Michael Todd - The Biggest Faith Move You Could Ever Make
We are in week 12 of a series we’re calling «Crazier Faith,» and I told you all it’s crazy until Christmas. We only have two more weeks, and I just feel so strongly that part of my assignment, my life message, is to move the body of Christ towards faith in God—not just faith for an event or a thing, but faith in God. Say «faith in God.» Most people are more concerned about faith for a thing than faith in God.
Today, as we get ready to do what is customary around Transformation Church, we are giving our end-of-the-year offering for Crazy Faith. This offering prompts a lot of questions: «What is it for? What are we doing?» I told someone that I don’t want our church to be built around giving for things. If there is nothing to give towards, we might think it’s unnecessary to give. I don’t give for things; I give so that my wicked heart, without God, puts proper priority on why I’m blessed. Most people do not understand that giving and generosity are fruits of what actually prioritizes your heart.
A few years ago, we decided as a church that there’s always stuff God wants us to do—so many initiatives, outreach partners, and buildings we need to build. However, we will not give this time of year, especially around Christmas, when everything is about what we can get. Let’s be honest: all of us have an Amazon cart with wishlist items just waiting for someone to ask us what we want, right? But at a season where culture talks about what we can get, we decided to focus on what we can give, and that’s living and walking in—everybody shout it with me—"crazy faith!» Say it like you mean it!
Today, I feel responsible for some of us who are making the biggest faith move we’ve ever made, especially regarding giving resources. With the resources we have—or don’t have—it takes crazy faith. Some of you have lost sleep; some of you have started trying to figure out how to take on a second or third job to obey God. I want to be honest and authentic with you because I don’t want to come up here and act like everybody’s just ready to give in Crazy Faith. No, some of us are crying on the way to the bucket. You thought it was the anointing; no, it hurts. But I feel that this may be the most significant move our church has made all year because we begin to do a cuss word to most of us: we start to «mature.»
Some of us have bought into the «Toys R Us» kid theme song, «I don’t want to grow up; I just want to be a kid.» That’s how we live our Christian life. The Christian life is not lived in age or years served. There are 60-year-olds being lapped by 21-year-olds in spiritual maturity because of one word: obedience. God tries to tell you to do something, and your thing is, «I’m grown; I’m in your business; I shouldn’t have to go back to that level.» What kind of sense does that make? God is telling us today as a church that it’s time for us to mature.
I’m going to read a passage of Scripture that may be familiar to you, but I want to use it as an anchor for us to figure out where we are in our faith today. Can we go on a journey today? I said, can we go on a journey today? Okay, Hebrews 11:6 says, «And without"—what’s the word? —"faith.» I’ll read it again: «And without faith, it is impossible to please God.» That word could have been anything, right? I wish it would have said, «And without small groups,» or «And without worship music,» because we love those things. But «without faith, it’s impossible to please God,» because anyone who comes to Him—everybody say «must believe.» We can’t get past having a lukewarm, halfway, not really too committed faith. He said you must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
We’re in the twelfth week of a series called «Crazy Faith.» Most people who have stayed in this with us this long at least believe that God exists, and you all believe that He rewards people who genuinely pursue Him. But I really believe we have not fully understood and grasped this Scripture because without faith, it’s impossible to please God. Now, people have used this Scripture to beat people over the head, saying, «Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. You’re not pleasing to God!» What God is trying to say is that faith is the bare minimum. He’s not saying, «You are unpleasing to me because you do not have big faith.» Remember, He says all it takes is «mustard seed faith.» I don’t even need a lot of it. He’s just trying to set the standard.
Faith is the standard for actually being able to do this thing. Just like intercourse is the standard for having children—nobody would argue that there have to be two people coming together for there to be a win—everybody say «standard.» So many times, we cheer for the standard. To go through a door, you have to walk up to the door and open it; that’s the standard of going through the door. The standard for not being funky is that there’s only so much cologne or perfume, and when you’re young, it’s AXE Body Spray—some of y’all be spritzing it from Walmart! But if you’re going to be clean, the standard is just to take a shower. This is what God is saying about faith: this isn’t rocket science. If you want to please Me, faith is the standard.
So if faith is the standard, we have to figure out where we are in faith. I’m sitting in a room where thousands of people are listening to me, and everyone’s at a different level in faith. We all just sang the same song; we all read the same Scripture, but we’re in different lanes of faith. Today, I want to help you identify your lane of faith and see if we can help you move to the next level or mature into the next lane of faith. Is that okay?
I’m going to call this example «The Lanes of Crazy Faith» because I need us to figure out where we are. Some people believe crazy faith is luck. I need to be honest because all the church people say—but the truth of the matter is go ahead, bring that out right now—it’s that most people think, «Oh my gosh, they got that building; they’re so lucky! Wow, God blessed them with that job; they’re so lucky!» We may not say it like that, but we act like God is a slot machine, picking who He’s going to bless this week or not. If it’s going to be the…
I need you to know it’s okay if you’re there, but that’s not where you need to be. If you believe crazy faith is about luck, what you do is use God and faith as just one of many options. If God is just one option, we’ll give Him a little time and a little work, but we’re still going to believe in horoscopes, light our incense, and get the vibe and the chakra and the energy right because we think it’s luck. So I need to put myself in a lot of different things because I’m not sure what’s going to actually work.
I’m going to be a positive person and give good vibes over here, and I’m going to be able to manifest back here. Because I think it’s about luck, I put pieces of my life everywhere. I put pieces of my life in my career. You know, if I just work hard and grind and hustle and prove it—It’s like we put so much energy into these things, hoping that we’ll get—everybody say «lucky.» But crazy faith is not lucky. What we’re believing for, while we’re giving, while we serve—what we’re doing is so that we can have not luck but life.
John 10:10 says, «The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.» What these things are doing to you is stealing time, stealing energy, stealing focus that you could be using to focus on the thing that God told you to do. But because your faith is in luck, and you think this thing can happen, well, maybe it’ll happen by the lottery, and maybe it’ll happen by my great uncle dying and leaving me an inheritance. If nobody leaves me an inheritance, I have an inheritance in Christ!
Oh, y’all better stop! I don’t need someone else. I serve Jehovah Jireh, but you don’t talk like that, and you don’t think like that if you think that crazy faith is lucky. But John 10:10, Jesus says, «I came that you might have—everybody shout it with me—life and life to the full!» What are you saying to me, Pastor Mike? Write this point down: believing in luck will not produce a faithful life. He said, «Life and life more abundantly,» not «luck and luck more abundantly.» This is not about us hoping, wishing, and slot-machineing God into a brand new vehicle. Do you know how insulting that is to the King of the Universe? I’m not saying that God won’t do those things for you; that cannot be the motivation.
Can I teach you to mature real quick? That can’t be the motivation because we put that same energy into a lot of stuff. Some of us call psychic hotlines and tarot card readers. Oh no, this is happening in 2021 right after you finish worshipping to Maverick City and you call in or put your trust in a course or an influencer, hoping that they will provide the key that can be found in the presence of God. I’m not saying anything is wrong with any of that—except if it’s the priority in the plan. Living a lucky life is not the way to have a faithful life.
Today, I just want to challenge you if you’re in the realm that thinks crazy faith is lucky. You don’t think that God is consistent. When Steph Curry comes over half court and chunks the ball up and it goes in, it’s happened so many times that if you think it’s luck, you’re not paying attention! He may not be able to do it on his first attempt, but he has intentionally done that over and over and over again, so what looks abnormal for others—I’m about to preach—is normal for me. See, God doesn’t want you to live a life where it’s abnormal that He blesses you; it’s abnormal that He heals you; it’s abnormal that when you speak, things start to move; and it’s abnormal that your family walks in victory.
This ain’t luck; this is my life! Luck may be where you think God moves, but I promise you, there’s another level to crazy faith. When we give, we’re not hoping—this is not the God we serve! He is consistent. This may be our first time practicing this shot; this may be our first time shooting from this long of a range—but He is consistent, so you don’t have to hang your crazy faith on luck.
However, there are other people—it was usually all the people at the beginning when I said, «Some of y’all base your faith on luck,» and I was like, «Ooh, this next one is for you.» A lot of people, especially religious people, believe that crazy faith is just language. «How you doing? I’m blessed and highly favored!» Are you really? They think it’s all about language. So they don’t put all their time, energy, and effort into luck; they just want to say the right things. «I’m the head and not the tail, brother! Nobody! I’m blessed coming in and blessed going out.» Yet you’re still on welfare after five decades! Somewhere along the way, it just became about language. Somewhere along the way, «I’ll bless the Lord at all times,» except when I’m angry, when I’m frustrated, when I don’t want to do it.
So, we camp our whole lives behind the language of the Lord. But you’ve got language and no result. We have no evidence that the language and your life match up, and today, this may be the lane you’re in. Your crazy faith is hinged only on language. Your crazy faith card is beautiful; it’s eloquent. It’s so punctuated, so deliberate, and so intentional, because He’s intentional about everything for you! You’ve got a song for everything, but it’s just about language. «I gotta love my brother and sister,» yet you haven’t invited anybody over in six years.
The language—"Oh, I’m going to lead a small group; just being one.» Uh-oh, I’m in somebody’s business right now. I’m just saying that this is not the lane where crazy faith flourishes. A life of just language with no results never produces the faith that somebody else needs to see. This is what I call empty words. If you didn’t see last week’s message on faith talk—back and watch that. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 35, we need unity in this country, but you sow seeds of division. What you’re watching on Facebook isn’t lifting anyone up. It’s these Democrats, these Republicans, it’s the left, it’s the right. It’s time to shut up and actually live out the language you talk about.
Okay, they’re gonna be mad at me today, but I just think if we’re going to mature, we honestly have to evaluate. Some of us are not in the lane of crazy faith that actually lives a life like this; we just talk about it. That’s why Matthew 12:35 says, «A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him.» Another translation says, «The good in his heart,» and an evil man brings out evil things from the evil stored up in his heart. But I’m going to tell you this because you need to know that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have ever spoken.
So every «blessed and highly favored» that doesn’t actually reflect your life is a lie. God would rather you be transparent about where you are than use churchy language. Because when you don’t identify the problem, it can never get healed. If you go to the doctor and say your ankle hurts when it’s really your arm, he will continue to treat the ankle when the pain is in the arm. When somebody asks you how you’re doing and you say, «Today wasn’t the best day for me; I’m feeling a little depressed. The cloud is over my head, but I’m trying to keep moving forward,» that is language that faith can step into. Oh my God! But you’re lying when you say, «John, you just finished crying on the phone to somebody else,» and then you come into this place and fake it for everybody.
Listen to me: God does not bless who you pretend to be; He blesses who you really are. And God is saying, «If I could just get my church to divorce their crazy faith from empty language.» Don’t build your crazy faith on luck; I’m better than that; I’m more consistent than that. But don’t base it on empty language because I’m going to ask you what you meant by that. Like, everybody, He’s going to literally call you to the stand. Back on December 6, you made a comment that the church just wants my money. «I’m not giving a big crazy faith offering,» as you threw trash in the parking lot on your way out. I just put on some extra stuff because y’all ride a while. One day God’s going to ask, «What did you mean by that?»
I need you to give an account for those idle words. Oh, this means everything! You say walking away from your husband or wife, you know you don’t have the courage to say it to him, but you said it as you walked away. «You better be glad I’m staying with you. I should have left you a long time ago,» not knowing that that person is the favor that’s on your life. Had you not been with them, you wouldn’t even want to know that story. It might not be good right now, but it could be way worse, and God’s going to say, «What did you mean by that?»
All I’m trying to say is what my dad used to say to me and my four brothers in the van as we were clowning each other. He would say, Ephesians 4:29, «Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for the use of edifying.» What are you building up? What are you lifting up? Who, who, who are you making better? That it may minister. Your words are ministers. You don’t need someone to pray for you; you could talk to somebody in their ear, and they could get healed.
My lowest moments came when somebody who knew me or didn’t just started ministering encouragement to me, saying, «Your words are the ministers of what? Grace.» Your words should be ministers of grace to the hearers. I’m not trying to do faith talk part two; all I’m just telling you is that if your faith, especially you old crusty Christians… I have to say it because some people mean well, but they’re mean, and your words don’t align with what you’re saying, and your life doesn’t, either. That’s why I want you to write this point: I can say a lot, but leverage your language to express love. If you’re going to do anything, leverage the words that come out of your mouth to express love. Why? What does that have to do with having crazy faith?
The Bible tells us very clearly in His Word in Galatians 5:6, «But faith works by love.» Oh shoot! Could the reason why some of our crazy faith isn’t working be because we put the wrong fuel in our belief? We thought works would produce because don’t say «faith without works.» You miss the heart of it; faith in something without the corresponding actions, without the obedience, and without the love that goes along with it is dead. Some of us need to leverage our words to love people, and some of us have been stuck in this lane too long. I pray by the end of this service that you get into another lane. But see, there’s another lane. Some people, and I’m proud of those who made it to this next level, but most people get comfortable here.
Okay, some people think crazy faith has to be led, like, «If I do crazy faith things, Pastor Mike’s gotta lead me there. I need my small group leader. If my husband is the head of the household, then every move of faith we’ve made, somebody led us there.» I’m proud of everyone that gets here because that means you are obedient enough to follow the act of faith that we’re about to do today. I have led you to a place of giving and crazy faith; now you’ve got to do it. You were led here, but see, when you’re led, it becomes event-driven faith. «Crazy faith season? I’ll do outreach on the day everybody does outreach,» and your whole life is supposed to be an outreach.
The church has become so compartmentalized to doing it when the group does. I didn’t have a group of people believing with me for the Spirit Bank Event Center. I wasn’t led to write that down in crazy faith by a leader; that was God speaking to me. That means you may have to fast when nobody else is fasting. That means you may be giving when there is no offering time. I’m trying to build your crazy faith on something that will last. If you have to be led to everything you do in faith, you will miss so many opportunities to obey God.
Stop waiting on a committee to give you permission to do what God told you to do in private. Stop waiting! If I would have waited—oh my goodness—on people to see what God was saying to me, I would still be at the starting line. All I’m saying is it’s okay to be led; amen. But it’s not okay to only be led by man; you have to be led by God. That’s why we didn’t say, «No amount. People need to give.» Please don’t give what I tell you to give; I can’t do anything for you. It’s obedience that produces a fruitful life.
That’s why I go back to a series we did a long time ago, and I just feel like I’ve got to say this to mature our church. Who’s the minister? If many people look at this room right now, and somebody asks, «Who’s the minister?» you point at me. But the Bible is very clear: I’m not the minister here. Ephesians 4:11 is for all the people because this is the lane you’re in right now. «Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers.»
I’m so grateful that in this house we have all five-fold giftings working together. I see prophets sitting on the front row right now; there are people around. I’m telling you this is part of the reason why our church is going to be effective in this generation. Okay, but it says their responsibility is not to make a calendar for you to do Christ’s things; their responsibility is not to create serving opportunities for you. «I would serve more if the church would call me back.» I’m just saying what has to be said. Their responsibility is to equip. Somebody say «equip.» The reason I’ve taught about giving, the reason I’m teaching you about faith, all I’m trying to do is give you the weapons; all I’m trying to give you are the tools. I’m trying to equip you to do His work and to build up the church. That’s what we’re going to do today and the entire body of Christ.
Now, I know anybody that’s in these two categories is like, «Well, let’s just talk about it; let’s just use our language.» We’re taking the nation, leaping over troops, leaping over walls. What is it? Run through troops and leap over walls. You’re not going to run anywhere. And these people are like, «Well, let’s just wait and see what happens. Let’s see if God just does it again.» And these people are saying, «Well, I’m not going to do anything unless God says to; I want to make sure it counts.» Because the truth is, I don’t believe God hears me. I hear that God hears; I think that God hears us. That’s the reason why people can come and believe corporately very big and then go home and not have an ounce of that same faith. It’s because, «I gotta be led there.» And God says, «Oh man, I gave you authority.»
Like I gave everybody—say «me.» You have authority to declare a different season. I said it was bamboo season, and everybody was like, «Bad boys had lost,» but what you don’t know is I declare different seasons in my life all the time. I find the scripture that lines up with the Word of God, and I begin to declare, «This is a season of healing! This is a season…» and I begin to declare over my life what the Word of God says I can have. I don’t have to be led; Bishop doesn’t have to give me permission; T.D. Jakes doesn’t have to say it; Steven Furtick doesn’t have to give any type of nod. If God tells me—oh my God! But I see that we’ve got to move a lot of people from here to here, and today is your opportunity.
I’m leading you to a step of faith in generosity that’s going to make your flesh have to bow, and it’s going to make your spirit man come alive because an expectation comes when you sow sacrificially. This is the thing I just really want to tell everybody because I’m really trying to get somewhere: you are not waiting on God; God’s waiting on you. Stop waiting to be led there. If He told you to do it, if He said, «Well, God, when you bring the financial backer…» no, no, you’ve got it backwards. God gives provision where there is faith.
Some of y’all, your name has been in rooms that are ready to bless you, but they haven’t seen the plan. And when they call and ask you for it, you don’t have it, and you’re waiting for somebody to lead you to a place that you should already be prepared for. Because God spoke to you and gave you vision before He gives you provision. Most of us are waiting for provision to move, and God said, «How long do you have to be led into what I’m leading you to?» So don’t put your crazy faith in being lucky; don’t put your crazy faith in just the language; and don’t put your crazy faith on always being led. I thank God that I’m a good leader in the name of Jesus, but what happens if I fall off? I might not; I won’t.
Okay, but what happens if God calls me to something else? «Well, this is the time of year we usually do the crazy faith offering.» God has been speaking to you every month. «Well, I want to save it and do the accumulative thing with everybody else.» To be obedient is better than any sacrifice. Whatever you could give, it doesn’t matter if you disobey Him. You see they want to shout and run and jump right now. I’m trying to grow them up, Bri; I’m just trying to make sure that this is not short-lived. Okay?
So, God’s not waiting for everybody to get it; He’s waiting for you to hear His voice. And everybody say, «Obey.» Okay, so we’ve talked about three lanes that you may be in right now. These are lanes of your crazy faith, but I’m going to tell you one that is a good place to invest your life. Okay? It’s a lifestyle of crazy faith. It’s not crazy faith because of luck, not crazy faith based on language, not even crazy faith on being led by a man or a woman. I live a lifestyle of crazy, and the goal is to take everything from every other lane—all the time, all the energy, all the work, all my giftings. Oh, that’s going to take a lot because I’ve been putting my energy and effort into things that won’t produce for me, and now I’m going to put everything in. You know what?
As a matter of fact, I’m going to just come and dump it all—my time, my talent, my treasure. I want to live a lifestyle; this is not based on an event, a time of year, a word, or a declaration. This is when I show up at my job; I walk in crazy faith. When I get into an argument, crazy faith for some situations would be walking away because some of y’all got them hands, and you ain’t used them in a while, but you remember they still work; they still work. Tell them, «I bet you better not!» They still work!
But what I’m saying is that when you live a lifestyle of crazy faith, it’s not compartmentalized to an event, a moment, a time, or a feeling. Today, when I woke up, I had to decide to live in crazy faith. Today, when I give, I’m going to give in crazy faith. Tomorrow, when I look at the account, I’m going to believe in crazy things. Like, «Hey y’all want to be fake?» Man, I ain’t got time to be up here faking it and afterwards everybody not getting a blessing. Tomorrow, remember, let’s be very truthful. It’s seed—oh y’all remember?
So, work hard! Some of us are going to plant a seed today, and it ain’t going to be bad. Blue season had to go down for three years. That’s why we sang «Wait on the Lord» for 28 minutes today; that was prophetic. But the reason why you’re okay with that is because this is not momentary. I live a lifestyle of crazy faith. Don’t make the only time some of y’all that are in here who drove from all around the country. Don’t make the only time you drive and sacrifice to do something crazy when you’re given an offering. Some of you need to take a crazy drive to go forgive your father. You passed the person you really needed to forgive to drive to Tulsa to give an offering that God can’t even really see.
Oh, y’all didn’t know that’s in the scripture? He tells us when you come, bring your offering, and if you remember that it’s not right with your cousin, that co-worker, all that stuff, it says leave it. Don’t give it, leave them, make it right! Y’all don’t want to hear the Bible. I just want to mature. I’m Charles. I don’t want it to be temporary; I want us to live a lifestyle of crazy faith. That’s why Matthew 6:33 says seek first a lifestyle—a lifestyle of living like this. If you’re seeking first in everything, «God, is this the right way? Should I respond like this? Is this the right way that I talk to these people? Is this the right way?»
Seek first the kingdom of God, His response, His righteousness, His regulations—not the world’s, not culture’s, not what your parents said—His. And all the other things that you really want get added because you had a priority. I could stay here all day because this is where I honestly feel like the majority of our church is either right here or right here. It’s not on YouTube; you’re right here now. There are a lot of people right here, and the reason why we’re going to not dumb down and come back over here and bring you is that we want to be an example, and we’re going to wave from over here like, «Come on!» Because I can’t help you if we’re both there.
I can’t really bless you. I can throw you something if I got it, yeah, yeah, yeah. But if we’re both there with nothing, so I’m going to stay here and I’m going to continue—ah, you missed that one! No, I won’t throw that. Oh, there it is! I’m going to, hopefully by my life, I’m going to, hopefully by the way I talk, the way I love, the way I wait on people, the way I display the fruits of the Spirit, the way I forgive, the way that I don’t hold it against you when I know you did it on purpose, the way I pray for my enemies. You should see how tight some people are right now because the truth of the matter is that God wants you to live a lifestyle of crazy faith.
I didn’t come with some deep word for you to get excited about. I came with the word to practically show you where you are and ask you if you would like to get to the level and in the lane that God intended for you to be in. So this level is cool, but it’s not the best level. No, no, I like, we definitely don’t want to live lucky; we don’t want to just live in language. We definitely don’t want to have to be laid everywhere that we’re supposed to obey God, and a lifestyle of faith is good. But the greatest level of faith that you can ever have, watch this word, is a legacy of faith! Yeah, a legacy of faith is different. It looks different. Like a legacy of faith is where it’s not even about you no more, Mo. I’m going to let you know up front: most people that get to this great place of God will only live that lifestyle; when they die, it dies.
Whatever you created dies with you. Whatever you believed God for dies with you. But that’s not how God set it up. He set it up so that we would have a legacy of faith. What I’ve decided now, Bree, is I no longer live my lifestyle for a lifestyle of faith. I don’t want people saying, «Oh, he’s just a man of great faith.» What does that mean? Okay, great, but who did that help, though? Yeah, whose life was transformed by that? How is that going to outlive me? I’m asking our church today to dump every bit of your time, your treasure—I don’t know why the diamond-encrusted hat—but your talents, your free time, your leisure, your travel around the world. You’ve been to every country and haven’t served impoverished people in one of them. It’s because the lifestyle of faith that Christians portray is about what you can gather, what you can gain, and what you get.
This is why the prosperity gospel has such a bad rap. God has no problem with you having it; the problem is it has you. Because at the moment He tells you to give up that trip to go serve in Haiti, «Well, God, I don’t know. I don’t bless the people; I’ve done the things you told me to do. I deserve a vacation.» Yeah, you deserve it, but I just asked you to obey this one time. I didn’t say you wouldn’t be able to go on the vacation. I’m just saying you should put your work! Why train seven years in college to do this profession and I’ll let you do it for four? That was my grace! But I called you before you were in your mother’s womb to do something! Y’all don’t want to hear me. I called you. I knew your name. I know your purpose. And you’re confusing purpose with success.
Man saying you’re successful doesn’t mean you’re in purpose; that’s why I don’t follow everybody on the Gram and on Facebook. Just because they’re successful does not mean they’re in purpose. They will get in front of God, and He’ll say, «What did you do with what I gave you?» Your purpose may not be getting paid. Nobody wants to hear this. I was content in pastoring this church at 350 people. I had the same amount of passion, the same. Y’all, I’m not—I would get up here and sweat and build sets and play the drums and run the sound. I would do everything for 300 people—YouTube? Who are you? What tube were you there? There was nothing! Instagram, the internet! But I was convinced I was in my purpose.
And if you’re going to live a lifestyle that honors God when you’re gone, we’re no longer aiming for a lifestyle of crazy faith; it’s too low. I want a legacy of crazy faith. Do you know how you get a legacy? You think about the eternal. And this is stuff we don’t talk about in church enough. But eternity is more real to you than your reality. And this is what’s going to be messed up about it, is that when you see how it’s actually going to all unfold, you’re going to want a redo, and you’re not going to get one because our reality affects our eternity. Because we live in time, we don’t have a concept of how long eternity is, but eternity is eternity. Eternity is forever! Eternity!
Like the Bible says that eternity is what we should be living our entire lives for, so my entire lifestyle should be trying to get to a legacy that when I am no longer here, the investment I made while I was here goes on forever, endeavoring and ever and you’re tired, but forever and ever. That’s why we give; that’s why we serve; that’s why we worship; that’s why we forgive; that’s why we love. It’s because what we do here, the highest level of faith you can ever have—I’mma give you the secret right now, write it down—is future faith! I don’t believe in crazy faith for what’s going to even happen no more in my lifetime! Then the Bible said if you seek first the kingdom and right standing with Him, everything about my life—MJ got that—like, y’all, I’ve leveled up!
Like, when God showed me this, He said, «Mike, you’ve been setting the standard too low. You want a lifestyle of faith, and you had the nerve to be prideful because you live a lifestyle of faith.» He said, «But if you die tomorrow, what will be your legacy?» «Passing, like, why are you talking about all this stuff?» In the past eight days, I have lost a lot of people that affected me in different ways. The first person that I lost a little over a week ago was a man named David Sears. He’s a local pastor here in Tulsa, has a church of fewer than 300 people. His family, his daughters, and his son have been gathered around him. I used to go to that church, and my mom would sing, «We Declare Your Glory!»
I told y’all, that’s her song! She was singing «We Declare Your Glory!» and I would play the drums and his son, Andy, would play the guitar. And this man went home to be with the Lord unexpectedly because of complications with COVID. And when they told me that he passed, for some reason, it hit me different. I don’t know if you’ve ever lost anybody. He’s not in my family; he’s an older white man, but he impacted me and Natalie. We went on a trip with him to Louisiana. I think it was to Bethany, but Bishop and a couple of your other pastors, and me and Natalie sat in the third row with him in a 15-passenger van, and we started calling him Grandpa Sears, and he was just the friendliest person you would ever meet!
And then as soon as I got off the platform yesterday—I mean, last Sunday—somebody said, «Virgil Abloh just passed away.» He had cancer and didn’t tell anybody, but he’s been fighting for years, and he’s dead! 41 years old; one of the greatest American fashion designers who went globally in the entire world, impacted everything from sports and athletics to vehicles to art to all this other stuff, 41 years old, two kids and a wife! And then the last person was a man who was a pioneer in crazy faith in the Christian television space—his name was Pastor Marcus Lamb of Daystar TV. Dealing with COVID, an entire empire built, resources, everything. When we were believing God in crazy faith, I went to their show, and he and his wife were so impacted by our crazy faith story; they sold—when nobody was doing this—they sold $100,000.
Some of y’all were around; they sold $100,000 into our church in crazy faith. And I was like, «God, why is all of this?» He said, «Mike, what you’re worried about doesn’t matter on the backdrop of eternity! You’re worried about how much money I’m asking you to give today? What is money? Can it save your life? Can it give you another breath? You’re talking about time serving people? I ask you to go serve that middle school because there’s a young man there that will not learn how to read unless somebody goes and invests, and you will get nothing from it. There will be no earthly reward, but there will be an eternal reward! You will have a legacy of faith!»
And as I was thinking about this in my life, what I decided is forever I’m going to do this year, next year; whether somebody calls a crazy faith offering or not, I’m going to use everything that I have. I’m going to live in what is called overflow. Well, Pastor Mike, there’s not enough? That means other people have something to come and grab! That means God took care of what I needed! But He did! Somebody shout at me—overflow—and left a legacy for my children’s children and your children’s children. And there will be things that people will pick up in the city of Tulsa because there was a group of people, I feel like praising that sowed their lives and created a legacy.
Who cares what we accumulate if it doesn’t produce for somebody else? And I know this doesn’t make sense if you’re still living in these. I just thought I would explain it to you so that you could be able to understand why me and Natalie are putting things on hold that we like—in life—to obey God. And so in this offering, I want to live this for real in front of y’all. When I went to the bank teller yesterday, I said in the, uh, I don’t know, I forgot what it is—the parking lot. I know when you start doing crazy stuff and start taking your memory away, like, «What was I?» I don’t even know why I’m here! I sat in the parking lot for a cool 20 minutes dealing with me. «Do you know what you could do?» «Well, what are you about to just give away?» Because the enemy will make you think that you need whatever is in this bucket, this bucket, and this bucket!
And I was just—and God said, «I promise you, you might not see it, but it will be accounted to you as faith!» I said, «Accounted to me as faith?» And I looked in the Bible, and then I went to Hebrews and I saw this hall of faith, and it started saying stuff like, «By faith, Abraham…» By faith, I mean, it’s just Moses and Noah and Isaac, and he said, «I keep records better than anybody else,» he said. And by faith, Enoch, and by faith, and he said, «And guess what? Whose name gets added to that list after you obey me?» And by faith, Michael, and by faith, Natalie, and by faith, say your name, and by faith, and by faith, obeyed God and didn’t just live a lifestyle of faith, a legacy of faith. The world would try to tell you that building a legacy of faith is trash. I pick trash cans on purpose because we’ll think that, oh, that’s trash! You give to that church every year?
Oh, do you know what Bitcoin is doing right now? Do you understand about NFTs? And I’m not saying nothing’s wrong with it; it just can’t save me. Nothing’s wrong with it. I hope y’all get blessed off of NFTs, Bitcoin, and everything else. But will you have it, or will it have you? If God tells you to take the rental property and sell it to help the nonprofit, at the end of the day, God’s going to look at everything we did and call it trash. That was trash; that was trash. This is what’s gonna happen: we stand before Him. Yeah, you put all of that in there; oh, that’s the stuff you were keeping from those; those were the gifts, the talents, and the ideas you didn’t put. You died with all of that in you when you lived. We didn’t even know that this was there. You were a songwriter; you could have preached the word. You let your insecurities and what other people thought about you keep you from giving a legacy.
We don’t even know you for what you were created for. How in the world did you live your whole life and we never saw a glimpse of your God-given genius? Trash, trash! The only thing that will remain is the legacy you created in faith. Y’all heard the story of Notre Dame; y’all saw how quiet it got, just like geography and history. I’ll tell you—everybody was wanting spiritual things today, Pastor— in 2019, the world stopped because in Paris, I believe, Notre Dame began to burn. Y’all remember this? And what ended up happening was it burned so much that people were devastated. People were crying; the people who were there were like, «Yo, it’s just a building! Call the insurance people and just put it back up!» But what people didn’t understand is how long it took to build this cathedral.
In 1163, it was commissioned under King Louis VII; it did not get finished until 1345 under King Philip. How many years was that? If I carry the six minus the two, 7, 17, 35, a plus b, okay? You should have seen how people thought God was spiritually going to put the number in your head: 182 years from the time they started to the time it finished. It took a hundred and eighty to eleven kings that sat on the throne while this building was being constructed, and now it’s burning up! They weren’t crying because they lost the building; they were crying because somebody’s legacy was being destroyed. What do you mean somebody’s legacy? There were artisans, men, painters, and craftsmen that started a project knowing they would not see the finish in their lifetime.
Imagine getting up every day and knowing that what you are putting your life into will never be able to be fully enjoyed by you. But what they were building their hope and their faith on is that one day, their great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren would be able to admire the legacy that they put their entire life into. And our microwave generation, and if the internet ain’t, we will leave places; we will not get coffee from places that we like. If the internet, like, if the relationship doesn’t pan out, they’ve got 30 days to turn it around. I’m too good-looking for this; you might be, but nothing that’s worth having comes quickly! What if the church decided—not all the churches; what if this church—what if we decided that we’re going to live in crazy faith, not for us? I’ma just put it out there.
What if nothing on our crazy faith card happened for us? No, I’m not saying that God’s not; some people ask, «Why in the world, Lord, did I heard Him talk about the language?» So I’m just trying to figure out, «Why did I fly up here? Why did I give that?» Maybe because God wanted to give you an opportunity to be part of something that’s way bigger than you, and He’s so good that He blesses us! By the way, what if you weren’t the main deal, but you get blessed by the land? I’ve been three years living over here; this is my new place. Everything on my crazy faith card is about my family. No, no, no, listen to me; it’s not because I don’t wanna need anything. It’s because God has blessed me so much that if you want to, you can; if you don’t, that’s cool too. My mind is made up! All my gifts, all my talents, all my resources will be building a legacy of faith.
So today, when I sow this seed, I’m sowing for MJ’s kids. I’m sowing—no, no, no! See, I’m sowing from my wife’s healing. I’m sowing for my daughter’s marriages. I’m sowing for stuff I may not be able to speak into because I might not be here. I’m not prophesying anything; I just want to tell you the reality of this: nothing is promised to us! I’ve lived two years longer than Jesus! See, we don’t think like that. And what will I have left? Some cars, a few houses? Think about it! What are you leaving? I want my great-great-great-grandkids to stand in buildings that I had the faith to sow into before they were even a thought. I want there to be answers to problems discovered out of resources that God gave to me to use to fund stuff that I won’t even get to participate in. I’m seeing it before I see it!
I want God to use every bit of resource I have—time, talent, and treasure—to bring people to a loving understanding of who Jesus Christ is. When I get to heaven, I don’t want them to play all the clothes I wore. When I get to heaven, I don’t want them to play a montage of all the times I turned up! When I get to heaven, I want to be greeted by all the people that I helped get to heaven because I lived my life in crazy faith for a legacy! I know we’re about to sow, Pastor; I wanted it to be hype. I want you to help me. Bring me that rope of my life. Please, this is it; we’re going home. Thank you, bro! This represents eternity—all of this! And yep, eternity goes on and on, like literally on and on!
This represents your life. This is your 90 years. Eternity—your 90. If we get there and we’re so worried about what I did here and who loves me here, at one time we did that there, and God was like, «Hey! How did you live this? Who did you love here? How you spent this determines how you will spend all of this!» And the crazy thing about it is this: everything, if we really—I’m trying to give you a picture of what heaven is going to be like—it’s going to be your reward for how you lived this. There are people who don’t like to accept that in heaven, there are levels. I know nobody talks about it because everybody’s like, «I’m just trying to get in!» Okay, cool! Be in the nosebleed section in heaven; that’s fine! You made it!
There are responsibilities! Everybody thinks it’s in the clouds. The Bible says there will be a new heaven and a new earth. This is different than, like, the little meme where y’all seen the meme where the dude is giving gun advice, and then people die and then they go to heaven and, like, «Dang, what’s going on?» Like, it’s not like that! It’s a lot like this—with no sickness, no pain, no division! We’ve all got mansions, streets paved with gold—all the different things! The Bible’s very clear about this; this is not lucky fantasy talk! But your ability to live in the afterlife is determined by what you do right here! Why is the vision of this church representing God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ? Because if I can get somebody to believe in Jesus right here, it’ll change all of this!
Today, when we give, we’re not giving out of worry; we’re not giving out of compulsion. You’ve had nine weeks to know about this—ten weeks, something—twelve weeks? Huh? She said it’s twelve! I know. Okay, we’re not giving how? We’re giving as worship. Somebody say worship! Worship means expressing our love or our life to God through not just a song, but how we live. And how you live in this has become more important to me, Abby, than anything else. What I do today changes this for people! Oh, you didn’t know being a part of Transformation Church changes the red for people? When you give here—not everywhere, but when you give here, how many people have been saved this year? 44,000 people! Y’all can act fake if you want to, but what we celebrate right here is the blood of Jesus—that’s why it’s red—that was poured out for humanity!
And because somebody told them their eternity gets changed! 44,000! That’s my legacy; that’s your legacy! If they take us out of here tomorrow, Amberly, at least 44,000 people will be at the gates of heaven! I feel this! Oh, y’all better hear me! The cloud of witnesses will be able to say, «When you gave that ten dollars, it helped change the red for me!» When I think about Pastor Sears, Virgil Abloh, and Marcus Lamb, this statement comes to mind: «Your life will be defined not by what you gain, but by what you give away.»
The only reason that we’re talking about these people is not because of what they had; it’s what they gave us! They gave us art; they gave us words of encouragement; they gave us beautiful television—Christian television! They gave—You will be defined not by what you had. You remember when Dr. Don had the house in the—oh, and they took the trip? Nobody’s going to at your funeral. Nobody’s going to talk about the trips you took. When we gather, nobody’s going to talk about how many cars you had or how many bathrooms your house had. They’re not going to talk; they’re going to talk about what you gave away!
They gave me words of encouragement; every time I saw them, they gave me joy! Every time I saw them, they would help me! Every time I came to that small group, every time I came in contact with them, I don’t know them much; I’m not a religious person, but when they worked with me—yeah, yeah, yeah—there was just something about them that gave me hope for tomorrow! How you live right here affects how other people live for eternity! A lot of people think this church is about glitz and glam and this and that—you missed it! It’s all smoke and mirrors for this! Today as we give, my heart is saying, «God, here’s my worship.»
I don’t know how everything else is going to work out after this, but I’m not going to live my life lazily, thinking it’s about luck, thinking it’s about just the language I say, thinking it’s about even being led there or by everybody else! I’m going to live a lifestyle that turns into a legacy of faith, and today I’m declaring, «Here’s my worship! All of my worship. Receive my words; all of my work!» God, we’re here! We’re just going to obey you in the red. Here’s my word; it’s a little uncomfortable. I know it’s a lot uncomfortable, but today we’re saying, «Receive my worship. All of my work!»
See, faith for the future changes other people! Charles, do you know that it’s crazy that we’re back here at our original location when we’re giving our crazy faith offering? Because there were a bunch of people who, many of them aren’t alive anymore, that sold into what we’re sitting in right now! For any message you’ve ever seen on YouTube, there was a group of people—Mama Georgia is one of them; I see you, Mama Georgia! They sold in faith for the future. They didn’t know if I was going to work out as a pastor; they didn’t know if the church would still be here.
But Bishop and Pastor Debbie had faith for the future! They built something that they won’t even get to see the full end of! Wow tells me all the time, «I can’t wait to be able to see what God does with this place,» and he’s not saying, like, in his lifetime. Bishop probably has another 50 years left on him! I’m prophesying that he’s going to live to 128. He gonna have that Moses— not just if you want to, Bishop, if you want to! Lazarus, come on! No matter how long he lives, his prayer is that he and Pastor Debbie’s faith outlast him! That his faith for the future created a legacy of faith! And my prayer is that my faith creates a legacy for Ramella; it creates a legacy for your children!
So today, as we give, let’s posture our hearts and say, «Here’s my worship.» Surely, come all over the world, say, «All of my words.» It doesn’t really matter in the scope of eternity. I just want to do what you want me to do, God. Let me be so focused on eternity that it makes me live right in reality. Let me see eternity so that it helps me live in reality. This is a holy moment; God’s speaking to some of you right now. You weren’t even going to do anything, but God’s saying, «Come on, create a legacy with me.» As long as I’m breathing in the red, God, you can have whatever you want: the resources, my life, my treasure, my talent. Somebody is getting crazy faith and declaring, «And I will.» I feel the presence of God; I’m going to live for a legacy of faith.