TD Jakes - Redefining My Hood
Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Bishop T.D. Jakes challenges believers to redefine their "hood"—enlarging their understanding of neighbor beyond race, religion, class, or familiarity—so that God can send unexpected help and use them to bring healing to the wounded, emphasizing that love requires self-sacrifice and openness to those outside our comfort zones.
Fallen Among Thieves
All of us have gone through something that caused us shame. Have you ever lost something that kept you up at night? A job, a car, or a relationship, or a person, and you wondered, "Is it my inadequacies that have caused me to have this loss"?
Are you so busy crying over what was lost that you do not thank God for what is left? What you did made you hide from God, and God is looking for you.
Even if you have made a bad choice, God said I am still looking for you. Come before me naked, and I want to get rid of your shame.
Sometimes when you are under attack, your praise becomes a weapon. There is power in your shout. There is deliverance in your shout. There is healing in your shout.
Sometimes you have got to get right up in the devil's face and go to dancing to let him know that you took a lot of stuff, but you have not took everything. I still got my shout.
He fell amongst thieves—people who catch you vulnerable. If I was up on my feet, I could handle you, but I fell, and now you are able to take advantage of me in a way that you could not take advantage of me if I was on my feet.
You met me when my defense was down; you met me when I lost my house; you met me after a divorce; you met me when I was in a state of depression. You fell amongst thieves.
You know you are around a thief when they strip you. This is a sign of the thief. They strip you; they take from you; they take, they take from you, and they hurt you, and they leave you.
Three things: they take from you, they hurt you, and they leave you half dead.
Left Half Dead
My old folks used to say, "I like to died." It does not mean that you like dying, but sometimes you can hurt so bad that death sounds good compared to the pain of the way you were hurt.
Left him half dead. But the point of the story that Jesus is telling him is not about the thief; it is really not about stripping him and wounding him and leaving him half dead—that is not the point.
The point is, at this low estate, how does this man define his hood?
If he was in Jerusalem, it is safe to assume that he is an Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem—the city of peace—to worship.
And here comes somebody who is near him and thinks like him, and he is a priest. He is a priest; a priest represents God to man and represents man to God.
And the priest came over where he was, saw him, and decided helping him was too expensive and walked away—left him bleeding.
All the while he is waiting, he is bleeding; he is not just bleeding at the point of contact; he is bleeding after the contact.
Have you ever been through something that left you bleeding, and you could not stop your own bleeding?
It is like the woman that was bent over for 18 years; the Bible says she "could in no wise lift up herself."
There are some things that you get into that you cannot get yourself out of. Yeah, I am going to say that again.
There are some things that you get into that you cannot get you out. If this man could have fixed himself, he would have got up and left.
It is not like it is fun to lay on the Jericho Road; it is hot in the day; it is cold in the night, and he is bleeding, and he is half dead, and he was going somewhere.
I was on my way somewhere when you met me; I was going to be something when you met me.
You have stripped me; you hurt me; you left me. If I could fix this hole, I would fix it.
Disappointment from Expected Help
Now, here comes my homie—my high priest homie—my "Yo, what is up" homie—my speak-the-same-language homie. Buenos dias, hombre—my dude, bro—looked at him and walked away.
Wait a minute; shh-shh—I hear steps coming. Steps is hope. "Better days are coming, by and by." It is the steps coming.
It is the Levite—another one of my homies. He looks at me; I know I am about to get up now.
Here come disappointment mixed with my death—left me too.
I do not know which is worse—the half dead or the disappointment or hearing steps coming.
Have you ever heard steps coming and your heart got happy, and they stopped and walked away?
Now, here comes the last step, and the last step comes from the most unlikely person.
See, when we preach about the Good Samaritan, we call the Good Samaritan like he is Jesus.
You know? And there are some ways that you could use him that he does channel some of the ministries of Jesus, but it is important that you understand that the reason Jesus in his story makes the Good Samaritan the Good Samaritan is that Jews hated Samaritans.
You remember the woman at the well? She said, "You know you all do not have no dealings with us; what did you come down here talking to me? You are a Jew; you all do not deal with us."
Will you receive help outside your hood? That is what the story is really all about.
It is Jesus trying to enlarge the lawyer's understanding of neighbor-hood.
Jesus is saying that sometimes God will use somebody who does not live near you and does not think like you to raise you up.
Redefining Your Hood
And I have learned that people who cannot enlarge their hood—oh, you like to say it this way: enlarge my territory; that is the way church people like to say it. "Enlarge my territory; enlarge my territory."
What that really means is enlarge my hood.
When you ask God to enlarge your territory, you are asking God to enlarge your understanding of neighbor-hood.
You notice when my brother got up and got to talking how funny he sounds—the brother from South Africa.
We like to say he sounds funny because the reality is we sound funny to him.
And he has a hard time understanding me; he has got to listen real good because I talk funny to him. Okay?
And yet we are doing business together; we have to listen at each other a little longer, but we get it done.
And we would have missed a huge blessing if I did not see him in my neighbor-hood.
Who is your neighbor?
Maybe your life is not moving the way it ought to be moving because your hood is too small.
Stay with me; stay with me; stay with me.
Your hood may be too small for your vision.
Jesus is teaching a very profound point; he is breaking through a natural propensity to have a biased expectation of where your help is going to come from.
Suppose—suppose God sends you to another part of town and get the word you need.
Suppose God anoints somebody with the word that does not look like you.
Suppose they do not sing like you; suppose they do not shout like you; suppose they do not keep your traditions.
These young preachers now—they do not dress like this; they got on blue jeans and t-shirts; they sagging and talking about Jesus.
I do not care if you got on pajamas; if you got a word from God, I want to hear from you.
When I got to Dallas, a certain group of folks stayed on the north side; certain folk stayed on the south side.
What are you all talking about? You crazy? There is a man in the city, and he is healing—and if I want a touch from God, I will go north, south, east, west.
I do not care which way it is; just show me where Jesus is; I want the glory of the Lord in my life.
You cannot get blessed outside the hood if you cannot love outside the hood.
See, your blessing is going to come through your loving.
See, Jesus is teaching about love.
The Self-Sacrificing Love of the Samaritan
Suppose the man would have been on the Jericho Road talking about, "Not from no Samaritan."
God used a Samaritan to stop the bleeding.
Let me tell you what the Samaritan did—this is how you know it is God—the Samaritan got down off his beast.
When people will be self-sacrificing, God sent them.
As long as you are more important to you than anybody else, you are not the one.
This man got down; he did not have nothing to do with this; he was not in the fight; he did not know the guy.
He got down off his beast; he poured in the oil and the wine; he did not charge him; he did not say, "If you got some money, I can hook you up."
He just saw a need, and he filled it.
See, I am describing love because if you have never seen it, you do not know what it looks like.
Love is self-sacrificing; love is caring; love gives—it does not take; it gives.
He poured in the oil and the wine; he bandaged him up.
This is what trips me out—he took the guy who was down and put him on the beast.
Now picture this: the guy who rode in walked out.
Come on here; you better help me preach.
He came down so that this guy could come up.
I am trying to show you what it looks like so you will recognize it when you see it.
Anytime somebody is willing to go out of their way and be inconvenienced so you can be convenienced—that is a sign.
I prophesy to you this Sunday morning—things are about to switch in your life.
You were the tail, but you are about to be the head; God is about to switch some things in your life.
If you receive it, give God a praise.
You have been loyal to people you should have left alone—loyal, loyal, loyal—standing right there, and they do not come down; they do not come over; they do not pour in.
And you just standing there—standing there, standing there.
Shake that dust off of your feet.
Watch this—your hood.
We talked about race; we talked about gender; I want to talk about economics.
Some people only feel comfortable around people of the same income, or they speak the same slang, or they eat the same food, or they share the same weakness—that is your hood; that is your hood.
And what God sent me here to talk to you about was redefining your hood.
The moment you redefine your hood, your help is coming.
The Innkeeper and the Promise
Can I go just a little bit further?
This man came where he was; he did not just look at him; he came where he was.
It is a picture of Jesus who came where we were and came down from glory and humbled himself so that we might be exalted.
Paul said it this way: "He became poor that through his poverty we might be made rich."
Here I am riding on a beast not even mine.
God said, "I am going to give you houses that you did not build; I am going to give you vineyards that you did not even grow."
I do not know who I am prophesying to, but I am prophesying to somebody.
You are going to be riding on something you did not even pay for; God is getting ready to open up a door for you so wide.
So they brought the brother down—I am almost finished—touch your neighbor and say, "Redefine your hood."
Them people are stifling you; they are holding you back—them people; your little running partners are stifling you—their little stinking thinking and their narrow-minded and small attitudes are holding you back.
And they put him on the beast, and they brought him down to the innkeeper—somebody else he did not know.
The guy paid for his room; paid for his care, and said, "Take care of him; I brought him as far as I could bring him."
Now I am going to relay—do not fall in love with what God did yesterday; he had to be willing to move from the beast to the bed.
Some of you all will not find the bed because you will not move from the beast.
Oh, I am preaching this morning.
I am going to show you one more thing.
He says to the innkeeper—he says, "Take care of him," and he gave him—I believe it was two denarii—and he said, "If I owe you anything, I will pay you when I return."
The assumption is—watch this; watch this—it is very important; it is very important for somebody.
I know I did not give you enough for what I called you to do.
I know you are going to go through a period that you are spending out of your stuff trying to help somebody else.
I know you are going to be giving courage when you need to be encouraged.
I already know that you are going to be operating in the red.
I know you feel tired because you are giving more than what you expected.
I know that you are out of budget and out of energy and out of emotion.
I know that you are suffering from compassion fatigue—you helped everybody.
And I know you have been wondering, "When is somebody going to help me?"
But he said, "I give you this promise: when I come again, I am going to pay you everything you lost—everything you gave; everything you did."
The Harvest After the Seed
I have gone through periods that I gave so much I thought I would die.
I have been up praying with people and encouraging people when I needed somebody to be up praying and encouraging me.
I have been lifting people when it was not convenient—been there for them; been there for them; been there for them; been there for them.
When I needed them, they looked the other way.
But the Lord told me something the other day, and it blessed my life.
He said, "Everything that I ever did for you, you thought it was your harvest, but you were wrong; it was your seed."
He said, "Now, I am getting ready to bring you into your harvest."
Look—I do not know who I am preaching to today, but you have spent out; you have spent out.
I am not just talking about money; I am talking about compassion; I am talking about care; I am talking about love; I am talking about energy; I am talking about strength.
And you are saying, "God, I do not have enough," but he said, "When I come back, I am going to make it up to you; I am going to bring you into the harvest that so exceeds what you thought was a harvest that you are going to look back at what you used to praise me for and you are going to recognize that that was just a seed on what I was about to do in your life."
Whoever needs that, lift your hands up in the air right now.
The word of the Lord has been spoken unto you today.
You must be intentional. Your hood is too small; a change is coming in your heart.
Two things you have to do to live: number one, "Love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind"—that is number one.
Number two is why he told the story: you must "love your neighbor as you love yourself"—and then you shall live.
God would not command it if you could not do it; that would not be fair.
"Lawyer, stop making excuses."
God is getting ready to increase your capacity.