TD Jakes - Hurdles to Wholeness
These porches are a shelter from the elements. Five porches. There are shade from the Palestinian heat. It gives them some comfort while they wait for the miracle moment to happen, which only happens annually, once a year. Up until then, they're sustained in these porticoes that protect them from the elements. There were five porches. Somebody, say five porches. See, the first hurdle you have to overcome is the hurdle of a haven. The hurdle of a haven is where you have become comfortable on a porch. The porches that we build can become a deterrent to being better. Ooh, it got quiet, Jesus. It can become a deterrent to getting better because we always make excuses for you. We give permission to you.
Thirty-eight years of us understanding you has created a co-dependent relationship that has enabled you not to get well, and I came to serve an eviction notice. I came to serve an eviction notice. I stopped by the house of grace to tell you, you got to get outta here. Your time is up. You gotta make room for somebody else. Somebody else needs that spot on that porch. You've gotta go! The porches we build can become a deterrent to better, that's one thing you got to think аbout: What porches are there in your life that have given you permission not to grow up? Somebody, shout "better".
See, that's a hard word to sell in the time we're living in now 'cause nobody is praying, "Lord, make me better". Everybody's praying, "Lord, make me bigger". I just wanna be bigger. I don't care nothin' about being better, but I wanna raise up a generation of people who are laying on their face before God, crying out, "Lord, make me better. I'm not satisfied to stay up on this porch of affliction. I realize you bless me. I realize you've fed me, but I'm not a happy to live like this. I want better for my life. I want better for my wife. I want better for my body. I want better for my children. Lord, make me better". But today, all they're praying about is "Lord, make me bigger". And when you get bigger and you don't get better, you end up exploding.
Number two, the hurdle of blame, the hurdle of blame will stop you from wholeness. The hurdle or blame gives you a license to be dysfunctional. In other words, he's saying to Jesus, "It's not my fault. It's their fault. It's the folks who cut in front of me. It's their fault". He never takes responsibility for his own progress, and most of us are stuck at the hurdle of blame, but we're gonna jump that sucker today. We're gonna jump it today. Because when you make me the excuse, you turn your destiny into my hands. If your ex-husband can stop you from getting there, that means you can't get there till he change his mind. The devil is a lie. You got to make up in your mind, oh y'all ain't gonna help me. Somebody in the balcony, help me. The folks on the floor don't get it. You got to make up in your mind, "I'm not blaming my mother. I'm not blaming my father. I'm not blaming my uncle. I'm not blaming my friend".
Some of the folks you blaming are dead. You'll always be on the porch if you've got to wait on them to help you. The devil is lie. If you don't help me, I'll help myself. And this is a big one. This is important. You gotta get this 'cause this is a big one. The hurdle of a faulty belief system, the hurdle of a faulty belief system. It will mess you up every time. It's just as important what you believe as it is that you believe. Now, watch that I didn't say what you say because sometimes you can say right and still believe wrong. A belief system is formulated over time in your life. It becomes your core philosophy from which you work from. It's not just an Orthodox idea. It is a belief system. You are where you are as a result of your belief system. You talk a good game. I'm god's woman. I'm a newbie in Queen. I'm the head, not the tail, but beneath all of that, there's a belief system.
If there's a belief system up under all of that talk that says, "I can't do it, I don't deserve it, I'm not worthy of it, I can't handle it," that's what we got to get to. Your core belief system, that's the hurdle that has to be jumped over, and the core belief system is set up by the voices that spoke to you, the people who taught you, the people who said you ain't never gonna be nothing. You're just like your daddy. You're stupid. You're dumb. You're ugly. All of those things develop belief systems down inside of you that determine what you go after it, that determine how you go after, that determines whether you make it to the pool or wait on the angel. The hurdle of a faulty belief system fits this text because the idea that the angel comes every year is a faulty belief system. It was folklore. It is not a biblical truth. It was a customary idea. It was a tradition, and he built his whole life around a faulty belief system. He built his whole life waiting on something to happen that wasn't gonna happen.
If I open my heart about this, that's where I would cry because the thing that I see most often holding our community back is a faulty belief system. I'm not blaming us for it. There's a whole lot of things that contribute to developing a system, a system, not just a belief but a belief system. What you've seen, what you've been exposed to, what's been said, what support, all of that plays into your belief system, but you still gotta jump it. If we don't jump it, I don't care how much money I give you, you'll lose it. I don't care how many degrees you have on your wall, you'll still sabotage your success because you have a faulty belief system. I hate to tell you this. Ain't no angels coming. You waitin' on somebody to come trouble the water. That ain't coming. The they and the them of your belief system is killing your progress.
This man was in front of more than his entire belief system. Jesus was more than everything the man had based his belief system on, and Jesus showed up in his life, but he had to get over his belief system. He wasn't expecting to be healed, 'cause there wasn't no angel, and there wasn't no pool of water, and it wasn't the right day, and it wasn't the right time, and who was this stranger talkin' to him? If he didn't jump over that belief system, he was not gonna get healed. Some of you have burned in your head how God is going to do it, and if God doesn't do it how you think he's going to do it, you reject it because you have a faulty belief system. It's going to happen this way. I'm going to meet them here. They're gonna look like this. It's gonna happen like that.
The faulty belief system will cause you to be stuck for 38 years, waiting on what you have imagined, waiting on what they told you about, waiting on what you heard, waiting on God to do it like he used to do it. Do it like he did it for your grandmama. God didn't promise to do it the way he did it for your grandmother. A faulty belief system stops you from progress. A faulty belief system will stop you from people and things and opportunities that you were supposed to have if you don't jump over it. I'm talkin' about subconscious belief systems that aren't often uttered, but they can either be strengthening or create struggles, and I must give you a sure sign to test your belief system. You are attracted to people who reinforce that belief system. You show me who you draw, I'll show you how you think.
This text is a war between two different belief systems. One belief system, it's a belief system of Jesus, and the other one is a belief system of folklore, and Jesus comes to shatter the myth. The folklore says it can only happen on this day. It can only happen this way. It can only happen in this spot. It can only happen at this time, and Jesus comes on the wrong day, stands in the wrong spot, yanks one man up, and does it and breaks all the rules of the ideas that formed his belief system, and the Lord told me, let me come down here. I'mma come a little bit closer. I wanna get down here where I can see you. The Lord said, "I'm going to shatter your negative belief systems that have always held you back". You talk forward, but you think backwards. And as long as you think backwards, no matter how much you talk, no matter how much you apply, no matter how much you try, you will only rise to the level of your belief system.
How can you prove that? Yes, I can. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. It is what you think about you. It ain't what I think about you. It is not what I think about you. I stopped trying to change the minds of my critics years ago. As soon as I found out that my growth was not predicated on their opinion, I let them think whatever they want to think about me because it is not their belief that causes me to prosper. It's what I think about me. It's what God thinks about me. It's what God's Word says about me. Who am I talking to? If I'm talking to you right now, you're fighting the wrong battle. You're fighting trying to change the mind of somebody whose words don't even matter. God ain't listening to your haters. God is listening to you. Wilt thou be made whole?
I didn't ask you about the other people on the porch. I didn't ask Peter about the other people on the boat. I didn't ask the little boy about who else had lunch money. I want to know what are you gonna do with what I gave you. The man has a faulty belief system, and all the religious people he had been exposed to had a faulty belief system. It's proven because when Jesus shatters his belief system and heals him on the Sabbath Day, Jesus purposely says take up your bed and walk to expose the faulty belief system, c'mon, the faulty belief system around him.
Here come Brother Naysay and Deacon Sugar Foot, and they come running up to him and talking about, "It's unlawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath day". They couldn't find nothing else to criticize. You can see it on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. They'll find something to criticize. I just don't think you ought to wear pocket square while you preaching. You overlooked everything I was preaching and you focus in on the pocket square because of a faulty belief system. You'll always find a reason to be a hater. You gonna always find a way to be what you are.
If it's not my square, it's my shoes. If it's not my shoe, I should grow my hair back. Why didn't just shave your face? But how could you miss all this message and focus on my beard? It's because of a faulty belief system. They bypassed a man who had been sick for 38 years, and the man was healed by the power of God, and they're complaining about him carrying a cot on the Sabbath day. Get away from people with faulty belief systems. You're not ready to help them. You're not ready to handle them. You're not ready to minister to them. Get around people with strong belief systems.
As I close, I want you to understand something, that Jesus was willing to break the rules to bless him, and Jesus is willing to break the rules to bless you. Lift your hands where you are for a minute. Jesus is willing. Jesus is willing to break all protocol, to bless you this morning. He wants you to overcome every hurdle to wholeness that stands in your way so that you can finally start to realize I don't care how much you put on you, it's what you put in you that's gonna make you arise out of the ashes, He's gonna show you where to put your energies for such a time as this, and right now as you raise your hands and open your mouth to worship him, he is canceling out the things that were canceling you out. "Oh, we bless you, Lord. Oo, help me with my mind".
I will not hear this message and not see this message. I will not hear this message and not walk in this message. I will hurdle. I will climb over every hurdle and get to wholeness, get to wholeness. Somebody, say it with me. Get to wholeness. Hallelujah. One more thing, the Bible said, and all the times that I've looked at this text, I never really paid the 12th or the 15th verse any attention because the 12 through the 15th verse explains how it all happened. One, the man didn't even know who Jesus was. So, when they asked him who told you to take up your bed and walk? He couldn't tell him who it was, 'cause Jesus had disappeared out of his midst. He didn't even know who Jesus was.
Okay, when he later runs into Jesus, Jesus speaks a word to him and said, "Go thy way". Let me put it up on the screen. Here, "he asked him, 'What man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk?' And he that was healed said wist not who it was; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place", c'mon, "afterward, Jesus finding him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more. Lest a worst thing come unto thee". I never paid no attention to that before. Jesus said, "You know why you like that. You stop acting like this is a mystery. You know why you are like that". He said, "Go thy way and sin no more, lest a far worse thing come upon you". And that is his person. Jesus got him all to himself.
I said, "Don't you do that no more, lest a far worse thing come upon you". He said, "I'm going to get you out of this, but I expect for you to get changed. I expect for you to change". And it may not be, when we go to sin, we always go to certain types of sin, and we let the other sins get by. And so, we think in terms of sexual sins or stealing or something like, it might be that. Might be that. I ain't letting it off the hook, but it can be other types of sins: negativity, the way you talk to people, the way you respond in crisis, the way you treat people. Don't you think that don't come back on you. The way you treat people will make you sick. Go thy way, lest a far worse thing come upon you.
Bow your heads with me. You're streaming online, bow your heads with me. This message came to speak to you. There are some hurdles in your life God wants you to leap over. God wants to get you off the porch and into your purpose and into your destiny, and it's not about them, and it's not about they, and it's not about what happened, and it's not about where you've been, and it's not about what happened to you, and it's not about your haters, and it's not about the people who talked about you, and it's not about the people who disappointed you, and all of that may be legitimate. I'm not being hard. I know what it is to be crushed by people. God knows I do.
I know what it is to be wounded and bleeding and hurting. I get it, I get it, I get it, but you can't spend 38 years in a state of paralysis over a person and then get in the presence of Jesus and say, "I'm no further because nobody helped me for 38 years". Whatever the thing is that keeps you from leaping over your hurdles, whatever the belief system that you've bought into that makes you keep attracting the same experiences over and over again, this is a leaping Sunday. This is a leaping Sunday, and I don't just mean leap in your body. I mean leap in your mind. I mean leap into your mind over top of everything that dost beset you, lest a far greater thing come upon you.