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Commitment
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We are here at the beginning of this new year because we live in a culture with commitment issues. It is insane to expect God to bless anything that you are not willing to be fully committed to.
If you don't do anything else in 2023, I want you to leave this year with a deeper and stronger level of commitment. I want to be honest: if I get committed, that will fix so many things in my life. Commitment will fix my high blood pressure. Commitment will fix my weight. Commitment will fix your relationships—personal and relational. The greatest issue that some of us have is commitment.
This year, my goal is not for you to be a millionaire or an entrepreneur. My one singular focus for 2023 and 2024 is commitment. I just want to be better.
I'm grateful I have committed people in my life. My wife Tiffany told me, "Don't forget your son is about to turn 16 next year. If we commit to some stuff now, you'll put yourself in a position to be a blessing to him in a year." You've got to have people in your life who keep you aware of what you're believing God for.
My oldest son turned 16 this week. Every time I go perform somewhere, I've been putting some money up, staying committed. So I got him his first car this week—a 2017 white Chevy Malibu. But here's what amazed me: even the person I bought the car from was committed. This elderly lady had that car for years with only 20,000 miles on it. She never missed a service. The only reason she traded it in was because she had more grandchildren and needed a bigger truck. As I was purchasing the car, the salesman said, "It only has one owner." She was committed, and her commitment is now being a blessing to my baby boy.
I want to pose a question to many of you: What will your commitment birth? Every man in this room, if you stay committed for the next six or seven years, what will your commitment birth to your babies? Every sister in this room, if you stay committed for the next five or six years, what will your commitment birth?
Let's define commitment. Here's our Rock City definition: Commitment is when we persistently apply the right attitude, actions, and intention to achieve a desired dream, goal or purpose.
We need to understand the difference between consistency and persistence. Persistence is being consistent in the face of resistance. That's critical. Consistency means waking up and doing the same thing every day. I get up at 6:30, pray, shower, get dressed, go to work, handle my business, come home. Most people struggle with consistency, but some can stumble into consistency.
But persistence means I'm waking up doing the same thing every day through difficulty. I wake up and have to fight through my own mental stuff, my insecurity, generational curses, family telling me I'm not doing enough, a spouse who complains, a mother who didn't cover, a father who didn't bother, brothers and sisters who don't ride with me.
Anybody can remain consistent when there isn't any objection to what you're doing. But if you're going to get it, you're going to have to fight through some stuff. That may be why many of you are becoming irritated with those in your life—you're surrounded by consistent people who are complaining when you've had to live a life of being persistent.
Faithfulness is not just me showing up. Faithfulness is me showing up based off of what I had to fight through. When I look over this church and the people watching online, somebody in this room and online has every reason to stay asleep, every reason to throw in the towel. But something in your spirit said there's a blessing on the other side.
You ought to nudge somebody close to you and say, "It's on the other side." If God blessed you on this side, you would be arrogant, stuck up, selfish, and sad. But the reason you are as humble as you are is because when you made it to the other side, you didn't forget what it took for you to become who you are.
On the other side of depression is going to be your sanity. On the other side of debt is going to be your prosperity. On the other side of your haters is enough peace that surpasses all understanding.
As your pastor, my goal is to preach and teach in a way that makes everyday life preach to you. Some of you, I may be your pastor. Some of you, I may be spiritual covering. Some of you, I may be a communicator. Whatever I am in your life, this relationship you have to define.
My assignment in your life is to preach in such a way that makes your life preach to you when you can't hear me preach. I want to preach to you in a way that when you leave this room and cannot hear my voice, your life circumstances will preach the same message.
Some of you didn't grow up poor, so you won't catch this. But those of us who grew up in the hood had to push through stuff. If you grew up with money, your TV was a flat screen with a remote. If you grew up in the hood like me in Ensley, Central Park, our TV had knobs—and no remote. Your mama made you the remote. She'd say, "Hey, Mike, change that channel," and you'd have to walk over to the TV.
But if your TV was real ghetto, the knob fell off. You had to get pliers and turn the knob. Even when you put it on the right channel, if you were lucky, you'd get a good picture, but it would still be squiggly. So you'd get a hanger or adjust the antennas. Every time those antennas were down, we couldn't see nothing. But when I raised my antennas, I got a vision.
What I'm trying to get you to realize is if you really want a God-given vision, you're going to have to be persistent when things don't look like they're working out. Why? Because I am committed. It's going to take persistence.
In Numbers 13:1-2, the Lord said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites." I want to make a prophetic announcement that not everybody's going to catch, but several of you will. In 2023, I'm shifting from almost to all mine.
I don't know about you, but in my life, I'm always at almost. I almost paid this off. Almost got this job. We almost... But because I'm being committed in 2023, it's all mine. Don't hate on what I want. What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours.
If there's some stuff you feel like is coming to you, you ought to shout, "It's all mine. Give me my joy. Give me my peace. Give me my favor. Give me my scholarship. Give me my promotion. Give me my house."
I don't want your stuff. I need a friend in my life who when I tell you what I'm going to do, you say, "Oh, that's you right there." When I tell you what I believe God for, you look at me and say, "Oh, that's you right there. Your business going to prosper. Your family going to be blessed." Because what's yours is yours and what's mine is mine.
I'm shifting from almost in my life. I have sometimes always been at almost. I have a spirit of self-destruction over my life and sometimes over my family's life. I get to a certain point where I start focusing too much on who ain't with me versus who is with me. In other words, I start looking at how far I've got to go instead of how far I've come. But in this season, I'm only talking about what's all.
When you say "it's all mine," your mind made you think you had to have it before you spoke it. But several of you are going to be in neighborhoods this week saying, "It's all mine," and your circle is going to ask, "You financed? You got the credit? You got the down payment?" No. "What God got for me."
I say this once every two years because I want to make sure you never forget it. He said, "I'm going to take you to the promised land." Put this in your notes: Promised land is promised land—it's already prepared. Promised means if you do this, it's waiting on you—it's conditional. But promised means it's already prepared.
Xander is 16 now with no permit, no driver's license. I'm going to send him to driving school. He can drive, but legally, he's not authorized. And that's the problem with us as Christians: just because you can doesn't mean you're authorized.
When I gave him the car, I put the key in his shoe during dinner. I said, "Man, I got you some new shoes. I know you like your shoes." He pulled the key out and said, "Is this real, Dad?" When we got in the parking lot, he was hitting speed bumps. Later, I let him drive on 119 with cars zooming past us. I just kept saying, "Stay focused, baby. Stay focused." When we got home, I said, "Now give me the keys." He hasn't seen it since.
The right to enjoy it is now conditional. God the Father, it's waiting on you. There's another type of grind in you when it shifts from a maybe to a certain. But what I'm telling you is you've got to stay committed to this fast, committed to living right, committed to tithing, committed to being nice to people.
What you believe God for isn't being prepared—it's already prepared. It's in heaven. If you stay committed, it isn't just a promise; it's promised. Being consistent got them to the promised land. They walked for 40 years, but being persistent got them through the promised land.
In 2023, I'm no longer settling for just getting to it. This is my year to break through it. Whenever you make a commitment to God, the enemy—or even sometimes God—creates resistance. Be balanced here: if we're not careful, we'll make everything resistance and the devil, and everything else a blessing from God. I've lived long enough to know that sometimes God resists and the devil sends what looks like a blessing.
Our courage to commit will demand that we be persistent in seasons of situations of resistance. This is critical because many of us need resistance training.
There's a difference between resistance training and weight training. Resistance training—that's what we need in this season. It's not about the weight; it's about the resistance.
There are two types of resistance you need to understand: blocks and clocks. Blocks represent the stuff that life, pressure, and the devil put on you. But I want to argue that maybe the worst type of weight is the clock—the waiting.
Some of you can handle the weight. You can carry the burden, the drama, the mess, the people coming and going. You can deal with looking in the mirror and not feeling like you're enough. You can deal with your own insecurities and even debt. But what breaks you is the waiting. When you have to look at God and say, "God, I love you and I can deal with everything you're throwing at me, but you told me by 2023."
If you master the wait, it ain't nothing the world or the devil going to be able to do for you.
I've been waiting on clearance. I'm too old to make another oops. When I got Central Park, you couldn't tell me it wasn't going to be our forever home. But I learned a very important lesson: don't nobody give you nothing that's living. I never publicly talked about all the stress and drama that came with that building—the sneaky stuff on the backside, how once we got it, we discovered it wasn't what we thought it was.
When I fixed one thing, another broke. If I fixed the back, the wall broke. If I fixed the wall, the pipe broke. If I fixed the pipe, the ceiling fell in. Finally, one inspector said, "This building's been condemned for years." That's when I learned: at this age, I can't make no more oops. It's got to be the right spot. It's got to be XYZ.
When it's his will, it's his bill.
You're stressing about how you're going to start your daycare, your business, because you're looking at your account. But my Father is rich in houses. When it's his will, it's his bill. We don't build tabernacles. We build tents. That's what we do around here.
This fast is going to reveal to you the pattern of God. Look back over your life and see how God has always moved in your life. I don't have a new anointing; I got a restoration anointing.
The pattern God has always given me is this: he gives me something that was dead and allows me to breathe life into it. We go into desolate places and bring the light of God, the ruah, the breath of God with it. Like he did in the Bible: "Can these bones live?" For many of you, be patient. You could have been moved. Wait a second.
If we're not careful, 2023 is going to be the year of regretful decisions. Sometimes the devil will release resistance long enough to make you think it's God. Remember when they got on the boat and got halfway across—then the storm broke loose? The storm didn't break loose soon as they got on the boat, because they would have got off. He let them get too far away to turn around and not close enough to be there. Sometimes trouble jumps off in the middle.
Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. He will renew your strength.
You may be single for another eight months. Wait. If you think lonely don't feel good, imagine being with somebody and being lonely. I'd rather stay alone than marry Rome. Don't let uncommitted people tell you, "Well, you ain't getting no younger." Wine don't get better the older it gets, but you are getting better. You better wait and don't settle.
Be careful who you trust with your commitments. This is critical: Moses trusted some of the wrong people with the right plan.
In 2023, I want you to be very careful not to trust the wrong people with the right plan. Sometimes it's not what you're going to do; it's who you're going to do it with.
I'll never forget the first time I was trying to get into house flips. Somebody told me, "All you got to do is go renovate it. Get a tax house and flip it." I'm so grateful I never did it, because that person did what they told me to do and lost everything. They didn't have the information.
You can never make good decisions with bad information.
They didn't realize that even if you get a tax house, there's a certain period you got to wait. If you decide not to wait, you start fixing it immediately. When they come back and try to redeem it, they owe you what you fixed. That way you raise the price up to the point where they can't even give you what they want to give you. Then they decide to sell it to you for basically nothing.
Everybody isn't everybody. Everybody is a professional, but ain't proven. You can't trust the wrong people with the right plan.
The Holy Spirit told me that a lot of my plans fail because I was talking to the wrong people. I'll never forget the first time we were going to do another location at Midfield High School. I was so excited. The principal said we could come. I came back and started telling everybody: "Hey man, pray for us. We're going to Midfield."
Two days later they called back. "We can't do it." I said, "What happened?" They said, "Quiet is kept." And quiet is kept, different preachers started calling, saying different things. They didn't really want that over there.
I learned a very valuable lesson: right plan, wrong people. That's all it takes to derail what God has for you. Be very careful who you share your vision with. Not everybody deserves to know what God is doing in your life.
You know what I discovered? This is cold-blooded. If I give Michael an assignment, it's done. I don't even go back and check it. He's wired to accomplish assignments. I can tell Mike, "Mike, feed the dog." I'm never going back to check if he did it. That's Mike. He's consistent. He's going to feed that dog till I tell him not to.
Conversely, if I tell Mason to do it, he may not eat that day. All of them are me, but they're wired differently. Mike is more Mike. Mason is more PMJ. Xander is more Pastor Mike Jr.—heart for everybody. PMJ is just all over the place. He's ready to conquer the world.
Here's what I learned: if it's something that doesn't peak his purpose, he ain't going to remember it. So when I tell Mason, "Every night you got to give me this amount of push-ups, this amount of sit-ups, and make sure you do some curls," I ain't got to talk about that no more because it fits his purpose. But if I tell him, "Make sure you take the dog some food and make sure you help your little brother get his clothes on," the dog ain't going to eat and Miles is going to go to bed naked. That ain't his purpose.
So I discovered: Do I beat him till he remembers? Or do I now give assignments based off of personnel? Can I ask you a question? Who in your life you trying to beat to be committed when the plan just don't fit? I love you, but you may be the wrong person and I got the right plan. It ain't personal. It ain't personal.
I take Rod any day of the week to help me with my assignment. I knew it the day I saw his face at Miles College. I'm maybe 21, 22 years old. He's in the theater playing the keyboard. That day, God sent him. I said, "Him—wherever I go in life, he got to come."
Even when he wasn't with me, he was with me. I would have staff meetings and lose good musicians because throughout the meeting I would say, "Well, you need to be more like Rod." I was immature and I shouldn't have been comparing. That's toxic as a leader. But I tried to do albums before him, none of them worked. We did church projects before him, none of them did what we wanted to do. The moment me and him got together? Right plan, right person. Everything changed.
I'm going to say this and three of y'all are going to catch this: The vision you need to flip your life ain't in your head. It's in your notes. You are stressing yourself trying to find a new vision when you need to go pick up the old one. It was right. It was just surrounded by the wrong people.
Communication with wrong information is contamination. Communication with wrong information is contamination.
This is why you got to be careful who you communicate with this year. Toxic people are slick. They can contaminate you without incriminating themselves. They're subtle. They can do stuff like, "What's going on over there, child? I don't know what they're doing," and then leave. Now you're at home contaminated, thinking about what they're doing because you're contaminated.
Moses's vision was stalling because he was communicating with toxic people. Let me paint the picture. Who's believing God for a home this year? Let's paint it. Let's say you find your home. Five bedroom, three bath. Oh my God, it's so beautiful. A big backyard. I can put a trampoline back there for the babies. All my niece and nephews can come over. That's cool. That's cool.
So you tell somebody, "Hey man, it's a house for me." They say, "Let me ride by there and look at it for you." They ride by. Then they call you back: "Ooh, that power bill going to be crazy. A house that big, you're looking at probably $1,500 to $1,800 a month. And I saw three AC units on that thing. You know how them people on that side of town don't want us over there? You know they don't want us over there."
Then somebody in the corner says, "No, we ain't going to do that. Don't know how you going to pay the power bill." But then they go, "But if that's yours, it's all yours."
That's contamination. That's what happened to Moses and the children of Israel.
Giants represent resistance to your commitment. Here's your homework: write down "What are some of the giants I've got to kill this year?" Really think about this.
Every time we see a major move, we see a giant. David and giants. Children of Israel and giants. Every single time we see a major move that God wants to do, a giant shows up. Giants aren't sent to kill you. They're sent to reveal you.
Had they gotten to the land flowing with milk and honey and found just a couple people, they would have said, "Yeah, we can take them." But they said, "Everything over there is big. Even if we kill one, there's more. We look like grasshoppers in our own eyes."
The reason you got big problems is so God can see if you're going to run or square up. Had you had a little bill, that ain't enough to make you flinch. God sends big stuff your way.
Think about this: God tells you the land is yours, but then omits the fact that there are people there? No. God said, "That land is yours." God should have said, "There's a land flowing with milk and honey. It's the promised land. When you get there, it's going to be some giants, but fret not. The Lord is with you."
But here's the thing: If God gives you wrong information, it leads to contamination. If God gives you too much information, you lack inspiration. So what He does is give you enough to make you go, but not enough to see if you're going to stay. Giants are the tools that God uses to separate contenders from pretenders.
When they got to the land, the first thing they saw were giants. "We look like grasshoppers in our own eyes." But then the second thing they saw were grapes.
One scholar believed the grapes were bigger than humans. But one word debunks that: cluster. If they said there was one grape that big, why wouldn't they tell me the size of the fruit compared to the man? They said there were clusters. It wasn't one grape that big. It was so many grapes together that were large.
Sometimes you don't get it all at once, but you get a cluster. God said this is going to be the year of cluster breakthroughs. It's going to be a steady flow of miracles, a steady flow of blessings, a steady flow of joy.
Don't trip over what you got. It's all about to add up. Anybody can shout for a big blessing, but who's crazy enough to shout for a little blessing? If God did it for them, He can do it for you. The Lord is getting ready to bless your circle.
When favor and prosperity meet up, see what's going to happen. The devil should have killed you when he had the chance. But God said when He blesses you in this season, everything connected to you is about to be blessed. You're touching a miracle. You're holding the hand of a brand new miracle.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy is coming in the morning. Devil, I know you're listening. Before I take it back, I'll add more to it. 2023 is about to be my best year.
I got a feeling everything is going to be all right. God told me to tell you: any day now, double for all of your trouble. Double for all of your pain. Double for all of your sickness.
There's a unique anointing in this season. There's a sound in your heart. There's a purity. There's a persistent oil on your life that when you sing, it's going to be released.
I'm not telling you yes because I'm going to leave here and be the perfect Christian today. I'm not telling you yes because I'm going to be exactly like Jesus. I'm telling you yes because my heart desires it. My heart has shifted. It may take a minute for my mind to catch up. In so many cases, we pray for people on the altar but don't have a clue what they got to go home to.
But I'm asking you: Stay committed. Stay committed.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty—freedom from stress, anxiety, and fear of becoming who you were called to be. God did not bring us this far just to leave us here.
Our yes to God's call doesn't depend on being perfect Christians or becoming exactly like Jesus. It comes from a shifted heart. My heart has changed; my mind is catching up; my body is waiting on change. It may take a minute for the mind to align with what the heart has decided.
So many times we pray for people on the altar without understanding what they go home to. Sometimes people are in situations so deep that there is no easy way out. When someone wants to come out of the streets but can't stop because they're too far in, they need something more than judgment.
I'm praying a prayer that may get me in trouble with religious people: Give them a grace for the exit. I'm not asking God to condone what they've been doing, but God gave Paul—a murderer who was killing people—a level of grace during his season of transition. For a season, Paul walked around blind, but God extended grace to him. If that's what God did for Paul, give that same grace to those who have heard from God but haven't yet fully stepped into what He's called them to do.
Give us the strength to remain committed. Whatever we said we were going to fast to, allow us to stay faithful to that. We're standing under an open heaven right now—we can feel the presence of God. In this moment, if it's in God's will, grant what people need for this season. I speak an immediate return on their faith. According to scripture, there are moments when God does things suddenly and immediately. Do it suddenly, God.
There's an ambidextrous anointing on our church—we're not just this or that; we're this and that. We can preach and sing. We can work in corporate America and be intercessors. We can have LED screens and good music, but we cannot forsake the anointing of God that destroys the yoke.
The next wave of Christians won't look like grandmothers and grandfathers, but God, let them still pursue the power they have. Let us be a cool church with excellent production, but don't let us lose the anointing that sets people free.
Never let me lose my way chasing fame, success, and awards. This calling—this is what God asked us to do. Everything else is just a tool to do this more. I sing so more people can hear about Jesus. I travel the world so more people can be saved.
To every person online from different cities and states who has the courage to say, "This is my church"—even when family questions how a church in another state can be yours—I speak by faith a deeper level of commitment over your life.
Before you leave, hear this: If you don't know Jesus, I'm asking you to join a good church today. I'm not asking you to join a perfect church, but a real one. Why does this matter?
No one knows the day nor the hour. You don't have to be living wrong to die. I woke up this morning to a text that a family member of one of our virtual members—an offensive lineman for the Georgia Bulldogs—died in a car accident. Our church is growing so fast, we just have members and family everywhere. All I could think was: I just handed my son some keys. You never know.
I've talked with leaders who stay up late in tears thinking about things like a 12-year-old in their room minding their own business when a stray bullet comes through. The reality is stark: you don't have to be living wrong to die. I just want to make sure that when you close your eyes, you know where you're going to wake up. You know your heart is in the right place.
I haven't always made the best decisions. I haven't always done things the right way. But one thing I didn't mess up: knowing who Jesus is. If you're in this room or online and you don't know Jesus, I'm not going to ask you to come sit in a chair so others can accept you. You can accept Jesus right where you are.
Nicodemus snuck to Jesus in the woods at night seeking answers. Jesus looked at him and said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten." That scripture was about a man who snuck away to get saved. If Nicodemus could be "Nick at night," you can get saved right from where you are, right online.
All you have to do is say this simple prayer: "Lord, come to my heart. Make me over again. I confess with my mouth, I believe with my heart that you rose from the dead, with all power in your hands. And right now by faith, I am saved."
If you want to give your life to Christ and join a church family that loves you, text "home" to 28950. We want to be accountable for you. We want to pray with you. We're not going to always get it right. Sometimes we may not call back on time. I may drop the ball. I'm not promising perfection, but I am promising to do my best to be right.
Stay committed to your fast. Stay committed.
