TD Jakes — Water the Seed
It is God's will for you to have increase. Nobody teaches you without the hope of you having increase. It is not just learning the digesting of the information that is important. That's one element of it. But if you don't know what to do with the information, what good is it? I can tell you how to lose weight. You can understand how to lose weight. You can write books about losing weight, but if you don't do what I'm telling, it won't work. What good is it to know it, if you don't do it? So faith without works is... oh, come on, somebody. Are you with me?
So Paul now, he begins to approach this because he wants us to understand it is God that gives the increase. Hooray for those who plant and hooray for those who water, but it is God that gives the increase. But you must understand that to be planted is destiny concealed. To be planted is destiny concealed. To have increase is destiny revealed.
So when you plant a seed, you don't plant it as if the planting were the final destination. You plant it and you can't see it anymore, its destiny is concealed, in the hopes that ultimately it will become a stalk of corn or an apple tree or whatever it was you planted. And in between the destiny concealed and the destiny revealed is something we call watering. And I thought as dynamic as the text may be to grapple with the notion of being planted, and to grapple with the notion of having increase, seems totally irrelevant if we don't stop by the station of watering, because watering is the last step before increase.
It is the transition point between what is concealed and what is revealed. And without the benefit of watering, the destiny will die in the ground, never reaching its potential simply because it has never been watered. And I thought I would ask you this morning have you ever been watered? Now, humans understand this whole notion of agriculturalism. It's something that is a common theme with God from the very beginning of the book of Genesis, when God first creates every living thing.
The Bible says in Genesis 1 and 2 he created it with the seed inside of itself, and God really was saving himself from work, because had he not created the seed inside of every living thing, he would have had to come down every time we wanted more and say, "Let there be". But because he said, "Let there be," the first time and created destiny in the seed of every living thing, he never has to create again. We procreate, but continuing the creation is totally dependent on the discovery of seed. In fact, the Bible says in Genesis chapter 8, "While the earth remaineth, there will always be day and night, cold and heat, seedtime and harvest".
Jesus says, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it will bring forth much fruit". You see, this theme goes all through the Bible. Jesus says, "I am the vine; ye are the branches. My father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, he taketh away". All through the Bible, transcending ages, eras, and dispensations is this agricultural discussing.
Can I go a little bit deeper? Now, the word "agriculture" is an interesting term. It is a very powerful term. It is derived from two contributors: agra and cult. Agra and cult. "Agra" speaks to vegetation, and "cult," you know what a cult is? A cult in contemporary terms is any group of people who have some religious connotations that are not orthodox. We call 'em a cult, meaning they are not orthodox or ordinary or normal. So if you take a cult and put agra in front of it, what would it mean? It would mean that the living thing is not normal to the ground it's in. It didn't grow naturally. It had to be planted.
Hence you have the term "agriculture". It means I made it grow. It's not orthodox. It's not ordinary. It wouldn't have happened by itself. It wasn't scheduled to come up the ground like this. It normally wouldn't grow in this type of soil, but because I'm gonna force it to grow, that's agriculture. Good God, have mercy. Y'all preach so good. You already know where I'm going, because some of you weren't even supposed to grow in the soil and the environment you came from. You shoulda lost your mind. You shoulda had a nervous breakdown. You shoulda thrown in the towel, but because God said, "Live!" Glory to God.
Tell your neighbor, "He forced it to happen". It didn't fit the motif of my background. It didn't fit the motif of my community. It didn't fit the motif of my family, but was all the odds stacked against it. God said, "Live". And out of the dry ground of abuse, turmoil, pain, drugs, confusion, when God said, "Live," he forced it to happen. You cannot embrace what I'm about to teach if you don't understand that you have been planted. You didn't grow wild. You didn't just happen. You weren't just an afterthought. You didn't just come to be. You were planted. The sperm cell that created you out-swam all of the millions of other cells before you had a Bible. Before you had a Bible, before you had a hymn book, you were already in a fight, and that cell out-swam all the rest because you have been planted.
Well, I wanna make the distinction about being planted, because the act of planting can be confusing to the student who has not watched, because planting looks no different from burial. In order to do either one of them, you've gotta do some digging. And once you dig down in the ground, both of them are concealed, but one of them has a destiny and the other one does not. You bury the dead to get rid of the body, but you plant a seed so that it can go through a transformation of coming back up greater than it was when it went down.
Oh good God of mercy. That's so good, I'm gonna come over here and say it again. When you plant a seed, you're not burying it to get rid of it. You're planting it so that it can go through a metamorphosis and come back up better than it was when it went down. How many people in this room have come up better than you were? I'm better. I'm better than I was when I went down. It was good for me that I've been afflicted, for had I not been afflicted, I would have never known the glory of God. I'm better for it. I didn't like it, but I'm better for it. I couldn't see down there, but I'm better for it. You say, "I was planted in a dark place, where my sight didn't work for me, but I'm better for it".
Every time you go through something dark, and you can't see your way out, remember you've been planted, not been buried. And when you come up... I'm coming up. Brother right here on the come-up. I said brother right here on the come-up. Is there any sisters in here on the come-up? Are there any families in here on the come-up? Are there any preachers in here on the come-up? You've already been through hell, already been through high water, already been planted, already been in a dark place. But just 'cause I'm in a dark place, don't expect me to stay in a dark place. Brother right here on the...
Write yourself a note, "I have not been buried. I have been planted". I may be underground, but I'm not buried in this mess. I'm planted in it. I'm planted in it. And if I'm planted in it, expect me to come back up again. And when I come back up, you won't recognize me, because I'm gonna be transformed by the experiences that I have endured. Good God of mercy.
One man plants, another man waters. God gives increase. What? There's another way? There's another way: you water us. In the event that there is no one available to water you, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him". I wondered why I cried so long. I wondered why so many nights I laid in the bed in the fetal position, with tears running across the bridge of my nose, and nobody was there to wipe my tears away, and the tears just fell down my face. I cried so long, that my pores sucked up my tears.
I didn't understand that God was using my tears to water my dreams. And the more I cried, the more he watered my dreams. That's why he said, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed". When you are precious seed, you cry more than other people do. When you are precious seed, you go through things that other people don't go through. When you are precious seed, you have to rock yourself to sleep. When you are precious seed, you have to cry without comfort. You have to wail without relief.
And I thought if I preached this this morning, it would make sense to you why you went through periods that you cried so long, that you cried out of tears, and you thought your tears were in vain So just because you didn't have a mama to do it, just because you didn't have a daddy to do it, just because your teachers didn't do it, if you ever cried all night long, you watered your own seed. I want everybody who's cried all night to just clap your hands and thank God for water. [congregation applauding] "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed".
Now, see, some people don't want people who are bearing precious seed. They can't deal with destiny concealed. They only want destiny revealed. This is why some women only chase married men. They want the finished product, but they don't want the process. What they don't understand is there's something about the watering process that makes it legitimately yours. Until you've raised the acorn up to be an oak tree, you can't appreciate how tall it stands, until you can remember how low it started, but some people wanna always step into something that is always finished because they don't understand the power of the process.
It's good to be afflicted. It's good to have to worry how I'm gonna make it. It's good to have to scuffle your way up, because after you've fought your way up, you don't have to pay nobody back but... Shake hands and say, "I don't owe nobody but the Lord". Watch this, sit down. I'm not through. Get that glass of water and bring it down here. Just pour a little bit over my hands. That's enough. That's what Elishah was there to do for Elijah, was pour water on his hands. When the Bible said he poured water on his hands, it means that he was serving him, doing menial tasks. He was pouring water on the hands of the man of God, but what he didn't know is that while he was pouring water on the man of God's hands, the man of God was pouring water back on him.
Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. That's what the Bible meant when it said, "Give, and it shall be given to you again; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over". There's no way you can serve me and me not serve you. The more you give to me, the more I give back to you, pressed down, shaken together. Watch this.
Now, what we're doing here, we're comparing waters. He's giving me the water he has, and I'm giving him the water that I have. This is what happened at the well. Jesus says, "You give me your water, and I'll give you mine". That's what happens in a praise service. When praises go up, blessings come down. You'll never get blessed until you learn how to open your mouth and give God the praise. And the more you praise him, the more he'll open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. Let's praise him for what he's already done. Let's praise him for who he is in our lives. Let's praise him because he watered the seed.
Now, I wanna show you something. You don't reap with the same tool you sow with. When you are in the sowing stage, you carry different tools to the garden than you do when you're in the reaping stage. In the sowing stage you're gonna need a shovel and a hoe 'cause you gotta break up that hard ground. You've gotta deal with those rows, you've gotta pull those weeds, and you gotta plant. In the harvest stage, you change your tools.
So since I'm watering you, I need to tell you that in order for God to give you the increase, you must change your tools. The tools for sowing is weeping. Look at the text, "He that goeth forth and weepeth". It's not enough to go forth. You've gotta weep, too. "He that goeth forth and weepeth," that weeping part is a very important part of sowing, "bearing precious seed, shall doubtless," doubtless. I gotta stop there. Doubtless.
You can't have no doubt. Let me say it correct 'cause the professor's here. You can't have any doubt. Now you can't have no doubt. I'm not talking about other people believe for ya. You gotta believe this for yourself. You gotta believe, "I can do this. I was created for this. I was called for this. I was curved for this. I was shaped for this. I was meant for this". You gotta be doubtless, or you can't harvest. If you've got doubt, you'll never harvest. You'll see it, but you'll never enter into it. You'll die like Moses, looking at a Promised Land you can't have.
If you aren't doubtless, you can possess it. So if you're going to go in the harvest, somebody shout, "I believe it". It don't matter to me that you don't believe it, because your unbelief does not make the Word of God of no effect in my life. God's not gonna give it to me because you believe it. God's gonna give it to me because I believe it. And even though everybody around me, oh, does not believe it, if God be for me, who can be against me? So stop trying to get other people to believe in your dream. It is not their faith.
Wait a minute. I can't just have the faith. "Shall doubtless come again with," oh, "with rejoicing". Now, God said you might show it in tears, but you can only reap it with joy. Now I see why the devil tries to make me miserable, because as long as I'm miserable, I cannot reap the best that God has for me. So if I'm gonna go in the harvest, I gotta reach up and snatch me some joy. Have you got some faith? Make some noise. If you've got some joy, give God a praise. If you've got some faith, make a noise. If you've got some joy, give God a praise. Let everything that have breath... Shake your neighbor by the hand and say, "Neighbor, I have an announcement. I cried my last tear yesterday. I'm gonna rejoice and be glad".