Michael Todd - Framing Unforgiveness (You Need a New Frame)
Come on, good morning, Transformation Church all over the world! Why don’t you just give God a shout of praise? Oh no, at your house, come on right now, Hallelujah! I don’t know about you, but I’m expecting something great from God today. Somebody just say, «I’m expecting!» Now say it like you mean it: «I’m expecting something great from God!» The one thing that I’ve realized in my entire life is that when you don’t have an expectation for something, you usually don’t get the most out of what’s happening. So what I’m asking you to do right now is to raise your expectation. I know some of you have had the hardest week of your lives. I know that some of you have lost people; some of you are just done with the election stuff.
Some of y’all waited in line for three and a half hours, and you’re done! Like, some of you have a child that’s making wrong decisions, and you don’t know how to reach out to them. That was your baby, and you don’t know how to connect with them. For others of you, there’s been an emptiness inside of you that you’ve been trying to figure out how to fill. You’ve tried food, you’ve tried sex, you’ve tried alcohol, and you’ve tried binge-watching stuff, and nothing has been able to fill you. You made it to church today, and what I want to let you know is that at this moment, let’s not let the next 45 minutes to an hour be about trying to get an expectation. Let’s right now set an expectation. Could you lift your hands all over the world, all in this room right now? I want to pray for you that an expectation would rise on the inside of you.
Holy Spirit, we’re calling on you. Father, you know everything that’s happened today, you know everything that’s happened this week, you know everything that’s happened this year. Right now, Father God, as we sang before, we are putting our trust in you. And Father God, I thank you that you are our help, and right now we’re saying we need your help. Father, raise the level of our expectation. Father, let this not be an entertaining word; let this be a transformative word. Let this word go into the deep places of our heart, our mind, our emotions, Father God, and transform us from the inside out. I pray for every person that feels too far away, that feels like they messed up too badly. For every person that feels, Father, like they’ve crossed the line of your grace. Father, you said where sin abounds, that much more does grace abound. Father, you’re chasing us down, and you’re telling us that you love us. And today, Father, I thank you that we wouldn’t work to receive from you but that we would sit and receive from you. You’ve prepared something; you have spoken to me, God, for your people. And today, God, I surrender, and I thank you that everybody listening surrenders today. We raise our expectation.
Somebody say, «I raise my expectation!» I want what you want, God. Come on, say it! I want what you want, God! Blow my mind, God! Change my heart, God! Transform my life, God! If you believe it, why don’t you give God a shout of praise? All I said, if you believe it, why don’t you give God a shout of praise? Hallelujah! Hey yo, I am pumped to be able to preach today, and I’ve got to be honest with you. When you come into this thing—I preach every week, and there are different weeks where everything works out in preparation, and I’m feeling all good on Wednesday about the message, and I know exactly what I’m going to preach. This one right here came yesterday on the airplane. I want to tell you that sometimes God makes me trust Him up to the point that I get up here because He says, «Michael, I want you to realize this ain’t you; this ain’t your smarts; this ain’t your study. What’s about to happen today is all God.»
Somebody say, «All God!» I think it’s the perfect way for us to go into this next level of forgiveness. Y’all made it to week six of Forgiveness University! Somebody shout at me, «F-U!» Don’t let your neighbors at your apartment hear you saying that; you’re okay, alright? Forgiveness University! We’ve been in this series, and we’re believing God that over this time period, you will be able to transform your life because you learn how to—everybody say «forgive!» I know that’s a cuss word for a whole bunch of people, but what God told me is, «Michael, in this day and age where there are so many reasons to be offended, so many things that have happened to us,» I mean y’all know that the election is this Tuesday, right?
Okay, this Tuesday. And what you’re going to see after you get off of this livestream, no matter how long this lasts, there will be a reason. No matter what side you’re on, no matter if it’s a donkey or an elephant, no matter if it’s red or blue, no matter if you’re black or white, there will be a reason to be offended right in front of you. And what I want you to understand is that this offense is a ploy of the enemy to rob you of the destiny that God has for you. How can you reach somebody you’re upset with? Can I go straight for it today? How can you minister to somebody that you don’t even want to be in the same room with? How can you reach out and touch, help, and heal a group of people that you are so hurt and offended by that God can’t even use you? Your heart is closed, so your hand will be closed. But if your heart is open, then your hand will be open. I believe my Bible says that we are the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth.
So there’s a higher authority that we have to live by as believers. There’s something bigger than politics; it’s called the Kingdom. There’s something bigger than race; it’s called the Kingdom. And God is saying, as it is in my kingdom, I want it here on earth. We sing the songs but don’t live the life. Let your kingdom come; let your will be done on earth with all of the mess as it already is where in heaven. Y’all, if we’re going to allow this to be our reality, we have to—everybody say «forgive!»
So today I want to help you forgive. You know, I thought about it like this; this time last year we were in a series on Crazy Faith. How many people loved the Crazy Faith series? Okay, like, what was your favorite? In the chat, I need you to tell me what was your favorite: Crazy, Maybe, Baby, Wavy? What are some other ones like Hazy, Lazy, Fugazy? I don’t remember all of them, but there were a lot of them, okay? What I thought about when I was preparing for this message is that God told me, «Michael, people want crazy faith for things.» He said, «They don’t want crazy faith for change. They would rather have a car than actually be able to care for the people in their lives that have offended them. They would rather have a house than healing.» They will believe and give in crazy faith for their tuition to be paid off.
You have a better chance, some of y’all, of believing God for $150,000 of your tuition being paid off, and you would never ever think about forgiving your mother. You want forgiveness for things, but you don’t want forgiveness for change. And God began to tell me they want crazy faith. They want crazy faith. Forgiveness is what crazy faith is for. Write this down: it takes crazy faith to forgive. It takes «crazy» faith. The situation some of y’all came from, the people who offended you, some of the things that have happened to you: for you to forgive, you need somebody to say «crazy faith!» And you would rather believe for a vacation home than the humility to go back and say, «I’m sorry.»
When you talk about faith, it’s going to take faith for me to forgive that person who shouted a racial slur at me on my own property. Oh, y’all want to be fake today? No, it’s going to take faith because I want revenge, and I want to see it repaid, and I want to see them suffer. God says, «Do you trust me or do you trust you?» Faith is the evidence of things not seen. You’re not going to see this one; I’m going to handle this, but do you trust me? Do you believe me? I just wanted to come and help somebody who thinks that this series isn’t as spiritual as you want it to be. This may be the most spiritual series you’ve ever been in because for you to actually change from the inside out, it’s not going to take facts; it’s going to take faith. We started at the beginning of this year talking about the word for this year is «stronger.» And I thought about this, Charles, when you preached that message a few weeks back, and you talked about finishing strong. And in 2020, we have two months left.
Today is November 1st, and we have 60 days to finish strong. We’re going to start this thing and all this other stuff. God says, «I want you to change the word 'strong, ' Michael, because it takes strength to forgive.» The strongest thing you may do this year is forgive somebody who won’t even say and acknowledge your forgiveness. Do you know how strong you have to be—how meek, strength under control—to have evidence piled up against them and still say, «I forgive you»? You are a beast when you walk in that level of strength. You are a beast. And that’s not strength that comes from wanting to do well; that’s strength that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. That strength does not come from me making a to-do list. That strength comes from a place when we say, «All of my help comes from you, God.»
That’s the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit. And for you, the strongest thing you could do this year is not go to Christmas and fake. The strongest thing you could do is not make up your Thanksgiving speech around the table and act like it’s all good. If you want to finish 2020 strong—the year has already been hell—you might as well blow the whole thing up! You might as well go ahead and hit the detonator and say, «If we’re going to really get stronger, we might as well forgive!» What if I told you you don’t just need to finish strong, but I said you need to finish forgiving? I just said the same thing. Because strength, it takes that to forgive. Finish strong, finish forgiving.
So today in week six, God said, «They are going to need help doing that, P-Mike.» So I need you to listen to me while you’re at 30,000 feet, and I’m telling you, I wrote all of this stuff down on my cell phone, and God gave it to me. It was just like a picture. Does anybody remember going to high school or college? This is a place of higher education; this is going to give you a master’s degree that will change your destiny. Does anybody remember chemistry class? Can I make a confession? I hated chemistry! All of the elements and the periodic table, and all of the colors and the zinc—and I don’t even remember; that’s all I remember—and the oxygen, and this, and that, and all the little letters! But what I found out is all of those elements help you discover other things.
And when it comes to our unforgiveness, we don’t know the elements that go with what we’re feeling and how we’re acting and why we’re hurting. And today, God gave me something that I really do believe, when I saw it, it changed my picture of what forgiveness was and helped me identify where I was at with different people and in different situations. And today, I want to give you this picture that changes your life because God says, «Michael, what I need them to do is to start framing their unforgiveness.» I said, «Framing your unforgiveness?» He said, «Yeah, people are framing the wrong situation.» And I said, «Okay, God, you’re going to have to explain this to me a little more.» I got this deep impression in my heart where He said, «Michael, what’s the purpose of a frame?»
I started thinking about pictures on walls and all this other stuff, and I said, «Well, the frame is to make the picture look good.» He said, «That’s a basic definition. But what a frame does is it tells you what you need to focus on. When you put a frame around something, it tells you where and what you need to focus on.» So I began to look at His word, and I’m going to build this whole thing out.
Go to Luke 23:34. Now I want to paint this picture. Think about framing unforgiveness, and I want you to see our Savior, our Lord, our example in the worst situation that’s ever happened to Him, and the words that He has the audacity to say. Jesus is now in front of Pilate and in front of all of these people, and He literally gets accused of doing nothing. They’re literally having an argument about why would we crucify Him? What did He do? The people on the outside who were cheering for Him yesterday are now saying, «Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Give us Barabbas, the one who’s actually guilty! Give us him, and you crucify Jesus!»
The leadership failed to peer pressure, and they begin to crucify Jesus. He’s flogged, He’s embarrassed, He’s bruised, He’s beaten; they hang Him on a cross, and He’s hanging on a cross between two thieves, look what our Lord and Savior said about forgiving—being a strength. You talk about literally having done nothing wrong, and yet every offense that the whole world commits is now on your shoulders. If anyone had an excuse not to forgive, it was Jesus. Look what he says in Luke 23:34: Jesus said to God, «Father, forgive them.» If I were Gabriel or Michael in heaven, I’d be like, «What did he just say? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he couldn’t have meant 'forgive them.' No, that’s our God down there!» I thought this was when he was going to use that suplex move he showed us before he was sent down there. He was like, «If I ever go down there, now I’m like, 'I am Jesus, ' and I’m going to do something.»
Hold on; he has all the power, all the strength, all the evidence. He could literally show them an HD TV in biblical times because he knows everything and hit them with the movie and blow their minds right now, showing them every offense they ever committed. Think about this! But he decides to show strength under control and says these words: «Father, forgive them.» The next part messes me up every time: «For they do not know what they are doing.» I got stuck on this part of the scripture, Charles, because what ended up happening is I realized, as I kept reading that phrase, «They don’t know what they’re doing,» that we need to forgive them because they don’t know how that’s going to hurt you.
They have no idea that that one comment is going to stick with you for 13 years. They have no idea that when you answer that call, that level of perversion is now going to show up in your children. They have no idea that when they left that church wrong, that was going to be the thing that pushed the pastor over the edge, causing him to secretly start drinking in 10 years. They had no idea. Forgive them, because they don’t even know what they’re doing. And when I kept reading that, God said, «Michael, stay there this whole service.» The truth is, if we knew the offenses we would commit and what they would cause and what they would cost, we probably would have moved with more caution. Can we be honest?
If you knew dating Ricky was going to cause you low self-esteem and cost you six years of your life, come on, let’s be honest. If you knew that going to that movie would cost you a purified image of marriage and lead you to pornography, you would have moved with more caution. Parents, if you knew letting your kid go over to that cousin’s house to spend the night was going to result in your child being touched illegitimately and cost you your relationship, you would have moved with more caution. Forgive them, because the truth is when we hurt people and when we get hurt, we didn’t even know what we were doing. And when I started looking at this, God said, «Michael, the reason people don’t know what their words will cause and what their actions do to others is because they’ve never seen it framed properly.»
Let me give you an illustration: the frame brings focus. Cameraman, come here; follow me. The frame brings focus! So when I have this frame, I want you to follow wherever I go, okay? The frame brings focus. When I go here, you’re not looking at anything else because the frame is telling you where to focus, and you have to follow what’s in the middle of the frame. Come on, come on, get down there on those J’s; they’re nice, aren’t they? Follow the frame! Come on, this is the homecoming queen right here; that’s Pastor Natalie. You see her? She’s in the frame. I miss you, baby! The frame tells you what to focus on. When I put the frame here, it gives you a focus on something beautiful, something red and white. When I put the frame on it, it gives you what you’re supposed to look at.
Now, right now when I put the frame, what are you looking at? That’s out of view. What am I supposed to be looking at right now when it comes to forgiveness? God is saying, «I want to give you the right frame. I want to show you what to focus on so that you can see not just what you want to see, but the things that will really change you.»
What the enemy tries to do is give you a smaller frame; he wants to bring you in close so you don’t really see the whole picture. Come on in closer! Let the picture get distorted; you’re arguing about something and you’re working through something that isn’t even the full picture. God is saying that if you don’t get the right frame, if you don’t see the whole picture—I’m preaching to somebody right now—God is saying that a lot of the issues you’re dealing with, a lot of the problems you can’t even see, are because you need to come in closer. Let them see they don’t even get the whole view of what God is trying to do in a situation because we haven’t had the right frame for our unforgiveness. We have been so narrow in our perspective because we didn’t understand the elements of what we were feeling and what happened to us.
Today, because Jesus said, «They don’t know what they’re doing,» I’m going to try to give you a picture and a periodic table of sorts to help you understand how to frame the unforgiveness in your life. If you can identify where you are, you can learn the solutions for how to heal and what’s supposed to change in you. So I’m going to take you to school right now because I need you to help me write this point down so that you can understand the framing. We’re about to go to school, so I need everybody to turn their thinking caps on. That’s what I tell my daughters, okay? Your frame affects your focus, and you can never forgive what you won’t focus on.
I’m going to go slow because I know this stuff is breaking down things that have stayed within us for a long time, and I need to walk you through this. Okay, I’m Professor Mike today. Walk with me. Your frame—whatever you’re looking at—affects your focus, and you can never forgive what you won’t focus on. Everyone is trying to forget, but what if to forgive, you have to remember? Can we be honest? Everything bad that has happened to me, I want to forget. Okay, hands up everywhere if you’re trying never to think about all of the bad things you did and all the bad things that happened to you ever again.
Then we start quoting scriptures; we have Philippians 3:13: «Forget those things that are behind you.» I have a question: Is it behind you if it’s still affecting you? Is it truly behind you if it impacts the way you treat people? Is it actually behind you if it affects how you trust and love people? All I’m trying to say is maybe this is where we take the painful things we don’t want to remember and bring them to the altar of our God. Oh, come to the altar! We always talk about that, but we’re not specific about it. What are you bringing to the altar? We’re so general when we need healing. You know, «I’ve been going through some things; I’ve been dealing with some situations.» And God is saying, «I was there.»
The first question he asked Adam and Eve was, «Where are you?» That was a self-discovery question. He didn’t lose Adam and Eve; he was trying to see if they knew where they were. Did they have the right frame? The problem with most of us is that we need to forgive others, and that’s what we’ll focus on next week. I wanted to go there this week because last week we started forgiving ourselves; we looked in the mirror and said, «I forgive you,» and that was so powerful. But now, before we start forgiving «big mama,» before we start forgiving the dad that wasn’t there, before we start forgiving the coworker, we have to frame this unforgiveness properly, or we’ll just cause more hurt, more damage, and say things we don’t really mean.
What God is trying to say is, «Hey, can we reframe this real quick? Can we remember the things we need to focus on?» Can we put the frame around your college years? «Don’t bring that up; my husband doesn’t even know what I was doing back then!» They used to call me «Willy-Nilly.» Oh, y’all are okay and going to be fake out here? Let’s put the frame around your broken childhood, which now perpetuates why you work so hard. You’re not working hard; you’re running from something. Everyone is praising you: «Boy, you’re grinding, you’re hustling, doing all this stuff.» No! You’re actually working out of an empty place because you won’t stop long enough to put the frame around what needs to be healed and focus on it.
What do you need God to put the frame around? What area of your life needs framing? What place in your thoughts requires a frame? You need to stay there long enough for there to be focus on it. You never see people putting pictures up in their house and changing the frame of the picture every five minutes, because they want you to focus on that picture for a certain time. For the healing you need in your life, for the transformation you seek, for the unforgiveness to be addressed, we have to frame it correctly.
Are you ready to go to school? I said, are you ready to go to school? Colossians 3:13 invites us to open the textbook: «Make allowances for each other’s faults.» So, what the Bible is saying is that people will fault you, and you probably should make allowances for it. Make allowances for your dad’s faults, your mom’s faults, your boss’s faults, and those around you—the neighbor in the apartment complex who keeps calling the landlord about you having friends over and thinks you have a puppy! Make allowances for others' faults, and then—what happens after you make allowances for other people’s faults? —forgive anyone who offends you. Dang, that’s a lot of people! That’s a lot of people in my life who’ve offended me; isn’t that true for everyone at some point?
Okay, remember that. Did I just say, if we’re going to focus and we’re going to get the frame right, maybe we don’t need to forget; maybe we need to remember. Remember the Lord forgave you; remember he’s already extended his grace to you. So you must forgive others. Could you put up my periodic table, please? I want to start with faults. I think we’re going to move this over just a bit because I want to make sure everyone sees the whole thing. Okay, now when we think about people’s faults, I think that every fault falls into one of three categories. Yeah, yeah! When you figure out what category everything goes into, when you know where everything lies, it’s going to help you deal with it.
So, watch this. Every body has a fault, and anything that anybody does to you will fall into one of these three categories: it’s either going to be a frustration, a fail, or a flagrant foul. Think about any situation that happened to you. The person who cut you off on the highway on your way to work and flipped you off—that was a fault of someone else, but it really falls into the area of frustration. It didn’t really do anything damaging to you, but if you give it enough gas, we can turn this into something else. Like, come on now! You were having an okay day, and then they rammed past you and hit you with the bird outside the window! You were listening to Tasha Cobbs' «Break Every Chain,» and now you want to break your foot off somewhere else!
You know how you fake it—you speed up like you’re about to do something. Is this just me as a pastor, speeding up like you’re about to do something? You roll down the window, and you’re like, «What’s up?» You never quite hear what they’re saying, so you’ve got to make sure you give them hand signals, but the truth is, that was just frustration. The crazy thing about frustration is that this is where many people spend most of their time dealing with stuff, and this is the lowest level of forgiveness required. People don’t really dive into the ones who have failed them and the people who flagrant fouled them? So I’m going to help walk you through this, because there’s a process anytime there’s a fault. I want you to go to the next thing; there are some subsequent things that happen. Thank you, Lord. There’s the offense, there’s the feeling that you have, there’s the result, there’s the antidote, there’s the answer, and there’s the reaction.
So let me give you a practical example of this. Let’s take that same thing of going to work, and somebody flips you off outside of the window. Let’s just say, to spice it up, they happen to be a different race than you, and they happen to have a flag of the party that you don’t root for on the back of the car—a bumper sticker or something. Let me make it real for you, okay? Now the frustration and the offense happen at the moment of the exchange. That’s where my offense came in. It doesn’t matter where and what happened before it, but you can be offended and frustrated at the moment of exchange. You can be offended and frustrated when somebody posts something, or when somebody doesn’t like something, or if somebody didn’t think you were cute, or all of these other things. They’re real little and petty stuff, but this stuff becomes really big in our lives.
When you’re in frustration, the offense happens at exchange. When somebody fails you, watch this: the offense happens at expectation. You can only fail somebody when you are expected to meet a different standard. So what happens many times is parents fail us, bosses fail us, leaders fail us, friends fail us, because we had an expectation of them, and they did not meet that expectation. So offense happens at the level of expectation. I’m trying to help you because I want you to be able to identify where you are and what’s happening in your life. Where are the areas that we need to frame this unforgiveness so we can work on it? When somebody flagrant fouls you—and I want to give everybody an example of a flagrant foul—Will, come here; I need somebody who’s strong that can take this.
If you’ve ever played basketball or have watched it, a flagrant foul is when somebody tries to do something intentional to hurt you. Okay, now, Will, you’re not going to hurt me. I’ve got to keep preaching! Okay, okay, so I want you to act like you’re coming up and there’s a goal behind, and I’m going to show them what a flagrant foul is. Forgive me in advance, okay? All right, here we go; come, come, come. Yeah, okay, you never know what you’re going to get at Transformation Church! Okay, now there was no—I wasn’t even trying to block the shot; I was trying to hurt him.
When somebody flagrant fouls your emotions, they’re not trying to help you; they were trying to hurt you. What happens where the offense occurs in a flagrant foul situation is that it happens at exploitation. It’s when people are trying to use you—not because they wanted to be friends with you, but because it made them look better to the people they really wanted to impress. They exploited you; they wanted to feel loved, and they knew you were insecure, so they pursued you with no intent of having a relationship with you, just to fill a moment of pleasure. They exploited you. This is what’s happening in all the faults that occur with people. There’s either frustration that happens, the offense occurs at exchange, or they fail you because they didn’t meet your expectation. They weren’t there, they didn’t do what you thought they were going to do, or they committed a flagrant foul which exploited you.
What ends up happening after that? After we are offended, then we have a feeling, and the feeling that comes with frustration is, «I don’t feel like I’m valued.» If that guy would have valued my lane and my driving, he wouldn’t have flipped me off. It’s so crazy how the enemy works and makes you get this little bitty frame around something. Because of that one act of frustration, now ruins your whole day. How are you doing today? «I don’t know what’s going on; I was driving in and my makeup didn’t act right, then I was going on the highway and then this jerk flipped me off,» and you come in because the enemy is trying to close the frame in on you.
See, the offense gets frustrated; stay in that place. What happens right there is he’s trying to convince you that you have no value. But what ends up happening when somebody fails you? These are the elements: your feeling is victimized when that parent said they were going to be there because your parents were split up. Your dad told you he was going to be there for you, and every birthday he forgot to write and forgot to send a card. Even if he may have shown up with presents, he didn’t show up with his presence. You grow up, and when they fail you, the feeling is, «I’m a victim of this.» I didn’t ask my mom to do it with him; I didn’t ask to be in this situation, I didn’t ask to go through this trial. The enemy tries to keep us in the feeling of victimization. And then, when somebody flagrant fouls you, look what happens: you feel violated. Oh yeah!
This is the point that many people get to when something happens to them that was so perverted or vile or out of the blue. They never knew why it happened, and this is where you go to. I’m just trying to show you very clearly the lanes of unforgiveness, the lanes that we all fall into. You can be in all of these at the same time. I can be in frustration with a random person I don’t know. I can be in a failed unforgiveness situation with my coworkers, and I can be in a straight flagrant foul situation with my uncle. I’m trying to give you these lanes so you can see, and maybe we can get to a place of healing. Let’s go down to the result, 'cause when somebody faults you, and then there’s the offense and the feeling, there’s always a result.
This is what I want to tell people: this is why we have to move from just being stuck in frustration. Because the result of frustrating faults is usually petty. It’s petty! They flipped me off, I’m feeling no value, so I’m chasing behind them with my cell phone. Does anybody know someone that drives a blue Corolla? 'Cause they ain’t nobody, and their mama ain’t nobody. And then we do all of these things that are petty. We have side conversations with family members: «You know why Becky’s not here? You know why she’s not here, right? Because she’s with Charles.» Maybe I should use another name; I’ve just been saying Charles all the time—"not Charles, she’s been with—» He said, «No, she ain’t; she’s been with—» Let’s just keep moving. But usually, the response to frustration is petty, and this is where 95% of the church is.
We get offended or frustrated over small faults and we end up being petty. We end up making a social media comment; we end up leaving the church and not telling anybody; we end up spreading division or a separate vision because we didn’t like the way somebody treated us. We end up in all of these things, and God is saying that is so petty. I’m going to show you what to do to cure it in a minute, but we have to keep going. When somebody fails you and fails your expectation and victimizes you, the result is always painful. It’s always painful when somebody fails you. It hurts in a place that you can’t see.
And this is the hard part because the Church so many times doesn’t make room for the pain of people that we can’t see. I can’t heal it in a minute; I can’t pray it out of you right now. What happens with pain is we usually insulate or make a barrier around it so nobody can get to it. This is the very area that I believe God is trying to get some of you to walk in forgiveness. The most painful area is where He wants to start putting His hand. I have to keep moving; I have so much to say. The result of a flagrant foul—this one is big right here—is programming. When somebody flagrantly does something to you, it doesn’t just hurt; it starts programming your mind. I’m going to go ahead and give you an example because this is a real-life situation that I know with one of my friends. He went to a friend’s house to spend the night; a big cousin was there and started touching him or exploiting him inappropriately.
The young man didn’t have anybody to talk to because he was violated. When he was violated, it didn’t just hurt him; it started programming him to think that maybe he needs to like men. At the moment of the flagrant foul, he was exploited and violated, but then it started rearranging his thinking. He thought, «Not that this happened to me and I was this,"—this was an attack or anything—it was more like, «Maybe this is who I am.»
My question to you is: how many things have happened to you flagrantly that didn’t just hurt you, but also started changing who you were? You started believing that you weren’t secure anymore, that you couldn’t live without a relationship, and that you were not called to ministry because you failed at your first message, and somebody talked about you, and they flagrantly fouled you.
Now, the enemy comes in to program you. I’m trying to help somebody get free, and I know nobody’s ever said this before, but this is the thing that begins to lead people down paths that they just live with. This is just how I am; this is just what happened to me. If we can understand it, if we can know what is happening, I believe there can be freedom for you in forgiveness. I have to keep pushing—I have to keep pushing. The result is either petty if it’s frustration or painful if somebody failed you, and that programming is so huge. I have to tell a personal story because I need people to get this.
When I was younger, I was overweight my entire life. I was overweight, and when I hit ninth grade, I started fasting a lot and lost a bunch of weight. What ended up happening was I didn’t really work out to lose the weight; I didn’t really do anything. It was a result of a growth spurt and not eating as much. Then, when I got older, I started fluctuating in my weight. I wanted to work out, and I’ve been very upfront with you all about my journey and different things like that. Right now, I have on a Spanx shirt—I’m trying to hold it in.
Look at me; I don’t want this. I don’t want it. There was a young man, when I was bigger, who came and made fun of me so badly in front of people—I’m talking about he ridiculed me and exploited me for a laugh. Remember what exploitation is—it’s using somebody else for your gain. Some of you parents are using your kids for a gain. It’s funny—no, it’s killing them; it’s hurting them; it’s causing them pain you’ll never even deal with. Oh, let me stop. He violated me, and somewhere in my mind, programming took place that said, «You’ll never be able to lose the weight. You can start, but you will always stop. You’ll never be consistent at this; you can’t.»
As a man almost 34 years old, I still fight with the programming of a person I don’t even remember the name of. Through this series, as I’m talking to you, I realize I have to forgive him. I’m not preaching a message to you that God’s not challenging me with; we’re doing this together. That programming—I have to keep going. Is this okay? I need to know because Jesus was able to say, «Forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.» If that guy had known what he would have been causing me for 30 years, he might not have done it. But he didn’t know what he was doing.
Now I have to deal with it. Even if they don’t know what they’re doing, I still have to deal with it. Even if your parents don’t know what they’re doing to you, you still have to deal with it. Even if that high school sweetheart didn’t know they were going to rob you of your confidence, and now you don’t fulfill your purpose, and now you think everybody’s out to get you, and that God maybe doesn’t want to use you—you still have to deal with it. And it’s not fair, but it’s real. So, do you want to just keep blaming them that it’s not fair, or do you want keys to be able to walk in forgiveness?
The antidote to frustration after we have a bad exchange is that they don’t value you. The result is petty. The antidote—you’re not going to like this one—is maturity. There are some situations where when someone flips me off, now I laugh. Back in the day, it would have been a fight; I would have driven to the next location they were about to be at and confronted them. That’s what used to happen.
Now they don’t get that energy because I’ve matured. This one is really exposing because there are people who are old in age and immature in action. There are people who speak in tongues, and all God hears is a clanging cymbal because you have no love. You haven’t matured to love yet. You don’t know what’s going on in their life and in their heart. And God’s saying, yes, you’re frustrated, yes you had an exchange, yes they didn’t value you, yes you want to be petty, but you need to mature—that’s the antidote. That’s the thing that automatically interacts or counteracts it. Let me give you some scripture for this because some of you need this.
1 Corinthians 14:20: «Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Watch this: be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.» Body of Christ, it’s time for us to let some of the things that are just frustrations go. I mean, cue Elsa: Let It Go. Why, when you post that, do you feel like you need to scroll 13 people down in the comments and write a book to follower for Christ 1339, who has zero followers? Talk about it. Mature! You know your brother-in-law is gone off that drink; when he comes in and says something about you, you know he’s probably inebriated.
Why are you responding like this is somebody who can change your destiny? Mature! When your boss comes in, and you know all the pressure that they’re under and they don’t know how to healthily handle it—you’ve seen it in every area—and then they go off on you, don’t take it personally. Let me give you another scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:11: «When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I was petty like a child, I wanted to have an exchange like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, when I became a man—watch this, this is key—I voluntarily gave up childish ways.»
This tells me that maturity is a choice. This is just the way I am? You better not cross me like that because if you ever cross me, you will see a side you never want to see before. I told my wife that when I was 21, and somebody did something crazy out in public, I just lost every desire to fight ever again. It doesn’t make sense for me as a grown man to want to fight somebody; that would be my rage and anger coming out in a way that would take away from the purpose that I believe God gave me. I’m going to mature beyond this. I don’t know what it is for you, but there is something that God is saying: yes, the fault was a frustration, the offense happened in some kind of exchange; yeah, the feeling is that you didn’t feel any value, and the result that you wanted to do, or maybe even did, was petty.
But the antidote—the interaction—the thing that you need to do is mature. I’m begging the Body of Christ, as we go into election week, mature! People are going to say stuff that don’t even read the Bible and quote it; only a fool argues with them. Mature! There are certain things that just won’t get my energy, and God is saying, if you’re going to represent me, there’s going to have to be a level of maturity. Someone say, «God, help me mature.» I’m going to need your help, but help me mature. This might take a while, but help me mature. That was the most faith-filled thing that some of you have said all week.
Okay, let me keep going. When somebody fails you—fails your expectations—you feel victimized, and you experience pain. The antidote, watch this, is not maturity; it’s ministry. You need ministry when you get hurt in a deep way. When somebody fails you—when a parent fails you, when a coworker fails you, when a brother or sister fails you—and that thing goes down past the surface level and hits the heart, you need ministry. That’s why you’re supposed to be watching Transformation Church; that’s why you need to be in a small group; that’s why God says to confess your sin.
Let me just go to the Bible and go to James 5:16: «Therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed.» It hurts so much; there’s so much pain that it needs healing. You never go to the doctor when there’s not pain; you don’t see the ER filled with people who feel fine. The ER is filled with people who need ministry—they need healing. What God is saying to you is that if you have been failed, you can’t just think that maturity is going to take it away. This is what I hear some people say: «I’m old. I’m over that. It doesn’t affect me anymore. I’m doing fine.»
You think just because you got older, you still don’t need healing? It happened when you were five, but it’s still affecting you at 65, and it’s been so familiar that now you think it’s a part of you. But it’s an attachment that everybody else sees; it’s a growth that’s growing off of you. Everybody knows you have an anger issue, and you think it’s just a part of you because you thought maturity was going to heal something. When somebody fails you, the only thing that heals you is ministry. That’s why the Bible says in James 5:14: «If there are any sick among you, call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of Jesus.»
There’s healing in ministry. That’s why I can’t wait till we get back in this building. When I tell you, when we come in here, you might want to plan for that Sunday to have nothing else to do the whole day because I’m so ready! I don’t know how I’m going to do it; maybe I’ll get a foam hand and touch you in the name of Jesus to keep within CDC guidelines. But I’m telling you, ministry will always happen in the house of Jesus Christ. And let me give you another key: ministry can always happen in your house because I’m not the only minister here—you are! God said, «Wherever two or three of you are gathered, you can call your friends, and you can call your coworkers, and you can say, 'I’m hurting because they didn’t choose me for the job. I’m hurting because they said they were going to be there for me, and they weren’t. I’m hurting; I’m in pain because I put my all into this, and they didn’t support me.'»
My expectation caused an offense, and now I feel like a victim, and it’s painful. This is so powerful; these are the words you can say: «I need ministry.» The greatest point and breakthrough in my life is when I admitted there was pain and said, «I need ministry. I need someone. I can’t heal myself in this area. I can’t just tough it out; I need somebody to reach out and touch me, and I need ministry.» The crazy thing about this is we often try to put ministry in the next category.
See, when somebody flagrantly fouls us, exploits us, violates us, and programs us, we don’t just need ministry; we need a miracle. So, in the places we need God to step in, we want to pray for people. Uh-oh. I know some people are going to be upset, but that hurt, that pain isn’t going to get worked out in a 60-second prayer at the altar. That isn’t going to happen, and that’s the lie that many times we’ve sold as the church. It has created frustration in people because they say, «I keep going to the altar for the same thing, and then I come back, and I get prayed for. I feel good for 30 minutes, and then I see it again, and I come back to the altar.» No, baby, somebody flagrantly fouled you, and you’ve been exploited and violated, and it has changed your programming.
You don’t just need ministry; we are going to do that, but you need a miracle. You need God to take those images that were placed in your life of abuse and those things that happened to you when you felt neglected and unwanted. You need God to come in with His divine hand and pass through all the petty stuff and touch the area you don’t even know how to identify right now. If I asked you what’s wrong, you couldn’t tell me because you don’t need ministry; you need a miracle. I thank God that we serve a miracle-working God, a God who still does miracles. He can, in a time of prayer, illuminate an area of your life that you forgot about and show you, «This is what I need to touch, and this is how I’m going to heal you.» You need a miracle.
Let me give you a practical example from the Word of God. Remember the woman in John 4 who went to the well? She needed a miracle. I don’t know what happened to her, but somewhere, there was a flagrant foul in her life because the Bible said that she was with man after man after man. Jesus literally said to her, «The man you are with right now isn’t even your husband,» and the woman said, «You must be a prophet.» Read it in the Bible; she was like, «Oh my God, are you a prophet?» Because she had been programmed to think somehow that a man was going to fulfill and quench her thirst. She was not the only one. She thought that somehow being in a relationship with somebody would solve her problems; she tried rich, she tried poor, she tried black, she tried white, she tried everything, and the man she was with right now didn’t even have it. Jesus literally asked her, «Do you want a drink that will quench your thirst forever? Do you want a miracle?»
Do I know you’re at this well looking for some water, and you’re embarrassed because you’ve been a victim? You came to this well at high noon, the hottest point of the day, but you would rather be uncomfortable than let people see where you really are. This is the context of this story, and Jesus offers her a miracle the same way I don’t know who you are or why you tuned in today. We are knee-deep; this isn’t for the people who are trying to figure out if they want to be a part of Forgiveness University. This is advanced learning right here. This is for people who want to go deeper. God is saying to you, «I have a miracle in store for you if you would bring every flagrant foul to me.»
This is what I had to do when I acknowledged that a flagrant foul had happened in my life, when I acknowledged that I had flagrantly fouled Pastor Natalie. I’m open about it; before we got married, I flagrantly fouled her. I exploited her; I used her in a relationship while still talking to this other girl and sleeping with her, and all of this stuff violated her. It started programming her to think that the only way she could stay in a relationship with me was if we lived in a perverted relationship outside of the covenant of God. I know nobody’s telling you this because they want to look perfect to you. I don’t care if I don’t look perfect to you; I want you to progress. Sometimes the only way you can progress is knowing that somebody else has gone through this process.
What happened to me is that when I realized I needed a miracle and came to God with all my brokenness, I told Him everything I messed up. He said, «I have something for you.» He said, «I don’t just want to give you an antidote; I want to give you—everybody say it with me—the answer.» Yes, say «the answer!» I’m not talking about Allen Iverson; I’m talking about the answer that will change everything. See, when you’re in frustration, the answer is patience. When you mature, you gain patience. You wait for people to change; you’re not so quick to beat them down. You know they just don’t get it. That’s why Jesus could say, «Forgive them; they don’t know.» I’m mature enough to realize they don’t understand, and patience is a fruit of the Spirit. I can tell you haven’t been in the Spirit because you have no patience. I can tell you don’t pray because you’re ready to cancel culture. You would have fruit because the fruit of the Spirit includes patience.
Let me pause here for a moment: Galatians 5:22 says, «But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in your life: not just patience but also love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.» All of these different things are the fruit of being with God. The problem right now is that a lot of people have the title of Christian but no fruit, and all I’m telling you is the reason we have to frame all of this forgiveness and unforgiveness properly is that the world needs fruit. They are dying for someone to actually live this out. The reason we have to mature is that it gives us patience, and we are able to deal with frustration much quicker than we have been. Many of you can’t get into the things that truly matter, the people who fail you and who have flagrantly fouled you because you’re stuck in frustration. You’re stuck in the petty. God is saying, «No, no, no, no! Get with me, and the fruit of that will be patience.»
Let me tell you what the answer to being failed is. When someone fails your expectations and victimizes you, and you have pain, you need ministry. Then after ministry, you need a process that nobody likes. I’m sorry; I’m just trying to tell you that if you want to heal, if you want to be free, prayer initiates transformation in your life, but the process solidifies transformation in your life. I know I’m making a lot of churches and pastors mad right now because you told everybody it was done. «Everything’s new; walk out of here free.» Then you never see them again, or the next time you see them, they’re on the corner, or the next time you see them, they’re doing the exact thing again. We prayed for them and gave them no process. Why do I do a ten-week series? It’s because I’m trying to take you through a process that you can refer back to any time, that you can get into community and walk through.
Many of you need counseling. I keep telling you, and you know I had someone comment when I mentioned this; they said, «What about praying and believing in the Spirit? Any man who is in Christ is a new creation.» I’ve got a scripture for you: «We acknowledge God in all our ways, and He will direct our paths.» I’ve never seen a path that doesn’t require steps. What path do you take that does not require steps? God is going to direct not just my one step into deliverance; it’s a path, and a path takes a process of steps to reach an intended destination. Your deliverance consists of steps. It took you 30 years to get into it, and it may take you several steps to get out of it. There are no amens from the church today.
The only thing I’m telling you is that when someone fails you, to really heal and frame it properly, you need a—everybody say «process!» Yes! My wife and I have been in a process. I keep sharing it with you. The crazy thing is I’ve been in counseling all week with my wife—three and a half hours every day. We flew to Colorado; this is the second week in a row. I flew back yesterday; I got home at 9:00 p.m. I was picked up at 8:30 this morning to come here to preach to you, and I’m going to get on a plane at 7:00 a.m. to go back to Colorado to go through a process.
I know some of you don’t think it takes all that. I promise you, I don’t care what you think; I’m going to be free. I promise you, I don’t care. But as for me and my house, we are not going to be stuck in this. We’re going to walk out the process for when people fail us, when we fail ourselves, when we fail people, when we do everything. We’re going to be free, and I’m trying to model it so that you can have permission to do it in your own life. Get the help you need. Get accountability. Walk in a process. Go to counseling. Stop acting like it didn’t hurt. Stop trying to think that if you just give it time, patience will change the thing that failed you.
They failed you; time isn’t going to heal it. It’s going to be a process. This is good, and you’re going to be able to see that as you walk this out, you’ll be able to identify where you are. Oh, I’m feeling pain. Oh, I’m being petty. Oh, I feel like a victim. Oh man, I need to mature, and you can see what God is doing! Because when people flagrant foul you, and they exploit you and violate you, and it starts to mess with your thinking and your programming, what you need is a miracle. The answer is not patience. A process isn’t the answer; it’s His presence. When you need a miracle, no amount of counseling is going to do it. When you need a miracle, when God has to go into a place in an area that people don’t even know is there, you need His presence.
The Bible tells us in Psalms—oh, I love the Bible—that He will show me the path; there goes the process again. He’ll show me the process of life, the path of life. In His presence is the fullness of joy, and at His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. There are some things that have happened to me that God says, «You need a miracle.» I said, «God, I do need a miracle.» He said, «Get in My presence—fast. Cut off the TV. Don’t go out. Spend time with Me.» What am I supposed to do? Just sit here? He said, «If you sit there, I’ll be here with you. Open that Word, put on that worship song, sit in silence, get in My presence. I’m whispering to you in a still, small voice. It’s been so noisy around you; you’ve been distracting yourself. I’m calling you to a two-day fast.»
«Who else is fasting with me?» «Just Me and you.» It doesn’t take anybody else for this. Don’t post about it either; don’t get validation from the outside. I need you to do this one thing—just Me and you. I need this to be something that you get in My presence, and in My presence, I’ll give you a miracle. I’ll change your programming. I’m going to take the areas that have been violated, and I’m going to heal you. I’m going to take your exploitation, and I’m going to exploit you for My glory. I’m going to put you on a platform and bring people to Me because of you.» How do you know that, Pastor Mike? It’s my testimony.
Oh, y’all didn’t know it was in His presence where He qualified me. It’s where He gave me a miracle. It’s where He changed my programming so that I could think differently, be different, and live differently. Now I’m a mouthpiece for God all over the world because I realized that somebody had flagrantly fouled me, and I was able to forgive them. Okay, let me give you the last piece of this. So, what’s the reaction when somebody frustrates me? When I have a reaction and I exhibit maturity and patience, what I need to do is bounce back. Stop letting the littlest stuff take your day, take your peace, take your joy. Some of y’all are scared to answer the phone because you think it’s going to be something bad. Something tells me to bounce back when the bad news comes. I’m going to bounce back!
I said I’m going to bounce back when they tell me something wrong. I’m going to bounce back! Whoa! I said I’m going to bounce back when everything is gone. I’m going to bounce back! Yo, I’m going to bounce back when my baby mama is tripping! I know you don’t hear me, but I’m going to bounce back when my car doesn’t drive anymore! I’m going to bounce back! Yeah, I’m going to bounce back when they lay me off my job! Whoa, I’m going to bounce back! I’m going to bounce back even if I don’t feel good! I’m going to bounce back! I’m telling somebody that the spirit of bounce back is coming!
In 2020, you thought you threw your shot at me, but wait on me. I’m about to bounce back! I feel the presence of God in this place! If you don’t get to the place where every offense is not created equal—yeah, yeah! I don’t have to give all my energy to certain things; I could just bounce back from some of it! Pray for me because somebody stole my makeup compact. Bounce back! Stop using effort, energy, and prayer on stuff that doesn’t even matter. That’s too much for people. But it’s time for the church to bounce back. People want to talk about me on social media. It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna bounce back.
Come on, baby! You want to leave the church and post about it? Cool, we’re going to bounce back. I’m just trying to let people know right now that there’s a level of maturity that allows me to go through things. Because I’m patient, even if it’s not good right now, God is working it out on my behalf. All things are working together, so as long as I’m patient and I show maturity, I won’t be petty. I realize that my value is not determined by them and what they say, but by Him and who He says I am. So no matter the exchange, no matter the fault, no matter the frustration, I’m gonna bounce back. I feel that spirit of bounce back. I’m gonna bounce back! Let me stop; somebody needs to do something with that. I’m gonna bounce! I don’t even know. Okay, here we go, let’s end it.
When somebody fails you, and they don’t meet your expectations, and you feel victimized and it’s painful, you need ministry. That’s the beginning of it. But then you need a process. The reaction you need to have is not just bouncing back, but setting boundaries. Wow, wow, wow! Oh, this is good! Yeah, yeah, see, when people fail you, it doesn’t mean they won’t fail you again. That’s right. So what you need to do is realize what happened. You can forgive them for it, but then you need to set new boundaries. You don’t get to know this about me anymore; you don’t get to come to this place in my life anymore.
I have people I’m accountable to, and you’re not one of them. You’ve failed me in this. I tried to talk to you; we tried to get it back together, but we can’t do this anymore. So I don’t have to dismiss you forever, and I don’t have to like you or dislike you anymore, but I will set boundaries. There are people who are no longer in my life as they used to be because they failed me. And once you fail me, I don’t have to be foolish in forgiveness. God said I need to forgive, so I’m not going to put myself in a situation to be hurt again. No, I’m not doing that. I’m going to love you from a distance. Can everybody say this godly word? Boundaries! Boundaries!
That’s why, with your family members, they will keep failing you until you set boundaries. They haven’t done any of the work; they haven’t tried to get free. They don’t want to do forgiveness, and so you keep going to them expecting a different result, but you get the same thing. There’s a definition for that: it’s insanity. So what God is saying to you is that when people fail you, and you go through a process, it is imperative to set boundaries. Ah, I want to stay on that so long. Maybe that’s next week because I need to show y’all how to actually walk in forgiveness and establish lanes that don’t trap you in but keep toxic things out. We’ll talk about that later. Oh, this is good! Thank you, Lord!
Okay, so the flagrant foul. This is the last one. When they flagrant foul you, when they do it on purpose, when it hurts you, and they don’t even know what they were doing but it messes you up—when they exploit you, when they violate you—it starts messing with your thinking and your programming. What you need is a miracle. And the miracle of God comes in His presence, and the result of that reaction can either be a breakup, so stay right there. Stay right there! When someone flagrantly fouls you, you don’t just need to have boundaries for some situations; some of y’all need to break it off altogether. Now, I know no pastor would tell people this, but if you’re in an abusive relationship right now, and they have violated you, and you’re in the cycle where you think they’re the only one who’s going to love you, the reaction is going to be either a breakup, a breakthrough, or if you don’t do anything, it will be a breakdown. I’m giving you the results right now that happen when you go through something like this.
And I don’t know where you are, but you should be able to find yourself right here. Are you breaking down? Are you breaking through? Are you breaking up? Because in His presence, He’ll give you a miracle and He’ll change your programming in every area you’ve been violated and exploited. For the people who flagrantly fouled you, there comes a result. God began to tell me, «Michael, people need to stop looking at the frame that they’ve been born with, the frame that the enemy tries to show them.» He tries to sum me up with this little piece I did.
«This is who I am.» Right? «This was a mistake. This is where I committed the flagrant foul.» And it’s not close enough to be able to see. Come in real close! You can’t see my outfit, my haircut, or anything when the enemy tries to frame what’s happened so small. God is saying today, «I want to fix your frame. I want to take down what the enemy has given you and I want to give you a bigger frame than you even came into this world with. I want to give you a frame that gives you perspective on my grace. I want to give you a frame that’s bigger than what you came in here with and much more than what the enemy has tried to sell you. I want to fix your frame today.»
I believe through this week, God will put a focus on things He wants to begin to identify regarding where you’re at on this forgiveness framework. And when you find where you are, you have to see yourself through the frame of God. See, you don’t need to settle. Because in the frame of God, He says you’re loved. He says you’re chosen. He says there’s grace for you. In His framework, there’s so much more than what society and family members have tried to label you with. You have to receive this. When He went to the cross, His words to all of us were, «Forgive them; they don’t even know what they’re doing.» And I love the Bible because it tells us there was one guy on the cross who was guilty, and he believed. Everybody say, «Believed!» He didn’t have time for classes or a deliverance service; he was hanging on the cross with Jesus, and he said, «I believe that You’re the Son of God. I believe that You can create a miracle. I believe that You can give me a bigger frame than how I lived my whole life.»
Today, while the other guy was mocking Him, he said, «I want to follow You. I want to believe in what You’re saying.» And Jesus, with His last breath, because He knew He was on the cross hanging for that man, literally said to him, «Today, you’ll be with me in Paradise.» Today, I’m trying to tell somebody right now, God is going to show you where the situations and issues are that were on that table, and now you have a process to be able to figure out what you need right now. Do I need ministry? Do I need maturity? Do I need a miracle? Do I need His presence? Do I need a process? Do I just need to have patience? And when He gives you what you’re supposed to do, I want you to listen, and watch this: obey the frame of forgiveness.
Today, I want to pray for people who may have seen situations that have happened in your life come up in this scenario. I dare you to write this whole chart out. Graphics team, I need us to get this up for people to be able to see, and I want you to print this off this week. I want you to name a situation—like, «situation with Billy"—and figure out where you are in that situation. I want you to do that for a situation with my boss or a coworker.
This is going to be really private, and I dare you to be humble, open, and transparent. This is not something you’re showing everybody; this is something you’re doing in your private time so that you can start this path and this journey. I’m telling you that God is going to help you this week, and next week I think I’m going to go deeper into this thing because God’s given me a twist on this whole forgiveness concept that’s going to help you. But I want you to come back here; we have four more weeks. But today, God’s thinking, «Identify yourself.» Hands lifted all over this building, all over the world.
Thank you, God! Thank you, Father! Oh, I feel the work starting to happen right now. Thank you, Lord! Ah, I feel You, God! Thank you, Lord, right now, even in this moment. Come on, hands lifted. I know this feels a little awkward and a little different, but right now, God’s coming to shed light on the area that you need to ask for His help in. Father, right now, here we are asking again for Your help. That’s why we come to the hospital of humanity, the church, to get help from on high. And because of Your grace, we can come to the throne boldly asking for what we need. Father, we need You to show us where we are and what we need to do. Father, You’re such a good God that You never require anything of us that You will not walk with us through. God, Your word says that You give us the desire and the power to do what pleases You. So, in this moment, in this time, we’re asking You to help us. Help us forgive every frustration, every flagrant foul, and every fail that has happened in our lives. Father God, we want to be free, and we declare we will be free. Father, I declare that the crazy faith that is needed to forgive is building strength inside of us. Before 2023 is over, there will be massive change, massive deliverance, and massive transformation that happens in my life and in Transformation Nation’s life. You know them name by name and person by person, and today, Father God, we’re gaining a better understanding so that You can heal us from the inside out. We trust You, we believe You, and we thank You in Jesus' name.
In that same attitude right now, there may be somebody watching who has never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Your frame has been almost non-existent. Today, God wants to give you a new frame—a frame of grace, a frame of forgiveness—a frame that takes someone like me, who has committed flagrant fouls and had flagrant fouls committed against him, and He says, «With all of that, with all your flaws, with all your mess-ups, with your addictions, and with how you acted toward those people, if you give it to me, I will turn all of these tragedies in your life into a testimony.» Today, God wants to give that to you. I don’t know who you are, but I feel the spirit of God telling me this is your moment. Today is the day of salvation!
God is saying He wants to give you a new life, a new frame, but today you have to receive and accept Him. So, for everybody who wants to be part of the family of Jesus Christ, the journey starts by accepting Him, and on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. One: you’re making the greatest decision of your life. Two: I am so proud of you, but more than that, God is elated about your decision. Three: raise your hand all over this world, all over this world! I want you to raise your hand right now. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep—right now, you can put your hands down. You don’t need to confess everything you’ve done to everybody around. Right now, God is saying that confession is about to bring you from being someone who’s been far from God to someone who’s close to Him.
In Transformation Church, nobody prays alone; we’re one big family. So right now, for the benefit of those praying this all over the world, on rebroadcast, watching 10 months later, let’s pray this prayer together. This is the prayer that God hears. Everybody, just lift your hands and say:
God, thank You for sending Jesus just for me. For every flagrant foul, for every fail, and for every frustration, today, Father God, I give You my life. I believe You lived and died just for me, and today, I’m asking You to change me, renew me, and transform me. I’m Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.