Michael Todd - Overflow: The Power of Staying in Position
Is anybody ready for the word this morning? All right, some of y’all might be thinking this church service has already been enough. I’m okay; I’m overstimulated and ready to go home. Give me 45 minutes because I believe that one thing we have to do is always worship through the word, right? I never want to sing songs that don’t make sense. When I was young, I used to sing a bunch of songs that I had no idea what they meant. I loved the melody, I loved the music; everybody got up. But there were songs I would sing that had no actual bearing on my soul. It wasn’t until I got older that sometimes I’d hear those songs again and think, «Oh, shoot, I don’t feel no ways tired.»
I wasn’t tired as a kid; I was energetic and a little bad. But now, with four kids, I am tired! There are things that I understand. So as we release songs and God gives us the grace to do it, I’m supposed to encourage your faith around a message that stems from the music God gave us. And let me be very clear: God gave us these songs. He let us borrow them. These weren’t ideas we were coming up with like, «What rhymes with overflow?» No, these were things that God said, «This is what I want for my people to declare when they feel depressed: overflow.»
This is what I want them to declare when the bank account is negative: overflow. This is what I want them to declare when their relationships feel empty: overflow. Y’all still don’t get it. This is what I want them to declare when all their friends have left them because they began to follow God. God is saying to His people that this is a season of overflow. So today, for everybody that has an ear to hear, let them hear because today I’m going to teach you how to live in the overflow. Watch this: Romans 15:13. This is some powerful Bible right here. It says: «I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you.» Everybody say this next word: «completely!» Completely! Say it like you mean it: «completely!»
I hope that He will fill you completely with joy and peace. How many people want God to fill you completely with joy and peace? I mean, something goes bad, joyful; everybody leaves peaceful. I got a lot of joy; I ain’t got nothing peaceful. I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace. Uh-oh, there’s a «because!» Anytime you see a «because,» that means you gotta do something. Look at the «because» right here: I want Him to fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Point number one: trust is the prerequisite to overflow. Sir, most of us really don’t trust God, so we live at a place that doesn’t even feel halfway filled up. There’s no way we can live in the overflow if we’re not at least full. Yes, sir, hear what I just said: full comes before overflow, and most of us live at empty. Did you hear what I just said?
Some of us need to be saying, «I want to live in the full, not in the overflow yet!» Yeah, because if you could just get full, it would be a place you’ve never felt. But God’s saying through this scripture that He doesn’t just want us to be full; He wants us to live in the overflow. So trusting God is the prerequisite to the overflow. My question to you today is, did you trust God when the flow is slow? Come on, let’s be honest: you get a raise, you get a new car, faith’s clicking on all cylinders. «Oh man, I just trust God! Wow, oh my God, He’s been so good, so faithful! Nothing can bring me down 'cause God, you are my rock, my foundation!»
And then you lose the job and the baby mama starts tripping on you sideways, and this is your kid, and I promise I will—like—and they start— I don’t know what this is—and your friends are no longer there to check on you. God has you in a season of stepping out on something you’re good at, while other things you aren’t even good at. The flow becomes slow. What ends up happening is we start making stuff up. I’m convinced that most of our problems come from not staying still when God is still. When He gets still, we get busy, and we end up dealing with things we were never meant to encounter.
We say, «God, I thought I was going to be married by now.» Hold on, these things are getting fewer and fewer, and I’m supposed to have four kids! Y’all know what I’m talking about. I need, «Lord, what are you doing?» Okay, well, there’s a man. Hello, Amazon man! Would you like a drink of water? You look so famished out there. Okay, no! God, I’m going to just stop right there. What I’m saying is God is telling you to be still, 'cause He is still. Point: when God is still, be still. And that takes—everybody say «trust.» If you want to live in the overflow, the prerequisite is trusting. Look at this: Romans 15:13 goes on to say: «Because you trust Him, then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.»
Point number two: the Holy Spirit is the facilitator of the Overflow. If you do not take your Christian walk beyond God and Jesus, you miss the power of the Holy Spirit. I can feel the tension right now. Jesus is all I need. Jesus said it’s better that I go because when I leave here and sit at the right hand of the Father and make intercession for you every day, I will send another; His name is the Holy Spirit, and He will be the Comforter. He will be the one to lead and guide you into all truth. He’s your Advocate when you get in trouble.
The Holy Spirit says, «Uh-uh, shut your mouth, I’m defending him.» If you want to live in the Overflow, you have to embrace the person of the Holy Spirit because it is said that the power is going to come from the Holy Spirit for you to live in the Overflow. So, if you want to have an overflow of love, the Holy Spirit is going to have to help you with that because your natural desire is going to be an overflow of slaps or an overflow of curses. I don’t even know if that’s right—curses or an overflow of gossip—or, oh come on, let’s be honest, we’re still in this flesh.
The Overflow I want to give you is going to make you want to cry to your mother, but when the Holy Spirit takes over and He’s like, «Shh.» But God, I can, as a matter of fact, go pray for him. Oh no, you didn’t. No, you didn’t ask me to pray for that coochie! Come on, let’s be honest, that’s real. And then watch this: I’m going to obey you, God, because I said yes, Lord. Lord, I hope that hoochie doesn’t die. Like, what? That is not a good prayer, but it’s a start. Okay, progression over perfection. I’m just saying: the only thing that can make you do what the Bible says—love your enemy, turn the other cheek—there’s only one name: the Holy Spirit. So, what I want you to know is the Overflow is possible. The Overflow is preceded by trust, and the Overflow is facilitated by the Holy Spirit.
So today, I want to let you know that when I talk about the Overflow, it really is just being in God’s presence. When we said the line, «All that I need is in the Overflow,» it’s like when I’m close to God I get everything that comes with God. God’s number one characteristic is love. So when I’m around God, when I’m in His Word (because that’s God speaking), when I’m in His presence—when I’m worshiping, when I’m praying, when I’m communicating—in that place there is an overflow of what He is. Great! You ever been around somebody who stinks? They have an overflow of odor. Wow! Or have you ever worked in a fast-food restaurant that had a particular grease or smell? You may not have touched it, but just being in the atmosphere and going into a new atmosphere, someone might say, «Who’s been around stinking?» Or you might be like, «My mom used to raise five boys, and she’d be like, 'What of y’all smell like outside? '»
What does that mean? I was outside! Anyone else’s parents tell them they smell like outside? I mean, it wasn’t that whatever we were doing necessarily made us come in contact with that thing; it was just the overflow of the environment. When you get in the presence of God, there is an overflow of the environment—the things that He comes with. And what I’m telling you is, write this point down: Overflow is a principle of God’s presence. If God is there, overflow is there. He can’t help it; it’s who He is. When He was literally in the beginning looking at nothing, it could have just been nothing because He was still God. He said, «You know what? I need to do something more than this.»
And out of His love, He began to create. We still have fish in the ocean right now that no man has ever seen based on one word of creation by our God, and we still can’t find every— not just the overflow for us to eat fish that would have been food, but He said, «I’m gonna put colors and sizes and fin types and noses, and little things that twinkle at night.» Because they are so low, and I’ll put light in fish! Oh God, I’m trying to let you know that it is in our God’s nature not to just give us a horse but to give us a giraffe—no, to make His neck longer! Like, I mean what we need is never—do y’all hear what I’m saying? Why do we need certain things? He said they don’t need it. I need creation to speak for Me. When they think I can run out—"But Lord, I don’t know what I’m going to eat.» Look at the birds! Which species? Try to name all of them! You can’t because My nature is more than what you need.
I just need you to understand: Our God, if He shows up, more than enough shows up—not barely enough, not just enough, not just meeting the need! He says, «I will have all that you need plus some!» We serve a God of the Overflow. And the reason I have to say it like that is because you might believe it in a church context, but you don’t believe it in the way you live. You don’t believe it in the way you handle your money. You’re stingy, but you call Him Jireh, and you know it says He’ll give seed to the sower, but you don’t believe He lives in Overflow because you’re dependent on the job to give you money. But every job on this Earth is a resource; it is not the source. But you get to decide what your source is, and until you decide that He is your source, you’ll never understand it’s His nature to give you the Overflow.
Let me just give you a few examples in the Word that you can go and study. Do y’all remember the story I told y’all last week about Peter and them casting the nets on the other side of the boat after they fished all night? The thing we don’t think about is Peter—he was so overwhelmed that he just ran to see Jesus. Do you know what his partners were doing? Collecting fish! Because they fished all night and didn’t catch anything. If they had caught four fish, they would have been excited. The Bible said they caught 153 fish! Practically, that is so much work to get all those fish in this little boat and the nets didn’t break. God said, «I just need to prove to them my instruction will cause them to have work for years.»
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! You missed it! You completely missed it! If they obey Me, I’ll allow them to live in the—y’all remember when there were people there and there was a big revival happening on a side of a mountain and the disciples said, «You know what? The people are probably hungry,» and He looks at the disciples and says, «Y’all feed them.» And he said, «We don’t have anything to feed them.» And then one of the disciples said, «Well, one of the boys over there has a Long John Silver snack pack with a few hush puppies and some fish.» He said, «Sit the people down in groups,» and He multiplied! Yeah! I want, He multiplied a Long John Silver snack pack to feed over 20,000 people with women and children! Most theologians believe that would have been the most incredible miracle ever. But everybody misses the most important part—there were still 12 baskets! Yeah! Yeah! Yes sir! Yes sir!
The God I serve specializes in the Overflow. Why did He have them 12 baskets? Many theologians believed that one of them was for each of the disciples to let them know you’ll never serve and be left out! Oh God, okay, I gotta move because good, His first miracle was an overflow miracle. Y’all remember it? He was just at the party like trying not to dance, and Mary was like, «Jesus, no, I’m just—I’m Jesus. They done ran out of wine!» He was like, «Mom, what do I have to do with that? My time has not come, woman!»
That’s what it says! Who are you talking to, woman? She don’t even talk to Jesus no more! Look at the Bible. This is how I see it: «Hey y’all, do whatever He says, He’s about to do something! He’s about to do a miracle! He’s about to turn water into wine!» Jesus is like, «Golly!» He went to an empty place and He didn’t just give them water—it would have been a miracle to just fill it up with water again. But what He did was He turned it into the wine that was like, «Hold on, y’all kept the good stuff to the end!» That’s what Mary was saying because we serve a God of Overflow! I think you get the point. That’s why Ephesians 3:20 says, «Now unto Him who is able, by His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might watch this: ask or think.»
It’s the God of Overflow! Even in the Garden of Eden, I started thinking about this: why didn’t He just give them two trees—the one you can eat from and the one you can’t eat from? He makes a garden filled with so many trees and literally tells them you can only not eat from one of them! Which lets me know you can live in the Overflow and be focused on what you’re not supposed to do! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! How in the world do I have a whole forest of fruit and I get tricked into focusing on the one thing that God provided me with? Everything told me I can’t have? Wow! See, this is what I need everybody to know as I’m talking about the Overflow because I believe some of y’all are about to step into a place of faith where things are about to just start happening. I don’t know where this group of people is, but if you believe by faith, I need you to hear me.
Listen, I need to give you instructions because the Overflow does not come without opposition. Let me tell you the opposition of Overflow. Watch this: Overflow comes with options, and some of y’all only obey God because you don’t have any options! Ooh, we! I’m in your business. You’re faithful because nobody’s been looking at you. I’m about to call somebody ugly. The only reason you’re faithful is because nobody’s been checking for you! But get your little body in, get a little money, get your little something, and oh, look at you! «What’s up?» «Oh girl, up your name is DeWayne.» You crossed off my bad! What I’m saying to you is sometimes the only reason you’re faithful is because the lack of options. The only reason you committed to the church is because nobody else will let you do anything! God, okay! The only reason you pray is because if you don’t get an answer from God, then you have no other option. But can you stay in the lane or in the flow of God when you have options? Will you stay at the job when there’s a higher-paying one available?
Oh, I’m talking because you think every upgrade is a blessing, and some of them are a test. «Now we’ll pay you benefits and move you here and do all that other stuff,» and God told your butt to stay right where you are! But if it wasn’t God, why would He allow it to happen? Because many times, God is trying to see where your heart is, because many times our lips are far from Him. Our lips and our hearts say two different things. And what I’m saying to you is when you live in the Overflow, get ready for options! But when you have options, you have to be watchful. This is where I could spend a whole sermon! Right? I really should! Shouldn’t I? I should stay right there!
People don’t understand how my life changed over the past 10 years. If somebody were to say, «What is the greatest thing that changed in your life?» Options! That’s all that’s changed in my life. I now have options! And God does not remove the options; He increases your ability to be obedient! So when God told me in 2018 that I could only do two speaking engagements a year and 1,800 speaking engagement requests came in in three months—1,800 in three months—every conference I ever wanted to go to, they were going to pay me to come and say whatever they didn’t know what I was going to say before I got up there. They were going to pay me to say God loves you, and I’m like, «Boop!» And it would have changed my financial situation, but God gave me an instruction: two a month. And since that year, that was—I was like, «Then maybe God will bump it up.»
That is the most speaking engagements I’ve ever done, ever! Because every year after that, He decreased them: more opportunity, more options, more obedience. He said, «I gave you a church to build.» He said, «I need you to be on this platform.» He said, «Whatever conference you go to will be little in impact compared to what if you just dig a deep well right here and be there and stay in this place.» And literally, y’all, God has done more than we could ever imagine, but more options—that means, do you know what comes with the Overflow? A strong «no!» Some of y’all have not been able to experience Overflow because your «no» is weak. You just told, «No, I’ll definitely be there! I’ll be there at 6:00,» and then somebody’s like, «Hey, we’re going to dinner, and it’ll be a great business opportunity! Will you be there?» What time? Is it at 6:00? Are you coming?
Oh, well, uh, give me one second. Let me see if anything can. And you’re negotiating! You’re negotiating when it should have been a «no.» Stop finishing the words; it’s «no,» not «negotiate.» I’m going to help you remember it: like, «no, no, no, no, no, not negotiate!» And you can be kind and say «no, I can’t do this in this season.» You can be loving and say «no,» because I’m telling you the overflow is coming. And for many of us, the overflow is here. But to stay in the flow, you have to learn «no,» because options will take you off course if you don’t obey God. This isn’t even my message, but I keep hearing God say some of you have to say «no,» because the power of the overflow—write this down—the power of overflow is in staying in position. Stay in position. If I begin to allow God to overflow in my life, God does not change His position; we have to change ours.
Okay, how can I demonstrate this? Let me just—yeah, you fell off. Here we go. If water starts flowing from the source, the only way this water gets caught is by this cup being in place. The cup can be close, but if it’s not in, y’all help me preach—if the cup is not in, the water is wasted, and the cup is dry. Too many believers think that me and God are buddies, walking with God for years. Catch a picture of this: close to God, close to God, but not submitted to Him. Close to Him but not under Him. So when He begins to pour, it’s wasted because you will not get under. Well, I just feel like God should be able to use me from here. I feel like God should be able to use me from here. I feel like God—I mean, if He really wants, He’s close enough; He can turn towards me. He said it is up to Him. There are so many scriptures: «I am everlasting; I do not change.»
What we need to do instead of asking God to locate us—God, will you just find me where I am? He said, «I did at salvation; when you got introduced to Jesus, that was Me coming after you.» Now, this process of being sanctified, renewed, transformed—you’re going to have to position yourself because you have options. You don’t have to pray; you can play. You don’t have to actually spend time with God; you can be on Twitter. So, positioning yourself is an act of humility. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most people do not know how to stay under God in position. So this is what I’m going to teach you today: how to stay in position. Because there’s a flow that I believe God wants you to get in that’s going to allow you to do more than you could ever imagine doing by yourself because God’s going to be supernaturally excelling you and giving you grace.
People are going to look at you and be like, «How in the world is she running that business and actually still being there for her kids and actually rested? She doesn’t even have the big puffies under her eyes like I do! I’ve been wearing the little mask all the time. Why does it look like she’s actually happy or peaceful or actually walking in joy?» They have a special needs child. «Why does it look like…» Because you’re going to find the flow! Somebody shout at me, «Flow!» I was talking to Pastor Charles as he’s been on this new adventure of riding bikes, and I’ve been just trying to see myself in those tights, and I just cannot fully picture all of these thighs in those tights yet.
So I ask a lot of questions about, you know, the bike riding and all that other stuff. One day we were talking, and he told me, «When they’re doing those big races, like the Tour de France and all those different things, they planned who’s going to win.» I was like, «What do you mean?» He said, «Well, they’re riding in a team of four to five people, and they literally get in a line so that when they start to cut the wind, the person that’s third or fourth back is going to be using 70% less energy because they don’t have to break through the wind that’s coming. They’re in the flow of people who are going the same direction.» This is prophetic for some of you; it’s called drafting. You get behind somebody.
This is why it’s important—you need to get in a tribe because some of you have been working too hard to go after stuff, and God’s saying you need to get aligned with some people so that when you’re third or fourth back, you’re able to go just as fast. They’re going 40 to 50 miles an hour on a bicycle; that seems dumb, but what I’m telling you is the level of speed is produced by where they’re positioned in the flow. I just got to thinking about it. This reminds me of the scripture or the idea of the Kingdom that everything is upside down, because to win the race in the end, you have to start in third or fourth position. Come on! It reminds me of the scripture that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Some of you are too prideful to take the back seat for a season because God said you don’t need to be in the front right now. That person in the front is purposed to cut the wind; they’re going to have to work harder than you. You aren’t built for that. But in the end, if you would stay in position, if you would get in the humble place, you don’t need to be the leader or the pastor or the person in charge. And you better stop listening to culture! No, everybody needs to be an entrepreneur. No, no, everybody doesn’t. Not everybody needs to have their own business. There are ministries in the Bible of support. Oh God! It literally says the ministry of helps. Yeah, yeah. There are people who have gifts of administration. You can’t be the boss and administrate everything.
Come on! I know they don’t say that in church because everybody wants to be the top dog, but nobody wants to play on the team, and what you end up doing is quitting the race because you’re not in a flow. So somebody say, «Get in position! Get in position!» How to stay in position for overflow: number one, pick your source. Pick your source. Who is going to be your source? If this spout right here represents God and it has a steady flow—y’all are trying to figure out, is this thing actually working? It worked! I know somebody’s like, «Is he going to…?» There you go! This thing has an endless supply of water. It will fill up anything I put in front of it. It will not change if the lights go out. If the lights go out, this thing will still do what it’s created to do. This represents God. If society, government, your baby mama, or your baby daddy starts tripping, He’s still a source. He told the woman at the well, «Do you want to drink from a well that never runs dry?» That means if God is pouring out and you’re sitting next to Him still empty, if you could just get in— I said if you could just get in—you’ll be filled up!
Now, watch. The problem is many of us got a little bit of this at salvation, and then we started—oh, oh, I’m saved! Oh, glory to God, I’m saved! Thank you, Jesus, I’m saved! But now I want to go to this relationship to fill me up. «You like me, I like you. How many kids do you want? Let’s play house!» Besties' relationships go: we read the book together; let’s live our lives in purity. No anti-purity culture! Did you grow up in church? I did, but church people are fake. Let’s live our lives away from God! Come on! At some point, yeah, yeah, this is going to run out. And what we do is, like, «Oh, that last relationship was trash; I can’t stand them, but I found a new relationship.» «Do you really read your Bible every day? You got money, right? A little bit? And even though it looks bigger, uh-uh! I’m good by myself; I can do bad all by myself. You just come ready, don’t you?»
So now God, I’m waiting on you. «I’m not doing this business again; I’m not doing anything again until you speak it—until you do something.» «Hey, I have a job for you making six figures.» «Hold on, God! I’ll be right back.» «Wow! This is more than I’ve ever had! Man, they seem like they’ve got all the answers; they seem like they know more than God; they talk to me more than God.» At some point, even if they look like they won’t run out… yeah, at some point, this is going to stop filling you up. And you know what the crazy thing about it is? This looks like it’s almost full, but it’s still a small container.
You see, «full» depends on capacity. Some of you have been talking about living in the overflow with a little cup. This ain’t enough for my family to drink from; this ain’t enough for my block to get what they need; this ain’t enough for the church to actually live on! And this is why we’ve settled for just enough for me. I don’t know where that water’s from, but it is not living; that is decrepit, dead water. Okay, but listen! So we walk around selfish, «I’m only going to do enough.» «Oh, I’m not going to do that anymore. Just imagine me drinking it!» From now on, I’m only going to do enough to make sure I’m filled up. But what if the point of the overflow was not for you? Right? I know this is a wild concept in 2024—that this whole Christian experience is not for you!
What if every blessing of God was because He saw somebody on the other side? Oh my God! What if Him delivering you and your marriage, changing your idea, or you losing weight, or you walking as a testimony out of addiction or that alternative life—what if all of that was because He saw somebody else that knew they wouldn’t receive unless it came in your container? Oh my God! There are certain reasons that people will only drink drinks out of certain containers. My daughter, Gia, she gets sippy cups—non-spill! Just restocked her this week because she’s been spilling everywhere. Well, if I brought that same sippy cup that had the drink everybody wanted up to a 48-year-old man, most of them, if it wasn’t with their kids, wouldn’t pucker their lips up to it. They wouldn’t do it because it would feel beneath them. But my daughter, when she walks into an environment and she sees that cup, she knows it’s for her.
There are certain people that are drawn to your container because when you walk in with your stature, your sense of humor, your inkling, your beauty, they know that’s for me! I can relate to them. I’m not exclusive for these people, but I know that’s the type of person there’s Jesus that they can only receive from a certain container. So point number two, how to stay in position: pick your size! Pick your size! What do y’all think the next point is? Because the first one was pick your source. Our source is God. Pick—pick what? I’m going to say it to you like this: pick your size! Because the truth of the matter is, like the wavering between two opinions, «This is my source» or «This is my source.» «Six figures is my source» or «God is my source.»
And while I’m on that, I’ve got to talk to the people who are going after this money thing. I need to be very clear with you, because God only compares Himself to a few things in the Bible, and one of the things that He tells us directly, Matthew 6:24, is that no one can serve two masters. Another way it could be said is you can’t have two sources! Either He will hate the one and love the other or He will be devoted to one and despise the other. And then He said, «Y’all are not going to get this; that’s too many metaphors.» You cannot serve God and money; He says choose your source. «Well, my family can go on vacations whenever they want to, but they’re missing the value of God in the household.
So they know Disney, they don’t know devotion.» He says, «Serve me! Seek first the Kingdom and righteousness. All the other stuff gets added.» Stop wavering! It reminds me of Elijah when he’s standing with the prophets of Baal, and he says, «Choose you this day who you’re going to serve: if God be God, serve Him; but if Baal be God, serve him.» Today, I’m asking you to make a decision, because after you pick your source, somebody shout, «My source is God!» My source is God! Say it like you mean it: «My source is God!» I’m trying to teach you how to stay in the overflow and be in position. Then you’ve got to pick your size. Which container should I go for? Which one? I know which—somebody said the bucket!
Now, hold on! Now you’re telling me to go for the bucket, but you’re going for the Dixie cup? No, no, no, no! And you’re quoting scriptures like, «If I just have faith the size of a mustard seed.» God, today I just want you to fill me up. God, fill me up! Fill me up! Look, y’all! I’m overflowing! Overflow! Yeah, but it was according to your faith! The reason why God’s not been able to do more is because you didn’t pick a vessel big enough for Him to do it in! You’ve let your family dynamic make you settle for a small vessel? Well, God never took anybody from where we’re from and done nothing like He didn’t. He doesn’t need to because He specializes in taking people nobody’s ever heard of and doing the impossible with them. But if you believe the wrong report, you will settle for a vessel that is too small to do what God’s called you to do. How long?
See, this is why anybody goes to Sam’s or Costco. This is how they get you with these little raggedy, tiny cups. You want some fresh orange juice? Yeah, I want some fresh orange juice, and then they fill up a cup like this. I go back there making different faces because the freshly squeezed juice is on point until I realize this is not enough. Some of y’all are in a place in your life where you worship, come to church, pray, and you’re a good person; it’s just not enough. God’s not going to change your vessel for you. Yeah, He’s going to ask you to have the faith to change it for yourself. Ask the woman who was about to lose her son because of debt; y’all remember? The prophet came to stay at her house, and he said, «Make me a little meal.»
This is why I’m telling you, there’s a miracle about to happen. Go to your neighbors and borrow vessels. He literally says not to borrow just a few. This woman sends her sons out like, «Boys, get some vessels!» They start asking, «The name of my mama said you would let us borrow some vessels,» and they bring all these vessels to her. They put just a little bit of oil they had in the first vessel, and they started filling them up. She’s seeing all of these miracles: when one got filled up, the next one got filled up, and when that got filled up, the next one got filled up. You can imagine the room is full of overflow. Then the saddest part of that scripture says when there were no more vessels, the oil stopped flowing. Could the overflow in your life be based on your faith to believe that God can do it more than His ability to do it? Y’all don’t believe me, but some of y’all have picked a size that is too small. You’ve picked a size that limits what God can do.
The fact that we’re in this room right now is because I picked. I could either be okay with being where we started and just say, «Alright, Lord, I just want to be faithful,» but He said the Spirit Bank of V Center is going to be Transformation Church. I picked the size, and I thought that’s too much for me. I’ve never done anything like that. God, I thank you for my 6-month TCC degree, which they don’t give a degree for that. I’ve never done business; I don’t know. Pick your size. Are you going to believe that I can do this through you? I’ll send the right people, and I’ll bring the things that you need. Pick your size! Do you know what I did? I went to the secret place.
See, all y’all want to pick based on what is seen. God, if You can do exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or think… Okay, see, y’all are mad right now because you can’t see me, and everybody wants to be seen when God’s given them the vision for what He’s going to fill up. But sometimes you need to go dark; you need to get in a place where everybody cannot evaluate what God’s given you, and you need to bring out vessels that are fit for what God has called you to do. Now, all of these vessels can fit inside what God wants to do in my life. You can’t stand waiting a minute for an example. Some of you right now are saying, «What’s going to happen next?» and God’s asking you to hold a stance. You don’t just have to pick your source, God, or pick your size—it should be big faith. You have to pick your stance. I’m going to have to stay here like this.
If I would have picked a smaller cup, it would have already been filled. But the thing that God wants to do in my life, and I believe He wants to do in your life, is bigger than a quick fill. Can you wait? Well, dang, He has three more jars up there. What if this has nothing to do with you? This has to do with future generations. This has to do with Bella, MJ, AA, and Gia. This is a generational thing for me. Brent, come here. Nova, come here. I need you. I need you to see this. Most of you are glad I stopped. The source is still available. Somebody say, «The source is still available!» The source is still available, and this is what I believe I need everybody to see.
Somebody say, «Pick your stance!» Will you have a stance that will wait when it makes other people uncomfortable? Will you have a stance that you’ll pray without ceasing, even though others tell you to move on? «This doesn’t make any sense; you can’t do it!» But I got a word from God; I can’t back off this thing. «Well, at least show me how full it is.» Nope, because that’s going to discourage me to hear back what you say about where God’s got me in the process. No, no, no, stay over there because only people with faith can come and see what this is about to be. I said only people with faith. Some of y’all have been waiting ten years, and it’s just about to pop off. Do not give up at the point of saying, «Well, oh God, the Bible says they that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength.»
Switch hands, baby, if you have to! I said switch hands if you have to. I’ll do a little bit on this one; I’ll do a little bit on this one. Whatever you got, don’t get out of being believing in faith for so long. Waste it today. I believe by faith people are about to get in for the overflow. This is what happens: come here, Brent; come here, Nova. I told her I would pay her $100 today to help her uncle get in here. Yeah, take your shoes off. She said, «Can I please take my shoes off?» Okay, get in. What needs to happen is this is generational. If Brent just focuses on staying in position for himself, what ends up happening is one generation gets full and another generation stays dry.
The reason why you are mad at the kids and society today, and the dances and TikTok, is because you weren’t full enough to overflow into them. You’re disgusted with what you never watered. You’re mad at what you never had enough to pour into. I believe by the Spirit that there are going to be some parents, some pseudo-parents, and some people who say, «Hold on, all this isn’t for me; I’ve got to get you a little bit too.» Come on, look at her face. This is uncomfortable. I don’t know why they pray in the Spirit. I don’t know why I’m going to be walking around the house worshiping like this. I don’t know why they put their hands on me in the middle of the night, but all I can say is I’m not dry! Oh, I’m not dry!
When I hit adversity, I know a prayer comes up out of me. When I hit a struggle, I remember the scriptures they taught me in Sunday school. It may seem silly to you, but it’s power to me. How does it feel, Nova? Cold. It’s cold. It’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t even feel pleasant that everybody’s watching this happen, but it’s going to take a parent with a stance. «My kids don’t watch that. No, they can’t go to that movie with y’all. I don’t care who’s in it.» Oh my God! Oh, they’re taking that stance? «Take that app off my TV. I’m not paying them to infiltrate.» «Well, my kids have parental blocks.» You didn’t even do it! You’re lazy! And now your kids are getting destroyed at night while you’re sleeping with peace because you won’t take a stance. But if you want to live in the overflow, I feel this thing, y’all, you’ve got to pick your source!
Somebody say, «God!» You’ve got to pick your size! Somebody say, «Big!» And then you’ve got to pick your stance! Somebody say, «Steady!» That’s why no matter who comes to this church or who leaves, I will be standing on the faith that God has given me. Oh, y’all don’t hear me! I’m about to be steady! Make your decision. But as for me, and 18 years of doing this, you’ve got 18 years of that child legally in your house, and you’re worried about them seeing you as a friend? That’s not your primary job! I hope they are your friend. I hope so, but they’ve got to make sure that they’re not dry when you send them out into this world, because if you don’t fill them up, somebody will. You would have to be here the whole service plus to fill this whole thing up.
You okay, baby? You just cold, huh? It’s cold; it’s really uncomfortable. You’re getting $100 after this; I promise you! You’re going to be okay. And I’m going to give you some new clothes too, okay? I’m encouraging her to stay in it. Oh my God! You’re always beating your kids, telling them what they’re not doing right! And you remember my last name? Our last name? We don’t do that! «Baby, you can do this! I know it’s hard. I know there’s cyberbullying, but you are beautifully and wonderfully made! You are the head and not the tail! God’s hand is on your life! You’re going to do great things! Stay focused, baby! You have a gift to sing! You’re going to do everything that God told you to do! I will not let my kids be dry!»
You better not start that organ; I will flip this whole thing out! Somebody say, «I will! I will pick my stance!» If you agree with everything culture’s given us, you haven’t picked your stance. And some of y’all just let the baby out into life. She’s going to have the life that she’s going to live and understand when she walks onto the college campus, she’s going to be like, «Look at all these dropouts! Holy Spirit activate! Holy Spirit activate!» I’m talking about answers when people are wondering, «Favor on my…?» That’s living in the overflow! How do I stay in position for the overflow? I pick my source! Everybody say, «God!» I pick my size! Somebody say, «Big!» I pick my stance! Somebody say, «Steady!»
Last one, pick your story! Today I’m asking you, what kind of story will be told? It’s not on God to pick your story; you get to pick it! Are you going to live a life of faith, or are you going to live a life of fear? Pick your story! Are you going to live a life of purity, or are you going to live a life of promiscuity? Pick your story! So many things have happened to me! Yes, you cannot stop what has happened to you, but you are now responsible for what happens from here. You can move cities, you can move churches, you can move states, you can go into witness protection… I don’t know how deep your situation is, but I’m just saying a lot of times we’re stuck here, and God is saying today, «I want to give you the opportunity to live in the overflow! Accept Jesus, and then pick your story after that!»
See, when Jesus comes in, He changes people’s stories! Y’all remember Saul, right? The Christian-killing assassin? He got met on the Damascus Road and had a complete 360 turnaround. He literally formed the church with his words through the Holy Spirit! He was somebody who picked a different story. We reference his killings, but it’s only to put it against the backdrop of how God transformed his life. Your story—how disgusting, jacked up, and unfair it is—should only be the precursor to the turnaround and the overflow that God does in your life. But many people under the sound of my voice have not picked their story. You have not decided, «I will be an overcomer!» I was abused for ten years; my children grew up in abuse! I feel like a bad mother, but as of today—y’all don’t hear what I’m saying to you—somebody say, «As of today!»
As of today, I did it! I was addicted! I messed up! Oh, let me give you one that’s not so extreme: I’ve been mean, but I’ve been in church, and I don’t believe the scriptures, but I’ll judge other people. But today, I’m making a decision to walk in love! Pick your story! You know who picked their story? Elisha! Y’all remember Elijah, his predecessor? Uh oh, you’re doing so good! No, it looks a little… It feels like it’s coming to the top right now! It feels like if you would just wait on God just a little longer! It feels like if you would begin to praise God a little bit, jump up and down for me… Uh oh! It feels like… Oh! It feels like the… Pray! Oh, y’all better quit! Stop! You know your praise can accelerate the overflow! Oh, uh oh! The reason we wrote this music is so that when you get up in the morning and you’re almost at the top, and that song begins to start and you begin to say, «I’m living in the overflow!» You know what? If you ask me where I’m living, I’m living in the overflow.
Your praise can begin to move things; just praise them one more time. Nova, just—hey, hold on, hold on—they’re not ready for that. They’re not ready for that! Here, now Brent, go back to filling yours up, because at some point, she is responsible. Y’all missed that. Give me a couple of towels. At some point, Nova will not be able to actually depend on her father anymore. I’m going to stop this before it gets too far; my whole tech team is having a heart attack right now. It’s going to electrocute everything! At some point, it will no longer be on Brent to fill her up, and some of you have been out of the house spiritually for decades, still waiting on somebody to fill you up. That’s why when people say stuff like, «I got to leave that church; I’m not getting fed there,» you have not learned to go to the source for yourself. It doesn’t matter what I preach up here, as long as it isn’t heresy. You should be able to take something I said and say, «Holy Spirit, speak to me. Show me!»
Oh, but you don’t have actual Bible reading time for yourself. This is your Bible study for the week! There’s no way you can live in the overflow if this is your only meal. If this is okay after church today, eat, and then don’t eat until next Sunday—no, no, no! Let’s make it spiritual and practical. Come in here next week and see how you feel; you would be depleted. You wouldn’t have energy; you would come in dehydrated. But pick up Living Water—yeah, that’s who He is. They even use all these analogies: the Bread of Life. He’s trying to ignite your mind through your stomach. Y’all know you be killing those Texas rolls at Texas Roadhouse. Y’all have kept them in business for 42 years off the free rolls, and then that brown bread at Cheesecake Factory—boy! You ain’t finished your meal at Cheesecake Factory 42 times in a row, never finishing the meal but full off the bread.
That’s what happens. Enough to take home because you got filled up on the Bread of Life! Hear me! Thank y’all! Can y’all give it up? That was beautiful! Scott, Scotty, make sure she gets that $100, brother, 'cause yeah, she ain’t calling me a liar. Uncle, uh-uh, no she’s not! Pick your story! Pastor Mike, what do you mean Elisha picked his story? Remember Elijah was with—yeah, come on, Elijah was with Elijah, a powerful man of God. She’s cleaning up water! Look at me; hey everybody, you do this with your kids after they get out of the bathtub—look at me! The anointing is here! No, hear what I’m saying to you. He’s standing with this powerful man of God, and the powerful man of God is about to transition, and Elijah is about to literally be raptured up to heaven. And Elijah says, «I want the double portion! I want the overflow of what I saw you walk in. I want the overflow of all the miracles and all the breakthroughs. I want the overflow.»
And look, Elijah didn’t promise it to him; he said, «If you’re in position, if you’re with me when I get taken up.» I’m teaching you to stay in the position of the overflow. If you’re in position when the time comes, you’ll get it! A few scriptures later, it said they were just talking. I mean, this is traumatic for me. It’s like Elijah—you remember that? Poof! Gone! Straight off of Avengers! Y’all remember when everybody started dissipating in the blip? And it literally said because he was in position, the cloak fell, which was a symbol of the mantle that he carried, and he was able to put it on—not because he served him for years, not because he was a good guy. He got the open overflow for one reason: he was in position. Position today, church! I’m asking you, would you please get in position for the overflow? Would you please make time that you spend with God? Spend in prayer.
The reason we’re starting The Dig, which is an acronym for «Going Deeper in God,» for our Tulsa campus that will eventually expand to our full transformation nation—and shoot, if somebody is in marketing, web courses, or all the different things we need, where are you? Get here! Because she said right here, «Somebody find a—» after service. Listen, everything we need, everything we need to live in the overflow, I believe, is right here. But do you know how many times the church goes without because people are out of position? We need thousands of people to be able to take these Dig courses, but the reason we’re doing it is to help people get in position—in their relationship, get in position knowing how to study the Bible, get in position to actually handle finances or whatever.
That’s why I want you to come on Wednesday nights if you’re in this building. Why? I want you to study the scriptures that we say. These aren’t just scriptures so you can make an Instagram post—do that! But actually go back to the Bible because if you’re in position for the overflow, everything changes! I’m going to go back to our anchor scripture, Romans 15:13. Pray that God, the source of hope—start playing behind me, 'cause I’m about to turn up! And I want you to play meditational music right now. Give me an ending flow. Thank you! I love having fun up here! I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because somebody say, «I trust Him!» Say it one more time: «I trust Him! I trust You!»
Then you will shout out, «Overflow! Overflow!» Say it like you mean it; say it like you want it for your family! Say it like it’ll be generational! Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship team, come join me. Hallelujah! I pray for every person under the sound of my voice that from this day on, you will know it is God’s desire and design for you to live in the overflow! Somebody just say amen right there. Let me tell you this story, and then we’re outta here! No, we’re going to sing the song «One More Time» at the end because I believe this song, «One More Time,» at the end with Revelation is about to change everything.
Yesterday, my wife sent me on a journey to take my daughters unknowingly to both of their basketball games. You know how you ever woke up with a—maybe you don’t know if you ain’t got a spouse—but there are times you wake up and went to sleep thinking the plan was one thing, and within 30 minutes of waking up, you realize your day will not be how you planned it to be. I get awakened to the fact that I have to take one daughter to the other side of town with a 15-minute window to then get my other daughter to Bigby! I went north for one game, Bigby for the other game. And what I realized is, in haste as I left my home, I have an electric car, and I’m driving to this north side, which is about 25 miles away. I realize as I pull up, I have 22 miles left. I said, «I’m not even going to worry about it right now. I’m going to go into this game; hopefully, they win! And when I come back, maybe a miracle will have happened, and there’ll be some more miles.»
When I came back, no miracle—21 miles! I’m not even playing, y’all. But it said 21 miles, so I looked up the shortest route to see how I could get back to my charger. And what ended up happening is it said it was 22 miles. And I was like, «Oh, they probably got a couple miles reserved,» so children, pray in the spirit—Tarry. I need—like I told my kids, loud tongues, loud! And mind you, they got a game that’s about to start! I get to 41st and 169 for everybody in Tulsa, and the thing literally is at zero. I said, «All the blood!» At that moment, I call Scott, I call my wife, I call my sister SD. I said, «Everybody get ready because I might need a ride off the highway.» But I said, «I’m going to keep going. I just got to make it to this charging station.»
I rode for 20 miles on zero, okay? Now, watch! The clapping part is not that I made it to the charging station! The clapping part is I made a decision that I will never be that close to empty again! Hear what I just said to you. Many of you clap because you made it. I made it; I just barely got out of there! And God said, «When will you be tired of living that empty? If I give you an assignment and you go and come back and don’t got nothing left, what do you give to your kids? What do you give to your future? What do you give to the thing?» He said, «I want you to lead!» And the truth of the matter is, I could have left the house full, but I didn’t plug it in in the season that I was supposed to. I think many of us are running on empty 'cause we won’t just.
And today, I’m asking you: stop being okay with empty because empty—last point—the opposite of empty is overflow. So if you’re not experiencing the overflow, it’s closer to empty. I want everybody under the sound of my voice to live in the overflow! Amen! If you’re going to live in the overflow, can you clap your hands and thank God in this place? Would you stand all over this place? Listen, just before you leave, you can leave out on the song, but don’t leave out on salvation! Hear me! There are people in here who are making a decision that they’ll no longer live close to empty. And some of you are saying, «Close to empty? Pastor, I’m in a deficit! Ain’t nothing there, it’s dry!» And God’s saying, «Would you like to take a drink from a well that doesn’t run dry? His name is Jesus! And when you accept Jesus, it changes everything! It took me from being a liar, a manipulator, somebody who was addicted to pornography. My soul was dry. But when I accepted Jesus into my life, it began the overflow.
And I’m not talking about a moment; I live in the overflow! The buckets—I didn’t bring out, I told him to get me ten of these buckets! I just thought it was going to be excessive, 'cause I didn’t want any of y’all to be mad at me! My faith now, for what I believe God can do because of the things I’ve seen Him do—I can’t even share everything with everybody 'cause you would hate me just based on how I believe God. Today, I’m inviting you to take the first step to believe that our God can do anything! And the most amazing thing is not filling up a bank account, not filling up a building! He’s the only one that can fill up your heart! It reminds me of the man that needed healing; his friends brought him to Jesus on a mat, and Jesus performed one more overflow miracle. He said, „I could heal you, and everybody would be like 'Yay! '“ He said, „But what’s harder to do: to forgive a man’s sins and make him clean, or to heal his infirmity? He said, 'Matter of fact, I’m going to let you live in the overflow—here’s both of them! '“
He heals his sickness and heals his sinfulness! And this is what we get the opportunity to receive today! If you’re in this room, man, and you want to live in the overflow, it starts with accepting Jesus! Pick your source today! On the count of three, if you want to make Jesus your personal Lord and Savior—if you want to make Easter not a thing that happened two weeks ago or three weeks ago, you want to make it a thing that resurrects in you every morning; that you wake up with new grace and mercy—today I want you to accept Jesus! And it’s super simple; it’s just believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth—that’s it! And we’re going to do it with you! So if that’s you—one, you’re making the greatest decision of your life; two, I’m proud of you! But more than that, your name is about to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and your eternity is about to be secure! With faith and boldness—three!
Lift your hand up if you want to make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior! I see you, my brother! I see you, sister! Oh, come on, Transformation Church! I see hands all the way in the balcony! Oh, come on, y’all! I see you! But more than that, God sees you in the chat! Glory to God! You can put your hand down! I see you, sister, at Transformation Church! Nobody prays alone! Yeah, we’re a family! Somebody say, „We’re a family!“ We’re a jacked-up family! Let me just go ahead and tell you; we all got that cousin or that uncle—there’s like six of them here! But if it wasn’t for the grace and mercy of God, where would we be? Would you, everybody, just lift your hands? Say:
God, thank You for sending Jesus to change my life! Today, I admit I’ve been dry, and I need my thirst to be quenched! I believe You lived, I believe You died, and You rose again with all power—all just for me! Change me, renew me, transform me! I’m Yours, in Jesus' name, amen!