TD Jakes - Joseph's Tears
Joseph's tears are amazing. They threw him in the pit and he didn't cry. They stripped him of his clothes and he didn't cry. They ripped his coat of many colors and he didn't cry. They separated him from the love of his father and he didn't cry. They sold him into captivity to the Midianites and he didn't cry. For Joseph to cry here, he didn't cry in the house of Potiphar when Potiphar's wife lied on him and he had to leave there under a lie and was falsely arrested and he didn't cry. He went to jail and he didn't cry. He was forgotten by the butler and the baker and he didn't cry. Joseph is not a wimp. He's not easy to give way to his, but what is it about this situation that has brought him to tears?
This is the only time that we readily recall Joseph's tears. I would have cried when they threw me in the pit. I might have cried when they took my coat. I definitely would have cried when I lost my good job at Potiphar's house. And if they took me to jail, I would have been in tears, but he stood up to all of that and didn't shed a tear. And now when these haters out of one period in his life come back to him at another period in his life, he sees them and they are desperate and they're in trouble and a famine is coming into the land and they need him, and either the evil in him will rise up and get revenge or his better angels will rise up in him and he will respond correctly.
Have you ever had to wrestle? You had two different ways you could react. You know the way you should react, but when you think about what they did and how you suffered is there anybody in here that had trouble reacting the way you were supposed to act? He is torn in his thinking. It is human to remember. How can he forget what they did to him? He said, "I know you did it and you didn't do it by accident. You meant it for evil". Oh, I'm not a child or a novice. I understand everybody's not gonna wish me well, but it's not what they did. It's who. "Et tu, Brute? You betray me too"? Do you have the strength to allow good to come out of you when evil has been done to you? Anybody can be good to people that are good to them. But the challenge of life is to be good to somebody that you don't owe them no kind of good. I don't owe you nothing. I don't owe, you didn't raise me. You didn't love me. You weren't there for me.
Now, I don't owe you nothing. Somebody in here knows what I'm talking about. Time has passed and now you need me. Time has passed and now you call on me, time has passed and now your hearts have softened. You need me now and the challenge becomes: given the favor that he's been given, does he have the capacity in his person to allow the phrase "better angels," I'm gonna talk about that in a minute, to rise up out of him and to guide him so that the best part of him is leading him and not the worst part of him? And Joseph has this ability to be able to deal with this huge situation with a grace that is difficult to explain. And it is here that we come to understand that with the bombarding of emotions coming at him from all levels, his love is stronger than his memory.
You see, when I look at this text, I realize that they are both in a famine. That his brethren had been in a famine for food, but Joseph has been in a famine for family. They were starving for stuff, but he was starving for them. And suddenly when I realized what made him cry, I realized I have never really done a good job of preaching him because I am distracted by what he went through. But what he went through in the pit, in Potiphar's house, in the prison, doesn't compare with why he went through it. It is not the what that kills us. It ain't the what. I'm strong enough to make it through the what. It is the why. Suddenly I realize that it was not his body plummeting head first down through the rocks to the bottom of the well that was the most painful. It was not the lacerations on his skin or the beatings on his back or being sold for 20 pieces of silver that hurt him. It was not that Potiphar's wife lied on him that gave him the most grief. It was that his dream was tied to his family.
And how can the dream come to pass when the people I love I can't reap love back. I sow love to you. I can't get love back from you. I want to talk to some people who are partially successful. You got it going on in this part of your life, but in this part of your life, all hell is breaking loose. You got it going on over here and you're the envy of everybody. But over here you go home and you deal with something completely. Oh, you ain't in here today. You didn't come to church today. It must be somebody online. Well, come out, come out, wherever you are. Come out, come out wherever you are. On one hand, it is the best of times and on the other hand, it is the worst of time. On one hand, you're at the top of your game. On the other hand, there is this nagging, haunting, aching feeling that will not leave your heart. It will not go away. What do you do when your love won't go away?
And your common sense says, "Leave him alone. Leave him alone". Is there anybody in here that's got stubborn love, tenacious love, relentless love? Is there anybody in here that has ever told yourself, "I'm not gonna do nothing. I'm not gonna say nothing. I'm not gonna help. I'm not gonna open my mouth". And all the while you're saying it, you fixing dinner, talking about, "Come on in and get something to eat". Is there anybody in here that's ever been mad at yourself for being too nice? Come on, talk to me, somebody. I can't be the only one in here that got mad at myself and told myself, "You're stupid. You're just stupid. You let people run all over you". Never really realizing that what I hate about myself is what God loved. Never really realizing that the whole basis of God's favor on my life is because I have stubborn love.
Because you've got stubborn love. And now I see why God chose him. God chose him because God couldn't trust any of the other brothers to have the radical kind of love that could look beyond what was done to them. God needed a lover, somebody who would love anyhow so that he could work out his purpose and his will. He could not work out his purpose through somebody who was vindictive and spiteful and hateful and could not find their better angels. God said, "This is a moment that will require your better angels". In order to get what God has for you right now, it will require that you summons your better angels and that you stop calling it weak. Who am I talking to?
I got a couple of things that I want you to get out of this. I want you to get out of this: How do you handle advantage? Because how you handle advantage determines whether God will trust you with power. Some people can't handle power because they're so vengeful that if they ever get the upper hand, they're gonna go for revenge rather than reconciliation. And you've been praying for power and you've been praying for promotion, but God can't trust you with promotion because your heart is not big enough to have the power that you're asking for. And the kind of favor that God wants to give you is gonna come to somebody whose heart is bigger than their head. Oh, I'm losing them on this, Jesus. This is gonna be tough.
Number two, I want you to understand that love never fails. It may take a long time. It may look like it's been knocked out, it may get bloodied, it may get bruised, it may even require stitches. But when the fight is over, love will always prevail. Can your love survive a fall? Joseph had taken a fall in a pit but his love survived the fall. You can't raise children if your love can't take a fall. You can't have a relationship if your love can't take a fall. You can't run a business if your love can't take a fall. You can't have a dream if your love cannot withstand a fall. Have you ever dreamed you were falling? You remember that powerless feeling of falling and how frightening it is when you wake up because you're falling and it feels like things are out of control?
There are going to be some moments in your life that it feels like everything is out of control. Joseph has gone through a long period of bad getting worse. And the only thing consistent is that he was still in love with his brothers and his father. Now there are some people you have to love at a distance. There are some people who are so unsafe to love that you have to love them at a distance because who they are at this stage is not who they're gonna become at that stage. But for right now, I have to love you. Give me 50 feet. I love you but give me 50 feet. You crazy. Give me 50 feet. You're going through some changes. Give me 50, oh, come on, is there anybody in here got somebody you love, but you gotta give them some...
The third thing I want to ask you is do you have the grace to accommodate people changing, or are you still angry over something that's 20 years old? Do you have the kind of grace to accommodate that I might look like the same person, but I'm not the same person at this stage in my life that I was at that stage in my life? So much time had passed that they didn't even recognize Joseph. Some of you have been holding a grudge so long that you can't even remember the details. You just remember the anger and you're still mad. And God wants your better angels so that you can walk in the favor that he has for you. It's gonna require that your better angels arise and you stop trying to be your own defense, because anger often is a camouflage that love wears to keep from being exposed. Oh God.
And in order for God to deal with you, number four, you gotta have emotional honesty, even if it makes you feel vulnerable to be emotionally honest. Joseph is emotionally honest. He cannot help the fact that he loves 'em. He cannot control their behavior. He can only control his.
Number five, it brings him, because of that, he can bless them that cursed him. I had a pastor call me the other day. He said, "There's a young man leaving my church". And he said, "He's taking some of my members and he's going away and I gave him a stage, I gave him a platform. He betrayed me and he took some of my members and he left". And he said, "What should I do"? I said, "Give him a love offering". I said, "Give him a love offering". He said, "A love offering? Why would I give him a love offering"? I said, "Because you are too big to have unnecessary enemies. He's gonna have enough to fight without you. You don't have to fight him. Life is gonna fight him. Life is gonna change him. Don't add your name to the list. You take the high road". As Michelle said, "When they go low, we go", oh, y'all ain't talking to me. Talk to me, somebody.
Talk to me, somebody. This family has been ripped apart and they are a part of God's divine purpose. This family is important because God is going to use this family to start the nation of Israel, and they have been ripped apart for years. And the thing about a rip, whenever something is torn, both sides get damaged. I don't know who I'm talking to. Whenever something is ripped, both sides get damaged. You go home bleeding, but you think you're the only one bleeding. You go home and cry. You think you're the only one crying. But if it's a rip, both sides are gonna cry, both sides are gonna suffer. They may not show you, but there's no clean way to have a rip. You don't have a straight side and a ripped side.
When something rips, it rips on both sides. Joseph's coat was ripped from him, and his family was ripped from him, and both sides were filled with pain. God was getting ready to do something so amazing that he was looking for somebody who was big enough to do it through. Joseph understood something: that God had brought him into favor to be a channel to bless them. That the only reason God put him into power is so that his power would be used for the posterity and the continuation of the legacy of God. If God can get it through you, he can give it to you.
If God can trust you that your flesh won't give it away. I'm talking to somebody who's been talking to God about what he's about to do in your life. If God can trust you that the higher he takes you, you'll still reach low and pull up somebody else. If God can trust you that as he opens up doors, you'll reach back and open up a door for somebody else. If God can trust you. Look at somebody or type on the line, something is about to happen. God wouldn't be talking to me like this if something wasn't about to happen, if something wasn't about to shift. If God wasn't about to raise me up in some kind of Egypt, if some kind of promotion wasn't coming in my life.
And God is giving me this test so that I'll be ready to handle what he's about to do next in my life. There's a reason I'm listening at this message today. God is about to raise me up from the prison to the palace. Who am I preaching to? Get ready for a switch. Get ready for a turn. Get ready for a change. Get ready for a move. Get ready for a switch right now. Holler at somebody, "Something is about to happen". Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen.
God wouldn't be counseling me about power if I was gonna stay weak. There's something that's about to switch in my life that I've got to be ready to receive. Give him 60 seconds of crazy Holy Ghost... What I want you to see is that all of a sudden the wealth of Egypt was transferred to the house of Jacob. And the Bible said that Pharaoh told Joseph, "Give him the best of the land, load up the asses and the camels. I'm going to send him so much blessing that before he ever even gets to me..." And the Lord said to me to tell you if you can get the right attitude, God is about to do a switch in your life until the wealth of the unjust is going to be laid up for the just. If I'm preaching to you, give God a praise right now.