TD Jakes — I Did Not Say It Would Be Easy
Hello, everybody. I'm excited to have this opportunity to share the Word of the Lord with you. The message is, "I Did Not Say it Would be Easy."
Everybody sees you being blessed, and they think it's going to be easy. It is never easy. God says, I didn't say it would be easy, but it is worthwhile. So, if you're in the throes* and the crux of a challenging situation, and you're wondering, "Is God in it?" Just because there's trouble, it doesn't mean that God is not there. He said, "I am a very present help in the time of trouble."
Owning land is a very important thing to do. I like to own stuff, I do. I got control issues. See, if I own it, you can't evict me, it's mine. Somebody holler, "It's mine." When you know it's yours, you're not uncomfortable. There's a certain settling that comes into your spirit because it's yours. It's my land. And I grew up understanding that, and I believe that, and I appreciate it.
I'm gon' tell you why. They're making money every day, running it off the press every day. We might not have it, but it's out there. The value of the dollar fluctuates up and down, comes and goes, be there, not be there. Money's coming off the press all the time. Depending on the state of the country, and the world, and nation--international economic issues, what is in your wallet will fluctuate all the time. They are not making any land. There will be no more land. So, when you have land, you have something that will not fluctuate as it relates to being saturated in the marketplace.
Land is important. So, God says to the children of Israel, "I have given you the land to possess, something that is a limited resource. I'm not giving you something that's unlimited, that somebody can produce so much of that the value decreases, I have given you the land to possess it."
In a society that the children of Israel were living in, the land was very important. They didn't have paper money like we have today. Largely, they bartered, either through the things that grew on the land, or that grazed on the land. They either grew it, or it grazed. They either grew it, or it grazed. They either grew it, or it grazed. It either came out of the land, or it grazed on the land. It either came out of the land, or it grazed on the land. If it didn't come out of the land, and it didn't graze on the land, you had nothing to barter with.
So, no matter how many seeds you had, if you had no soil, the seeds meant nothing at all. What good is seed without soil? Seed will never reach its potential without soil. What good is it to have sheep if you have no place to graze? Come on, talk to me, somebody. See, some of us have seed but no soil.
Some of us are sheep but we have no place to graze. And eventually, I don't care how strong the sheep is, if there's not a grazing place, it will become a dying place. I do not want to be homeless, destitute. Even when I travel internationally, have a good time, stay in a hotel, eat food, do whatever I went to the country to do, there is a certain angst I have in another country.