Saving Faith // Crazy Faith (Part 20) – Pastor Michael Todd – Transformation Church

Introduction

• God wants you to live at another level, but to get to this level, you need Crazy Faith.
• We have all been born into crazy situations. Even Jesus was born into something that could have been seen as ‘not working for His good’.
• In life, we have two ways of learning: we go through it ourselves or learn it from someone else who has gone through it.
• What is wisdom?
  • Wisdom is applied knowledge, but most of us don’t use wisdom and it becomes “only information.”
  • Walk in wisdom. Actually apply the information God has given us.

The Message of Christmas

• Matthew 1:18: This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
  • Joseph didn’t believe Mary right away. Logic says that this was not possible.
  • There are many situations where we can’t figure out how we will make it through it.

• Matthew 1:19: Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
  • Joseph planned to break the engagement quietly.
  • Joseph was at a place fighting with his feelings and his reality. The same place many of us fight.
    • EX.) I want to spend more time with family but if I take this promotion, that would be impossible.
  • What did Joseph do? He got overwhelmed and takes a nap.

• Matthew 1:19-25: Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
  • You might be in a troubled situation but in the situation, you will still have responsibility.
  • Joseph and Mary had a responsibility to endure the Crazy Walk.

• Essential Question: Are you doing to do what God asked you to do?

Going Into the New Season

• God specializes in things, and people, that were counted out, and takes it into a new season.

CRAZY WORD | God will give you a crazy word that doesn’t make sense to anybody else

• This is where we get paralyzed with pleasing people.
• When God speaks a word, it doesn’t have an expiration date. It doesn’t have an end date no matter if you’re good or bad, it waits right above you, waiting for you to align with God’s Word.
• A crazy Word is usually given to you in a dark time.
• The problem is that when we get the Word, we expect others to see it.
• Psalms 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
  • When you get a word from God, it’s a Word for you and it doesn’t shine and light up for everybody else, just for you.
• After you get a CRAZY WORD, something will begin to settle in, usually CRAZY WORRY.

CRAZY WORRY | Overcome it through God

• God may give you a crazy Word in opposition, yet some of us wait for our circumstances to align with the word God gave us. It won’t.
• The enemy comes to give us crazy worry, and we begin to doubt. We ask: How? Can I really do it?
• Problem: We get stuck in the “How?” and forget the “Who,” the one “Who” called us and saved us. What’s the answer to the worry?
  • Answer: Philippians 4:6-9
    • Philippians 4:6-9: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
• The only reason we worry about something is because we believe we don’t have what it takes to fulfill the thing, situation, and/or relationship. We worry yet God said don’t worry because God has it.
• Action: Instead of worrying, pray about everything. God promises that even if we don’t get the thing we are praying for, we will still get the peace that passes all understanding
• After overcoming the CRAZY WORRY, you must now decide to take the CRAZY WALK.

CRAZY WALK | Take the step

• If you’re going to take the crazy faith journey, you have to take the crazy walk, and to do that, we have to trust God. God wants us to trust Him; we will either see the mountain top and not the path or see the path and not the mountain top.
• 2 Corinthians 5:7: For we live by faith, not by sight.
  • If you see it, you don’t need faith, and if you can’t see it, faith is a requirement.
• Mary and Joseph got the crazy word, went through crazy worry, but then decided to walk the crazy walk.
• Declaration: This will be the year where you will start walking in Crazy Faith.
• When you get the CRAZY WORD, you will need to endure the CRAZY WAIT.

CRAZY WAIT | Endure it

• The wait is where God develops things. God refines your heart and character in the wait. Don’t give up; you have to go through the crazy wait
  • EX.) Mary and Joseph waited nine months for the promise to be fulfilled.
• Essential Question: When God gives you a word and everybody else says no to you, who do you believe?
  • Answer: Galatians 6:9
    • Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
• With God, any setback is a set up. There’s a “right time” coming if we don’t give up.

CRAZY WAY | See it

• God makes a way where there seems to be no way. At this level, God’s power can be seen because there is nothing men can do.
• There are things that would need to developed in obscurity.
  • EX.) God made a way for Mary and Joseph in an obscure place. After a census was called for and Mary and Joseph were supposed to be back in their homeland, God made a way and put Mary and Joseph in the backside of a barn, in obscurity.
• John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
  • When you find Jesus, He will look beyond your faults. What better gift could you give yourself than to find the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
• The only response to God making a CRAZY WAY is giving CRAZY WORSHIP.

CRAZY WORSHIP | Our response to God

• Lift your hands, lift your voice, and give your finances.
• Matthew 2:10-11: When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
  • We give so God can be worshipped
• The reason we get a CRAZY WORD is so we can share God’s goodness with a CRAZY WORLD.

CRAZY WORLD | God’s goodness is shared

• We share so that the crazy world will know that God is real.
• John 3:17: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
  • Once you start to impact the CRAZY WORLD with God, you spark a CRAZY WAVE

CRAZY WAVE | You might be the only Bible people read