Mike Todd’s Introduction
- Last week because of our faithfulness and inviting friends and family, our live viewing was 122,660 unique devices
- God is not confined to a building
- He’s trying to do something more than we can imagine
- We saw 1,676 people transformed in Christ!
- The numbers can be both exciting and scary
- Whenever there’s an upgrade, there’s an upgrade in responsibility too
- Hence, God wanting Mike to have one more week of “Who’s The Minister Here?”
- Being a minister can’t be seasonal; it has to be a new way of living
Scripture:
Acts 2:42-47 New Living Translation (NLT)
The Believers Form a Community
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper[a]), and to prayer.
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity[b]— 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
- To actually see us being ministers in our existing areas of influence, we must devote ourselves.
Illustration: To be an athlete, it takes devotion. Another element of devotion can be seen in the fans. The fans are devoted to the sports. However, when you think about glory days of particular sports teams, when they were winning, they had an influx of fans that were not fans before. Conversely, when the team started losing, that same influx disappeared, but the devoted fans remained. You have fans that will participate whether you’re in a winning season or not. Think about how it must feel to be a player that was once cheered on by the masses during a winning season, only to see a stark absence of fans during a losing season. Is it possible that God could feel this way? In the midst of a pandemic, Christianity is winning right now. There’s a difference between the devoted and the bandwagon.
Message Title: Bandwagon Believers
At a time like this, Christianity is winning, Christianity is cool and socially accepted. Culture is making Christianity convenience right now. It’s winning right now and there are some people who have been Christians for years, but haven’t stepped out of the convenience of Christianity yet. When it’s not convenient, will you be around?
Will you be around when your job calls you back? When you get more money than you’ve ever had?
The fear is that the convenience of Christianity has some of us using it as a sedative, and not a lifestyle. A sedative to sleep at night, but not as a lifestyle. It’s something that people can drug themselves with, but will you be around when there’s persecution for what you believe?
Will you be around when your baby daddy doesn’t want anything to do with you because you want to pray now? Will you be around when your family turns their back on you because you stepped out on faith?
It’s very easy to be around the things of God and not be in the things of God.
It’s very easy to go to church, be in the band, pay tithes and offerings, etc. It’s just like the fans who pay for their tickets and wear their jerseys to rep their team. The bandwagon fans cheer when the people are performing and playing. However, when everyone leaves and it’s been 42 years for a championship, when all the star players are on another team, will you be a devoted disciple?
Today we are being presented with a choice, a choice of convenience or commitment.
This is the same choice that God gave Adam and Eve in the garden. They had the opportunity to stay in paradise by obeying God, committing to God, and walking with God, and living with Him and having everything provided. The alternative was convenience, the one tree that was close to them, in the middle of the garden, to listen to the deception of the enemy, because it looked better at the time. They gave up the commitment of God for the convenience of a bite of fruit.
The commitment we could have to be good husbands, loving fathers, have families and businesses with integrity, and honor God and make a difference in our community, versus, a couple of Instagram followers?
Are we giving up the commitment of being devoted to the word of God for the convenience of being accepted by men?
Today, we are being challenged. It’s not just about jumping on the bandwagon in sports, but in music, in clothes, etc., because people jump on the bandwagon for anything. This can apply to everything else, but there’s a problem when you apply bandwagon behavior to your faith.
When you’re a bandwagon believer, there’s a heart issue. God wants devoted disciples.
1. The Heart of a Bandwagon Believer is Convenience, but The Heart of a Devoted Disciple is Commitment
We must understand that when you devote to something, you de-vote. You take your vote away.
Illustration of Mike’s Marriage: When you commit to marriage, you take your vote away. When you tell your wife you’re going to be committed to her, you de-voted your life to her. You took away the vote of “Am I going to love her?” When she upsets you, even if you’re emotional and ready to let her have it, you have de-voted. It doesn’t matter what pretty face/waist comes by, you have de-voted, they won’t get any of your time or attention, they wont get anything because when you made the decision to commit, you de-voted yourself to your wife.
Sometimes, you can be so committed to convenience, that you don’t realize that you have not committed to anything.
Your next level up will require you to be de-voted.
Take your vote away. You need to make a decision that for God I live, and for God I’d die, and no matter what happens, I’m devoted. Declare that when “I decided for Jesus, when I decided to be faithful in this marriage, when I decided to have kids, I was de-voting myself”.
The problem is everybody wants a vote, and the vote is usually informed by our feelings. That’s where we get in trouble. God is saying that you need to make a decision that outlasts how you feel and outlasts your circumstances.
Mike is calling for the ministers to be de-voted.
Illustration: Mike hates working out, but he made a decision last year when he saw himself on the Crazy Faith series at the heaviest he has ever weighed, 256lbs. At that moment, he said to himself, “you will not be fat like this ever again”. He was delaying his purpose because his preference was eating junk food etc. So he works out even though he doesn’t want to, even though he hates it. He made a decision in a different season that his feelings have to submit to every time he comes in contact with what he doesn’t want to do.
2. When You Devote: Your Present Preference SUBMITS To Your Predetermined Decision
When you take your vote away and stop consulting your opinion and consult what you have already decided, your present preference submits to your predetermined decision.
You don’t get up and read the word every morning because you want to, but because the word says, “seek me, and you shall find me”. Therefore, He is sought by getting in His presence, in His Bible, with prayer.
You have to make a decision to let your predetermined decision outweigh your preference right now.
- How much in your life is suffering because you’re not devoted?
- How bad is your marriage because you’re not devoted to it?
- How bad is your health because you’re not devoted to it?
- How much better could your relationships be if you became devoted?
Your pastor is here to equip you to be a devoted disciple, not a bandwagon believer. You have to be able to grab your bible and be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even in the absence of your pastor.
This is plaguing Mike because he’s fearful of everything going back to normal after this pandemic. That people will go back to putting their faith in things that are winning at the time, like finances, even though God showed that we are valuable even without them.
Bandwagon believers do not have to be just about faith, just to what is winning at the time. If your relationship, marriage, church, stocks, etc., are winning at the time, you believe in that. God needs you to make a decision that it doesn’t matter if it’s winning or losing, that you will be devoted.
Declare that you will be devoted.
The problem with convenience, is that it always conforms to how culture and comfort are feeling.
Romans 12:2 tells us to do the exact opposite.
Romans 12:2 New International Version (NIV) 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
We cannot conform to convenience; to jumping on bandwagons of things when they’re winning. We have to become devoted.
This is easier said than done. All of us love whatever is convenient. We love food delivery at the door. The real good meals are from people that go and get all the good ingredients, put them in the oven, take it out, put them back in, etc. In other words, the good meals have people in the kitchen that are devoted. God is saying that I want your life, not to be half-baked.
God is saying I want your purpose, not to be half-baked. He doesn’t want your life to stay in this place of convenience. You’re going to have to peel some potatoes. It takes more and doesn’t get the praise that others want it to have. God is calling us to be devoted.
Matthew 19:16-22 New Living Translation (NLT)
The Rich Man
16 Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher,[a] what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 “Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” the man asked. And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. 19 Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 20 “I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?” 21 Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus was testing him, God only requires progression, not perfection.
At verse 21 & 22, after hearing the sacrifice Jesus asked him for, he went away and never came back. At the moment it became inconvenient to be devoted, he went back to being a bandwagon believer and left. He thought that being devoted to Jesus somehow took away from his value. He compared his possessions to Jesus and decided to go with his possessions. Do we do this too?
- My friends and family who think I’m great, versus Jesus
- My business that’s doing really well that requires compromise to stay ahead of the game, versus Jesus
This is the problem that many of us have. We think that somehow being devoted to Jesus will lessen our value.
3. Being Devoted Never Devalues a Disciple
Illustration: Mike thought he would be producing music, but God told him to shut the studio down and get in his bible. That was Mike’s “rich young ruler” moment. We’ll all have a moment where God says, we can go with what we think is going to make us successful, OR, you can be devoted, take your vote away and follow God. Mike had just built his studio and God said shut it down. At that moment, Mike battled, because he wanted to be a bandwagon believer who supported the church, gave money to the church, that attended church when it was convenient, instead of being a devoted disciple who said, “God whatever you want for my life, you can have it. If it’s music, you can have it, money, you can have it, my family, you can have it.” Mike was going to go with what he thought would make him successful, but he thanks God for His holy spirit that helped him decide to go devoted. “You don’t lose anything this way. As a matter of fact, you gain everything.”
He was trying to give the rich young ruler the Matthew 6:33 test, “seek first the kingdom of God”.
Seek first what God wants for me, that He wants to heal my marriage, deliver me from pornography, seek first that He wants to heal my heart, then all these things will be added.
Mike wouldn’t be talking to us today if he decided to be a bandwagon believer.
You are forfeiting your purpose if you don’t become devoted. You cannot do God’s plan without God.
So many of us want to go on stages and tell people that God got us here, when we know that it was our plan that got us here. We don’t admit that we never consulted God unless we got in trouble, or were in the middle of a pandemic, or it was popular to be a Christian. God is saying, “Who will stand up for me? And no matter what comes, and what goes, I’m going to be devoted.” Declare that you have to pray, that you have to love your neighbor, even when they do me right, and when they do me wrong.
It won’t always be easy, it won’t always be good, and out of loss, God is working. Out of the loss of your job, He is birthing something new. Out of the loss of a loved one, He is giving you a deeper conviction to love. Out of the loss, God is trying to teach us lessons. That is what happens when you’re a devoted disciple.
Today, if the scripture says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world,” then there must be a pattern that we have to conform to.
The pattern of the devoted has several ingredients.
4. Devoted Disciples
i) Desire
Right now, you’re getting an advanced class, and get to skip the foolishness and cycles that new Christians tend to fall in. Declare that you will be devoted. As the man of your house, declare that your house will serve the Lord.
Desire doesn’t have to be a big overwhelming thing.
A lot of people want to passionately desire. All you have to do is turn your heart toward God.
“God, I really want to stop cussing people out. I want to love them, but I want to slap them.” What this does is takes your heart from being turned away from it, and shows a little bit of desire”.
Some of us need to make a decision today that, “I desire to be better to my spouse, I desire to forgive my father”. You don’t actually have to do it to desire it.
You don’t have to put action on it yet, to desire it. So many people stop desiring, because they don’t know how to do what they’re desiring.
You can desire to get in shape, even if you’re eating ice cream as you watch (read) this right now.
Stop believing the lies of the enemy that you can’t even desire it.
If you’re in Christ and He tells you, “I want you to get your mind and perspective fixed on the right thing.” – some of us need to change our desires. For some of us, our families have gone so far away from God. Today, desire that your family will eat around the table, that your children will be saved. They’re far away right now, but you can have a desire, even if you don’t know how it’s going to happen.
Some of you are not desiring to be in a relationship because the last one broke you so bad. God says, “Today, I’m giving somebody their desire back”.
Some of you stopped desiring to be in ministry because the last one didn’t recognize your gifting. God said, He didn’t call you to be affirmed by that ministry, He called you to be the minister. Now, He needs you to get a desire back. For you that has a gifting to sing, desire again. To be devoted, you need to get a desire.
You need to have a desire to be used by God. That can be your prayer this week. “God, give me a desire that pleases you. A desire that brings you back to the center of my life”.
When you get that desire, it doesn’t have to be big.
Zechariah 4:10 New Living Translation (NLT) 10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
He just wants to see you begin to desire.
Philippians 2:13 New Living Translation (NLT) 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Your flesh wants to go away, and click away, but your spirit tells you that you need it. God will never give you a desire for something, that he won’t give you the power to do.
When you desire God, He gives you His desires for you. He gives you the power to do what He desires.
The reason some of us are so broken and so tired, is because we’ve been using our power, for our desires. Jump into being devoted, find out His desires, get His power.
His desires will give you His power; your desire will use your power
If it’s His desire for your marriage to be healed, tap into His power. Tap into his power to forgive. Tap into his power to be able to love.
ii) Eliminate
When we get a desire from God,we have to then eliminate all of the foolishness!
Some of us are trying to keep what is holding us back, and go into the future. God says, those two do not coincide. Comfort and growth are archenemies; they cannot go together.
You can’t take all of your friends with you, and be the leader of what God has called you to be.
He said you’re going to have to eliminate some things. Some of you are sitting next to what needs to be eliminated by being in relationships and situationships that are not helping you reach purpose. [We’ll talk about this next week in Relationship Goals reloaded next week.]
There are things you need to eliminate in your life that are keeping you from being devoted.
There are certain people that when you told them you made a decision to do something different, they’ll encourage you back to the old you. Are they really your friend? If they ask you things like, “Are you for real? After everything we’ve been through? Okay, let’s just do it one more time.” – Do you have some one more time friends, associates, business partners? They’re trying to make you a bandwagon believer, to do what you need to only when it’s convenient.
Make a decision that, I don’t just want the desire that God has for me, but that I have to eliminate stuff.
God won’t do, what He’s given you the power to do. Some of you have been praying away your problem, and you’re going to have to actually invite them out of your life. God is not going to do it. He’s not going to do anything that he gave you the power to do. Some of you need to turn your phone off after this message and don’t turn it back on until it’s a new number.
There are so many things you’ve been devoted to that are going to take you back to where you’ve been. God is saying, “I have a purpose for you, I have a plan for you, it’s bigger than anything you’ve ever seen, but you have to eliminate all of them”.
Mike has found through elimination, anything we give up for God, comes back in a way that we actually need it.
- When you give up community, God will surround you with Godly community that will actually sharpen you and make you better
- When you give up your status, He will bring people to you and raise you up in something completely different for His glory
- He brings things back in a way that will actually be healthy for you and be a part of His plan for your life – you only get this when you’re devoted
Cut it off: people, websites, habits – cut them off. You need accountability when you get here. It’s hard to eliminate something if you’re the only one that knows you’re doing it.
God is saying, if you’re going to be devoted, take your vote away, then you have to take a stand for some things, and there are certain things that HAVE to get cut off.
Hebrews 12:1 New Living Translation (NLT) 12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
Strip off: – to eliminate
Notice that it does not start with sin; It starts with “every weight”. It may not be a sin, but it may slow you down.
You may say, it’s not a sin to spend time with her, I want to build with her. However, she’s a slowdown. It’s not a sin to be in this business right now…that’s a slowdown. It’s not a sin to watch this TV show…that’s a slowdown for you.
God says, eliminate everything that’s slowing you down AND the sin that’s in your life.
If you’re going to be devoted, take your vote away, and commit to your decision more than your preference at the time, you have to get a desire, eliminate things slowing you down, and get vision.
iii) Vision
Without vision, the people run wild; they cast off restraint; they stop caring.
A problem for many of us is that because we don’t have a desire for what God wants in our life, we don’t eliminate the wrong situations out of our life, then it blurs our vision.
God is saying, we need to re-vision. Everything you thought was going to happen in 2020, has now changed.
Sit down, and make the re-vision. Ask God, what is the vision for the rest of the year? What is the vision for my life?
When you get a vision, you don’t cast off restraint, you get focused. Where there is vision, or prophetic insight, there is a flourishing that happens, that’s why he tells us to write the vision down, and make it plain, so that it can be read on the run, and people can get that vision.
You need to get fresh vision. Not what you see in your circumstance, but fresh vision from God.
iv) Obey
It’s one thing to find out what God has for you, to eliminate all distractions, and see what he has for you, but then not obey what He tells you to do. It’s all void.
If you have been in a season of slow obedience, it’s disobedience.
Slow obedience is disobedience.
If you’re going to be devoted, you have to do what God says in that moment. You don’t know what the seeds you’re planting for.
On the other side of your obedience is upgrade; on the other side of disobedience is disappointment.
Until you start obeying, without knowing what it affects,
Illustration: If your child comes to you and you say, “put that down”, because it might be dangerous, like scissors. They may not understand the implications of running with scissors. Similarly, Mike told Bella to put the scissors down, and instead of doing so, she got on the hover board with the scissors. She rode the hover board with scissors. Mike was telling her to put it down for her safety. Mike had to tell Bella, “because you’re not listening, I have to take away the scissors, and I have to take away the hover board”. Mike had to take away what was harming you, and what you were having fun with. Until you learn the lesson, that when I speak, you listen. That when I speak, it’s for your good. The slow obedience, was disobedience.
God is saying, if you’re going to be devoted, you will need to be quicker on obeying Him. You have to do it when He says it, and to anticipate His instructions. So that you can be one that is trusted.
Obedience is greater than any sacrifice.
1 Samuel 15:22 New Living Translation (NLT) 22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
God is asking you to just obey.
A lot of us are sacrificing things we wouldn’t have to give up if we would just obey, e.g. time.
God said if you would obey Him, you would have to sacrifice less and you would be walking under his divine instructions.
v) Trust
You have to trust that God has everything under control.
Illustration: Mike’s brother is a die-hard Lakers fan. He’s devoted. He’s unashamed of the gospel of the Lakers. Would you have that much passion for the God that saved you? For the God that delivered you and brought your family back? Mike asked Gabe, what’s happening? Gabe never stopped repping the Lakers, even when they were trash. He would wear Kobe and Shaq jerseys when they weren’t playing. Gabe responded, “I’m just trusting the management”. Mike said, “what?”, Gabe continued and said that, “don’t worry, there’s stuff they’re not talking to us about. The management is working, even when we’re losing. Even while we’re in a losing season, I’m trusting the management.”
If you’re going to be devoted, even when you’re in a losing season, you need to trust the management. Even when I don’t see it, He’s working. Even when I don’t feel it, He’s working. He never stops working.
When it looks like everything is burning down, like we’re losing, we still have to trust the manager.
Our manager has a great reputation. His name is Jehovah Jireh, the one that will provide. He is the one that is at the beginning and the end. They call him alpha and omega. He is the one that sees you in the middle and He’s the one that has chartered your course. Trust the management.
Proverbs 3:5-6 New Living Translation (NLT) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Don’t depend on what the media tells you, or your own understanding. Seek his will.
Desire >> Eliminate >> Get a Re-Vision >> Obey >> Trust >> and then, get an Expectation
vi) Expectation
After you devote your life to God, you should have an expectation that God is about to do some crazy things in your life.
In the middle of the pandemic, look for the blessing, look for the best season of your life. Allow a praise to be on the inside of you. Have an expectation when you’re devoted, because when you’re devoted, you get to last during the losing seasons, but celebrate in the winning seasons.
Think about the people that have been faithful for years. They kept being looked over but kept doing what God told them to do; all of the people, even on the frontlines right now who are afraid for their own families but keep showing up to work and meeting the needs of others. Police officers making house calls, and people delivering groceries etc. Know that God never requires anything from you that he’s expecting you to live your life without.
Get an expectation that God is going to do something in your life that doesn’t make sense.
1 Corinthians 2:9 New Living Translation (NLT) 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined, what God has prepared, for those who love him.”
It was already prepared before you decided to be devoted.
There are things waiting on you right now that God said, if you would jump in the stream of taking your vote away, and serve, and give, and love others, and be devoted, he already has something with your name on it.
All your qualification is, is to love God.
Love is a term of devotion.
You can’t love anybody if you’re not devoted to them.
A lot of people say they love their spouse, but their opinion is louder in the relationship than their submission. So, they’re note devoted.
God is asking some of you to take your vote away.
- I’m going to serve God
- I’m going to love my spouse
- I’m going to finish my school work
- I’m going to honor my parents
- I’m taking my vote away – that’s going to prove who you really love
There are things that you do for your spouse, not because you want to, but because you committed your life to them. When you committed your life to them, you gave them your vote. When you commit your life to Christ and you’re really the minister, you give him your vote.
If it’s not Easter and you tell me to keep inviting people every week, and it’s not just 10 people, but 20 people, do you do it because Transformation Church (TC) told you to do it, or are you devoting to it because you know that it’s a part of God’s plan for your life?
If we’re honest, most of us have gotten off of this continuum at some point.
Continuum thus far: Desire >> Eliminate >> Vision >> Obey >> Trust >> Expectation
You may have had the desire for a second, but didn’t eliminate what you needed to, then you got blurry vision, and then didn’t want to obey or trust God, hence looking to other sources, and therefore had no expectations of Him.
If you reverse it, and get just a little desire, then eliminate those distractions and weights, and get a new vision, and obey God and trust Him, then you expect. Do you know what it equals? — It equals discipline.
God is calling for us to be devoted disciples. All that means is disciplined ones.
vii) Discipline
All God is looking for is people He can count on that will follow the same cycle over and over again:
Desire >> Eliminate >> Vision >> Obey >> Trust >> Expectation >> Discipline (repeat)
We need to be disciplined; i.e., doing the same thing over and over regardless of what comes and goes.
The Christian walk does not get easier; you get stronger.
The desire turns into discipline.
Mike doesn’t wake up desiring to go to the gym, but after getting disciplined to do it for a long time, the days that he misses it, he starts desiring it.
If God could just get a few devoted people to get in this process, the discipline He will build in your life is going to produce what He wants to see and what you want to see in your life.
Hebrews 12:11-13 New Living Translation (NLT) 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. 12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
God’s desire for us is to get discipline to the point where we’re stronger.
Even in the middle of a pandemic, we will go forward, not backward.
God is giving you the desire to do what pleases Him, we’re eliminating all distraction, our vision is getting clearer, and we will obey what God says to do. We will trust Him, we will expect that good things are on the way, and we will have discipline.
Desire >> Eliminate >> Vision >> Obey >> Trust >> Expectation >> Discipline
When we put the continuum together, it spells, ‘Devoted’.
Mike is trying to give you a pattern to live your life by. You can do this for your marriage, your family, your job, with your body, but it will take all of these things: Desire >> Eliminate >> Vision >> Obey >> Trust >> Expectation >> Discipline
God is asking if you could just be His devoted disciple.
Metaphor: It’s like breakfast at a farm. There’s a cow, a chicken, and a pig. Bandwagon believers are like cows and chickens at breakfast They give a piece of themselves. The cow gives the milk, and the chicken gives the egg, but for the pig to be at the breakfast, he has to sacrifice his life. The pig was devoted to that meal. The cow and chicken only had to give a piece of themselves when it was convenient.
Today, Mike is thinking God doesn’t want us to give just a piece of ourselves, but our whole life. He never asks us to give something He didn’t give first. Last weekend, we talked about Jesus being the sacrifice and devoting himself to us, even before we devoted ourselves to Him.
God is saying, “I know it’s popular right now to become a Christian, but there may come a time where it’s not, are you still gonna ride for this? Are you still going to pray for people? Are you still going to give? Are you still going to sow? Are you still going to invite? Will you be what Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile”? Or, will you jump off the bandwagon when it’s not as convenient?
Prayer for the person watching (reading): That something deep on the inside of you will not just be convinced, but convicted. In light of everything Christ has done for us, there’s no way I can walk around and not be devoted to Him. If you feel something in your heart stirring and you want to be devoted, just lift your hands. Father in the name of Jesus, I declare and believe father God, that what you have done in this place today, is painted a clear picture of your desire for us, that you want us to have your desire, you want us to eliminate those things that are not like you Father, you want to give us clear vision and to obey you. God you want us to trust you. Father God, even in this moment, there are people right now who was devoted in one season and it seems like it didn’t work. God I hear you saying, “I am coming to restore your trust in me”. I thank you that we will trust again. I thank you that people will begin to move from the places that have kept them down and low. Thank you Father God, that everyone will get a new expectation, that we would be disciplined, and we would be ones that stand up no matter what anybody does, or what culture does. We say Father, we will be, not bandwagon believers, but devoted disciples. Thank you that people will stand and obey you wherever they are, whether in front of two people, or two thousand people. We trust you, we believe you, and we thank you for it. In Jesus name. Amen.
Altar Call: If you’re in this place, and you’ve never given your life to Christ, 1600+ gave it to him last week. God says, today is your day. Make a decision to come devoted. If you give your life to Christ, you can be promised one thing, and that’s that God will never leave you or forsake you. God can take broken pieces and give you desire and turn it into discipline. Today is the day of salvation. Just shoot your hand up in the air on the count of three wherever you are.
1. You’re making the greatest decision you’ve ever made. 2. Don’t care about who’s in the room. God is in the room with you. 3. Just shoot your hand up in the air.
Let’s Pray Together: God thank you, for sending your son Jesus, just for me. Thank you, for being devoted to me when I wasn’t devoted to you. Today, I surrender my life and I give you everything. Change me, renew me, transform me, I’m yours, from this day forward, in Jesus name, Amen.
- Text ‘Saved’ to 918-992-7623 for resources and content to help you to be His devoted disciple
SUMMARY NOTES
1. The Heart of a Bandwagon Believer is Convenience, but The Heart of a Devoted Disciple is Commitment
2. When You Devote: Your Present Preference SUBMITS To Your Predetermined Decision
3. Being Devoted Never Devalues a Disciple
4. Devoted Disciples
i) Desire
ii) Eliminate
iii) Vision
iv) Obey
v) Trust
vi) Expectation
vii) Discipline
Link to full Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4VaIw9bHbg
Part 1 Notes: https://boldinsidermarketing.com/2020/03/22/whos-the-minister-here-part-1-mike-todd-transformation-church/
Part 2 Notes: https://boldinsidermarketing.com/2020/03/30/toys-r-us-ministers-whos-the-minister-part-2-mike-todd-transformation-church/
Abby Olurin Dames
I love Jesus, my husband, Will, my toddler daughter, Sola, and the beautiful friends and family in our lives. Me and Will are from the Bahamas, but we currently reside in Austin, Texas. We joined TC Nation as online members of Transformation Church in 2017 when we moved to Austin from Miami, Florida. In 2020, we also happily took on a more active role with the E-Fam of Elevation Church by fellowshipping with other married couples and were pleased to have the opportunity to join TC Beta Belong Groups. I believe that representing God doesn’t have to be done in “traditional spaces”. After listening to Pastor Mike's sermon, "Who's the Minister Here?", it became my mission to shed light on Christ in all arenas, including, but not limited to, corporate America, marketing, technology, and finance. I'm not perfect, but I'm progressing. I am a marketer, but first, I am a Christian, and the aim of this blog is to publicly share my sermon notes as a form of stewardship. I hope that these message notes can bring clarity to anything you may be seeking and help you to experience the peace and glory of Jesus Christ. I'm happy to pray for you as well if you ever wanted to shoot me an email. The effectual fervent prayers of many of you have helped countless circumstances in my life and in the lives of those around me. Thank you! Also, for any Amazon specific links that you see, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
