TD Jakes - The Timeless Thesis of God - Part 2
There are three books in the Bible that start with God and none of them explain him. Stop trying to explain God. Just stop trying to explain God. He that cometh to God, must first believe that he is, that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So if I have to prove him, you can come because you have to have it fixed in your mind that he is. Did you get that? He that cometh to God, he that comes, so I'm not even to God, while I'm coming to God I must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I know you think you got saved at the altar, but the truth of the matter, you got saved when you started moving in his direction, because the very thing that drew you to the altar, is that you first believe, "He that cometh to God," come here.
When you start stepping off the boat, Peter, you are already walking in God. "He that cometh to God must first believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," slap your neighbor and say, I'm after him. I got up an hour early because I'm after him. I came to church because I'm after him. My body told me to stay in bed, but I'm after him. My flesh doesn't even want me to be here, but I'm after him. My joints are aching, but I'm after him. There's something he's got I want, I'm after him. You have to know that he's an absolute, not a maybe, not a question mark, not a source for debate and argument, he is. So the writer of Hebrews does not explain him. He explains everything else. He does not explain him. He just starts out, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners has spoken unto us by his prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken unto us by his Son".
This is a timeless thesis of God. Hebrews doesn't just do it. The Gospel of St. John does it, "In the beginning was the...and the word was...and the word was..." no argument, no explanation, no debate, no question mark, no argument. It's an absolute fact. "All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not". Now there was a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He was not that light, but sent to bear witness of that light, saying, "There is one who is coming after me who is mightier than me, whose shoes I'm not worthy to latch on. He indeed baptized you with water, but I will baptize you with the Holy Ghost that was fire, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld the wonder of his glory, that only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth".
But make no mistake over there, make no mistake about it, in the beginning was God. So Hebrews says it, John says it, Genesis says it, in the beginning, God. It's not talking about his beginning, it's talking about yours. He has no beginning or ending. That's why he don't have birthdays. He's ageless. He's timeless. Time works for him. Time works out his will. Look at your neighbor, says only a matter of time. Yeah, yeah, it's already released it's coming in a matter of time. Look at me. You're watching me online? It's coming in a matter of time. Stop being worried. Stop being petrified. Stop being upset. Stop being nervous. Stop being impatient. God has said what he has said. He cannot lie. It's only a matter of time. Time works for him. Time punched the clock in the book of Genesis. "And the evening and the morning was the first day". It was the first day time went to work.
Time took a job in Genesis. Started working in Gen... oh, I gotta stop, I gotta quit. Time took a job in Genesis. Time got hired in Genesis. "And the evening and the morning was the first day". But before there was a first day, there was a God. Before there was a first star, there was a God. Before there was the first sea, there was a God. Before there was a continent, there was God. Before there was a star, there was God. Before there was a planet, there was God. Before there was Mars, there was God. Before there was Saturn, there was God. Before there was Pluto, there was God. Before there was a man, there was God. Before there was a family, it was God. Before there was food, there was God. Before there was a tree, it was God. Before there was grass, it was God. Before there were oceans, it was God. Before rivers landed into seas there was God. Before seas ran into oceans, there was God. He controlled the oceans, he controlled the land, he controlled the sea, there was God.
God is the God of the universe. That's why the first chapter here says that, he is the God of the universe. What are you doing praying to that which he created? "I alone am God. Beside me, there is no other". I have no competitors. I have no competition. I'm in a class all by myself. There has never been a God before me. There will never be another God after me. I alone am God. Now let's bring it down. God who is blessed has blessed us. Let's bring it down. I alone am Thomas Jakes. There will never be another Thomas Jakes. There has never been another Thomas Jakes. I look for another, I could find no other. That's why we have degrees of loneliness, because you are looking for yourself and you can't find yourself. You can have a twin brother and it's still not you. You can have a twin sister and it's still not you. It's part of your likeness of God. I alone am God.
You need to receive this in your spirit because you were created in his likeness and in his image. You alone are you, that's why grief is difficult. Whenever you lose somebody, nobody can replace somebody you lost, because that person is unique. There will never be another person like them. That's why you ought to cherish people while you got them. You ought to love them while you got them. You ought to adore them while you got them, because they are a designer's original. There will never be another person like that person ever again. They're in a class all by themselves. You know why? The universe didn't make me, the stars didn't make me, the moon didn't make me, the sun didn't make me, because if they had made me, they could make another one. But God made me.
He used the universe as ingredients, but God made me. He used the same system, the same circulatory system, but I am unique and fearfully made in a class all by myself. Nobody can think like me, nobody can walk like me, nobody can talk like me, nobody can put things together like I put them together because I'm unique, I'm an original, I'm a one of a kind. Glory to God, look at my house, look at my clothes, look at myself, look at my identity, look at the way I fix my hair, look at the way I raise my kids, look at the way I talk, look at the way I move. I am in a class all by myself, there will never be another one like me.
And once I get happy with being me, I can enjoy being me. The problem with you is you keep trying to copy somebody else as if they were better than you, and you have not discovered the joy of being you. The moment you get happy to be what God created you to be, the moment you settle on the fact that it's cool to be different, it's okay to be an original, The moment you settle on the fact that there will never be another you, hence you are valuable, you will stop allowing people to devalue you because you are in a class all by yourself. Somebody shout me down in here.
He is, I'm gonna close, he is before all things. I'm gonna try to make it to this point. Give me just a little bit more, I'm gonna try to make it to this point. Can I go a little further? Okay, okay, I'm good for it. If you're good, I'm good. See, hell don't want me to finish it. God says, I am that I am. You sit up here saying, who am I? As soon as you settle on I am that I am. The good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the weak and the strong, I am. Part of my beauty is in my flaws. Y'all can't handle me. Part of my mastery is in my mistakes. We teach people not to make mistakes. How can I discover if I don't make mistakes? You've locked the hands of my creativity, binding me with your judgmental attitude.
While you make mistakes, you don't allow me to discover. The way you discover is by making mistakes. How many times do you fail before you win? Before you find a cure for cancer? Before you find a cure for AIDS, you have to fail over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. If I stop you from failing, I stop you from succeeding. Yet we compress creative minds into man-made systems that you call education, which is really indoctrination. And indoctrination becomes incarceration. And we teach them there is only one right answer. That's not right. There's all kinds of answers. The horse was an answer for transportation. The stagecoach was an answer for transportation. The steam engine was an answer for transportation. The gas driven vehicle was an answer for transportation. The electric car is an answer for transportation. Soon there'll be flying cars, there's an answer for transportation. There is no one right answer.
So stop arguing with people over who's right. You can both be right. It's perspective, let me stop it. It's perspective. It's perspective. It's perspective. I walk into a dining room. I look at a dining room table. I say, that's nice. And I mean it, and I'm right based on my perspective. Ten years later, I go back and look at the same dining room table, and think, what in the world were you thinking? What in the world was going on? Why did you do this? Perspective, you are never finished growing, evolving, becoming. Stop looking down your nose at other people. What you think today, you will not think 10 years from now. So stop being nasty with what is just your perspective at the moment. You are evolving. And we have stopped people from evolving.
That's what this disruptive thinking is all about. It is making up your mind that I will not be incarcerated by your indoctrination, which limits me from evolving into who I was meant to be. I am that I am. It declares him, but refuses to explain him. If you could explain him, you could create him. Anything you can explain, you can create. You cannot explain God. He will not be explained. He cannot be explained. He must be revealed. He is God all by himself. He is the ancient of days. He is the summation of wisdom. He is the master of eons ages and eternity. He is in full control of that which is and was and is to come. He is God, that's why we worship him.
We don't worship him because we're weak. We worship him because he's strong. We don't worship him because we're ignorant, we worship him because he had all knowledge. We don't worship him because we're light, we worship him because he's full. We don't worship him because we're subservient. We worship him because he's all masterful. He's in a class all by himself. We worship him because we see something in him that we couldn't find in the ocean, couldn't find in the river, couldn't find in the stream, couldn't find in your lover, couldn't find in your boyfriend, couldn't find in your kids, couldn't find in your grandkids. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You've been looking for God in all the wrong places.
God is not man. God is not your husband. God is not your wife. God is not your kids. God is not your mama. Stop being disappointed about something that you should have never asked them to be in the first place. Can't nobody be God but God. Stop worshiping people. God is God. Preachers are not God. Bishops are not God. Elders are not God. Presidents are not God. Kings are not God. Money is not God. CEOs are not God. None of them are God. Talent is not God. Hip-hop is not God. Rituals are not God. Basketball is not God. Football is not God. God is God. God, God, God, God, God, God. God is God. He always will be God. He's God all by himself. And maybe everybody in the room doesn't get it, but there are some people in this room that understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. And that's why you're here this morning, because you understand God.
Justice is how he reigns. Justice is how he rules. I'm going to have to pick it up. I'm going to have to take it further. Let me stop with this. God. Let me stop. The Bible begins and ends with God. Watch this. Throw the Bible away. You begin and end with God. The doctors that say, I give your mama six months to live. She might live six years. She might live six hours. Truth of the matter, all they can do is practice medicine. Practice, practice, practice. Practice, practice is not the recital, it's a rehearsal. You know why they can't be sure? Because the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. And when he gets ready to take it, he'll take it, he'll take it, he'll take it while you're signing them up for hospice. He'll take it while you're trying to get them ready for a walk.
When God gets ready to take you, he takes you. And when God gets ready to bring you, he brings you. You can be on your way to the delivery room, you can be in a cab, you can be in a car, but when God gets ready to bring you into this world, ready or not, here I come. You started with God, you end with God. Just like your Bible, you start with God, you end with God. Everything about you has something to do with God. And what you keep looking for in other people will never be in other people. It will always be in God. And as soon as you get tired of wearing yourself out, trying to make other people be your God, you will fall in love with your God.
Everybody stand I'll stop. The message is the timeless thesis of God. Hear me good young people. I know you think you're gonna change the world. And I know you think you understand what all your parents did wrong. And you're determined to get it right. And I don't blame you. Do all you can to get it right. Because that's what we did, too. And we were radical. And we were bright. And we thought we knew something. And we thought we were smart. And we thought we were smarter than our parents. And we dressed different, and we changed the tides, and we moved things around, and we died. And that's what they were, my parents, radical, ruthless, they birthed the Civil Rights Movement. Their parents were horrified. The parents of the Civil Rights leaders were horrified because they disrupted everything, and they thought they'd change the world, and they helped the world.
But the same speeches that were true back then are still relevant right now. When you get through fighting your way, hard parenting, soft parenting, no parenting, you're still gonna have failure, hurt, pain. You're still gonna be criticized, ostracized. This is life. Shoot your shot. Do your thing. But do not worship your ideas because your ideas will change. Your ideas will change as your stages and ages change. They may not change and turn into your parents. I'm not telling you to worship your parents. I am telling you don't worship your own opinion.
How could you know everything now? How could you know? You haven't even been everywhere. You haven't seen everything. I'm not desecrating your youth. I wouldn't want mine desecrated. I love young people. I relate to them. I get them. Because we were radical before you were radical. No, we didn't wear hats to church. No, we didn't wear skinny jeans. And no, we wore bell bottoms, and platform shoes, and go-go boots, and all kinds of stuff like that. But it was radical. We grew afros. You're going back to what we already did. You're going back to big flares.
We did that first. You think you discovered sex, how did you get here? This is how we do. That's how we do it too. It's only new to you. I am asking you to think. And when you think, remember that it all began, not with your radical opinion or what you read about, where women ought to be, and what ought to happen with women, all of that. You wasn't talking none of that when the doctor smacked your behind. Everything you think is something somebody exposed you to. When you opened your mouth and gasped air the first time you breathed in God, Numa, Spirit, God, the Lord gave you breath. When I held my mother and she went... it was over. In and it begins... and it's over. It begins with God. It ends with God. It is a timeless, generationless, thesis of God.