Michael Todd - Cuffed to Comfort
Well, welcome to week two of a series we’re calling «Cuffing Season.» Let’s give God some praise right there! Yo, I’m excited for today’s message because this series is about the things that we love that don’t love us back. The truth of the matter is this series takes a lot of self-awareness as well as a lot of humility. The reason I’m going to be doing this series for probably the next eight to ten weeks is that it’ll be about week four before some of y’all even think this series is for you. The truth is, many of you come to church thinking about how this applies to everybody in your life except you. But on this Mother’s Day, I need everybody to take inventory of your own life. What are the things that you love that do not love you back? Last week, we looked at several aspects of the life of Samson, where he laid his life in the lap of something that did not love him back, and that decision ended up taking not just his vision but also his—everybody say—life.
The thing I like about this series is that it’s a disguised deliverance series. Some of y’all may not know that word; it might seem too old and churchy for you. But God desires to deliver you from everything that has you cuffed. It’s His modus operandi all through the Word; He goes in and finds people who are chained, broken, lost, or enslaved, and He tries to free them into something greater than anything they have ever experienced before. God wants to deliver you! I don’t know if you’ve heard it because people want you to feel good in 2022, but deliverance is still right. God loves you too much to leave you the same, and that’s why it’s perplexing to me that after 15 years of walking with God, you still act the same. How can you have a decade with God and nothing has changed except your waist size? Okay, you used to be Little Mike; now you’re Big Mike. What I’m saying is that maybe the reason the change hasn’t fully happened is because we’re cuffed to things that keep us in the same pattern.
I want to let you know that God wants you to be delivered. No, no, no, let me tell you something about deliverance, because this is one of those things that a lot of churches and a lot of people think differently on. But the Bible is very clear on this whole thing. I want to let you know that deliverance starts with a decision. Most people want a pastor or somebody to pray for them and say, «Oh, I’ve been delivered!» No, no, okay, hold on, wait. Deliverance starts with your decision to repent. If I’m going this way and it’s not working for me—the patterns I’ve been in and the things I’ve been doing—when I repent, that is the first step of deliverance. Most people want to be forced to do what they have to choose to do. This is why you should stop working, praying, and toiling with people who have not decided; you are going to work yourself into frustration and take away the oil that God has given you, wasting it on somebody who still hasn’t decided. Some of y’all have been dating him for nine years. Nine years of dating! Baby, you’re not his decision. Why are you still going into business with people who won’t put up any of their money? They have not decided.
Deliverance—I’m coming for everybody this morning, so buckle up. Let me say it in a point: deliverance is God’s desire, but our decision. God always wants to deliver; He always wants to set you free. He always wants to pull you to another level of faith. He always wants to take you out of that situation, but He is bound to our decision. That’s why salvation is a choice: He wants you to—everybody say—decide. Ask the children of Israel. It was God’s plan to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt. He talks to Moses, saying, «Come and let My people go.» They start moving, and God is literally telling them the whole time, «The reason I’m taking you from this place is to take you to a promise.» The whole reason I sent the frogs, and the blood in the water, and the plagues on the firstborn was to get you to the promise. I want to take you from prison to the promise; I want to deliver you from pain to the promise; I want to take you from perversion to the promise.
So, it was God’s desire; but this is the one thing I want everybody to understand: God’s plan is always the promise, but our patterns delay deliverance. I’m going to say it again: God’s plan was to take an 11-day journey with the children of Israel out of their pain, their perversion, and their prison and bring them to a promise. But it was their patterns in the wilderness that delayed their deliverance. This is why I’m talking to you about what you are cuffed to, because everything the children of Israel did in the wilderness didn’t start there. They did it while they were in bondage, and when God took them out of bondage, they had patterns of how they did things, which kept them out of the promise. I know this is a Bible story, but I can’t help but think this looks like many of our lives. God has a plan for us, and the problem is we’re being prevented because of our—everybody say—patterns.
God wants you to be set free from addiction; He wants you to be set free from all of the past pain. He wants to deliver you—that’s what 1 Timothy 2:4 says. It says, «This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,» or be delivered. The truth is you’re healed. The truth is you’re whole. The truth is you’re healthy. The truth is God wants you to be helping; He wants you to be serving others. But the truth of the matter is that our patterns have kept us in a place where we have not reached the promised promise.
So, watch this—write this point down. I’m just setting you up; this is all framework for where we’re going. Deliverance isn’t just walking out of something; it’s walking into something else. It wasn’t enough for the children of Israel to come out of Egypt; they were not delivered until they got into the promised land. Okay, it’s not enough for you to just not be greedy; you have to get into being generous. It’s not enough for you to get out of perversion; you have to be into purity.
I find that so much of the Body of Christ is in this in-between place; they’re cuffed to things they used to do back here but they’re not fully in it like they used to be. So, they’re in this kind of middle place—this decision phase. «I might act like my family, but not today. But when I get back around them, I’ll cut up with them.» You’re in this middle place, and God is saying deliverance is not just walking out of something; you have to be fully in what I’ve wanted for you—in the promise. The reason I keep saying this is because when somebody is in a desert, a wilderness, or a place where they don’t have a home, they’re not settled yet. You know what people are called that don’t have a home? Nomads.
The reason I’m preaching this series to you today is that I’m finding there’s a problem. It is problematic to be spiritually nomadic, especially if you haven’t found your home yet in the promise. What I found is that this area is literally the thing that’s killing so many people. You walked out of comparison, so you don’t compare yourself to them anymore, but you still don’t celebrate them either! How did you walk out of this thing, but you can’t fully walk into this thing? Y’all know you’ll be ghosting people on Instagram and Facebook. They had another baby, and you didn’t even say «Congratulations!» You didn’t say anything. You don’t compare like you used to, but you haven’t walked in the celebration yet.
I’m trying to confront this whole series. I’ve amen’d myself 1,700 times this whole week because I don’t need your amen. This week I’m going to keep telling you the truth until something on the inside of you unlocks. You walked out of narcissism but didn’t walk into humility, and God says, «I want to deliver you. I don’t want to just do half the process. I don’t want half-baked believers.» You ever put something in the oven, and then you stuck your finger in there and it was warm and bubbling on the top but cold and soggy in the middle? That’s what a lot of Christians are looking like today—hot on the top, cold in the core.
I’m coming to help somebody uncuff from the things that have kept the patterns going that have kept you out of the promise. This literally is the definition of being lukewarm. This is stuff people don’t talk about anymore because they don’t want to offend anyone. I want to help you transform, and the truth is the only thing that transforms you. Okay, so so so—everybody knows John 3:16. What’s John 3:16? Y’all know, «For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.» That’s the most famous scripture. But the second scripture that should be the most famous is Revelation 3:16.
Does anybody know that one? Okay, okay, let’s start at verse 15. «I know your deeds. You are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! I wish you would completely wild out or completely sell out to the vision I have for you. I would rather you not walk with Me so I can have a Saul-to-Paul conversion with you on the road to Damascus, or serve Me fully, because you’re lukewarm. You are a spiritual nomad; you want to club over here and then follow Christ over here, and then be faithful in this thing but be freaky. Because you’re lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I’m about to vomit you out of My mouth!»
Oh my gosh, y’all thought «spit hits the fan» was something! No demonstration coming for that, okay? You only throw up things that are not pleasing. If God’s going to throw something up, He said, «I would rather—I could much more take you being fully away from Me—but this little 'hmm! ' No, today is Sunday. I hate that. Go somewhere with that. Get out of my face with that!» I just want to put it in regular terms: take all that facade and take it somewhere else. I would rather you come to Me whole and messed up and smelling like everything and saying, «I can’t do this on my own.» I’d rather you go have a pig-pen experience, like the Prodigal Son, and realize how good you have it in My grace. But this staying in the middle is a problem, and now you have people thinking, «This is how I am.» All these people claiming Christ are lukewarm, making people think, «Well, what’s the reason? Why should I even?» They do everything I do; there’s no difference. Today, I’m coming to confront it.
The reason I have to confront it is that I hear Elijah in 1 Kings 18:21. I’m just giving you all a lot of Bible so we can get to where we’re going. He literally says, «How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two different opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; get cuffed to Him. But if Baal, an idol—something that culture made up, this idea of the American Dream—is what you want to follow, go on, do it. But this little lukewarm stuff—get that out of my face!» And look at the people’s response: they were completely silent. I don’t know; they didn’t have a made-up mind. They didn’t have a conviction; they were actually debating, «Maybe I want to live for God,» or «Maybe I want to do everything my flesh desires.»
Some of y’all have been in this debate for a decade, serving on the praise team the whole time. You feel like it when you give, but then you snap, «You better not touch me! I’ll beat you!» Or, «Turn the other cheek, girl. You really should be nicer to them.» How is this coming out of love? But I have to tell you the truth, because at the end of the day, it’s becoming your pattern. The reason I’m so scared for you is that when people say, «Practice makes perfect,» that’s not what practice makes. Practice makes permanent, and some of you have been practicing the same pattern to the point that the more you keep doing it, the harder it will be to reverse that thing. That’s why people start saying stuff like, «You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.» That’s a lie! That’s a lie! It’s just that they don’t want to do the work to change the pattern.
Until you listen to God’s principles, you’re cuffed to something that God doesn’t want for your calling. For you to reach the promise, today I have to confront what you are cuffed to. And today, I’m not even going to tell you what we’re going to confront—let me just give you the definition of cuffing season. Y’all, I’m about to explode. Cuffing season is a season where, because of loneliness and desperation, you settle for a relationship that is way beneath your standards. And that’s why God tells us, «Hey, how you’re going to get a different pattern is by doing Romans 12:2.» He says, «Do not conform to the patterns of this world, this culture, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.»
Your mind is renewed by God’s principles. I’m going to say it every week because I need you to know how we break the pattern. The pattern is broken by God’s principles. If you have a bad pattern, go to the Word of God, and I promise you there is a principle that can break bad patterns. I don’t care how bad your parents were; I don’t care how bad your upbringing was. God’s principles can break bad patterns. The truth of the matter is you will not seek the Word of God’s opinion on something you have not confronted. God’s principles always come with parameters. He’s trying to give us, «Hey, do this, don’t do this.»
I want you to hear this: God’s parameters are made for your calling, not your comfort. Are we going to talk about it? This message is really close to home because, for the past three decades, I’ve been trying to cater my Christian life to one word: comfort. Today, I’m coming for your comfort. You might want to turn it off if you want to stay comfortable because, as I have gone through different places and moments in leadership positions in my life, what I’m fighting for is not my calling. Many times, why I’m doing what I’m doing, why I’m trying to climb the ladder, why I’m trying to make more money, why I want more people to see me—all the secret motivations behind all of that is one word: comfort. The problem with me, and many of you—I ain’t going to really put you out there, but I’m going to put myself out there—I have been cuffed to comfort. Today, I’ve got to expose this thing that has been coming after the calling of God on your life. You have the ability, the availability, and you have the anointing, but you are too comfortable.
So let’s be honest. We’re a humble, open, and transparent church. How many people love being comfortable? Come on, hands lifted. Hands lifted. Okay, like we want our car to be comfortable. We want our clothes to be comfortable. We want—come on, what else do we want to be comfortable? Put it in the temperature. Oh Jesus, if you’re married, you know that’s a problem! I want it comfortable. What is the most comfortable temperature to keep at your house? What is it, 71, 73, 68, 77? 70? What in the hell—that literally is hell—77? You sleep at 77 degrees? Oh my gosh! See, that is hell! Pastor Natalie, I don’t know when it happened, but she loves the temperature of Antarctica; it literally doesn’t have a number anymore; it literally just has an iceberg. But that, for her, is comfortable. The truth of the matter is none of us want to live, work, eat, or sleep in anything that’s uncomfortable.
So we’ll go into buildings and walk two steps in, and what happens? I thought we were gone; it made me uncomfortable! You’ll join a church, and they’ll ask you to serve, but «I’ve got to be there at what time?» I just worked the whole week! I liked the church; the pastor was good, but their requirements made me uncomfortable. Comfort is killing our callings! What if I told you that comfort is not Christian? Now, I don’t know where you picked it up. I don’t know if it came from your family or if it was a trauma response that everything was out of control and uncomfortable, and you said, «I’m going to take control, and everything I do I’m going to make comfortable.» But when you gave your life to Christ, I need to tell you something: that idea of comfort is not Christian. When I look through the Scriptures, just perusing, I see words like sacrifice, die daily, carry your cross, deny your flesh, lay down your life, turning the other cheek, bearing one another’s burdens, casting your crowns.
Do you all know that the symbol of our faith is a crucifix? How comfortable do you think the cross was for Jesus? Yet, somewhere along the way, we developed this idea and convinced ourselves that being Christ-like should somehow really transform into being completely comfortable. That’s why you don’t share your faith! You don’t share your faith because it makes you uncomfortable! Literally, when the Great Commission is to everybody—whether you’re in the White House or you’re in the trap house—to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them, and you won’t even share with the person you’ve been neighbors with for 14 years that you believe in Jesus Christ because you don’t want to make them uncomfortable! The truth of the matter is comfort is killing our callings, and if I don’t come and talk to you about how we are all cuffed to comfort, then we will stay there thinking that we are doing something that God has asked us to do, and comfort is not Christian!
When it comes to your comfort, you only have two options. Write this down because we’re about to go deep and we’re about to go deep fast. When it comes to comfort, you can either confront it or cater to it. Two options: either I’m going to confront this crap that has me comfortable and wanting to be cozy and have things how I want them, or I’m going to cater to it and set up things to make sure I stay like that and make sure my whole friend group only does things that make us comfortable. My question is, which are you doing currently? Are you confronting your comfort, or are you catering to it? Silence! To cater to comfort, you’ve got to work, and you’ve got to work to confront it.
Choose your heart! The same work it takes to drink water and stay in bed is the same work it takes for you to get out of your bed at midnight in your pajamas, wearing a jacket so nobody sees if you get cold or not, to go up to the convenience store and buy a pint of ice cream, chips, M&Ms, and Snickers bars. Somebody said, «That ain’t my business!» It took work! It robbed you of sleep; it took away the goal that you were trying to set that you told everybody on Facebook you were working for, and now it makes you be incongruent with yourself because the worst person not to trust is you. Some of you can’t keep your commitments to others because you can’t keep your commitment to yourself. It’s not because you don’t want to; it’s because you’re cuffed to comfort. It’s going to be a rough one today.
See, the crazy thing about comfort is it shows up every day. It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday; you get the option to choose to confront your areas of comfort every single day. Let me put it in a point: Yesterday’s accomplishments don’t count for today’s commitment! Because we’re cuffed to comfort, sometimes we forget, «I’m going to do it today, I’m going to freaking work out today!» and you go in there, and you give it your good hour and a half, and you feel good about yourself, and you make it happen. You walked, you did all that other stuff, and you’re like, «Yes! See you tomorrow, gym!» You walk out of there, and you pass the first fast food restaurant.
Oh, come on, church! The second fast food restaurant—"Not today, Popeyes!"—you pass the third one, and just before you hit a right to the house, there’s the Christian chicken, that Chick-fil-A! «I’m just going to get a salad.» You get that Cobb salad with the chicken in it, two packets of avocado lime ranch—I’m in your business—"Not a large lemonade! I’ll get the medium. And I’m just, you know, I’m just saying, because it’s not bad! I’m not eating bread, so I’m going to get a medium fry!» And somehow, on the way home, you’ve convinced yourself because you worked out you deserve—oh, y’all know, we’re living the same life!
You deserve to indulge because, «I’m definitely going back tomorrow. I mean, this ain’t nothing if I’m going to just put it back in.» Tomorrow comes and goes. Why? Because now, when I wake up the next morning, I’m sore. «Oh my God, I got to wipe, but I can’t!» You ain’t never really worked out if wiping isn’t an issue! Joy, if you ain’t had trouble wiping, you ain’t never worked out! If getting up doesn’t feel like exercise, you ain’t never worked out! Can I get some help in here? Come on! If you ain’t never done the «oh oh oh oh,» you ain’t never worked out! What I accomplished yesterday does not count for today’s commitment! Many times, after we do our commitment once, we then cater to our comfort.
Okay, so today I had to find somebody in the Bible— a mighty man of God who had consistently up to this point confronted his comfort, but then he took a season off, and he got real comfortable. I don’t know who I’m talking to, but there are some saints that have taken a season off. You used to really pray. You used to really be concerned. You used to really do what you said. Now it’s just all lip service; there’s nothing behind it. There’s nothing in the core. God’s saying, «I’m calling my church back to live comfortably uncomfortable. I’m calling my church back to do something even when it doesn’t advance you.»
Okay, let me stop. 2 Samuel chapter 11, verses 1-27. I can’t go through all of it, but I’m going to try to walk through it because today we’re talking about David—yes, shepherd boy David, killing the giant David, David that was marked, David who defeated the bear, lion, and Goliath. See, everybody stops at his story right there, but I’m talking about the David who had tons of victories—I’m talking about the David that went from the pasture to the palace, and King David. I found this story in 2 Samuel 11 that showed me where David, after all God had done in his life, had a season where he catered to his comfort. It says, «In the spring of the year,» that’s a season when kings normally go out to war. David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army, they won, and laid siege to the whole city. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. However, David stayed comfortable. However, David didn’t want to do what it took anymore to go out and do what would win the victory; he felt like yesterday’s accomplishments could roll over.
Okay, y’all remember rollover minutes? Some of y’all are too young for rollover minutes. There used to be a thing where you didn’t get unlimited everything, and so you had a limit of minutes, but if you didn’t use them all, they would roll over to the next month. Some of y’all never talked to anybody; you’re bragging, «I got 5,000 minutes!» Nobody likes you. But at the end of the day, ain’t got nothing to do with my message. Here we go! Isn’t it funny that they won the war—I won the battle—but David lost the war because he catered to his comfort. Everything outside that had his name on it was victorious. That means you can show something you’re not actually living. Late one afternoon, watch this, at his midday rest, where he should be confronting something, he’s resting.
David got out of bed and was just walking on the rooftop of the palace, and he looked out over the city that God had given him, and he noticed a woman of unusual beauty, but naked, taking a bath. Splish splash, she was taking a bath. He said, «Someone, come find out who that is.» She’s Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. The conversation should have been over! The crazy thing about being cuffed to something is we entertain conversations even when there are parameters already set! This is her daddy; this is her husband—hands off! She’s beautiful—God bless that brother; that’s nice for them—but God told me I can’t! Whoa, if I had an opportunity… But I’m supposed to be serving here! Like, the story should have been over at this moment.
But he found out she was married, and this is where casual turns into catering. Remember what he was doing—it’s beautiful. He was being casual! It’s not that you’re always looking for something, I’m not always just… But you can’t whistle! You start like, «Wow!» Seeing wasn’t the problem; noticing wasn’t the problem—it was the casual. Yeah, yeah! It was catering to it. That’s like, how did he cater to it? Look at verse 4: «Then David sent a messenger to get her.» That’s it! I hear all you talking about the parameters, but that is going to make me comfortable.
Let me make provision for that. Let me cater. No matter how much I want to do something with Bathsheba, if she’s over there and I’m over here, there’s no way that anything can actually happen. But to get her over here, I’ve got to cater to my comfort! She comes to the palace, and he slept with her. Watch this: comfort is never casual; it’s catered to. Comfort is something that you love that doesn’t love you back. I’m tired of standing and preaching to y’all; this is exhausting! I would rather be more comfortable preaching! Could somebody bring me a chair so that I can be comfortable as I give the people of God the Word of God? This whole standing thing—who made this up anyway?
Well, I got a standard; y’all get to see it. My mouth is not affected by what I’m wearing; my legs are. Let me be more comfortable and deliver this word to y’all. Yeah, I’ll read the Bible still. Yeah, the Holy Bible. The paper bag, huh? Makes me feel more holy. Yes, God! Yes, You’re a good God. This feels a little unnecessary. I know enough scripture; I’ve been studying the word for a long time. I know enough. These young kids out here getting platforms and doing all this other stuff; I know God knows how to pray. Matter of fact, let me relax more in my faith. God said that He’s going to give us rest. Thank You, Jesus, for Your comfort. There’s nobody like Jehovah. Yeah, turn the lights back up; they can’t see me. I want them to see me still. Yeah, I want them to see me be comfortable. I want them to think that serving Jesus, the higher you get, the less you have to do. The man of God! Don’t you ever say that to the man of God. I have books, I have accomplishments; people know who I am.
So today, I want you to know: go after God. Sacrifice it all for Him. Make sure you give because it will help me be comfortable. This is what many pastors are doing all over the U.S. They’re preaching revelation but haven’t invited anybody to church; they haven’t saved anybody outside the pulpit. And what that makes you start doing is, when I should be going to war, when I should be confronting my pride, when I should be doing the things—uh, Carter, Carter, Carter—I need you to help me cater to my comfort. Go get me a TV and something I can control, because if I can’t be in an environment where they recognize who I am and what I’ve been given, I’m gonna just go to environments where I am in control. Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna make up environments where I’m in control. Here, matter of fact, I gotta control them. This is the thing that we’re cuffed to; a lot of our issues stem from trying to have control, and if we’re not in control, we’re not comfortable.
So we will only do things that ensure we are in control so that we can be comfortable. For some of us, this keeps us paralyzed. I gotta talk to my fellows today. This controller is killing your calling! You have more hours logged; your wife is sitting there begging for you to see her. No, no, no. My guys are on Call of Duty; they don’t want to see me in Madden, and your kids don’t know you in real life! This is comfortable; this is how you escaped when you were 12. See, it all goes back to our trauma. This is what you were good at when you weren’t good at school, so you said, «I’m gonna put all my effort and energy,» and now you’re 40 years old and will stay up and lose sleep over playing a tournament on a game with people over the internet that you can’t see, and won’t even play on a date night. Cuffed to your comfort! Carter, bring me some comfortable clothes. Take my shoes off!
Blessed are the feet of those who provide the Gospel; put the fear of God on my feet, please. Glory! I feel more anointed even right now! Yes, throw the—I don’t—yeah, just put it behind me; I don’t actually want it on me, kind of like a James Brown vibe. Yeah, so I can throw it out whenever I want to. Hey, Carter, go get cake for me, go get me some cake, and bring me my foot. Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Ah, thank you, Carter. Carter, I’m glad you brought your friend. See, because when I start catering to myself and my issues, I can’t just have one person catering to me; Carter isn’t enough. I need Cameron to cater to me, too! Cameron and Carter catering to me—this is cozy! This is nice! This is why I’m not going to do what they asked me to do, because I’m comfortable right now. And matter of fact, uh, what is this? Is that my—is that ice cream?
Yes, wow! And yeah, Doritos and chips! And you know, you know, Carter, I’ve been thinking, I wanted to do a fast; just put that— I wanted to do a fast, but fasting—let Carter stop moving—get on my face! Your character starts changing when you get too comfortable. I thought about fasting, but the truth of the matter is, this is good cake. Who would waste a perfectly good cake that says «Cuffing Season» on it? I’ve been working out, and some of y’all are thinking about this like it’s food. There’s only—there’s not just one type of cake. The reason y’all have been working so hard at that job is that you’re trying to get money, or cake. Carter, bring me money. Yeah, not that crap; bring me money! It starts off as a bite. Oh, and you bought me a little gambling situation too? Okay, cool. Tithing? No, I’ll give my tithe to the casino because they have a better chance.
Oh, let me stop! This is our Christian experience: reclined, catered to, comfortable, and some of y’all don’t want the cake, but you do want the cookie! I’m gonna let your mind go everywhere it wants to. What makes you comfortable is being at somebody’s house in a bed, and then you go find somebody else and give them your—yo! And then you find somebody in their vulnerable moment and you take their—Jesus, you can’t hear me! And the truth of the matter is, you’re now in a pattern. You don’t even want them; you bite it and spit it out, but you’re just used to having pieces of people. Comfort! I’m just using a bunch of analogies to ask you: what have you been catering to? What have you been dibbling and dabbling in? I don’t want people to see my real face.
Oh shoot, I got a little bit on me. Well, I might as well; I might as well; it doesn’t matter anymore. Nobody sees me; it doesn’t matter! Matter of fact, all this stuff is getting whack. I need some real comfort! Can you bring me something else to comfort me? What used to comfort me doesn’t work anymore! Some condoms, some lotion. Where’s my laptop? Oh, here it is! Now I know some Christians are uncomfortable right now, but spiritually, this is what you look like. Nobody will see, and these are the same holy hands we’re going to lift tomorrow, and these are the same ones we’re going to pray for people with! And—Obama, make sure—and you know what? Now the pain of being incongruent and catering to my comfort has me wanting to escape!
Charles, somebody bring me something to dream, because I can’t actually be in this situation and be in my right mind. So I need to make sure I’ve got something strong to pop off when it gets wrong! Wine never hurt anybody! Jesus' first miracle—He turned water into—help me! It’s spiritual—not when you’re doing it for comfort! Don’t tell me the scientific benefits; this hasn’t been scientific since you started it! It was relational! You felt bad because somebody left you, and now you’re going after something. Okay, I’m getting too real here! God’s saying, «I have a huge calling for you! I want you to do something that changes the world, but you’re gonna have to get up out of the seat of comfort.»
Carter, bring me more comfort! And this is what the American Western Church looks like: «Bring me more comfort!» The scale, some weights—what the hell, that’s not comfortable! I’m gonna look at something that would make me have to confront everything. This one thing would make me have to confront everything! I would have to get up, I would have to leave this behind, I would have to change my outfit, I would have to decide to do something different! Many of us are sitting here with different options available, but we ignore it because of our comfort. Why am I going so slow in this? Why am I taking all of this time? Why am I sitting here, messed up my Mother’s Day suit? Because it actually doesn’t matter what you’re being comforted by!
I want you to know it’s killing your calling! The whole time that I’m sitting here, the whole thing that I’m losing is the opportunity to actually be impactful on what God asked me to do, and I let myself be susceptible to things that can literally take my life away! Ask David; at the time when he should have been out confronting things, he was sitting in the recliner of the revelation that he already had, saying, «I’ll be fine.» And that’s when he found Delilah. Now, let me teach y’all—stay right here! I mean, Delilah—but that’s what he found! Let me stay right here, and now I got to come up here and preach to y’all, and now I need to try to cover up what I’ve been through—hopefully, they can’t see. Hopefully, let me get back in my spot. Glory to God!
Second Samuel, chapter 11, verse 4: «She had completed her purification rites after having her menstrual period; then she returned home.» Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant—"We only did it once! We only catered to the comfort one time.» Hold on! When I cater to my comfort one time, we can conceive! This wasn’t supposed to happen; I didn’t want no consequence; I just wanted to be comfortable! Yeah, but my comfort has now made me conceive something that I have responsibility for! It literally says—oh my gosh! When Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a text message—in my mind, «David, what’s up, girl? How you like it? I’m pregnant! By who? Like, you weren’t there, like you didn’t cater to this, right?»
At this point, catering to comfort always comes with consequences. If I stay there, Brother Delano, for the next 30 days and preach and eat and eat and preach and eat and preach and be in control, doing this, I am going to blow up! No amount of prayer can take away what is the consequence of my pattern! I cannot pray away what I’ve already decided is my pattern! So if your pattern is blowing up and getting angry, nobody can pray that away if you’ve already decided, «Don’t push me to this limit. I’m gonna explode!»
God is saying to all of us that when you conceive something out of your comfort, then you start the great cover-up. It goes all the way back to the Garden. What was the first thing Adam and Eve did after they gave in to their comfort? They became designers—fashion! First fashion designers: Adam and Eve! «Oh shoot! Let me cover up!» Why would you cover up to a God who saw it anyway? Accept the guilt and the shame that comes from catering to your comfort! Do you know the fact is that Adam and Eve weren’t hungry? They had food to eat! This would have been a completely different situation if they were starving and the only thing to eat was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They had an entire forest of fruit, but they wanted to cater to their comfort. And this is where this story goes downhill quick.
Second Samuel 11:6: «Then David sent word to Joab: 'Send me Uriah the Hittite.'» That’s Bathsheba’s husband, because he’s trying to cover it up now. So Joab sent him to David. He comes back in—woo! Yeah, yeah, yeah! «Oh King, I honor you, I serve you, I love you!» Not knowing that the king’s comfort had already violated his covenant. He’s serving something that wasn’t even set up to protect him! Okay, let me stop! When Uriah arrived, David asked him, «How’s everything going out there? Are we doing good?» Verse 8: «Then he told Uriah, 'Alright, man, go home and get comfortable! Go home and relax! Do what I’ve been doing—You were out at war, but I called you back in, so you could do what I was doing! Go relax! '»
David even sent him a care package after he left the palace! Point: comfort always wants company. So his cover-up was to get Uriah to come back quickly and sleep with Bathsheba, so when the baby comes, it will be able to be covered up because of the time period that it happened in! Watch this. Verse 9: «But Uriah didn’t go home. He was called; he slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.» When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, «Hey bro, what’s the matter? Your wife is at home; she’s beautiful! I know by experience! Why didn’t you go home last night after being away so long?» Uriah replied, «The ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab, and my master’s men are camping on the battlefield. They’re actually out there doing the work! They’re confronting stuff! How could I go home to whine and dine and sleep with my wife? I’m called! How am I gonna cater to my comfort?»
Yeah, with this great of a calling on my life! There’s a mission at hand, and I’m about to just sit here and do what my flesh wants? I’m too called and too committed to cater to my comfort. I feel this! I swear that I would never do such a thing. Being committed to your calling makes you deny your comfort. The reason that many of us will never deny what’s comfortable—the reason why you won’t go to the gym—the reason why you won’t go into that Bible study class—the reason why you will not submit yourself to authority, let somebody know what’s going on—the reason why you won’t go to counseling is because you have not fully committed to your calling! When you realize it’s above you now, certain stuff—you’re not gonna allow that!
Can I tell you about my fitness journey? For the past year, I’ve been on a journey to get in shape and get healthy, and what ended up happening was, God told me in a time of prayer, «Michael, I’m only going to bless Transformation Church to the level your body can take it! So you want to sit up all night and eat French fries and Wingstop and do all the different things that you love—that’s comfortable?» There is nothing more comfortable to me than, after a great Sunday where God moved and people were powerful and all this other stuff, me going home, me and my wife connecting in our covenant, me getting some cookies and cream ice cream, eating some wings, watching the game, and falling asleep with some ranch dribbling! There’s no—I haven’t done that in over a year in that sequence! Now watch, it’s not because I didn’t want to; it’s because the calling I’m connected to is so much greater than my comfort, and if you’ve been stuck in a comfortable situation, I have a question: What calling are you connected to? What has God called you to do?
Now, it’s not just about making money; it’s not just about being successful. I’m asking you because everybody sitting in here feels conviction on your heart right now. There is something that is comfortable to you that you know is not God’s best for your calling. The truth of the matter is being committed to your calling makes you deny it. The reason I haven’t had cookies and cream ice cream is not because I don’t want it. I want it daily; I desire it every day. But daily, I deny it. The church has been in a place where we almost try to tell you that the desire is bad. The desire is not bad; the decision after the desire is what I’m here to help you with. There will not be a day that I don’t desire things that go against my calling. I know nobody’s going to tell you this, but there will never be a day when I won’t be interested in what pornography could look like. I’m a human being, and if I am curious about something that I don’t deny myself access to, I will cater to that comfort, and it will forfeit my calling.
You want to hear about Jesus? I don’t care if you’ve been married for 40 years; that could happen to me. I don’t care how much money you make—money doesn’t make me; I make the money. All these mantras won’t change your patterns if you don’t submit the thing to the calling of God. That’s why the safest place you could be successful is in community, in the house of God, serving other people, making sure you’re not catering to your comfort. For some of you, money would be the worst thing that ever happened to you because if you could do everything you want to do when you want to do it, you wouldn’t even serve God.
Let me stop at 2 Samuel, verse 11. He says, «Well, stay here today,» David told Uriah. «Tomorrow you may return to the army because you’re really called to this. I guess you’re going to live a Christian life; I guess you’re really going to live in integrity.» So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited him to dinner and tried to get him drunk, but even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again, he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. This story begins to really break my heart because this is the same David. It honestly sobers me because this is the same David who stood in front of the whole army of Israel and said, «Today I’m going to have your head, and God’s going to give it to me.» It’s the same one that, on major platforms, was used by God, and now he’s planning somebody else’s assassination. He called the captain and said, «Go ahead and put Uriah on the front line,» assuring that he would be killed. It happens. He causes pain to the thing that brings him comfort. Wait a minute. He was so selfish in his comfortability that Bathsheba, the thing that brought him comfort, would suffer so that he wouldn’t suffer the consequences of what he decided to cater to.
Do you know how many people are getting hurt not because something happened to them, but because somebody else is trying to cater to their comfort? You’re hurting other people. By the way, verse 26: When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her right after she mourned. David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became like one of the things that comforted him—not the only thing, but one of the many things that comforted him. Then she gave birth to a son. This is the scariest part of this whole thing: But the Lord was displeased with David over what he had done. Catering to your comfort kills things that were supposed to live. Uriah was never supposed to die, but because David catered to his comfort instead of confronting it, Uriah dies. Nobody talks about this, but Bathsheba becomes a side chick. She had someone’s full attention—godly attention. It’s kind of like when y’all are on these dating apps and in people’s DMs, and I’ve got to see who’s out here.
«Can you put somebody on the screen for me because I want to be comforted?» Put one of these girls on the screen so I can relax in my religion. «Danny, 27, Miami, Florida: long walks on the beach, and I’m looking for what you’re looking for.» «Danny, let me play with you for a while; let me make you insecure, let me make you question your calling.» «Let me act like I’m going to marry you because it makes me feel better about myself, but then let me actually be talking to somebody else.» Go to the next person, please—swipe. I said swipe! «iPhone Lilly—oh, she’s cute, Paris, France. I like the internationals. Currently getting an MBA abroad; we could travel together.» «Oh, this is good! I can’t see her in person, so we could start this long-distance thing, and I’m going to make people become my comfort.» Go to the next one, though, because I’m kind of bored with that right now. I want to go, «Yes, Sarah. I like Sarah; she’s down for whatever, Tokyo, Japan. I love Netflix and chill, so do I.»
I’m just putting it this plainly because some of y’all are like, «I’m in a relationship; I’m married.» It doesn’t have to be girls; it doesn’t have to be food. I’m just asking you: What are you catering to right now that is going to kill your calling? I’ve had to confront this in my own life for the past five years to a point where it’s almost one of those things where God doesn’t let me be comfortable for too long because if I get in that pattern, I will recline on what God’s called me to do. I’m telling you right now that some of y’all won’t come back for the rest of the series, but a bunch more of you are going to actually get free because today, I literally didn’t even get through half my notes, and it’s going to take two weeks. I’m coming back next week with Charlie, and I have to finish this because I’ve got to teach you how to confront it.
This week, I need you to call it out—that’s it! This week, I don’t care how saved you think you are; many of you are participating in a ritual, but you’re not spiritual. Oh, that’s nasty! It’s a ritual of this stuff, but you’ve been up here this whole time, and while I’ve been speaking, you’ve been judging everything I’m saying. God is saying right now, «You’re so comfortable that you think you sit in the seat of judgment. Your comfort is killing your calling.» This week, I need you to evaluate: What have you been eating on? What have you been devouring? What have you been allowing to cover you? What have you been entertaining and what have you been entertained by that is only for comfort? God is asking you to sacrifice it.
«Pastor Mike, why?» Because until you sacrifice everything that has made you comfortable in this season, you will never be able to walk fully into the promise that God has for you in the next season. David literally compromises everything that God wants to do with him, but I love the story of David because at the end of his life, God calls him a man after His own heart. How in the world could I be in this level of comfort but then at the end of my life be known for being a man or a woman after God’s own heart? This is encouragement for all of us, though—no matter how comfortable you’ve been in the things that have been killing your calling, it’s not too late for deliverance. What did I say the first step of deliverance was? Repenting, turning. David would come to God and say, «God, I’m sorry; I messed this thing up— forgive me; give me another opportunity.»
See, what I’ve found is comfort sounds good, and it sells well. I asked you at the front how many people love being comfortable, and everybody raised their hands. The truth of the matter is I’ve lost 50 pounds, and not one day of working out was comfortable—not one. There was not one chicken and green bean meal that was more appetizing than dirty Chinese food. I love me some dirty Chinese food—the egg rolls, wontons—the whole bit! Not one time; it was never better to me, but it was better for me. See, comfort—last point—is a counterfeit, and it appears cheap, but it costs everything. Your comfort seems so easy, but that thing is costing you everything. «Mom, come here real quick; somebody help my mom up here.
Hey, can you bring me that little box I got real quick? Yeah, help her up quickly. God bless you; thank you! Oh, thank you so much, Carter. The thing about Carter is he caters to whatever I concentrate on. So, when I concentrate on moving into a level of generosity, Carter helps me do that. The people around you, the things around you, should help cater to the things that are clearly like Christ. Today’s Mother’s Day, and I wanted to give you something. Now, I’ve never been able to give you one of these. Now, the truth of the matter is I’ve had this box before, and inside of a box that looked just like this was something that was a counterfeit. Now, I don’t know about you; some of y’all are carrying them today—it’s okay; no shame in the game.
The thing about something like this is it can be cheaply replicated and it’s not until you open the contents that you see what could have been cheaply replicated is actually something that cost me everything. Today, I want to give you your Mother’s Day gift, and I want you to open it up here because I don’t want too many haters. What I’m telling you is what was in here I could have cheaply settled for, the comfortable version of this, and it would have been like, „It’s the thought that counts.“ Today, God’s saying I want your calling to cost you something. I want you to have to work for this thing; I don’t want you to come cheaply to what I’ve asked you to do. I want your calling to cost you something.
When I give my mama this gift, it cost me something, but do you know how worth it it is to stand up and call my mama blessed and to honor you for all the years, the service, the prayers, and everything you’ve done for me, my brothers, and our families? All the things that you’ve sacrificed—so Happy Mother’s Day! You can go in there; you know I love you. Thank you! See, when I release this, it’s me walking in my calling because it cost me my comfort. Today, I’m asking you, what are you standing by that cost you? If there’s nothing in your life that cost you anything, maybe you’re too stuck in your comfort. And today, if anybody is stuck in their comfort, I want to pray for you. There’s a way out.
That’s what I’m going to ask right now—if you’re stuck in your comfort in any area of your life, I want you to be bold, I want you to get comfortably uncomfortable, and I need you to stand up right now all over. I don’t care if you’re watching this on rebroadcast; I don’t care if you’re watching this. There are people all over the world standing up in your living room, in the cubicle. Some of y’all are going to pull over the car right now, and you’re going to get out and you’re going to stand up. This is a sign of being comfortably uncomfortable. As believers, we’re going to have to live comfortably uncomfortable. I’m going to pray for you today.
Oh, I feel the presence of God! Our comfort has been killing us, but today we’re coming uncuffed from this thing. I feel the presence of God. I know this was a lot, but I needed to paint a picture for you to see that no longer will we be lulled to sleep by the things that comfort us. See, the thing about this position that I was in, in this recliner, it’s the easiest position to go to sleep in. When I’m active, it’s hard for me. I don’t know how many people can go to sleep standing up or fighting, but it’s hard to go to sleep like that. But when you’re in those positions of comfortability, it’s very easy to go to sleep.
I’m just saying that in a lot of areas, in this world, our church is asleep. And I’m just saying, I think maybe the reason is because we’ve been cuffed to comfort. Wake up and see that your calling is worth the sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 9:24 says, „So don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training; they’re all uncomfortable when they’re training. They do it for a reason—to win the prize that will fade away. But we do this; we live uncomfortable. We become disciplined ones, or disciples, for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I’m not just shadow boxing; this ain’t no game. I discipline my body; I stay uncomfortable in these situations.“
Like an athlete training to do what it should; otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified. Hands lifted today; here we are, God, and we’re going to choose not to cater to our comfort another week, but we’re choosing to confront it. God, we’re coming humbly and saying we need Your help. Come on, right now, if anybody needs this help, I need you to say, „God, I need Your help. I need Your help to be able to talk differently. I need Your help to be able to say no to things that taste good to me but are bad for me. God, I need Your help, Father God, to walk out of relationships, Father God, that I know are killing my calling. I need Your help, Father God.“
Somebody right now, I don’t know what it is for you, but I need you to pray, „God, I need Your help. I need Your help to stay disciplined. I need Your help, Father, to live pure. I need Your help, Father God, to forgive. I need Your help, Father God. I need Your help in the parts of me, Father, that want to rest when I should be at war.“
God, I thank You that You would reignite, stir up the gifts on the inside of me, stir up the gifts on the inside of Your children. Father, this week bring to our minds the areas that we have not actually been active in, realizing we’ve just gotten too comfortable. Father God, forgive us whether we’ve used money, success, our age, or our accomplishments to recline on the amazing calling that You’ve given us. Today, we come uncuffed from comfort. God, today we commit and submit to You, and we ask You to do a work in us, new and afresh. That’s our desire, God. Make us live, teach us how to live, teach us how to love comfortably uncomfortable.
Something is happening right now; somebody’s mind is changing. Your perspective of being comfortable is changing.
Father, let our love for comfort, that hasn’t been loving us back, die today and let us get a new desire, God, and let it be You. You are our desire, God. I feel the presence of God right now; God is doing something. Yeah, comfort is no longer the goal; our calling is the goal. Whatever I have to do to reach my calling, whatever I have to do to actually be who You’ve created me to be; God, You are my desire.
Somebody say „oh, oh, oh!“ I said You are mighty. Come on, this is why we’re worshiping. Just take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit what He’s saying to you.
God, we want to be cuffed only to You. God, we’re uncuffing from comfort. God, You are mine. Come on, just take a moment, lift your hands, and just talk to God, because I want what You want for my life. God, I don’t want comfortability to kill my calling another day; God, I want Your desires to be my desires. So You are my desire today, God.
Not everybody says, „God, I want to be everything.“ Many of us have desired comfort, but we’re changing that today; we’re going to desire our calling. Not just walking out of one lifestyle; we’re going to walk into the promise that God has for our life. Does anybody believe that? I’m not just walking out of something; I’m going to walk fully into what God has for me. So I say, „Oh, not comfort anymore!“ Just somebody say, „Yo, but I want the calling that You have for my life!“ Oh my God, we’re going to lift this thing out. All right, cool! So this week we’re leaving with a practical application. We’re ending service a little differently. I need you to physically write down six areas that you have gotten comfortable in and you know it’s killing your calling, and all week we’re going to pray every day that God would uncuff us from that area of comfort.
Now, the truth of the matter is that statistics say only three out of ten of you are going to do this, and that’s fine with me, but it might cost you your calling if we don’t take time and make margin to deal with the things that have come to actually hinder us. That’s why I said this series really should be called „Therapy and Theology,“ like we’re doing both of those this week. You’ve got to go back and do this work. I can present it to you, but now you and the Holy Spirit have to go to work. He’s the Comforter!
Wow, hold on, never thought about it before that out of everything that the Holy Spirit could be called, He’s called the Comforter. So it’s not that I can’t be cuffed to comfort; I have to be cuffed to the Comforter! Oh my God, when I am cuffed to the Comforter, whatever He gives me is real peace, whatever He gives me is real joy. You know the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience—everything I’m trying to be comforted by is a counterfeit version of what the Comforter actually gives. If you’re tired of getting the cheap replica, don’t settle for comfort; cuff yourself to the Comforter and He’s going to help lead you and guide you into all. Everybody say „truth!“
This week, six things, six things that you have been comforted by that you know are killing your calling: food, people—write their names down. Dwayne is a person of comfort; I don’t know the way, but write it down. Clothes, shopping, arguing, fighting—I don’t know what it is for you. Oh, being perfect, never making a mistake! I’m just giving you just a couple of things; some of you are not going to have six; you’re going to have sixty. But how good, Resheena, for us to start digging up the things that the enemy thought were going to stay on the inside of us forever and we were going to repeat the pattern. But I declare there’s a generational curse-breaking anointing in this series for deliverance! It’s not going to hit my kids; it’s not going to keep going down. I’m going to deal with it, so I’m uncuffing from comfort.
And next week, you cannot miss it because I’m actually going to give you the practical tools that God has made for us to confront it and actually have victory. And I’m telling you this message without next week’s message; it’s incomplete because you’re just going to be in limbo again. I’m going to give you the tools, but God cannot heal what you won’t reveal! So I need at least—how many? Okay, for some of you, you’re saying, „Pastor Mike, I’ve been so distracted today by the stains on your shirt; I just really cannot move past the stains.“ And you’re just ministering, acting like you don’t see the stains, and those stains are actually the thing that I notice most about you.
See, the crazy thing is that these stains are actually a representation of what my soul and my spirit looked like when I came to this earth. All the experiences I had—those were real-life experiences for me. I was raggedy and stained up, but God sent His Son, Jesus, to even when it looks like I have a stain on me, He doesn’t see me; He sees His Son. Because by faith—everybody shout at me, „By faith!"—I’ve received His Son, Jesus, the spotless Lamb, the One who has literally erased the sins of the world. But you don’t get seen like that; everybody sees this until you accept Him. And today, I don’t know, I just feel like some people look like spiritually what I look like publicly; like you’re walking around trying to cover up. You don’t want to say, «How are you doing?» «I’m good; everything’s fine!»
Just want to make sure you don’t see that I’m really struggling. I’m really hurt; I really have pain. And God’s saying, «Would you not just expose it? Just take off—like don’t even—just actually highlight it, point at it. I’m a liar! I like having sex with people unmarried; it makes the void in my heart of not having a father feel better. Let’s just put this thing on the table because I was molested. I hurt people because I’m really hurting.» Jesus says, «I want that; I want to clean that. I want to heal that.»
And if you’re listening, I feel the prayer. I need the church to begin to pray. I feel the presence of God right now; somebody is literally sitting here trying to hide what God wants to heal. And today, you have an opportunity to give your life to the only One who can clean you up. And I even feel this; there are some people in ministry. I see—I feel this so strongly right now. There are pastors, leaders, youth leaders, praise and worship; it would almost be uncomfortable to admit that you’re struggling with these things, but God is saying to you today, «Could you just come clean so that I can clean?»
If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior or recommit your life to Jesus today, on the count of three, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand. And I want you to do it; I want you to be a little uncomfortable. I want somebody to look at you because this is what the Christian life is going to be—comfortably uncomfortable! We are unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of salvation. It doesn’t matter what nobody else thinks as long as I know what He thinks about me. So today, if you want to take your stains and you want to give them to the Master, on the count of three, just say, «Pastor, include me in that prayer.»
And I believe there are hundreds, if not thousands of people, who are about to make this decision to walk into a new relationship with God. One, you’re making the greatest decision of your life. Two, I’m proud of you, but more than that, God is going to write your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life for all of eternity. Three, shoot your hand up all over the world. I see you; I see you; I see you! Can we give God praise right now? Glory to God! Glory to God! You can put your hands down.
So I know in a lot of churches they want you to come to the front and confess everything that you did; we ain’t got time for all that, 'cause you’re ratchet. We don’t have time for all that. But the Bible does say that you’ve got to find somebody to confess to, pray, and then there’s healing that comes. But that can only happen when you’ve accepted Jesus. Everybody say Jesus! That’s the reason why we’re here. That’s the God that we serve, and today He wants to come in and help you uncuff from comfort, uncuff from control, uncuff from all those things that have made you critical. He wants to be cuffed to you, cuffed to Christ. Now, Transformation Church, nobody prays alone here; we all pray together for the benefit of those coming to Christ, and they are making the greatest decision ever. So with faith, can we all say this together? Together:
God, thank You for sending Jesus for all my stains. Today, I’m deciding to live a whole life. You can have all of me. I believe You lived, You died, and You rose again with all power just for me. And I give You my life. Take over, change me, clean me, renew me, transform me. I’m Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.