Michael Todd - Imma Partner In This Thing
Today we are in week three of the third call, and help me, duh! Now, we’ve been singing about the Kingdom. The title of this series is «Kingdom Dumb,» because the truth of the matter is that when it comes to the message of the Kingdom, most of us have been kingdom-dumb. We’ve been ignorant of the truth that Jesus spoke about when he came to this earth. Now, I have to apologize on behalf of all pastors, preachers, your uncle who used to tell you Bible scriptures, and your Sunday school teacher. This concept of the Kingdom is not something you can pick up your Bible five minutes before you are ready to present it and then be able to explain it. David and Goliath? People who aren’t saved use David and Goliath as a story to explain their point.
You know, it’s just like the Bulls in '98—everybody uses these analogies because they’re very surface-level and easy to explain. The concept of the Kingdom takes seeking. So, when we start talking about these concepts, I need everybody to do what Apostle Kendrick Lamar asked us to do: sit down, finish it, and be humble. Y’all didn’t even want to finish it. Like, do I have to? Because if you do not approach this huge topic of the Kingdom with humility, you will miss the things that God is trying to show you. I don’t care if you’ve been a pastor for 50 years; there is something else you can learn about the Kingdom. I don’t care if you helped write the Bible. Paul goes on to say that he’s still finding out the mysteries of the Kingdom. So I need all of us—all my Bible scholars and religious people—to just calm down for a second, because you will miss what God is trying to do in you while trying to defend what you’ve been taught, even if you didn’t know it was true.
Oh God, can I tell you what the Kingdom is not? This isn’t in my notes, but I feel like I need to tell you: the Kingdom is not a religion. Write it down: the Kingdom is not a religion. Religion is man’s attempt to try to fulfill a void that he is missing for the Kingdom. So, what we try to do is think maybe if I raise my hands this way, or maybe it’s this amount of money, or maybe it’s twirling, or giving to the poor, or how many things can I do? But we are called human beings, not human doings. And all religion does is make you do, and that’s why most people who don’t believe, who are agnostic or atheists, are confused.
Because all the religions say do this: Christians say do this, Hindus say do this, Muslims, and people who worship Buddha say do this. The Kingdom doesn’t say do this; it says be this. Oh God! In the Kingdom, I’m not doing; I am being. So, what I have to help you understand is I’m not giving you a list of things to do, because some people have heard this message and think, «So what are we supposed to do, Pastor?» No, no, no. Who are you supposed to be? That is a completely different approach to the Kingdom, and for many of us, for decades, over 20 years, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to earn God’s favor, what to do to avoid hell. Y’all gonna leave me out here by myself? What to do to stop lusting, what to do to ensure that God blesses my finances—what to do— instead of who to be. Oh God!
Okay, so in this series, I’m calling you back to a place of being instead of doing. Whenever you are just being, the doing comes naturally. I’ve been being myself for a long time, and when I just be, what I do just flows. Do you understand what I’m saying? Have you ever met somebody who is trying too hard? It’s uncomfortable for both of us. But have you ever met someone who just is? And it’s like, I might not even like people like that, but they are so authentically themselves. I see it; I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. God is saying, when is the church going to stop doing church and actually be the church? When are my sons and daughters going to stop doing ministry and just be the ministry? You don’t have to attend an outreach event; you just gotta meet me. Oh God!
Okay, and that’s where the Kingdom gets confusing because you’re still trying to figure out what to do. All right? And that’s why every week I’m systematically trying to break down the walls of ignorance that all of us have about the Kingdom, and I want to shed light progressively into this thing that allows us to embrace, watch this, who we already are. We are more than just figuring out the Kingdom; we are discovering. Y’all need to listen to my words very clearly; I’m not trying to find something externally; I’m trying to uncover something this Earth suit tried to make me forget was on the inside of me. The Kingdom is in here. No, no, no, no, no; I know you don’t see it yet because it’s covered by fear and depression, it’s covered by perversion and low self-esteem, and it’s covered by wrong doctrine. But I promise you, I’m about to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and I am going to discover what’s already in there. Somebody look at your neighbor and say, «It’s already in there.» Find one more neighbor that’s not as nice as the first one you picked and say, «It’s already in there.»
Okay, all right, the reason I had to call this series «Kingdom» is because, honestly, this message is not really well-known, but it is the only message that Jesus preached. And I know people’s religious selves struggle with that. Okay, but I’m going to prove it to you right now: Matthew chapter 5, verse 3. I need to first talk to the people who have been in this series for a couple weeks. You feel down like, «Dang, man, I wish somebody would have told me this earlier. I wish I would have known about the Kingdom; I wasted so much of my life.» Stop that! Jesus confronted that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3: «Blessed are the poor in spirit.» Watch what it says: «For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.» That means if you’re at the back of the class right now, you’ll be able to get this before the people who have had all the years of training. This is the only place where it’s good to be dumb.
This is the only time where I can say, «Yes, I didn’t study,» so now I don’t have all of these walls to break down. I just have to be built up right. There’s nothing like building on the wrong foundation. People are tearing down while you’re building up. So, don’t be frustrated if you didn’t know; you’re learning at the right time. I love the NLT version of that same scripture: God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. Most people, when they quote that scripture, think it refers to money. It starts with «poor in spirit.» Stop being so narrowly focused! He tells you what he’s talking about. Bless all the ones who do not yet have spiritual wealth because they are going to be able to get this. This is not going to require them to tear down religion; they never picked it up. So, this one is for them. He says, «They realize they need him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.»
I want you to write this down, and this is a potentially controversial statement, but it is so true, and I want you to hear this: We have preached the message of Jesus Christ, but not the message Jesus Christ preached. I’m going to say it one more time: as the body of Christ, we have preached the message of Jesus Christ, but not the message Jesus Christ preached. We have literally been pointing at Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and that is our way into the Kingdom. But he even says, and I can’t even touch on this, he says, «I’m the door.» Oh my God! He literally said, «I’m the door into the…» If we went to the mall and camped out at the door, oh God! All the stores, all the technology, all the clothes—we’re saying, «Y’all, we made it! Praise be the door!»
In the door’s name, everybody gets to the door! I already know what you’re thinking, but what we do is say, «Door, we love you, door; we worship you, door; there’s nobody like you—say his name, door!» And he said, «I’m important, but without all this, I’m incomplete. Why would you camp out on the door when I’m trying to give you a shopping spree?» You see people coming out with bags, but you’re shouting at the door. Oh hey, you ain’t got nothing to give! Nobody’s got two dollars to rub together, but I found the door! No wonder nobody wants what you’ve got; you ain’t got anything! You’ve been standing at the door! But there’s more! You’ve been standing at the door, but I came to tell you there’s more. He didn’t come just to give you salvation; that was the door to the Kingdom. We’re going to get a lot of emails about that. It’s the truth anyhow; argue with your man, me.
All right, here we go! I’m just getting a bit ignorant right now because I feel the rise of a holy rebellion coming up on the inside of me. There are some people on the inside that said, «I can’t do this church thing anymore; I can’t just shout for no reason. I gotta see some tangible proof in my life!» Whoo! Matthew chapter 4, verse 17: you need to star this in your Bible; you need to highlight it! This is a scripture that you will come back to for the rest of your life. This is Jesus’s first message, and I’m saying it every week so you get how he began his ministry: «Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.» It’s here! Somebody say, «It’s here!»
God, Jesus in Heaven is talking about the plan to save and expand Earth. You gotta go. I want to go, but you gotta go. Okay, why I gotta go? Because they need to see the Kingdom! Well, they can’t see all of this, but when they see you, they see all of this! So you go, be born like them, but live opposite to them. You came from Heaven to Earth to show the way. The truth—come on, y’all, help me! I just wanted to make sense! So go show them how to do it! And then, because they won’t get it when you show them, I want your first words to be explicit instructions: «Repent! Turn from what you’ve been doing!» Okay, why? Why should I stop doing this? Why should I stop cheating? Why should I stop lying? «Why should God? It’s done good for me so far!»
I’m not even going to appeal to your flesh and address your individual issues, because me, if I was there, and I was like, «Repent!» and they were like, «Why?» Well, because…» and I would start listing reasons. He said, «The reason is higher than your hang-ups!» «Repent! Why? Because the Kingdom—the new country, this new way of living—is here.» So, he started his ministry, and I know the applause was like, «Is this what we came for?» All right, Jesus, JC Gray! And he keeps preaching the same message because I find it in Matthew 24, verse 14. Everybody was trying to figure out how he was going to overthrow everything and do everything and take over, and let the Kingdom come. He said, «And the good news about what the Kingdom…»
I need everybody to see that this is not the good news about prosperity, not the good news about healing, not the good news about prophecy, not the good news about anything else. All of those things are part of the Kingdom, but the good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations will hear it, and after all nations hear it, then the end will come. I said it in the first week, but I want to say it again: unpack your bags because this is the first message series you’ve ever heard about the Kingdom! The whole earth hasn’t heard this message because the whole church hasn’t heard this message! This is why we have to dive deeper into this.
So unpack your bags! Jesus climbs up on the cross, says, «It is finished,» defeats hell and the grave, and comes back! Some of y’all need to read your Bible because it’s better than any movie you’ve ever seen! Then he comes back, like, you know, like in the power-up games where you get another life. And the man just comes back, comes again for 40 days, but spends the majority of his time with his disciples! Like, «Look at it! I died for you! Thomas, put your hand right here!» Just kidding, it didn’t hurt! Like he was just trying to prove to his disciples! Okay? Shares a message with them, and can you just guess what message in his last 40 days he shares with his disciples? Who are now going to be tasked with the audacious assignment to go into all the world and make disciples?
Acts chapter 1, verse 3: «After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God.» Y’all, it was the message he spoke after he died! Said they didn’t get it. Let me explain the kingdom, like the first message about the kingdom, before I die. The kingdom is very important for him to resurrect himself, and the only thing he talked about to his people was somebody shouting me the kingdom. So I told you very simply, I’m trying to break this down into ABCs. First, all I wanted you to do is see the kingdom. You are a student; I appreciate you putting the emoji up there.
See the kingdom! And after that, you talked about seeking the kingdom. Oh, I like this—Matthew 6:33. When we talked about seeking first last week, I had one of my brothers, who is just intense, come up to me after the message. He said, «I’m ready to seek.» My brother is intense; he has played sports at a high level and has done everything. Anytime he gets his mind on something, he does it. He came up to me with a lot of energy. It was like, «You’ve convinced me; let’s seek.» I said the first thing you need to do to seek is back up—just back up a second. He was like, «No, no; I just want to know simply what it means to seek the kingdom.» So we came up with something that I think will help everybody seek the kingdom—this is a simple seeking strategy.
Okay, everybody write «SEEK» down on your iPhone, your iPad, or your notepad. This is all you’re going to do; I can’t go into it, but I needed to give somebody practically how to seek the kingdom. You surrender your will. The first thing you have to do to seek is surrender your «I don’t want to do this.» I know this is hard, but Jesus even had to do it in the garden: «I don’t want to do this. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.» If you’re going to seek the kingdom, you’ve got to surrender your will. The second thing is establish a time. You can’t seek if you don’t have any time. I know in this day and age, you spend more time; your iPhone will tell you how much time you spent on social media, seeking approval, seeking a like—six hours and 45 minutes—and you think you’re good? You’re down six percent from last week, and God said, «It’s been a year; I haven’t gotten six minutes to seek!» No, no. I get SOS’s.
«Lord, please don’t let her be pregnant!» Oh, come on, y’all want to be fake. «Lord, please don’t let them evict me!» «Lord, please let them not read that text message!» «Erase their phones in Jesus' name! I bind the text message!» Y’all know that’s true. God, I thank you that the test I didn’t study for magically transfers. Ah, I feel your power! All high school students have done that at least twice. No, there hasn’t been intentional time to seek. So, if you’re going to seek, you have to surrender your will. Everybody say «surrender your will.» Establish a time! «In the morning early, will I rise to seek you?» Now, I want to say something that a lot of spiritual people won’t say: God is not more spiritual in the morning.
I know my mom’s going to hit me afterward because she’s up at 3 a.m. That’s how I got woken up. I didn’t have alarm clocks. I’d say, «It’s about 4:15, ain’t it?» every morning! She’ll tell you what time she gets up every morning too. This morning I was up at 3:16—like I’m asleep, but it doesn’t matter because that’s the time she has established. I don’t care if it’s lunchtime; I don’t care if it’s on the toilet. Every time you go to the toilet, say, «God, here I am! I want your kingdom on this throne!» All I’m saying is it can’t be sporadic; it needs to be specific. Too many people want a word from God sporadically. We want to be changed sporadically, and He’s like, «If we can make this specific, I’ll meet you every lunchtime.»
There’s never been a time when His children set a meeting with Him that He didn’t show up, but there have been several times when He tried to set a meeting with us, and we didn’t show up. So establish a time! Second, you can expect answers. If you want to seek God, this is not a Magic 8 Ball that we shake up. «Will I have a boyfriend?» If you expect an answer from a toy made in China that has been around for 70 years, you’ll shake it again if it doesn’t give you the right answer? «Will I…?» You want an answer from that or from the King of Kings, the one who knows the number of hairs on your head, the one who is actually concerned about the details of your life? Do not pray expecting to not hear from God.
Now, don’t pray expecting to hear the way you want to hear; there’s a difference. A lot of times, it’s like if you would just tell me that! Y’all give God time limits. Some of y’all are ignorant prayers. «But this time I’m giving you an hour, God.» I think sometimes when you put a time limit on Him, He’ll be like, «All right, we’re going to make sure this time runs out, so you know that your ways are not my ways and my thoughts…» Sometimes I don’t even put a time on God: «Whenever you see fit, change this situation.» But if you would do that, and that’s the way you approach God, you would go to the throne of grace. Everybody say, «Boldly expect answers.» So surrender your will, establish your time, expect answers.
Last one, keep going. I know there’s this concept in church that’s like, «You don’t need that.» Really, at the severity of how life hits me sometimes, one little prayer ain’t gonna get it done. The Bible says, «Everybody say keep going!» And I know you’d rather keep going on an episode of your favorite show, watching ten seasons of the same thing, but God said, «Would you keep going in prayer?» The Bible says, «The effectual fervent,» that means the consistent prayers of righteous people; which is the second thing He says—"Seek first the kingdom and righteousness.» If those people stop that type of prayer, it works! Somebody shout to your neighbor, «Keep going!»
If you’re going to have a simple seek strategy, you’ve got to surrender your will, establish a time, expect answers, and what? Keep going! Matthew chapter 7, verse 7: «Ask, and it will be given to you; keep going! Seek, and you will find; keep going! Knock, and the door will be opened to you.» Somebody shout at me, «Keep going!» Watch this: I love this part of the scripture—"For everyone who asks receives!» Look at that guarantee from our Father! If you just try, you’re gonna get it. «Oh God! For everyone who asks receives!» Watch this: «The one who seeks, what do they get? They find it!» God’s not trying to play anybody. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Just so you can have the context in your mind, there’s no «maybe» in this! He said, «If you do it, I will; if you do it, I will.» Ask—knock—the door’s gonna be opened; seek, and you will find!
Now, some of you, last week when I had the young lady up here, and if you haven’t watched it, it was a great illustration for you to keep pursuing and seeking the kingdom. But a lot of you were like, «Well, why would God hide stuff from us? I mean, if He loves us and wants us to have everything, why doesn’t He just, you know, put it out in front?» I was talking to one of my friends, and this revelation came. Write this down: God doesn’t hide things from you; He hides things for you. If it was just out for everyone to understand, you wouldn’t even get the revelation you need. I heard somebody say it like this: «It ain’t yours until it’s yours.» Until you actually own it, you don’t really have it. You can be holding it, but until you’ve done something to get it—like my marriage. I said I loved Natalie when we got up on June 19, 2010, and I told her, «Baby, I’m alive; I’m giving you everything—my flaws and my draws!» I told her that. I said, «I love you.» But we’ve been through some stuff.
Now, if anybody tries to take away from me what I have sacrificed for her, they would meet a different side of Pastor Mike that would end us both up in jail or dead. Let me be very clear with everybody: the reason is she was mine when the ring went on, but now that we’ve been through some stuff, she’s mine! Oh God! Okay, some of us have not put enough into our relationship with God for it to really be ours. You come on Sunday, you give, you tip God; it doesn’t cost you anything. Nobody’s ever talked about you for being loud with your faith. Nobody’s ever criticized you for believing. «No, my kids don’t watch that.» «Oh, but why?» «It’s just that…» No, no, no, no. Because I’m watching what goes into their spirits. I know that everybody is watching the highest-grossing movie, but my kids will never see that movie. That offends most people’s religion right now.
«Well, it’s fiction; it’s just made-up; it’s just some magical literature.» And then at 16, your kids are out here messing with Ouija boards and trying to do seances; now you’re asking the church to believe God that the spirit of darkness would come out. Oh God! You gave it to them because of peer pressure from a culture that doesn’t care about you. You haven’t sacrificed anything for the kingdom, and so it ain’t yours. You know those wild fanatic Christians? This is all charismatic and just look at them. I’m an introvert; that doesn’t mean you can’t be fully sold out to something. You can be an introvert who is fully committed to the kingdom of God. I just gotta… because I feel like fighting now! I don’t know what just happened to me.
I almost want to spread my feet because I hate how culture has made us. You can be loud about everything, and our faith has to be quiet. You can put flags in every restaurant and I can’t put a cross in my front yard? You can do whatever you want, and I can’t represent the kingdom? It is time for the rise of a holy rebellion! I’m ready to fight! I’m ready to fight! And some of you can’t even cheer about it because you’re so lukewarm. You’ve got both jerseys on: Kingdom culture during church, people culture on the weekends, Kingdom for church anniversary, culture for my birthday. You’re so lukewarm, your husband don’t even know what to tell you. You’re so lukewarm, your kids don’t even know what to tell you. Your family doesn’t even ask you to pray for them!
Oh my God! They know you’re the one that goes to church, but they see your Instagram—they don’t even ask you to pray; they know you don’t have any power. You’re so lukewarm. You know everything that culture is doing and nothing that the Kingdom’s saying. When you’re going through your situation, you’re ready to jump on whatever bandwagon culture is on and ride that thing all the way until it drops you! And the Kingdom already has all the answers. I’m ready to fight! Oh, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me in this house, we will serve the Lord! I don’t mean everybody, but I’ve got a bunch of riders! As for us, we’re gonna do this thing the King’s way. I’m ready to take my jacket off; I’m one of them! Let me zip back up!
Somebody shout at me, «Kingdom!» Oh, I hope your religious spirit is getting offended right now; I hope it is! I hope those demons in you are starting to stir! I hope that the name of Jesus will be lifted up, and the King of glory shall come in! Who is this King of glory? The Lord! Oh God! Hey hey hey hey! One more time, shout at me, «Kingdom!» Yeah! This is the rise of a holy rebellion! White people, Black people, Indian people, Hispanic people—we’re about to rise up all over this world till the whole world hears about the Kingdom! That song makes more sense now: «Thy kingdom come.» Yeah! All right, sit down because we will run on to Memorial and stop tripping. Ah, m’Susan will be like, «Oh my gosh!»
Yeah, thank you! Somebody’s about to realize why they were born! Somebody’s about to realize I am not here to just collect a paycheck and die! I was sent here by a King on assignment, and it doesn’t matter who comes against me; it’s God, the King, before me! Oh write what you want to write; say what you want to say; lie about it, but as for me and this house, we’re gonna serve the Lord! All right, just one more time, shout at me, «Kingdom!» Oh, it feels good! Y’all know, like, your least form is your body, right? So there are three of y’all. There… Oh shoot, okay, I gotta show… Alex, come here! Uh, um, um, Charles, come here! Uh, Scott, come here! Okay, I just need y’all to see this because the thing inside you that’s starting to shake—Scott, put your gun down! Don’t come up here with your gun; that’s my security! He will shoot you. Um, he’s carrying his bag all the way. Put your gun down, Scott.
Just stand right here, just right. Spread out, spread out. Okay, I want you to see this because when I’m shouting «Kingdom,» I’m not shouting to your body. This is your body, okay? This is the least form of you, and I want to say this because everything in the kingdom is opposite. Culture tells you to spend most of your time caring about what’s temporary. Yes, sir. Sure, yeah, yeah, sir. This is your body. When you get saved, your body doesn’t get saved. I wish that came with the salvation call.
Hey, you just received Jesus; your body—it ain’t saved, though, because the Bible tells us it is at war. It’s literally this on this earth. When we fell from the kingdom, we actually fell into a state that makes us want to do the opposite of what God wants us to do. Nobody has to teach a kid to be bad, that’s true. You have to teach them to be good. Your kids naturally are mischievous and bad. It’s because of the bodysuit we’re in, but everybody has a soul, and this is the next layer that we actually have to regenerate. This is our mind, our will, and our emotions. Why do you come to church? I’m speaking to your soul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do you listen to worship music? I’m speaking to your soul.
Why do you go to counseling? It’s because you got messed up in trauma, and your soul is suffering. That’s why you do this! Everybody say «soul.» Okay, and this is why you have to make sure you do soul care. You’re getting pedicures, facials, and massages, but your soul is decrepit. You won’t read a book, you won’t meditate, you won’t call anybody when you’re troubled. Your mind, will, and emotions are jacked, but you look good. Everybody thinks you’re fine—your outfit is popping—and your soul is dying. Your body is unsafe; your soul is getting saved. That makes sense. This is why we don’t stop on the journey because I’ve got to keep this thing. It’ll revert back.
Today we are in week three of the third call, and help me, duh! Now, we’ve been singing about the Kingdom. The title of this series is «Kingdom Dumb,» because the truth of the matter is that when it comes to the message of the Kingdom, most of us have been kingdom-dumb. We’ve been ignorant of the truth that Jesus spoke about when he came to this earth. Now, I have to apologize on behalf of all pastors, preachers, your uncle who used to tell you Bible scriptures, and your Sunday school teacher. This concept of the Kingdom is not something you can pick up your Bible five minutes before you are ready to present it and then be able to explain it. David and Goliath? People who aren’t saved use David and Goliath as a story to explain their point. You know, it’s just like the Bulls in '98—everybody uses these analogies because they’re very surface-level and easy to explain. The concept of the Kingdom takes seeking.
So, when we start talking about these concepts, I need everybody to do what Apostle Kendrick Lamar asked us to do: sit down, finish it, and be humble. Y’all didn’t even want to finish it. Like, do I have to? Because if you do not approach this huge topic of the Kingdom with humility, you will miss the things that God is trying to show you. I don’t care if you’ve been a pastor for 50 years; there is something else you can learn about the Kingdom. I don’t care if you helped write the Bible. Paul goes on to say that he’s still finding out the mysteries of the Kingdom. So I need all of us—all my Bible scholars and religious people—to just calm down for a second, because you will miss what God is trying to do in you while trying to defend what you’ve been taught, even if you didn’t know it was true.
Oh God, can I tell you what the Kingdom is not? This isn’t in my notes, but I feel like I need to tell you: the Kingdom is not a religion. Write it down: the Kingdom is not a religion. Religion is man’s attempt to try to fulfill a void that he is missing for the Kingdom. So, what we try to do is think maybe if I raise my hands this way, or maybe it’s this amount of money, or maybe it’s twirling, or giving to the poor, or how many things can I do? But we are called human beings, not human doings. And all religion does is make you do, and that’s why most people who don’t believe, who are agnostic or atheists, are confused. Because all the religions say do this: Christians say do this, Hindus say do this, Muslims, and people who worship Buddha say do this.
The Kingdom doesn’t say do this; it says be this. Oh God! In the Kingdom, I’m not doing; I am being. So, what I have to help you understand is I’m not giving you a list of things to do, because some people have heard this message and think, «So what are we supposed to do, Pastor?» No, no, no. Who are you supposed to be? That is a completely different approach to the Kingdom, and for many of us, for decades, over 20 years, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to earn God’s favor, what to do to avoid hell. Y’all gonna leave me out here by myself? What to do to stop lusting, what to do to ensure that God blesses my finances—what to do— instead of who to be. Oh God!
Okay, so in this series, I’m calling you back to a place of being instead of doing. Whenever you are just being, the doing comes naturally. I’ve been being myself for a long time, and when I just be, what I do just flows. Do you understand what I’m saying? Have you ever met somebody who is trying too hard? It’s uncomfortable for both of us. But have you ever met someone who just is? And it’s like, I might not even like people like that, but they are so authentically themselves. I see it; I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. God is saying, when is the church going to stop doing church and actually be the church? When are my sons and daughters going to stop doing ministry and just be the ministry? You don’t have to attend an outreach event; you just gotta meet me. Oh God!
Okay, and that’s where the Kingdom gets confusing because you’re still trying to figure out what to do. All right? And that’s why every week I’m systematically trying to break down the walls of ignorance that all of us have about the Kingdom, and I want to shed light progressively into this thing that allows us to embrace, watch this, who we already are. We are more than just figuring out the Kingdom; we are discovering. Y’all need to listen to my words very clearly; I’m not trying to find something externally; I’m trying to uncover something this Earth suit tried to make me forget was on the inside of me. The Kingdom is in here. No, no, no, no, no; I know you don’t see it yet because it’s covered by fear and depression, it’s covered by perversion and low self-esteem, and it’s covered by wrong doctrine. But I promise you, I’m about to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and I am going to discover what’s already in there. Somebody look at your neighbor and say, «It’s already in there.» Find one more neighbor that’s not as nice as the first one you picked and say, «It’s already in there.»
Okay, all right, the reason I had to call this series «Kingdom» is because, honestly, this message is not really well-known, but it is the only message that Jesus preached. And I know people’s religious selves struggle with that. Okay, but I’m going to prove it to you right now: Matthew chapter 5, verse 3. I need to first talk to the people who have been in this series for a couple weeks. You feel down like, «Dang, man, I wish somebody would have told me this earlier. I wish I would have known about the Kingdom; I wasted so much of my life.» Stop that! Jesus confronted that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3: «Blessed are the poor in spirit.» Watch what it says: «For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.»
That means if you’re at the back of the class right now, you’ll be able to get this before the people who have had all the years of training. This is the only place where it’s good to be dumb. This is the only time where I can say, «Yes, I didn’t study,» so now I don’t have all of these walls to break down. I just have to be built up right. There’s nothing like building on the wrong foundation. People are tearing down while you’re building up. So, don’t be frustrated if you didn’t know; you’re learning at the right time.
I love the NLT version of that same scripture: God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. Most people, when they quote that scripture, think it refers to money. It starts with «poor in spirit.» Stop being so narrowly focused! He tells you what he’s talking about. Bless all the ones who do not yet have spiritual wealth because they are going to be able to get this. This is not going to require them to tear down religion; they never picked it up. So, this one is for them. He says, «They realize they need him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.»
I want you to write this down, and this is a potentially controversial statement, but it is so true, and I want you to hear this: We have preached the message of Jesus Christ, but not the message Jesus Christ preached. I’m going to say it one more time: as the body of Christ, we have preached the message of Jesus Christ, but not the message Jesus Christ preached. We have literally been pointing at Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and that is our way into the Kingdom. But he even says, and I can’t even touch on this, he says, «I’m the door.» Oh my God! He literally said, «I’m the door into the…» If we went to the mall and camped out at the door, oh God! All the stores, all the technology, all the clothes—we’re saying, «Y’all, we made it! Praise be the door!»
In the door’s name, everybody gets to the door! I already know what you’re thinking, but what we do is say, «Door, we love you, door; we worship you, door; there’s nobody like you—say his name, door!» And he said, «I’m important, but without all this, I’m incomplete. Why would you camp out on the door when I’m trying to give you a shopping spree?» You see people coming out with bags, but you’re shouting at the door. Oh hey, you ain’t got nothing to give! Nobody’s got two dollars to rub together, but I found the door! No wonder nobody wants what you’ve got; you ain’t got anything! You’ve been standing at the door! But there’s more! You’ve been standing at the door, but I came to tell you there’s more. He didn’t come just to give you salvation; that was the door to the Kingdom. We’re going to get a lot of emails about that. It’s the truth anyhow; argue with your man, me.
All right, here we go! I’m just getting a bit ignorant right now because I feel the rise of a holy rebellion coming up on the inside of me. There are some people on the inside that said, «I can’t do this church thing anymore; I can’t just shout for no reason. I gotta see some tangible proof in my life!» Whoo! Matthew chapter 4, verse 17: you need to star this in your Bible; you need to highlight it! This is a scripture that you will come back to for the rest of your life. This is Jesus’s first message, and I’m saying it every week so you get how he began his ministry: «Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.»
It’s here! Somebody say, «It’s here!» God, Jesus in Heaven is talking about the plan to save and expand Earth. You gotta go. I want to go, but you gotta go. Okay, why I gotta go? Because they need to see the Kingdom! Well, they can’t see all of this, but when they see you, they see all of this! So you go, be born like them, but live opposite to them. You came from Heaven to Earth to show the way. The truth—come on, y’all, help me! I just wanted to make sense! So go show them how to do it! And then, because they won’t get it when you show them, I want your first words to be explicit instructions: «Repent! Turn from what you’ve been doing!» Okay, why? Why should I stop doing this? Why should I stop cheating? Why should I stop lying? «Why should God? It’s done good for me so far!»
I’m not even going to appeal to your flesh and address your individual issues, because me, if I was there, and I was like, «Repent!» and they were like, «Why?» Well, because…» and I would start listing reasons. He said, «The reason is higher than your hang-ups!» «Repent! Why? Because the Kingdom—the new country, this new way of living—is here.» So, he started his ministry, and I know the applause was like, «Is this what we came for?» All right, Jesus, JC Gray! And he keeps preaching the same message because I find it in Matthew 24, verse 14. Everybody was trying to figure out how he was going to overthrow everything and do everything and take over, and let the Kingdom come. He said, «And the good news about what the Kingdom…»
I need everybody to see that this is not the good news about prosperity, not the good news about healing, not the good news about prophecy, not the good news about anything else. All of those things are part of the Kingdom, but the good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations will hear it, and after all nations hear it, then the end will come. I said it in the first week, but I want to say it again: unpack your bags because this is the first message series you’ve ever heard about the Kingdom! The whole earth hasn’t heard this message because the whole church hasn’t heard this message! This is why we have to dive deeper into this.
So unpack your bags! Jesus climbs up on the cross, says, «It is finished,» defeats hell and the grave, and comes back! Some of y’all need to read your Bible because it’s better than any movie you’ve ever seen! Then he comes back, like, you know, like in the power-up games where you get another life. And the man just comes back, comes again for 40 days, but spends the majority of his time with his disciples! Like, «Look at it! I died for you! Thomas, put your hand right here!» Just kidding, it didn’t hurt! Like he was just trying to prove to his disciples! Okay? Shares a message with them, and can you just guess what message in his last 40 days he shares with his disciples? Who are now going to be tasked with the audacious assignment to go into all the world and make disciples?
Acts chapter 1, verse 3: «After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God.» Y’all, it was the message he spoke after he died! Said they didn’t get it. Let me explain the kingdom, like the first message about the kingdom, before I die. The kingdom is very important for him to resurrect himself, and the only thing he talked about to his people was somebody shouting me the kingdom. So I told you very simply, I’m trying to break this down into ABCs. First, all I wanted you to do is see the kingdom. You are a student; I appreciate you putting the emoji up there.
See the kingdom! And after that, you talked about seeking the kingdom. Oh, I like this—Matthew 6:33. When we talked about seeking first last week, I had one of my brothers, who is just intense, come up to me after the message. He said, «I’m ready to seek.» My brother is intense; he has played sports at a high level and has done everything. Anytime he gets his mind on something, he does it. He came up to me with a lot of energy. It was like, «You’ve convinced me; let’s seek.» I said the first thing you need to do to seek is back up—just back up a second. He was like, «No, no; I just want to know simply what it means to seek the kingdom.» So we came up with something that I think will help everybody seek the kingdom—this is a simple seeking strategy.
Okay, everybody write «SEEK» down on your iPhone, your iPad, or your notepad. This is all you’re going to do; I can’t go into it, but I needed to give somebody practically how to seek the kingdom. You surrender your will. The first thing you have to do to seek is surrender your «I don’t want to do this.» I know this is hard, but Jesus even had to do it in the garden: «I don’t want to do this. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.» If you’re going to seek the kingdom, you’ve got to surrender your will. The second thing is establish a time. You can’t seek if you don’t have any time. I know in this day and age, you spend more time; your iPhone will tell you how much time you spent on social media, seeking approval, seeking a like—six hours and 45 minutes—and you think you’re good? You’re down six percent from last week, and God said, «It’s been a year; I haven’t gotten six minutes to seek!» No, no. I get SOS’s.
«Lord, please don’t let her be pregnant!» Oh, come on, y’all want to be fake. «Lord, please don’t let them evict me!» «Lord, please let them not read that text message!» «Erase their phones in Jesus' name! I bind the text message!» Y’all know that’s true. God, I thank you that the test I didn’t study for magically transfers. Ah, I feel your power! All high school students have done that at least twice. No, there hasn’t been intentional time to seek. So, if you’re going to seek, you have to surrender your will. Everybody say «surrender your will.» Establish a time! «In the morning early, will I rise to seek you?»
Now, I want to say something that a lot of spiritual people won’t say: God is not more spiritual in the morning. I know my mom’s going to hit me afterward because she’s up at 3 a.m. That’s how I got woken up. I didn’t have alarm clocks. I’d say, «It’s about 4:15, ain’t it?» every morning! She’ll tell you what time she gets up every morning too. This morning I was up at 3:16—like I’m asleep, but it doesn’t matter because that’s the time she has established. I don’t care if it’s lunchtime; I don’t care if it’s on the toilet. Every time you go to the toilet, say, «God, here I am! I want your kingdom on this throne!» All I’m saying is it can’t be sporadic; it needs to be specific. Too many people want a word from God sporadically. We want to be changed sporadically, and He’s like, «If we can make this specific, I’ll meet you every lunchtime.»
There’s never been a time when His children set a meeting with Him that He didn’t show up, but there have been several times when He tried to set a meeting with us, and we didn’t show up. So establish a time! Second, you can expect answers. If you want to seek God, this is not a Magic 8 Ball that we shake up. «Will I have a boyfriend?» If you expect an answer from a toy made in China that has been around for 70 years, you’ll shake it again if it doesn’t give you the right answer? «Will I…?» You want an answer from that or from the King of Kings, the one who knows the number of hairs on your head, the one who is actually concerned about the details of your life? Do not pray expecting to not hear from God.
Now, don’t pray expecting to hear the way you want to hear; there’s a difference. A lot of times, it’s like if you would just tell me that! Y’all give God time limits. Some of y’all are ignorant prayers. «But this time I’m giving you an hour, God.» I think sometimes when you put a time limit on Him, He’ll be like, «All right, we’re going to make sure this time runs out, so you know that your ways are not my ways and my thoughts…» Sometimes I don’t even put a time on God: «Whenever you see fit, change this situation.»
But if you would do that, and that’s the way you approach God, you would go to the throne of grace. Everybody say, «Boldly expect answers.» So surrender your will, establish your time, expect answers. Last one, keep going. I know there’s this concept in church that’s like, «You don’t need that.» Really, at the severity of how life hits me sometimes, one little prayer ain’t gonna get it done. The Bible says, «Everybody say keep going!» And I know you’d rather keep going on an episode of your favorite show, watching ten seasons of the same thing, but God said, «Would you keep going in prayer?» The Bible says, «The effectual fervent,» that means the consistent prayers of righteous people; which is the second thing He says—"Seek first the kingdom and righteousness.»
If those people stop that type of prayer, it works! Somebody shout to your neighbor, «Keep going!» If you’re going to have a simple seek strategy, you’ve got to surrender your will, establish a time, expect answers, and what? Keep going! Matthew chapter 7, verse 7: «Ask, and it will be given to you; keep going! Seek, and you will find; keep going! Knock, and the door will be opened to you.» Somebody shout at me, «Keep going!» Watch this: I love this part of the scripture—"For everyone who asks receives!» Look at that guarantee from our Father! If you just try, you’re gonna get it. «Oh God! For everyone who asks receives!» Watch this: «The one who seeks, what do they get? They find it!» God’s not trying to play anybody. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Just so you can have the context in your mind, there’s no «maybe» in this! He said, «If you do it, I will; if you do it, I will.»
Ask—knock—the door’s gonna be opened; seek, and you will find! Now, some of you, last week when I had the young lady up here, and if you haven’t watched it, it was a great illustration for you to keep pursuing and seeking the kingdom. But a lot of you were like, «Well, why would God hide stuff from us? I mean, if He loves us and wants us to have everything, why doesn’t He just, you know, put it out in front?» I was talking to one of my friends, and this revelation came. Write this down: God doesn’t hide things from you; He hides things for you. If it was just out for everyone to understand, you wouldn’t even get the revelation you need. I heard somebody say it like this: «It ain’t yours until it’s yours.»
Until you actually own it, you don’t really have it. You can be holding it, but until you’ve done something to get it—like my marriage. I said I loved Natalie when we got up on June 19, 2010, and I told her, «Baby, I’m alive; I’m giving you everything—my flaws and my draws!» I told her that. I said, «I love you.» But we’ve been through some stuff. Now, if anybody tries to take away from me what I have sacrificed for her, they would meet a different side of Pastor Mike that would end us both up in jail or dead. Let me be very clear with everybody: the reason is she was mine when the ring went on, but now that we’ve been through some stuff, she’s mine! Oh God! Okay, some of us have not put enough into our relationship with God for it to really be ours.
You come on Sunday, you give, you tip God; it doesn’t cost you anything. Nobody’s ever talked about you for being loud with your faith. Nobody’s ever criticized you for believing. «No, my kids don’t watch that.» «Oh, but why?» «It’s just that…» No, no, no, no. Because I’m watching what goes into their spirits. I know that everybody is watching the highest-grossing movie, but my kids will never see that movie. That offends most people’s religion right now. «Well, it’s fiction; it’s just made-up; it’s just some magical literature.»
And then at 16, your kids are out here messing with Ouija boards and trying to do seances; now you’re asking the church to believe God that the spirit of darkness would come out. Oh God! You gave it to them because of peer pressure from a culture that doesn’t care about you. You haven’t sacrificed anything for the kingdom, and so it ain’t yours. You know those wild fanatic Christians? This is all charismatic and just look at them. I’m an introvert; that doesn’t mean you can’t be fully sold out to something. You can be an introvert who is fully committed to the kingdom of God. I just gotta… because I feel like fighting now! I don’t know what just happened to me. I almost want to spread my feet because I hate how culture has made us. You can be loud about everything, and our faith has to be quiet. You can put flags in every restaurant and I can’t put a cross in my front yard? You can do whatever you want, and I can’t represent the kingdom?
It is time for the rise of a holy rebellion! I’m ready to fight! I’m ready to fight! And some of you can’t even cheer about it because you’re so lukewarm. You’ve got both jerseys on: Kingdom culture during church, people culture on the weekends, Kingdom for church anniversary, culture for my birthday. You’re so lukewarm, your husband don’t even know what to tell you. You’re so lukewarm, your kids don’t even know what to tell you. Your family doesn’t even ask you to pray for them! Oh my God! They know you’re the one that goes to church, but they see your Instagram—they don’t even ask you to pray; they know you don’t have any power. You’re so lukewarm. You know everything that culture is doing and nothing that the Kingdom’s saying. When you’re going through your situation, you’re ready to jump on whatever bandwagon culture is on and ride that thing all the way until it drops you! And the Kingdom already has all the answers. I’m ready to fight!
Oh, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me in this house, we will serve the Lord! I don’t mean everybody, but I’ve got a bunch of riders! As for us, we’re gonna do this thing the King’s way. I’m ready to take my jacket off; I’m one of them! Let me zip back up! Somebody shout at me, «Kingdom!» Oh, I hope your religious spirit is getting offended right now; I hope it is! I hope those demons in you are starting to stir! I hope that the name of Jesus will be lifted up, and the King of glory shall come in! Who is this King of glory? The Lord! Oh God! Hey hey hey hey! One more time, shout at me, «Kingdom!» Yeah! This is the rise of a holy rebellion! White people, Black people, Indian people, Hispanic people—we’re about to rise up all over this world till the whole world hears about the Kingdom! That song makes more sense now: «Thy kingdom come.» Yeah!
All right, sit down because we will run on to Memorial and stop tripping. Ah, m’Susan will be like, «Oh my gosh!» Yeah, thank you! Somebody’s about to realize why they were born! Somebody’s about to realize I am not here to just collect a paycheck and die! I was sent here by a King on assignment, and it doesn’t matter who comes against me; it’s God, the King, before me! Oh write what you want to write; say what you want to say; lie about it, but as for me and this house, we’re gonna serve the Lord! All right, just one more time, shout at me, «Kingdom!» Oh, it feels good! Y’all know, like, your least form is your body, right? So there are three of y’all.
There… Oh shoot, okay, I gotta show… Alex, come here! Uh, um, um, Charles, come here! Uh, Scott, come here! Okay, I just need y’all to see this because the thing inside you that’s starting to shake—Scott, put your gun down! Don’t come up here with your gun; that’s my security! He will shoot you. Um, he’s carrying his bag all the way. Put your gun down, Scott. Just stand right here, just right. Spread out, spread out. Okay, I want you to see this because when I’m shouting «Kingdom,» I’m not shouting to your body. This is your body, okay? This is the least form of you, and I want to say this because everything in the kingdom is opposite. Culture tells you to spend most of your time caring about what’s temporary. Yes, sir. Sure, yeah, yeah, sir. This is your body.
When you get saved, your body doesn’t get saved. I wish that came with the salvation call. Hey, you just received Jesus; your body—it ain’t saved, though, because the Bible tells us it is at war. It’s literally this on this earth. When we fell from the kingdom, we actually fell into a state that makes us want to do the opposite of what God wants us to do. Nobody has to teach a kid to be bad, that’s true. You have to teach them to be good. Your kids naturally are mischievous and bad. It’s because of the bodysuit we’re in, but everybody has a soul, and this is the next layer that we actually have to regenerate. This is our mind, our will, and our emotions. Why do you come to church? I’m speaking to your soul. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Why do you listen to worship music? I’m speaking to your soul. Why do you go to counseling? It’s because you got messed up in trauma, and your soul is suffering. That’s why you do this! Everybody say «soul.» Okay, and this is why you have to make sure you do soul care. You’re getting pedicures, facials, and massages, but your soul is decrepit. You won’t read a book, you won’t meditate, you won’t call anybody when you’re troubled. Your mind, will, and emotions are jacked, but you look good. Everybody thinks you’re fine—your outfit is popping—and your soul is dying. Your body is unsafe; your soul is getting saved. That makes sense. This is why we don’t stop on the journey because I’ve got to keep this thing. It’ll revert back.