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I am a fire starter. You have to be careful what you say out of your mouth. Death and life lie in the power of your tongue. When I ask you to say something in church, I'm not asking you to say it for my health. I'm asking you to say it because I believe if your lips speak it, then your ears will hear it, your heart will believe it, and your life will look like it.
When you confess "I am blessed," "I am walking in overflow," "I am the head and not the tail," "My family is covered in the blood of Jesus"—if you really believed what you were repeating, your actions and your praise would match your confession. This is your season. You may not have had it last year, but you will hold it this year.
I am an atmosphere changer. In my DNA is the ability to shift things that other people settle for. While this makes you a delight to some people, for others it makes you a disturbance. You may experience unexplained tension around certain people and places because your presence is a disturbance to them.
How do you know you are an atmosphere changer? Most people like you, but it's a few people who hate when you come around. When you come around, certain stuff can't rock when you're in the building. If people were messy before you got there, when you step in the room, all that stops right now.
Think about when times were harder. Do you remember when all of you were broke, but nobody was miserable? Nobody was sad? Six families lived in my grandmama's three-bedroom, two-bath in Central Park, and we used to go outside together, sit around the table and eat together. We would make pallets on the floor with blankets, roll ourselves like a burrito, and go to sleep happy.
Now you got your own place, your own car, your own money and you're miserable. It's because you're letting your atmosphere dictate your feelings. When some of us realized we didn't have anything, the way we showed up made us feel like we had everything.
I don't know who I'm preaching to, but take authority over your whole row and tell them you don't have to praise God for the next three minutes—tell them you dictated yourself. You are the atmosphere changer of your whole row. Tell them they can sit this one out while you praise God for their breakthrough, their children, their promotion, their finances, their doctor's report.
There are two types of people: thermostats and thermometers. Thermometers check the temperature. Thermostats set the temperature. You have to make up your mind that when you walk in a room, stuff is shifting. That's why for some people you are a delight to be around, but for certain people you are a disturbance.
I have a washing machine that wasn't working right. The clothes were getting wet but not getting clean. Google told me I might need to replace the agitator—that part of the washing machine that beats against the clothes while they're spinning, getting all the dirt out.
Some of you keep thinking all the hits you're taking are personal. You don't realize that sometimes God uses agitation to get mess off you. I'm not preaching to everybody. I wish I had five people who can shout: The hell I'm going through right now is making me better. It's making me stronger. It's making me wiser. The reason you go through what you go through is because the devil knows you are an atmosphere changer.
When the atmosphere is right, anything can happen. If everybody came to church on one accord, giving God glory, speaking miracles, signs, and wonders, somebody would leave here healed, the lame could walk, the deaf could hear, and the blind could see. But we can't get miracles because we keep letting the wrong people in our atmosphere.
That's why some of you are trying to break up with people now. You went out three Fridays ago and the atmosphere was right—the lights were down, the music was playing, the mood was set. And in that atmosphere, they looked like a strong nine. But when you got back, you realized they were a strong five. In the right atmosphere, anything can happen.
I'm telling you to do an inventory of your circle. Here it is: you're trying to pray for God to do stuff, but your atmosphere ain't conducive to it.
When you prepare your food, you don't throw it in the oven and then turn the stove on. If you really are going to cook, you got to preheat. You can't get to church at 11:30 talking about now you're going to worship. You got to be in your car preheating. You got to be on I-20 and I-65 like, "Oh, it's going down today." That's why Scripture says, "Enter into His courts with thanksgiving." The atmosphere has to be set.
You are a fire starter. You can put water in a box, sand in a box, air in a container. But if you put fire in something, fire cannot be contained. That's why the devil, your haters, and your cousins don't know what to do with you. No matter how many parameters and rules they put around you, you keep setting stuff on fire.
A fire starter is a committed worshiper to God that sparks contagious favor from God.
Have you ever noticed when praise and worship starts, people come stand around the altar? You know what they're called? Fire starters. We would have fire on the stage, but it would be cold in the pews because there was no log in the middle.
My dad used to set fires in the winter, and I thought he was a superhero. He would go outside, and I thought he would gather sticks like on Carmen Sandiego—you had to put sticks together until the fire came. But when I got grown, I realized he went to Walmart and got something called a starter log. The starter log isn't even a real log. You light the paper on fire and you get instant fire. All you got to do is put other stuff that's not on fire around it. Because this log brought its own fire, anything that touched it caught fire.
That's why you can't go out with everybody, hang with everybody, chill with everybody, and play with everybody. Your favor is so contagious that whatever is connected to you gets some of your favor.
I need you to catch this today: I want my church to be fire starters. Whatever is cold in your family, it changes with you. Whatever is missing in your bloodline, it starts with you. I don't know what my last name meant before I got here, but I know it's going to mean something when I leave here.
Worship means to express God's worth. You cannot worship beyond your revelation of God's worth. We cannot assume that we all have the same revelation of God.
If I show you a painting and ask how much it's worth, you might say $25, $50, or $100. But somebody who appreciates fine art might say two million. You wanting to pay $500 for it doesn't mean it's worthless. It means that's what it means to you.
I want you to go back to the people in your life and discover if they are critics or appraisers. Some of you keep letting critics tell you your value. You are not qualified to tell me what I'm worth.
Judas became so angry with the woman with the alabaster box. He said, "Why are you going to break that expensive bottle of perfume and waste it on Jesus?" What that woman should have said back to him was, "He might not mean that much to you, but he's worth this to me."
Your friends call you and say, "Boy, you're a pastor, you're in five cities this week. You're waking up at 5 a.m., getting on buses, driving six hours to another city. Your church will understand if you don't come. You better get some rest." I say, "I know, but please hear me. Your church may not mean that to you, but when it comes to this right here, I don't care if I had to preach to y'all like this—you mean that much to me."
That's why your friends can't figure out why you stayed with them. They can't figure out why you're so nice to people who everybody else knows is a snake. It's because your heart can see the value in them.
If God really meant that much to you, your worship would hit different. Why do we have to spend 20 minutes of praise and worship telling you to lift your hands? "Pastor Mike, I'm just not that type of person." That's a lie.
When Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion come to town this summer, I'm going to buy a front row seat. Instead of looking at the stage, I'm going to turn and look at the crowd. Every member I see, I'm going to put your picture on the screen. Because when you're at the club—ah! When you're at the barbecue—ah! When you're with your frat—ah! When you're at a football game, "Roll Tide!" But when you get to church, Nick Saban didn't wake you up. Nicki Minaj didn't close you in your right mind. Meg Thee Stallion didn't heal your body. The last time I checked, it was nothing but Jesus.
I'm not going to holler at a stadium more than I holler at church. I'm going to give God a shout. What? He means that much to me.
Fellas, that doesn't mean I'm soft. I'm not a weak man because I worship. You mean to tell me I'm already battling anxiety? I'm already tripping over how I'm going to provide for my family? I'm already dealing with daddy issues and abandonment issues? I'm already fighting trying to find my own self-worth? I'm already mad because I don't make the money I want to make? So when I come to church, I got to be tough and hold all that in?
That's why you go to strip clubs. That's why you get drunk. That's why you get high. Because that ain't nothing but your subconscious looking for an outlet. When I could have walked in church and let it all out.
If David killed lions, tigers, Goliath, and bears and was known as a worshiper, that made him a real man, didn't it? I don't worship because of what God can do for me. I worship because he means that much to me. He means that much to me. He means that much to me. He means that much to me. Take God out of my life, I'm through, bro.
You don't think I want to wild out? You don't think every now and then I just want to go outside and be outside? You don't think I be looking at y'all stories and y'all turned up? If I go outside and look the wrong way, "What you doing out here, PMJ? Go back in the house, PMJ." You don't think I want to go on a vacation and be out there wilding and doing my thing? You don't think I have days where I don't even drink, but I just want to go to somebody's bar and say, "Hit me"?
But what holds me together? The glue that holds me together is God.
Put this in your phone, put this in your notes: Worship. Worship. Write it down. Draw a line under worship. Spell it: worth-ship. When you see worship, you should think worth-ship.
With that in mind, can I ask you a question? How much is he worth to you? Let me ask you a real question. How much money would you pay to guarantee you woke up in the morning? Yet he did it for free.
Most of our worship operates on a case-by-case basis. When God blesses you with $50, you say thank you. When He blesses you with $100, you say thank you. But when He gives you $20,000, suddenly your gratitude changes completely—you're overwhelmed, shouting,
and suddenly you worship with passion. Then when He gives you $5,000, you're overwhelmed with emotion. Your worship changes based on the size of the blessing.
But here's what I need you to understand: perpetual worship means your gratitude remains constant regardless of the amount. It's not about the dollar sign—it's about recognizing that every blessing comes from the same God.
Look at what happened with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The scripture doesn't say one of them spoke up individually. It says they all replied together. That collective response matters.
When they said, "We don't need to defend ourselves before you," they established something crucial. They then declared: "The God whom we serve will rescue us from your power." Notice that emphasis—"the God whom we serve" is critical because Nebuchadnezzar was trying to force them to worship a different god.
This wasn't about three boys versus a king. The real battle was god versus god—their God against Nebuchadnezzar's gods. They understood that standing on this principle was about something far bigger than themselves.
But then they made an even bolder statement: "My God is able to save us. But even if He doesn't, we will never serve your gods or worship this gold statue you have set up."
Do you hear the power in that? They weren't saying, "God will save us, so we're good." They were saying, "Even if God doesn't deliver us, we still won't bow down." That's standing on business. That's a faith that isn't conditional on the outcome.
They weren't scared. It was three of them against thousands, but they said, "It's whatever. We're with whatever comes."
Nebuchadnezzar became so furious his face started to distort. He was having a stroke because he couldn't understand how he had people who wouldn't live for him when God had people who would die for Him.
So he ordered his strongest men to bind them up and throw them into a furnace heated seven times hotter than normal. He wanted them to burn the moment the door opened.
Here's something most people miss: Why did he need the strongest men to tie them down if the men were willing to die? Because this was about worship. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't allow them to pray or worship God while being thrown into the fire. So he had them bound.
The flames were so hot that when the soldiers threw the three men into the furnace, the fire killed the soldiers themselves. Let that sink in. The very fire meant to kill the faithful killed the king's own men instead.
Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace and jumped up in amazement. He called to his advisors, "Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?"
"Yes, your majesty," they replied.
Then he said something extraordinary: "I see four men unbound walking around in the fire."
Four, not three. And unbound, not tied.
The fire that should have killed them actually freed them. They came out with their chains loosed. The scripture says they were "unbound." That word means to loosen, to free. The very instrument meant to destroy them became the instrument of their liberation.
Think about what was happening. They were:
That's what freedom looks like. You walk when you've got peace about something. Some of you have enough stress in your life to make you go crazy, but God is freeing you from it. You ought to be walking out of debt, walking out of pain, walking out of low self-esteem, walking out of pressure.
And then Nebuchadnezzar said, "The fourth one looks like a god."
That's a Christophany—a premature manifestation of Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus showed up early for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When God loves you enough, He shows up for you.
You might be sitting there complaining about still being in something, not realizing you would have been in it much longer had God not been in your life. God never develops you in what He can't deliver you out of. Sometimes when you pray, "God, get me out of this," He responds, "Why? It's not going to burn you—it's going to burn it."
Here's what struck me: they were known as "the three Hebrew boys," but when they came out of that fire, Nebuchadnezzar called them "men."
If you don't go through it, you don't get promoted. Some of your hell isn't even about you—it's God showing the people who tried you that they can't do nothing with you. Boys don't stand on business like that. Little girls don't stand on business like that. That's grown men and women right there. Babies in Christ don't pray like that. That's a mature Christian.
I want to be real with you about something. I messed up this week. I cussed, and I was mad. I had so much pressure on me that I lost it. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me so clearly and said, "That ain't the devil, Mike. That's your schedule."
I was waking up at 5 a.m., driving six hours to another city, doing interviews, TV appearances, sound checks, meet and greets, preaching, mixers, going to bed at midnight, and doing it all again. I wasn't doing my devotionals. I was praying quick prayers instead of just talking to God. I wasn't praying from a place of connection—I was praying for things.
That's when the devil doesn't need to beat you—he just gets you busy.
So the next morning, I set my alarm for 4:40 instead of 5:00. That extra 20 minutes I put my headphones on and just talked to God. That car ride—that first hour—I'm connecting with God.
Sometimes it's not the devil. Sometimes life is just life-ing. You have human moments. We all fall short of God's glory. The question is: how long are you going to stay down? It's time to get up.
I love you. God loves you. And God sees you exactly as you are and loves you anyway. When He made you, He saw your future and loved you just the way you are.
If you don't know Jesus, I'm not asking you to be perfect. I'm not asking you to be a preacher. Just make a decision today to walk with God. You can say it quietly: "Lord, come into my heart. Make me over again. I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that You were raised from the dead. All power is in Your hands, and right now I am saved."
That's it. That's how easy it is.
Stand on business. When you're right with God, you can stand that bold.
