TD Jakes - Distinctively Similar
Today, I'm focusing on being "Distinctively Similar". Say that with me, "distinctively similar". It's an oxymoron, distinctive, to be distinctive is to be unique, and then, to be similar is to be like, and yet I want to talk about being "Distinctively Similar". God, in my text, is speaking to Joshua, who is a protege or a mentee of Moses, and God says to him something that is absolutely amazing. He says, "As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you". That's some shouting stuff right there, because God did some amazing stuff through Moses, God did some real fancy, showy, shiny stuff with Moses. I'd have kinda like to been Moses, just at the Red Sea part.
You know, just throw your staff out in front of your congregation, and everybody looking at you and the wind is blowing, and all of a sudden the Red Sea blows back. You know, and your hair is blowing in the, oh, I don't have hair, but your beard is twitching in the wind and you got your staff up in the air, and God does all of this public, showing, fancy stuff. And especially considering the fact that Moses's congregation was kind of mad with him right then, because he had called them out of the familiar into the unfamiliar. And whenever you challenge people to come from the familiar to the unfamiliar, they're not nice, they're not always nice about that.
"Why did you bring us out here?" and all that stuff, and Moses says, "Just shut up," and goes like this, you know? And the wind blows and the water parts, and it's really cool. Yeah, I like that part, yeah. Moses got to go down to the president of Egypt, and walk in and do his stuff in front of the president of Egypt, and eat up the serpents of the magicians. It was bad, it was awesome. And God says to Joshua, "As I was with Moses, so shall I be with thee". That's some good, that's good news. And yet Joshua never ever smote one rock that brought water. Joshua came down to the Jordan River and threw out his rod, and the Jordan River just said, "Say what"? He had to go all the way down into the water before he saw change. His predecessor never even got his feet wet.
But when Joshua got ready to fulfill his destiny, with his mighty charge in his hand, what worked for Moses didn't work for Joshua, Joshua had to step down into... can you imagine your whole congregation looking at you and you throw out your rod? You know, "Hey, he's with me like he was with Moses," and just throw out your rod. "He is, no-no, he is now. Wait a minute, I gotta prime it a little bit, let me step down in this water, it's gonna part in a minute, y'all. Come on, come on, don't be scared, it's gonna part in a minute". Uh, uh-huh, we-we-we're gonna get out of debt in a minute, don't be scared, just stay with me. We-we're gonna own our own house in a minute, don't be scared, just stay-stay with me a minute. We-we're gonna raise our family, we're gonna come out of this in just a minute. And the water's all the way up to my knees and I'm still going.
And then, all of a sudden they got a rumble and the water started moving back out of their way. He said, "Oh, it does work. Come on," distinctively similar. "As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you," I will be with you the same way I was with Moses, but you are not Moses. You are not who inspired you, you are not who inspired you, you are not who trained you, God is going to be with you as he was with Moses, but you are not Moses. So you have to discover your own uniqueness to accomplish your purpose, or you'll step in the water and it doesn't move, and you'll say, "It didn't work for me". And God is still with you, but God and you don't form the same coalition that God and Moses did, so you have to be willing to be distinctively similar. "As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you," but I will not do with you what I did with Moses.
Can you recognize God being with you to the same degree but creating a unique experience? God does not do encores, everything God does is a designer's original. So, while you want to be mentored and you want to be developed by people, you don't want to imitate them, because God says, "I will be with you like I was with them, but you gotta be yourself, because if I wanted Moses, I could have kept Moses. You're a new generation and a new expression of an old idea. If I wanted the old idea, I could have kept the old idea, I want you to refresh it, I want you to hit the reset button, but don't expect the same old pop-ups that I did with your daddy, because I've been there and I've done that," and God is finished with that.
What do we keep and what do we let go of? We keep the promise of his presence, but you have to be willing to let go of what you had in mind because God didn't promise to do what you had in mind. In fact, God said, "I will do a new thing in you," for the former things are passed away. "'Moses my servant is dead'; the former things I did with him are dead. When I made Moses, I made Moses; when I called Moses, I called Moses; when I used Moses, I used Moses. Stop being a copycat, be who I created you to be". Touch somebody, say, "Be who God created you to be". The promise is not a duplicate copy, it is a unique promise built on an old presence. The only thing that will be the same is, "As I was with... So shall I be".
I will be with you like I was with the one who inspired you, but you will not be them. The promise is, "I will be with you". Throughout the chapter, over and over again God says, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you". "I will not leave you, nor forsake you". "I will not leave you," means you won't be out there by yourself. In English, when we read, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you," it's a little bit confusing to us because, if you think when you read, leave and forsake to us is the same thing. I'm leaving you, I forsook you, it's the same thing. So why did God say, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you"? Because, when you study it out, to leave somebody is to remove your presence, but to forsake them is to emotionally abandon them.
You can forsake somebody you didn't leave, that's a class all by itself. You can emotionally abandon someone that you still come home to. Somebody wanted to shout but they can't because they're sitting right beside the forsaking. God says, "When I get ready to get something done, I don't leave it, and I don't forsake it. I don't leave it, I don't withdraw my presence from it, nor do I withdraw my emotions from it. My physical presence there is followed up by my emotional attention there". So when God wants to see something to succeed, he doesn't leave it, nor forsake it. And he said, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you". I will not emotionally abandon you just because I'm disappointed in you.
Well, you was just singing, "Because He first loved me". What does that mean? He loved me wrong, he loved me wrong and taught me right, he loved me wrong and taught me right. Right there, that's the most convicting thing, because how many times do you love people who have wronged you? Or do you have a tendency, like I do, that if you hurt me, I emotionally withdraw? You can't cure anything you forsake. You have emotionally withdrawn yourself from people, places, and things, and you're waiting on it to get better. It can't get better if you forsake it. And it's hard, now, I'm not preaching something that's easy, I'm not teaching something that I've always mastered, it is hard not to forsake something that doesn't feel safe.
I am distinctively similar. "As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you," but don't play Moses. Joshua, do you. Glory to God. And if you do you, I'll do me. Glory to God. And together, we will walk through life. And the promise I give you, no matter where your feet trods, no matter where you walk or where you go, up hills or down valleys, abased or abound, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you". So the promise centers around his presence, that's the promise: My presence will be with you every step of the way, my presence is your promise. Not a car, not a mansion, not $1 million, my presence is your promise, but my presence does not abort the process.
So we're talking presence, and now we're talking process. My presence is with you, but you still gotta go through the wilderness; my presence is with you, but I still have to take you through process; my presence is with you, but I still have to train you, I still have to develop you, I have to whittle down all the things off of you that are not relevant to your destiny. I put you in the process to prune you, I put you in the process to prune you, I put you in the process so that you could go through what was necessary to be tough enough to stand where I'm taking you. Oh, you didn't hear what I'm saying. The process makes you tough, the process makes you tenacious, the process prunes your heart, it purges your sensibilities, it burns out all the things, the wrong motives, that you had when you started.
God said, "I'm gonna take you through the wilderness, till everything that is not of faith dies in the wilderness, until you come forth as pure gold". The wilderness is designed to kill the unbelief in you, to purge your motives, to prepare your heart. My God, glory to God. Tell somebody, tell them, "I'm in the process". I am in the process, I am in the process, but his presence is in the process. Lord, they just threw me in the fiery furnace. He said, "I'm in here with you. And when you pass through the waters, I'll be there with you; and when you go through the flood, I'll be there with you". It will not overtake you, God's presence is with you in the process. God's presence is with you while you're doing your scales, rehearsing, waiting on your recital.
Most people don't know that, they only recognize God's presence in the recital and not in the rehearsal. I'm with you in the slow, mundane, routine, ordinary days. You're gonna have more ordinary days than you do spectacular days. And God said, "I'm gonna be with you". Playing scales is just boring. Somebody get on the keyboard and play me some scales. You know, I played them, my mother taught me to play the scales, and she would be in there cooking and I had to sit on the piano and play scales. My sister plays the piano, she was a classical pianist, and I grew up listening to her playing scales, and scales sound nothing like recitals. Play me a scale. Mhm. Yeah, we'll be selling those albums in the lobby.
Anybody want one? Do I see a show of hands? Nobody wants process. I'm sorry brother, but we didn't sell not one CD today, not one thing, because process is an accumulation of boring days, of things that don't move and things that are not changing, and things that don't seem to be getting better. Process is routine. Play it again, it's routine, it's boring. Let's go to work and come home, lay out what you're gonna wear tomorrow. You gotta get up and go to work again. See you, honey, be back this evening, bye, take care. Kids, the lunch money is on the kitchen table. Did you do your homework? Don't lie to me, I'll call Ms. Bailey and ask her myself. Don't forget to pay the light bill, it's passed due, Richie. Yeah, I paid it on my phone. It's process, it's going around and around and around; preaching, and the church is not growing; teaching Bible class, and they didn't even come.
I spent 10 years begging people to come hear me do what I'm doing right now, and if I had 20 people come it was a good service. Devil'd say, "Quit, you can't preach, you can't teach, you're never gonna be anything, nobody's gonna never hear you". But I kept on reciting and I kept on working, and I kept on going, and playing, and playing my chords, and playing my chords, and I got a little stronger, and I got a little stronger, and I got a little stronger, and I got a little stronger, and I got a little stronger, and I got a little stronger. All of a sudden, it started working, and it started happening, and it started coming to pass, and people started coming in, into the church, into the auditoriums, into the sanctuary, into the auditoriums, into the colosseums, into the Georgia Dome, into the Philips Arena.
If you keep on doing what God told you to do, if you stick to it, and you don't leave it, and you don't forsake it, God will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don't have room enough to receive. Can the church give God praise and glory for process? Touch 10 people and tell them, "I'm in the process," I'm in the process, I'm in the process. I'm in the process of parenting, I'm in the process of being a wife, I'm in the process of being a mother, I'm in the process of being a husband, I'm in the process of law school, I'm in the process of starting a business, I'm in the process of building a career, I'm in the process. I'm in the process, but don't count me out and don't play me cheap just because I'm in the process, something is gonna happen in my life.
Can I get a good praise going in here? My story is not your story, but it's gonna be similar; my end is not your end, but it's going to be similar; my goal is not your goal, but the truths are going to be similar; I won't end up where you end up, but what it takes to get there is still going to be similar. If I had to suffer, you have to suffer; if I have to crawl, you have to crawl; If I have to wait, you have to wait. But I want to tell you something, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning".
Tell somebody, say, "It's coming," it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. What you say, Isaiah? "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint".
Look at somebody, say, "Wait for it". You can't be a great leader until you've been a little warrior. You can't be a great leader until you've been a little warrior. God said if you faint in the process, you will never fulfill your destiny. Suppose Nelson Mandela would have given up, and said, "I'm in jail, this is it, I'm through. I meant well, woe is me. They didn't stand by me, they didn't fight for me, nobody stood up for me, I'm wrongly accused. I guess this is it". Don't mistake delays for destiny.