Let God Rewrite Your List - Modern Romance | Pastor Mike Todd | LifeNorth.Church

back to life north church we're so glad you guys came back to join us today you know if this is your first time or you're new with us we would love to connect with you and get to know you and so take a moment now if you would and click on the welcome button because we would like to connect with you and if you're in church online there's a button there if you're on facebook or youtube live and you're watching it then click the link that shows up or maybe you're watching a little bit later on and there should be another link a little bit further down in the description because we would love to connect with you and get to know you you know during all the stuff that's happening with covet depending on where you are in the process of whether it's ramping up or maybe you're on the other side and things are going away the truth is there's been so much upheaval and change that there's a lot to process so many things are new and things that we were used to and that were routine have been upended and because of that we're all struggling with the losses involved and the losses could be big or small but they impact all of us and so wherever we are we need people around us to encourage us and support us and help us move forward in what's coming next and that's what we would like to be for you that's what the church is all about and so at life north church that's one of the reasons why we would love to connect with you and get to know about you so that we can know what your story is and encourage you and support you and help you move forward and grow even during this really difficult time well as a church we are in a partnership with life church in the united states and i love when they bring in uh guest speakers ones that line up with our mission and our vision so beautifully and they put a lot of time and effort into selecting people and during the series we're in modern romance they have done just that they have picked some amazing people to speak to this topic of dating and relationships in particular and it has been so good this is actually the last week in our series modern romance if you've missed the earlier ones make sure you go back and get those you can find them on our youtube channel and you can catch up to what's going on but if you have missed them that's okay you can dive right into today as we go with part four in our series with pastor michael todd who brought such a powerful message last week about the lists that you and i keep the lists that don't really line up with what god wants for us but that we have expectations of people often unrealistic expectations and if you're anything like me uh of the people that i love and people are closest to me often i do have and i expect things from them that really only god can provide and so as we go into this last message here's an opportunity for god to speak to you and maybe get a better perspective on what god's trying to do and so i hope you're listening to what god has to say as we go into week four of modern romance hey team lc if you were here last week you know what's coming this week we got a fire in the house and before uh before i tell you what we're gonna do today let me tell you next week is what we call reveal week it's the week before at the movies and it's the week you want to bring your kids and a billion friends to see what happens in the lobbies uh our campus teams are me working all week long doing something really really special in preparation for the very best time of the year to bring people who've never been to church let's call at the movies who's excited about this year we have the best lineup of messages when you watch the way jesus communicated he would often illustrate a spiritual truth with a story what we're going to do is we're going to illustrate spiritual truth with movie clip stories in a way that i believe really complements the teaching of jesus and it just transforms lives you want to bring everybody you can in the weeks to come today though we have back my very very good friend the pastor of transformation church we're talking all things relationship there's nobody better new york times best-selling author of this fantastic book relationship goals if you haven't read it please do read it get it for your kids and your friends to read before i welcome him to the platform i just want to say i learned from those who've gone before me i'm always a student i learn from my peers in the younger category i love to learn for those who are coming that are younger and in the 30 year old category there ain't nobody i learn from more than my very good friend who's a great man of god a great cheerleader in my life i love your family and it's an honor for you to speak to our church life church could you please help me welcome pastor mike todd come on thank you man life church they let me back in here again i'm back and i'm black and i'm wearing a pink jacket and um i am excited to be able to continue to share about principles everybody say principles to live your life and to help your relationships i believe that everybody can win in relationships if you're sitting next to somebody tell them you can win in relationships now now the other person that you didn't look at i want you to tell them you can win in relationships yeah that's what god wants for each one of us but that means that we have to live our life based on principles that are found in god's word and we learned last week that we got to do what rip up the list see because all of us have a list that we have made in our hearts and our minds and our soul and our emotion that we think maybe god will co-sign this maybe this is the type of person i'll be with and many times we get frustrated because god didn't do what we eros erroneously made up on our own and today i i want to go further into this principle but i want to show you through somebody's life in the word of god y'all remember joseph the one with the versace gucci jacket y'all remember the one of many colors y'all remember that i want to look at joseph's life and i want to tell you that the journey to whatever god has for you whatever your palace looks like relationally whatever your palace looks like for your family whatever your palace looks like for your business you might want to rip up the list of how you thought it was going to happen because the road to where you're going to end up and i want to encourage somebody if you're single right now and you desire relationship i believe that you're going to end up in a relationship that is full of life y'all don't even believe it she's like i don't even know pastor mike i'm telling you by faith you're going to end up in a relationship that's full of life a relationship that brings joy that blesses others if your relationship is bad right now i believe that god can turn it around he's the only one that can take broken things and create a masterpiece but the thing you got to realize is the journey doesn't always look like the destination write that down the journey doesn't always look like the destination where me and my wife natalie are at today after almost 20 years of knowing each other 11 years of being married and our relationship went to a pit right before i got married can i be hot can i be humble open and transparent with life church i kind of told some of my business last week i'm gonna tell a little more this week don't judge me it don't matter if you do god loves me um right before we got married i had this voice come into my mind and it was through people and different things but i'll just call it a voice that came to my mind it was really the enemy said how are you about to settle down and give your life to this one woman and you've never experienced anything else why in the world would you settle for this steak dinner when you've never tasted tacos and meatloaf and burgers and ham y'all get the analogy and i did not hang on to the principles of god i went for pleasure and i know i'm talking about me but i'm talking about you too because there's areas of our life where we've traded the principles of god for the pleasure of the moment and that 10 months of insanity that i talk about in my book relationship goals cost me 10 years of trust building what i'm telling you is where we are today the destination relationship goes number one new york time bestseller look at our family that's not the journey we was on and what i had to do was i had to take the list that i made and i had to do what i got to keep apologizing i got to keep saying i'm sorry for what i did that one time i got to keep going to counseling and they charge how much but remember what proverbs 19 21 says many are the plans in a person's heart but it is the lord's purpose that will prepare god prevail god saw us purpose helping millions of people win in relationships but the journey to get there went through a pit and that's kind of what happened to joseph and i came to encourage somebody well i thought this was a relationship series if you're gonna be in relationship at some moment it's going to the pit oh can all my married folks make some noise right some of y'all barely made it here today he's like don't talk to me jim don't talk to me glory to god i'm trying to give you principles so you know that we can get to the palace but if you're gonna go on this journey don't quit in the pit [Music] in an age where if you look at modern romance they tell you quit when it's hard they tell you stop when you don't when you don't feel it anymore i don't know we just fell out of love it's just i don't know like one day i just i looked at them and no sparks no sparks i dare say love starts where feelings end y'all missed it yeah when i stop feeling it that's when love actually kicks in y'all remember that song um michael and natalie sitting in the tree k-i-s-s-i help me say first comes love then comes mares then comes the baby and the baby that's the dumbest relational advice i've ever heard love doesn't come first sometimes the baby comes first let's be honest like but i believe if you study the scripture love comes after the sacrifice it comes after the commitment this is free how much did you love god before you committed to him it was after the commitment that love actually came in what i'm trying to say is you got to commit even if it goes to the pit and that means that if you are frustrated and you don't see how it's gonna work invite god into it don't jump out of it and say god what's next and there's no better example than this in the bible than joseph who who had a list who had a dream y'all remember his dream he was the favorite son of his father and then one day he just got up the curse like yo i had the craziest dream last night let me tell you all about it and he gathered his brothers around in genesis chapter 37 verse five it said one night joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers about it they hated him more and then he already knew they hated him but he kept telling them dreams so he said uh listen guys we were out in the field tying up bundles of grade and suddenly my bundle stood up and your bundles dropped it low and gathered and bowed before mine his brothers responded so you think you're going to be our king do you you actually think you will reign over us and they hated him all the more because of his dream and the way he talked about them now i started thinking about this idea as far as our relationships our businesses all the things we want to happen like god gives us a dream and we have a dream person or a dream idea or a list look how i i think joseph list would have gone his list would have said like something like he had a dream then he got support and then he got an opportunity and then he went for promotion to promotion and then it was the palace glory adios that's what we think our life with christ looks like it's this list but do you know what actually happened is he had a dream but then he was betrayed by the people closest to him he was sold into slavery he was put into prison and he still got the palace one plus one equals 19. and that's how many of our relationships look it's like how do you and you with all of that turn out to be this that is the hand of god in a relationship and that's what happens when you take your list and you rip it up so joseph now has to walk through these seasons like many of you are having to walk through these seasons relationally as a single person after divorce widowed wherever you're at right now and i want to just give you a couple of principles everybody shot at me principles to help you live your life relationally that will help you win in relationships because my question is what happens when the dream drops when the list hits a pit see the path to the palace many times passes through the pit i need you to understand that wherever you're going the good that god has intended for you many times and you can go throughout all of scripture nobody is void of a pit at some moment can i tell you about my pit relationship goals blows up everybody's wanting me to come speak it goes number one new york time bestseller the same time we find out our son has autism he's five years old almost six does not speak full sentences to this day before i came here i'm taking him to therapy i'm the man of crazy faith but i'm still in a pit why am i up here with such conviction it's because i know god can still be faithful even when you're in a pit i i i came to identify with people who've been lonely for years for people who've been a struggling relationship for years just because you're in a pit does not mean it's over and i want to encourage you to continue to move why am i up here preaching while my pregnant wife is at home having to try to get my son to eat gluten-free chicken nuggets right now cause it's the only thing he will eat cause i gotta keep moving even though everything in me wants to just lay down and quit i came to tell you i'm standing here as a testimony to you today do not quit in the pit i'm feeling something happening right now see the relationship that all of us desire will take work that you don't see now yeah the relationship you desire will take unforeseen work that's why psalms 23 4 says yay though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i want to pull your attention to one word through it's not a word of vel i stop in the valley though i get tired and sit down in the valley i am walking everybody shout at me through i don't care if you have to inch your way day by day i believe that god's word is all about progression not perfection so even if i'm gonna get real real i'm gonna do like you i was at my church right now even if you have to get down and it hurts and it's hard and nobody can see what you're really going through [Music] if you don't quit the pit will become your platform [Music] i'm telling somebody right now your lowest moment will be the place of your greatest testimony the place where you are that broken will be the place that god brings deliverance and healing for others everybody shout at me through though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i'll fear no evil why for thou art with me god told me to tell you wherever you are relationally he's with you no matter how broken it's been he's with you no matter if you didn't get the certification or the degree or they turned you down for the house alone and they didn't um give you the the the the thing that you needed to go to the next level he is with you somebody say god's with me and this is the theme of joseph's life that no matter if he went in a pit no matter if he was relationally battered bruised and scarred god was with him genesis 37 23 so when joseph arrived his brothers ripped uh-oh there's that ripped again he was ripped of what he thought he was going to be living in his beautiful robe and then they grabbed him and threw him into a cistern and what ended up happening in verse 36 meanwhile the midianite traitors arrived in egypt where they sold joseph to potiphar an officer of pharaoh the king of egypt potiphar was the captain of the palace guard i want to tell you a reason why you need to rip up your list because the betrayal wasn't meant to break you the betrayal was allowed to take you see joseph had to rip up his list for what he thought was going to happen because god had a plan that he wanted to prevail but joseph would have never left his daddy's house had there not been some hurt involved there's some stuff you've gone through that you said why in the world did this happen it's the only thing that would make you move and you can't see it now and i know those were your besties and we did the whole thing and we was we got that toes that's sad but they left and he left me at the altar after we paid do you know how much these roses cost and they they're gone and they left the church and we did this together and god said there's some things i allow because it's the only thing that'll make you move if if we're going to get to the palace to the purpose i have for you there's no way you would have left that if i would have just told you you're too comfortable you're too committed to your list and god said i had to they had to walk out they had to leave you had to get denied for that school because if you would have got into that school you would have followed them i needed you over here separate so i could give you a vision somebody say it had to happen yeah yeah the betrayal wasn't meant to break you it was meant to take you the worst relational devastation is many times god's vehicle of transportation it's the thing that he uses to take you and the thing i'm asking you to do no matter if you've done you you've failed in relationships or you're broken-hearted right now or it's not working out look for god's favor in the failure his brothers portrayed him but he ends up in this guy named potiphar's house and there was favor there for joseph even in a failure and i'm asking you are you so broken and so mad and so frustrated by what has happened and who left and what didn't work that you're missing god's favor even in the failure look at it genesis 39 um two it says and the lord was with joseph what happens when you fail and god's like i'm right here what happens when it looks like this is the worst thing that ever happened and guys like your boy this is the god we serve that at your lowest moment at the breakup at the divorce at the pain at the mistake god's like i'm right here with you and if i be for you then who who can be against you somebody say who yeah no you got to say with a high pitch like who who can be against you if god's saying joseph had an advantage of even though he was in a failed situation at this point he had to rip up his list i've been betrayed by the people closest to me i've been sold into slavery i was a king where i was at i was i was loved and distinguished where i was at and many of us would rather be in a good situation without god instead of take a bad situation with him most of us would have rather been at the house and god not helping lead you to your purpose but that's why you got to rip up your list why are you saying this pastor mike because this is my life i thought i was going to be somewhere completely different in life and then i find myself leading 13 and 14 snotty nose year old i don't even know what i'm saying youth it's not a year old that's what i said even know if they wanted to be saved i had the talent and the gifting to be making music for everybody and god said you know let's go to the pit let's go to a place where they don't even ask for your gifting they don't even know you do any of that and i want you to care here i want you to produce here i want you to stay faithful here i want you to represent me here i didn't know i would be a pastor i never wrote down lord one day when i have my church that was the furthest thing from my mind pastoring people ill but god saw a palace while i was in a pit and look at this it says so he succeeded and everything he did as he watched this keyword served i came to tell everybody that's in a relationship looking for a relationship trying to get out of your relationship hold up serve the season you're in i'm gonna give you a principle that will help you win in relationships rip up your list because faithfully serving the season always produces success if you faithfully serve the season well they just got me mopping you better mop like ain't nobody ever mop in the world will they just have me um doing data entries you better type well they don't recognize my gifting they don't know what i have in me but god does and he's the one over promotion and he's watching how you faithfully serve the season you are in my promotion did not come from a person my promotion did not come from my parents my promotion did not come from a ceo because i was faithfully serving the season i was in my promotion came from the lord the reason that you need to rip up your list is because god is watching how you handle now the thing about joseph of why he could go through is because wherever he was found he was faithfully serving now i don't know about you but if i had just been sold into slavery your boy would have been holding back some things like you're not getting my best what time am i supposed to be here what y'all want me to do how many more times do i have to do it but joseph used his hands in a horrible situation to produce what god placed inside of him can i speak to all my single people for a second stop waiting on somebody to come in and complete you make them fit in to what you already got going you missed it some of y'all so ready oh but when johnny comes along no no no no i'm faithfully working the season i'm in baby what day you want to take me on a date let me check my calendar because i am faithfully serving the season that i'm in and what it's doing is it's taking you to your next and what ends up happening is he served so good that i don't got time to really go into it past the craig i'm gonna have to come back another time to really talk through this one but then he got caught up by a cougar did y'all see it he got caught up by a cougar he doing so somebody's like sally or cougar just google it but what ends up happening is potiphar's wife begins to look at joseph and how he's doing what he's doing verse 39 i'm in chapter 39 verse 6 he says joseph was very handsome and well built kind of like your boy and potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully come and sleep with me she demanded but joseph refused i just want to give this little tip he refused to look. some of y'all give yourself too much credit oh i can watch it i mean i'm an adult i could joseph was so committed to staying in the place that god had placed him even though to everybody else it would have been a bad situation that when the cougar came out probably naked and he wasn't like what you talking about what you said hey wow he didn't do that i don't know me i would have been like what what is it huh the bible says he didn't even look he told her my master has trusted me with everything in the entire household no one has more than i am no no more authority than i do he has held back nothing from me except you because you are his wife how could i do such a wicked thing it would be a great sin against potiphar your integrity what you do when nobody's looking is more important in this day and age than ever before yeah you could talk to him and slide into the dms and and and and text your old classmate you see how quiet it just got i'm stepping on somebody's toes yeah you facebooking old classmates and trying to get into this other space and god said this season i need you to rip up your list and live in integrity because from this moment his integrity watch this didn't get him a promotion he got light on again she said oh my god he was trying to sleep with me he said they're like i didn't do any i didn't do anything but remember the pit was not to kill him it was to take him he then gets shipped off to the king's jail he gets put in prison and do you know what joseph still did that i don't know if i would have had the courage to do is he still used his gift in prison rip up your list because prisons become platforms wherever you are right now it may feel like the lowest point of your life may feel frustrating you may be relationally in a spot that you can't see how i'm going to get out of this but stop thinking about what it should have been and what it could have been and what you wish it would be start being very intentional in the moment you aren't saying god what do you want to do with me here for my potiphar's house what do you want to do with me here if i'm single what do you want to do with me here if i'm married what do you want to do with me here if i'm divorced what do you want to do with me here if i have failed relationship after failed relationship what do you want to do with me here if i'm in prison what do you want to do with me here it was the prison that turned into the place that would elevate joseph as he used this gift and interpreted dreams and did the thing that god placed in him and didn't become jaded because he went to the pit today i just need to speak to people who have become jaded relationally you're either over it or you've lost faith that it can even happen and god's saying would you please just invite me back into the situation remember what it kept saying and god was with joseph and i came all the way from tulsa to tell you and god is with you whether it's with your brothers in the field whether it's in the bottom of a cistern whether it's in potiphar's house or the prison god is with you joseph genesis 39 21 but the lord was with joseph in prison and showed him his faithful love even in that low moment and the lord made joseph a favorite with the prison warden before long the warden put joseph in charge how are you in charge in jail how are you a boss in jail he put him in charge of all the other prisoners over everything that happened in prison the warden had no more worries because joseph took care of everything he used this gift in the pit and the lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed rip up your list and let god rewrite it joseph goes on to be second in command over the entire country because he said yeah the dream you gave me i thought it was gonna happen like this but when i saw that it was going a different way many of the plans of a man but the lord's purpose prevails he ripped up his list and he still got the palace can i just encourage you even though the journey has been jacked up can i say it that plane it been jacked up you can still get to the purpose of god over your life if this message is for you in any way i want to pray that you wouldn't quit in the pit i don't care what it is it may be relationally it may be in business it may be with your family but if this is hitting you anywhere in your heart because it it hit me before i came here i can't preach anything that i'm not going through i remember the pit that me and natalie aired and then i remembered that god is with us and today i want to pray for you would you just if you're comfortable at every campus would you just lift your hands right now i'm going to pray a prayer that would help you go through and to remember god is with you father here we are some of us we're in a palace and others of us god we're in the pit but today we're asking like you were with joseph would you be with us god there are my brothers and sisters that are crying out for things to change right now god and it's not going the way that they thought it would be but god i thank you that in this moment our perspective is changing and now we're looking to you i thank you father that you would encourage my brothers and sisters to not quit in the pit father in every list we made without you for our marriages for our families for our homes for our love today god we're making a commitment and we rip up the list have your way in our lives god and i thank you that when we get to our palace we will be careful to give you all the glory all the honor and all the praise in jesus name we agree somebody say amen life church thank you so much i love you and i can't wait to be back with you again come on sure show some honor today is it great to be together with people and god speaks a word directly to you and i know that god is speaking to so many of you today i just want to stay in an attitude of prayer we talked earlier that um every week is a good week to bring someone to church guess what the presence of god is working even now and there may be someone in your life right now you feel like you're in a pit you might be at a really really low place a really low place and maybe god would allow you to get to a place that's so low all you can do is look up and call on him others of you you may feel more like you're in the palace like things are good right now but yet there's an emptiness inside and you're searching and you've searched and you've gotten what you've been looking for but the void is still there why maybe because what you really need is not what's on the outside but a god who wants to fill your life with his love on the inside father i just asked today that by the power of your spirit you would draw people whether they're low in life um just coasting through life or maybe even on a high that they see that more than anything else god we need your son we need your grace we need your presence we need your power god we thank you that you are with us and we want you to invite we want to invite you to to lead us to be our savior to be our king uh at all of our churches or those of you watching online today um you may be at a really low place and you may have gotten there even on your own decisions you've made bad and sinful decisions or you may be in a great place right now and you recognize that even though you've got what you thought you wanted you're still empty on the inside maybe it's because you have a christ-shaped void in your life whether you're high whether you're low i want you to know right now at this moment that our god loves you that you're not watching this by accident that is by his the power of his spirit and because of his love and his grace he brought you here to this moment right now what do you do if you recognize you're you're hurting what do you do if you recognize you're empty we're gonna go to the living water the only one who can satisfy the truth is the reality is all of us have sinned and we fall short of god's standard we've all messed up but even better news than i could ever describe is that god loves you exactly where you are he sent his son jesus who is perfect in every way who gave his life was buried and raised from the dead so that anyone this includes you it doesn't matter what you've done doesn't matter how dark your life is doesn't matter how much you hurt anyone who calls on the name of jesus the name that is above every name when you cry out to jesus god hears your prayers and he forgives your sins you may be low right now you may be so low all you can do is look up or you may be on top of the world and you recognize you're still empty you know there's more and you can't find it anywhere maybe it's jesus that you're looking for today at all of our churches or those of you online you need his grace you need his love you need his forgiveness i'm going to encourage you to step away from your sinful life step into the presence of a god who loves you cry out to jesus when you do god will hear your prayer he'll forgive every sin and he will make you brand new today those of you watching wherever you are say yes i need his grace i need his forgiveness today i surrender my life to jesus that's your prayer would you just lift your hands now all of our churches say yes i'm giving my life to jesus can somebody tell god thank you we praise you god for your work today those of you online just type it in the chat i'm giving my life to jesus wherever you are god knows the cry of your heart i'd love it if you would just pray aloud if you're comfortable with those around you nobody prays alone just pray heavenly father i surrender my life i rip up my list i give it all to you jesus forgive my sins change me make me new fill me with your spirit so i can honor you in all that i do my life is not my own i give it to you thank you for new life in jesus name i pray with somebody thank god for his goodness thank god for his grace welcome those born into god's family [Applause] for those of you that just made the decision to give your life to christ i just want to say that is the best decision that you will ever make and we as a church we would love to come alongside you and help you with your next steps so click on that link in the chat give us some information about how we can send that to you because we want to come alongside you and help you um and wasn't that a powerful message today i love that pastor todd always gives us some tangible next steps that we can follow and today he said we need to rip up our list and faithfully follow and serve god and that will always bring success and i love that and next week we're starting a standalone we have a standalone series and it is called following jesus in today's world so i want to invite you to come back it's going to be a great message and bring someone with you invite someone to come and join you let them know what service you're going to be watching and have them come and join you as well and we all we do all of this because we know that whoever finds god finds life i have a vision for a church that loves others more than we've been loved who serve others more than we have been served that gives more than we have received people so overwhelmed with the love of god that we love and accept people right where they are but we love and point them to a jesus who will make them new when we come together we are the local church and we believe that the local church is the hope of the world

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Length: 42min 23sec (2543 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 28 2021