 Yeah, because the vision I'm about to give you, please no, I might get nasty. Pastor Mike Todd of Transformation Church found himself in a heap load of controversy this past week for a stunt he pulled during a sermon. Today, I'm going to react to the sermon clip, his apology, and share with you the lesson that we should learn from this whole debacle. The sermon clip went viral on YouTube, TikTok, and across social media platforms with people verbalizing their disgust at what they saw. This video came across my feed more than once, and each time I hesitated to watch it. I knew what was coming, and I didn't have the stomach nor the desire to put myself through something that gross. But now I venture into the unknown because I think there's important lessons that we should learn. If you want to watch the sermon to get full context, you can certainly do that, but for the purposes of this video, I'm just going to be reacting to the actions in question. Now watch, but you hit. Yeah, because the vision I'm about to give you please know am I getting asked how is the most gross thing I've ever seen in my life. Now he did make an apology video which I'll react to in a minute. But first I have three takeaways. Keep in mind that these takeaways have applications for us personally. They are not simply critiques against Michael Todd. If you walk away from this video with the idea that you're good and Michael Todd is bad, you miss the point. First takeaway. This is what happens when you put method over message. To put it another way, they put cleverness above depth in content. Trendy churches by and large put much of their effort into the way they present something. There's no problem with putting careful thought into how you present something. I've said on this channel before that I greatly admire the creativity of some of these churches. But unfortunately, too often these methods distract from the message. The method of presentation should complement the message, not distract from it. Similar to how in worship songs, melody should complement its lyrics, not distract you from the content. There's a tremendous amount of pressure put on pastors of big churches to be seen as clever and innovative. But there's a big problem. People often walk away from these churches saying, I can't believe the pastor did that or wow, I can't believe the pastor came up with that. He's so smart versus man, it's amazing what God has done in our lives. And man, God is so gracious to us. In this context, the pastor garners the praise and God becomes a means to show ourselves off. Now, I hate to break it to you, but pastors aren't the only ones that are susceptible to succumbing to this temptation. The question you and I need to be asking ourselves is this, will we let our attempt to come across as clever, intelligent, insightful, entertaining, get in the way of people's gaze being placed on Jesus. Second takeaway, accountability and guidance are so essential. We need to rid ourselves of this idea that God gives a special vision to one man, and everyone else either has the decision to get on the bus or get run over by the bus. Most of us don't need more yes men in our circle. We need people with a gentle, yet firm temperament that can approach us in love, helping to guide and helping us to discern. Pastors need this too, and I think that Mike Todd would have to agree. This has direct application for our lives. If someone doesn't accept everything you do, or maybe they have disagreements with you, are you quick to cast them out and call them toxic? Or do you nurture an environment where people can lovingly and humbly come to you and help guide you and lead you to good discernment? Take away three, stop obsessing about celebrity pastors. Even after his apology, which we'll watch in a second, people still contested that he shouldn't need to apologize because of how greatly God has gifted him. We feel personally attacked when someone criticizes one of the teachers that we love. We connect our identity with these communicators, and when their actions are questioned, we feel like our identity is being attacked. We lose a sense of clarity because we're so emotionally invested. It's a good practice for all of us, regardless of how theologically sound your favorite teacher or preacher is, to take a step back, to take a deep breath, and to come to the realization that your favorite teacher or preacher could be wrong about some things. Oh, do you feel that straight to the heart? We've built up our favorite teacher or preacher so much that when we admit that they might be wrong about something, it's almost like admitting that God is wrong about something. But there's good news, friends. They are not God. They are not your savior. Let's hear Mike Todd's apology to see if he touched on any of these points. Hey, what's going on, everybody? I hope you're having an amazing Monday. I just want to acknowledge what happened yesterday when the spit hit the fan. I watched it back, and it was disgusting. That was gross. I want to validate everybody's feelings that that was a distraction to what I was really trying to do. I was really trying to make the word come alive and for people to see the story. But yesterday it got too live, and I own that. And I just want to make sure people know that we want to help people. We want people to see Jesus. We want people to feel loved. We want people who are desperate to be able to find hope. And I'm passionate about that so much so that I try to do extreme things to help people get it. And yesterday it crossed the line. So I love you guys. I appreciate everybody that's been praying for us and sending us messages. And to anybody who just saw that three-minute clip, I really encourage you to go back and watch the whole message. There's some truth and some life in there that could potentially change your whole life. Two takeaways on this, and you can watch the full apology on his social media platforms if you want to. First thing, I'm glad he apologized. Some people might speculate that it was only because of the backlash that he received that he apologized, but we don't know that. Perhaps he had a conversation with older and wiser Christians behind closed doors that helped him come to this place of repentance. You might have noticed as I did that he never actually said sorry in the apology video. Well, I looked into it and in the caption that he posted alongside the video, he actually did formally actually apologize for what he did. So that's good. Second takeaway, I really hope that this is going to enact transformation in transformation church. You see what I did there? Where they would be more discerning to make sure that the method they use to present doesn't get in the way of the gospel message because they have an opportunity to share the gospel with so many people. It would be such a shame for them to continue down this road. Pray for not only transformation church, but your church as they're wrestling with this idea of method and message and making sure they're not overshadowing what we're all here for, which is Jesus. Pray that they would use the resources at their disposal to help point to Jesus, not distract from him. Our mission is to show the glory and beauty of Christ in everything we do to point the attention off of ourselves towards Christ and say, that is who you've been looking for. May we desire to step into that mission daily and when we fall short to rest in God's abundant grace. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe. And thank you so much to everyone on Patreon that makes what I do possible. If you want to help support my ministry, head on over to patreon.com slash daily underscore disciple link in my bio. I'll see you next time. God bless.