TD Jakes - Discovering the Courage to Embrace Grace
So this message is not just about scandalous grace; it’s about how you find the grace to go on when your life has turned into a scandal. How do you find the grace to keep on living when you’ve made mess after mess and bad choice after bad choice? How do you find the grace to survive a divorce, a travesty, an accident, an incident, a moment of bad judgment? How do you find the grace? David gets up off the ground, and the Lord sent me here to tell somebody you’ve been on the ground long enough. You have cried long enough, walked the floor, been depressed, and blamed yourself long enough. It’s time for you to get up off the ground, all of that dirt, all of that dust, all of that guilt, and all of that shame.
God says it is time to wash your face, to wash it out of your spirit, wash it out of your mind, wash it out of your heart, wash it out of your behavior, wash it out of your songs, and wash it out of your attitude. It’s time to wash your face; you can’t go into the presence of God carrying the dust of yesterday. You can’t go into the presence of God with your head down, feeling ashamed of yourself. You can’t go into His presence; it’s time to wash your face. The Bible says that David washed his face and anointed himself. He refreshed himself and went into the house of God.
I came to tell you this Sunday morning that there is a way back from a fall, a way back from a crash, a way back from a disaster, a way back from a conflict, a way back from a crisis, a way back from a divorce, a way back from disgrace, and a way back from embarrassment. But you cannot find your way back if you’re going to measure how close you are to God by how people talk because this is not about people; this is about God and what God has to say. It is not about what they have to say because if they were honest, they would be lying on their faces before God, too. Stop allowing your destiny to lie in the hands of people who are dirtier than you.
You don’t see David meeting with people or reading the blog sites to see what they’re saying about him. The truth of the matter is that whether they say, «Hosanna,» or «Crucify him,» your destiny is not in the hands of men; it is in the hands of God. If God is for you, who can be against you? If God says, «Live,» none of what they say can kill you, but if God says, «Die,» none of them together can make you live. David saw a moment, a chance, and an opportunity to take God up on a second chance. He washes the dirt off his face, anoints himself with oil, and changes his garments because David, better than anybody else, knows that in order to enter His gates, you have to come in with thanksgiving, and into His courts, you have to come with praise.
You cannot enter His gates with guilt and condemnation, and some of you are trying to access God without washing your face. You have to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. It’s hard to get your praise back while you’re laying in your predicament, so David washed his face, anointed himself with oil, and changed his garments. Some theologians say it was at this moment that he wrote the text: «I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'»
I was glad to hear that I hadn’t gotten so far away from God that He would not bring me back home. And I am here to tell you that you have not gotten so far away from God that He will not take you back home. The question is, do you have the courage to wash your face? Do you have the courage to anoint yourself with oil? Do you have the courage to change your garments and walk past all the whisperers who think they have the right to whisper about you but are actually no better than you at all? Do you have the courage to walk past them and enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise? If you do, you will understand scandalous grace. If there’s anybody that owes God a praise, I don’t know about the perfect people, and I don’t know about the self-righteous people, and I don’t know about the people who never smoked or chewed or ran around with any of them that did.
I don’t know about them, but to all of us who have ever gotten it wrong, messed up, made mistakes, and felt regrets, if there’s anybody that has a right to give God praise, it ought to be you. That’s why the Bible says, «Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.» You don’t really have a praise until you have a praise you don’t deserve. You don’t really have a praise until it’s a praise that has come from sackcloth and ashes. The person sitting next to you might not understand it, but there are some people watching right now who know that you are living by His grace, moving by His grace, walking by His grace, and talking by His grace.
If nobody else gives God praise, it ought to be you. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! I need somebody who’s messed up to open their mouth and thank God for scandalous grace. I need somebody in this room who’s been to hell and back, and God has given you a second chance, to open your mouth and give God praise. I need somebody who doesn’t care what you have on, what you look like, or what people say about you, but who has made up in their mind, «I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth!»
I’m going to give you about 30 seconds to open your mouth and give God praise. I’m going to give you about 22 seconds to make some noise in this place and give God praise. I’m going to give you about 10 seconds to come off your self-righteousness and give God praise! God is about to give you a second chance and a new beginning! Somebody shout, «Hallelujah!» Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord, for a fresh start! Thank You, Lord, for starting me over! Thank You, Lord, for giving me life! Thank You, Lord, for making a way out of no way! Thank You, Lord! I’m so glad about it! Thank You, Lord, You did it again! Thank You, Lord, for Your favor! Somebody shout, «Hallelujah!» Thank God for favor!
And the Bible says that when David got through praising God, he goes and finds Bathsheba, and he comforts her. I’m not sure what he said, but nobody can comfort you like somebody who’s messed up too. Nobody can comfort you like somebody who’s experienced scandalous grace. Nobody can comfort you like someone who’s been there and done that. Nobody can comfort you like someone who’s taken a class in humility and learned how to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. Nobody can comfort you like someone who’s seen God pull them out of a ditch, and they’re not ashamed to say, «I owe Him the praise, the honor, and the glory.»
Nobody can comfort you like them. David came in and comforted Bathsheba, and somewhere along the way, in the process of comforting her, he went in and slept with her. Out of David’s gross, dark, depraved, selfish, debaucherous sin and God’s amazing, scandalous grace, Bathsheba was with child. I want to speak to somebody who’s lost something and thinks your life is over, and God is saying, «I’m going to do it again.»
There she is with swollen ankles, a big belly, and a little mask on her face, pregnant and gone from birthing a child to having the next king of Israel. For this time, Bathsheba, who was Uriah’s wife, imagine that God would allow Solomon, the wisest man in the world and the successor to David’s throne, to be born out of David’s failure. If there’s not a message in that, then there’s not a message in anything. God would use David’s mistake to birth David’s miracle. Nine months later, Uriah’s wife pushed out the next king of Israel.
I’m telling you that God can still get some good out of the worst moment in your life if you will allow Him to get you out of the dirt and the ashes of despair from where you’ve been. There is yet a king in a common woman who got herself in a debaucherous situation at the hands of a weak and selfish man and out of your coupling and coming together would come the next king of Israel. Today, all I want you to know is that there is yet a king inside of you, and you are not to let anything take you out in this present moment until you see what’s next in your life.