How Comedy Works

Awesome.

Alright, sit down, please.

I'm excited to be here.

My name is Michael Jr.

I'm gonna do some jokes.

I love Gateway Church.

If I lived in Dallas, this is the church that I would go to.

Like for real.

I love this church.

Um just so happens um I live in Dallas, and this is the church I go to.

So that works out just fine.

I'm glad too, it's a cool church because I used to go to churches, like recently I actually went to a church.

You ever go to a church and they have um those people with the white gloves and they won't let you in when people praying?

Like they literally, the ushers, if people are praying in a church, they won't let you in and be like, wait, they praying.

I'm like, what?

I don't even understand.

What is that about?

Like, is God losing focus?

Because people walking around?

I don't understand what.

That's really weird to me.

That's just a random thought that I have sometimes.

I do that sometimes these random thoughts.

Two days ago, I met a white dude named Tanner, and I looked at him, I said, No, you're not.

I'm excited, all the other campuses.

What's up?

I'm glad you listen, I want you to know I'm really, like we're really connected.

Like I see you there.

I know it's some people in Overflow too, and um, you can get here earlier.

But I see you, like for real.

Like I see you guys for real.

North Fort Worth, everybody raise your hand.

Go like this.

See, I see you.

Your hands.

A lot of white hands.

I see them, they're right there.

I see you guys.

I'm excited.

I do love this church.

I get to hang out with uh Pastor Robert.

I gotta tell you guys a story of what happened with me and Pastor.

This is a true story, 100% true.

Me and Pastor Robert got pulled over by the police.

Like for real, like he was driving.

Let me tell you what happened.

So we went out, we were we were hunting, right?

And um he looks up in the we're coming back from hunting, he looks up in the rearview mirror and he sees the police are behind us.

I saw him six miles earlier.

I just want to point that out.

Like I saw him a long time ago.

This dude just now catching on to the fact.

And I'm doing all the math, right?

We just got back from hunting.

There's guns in the car.

We got some blood on our clothes.

I've seen this movie before.

Let me let me pull back though.

Let me pull back.

Uh we went out to eat one time.

Me and Pastor Robert went out to eat.

And he asked some uh, right before we got ready to eat, like he's eating.

I was like, dude, we should pray.

I'll just play.

We pray, I'll just play.

So he takes the salt.

In case you don't know, Pastor Robert is the lead pastor of this church.

Anyway, he takes the salt beforehand and he sprinkles it on his hand, then he sprinkles it on his food.

I'm like, dude, why you do that?

I don't understand why you do it.

He's like, Well, I want to see how much salt is coming out.

I was like, Well, how can you see?

You white.

He was like, How do you see the pepper?

I was like, huh.

Well played, my friend.

Well played.

So I do different jokes.

I just want you to know, I do comedy about different nationalities.

I think the more we can laugh at our differences, the less important they become.

I just I really think that.

Um, and I want to be clear, I'm not racist.

I want to be clear, I'm not racist.

In fact, some of my best friends are black.

I just want to point that out.

So sometimes white people will do stuff to try to prove to me that they're not racist, which is really weird, because why are you doing that?

I had a dude walk up to me one time, he's like, hey Michael Jr., I just want you to know, just so you know, uh, I'm colorblind.

I don't even see color, I'm colorblind.

I was like, really?

Huh.

Why are you telling me?

Before I go any further, I want to explain to you guys how comedy works.

I want to explain to you how comedy works.

Some comedians know this, a lot of them don't.

They just do it because they don't know what's going on.

I feel like God has given me the math on how comedy works.

I want to share with you.

This is how it works.

First, there's a setup, and then there's a punchline.

Let me explain.

The setup is when a comedian uses his talents and resources to seize any opportunity to ensure that his audience is moving in the same direction.

The punchline occurs when he alters that direction in such a way that was not anticipated by the audience.

When you catch on to this change, you have received the punchline.

The results are revelation, fulfillment, and joy expressed through laughter.

I just thought I'd share that with you so you can enjoy these jokes on another level.

I've known this for a while.

Ever since I was a kid, I noticed that I was different in the way that I thought, the way that I processed things.

I actually remember thinking for the first time.

I'm not saying I never had a thought before that.

I'm just saying I remember when I was thinking, wow, I'm thinking.

Let me explain.

I was in the fourth grade, right?

Um I'm in the fourth grade, Mr.

Coleman, our teacher, is up at the board and he's writing something on the board.

Mr.

Coleman, um, he was a little swollen.

He was a little swole, right?

And I remember because he had on a striped shirt, it was like vertical stripes, and every time he would exhale, it would look like somebody was trying to break out of jail.

Every single time.

And I remember saying, wow, Mr.

Coleman is really big.

I remember saying that, and I was like, oh no, I'm about to get kicked out of class, but I didn't get kicked out of class.

You know why?

Because I didn't say it.

I was thinking it.

It was so cool.

I was like, I'm thinking, and don't nobody know what I'm saying.

This is awesome.

I went around school thinking about everybody that day.

And this whole setup and punchline thing, I've actually operated in it even from the beginning of my career, my comedy career.

Before I did comedy, I had one of the jobs I had was I worked at a gas station.

Like I was a cashier at a gas station, but that didn't mean that I wasn't truly a comedian.

Stuff would happen.

Like this dude came in who clearly had on a hair piece.

I mean, like, clearly.

I'm just trying to do my job.

I'm like, okay, sir, you got a soda pop.

The gasoline.

$47.19.

And um, how are you going to pay?

Then this big lady walked in, right?

Um, slightly swollen lady walked in, right?

Nothing wrong with being big, she had a really, really bad attitude.

She came in there complaining, what took you so long to authorize the pump?

I can't believe it took you that long.

It shouldn't take that long.

And I was all panicking, I was like, yo, I'm sorry.

I was doing all had a whole bunch of.

Then I just stopped and looked at her.

And I was like, yo, um, sorry about your weight.

So I quit that job, man.

And they wanted me to get him a two weeks notice.

I was like, yo, boss, two weeks from now, he's gonna notice I ain't been here in two weeks.

Now I get to travel doing comedy.

It's a lot of fun traveling doing comedy.

Sometimes I used to have to go to small, like I was in Nebraska for some reason.

Um the plane was small, like we got ready to land, and this is the sound I hear.

The plane had a horn.

What kind of plane got a horn?

And then the airports are all.

We went to one airport, we could I go through the metal detector, right?

And I don't hear nothing.

Then this lady, security guard lady, looked at me and she said, beep.

That was you.

I heard you.

That was you.

She's like, beep.

I'm like, what are you doing?

She's like, it looked like you got something.

So she said, they're gonna have to use a wand on me.

So I spread my arms out.

Little dude named Juan came over and started frisking me.

Little.

So I'm excited, man.

I'm blessed to be married.

I have some beautiful, amazing children.

My wife is phenomenal.

I mean, amazing, because I remember before I was married, dating that stuff was pretty ridiculous.

A lot of materialistic women out there.

One woman, like, we just barely dating, like we just met, and she wanted me to buy her a coach purse.

You know how expensive a coach purse is?

So I got her an assistant coach.

Like it wasn't the real thing, but then the strap broke, and she tried to take it back to the real coach store.

She got arrested, man.

I didn't call her for like I hadn't heard from her in like three to five years after that happened, man.

It was like I remember breaking up with a girl once.

I just said, hey, Arriva Dirchy.

She thought I said her weave was dirt cheap.

It was really weird.

It was really weird.

I just made that up right now, actually.

I go shopping a lot, at least for this next joke.

That's the segue.

I'm at this, uh, you ever go shopping at a second chance store?

Not a second hand store, a second chance store like Ross or TJ Maxx.

The reason I call it a second chance store is because the items there used to be at the mall, but nobody wanted them.

Now they get a second chance at TJ Maxx.

And you gotta be careful when you shop at a second chance store because there's always something a little wrong.

Just a little wrong.

Like I bought a Nike shirt there, the back of it said, just try it, you know.

Like the tag on the back, it said it said extra medium.

That was the size of it.

I was like, hmm.

I just heard somebody say that's funny.

See if I got this right.

Instead of actually laughing, you just gonna announce your reaction?

That's how you want to do it.

That's like driving down the street, you get cut off in traffic.

You're like, the horn.

Couple things I understand about women.

Well, there's a bunch of things I understand about women, but I'm just gonna talk about one in particular.

I don't understand heels.

I don't get it.

Ladies, I think wearing heels is like doing drugs.

Hear me out, ladies.

First of all, you do it to get high.

You feel great while you're up there.

When you come down, it hurts and you regret it.

Yeah, exactly.

But then you do it all over again, don't you?

Yeah, yeah.

I think you got a problem.

I really do.

So I pay attention to people.

I have an amazing four-year-old daughter.

She's awesome, she's so cool.

Ever since she's been three years old, every week on Thursday, I take her out and we get hot chocolate before I take her to preschool.

So that's just what we do.

One Thursday, it was gonna be a little tight.

So I negotiate with her.

I was like, listen, can we go today, which was Tuesday, instead of going on Thursday, because I don't want to rush our time together.

She's like, um, okay, let's go today.

So I take her to hot chocolate today.

We actually stop by the park and we feed some ducks, and I explained to her, life lesson.

You should do this sometime.

I explained to her how ducks were like bad friends.

As soon as you're out of bread, they all gonna leave.

That's what's gonna happen.

Anyway, so we get to hot chocolate on Tuesday, everything's fine.

Thursday rolls around.

She wakes up, she's like, Dad, what's today?

I'm like, it's Thursday.

She's like, Yeah, we get hot chocolate.

I was like, No, we got we did it on Tuesday.

Remember, you you said we're gonna, we got it already.

And then she looked at me and she was like, I changed my mind.

So then we got hot chocolate again on Thursday.

I think communication is really important.

I think people need to learn how to communicate better on a personal level.

Social media is messing that up just a little bit.

Some people don't know how to have a conversation regular.

A dude walked up to me at the end of a show, he's an autographed line, he just walked up to me and he was like, hey, Michael Jr., um can you like me?

I don't know, man.

Anybody else like you?

He's like, well, not as many people as I would hope for.

I was like, um, yeah, it's probably your approach, dude.

It's probably your approach.

He's like, well, can you like me when you get home?

If I don't like you now, I'm not gonna like you when I get home.

What you gonna follow me or something?

He was like, I will if you like me.

I was like, that's why I don't like you.

I don't understand people who speak in the third person.

That stuff is weird.

Michael Jr.

does not like when people speak in the third person.

I got a neighbor, dude's name is Steve, he speaks in the third person all the time.

I'm going to get the mail, and then I hear Steve thinks Michael Jr.

should cut his grass more often.

So I talked to him in the fourth person.

I was like, well, somebody thinks Michael Jr.

should tell Steve to mind his own business.

He's like, why you say that?

I was like, I ain't say it, somebody said it.

Another thing weird, sometimes, every once in a while, a pastor will pop up and do something crazy like predict the end times.

Why would you do that?

Even if you're right, you can't even say, see, I told you.

I enjoy sleep.

I don't love sleep, but I do enjoy it.

Some people got some crazy phrases around sleep.

You ever hear somebody say, Boy, I slept like a baby.

I don't want to sleep like a baby.

Who wanna wake up crying four times in the middle of the night?

And your bed wet.

I don't want to sleep like a baby.

I do get up early, though.

I think it's important that you get up early in the morning, get your day started.

I gotta be up at least by 11:30.

Like I gotta be up.

Awesome.

Thanks for coming to the late service, sir.

And then people who get up early always got those sayings, too.

They say stuff like, it's the early bird that gets the worm.

You know what?

I don't even like worms.

Yeah, I'm gonna get up later and have some sausage.

Think about that phrase for a minute.

It's the early bird that gets the worm.

You know what?

The worm got up early too.

Look what happened to him.

So if you don't want to get eaten by a bird, lay yourself down somewhere, that's all I'm saying.

So I'm gonna tell you guys a story.

Jay Leno called this a classic.

I did this on the Tonight show.

He said it's a classic.

I'm gonna tell you the story.

This is really, this is what happened.

So we're in um, I just moved to Los Angeles with my family.

And we're in Los Angeles, and I'm like, yo, I want to go to Beverly Hills.

And uh so I just went to Beverly Hills by myself to check it out.

Because if you're gonna have something, you need to see something.

So I went to Beverly Hills and it started getting a little cold, a little dark outside.

So I'm thinking to myself, it's time for Michael Jr.

to get to where he needs to be.

So I start jogging in in Beverly Hills.

Yeah.

I was black back then too when I was doing it.

I was black.

So I'm jogging, and this white lady comes out around the corner about 15, maybe 20 feet in front of me.

We're jogging in the same direction.

Then she looked back.

She starts jogging faster.

So I look back too.

I didn't see anything back there, but I figured if a white person is scared of it, Michael Jr.

is scared of it too.

So I started jogging faster.

After she looked back again, she took off in full stride.

This time I didn't even look back.

I kicked in the gears too.

And I could have easily passed her out.

I'm thinking, no, I can't just leave this defenseless lady out here by herself.

Whoever back there is gonna get her.

So I yelled up to her.

Is that as fast as you can run?

That story is 96% true.

Let me explain to you what really happens.

What really happened, where the story really came from.

I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in Grand Rapids, there's uh also a town next to it called East Grand Rapids.

That's like Beverly Hills.

Like that's the area where, like that's the area.

So one night, me and my dad, we were fishing, or one day we were fishing in this lake, and then we uh we pulled the boat up because it was time to go, and it was a little dark, so I have to go get the car to uh bring the trailer back to get the boat.

Um because most black people we have we have a lake, like we gotta find a lake to go fishing at.

I noticed some of my white friends, they got the lake.

Hey, we're going to the lake.

I'm like, you got a lake?

That's amazing.

Anyway, so I'm going to get the car so we can pull the trailer back or whatever.

And this the white lady really does run out in front of me.

She's really a jogger.

She looks back and she falls down.

Now, everything about me as a man wants to stop and help this lady up.

But the closer I get to her, the more she starts to panic.

Across the street uh is a police station, and I'm sure there's a hero around the corner somewhere.

So I literally had to go against everything I was taught as a man.

I couldn't stop and help her.

I had to just continue on, get the car, and leave.

It was probably 18 months to two years before I could even talk about what happened.

Had I tried to help her, or the story could have gone way different, and you probably wouldn't even know who Michael Jr.

is right now.

But now that I'm able to talk about it, I've been able to turn that into funny where millions of people have been able to laugh just because I put my gift on top of that story.

Everyone in here, everyone listening to my voice, you have a gift.

You also have a story.

Use your gift with your story and make a much greater outcome.

I want to explain something really quick.

Um I had a change in mindset a while ago about comedy.

Normally, when a comedian gets on stage, he wants to get laughs from people.

God said to me, instead of going up there to get lasts from people, I want you to go up there and give them an opportunity to laugh.

This changed everything because now I'm not looking to take, I'm literally looking for opportunities to give.

If you can make this change in what you're doing, it will change everything.

Here's another way of saying it.

Don't be concerned with what's on the bottom of the invoice, just be sensitive to what you're hearing from the invoice.

And just give.

In fact, here's an example.

Uh, when you leave here uh today, I got a bunch of merchandise out there you can buy.

It's like a bunch of merchandise.

Um what we decided to do with the proceeds, in fact, we have the first ever uh small that I know of, comedy-based small group curriculum.

I'm excited about that.

What we're doing with the proceeds, just so you guys know, is all the proceeds are actually going to uh help a black family in America.

So I just want to point that out.

Let me explain to you how the rest of it works.

If for any reason at all, you can go up to the table, buy whatever you want, but for any reason at all, if you can't afford anything at our table, what I want you to do is walk up to the table, ask for what you need, and let us give it to you.

If you have the means, what we ask you to do is walk up to the table, buy what you want, and then buy more and leave it there for someone else.

It's actually called God gave me a name for this.

It's called communosity.

Community generosity.

Women always get it, they'd be like, oh, community generosity.

The dudes are like, community velocity?

There's actually another step to this, which I've been doing, which this is completely God.

It's not me because the math don't make sense.

If you know that you have a hard time receiving from people, what I want you to do, even if you have the money, I want you to walk up to the table, leave your money in your pocket, point to the item you want and let us give it to you.

Ask for the item and let us give it to you.

Because if you can't receive from me and the people around you, you won't be able to receive from a God you can't see because he's going to use people like me and the people around you.

And the better you can receive, the better you will be at your giving.

I'd like to explain to you guys how life works.

At least from a comedian's perspective.

First there's a setup, and then there's a punchline.

Your setup is your talents, your skills, and your opportunities.

And most of the time we use our setup to ensure that our audiences, the people around us, are moving in a direction that serves us.

Which means the punchline occurs when you alter that direction in such a way that the people around you were not expecting.

You use your setup to serve other people.

The results are actually the same: revelation, fulfillment, and joy.

But not just for the one receiving the punchline, but for the one giving the punchline as well.

People ask me all the time, Michael, what was your big break?

Our next guest has performed on Comedy Central's Premium Blend.

He made his first appearance on the Tonight Show from the Montreal Comedy Festival.

You've seen him on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

That wasn't a big break.

The big break was at a club.

And right before I got on stage, I had a change in mindset about comedy.

Normally, when a comedian gets on stage, he wants to get laughs from people.

Now I'm not looking to take.

I'm looking for an opportunity to give.

This changed everything.

My name is Michael Jr.

I'ma do some jokes.

Ultrasounds coming color now, which is ridiculous.

I know it's a black baby.

I leave the club that night, and there's all these people giving me hugs and high-fives, telling me their favorite jokes.

Then I look across the street and I saw my homeless guy.

And I thought to myself, what about him?

Most comedy, most jokes are set up.

My son, four years old, looks at me out of nowhere.

He says, Dad, I'm gonna be a doctor.

I was like, yes, yes.

And then a punchline.

Then he said, or a dinosaur.

I understand that me doing comedy and doing all of these TV shows and making all these people laugh is really just a setup.

My punchline is to make laughter commonplace and uncommon places.

We go to Montrose, Colorado, a place called the Dolphin House.

They take care of children who are being abused by their parents.

And his grandmother explains to me that her grandson is being abused by his mom.

He's so afraid of his mom that everywhere he goes, he wears a Spider-Man costume.

So I get on stage, sitting right up in front of Spider-Man.

I start doing comedy.

People start laughing slowly but surely.

Probably about 25 minutes into it, I hear a voice.

And the voice says, My name is Ronan.

And this little boy pulls off his mask.

And it was one of the most powerful moments in my entire comedy career.

If we could just stop asking the question, what could I get for myself?

And start asking the question, what can I give from myself?

I think people would learn that you don't have to be a comedian to deliver a punchline.

So check it.

Everyone watching right now, chances are you know to some degree what your setup is.

You know what your skills are, your talent, your abilities, your opportunities.

But do you know what your punchline is?

To know what your setup is and not know your punchline is really an uncomfortable feeling.

It feels like it's incomplete or like something is missing.

Let me give you an example.

Raise your hand if you're still thinking about the story with me and Pastor Robert getting pulled over by the police.

So we've been able to move on, laugh, have a good time, but you still have this thing that feels incomplete about a story that you just learned about.

What about your story?

You've been living your story your whole life, and if you know what the setup is without knowing what the punchline is, that means you've been going on with life, laughing and having fun without truly getting to the bottom of why you're even here.

There's a lot of people living with their setup and they don't know what their punchline is.

I have friends who play in the NFL and they thought when they got to the NFL that would be their punchline.

They got there and now they realize it's just a setup.

There's gotta be more.

So you got the promotion.

So now you're a teacher, so now you got married.

It's just a setup.

What is the punchline?

Robin Williams, uh phenomenal comedian.

No revelation, no fulfillment, no joy.

You can actually be a comedian and not deliver the punchline.

There's some people in this room right now.

You have a punchline, you just don't know what it is.

And the one who can tell you what a punchline is, his name is actually Jesus.

He wrote the punchline, he wrote the whole, he did the whole setup.

He knows the beginning from the end.

In fact, you want to talk about a phenomenal setup and punchline.

Let me explain something.

When you are a king, everyone around you is to serve you because you're the king.

When you're the king of kings, even the other kings are to serve you.

So the entire audience, everybody who knows this, is moving in the same direction.

He's a king, let's serve the king.

But he changed the direction, didn't he?

He decided, no, I'm going to serve you.

He went up on the cross and he died for you.

That is a phenomenal punchline.

You have one too.

You just need to know what it is.

So now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna explain to you how you get a relationship with that king so you can understand what your punchline is, so you can stop living only in your setup.

So I'm gonna tell you this cool story, then we're gonna bounce.

Bounce means to vacate the premises.

So somebody's they're gonna come out and play the keyboard for me.

And I think we got a keyboardist who apparently is moving a little slower than she should.

Awesome, yeah.

But didn't mean to interrupt you, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So we're gonna do, yeah, yeah, not yet.

You know what?

Calm down.

Calm down.

Think it's your little concert all of a sudden, don't you?

Yeah.

This is my chance.

I'm on camera.

Look at me.

Calm yourself down.

So I'm gonna set the story up, and then you can start to play if that's okay.

If that's okay, cool, cool.

Anyway, so I'm gonna set it up.

So so I was up early in the morning.

I was writing a joke.

I write comedy sometimes in the morning, that's where I'm most creative.

I'm writing a joke about the good room.

Raise your hand, North Fort Worth, Frisco, raise your hand, everyone.

If you know what the good room is, if you know what the good room is, raise your hand.

Exactly.

Not very many people know what the good room is, which means the reason you don't know that is because I had to name it the good room, so then I can tell you what it is, and then all of us can be on the same page, moving in the same direction.

So when I change the direction later, we can all laugh together.

So it's the good room, just so you know, is that room in your grandmother's house.

The room in your house, the room maybe in your aunt's house that is better than the rest of the house.

You remember the good room?

Can't nobody go in a good room?

The furniture is better than every it's all pretty, it's really just for looking.

It's plastic on the furniture.

That's where the plates are that nobody ever uses.

How many people know what the good room is now?

Exactly.

So I was doing a joke about the good room, and in the middle of writing this joke, God stopped me and told me to tell this story to his people.

So I'm gonna tell you the story anytime now.

Awesome, great, okay.

So I want everyone who can hear my voice, I want everyone, I want you to imagine that you are a house.

Imagine that you're a house.

And outside of the house is Jesus Christ.

And he really wants to come in.

But he will never force his way in.

He actually wants you to invite a man.

And the reason some people won't invite Jesus into the house is because you're cool with the way things are right now.

Whenever you need something, you just walk up to the door, crack it open, say your prayer, say what you need, and then close the door and go back into the house.

But that's not a relationship at all.

And the reason you won't let them in the house is because your house is a mess.

You think you need to clean it up first.

How's that been working out?

In fact, you probably brought other things into the house hoping that it could distract you from the mess.

Chances are the house is even more of a mess.

Or you've invited other relationships into the house, hoping that maybe they could help you clean it up.

But they can't.

The only one who can clean it up is standing outside the door wearing an apron with a bucket in his hand, waiting on you to open the door.

And then there's other people right now who used to have Jesus in the whole house.

But for some reason or another, you've tried to evict him, or you've just moved him to one room in the house.

The good room.

Have you ever noticed how most of the time the good room is the one right up front with the big window?

So when people look in, they think the whole house is clean.

But it's not, it's just that one room.

They hear you quoting scriptures and everything, and they think you got it all together, but you don't.

It's just that one room.

You go to church every week, it's just that one room.

You gotta open the door and let them in.

And I gotta tell you, when you open this door and you let Jesus into the house, he's going to show up with a contractor named the Holy Spirit.

And they will remodel the house so it can fully function the way it was intended to.

But none of this happens if you don't open the door because he will never force his way in.

So this is what I'm gonna do.

I want everyone who can hear my voice, everyone who can see my face, I want you to just close your eyes and bow your hair for a moment.

I used to wonder why they do this in church?

Why do you want me to close my eyes and stuff?

They're trying to get my money, what they about to do?

The reason this happens is because we want you to have a private moment.

There is nobody looking around right now.

On the count of three, if you need to invite Jesus into your house for the first time or even to give him full access to the whole house to rededicate your life to him, on the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to do something really simple.

Every campus, I'm talking to every single person.

I'm gonna ask you to do something really simple.

I just want you to put your hand in the air on the count of three.

There's hands already going up.

It's awesome.

One, two, three.

Just put your hands up nice and high.

Nice and high so I can see them.

There's a lot of hands.

There's a whole bunch of hands going up.

Every campus, literally, you can raise your hand.

Literally for real.

Okay, everyone put their hands down and you can look up at me.

I'm gonna ask everyone who raised their hand, I'm gonna ask you to do something.

One more thing.

It's very important that you do this.

Jesus said this.

He says, if you will take a stand for me before men, I will stand for you before my father in heaven.

So, what that looks like is you need to take a stand here on earth.

And he's gonna do the same thing in heaven.

Listen, if you can't do this in here where we're proud of you, you won't be able to do it out there.

So, what this is gonna look like is everyone who raised their hand or should have raised their hand or wish they would have raised their hand on account of three, I'm gonna want you to stand to your feet and come forward, walk towards the front so we can do a prayer together.

This is very, very, very important.

So, anyone who raised their hand or should have raised their hand or wish they would have raised their hand on a count of three, I want you to stand to your feet, want you to walk forward and to help with that.

Everyone else in the room is going to applaud as loud as they can, but it will not compare to the applause that the angels in heaven will be doing when you stand to your feet and come down.

One, two, three.

Even in the overflow, even in the overflow, it's come on down, even in the overflow, come on down, come forward, come forward, come forward, come forward, even in the balcony.

You can come down with wait.

Every location, every location, even in the balcony, come on down, keep clapping, you're gonna come, keep clapping, gonna come, face God, yes, yes, Frisco, yes, even in the frisk go.

I know the seats are tight, I know they're tight, you gotta squeeze through.

I know they're tight, you gotta come down, gotta come down.

Northwards in the hill, come on down, come on down, keep coming, face me with no brain, keep coming, come on, come on down, Northwood, we're a break, prairie.

I'm literally talking to you.

For real, come on down, keep coming, drop the squeeze in, it's pretty tight.

Drop the squeeze in, yeah, keep clapping.

Y'all just standing there clap.

Praise God, here they come.

Wow, there's a lot of people.

Y'all gotta come and squeeze in.

Squeeze in, let's go to Wow, there's a group of people coming in.

There's a bunch of people.

It's alright, we gotta room.

We gotta room.

We gotta we gotta room.

Yes, I'm literally talking to you.

It's not too late.

Come down right now.

Get up right now and come down.

Yep, even where you are.

I know it's a screen.

Feels weird.

Literally, I want you to come down.

Open the door.

Come get your punchline.

Come get your punchline.

Come get your punchline.

Come get your punchline.

Awesome.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

It's awesome! We're about to pray.

We're about to pray.

Wow.

Whoa, it's still coming down.

That is so awesome.

Wow, there's a school of people coming down.

This whoa, they're coming from the overflow.

Um I need to back up and less the people on stage.

Hey, this is coming.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Awesome.

There's just a group of people coming up.

Maybe it doesn't happen.

I'll tell you what to do next.

Thank you.

Jesus.

Thank you.

Wait a couple down.

Even though you got here late.

Awesome.

We're right on time now.

Okay.

Wow.

Alright, we're gonna we're gonna pray.

Yeah, awesome.

Yeah.

Way to make a decision.

Man, ooh.

Awesome.

Okay.

Alright, we're gonna pray.

We're gonna wow, there's a grip of folks.

This is awesome.

It's so cool.

And you got a little baby in your stomach, that's so cool.

Born again and born again again, again.

I don't know.

Anyway.

So we're gonna pray.

And listen, you guys, we're gonna pray.

And what's really important, this prayer is huge, because you just walked up to the door, you turn the doorknob, you're about to open it up, Jesus is gonna come in.

But you're not gonna grow any wings and be an angel after this.

But you'll be different on the inside.

The key is you have to be able to hear from the inside what God is telling you to do so you can make the right choices.

Have you ever said the phrase, something told me to do this?

Well, that's something is clearly God trying to tell you what to do, but now you'll know his name and you'll be able to hopefully hear his voice more clear.

But the most important thing you can do is after this prayer, please we're gonna have some rooms off to the side at every campus.

There's some rooms to the side where you're gonna get plugged in at.

Please go into the room.

It's not creepy, they don't got no pudding or nothing.

Ooh, taste this.

It's not gonna be weird.

But you're gonna get plugged in, and it's very, very, very extremely important that you get plugged in.

You can't do, you can't literally and figuratively, you can't go back to where you were.

We need you to go to a new place.

Literally.

So let's pray.

So repeat after me.

We're gonna pray, and then I know it's gonna move slow, people gonna keep clapping, you're gonna get to where you gotta go, and it's gonna be awesome.

It's a new place, like for real.

The whole house is clean, it's gonna be phenomenal.

That's that's all the parables I got right now.

Okay.

Repeat after me.

Dear God, thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to die for me.

I believe it and I receive it.

Come into my house, Lord.

Come into my heart.

Thank you for forgiving me for my sins.

Have your way.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.