Mike Signorelli - Pastor Calls Out His Church From Stage!
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Summary:
Pastor Mike Signorelli shares a leadership training message on advancing in deliverance ministry and church growth, emphasizing the progression from hospital (healing seekers) to family (discipleship) to army (territory-taking warriors). He warns against creating spiritual orphans by allowing people to treat church like a «drug fix» without commitment. Outlining «Ten Enemies of Progress,» he urges leaders to overcome self-pity, fear, counterfeit vision, compromise, shame, negativity, comfort, impatience, inconsistency, and selfishness to achieve true forward momentum in kingdom work.
From Hospital to Family to Army
Whenever you’re in Deliverance Ministry, you’ve got to take your church from a hospital to a family and from a family to an army. If it’s only a hospital, you’re going to actually create spiritual orphans, and they’re going to use you like a drug dealer. I need to go get my fix. So I tell this to my own church. I’m like, Brooklyn, our Brooklyn campus started growing like crazy, and then I wouldn’t see people every week; I’d see them every four weeks, every six weeks. I’m like, man, we’ve got a 500-person campus. If they all showed up every week…
So finally, I just started rebuking them. I’m like, I’m a spiritual father, and you’re using me like a drug dealer. I told this to the whole church, and I’m like, you come here to get your fix, and then you go back to your lifestyle, and then every three or four weeks, you come back and say, okay, let’s go back to V1 Church and get another hit, you know, another feel-good. And I’m like, this is not discipleship because faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit.
Have you ever been stuck in the snow? Do you guys get bad snow here? You know, and you’re flooring it, and all you’re doing is burning gas; the RPMs are all the way up, but you’re not going anywhere. Doesn’t it feel like that sometimes in your leadership, in your church, in your marriage? Retrograde motion—that’s what it’s called. So these are the ten enemies of progress.
So here’s how you get out of the mud. Here’s how you get out of the snow. Here’s how you actually take territory.
Enemy 1: Self-Pity
The first enemy is self-pity. So I know I’m going to offend you guys all the way to the next level right now. So, um, there are pharmaceutical narcotics, and then there are non-pharmaceutical narcotics. What is a narcotic? It’s extremely addictive, right? So, like, people in your church are addicted to pills, addicted to food, whatever. But there’s a non-pharmaceutical narcotic that is really addictive, and you know what it is? Self-pity. Self-pity is a non-pharmaceutical addictive thing. I mean, the people of your church, maybe you as a leader— I won’t look while I say this—maybe you’re like, Evansville is the problem; I know it. If I lived in New York City, I’d see a revival like Mike. And then all the New York City pastors are like, New York City is the problem. I feel sorry for myself; I don’t have a parking spot. You know, whatever that thing is.
So self-pity is extremely addictive, and if you’re not careful, the people in your circle will all have a prescription to it, and then you’ll all be codependent, and then nobody will tell you, hey, Evansville is not the problem; it’s actually you. Sorry! You know, because when I showed up to New York City, the average size church was 30 people, and so everybody told me, like, «New York’s your church.» And all the pastors said, «Our church will be your church. You know, just be okay if it gets to 50; it’d be okay.» And it was like, well, what I realized was that they were addicted to self-pity.
They were basically forming a— they called it a pastor’s group, but it was a wound-looking club. My wife, Julie—man, I wish she was here. I got to come back with my wife. You guys would love her. But Julie banned me from going to pastors’ groups in New York City for a whole year because she’s like, «Mike, you come back so discouraged, » and I know the real you is faith-filled; the real you is bold, but all these pastors with their self-pity, you know?
I want—here’s the thing: I want to be the Joshua and Caleb that says we can, we will, we shall. I want to be the two that says it is possible to win all of Evansville! You know, I want to be the— and so I just found, in New York City, I found all the people. The Bible says that Caleb had a different spirit, so I just found all the people with a different spirit. You know, okay, so I want to read this quote by John Gardner: «Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics. It’s addictive, and it gives momentary pleasure, and it separates the victim from reality.»
So that’s what self-pity does: it separates you from reality. And again, it actually gives you pleasure to feel sorry for yourself; that’s why it’s addicting, because you’re just like, nobody gets me, nobody understands me; my life is this. And the more you get in that rut, it’s very addicting, and you actually get pleasure off of it. Isn’t that bad? So that’s an enemy of your progress. So stop feeling sorry for yourself.
Here’s another one. This is from Ms. Miracle. And you know, because I got to bring it home. It’s all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again; just be sure to flush when you’re finished. Yeah, yeah! So listen, if your spouse is in self-pity, just tell them, hey, it’s okay to sit on that pot right now. But make sure you flush when you’re done, you know? It’s how you tell them because if you tell them, «Don’t feel sorry for yourself, » they’re going to be like, «You’re telling me not to give myself pleasure!» See? So you just got to say it in the right way. Tell them, «Make sure you flush that after you’re done, ” to pick up the pace.
But the first one’s the biggest one.
Enemy 2: Fear
The second one is fear. We’ve heard a million stories about sermons and stories about fear, but I want to say this—this is a Helen Keller quote: „Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.“ So it’s like fear tells you that you’re going to avoid danger, but walking out your front door is dangerous. Breathing is dangerous! You know what I’m saying?
You could do everything you can to avoid danger, and you’re still going to be caught the same as if you went head-first into danger. So I would just encourage you—if you needed permission, be bold! I was telling—where’s Evan? Oh, there he is. You know, I was telling Evan, he’s a young guy, and he’s like, I think you’re—what, a young Millennial? Is that the generation you’re in? And I just told him, I was like, „Evan, don’t play it safe! Don’t waste your time playing it safe, man! Be bold!“ You know, so I just want to encourage you.
And, you know what I’ve learned at V1—this is the leadership side of me. So my church did grow, and then we ended up filling a service, then we launched a second service, and then I remember we had an overflow auditorium. Now we are totally over capacity, and at each season, I had to face fear again because now I would say, well, man, look, the finances are coming in, and we have two services and an overflow. I could just ride this out for the rest of my life, you know?
But then when I think about the fact that there are millions of people that still don’t know Jesus and that are going to hell, even my biggest version of my church wasn’t big enough because people were still going to hell! So I remember I said, okay, we’re going to plant our second campus, and I had to face fear. And you know what was funny? I thought the church was going to be happy, and they were mad at me. They said, „What? Your Pastor Mike? No! Where are you going to be?“ You know, because we want you all to ourselves on tap, you know? So I had to challenge them. And then when we launched our second campus, it started filling up with people, and they were getting saved and delivered and set free.
And then all of a sudden, those people said, „Pastor Mike, I’m sorry for being mad at you!“ You know? And I said, „Good, because we’re going to plant another campus!“ And they said— and then, yeah, guess what? Those same people said, „No, because we have it all worked out. Half the time you’re here, the other half, you’re on video. We got our little flow now, and then we all come together at that one venue every couple of months.“ And they made our new level of comfort. And then the Lord said, „Face fear! Blow it up again! Do another one!“ And then when I said, „I’m going to plant my first national campus, and we’re going to go across country to Indiana, ” those same people said, „I don’t know; I think I kind of trust you because it keeps working, but I don’t want to.“
And then their orphan wounds started flaring up, and they said, „What if this is—what the New Yorkers said—they said, ‘Oh, we knew it was too good to be true! Him and his family, they’re going to move to Indiana because it’s easier there, and they’re going to plant this campus, and then they’re going to forget about us!“ And you know what I realized? Being a leader is just like being a parent. Because when you have your first kid, then you have your second kid, and your second kid’s like, „Which one do you love more?“ Then your third kid’s like, „What now? Which one do you love more?“ And there’s those sibling rivalries.
So if you let the people dictate the vision, it’s like letting the kids run the house. Then it’s like, „No! I’m the dad!“ Like, you know? It’s like, I’ve got to lead you! Your fear can’t be my fear, that’s what I’m telling you! Your fear can’t be my fear! That was Moses' leadership. Moses let the kids lead Israel, but Joshua said, „No! I’m going to lead Israel like I’ve got the Father’s heart. Let’s go do this, you know? Me and Uncle Caleb. That’s kind of what that was!“ And let’s kill Aiken in the camp, you know? Let’s be ruthless.
So I feel like for me, maybe I’m here to tell you, „Don’t let the kids lead that run the house. Just lead! Let the vision lead!“ Here’s another one by Henry Ford: „One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find out that he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.“ Well, that was like you, Chrissy. You know, Chrissy walked up to somebody yesterday. I told the team, I said, „You guys are going to come up under my mantle tomorrow, and the same grace that’s on me, it’ll flow through you.“
And then Chrissy walks up to—was it a woman? And she just touched her, and the woman dropped to the crowd, face-first. And she was like, „I didn’t know I could do that!“ But, you know, I say that because you have to face that fear. You know, like what about the first time you ever cast a demon out of somebody? How afraid were you? You know, like, am I doing this right? And the Holy Spirit’s like, „Don’t worry about that! Just do it!“ You know, you’re like, „Well…“ You know that feeling?
And then, have you ever thought you were bombing, and then all of a sudden you come off the stage and someone’s like, „Man, that just changed my life forever!“ And you’re like, „Really? Because I didn’t even want to hear it.“ You know what I’m talking about?
Psalm chapter 27:1 says, „The Lord is my light, my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?“ And sometimes when you’re in church leadership, you think the people tithing are the stronghold of your life. It’s like, I don’t run into that! See, like, a stronghold is the place you run into when you’re under siege to find safety, so I don’t run into the arms of my tithers. That’s not my stronghold. Matter of fact, I might do or say something that causes them to leave the church, and our giving decreases, but our mission increases because they shouldn’t have been a part of the vision! Like, you can’t vote with your time; your tithe is not a vote. It’s not a designation—like, I serve the Lord. I don’t—you know what I’m saying?
Enemy 3: Counterfeit Vision
So sometimes, like this leads me to my next one because I’m already flown. Number three: counterfeit vision is an enemy of progress. Counterfeit vision is an enemy of progress. I love this: a company of wolves is better than a company of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Okay? A company of wolves is better than a company of wolves in sheep’s clothing! That’s why I like hanging out with sinners more than with people who call themselves saints, because at least they’re honest. Well, that’s why I’m really an evangelist at heart, you know?
Like, I have to pray all the time, „Lord, help me have a heart for saved people.“ You know, because they know everything! Saved people know how to pastor my church better than me, even though they’ve never been a lead pastor. Saved people know how we should be doing small groups! Saved people know how to lead worship, even if they don’t play instruments! You know, saved people, they know everything! And so I find myself in a company of sinners. Now I’m evangelizing the sinners to lead them to Christ, but a company of wolves is better than a company of wolves in sheep’s clothing, because at least a wolf is like, „Yeah, I want to kill you!“ But a wolf in sheep’s clothing will act like they’re a sheep while they’re gossiping about you at their dinner table.
It’s like, you know, like, come on now, I’m getting mean; I gotta stop. Here’s the question: Where did the vision come from? Did it come from family pressure? Did it come from the grumbling and complaining of the people? Your greatest assignments happen when you step outside of counterfeit vision into the true vision.
So the whole story of David and Goliath is David stepping away from the vision that he’s only a shepherd to becoming a giant slayer. And so it’s like counterfeit vision is something we all gotta—I think for like V1 Church, a lot of times people have tried to impose on me what they want my church to be. And now sometimes they’re right because information can come from the bottom up, too! You guys know that, right? So sometimes people are saying stuff and they delivered the information incorrectly, but you gotta chew the meat and spit the bone, you know what I mean? Like, we’ve been very slow in the implementation of relaunching our youth group. My wife and I have been saying for months, like, boot up the youth group again at our locations.
So at the time when all of our families started complaining—like, the way they talked about it was wrong, but what they were saying was right! So I gotta be clear about that, you know? So sometimes you chew the meat and spit the bones, but when I talk about counterfeit vision, I mean, are you letting their tongue be the small rudder that steers the ship? Are you letting your declarations and your tongue, coming in alignment with God’s words, steer the ship? You know, and it’s a hard thing.
Enemy 4: Compromise
So number four is compromise. See how they flow? This is a C.S. Lewis quote. You ever read that book, „The Screwtape Letters“? This is a good one: „Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one. It’s the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. Your affectionate, Screwtape.“ You know the story of „Screwtape Letters“? It’s like a demon basically writing a letter to another demon, and he’s telling them, like, „Hey, if you want to take people to hell, the easiest way to do it is this: the safe, gradual road. It’s this gentle slope; it’s soft underfoot.“
There are no quick turns; there are no milestones; there are no signposts. And so as when you’re trying to make progress, you have to get into the hearts of your people a value for change. A value for change where they’re okay with change. They embrace change. They’re okay with you because, as a leader, you gotta be able to make—okay, I did the reference of the ‘90s-era Bulls, and I’ve been studying them lately because it’s so prophetic. You know Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live.
When you study Michael Jordan’s game, at a certain point in the NBA, everybody realized like this guy is the all-time greatest, so we’re going to have to start guarding him two, three, four guys! So Michael Jordan had to adapt. Really, how he started to adapt is he would make his way towards the basket, and if you watch him, he would take the ball, and he would change directions two and three times mid-flight and then get the ball in. But he didn’t play like that in college! So what happened was he was adapting to the conditions changing.
So leaders, if you want to make progress, you have to adapt as the conditions are changing. And you’ve got to change directions multiple times. And don’t listen to the people who are getting mad at you about changing things. Matter of fact, those are not your people. Sometimes you have to prune back your church so that it can really grow a lot bigger, and you gotta be okay with that, you know?
Now Jesus brought people in on signs, miracles, wonders, deliverance, healing, and then when he deepened the relationship with him, he said, „Guess what, drink my blood and eat my flesh.“ And they’re like, „Oh, that’s gross! That’s weird!“ And then a whole bunch of people left him. He was just pruning it back because it was getting ready to explode again bigger! Acts chapter 2! But he had to prune it back hard.
So, after everybody left, he turned to his disciples and he’s like, „Hey, are you guys going to leave too?“ And they said, „Where else are we going to go?“ So sometimes, you gotta prune it back so hard that you turn to your team and you’re like, „Are you guys going to leave too?“ And find out who’s with you and be so confident about that because that’s going to cause the harvest. Where’s Josh? He has a great teaching you guys will have to have him zoom in to do this one about pruning.
And you taught me this, Josh, about how when you actually prune and you cut back, you know, on the vine, you actually cut back significantly more than you think you should! Isn’t that right? Like, the pruning goes back so—so for me, like V1’s growth has not gone like this. But that’s what everyone thinks happened, is that we went from 18 people to 7,000 people like, and it just went like this. The truth is it went like this. That’s really how we grew. And this is like we came in and I offended you out the door, you know? Or I discipled you, offended you, and then discipled you, offended you, and then discipled you, and then offended you.
And then what happened is, even in those intervals of time, people have left, gone to other churches, totally been rebuked by the Spirit of God, and then come back and literally been like, „I am so sorry!“ Which is—I’ll give you a phrase real quick about number five. So, um, whenever someone leaves our church, we always say the same thing. We always say, „When they exit, if they give us a conversation, whether that’s with me or any one of our leaders, I always say, 'You know, we bless you on your way out, and we’re going to leave the back porch light on.'“
And the reason why we say that phrase, „We’re going to leave the back porch light on, ” is it’s kind of our way of saying, Julie and I are Mom and Dad. This is Mom and Dad’s house. Even if you want to come back in and steal all of our food from our pantry and go grocery shopping at Mom and Dad’s house and then go back to your house, because you know people will do that, you know? You do a deliverance night and you haven’t seen somebody in like six months and they’ve been cheating on you with the other pastor! You know you!
But you have to have the parent’s heart of saying, oh yeah, come over here. I see you grocery shopping in my—you know I know what you’re doing but you’re okay with that because you’re confident in who you are. But what happened is, like, during the pandemic, where you were racist, you were—you know, you weren’t a social justice warrior, you know how you couldn’t get it right? Like, we lost a ton of people, then the Lord would just whoop their butt and they would come back and be like, „I’m so sorry; you’re not racist!“ And I’m like, „I know!“
You know where they were like, „I was urging a black in a white church together in the midst of the pandemic. I know I’m not racist.“ Um, but you didn’t know that, um because the whole narrative was crazy. But what—so our growth looked like this! It still does to this day.
Enemy 5: Shame
Or what happens is they think they know what they want out of a church, and then they go to another one and they get it, and they’re like, this is what I wanted. You just gotta be okay!
So that’s compromise: like, don’t compromise temporarily, and then let’s pick up the pace because I don’t want to blow through the last five. Shame! So shame will inhibit your progress. Shame tells you that you cannot have your future because of your past. So shame is an enemy to progress.
Shame sometimes is shame over a leadership decision you made. The wrong choice! You did something wrong! You just have to say, hey, I’m Peter who tried to cut the guy’s ear off, but I’m still going to be Peter at Pentecost! I’m Peter who compromised with Judaism and leaned too far outside of grace, and Paul’s counterbalancing me back, when I’m still an apostle. See how Peter just kept screwing up? He probably smoked Marlboros, too! I always think of Peter like that. You know, Peter was just kind of always, you know? Because even Paul had beef with him in the end. It’s like, ah, you kind of don’t understand the gospel. You’re going back to Jewish tradition.
Like there’s Peter just kind of never really got it, but it didn’t revoke his title! You know what I mean? So sometimes I’m just Peter where it’s like, I don’t know, man; I’m a bumper car! You know what I mean? I’m hitting every lane on my way to this thing, and I don’t know what I’m doing. People are like, this guy didn’t do it right! Like, yeah, but not doing it right is better than not doing it at all! Yeah, like, I feel like you gotta—I’m trying to like gross the grace flow in this house. I’m gonna be like, you don’t know what you’re doing! I’m like, yeah, but I’m doing it!
There’s more grace! You can’t steer a parked car! You can’t steer a parked car! You know, you can’t ride a bike until you start pedaling that sucker! You know what I mean? So people are like, your prophecy is wrong. Yeah, but I’m prophesying! Paul said, I desire that you would all prophesy; you’d all speak in tongues. Like I’m doing it! You know? Okay, anyways, I get passionate because I really don’t know what I’m doing, but there’s so much grace! It’s easier for the Lord to make this simple and wise! If you just open your mouth, He’ll fill it. If you start walking in that direction, He’ll give you—because here’s the thing: these people are desperate; they’re dying; they’re lost!
And the Lord’s like, „Just give me a body to use for my will. Just give me your body, Mike!“ And I’m like, „Okay! Here you go, Lord! This Italian body, my hairy Italian body; here you go, Lord! If you can use anything…“ So that’s it! So shame, just break that shame off of you.
Enemy 6: Negativity
Number six: negativity is number six. I have an acronym for haters. You know because we all got haters. This is the acronym: having anger towards everyone reaching success. So haters: having anger towards everyone reaching success. So, you know, whatever the kingdom is childlike, you know, just stay childlike.
Number seven—am I going too fast? I just want to get to the Q&A! So having anger towards everyone reaching success. People are just so… what it is is, like, leadership is so hard that you doubt yourself! Like sometimes, I have vulnerability. This is my struggle. Um, what do I call it? Like a vulnerability recoil. So sometimes I’ve had nights, like last night, I’ll share so many vulnerable things, and I’ll wake up in the morning like I had a drunken binge and I’m like, why did I say all that? You know, about my own life and about, you know, like, I have that void because I’m really extremely introverted, so the Lord gave me a supernatural boldness!
That’s what you saw me operate under. It’s a good—it’s a grace gift! So I’m the oldest of five kids in my family, and four of them are introverts or extroverts, and I’m the introvert. So in church my whole life, I always was in the back hiding; I was the least likely to do all this stuff you see me doing. So it, like, violates my body, if that makes sense—my… and I still get nervous; I sweat. It’s like a weird thing! You know? I just—I don’t know; the Lord just… I don’t know when it’s going to go away! Maybe never, but I’m the least likely to do it.
And matter of fact, like the least talented! You know, um, like you guys know my brother Sam; he out-preaches me in 15 minutes. You know he’s amazing, but he also doesn’t serve the Lord anymore. So God will do more with a yes, you know? And it’s like, I’m praying for him to come back! But my point in saying that is, you know, um, you just gotta keep saying yes because you’re going to have haters! Because these people—it’s like, you’re vulnerable, and people don’t know how hard it is for you to preach. How hard it is for you to minister to that hardened heart! How hard it is— they don’t know how you second and third guess yourself! They don’t know how low your self-esteem is!
But then they think that they see you getting wins, and then when they think they see you getting wins, it triggers all their insecurities! And now you have a cycle! So that you have to break the cycle of insecurity by celebrating them! So that’s the way you do it! You don’t hate on haters because now you’re fighting a spirit with the same spirit! That’s how Jesus said, how do you cast out Beelzebub? By the power of Beelzebub? So if they’re hating on you, you can’t hate on a hater because now it’s Beelzebub versus Beelzebub!
So, uh, so this is—so one of the things I’ve learned is I just celebrate leaders all the time! All the time! Because, um, it’s like—and you somebody’s—that’s called being the Redeemer! So Jesus said while you are yet a sinner, I put my love out on the line. That was—he was redeeming; he was saying you’re a sinner; you’re mocking God!
Enemy 7: Comfort
Proverbs chapter 3 says „trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.“ So number seven is comfort. Comfort is an enemy of progress! I want to talk about comfort just briefly, and we’re almost done! You know the greatest deterrent to future success is past success. I’ll just let that sink in— the greatest deterrent to future success is past success!
So that’s comfort! Comfort is past success! That’s the way I want you to think about it: past successes. So like, we did it like this, and it worked; just keep doing it over and over and over and over again. That is not—that’s a formula, and you can end up—the first time God did it was a revival, but the 50th time you replicated it’s a ritual.
Can I just say that again? Like, the first time it happened, it was revival, but the 50th time we replicated it, we turned it into ritual, which was religion! So like even last night, you guys could see my mortal brain, my little dog-sized brain rattling around in my skull trying to chase the Holy Spirit because He was out doing stuff, and I’m like, „What’s He doing?“ I can’t replicate what I did last week or the month before! Just because it worked then doesn’t mean there’s going to be grace on it to work again!
So you got to stay agile. So like, last night, like when we know when I was going down to pray for everybody at the end, and that woman was right there—I prayed for a woman right here, and then all of a sudden, I was like, that was for someone else! And then all of a sudden, I looked out and I just prophesied clear across the crowd to that other woman!
So she told me this, and she was like, „I had two of my administrators literally say that I’m crazy because of something she did!“ So all of a sudden now, I’m standing here in the crowd; I point across and I said, „And they’ve called you crazy, and the last will be first and the first will be last!“ And I’m speaking this stuff!
She was like, „You have no idea what you were saying!“ And she was like, „My school counselor was next to me slapping me like, yes!“ So it’s like we’re—it’s like Rich Mullins! You guys remember Rich Mullins? Rich Mullins said, like, God is a—it’s like a wild man! And you gotta jump on His back and just hold on for dear life! You know what I mean?
Like, you know what I’m saying? Like, yeah, I just—and that’s kind of what sometimes it’s like! He said, „My burden is light; my yoke is easy!“
See, the Proverbs says, „Those who refresh others will, they themselves be refreshed.“ So I feel like I just took a two-week vacation! I woke up this way! I know that sounds crazy to you, but I am so in charge right now. I’m so full! Because those who refresh others will, they themselves be refreshed! So when people are like, „I’m burnt out, ” it’s like, we’re doing something wrong! Because when you do the real ministry, it’s like, get them out in the wild; you know, get them out in the wild!
Like, it’s like I’m a lion! Because my dad—if you—this is what nobody thinks! We all say He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but if that’s your dad, you’re a lion! You’re a lioness! So get up out of your cage called religion! Go out and get your fangs full of blood and get your killer instinct activated! You know what I mean?
Like, when you keep getting fed through that cage for so long, you lose your killer instinct! Don’t feed me through this cage! Get me out there, man! I want blood all over my snout! You know?
Like, you know, because when you go and do the real work of the kingdom, you’ll come back celebrating the demons they listen! And then as a pastor, you’re not rebuking people for not showing up on Sundays or not tithing or not serving! You’re rebuking them like Jesus said, „Hey! Don’t get excited about that! Just get excited your names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life!“
Well, if people are not coming back to you celebrating demons responding to their name, you’re not sending them! So it’s like you just—you got to be wild! You know? Like let people just trust the Holy Spirit! I don’t trust people; I trust the Holy Spirit in the people because everyone’s like, „Man, you trust people so much!“ I’m like, „No, I don’t! The Holy Spirit in them!“
Enemy 8: Impatience
Patience! Um, have you ever read that book „Heinz Feet in High Places“? I love that book! You have it at home? I’ve been waiting to read it, man! There’s your confirmation! „Heinz Feet in High Places“! It’s fiction, but it’s like a big allegory; it’s so beautiful! You know it’s about this very—it’s about this girl. Her name is Much Afraid, and that’s her name: Much Afraid.
And she has these two teachers that take her on a journey. One is named Pain, and the other’s name is Suffering. And Pain and Suffering take Much Afraid on this journey, and she learns how to get Heinz feet in high places! And so here’s one of the quotes: „When you wear the weed of impatience in your heart instead of the flower of acceptance with joy, you will always find your enemies get an advantage over you.“
Oh, isn’t that true? Let me say it again: in your heart, if you wear that weed called impatience, instead of the flower called acceptance with joy, you will always find your enemies gain an advantage over you.
So here’s the thing: you’ve got to, like, take the soil of Evansville, Indiana, in your hands and let that soil run through your hands and say, „God, out of the entire earth you called me to take up my post here! Like in this soil! Like my blood cries out for this soil! Like the enemy will not have this territory!“
When I go, man, I prayer walk New York City and there’s not any soil there. So I have to, you know, but man, when I prayer walk New York City, I say, „God, out of the entire world, you’ve given me this post! And I’m going to put my flag of the kingdom down! You know? And this is my—this is my neighborhood!“
As a matter of fact, I was challenging another pastor in Brooklyn a couple days ago, and I told him, „I just go around praying for all these people. That’s the number one way. My number one vehicle of evangelism is how can I pray for you?“ And Muslims have let me pray for them. And now in my neighborhood, I’m Father Mike! They’re all Catholics!
And so they all say when they see me walking in my neighborhood, they say, „Father Mike! Father Mike!“ And I don’t even correct them. I said, „I don’t have my collar with me today; you caught me on a run!“ But I just pray for them, and, but the thing is, I’m just pastoring them! And they may not go to my church, but I think for impatience sometimes we don’t have acceptance with joy.
And it’s something about like, when you go to some—we have two pastors from Jamaica and they took us to Jamaica. Wouldn’t you guys love to go on, like, a Jamaica trip? Yeah, because we just did two mass deliverances in Jamaica!
And, oh, my wife’s calling me! Hey, Jules! You’re on speaker right now in front of 40 people, 30 people! She’s good? I’m doing a leadership training. Do you want to drop some fire real quick? I’ll give you 10 seconds!
Oh! Drop fire! Um, stay humble, stay teachable! Like literally just do whatever your leader asks you to do with a happy heart, and you will go so far in life! Stay humble, stay teachable! Take directions from your leader! Do it with a happy heart!
How do you stay patient? How do you accept your season? How do you accept your geography? You know what I mean? How do you stay patient? How do you stay in that posture?
So a lot of times, people want to be like, well, when I’m there, or when I get there, or when it’s my thing, or when it’s you know—when somebody else is in charge, like, I’ll be this leader or this kind of servant. But God—the Holy Spirit is there now! So work on getting to know the person of the Holy Spirit, His personality, and work on pleasing Him.
And being like you preached on Sunday—hosting the Holy Spirit is the only thing that matters in life. It really is! And so when you have pain, you just say, „How can I host the Holy Spirit in my illness right now? How can I host the Holy Spirit in my financial situation right now?“
Can I still be—will I still be faithful to tithe? Will I still be faithful to be a good steward? Will I still honor my leaders even when I don’t like them? Um, that’s how you accept a season. Wow, come on! What a divine appointment!
Now were you calling me for any other reason than just…I was just calling to tell you I love you! Love you too! All right, bye! Man, get you a wife who quotes your sermons! By the way, every time she does that I’m like, that’s so hot! When she was like, „Oh man, on Sunday when you said this, ” I’m like, „Tell me more!“
We worked very hard to build a culture of honor in our home and in our church. We’re like, what we say on Sunday matters, you know? But yeah, man, when she said the Holy Spirit’s not in the next thing, the Holy Spirit’s in the right now! That was what I was trying to explain to the younger guys!
See that old church lady who was in the lobby? There’s something about that previous two generations ago. They didn’t have cell phones; they were very existential; they were in the moment! And we’ve lost that. Like, I can tell when I’m talking to young people; their minds are all over the place! You know? And it’s like, there’s something about that. When she was in that line and she said, um, she started getting lit up by the Holy Spirit, and then she started laughing, and then Michelle prayed for her, and then she’s like—Michelle’s like, „Yeah! Receive more joy!“
And she’s like, she basically said, „Yeah, um, that’s my gift; I have joy.“ She’s laughing. But, you know, there’s something that we’ve lost! She didn’t want to go home! She didn’t want to be on her phone! There’s something about that. The Holy Spirit’s in the right now, you know? And I think for me, like, when I’m ministering, what’s the Lord doing right now in the moment?
So that’s a good—that kind of flowed off of the impatience thing. He’s not in the next thing; He’s in the right now. Sometimes while you’re planning, people are dying and going to hell. Come on!
Yeah, Julie says it nice. We’re like, uh, you know, spicy and sweet.
Enemy 9: Inconsistency
Um, okay, number nine is inconsistency, but I don’t want to discourage you with this. Um, Charles Spurgeon said, „How often have you and I helped to keep sinners easy in their sin by our inconsistency? Had had we been true Christians, the wicked man would often have been pricked to the heart and his conscience would have convicted him.“
You know what I’ve learned? What’s happening right now? I want to encourage the men; there’s a movement stirring among men all around the world right now! And I want to tell you what it is: men want to be challenged! They want to be challenged! I’ve been preaching hard! I know I preach with encouragement, but just unadulterated, like hard, and like, just this is the word of the Lord!
This is, you know, last night when I said, „Who’s a real man of God, who believes in righteousness?“ And those guys raised their hand: „Who’s going to not hurt these women like other men hurt them?“ Like, there’s something in a man that it starts to inflate them! Like, I watched it—like, guys in this auditorium started standing up straighter! Like, because men love to do dangerous things, and the real reason why the church lost men is because we made it too easy! We lowered the bar!
So all you’ve got to do is raise the bar, and they’ll come! They want to be challenged! And that’s really, you know, like even—I don’t know where Hutton Brian—Hutton, did he have to go back home? Thank you! You know, but I saw him just crawling over this floor; that guy—what’s he do in our church? Play the drums? Uh, and keyboard, right? But is that all he does?
Well, he’s got six kids! Yeah, but no, but I’m just saying that! I’m just saying like that’s—all he’s got is a keyboard player; he’s a drummer, but when you challenge him and say, „Um, there are some really crazy demon-infested people; we’re going to do deliverance—do you want to get down in there?“ and he just rolled up his sleeves, and I saw him. But that’s our keyboard player! You know?
So when I elevated it, he was just—he was like, „Yeah! I’ll drive five hours!“ Think about that! I’ll drive five hours, and then that’s ten hours of driving in two days! So I challenged him, and he rose up to that! He’s like, men want that! So I would just say for inconsistency, some—it’s this is my vision or my, uh, my wisdom statement: Consistency is clear vision reverse engineered.
So consistency is clear vision reversed engineered. So it’s like, the more you give the clear vision, „This is why we’re doing it; this is what we’re doing, ” you’ll see consistency.
Um, how many of you guys from RT? You guys are all on the Dream Team! John, you lead the huddles, which I think you do the best at all of our campuses! I really do! As a matter of fact, it’s like I’d love for you to come to New York to show them how to do some huddles! You know?
Yeah! No, one of the things is—we do huddles before every service, and what we’re doing is giving clear vision! Like, guys, here’s why we are doing this, and then we tell testimonies! You know, we say what happened; remember last week? This happened!
And the more you pour that clear vision—you know this? Remember last week this happened? So we do a huddle. Matter of fact, sometimes you see visitors who come early walk in on our huddle, and they feel like they’re getting in on something secret! You know? Like, all the leaders are in a circle talking, and then they get sucked in, and we kind of let them listen, you know? And they hear the stories, but that clear vision is like, man, I want to sleep in; I want to oversleep; I want to miss! But, like, I’ve heard too many reasons why I need to be consistent.
Enemy 10: Selfishness
Last one is selfishness, and um, it’s the enemy of me—that’s the enemy of progress! It’s just selfishness! Um, and there’s this great quote by Stephen Kendrick: „Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait that we hate in other people, but we justify in ourselves.“
Yeah, almost every—man, I could get these notes to you guys; maybe that’d be cool, okay? See how the Lord put this teaching in me, and I got to give props to Evan because I’m always moving on to the next thing, and I love writing and partnering with the Holy Spirit, and I love giving teachings.
But Evan was like, „I really feel like you’re supposed to download the ten enemies of progress!“ And I was like, „No, I’ve been doing that so much!“ And he’s like, „That’s your theme for this season!“ So thanks for the rebuke! But, anyways, I’ll get these notes to you. I’ll give them to you, and then you can—you know? You triggered me; I thought you manifested just now, so I’m like, I gotta calm down! You’re like, „All right!“
I was like, oh, here we go! I just wanted to have another coffee!
Yeah! At Art Search, you’re like, yeah! Well, just the only thing I’ll say about selfishness is, when you sometimes have an acronym called PAIN: Pay Attention Inside Now! P-A-I-N. And so like pain means pay attention inside now!
So like pain is actually a response to something that needs to be addressed! That’s actually a mechanism in your body, so pain is a good thing! Like if you didn’t feel pain, you wouldn’t be getting data to make an adjustment, right?
So pain is a data point! It’s what you do in response to the data that determines whether or not you’re making progress! And so, you know, selfishness is the wrong response to pain! But I love this quote: „Selfishness is a trait that we hate in other people; we hate when other people are selfish, but we always justify in ourselves!“
You know, it’s like, man, I can’t believe that pastor cheated on his wife, and you just got done watching porn! You know why you watched porn! You know why you did it; it’s always a reason! Right? But to them, it’s like inexcusable! So that’s the thing about selfishness!
When you can kind of look at it and say, I can’t justify it anymore, now I just lost 40 pounds in the last nine months, and you know, which I know you’re going to be proud! I know you’re proud of me! Praise Jesus!
Now, when I was growing up, the bigger the pastor was, the more anointed they were, y’all remember that? It was like everybody’s goal was to get big! He’s like, you ain’t anointed until you’re big! Those skinny preachers who had no anointing!
So I had to break that lie off! But you know leadership is hard! So somehow or another we hit fastest-growing churches in America category, and then we hit number one last year overall in the Enjoy System, which is a John Maxwell organization! And when you’re hitting these metrics and these milestones and you’re doing all these things, you’re breaking these things down.
The last one for me was selfishness! And I started taking inventory like, „Lord, how am I selfish? Is there something I’m not seeing?“ And I felt like the Lord was like, „Not taking care of your body is selfish, because your people need you!“
Like not, you know, like not taking care of your body because that—and I’m so 40 pounds for me on my frame, you know! You can go back and look at the videos! My friend Vlad, who pastors a great church called Hungry Gen in Washington, we did an e-course called The Uno offendable Heart, and he keeps releasing all these promos on it! I’m like huge in these promos!
So every time I see it, I’m like, whoa! God is good! But let me tell you how—why I was that big! So every single time that I had a hard day, I would reward myself with food! And more specifically, McDonald’s!
And when I would go to McDonald’s, I would get a large McFlurry, you know? And, man, for me food was so—I’d be like, „Man, I had a hard day! Like I’ve been grinding! I’ve been working all day! Like I need this! I need this! I need this!“
And then all of a sudden, like five years later, I’m like, every day is hard! Now! You know what I’m saying?! Like I always have a reason to get a large McFlurry!
Um, and so I didn’t realize that! And so, um, I had to go on this journey of getting free in my physical body! So for me, you know, that was a part of that that needed to be broken off of me!
And this is Proverbs 11:24, and this is the scripture I quoted, „The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.“
And so, like, I have to-so for me, it’s like if I’m truly doing the Lord’s work, my territory will expand, my health will increase, and you’ll see that! Like I pray that you prosper even as your soul prospers! You know?
And so for me, that — that was just my newest journey! Now, if you know my story, over a decade ago, it was alcoholism! But it’s funny how you can get free from alcoholism and then trade that addiction for food! And now you’re pastoring and you’re like, „But, you know, I’m free!“ And the Lord’s like, „No, you’re not, son!“ You know, it’s just now you have a now-now you know what I’m saying! You just have a different addiction!