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I Got Away: A Series on Transformation
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This series, I Got Away, is a movement to shift you from the mindset of Resurrection Sunday into Resurrection season. It is a mindset shift. When Jesus was crucified, He wasn't the only one resurrected—other godly men and women also rose from the grave that day.
If you don't accomplish anything else in 2024, you're getting up. Your money is getting up, your peace is getting up, your relationships are getting up, your creativity is getting up. This is your year to get up. For me, it's not just Resurrection Sunday; I'm stepping into Resurrection season—a season where the things in my life that were deemed dead are about to be resurrected by God.
The Resurrection story reveals that Jesus didn't just get up—He got out. This is your season to discover that any area of your life that feels trapped can be transformed. The Resurrection is a recognition of God's ability to transform what is a tomb for others into a womb for you. What others die in, He develops you in.
Don't think what you're in is going to take you out. God put you in it not to kill you, but to build you. He is developing you. The difference between a grave and a ditch? A body. The moment the body is removed from the grave, it becomes a ditch. When God resurrects you, the grave that was dug becomes just a ditch.
What is a trap for others is transformation for you. This is critical. The Resurrection is not limited to salvation; it is how we experience transformation.
Everybody wants to get up, but nobody wants to come out. Getting up is on God, but getting out is on you. What good is it for God to resurrect you if you're just going to lay back down?
I believe God does not want to make us into a better version of our old self. He wants to transform us into an entirely new creation. This means a change of our nature and a change at the heart of who we are.
Does the caterpillar become a better version of a caterpillar, or does it become a butterfly? The caterpillar crawls; the butterfly flies. The caterpillar eats; the butterfly sips honey from tulips. God is saying, "I don't want you to be a better version of you. I want you to be new."
We have confused transformation with self-help. Most people don't want to be transformed; they just want to be better. But if a better you is what you're after, you are limiting what God can really do in your life. I don't want God to take me from cussing a lot to cussing a little—because cussing a little means you're better, not that you've been transformed.
Too many of us have become too comfortable with our issues and our proclivities. We know exactly how far we can go before we can't come back. God isn't just trying to change us; He's trying to make us new. Some people want you better instead of wanting you new because if God just helps you crawl a little faster, at least you're still on their level. But God says He's shifting you from crawling to flying, from eating on one level to eating on another.
If you're frustrated lately and don't understand why your taste changed, where you used to go changed, or things you used to tolerate changed—it's because God is transforming you.
If He's transforming you, you need to understand the power and the principle of exits. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book called Necessary Endings with a critical insight: "Entrances into new seasons must be preceded by exits from old seasons."
You cannot walk into anything new if you are afraid of walking out of something old. Many of you have been on the same cycle for so long because you missed your exit. Not every exit is for everybody. Some of you are frustrated, and God says, "I would have opened the door for you, but it's not you. You're trying to bring people with you who aren't qualified to walk through that door."
God is trying to get you to step into a new season, but you have to be willing to let go of old places, old things, and old habits. I know you don't want to say amen because you're comfortable around friends who pacify your issues and make you feel good about acting the fool. But you said this year we weren't going back there anymore. This is my last time coming to get you, because I can't waste another month in 2024 staring in the wrong direction.
When Jesus raised Lazarus, He said, "Lazarus, come forth." Why does Jesus say his name? Because if Jesus had just said "come forth," everything dead in the cemetery would have gotten up. You feel bad because God is calling you out of something, but He's not calling others out. Why are you worried that they don't understand your anointing and your call? When God called you, it wasn't a conference call.
Your destiny is tied to your next exit. Your favor is tied to your next exit. Your anointing is tied to your next exit. What if our ability to increase our faith for what's next is connected to us owning the faults in what's now?
When we refuse to take our exit, we settle for what's expired—what has no life, what is deceased, what is void. I grew up seeing milk in the refrigerator that had expired. No matter how much you loved on that milk, no matter how much you tried to resuscitate it, that milk was past its expiration date.
When something is expired, you try to get more life out of it. If I told you it was poisonous, you would put it down immediately. Why does God have to label stuff poisonous for you to realize you can't hold it? Maybe the faith you need is wrapped up in your ability to take accountability today.
In the same way God the Father provided an exit for Jesus out of the grave, He also provided an exit for Jonah out of a fish.
To understand Jonah chapter 2, we must unpack Jonah chapter 1. The Lord gave Jonah a message saying:
"Get up. Go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are."
God gives Jonah an assignment, and Jonah disobeys. How do I know? Because verse 3 says: "But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction."
God says, "Go do something I know you don't like." Jonah believed that if he showed up in Nineveh and didn't tell them what they wanted to hear, they would kill him. So Jonah made a decision to go in the opposite direction.
We will not be a church that ignores your dumb decisions and then tries to make it look like God isn't good because you keep doing dumb stuff. Do I have any grown person in here who can say that half the stuff you don't like in your life has nothing to do with God? God didn't make you pick him. God didn't make you sleep with him. God didn't make you buy a car you can't afford. God didn't make you walk out of your family's life. Stop blaming God for your deeds.
You are born looking like your parents. You die looking like your decisions. You didn't pick your family, but you have picked some of your problems.
I've discovered that I Got Away is not about escaping, but about enduring. The gospel is not a gospel of escapism; rather, the gospel is a gospel of endurance. We become a church that doesn't just shout that He brought us out.
Here's something nobody will tell you: There will be times when God won't get you out of it. The church has conditioned people for escape, not endurance. There will be seasons when God won't take you out, but He will step in it with you.
Noah didn't escape the storm; he endured it. The three Hebrew boys didn't escape the fiery furnace; they still had to get in the fire, but they endured it. Daniel didn't escape the lion's den; he still had to be put in it. What did he do? He endured it. Ruth didn't escape her losses; she had to endure them. Jesus did not escape the crucifixion; He had to endure it. The race is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, but to the one who endures.
Here's a word you might not want to hear: There will be certain seasons when God won't make a way for you. You're going to have to put your big boy pants on, sit in the middle of your trouble, and endure it. What if He doesn't pay the bill? What are you going to do—turn your back on Him, or are you going to stand there and say, "Even if He doesn't, I know God can"?
There are two types of people: One of you only shouts when He brings you out of it. But one of you doesn't have to wait for praise—you can praise God while you're still waiting on Him. Money low, endure it. People lying on you, endure it. Folks walk out your life, endure it. Family acting fake, endure it. Your body may be going through pains, endure it.
The church has conditioned you for the miracle, and we've become so emotional that we shout over foolishness but sit on substance. You only watch stuff that has drama; you don't watch stuff that's substantive.
Testimony services often only celebrate the miraculous. Someone comes in and says, "My bill was due, and God sent a check in the mail!" Everyone shouts. But what about the real testimonies? What if the bill was due on March 9th and it's still off? What if your relationship didn't work out the way you prayed? Nobody wants to shout about that.
You think God has a program where every time you need Him, He comes through. But sometimes God will never take you out of what He can develop you in. The culture has got you so ashamed that you feel like if you can't brag about what God did, you don't have a testimony.
I'm getting free today. I've lived in seasons where water was cut off, lights were cut off, my girl and I had to live at an extended stay, my car was getting repossessed, folks were laughing at me, no friends would answer the phone. But I've never seen the righteous forsaken. If you ever went through something and it felt like God wouldn't show up, but God held you down, you ought to jump up and shout!
Endure it. If God always pulls you out of it, how will you ever learn so you don't keep falling in it?
New school Christians only like the feel-good stuff. You want the tweetables. You want stuff you can put on social media. But here's a reality: You can't not work. You can't not be nice. You can't not be who God called you to be. Don't think one 30-second prayer is going to make God pull you out of stuff.
Just because you're catching hell doesn't mean you're living wrong. Sometimes you're catching hell because God is doing it to give you something bigger than everybody else. But He's got to see if you can just sit in it. There will be nights you're going to have to cry yourself to sleep. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's called life.
There will be seasons where you fast and pray and God hears your prayer, but God will be silent. Why would God do that? Come here, Jesus—He did it to Jesus. Jesus on the cross said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But if He had pulled Jesus off the cross, none of us would make it to heaven.
I'm learning how to sit in it. I wish I had a hundred Christians who would shout that.
You didn't pick your family, but you have picked some of your problems. You keep walking in cycles and then leaving God because you feel like He ain't answering your prayers. But He did answer your prayer—you just keep making bad decisions.
You're going to have to endure it. There are going to be nights you're going to have to cry yourself to sleep. That's called life. There will be seasons where you fast and pray and God hears your prayer, but God will be silent. Why would God do that? Because He did it to Jesus. Jesus on the cross said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But if He had pulled Jesus off the cross, none of us would make it to heaven.
Sometimes your suffering ain't got nothing to do with you. But God knows, "I got to let you go through it because if you survive it, everything around you is going to another level."
I'm not preaching to selfish folk. I'm only preaching to the few of you who are feeling a burden on your spirit—those who know when God blesses you, everything attached to you is coming to another level.
Don't shout for a house. Don't shout for a car. When is the last time you said, "God, give me strength. Give me patience. Give me wisdom. Give me endurance"?
Jonah runs from God. God says, "I want you to go to Nineveh." Jonah says, "Nah. I ain't doing that."
Jonah is more afraid of Nineveh than he is of God. Growing up, you learn to be tough. I remember the first time I got beaten up at school. I went home crying—hole in my pants, dusty shirt, swollen eye. My mama asked, "Why are you crying?" I said they beat me up. She said, "What did you do?" I said, "I came home." She told me, "Tomorrow, go back to school. Either you beat them up or you're going to have to deal with me."
It's only one problem. They're going to whoop me for a second. She's going to beat me all night. I didn't even wait for the bell to ring. I just walked up and hit him, then ran as fast as I could to my house. My mama said, "What did you do?" I said, "I hit him." She gave me a hug and some ramen noodles with hot dogs cut up in it. The next day I got whooped all over again, but I was more afraid of my mama than I was of my enemy.
And some of y'all keep disappointing God because you're more scared of what people are going to say versus God not being pleased.
Why are you running? Jonah is not running from the enemy—he's running from his assignment. It's crazy, ain't it? Jonah attempts to escape not the enemy, but his assignment.
How long are you going to stand on the sideline and let everybody use you but God?
When Jonah says, "This is too much for me. I don't think you can keep me if I get there," he goes in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. I miss old grandmamas—the kind who put the fear of God in you. They used to tell you, "Hey, you better watch yourself. You know God is watching you." They made you realize you can't run from her.
He gets on a ship leaving for Tarsus. This is critical: He bought a ticket. You missed it. He bought a ticket.
Whenever you go opposite of what God is calling you, the only result is for you to go down. He goes down to the port of Joppa where he found a ship leaving for Tarsus and he bought a ticket. A wrong decision now has him going down and costing him. If he listens to God, he goes up and God makes a way. He goes opposite from God, he goes down and he has to pay for it.
If I could get all my dumb money back. Not listening to God will cost you something. And the question I want to ask you today is: How much is it going to cost you before you make the right decision?
I never forget an old preacher said this when I was seven years old: "Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay."
Some of us are going to be free today and say, "I did some stuff that cost me." That's why the next time somebody asks you to do something stupid, you just need to smile and say, "That's just too expensive." What do you mean it's expensive? We're just going to dinner. That may cost me my peace, cost me my youth, my edges, and my sanity. I can't do it. That's just too expensive.
That's why the frustration you're feeling lately is real. You went out recently and while you're sitting there you're thinking, "I don't think this is for me anymore. This ain't my scene no more. Something in me has transformed."
Let's do the math. You've got to get your hair done—that's $200 or $250. Then you've got to get lashes. Then eyebrows. Make sure your hands look nice. For the fellas: edge up, fresh cut, Jordan ones—that's three or four hundred right there. Jeans got to look nice. Rims got to shine. Then makeup. Then you've got to get an outfit. Then you've got to make sure your one friend who ain't never got none is straight, because you don't want to go nowhere without them.
So now you've got to gas your car up. Some of you've got to find a babysitter. Then you finally go out. You've got to pay to get in. Once you get in, fellas, you've got to impress them. Now you're buying bottles, wilding, trying to make it look like you got it. Now you're buying her drinks. Then she's doing this. Now you've got child support. You've got therapy. All because you keep choosing to go in the opposite direction.
Many of you are paying fees for stuff that God never wanted you to be in in the first place. God wants to transform you. And what I've discovered is many of us trust Jesus to save us. We have not trusted him to transform us. Sin is a heart issue. Being stuck is a head issue.
Whenever you get ready to come out of something, you don't come out feet first. You come out head first.
I've had five kids. Been blessed to see them all born. All five of them came out head first—not feet first. If your baby comes out feet first, the risk of them surviving is cut because they're possibly being choked upon the exit. That baby was comfortable in her environment. The body said, "As comfortable as you are, it's time for you to go." The baby's like, "No, I'm good." The body's like, "Either you're going to kill us or you're going to have to make an exit." The body pushes the baby out head first.
That's why so many of us keep feeling like life is suffocating—because we keep trying to go to new levels feet first instead of standing on something we don't even believe.
You won't thank God until you walk feet first into a room. But here's what I'm telling you: Before your feet touch the room, your head has got to shift to being in the room. That way when your feet get in the room, you walk in there like you know you belong in there.
As a man thinketh in his heart...
Before my feet touch it, in my mind I'm already preparing for it.
Jonah goes down to Joppa and he pays to go. What's the cost of a bad relationship? What's the cost of missed opportunities? What's the cost of not being able to get six months to a year back?
Jonah's issue isn't that he's just running. He's running from his assignment. He's running from God. He goes down to Joppa, buys a ticket, gets on the boat. The Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm to threaten to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their God for help and threw the cargo over board.
What do you do when the storm you're in ain't even your storm? You get on a boat. You make a trip. Make a trip. Make a trip. Out of nowhere, Jonah gets on your boat and all hell breaks loose.
Who have you let on your boat? This is critical. Why? Because it's one thing for you to go through a storm that the devil sent. If the devil sends the storm, I can talk to God to get me out of the devil's storm. But what do you do when God is the one sending a storm in your direction?
If the devil takes me through, I can reach for God. But who are you going to call when God is the one whooping you?
I never forget my son Mason made a mistake when he was little. I'm one of those dads who rarely whips his kids—I try to get through their heart. But he got me to the point where I was done talking. I said, "Come here." I gave him a talk and hit him. And he did the craziest thing I ever seen. He's literally reaching for me while I'm whooping him. I'm hitting him—"Dad! Dad!"—whoop, whoop, whoop, and it confused me. I thought if somebody was whooping you, you would run from them. But when the one you trust is doing the whooping, you realize I can't get out of the whooping. But the least I can do is try to keep my hands on you.
The sailors are on the boat. The storm breaks loose. The winds are blowing, water is hitting the boat, the boat's breaking. They panic. They start calling on every god but God because their god can't stop what God's doing.
Finally, they start throwing the cargo overboard. Jonah is not on a cruise ship. He's on a cargo ship. What does that mean? He is hiding on a boat that has purpose. What type of ship are you? Are you a cruise ship—meaning people get on you for entertainment? Or are you a cargo ship? You're carrying something that's full of purpose.
They're throwing stuff off the boat. The devil's storms are sent to put you under attack. God's storms are sent to get your attention. Whenever the devil throws a storm in your life, he's trying to put you under attack. When God sends a storm, he's trying to get your attention.
Jonah is making the wrong decision to run the wrong way, not recognizing how his bad decisions are impacting everybody else.
This may be a pressure point for you because you shouted when I said the favor was on you to bless everybody. But now I want to tell you: The responsibility is on you to do right because you can hurt everybody. They can go out there and do whatever they want to do. You can't. When they do it, if they fall, they fall. If you do it, everybody falls. The favor ain't the same.
I know you feel pressure. I know you feel the anxiety. I know you're saying to yourself, "It ain't fair. I go to everybody's rescue but don't nobody come to my rescue." God said, "Because I called you different. And don't ever run from that responsibility."
They're throwing cargo overboard, which means they just threw away their inventory. When they get where they're going and don't have people's stuff, they're going to have to pay for it. You better get people off your boat who come in your life, wreck your life, and then just leave you to clean it up.
Some of us need people to help us recover. There are several areas we need to recover:
1. Emotional Recovery. Some people will hurt you so much that you'll never desire to trust people again. Some damage is done in such a way that in your heart of hearts you never really recovered emotionally. So for you, trusting is hard. No matter how good people are, something in your spirit says, "Nah, not again. Not again."
2. Financial Recovery. Some damage you make and go through makes a generous person mind their business. When you go through financial storms and people abuse your generosity, it makes a generous person just step back. Where the old you would hear about something and say, "Let me help you," the new you now is like, "Nah, just go."
3. Dream Recovery. Some damage impacts our strength to believe again.
4. Faith Recovery. Some damages impact our ability to be compassionate.
Some of us need several areas of recovery. There are several types of damage that require healing:
Emotional Recovery. Some people will hurt you so much that you'll never desire to trust people again. They hurt you in such a way that in your heart of hearts you never really recovered emotionally. For you, trusting is hard. No matter how good people are, something in your spirit says, "Nah, not again. Not again."
Financial Recovery. When you go through financial storms and people abuse your generosity, it makes a generous person just step back. Where the old you would hear about something and say, "Let me help you," the new you now is like, "Nah, just go."
Dream Recovery. Some damage impacts our strength to believe again.
Faith Recovery. Some damages impact our ability to be compassionate.
The captain found Jonah sleeping at the bottom of the boat during the storm and said, "How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God. Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives."
The crew cast lots to identify who had offended God and caused the storm. It identified Jonah as the culprit. When they asked who he was, Jonah answered, "I am Hebrew. I am a worshiper of the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land."
The sailors were terrified when they heard this, because Jonah had already told them he was running away from the Lord. They groaned, "Why did you do it?"
As the storm got worse, they asked Jonah what they should do. Jonah said, "Throw me into the sea and it will be calm. I know this terrible storm is all my fault."
But here's where I have an issue with Jonah. You're a grown man who knows you're the reason we're catching hell, and you got the audacity to look at us and say, 'Throw me off the boat.' Why didn't you just jump? If you really knew it was your fault and you really loved us, you should have just jumped off the boat yourself.
That's why you got to be careful of people who tell you they're the problem, but won't fix it. Don't let them trick you into making a decision that they won't make themselves so they can sleep better at night. If you're causing storms in my life, remove yourself.
The storm is attached to his disobedience. The moment you get the wrong person off your boat, the storm is going to stop. When you got the wrong people on your boat, I don't care how much you pray, how much fasting you do—until they're off the boat, that storm going to stay.
If you're going to own this season of your life, you got to get rid of three habits of negative thought patterns.
Jonah thought his prophetic gift belonged to him. When God told Jonah to go prophesy to Nineveh, Jonah said, "Nah, I ain't prophesying to them."
You make things personal when you make statements like, "This always happens to me" or "Why me?" This is when you attach your identity to your issues. I had to get to a point in my life where I had to stop taking stuff personal. If I'm not picked for something, it's not because they don't like me—they just had to make a decision.
Jonah didn't believe that God could ever change the people of Nineveh. Nineveh was evil, so Jonah felt like it was permanent evil. He thought God couldn't fix them.
This is when you say stuff like, "This will never change." You got a Jonah mindset: "Once a liar, always a liar. Once a cheat, always a cheat." Like God is God enough to change you, but not God enough to change them. So you make everything permanent.
Who's living in the prison of your perception?
Pervasive is when your negative thoughts begin to spread. Jonah was so focused on the pain of the past that he rejected God's plan for the future.
Jonah had to get to a point in his life where he literally said, "Yo, it's my fault. It's my fault." He could have come up with every excuse. He could have said, "Maybe the storm is breaking loose because y'all worship a different god." But instead he said, "Nah, y'all right. It's my fault."
I feel in my spirit that maybe you're one moment of accountability away from the storm stopping. Real spiritual maturity is the ability to stand flat-footed and say, that was my fault.
You might say, "Dad could have been a little bit more involved." That's my fault. "I was just trying to get it." That was my fault. "How we going to grow if we both so busy blaming each other?"
I need to free you on something because some of y'all are going to leave here thinking every time a storm breaks loose, you got to throw somebody out your life.
You have natural storms, demonic storms, and God storms. It's beautiful outside right now. If it breaks out rain this evening, are you going to go outside and say, "God, what did we do to deserve this?" Or are you just going to grab an umbrella? That storm is natural.
Certain storms you're going to go through because you're living. Every parent knows: kids are going to make decisions that make you want to go berserk. Storms come with parenting. If you're in a relationship, storms come with being in love. If you get a job, storms come with employment. Storms are natural.
So every time a storm breaks loose, don't look for somebody who's the problem. Discern if it's God or not. God sends storms not to attack you, but to get your attention.
I pray that somebody watching right now can live their life from this day forward realizing the power of their decisions.
Jesus, you made a decision. You looked into that cup and saw all of the pain and hell you were going to go through. For a quick second you said, "God, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me." But then you made a decision. You said, "Nevertheless, thy will be done."
So God, I speak the wisdom to start making better decisions and to be who you called us to be. There are three types of people in life: somebody's headed to a storm, somebody's in a storm, and somebody just got out of a storm. Wherever we find ourselves, God, I pray grace, peace, and favor. For you know the plans that you have for us, and that is plans for us to prosper and to be all you called us to be.
