TD Jakes - Don't Be Afraid of The Gift God Gives (03/03/2017)
From Matthew 1, the angel tells worried Joseph "fear not" to take Mary as wife, for the child is conceived by the Holy Ghost—God's gifts often initially cause fear, confusion, and chaos rather than immediate joy, but trusting His process leads to fulfillment beyond human perception.
Greetings and Christmas Context
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our King. I'm so excited and delighted to have this opportunity to share the Word of the Lord with you. We've got a message today that I really believe is going to penetrate your soul in a definite and powerful way.
The message is called "Don't Settle"—no, wait—from the transcript: the message focuses on "fear not" in Joseph's story.
When we hear beautiful songs—O Come All Ye Faithful, O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem—when we watch the beautiful renditions depicted through Hollywood and modern technology of television, DVDs, and VCRs—all come together in collaboration to bring to life the miracles, the magic, the wonder, and the splendor of Christmas.
Sharing with us the great story of our Lord's entrance into the world—that the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Mighty God would step down from eternity down into time, wrap Himself up in flesh that He acquired from the dressing room of Mary's womb, and tabernacle amongst men—is cause for even angels to celebrate the glory and the presence of God.
And because of this great gift that God has given to us, the world stands in awe and the church in splendiferous praise unto God—celebrating the gift that He has given us through Jesus Christ. And that gift expressly is eternal life.
Without His coming into the world and without Him taking on human form and becoming kin to me, He could not redeem me as kinsman redeemer from the ill and the plight of humanity and the consequences of sinful endeavors—are all eradicated in the presence of Jesus Christ.
For wherever Jesus is, is heaven there. And whenever Jesus shows up, deliverance is bound to happen.
We celebrate His entrance into the world—but be careful in all of the splendor and all the glitter and the pageantry and the beautiful light and the gift-giving and all of the wonderful things that we do to commemorate the birth of the Lord—the depictions of the mangers and all of the holy scenes that we have.
Be careful to understand that the first Christmas was not quite as beautiful as the ones we see today. The first Christmas was not filled with all the splendor and all the wonderment and all the fine foods and all the pageantry and all the wrapping paper that is engulfing your living room right now.
The first Christmas was not even filled with all the joy and all the praise and all the wonder that we feel right now—particularly in the life of some people who were directly affected by Christ coming into the world.
You would think that there would be joy—but the reality is most generally with the gifts God gives us, we have joy in retrospect as we look back and see that His plan was better than ours.
I want to warn you, my brothers and sisters, that initially when God gives you a gift, it does not always evoke joy and praise and splendor—it often causes confusion, mayhem, and chaos.
And you wonder in your own mind whether this is a gift from God or a plot from the enemy to destroy your very life.
You would think that Joseph would be filled with glee and excitement about the birth of Jesus Christ—that God had chosen the woman that Joseph had chosen, that God had set her aside even as Joseph had set her aside, that God Himself had selected her—should have eased all ill in his mind as to whether she was a virtuous woman.
But sometimes being chosen of God and selected of God and receiving gifts from God leaves a fellow in disarray.
Joseph's Fear and Confusion
And so when we see Joseph, we don't see him dancing and celebrating. We don't see him opening up gifts with joy and exuberation—no, we see Joseph worried and upset.
Because generally when God gives a gift, it often worries you before it blesses you.
Oh, frankly—at the time that Joseph leaps on the pages of this holy writ—he is not trying to find a way to get closer to the baby Jesus or His mother—His mother who is pregnant with Him—no, he's trying to figure out how can I get out of this just as quietly and as calmly as possible without drawing any attention to myself.
Just show me the door so that I can exit and get away from this gift.
I want to warn you that many times when God gives you a gift—instead of running toward it, our propensity is to run from it.
Because after all—who knows what's in a gift given until it's unwrapped?
Perhaps it is not so much the gift that I want to warn you about—because ultimately God's gifts always will pay off in the end.
Perhaps it's not the gift that I should sound the alarm about and tell you to watch out for. Perhaps it is the wrapping paper.
Because God's greatest gifts are often wrapped in problems—in anxiety, in worry, in chaos.
God's greatest gifts often come to us camouflaged in a fine array of disgusting, perilous circumstances that seem insurmountable.
Great gifts can come wrapped up in being fired from a job. Great gifts can come wrapped up in a package where somebody you thought you couldn't live without walked away and left you.
In fact, God can give you a gift and you not feel gifted at all. In fact, being gifted can be a problem with God—because many times when God gives you a gift, people are not happy for you.
They don't celebrate the gift that God has given you. They don't come to worship the gift—they often come to kill the gift, to destroy the gift.
I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that we must move beyond the meek and murky borders of just discussing the birth of Jesus Christ from its historical perspectives—as wonderful as it may be—but to extract from this historical illustration some contemporary word of wisdom that we can use against the challenges that we face today is what makes our faith vibrant and relevant and effective.
We didn't come to just commemorate a historical God for something that happened 2,000 years ago—we came to recognize a relevant God who is still affecting change in our contemporary society.
The very first thing the angel says to worried Joseph is "fear not."
Touch somebody and say "fear not."
Why does he tell him to fear not? Because fear can paralyze your faith. Fear can limit your perspective. Fear can intimidate you from growth. Fear can make you give up on something prematurely—not recognizing that God is not through working His magic and His miracle in the gift He's given you.
Fear can make you try to put away—as Joseph did—the only redemption that was available to him. He was about to give it away because of fear.
Be careful that you do not allow fear to rob you of God's gifts.
There are three different types of fear that I believe engulfed Joseph's mind—and I want to share them with you today—not only so that you might have a deeper and more intrinsic understanding of Joseph and the propensity of fear on his life, but that you might be able to effectively use them in your own life as you face God's gifts.
New jobs, new marriages, new children, new opportunities, new obstacles, new enemies—can all be gifts from God.
I know you're used to the traditional gifts that come wrapped in beautiful packages—but not God. He doesn't wrap His gifts that way.
Three Fears Joseph Faced
There were three things that I believe caused Joseph to be in a conundrum of fear and adversity.
Number one was the fear of perception—what will people think?
Often when God gives you a gift, He gives you a gift that causes you to become controversial in the eyes of people.
And if you were not so gifted, my brothers and sisters, you would not be so hated.
If you will notice our society—we seldom waste hate on people who are not gifted.
And if you understand it correctly—it's a privilege to be hated for His name's sake. It's an honor to be so chosen and so selected and so gifted that somebody has set out a decree to kill.
I want to tell you—somebody's on the hit list of hell, but it's only because you're gifted.
Touch somebody and say "you're gifted." You're gifted—even if you didn't receive anything for Christmas. Even if you're in a nursing home and nobody came by to see you. Even if you're a lonely mother and your kids didn't recognize you for Christmas—you are still gifted with life and health and strength and integrity and ideas and concepts and creative potential.
Oh my God—you are gifted.
If you do not allow fear to rob you—fear of perceptions—what will they think, what will they say, what will they do, how will they feel about me?
The fear of misperceptions often robs us of the gifts that God came to give us.
So on this Christmas morning, I would encourage you to shake off the fear of perception—because if you can shake off the fear of perception on Christmas, then in the new year you'll be ready to receive the abundance.
I've got something to tell you—there's something coming for you in the new year that will justify—but you can't receive it if you're more concerned about perceptions than you are receiving the power of what God has to give you.
Number two—I want to warn you against the fear of provisions. Can I afford this gift? Do I have what it takes to maintain this gift?
I will never forget as a young man just starting to work and make a nice living—I decided to take my mother out to dinner. Took her to a very nice restaurant.
I grew up in an age, in an era where we didn't go out to dinner very much. And I took her to a very plush and posh restaurant to show her the depth and the height and the breadth of my love toward her.
And we sat down as the waiter dropped a white linen into our lap and began to discuss the options and entrées that were available to us—and I noticed as I peeked over top of the menu that my mother did not seem particularly happy.
Her reaction was not what I had expected it to be at all. She peered over top of the menu—not to say what a great son I was—she said, "Child, have you seen these prices?"
I was frustrated. I said, "Mother, I didn't bring you here to worry about how much it cost. I brought you here to enjoy the meal."
Be careful that God doesn't take you to a place of blessings and you're so worried about how much it costs that you don't enjoy the meal.
All I am not trying to imply that Joseph had no resources at all—obviously he had enough resources to have a dowry in order to espouse the virgin to be his bride.
Obviously he had enough resources that as they traveled—he and his pregnant fiancée moving from place to place—he wasn't looking for benevolence—he was looking for hotels.
You don't look for hotels if you have no money. But when you are dealing with provisions, you must understand that sometimes you need provisions that money cannot buy.
Joseph had the money—but the inns were all filled. And isn't it a frustrating thing that by the time you realize the money you need for the places you need to go—suddenly you find out that money is not the only provision that you need to sustain you where God...
In other words, I'm trying to tell you that God can give you some things that your money cannot buy.
Touch your neighbor and tell them God's going to give you something that your money cannot buy.
Don't be afraid of the gifts God gives.
Fear Not: God's Presence and Guidance
Number three—the fear of providence. The fear of providence—God's guidance.
The fear—if I go, will You go with me? If I say yes to this new door and this new opportunity and this new direction—if I seize the gift that I used to run from—if I embrace the thing that historically I've been terrified of.
I could do it better if I knew for sure that You were going to go with me—because I know if You go with me, the storm can break out, the lightning can flash, the thunder can roll—and the boat still will not sink as long as I understand that You are with me.
Maybe I should understand that Christmas looks better in retrospect than it did in reality.
And maybe life looks better when you look back at it than it does while you're going through it.
And maybe there's somebody in here right now who's rejoicing about something that you used to cry about.
Maybe it's in retrospect that God calibrates the issues and the vicissitudes of life.
Maybe it's when we look back at it that we say—you know what—it was good for me that I was afflicted.
Because if I didn't go through what I went through—if I had not gone through it—if I hadn't faced it—if I hadn't endured it—if I hadn't been fired—if I hadn't have been rejected—if I hadn't have been turned down—if I had not been ostracized—I wouldn't have found the door that God had in store.
In fact—thank you for hating me. Thank you for leaving me. Thank you for rejecting me. Thank you for disappointing me. Thank you for shutting the door and telling me you can't stay here—you're not welcome here.
Thank you—if you had not done that, I would have never gotten to spend the night in a barn serenaded by angels, illuminated by stars, and behold the wondrous splendor of God's provision.
Often takes you away from normal places—because where God is going to bless you may be outside of the box, outside of the system, away from the norm—in a place that you never thought a blessing could be.
God may bless you in an unlikely place.
Don't be afraid of the gifts God gives.
I know it's Christmas morning and you're excited and you're all dressed up and you're ready to hurry up and get home and open up gifts and eat turkeys—but touch three or four people and tell them God is up to something.
Yes—God is up to something in every barn, in every manger—with the mooing of every cow, the gathering of every lamb, in the midst of every gathering of hay and goats and sheep—God is up to something.
Any time God takes a holy thing and puts it in a mundane thing—God is up to something.
Any time God promises you a blessing and you see yourself going down instead of up—God is up to something.
Any time God takes you outside of the system—who am I preaching to?—God, God is—He's up to something.
Stop being afraid of change—because whenever God is getting ready to rearrange your life, you've got to open up and say change whatever needs to be changed, move whatever needs to be moved, shake whatever needs to be shaken.
I'm available to You—I trust You—I open this gift by faith.
God is up to something.
Take a look inside—fear not, Joseph. Fear not.
Calm down, Joseph. You're so troubled that you're worried in your sleep—and I had to speak to you in your dreams because when you're awake you're so worried you're not listening to me.
And so I invaded the only space left available to speak to you—when you finally give up on your thoughts long enough to hear my thoughts, I spoke to you in the night because you're not listening to me in the light.
Fear not, Joseph.
Hold somebody's hand and say "fear not." Fear not.
The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you.
Here are a few takeaway points that I want you to get out of this text.
He says "fear not, Joseph"—that that is within Mary has been conceived by the Holy Ghost.
What He is saying—stop worrying about how things are going to turn out—because whatever God starts, He will finish it.