He saw you and me addicted to pornography, and He said, „If I don’t die, they can’t be delivered. If I don’t take this death, they are going to live in it,“ and God didn’t want that. He made a way in the middle. Now, this is the thing I need everybody to see right now; now it’s your turn to make a decision. Are you going to live your entire life in the middle, not recognizing what God has done for you? Can I be very clear about how Jesus died?
I feel the presence of God. When Jesus died, when I saw this in the Bible, it hit me because so many of us are dealing with so many dilemmas and deceptions, and now we are at the point where we have to make a decision. The Bible tells us in Luke that Jesus literally died in the middle of two thieves. Literally. What I’m talking about is in the middle; there’s so much imagery and symbolism, and God was speaking to your situation over 2,000 years ago when He saw that you were in the middle of losing your house and keeping your family fed. You were in the middle of staying in this marriage or walking away from it; you were in the middle of two things trying to rob you. They had an exchange in the middle, and one thief said in Luke 22:32, „Hey, aren’t you the Son of God? If you’re the Son of God, why don’t you save yourself? While you’re at it, why don’t you save us?“
At that moment, that thief made a decision—like some people, sadly, will make even though God is close to us; we’re still not going to make a decision that could free us forever. He said, „I won’t believe; I can’t believe you’re dying here just like us.“ But then there was another man who had done the crime, another man who was guilty, another man who did do it, but he had a different perspective on what Christ was doing. He said, „Bro, don’t you even understand? Have you no fear of God? We’re sitting here, guilty for what we did.“
The thing you’ve got to understand is we should have been in the place that Jesus was in; it was my sin; it was my addiction to pornography; it was my lying; it was my cheating; it was everything I did that put Him on the cross. And in that moment, this man said, „Jesus, hey, listen. I know I messed up a whole bunch, and I know there’s a lot of stuff I need to explain, and I really don’t even have time for that.“ Jesus doesn’t need your explanation; He was there anyway; He saw it; He saw it happen. He said, „But, um, this one thing: could you at this moment, at this last moment, I’m turning. I’m going to repent; I’m going to go away from what I’ve been doing, and I’m going to turn to you.“
I don’t know if he was standing on this cross and literally just turned a little bit; I don’t know if the life was sucked out of his body so much that he couldn’t really do anything, but somehow he turned to God. And listen to Jesus’s response on the cross; He literally says to him, „Hey, today you will be with me in paradise. Your decision to believe in me has changed everything in your life.“ And today, I want to give you that exact opportunity because your decision in the middle right now, your decision of faith, and Jesus' commitment to death will produce the deliverance you need. When Jesus stretched out His hands and they put nails in His hands and nails in His feet, He did it so that He could pay for everything you would do.
At this moment, I feel the presence of God coming into your homes, meeting you on your porch, meeting you wherever you are right now, and I want you to feel the love of God poured out through a man giving His entire life who did nothing just for you. „But I’ve messed up so many times, and you don’t know how bad I really am.“ And God said, „I knew it, and so I paid the ultimate price so that you have ultimate freedom.“ I don’t know who you are, but the death of Jesus Christ was not worthless. This was the most expensive payment anyone could ever make, and He made it so that you could be delivered—delivered from shame, delivered from pain, delivered from lying, delivered from cheating, delivered from hurt, delivered from loss.
And that’s why we celebrate resurrection. I need to tell you something: if you don’t remember anything I say ever again, remember this: the resurrection is not an event; the resurrection is an interruption. Any time that God can interrupt your pain, that is a resurrection. Anytime you’re in the middle of a situation that seems hopeless, God says, „I will produce a resurrection, and I’ll interrupt it.“ Do you know that Jesus interrupted the enemy’s plan in the middle? Remember, it was Friday. Reality was that He was in a tomb, but early Sunday morning He rose.
Do you know what He was doing in the middle? He was interrupting the plan of the enemy. The Bible tells us that He was in the belly of the earth. I feel the presence of God. He was fighting and He took the keys of death, hell, and the grave, and He came back with all power so that you could live your life in a resurrection. I don’t care what’s broken in the middle; I don’t care what’s hurting in the middle. A resurrection is an interruption. Today, God wants to interrupt whatever lie you’ve believed. I don’t care what reality you’re facing right now; I don’t care that you can’t figure it out right now. God wants to meet you and make a way in the middle. I know this has presented some dilemmas, but there’s a resurrection, and God is ready to interrupt it. I know that you have believed the deception, but God is saying right now, „There’s a resurrection.“
And I want to interrupt it—today is your moment to make the greatest decision of your life. Pass the mic. How do I do that? The Bible tells us all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. Can I be real with you? I struggled with what I was going to teach today because I wanted to go super deep, then make people laugh, and then do all these other things. But God told me this moment is not about you or anybody else; this moment is about me getting to my children and letting them know that even with all of the mess, I still love them in the middle. I don’t know who that’s for right now, but there is someone in this moment who is really feeling like God has forgotten about them. He hasn’t. Matter of fact, He thought about you before you were even here, and that’s why He sent Jesus.
Today, I want to give you the opportunity not just to live with your reality, live with the dilemmas, be tricked by the deception, make wrong decisions, and have to see death in your purpose and family. I want to give you an opportunity to make a decision that brings deliverance. Wherever you are right now, I want to pray with you. I’ve never given an altar call sitting down before. I just—I don’t know, I feel like this is more personal. I feel like this is a moment where someone is in a vulnerable place. You’ve been searching for God in all the wrong places. You thought if you got more, if you got into those connection groups, and if you had the success or the house, somehow you would be fulfilled.
The truth is, there is a hole in your heart that only God can fill, and until you invite Him into that area, and you make a decision to accept the way that God made for you, in the middle of whatever you’re going through right now, you’ll always be searching. Today is the day where you make the greatest decision of your life, and I believe so firmly that this is your moment. Yes, you—I’m talking to you. This is your moment.
If you want to accept Jesus Christ into your life to be your personal Lord and Savior, this is not about being spooky or crazy. This is the thing I need everybody to understand: God is so good that He accepts you with all your habits. See, some of you are thinking, „I’ve got some stuff I need to clean up first; there are some things I need to change.“ But God says, „If you give Me your heart, I’ll help you change your habits. If you give Me what you have, I’m the only one that can make it what it will be.“
Today is your decision that changes everything, and you can’t focus on the critics right now. You can’t focus on them. This is the time you focus on the character of Jesus because my God always makes a way in the middle. If that’s you, in your home, watching this at whatever time you’re watching it, some of you are already crying tears, and some of you are sitting in so much pride that your insides are shaking because they’re saying, „This is what we need, this is what we’ve been searching for,“ but you don’t want to be a hypocrite, and you don’t want anyone talking about you. Listen, all that doesn’t matter. See, the decision you’re about to make right now is not just a decision for your eternity; it’s a decision for your history. Right now, God wants to come in, but you have to make the decision.
If that’s you right now, would you just lift your hands wherever you are? Come on, I don’t care who’s sitting around you. I could care less—your life matters more than what people think about you right now. Just lift your hand if you’re tired of doing it your way. Just lift your hand. I want to pray for you. I feel the presence of God coming in and invading people’s lives right now. You’re making that decision right now, and we’re going to pray. At Transformation Church, we pray all together, so I want everybody that’s watching, every device, every person sitting around, every teenager, and every child to pray this prayer with me because I believe that total deliverance is happening even in this moment right now. Everybody say:
God, thank You for sending Jesus and making a way in the middle just for me. Today, I give You my life; I turn from everything that’s not like You, and I turn to You. God, heal me, deliver me, and change me from the inside out. I accept that the resurrection is now an interruption, and I give You my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.