Charles Metclaf’s Introduction During Worship
For Today’s Experience:
- Lock In
- Lean In
- Lay it Down
- Let it Out
Video Illustrations: news footage of the breaking news about Corona virus and the fear spreading across the nation.
“You really think this is going to stop the church of Jesus Christ?” – This is how the church started. This is the greatest mistake the enemy has ever made. We are built for this. Today the church gets stronger. We’re going to worship and declare who God is. Today, be unashamed, lift your hands up, declare that od is good. We are built for this!
We’re in the month of generosity and we show a picture of what that looks like by blessing others. 300k so far because of our giving and faithfulness.
There’s no distance in prayer. God has not given us a spirit of fear. We live under the authority of the kingdom of God.
Mike Todd’s Intro During Worship
Today, we are not meeting under our name, the governments name, in the name of fear, we are meeting under the only name that can change everything, and his name is Jesus!
In the time of tragedy, everybody tries to run back to God, but there’s no way to live life in this fallen world without Jesus.
Today has been recognized as a national day of prayer.
We experience a lot of these things because we try to take God out of everything. When money and science can’t answer, everyone turns back to Jesus.
At Transformation church, prayer is not our last resort, it is our first response.
Prayer excerpts from Pastor Brenda:
Glory to God. God breathed breath into us and we became a living soul…what is the devil trying to attack? Our breath, our breathing. It’s our inheritance to be able to breathe….our eyes are up on the Lord in the name of Jesus. Even now, we can begin to pray in the name of Jesus. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are up on you…We are declaring healing and deliverance.
Prayer excerpts from Pastor Mike:
We pray for every government official, scientist, nurses, first responders. I declare a hedge of protection over our families…you will hear us and heal us as we turn from our own wicked ways…we repent…we come back to your feet…we declare that this house is a house of God….As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…fear has to go, anxiety, depression, has to go…God give us the fruit of the spirit. In Jesus name.
In the name of Jesus we bind corona virus and loose healing, hope, a cure, wisdom, and we thank you that we stand bold and look to you Father God. We will be that army that will be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ….we will stand up and declare that God is the only healer in Jesus name.
There is power in the name Jesus to break every chain.
The blood still works.
God didn’t bring us here to leave us.
Don’t forget what we already know. This happens every generation, and we are to give God praise in the middle of it. Just like Paul and Silas as they praised in the middle of prison and the walls started to shake.
Today is going to be a good day. Glory to God.
We needed this gathering today, not in a building, because the church is an organism, not an organization. We multiply when the doors are closed. God adds people to the organism every day. Through the gift of technology, we thank God for the opportunity to meet God together in our homes, in our cars, wherever we may be.
The sermons that we watch online are from cameras that were purchased at 80k on faith when Mike was first raised to the TC platform. People left the church over it, but this allowed the word to come forth for people around the world.
We are starting week 5 of Secure the Bag.
People are trying to become their own providers. This crisis proves who we trust.
As a church, we’re going to trust God.
In the scriptures, every famine, plague, disease, economic downturn, the people of God were sustained because they put their trust in Him.
My trust is in the Lord.
Tell yourself this every day. Believe that even when it doesn’t look like it. When you trust in the lord, you are secured.
God will secure everything about you, even in moments that aren’t good.
This is the greatest opportunity for us to rise up and be a difference.
We have to respond differently. We only respond differently when we are absolute and resolute when our trust is in the Lord.
What’s more contagious than any virus? More transformative? What’s more contagious than corona? – It’s extravagant generosity.
When people start giving to people, it’s transformative.
The enemy wants us to withhold at a time like this, while God wants us to share and give.
The spirit of fear is different from fear.
Fear is a natural emotion. The spirit of fear is anticipating that every moment, there is something ready to scare you, dominating your thoughts and affecting your actions.
The spirit of fear is not given by God. He gives us the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind.
What’s more contagious than corona is extravagant generosity. God is challenging the church organism to be generous.
When God doesn’t have our hand, it’s because he often times doesn’t have our hearts.
As the church blessed organizations, did we as organisms feel a tug to bless others in our own vicinity?
We have to level up and get off of this low level of giving and helping people. We have to stop judging if people deserve to be given. We can’t only bless those that appear to be less fortunate than us. It shows God that we can’t be trusted and taken to the next level of extravagant generosity.
Any time we go to whole other level, we have to be exposed to another level.
For something to become contagious, it has to be first exposed.
The same way you can be exposed to the wrong thing, we can be exposed to the right thing. The right thing is being generous. We can obey God at the levels we are at.
Illustration: Mike thought he had been exposed to really big houses by riding through wealthy neighborhoods playing “that’s my house”. So when he was 19/20, he pulled up to a “compound”, the driveway was 2-4 miles long with a limo covered. He walked up to a 9 car garage and every car was white. Chandeliers and wallpaper in the garage. There was a master bedroom 2 car garage with a Bentley and Rolls-Royce sitting there. Mike was overwhelmed. The master bedroom was 10,000 square feet. The master bedroom was two stories with an Olympic sized pool. When Mike was told they were staying out back, he didn’t realize there was 4 2,000 square foot houses for when guests come.
He realized at that moment that everything he saw up to that point was at a low level. The exposure at the high level gave him the ability to desire more. The goal of this series is to get us to the level of extreme generosity so that our hands can be up when God wants to bless somebody.
The church hasn’t leveled up because we’ve been at a poverty level of giving.
Even while Mike was a pastor, there was a passage of scripture he was teaching wrong, and needed to repent and teach it correctly. So, Malachi chapter 3 needs to be retaught.
Mike stated that he misinterpreted God’s hearts behind the scripture. God doesn’t want people’s money. The scripture is “Can a man rob God”…it infers that if you don’t tithe, you rob God of money. However, we are actually robbing God of an opportunity to bless us when we don’t tither or give offering.
- Don’t Rob God of an Opportunity to Bless You
Malachi 3:8-12 (NKJV)
“Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
Says the Lord of hosts;
12 “And all nations will call you blessed,
For you will be a delightful land,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
God has always provided. The bible shows us this.
He doesn’t need our resources. He’s trying to give us an opportunity to be blessed.
Instead, we rob God of an opportunity to bless us.
God still loves you, it’s not about salvation. Many believers live saved, and in bondage. You’re going to heaven, but can never break the poverty and lack off your life. This has to do with a lack of generosity.
When you start giving to God, your life can be transformed.
Where your treasure is, your heart is. When you give your treasure, God gets access to your heart. When he gets access to your heart, he can transform your habits, then you end up living a blessed life.
Treasure >> Heart >> Habits >> Life
Transformation only happens in the heart; it’s not just behavior modification. Returning tithes and giving offering may have more to do with the life you’re living than anything else.
“9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.”
We have robbed God of the opportunity to bless us; we didn’t try to go back to God until we found ourselves into a time of crisis.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,”
This is the local church. This is the only place God says to test him.
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing. That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
This is the opportunity to bless others. Where do I need to sow? Who do I need to bless? Who do I need to give a hand up? The problem is we’re on a low level.
12 “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,”Says the Lord of hosts.
There’s levels to this. We can’t get to the last level without starting at the first level.
Level 1: Tithe
At this point, we know that hearts have changed. It doesn’t matter about the amounts. The heart is what matters.
Level 2: Offering
The next level is giving offerings. Give to that organization, give to that person, give to the church…what people don’t understand is when you return the tithe, it gets blessed. When you step into offering, it gets multiplied.
Luke 9:12-17 New King James Version (NKJV)
12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were [a]filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Many times, it feels like God asks us to give from a deserted place. When we’re in college, just out of a divorce, bankrupt, etc.
God sometimes wants us to be a part of somebody else’s miracle when it feels like there is not enough for “me”.
Just like the disciples, we tell Jesus, “this is all we have” – as though he would dismiss us. What would happen if we would be ones to meet other people’s needs and not just our own?
Tithing and giving offering doesn’t make sense. It makes miracles. God was trying to make a miracle while the disciples were trying to make sense.
God is trying to make miracles when we’re trying to make dollars and cents.
God says it’s enough.
He tells them to organize what doesn’t feel like enough. He tell us to know exactly what we have, what we need, etc. Get in order, what doesn’t seem to be enough.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
He will give you back 90% of what you have, but blessed, in the midst of crisis and downturn.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were [a]filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Now, he says to give it away; the disciples were tempted to eat for themselves. God shows that if they ate, it would have never multiplied.
Instead, they went around, likely advising the people to take just a little. However, it kept multiplying.
God does this today. We get refunds out of nowhere, savings out of nowhere. Attitudes start to change when you know you’re not the supplier, that you don’t have to provide it.
The same God that multiplied it when it was just a little bit, is the same God who is going to do it if you give it away.
Tithes, gives us access to give offerings, which multiples to give us resources to go to the last level.
Level 3: Sacrificial Offering
These are the offerings that hurt. The offerings where you fast after you give. Your body tells you it’s the wrong decision after God told you to do it.
It’s extravagant to the one receiving, but sacrificial to the one who is giving it.
God wants every one of our children to live here.
When you do it God’s way, God gets to use you as a blessing to the whole world.
What would happen if the church could give billions toward the cure for COVID-19? Only 7% of Christians tithe.
So if 7% of every Christian tithe, then the number of people who live at level 3, is tiny.
TC Nation needs to camp out at level three, the place of sacrificial offerings and extravagant gifts.
At the end of the year, we have the crazy faith offering. Our generosity paid off the Spirit Bank Event Center building for Transformation Church. Billions paid off in 7 months.
Some of our bills and deficits are because of where we have faith to live.
Anecdote: God led Mike to give a sacrificial offering. Even after telling Mike, Natalie freaked out. Sacrificial offerings are not comfortable. These are the offerings that hurt a little bit, but produce the most transformation.
The devil doesn’t tell anybody to give anything. He just tells people to take. There was tension from Natalie with the offering Mike felt he was led to give. The Holy Spirit asked Mike to trust him. God also told Mike to give someone a car in the midst of this offering. God reminded him of what he did for Mike in the past. He gave away his land rover, got a Mercedes, and gave that away, then another car was given away, and so on and so forth. After God spoke to Natalie, she was in agreement. What happened next? Mike wrote the check with sad tears and even felt power leave him; you don’t have to feel it to obey what God said. There was a guy at church who wanted Mike to help him pray over his own offering. God told Mike that he matured, that he can give a sacrificial offering whenever God put it on his heart. In 60 seconds, God performed a miracle. When Mike turned around and stood to pray for this guy, the guy said, he flew there from the East Coast and was told to give an offering specifically to Mike. When Mike got in the car and opened the envelope, it was 30% more than what Mike gave one minute after he gave it. God wasn’t concerned about the money, he was concerned about the obedience. He didn’t let Mike go without it for more than a minute. Mike didn’t block God from the opportunity to bless him.
We are to walk in extreme generosity, extravagant giving, sacrificial offering.
Mike called to find out how to give a car to the person. Someone overheard the call and gave a 2013 brand new, low mileage car for a single mother because God didn’t even want to use Mike’s money, he just wanted to use his obedience. He had everything lined up the moment Mike fixed his heart on giving the sacrificial offering.
We’ve been playing at a low level. We have to tithe.
Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit.
Just make the next step. If you’ve never tithed, start, never given offering, start, never given a sacrificial offering, start.
God is tying to allow generosity to be more contagious than corona.
What can you do this week, this month, today, to be generous. God will give us so much more.
Generosity is more contagious than anything. The people who were recently blessed by Transformation Church were blessed even more than we realized by the time they got to their destinations.
We want to be a church that helps other organizations.
We just donated 50k to Venue Church/Pastor Tavner Smith for their cameras. We/Mike knows exactly what it took to get cameras at a certain point in ministry.
100k has just been given to New Jerusalem Church/North Tulsa for the spread of the gospel.
Prayer excerpts: Father God, allow us to level up and go from tithing, to offering, to sacrificial offering. Today, we pray extravagant generosity over everyone watching. Break every chain of poverty, grief, shame, poor stewardship. We trust you, believe you, and give you glory, honor and praise because we’re blessed to be a blessing.
Mike wants us all to live a blessed life.
Our relationship with Jesus takes us further, he will help you take these steps, he’ll get your heart and change your habits.
Prayer for Salvation:
God, thank you, for sending Jesus, as the greatest sacrifice, just for me. Today, I’m giving you my life, transform me, save me, change me. I believe you lived and you died, just for me. Today. I surrender my life. I’m yours in Jesus name.
Summary
- Don’t Rob God of an Opportunity to Bless You
- Level 1: Tithe
- Level 2: Offering
- Level 3: Sacrificial Offering
