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Part 8 of 9
Standing on Business
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Last week, I started a new series entitled Standing on Business from Duski Chapter 2:3, teaching from a popular phrase called applying pressure. Rock City's definition is: a colloquial phrase that means to put your best effort, attention, and devotion into a plan, place, or person.
If people can't stand with you now when you're half trying, what will they do when you apply real pressure? Here's what I've discovered—this is my season. To put forth my best effort, my attention, and my devotion. Research has shown that people who apply pressure on themselves tend to perform better than those who do not.
I don't need anybody to be hard on me this year because I'm about to be hard on myself. I'm pushing myself at a level I have never pushed before. Here's the truth: half of us aren't what we need to be because we've been too busy trying to make sure they are what they need to be.
I spent way too much time blaming other people for stuff I could have fixed myself. The energy I put on y'all last year, I'm putting it on me. That's why my pastoral challenge this summer is to shift you from handling pressure to applying pressure.
It's summer time. It's going to get hot outside, which means you're going to be outside in about three days. You're going to be on vacations, at day parties, getting mimosas with friends. But here's what I'm saying: don't let a hot summer walk you into a cold destiny.
I'm going to do today what won't nobody else do so I can be where won't nobody else be tomorrow. I'm going to make some sacrifices over the next couple months. I owe myself some stuff this year.
Just because you graduated does not mean you have to stop growing. Whether it's preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, or college, every graduation has one thing in common: all of them walk.
The sign that you have graduated to another level is what you can walk away from and what you're willing to walk into. It's certain places I can't go anymore because I graduated. It's certain people I can't stay in contact with anymore because I've graduated.
Here's what amazes me: how many Christians are applying pressure to everything and everyone in your life but God. You're applying pressure to everyone and everything but God.
Some of y'all think you can't apply pressure on God. But I have a contract with God. I have a covenant with God. God says, "If you, then I." Most people don't apply pressure to God because you know your mess and you know you ain't qualified.
But let me ask you a question. If somebody owed you $50 and they told you "I'mma pay you on the first," you would keep reminding them. By the 26th you're calling. By the 29th you're checking in. By the third you're saying, "Don't make me pull up on you." By the 17th you're like, "Hey, I'm sending somebody to get my money."
But when it comes to God, you act passive.
"You said if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, I done seek your face, I done turned from my wicked ways. God, I'm waiting on you to do what you said you were going to do."
Everybody who's been tithing, everybody who's been giving, everybody who's been sowing—God, you said you would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that I don't have room enough to receive. God, I'm standing here today saying I'm ready for you to do what you said you were going to do in my life.
God, I got haters trying to take me out, and the old me would have cut somebody and cussed somebody. But you said if I be still and let the Lord fight my battles. I'm applying pressure. I want everything God got for me.
Half of y'all are missing your blessing because you want to be grown. But where in the Bible did God ever call you grown? He called you a child of God. There are two types of people: some of y'all are childlike, but some of y'all are childish.
You got to have childlike faith. When I tell my son Miles I'm going to do something for him, Miles don't leave me alone till I do what I said. "Dad, you gonna take me to the store today?" "No, baby, Daddy's busy." "Daddy, yesterday you said you're gonna take me. Can you take me today?" "No, baby." "Dad, it'll be a good day to go to Target. It's not even raining. Can you take me today?" And he keeps applying pressure until finally I say, "Come on, hurry up. Get what you want and leave me alone."
That's going to be me all year with God. "Hey, God, you told me that if I give, it'll come back to me—good measure, pressed down, shaking together. Hey God, you know I got these bills. I did my part. I just believe in some overflow." I'm applying pressure.
Now I want you to take really good notes. I am more concerned about your spiritual education than your spiritual celebration. Paul is writing a letter to the church at Philippi. Philippi was located in northeastern Greece. By the time Paul arrived, this city was very well known and had the privilege of being a Roman city governed by Roman laws.
Did you know this is what most scholars call a prison epistle? Paul didn't write this from his couch. Paul wrote this from prison. Paul is in shackles, but he's still encouraging people who can walk free. Paul is in jail, but his praise ain't. That's powerful.
Ain't it crazy how you have to encourage folk who got way more than you? Ain't it crazy how folk who doing better than you walk around miserable, yet you ain't got half of what they got but you got what they can't buy—which is peace, which is joy, which is love.
Only three of y'all going to catch this: I like Paul because even though Paul is in physical bondage, he has spiritual freedom. He may not be praising because it's all good. He's crazy enough to praise because he knows he doesn't look like what he's been through. He doesn't look like what he's going through.
Folks be jealous of you. They don't realize you had to talk to yourself in the car. You had to have a whole conference meeting with yourself:
"Mike, present. PMJ, present. Pastor Mike Junior, present. Let's have the meeting. Pastor Mike Junior, how you feeling? This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. If one more person says something to me, it's going down. So let's get on one accord."
He's bound but free. He's broke but some way balling. That's for the mama or the daddy who got a kid in school and got a kid in high school and they got it real good. They don't have a clue that you may not have everything you need, but you've never seen the righteous forsaken.
Applying pressure for the future requires letting go of the past. I can't hold on to the future if I'm still holding on to the past. Sometimes God won't put new stuff in your hands because you won't let go of dead stuff you had yesterday.
Paul is sharing his past accomplishments in our text—all the things he's done: people he's saved, lives he's transformed, churches he's planted, people he's gotten saved. He's sharing all that. But then Paul says, "Don't none of that matter. Because what God is about to do pales in comparison to what he's already done."
Here's my frustration with the church: we've got all of us believing that in order to be saved, we got to be soft. We think that now that we're saved, everything we accomplish, we got to downplay because we don't want people to think we're being worldly or arrogant.
You pulled yourself out the mud. You're keeping your family together. You got your degree. You made some money. You got some accomplishments. And every time something good happened, you got to say, "Well, it's all good, man. All glory to God."
I should thank God. But we're not going to act like God didn't use me. I'm preaching to three of y'all who every now and again you're trying your best to be humble, but you're in a season where you might have to remind some folks of who you are and what you did.
"I made it out of this situation. I'm taking care of mama, cousin, auntie. Went to school, did all this. Church growing, music growing. You ain't going to treat me like I'm not who I am." If you can't handle that, you're going to lose your mind with what God is about to do.
I'm done shouting over what God's already done. I'm giving God a "about to" praise. Shout like He's about to pay off your house, like He's about to heal your body, like He's about to fix your family, like He's about to promote you at work.
Here's what I love about that statement: I'm going to put a blank at the end of it because my about to ain't your about to. My about to ain't your about to, and your about to ain't they about to. But I'm not a hater. I'm going to shout over your about to too.
When you walk into work tomorrow, I want your walk to be a little different. When you get on the phone, when you leave here, I want you to put in your group thread, "Guess what?" Everybody's going to be like, "What?" And you're going to say, "You won't even believe it." One friend is going to say, "You play too much. Make her leave the group." Another friend is going to say, "Gone on somewhere." But it's going to be one friend who's going to be like, "I was about to tear this text thread up, cuz you ain't real till you can shout with me about what God's getting ready to do."
He's about to. My about to ain't your about to, and your about to ain't they about to. But I'm not a hater. I'm going to shout over your about to too.
Have you ever tried to walk through a theme park with a small child and they're walking slow and you're in a hurry? So you grab them by the hand and you start dragging them, and now their feet are doing this. Have you ever discovered you're walking faster than they've ever walked? Yet at no point did they ever fall. Because when they're really connected, even if they got to be dragged, you're going to make sure they keep up.
There are certain people in your life that you don't want to leave. You're going to have to tell them this year, "Put your seat belt on, because whether you want it or not, everybody connected to me, I'm dragging you to another level." Grab your neighbor by the hand and drag your neighbor into the favor. Drag your neighbor into peace. Drag your neighbor into overflow. Drag your neighbor into the future.
I don't know who I'm preaching to in here, but somebody walked in here on empty. And God told me to tell you, don't give up. Don't quit. He's about to do it. Don't be weary in well-doing, because in due season—and I came to prophesy—you're walking into your due season.
Due season isn't new stuff. Due season is when the stuff you prayed and sowed for yesterday starts showing up. God told me to tell you, get ready to see the prayers you forgot you prayed. God's getting ready to open doors you didn't even knock on. He's making ways that you forgot about.
Somebody ought to give God a due season praise.
If you knew He was about to do it, you wouldn't even be complaining the way you're complaining. You wouldn't even be stressing the way you're stressing. You're sitting on earth like, "God, this is about to break me." God is sitting in heaven like, "It's about to break them open." You see it as a break, but God celebrates it, because God knows there's so much in you. But if He doesn't apply the right pressure, you'll never become what you're meant to be.
Paul says, "Forgetting those things which are behind me." How are you going to apply pressure when you're still holding on to that hurt from yesterday? I can't be better. You feel me? I can't move forward.
So many church people make this walk with God seem so simple. You say, "Just forget it and let that go." But you don't think I've tried that? You don't think I've been trying for ten years to let it go? One time I thought I did, till I saw him. And when I saw him, I was ready to kill him again. And I realized it had me.
Look at this word on your screen: straining. Paul says straining. If that's the goal, I can just get it—where's the strain in this? Straining is indicative that you're fighting something. But too many of you are letting the devil just have you. Now you're in a pity party like, "Ain't nobody going to help me."
I'm preaching to five of y'all: If don't nobody come this year right here, I'm doing whatever it takes. Strain. People all over the world are celebrating while we're closing our church for six months, risking everything, AC units going out costing eighty thousand dollars. But you know what I discovered? You only become strong when you push through the strain.
You think that relationship has been such a strain for these last months just for you to quit? Or is there something God's trying to get out of both of y'all?
Have you ever cooked ground beef and taken it out of the grease and put it in a strainer? What does the strainer do? It separates what you need from what you don't need. I ain't trying to struggle, and I don't want you to struggle. But struggle and straining ain't the same thing.
We are too favored, too faithful to struggle. But it's an honor to strain.
God's not going to give you a promotion and just give you a promotion. The promotion comes with a strainer. He lets the pride, the ego, the selfish ambition, and the hurt come out so you can truly be who He's called you to be. "Create in me a clean heart, O God," the psalmist says. He didn't say create a new heart—strain this one. If you strain this one, if you knew what you would look like after this straining, you'd rejoice.
I press on toward the goal. That's critical, and I'm going to send you home when I say this. In the Greek, press is doco. This word means it gives the sense of a pursuit and a persecute. It means to carry out or participate in an activity. It means to set in quick motion. Here it is: to run fast.
When he said "I press," he said "I run fast." Now, if a person runs a four-fifteen, is he considered fast? What about a four-eight? So if someone runs different times, does that mean they're not fast? Here's the thing: speed is measured by your forty-yard dash. But the standard changes based on position. A forty-three for a linebacker is slow, but if I'm a three-hundred pound defensive tackle running a five flat—oh, he's moving.
Some of y'all think you're failing because you let people put a wrong position on you. You should have been doing that by now. With all the daddy issues I got and all the hurt I got from my past, where I am now, I'm ahead of schedule. I press. I'm considered a new artist and I'm forty. All the other new artists are in their twenties. "Pastor Mike, you're behind schedule." No, I'm not. God did it when He was ready to do it. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
What am I saying? Press. They may have bought their first home at twenty-six. You may not buy yours till forty-one. Keep pressing. They may have gotten married at twenty. You may not get married till forty-five. Keep pressing. Run your race. Run your race.
I got a lot of message left, but I feel like what you needed said was said. Give us the strength to strain. Give us the strength to press.
God, if it's your will, I'm not stopping. If it's your will, I'm going to keep pressing. In certain situations in my life and in our lives, because sometimes we can't discern if it's your will or our heart—shut it down. If it's not your will, make it impossible for us to fix it. But if it's your will, make it impossible for us to fail.
I thank you right now for every person who logged on or walked in on the brink of giving up. I speak by faith: God, I'm not even asking for something crazy. Give them another week of strength. We'll deal with October when it gets here. We'll deal with August when it gets here. God, give them enough strength for this week so they can get to next week. And give them some more strength for next week.
But God, I speak by faith that these pit stops are coming to an end. You're about to give them everything they need to accomplish what you called them to be.
