Transcription
**Philippians 4:6 and 7**
Do not be anxious about anything. I thought I had a church somewhere, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Here's a phrase that'll tell your Grandmama "Church" up right here: and the peace of God—I'mma say it again—and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If you're not too mean, look at your neighbor and say, "Neighbor," "Neighbor," whatever else you do this year, whatever else, I need you to arrest anxiety. Sit down; I want to talk about arresting anxiety.
Arresting anxiety. Last week, we started talking about this emotional epidemic that is currently sweeping across the United States—this thing called anxiousness.
I want to encourage everybody watching, everybody in overflow, everybody in the sanctuary, take really, really good notes. Hear me when I say this: I'm gonna slow walk it a little today because this means a lot to me. I'mma say this, and I pray that you can receive it: I refuse this November and December to let the devil have your mind. Only people who worry sometimes caught what I just said: he cannot have my mind.
So I'm going to say this: there is an emotional epidemic taking place right now, and it's called anxiousness. Last week, I defined anxiousness. Take a picture of the screen; put it in your notes. Anxiousness is a result of adopting a dysfunctional thinking pattern that is obsessed with worry. That's heavy.
Anxiousness is a result of adopting a dysfunctional thinking pattern that is obsessed with worry. You become so obsessed that something won't work that you start believing it won't work. It's not even the fact that it hasn't worked yet. It's almost like—this is a good example—anxiousness is preparing you for the worst, even though the worst hasn't even happened yet. It's called anxiousness.
Hear me when I say this: so what's the remedy for anxiousness? Let's put scripture on it. For all my note-takers, put this in your notes: Matthew chapter 6:25 through 27.
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. That's enough to take out running right there. Who's talking in Matthew chapter 25? This is Jesus. For my young people, whenever you're reading the Bible, if you see red letters, that is Jesus talking.
So what is Jesus saying? Forget Pastor Mike's sermon; this is Jesus's sermon. He taught sermons on the mount. If you need homework—you want to take homework with you this week—study The Sermon on the Mount. You can Google it. There is no excuse. There is no excuse. There is no excuse. No, there is no excuse.
When your phone locks up, you Google how to unlock your phone. You can’t cook? You Google recipes. When you get lost, you Google addresses. If the devil's whooping you, it's 'cause you letting him. [Applause] Hear me when I say this.
So hear me when I say this: I want you to Google The Sermon on the Mount. That's Jesus’s sermon. Here’s one of his sermons: he said, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?”
Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Look at verse 27: can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? Underline that one in your notes: can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? I’ve taught you; everything has a front side and a backside. Front side, backside.
So in the text, we have to exegete the text. Exegesis means to draw out that which you see. You can use that in your conversation. You was telling me the story yesterday, and as I sat at home and exegeted your story, I could tell you left some stuff out. So it’s when you discover or you find something in a story, in a scripture that is hidden but brings it to life.
So if I exegete this particular scripture, it says, and it’s on the screen, stay with me: can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? So if addition is in the text, by default subtraction is implied.
So when the scripture says, “Can any one of you add time by worrying?” he’s saying, “In no uncertain terms, you can’t add an hour by worrying, but you can subtract or lose an hour by worrying.” I said it once and I’ll say it again, and only three people are going to receive what I’m about to say right here: I wish I could get my dumb time back!
I’ll say Amen to myself—worrying about people who weren’t even worried about me, worrying about situations that God had figured out already. And what I’ve discovered is, for many of us, if the warfare doesn’t get you, the worry will. Did you hear what I just said? If the warfare doesn’t get you, the worry will.
See, this is why you gotta be careful because there are certain people who know how to pray until Heaven comes down. You know how to worship until you feel better. Worship and prayer ain’t your issue, but worrying will have you up all night, not sleeping, losing sleep, losing your mind.
Look at what it says right here: he says you live your life waiting on it to break. So what does anxiousness mean? It means I’m living my life basically waiting on it to break. Wow.
With everything going on at this moment, we have to attack anxiousness. Why, Pastor Mike? I need you to catch this: fear—this might be worth writing—is one of the enemy's greatest weapons against you. Fear. Somebody in the comments put that in your notes: it is fear.
Fear is one of the enemy's greatest weapons. What does that mean, Pastor Mike? Fear, right? I like that—it’s the opposite of faith. Yeah, that might be worth writing: fear is the opposite of faith. So what does fear produce? It manifests in many of our emotions.
How does fear manifest? So let’s talk about that. You know this generation loves talking about manifesting stuff, which—that's not real and it's not really spiritual—but I’m going to let you just say it, okay?
So again, fear manifests. Alright, so if you really want to be technical, here’s what manifests when you live in fear: it produces—what does it produce? Worry, stress, anxiety. So if you’re listening to me right now in this room, all over the world, and you are wrestling with worry, you are wrestling with stress, you are wrestling with anxiety—hear me when I say this: the base of it is fear.
So here’s the problem: you’re praying, saying, “God, take my anxiety away,” when anxiety is just the fruit of fear, and fear is just the opposite of faith. So instead of praying about my anxiety, which is just the fruit, I should have been saying, forget the anxiety, forget the fear.
Lord, increase my—am I talking to anybody in here? YPMJ, fear shows up when faith decreases. So I need you to put this in your notes: put faith in. That’s rich—put faith in. Why, Pastor Mike? Put this in your notes: faith needs an object.
That’s crazy! Faith needs an object. You can’t just have faith in faith, okay? It don’t work like that. You just can’t say, “I got faith.” In what? You just can’t have faith—okay, who checked your seat before you sat down today? I mean, who literally looked at the pew, pushed it, made sure it could hold you, then sat down?
Then you sat down soft to make sure you didn’t fall? Throw your hand up—nobody, for real? Alright, why, YPMJ? Because you believe that this pew is strong enough to hold you. Watch this.
So your faith wasn’t in faith; you put your faith in the pew. And because you put your faith in the pew—why did you put your faith in the pew? Because you sat in it last week, and you sat in it the week before, and you sat in it the week before that. So that pew has proven, Michael, that it can hold you.
The only time you lose faith is when you’re putting your faith in something that’s not proven. So whenever you gotta put your faith in something that’s not proven, that’s when fear steps in. So when a bill gets behind, what you don’t realize you’re doing is you put your faith in your ability to pay it versus in God’s ability to come through.
And because you looked at your facts, and your facts say you can’t do it, you now adopt fear because you believe, because you can’t, He can’t. I need a better church; I’m already preaching! So you think because it’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than us.
I was tripping. My boys been doing good, so I told Ma, I said, "What you need?" She said, "Dad, I wanted these shoes right here." Dion's got some cleats out.
He said, "But I ain't going to bother them. Them things like $100—you know that's a lot right now." And I’m like, why you... you ain't tell me man that was $100! I said, "For you?"
I said, "Just because it's a lot for you don't mean it's not a lot for me." And they are a lot! But I’m the type of daddy that if you want it, I will sacrifice what I want on my end so you can get what you want on your end.
And many of y'all are giving your problems too much credit, like your debt is bigger than Him. My Father is rich; that’s scripture—in houses and land. You acting like God can’t do what He’s done when I seen Him always come through like He always has. Am I talking to anybody today?
Sit down; y'all got me. I said I was going to talk loud; you got me talking loud.
So hear me: somebody say faith—faith! So look at what happens here; we discover this is rich—this is so rich. Worry—did you put that in your notes? Stress and anxiety are forms of fear.
So what does that mean, Pastor Mike? Let’s define anxiety. Anxiety, by definition, is a feeling of fear. Do you see it now? Anxiety is a feeling of fear—worry—do you see it? Nervousness, do you see it? Or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
For the purpose of our time together, I want to define anxiety. Here’s PJ's definition of anxiety: a fear-based reaction to a stressful situation that is rooted in dysfunctional thinking. It’s on the screen; take a picture if you have to.
What is anxiety? A fear-based reaction to a stressful situation that is rooted in dysfunctional thinking. This is good. Alright, so we’re going to break this down together. Are you taking good notes today?
Okay, put this in your notes. Alright, let’s start at the top: a fear-based. Let’s stop right there—put that in your notes: fear-based.
So what does that mean, Pastor Mike? The base of anxiety is fear. Who can cook—oh, I’m sorry, put your hand down; I messed up—I’m so sorry.
People told you you can cook like they ate it and they said it was good, not just you. You alright? A couple hands went down. Amen, ‘cause just because you can cook don’t mean you can cook.
People have survived what you ate and then came back and said, do it again. Throw your hand up—okay, there you go! Okay, who’s ever made some alfredo sauce or a type of sauce to go on some pasta or something—okay, there you go!
What’s important? The base—the sauce ain't the sauce if you get the milk, then you start adding to it—that becomes the what? Base. Say again—again, the ingredient? It is the base.
It is the base! So what am I telling you? Whenever the devil wants to cook up problems, the sauce, the base is fear. He knows I can’t stop you, but I can use fear to stall you. I’m talking heavy; if you receive that today—so let’s talk about that.
It is a fear-based. So the base of anxiety is what? The base of worry is what? Fear. The base of anxiousness is what? So let me ask you this question: who’s worrying? Be honest; this is a safe place. Okay, put your hand down.
Who’s been wrestling with anxiety? Here’s the question: you ready? What are you scared of? It’s there—that’s heavy ‘cause you’re scared of something—that’s rich.
So what are you afraid of? What has you worrying? That’s heavy, and I would argue that most of what you’re afraid of doesn’t even have power, right?
So let’s look at the definition: a fear-based… Alright, next line: reaction. Put that in your notes: reaction. Reaction! Anxiety comes because something popped off, and your reaction is rooted in fear.
So you see what that means? Anxiety comes—the base of it is fear; your reaction is rooted in fear. And here’s the part that messes me up: a stressful situation—an anxiety-filled situation.
There are certain relationships and certain places you gotta remove yourself from because the atmosphere alone produces too much anxiety. The environment produces stress.
This is critical; this is critical because there are two types of stress: distress is stress that negatively affects you; eustress—eustress is stress that has a positive effect on you.
I hope I said that right; I hope I pronounced that right: distress and eustress. So hear me when I say there are two types of stress. Did you know that distress is a stress that negatively affects you?
Most of us experience distress; eustress is a stress that has a positive effect on you. This is critical; distress is when we see stress as a threat. The second type of stress is when we see stress as a challenge.
That’s heavy; that’s heavy. So I am now walking in worry and anxiety because what I’m facing feels like a threat. Not being able to pay that is a threat to my lifestyle. Not being able to have them in my life is a threat to my happiness.
This not working is a threat to my peace; that problem is a threat to my anxiety. Instead of you taking a step back and saying, “This is a challenge,” I’m ready to see if I can live without [Applause] them.
Y'all don’t like me today; y'all don’t like me today! Eustress is what energizes us and motivates us to make a change.
So look at this; look at this now. How do you spell it? Eustress. So what does that mean, PMJ? This is the type of stress that is sent to your life to motivate you to make a change.
Amen! I'mma preach to this side; I don’t think y'all caught it! This is the type of stress that is sent to your life to motivate you to make a change!
Okay, I’m going to free you! I’m going to free you! David, taking his brother’s lunch, right? He’s taking his brother’s lunch; he gets to the battlefield and everybody's stressed out.
The king got anxiety; everybody’s worrying. Why are they stressing? ‘Cause Goliath’s over there. Watch this: they’re not stressing over the army.
Y'all missed what I just said— they’re stressing over Goliath! They were ready to fight an army; they weren’t ready to fight Goliath! See, I can handle a whole lot of problems; some of us got one thing that when this one thing shows up, it just makes us back up.
David gets on the scene; David got a lunchable, right? He shows up with his lunchable, and he’s like, “Hey, what’s going on? Why y'all so stressed out?”
You ain’t heard what Goliath was saying! David says, “Who is—come on now—this uncircumcised Philistine? Who do you think he is? Y'all going to let him talk about our God like that?”
You want to know why David was stressed? Because before David got there, he had to fight a lion. Before David got there, he had to fight a wolf off his sheep, so he had been going through problems before he got there.
And you don’t realize sometimes God lets you go through stuff today 'cause He’s setting you up where you won’t flinch tomorrow! I’m preaching to three of y'all!
That's why your circle can’t figure out how you going through what you going through and still talking about what we going to eat today. Baby, if God kept me through that, He'll keep me through this! Go back, Leslie!
So I need you to catch this now; this is critical. So distress is used to motivate us; that’s critical—motivate, motivate, motivate, motivate! I want you to hear that while you’re at work when they walk in talking crazy and everybody on your job stressing ‘cause they don’t know who they going to let off.
Right before you lose them, I want you to hear me say motivate, motivate! I want you to walk in like, “No, I’m not backing down ‘cause sometimes God puts the level of stress on me,”—watch it!—“it’s not stress that kills us; it’s our reaction to it.”
It is not the stress that kills you, baby girl; it’s your reaction to it! Fear, doubt, anxiety are all running rampant right now. Why? Based off of our reactions.
I’mma say this, and you may say Amen; you may not, but I pray you can receive this. You ready? It is not God’s plan for your life to live in fear and anxiety, but for you to live in peace! I’m going to run!
I’mma say it again: it is not God's plan for your life for you to live in fear and anxiety. His design for you is to live in peace! I’m going to run; I promise I'm going to run.
Why, PMJ? ‘Cause when you heard that, the first thing you thought was you wouldn’t have no problem! Peace is not the absence of a problem; peace is not the absence of a fight.
Peace is not the absence of trauma or drama. Peace is when storms rage, but you ain’t lost your mind! Peace is when everybody's quitting, but for some reason you got your right mind and your right heart.
And I speak over your life; I don’t care what’s going on in your life this year; God’s getting ready to give you a peace that cannot even be quantified or explained! Somebody shout peace! Peace!
So, hear me when I say this. So let's put scripture on it; put scripture on it. Y'all still taking notes? Go to Second Timothy 1:7. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! This is good!
I want to take my time! Hallelujah! 2 Timothy 1:7, if you’re online, this is good: for God has not given us—calm down, my Michael—a spirit of fear.
I’m trying to be dignified; y'all pray for me. For God, Michael, has not given us a spirit of fear, Michael. So I need to talk about this.
Let’s talk about this real quickly; that’s enough to tear a church up! Look at verse seven: for God, Michael, has not given us what? So what’s the first thing that should leap out at you? I told you this at the beginning of the year that fear is a spirit, but not only is it a spirit, it didn’t come from God.
Michael, if it didn’t come from God, who else gave it?
So hear me: for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love. Now here’s what I need you to put in your notes: a sound mind! That’s rich!
Young people, please hear me right here: a sound mind! So before we even shout about that, let’s define it, ‘cause we say stuff that we learned in church and don’t bit more know what none of it means.
So let’s define sound mind—put it on the screen: a sound mind is to recall or remember! That’s so critical—to recall or remember! To recall or to remember! To recall or to remember!
I didn’t say this at 9:00; I'mma save it. I’mma say—I’m G to say it! To recall—my—the car—we got an email from Carfax saying we need to take it to Acura because a piece in his car has been recalled, Michael. In other words, this part is no longer functional or they’re having so many problems with it, Michael.
So the manufacturer alerted me, even though I didn’t know. He said, “I love you enough that I don’t want nothing to happen to you. Watch this. So I’m going to recall that part in what I created, and I’m going to fix it for free ‘cause my goal is for it to operate at its maximum potential!
Sometimes I can’t have a sound mind ‘cause I'm holding on to pieces of me that are outdated that keep keeping me where I was, not where He wants me. So God has to recall or bring you back so He can start working on you so you can be what He designed you.
That’s why for some of you, you can’t date right now; your heart on recall. It’s been through too much. That if you get another relationship in the state your heart is in, you’re going to hurt somebody or you’re going to get hurt.
So God says, I gotta make sure you got a sound mind. This is critical! So I have to recall—watch this—sound mind.
Put the definition on the screen—or to remember! Yeah! Remember! So a sound mind, Michael, paints the picture of a person relying on knowledge from the past to make a decision in the present.
That’s heavy! A sound mind paints the picture of a person relying on knowledge from the past to make a decision in the present.
This is what we call precedence or precedent. In other words, He’s saying if you’re going to have a sound mind, you have to have the ability to remember what happened yesterday, believe it can happen today, and then set up a thought pattern that stands on what you thought on.
Okay, it’s called a precedent. It’s called a precedent! Let me make that make sense. Legally, it’s called a precedent.
Alright, so let’s just say you live in a neighborhood and they tell you you can’t do something outside at your house because it goes against HOA rules.
Alright, so then what you do to check them is you ride around your neighborhood. Alright, so I did it—I did it six weeks ago. You ride around the neighborhood and you take a picture of your neighbor's house. You go to the other street, take a picture of their house. You go around the corner, take a picture of their house.
Then you go back to the HOA and say, “Well, I want to say this: that neighbor, this neighbor, and that neighbor all got mulch in their front yard, so I should be able to put mulch in my front yard. So this is what we’re going to do: since there’s a precedent that y’all allowed it, either y’all going to go to their house and make them pull theirs up, or you’re going to leave me alone ‘cause now I have a precedent that I can do it.”
So now what you gotta do since you got a sound mind is go back to your problem and go back to the devil and say, “Before you drive me crazy, since God brought him out, and since God brought her out, since God paid his bill, since God healed her body, I see a precedent that if He did it before—am I preaching to anybody? He can do it again!”
So sometimes you’re so busy stressing in your present that you need to pull on your sound mind or your memory and think back, “Would God let me come through that just for me to lose my mind in this? And the last time I checked, that was way worse than this! That could have killed me; this is just going to hurt me.”
And I don’t believe He brought me this far. I need you to high-five three people and tell them, “I’m your lawyer today.” Tell them, “I’m your spiritual lawyer today and I got a case against the enemy. And due to legal precedent, if God brought your row out, that means God can bring you out.”
So tell them, “You ain’t even got to praise God right here; I got enough praise for everybody in my section that God’s getting ready to do what I have not seen!”
I got to stop; it’s a precedent! That’s why you gotta come out of the witness protection program! That’s why you gotta come out of the witness protection program!
You’re so ashamed of what you went through and don’t realize it’s enough for you on the other side of the church who’s sitting there like, “I don’t know what I’mma do.” But you’re so proud.
That’s why every chance I get, I tell my testimony. I tell— I ain’t ashamed that I had to live at the Ryme Garden, end of exit 133, Kilgore Memorial.
And every Friday, me and lady would roll quarters together to pay to stay a whole another seven days, me, her, and both our dogs in her bedroom at the Ryme Garden.
Every day rolling quarters, rolling quarters. They were selling drugs out there at this window; they had switches outside this window.
I left something in the car one night, and she told me, “Go get my purse out the car.” I said, “That purse staying in the car tonight!” “I ain’t got nothing on me; you want me to walk to the car with nothing on me? They going to get me!”
“Get you? Get us!” I walked to that car out the—hey, I’m doing—where the spirit of the Lord—Hey brother, how you got that purse out the car?
Went back in there, put the chain on the door, locked the door. I thank God I filed bankruptcy two times; I thank God that our cars got repossessed!
I thank God folk left us for dead; I thank God my door got kicked in when I stayed on the east side, and they took everything out of our house.
And we was sitting there—no baby cribs, no nothing—trying to figure out what’s next. Why, PMJ? Because God, I thought I was catching hell; I didn’t realize God was giving me a precedent that He had to take me through that in '09 so when 2025 comes, I can say I’ve never seen the righteous!
Am I preaching to anybody in here? And I know you don’t want to shout 'cause you want your neighbor to think you ain’t never been through nothing and ain’t never survived nothing.
But if there’s anybody listening to me who can think back on your past— that’s why Grandmama said when I think of the goodness of— y'all gonna make me preach—shout somebody!
And tell them, “All you need is a flashback!” Ah! That’s the wrong neighbor! Find another neighbor and tell them, “All you need is a flashback! If God kept you in 2010, if He kept you in 2015, if He kept you in 2020, God will keep you right [Music] now!”
Put it—sit down! It’s called a precedent! Jesus! And whenever you [Applause]—y'all in here stressing, that’s why I don’t buy into all this political stuff.
When we had a Republican president, life was hard. When I had a Democrat president, life was hard. And y'all all sitting in here like one person living in a White House is going to change a God sitting on a throne! Whichever one of them wins, God bless them! I don’t serve a Republican; I don’t serve a Democrat.
I’m not for a donkey or elephant; I serve a Lamb! And the Lamb of God is also the Lion of Judah! No worry! No stress! I’m sorry; I’m sorry.
Stop riding! And so now you got anxiety; you got worry; you got anxiousness—and that’s not God’s will! That’s not God’s will for your life!
And whenever the enemy wants to kill your motivation, he attacks your memory! That was heavy and you missed it!
Whenever the enemy wants to kill your motivation, he attacks your memory! Have you ever thought about all this drama you got in your life?
You remember everybody who lied on you; you remember everybody who betrayed you; you remember all your bad nights— you remember! But you don’t remember!
I’m going to mess you up, bro. I want you to seriously think about this: all your pain is at the front of your mind; all your happy days you have to sit back and think about! Who do you think is pushing that stuff to the front of your mind?
How can you be having a good day, then out of the blue, a thought hit you like: “Well don’t get too excited ‘cause you know what happened last time?” Devil is a liar!
You want to know one of my favorite movies for 2024 is Inside Out? I like cartoons; y'all got to pray for me! Inside Out be blessing me!
That little girl had all her emotions in her head, then out of nowhere, our anxiety came. They looked in the corner; this little orange emotion came out and just start pressing all the buttons, pressing all the buttons!
And Joy was in there, right? Joy is like, “You need to chill out,” ‘cause Joy wants all her days to be good! But then sadness over there is like, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
And Joy is over there like, “We’re going to be alright! We’re going to go to this camp, and you’re going to be the best hockey player in the world.”
Then sadness is like, “Yeah, we’re going to have a good day,” but she done seen Joy master sadness, but then Joy didn’t know what to do with anxiety ‘cause anxiety wasn’t sadness!
But then anxiety also ain’t Joy! Anxiety is in the middle of both of them! Anxiety is not just thinking something is going to go wrong; it’s giving you options of what could happen!
Y'all missed what I just said right there! So anxiety is like, “Well we could go there, do good, the next thing you know we go all the way to the league! But if we play bad, we don’t even make the middle school team or make the high school team. We fall off!
But then if I do too good, my old friends are going to think I got better than them. But if I don’t do good enough, the new players not going to have me! But then if I don’t do good, my mama going to think I’m mad! But if I don’t do this, my daddy going to think I’m mad!
But I really want to be this, and God is like, “Will you sit down? For I know the plans that I have for you!” Anxiety—if you listen—what if stuff go wrong?
And we know that God causes all things to work together—meaning God will take your good and your bad.
I got to sit down; I got to sit down! I’m going to get turned; I’m going to get turned!
So hear me when I say this: not just what you remember! The devil is not just attacking—yes, God!—what you remember!
Can you put this in your notes for your boy? Put your head down like you taking notes! Just make me feel good; take notes!
The devil—y'all be sitting at home some days like, “Hey, he crazy for real!” I bet, I bet he’ll hold VI if we get him off that pulpit!
Hear me: not just what you remember, but how you remember! That’s heavy! That’s heavy!
See, the devil is not just—well, girl, you made me forget. Hear me! The devil is—whenever the enemy wants to kill your motivation, he attacks your memory.
Not just what you remember, but how you remember! You want to know what might break me in the future? Let me be sitting up and my boy say to me, “Man, you was always working. It’s like you would—man, like we going to throw hands!”
‘Cause it’s certain stuff I got to start telling them: like y'all don’t realize—like Friday you saw your daddy sitting in the stands right?
A couple Fridays ago, "Yeah, Dad you was in the stands!" "I was sitting in the stands." "Yeah, you don’t know T." They don’t know that we couldn’t even find flights, so we had to wake up at 3:00, drive 11 just to be there—not even at the game when you walk out to get ready for it!
But if you ain't careful, how you remember is going to affect what you remember. Some of y'all mad at your mama right now saying, “Well she ain’t do nothing for me!” But now that you’re grown, I want you to ask yourself: working two jobs, yet you ain’t missed nothing!
Maybe it ain’t what you remember; I’m talking heavy! If you receive it—no, no! I need you to catch this, YP and J!
Here’s your homework for the week! If you’re watching online, put this in the comments! If you’re in the room, put this in your phone, put this in your notes!
Your homework for this week is I want you to make an appointment with your memory! That’s heavy!
Marcus Rosier, one of my brothers in the faith, he said something to me one day when we were chilling, and it never left me. He said, “P, I always make an appointment with a thought.” I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “You—it messed me up!” He said, “One sermon from you is like a million sermons.” He says, “So even when I talk to you, I—” he said, “If I pull out my phone, I ain’t ignoring you; you be just dropping stuff so cold, I just put it in my phone real quick.”
He says, “So I have to make an appointment with the thought,” and it blew my mind! I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “Say you want to start a business. Most people say I’mma start a business; they put a couple ideas down, they get to moving.” He said, “What I then do is go on my phone, put the business idea—3:15 Thursday—and leave an hour with the thought.”
So what I’m telling you to do is this week make an appointment with your memory. When is the last time you sat down and reminded you?
Alright, in your phone right now, write three things God brought you out of. In the comments, put three things God brought you out of! Three! Some of y'all on four already!
I want you to write something you didn’t think would happen that happened, and you still blown away by it!
I want you to put a number in your notes of how many times something got paid and you didn’t know how!
So I want to ask you a question: if you got proof—yeah, come on! That God don’t play about you, why you playing with you? [Music] Michael, God don’t play about me! ‘Cause I got proof!
Now see, I want you—and I want you to make that memory—make that note. Put it up in your room somewhere; put it on your sink, right there by the mirror ‘cause you need to see the precedent that God has placed in your life concerning you.
And when anxiety comes, you tell anxiety what He’s already done! I got to go! This is why you got to be careful!
Why you got to be careful? It’s a precedent! I thank God for all my past pain!
I thank God for my past pain! That’s why you can’t tell me and my brother nothing! You can’t tell us nothing! What we lived through, what we survived!
When—how tight me and my family is now made us! Now that I’m grown, that’s a precedent! Yeah! I can remember December 23rd; I’ll never forget it.
December 23rd—I’ll never forget; we had the house, and we had rats and roaches and all types of stuff in our house, right? We was living—I think in Anan Ridge at the time.
And we had 1240 Ridge, over there—a yellow house. Boom! Alright? A run-down yellow house. Y’all, I went and bought it and gave it to my family and them.
So hear me when I say this: that house had rats; it had roaches; it had everything you can think of in it! One night, December 23rd, when we were little kids.
All the rats went and chewed our clothes; they would do all— we’d wake up and have chewing holes on our clothes, all types of stuff!
This night, they got bold. My daddy had a water bed that he got when he was in the Army. That’s the first thing he bought.
All the young people don’t know what a water bed is! Old folk, you was balling if you had a water bed! Throw your hand up! You just be laying in the bed like—[Applause]—this!
We would just go get in my dad’s—I mean, my daddy had a water bed. This night, the rats started chewing on the water bed. Water starts shooting in the air!
My dad worked for the BMA Police Department. He pulls out his gun! Me and D in the bed— all you hear— we so dumb! We in the room—get 'em, get 'em, get 'em, get 'em!
He—my daddy yells, “I can’t take it no more!” The next day, we thought we was rich ‘cause the next day, my daddy bought another house!
'Cause our whole childhood, we thought we was rich 'cause every year we would buy another house! Now that I’m grown, I realize we was just renting!
So we moved from En and Ridge on the 24th—Christmas Eve! We moved to 1501 51st Street, Insley, right there—boom! Right there in Central Park!
Alright? That morning we wake up! So imagine this—oh my God, I’m about to cry! Imagine!
I didn’t know he was poor; I thought everybody had that! Christmas Eve, we wake up in a new house! I got the Raiders outfit! Young people, y'all don’t know what this is!
Back then, if you wanted to play football, you got a Raiders uniform with a fake helmet or a 49ers uniform with a fake helmet! I got the Raiders uniform with the helmet!
We didn’t get a PlayStation; we had this little thing that vibrated and all the football men would just be moving like—[Music]—this!
I got a 15 pack of cars! We open up the cars! I got a Nerf football that whistled when you threw it! Y'all too young; y'all don’t know what I’m talking about!
Y'all don’t know what I'm talking about! So Christmas morning, we wake up amped! To this day, that's my happiest memory!
Watch this: instead of complaining that we kept losing friends ‘cause we moved! Instead of remembering being little, hearing family members talk about us!
‘Cause it’s not what you remember—hear me! It’s how you remember!
So put scripture on that, Pastor Mike! Philippians 4:6: do not be anxious about anything!
I’m going to run today; forget y'all! Do not be anxious about anything! But in every situation—so let’s pause, let’s pause!
Let’s break the scripture down! Put this in your notes: do not be anxious about anything! Put that in your notes for me! Alright, so did you write that? Did you type it?
I want you to type right: do not be anxious about anything! Then put a dash. Here’s what I want you to put outside of that: no matter how big or small!
Why, Pastor Mike? I can deal with the big stuff; it’d be the small stuff that’d be about to drive me crazy! Put scripture on it: it's the small foxes that destroy the vine!
Look at the Song of Solomon 2:5: “Catch for us the foxes!” Look at this: the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom!
Look what he says: “I need you to go catch all the foxes! But do me a favor—not the big ones, forget them; we can shoot them ‘cause we see them!
It’s the little ones that’s hiding in the weeds—watch this—that’s basically killing me from the inside out!
That’s critical! Do not be anxious, but in every situation! Put that in your notes; it’s right there in the scripture!
I want to give you a challenge for 2025: for Christmas, I want you to buy yourself a physical Bible! Sometimes I realize if I say it, certain people listen to me.
I want—I know it’s on your phone, but what if that crashes? I want you to get in the habit—I've been doing this.
I found my dad’s old Bible, and I said "Can I have it?" He’s like, "Yeah, I got plenty." So I got my dad's old Bible, so imagine now when I’m reading stuff He wrote with his pen!
I want to hand that to my boy! I want to have Bibles that I write in! Physical Bibles, alright?
Get an NASB version or an NLT version. It’ll bless your life! Okay, look at what it says right here: in every situation! What does that mean, Pastor Mike?
Give me seven minutes and I'll get you out of here. Prayer should be a universal response! Did you catch that? Prayer should be a universal response!
A universal response! I’m going to say this, and I need you to write it: we arrest anxiety by putting prayer in its place!
I want to say this, and I may get in trouble for it from some members who are really, really spiritual, but you’ll be okay. Some of you need prayer and counseling.
Okay, there’s nothing wrong with that! I want you to hear your pastor—my dream is that we will raise up some people who are professional in our church, and a part of our church will be a business or whatever!
Where you can come talk to people—that's my vision! Watch this: some of us need prayer, some of us need prayer and counseling, and some of us need prayer, counseling, and medicine!
If the doctor created—if God created the doctor, then what the doctor created is from God! If it’s not manipulated, so hear me when I say this: I need you to catch this now, YPMJ, ‘cause some of us have a chemical imbalance, and some of us have some stuff we just need to get off our heart.
I called myself being a good dad a year ago. I cleaned my trash can!
I saw my neighbor doing it; he said I clean my trash can. You just can’t let it sit there nasty— all the stuff you throw in it!
So I sked it out like, “Yeah, I went to do it the other day,” but I ain’t did it in a year! The hose pipe alone didn’t do it!
Uh-uh! I had to get Clorox! I had to put Clorox in there and do more stuff!
So can I ask you a question? If you ain’t never got none of the stuff you been through out your heart, what the bottom of your heart look like?
Y'all missed what I just said! Pastor Mike, I don’t think I should talk to nobody! Then why did Nicodemus, who was anointed, go talk to him?
So hear me when I say this! I want you to put this in your notes before I let you go! Alright, I want you to draw a line—draw a line up and down if you can or however you do it in your notes!
Put a line or circle or whatever: draw another one that’s prayer—draw another one: love!
Y'all be safe; seat belts! Problems—they got football practice—y'all pray for me!
Alright, so your prayer problem, you got that! Alright, so let's do it from reverse now! When you get a problem, because you have a prayer life—remember I just told you: prayer should be your universal response!
When we arrest anxiety, we arrest anxiety by putting prayer in this place!
So look at your life—now you get a problem; that problem has to go through what? Prayer! To get to who? You!
Your prayer life is a strainer! Okay, that just showed me that everybody said who you can cook was lying 30 minutes ago!
‘Cause you didn’t even know what a strainer was! Okay? You ever boil your noodles?
You boil your noodles and then you dump that in this little thing that got a whole lot of holes in it, and the water leaves, but the noodles stay!
So the strainer—this can preach! The strainer keeps what it needs for this season but loses what was used in the last season!
‘Cause if you bring the water from the last season into the new season, it’s going to mess up the sauce for the next season! Did you catch that?
So the strainer eliminates what you don’t need! So prayer is a strainer! So look at this—I’m going to get you out of here!
So whenever panic wants to come into your life, it has to go through your prayer life! Fear has to go through your prayer life! Watch this!
Let’s just say something jumps off you didn’t see coming; your first response should be prayer! Did you catch that?
Now look at your—look at your chart! Look at your chart! What you got? Problem; prayer. You take—you out; I’m sorry!
Take prayer out! Now what you got? Every problem can just hit you! Fear comes; it attacks you! Anxiety comes; it attacks you!
You only pray when you got a problem! Now my goal—put this in your notes; I’m going to get you out of here!
Prayer is to anxiety what water is to fire! The antidote to your anxiety is an active prayer life!
Feel me! I have moments where I worry! I have moments! Every time my boys leave to go drive, I almost clutch my phone till they text me they're where they are!
Every mom and daddy know what I'm talking about! I had to tell the devil stop! The devil has set up! I felt like he was tormenting me!
Let me show you what he had me doing—this is recently—as of last week! Every time a thought would hit my head: your boys getting into an accident, I would say, "Devil is a liar!"
I would say it quick: "Devil is a liar! We covered in the blood!” But it started hitting my mind so much that if it hit my mind, I didn’t say, "Devil is a liar!" Plead the blood!
It would happen! That ain’t nothing; that’s demonic! No, they covered! So what I had to do is I made that a part of my active prayer life!
Every morning: “Father God, cover their cars; cover their minds; cover their peace! They in school, so God, make them—let them make wise decisions!
Don’t let them do nothing— God, cover my church, cover someone, so come!
So God, it's an active prayer life! Did you catch that? It’s an active prayer life! My boys ain't going to ever be able to sneak out the house because I snuck out the house!
See, this is why this generation doesn’t get it! Where the millennial parents at? Our kids can’t do nothing!
Our parents was dumb, wasn’t it? They were just dumb, wasn’t it? Like, “Hey M, here got my report card!" “No, ain’t no report cards this year! They said they just proud of us!"
Okay, good, good, good! Our parents was dumb! Was it us? Oh, we be on their head, don’t it?
No, we ain't got no— you a lie! I got your log in right here!
I got your log in right here! Letting them walk in, smelling like something, looking like something!
Anything! “Hey, hey, what’s that?" So my boys ain’t no sneaking out!
I used to sneak out! I just sneak out! My parents go to sleep, then they would sleep! I just walk out!
I used to cut the alarm on time, like cut the chime off, and just walk out the house! I’d be in Pratt City, just hanging out with all my friends!
Ain’t none of that with my boys! Alarms go off around there! They gon’ to my—if a door open, left garage door, left window, glass break, it’s cameras everywhere!
“Hey, hey, hey, take the trash out! Hey, hey, hey!" I got a camera downstairs!
I was listening to them yesterday—they were talking, talking, talking! My feelings was out there talking!
He upstairs! I told y'all, y'all should have said something to him! I just went out!
“Hey, y'all want to go hang out a little bit? What’s up, man? Yeah!”
Wanna y'all know? I appreciate that! Know I’m the—at my house! I’ll be listening! I'm taking text messages—everything!
Forget y'all! Y'all—they grown! No, they not; they my babies! I’m in it all!
I’m everything, I’m everything! Everything! You want to know what I’m most proud of, though? What I’m most proud about is—I hope you catch this—that they’re adopting stuff I’m saying!
You got me? I’m showing them like you gotta have an active prayer life! Baby, stuff ain’t G! I’m so glad my son—he’s gone. I’m so glad my son Mason didn’t have the football year he wanted to have!
He’s in the 10th grade; he had goals! He like, “D, I’m going to get off this year!”
The summer—I had a strong summer! Strong summer! But in the 10th grade, he’s got to wait his turn! You know what I’m saying?
He’s got to wait his turn! So they put him back on JV! He bowled out on JV—like acted a complete fool on JV!
It was illegal; he created player fellas—all 99's! Hear me! On JB, he all 99's!
Then all of a sudden out at the play, he scored last week! They starting to put him in more! “Come on, Mace! Come on, Mace! Come on, Mace!"
And I told him, I said, “Mace you got parents who love you! You got a whole church community behind you! I said if God didn’t test you in this, what other future president would you have? Huh? What would you have? A future president?
What would he have? And so now think—I been telling him that all year!
“Dad, I said, ‘Are you a good teammate? Be a good teammate! Can you celebrate this? Can you celebrate that?' Because I’m trying to show him, if you’re not careful—this is heavy! Parents, please hear me!
Rabbage, you feel? He’s in the 10th, stressing! “If what if I don’t get a scholarship? What if I don’t play ball? What if?”
I said, “Baby, you in the 10th! Live—do your best, trust God!” Here it is!
And if it’s His will—you all don’t hear me! [Applause] Here I was wondering why a football coach came to my service today!
I was like, “What is he coming to my church service for?” In between services, Morouse offered my baby a full scholarship in the 10th grade! Hear me when I say that! Hear me when I say that!
That’s his first offer, bro! Hear me! And so hear me when I say this! And the whole while, I'm looking at— I said, “What?”
I was able—see, I want—I want y'all to hear me! I can be everything to my boys, honestly! But they—pastor like, “I’m going to be very rich!” ‘Cause it’s hard— it’s hard to differentiate the two sometimes!
You know what I’m saying? So I’m always trying to see who’s speaking life! That’s why my youth pastor is so important!
I need my—I tell my youth pastor every day, “I need you to love these kids! Speak life into YP. ‘Cause I need them to be able to say, ‘Dad, I was stressed, but you know on Tuesday nights, we talked about XYZ, XYZ, XYZ!’ I need that.”
That was a chance where baby girl, I got a chance to look at him and say, “See what trust in God! Hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me!”
God’s plan for your life is so much bigger than you think, which is why every time you turn around, the devil is trying to get your mind!
Baby girl, you couldn’t lose if you wanted to! You right there—you couldn’t lose if you wanted to! And the thoughts that hit your head and you overstressing, and let me free you, parents!
'Cause these babies see more than we think they see! You’ll be surprised how many of them sitting there like, “I don’t want my mama to have the stress about XYZ! I don’t want…”
But God has not given us the spirit of fear! So hear me when I say this: I need you to catch this!
We arrest anxiety by facing it! I’m going to give you a scripture; I pray you receive it! James 4:7: submit yourselves then to God!
Here’s the line I need you to get: resist the devil! That one’s good enough! Go to 1 Peter 5:8: be alert and of sober mind! Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour!
Verse 9: resist him! The scripture don’t say run from him; it says resist him! Your season of running from your problems are over!
Your season of running from your hurt is over! You going to go ahead and deal with it! You may have to cry; you may have to do some retail therapy!
You may have to sit at home in the bed for a week or two, but it’s some stuff you cannot take into 2025!
'Cause God’s getting ready to open doors that you forgot you prayed about! He’s going to send blessings that you forgot you prayed!
He’s about to make ways out of no ways and rivers in the desert! He’s bringing generational blessings to pass in your life!
You ought to just tuck somebody and shout, “That’s your prayer right there!” Tell them, “It’s my prayer right there that God’s about to give back to me good measure, pressed down, shaking together!”
And it starts—it starts with telling fear no! Yeah! That’s what it starts with!
So you may be watching me right now; you may be listening to me right now! I come against fear! You don’t have anxiety!
Some of us have medical anxiety, but for the most part, your anxiety is rooted in fear! What if ain’t going to take you out this year!
Jesus, I don’t think you heard what I just said! No! God didn’t bring you this far just to bring you this far! Father, in the name of Jesus, I speak by faith fresh starts, new beginnings!
God, I ask right now that you filter our thoughts! Filter our thoughts, God! That doubt—that double-mindedness—take it away right now!
God, I pray right now that we understand the difference between a natural concern and worry!
God, worry is when we’re living in worry; it’s when we make a state out of something that was just a season!
God, we not going to stay where we are! God, when we said out our mouth we were just going through, that was prophetic!
We’re not going to—we’re going through! So this pain I’m just going through it! This hurt I’m just going through it!
I decree and declare, God, with the sweet hymns from Israel! David said, “Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me!”
Cast me not away from your presence; please don’t take your spirit from me! Restore to me the joy of salvation!
God, like the writer said in the Book of Revelation: God, I have one problem with you. You’ve lost your first love! Somewhere in life, we fell more in love with what you do for us than you!
God, I pray right now, be it 15, 25, 35, 45 or 60, that we will trust you like never before! That God, the seasons of our life where fear overtakes us, and doubt, and worry!
“What am I going to do next? God, I got to get this done by next month; how am I going to do that? How, how, how am I going to do what’s next?
If I don’t get this many yards, this won’t happen! If I don’t make this happen, God, my family, my kid—breathe!”
God, let a peace that surpasses all understanding—that’s another level of peace! A peace that even their friends can’t understand!
To know that you have a plan for their life! God, to that brother who’s worried ‘cause he got stuff in his life that’s life or death!
He’s got enemies; he’s got problems; he’s got haters; he’s got real-life stuff! He’s got court cases; he’s got a lot!
God, I ask that you give him a way of escape! To that sister who feels overwhelmed! That God, it’s me! I’m doing this! I’m holding this down! I’ll have help!
It’s like God! God, right now, in the name of Jesus, put a system around her! Send real people into her life!
God, to that family who’s dealing with drama and trauma and God, it’s like life is trying to pull them apart!
I come against that in the name of Jesus! Devil, you have succeeded at keeping us stressed! That is not God’s will for our life!
So I know it’s old school; I know people don’t talk like this anymore! But I plead the blood of Jesus!
I plead the blood of Jesus over each and every one of their lives!
God, Grandmama didn’t have none of what we have, but she was in peace!
Our Grandmama didn’t live behind a gate, but she was in peace! To this day, Grandmama still don’t even got everything, but she got peace!
God, give us that level of peace in knowing that you got a plan for our lives! You got your hand on our children! You got your hands on our hearts!
You got your hands on our health! To the person who’s wrestling right now with a health scare, God, I bind this thought of death that’s just overwhelming people!
God, I speak what the Word says: with long life, you will satisfy them! You are still Jehovah Rafa! You are still Elohim! You are still Adonai! You are still Jehovah Rafa!
You are still God! And you said in your Word, God, that if we just touch and agree, it shall be done!
So right now, God, we touch and agree that health is our portion! Wholeness is our portion! Peace is our portion! Prosperity is our portion!
God, a sound mind is our portion! God, you did not call us to worry; you did not call us to fear.
God, you didn’t call us to live in stress; you didn’t call us to live in anxiety. You did not call us to live check to check!
You did not call us to have to beg; you did not call us to have to borrow! You didn’t call us to be in debt and meet nasty people!
You didn’t call me to have to hustle!
God, you called me to be the head and not the tail! You called me to lend, not to borrow! To be above and not beneath!
And God, we’ve become so passive in our walk with you! So passive!
God, Christians have become so weak—so weak! Weak and meek ain’t the same thing!
God, you called us to be meek, not weak!
So God, I pray that we get our boldness back! I pray that we get our attitude back!
I pray that we walk in a different level of swagger knowing that we serve a God that cannot fail!
We serve a God that will not lose! He is undefeated! He is undisputed! He is alive and well! He’s seated on the throne and His son, Jesus, is seated at the right hand of the Father!
And He’s coming back again for us!
So God, we repent because for so many times, the sin in our life made us feel disqualified from being bold in our life!
So God, we repent for everything we’ve done—knowingly and unknowingly! We come back to you this morning saying, “God, if we ever needed you, we need you right now!”
It’s in Jesus' name we pray! And the church said!
Come on, jump up! Can you give God your best praise? Come on; you can do better than that! Somebody just give God praise for your [Music] goodness and your mercy toward [Music] us! For your goodness and your mercy toward us! For you [Music] and your [Music] mercy! Thank you [Music] Jesus!
Hear me when I say this, man! From the bottom of my heart, something’s shifting in your life today, man! And it’s starting in your mind!
It’s starting in your mind! You’re going to walk out of here like, “Nah, that ain’t God’s will for my life!”
And hear me when I say this; hear me when I say this; hear me when I say this: when you really adopt that, it’s some stuff that starts shifting for you!
Hear me; it’s some stuff that starts shifting for you! I told—I told Pastor Bra’s brother; I told him, right before he walked out here today!
I told K— I said, “Go tell him!” He did exactly what I needed him to do at 9:00!
There’s an unusual anointing on his life! But you have to be careful ‘cause sometimes, the more anointed you are, the more stressful you are!
See, I need you to—oh my God! This is critical!
See, this is why many of you gotta be careful what you pray in the next season of your life! ‘Cause when—uh—mute the microphones in the lobby! Sound person in the back or sound person up top; they coming through the monitors!
This is why you have to be very careful! You have to be very careful! Why, Pastor Mike?
And I need you to hear me when I say this: 'cause when you ask God to take certain things away from you, you don’t know the backside of it!
Front side, backside! I say this all the time! The front side gives you my identity! That’s my fingerprint! The backside gives you my ethnicity! That’s my color!
So to everything in life, there’s a front side and a backside! So when you stress out and you praying out of stress, and you saying stuff like, “God, I don’t want them more! Take all this pain; take all this stress away from me!”
The backside of it was stress; the front side was favor! So you didn’t realize the promotion you prayed for on the front side had a backside to it!
So if you ain't careful, in order for Him to take the backside, He also got to take the front side!
So you don’t need to say “God, take it!” You need to say, “Increase my faith for it! My grace for it!”
Why, Pastor M? Because there are certain seasons when God gets you out of it, but then there are certain seasons when God gets in it with you!
And for many of you, you are in a season where God’s not about to take you out of it, but He will step in it with you!
And that’s what you gotta make up in your mind: I’m not going backwards now; God’s brought me too far!
I’mma stand; I’mma—I’mma thank you, Grandmama! I’mma run on and see what the end’s going to be! Am I preaching to anybody?
So I love you, man! I love you from the bottom of my heart! If you’re watching from all over the world, know that I love you from the bottom of my heart!
God has a plan for your life! I thank God for you! Hear me: you may not know Jesus! Falling in love with God is the best thing I’ve ever done!
I’m not going to put you on the spot, but right where you are, if you can just repeat after me and say, “Lord, come into my heart! Make me over again!
I confess with my mouth; I believe with my heart that you raised from the dead with all power in your hands! And right now, by faith, I am saved!” Clap your hands, church!
It’s that easy! You can text—it’s right there on the screen! You can text—I don’t even remember what the text was, but you can text it to 28950!
There it is! You can text “home” to 28950! Um, my mind is all over the place right now ‘cause you can’t preach a message like this and not instantly go to warfare for it!
You know, so in my head, it’s so weird—in my mind, I'm already planning prayer! T need to pray tomorrow night! So and so need to—so and so.
Just make sure in DVO energy every day this week we start with prayer! Every day this ‘cause what’ll happen is when you see the devil don’t mind you kicking it—he can’t stand when you kick it!
And for some of you, something shifted today! So what will the devil do? He’ll ramp it up! He’ll make a child really get on your nerves!
He’ll make a person come back! He’ll make a problem bigger!
So I’m praying for you in Jesus’ name! I love you so, so, so, so, so, so, so much! Were you blessed today?
Listen to me; if you’re watching me all over the world, I want you to prepare your hearts. Why, Pastor Mike? The greatest gift is coming up! It’s right there on your screen!
It’s called the greatest gift! What is the greatest gift, Pastor Mike? Once a year, we give a sacrificial offering!
I started doing it by myself and never told my church I was doing it! And I got convicted by the Holy Spirit!
At the end of the year, my family and I would sow a seed, and we would just call it a gift to God—telling Him thank you for what He has done and in anticipation for what God will do!
It flipped my life! I mean that! Man, I’m a—I’m a—if I'm not—I'm not anything else, I’m a giver!
I’m a giver from the depths of my soul! I believe when you give, it’ll come back to you good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over!
I also believe that’s between you and God a lot of times! You know?
So there have been times in my ministry where I wasn’t more, uh, I would say, um, maybe aggressive, maybe the word, or just more forthcoming about, “Hey y'all need to give!”
Because to me, that’s all you heard your whole life in church! So I rather get your heart before I try to talk about what’s in your pocketbook!
So for me, this is something me and my family have been doing for the last 2 years; we’ve been doing it as a church!
And the testimonies that have come back—who am I talking to? About how God has made ways out of no ways for us! It’s something we do called the greatest gift!
That’s a Sunday that we all pray and set aside on what we’re going to give to God! I would challenge you to pray about that!
I’m believing God for a lot in 2025, and I’m also grateful for a lot in 2024! I would tell couples, y'all pray! Y'all pray! Y'all pray!
Pastor Mike, what are you giving? I’ll share with you my—what I heard the Lord tell me was 525! That’s what I’ve been praying over your church!
And that’s grace and favor! Five is the number of grace and favor! 4225, you know?
So from my family and I will be giving 5525! I’ve been putting it aside—putting it aside!
I’m giving! I’m the man of my house, I’m giving on behalf of my wife and my kids—making sure we're all locked in on what God is going to do!
Why, PMJ? Because that’s a kingdom principle! That’s a kingdom principle, bro!
So I pray that if you’re listening to me right now from all over the world, in this room, be praying about that!
Don’t just say you want God to do something in 2025 that you haven’t sown toward!
You can’t reap nothing if you ain’t got nothing in the ground! Somebody say Amen!
Let me say this to you! Alright, somebody say seed! Seed! It is a sacrificial seed!
How do you spell seed? S-E-E-D! You don’t get seed without C! You don’t get seed without seed!
So if you don’t see God doing nothing here, don’t sow nothing! Did you catch what I said?
Don’t ever give to a place where you can’t see God moving! You got me?
And if I’m ever guilty of having a church where you don’t see God moving, don’t give me a dime until you see God moving something!
And that’s a principle—not a tithe but a seed! And so what we’re doing on the greatest gift Sunday, December 15th—that’s our greatest gift!
If you’re watching all over the world, that’ll be a good Sunday to fly in and be a part of what God’s going to do!
We going to thank God for the rest of the year, set our sights on 2025! And I’m just crazy enough to believe that we’re getting ready to thrive! Somebody say Amen!
Were you blessed today? Alright, guys, I want to pray a special prayer! If you’re watching all over the world, I’ll be in Jackson, Shreveport, and New Orleans this week—come check your pastor out!
It’s absolutely free! Go to www.igotwayto.com and get your tickets!
God, I pray a special prayer, and it’s real easy! It’s Lord, your will—nothing more, nothing less, nothing else!
It’s in Jesus name we pray! And everybody said—hug somebody! Tell them you love them!
We are—God bless you! I see you Sunday!
Alright, we talked about arresting anxiety! What a powerful message!
We talked about emotions! Pastor said he had been getting inboxes about revisiting that topic! You know we had a heavy week last week— some people!
And so it’s just amazing! You know, pastor is a strong word every week! But this week, it was really, really amazing!
Yeah, it was powerful! It really blessed me! Just to think about how it’s connected to fear! You know, that anxiety—it made me think like, “Wow! I need to put fear in its place like Pastor said!”
And just know that God hasn’t given us that spirit of fear! So it was very powerful to hear about that and just know how to handle that anxiety!
Yeah, yeah, yeah! And if you felt compelled to join the church, you know we always tell you, this is home for you!
So text home to 28950 if you would like to join Rock City! That’s home again to 28950!
Yes! And you can do that! Or if you want to give your life to Christ, like D said, please text home to 28950!
And also, if you would like to give to this church, you know what we always say: we don’t give to our church, but we give through this church so that we can bless others!
So if you want to do that, you can also text IRC and the amount you wish to give to 28950!
We got Pathway to Purpose coming up! When is that going to be?
Wednesday! This Wednesday at 7 p.m.! So make sure if you are one of those people who gave your life to Christ, your next step is going to be Pathway to Purpose!
Just text P2P to 28950 to get more information about Pathway to Purpose!
And every, every, every day, Monday through Friday at 7:21 a.m., what do we have, Des?
We got DVO Energy! DVO Energy! It’s going down! We’re going to dig deeper into this word so that you can continue to learn how to work through anxiety and put it in place, like we said!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you so much for joining us here on this Sunday and each and every Sunday, from us as well as the first family!
We love you! And God bless you! We’ll see you next week! Peace! [Music] Peace!