Check Your Settings // Start Sharp (Part 3) // 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, on

day fourteen of twenty one days of prayer and festing. I have more of

a template than I do a sermon, cause in my life I like people

to tell me, like, forget all the fluff, tell me what works.

Yeah, you know how some people like they could have texted you instead

have brought you to a meeting. I don't know about you, but like,

if it could have been bullet points instead of me getting dressed and looking

at you and having a hug you and it smeil your brother, if it

could have if it could have just been a thorough email, give me what

I'm supposed to do so we can keep moving. In church, a lot

of times we take a lot of times telling them, trying to prove that

we smart enough to tell them what we're telling them. That sometimes it can

cloud the real message. So today I just want to give you a template.

Watch this of what transformed my life, y'all hear me tell my testimony

every Sunday at time for when it's time for people to receive salvation. I

tell you I was a liar. What else I say? Addicted to porn

argue? See, y'all know it. I was a manipulator. I had

bad things. Hell tomorrow, it's so beautiful. Some of my friends be

making fun of me. Do your friends know your testimony? Because when I

read my Bible, it tells me the way that I overcome, the way

that I get over this thing is by the blood of the Lamb, that's

what he DIDs. But the words of my own testimony, it makes me

question, are you overcoming? Because nobody knows your testimony? You married to

people that don't know your testimonial and so for me, I'll shad my testimony

all the time. But a lot of people they think I just arrived there.

They feel like one day I woke up transformed. I wish there was

a watch this cuss word process. Shut that word at me, you cussing

in search. If we do not embrace the process of transformation this year,

we will end up very frustrated because we're watching the same rerun with a different

date over and over again. I don't want your life to be a syndicated

series. No more new episodes of Family Matters, No more new episodes of

Friends. If you ever first see those, it's what's already happened. You

reacting like it's new. No, you just missed it last time, but

it's still old. So many of us are playing reruns of the same thing

because we will not embrace. Everybody say the word process one more time,

and so today I want to give you a template of the process that transformed

my life. That took me from being a liar to a man that lives

in integrity, That took me from being somebody who was greedy to a man

that'll give you everything, Like I'm so, I'm generous to the point where

God sometimes like I ain't tell you to get it that. That wasn't me.

I want God ild you say, he said, I ain't said you

need that one. But that's that's my nature now, Okay, So when

I look at this, I wanted to simply tell you a story and then

give you the title of my message. How many people get updates on their

phone? Like updates on their phone? Okay, if you don't get updates

on your phone, you sab a flip phone. Bless you. We're praying

for you. But the iPhone has done some new little things. And it's

so funny that, you know, I don't really be keeping up when the

updates happen. I just find out there's an update when my stuff stopped working.

Now, I don't know if anybody else is like that, but how

you like, I'm a creature of habit. So once I figure out how

to do it, just keep doing it like that. Stop switching my stuff

because I don't have time for the switch ups. You already don't switch my

plug twice. Got all these first generation iPhone chargers, I need to make

a necklace out of them. I got so many, I'm acting like they're

gonna come back with the first one again. They not. Now my laptop

and my phone got a charge on different cords. Am I just complaining?

Right? What am I? What's the point? Okay? Oh yeah,

so so my phone started acting up a while back. But my little brother

I have, I have. I'm blessed to have older brothers and younger brothers.

And my little brother comes in and his phone that is not as good

as mine. It's doing stuff my phone can't do. And I'm looking at

like he tapping my tapping stuff and my phone like did like this, y'all

know what I'm talking about, right, tap my phone? My phone said

ah, I said, what are you possessing my phone? Are you some

all the Android users are like something for the upgrade? No, I'm just

playing. So so I'm going through this whole thing. And he said two

things, Mike, there's an update available. You didn't know the update was

available. It had been weeks since the update was available. I just had

to watch this accept the terms right. And I don't really like all of

the reading that goes on with the sense. Some of y'all know what I'm

talking about. They it'd be like I'm going to eat your hair. I

am going to take away and you just be like boop accepts, accept accepts.

So my phone can He said, you got you got an upgrade available,

and then he said, he said, what you really need to do,

Michael, is you need to check your settings because what happens when you

do the upgrade but it's still didn't show up like yours showed up. He

said, Michael, you didn't check your settings. It's about to And today,

on week three of a series. We're calling start sharp. How do

you stay sharp? We said last week we have to strengthen our strengths.

And then the Holy Spirit told me to prophetically come and tell you check your

settings? Check them? What settings are you planted in? Oh? You

thought I was just saying, go through and tell us your preferences? I

said, check your settings. Who are you sitting with, who are you

talking to? What has your attention? Check your setting? You get your

edge back. If you strengthen your strength and you check your settings, you

will be in for the best tear of your life. Passa mike. How

do you know? These things transformed my life? And again I want to

clarify, I'm not talking about your preferences. I'm talking about your places.

What settings do you constantly find yourself in? Are they websites? Are they?

Are they social chat rooms? Are they? Breakrooms? Are they gossip

threads? Check your set? Your spirit can be filled with the word and

not flourished because of the right. I'll go a bit, I'll change the

setting. Oh I'm a thermostar, not a thermometer. I'll turn it off

when I'll come in. Okay, okay, Well you must be greater than

Jesus because when he was going out throughout the towns doing miracles, he went

back to his familiar setting, his hometown, and he was ready to heal

all his homeboys. He was ready to change everything. And he said,

oh, we got to get about of here. This is the wrong setting

for miracles. It's familiar, but it doesn't have faith. There are people

that actually want this. They calling me Mary's boy, not Jesus. We

got to get out of here. And the Bible literally says he could not

do many miracles there because of the way the people saw him in that setting.

I'm just asking you, are the things that God is strengthening in you

powerless because of the setting. He's made you a leader. But every time

you walk into that environment in security overtakes you God saying I need you to

check your settings. This bottle of water right here is going to preach to

you because this I have found out in my years of travel. It greatly

increases in value depending on the setting. At the gas station, this bottle

right here is two dollars and fifty cents. But when I get on an

airplane and go through the airport and I want this same bottle of water it's

eight dollars. Yeah, yeah, the content didn't change. They didn't even

put any name on it. You gotta know. It's water two dollars at

the gas station, eight dollars at the airport. When I take my kids

to Disney World, this bottle of water is twelve dollars. What changed?

Could you be more valuable? Could you be worth so much more? Could

you actually be garnishing and garnering the attention, affluence and influence you actually are

worth if you were in the right So according to Acts two forty, this

is gonna be my anchor, and then I'm gonna whoop it back around at

the end. There are three settings that every believer should be in. Okay,

the first one you need a setting of faith. Now, a lot

of people have different thoughts that come to their mind when I say this.

I'm gonna make it very plain. Everybody needs a church. I think the

construct of church is outdated. That is why I am not constructing underconstructing this

ability. Yes, every church has problems because people are there. And if

you find a perfect church when you show up, it's not gonna be perfect

anymore. But you don't throw away the thing that God says, is the

answer to humanity's problem and the thing that's going to creating you who you're supposed

to be because somebody's done it wrong. And I'm so proud of Transformation Church

because we're a church that really does believe in gathering together. But there are

a lot of people that the statistics tell us that they come to church once

every two months and be really entitled, like gimme coffee, roll out the

red carpet, let me know I'm special, give me a T shirt.

I'll be back in two months. And I just I have to believe that

that's not what God intended first. He wanted us all to have a consistent

setting of faith. My question to you is how often are you in this

setting of faith? We're talking about starting sharp and saying sharp. If you

hear because you're doing a fast and we don't see you again to Easter,

you're not a bad person and you're going to heaven still if you've accepted Jesus

Christ, you just might not be in the setting that's gonna keep you sharp,

right. And I just want to say to everybody, you need a

church, And let me be clear, it don't gotta be this one.

Yeah, I want. I want to realize. I am very self aware.

We're not everybody's cup of tea, and I'm cool with that. We

gotta love each other, brothers and sisters in Christ. We gotta high five

each other. We gotta pray for our enemies, all the other stuff.

But I'm gonna be loud. I'm gonna be expressive. We're gonna make up

songs and I'm going to sing them even if I don't know the words.

I'm going to wear pants that are big with splink paint splatter on them that

I bought like this, I'm gonna wear glasses with no lenses in them because

I want to look smart, but I don't want it to fag up by

now. If the lenses was in here, this mug would be a full

fall. Hey. I'm gonna keep it hot, humble, open and transparent

until I need glasses. All of them on camera, somebody are like,

oh my gosh, I'm not everybody's cup of tea. My mama gonna get

up here and she gonna but she this is You never know what Charles's haircut

is gonna be. And if he made like it's it's okay. Yeah,

What I'm saying is find a place that you feel the freedom to be who

God's called you to be. What we do. Our brand of church is

based on the Bible and Jesus. It just has our seasoning on it.

And if you want bland chicken, there's tons of prices of fat. I

said too much. But how come you want your movies a certain way,

but you want your church to not emotionally move you, not be able to

you don't. All I'm saying is find you a consistent setting of faith.

There are tons of people who were here for a season that helped us build

this, and they're right up the street worshiping out another place. I see

those people, our kids go to school together. I hug those people.

I thank them for their investment here. But if the season changes and they

need a setting of faith that they can be consistently at, we are one

body, many members. That means I'm not hating on somebody because they hanging

out at the thumb and you want to go to the foot as long as

you still connected to the body. Okay, does it hurt sometimes, yes,

because we love you. But if we're acting like we the only church

that's demonic and its manipulation. You can grow spiritually at tons of places.

The problem is we've made where to go a bigger deal than if we grow.

Me step on the tip. I'm on the edge right now. Do

you hear what I'm saying to you? Well, I don't go there because

they don't see my favorite shoe. And I don't go there because the pastor

you know here is And I don't go there because it's too small, and

I don't get you don't go anywhere. And the truth of the matter is

you're only hurting yourself because according to Acts two forty two, these people they

saw the value in the setting of faith. Look what Psalms ninety two twelve

says. It says the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They will

grow like the cedar of Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of

the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will

still bear fruit when they old, They will stay fresh and green. Let

me break it down. You consistently plant yourself in the house of God this

year you will be like a palm tree and a cedar of Lebanon. Now

we are in Oklahoma, so both of those trees escape us. Okay,

so a palm tree is one of the most beautiful. A palm tree ministers

to me every time I just see it, just it blesses me. But

the thing that is powerful about a palm tree is palm trees are meant to

withstand storms. What a palm tree will do in the midst of a storm,

it bends. I feel like I need to be a dancer today.

I'm wild. It bends, but it doesn't when you're planted in the house

of God. He said, yeah, the storms come and you'll bend,

but you won't break. And then it gives another example. It says the

Cedar of Lebanon. I've been to Lebanon. It was my one random mission

trip that I went with some other pastors and I, for the first time

in my life, saw the biggest tree I ever seen in my life.

You couldn't see the top of it, you couldn't get your hands around it.

It was shoe You could drive cars through it. They worship what God's

saying in this you will be able to provide shade, rest, shelter.

When you're planted. You can't give away what you have not been planted and

long enough to grow into The only way a tree can be used as wood

for a house is that it stayed planted long enough to grow to the fact

that I had anything to give away. And my greatest concern right now for

the Body of Christ is so many people don't have a setting of faith where

they stay long enough to grow, oh big enough to actually be useful for

anything. You cutting down the tree at plant form, what you're gonna build

out of it? What are you gonna do for a tree to become big

enough to actually be useful for a table or a chair or something that we

actually put our weight on. It has to grow there for years. And

every person that gets offended, frustrated, or doesn't like what's happening in twenty

twenty four in church, what they do is they become a potted plant.

They put themselves in an isolated place so they can only grow to the level

that the container will allow them. And that's why you can put them in

your window seal, and you can put them in your apartment. Many of

those trees were meant to be so large that they couldn't fit in there.

But when you take them out of their right setting, we call what they

do in our house beautiful, but it wasn't their original intention. And could

there be many believers who are getting hand claps for being beautiful in a small

area where if they stayed planted somewhere, they would grow into something that could

be very useful. Okay, TC Nation, I want to tell you this,

living like this planted in the house, some of y'all have been more

faithful to showing up and being a part of what God is doing in this

place. From thousands of miles away. Them people who write up the street

and they don't even know if they can clap or not because they don't know

if it's a dys to them. But I need to acknowledge your comment.

There are people here that I meet in airports that it's like, oh yeah,

last week when you talked about that. They know the messages, they

know the titles, they made their own T shirts. Stop bootlegging the T

shirts. We'll send you one you get. The represent is off. I

just well, all I'm saying to you is I love you, buddy.

All I'm saying to you is is thank you for your dedication and intentionality about

being planted. And I'm saying to you. There may be a church that

God's calling you to to not just get full as a tick, because you

are a part of transformation church. Part of being in the church is you

gotta give it away. You can watch this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at five. You can watch this.

But maybe this is supplemental content. Maybe this is something that God's calling you.

And I'm not saying it's for everybody, but i am saying it's probably

for somebody. Because if the whole church is online, how does the person

that's hurting it been through your testimony ever get healed? Is he building up

his church or tearing it down? There is enough people in this world for

this building to be filled thirteen times over. But there are other people that

are waiting on you to take your place in a setting of faith. I'm

gonna show you this. Could you bring my church up here real quick?

And I'm gonna show you what a setting a face. Write this down because

I wrote this down because this has transformed my life, and it's what the

word says. I am at my best when I'm in church city, serving,

sharing, sewing, sacrifice, and saving. I am at my best

when I'm in church city, serving, sharing, sewing, sacrificing and saving.

Let me show you what this looks like. Everybody should have a place

that they sitting in a setting with other people who jacked up like there.

I don't know what you're going through, sheq, but I know there's some

things in her that don't make her better than me. And when I focus

on Jesus and I look to Him through the person who God has called to

speak. That's why at TC, it don't matter who's on that platform.

God can use anybody. If he's speaking from the Bible. There is a

word in that place for me, and so every person, like do y'all

see just the difference in style that's on the stage. Mama got on the

pink. She came ready to kill them today. She didn't know she was

gonna be on stage. But you see that youth in her right now.

I don't even know where you get a pink stocking cap from, wrong,

but you look good Man of God. What's your name, Robert? How

old are you? Seventy six year old? What what made you come to

Transformation Church today? In the church that believes in Jesus Christ. He loved

being in a church that believes in Jesus Christ. Only what ethnicity are you,

I'm gonna tell you, he said, I'm a diarium. Now now,

now, now, I want you to see most people, if you

put it on paper, he would never be in the church that I'm leading.

He black with braids, We might not vote the same way, we

might not have come from the same background. The thing that connects everybody on

this platform is Jesus. Do you know under saying like like like and And

the last piece of that that that that that little thing that I wrote out,

It said that everybody should be sharing and sewing and all this stuff.

But the last one it said they should be saving. And I'm not saying

saving somebody from sin, because you can't do that, but you should be

saving a seat for somebody that you're inviting me, because if this thing actually

transformed your life, why would you keep it to yourself? And the truth

of the matter is God brings people into your life every single day that he's

saying tell them, bring them tuck. But you can't even bring them because

you don't know if you come in. The very answer that they need is

wrapped up in your connection. With them, but you have not committed to

a setting of faith yet. I'm asking every person under the sound of my

voice twenty twenty four, I want you to flourish. How are you gonna

flourish? According to songs, You're going to check your setting and you're going

to have a consistent setting of faith. I'm not gonna show up every other

week. I'm here every time. You don't do that at your job.

It seems like we're more committed to things that we hate. Date night is

optional for you, but that's the parson you decided to marry for the rest

of your life. Church is optional for you, but this is the relationship

that always brings you back to center when you want, Like, I just

want us to flip it for a second this year, and I want you

to commit to being in a setting of faith. Somebody say I will commit

to being in a setting of faith. Let me tell you why. I

write it down. The setting of faith will make you flourish. It makes

you flourish. I was telling Charles earlier. I said, I can't imagine

a different setting that allowed me to go from the sound man to a lead

pastor to a New York Times bestselling offer to a music producer, to a

graphics designer. To this church allowed me to become the man of God that

I was supposed to be, not because I'm on the platform. It gave

me something to be accountable to. It made me get people that are around

like And I'm just telling you everybody else is trying to build a master class

for you to go through, and the master has already given us a class.

Make sure you have a setting of faith. Number two. Here we

go. The other setting that you need to have is a setting. Watch

this of friends. I like this one because most church people don't have friends.

They have faith. They don't have friends. They have prayer partners.

Hey, rabah, cond shoot about a hunda. No friends can prophesy.

Next year I see you transformed, It's like yeah, And next year I

see you and nobody else around you. You have no friends. But when

I look at the model of Acts two forty four two these people had friends,

I think that we've made it too deep in church Like friends don't mean

I walk up to you and say, what did God give you a Roman

six this week? No? No, no, no, I feel like

you have a word. You have a word, right, now room in

six, Room in six. If revelation comes out of me naturally because of

what I'm walking through, that's cool. But stop being weird. No,

no, no, I need to say this. This is some of y'all

are just weird. Like I'm not. No, this is no say like

have all the scriptures in you? But like if I say how you doing

and you say hallelujah, that's not even an answer to the question that I

said, how are you doing? Hallelujah? That's not an answer. And

I'm not coming at anybody. I just found that most people who are strong

in their faith still need friends. And if you don't have them, nobody

that's in your life with you for a season or a lifetime. It's how

the enemy can allow you to become self righteous. Faith without friends turns into

self righteousness because you're disconnected to the people that God's actually called you to help.

So does it seem weird that all the people with the most scripturals are

mean that woman who was at the Mothers of the Church. They're not known

for being nice. I'm talking about churches all over America, no matter where,

they known for being And if the power of God comes in and they'll

lay you out and give you a mint. But are are the elders of

the church known for love? Many times that happens because they do the right

things, but they're not sharing it with enough people. And when you do

the right things and don't share it with anybody, you become self righteous.

So for me, I'll just put it in the word Ecclesiasts four, verse

nine. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their

labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.

But pity any faith filled person who falls alone and has no one to

help them. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep each

other warm, But how can one keep warm alone? One may be overpowered.

Two can defend themselves. A cord of three hold on, we can

have more than one person. A cord of three strands is not quickly or

easily broken. I got some guys that I hang out with. Y'all come

to the stage real quick. I want everybody to understand that it's not enough

to just be committed to this setting. This setting's not enough being at church

every time the door is open. It's not enough. Yeah, my friends,

they know where I be at. What a dog, y'all good,

It's good to see you. What's up? But that no matter where they're

at in their life, they're not changing where I'm putting myself because I gotta

be in a setting of faith. But I have to leave this setting.

So nice to meet you, my man, God bless you. You look

beautiful. I love that represent hand baby killing that to you. What's up?

Let's go get some feed sigh, Okay, here we go. You

know what A think. It's don't gonna be at yeah, okay, but

I need to be able to fluently move from this atmosphere to this one and

not become a different person. This is what the church has done. A

bad job at we Hallelujah over here, Glory to the most High. I

will forgive and near him like what the earth is all? Where all that?

Why y'all acting? And and and and and and this is the truth

of the matter. If if you come into the right setting, I could

be like that, and this setting would change me right. See. The

truth of the matter is I should be able to sit in a setting like

this and be myself, and if myself doesn't line up with the word of

God, it should challenge me and too many of us are in settings that

don't challenge us, and so what ends up happening is we think that it's

okay to go from there, and that is powerless to change the living rooms.

So either nobody's here or the people here are so weak with their convictions

that I never feel like I need to do nothing better. And I just

want you to what's the title of the sermon, check your saf If all

your boys is cool with your cheating on your wife, the reason they cool

with it because they're doing it too, you might need to check. You

can literally come in and tell them that you think, Bro, I figured

out a hack. Bro, we don't gotta pay taxes no more. I

was on YouTube. I've seen this TikTok and we never have Bro. All

you have to do is find one person who's under four foot, make them

a part of your family on paper, and then claim a disability. And

there be people your friends really be leaned in taking notes trying to see who's

under four feet. And I'm literally making this up, but there's wild stuff

like that that happens in set. What I'm saying to you this year,

I want you to check your settings of friends. Real story I was with

some people on this platform that I will leave and remain nameless. Hey see,

it's funny because we all actually spend time together. So this is great

for me. I have the mic this we were talking the other day and

many of my brothers that are here. Vic is my trainer. I work

out with him every day. Aaron's been my best friend. Today's Aaron's birthday,

y'all. It's Aaron's thirty ninth birthday. We love you, baby,

We love you baby. Don't leave me hanging. I'll slap you, okay.

John styles me and has been my friend for years. The wheels,

these are the wheel of God for my life. These wheels right here,

our brothers that just hold me up and pushed this vision forward. And so

when we get together we just talk about everything and real stuff. We talk

about our wives, we talk about not yes, we talk about when when

that punctuation comes every month. Look at them, they're all blushing like you

just got to sit there and pray and arry in fast as God does his

work on the inside of them, and we talk. So he just got

it there. I was like, Aha, we need some more friends here.

So we talk about where we're winning we talk about where we're failing.

Hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me. And the other

day I know that a couple of my brothers dealt with some of the testimony

that I have of being faithful and pornography and all that other stuff. Because

we share our testimonies, there's nobody in here that's like Hiday and we know

the unedited version. Does everybody know the edited version of your testimony? Or

do they know the names of the people so if they walk in, see

there was this one time with this one girl, she's sitting right there.

Hey, bro, go the other don't come. I have text people in

this room. Don't come here. Why Bro, I'm dressing and I'm outside.

Go home, bro, I thought, go home? Why? Because

there's accountability and safety when you actually have real friends. Okay, remember what

it said, two are better than cause if I get backed up against something,

I got somebody that's seeing something else. So a real story happened last

week. I was telling some of my friends. I was like, I

don't really trust people that have privacy screens on their phone. And a lot

of my friends had privacy screens on their phone, and so one of my

friends. Was like, bro, you don't trust me, I said,

to an extent, because I know you don't work for the CIA, and

I noticed stuff on your phone is not governmentally important, and I said,

bro, I said, I come from a life of hiding, so anytime

I'm around somebody I want to be transparent with and I can't see what's on

their phone when they trying to show it to me. One of my boys

was trying to show me what was on his phone and I couldn't see.

I was standing in this close to him and I had to go. And

it was because they had a privacy screen on their phone. And I was

like, why do you have that? It's ah, ro, just don't

by, I said, I just mm. And because we have real relationship,

in that moment, he was like, bro, I'm gonna need this

propecy screen. Took it off of that phone, and then I realized he

had a second phone, two phones, and he took it off of both

phones and handed them to me. And in that moment, what I learned

over here about having the right people in my life was proven over here,

and an actual action that made somebody live different. This proves that that works.

Show me proof that you're full of love. Give me proof that you

walk in grace. Give me proof that you turn the other cheek and you

pray for your enemies. That is only actually proven in a context without a

pastor. That's good, that's good, it's true. Check your settings.

If you don't have friends. In twenty and twenty four, I want to

give you a secret to get friends. It's worked every time. Proverbs eighteen

twenty four. A man who has friends must himself get ready be friendly?

You are? You are not friendly? Change your resting face. I could

have said something else. You know what it is. Why are you walking

into places like you're getting ready for a fight? Can I get a smoothie

a Sai bowl? How are you ordering an a sayebul mad? Come on,

y'all the final setting you need and this one gets skipped over a lot,

But this year God has told me to make it illuminated. Every person,

according to Acts two forty two, needs a setting of spiritual formation.

You need a place outside of your place of faith that is growing you spiritually.

What another night? What what I'm i supposed to do? Listen?

All I'm saying to you is the transformation that happened to me in the setting

of faith and the setting of friends was exponentially celebrated when I started wanting to

eat for myself, you know that saying the thing in church with people like

I don't get fed there, that I don't get fed there. The only

people in my life that say they don't get fed in real life are people

who can't cook. So my kids are the only people in my life to

say I didn't get fed tonight because they can't cook. So when a believer

comes to me as an adult with hair on their back says says to me,

I don't get fed there. My question to you is do you know

how to take the ingredients that we're given? Chop it up, put a

little lotteryes on it. And the truth of the matter is we have been

putting so much emphasis on what the church provides as opposed to what God provides.

But when God provides it, it takes your decision. So what happens

if God's requiring you to learn some stuff we don't teach that year? Were

they gonna do a serious relationships? Carry prous Man, because the relationship goes

walking over the first off, there's a book and the series is on YouTube.

But what if God wants you to read some things and go to some

counseling and become a student again, and it's not applicable to what God told

me to give to you in the setting of faith. And your friends don't

they don't even know, they don't even know what God He's trying to make

you a leader in that. So where is the place that you are spiritually

forming? Acts two forty two? This is where we're gonna end? And

all the believers devoted themselves, Yeah to the apostles teaching. Hold no,

no, no, no, no, that's not how I got taught in

America. You supposed to devote yourself to making sure I get taught. Pastor's

word was he was killing today. It'd be funny for me to hear like

people's comments after our preachers, like he was chilling today. No, you

was listening today. I'm killing every Sunday. I'm sorry. Sometimes I gotta

encourage myself in the Lord killing every Sunday. Now, depending on where you're

at and what you're listening to and the diet you had before you got here,

it might impair how you're hearing or feeling what's being said. Do y'all

see what I'm saying. And that's why I'm saying this year, I believe

God saying you need a setting of spiritual formation. Everybody got a death for

podcasting. Now do you have a death for study? You giving away information

that you just got from somebody else's page. What I'm asking you is,

are you studying and has God giving you a fresh revelation of anything before you

get a mic to say something? Know something? And the believers everybody say,

devoted themselves. This is the beautiful thing about it. Nobody can devote

you. You gotta devote yourself. What is devoting mean? I have a

vote? I don't want to read that. I'm devoted taking my vote away.

I'm gonna read it. I am devoting where I would usually say my

opinion, taking my vote God, I don't feel like getting up. It's

the only time you have I'll be devoted. I'm not a morning person,

but you got four kids. Devote yourself. You asked me for the kids,

and you asked me for revelation. I'm sick of firing these people,

working with these people. I'm sick of this business. You pray for it?

Yeah, yeah, so I need you to be devoted to learning so

you can lead them. Ain't nobody else ling me. But I'm trying to

make you better than what you experienced. So you gotta have a place where

I can speak to you that has nothing to do with where you're sitting serving

sharing, Like like I'll speak to you there, I'll speak to you there,

and I'll speak to you here. Watch this, Watch this, Watch

this, watch this. I did this series called Who's the Minister here few

years ago, and I want you to know that I'm not the minister here.

Everybody look at your neighbor and say you're the minister here. Come on

you, you look at you. We tell minister and sell because the Bible

tells us that my job is to equip you for the works of ministry.

So I'm just asking everybody this year, could you get a setting watch this

where you are no longer the most successful in the room, a setting where

you go back to student rom Is twelve two. Okay, I know this

one. Oh shut up. The reason I say that is because just because

you know something doesn't mean you have a new revelation on it. Students are

quiet while the teacher is talking, but being a student takes humility. Do

you know how many things I've enrolled in and how many classes I have that

nobody asked me to take, and how many things I read and study and

listen to old tapes. I got a tape player so I could go back

and listen to pastors that the words weren't on CDs or on YouTube, but

they had revelation and it was anointed. And I had to go find a

tape player. Where do you buy a tape player? Thank God for Amazon?

And I got a tape player, and I'm listening to these things.

Why Because I need to be a student, so that means I gotta see

things differently. And I brought Amberley up here because I want you to understand

that anybody can teach you. The white man trying to keep me down.

The white woman is my teacher. So would you rather stay? See some

of y'all just offended you right now, and I see, I see your

flesh rising. What I'm saying to you is, would you forfeit your growth

because of the package it comes in? Or would you rather be everything that

God ain't? No woman tell me nothing. A bunch of white women have

told me a lot of things all my counselors look at it. My brother's

like, I don't even know. She ain't been through my plight. She

don't know my thing. What I'm saying is God does, and maybe some

of the things that you needed come in packages you didn't know you needed.

The men. When me and my wife has gone through counseling, I have

had middle aged the older white women counsel me through some of the toughest places

in my life. They're my auntie's now and it has literally changed my life

because of the information they had. But my ability to be humble and nothing.

They know. I'm a pastor, they know all y'all come and they

literally don't care. And if you are not in a setting that does not

care about your accolades, does not care about how many businesses and boats,

and if you're not, you will never be able to be everything that God

has called you to be. And my question to you is, if I

came up to you right now, one on one, could you tell me

where this setting is. The sad truth is most believers can't. They think

that first setting is this setting. Well, I go to church, No,

no, no, no, no, I'm talking about reading books about

the name of God. So when you worship, it's not just what the

worship leader says. Call them something different. Look up some other things that

you could like this is where I don't need nobody to feed me. Oh,

you can read books on finances relation. God will speak through all of

that. But you're saying, God, what are you trying to say to

me? And the greatest thing that you can read is this word side a

Sunday. This is what will spiritually form you. If you don't have a

setting for spiritual formation, it's going to cause you not to be able to

see everything that God has called you to see. What do you say in

Pastor Mike, this year, I'm challenging our church, not by the end

of the year, by the end of this quarter January, February March.

By March, I need you to on paper out of your mouth as well

as in action, be able to tell somebody where all of these settings are.

You want the best year of your life, check your settings. Because

I've been faithful in all of these settings. It is transformed my life.

How me and Pastor Charles actually got together as we went to a spiritual formation.

I called him after he told me he didn't want to join with me

and become the Golden State Warriors for Jesus. Another story for another time.

The Holy Spirit told me to invite him to pastor school in Dallas, Texas,

led by Robert Morris, and me and him went to a spiritual formation

class and one of the guys in there beginning to talk and said, some

of y'all are spiritual orphans. You're out here trying to do your own thing,

and it's because there's a deep wound there and God is telling you not

to do that and to follow his voice. And I'm like, wow,

that's crazy. And I look over and drawn like I was at the time.

I was still working on empathy and getting with emotions, so I was

just kind of like, dang, bro, I'll never forget I'll never forget

it. We go to lunch break. My man is like light bright,

so he's read everywhere, like from the crime. And we're standing in in

what was the store? Uh West? What's the nine West? Not nine

West? But no, it was some West, not Kanye West, but

one of them. We're standing We're standing in the store and Charles is like,

I know God told me I'm supposed in the shoe section. We were

in the shoe section of the store and he said, God is telling me

to give up my church. And I was like, Matt, Wow,

I honestly didn't know what to say to him, said wow, It's like,

well, I mean, if he's saying it, you know what I'm

saying, Guy, he's gonna do it, and he's gonna his word is

fine, you know. I just and it was just awkward. But we

were together, stayed in the same hotel room, had to go to another

day, decision, had to drive all the way back to Tulsa, had

to drop him off at a church service that he was about in the valley

of decision of if he was gonna do this. I find him a week

and a half later and he was like, yep, shutting down my church

and God told me that I'm supposed to come and serve and protect you.

I was like, I don't have a job for you. No, this

is real. I heard God, you don't have to pay me. I

said, great, because we have nothing to pay. Hear me. A

lot of people think Charles just came up and he's he didn't. Please,

don't judge anybody from where you meet them in the story for six months,

he came to Transformation Church in North Tulsa every day on time for no money,

had a family, had a wife, but just planting himself. They

had been to TC one time before they shut their church down to come.

I know Abby was sitting there like, oh my God, like but what

I'm saying is it doesn't have to make sense because God saw the plan up

ahead, but he was looking, would you put yourself in the right setting?

And He has come to me several times over. Abby's come to me

several times over said thank you because if we would have done that by ourselves,

we would have been successful, but we might not be married. I'm

so grateful that God put me in the right setting. Why because when you're

in the right setting, you flourish what everybody's staying. Please, I'm gonna

read Acts two forty two to let you see. Thank y'all, Thank you.

Can y'all give it up for all of my people who have been so

gracious When I'm challenging everybody to do this week, hold on the services,

not over. Don't leave you. You're gonna miss the moment. You're gonna

miss the moment. The moment ain't happened yet Acts two forty two. This

is Jesus's plan to build his church, it says, and all the believers,

somebody say, I'm a believer, devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and

watched this to fellowship. It didn't say teaching that then turns into me preaching

to you, and we call it fellowship. There were two separate things.

It was the apostles teaching their faith being inspired, and then it was just

fellowship. What's up? Dog? What you're doing? Bady? You feeling

good? I like that Chain wrote in glasses. If you poked the lenses

off of them, I could rock with them much. How was the game?

What's going on? How's you and your wife? Let's pray about that?

What's going It wasn't weird. It was the apostles teaching, where we're

in a place of faith, but then we're just fellowshipping. What does it

take to fellowship? Three simple things. It takes us being together. It

takes transparency, and it takes talking. We've made it too deep in church.

We get together and we get around Act six, and I'm saying that's

cool. But I've seen people gather around Act six and be dealing with suicide.

How did you try to offer? Those laves were just together what happened?

They weren't talking about what was really going on. Do y'all got what

I'm saying? It says, it says, and they shared meal together.

You don't have to be spiritual to eat right now. Our church is hungry

for the things of God and other things. You hear me wingstoff has never

sounded, so get behind me. Satan. Children really are a distraction on

a fast, and I just that's not part of my message. But man,

I was like a fast without kids that was just for me. But

sharing a meal that's not weird. That's just fellowshipping and eating. You know

you can do that with people who don't believe like you. Let me give

you a very weird concept. You can eat and fellowship with somebody who loves

the same sex. I know they're gonna clip it up, have fun.

I hope your finger gets carpoke funnel and I'm just playing. I'm just playing.

What what I'm saying? Where would Jesus have been? We talk about

zach Key is like like he was an upstanding man. He was despicable.

He was manipulating and stealing from people right in front of their face. And

Jesus like, yo, the person everybody hates. I meant at your house

tonight, can you cook? Heah, I don't matter. We'll talk.

We'll talk when to get there. How come the church is so far away

from the people that need Jesus. I'm not saying bring those people into your

friend group immediately, but what I am saying is fellowship and eat. Yeah.

He's given us the blueprint of transformation right here. He said. They've

devoted themselves to the apostle teaching and the fellowship and the sharing and meals,

including the Lord Sepher. A lot of people say, it's just the Lord

Sepher, it says, including the Lord. So we can eat chicken and

we can remember what Jesus Christ did by breaking the body and shedding his blood,

and everybody say prayer. That's why this thing is rumbling in our church

right now. And I want everybody to get here tomorrow for miracle Monday.

I don't know what's gonna happen, but I just feel God say, get

everybody here on Monday. As many peoples can't get right off work, come

here, join us online We're gonna pray together. This is the blueprint.

It says, watch this, this is what I'm praying for our church this

year. A deep sense of awe came over all of them, and the

apostles performed many miracles, signs and wonders. Why cause it was the right

setting. And all the believers met together in one place and share whoa hold

on everything they had. They sold their property in possessing. Not my house,

not my card, not my gooy gooy, not my louis, not

my gucci, it says. They sold all their property and possessions and shared

the money with those in They worshiped together at the temple each day, and

then they met home to home for the Lord's Supper, and then they shared

in meals with great joy and generosity. All the while, through every one

of these settings, they were praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the

people. Everybody's win was everybody's win. And each day watched how the church

grew, and each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being

saved. I just wonder how many people were on the way to the church

party and met somebody and I was like, Hey, what's your name James.

Right, Hey, bro, I'm about to go with some of my

people and we just gonna eat and talk like you wanna come? Yea.

How could they magically been added to daily thousands if people weren't so transformed by

having the right setting that they were inviting people to it. But you can't

invite somebody to something you haven't committed to. What I wrote down after I

read this is something I want to leave us with. Don't desire the fruit

of the Early Church if you won't commit to the formula of the Early Church.

God checked me as a leader and he said, Michael, I need

you to simplify this whole thing, and I want you to create a easy

formula based off on Acts two forty two that gives every person that you are

a leader over the ability to have a place to strengthen their faith, find

friends, and spiritually form Sunday morning every time you come here. This is

the place of faith. It's a place of crazy faith. You're standing in

it, you're sitting in it. Were gonna inspire you every week to go

closer to Jesus and to do what's uncomfortable, but that will yield the greatest

results. For your life. And if we not your cup of tea.

There's Victory Life Church, There's Metropolitan, There's Fellowship Church. I'll list them

on my Instagram this week and I'm gonna have cards because I don't care that

it's this place. I care that you have a place. Amen, I

said, Amen. And I'm about to tell you all this for anybody who's

been a part of transformation, these two squares right here. In the next

three months, I'm about to roll out a plan for our church that is

going to transform how we make friends and how we spiritually form. I cannot

tell you the details today because my team won't let me. I am submitted

what I'm telling you. When I roll it out, just do it.

This will be the greatest year of your life. We have prayed, we

have labored, we have worked. We have asked God, what are you

trying to do? And he said, go back to what I did in

the beginning. And I'm telling you our first commitment get here every Sunday now

were not legalisms like where were you today? Stop? It ain't nobody got

we growing up in here. No, I'm gonna talk about all that.

What I'm saying is, if we don't see you in a month, we're

gonna assume something's wrong because we love being together. They was doing it every

day. Imagine going to church every day. That's what they were. It

said they met in the temple daily. We just once weak. But when

we get here, and let me be very clear, it's gonna be normal

that if somebody doesn't know you here, they're gonna ask you your name.

Let me just go ahead and normalize this right now. You will not be

able to be a stranger here for months. I ain't never seen you before.

I'll be here for six years. I know it's a big church.

What's your name? A big church becomes small when you know somebody's name.

You can walk into an arena of millions of people and somebody says Mike,

I'm like, oh my home. Now be that for somebody. Small groups

and this little thing over here is coming, but I can't roll it out

until you desire it. Lift your hands. Thank you Lord, that you

have given us the playbook to transformation today, that our faith would be strengthened,

that we would have genuine friends who would lead us and help us and

correct us and care for us. And Father, that we would be devoted

ourselves enough to actually start growing and learning in the things that are going to

make us who we're supposed to be. Today, God, I thank you

that there would be a value added to doing what your word says. And

I thank you that this church is coming to a place of maturity, not

based on how much we know, based on what we do. God,

could you please unify our church like never before, from Transformation Nation to everybody

in this room. Let there be something on the inside of us that says

we want to flourish, so we will be planted. We need people with

us so we will have friends. And Father God, we need to grow

so we will continue to spiritually form. Have your way on the inside of

each one of us. Is our prayer. God, And I just thank

you for the lost person who was invited by somebody who took the real great

commission seriously and they were saving a seat for them. They told them today.

I thank you that today is their day of salvation. Thank You for

transformation for all of us. I thank you that this is a holy moment

because our minds are changing. This is not emotional, this is a decision,

and I thank you that this decision will impact how we live. Ultimately,

Lord, make us look more like you. We trust you, we

believe you, and we thank you for your word. If you're in this

room and you've never accepted Jesus, today is your day. This is the

whole reason we meet meet. This is what we've been praying for. And

people who who have been in this we went through here and pray for every

seed in this place. If you've been going your own way and you've been

lost, and you've been frustrated with what's going on in your life and you

want a fresh start today, I don't want to just give you a fresh

start. I want to give you a way to have eternal life through the

work of Jesus Christ. And what are you saying, pastor Mike, everything

just changes. I'm saying that everything can, James, because of what Jesus

did. He took somebody like me, liar, manipulator, y'all know,

the next one addicted to plorniography. Y'all know it because I share my testimony.

And he didn't make me into a perfect man, but a progressive man.

And all I'm asking you to do right now is give your creator a

chance to transform your life. If you're in this room. I see you

up there. If you're in this room, and today is the day of

salvation for you. On the accounter three, I just want you to lift

your hands. There's no embarrassment. There's nobody gonna come and shine a light

on you and start interrogating you. That none of that's gonna happen. And

I need my church to start praying, because you know, this is where

hell starts telling people, Oh, no, you can't change, you can't

get that up. This is the only faith that if you give God your

heart, he'll help you change your habits. The things that you're scared of

showing him, He already knows them, and he wants to walk with you

through them. He walked with me through pornography, he walked with me through

lying and manipulate. He walk with me through that stuff, and he wants

to walk with you and not just a loan. He wants to set you

an house of faith and give you friends and allow you to develop an appetite

to spiritually form. I'm just saying to you today, you got to make

the decision for him. If you're in this place and you want to make

Jesus Christ your lord and savior, or you're watching online or rebroadcast on the

count three, just boldly shoot your hand up. One. You're making the

greatest decision of your life. To your name is gonna be written in the

Lamb's book of life forever. Three. Come on, shoot your hand up.

I see you right there. I see you, young people. I

see you, my man. Come on, I see you. Glory to

God. I see you. I see you, sir. And more than

I see you, God sees you. And at Transformation Church we're a family.

Nobody prays along. Everybody lift your hands and say God, thank you

for sending Jesus just for me. Today. I admit I need a savior

and I choose you, change me, transform me. I believe you lived,

you died, and you rose again just for me. I'm yours in

Jesus' name. Amen. Information in church, how do we celebrate? I

said, how do we celebrate? Hallylujah? We thank God for you and

we want to walk with you. There's a QR code on the screen.

If you're watching online, you're in the room, do that. We're gonna

give you next steps. We have a Bible plan that has all the days

of fasting and praying. I want you to join us tomorrow right back here

at six o'clock for one hour of power. We're gonna see God do something

beautiful. If you need prayer for anything, we don't put some chairs down

here, so we're gonna have to maneuver around them today. But if you

need prayer, don't leave without prayer. There'll be altar workers right here up

here at the front. If you need prayer for anything, we want you

to come get prayer today. And we believe that God is changing us from

the inside out. Lord bless these people. Let us be the best week

of fasting we've ever had. God, thank you that we have favor on

our jobs and all around. Keep us safe as we go. We give

you all the glory. We give you all the honor and all the praise

in Jesus name. Everybody say we agree. We expect amen go out and

live a transform life. I love you so much. Thank you for joining

us today. If you said that prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart,

it's the best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate with

you, and we have some tools to help you on your journey. Tech

saved to a two eight two eight two. And to find out more about

TC text connect to A two A two eight two. Be sure to subscribe

and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening. Now go out

and live a transform life.