TD Jakes - Don't Drown in Shallow Water (03/05/2017)
From Acts 28, after surviving shipwreck, Paul reaches Malta exhausted yet gathers sticks for a fire started by others—teaching that storms test us near the shore, God's presence remains in trouble, temporary means may break, but don't drown in shallow water or build your own fire when weary; others with dry wood will help.
Introduction: Don't Drown in Shallow Water
Touch your neighbor and say, "Don't drown in shallow water." It seems a ridiculous notion that you could drown in shallow water, especially after you have survived the deep.
It seems strange that you could drown in something that you could handle. It seems strange that you could drown in something that you could master. But the toughest times of life are not in the beginning of the struggle, because the beginning of the struggle catches you fresh.
You're vibrant, you're cocked for it, you're dangerous—but it is when you are closest to the shore that you are the most vulnerable to collapsing. It seemed odd to me that statistics say that most accidents occur two miles from the house.
It seems like if you were going to crash, you could have crashed 25 miles, or 15 miles, or ten miles from the house—but sometimes when you are the closest to the shore, things become the most difficult.
In my text this morning, we are following the Apostle Paul on a journey for the Lord. There are some concepts—I just pulled a few life lessons that I want to share with you this morning that will keep you from drowning in shallow water.
Touch your neighbor and say, "Are you listening this morning?"
Lesson One: Storm Doesn't Mean God's Absence
Number one—and you might want to jot these down—don't take the presence of the storm to indicate the absence of God. Don't take the presence of the storm to indicate the absence of God.
Sometimes when you enter into a storm—and there are all kinds of storms: health storms, physical storms, financial storms, emotional storms—there are all kinds of storms. I'm not talking about the storms that rain down water, and the lightning, and the thunder, and all of that—I'm talking about storms that other people can't see.
Undetectable storms—storms that make people think you haven't been through anything because you get up out the bed every morning, and you put your hair up, and put your makeup on, and they don't know you put your smile on just like you did your makeup, and walked in smiling because you are going through a secret storm.
Has anybody ever gone through a secret storm? See, when you're going through a visible storm, somebody will hand you an umbrella, or a raft, or some help, or some assistance—because they are aware of your suffering.
But when you're going through a secret storm, there is no comfort there because nobody knows that you're dealing with a secret storm. They're jealous of the car you're driving—not knowing that it's two payments behind.
They're envious of the position that you were promoted to—not knowing that now that you're promoted into that position, you can't even rest at night. You can't even sleep at night. You've got so much pressure and so much responsibility on you—and, all of a sudden, you're in a storm and nobody even knows it.
And when we get in a storm, we have a tendency to wonder, "Where is God?" Job said, "I looked for Him. He was there a minute ago, but now I can't find Him. I looked on the right side and I couldn't find Him. I looked on the left side and I perceived Him not. Where is God in the storm?"
Because we buy into this notion that if God was with us, we would have no storm—that if God were really with us, we would be happy—that if God were really with us, everything would go smoothly—that if God were really on our side, we would have no family problems. If God were really with us, our bills would be paid.
How could God be with us and us be in foreclosure? How could God be with us and we have cancer? How?
Job said, "I can't figure it out. How could my kid die, and God be with me? How could my house be on fire and God be with me? I looked for Him. I looked for Him—I didn't see Him. I looked on the right—I didn't see Him. I looked behind me—I thought He'd have my back. I didn't see Him. I looked in front of me—I thought He'd lead the way. I didn't see Him."
But you cannot see in a storm. That's why He told you to walk by faith and not by sight. You cannot see in a storm.
Don't look for God to be sensual in your storm. He will not appeal to your senses. Your senses add to your comfort. God will not make you comfortable in your storm.
But just because you are in the presence of the storm, the storm does not negate the presence of God, nor does it indicate the absence of God.
In fact, if you really want to see God do His best work—get in trouble.
I know you think God does His best work when you're dancing in the church, and you're clapping, and you're raising your hands, and all of that stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. I know that God visits your praise. The Bible said He inhabits the praises of Israel. I understand that God visits your praise—but if you want to know where God lives, He lives in trouble.
The Bible said He is a very present help in the time of trouble. If you're looking for God, He's in the storm. He may not be saying anything—Peter, you may find Him asleep on the boat in the bottom of the ship—but don't think that He jumped off the boat because you were in a storm. He is with you in the storm.
He promised—He promised to be with you.
Promises Precede Trouble
I'm going to tell you something about the promises of God. Any time God promises you something, get ready for trouble.
I know you haven't heard it taught that way, but I'm going to rock your world this morning. Any time God promises you something, get ready for trouble.
I never promise the obvious. I never promise the obvious. I never promise my wife, "I promise you I'll be a black man." You'll get it when you get home. "I promise you I'll remain a male."
Never promise that. You never promise the obvious. You give a promise when you know that something is going to come to make you doubt.
If I write Michael a check, the check is a promise. He cannot spend it, but it is a promise that the money is behind it.
Whenever God promises you something, He says you may not have it in your sensual realm right now, but I promise you.
Good God—did He promise you anything? I heard Him myself. I heard Him myself.
I heard Him when He said He promised me—when you pass through the water, I'll be with you. He wouldn't have said that if His presence was apparent.
Because you never promise the obvious. He said, "But when you pass through the water—you got my word on it. I am in there with you. You may not see me, you may not feel me, you may not sense me—but I tell you what—all the while you're stroking in the water, understand you are not stroking by yourself."
Don't be so aware of the storm that you lose awareness of the God in the storm.
I wonder if Peter wouldn't have done better steering the ship from the bottom of the boat. Instead of steering in the sensual realm, where the storm lives—the real guide was in the bottom of the boat.
And are you steering your life based on what you see, or are you steering your life based on what you believe?
I don't know why God had me on this this morning, but I suspect that somebody in this church is in a storm.
You don't steer through the storm based on the conditions of the storm—you steer through the storm based on the solidarity of your faith and understand that this too shall pass.
Wait, wait, wait, wait—let's settle this right off the top. Let's fix the end from the beginning.
Before the first lightning flashes, before the thunder rolls, before I even get wet—let's settle one thing right now.
When we see the dark clouds coming, and we feel the moisture in the air—let's settle the end from the beginning. I am coming out of this.
They didn't hear what I said, baby. I am coming out of this. I am coming out of this. Tell your neighbor, "I am coming out of this."
I don't have no details, but I am coming out of this. I don't know where the money's coming from, but I am coming out of this.
I don't know whether it'll be divine healing or medicine, but I am coming out of this. I don't know whether they're going to lay hands on me, or I'm going to have to do therapy—but I am...
Oh, my God—I wish I had some faith in this room. I wish I had some faith in this room.
You ought to make a declaration right now that the devil can hear. "I am coming out of this."
Okay, the storm has started. The beginning has occurred. I don't know what all I'm going to have to go through to get to the end of it—but let's set a pin on the end of it and say, "I shall come forth as pure gold."
I may have to crawl, I may have to cry, I may have to wait, I may have to suffer, I may have to hold my peace—but when everything is said and done, I will come out of this.
How do you know you're coming out? Because He's with me. He's with me. He's with me.
He is with me in the storm. This storm may blow a lot of things away from me, but it will not blow Him away from me.
Let's settle on that. He is with me in the storm. I don't know whether you're with me, I don't know whether you're with me, I don't know whether you're with me, I don't know whether you're with me—but let's settle this much right now—I know I got at least one passenger. The Lord is with me in the storm.
Storm, if you fight me, you gotta fight Him—because the Lord is with me in the...
Lesson Two: Don't Preserve the Temporary
I was reading an interesting article about elderly people, and it said elderly people have been proven, statistically, to live longer if they have anything living in the house—anything living in the house.
I mean, anything—even if y'all don't like each other. You got somebody to argue with. You got somebody to roll your eyes at. You live longer—isn't that crazy? Yeah, that blew my mind.
Then they said it doesn't have to be a person. They said if you got a cat, or a dog, or a goldfish to feed, or something to worry about, or something to take care of, or something to do.
If you got anything living with you, you live longer. But if you don't have anybody, and you don't have a cat, and you don't have a dog—if a cat's and a dog's presence...
They didn't hear: if a cat's or a dog's presence can increase the years of your life, how much more would the presence of God increase the years of your life when you find out I'm not living by myself?
I'm not in this by myself. I'm not driving to work by myself. I'm not paying these bills by myself. I'm not taking this medicine by myself. I'm not raising this child by myself. I'm not holding this house together by myself.
Don't allow the presence of the storm to make you doubt the presence of God.
Everybody in this room that knows that the Lord is with you—stand up and brag about it right now.
Yeah, yes, yes, yes—He's with me. The Lord is with me. I hope He's with you, but I know He's with me. The Lord is with me. He's been with me a long time. He's been with me for 56 years. All of my life, the Lord has been...
Can I get a witness in here right now? Sit down—I'm just talking to you.
So the brother in "The Life of Pi," he says, "I survived the storm. I survived the pestilence. I survived almost starving to death. I survived the tiger. I survived almost losing my mind."
He said, "And when I finally got there," he said, "I held on to the boat. I was afraid that I would get that close to deliverance and die in shallow water."
What is the thing that makes us fearful in safe places? Fearful in safe places. Why is he clutching on to the boat in 2 feet of water?
What do you do when your senses are lying to you? When you live in a realm of thinking that you're going to crash but you're not—thinking that you can't make it but you can—thinking that you're in danger but you're safe.
I'm talking about exhausted emotions.
Number three—don't be moved by exhausted emotions. See, I learned that when you get tired, you can't trust how you feel.
I'm preaching right to somebody. I don't know who it is. When your emotions are exhausted, they will send you false signals.
They'll make you think you're in danger when you're not. They'll make you think you can't trust who you can. They'll make you think people hate you who love you.
They'll make you lash out at people who are trying to be nice to you because you have exhausted emotions.
When you get tired, your perception of the situation is altered. When you get tired, you'll be scared when you're safe. When you get tired, you'll be holding on to what's familiar and missing the fact that you can hold on to the promise before you.
When you get tired, you make dumb decisions because you have exhausted emotions.
A psychiatrist friend of mine described it this way. He said, "When you are anxious or exhausted, it's like flying a plane but you can't trust the dials."
In other words, you'll feel like you're going to crash even when you're safe. Don't be moved by exhausted emotions.
Exhausted emotions make you paranoid. Exhausted emotions make you fearful. Exhausted emotions take the pleasure out of surviving away.
You know, I imagine when Paul was on the ship and the ship started coming apart, and they were out there in the water—he would have thought, "Oh, if I can get to the shore I'm going to dance. When I get to the shore I'm going to shout the victory. If I make it out of this I'm going to give God the praise. If I finally finish this, I'm going to dance all over this place."
If we ever get this house paid for, we're going to shout the victory. If we ever get these kids raised, we're just going to dance and shout. If I ever get this bill paid off, I'm going to shout the victory. If we survive this leukemia, we're going to run up and down the aisle.
But do you not know that statistics say that most marriages who have gone through catastrophic incidents fall apart after they survived it? Because they're tired. It's called compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue.
I gave out—I wore out. We made it but I was exhausted. Wore my party out of me. Wore the smile off my face. Wore the step out of my walk.
What does that mean? I could succeed, I could survive, and not feel successful. What happens when you get there and it doesn't feel like what you thought "there" would feel like?
I talked to a young man—he said, "Oh," he said, "I can't imagine what it would be like to be you." I said, "Is that what you want to be?" He said, "Oh yeah." He said, "Oh yeah—if I could just be you." He said, "That's absolutely amazing." He said, "I'm not trying to wish anything bad on you," he said, "but I'd just love to be you." He said, "It'd just be wonderful. It'd just be marvelous. It'd just be spectacular."
Are you sure? Are you sure? I mean, from the outside, you've got an opinion—but are you sure?
See, the problem with the church is we have bought into these mystical magical things where people come up and lay hands on you and give you a double portion of their spirit and they confer blessings on you and they confer the anointing on you.
Let me tell you something. Most of that is garbage. You want to get my anointing? Suffer like I suffered. Cry like I cried. Do without like I did without. Crawl with dirt in your fingernails.
By time you get through bleeding and crying and suffering and you finally get there—it's not going to feel like what you thought it would feel like because along the journey, it cost you so much to get there that success doesn't feel successful. Survival doesn't make you want to celebrate.
Paul made it to the shore but he was almost dead. Who am I preaching to?
You got all kind of people who wish they could be you. Say, "If I could only have his situation. Oh, you got your own law practice. Oh, you got your degree. Oh, you married a man with a degree."
People have all kind of ideas of what it feels like to be you—but they don't know that you're out of breath and about to pass out and at your wit's end and scared to death and at the end of your rope.
But touch three people and say, "Hold on. Hold on. Hold on."
You didn't come through everything you've been through to die in 2 feet of water. You didn't survive the storm and the pestilence to get here and let this little problem get you down.
The devil is a liar. The devil is a liar. You don't even have to be able to swim to survive in 2 feet of water. All you gotta do is be able to stand up—and if you can stand up, you can survive in shallow water.
Slap your neighbor and say, "Don't drown in shallow water." Stand up. Stand up in the water.
Having done all to stand. If you can't swim—stand up. If you can't stand up—sit up. If you can't sit up—look up, look up.
You've come too far to drown in shallow water. Give God a praise! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Tell your neighbor, "Neighbor, I don't care what it looks like, I don't care how bad it is, I don't care how you feel about it—don't drown, don't drown in shallow water."
That thing is too small to hold you down. It's too small to make you quit. It's too small to make you die.
The Lord told me to tell you, "Don't drown in shallow water." Give Him a praise right now! Yes, yes—run over and slap somebody and tell 'em, "I will not drown."
I will not drown. I may cry but I will not drown. I may crawl but I will not drown. I may get depressed but I will not drown.
The devil is a liar. If I was going to drown, I could have drowned way back there. I didn't come this far to drown in shallow water. Give Him a praise. Give Him a praise. Give Him a praise.
Praise Him with your hands wet. Praise Him with your butt tired.
Dr. James, there's one other little point. I have a very active imagination and sometimes it works for me, sometimes it works against me.
And in my mind, I thought that when Paul got to Melita that he got up and built a fire. I just imagined in my mind that once he survived and he was cold and he was wet and he was tired, I imagined in my mind that he got him some wood and built him a fire.
But when I read it over again, I found out something—that when Paul made it to Melita he did not build his own fire.
When you survive a series of storms—life is a storm, everything you touch is a storm—it'll cost you something to go through anything you gotta go through.
But when you finally get there—don't build your own fire. The Bible says, hallelujah—not only did Paul not build the fire, none of the people who were with him built the fire—because when you're tired and I'm tired, neither one of us have the strength to build the fire.
But God sent somebody who hadn't been through what he'd been through to build the first fire. And the Lord told me to tell you to hang around somebody that's got dry wood—hang around somebody that loves you enough to build you a fire.
Hang around somebody that can take care of you when you're exhausted. You don't have to build your own fire. Ha-hey!
Ask your neighbor, "You got any wood?"