Sermon

My Mode Just Changed: Need, Greed and Seed // Six Figures ( Pt 5 )// Pastor Michael Todd

Transformation Church

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  1. Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

  2. the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

  3. glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

  4. God will transform your life. Did today's message.

  5. Today?

  6. I have an assignment to help you understand. Really, my

  7. favorite part about generosity giving sewing last week was the

  8. one that everybody takes a big gop on when I

  9. start talking about the tide, and I think last week

  10. everybody got it. It was like, Yeah, God's gonna give

  11. me a test. I'm gonna pass the test because I'm

  12. prepared for the test. I already know every time I

  13. get increased ten percent, it belongs to God.

  14. So I'm not gonna hoard what is mine.

  15. I had somebody I really love, just Is in her

  16. sophomore year at college, came up to me after church

  17. out the side of the car and he was like,

  18. pass a by.

  19. I was like what. She was like, I tied for the.

  20. First time, and I mean her family was around, everybody

  21. was hooping and hollering, and I just went up to

  22. her and I was like, I am so proud of you,

  23. and I just started just because at that age the

  24. principle that got into her heart at this level is

  25. gonna unleash this next level that I'm about to talk

  26. about today.

  27. See look at your neighbor and say, there's levels to this.

  28. And a lot of us spend our time fighting with

  29. the basement of blessing. Oh gosh, should I tie? Should

  30. I give? Should I do this?

  31. The church just want my money? Dah da dah. You

  32. are on the basement floor.

  33. Of what God wants to do in the area of

  34. blessing your life. Today. I want to show you the

  35. future as you surrender to God and give him what

  36. you watch. This may not understand fully, but you will

  37. get an understanding.

  38. As you walk in it.

  39. The whole journey of trusting God is a faith walk,

  40. and most people want a planned to walk.

  41. There's nowhere in the Bible.

  42. That you find God saying do all of these steps

  43. and then I'll I'll show you everything, and then it

  44. will be fine because you know the outcome. He told

  45. Abraham go to the land. I'm gonna show you. Hold on, wait,

  46. I'm gonna make you to father many nations. I ain't

  47. got no kids, Hey, go there, leave these people. It's

  48. always like somebody's gotta take a step of faith. And

  49. so today I want to give you when it comes

  50. to your finance's generosity, giving being abundant. I want to

  51. give you what I'm calling the best way to go

  52. about walking into this level of life. And I'm gonna

  53. start with scripture two Corinthians, chapter nine, verse six. TEWO Corinthians,

  54. Chapter nine, verse six. It says, remember this, what are

  55. we supposed to do?

  56. Come on, help me preach. We're supposed to remember this.

  57. Whoever sows or gives sparingly or a little, will also

  58. reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will read generously.

  59. Each of you should give. Each of you should.

  60. Give what you have decided in your heart to give,

  61. not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver,

  62. and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that

  63. in all things, at all times, having all that you need,

  64. you will abound in every good work.

  65. Somebody say, amen.

  66. Now, most people who've been in church your whole life

  67. have never heard that scripture.

  68. Outside of offering time.

  69. Nobody's actually gonna preach.

  70. On this scripture.

  71. So I am today so that you can get an

  72. understanding so that you will never be played by not

  73. knowing what the Word of God is talking about. So

  74. we're gonna jump right in verse chapter six, Verse one.

  75. Remember whoever so sparingly will reap sparingly? Could you underline

  76. circle in your Bible the word whoever? Because I just

  77. need to know. I need to ask you a question.

  78. I need you to pick up the context clues. Who's

  79. the Bible talking to in this scripture?

  80. Whoever?

  81. He literally says, whoever. How many people in this room

  82. qualify as a whoever? If I said, whoever gets to

  83. this stage first gets a thousand dollars, but no, I

  84. did sit down.

  85. What I'm saying is.

  86. At the moment I said whoever, that would literally be

  87. based on your ability to believe.

  88. If I said all men, that would segregate.

  89. Or if I said all short people depending on the height,

  90. that would segregate other people. If I said, but the

  91. Lord really wants everybody to get that, the principle he's

  92. about to share is for.

  93. Whoever.

  94. So this is the point I want you to put down.

  95. Whoever can sow whatever? Today I have to focus on

  96. the thing that distracts many believers from giving because a

  97. lot of people don't give because you said, there are

  98. people who don't serve God and go against God, and

  99. people who do debauchery and they live on the world,

  100. And why are they so blessed because they picked up

  101. the principle there are Whoever, the reason I'm telling you

  102. this is because this principle.

  103. Even if you are not connected to God.

  104. Oh my gosh, the reason I have to tell you

  105. this is because people have used the Bible to fear

  106. you into serving God. And today I want to extract

  107. all fear out of giving. God literally says about this

  108. one principle on giving. I don't care who you are,

  109. and I don't care what you do. If you put

  110. this principle into play, it'll work in your life. And

  111. the crazy thing is, people who don't believe in God

  112. work a principle made for his children, and we still

  113. appear fighting about the semantics of things, and we're not

  114. walking in the abundant life that he put out.

  115. Here for you.

  116. But he said, whoever believed this, whoever walks in this,

  117. whoever gets this, they get the promise. Look at your

  118. neighborh and say you're a Whoever whoever gets this principle

  119. gets the promise. So I want you to get this please.

  120. Whoever includes Joe haters, whoever includes people who hurt you,

  121. Whoever gets this principle includes the people that live like hell.

  122. It does not matter somebody shot at me.

  123. Whoever, so why not you?

  124. If whoever can work this principle, why not you? So

  125. the first thing God's telling us is, whoever sows like

  126. this is gonna reap like this? What is the way

  127. that they sold? If they sow a little, they're getting

  128. a little. Bad newsflash, it works even if you do

  129. it at the smallest level. Whoever so sparingly still gets

  130. back sparingly, but they still.

  131. Got something back.

  132. And whoever sows generously or largely, they get back at

  133. the same level. What I'm trying to tell you is

  134. if sowing works, if seed works, why don't you do it?

  135. And I can't be the one to qualify if you

  136. do or not. But what I'm saying is a farmer

  137. never has to prove he sold seed. A farmer never

  138. has to convince you. All he has to do is

  139. show you the harvest. There's so many believers like I

  140. promise I sold it to you. I promise, I'll promise

  141. I sold good things. I promise, oh God it And

  142. it's like, where is your harvest? Where is the trees?

  143. Where is the fruit? Where is where is it? And

  144. the truth of the matter is many people have not

  145. fully believed in the word of God and the Prince.

  146. And so what I wanted to tell you is I

  147. don't want God to make a principle for his kids

  148. that his kids don't work. And then people who don't

  149. even know our father work the principle and they're living

  150. in the blessing.

  151. That we should have.

  152. Because whoever works this principle gets the promise of the principle. Okay,

  153. So then it goes to verse seven. It says each

  154. of you should could you just put.

  155. It on the screen?

  156. It said, each of you should give. Let's stop right there,

  157. write this point down. Giving is a duh to God?

  158. Did y'all hear what I just said? Given is a duh?

  159. Yeah?

  160. Y'all got it? Yours?

  161. Like, what are you telling? Given is a duh? He's

  162. watched this. He's assuming that you already know as a believer,

  163. this is what we do. So he's telling you each

  164. of you should give, oh what you've already decided to give?

  165. Because he's not trying to convince you to do what

  166. the normal practice is of people who do what we do.

  167. That would be like a basketball player being like, do

  168. we dribble.

  169. Duh?

  170. Do we shoot the ball?

  171. Duh?

  172. Do we play in pants?

  173. Are shorts? Put your shorts on and come. The only

  174. people would who would ask those type of questions are

  175. people who were unfamiliar with the pattern of whatever we're

  176. talking about. There are too many people that when God

  177. tells us that we're supposed to give, we act shocked.

  178. What me, God, you.

  179. Know what I'm dealing with.

  180. He's like, hold on, wait, wait.

  181. Wait wait.

  182. If you're a believer, you should already get it.

  183. In your mind.

  184. Give.

  185. I'm not just talking about money, time, treasure, connections, energy, effort, encouragement.

  186. What is your giving record this past week. I'm not

  187. talking about to a church, a nonprofit or organization. I'm

  188. just talking about your giving. What's your giving record this week.

  189. The reason why I'm saying this is because the natural

  190. watch this, the natural state of a believer should be

  191. one of generosity. Me and my friend was talking before

  192. service and the comment came out this, I need people

  193. to stop saying they serve God, and they love God

  194. and they'll do anything for God, and they never give.

  195. You can You can't, You can't have. You have to

  196. for God's love the world that he It's one of

  197. his natural characteristics. And people, I'll do anything for God

  198. except what He did for all of us. The reason

  199. I'm saying this is it sounds elementary. Watch this, but

  200. it's affecting people's eternity because people are here trying to

  201. figure out why would God ask me to do this?

  202. And I'm trying to tell you. When God tells you

  203. to give, he tells you to give a certain way. Paw,

  204. somebody break it down to me just a little more.

  205. He said, verse seven, each of you should give. Watch

  206. this what you have decided in your heart to give,

  207. not reluctantly or under compulsion.

  208. For God loves what type of giver? A cheerful giver.

  209. This is why giving is supposed to be a duh.

  210. Because in Matthew you can go read it chapter six.

  211. I think it starts in verse two, but you gotta

  212. read the whole thing.

  213. It says.

  214. Jesus is talking. He says, when you give, when you pray,

  215. when you fast, these are three things. If the giving's

  216. taking you off too much. I need to let you know.

  217. God expects every one of his children to at some

  218. point fast, pray, and give.

  219. Not if you give, if you pray, or if you

  220. fast when you do.

  221. Okay, self, evaluate when's the last time you fasted, you prayed,

  222. and you gave. There are not many things that God

  223. is saying. This is a prerequisite for you walking in

  224. the way that I have called you to walk.

  225. And so I need you to understand.

  226. Church, we have to get it into our minds that

  227. my disposition is generosity. That's who I am.

  228. I'm generous.

  229. I don't have a lot to give right now, but

  230. I'm what generous. I can give what I got. All

  231. I have is all I need. I'm out here about

  232. to bless somebody sucks off, and by sucks I mean

  233. this five dollars, about to really turn somebody's day upside down. No,

  234. I'm because generosity is not about an amount. Generosity is

  235. about a heart posture. It's about hold on, what can

  236. I do?

  237. How can I do it? Where am I at?

  238. What do I got in my closet? How many of

  239. these pins do I have? How many of these sandals

  240. do I have?

  241. How much time could I give to somebody That.

  242. Lady's yard that you've been complaining about needs to be

  243. mowed for six weeks? Go mow it, somebody. I'm about

  244. to call the people on him, you know, to call

  245. the people on a person you've never even talked to yet.

  246. The Bible tells us we're supposed to love our neighbor.

  247. Take your dusty lawnmower.

  248. Over to that.

  249. Don't ask them.

  250. There's never been in the history.

  251. Ever that somebody that you just start more on their

  252. line and they gonna cuss you out, never in the history.

  253. Well, is there a line?

  254. I don't want a trustpath? They will let you trust

  255. paths to mow they lawn. Yeah, but watch it. But

  256. if your heart is not set on giving, you won't

  257. give your time to that, you won't give your sweat

  258. to that, you won't give And God saying I need

  259. you to be like me and watch this. I need

  260. you to decide before it's time to give.

  261. Uh.

  262. Oh, this is where people get in trouble. Right here,

  263. write this down. You can't be manipulated when your mind's

  264. already made up. Me and my wife decided a long

  265. time ago. I showed you y'all that gray book that

  266. I talked about our finances being able to change as

  267. we honored God and put out our budget and wrote

  268. everything down and put our tithe there and all this

  269. other stuff. God has continued to increase us in different ways.

  270. But one of the things that me and my wife

  271. had to learn is like our disposition on giving, because

  272. we have now become so generous in our giving that

  273. we got to check with each other because sometimes it

  274. gets reckless.

  275. And when I say reckless, I.

  276. Mean it's reckless, Like it's like at the moment, she'll

  277. look at somebody or see something or feel something in

  278. her spirit and she was like, I think we're supposed

  279. to do this for such and such.

  280. And I was like, whoo, that's crazy.

  281. Because God told me we're supposed to do this for

  282. such and such. And she was like, whoa did he

  283. tell us at the same time, we're supposed to do this.

  284. And why I'm saying this is we've already decided, talked about,

  285. prayed through, started to wade through, looked at our budget

  286. before it's time. The reason why people get manipulated and

  287. feel like people are trying to get something from them

  288. is because they're unders and a double minded man is

  289. unstable in all of his ways. But you can't be

  290. decided on something you've never thought about, and most people

  291. don't think about giving. So when it comes to your thing,

  292. God's like, Hey, one of the things I need you

  293. to pray for is what you're supposed to give, and

  294. I need you to pray it before you're supposed to give,

  295. because when you know what God said before, you're not swayed.

  296. My question to you today, I got a lot of questions.

  297. When's the last time you ask God? What am I

  298. supposed to give.

  299. Before?

  300. Before offering before somebody has a need before. There are

  301. things that I have planned for, things that I currently have,

  302. like I currently have them.

  303. Moh, you already noticed.

  304. I've told the people close to me, and it's like, yeah,

  305. when I'm done with this, I'm giving this a certain

  306. soul done.

  307. I've already planned it in.

  308. I'm still using it right now and I'm taking good

  309. care of it right now. But when I'm done with this,

  310. I've already watched this scent. My seed, my seed is

  311. like a missile. My seed has to be directed. My

  312. seed is something that I place in places for a

  313. future so even though I'm here right now, I'm sending

  314. my seed somewhere. My question is, when's the last time

  315. you prayed? God? Where am I supposed to send this seed?

  316. When I'm done with these shoes? When am I supposed

  317. to Well? Who's supposed to wear these? When I'm doing

  318. with this house?

  319. Who I'm I supposed to give it to.

  320. God? When I'm done driving this car? Who am I

  321. supposed to sol this into God? God?

  322. What am I supposed to do with what You've placed

  323. in my hand?

  324. And listen to me.

  325. I'm trying to give you the secrets.

  326. If you don't pray about it before, you have two

  327. responses to clinch up in fear or to give frivolously.

  328. And I have to say this because there are people

  329. who have given what they needed to keep because.

  330. They were poor Stuarts.

  331. I gotta say this because there's some churches you go

  332. to and be like, give the light, deal the thing,

  333. get the thing, and get the thing, and now that

  334. person is destituo on the street, nowhere to go. And

  335. they felt like they were doing it in faith, but

  336. what they were doing it was an out of order.

  337. There was no priority to what was happening.

  338. Now. This is where you got to check your priorities.

  339. Because some of the things that we're calling essential are

  340. actually luxuries. So if God is calling you and asking

  341. you to do something, you have to evaluate. God, what

  342. are you asking me to do? What are you asking

  343. me to cut off? What are you asking me to

  344. give up for a season so that I can honor you.

  345. The reason I'm saying this is because God will require

  346. what you have, but he will never require what you don't.

  347. Oh God. And there are people that think maybe this

  348. is what God wants from me is just to be

  349. broken white around the mouth and begging no. But He

  350. does want you to figure out your budget, and he

  351. does want you to know how much debt you have,

  352. and he does want you to stop doing dashing when

  353. you could get up.

  354. And go pick up that top. Gobail. Oh, come on, y'all.

  355. Okay, I see the resistance, gos I Mike, Why are

  356. you saying this?

  357. Because if you never think about what.

  358. You're gonna give watch, it's hard to see it come

  359. out in your hand if it hasn't started being thought

  360. about in your head. Cause the progression is it goes

  361. to my head. Maybe I can't give this, then it

  362. drops to my heart. God, is this what you're asking

  363. me to give? Then it comes out in my hand.

  364. Here it is God. Most people want to start with

  365. their hand. Well I got it, uh huh. And your

  366. head is like, why did we do that?

  367. We don't have.

  368. Enough money to do that. Where in the world is

  369. that coming from? And God says, He's not a god

  370. that just wants you to do think about it. Think

  371. about it and I'll show you and it'll drop to

  372. your heart and then you will move by faith and

  373. it'll come out in your hand. So this is where

  374. I need everybody to understand. This scripture is giving us

  375. the playbook. Don't give under manipulation. Do not give if

  376. you feel like your arm is being twisted. Do you

  377. You ain't never heard no pass to say this I'm

  378. trying to do. Not give anything if you feel like

  379. somebody's trying to lean on you emotionally, even your family. Oh,

  380. you thought I was talking about the church, because the

  381. problem is most of you are in financial ruin because

  382. you're helping somebody that won't help themselves. Okay, He's giving

  383. you principles that are supposed to help your whole life,

  384. not just everybody want to use it when it comes

  385. to the church, but you don't use it concerning babe.

  386. You paying for this young man's stuff, or you paying

  387. for this young lady's stuff.

  388. You flying somebody out, You.

  389. Paying for this thirst trap on Instagram.

  390. You paying for all of these different things, and you

  391. don't ever have no pressure.

  392. Or no problem giving to them. You look so strong,

  393. big daddy. What you mean ain't worked out in ten years?

  394. What you mean, Oh, this whole thing stop, I'm trying.

  395. I'm trying to teach you. Don't you give to that

  396. with manipulation? If you know somebody's praying on your weakness

  397. right now, If you know that, oh I just have

  398. a guard. Dad. Some of us are suckers for sad stories.

  399. Y'all know, y'all, y'all know who y'are.

  400. Y'all know that y'all always give to them little puppies

  401. that come on like with the eyes of the age,

  402. and all they put is them sick dogs on there,

  403. and you're like nine nine, y'all know that's manipulation. They

  404. know they don't put no healthy dogs on there. Autumn dollar,

  405. every dog, every dog ain't been giving no water, get a.

  406. Dog some water. But they do that on purpose.

  407. Why Because if I can prey on their emotions for

  408. a second, maybe I can get something out of God's

  409. telling you, I don't care if it's at church, if

  410. it's at your house, if it's at the family reunion,

  411. if your cousin is in jail, do not give if

  412. there's a manipulation involved. I'm trying to give you a

  413. principle that will work.

  414. Whether you believe or not. Okay, what does it say

  415. to give?

  416. You should already decided you got a brother, cousin or

  417. son in jail. You should decide this how much money

  418. I'm gonna give them till they get out before they

  419. start asking, oh God, I'm trying to save your family.

  420. You should decide, I'm gonna put five hundred dollars, so

  421. I can do it at fifty dollars the increment.

  422. I can do it at one dollar increment.

  423. I can do.

  424. But you should decide and don't.

  425. Tell them wisdom. I'm saying that decide howsin Mike, Why

  426. are you going so hard on this? Because when you

  427. give to the wrong thing out of the wrong motive,

  428. you don't have what you need to give to the

  429. right thing when God asks you. I'm trying to save

  430. you from not being ready to sew when God.

  431. Tells you to Okay, all right, here we go.

  432. So so write this down. You shouldn't make up your

  433. mind in the moment when it comes to giving. You

  434. should never make up your mind in the moment at

  435. the end of the year. Every year we give an offering.

  436. We call it a crazy faith offering, and we give.

  437. I'm telling you right now you should start praying in May, God,

  438. what is the gift that me and my family are

  439. supposed to give in December? So you don't have to think, oh, shoot,

  440. this December's Christmas time.

  441. It's visit.

  442. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. I'm telling

  443. you in May. I'm gonna tell you again in October.

  444. I'm gonna tell you because I don't want anybody in

  445. this church to ever feel that there is an ounce

  446. of pressure when it comes to give. Why, Because God

  447. wants us all to give cheerfully. This is the attitude.

  448. Write this down. The attitude is greater than the amount.

  449. The attitude of giving is more valuable to God than

  450. the amount of your giving. And most people usually give

  451. with an attitude okay here God finally, and God was like,

  452. I don't want that. I would rather you give and

  453. be excited, skipping cheerful about it, knowing my character as

  454. a good father, than to feel like I'm taking something

  455. from you. And today I need you to understand there

  456. was a woman in the Bible that gave two mites,

  457. and Jesus is there. All the big ballers is out dropping,

  458. they making it rain and throwing stacks, and God calls

  459. the disciples over and you say, you see that woman.

  460. Right there, she just gave two mites.

  461. And they're like, so, He's like, but the attitude in

  462. what she's given, this is sacrificial. This ain't about amounts,

  463. he said. Anywhere the Gospel has talked about this woman

  464. is going to be remembered.

  465. Why it was.

  466. Because of her attitude of getting giving, not the amount

  467. of giving.

  468. Today, what I'm trying to do is.

  469. Teach you that God wants your attitude to be one

  470. that is cheerful. But we have to get into the

  471. right idea and thought process is about giving. I'm just

  472. a giver.

  473. This is what I do.

  474. It's how I show up, it's how I wake up,

  475. it's how I go to sleep every day, and y'all saying,

  476. cousdent Mike, that's so easy for you to say. I

  477. got proof when I was younger and didn't have nothing.

  478. I've always been I decided, watch it, I decided to

  479. be a giver. Cousin, Mike, how do you decide? Decide?

  480. Y'all try to make stuff so spiritual.

  481. But the truth of the matter is, today you could decide,

  482. I'm gonna be the most generous person I know.

  483. Think about it.

  484. Who's the most generous person?

  485. You know? Think about it in your head?

  486. Somebody said me, would anybody else say that? The question is,

  487. would anybody else say you're the most generous person? If

  488. you have multiple people bragging on you that they're like

  489. that when you're not in the room, they're so generous

  490. they Wow, you're starting to get into the territory. Watch this.

  491. That speaks Jesus no matter what room you're in. Okay, okay,

  492. all right, some of y'all want to go in there.

  493. Bless that head.

  494. App I'll called skin tailor bed skoshki Taya. And you're selfish,

  495. and every time you come into the room, you suck

  496. all the energy.

  497. You give nothing.

  498. Y'all know them people that I'm talking about. What would

  499. happen if everywhere you go you've been filled up so much.

  500. That you gotta give it out.

  501. That there's so much abundance on the inside of you

  502. that some of it has got to fall off of me,

  503. because I don't even need all of this. Okay. The

  504. last part of this verse EIGHTA says, and God is

  505. able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things,

  506. I love this language, at all times, having all that

  507. you need, you will abound or be abundant in every

  508. good work.

  509. That's the promise of a sewer.

  510. If you sow all things, all times, all needs men,

  511. there's not a better deal on the market when you

  512. look at the word of God. He says, this is

  513. how I want my children to live. This is the

  514. point that I want you to get from right here.

  515. The reason why it's sowing interrupts every atmosphere. Swing interrupts

  516. every atmosphere.

  517. Right now.

  518. If I was a farmer and I showed you barren Land,

  519. barren Land, if you got a picture of that, just

  520. throw it up on the screen. If I showed you

  521. barren Land right now, most people would look at this

  522. and see nothing but a farmer with faith would a

  523. bag of seed sees nothing but space and opportunity. Why?

  524. Because all I need is some land if I have seed.

  525. All I need is soil if I have seed. Some

  526. of you are looking at a situation that looks like

  527. this right now, and God's saying what we gonna do?

  528. And you let God send the rain even if I

  529. send it. You ain't got no seed in the ground. Okay,

  530. let me come over here. The seed will only be

  531. activated when it's in the ground.

  532. That's when he has to sit in the rain.

  533. But some God do a miracle.

  534. You ain't sawing nothing. Now.

  535. I wasn't great at math, but anything times zero seven

  536. hundred and sixty five million, six hundred and seventy thousand

  537. times zero is zero. I got it a on that test.

  538. When we did zero times stable killed it.

  539. Killed it.

  540. That's the multiplication many of us are doing right now.

  541. We're saying, God, multiply it. And he said, you have

  542. not sown any seed. But a farmer with faith, a

  543. person like you were crazy faith, all you got to

  544. do is have some seed some time and guess what

  545. there will be put up? What a harvest looks like

  546. in this same place. I need you to see what

  547. your life is about to look like. Somebody by faith

  548. needs to see this. You've been sowing seeds for such

  549. a long time.

  550. You've made up your mind.

  551. I'm gonna keep giving even if I.

  552. Don't see anything.

  553. The seasons have not fully changed yet. But this is

  554. about to be my lifestyle. Go back to the other one.

  555. But at one point that looked like this. It takes

  556. faith to show seed when it looks like this. Genesis

  557. eight and twenty two says, as long as the earth remains,

  558. there will be seed.

  559. Time, and then what harvest? So to seed?

  560. Just to side on a soap pastor, Michael, you making

  561. me a promise. I'm not making you a promise. God's

  562. making you a promise. I ain't got nothing. I'm trying

  563. to do this myself. I don't got nothing for you

  564. except to tell you what the word says. And then

  565. me and Natalie and our four kids gonna try to

  566. live this out.

  567. And we have been.

  568. Living it out, and I'm telling you it works. I

  569. have empirical data that my life used to look dry

  570. like this.

  571. I need everybody to help me.

  572. I need to help you understand it didn't happen. Sometimes

  573. I hate being a pastor because people think the things

  574. work in my life because of my position. There are

  575. people that think.

  576. Well, I guess you got it because.

  577. You're the pastor. No, you don't understand. I don't have

  578. a special access point to obeying God that gets me

  579. ahead of the line. I gotta actually do this stuff,

  580. and it's more pressure because if I'm telling you it

  581. work and it ain't working on my life, it's really

  582. a lie.

  583. I can't preach nothing that ain't real.

  584. So I learned this from myself, and today I just

  585. see so many people that are trying to figure out

  586. does God really honor his word? And I'm trying to

  587. tell you he does. If your life looks like this. So,

  588. if you've hit a plateau, so whatever area you're in,

  589. you might have a lot. But if you hit a

  590. plateau so and your situation changes, Okay, this is this

  591. is this is how we're gonna end this. I need

  592. to acknowledge something. It's hard to sew when you're in

  593. the wrong mode. Okay, just everybody hear me. A lot

  594. of us are in modes that make it hard for

  595. us to do what God has told us to do.

  596. In my car.

  597. Recently, I found a different mode there. I was looking

  598. at my car and it has this button that says

  599. off road mode and it and it looked like it's

  600. going up a hill. And I just hit it one

  601. day and I was on the regular street and it

  602. started driving differently.

  603. All the wheels started doing something.

  604. And then I saw there was a fast mode, and

  605. then then I saw there was a cruise mode.

  606. And then I just start hitting all the modes.

  607. And what I realized is that the modes were a

  608. one button touch of one button decision to change my

  609. car into a totally different way of maneuvering the terrain.

  610. And I said, could it be that a lot of

  611. believers are just in the wrong mode when it comes

  612. to giving? And today, I'm gonna give you three modes

  613. that you may be in today that I need you

  614. to potentially shift or change your mode in three sol modes, okay,

  615. identify yourself. The first one is need mode. If you're

  616. in need mode, welcome to human. You're born needing things.

  617. Need mode is our default setting watch this and need

  618. mode is defined watch this by survival. If everything in

  619. your life you're trying to survive right now, you're always

  620. in need mode. Think about it. It's hard to be

  621. able to give when you're always in need mode.

  622. And that mindset thrives on fear.

  623. When you're in need mode. Maybe we're gonna run out

  624. need mode. Who's gonna help me? If need mode? It

  625. didn't work last time? So how are we going to

  626. When you're thinking like this, you literally limit what God

  627. can do through you. But if all you ever do

  628. is need, watch this you become one that is a

  629. consumer mindset. Everywhere you walk into you're trying to see

  630. what can I get? What you gonna do for me?

  631. How is this gonna benefit from me? And then it

  632. starts to affect your relationships. Your relationship to become what

  633. can you do for me? Your faith becomes how does

  634. this benefit me? And right now I need everybody to

  635. switch modes. If you're in a need mode, I need

  636. you to switch modes because this mode ends up in

  637. greed mode.

  638. I don't know where you're at.

  639. You may be in need mode. And if you're in

  640. need mode, the international sign of need mode is.

  641. You give me sign. This also is the sign that children.

  642. Make all the time because when you come out when

  643. you're in a place where you don't understand. You always

  644. are looking up for somebody to give something more to you.

  645. So when you come into rooms, give me more, I

  646. need something. What I'm saying is it's okay. If you're there,

  647. you don't have to stay there. A seed can interrupt

  648. that cycle, and if you don't check this right here,

  649. it turns into greed mode.

  650. Let me tell you what greed mode is. Greed mode is.

  651. And mode that thrives on scarcity. So a lot of

  652. people think greedy is about rich people, because if I

  653. say who's greedy, you would think of probably somebody that

  654. got a lot of money. The truth of matters, you

  655. can be greedy with barely a little bit because it's

  656. all about me being in control with what I got,

  657. and it thrives on scarcity. And I know there are

  658. people in here that's like paws. I'm like, you don't

  659. know my story. What I'm telling you is you can

  660. change it. You can change your relationship with money. You

  661. can change your relationship with finances, you can change your

  662. relationship with stewardship. You can change your relationship with generosity.

  663. By just switching modes, you don't have to live in

  664. need mode. You don't have to live in greed mode.

  665. What I want you to live in is seed mode.

  666. One switch seed mode, PA's of Mike. What's seed mode? Oh?

  667. Seed mode?

  668. It thrives on faith.

  669. It looks at what you have and says, what can

  670. I do with this? Do you know you don't need

  671. any more than you have right now? To live in

  672. seed mode.

  673. Today?

  674. You could flip right now, sitting in this chair seed mode.

  675. I'm going to give something away every day this week.

  676. I dare you to try it. I dare you to

  677. give one thing away every day this week.

  678. It doesn't even have to be an actual object.

  679. You could say, I'm giving thirty minutes to help somebody

  680. do a task they are having trouble doing it every

  681. day this week, and just at the thought of it

  682. right now, some of y'all just got.

  683. Mad at me, my week, my day, pastor.

  684. Need mode, greed mode or what seed mode? Once you

  685. get in seed mode, there's beautiful things that happen.

  686. The Bible says God.

  687. Gives seed to the soul. Hold on wait, So the

  688. prerequisite for more seed is a decision to already sew.

  689. So right now you could qualify for more seed by

  690. just sitting in your chair and saying, God, I'm gonna sew.

  691. And God's like.

  692. All right, send them seed.

  693. I saw that they've decided to sew.

  694. Do you know how powerful that is that right now?

  695. I'm gonna bring it to a really natural example. If

  696. you decided I want olive garden in your heart right now,

  697. and at the moment you decided, somebody came from the

  698. back and handed you olive garden, you would be thinking

  699. all kinds of thoughts, I want ice cream, and then

  700. at the moment you thought somebody brought you ice cream,

  701. I want abs, and then somebody brought from the back.

  702. Think but think about the power of what.

  703. God is saying.

  704. All you would have to do is decide, I really

  705. want to bless that family before they go back to school.

  706. Before that family goes back to school, I really want

  707. to be able to buy all their kids' supplies and

  708. buy them kids backpacks and shoes. That's three months away. God,

  709. I would really even if I can't do the whole thing, God,

  710. I really like to be a part of blessing his

  711. family before they go back to school. At the moment

  712. you decided that in your heart, guess what starts happening.

  713. Send the seed because they've decided to sew.

  714. Church.

  715. When you get this, it changes everything. It removes idols.

  716. Thats why are you saying that? Because the only other

  717. place that God compared himself to anything was when it

  718. came to money. He said, I just need to let

  719. y'all know something real quick. This is why I gotta

  720. deal with this. You can't serve me and serve money

  721. because he knew the human heart would be in tension

  722. to believe God or believe money. Because some of y'all

  723. have said either God needs to come through or I

  724. just need some more money. You still need God to

  725. come through if you got all the money in the world.

  726. Do y'all hear what I'm saying.

  727. Passing Mike, You've been on this because I want you

  728. to get it. Don't live in need mode, don't live

  729. in greed mode, live in seed mode. And I'm just

  730. gonna get this to all the real crazy people. There's

  731. one more level that wasn't in the notes. It's beast mode.

  732. Now I'm now don't tell nobody, but this is for

  733. the people who to tithe. They know that's the basement,

  734. and when they get in the offerings, like, yeah, I

  735. live in seed mode. I give, but then there's another

  736. level of giving. Because there's levels to this. It's called

  737. sacrificial offerings.

  738. And I'm just telling you about it. You can read

  739. through it all in the Bible.

  740. One of the greatest places that it's seen is with

  741. Solomon in Ecclesiastes or No, No, no no. This was in

  742. First Kings when God it was customary for there to

  743. be one bull sacrifice to God. And at the moment

  744. that it was time to sacrifice the bull, everybody else

  745. did one. Solomon did a thousand. The requirement was one.

  746. His offering was a thousand. This moved God so much

  747. that he came to Solomon and the dream that night

  748. is like, what you want, bro, I was really expecting

  749. you to do one, two, five?

  750. What you want?

  751. One of the only places in the Bible where we

  752. see God literally coming to somebody say tell me what

  753. you want.

  754. Because I saw my heart.

  755. I saw a heart that could handle abundance.

  756. I saw a heart that was not.

  757. Just trying to give the basic I saw a heart

  758. that looked like mine, what do you want? And then

  759. watch how gangster Solomon is. He says, God, all I

  760. need is wisdom.

  761. To govern your people.

  762. God was like, no, you didn't, No, you didn't just

  763. ask for wisdom.

  764. No you didn't. He got excited again.

  765. Because he could have used that moment to be greedy.

  766. He could have if God comes to you and says,

  767. what do you want? Okay, I'm so glad you asked.

  768. Let's star you upset. Come on, y'all, let's be honest.

  769. I am so glad you asked lists like.

  770. What was Solomon's request? What I need need to help them?

  771. Give me wisdom to govern your people. It was an

  772. act of generosity. I'm not gonna use this moment to

  773. hoard something to me. I need to get what I

  774. need so I can give them what they need. And

  775. God was like, you know what, because I see my

  776. reflection in you, I'm not begging you, I'm not taking

  777. them from you really want this because you want to

  778. be generous. He said, Now I'm gonna bless you with

  779. the wisdom and I'm gonna give you all the resources.

  780. There's a beast mode to sewing that has nothing to

  781. do with what God requires. It has everything to do

  782. with you trying to respond to God's goodness.

  783. And one day I'll do.

  784. A whole series on it, because it's gonna have to

  785. be people who are ready for this level. But there

  786. is a level that you get to where the harvest

  787. overtakes the sewing, where you start telling other people, somebody,

  788. come and get some of this, Dad. There's a level

  789. that you can get to where you're saying, my boat's

  790. sinking too many fish. If I keep getting this type

  791. of load, I'm gonna drown with all of this.

  792. Some my competition, come get some of this.

  793. Some of y'all businesses is gonna be so blessed you're

  794. gonna be able to call your competition, y'all, don't hear me.

  795. Some of y'all are about to walk in abundance where

  796. you're gonna be able to tell your neighbors, Hey, I

  797. can't deal with all of I don't eat.

  798. I can't manage all of this.

  799. Oh God, I just decided I want to be accused

  800. of abundance. If I'm guilty, that's something I want to

  801. be guilty of giving. That's why I want to be

  802. blasted for blessing people. You want to blast me for

  803. something always blessing somebody. What if that was the disposition

  804. of God's people that's what we were known for. Forget everybody,

  805. that's what you was known for. Today I asked all

  806. these spirits how I was supposed to end this message,

  807. and something really awesome came and fell into my lap.

  808. This right here is somebody's faith from prison. Many of

  809. you know that we have a partnership with God behind bars,

  810. and we have put a significant investment in providing inmates

  811. all over the world who the Bible many times calls

  812. the least of these, those who are forgotten about. We

  813. want them to have a way to connect with God

  814. and people on the outside. And so we've bought hundreds,

  815. if not thousands of tablets through the generosity and giving

  816. of people in this church, and it's going into prisons

  817. all over the country. I was gonna call with the

  818. people from God behind bars, and they were telling us

  819. all the stats, and these beautiful people who made bad

  820. mistakes and ended up in jail, some of them for life,

  821. are still souls that God cares about. I thought I

  822. was gonna get more amens than that. And these people

  823. write in send us letters, tell us how the messages

  824. transformed their life. And I got this. I'm gonna not

  825. say the name, but a young man that was in

  826. prison heard a message similar to this and decided to

  827. start honoring God with a tithe and the offering off

  828. of the money that was coming in from his family

  829. for a commissary. Now, listen to me say this to you.

  830. Listen to me say this to you. So impacted by

  831. the revelation and how many years he just didn't know.

  832. His whole thing is, I just didn't know. Nobody told me.

  833. And he saw the.

  834. Scriptures and went through. He was like, I'm gonna honor God.

  835. And now if you.

  836. Don't know what commissary is, this is where people literally

  837. send you money and then you can get like twinkies

  838. and Ramen noodles and all that stuff. It's their only

  839. exciting thing that they can do. And some people it's

  840. like this, what'd you say, bricks, ritz, crackers, Okay, bricks whatever.

  841. That was some prison talk.

  842. I don't know what he said, Uh, text me later,

  843. But what I'm saying is people, people, people, this is

  844. their enjoyment in prison. This is two dollars and fifty

  845. cent here here here, hear what I'm saying. And this

  846. person wrote the letter and basically said, I want to

  847. live how God asked me to live and this is

  848. my faith. Step in walking this out and put this

  849. in an envelope and sent a letter to the church

  850. with two dollars and fifty cents to this brother lives

  851. in seed mode because it wasn't about an amount. This

  852. was his faith. And today this is going on the

  853. ground and for somebody else, you're gonna be able to

  854. give two thousand dollars and twenty five hundred dollars and

  855. it wouldn't even matter. But what if we all got

  856. into seed mode and said, God, I'm gonna honor you

  857. at the top that's yours already, but I'm gonna ask

  858. you beforehand, what do you want me to give? How

  859. often do you want me to give? What you want

  860. me to do? God, open my eyes to see like

  861. a farmer, to know that every seed that goes in

  862. has to produce fruit. It interrupts every atmosphere. I have

  863. gone into places where I know I was hated, and

  864. I sold a seed and it changed the whole atmosphere.

  865. In that room where you know your coworkers don't like

  866. you bring coffee every Thursday, just bring it. I'm just saying,

  867. maybe you could interrupt the things that are happening in

  868. that atmosphere, if you thought more like God standing all

  869. over this building. This morning, I was reminded of I

  870. fly a lot, and when I fly, one of the

  871. most one of the most troubling things about flying is

  872. going through the security checkpoint. And I don't know if

  873. you've ever flown there, but part of it is you

  874. have to think about what.

  875. You have on.

  876. You gotta think about if your shoes got metal in it,

  877. you gotta think about it, if you had a surgery

  878. and your knee gotta screw in it. You gotta think

  879. about all the other things. And to bypass all of that,

  880. there's this thing called TSA pre check, And if you

  881. get TSA pre check, what you do basically is you

  882. send all your information ahead and they know where to

  883. find you if anything is wrong. And the goal of

  884. actually going through TSA is to be able to go

  885. through it without getting stopped. My friend and I were

  886. talking earlier, and he said, the goal in heaven is

  887. to go through the TSA before you get to heaven

  888. and not get stopped because you've already emptied everything out.

  889. Think about it, think about it. The thing is going

  890. to be deep in heaven for many of us. Deep

  891. de deep, oh, you got so much still b beep

  892. beep you. I'm like, I'm coming and it's still. He said,

  893. that can't come in here. Don't store up for yourselves

  894. on this earth. Some of y'all are trying to take stuff.

  895. When you get to heaven, you can't take it through.

  896. So the goal is to sow as much. The international

  897. sign for those who are in need? Is this the

  898. ones who are in greed? Is this the ones who

  899. are in seed? Because when we get to heaven, he said,

  900. what did you do with what I gave you? How

  901. many families did you help? How many lives did you transform?

  902. How many people did you send on missions trips? How

  903. many churches did you build? How many neighbors did you help?

  904. I want to be found guilty of giving. That means

  905. that I might need to switch my mode. If you're

  906. in this room, and you might need to switch your

  907. mode from need mode or greed mode into seed mode

  908. or even beast mode. I want you to lift your

  909. hands all over this place, and all of us have

  910. a place that we can grow in journey to Father

  911. in the name of Jesus. You see us, you know us,

  912. you made us. And today, God, I thank you that

  913. there was some revelation shared that could help all of

  914. us move into another level of generosity. Father, there is

  915. no pressure, there is no offering, There is no moment

  916. right now that we're asking for anything. God, I'm asking

  917. that you would speak to us clearly and move us

  918. out of a fear mindset or a scarcity mindset into abundance. God,

  919. I thank you that we can start living by faith

  920. when it comes to our finances right now, with those

  921. bills on the table, with that student loan, lingering, with

  922. all the things that you already know. Father, God, thank

  923. you that we're moving into a mindset that switches. So

  924. we will be just like you. We will be ones

  925. who give over and over and over and over again.

  926. Give us like a farmer.

  927. Let us be able to see dry and barren land

  928. and be able to see the future because of the

  929. seed that we possess in our hand. And God, I

  930. thank you that your children know your voice and a stranger,

  931. they will not listen to make us abundant, not for

  932. a show, not for people to be drawn to us,

  933. but so people can be drawn to you. Father God,

  934. Today we're asking you to do a work in our

  935. hearts so that we can be made more like you

  936. Jesus' name. Even in this same mode, I want you

  937. to know that God never ask you for anything without

  938. giving to you first. So if you're in this room

  939. and you've never received Jesus, I want you to know

  940. that He already gave his son so that you could

  941. have everlasting life. If you want to know what it's

  942. like to experience overwhelming generosity, all you have to do

  943. is receive Jesus by faith. It's the thing that took

  944. me from being a manipulator, addicted to pornography, a liar,

  945. a manipulator. All of those things is who I was.

  946. That was my natural state. And God said, come on,

  947. give me your heart and I'll help you change your habits.

  948. And today I want to give you the same invitation.

  949. I don't care if you're watching. I don't care if

  950. you was at the club last night. I don't care

  951. what you're planning to do tomorrow. I don't care if

  952. you have tons of secrets. Right now, God wants your

  953. heart and I need the church to begin to pray

  954. because somebody's life is.

  955. In the balance.

  956. Whether you're watching this on the pandor app or you're

  957. watching this on a rebroadcast, or you're watching it six

  958. years from now, and somebody just sent you this message.

  959. Today is your day of salvation, and today I believe

  960. that God wants to introduce you to his son Jesus.

  961. If that's you and you want to make Jesus Christ

  962. your personal Lord and savior, I'm telling you it's gonna

  963. set you on a journey of progression that will change

  964. your life forever. But it starts with one choice, and

  965. the choice is Jesus. If you're saying, pastor, I want

  966. to be added into that prayer on account of three,

  967. I just want you to slip your hand in the air.

  968. Whether you're in the room or you're watching online, I

  969. just want you to say, pastor.

  970. I want to be a part of that prayer. I

  971. want to make Jesus my Lord and savior. I see you.

  972. Since already one, you're making the greatest decision of your life.

  973. I see you, my brother.

  974. Two, your name is gonna be written in the Lamb's

  975. Book of Life. Three, just shuit your hand up all

  976. over this place. I see you. I see you, come

  977. on TC. More than I see you, God sees you.

  978. Glory to God. I see you, my brother. You can

  979. put your hand down. We're not gonna make you confess. Hopefully,

  980. one day you'll get with some community that you trust

  981. and you can be able to share what God's doing

  982. in your life. But today we're gonna make a confession together.

  983. Because at TC we're a family. Nobody prays alone. So

  984. I want everybody just to lift your hands and say, God,

  985. thank you for giving Jesus just for me. Today. I

  986. admit I'm a sinner and I need a savior, and

  987. I turn to you. I repent and I ask you

  988. to redeem my life. I believe you lived, you died,

  989. and you rose again with all power just for me.

  990. Here's my life. Change me, renew me, transform me. I'm

  991. yours forever in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh can we celebrate

  992. with all of those Oh, come on TC.

  993. That should be the loudest shout of the day. Holley

  994. Jui j'a