TD Jakes - The Starving Prince
The seed versus the soil. And when you think about that is God not saying to us that we cannot be so focused on producing good seed, that we become oblivious to good soil. If you have good seed, if you are good seed, but you're working in bad soil, how can you have a harvest if the soil is bad? So the church is good seed. But if we are planning in an environment of bad soil, how can we have increase? It's not our government is not our society, it's not our world. The soil that we are planted in. Think about it.
So, if I am good seed, but I have bad soil, how can I reach the harvest? I want to speak to frustrations that builds up in us when we come Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and we hear great word challenging us to do great things and we have great vision and we have great talent, but we have poor opportunities, poor chances, poor communities, and poor soil. And I'm wondering how could I have nations in me and be a prince and be starving? Jacob is starving and he says I need my sons, 10 of them, to saddle up and go to Egypt. Because no matter how good I am as a man, if my soil is famine, I cannot prosper.
Oh, help me, Jesus. Go to Egypt because I heard there's corn over there, there's corn over there. I want you to go and buy some corn. I want you to go where the soil is good. My prayer, my prayer, my commitment is God put us in good soil. Don't let me waste my good seed in bad soil because I cannot have a great harvest. If I got bad soil. Put me in an environment, a country, a crowd, a family, a community, a support group, a base of friends that are good soil. I cannot prosper. If I'm surrounded by a famine it's the attitude all around me, I need good soil. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I am afraid too many times we have spent so much focus on teaching you to be good seed. That we haven't taught you the power of good soil.
And so when we come to soil is issues. The seed ignores the soil. We flicked the channel. That has nothing to do with me. We closed our eyes because we have been taught to be good seed, but we have not been taught to pay attention to soil and yet the Bible is clear, Jesus says, the sower went forth sowing seed and some fell by the wayside, some fell amongst rocks, some fell among stones. The whole text is about environment, look at you and look at your environment. Have you been positioned to flourish? Positioning has a lot to do with flourishing. To be in an environment in a family that supports you. My sister and I were talking the other day, I was telling her what an amazing person she is. That all of our lives together and and all the things that God did in my life not once in all of the years that I've known her and she was there when mama had me, have I ever known her to be jealous of me. Not once. Not ever.
She has always been my cheerleader and my greatest fan and she said, how could I be jealous of you? You're my brother. I said a lot of people have siblings that hate them, that are jealous of them, that hope they choke, and some of my development has to be that God planted me in an environment of people that supported me. My brother, my sister, my mother and my father, they all supported me. You can have good seed but if you've been in bad soil, people who hated you, environments that denied you, education that underserved you, communities that limited you, mentalities that poisoned you. Do you hear what I'm saying? If your soil wasn't right, it doesn't mean that you're not right, but if your soil wasn't right, it's gonna affect how your root and how you grow and you might grow a little bit.
The Bible says you can grow for a while, but then the thorns will choke you out or the rocks will not have enough soil for your roots to grow. Are you blaming God for something you ought to be blaming the soil for? Jacob told his sons, "Go where they have the corn". I want to tell you, touch three people say, Go get the corn, go get the corn, go get the corn, go get the corn. I want to be planted in something. Listen, I want to be planted in something that is bigger than me. You cannot take a peach seed and planted in a teaspoon of dirt and expected to grow. Though the teaspoon of the dirt is the same size as the peach seed. It will not grow. The seed will only grow when it is planted in something bigger than itself. And I want to know where are you planted this morning? Are you planted in something bigger than you? Or have you always been planted in teacups surrounded by little dirt?
Little resources, small minded people, narrow, limited places that never let you stretch to reach your capacity. Sometimes you gotta go where the corn is, where the table is spreading, and the feast of the Lord. Oh yes. Oh yes. Somebody gets what I'm saying this morning. Touch your neighbor and say, I need something bigger than me. You cannot feed me. You cannot feed me if you're not bigger than me. You cannot feed me if you are not bigger than me. I need something from the soil. I want to tell you that's your problem. You have invested into little people, little ideas, little companies, little communities, you have planted in the dry places that have restricted you. You got some roots, but when the sun came you withered and died. But I prophesy God is about to transplant you into a place.
I feel something in this place. The very reason you're in this church this morning is God wanted you to be a part of something bigger than yourself. What I'm trying to say is that it is not enough to work on self development if you don't work on soil development. Self development is not enough without soil development. Seed development is not enough without soil development. And God said this prince here is starving. He is a prince. They're starving. He is a prince that's starving. But God said I have a plan. I want to tell you right now. God has a plan for the problem in your life. Let me try them. For the problem in your life. God has a plan. Yeah, they understand. Let me try. For the problem that's in your life. God has a plan. Let me try y'all. For the problem that's in your life, God has... let me try... for the problem that's in your life, God has a plan. Are you watching for the problem that is in your life?
God has a plan. Every Prince on a shout. Every prince ought to leave every prince on the rock. Every prince on a holiday. Every Prince. Oh, I'm about to feel like preaching that. God has a plan. That means that the famine that you're in, whether it's a famine for finances, a famine for love, a famine for opportunities, a famine for recognition. Whatever famine you're in has not taken God by surprise. The famine may have shocked you, but it has not shocked God. God has a plan for every starving prince. Starving, starving, not just money. Some of you are starving for love, starving for companionship, starving for understanding. It's not just money. Starving for direction in ministry, starving to be around people who are not jealous of you, starving.
Let me preach until I find somebody. Are there any starving princes in this place? You've been in a famine for years but God is about to break you out of your famine. Say to somebody, tell them, God has a plan. Don't be weary in well doing, God has a plan. Don't you sit there and die because God has a plan. Don't you give up on your dream because God has a plan. Don't you fall in a rut because God has a plan. You don't have to sell your body because God has a plan. You don't have to compromise your values because God has a plan. I don't know who I'm preaching to. Touch three people tell them, God has a plan. He's got a plan. Don't lose your head. Don't lose your mind. Don't lose your life. God has a plan.
I'm gonna control who gets my time, my attention, my energy. I'm gonna control what I allowed to worry me and what I ignore because I believe in my seed and if I can clean up my soil, I'm gonna step into the new year ready for increase. But I got some weeding to do Dr. Grayson. I got some weeding to do. I got some folks, some leeches I gotta pull out from around me, and some tare I gotta uproot out of my life. Because if there's nothing wrong with my God and there's nothing wrong with my seed, the last thing to check is my soil. I gotta watch who I surround myself with because I'm afraid that the thorns might be choking out my destiny.
So I served notice to all of my thorny friends that hope I choke. The devil is a liar. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. If that's your testimony for the next three minutes give God crazy, ridiculous supernatural. I'm gonna close with this. Everybody's standing. I'm gonna close with this. What I want... if this message is successful, I want several things to happen. I want everything breathing in here to make sure you are registered properly to vote. You cannot change what you do not touch. I want you to pay attention in the midst of all of this mucky crazy stuff they're doing. I want you to look for the Joseph that has the best chance of reflecting your needs, your values and your concerns. I don't worry. I don't need a preaching president. I got the preaching down, I can do that by myself, but I need somebody who's gonna raise the economy, change the educational system, fix the criminal justice system, get the government back on track again.
Get us going to the next level and I do care about it because a good seed in bad soil will die in the famine and I will not die in the famine. If you get that, I got something over the next thing I want you to do is clean up your soil. Clean up your soil. Clean up your soil. Stop running with people who relate to your history and connect with people that relate to your destiny. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's easy to connect with people who relate to where you came from, but you need to connect with people who relate to where you're going. Get in a circle that's bigger than you. Hang around friends, you can't afford to be with. Get out of your class and out of your league. I don't care if you have to go as a driver. I don't care if you have to go washing cars.
Get in a bigger room because something is about to shift in your life and you will not be a starving prince. The heart of God bleeds when the people of God do not believe him. And when the Lord gave me this thought, he said, I want you to teach this thought and share it because my people are secretly blaming me. They have lost faith in me. He said it is not that they have a poor God. It is that they have allowed themselves to be planted in poor soil. Tell my people I would that they be transplanted into places bigger than them to do exploits beyond them. And soon God is going to shift the environment to make it possible for the righteous to flourish. We have survived, but it is time for us to succeed.
Wait a minute. I'm not just talking about money because life will put you in a position that money can't help you with. The moment you get too impressed with what you got, God will show you that what you got will not work up against what you're up against. God has put you in a place where only miracles can prevail. Do you hear what I'm saying? So when I start talking about succeeding, I'm not talking about zeroes on your check necessarily. For some people, you need a breakthrough in your finances. Other people need a breakthrough in their marriage. And it would be priceless to have peace in your house. Other people need your children back.
The devil has taken your children hostage. God wants you to get a breakthrough. Every Mother's Day, your heart starves for love. Every Father's Day, your heart starves for recognition. You watch television, see other people being recognized in love and then roll over in a situation that does not appreciate you. We're not all starving for dollars. Some of you are starving for opportunities, waiting for doors to open and ways to be made. This message is for you. You will not die a starving prince but you must shift how you function, how you operate. And you must move away from people who relate to your history and not your destiny. Finally, you have gotten yourselves in thorny situations. You have been planted legitimately. But the things around you are choking you. Come out of them thorns. Come out of them. Leave them alone. You're coming into a season.
Hold that music. We're coming into a season of harvest. Listen, listen, listen, listen on the right side, on the left, from the north, the south, the east, and the west. God is going to bring you into harvest and the harvest will come in the place that you have experienced the greatest famine. The thing that you needed the most God will give it back to you when the shaking stops. Jacob thought, listen, Jacob thought he was going to send his sons to Egypt to get corn. His expectation was to get corn. He never dreamed he'd get his son back. God said, I will give you things that you never even dreamed would be restored back to you. In fact, I only used the corn for bait to shift you into a place so that you can get the greater thing that you lost out of your life. You think you need corn, but your heart is in a famine for your son and I will restore unto you the years that the canker worm, the palmer worm, and the locust devoured.