TD Jakes - A Moment Like This
This is the first day of the holy week, what we would call holy week today. They didn't call it holy week then, they didn't have that term at the time. This would be normally what we would call Palm Sunday. They didn't call it Palm Sunday then, that's something that came much later. Jesus did not do it to create a ritual for us, and instead the Bible is clear that Jesus is on the precipice of the week that would lead him to Calvary, and he starts it off making an entry into Jerusalem where he knew his haters had galvanized a strategy to destroy him. And as he prepares to enter into Jerusalem, he controls the moment by telling them exactly what is necessary in order for this to be fulfilled.
Jesus did not do this so that you could get little palms and make crosses and pin them on your dress. He didn't do it so we could have a day off from work. He didn't do it so we could have an international holiday or a spiritual memorial, Jesus did it, the Bible is clear, to fulfill prophecy. That the prophecy had said that the King would come in humbly riding on an ass, entering into Jerusalem, and to fulfill the past in his present, he was intentional. God is intentional. He could have walked into Jerusalem. He could have took a horse into Jerusalem. But he was intentional about making sure that the word of the prophet did not fall, that it came to pass, and he was so intentional about causing this moment to happen, that he sent them to the village where they were not at, having left Bethpage and headed towards Jerusalem. He said I want you to take a detour and go to the village.
Now, understand what we talk about. When we look back at it, we look at it through our religious eyes, and through our western eyes, and we get these ideas about it, and we think about it in terms of holidays, but the truth of the matter is, the early church did not celebrate Palm Sunday. It's about 4 B.C. before Palm Sunday ever got celebrated. So, the early apostles did not even celebrate it because it wasn't so much that Jesus was concerned about setting in a religious tradition as much as he was fulfilling a prophecy. When God gets ready to fulfill a prophecy, he is intentional about making it come to pass. It wasn't like he ran into the donkey, he had to make it happen. He had to make it happen. There are some things that God has promised you, he is so intentional about them that they are not in your path, he has to go get them. You didn't hear what I was saying. He has to go get them. He has to put it together. There has to be a synchronization between the traveling pattern of the Messiah and the colt and the ass that were tied up in another village. And Jesus told two of his disciples, "Go get them".
Now first of all, before I talk about the command, let me talk about the fact that he knew where the ass was. Because here he is on the last week of his life, headed toward Cavalry, and he knows where the ass is. He knows exactly. Let me try it again. They're getting ready to crucify him, and Jesus is thinking about a colt. How many of you facing the most tragic week of your life are thinking about menial things? But the difference between great men and poor men is giving attention to detail. Your God is God of detail. Details make a lot of difference. And when God has willed something to happen, he also has made provision for that thing to happen. And he says to the disciples, I have a provision that is not in your path. Yeah, ten people got it, they're gonna get the blessing. He says to the disciples, I have a provision that is not in your path, but I know where it is, and I've been holding it for you, and I'm going to show you where to get what you need to get to fulfill that which has been prophesied unto you.
Don't be bothered by the fact that you don't see it in your path right now. Don't be bothered by what you don't see yet, what's not around you, and what you don't have, and what's not in your pocket, and who's not in your life, and what happened. It's still yours. Oh God, oh my God, somebody ought to shout me down. It's still yours. It's not in you your bank account, but it's still yours. It's not in your purview, but it's still yours. He hasn't proposed, but it's still yours. You haven't met him yet, but it's still yours. The deal hasn't closed, but it's still yours. The papers haven't been signed, but it's still yours. It's not under contract, but it's still yours. The tumor hasn't shrunk, but it's still yours. Healing is the children's bread, it's still yours. God says I know exactly what it takes to bring it to pass. I've been saving it for you.
See, I'm not so much right now gonna focus on Jesus as I am the ass and the colt who have spent their life tied to a pole. I want you to understand that God will tie up your blessing. You don't have to be up at night worried about who's trying to get your blessing, and who's trying to take your blessing, and who's after your blessing, you can let all of that go. God will tie up your blessing. He will leave it tied up 'til you get to the place that you need to be. He will put it on hold. The colt doesn't know why he's tied up. The ass doesn't know why he's tied up, but God has reserved it for such a time as this. I want you to get two things out of his. One, I want you to know your blessing is tied up and nobody's gonna get it until you get to the place that you're ready to receive it. You're not waiting on your blessing, your blessing is waiting on you. Your blessing is waiting on you to get to the place in your journey that you're now ready to receive on the level that the blessing is going to take you to. I want you to get that out of the message.
Number two, I want you to get out of the message if you've been feeling a rope around your neck, like your life was tied up, and your career was tied up, and your finances were tied up, and your future was tied up, I want you to know that God has you on reserve, waiting on the right place at the right time, and when he gets ready to loose you, nobody can tie you up. When he gets ready to set you free, nobody can shut you down.
I want you to know that God is a conductor, an orchestrator, that he's in control of everything, and he knows where everything is, and now in this moment, this is the moment where God starts pulling everything together. This is the moment where crazy things start to make sense. This is the moment where you begin to understand why you had to go through what you had to go through to get where you are. This is the moment where you understand why you've been on hold for years, the colt nobody has chosen. Nobody's riding in on him. Nobody's ever telling, this is the moment that you begin to understand why you're anointed but you haven't been used. God said I had you tied up, and when I'm getting ready to lose you, I don't know who this is for, but God said I had you tied up, but I'm getting ready to loose you. Don't worry about the bands around your neck. Don't worry about the restrictions on your life. Don't worry about where you can't go, and what you can't do, when I get ready to loose you, no devil in hell can stop you from being loosed because I'm God all by myself, and when I get ready to make it happen, I will make it happen.
There is a term called "The Pilgrimage of Etheria," and "The Pilgrimage of Etheria" is a documentation that it was done about the fourth century that begins to talk about this woman traced back when people, the early church, started to commemorate this moment. It is after the resurrection. It is after the life and the death of the apostles that the early church really started to commemorate in a major way this moment in retrospect, in hindsight. We look back at this moment and we understand that this was a magnanimous moment, a huge moment, a moment of massive proportion. How many times in your life have you had a moment and you didn't really appreciate the moment 'til in retrospect? And you look back at your life and say, "Oh, my God, that was a moment, hallelujah".
Now you start talking about those were the days, but when you were in the days, you didn't know they were the days. Now when you look back and you got something to compare it with, you have different appreciation in retrospect than you did in real time. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? So, this text is the convergence of the past, prophetic content, the present crisis, and the futuristic outcomes, all galvanize themselves and collide in this one simple text. The past prophecies, the present crisis, and the futuristic outcomes all collide in this text. Well, it's just an ass and a colt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but Jesus isn't doing this so you can have a religious ceremony, he is illustrating his ability to put his finger on whatever you need and to pull it to you. Flood the timeline with, go get it, go get it, go get it, go get it, go get it, go get it. It's not going to come to you, you have to go get it.
There is a moment coming to many of you for which you have been waiting on all your life. Everything else you did was just how he kept you tied up. How many people in this room sense that God has something else for you? Everything else you've been doing is just how he kept you tied up, how he kept you occupied, how he kept you doing something, how he kept you moving. But God is about to give you a moment. Nudge your neighbor and say, "All I need is a moment". I don't wanna die 'til I had my moment. I don't want to collapse 'til I've had my moment. I was created for such a time as this. And so they got the ass, they got the ass untied, they got the colt untied, and they brought him to Jesus. Provision is coming to the prophet. The prophet knew where he was, the disciples went to get him, now the provision is coming to the profit. And when the provision comes to the profit, there is a colliding of destiny.
If the ass could talk, he would say all of my life I've been waiting on this moment, and Jesus is saying all of my life, I've been waiting on this moment. And when two things collide that have been waiting on this moment, and they share that moment together, see, the problem with you is you've had moments and brought people into moments who didn't appreciate the moment you were pulling them into, and you got to drag them into the moment because they have no appreciation of what it costs you, how long you waited to have the moment, and you are unequally yoked. And many times they polluted the moment from being everything that it could be because they didn't have the appreciation for the moment you're in. But the ass is just as happy as the master is because Jesus has lived for this moment.
I'll prove to you that he lived for this moment. He called Judas his friend, and when Peter tried to stop the crucifixion, he said, "Get thee hence behind me, Satan, for this purpose came I into the world". I didn't come into the world to play with your fish sandwiches. I didn't come into the world to heal two or three people's diseases. I came into the world to save the world from their sins, to annihilate the enemy called death, to take the sting out of death and the victory out of the grave. I did not come into the world to heal ten lepers, that's just stuff I was doing while I was waiting, but for this purpose came I into the world, to do a job that nobody can do but me.
There are no competitors at being you. You are in a class all by yourself. Stop being intimidated by other people. Can't nobody in the world beat you at being you like you. You can do you like nobody else can do you. It couldn't have been another ass, and it couldn't have been another Jesus, they were made for each other. They were waiting for each other. And when they met, both of them had been on reserve for this one moment, this one defining moment, this one prophetic moment. All you need is one moment.
Can I go a little bit deeper? The Bible says in Malachi, "'Bring ye all the tithes and offerings into the storehouse that there might be meat in my house, and prove me now here with,' saith the Lord of hosts, 'If I will not open up the windows of heaven.'" The word windows of heaven properly translated is the floodgates, the floodgates of heaven. You don't open up the floodgates and expect what happens next. He said to pour you out a blessing. I opened up the whole floodgate for you to get a blessing. All you need is one. The one blessing is gonna be so big you won't have room enough to receive everything I'm gonna bring out of that one. That one meeting, that one connection, that one individual, that one decision, that one church, that one change, that one door. I opened up the floodgates to give you one thing.
When destiny collides, moments are born. This is a defining moment not only for its prophetic value, not only for its futuristic value, but in its present-tense reality. Oh, God, stop. He keeps feeding me. I'm trying to shut up and he keeps feeding me. Be present in the moment. Some of you live in the past, others of you worry about the future, few of us are present in the moment. I spent all last year, and I'm working on it still this year, on being where I am, just being where I am. Because if I'm not careful, I'll always be planning where I'm going at the expense of missing... The other pathology that's equally as dangerous is you can't enjoy where you are for grieving over where you've been. Either way the enemy is stealing the present moment, and it is only a moment. Let me show you this. It's only a moment. If you miss your moment, you are not guaranteed a repeat opportunity.
We were talking, we were talking, some friends of mine were talking and said it's amazing, she's a personal friend of mine, every time I hear a song by her, it touches my heart because I knew her, and loved her, and appreciated her, but if Aretha were to start singing today, there is no guarantee that she would be the queen today because soul music is not even valued. It's not even selling in a hip-hop world. She had one moment. If you miss this window that God has opened up for you, and you fool around and let that window close, you may not ever have the right convergence of circumstances to have the impact that you need to do what you're trying.
If Harlan Sanders opened up KFC today, he'd go bankrupt because he would show you a home-cooked meal and we would want to know is it gluten free? I'm a vegan. I'm a pescatarian. I don't eat that. I don't eat this. I don't eat the other. But at the time the window was open. Nudge your neighbor and say, "This is your moment". Don't miss your moment. This message is a warning. Do not miss your moment. The window is opening. The window is opening. The window is opening. The window is opening on your moment. Somebody holler out, "This is my moment". When it was their moment, everybody knew it. Watch this, the disciples laid their coats on the back of the colt, Jesus climbed on top of the colt and began to ride to fulfill scriptures.
The crowd, almost as if on cue, started laying their garments in the street without anybody instructing them to. They start cutting down limbs and branches and laying them down in the street. Nobody choreographed this. Every person in here that's ever had an amazing moment in your life, go back and remember. Nobody choreographed it. No human hand taught everybody how to react to you, you just did something and it just worked. Can I get a witness? Would you tell them I'm not crazy? I think some of them think I'm crazy. Tell them I'm not crazy. When God is in the moment, when God... if I tried to do Megafest right now, if I tried to fill the Georgia Dome, the World Congress Center, and the Philips Arena right now, everybody would say you are crazy in a pandemic. There's a window. This is your time. This is your moment. There's a few things I want you to get. Number one, your blessing is tied up for the moment.
I want you to walk away with that. I want to be sure you get that. Number two, been tied up all your life. You have not seen your greatest moment. In spite of what the enemy tells you, in spite of all the miracles you've done in your past, in spite of all the doors that have been opened, you have not seen your greatest moment. You are on the precipice of your greatest moment. It has been tied up all your life. Number three, I want you to understand that it has never been chosen in your lifetime. This is for overlooked people. Do you know how many people walked past this donkey until the donkey felt like maybe I don't have it? Maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe nobody wants me. The rejection is an indication of selection.