The Tragedy Of Trying // Mustard: The Seed That Can Change Everything (Part 4) // Michael Todd

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

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

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

God will transform your life.

Do today's message Today.

I feel like I have a unique assignment because I've

realized as I was praying, there's a lot of people

who their faith has been fatigued that right now you

hear us talking about another miracle, and all you hear

is another chance for failure. We're saying another one is

on the way, and you'd be like, I don't really

feel like doing all the extra it takes to believe

God again. And this is not something everybody's gonna come

out and say, because we want to present like.

We really do believe God. But the truth of the matter.

Is, and a lot of our situation once it don't

work out one time how we thought it was, we

want to apply our faith in other areas, never in

the same one again.

And today I want to encourage you.

That God may want to heal you from your faith fatigue.

Today I want to encourage people who have stopped trying

to use their faith. Some of you.

The honest truth is you've stopped trying, and today write

down the title of my message, the Tragedy of Trying,

The Tragedy of Trying, Matthew seventeen, verse fourteen through twenty.

I'm gonna read a lot of scripture, and I'm gonna

read it out of the amplified version. But I think

this is going to really help you. And I'm excited

for what God is about to say. When they approached

the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, kneeling before

him and saying, now, put yourself in this story.

It's happening right in front of you. Lord, have mercy

on my son. He's a lunatic.

Some of y'all say that about y'all kids right now.

He suffers terribly, for he often falls into the fire.

He'd be trying to burn himself up, and then he

tries to drown himself into water. And I brought him

to your disciples, and they were not able to heal him.

And Jesus answered you unbelieving and preferred generation, How long

shall I be with you? The guy's talking to him,

but he talks to the disciples. The guy is saying,

I need a miracle, and his first response is to

the ones who did not perform the miracle. I just

want you to watch this, he said, How long shall

I be with you?

How long shall I put up with you?

Bring that boy here? Verse eighteen. Jesus rebuked the demon,

and it came out of him, and the boy was

healed at once immediately verse nineteen. A little later then

the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, hey, Jayce,

just a little question. Why couldn't we drive the demon ol?

He answered, because of your little faith, your lack of

trust watch this and confidence in the power of God.

The reason you weren't able to do it is because

you lack trust and confidence, not in yourself, but in

the power of God.

For I assure you and most solemnly say to.

You, if you have watched this living faith.

Not just faith.

If you have somebody say, living living faith the size

of a mustard seed, you will say to this, what's

the biggest thing I can find?

The mountain be moved from here to there?

And if it is in God's will, And if it

is in God's will, it will move, and nothing will

be impossible for you. And then he gives this caveat

but this kind that we dealt with this morning does

not come out except by prayer and fasting. Well, this

scripture is a little confusing because the truth of the

matter is the disciples actually trying to do what they

were taught to do, and when they actually believed and

tried to do it, it didn't work. And what happens

when you do what God showed you how to do,

what he told you to do, but what you did

didn't get you to result that you was looking for,

and then he rebukes you for it.

This don't seem fair. How in the world is the

response to.

Me doing what you said for me to do and

it not working? Be like, get your faith up?

Huh?

My faith was up. That's why I did it. That's

why I gave, That's why I believed, That's why I went.

There, That's why I sold, That's why I moved.

That's why I did it, and it didn't work.

Where are the real people that will tell me today

and be honest that you've done some things in God, in.

Faith and it did not work.

All right, I'm in the right room today. What do

you do when you tried to do what God said

to do and it doesn't work. The truth of the

matter is most of us stop trying. And today I

just want to give the disciples a little more credit

because the demonic boy with the Daddy, they were faced

with the solution and they didn't run from it. They

actually tried. It's more than I can say for a

lot of believers. When you're faced with a situation that's

bigger than what you've ever handled before, most of us

be like, hold on one second, let me go and

figure out who can help you.

This is over my pay grade. Let me go get

the manager. Hey, I ain't never dealt with no situation like.

I've never run a business by myself. I've never actually

been pure, I've actually never actually kept my word. I've

actually this is bigger than me. Let me go find

somebody who can really help you. But what I found

out is that most people stop trying because they're trying

to avoid a tragedy. And today I need to confront

the part of you that's trying to save you from

some future moment that is not even guaranteed to come,

but probably will come. If you stay in Christ long enough,

you will fail in your faith.

And I know nobody wants to hear that.

But the truth of the matter is, I would rather

you walk in truth and honesty and actually know what's coming,

so that you can prepare yourself and calibrate your mind

to walk in this crazy faith and know that sometimes

you're gonna have crazy faith and it fails. They're not

ready for the real of this message today. But today

I'm gonna help somebody because you've stopped trying altogether because

you thought the failure was final.

You stop trying, you don't believe God.

When somebody's sick, you automatically really reach for the medicine

and you don't pray for them no more.

When the Bible clearly says we.

Can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

And we're not even talking about a terminal disease. We're

talking about a headache. And as soon as a headache comes,

you looking for bear and aspirin and everything, and you

won't even.

Lay your hands on the sick.

Okay, I'm getting too personal because most people you tried it.

One time, you tried it on yourself. It didn't work.

It's like I know aspirin works. My trust is more

an aspirin than the anointing. Because I tried it once

and it failed, I ain't doing it. That's why some

of y'all don't invite people to church no more. It's

because you tried once they came, and because they didn't

have a conversion, it made you feel some type of

way about yourself.

And now they're in.

A whole nother religion trying to convert you to being

a Muslim.

And you're like, hold on, wait, this curl.

And one person who did not believe, which was none

of your fault, made you afraid to try again. Okay,

all right, here we go.

Today.

I need to confront what keeps you from trying to

use your faith. And today I'm gonna give you a

few principles because the tragedy you're trying to avoid maybe

the reason why your faith has stunted. Most of us

have stunted growth in our faith because we're trying to

avoid something. And I just wanted to ask you real

questions through this story. What are you trying to avoid?

What are you trying not to experience? And so you

won't step out in faith and look a little crazy

for the sake of God, because I don't want.

To experience nothing.

Let's see what happens verse sixteen, and it says, and

I brought him to your disciples and they were not

able to heal him.

Let's just set the scene.

Jesus's disciples are going out two by two doing what

Jesus told them to do. They go to perform the miracle,

and the little boys, like, I mean, just think about it,

in the name of Jesus, come.

Out and here I'm coming after you. And it's like

and the Dad's like, I think it's getting worse. You

know what I'm saying.

It's like, oh, he ain't never done this before.

And the.

Dad's like, all right, y'all quit, y'all come here, boy,

come on, uh just think about it.

How would you feel as the disciple.

And like okay, yeah, y'all go in peace.

And you and they talking to each other like yo, bro,

that was crazy man, Like hopefully man, I don't know

it worked yesterday.

But did you pray this morning? Like everything good?

You need something to confess something, bro, I don't know.

Let's shrug that off, hoping you would never see that

man and his son again. Oh y'all come on right now,

have you ever done anything embarrassing, and you praying to

people who saw it you never see him again.

Imagine forty five minutes later, you with Jesus.

You ain't told him what happened. You come back and

everybody like, how was the ministry tking? Man?

Wow? Powerful?

Powerful?

It saw some things we never seen before. And then

and then the man comes up.

It was like Jesus, Jesus, can I get a minute

with you?

And dicycle, Oh, shoot, there you go.

It is like, yeah, yeah, had an encounter with your

people earlier today, and my son he's full of demons

and I think.

They gave him some more. He's worse than he was

before and they tried to do it but they couldn't.

But can you how do you think the disciples felt

in that moment? Embarrassed? And the first thing I need

you to.

Write down the first thing, and the first reason why

you don't try is because you're trying.

To avoid embarrassment.

Most of us are trying to save face to people

who we don't even live our life for trying to

make sure they think about us in a way that

we think about ourselves, but we don't even know what

they think.

To change the way we think about ourselves.

And the truth of the matter is, if I'm going

to be embarrassed in front of anybody and for any cause,

why wouldn't I be embarrassed for the cause of Christ?

Why wouldn't I stick my neck out there and look

a little crazy and a little unconventional for.

The only one who stoock their life out there for me?

When I was yet a sinner, he said, I don't

know if they will accept me, but I'm willing to

stick my neck out there and put my life on

the line and be embarrassed in front of all of

Heaven to allow them to have an opportunity to have

relationship with me. And most of us will not step

across the line and use our faith because we're trying

to avoid the tragedy of being embarrassed.

How many times have.

You stopped doing what God told you to do because

you don't want to look weak?

Start the business? Will only three people come in?

He didn't ask you to be the one who controls

the outcome. He asked you to be faithful over the instruction.

And now you posting, will only three people come into

your class? Three people come in to your talk, three

people coming to your to your presentation, and now you

stop posting about it because because you don't want to

be embarrassed, you stopped sharing what God is telling you

in private. Because the last time you share, you said,

God told me I was gonna lose thirty pounds in

the next six months. And in the first three days

you were strong in the gym, the water was flowing,

the walking was going.

And then somehow life hit and now you stop.

Posting about the journey, you stop talking to your friends,

you stop telling them about the business plan. It's because

I'm trying to save myself from being embarrassed.

And today the reason I have to.

Confront this is because the disciples are in an embarrassing

situation that did not stop them from the process of

allowing their faith to grow. They get embarrassed, that is embarrassing,

but they keep staying in the process, and most of

us at the moment of embarrassment, I'm.

Done with that. The one thing you ain't never gonna

do is make me look a ho.

Come on, some of y'all got this. The one thing

I ain't gonna do is look stupid. And my question is,

who are you doing this for? Who in the world

are you trying to save Phase four. When the God

of the universe is asking you to do something.

Don't forget.

He gave the disciples the instruction to go out and heal.

He didn't say every time you lay hand, somebody gonna

fall out and get healed.

He said, you have the power.

To do this if you lay hands and get healed.

And at the moment of failure, at the moment of

their try and it didn't work out, they had a tragedy.

I'm embarrassed, but it didn't stop them from watch engaging.

Write it down. Embarrassment should never stop your faith from.

Engaging, because so many of us at the moment of embarrassment,

I stop engaging.

But let's see what else these disciples found out in

verse seventeen, because all of us are trying to avoid

a tragedy. But I'm telling you, when you try, there

might be a tragedy. The next one is And Jesus answered, you,

unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I.

Be with you? How long shall I put up with you?

Bring him to me? Hold on, dang, Jesus, we messed up.

But you didn't have to blast us like that.

In front of the man.

Like like he talking to you, just heal the boy

talk to us later. Come on, y'all, y'all know there's

another level of being like like.

Told what to do, but told what to do in

front of everybody.

This is where many other people, if they don't check

out embarrassment, they check out watch this at correction.

Okay.

See, most believers right now only want to be corrected

by God himself. And what you're walking in is pride

and ego because God always uses men and women on

earth to actually bring correction.

And he will show himself and his word.

But the thing is, you cannot have correction without submission.

And most people in this world do not have anybody

that has to sit down and shut up card in

their lives. And because you run your own situation, and

nobody can speak for God except God at his word

will tell me.

And sometimes your cousin been telling you the whole time.

Lead them alone, Lead them alone, Lead them alone. They

don't know me, they don't know my situation, they don't

know how my money flow, they don't.

Know how my heart and it is built. Leave them alone.

And because you're not under submission, you cannot accept correction.

Hear what I'm saying, correction is a sign of love,

Oh God. And most of us have viewed correction not

punishment because I need to heal some of the childhood trauma.

There are some people that have confused correction with punishment.

Punishment has emotion involved. That's why some of us, as children,

we got punished, not disciplined.

We got punished.

Your mama was mad that you embarrassed her by not

getting the grades, so she whooped you because you made

her look bad, not because she wanted to help correct

the situation. And so I need you to differentiate because

God doesn't punish you because he loves you. He corrects

you because he loves you. And some of us need

to delineate and forgive and go to counseling to be

able to help you turn that around, because what you're

doing now is doing the same thing that happened to.

You with no understanding.

And some of your kids are getting punished because it's

emotional backlash involved in the reason why you're doing what

you're doing to them, because now you're gonna waste my

time and I gotta come up here and I gotta

do this, and hey, you're training them in the way

that they should go, so when they get older, they

don won't depart. That's why that may be a generational

p that some of you need to break. And I'm

gonna leave it right there because some of y'all need counseling.

Let me go to another camera. That camera too hot.

So so the disciples get embarrassed after their try, and

then they get openly corrected after their try, but they

don't disengage from the process. You don't ever hear about

the disciples leaving this moment going away. And I just

want to ask you if you tried to use your

faith and it did not work and you were embarrassed,

and then God corrected you on how you did, what

you did, who you told, what you would you try again,

because because the tragedy of trying is there might be

a moment where it don't work, and what do you

do when everything you said and you believed was gonna

happen doesn't happen like that these disciples.

I love the Word of God because it was.

Divinely inspired and put together by a whole bunch of

people in different places in different season, and put together

and used by God.

And divinely works together.

And if I was writing my own story, I would

only put the highlights in. This story wouldn't have made

the Bible if I was a disciple writing it. But

God uses their failure to teach all of us something

about continuing to use our faith. So please extract from

their disappointment the faith and the courage to try again.

So what keeps us from trying? The first thing embarrassment.

The second thing that keeps us from trying is correction.

Watch this the third thing that keeps us from trying,

we find in verse nineteen. Then the disciples came to

Jesus privately and act ask.

Why could we not drive it out?

I love this because the truth of the matter is,

after I was embarrassed and corrected, I ain't bringing it.

Up no more. Come on, let's just be honest.

Why would we ever go back to that moment unless

you want to bring it up to give us some

pep talking encouragement.

I'm done with it. Some of y'all had stuff happened

to you in nineteen seventy nine. Ain't nobody ever talked

about it again?

And you ain't gonna bring it up till the next

side of heaven.

You just leave it alone.

But these disciples show us something.

They want to know why, they're actually intrigued beyond their

embarrassment and the correction to actually go back to Jesus

when it didn't work and ask the question, why.

Didn't this work? Why didn't the relationship go the way

I thought? Why did I get that job?

God? Why after I facetted and prayed and moved to

that city did it feel like, oh hell broke loose

against me? Why didn't that business actually make me financially free?

Why did that move put me in more debt?

Why would I pray for my family member they still die?

Why?

Today I have to correct this theology because many of

you been taught not to ask God.

Why don't question God?

Just because your bishop don't have the answer, don't mean

God don't have it.

Okay, let me stop.

Just because your group leader don't have the answer, they're

not supposed to. His ways are not our ways, His

thoughts are not our thoughts.

God is not offended.

This tells us you can ask him why. Some of

y'all would be able to try again if you just

he's honest with God and say why why did I

have Why did it end in divorce.

Why don't know?

No, my kids serve God?

Why do I feel so lonely? Why it's not wicked? Why?

Just exposes that it's past your understanding, and faith begins

where understanding ends. So the question why, many times, is

the invitation into an understanding of faith that you did

not have before. The reason you couldn't get it before

is because you acted like you knew it before. But

when you get to the end of yourself, that's when

God shows up. When you get to the end of

how I thought it was gonna happen, that's when God

shows up.

When you get to the end of your money.

That's when God shows up as Jehovah Dyro, my provider.

The question why may be an indicator of the level of.

Faith you're about to walk into.

And the thing that almost kept these disciples from asking

why is because when you ask why, watch this, it

exposes your insufficiencies. Whenever you say why, that means you

couldn't figure it out. Whenever you say why, it means oh, oh,

I don't know. And so many believers are trying to

look like they're in control instead of giving over that

control and living a life of surrender independence. I don't

know why God called me into this. I don't know

why people make up stories about me. I found out

last week. I'm like in the top third of the Illuminati. Nah,

I'm like at the like I'm in the top tier.

I was like, dang, y'all for me? I mean whole

graph and chart and everything I screen shouted. I thought

it was cool, like, wow, we made it the woman.

I don't even know how to spell that.

But but why God, why would why would people make

ups to why?

I'm just you asked me to lead people. I don't

even want to Wow, Okay, I can't. I can't be honest. Why?

Why did this?

Why did my son have to have autism? Why is

he in therapy four times a week? Why we have

to hire somebody to go to school with him?

Why? Why?

Why did my wife go through depression?

Why? Why did why do we have to.

Do counseling three times a month and five days? Why

do we have Why? Why can't this just work?

Why? Why? I believe you? I did what you said,

I prayed, I gave. I didn't do what I wanted

to do. I wanted to be a producer. I wanted

to be.

On the renaissance door right now. I wanted to be

playing drums for Beyonce, but I get so bayed my

will and obeyed your soul.

Okay, y'all don't want to be real with.

Me, but this is where your faith comes to a

point where it makes you stop trying. Because if you

don't think you can ask God why.

Then you walk away. Hear what I just said.

Wherever you can't ask why, you usually walk away. That's

why many parents don't have a good relationship with their

kids in old age because they were never able to

ask their parents why. Oh God, I'm giving y'all some

real advice right now. If you create a situation with

your children where they never can question, not that they'd

grown big and bad, but why gotta do it right

now because this is what I'm asking you to if

you don't have the patience to explain to them. I

know some of the black parents are like, oh what

what You're gonna ask me?

Why?

Boy? I brought you into this where I'll turn you out?

Hold await murder is the answer.

But I'm just saying that's why when they form their

own lives, they don't have a connection because they were

never asked able to ask you, why.

Did dad leave? Oh?

God, why do we live with that family? For three weeks?

You didn't tell me what was happening. I know I

got popsicles every day, but why?

Oh?

Come on, y'all know what we try to But why

do we live with that family? Why did our car

just disappear?

Okay, let me stop, but you stop.

You walk away from everything you can't ask why too,

And so many people have walked away from using their

faith because they have felt like asking.

God why was disrespectful? Dishonoring? But God can handle your why? Jeez,

that's power right there.

They take a position, watch this of humility, and they say, hey,

I'm insufficient to understand and put the blues clues together

for myself. So God, I'm coming straight to you. Why

couldn't we do what we've seen you do one hundred times?

And because of their question, he answers, oh, I love

Jesus that he didn't offer the answer before the question,

but when he got the question, the next word in

verse twenty was he answered, So some of you, the

enemy has trying to be has tried to keep you

from just asking the question. Because as soon as you

ask it, he'll answer.

As soon as you ask him, what do I need

to do to actually be successful? He'll answer.

And if you get the faith to try again, to

approach God again, to use your mustard seed faith again,

I'm telling you there's another answer on the way, it said,

he answered. Let me be honest with y'all. The reason

it didn't work for you is because of your little faith,

your lack of trust and confidence in my power.

You might have been trusting in the action. You might

have been trusting.

In the words that you said, he said, But you

should have been trusting in my power to act in

that situation, he said, For I assure you, and most

solemnly say to you, if you had living faith the

size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain.

He literally looked at the biggest thing he could find around.

He said, the mountain would be.

No match for just a little living faith. You would

be able to tell it to move from here to

there and watch this. If it was God's will, this

is the one that people struggle with. You can speak

to a mountain, but if you speak to it with

faith and it's not God's will, it ain't moving, Oh God,

And this is where you have to reconcile the sovereignty

of God. That there's some things I won't that he

won't allow. Oh God, there's some things I desire that

he's saying. It ain't happening no matter how much you fashion,

no matter how much you pray, no matter how that's

not my.

Will for this situation.

Why can't it happen? Because I'm not gonna let it happen.

And I can't even explain to you why it's not

gonna happen. And most people say, fine, then I'm taking

my ball and I won't play no more. That's what

you try to do with God. I'm taking my faith

and I won't use it no more. I'm taking my

belief and I won't use it no more.

He said that was just.

One thing, Yeah, that was just one thing you believed for.

And I said, no, it needs to stay right there

because you don't know what's gonna happen six years from now,

and that mountain's gonna need to be there for you.

But keep believing for this. No, I'm not trusting you anymore.

Come on, we don't say it like that, but that's

what we.

Do I'm gonna put my faith in bitcoin. Mh.

I'm gonna put my faith in the comman. I'm gonna

put my faith in this person. I'm gonna put my faith.

In you didn't let that mountain move, You didn't move

me from there.

I should be rich, bright now, I should not have

these problems.

I should be out of the hmm.

And the disciples are faced with this with Jesus talking

to them. The next thing that we try to avoid

beyond embarrassment correction are efficiencies being exposed. Is watch this

the requirement for growth. Basically, he said, why can't this happen?

Why weren't we.

Able to do this? Because you got to grow more?

And most of us have lost the spirit of teachability.

Most believers, after they mastered the fundamentals in their mind,

they stop being teachable. And I have found that this

is the quickest way to cut off your growth is

to think that you already know. I can't tell you

how many rooms I walk into and intentionally act like

I don't know, just so I can get new information.

Oh y'all, don't hear what I'm saying. Everybody has something

to teach me. Teach me by their ignorance or their intelligence.

Do you hear me, I'll never.

Say that, or man, that's great language. And many of

us as believers come into everything knowing. That's why I

respect so much the senior saints and those who are

older than me that call me their pastor. It's because

you walk in a different level of humility. You're still teachable,

You're able to say, I don't care how old this

young man is. If God's speaking through.

Him, and if it's in aligne with his word, and

if it.

Checks out in my will, I can follow him. It's Joshua,

it's David, it's young people that God said, don't let

them look at you because you're young, Timothy, walk in

what I've called you to walk into. And so many

people in this room are scared to try because I

don't think they'll follow me.

I'm too young. I don't got enough experience.

And the truth of the matter is, as you're sitting here,

you're fighting the requirement that God's gonna put on you

to grow.

Some of you. The level of faith that you have

now is not enough for what you're praying for.

I'm gonna say it again because that was so nasty.

For some of you.

The level of faith that you're on right now is

not enough for what you are praying for. He gives

the disciples the key at the very end. I'm just

gonna skip to it. He said, y'all should have prayed

and fasted before you tried to encounter that. He said,

you couldn't recognize. You weren't able to delineate what type

of spirit that was. So you tried to approach it

with regular tactics. When you needed to tell that man,

meet me right back here tomorrow. They could have gone,

they could have got the miracle, but they were not

able to perceive what they were dealing with because they

were at a level of immaturity that their faith had

not grown.

Jesus was able to delineate.

And I promise you that's why Jesus was always withdrawing

to go pray in fast, so that whenever he met

and encountered something, He said, the reason y'all couldn't do

that because y'all was eating last night. Your appetite was

for something else that was not going to be ready

for what you were gonna encounter today. That's why you

can't watch everything. That's why you can't listen to everything,

because I'm gonna have something that I encounter tomorrow that

means my faith and my mind to be sober enough

to walk in the power and the authority.

That God has given me.

That show is not gonna equip you for.

The demon you meet tomorrow.

Oh God, that conversation that gossip is not gonna prepare you.

I know it's appetizing to your flesh, but watching everything

that's happening in the Diddy case is not gonna give

you the strips you need to face that demon tomorrow. Okay,

excuse me for a second, he.

Said, some of y'all need to withdraw.

If you would have had the spiritual maturity, you could

have got.

That demon out.

But you weren't able to recognize what you were dealing with.

So you approach something irregular regularly, and some of y'all

trying to put in the name of Jesus, change this

Lord on something. You need to be in the closet,

praying and fast.

And for okay, let me stop. So Jesus.

Was confronting the disciples and telling them you're gonna have

to grow, and this is the beautiful thing all of

us can grow in our faith. Everybody say I can

grow in my faith. How do you grow in your faith?

You gotta try. I'm gonna tell you an embarrassing story.

It was about four and a half years ago where

I decided to take my health journey seriously and to

the point where I was going to invest in it.

And God told me a long time ago that he

would only bless the ministry to the level my body

could take it. And that's not everybody's rule, but I

know the Holy Spirit gave me a conviction on my unhealth,

my eating everything, and so I was like, all right,

I'm gonna start working out, and let me just say

this out loud to let everybody know and to maybe

have a runway into your own journey. It was thirty

two years of my life that I had never actually

worked out, Like I just need everybody to hear what

I'm saying. Thirty two years old, I had never been

in a gym session.

For what.

I mean, in your twenties, you could just get through

on adrenaline and like.

Strength, like it's just to come from nowhere.

As soon as thirty year, it was like everything I

ate just was like I'll sit right here, I'll sit

right here.

I'll go right here. They were building pyramids on me.

It was like playing Tetris.

And and even people who look healthy, many of them aren't. Okay,

let's just be skinny doesn't mean healthy. So so I

went to the gym with my trainer, Coach Vic, and

I was real with him. I was like, hey, bro,

I ain't never worked out before a day in my life.

I trust you, but I don't know what I'm doing.

So just kind of helped me through this whole process.

He said, I got you, big dog.

And as he said that, it made me scared.

Because he called me a dog right off the back,

and he's like big dog, and he was saying all

these aggressive words. And I remember remember vividly going to

the gym one day and Coach picks up fifteen pound

weights when he first started training me, Gia was just born,

and he will come to the house and he will

only bring ten pound weights. And I was excited because

I was like, no matter what, I can pick up

ten pounds. And I remember we was in the gym

for the first time. This after like six months of training.

He picks up fifteen pounds and I go to the

fifteens and he puts me on the bench and he says,

all right, big dog, give me ten. And I was like, okay,

And I ain't never heard. I've never held the fifteens

up until this point. Y'all laughing. But up until this point,

my measure.

Was tens.

I didn't care about fifteens. I didn't want to care

about fifteens.

I wasn't looking forward to fifteens.

My faith was to be able to do ten reps

of ten pounds in each hand. So when he handed

me the fifteens, he knew I had the ability to

do it, but I had never tried. So when he

handed me the fifteens and I went down, he had

his hands on my hands and he said, let's do it.

And he walked away to prepare the next exercise. And

I said, where are you going? Where are you going?

And he busted out laughing because he was like, bro.

It's only fifteen. I said, only fifteen. This is the fifteen.

This the first time I'm doing fifteen.

And so he stood there with me laughing the whole time.

Why I tried to increase my measure. Now when I

did fifteens, we stayed at fifteen's for a while tens

and fifteens. I wasn't caring about twenties because I didn't

watch this care about growth yet I was in my

process caring about comfort. I wanted to change, but I wanted.

To be comfortable too.

I wanted to get stronger, but I did want to

be able to not be embarrassed, not be corrected, not

show my insufficiencies. And so he would try to make

me go up, and I'd be like, oh, let's go

back to the fifteens. Until one day I discovered the

process of growth. Do you know what the process of

growth is when you're building muscle, It's to train to failure.

What So I'm looking for the moment where it doesn't work.

The point of growth is at the moment it doesn't work.

So I remember one day I said, you know what, coach,

I want to try to go up today.

He said, big dog, what you want? What you're feeling?

I said, I'm doing thirties today, and.

He was like thirty.

He said, you got that easy money. That's what he

would tell me, easy money.

And so I remember getting ready, took off my jacket.

I said, I'm gonna pick up the thirty. I'm going

to the I'm going to another rack. I'm going to

another level. The thirties aren't on the level I've been on.

I'm gonna have to try. And this is what he

said to me, that I'll never forget. You gotta feel it,

just even if you can't lift it, feel it.

So I picked up them thirties. Y'all know when it's heavy,

you start walking different. Picked up them thirties trying to

figure out you're positioning your youth.

You know, you're trying to just and I got back

on and I did that, and I did it ten times.

You're like, yeah, yeah, big dog, because I said.

And do you know what it did? It gave me confidence.

See, some of you won't even find a triumph because

you won't try. Some of y'all just need to go

to the place where your face can be tested and

try to believe again. Well, earlier this year I told

my coach, I really want.

To be a big dog. I embraced it.

He said, so what you want to do? I said,

don't want to go up. I need I need to

start at fifties. He said, you want to start at fifties?

He said, I'm starting at fifties, and I said, all right, cool,

I'm gonna show coach because he don't believe in me.

Because there was a point where he didn't know if

I was biting off more than I could chew. But

what he didn't know is when he wasn't there training me,

I was going to the gym and I was feeling

the fifties.

Y'all, y'all, y'all. I was being embarrassed in the dark.

I was shrucked.

Until one day. I don't know what happened, but I

got in the gym by myself, and it was in the.

Dark when nobody to see, and I said, and I

went back, and I started hitting the fifties. And as

I started hitting the fifties, I said, I can do this.

And some of y'all need to hear what I'm saying.

Some of y'all need to go into your prayer closet

in the dark and start praying for stuff that feels heavy.

You need to start believing that every one of those

children will serve the Lord. You need to believe that

everybody that has been in poverty in your family is

going walk in abundance.

You need to start believing that.

The whole earth is groaning and waiting.

For you to come into your net. Y'all gotta hear me.

But the triumph of using the fifties would have never

happened if I did not try.

Once you get the fifties, it's what is sixties? Once

you get to sixty, what is seventy?

So the end of my rack stopped at seventy five.

So when I went and I saw the end of

my rack with seventy five, I said, you know I'm

a good steward.

I'm not about to buy.

No heavier weights if I can't lift the last one.

So I remember it was this summer. I said, coach,

I'm going to the end of the rack. He said,

you ready for this, big dog? I said, easy money.

Some of y'all gonna get some audacity here in a minute.

He said, you need a spot. I said, yes, coach,

come up here. I need a spot.

Yes.

Now, watch, watch, watch some of you some of you

watch this, are too prideful to ask for a spot.

You're too prideful to ask for help. This could be

too heavy for me. Believing for this by myself could

be too much. I could hurt myself if I tried

to do this by myself.

But if I have somebody that got my back.

Here, if I just had two or three friends, I

don't need a lot of y'all.

If I just had one or two people.

Who would pray no matter what would happen, who would

stay no matter what, would hope.

If I just had a.

Few people, I feel like I could get up some

weight I never thought was possible. Now, remember I was

scared at fifteen. So the fact that I'm even holding

seventy five, Oh God, some of y'all need to stop

and praise God for the fact that you even holding

this type of way. You need to praise God that

he gave you a family. You need to praise God

that he saved you out of that addiction.

Praise God that you even.

Have the ability to touch this type of weight. I

stay clear enough to be trusted with somebody.

This is a miracle.

But I need a spot because this might be too heavy.

And coach, what you say, easy money? Yeah?

God, all right, here we go, and we going for

five one, two, three.

Four US five Easy money.

Some of y'all you about to start lifting stuff you've

never lifted before. All you're about to start carrying in

faith what you've never carried before. I'm just trying to

help that this helps you remember that you can grow

in your faith. I was at fifteen in my faith,

and this summer I got seventy five in my faith.

I grew in the measure of faith because I was

willing to fail.

You're gonna have to try again.

Because there was a level that wasn't on my rack

that I had to come to.

I remember the day.

That I just had a wild thought, could I ever

lift over seventy five pounds? And I said yes, and

then automatically told myself no, Come on.

Y'all gotta be honest. Sometimes you'd be like, maybe God

could use me.

No, never mind, And for me to feel the weight,

I had to go purchase it. I had to go

invest in what I couldn't lift. Me and Will went

to the weight store and I asked them, and if

you can see up here, all the heavyweights don't look

like all these other weights. All the heavyweights couldn't fit

on my rack. All the heavyweights had different titles, and

I went and bought them, and they were expensive because

they charge you per pound.

To who much is given? Some of y'all are praying

for stuff that you don't know how much it costs.

You want this position, You don't know it costs sleepless nights.

You don't know how.

Many times you got to turn the other cheeks. You

know how many times you gotta love people you know

are talking about you. You don't know how many times

that you have to actually ask God to purify your

heart and wring out what's on the inside of you.

You don't know how many times you.

Have to make it right with your wife before you

get on a platform so.

You can actually speak in purity. You do not know

what it costs. It's a sacrifice.

There's a requirement, and I went and paid for it

before I could ever lift it. And so I told

I told Coach. I said, we're gonna We're gonna get

to the huntings. And he said, all right, this is

what we're gonna do. We're gonna go ninety. We're gonna

go a hundred.

He said, because if you could do ninety, you could

do a honey. I said, all right, Coach, if you leave.

I believe.

And I remember them wait sitting there for a few days,

looking at me, looking at them, looking at me while

I'm looking at them, because sometimes, let's be honest, sometimes

you know you need to use your faith and it's

just intimidating God Liz right there for me to believe in.

But I gotta, I gotta do it. The reason I

don't want to believe. Watch this is my last point.

The thing that keeps us from trying is I don't

want to beat this pointed. What keeps us from trying

is disappointment. What if I bought these weights and I

can't lift it. What if I try and nobody comes

What if I put the book out and nobody buys it,

but my mom come on, he said you could move

a mountain.

But what if it don't happen. You gotta try today.

I'm just asking every believer who has tried not to

be embarrassed, who didn't want to be corrected, who didn't

want their insufficiencies to be exposed, who didn't want to

submit to the requirement of growth, who is trying to

avoid disappointment, I want you to know that maybe all

of those things are prerequisite.

To you actually growing in your faith.

Jesus would not have taken all this time to correct

them if he didn't see a future for them. The

next statement is, y'all, I'm about to leave, and I'm

gonna put all of this in y'all's hands. The reason

I'm correcting you here is because I see you walking

in it up there. If you don't take this as

a final failure, you're.

Gonna realize I have a beautiful filter for you.

But the enemy makes us think embarrassment and correction and

insufficiencies and disappointment is the place to say, Ah, I

can't do it no more, and some of us need

to try again.

You need to try again. Let me say it like this.

The hardest way to relate to faith is to fabricate

a future in your subconscious that glorifies the idea that

one day walking by faith won't be hard.

I'm gonna say it again because I need you to

get this.

The hardest way to relate to all life of faith

is to fabricate this idea. One day I won't have

to pray like this. One day I won't have to

fast like this. One day I won't have to actually

be accountable. One day I won't have to be in

no groups. One day I won't have to let the

word refine my heart. One day it won't take all

of this, and you glorify the idea that one day

walking by faith will somehow be easy.

Today, Church, I just needed to be honest with you.

Every time you start walking by faith, it's going to

be a challenge, and the sooner you embrace that, the

sooner you're not scared to walk up to the weight.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It's about five

months ago.

I said, I am about to lift one hundred pounds,

and the only thing I need to do to qualify

it as a lift is get it up once. Oh

y'all tripping, I said, I don't gotta do ten, I

don't gotta do six.

I don't gotta do seven. Just one, just one time.

I remember, I said, hold on, let me give my gloves,

put my gloves on. I gotta take my ring off

to put my gloves on. I said, coach, I'm about

to lift it. I'm going to a new level to day.

I'm not gonna let those hundreds intimidate me no more.

I'm not gonna pass them in my garage every day.

And know that I have never watched this and not

lifted them, never tried to. I've never tried to. If

I fail, I started at fifteenth. I need you to

hear me say this. The triumph is if I fail.

I don't remember starting at fifteen. So even today I

had in trepidation about coming out here and trying hundreds

because I thought, what if my strength leaves me in

this moment to embarrass me in front of the whole world. No,

I'm just serious, like y'all get the analogy, like lift

the hundreds. But I can't go out like that.

I gotta try again. Oh, y'all, I got somebody say try.

All right, Oh that's heavy. I'm gonna put one here, coach,

because you bring me the other one. Okay, ma, easy money?

All right? Oh you know I gotta lift it at

least once when my touch is behind me.

All right, let's go, Mike, easy money.

Let's go.

What I got a coach too.

Come up? Five counted for me. Six? Come out, come out,

Come out, come out, warm up.

Let's gone.

I started at fifteen.

But hear what I'm saying standing all over this place,

What was in me the whole time would have never

been realized if I didn't. I'll prophesy over you that

this next season, You're gonna lift what was impossible, hear me,

because you are going to have.

The audacity to try again.

The only tragedy of the disciples would have been all

the lessons they missed. If they didn't try, if they

didn't try to cast out that demon out of that boy,

they would have missed all of this correction, which is love,

all of this insecurity building, which is confidence, all of

the things that they actually did that was not found

in a success.

It was found in a failure. And I don't know how.

You've defined some of the seasons of your life.

But today it's time to redefine some things.

Every spot that was a failure in your life. I

dare you to go back and revisit that ding and

extract the wisdom that the Holy Spirit wants to give

to you. Because failure is in an invitation to a

level of faith.

Let's reframe it.

Failure, every one of my failures is an invitation from

God to a new level of faith. I'm gonna do

something today that we have not done in a while,

just because of the sheer number of people, but I

feel the presence of God.

I need all my pastors and all to workers. I

need all y'all to come to the front right now.

If you're not.

Designated and you don't know, do not come glory to God.

But I feel like today there are people whose faith.

Has been in this place.

Paralyzed, and you haven't wanted to try anymore because your

faith has been fatigued.

If that's you in.

This room, the Bible says clearly, he said, I will

allow my believers to lay hands on the sick, and

they shall recover.

I'm gonna read it out of Mark sixteen. It says,

and these signs will follow those who believe in my name.

They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues.

They will take up servant surfits, and if they drink

anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They

will lay hands on the sick, and they will not

might they will recover. And today you may have a

physical sickness. But some of y'all you just made me

sick of living the life you live in. I'm sick

of this depression. I'm sick of this insatiable desire to

have my sexual needs met in an illegitimate way. I'm

sick of having to always go to that bottle or

to that person to try to find peace.

And if there's anything.

In you that's been sick today, we're about to lay

hands on you. And I'm believing there's about to be

a supernatural transaction, not in my touch, but in the

obedience of the word of God that he said we

can believe and people shall recover. And for everybody watching

online here in a moment, I'm gonna get in the

back with you and I'm gonna pray over you. And

if you're sick, if there's anything going on in your life,

I want you to stay on this online by faith,

and I believe God is gonna do something. But I'm

gonna ask you to do something bold. I want to

even ask you to do something that might seem embarrassing.

If you have had faith fatigue and you know the

enemy's been trying to trick you and to stop you

from trying, and you want your faith to go to

another level, I want you to get down here to

this altar right now. I don't care who you are,

I don't care where you're from, I don't care.

What's going on right now. I need you to come.

I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back up.

And what we're gonna do for the next ten to

fifteen minutes is we're gonna begin to pray. We're gonna

lay hands on every person that is coming to this altar,

and if you want to stay engaged from your seat,

I'm telling you the Holy Spirit will begin to work

on you and alter workers. We're not going through doing

all the things. Come on, bring the people all over here.

Come on.

I don't care. Oh, it's gonna take time. It's squished

up there. What would you do for your miracle? And

I'm telling you there's something coming to y'all. Come on,

just get up here and y'all, y'all gonna go through.

Y'all start touching and agreeing. Y'all don't need long prayers.

All we're doing is touching and agreeing with you right now,

and right now we're gonna ask God to reign over

and take over and to do something. If you're watching online,

I need you to lift your hands. Come on in

this room, in this building, ask God right now, Father,

whatever you want to show me, whatever you want to do.

With me, come on, He's doing it. I will not.

Succumb to the lie that I can't fly again. My

faith will be active, my faith will be used.

Workers.

Y'all begin to go to them, Go to them, don't

just stay in one place. I want you to begin

to pray. And if you need help, there's people all

in up and down the aisles. But I want you

to begin to pray.

Come the road.

I need you to just lead us in just a

moment to worship.

And let's worship God right now all over this building.

Oh yah right, take go have your way. I'm like y'ard.

Way, he areway right aver in my life. Jeez, tay

go over.

To whatever you Wantay, whatever you wanted me have you

you get have everyway to a heavy way. Whatever you

wanna have your way, you can have your way, Jeez, have.

Your way in. I'm like y'r way.

Be away, rain.

Up, you can take go have your way out lady.

On way be away rain.

Off over.

You can take.

Yeah, oh.

Away away rain up. I need you to tag go

wait your homeboy. You can have y'all way all always

be away rain off Entago to Holby. You can have

y'all way. He keeps this working.

One. I know he keeps his one. He keeps His.

One is yonyod Rain old fun say cool Fun.

Call Olia.

We're so grateful for what God is doing in this

place today.

I wanted to.

I felt the tug of the Lord to come up

and just share something. If you know anything about our story,

you know that last year we lost our son at

two weeks and we were believing in faith for God

to heal him, and we had a prayer, warriors around

the world praying with us for our son and for

the healing, and we didn't see the healing happen the

way that we.

Wanted to see it happened.

But what I know is I'm a living testimony of

proof that even when it seems like your faith has failed,

that God can repair your faith and give you a

try again. And so in this place right now, watching online,

I just want to encourage somebody because I know all

too well what it's like to expect God to do

something a certain way and it not happened that way.

And I want you to know keep trying, because God

knows how to repair your faith. God knows how to

put your faith back together and to believe Him again.

And in our situation, it didn't turn out the way

we wanted it to. But we have not stopped believing

God and faith. We have not stopped believing God that

He is a healer, that He can continue to expand

our family, that we are not afraid to believe God again.

So what I wanted to do is just pray for

God to repair faith in this place. Lord God, we

thank you right now every person that has fatigued faith.

Right now, I thank you Jesus that you are a

repairer of faith, that you know how to give us

faith or maybe we felt weak. Hey, Lord God in

this place, I thank you for every person that has

been honest enough to say God, I don't know if

I can trust you again. And God, I thank you

right now for a renewed strength, a renewed faith in

the name of Jesus. I thank you, Lord Jesus that

there are people that have seen you do things and

they will believe that you can.

Do it again.

In the name of Jesus God, every person, every person

that is feeling weak in their faith, I thank you

for strength and their faith again. I thank you, Lord

God that our faith is not built off of intended

ends or what we.

Want to see, but.

God, our faith that's built off on who you are,

so we believe you're a provider. We believe that you

are a healer. We believe that you are a redeemer

and the lover of our souls. We believe, Lord God,

that you are Jehovah Jirah are provide, that you are

Jehovah Rathha, our healer. We believe that you are Jehovah

Shalom our peace and Lord God. We will believe again.

We will believe you again, Lord Jesus, for every person

that has felt like their faith has failed. We speak

healing in the name of Jesus, and we thank you

for repairing our hearts, and not just repairing our hearts,

but repairing our hope that we will hope again. We

will believe again, and we will see you continue to

perform miracles.

In our life.

In the name of Jesus, and we give you all

the glory, all the honor, and all of the praise.