Michael Todd - I'm Getting My Edge Back
This is week one. Somebody say «week one.» One of a series that I’m about to do, called very simply «Start Sharp.» Everybody say «Start Sharp.» Say it fast: «Start Shar.» Everybody say it loud! We are about to enter 2024 sharper than any year I believe I’ve been in leadership in this capacity. This is going to be our sharpest year. God gave me this vision, and the plan is a little different. Usually, on the first Sunday of the year, somebody else preaches; usually, I’m away.
Right now, I’m just trying to make sure the word of the year is right. I’m saying, «Alright, Lord, one more time, confirm it to me and tell me this is it.» He confirmed what He was going to do three days into my sabbatical in July. The word of the year this year is going to change everybody’s life. But then He gave me new instructions: He said, «You cannot share the word of the year until you build value into what I’m going to say.» Because many of us fumble what God gives us because we didn’t think it was valuable if it came in a regular package.
So, I guess some of the greatest advice that I’ve ever received is from the woman I sleep next to every night. Because her voice is familiar, if someone else that’s on a big platform said it, I’d be like, «Oh, that’s such revelation.» But she said it last night while I was on my way to sleep. She said, «Stop fooling with them people.» And I was like, but—then if somebody else said it, it’s like, «Oh, he gave me a revelation.» No, no, no, you devalued the package. You became too familiar with how it came. God said the word of the year is simple this year, but if you don’t find it valuable, you’ll fumble it again.
So, I’m about to spend four weeks building the value of how we start sharp, and then I’m going to release the word that God gave me. And then I literally—y’all ever seen, like, Star Trek, where they go into warp speed? Some of you are like Star Trek, some of you Star Wars—okay, but there’s a mode that happens when things accelerate. I believe that’s what God is about to do this year, but I’ve got to do it how God told me to do it. So, everybody say «Start Sharp.»
I’m going to go ahead and start with an analogy that really changed my life. I was reading a book called «The Fasting Edge» by Jensen Franklin, and there was a story in it that really captured my attention. I want all of you to set this story in your imagination; I want to set it in a forest back in the day, with no chainsaws or modern technology. There were two lumberjacks. One was a young lumberjack—jacked, strong, buff—and the other was an older, seasoned lumberjack with big, calloused hands. The young man wanted to make a name for himself, so he came to the older man and said, «Hey, OG, I want to challenge you to a tree-chopping contest.»
The OG said, «Young buck, I don’t even have the energy for all of that.» The young man replied, «Come on! What are you scared of? You think you still got it?» The old man said, «Pick up your axe,» and they went. The goal was to spend all day chopping down as many trees as possible. The young man thought, «I’m about to kill this OG. I’m young; I am fit; I’ve got way more energy than him.»
It comes time to start. All the other lumberjacks are around, putting their bets on who’s going to win. This young lumberjack was chopping, trees falling everywhere, and the older gentleman was sitting down, watching the younger man. The young guy thought, «Oh my gosh, I’m about to destroy him!» Tree after tree fell, and as he looked back again, the old gentleman was sitting on a stump, waiting for the official count of the trees. The young man’s chest was puffed up, sweat dripping, saying hi to the ladies because he knew he had this in the bag.
The official count came back: the young man had chopped about 20 trees, and the older man had chopped about 40. The young man said, «What in the world is going on? There’s no way this old man beat me! Every time I looked at him, he was taking a break!» The furious young man went up to the older man and said, «I guess you won.» The older man looked at him and said, «Son, every time you thought I was taking a break, I was sharpening my axe.»
The young man used all his effort and energy because his axe was dull, and every time that old man sat down, to everyone else it looked like nothing. To everyone else, it seemed like fanatical Christians doing Christian things. To everyone else, it looked like, «Y’all, y’all, y’all are going—oh, that’s what religious people do.» No, no, no! We’re taking the first 21 days of this year, and we’re putting friction on our faith! Yeah, we’re sharpening our axe!
What would happen if this year, it took less effort in the natural? What if this year your finances went up because of the direction God gave you, rather than three jobs? Oh, what if this year you didn’t go through four relationships to find the right one? But what if this year, while sharpening, God says, «It’ll be around May. Don’t accept any counterfeits until I confirm it.» And everybody found coming after you starting February 14th. But God gave you a word while you were sharpening your axe.
Most people are starting this year dull, and they’re going to get tired and worn out relationally, spiritually, and mentally because they will not set aside time to just ask, «What are you saying, Father God? I know that was the plan for last year, but what are you saying this year? God, I was successful at that, but what are you saying today?» The hardest thing for many of you is to stop doing what worked in another season. You think success is that it worked. Success is obedience. So, if God told you to do it in one season and it worked, and now He’s telling you to stop, many of us won’t stop long enough to even see.
I have one question for everybody that came to church today, and this is very, very simple. This is not for your neighbor; this is just for you. Everybody say, «Just for me.» Not the hair product, but this is a word from God, and I need you to really answer this internally. On the first Sunday of this year, have you lost your edge? I can’t answer that for you, but is there an area of your life where you’ve lost your edge? Have you lost your edge in your speech? So loose with words now; everything that comes out is negative. No faith anymore, no expectation! Have you lost your edge in your thinking? Every morning you wake up thinking about what could go wrong and why you should even try?
I believe that God is coming to ask His people, «Do you want your edge back? Do you want to walk into situations and barely have to use any of your effort and energy? But because you walked into that thing sharp, do you want to be the solution to the problem, or do you want to just keep complaining about the problem and hope somebody else becomes the solution?» God is saying to every person in this room, when I thought about that analogy, I wrote this down: The trees of trouble in your life fall faster when you’re spiritually sharp. Most of our life looks like this. Let’s be honest: there’s stuff— this could be a house, this could be a boat—but it’s all in a form that has to be removed to find out its potential. God doesn’t give us houses; He gives us trees. God doesn’t give us boats; He gives us trees. And God is saying, «There are some things in your life I need you to chop down, but you are going to be too tired to even do the work after you’ve chopped the tree down because you did not sharpen your edge.»
Now, the only thing that I want to say about sharpening an axe, because most of us don’t mess with axes unless you’re a fire person in this place, is that the only way you sharpen an axe is through friction. So, this year, I just want to let you know that the friction is not always bad. Okay? I know you want to be comfortable, but before you get sharp, something has to rub off the parts of you that can no longer go into this next season. So, hello everybody, I’m your pastor, and I’m about to be friction to your faith this year. Oh, no, no, no! We are going to laugh, we are going to cry, we are going to shout, and I’m going to challenge you. Because some of us have not taken a step forward in our faith in a decade, and you think God is proud because you’re here. You think that He’s jumping up and down. He said, «I would rather them actually obey what I say to do than get brownie points for sitting in a chair and not participating.»
Okay, hello! I’m friction, and the reason I have to be this way is that I spiritually did not develop until somebody challenged me. If you want a church where you can get three points in a poem and nobody’s ever going to challenge you or ask you to do anything, go up the street. But the sign of spiritual growth is spiritual maturity, and what we have to do is grow up. I have a prophetic word for you. It’s not the word of the year, but it’s the word for every year of your life: grow up. Some of y’all are complaining about things God asked you to do every single day, and it’s been 13 years. You’re mad at the outcome, but you are not mad when He asks you to do the step. It’s time to be obedient.
I’m on another level today, church, because I don’t want you to be at this altar at the end of the year praying for things you can make a decision to change today. Oh, God! Y’all see them clap? I’m going to need help from the sanctuary because the Western church has gotten so comfortable with frictionless faith. «Sir, I want it to change, but please don’t touch me! I want it to grow, but I’m not really good with my hands in the dirt! Is there a way we can artificially inseminate this growth? Can we get a hydroponic growth chamber where everything is bacteria-free? How are we going to get fruit if we do not have any dirt on our hands?»
How are you okay? Ah! I think the church today is playing themselves because we want to be effective, and we have no proof of wanting to rub up against anybody. Some of us haven’t come— we come late on purpose so we don’t have to talk to anybody. Okay? The reason you’ve got to talk to somebody is that you’ve been hiding all those things that God wants to expose. But you cannot get exposed by yourself, and God is bringing people into your life to be what? Frictional!
The reason we read the Word of God every day is because it rubs up against my flesh every day. «Forgive them; I want to slap them!» But when I read that scripture, it’s friction to my faith. «Pray for my enemies; I want them to die!» Come on, y’all, come on! But if you are not having your flesh against some friction, you will never become sharp.
Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, «Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen your blade.» The Bible is telling you at the beginning of this year that what I have for you to do, you’re too dull, you’re too apathetic. You want the purpose of God in your life. You want to be in a healthy, thriving relationship. I mean, I guess you’re going to use your finances to further the kingdom of God if you have enough. Everything is—He says, «Sharpen your blade.» That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.
Have you lost your edge? The title of my sermon today is really to talk to every person that has become dull, and I want you to understand this: all of us, at some point in our lives, no matter how close we think we are with God, have become dull. Your pastor has areas in his life that he used to be very sharp in that the Holy Spirit said, «Ooh, that doesn’t even excite you, me, or anybody around. You’re so dull in that area that now I’m going to have to reframe, reshape, and remake you in that area.»
And I just want to encourage everybody because somebody, like 2024, is just telling me, «I’m dull.» No, no, no, no! Dullness comes from discouragement. Many people are dull because you’ve actually been fighting, and I’ve been chopping at something that I haven’t seen breakthrough in. I’ve really been trying to fight for my marriage. I’ve really been trying to fight for my children. I’ve really been trying to fight for my mind. I’ve really been trying to fight for my purity, but nothing has changed. And so something that once was sharp—if this was really sharp, there’s no way I should be able to put this axe up to my neck. There’s no way I should be able to…
Yeah, if it was actually sharp, could this be what happens when your coworkers run into you? Could this be why the church is ineffective in culture? Because at the moment we rub up against somebody, they say, «I thought you were a Christian. I thought you had the word of God on the inside of you. I thought the word was sharper than any two-edged sword,» but the word of God in your mouth is dull. When stuff comes up in your life, you reach for the meds before you pray. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the medicine or the aspirin, but you didn’t go to the Father who created the body to say, «Father, in the name of Jesus, I’m experiencing a headache. Father, you know this body, and I thank you that by your stripes I am healed.»
You used to say it, but you don’t say it anymore because that scripture in your heart got dull. But I believe by the presence of God at the end of this series, somebody say, «I’m getting my edge back! I’m getting my edge back!» Somebody say it by faith, «I’m getting my edge back in my finances! I’m getting my edge back in my mind! I’m getting—somebody say—I’m getting my edge back!» There’s nothing worse than being dull. Has anybody opened up a fresh bag of chips only to find they were all stale? I mean, that is one of the things that takes me out; that’s one of the things that frustrates me. Who put this crusty bag of Doritos here? Then you bite into them—no crunch! Nobody wants to be dull, yet many of us live in that tension every day.
I’m going to tell you a secret that will help change you and get your edge back. What’s going to help everybody get their edge back? What has helped me every time I’ve gone through something to get my edge back is prayer and fasting. Now, I know because some of you, anytime prayer and fasting comes to mind, something in you shuts off because the one thing you love is food. You love your food; actually, it’s become a stronghold in your life. I’m not talking about weight class or being big-boned; I’m talking about self-control. Some of you, God can say it, but if Wendy says it—come on!
Now they have GrubHub and what’s the other one—Uber Eats. Look at y’all! DoorDash! You have more faith in DoorDash than you do in the God of the universe. You don’t even care if these people put their hands on your food, dirty cars, all kinds of stuff, as long as your McDouble gets there! She said McDouble! All I’m saying is this is an ancient spiritual principle that has gotten people back on the right spiritual path for years. Before any of us were here—even our Savior, Jesus—if anybody could have chosen not to fast, it could have been Jesus. Yet several times, right after he got baptized, the Bible says the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness for a 40-day—everybody shout at me this four-letter word—F-A-S-T! As a church, we’re going into 21 days of prayer and fasting tomorrow.
The reason why some people are getting excited about it is that these are the moments that have changed our lives. These are the moments where we were going one direction, and God said, «U-turn!» These are the moments where God gave answers and there was a—somebody shout at me—breakthrough! Some of you need a breakthrough. You don’t just need a couple of things to happen; you don’t just need a little bit more money; you need a breakthrough. And I’m telling you, there is nothing that starts to move things like when you deny your flesh and get hungry after the things of God.
Okay, what is fasting, Pastor Mike? Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. And I’m going to keep saying this because I see the eyebrows going up; people right now are getting uncomfortable in their seats, like, «Not me!» Maybe not, but maybe it’s the very thing that would change the rest of 2024 for you. The fasting edge comes back. I’m going to give you points right now; get ready to write them down. The fasting edge: this is how we get it back. It comes when food exits, and God deals with your desire. You want your fasting edge back? Let food exit for 21 days! Some of you are going to do a Daniel fast—no meats, no sweets. Some of you are going to do nothing; some of you are going to fast until a certain time; some of you are going to fast the thing that you love the most.
For some of you, the greatest fast you can do is no ice cream. That was convicting to somebody; see, it took her out! No, no, no! I’m just saying there’s something that needs to be denied. Watch this: you won’t—fasting celery is not an issue for me, never will be—but some of us need to fast social media because the thing that you are—well, I’ll talk about it in a second, okay? Food exits so God can deal with your desires. You want your fasting edge back? Watch this: you have to have Father engagement so He can deal with your discernment. We’re not just not eating; yeah, that’s a diet, and those haven’t worked for you either, so let’s be honest; they got your money.
Okay, let’s be honest: we’re not giving up food just so we can lose 10 pounds; we can do that a different way. You just start walking and drinking water; you’re going to be fine. What I’m saying is I need to be connected to the Father so that every time I would sit down with a big spread, I’m going to sit down with the Bread of Life. I’m going to sit down with the word of God; I’m going to devour that; I’m going to pray. I’m going to have Father engagement so that He can deal with my discernment. The truth of the matter is some of your pickers are off. You get options, and you just pick wrong because you’re picking from your trauma. You’re picking from somebody else’s comparison measure in your mind. You’re picking not even for what you want; you’re picking based on what the people around you will think is good. And God says, «Can I fine-tune your discernment this year? Can you just not make plans?»
Proverbs says to acknowledge God in all your ways, and He will direct you, and He’ll give you discernment on which path to take. You want to get the fasting edge back? The third thing you need to do is forfeit entertainment. We are so entertained that we don’t think about things that are eternal. Y’all see how quiet it is in here? This is a sign that maybe some of the things you’ve been focusing on are causing you to lose your edge. Every TikTok is not going to teach you where your purpose lies. You are over here about to start a business that doesn’t even make sense because of a TikTok you saw of a woman doing something with cookies, and now you want to open a bakery!
God’s like, «Oh my goodness, no!» I’m telling you what’s happening because everybody wants something to work so bad that they’ll be willing to go to sources that have nothing to do with their purpose, and God’s saying, «I need you to start forfeiting some entertainment.» Why? Because I need to deal with your distractions. If you don’t allow God to sit with you and for you to sit with Him long enough to sharpen you, you’ll never be able to see what God can do—not because He didn’t plan it, but because you were distracted. The fourth thing, if you want to get your fasting edge back, you have to focus eternally because God wants to deal with your direction. If you do not think fasting or eating is a big deal, I just want to say it to you like this: the original sin of man had something to do with what people put in their mouths.
Adam and Eve—the reason why we are here today and not in hell—is because they could not deny what was presented to them, and their flesh wanted it. When’s the last time you told your flesh no? If, as a believer, you’re not telling your flesh no, it is controlling you. Okay, that’s just me, Pastor Mike? We know you’re the devil! Because the truth of the matter is many of the things that we’re doing are leading us away from God and leading us to death. God wanted me to come tell you there’s a way to get your edge back; there’s a way for you to actually be so sharp this year that when stuff comes your way, when people start hating, you’ll be able to see, «Oh, that’s just a distraction. There’s no way that I’m going to get off course for that!»
You’re going to be like Nehemiah; he said, «The work I’m doing is too great; I cannot come off of building this wall to go meet with somebody else that will bring me down.» This is the year you get your edge back! And I want to be a pastor that keeps it 100 with you—not 99 and a half, but 100! Someone’s like, «Say 100! 100!» Okay, fasting is not a requirement. See, I like to do real church. You can be saved and never fast. You can go to heaven and never fast. My question is, but why wouldn’t you? If you go to the hotel and they say, «We got the penthouse suite for you for no extra charge,» why wouldn’t you take the upgrade? Fasting is not a requirement; it’s a choice. But it’s a choice that breaks the routine in your life and draws you closer to God. So I’m trying to tell everybody, some people are making a decision right now; they’re hearing me right now, and it’s like, «Fasting, I’m done with you! I’m done with church! I’ll see y’all when you do something on relationships—cool!»
But so you don’t get brokenhearted again? So you don’t start another thing that God has to allow to fall? Why don’t you get closer to Him by doing this spiritual practice that is a gateway through which God releases His supernatural power into your life? But it’s still a choice. You can hear it and go with it, or you can ignore it. So watch this: fasting is a short season of sacrifice that produces long-term success. Pastor Mike, how are you telling me that? Because all my life I have not known what to do; everything that God has called me to, I was not prepared for, did not have a degree for it, did not have a certificate for it, had nothing. God was like, «I want you to lead this; here, come here, sharpen yourself. I’ll tell you what to do.»
What does that mean? When you’re on vacation this year—fast! But Lord, we’re going to Disney World, and the only thing that helps me make it through this horrible family drudgery of walking all day is those s’mores slushies. And God said, «But I’m calling you somewhere higher. I’ll give you instructions if you come close.» I’m not going to yell those instructions; I’m going to whisper them. This really is not about a corporate fast; we’re doing this together so that everybody can get in the rhythm, but I really believe we’re not supposed to fast one time a year. I think we’re supposed to live a fasted life. Some of us have so much that God’s doing that I can’t walk into this without clarity. Put the year on the screen for me; show me what it looks like to have a whole year. You got it? Yay or nay? Okay, 21 days of prayer and fasting—there it is!
This is the whole year. Show me what 21 days looks like in this whole 365-day continuum. I have—would you give up sacrificially that much to have the rest of this blessed? Some of y’all can’t even see it on the screen right now; they’re like, «Come a little closer!» All right, come on, put the shot up, get the shot bigger. This little bit right here, this is what God’s requiring for all of that—to have His mind, wisdom, and blessing on it. Now, I need everybody to see this because you think someone’s trying to take something from you, and what God is trying to do is get something to you. But if you do not see what God is doing, you will take the first and not allow God to bless the rest. Okay, so this is how we go. Second Kings, chapter 6, and then we’re going to go—she’s like, «I need some more Bible for this!»
Okay, Second Kings, chapter 6. One day there was a group of prophets who were like a gang; they all wore red, and they were like, «We’ll prophesy to you!» But this is in my mind. They came to Elijah and told him, «As you can see the place where we meet is small. Let’s go down to the Jordan River where there are plenty of logs, and there we can build a new place for us to meet.» They wanted to build something new; they wanted to come into a new place; they wanted to come into a new territory—just like we’re coming into a new year. All right, he told them, «Go ahead.» «Please come with us,» someone suggested. He said, «I’ll come!» So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees, but as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. «Oh, sir!» he cried, «It was a borrowed ax! I didn’t even pay for this; I borrowed this! Where did it fall?» the prophet said when he showed the place where Elijah cut a stick and threw it into the water, and at that spot, the axe head floated to the surface.
«Grab it!» Elijah said, and the man reached out and seized it. I’ve been discussing sharpening your edge, but the truth is some of you have lost your axe head. The reason why none of the messages up until this point have resonated with you is that you don’t even feel it at all. You talk about sharpening something, but there’s nothing there. You talk about getting stronger, yet it’s fallen off. I’m here not out of ritual but because I want something different. But I don’t even have it anymore. I started well, but somewhere along the way, I dropped that thing. So, how do you get your edge back? Oh, I love this story because it’s so simple, and here’s how you’re going to get your edge back.
The first thing you have to do is admit you lost your axe, and some of you are so prideful in this place that you won’t even do what this man did. He chops and literally looks up, and all he has is this. This is what some of your years have looked like: effort and energy, but you don’t even have what you need to get anything done. And God said, «Would you let me do a miracle?» Pastor Mike, why would this be a miracle? Because iron does not float. This is an axe head; it’s heavier than water, so when it falls into the Jordan, it’s lost. Some of the things we lose our spiritual edge in are things that are dark; we lost it when we lost that loved one. We don’t even know— we’re so deep in grief right now that we can’t see. Some people might say, «Just pick it up!» The religious people act like everything’s so simple. «Yeah, yeah, just worship.»
You don’t think I’ve tried that? «Just get it together.» You don’t think I’ve tried that? See, the thing about the Jordan River is, if you’ve ever seen it, it’s muddy. It’s murky. You can’t see to the bottom, and so this would be a miracle. But the young man does this: he cries out. As soon as it happens, «Boom! Oh shoot, I lost it! I lost my mind this past year! I lost my purity! I don’t even care anymore! I’ve lost discipline! I don’t stick to a budget!» I’m talking about real things. I’m not talking about spiritual. God’s saying that if you want it to be sharp again, you’ve got to cry out and tell me where it’s at. «I lost my ability to even want to mend the relationship with my family! I don’t want to forgive anymore! I want to be bitter! I lost it! I was hurt in the last church, so I don’t want to do church anymore!» Cry out.
This is the way that the miracle worker knows where to do the miracle. He needs his children to identify. Be specific. During these 21 days of prayer and fasting, be specific about what you are believing God for. Somebody shout at me, «Cry out! Cry out!» If this young man had lost his axe head and thought, «Oh shoot, well, maybe nobody will notice; I’mma just play in the water,» what do you all think he’d be doing? He’s entertaining people because he doesn’t want to admit he’s lost something. I think the most spiritual thing we can do this year is admit we’ve lost it. I wasn’t excited about this prayer and fasting because the last one I quit on day two. And now with prayer and fasting, it feels like another thing I’m going to fail at. I work in the food industry; I work at Chick-fil-A. Come on, these are real people’s issues! I’m a caterer for a living.
How am I going to… Come on, let’s be real. And God said, «Would you just do me a favor and admit you lost the axe?» And this is the other thing: because there are some religious people in here, I feel you right now. Stop denying it. Your prayer life hasn’t been on fire in 16 months. Today, God is asking us… y’all know there are two rivers in Egypt, right? It’s the Jordan and what? Denial. Some of you «dog Christians» have been in denial. All I’m asking you to do today is cry out. Third thing: do the natural so you can experience the miracle. Did y’all see what Elijah did? Elijah didn’t walk over to it and go deep-sea diving for the axe. He took a stick—something very practical—and everyone else would be like, «What is he doing?» He did something very natural, threw the stick into the water, and then something supernatural happened. This lets me know that the natural unlocks the supernatural.
Somebody might say, «How is this fast going to help anything?» It’s just a natural part of it. When we push away from that food, when we make that declaration, when we decide to do this, it’s just the natural part of it. What we believe is that God’s going to get somewhere in the mix of this, and He’s going to do something. Everybody say, «Supernatural!» Nobody was expecting metal to float after a stick was thrown in, and nobody will be expecting the miracles that will happen in your life as you engage in these 21 days of prayer and fasting. We’re going to meet here every night. Some of you can’t come every night; that’s okay. I want you to watch online, put it in the background while you’re meal prepping, do the different things.
As many of you who can get in here, I want you to bring your kids. This was the atmosphere the fire of God birthed me in. I wasn’t paying attention; I was just in the atmosphere. I was affected while I was coloring and playing on the seats, and my mom and dad were praying. This is the change for your whole family! Husbands and wives, if you can’t talk together right now, you can pray, and God will be speaking to you while you’re walking over there. God will be speaking to you while you’re crying over there, and God can make you meet in the middle. I’m talking about we’re going to do the natural, and God’s going to do the supernatural. But even right now, you’re looking for it to make sense, and God said, «I use the foolish things to make sure none of you can take credit for this. I use it to confound the wise.»
I’m telling you right now, if some of you take this challenge, this spiritual growth journey moment to go on a fast with us, it’s going to change everything. Last thing: how do you get your edge back? You have to take action and pick your edge back up. What do you mean, Pastor Mike? The man loses his axe head, he cries out, Elijah throws the stick in there, the miracle happens, but watch this: Elijah doesn’t pick it up and hand it to him. He tells him, «You go obey; pick it up.» What sense does it make for us to get instructions from God and then disobey them right after He gives them? The crazy thing about it is that people get to what I call the almost end of the fast. They cry out; they deny themselves food; they pray.
God gives an answer, and then they disobey. That’s fumbling the ball at the one-yard line! What you have to do at this point is actually… everybody say, «Take action!» During this fast, God’s going to tell some of you, «It’s time to let them go!» But God, you already know we’ve got best friend tattoos! You should have talked to me about that! But God, you’ve already made your announcement to where you’re moving. If y’all want to bless me as I’m moving to California, I’ve set up a GoFundMe. I’ve made it to L.A.; you’re going to have to send those people their money back! No, you’ve already accepted the job, and I’m not… this is why you need to pray and fast. Some people are trying to make decisions based on what I’m saying. It’s not what I’m saying. It’s what He said. He may be asking you to go to counseling twice a week and stop buying clothes.
Nothing is wrong with your screen; I’m just saying the trauma you need to unpack is going to be better for you than anything you could pack for a vacation. Why would you get an answer from God and then disobey? I believe today it’s time to get our edge back! Your family needs you to be sharper! You’ve invited snakes into your house, and you’re letting your kids befriend them because you became spiritually dull. You’re actually the answer to what the church needs. God’s been calling you to be a leader, but because of the things, the sins, the weights you’re mixed up in, the enemy has convinced you that you couldn’t let that thing go. So the church suffers as a whole because you’re spiritually dull. I said, «Mike, why are you bringing this message?»
God told me this year He was going to build this church in a way that only He could take credit for, and I’ve just been praying. I said, «God, where are the people? Where are the people you promised me?» I didn’t set out from North. We could have stayed in North Tulsa. I didn’t trust you and believe you in crazy faith—so we could come here and put on a performance every week? We have to reach the whole city! Yeah, God, you told us we had to take this thing to the nation. You said, «I didn’t ask for this,» but in a time of me stopping and sharpening, you told me to write things down and put them on paper, and the Spirit Bank Event Center would be Transformation Church. That was in a time when I was stopping, fasting, and praying and asking for what was next when I was walking around 7425 Garnett trying to figure out should I be a pastor? You told me, «Oh, where are all the people?» He said, «Michael, they’re here and they’re coming, but they’re discouraged and they’re dull. During this fast, I’m going to give people back their cutting edge.»
One of my friends told me, «In the church, if we’re not on the cutting edge, we’re on the judging edge.» And if you look at the landscape of the church right now, most people are on the judging edge, not the cutting edge. But I declare by the power of the Spirit of God that during these 21 days of prayer and fasting, Transformation Church, I don’t know about everybody else, but somebody’s about to receive this. We’re about to be on the cutting edge of business! We’re going to be on the cutting edge of raising families! We’re going to be on the cutting edge of spiritual discernment! I need somebody to agree with me—we’re going to be on the cutting edge of knowing what God is saying about our city, about our home, about the nation, about our world. We are going to be on the cutting edge because we are close to the Creator! You don’t have to yell it to me—I’m close enough to hear a whisper! I’m getting my edge back!
Would everybody just stand today? I want to pray for everyone deciding I’m not going to live dull. If that’s you, as we start these 21 days of prayer and fasting, and I know everybody’s going to try to rush out; just give me five minutes because I want to pray you into this next season and this year. In the Bible, they would call for the elders of the church to pray for people, and I just feel like I don’t want to go into this with a program; I want to pray over you. This won’t be another dull year for us. It won’t be another dull year for you. By faith, I’m declaring that this is going to be the sharpest year of your life. But now we’ve got to make a decision: how do we get our fasted edge back? How do we get our edge sharp? We’re going to fast.
My last example, which I didn’t know was an example, is sharper than I thought it was. When I did this, I cut myself at the beginning of the message. I’ve been wiping my hand so y’all wouldn’t notice. But what I found out is God told me, «Things that look dull still have the ability to be sharp!» Some of y’all have been judging how it looks, and God said, «You still got cut in you! Your greatest days were not back in the '90s and back in the 2000s. He said, 'Look at your neighbor and say, You still got some cut in you! '»
Come on! Hey, I feel that thing! You still got some cut in you! Your greatest message, your greatest idea, your greatest contribution may be hidden, because the thing I didn’t recognize is that while I was doing the example, what was dull and run-through became sharp enough to leave a mark! Y’all, this isn’t going to take long; it’s going to take 21 days of us being intentional. Oh, I feel this thing! It’s going to take 21 days of us saying, «God, more of you and less of me!» It’s going to take 21 days, and what looked the same is going to be… so hands lifted! Every… Oh, I feel the presence of God right here! Y’all, lift your hands.
Father, I pray for every person under the sound of my voice, and I command the spiritual dullness that’s been on our life, that’s been over our eyes, that’s been on our minds. I pray right now in the name of Jesus that you are bringing us into another level of sharpness. Speak, Lord; Your children are listening. God, over these next 21 days, when doubt tries to creep in, I pray that the Spirit of the Living God will come in and give us hope, wisdom, joy, and faith to continue on. Father, build endurance in us. As we feast on Your Word, I thank You that You are changing situations we don’t even know about right now. God, I’m thanking You that by the beginning of February, there is a complete turnaround in everybody’s mind and a complete turnaround in our situation. Father, even in the things that will not be finished, we will see Your hand. God, I thank You for every person making the decision to fast for the first time, who are in the building or watching online. Father, I thank You that this will become a spiritual discipline, a cheat code for any moment they feel dull; that Father, You’re about to do something on the inside of them that’s going to keep them sharp. We won’t just start sharp; we will stay sharp. I pray that what we do in these next 21 days as a church will bleed over into every area of our lives. I pray for the best year for Transformation Church. I pray for a year, Father, of God’s blessings, understanding, wisdom, and success. I pray over their businesses and their families. Father God, I thank You for unity, and I pray that this church will reach more people for Your glory than ever before. Today, we’re making a decision: we will no longer be dull or discouraged. We’re starting 2024 sharp. Have Your way in us and through us. In Jesus' name, everybody says we agree, and we expect. We expect, amen.
Will somebody give God a huge shout of praise in this place? Oh, come on, hallelujah! Listen, there are people that need further prayer, and there are people that need the opportunity to accept Jesus. Tomorrow, we will be right here at 6:00 for an hour of power. Come in your work clothes, come with your wig on or off; this is not to impress anybody; this is to get with God, and we’re going to pray this thing through, amen. If you’re in this room, listen to me; I know there are so many people saying, «God, I need more of You,» but some of you need to just get Him in your life for the first time.
If you’re in this room and you want to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior in an atmosphere built for this, because it’s our church vision, and this is who we pray for every day—people to come to Christ—if that’s you, on the count of three, I just want you to shoot your hand up. Easy, and all we’re going to do is say, «I’m here right now.» Come on, one, two, three! I’m so proud of you! What a way to start this year. I see you; what a way, what a way! Come on; I see you, I see you! Glory to God! This is the way to start sharp. Transformation Church, we’re a family; nobody prays alone. Let’s pray this prayer together. Everybody say:
Father, I thank You for sending Jesus just for me. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Savior. Change me, renew me, transform me, sharpen me. I’m Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.