TD Jakes - How to Think Thankful Thoughts
Jesus asked people questions like, "Wilt thou be made whole"? because in most cases, it's not my will to be like this. It's not my will, I didn't choose it. I didn't decide I want to be an angry Black man, or an angry white man. White folks can be angry too, incidentally. Anger is an equal opportunity response. And for that matter, I have met some seriously angry women in my life. When you say something like that, you don't look at nobody, you look right down the aisle. "Why are you angry? Cain, why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen"? God said to Cain, "If thou doest not well, will I not receive you"?
Are you angry about something you could fix? Guilt that leads to a change of behavior is a powerful thing. Guilt that grabs you by the throat and makes you call me on the phone and say, "Look, I'm sorry," is a powerful thing. It's a wonderful thing for you to be guilty enough to humble yourself, to pull your pride down and pull your images down and pull all the lies you told to yourself down and say, "Look, I miss you, and I'm tired of us fighting like this. And whatever I did to hurt you, I'm sorry. I'm man enough to look you in the eye and say I was wrong, and I'm sorry". You'll never be healed till you can fix it. You know why we don't have revivals anymore?
I mean, we have three-day services, but we don't have revivals. We don't have revivals 'cause we don't have repentance. You cannot have a revival when you cannot have repentance. As long as everybody comes to church, stubborn and saying, "This is my story, and I'm sticking to it," I don't care who you bring in to preach. You may have service, you may have church, you may have shouting, you may have dancing, but you won't have revival until, "My people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin," and God said, "I'll heal your land". It is not our sins that kept us away from God; it is our unwillingness to let them go.
I feel a praise about to break out in this place. I feel a glory about to set in this place. I feel a deliverance about to hit this place. It's gonna be like a tsunami. When it breaks loose in this place, things that the devil has held on you for years are gonna break loose like chains falling off of your soul. I feel the Liberator in this place. The Emancipator has come to church. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. I wish I had a blood-washed saint of God that would open their mouth and give God glory. God says, "I will forgive your sin". That's not the problem. "I'll forgive your sin. I'll heal your land". That's not the problem. It's not what you did; it's your arrogance. It's your inability to humble yourself.
He said "If you would just humble yourself, if you'd stop making excuses for bad behavior, if you would stop justifying stuff just because you like it. If you would stop doing things because you love them as opposed to doing them because they're right. Because it's not the sin, I can fix it. I got the antidote, I got the cure. I shed the blood. I got the key, I can get you out. I'll deliver you, I'll forgive you. I'll set you free, I'll make it just as if it didn't even happen. I'll clean it up better than your lives are doing. I can clean it up, I've got the Brillo pad and the soap and the water. I will get the stain off of you if you would humble yourself. But because you've been your own physician, because you've been your own attorney, you didn't leave space for me to get you off. You should have thrown yourself on the mercy of the court and said, 'I'm completely guilty. I have no right to be here. I'm a sinner and a wretch undone. Every blessing I ever got is the grace of God. Every door he ever opened was the grace of God. Every mountain he ever moved was the grace of God. I deserve to be burned in hell for the things I've done.'"
But thanks be unto God for every blessing. You see this jacket? It's a blessing. You see these pants? It's a blessing. You see these shoes? That's a blessing. But better yet, you see these feet? That's a blessing. You see these legs? That's a blessing. You see these arms? That's a blessing. I don't deserve none of that. To God... Oh, somebody humble, give him a praise. See, when I teach ministers on exegetical preaching and delivering a text, I tell them never give the answer before you describe the question, because the answer only has power in the face of the question. If you don't describe the question, the answer has no relevance. So if you jump into this text and you look at this text and you see this woman just bathing his feet with her tears and don't see why, then you could think she was radical. She could be a nutcase, she could be crazy, she could be ridiculous, she could be out of her mind.
Why is she crying? She won't stop crying. Why does she keep jumping up in the service? She's loud, she's noisy, she's out of control. Every time the bishop make a point, she's up there doing jumping jacks. Has she lost her mind? I don't wanna sit beside her, she acts like she's crazy. If you don't know the story, you don't understand my response, come on here, somebody. But when you know what I've been through, and you know how I suffered, and you know what I carried, the pain and the agony of what I carried... am I right about that thing? See, you're praising God 'cause you're cute, and he's praising God 'cause he's fine, and she's praising God 'cause she's rich, and he's praising God 'cause he got a new suit, and she's praising God because she got a Sunday hat on. But I don't care about the hat, the suit, the coat, the shoe, I'm praying to God that that weight that weighted me down... oh my...
Touch three people and tell them, "He took it off of me," he took it off, he took it off, he took it off, he took it off, he took it off, he took it off, he took it off of me, he took it off of me, he took it off of me, he took it off. He took the burden of it. He took the pain of it. He took the agony of it. He took the shame of it. He took the guilt of it. He took the strife of it. Tell your neighbor, "He took it off". And if I never get the car, if I never get the house, if I never get the job, I'm... My, my, my, my, I feel the glory of God in this place. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this place. Every day I live, I say, "Thank you". Every day I move, I say, "Thank you". Every day I get in my car, I say, "Thank you". Every step I take, I say, "Thank you". Every time you move a mountain, I say, "Thank you". Every time you open up a door, I say, "Thank you". Every time you give me a promotion, I say, "Thank you".
Every time I take a step up, I say, "Thank you". Every time you make a way out of no way, look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord, look what the Lord, somebody give God a crazy praise. Slap your neighbor and tell him, "You're getting ready to step up, you're getting ready to step up. You're getting ready to step up where you never stepped before, my God, from glory". I feel a step up praise in here. I feel a step up praise. Somebody take 30 seconds and give God a crazy praise. If I'm talking to you, touch everybody you can reach and say, "He's talking to me this morning". He's talking to me, he's talking to me, he's talking to me, he's talking to me. Tell your neighbor, "He's talking to me. This is my Sunday. This is my Sunday. This is my moment. This is my hour". Give God a crazy, Holy Ghost, supernatural, divine, sanctified...
Shake your neighbor and say, "I gotta get it off of me". I gotta get it off, I gotta get it off, it's been on me too long. I gotta get it off, I gotta get it off of me, I gotta get it off of me. I gotta get it off of me, I gotta get it off of me before I mess myself up. I gotta get it off, I gotta get it off of me. I gotta get it off. I gotta get it off of me. I gotta get it off of me. Guilt that leads me to change is a powerful thing. But what about the guilt about stuff I can't change? I can't get that baby back. I can't get this disease remitted.
What about the guilt we carry over the things we can't change? I would fix it if I could. If I had it to do over again, I would change. I was selfish, and I'm sorry. What do you do when the mess you made cannot be cleaned? Can't do it over. I brought that man in the house. I brought the man in the house that raped my daughter. My son got raped by my boyfriend, and he told me, and I called him a liar. Bishop, I would fix it, but the person I did it to is dead. The person who hurt me can't come back because they're gone.
And I feel like if they would just say, "I'm sorry," I could get well. Well, what do you do when you can't undo what's been done? You can't fix it, and you are standing there waiting on something to happen that cannot happen. "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is that flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of", say that, "nothing but the blood," again. "Nothing but the blood of Jesus. One more time. Nothing but the blood of Jesus".
No wonder she walked in crying. No wonder she walked in the door weeping. There was no one else that could fix it. No wonder she kissed his feet and took down her hair and started drying his feet with her hair, because it was him that had delivered her from guilt to gratitude. And my brothers and sisters, this Sunday morning, God wants to deliver you from guilt to gratitude. You cannot be grateful and guilty at the same time to save your life. If you did something wrong and you can fix it, fix it. If you can straighten it out, make it right. If it's out of your reach, "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace is upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed".
Heads bowed, eyes closed. No music at all in this moment, in this sovereign, sanctified moment. Will you come this close to redemption and maintain your composure and walk out of this door just like you came in? Or will you humble yourself at the feet of Jesus and let your tears wash his feet with the kind of gratitude that only the forgiven can understand? Yes, there will be people who sit back and say, "It doesn't take all of that". There'll be people who smirk and look at you and say, "Look at her, and look at him, laying out before God". But they are only saying that because they have not been forgiven much.
But to those of us who are grateful for every breath we breathe, for those of us who realize that what you've been through could have killed you, you could have been murdered, you could have been stabbed to death, you could have been shot, you could have been destroyed, but mercy, mercy prevailed. And this is an odd message, and I know it is, and I told God it was, but it was what he gave me. He told me, "I want you to come against guilt. I am tired of my people carrying what I already carried, wounded where I'm already wounded, being beaten when I was beaten. Tell my people they are paying a bill they don't have to pay".
He said, "Tell my people there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Tell my people that he whom the Son has set free, is free indeed. Tell my people that I'm tired of them weeping over what I have forgiven and carry what I have already borne. Tell my people that all they have to do is be grateful and worship me, and I will give them the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Tell my people, tell my people, I told my people, my people, my people". And I want every soul who's ever carried something that was too heavy, maybe draped it in anger or hid it in mood swings or tranquilized it with liquor or anesthetized it with drugs. You don't have to leave here like you came. I can't make you receive it, but he told me to tell you about it. You could be happy, and you could be free, and you could be whole if you would bring what you're carrying to this altar and cast your cares on him.