TD Jakes - Do You Have an Anchor for Your Soul?
I want to talk to some people today. I want to talk to some people today whose souls are weary. I want to talk to some people today whose souls are worn out. I want to talk to some people today whose souls don’t lie down. Your body lies down, but your soul is still up, walking the floor. I want to talk to some people who appear to have everything stable in your house, but others don’t know that your soul is uncomfortable. Your mind is in disarray; your mind is full of duress. Psychologists teach us that when the mind is in distress bad enough, then the house begins to turn into squalor because the house is just an outward sign of what’s going on inside the head.
Eventually, people become so deranged in their heads that they feel comfortable living in filth and confusion. They won’t clean up the house because they can’t clean up the mind. When you can’t clean up the mind, what good is it to clean up the house? I know I’m talking to somebody. Over time, you become comfortable with the clutter in your closet, in your car, and in your house. This clutter is just an outside manifestation of the clutter in your mind. We find people in homes filled with clutter, open boxes, half-eaten food, sheets hanging out—clutter everywhere. Anytime you become comfortable in the clutter around you, it reflects the clutter within you.
One of the first things they do when they put you in therapy is to place you in a clean environment where everything has its place. If we can help you understand that there’s a place for everything outside, we can assist you in realizing that there’s a place for everything inside. Your mind is in clutter. This text before us today is not only here to stimulate our energies in the historicity of a theological exploration of a private conversation between Abraham and God. No, this conversation is here to show you how far God will go to calm your troubled mind. «Surely blessings, I will bless thee.» Yes, you didn’t hear it. You know what the hardest thing in the world is?
Preaching the word to the people of God because we have heard the word so much that we don’t believe it. If we truly believed the word of God, and I said, «Surely blessings, I will bless you,» everything in here would start shouting and running. But because we don’t really believe that God is talking to us, we respond, «Yeah, amen, that’s nice.» If your soul believed that God had given you a promise that was irrevocable and immutable—that no matter what hell you went through, it was all going to be alright—you couldn’t stop yourself from running. The very fact that you can be indifferent is simply a sign that you don’t believe it. So, to convince you, He says, «Surely!»
Look at God trying to persuade you of what He’s already done. «Surely, son, I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply thee.» You know what? If you believe that, you ought to praise Him like you just hit the lottery. You ought to praise Him like He just paid off your mortgage. You ought to praise Him like you just got healed. You ought to praise Him like He just opened a door. You ought to praise Him like He just made a way. Hey, practice your victory praise! Practice your deliverance praise! Practice your coming-out praise! Praise Him like it’s already done! Praise Him like you’re a believer! For the next 30 seconds, let everything that has breath give God some kind of praise! So here we are, praising the Lord.
The old folks used to say, «Here I go again, praising the Lord.» I praise Him in the morning; I praise Him at noonday; I praise Him when the sun goes down. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him! Praise Him in the morning, praise Him at noonday, praise Him! That kind of praise is the kind that you have to be a believer to offer. You can’t praise Him like that if you don’t believe Him like that. You have to believe Him like that to praise Him like that. Anytime I can talk about promises and it can fly over your head, it only means you don’t believe it because if I handed you a check, you’d burst into tears because you believe the temporal. You believe the touchable. You believe the physical more than you believe the spiritual. But if you believed the spiritual, I just handed you a check.
«Surely blessings, I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee.» Let’s rehearse this: «I will multiply thee.» Say it again: «I will multiply thee.» Say it again: «I will multiply thee.» Give Him a praise like you believe it! See, what you must understand is that God is talking to Abraham about the future, not the past. He is using the future to provide something we all need: stability in our souls. I’m tired of shaking. I’m tired of rocking. I’m tired of being moody. I’m tired of flipping out on people. I’m tired of going off. I’m tired of being up and down, back and forth.
Anyone know what it’s like to be tired? I’m tired! I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night. I’m tired of trying to figure out my bills. I’m tired of trying to encourage myself. God says, «Surely blessings, I will bless thee.» Blessings, I will bless you! Multiplying, I will multiply thee! That’s all He’s saying to him: «I will bless you and multiply you. I’m going to bless you, then multiply you. I’m going to bless you, then multiply you.» You don’t hear what I’m saying! I’m not going to merely add because that’s too slow; I’m going to multiply! Multiplication is addition on speed dial! God said it’s going to come upon you speedily; it’s going to come upon you suddenly; it’s going to come upon you right now; it’s going to come upon you right away!
«Surely I will bless you! Multiplying, I will multiply thee!» Then He says, «I’m telling you this, I’m doing this, and I’m willing to go on the contract! I’m willing to sign a contract, and I’m willing to put something up for collateral to ensure you that I’ve got this.» I looked for something to put up for collateral, but I couldn’t find anything better than myself. So I swear by myself that I’m so committed to blessing you; if I don’t bless you, I put myself on the line. That’s what the cross was—the cross was God putting Himself on the line, saying, «If I don’t bless you, He won’t get out of the grave.» But if you see Him get up, it’s a sure sign that «Surely, God will bless you! Multiplying, I will multiply thee!»
I want every blessed person to make a noise! I want every blessed person to give praise! I want every blessed person to send a note! I want every blessed person to say a word! I want every blessed believer to holler at your boy! Do something back! Let me hear you say something! If you know, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it! I cannot change my past. I can’t change what I’ve been through. I can’t change who hurt me. I can’t change who disappointed me. I may not be able to change my past, so I cannot place any hope in my past because the past is a graveyard of my yesterdays.
So, I’m forgetting those things which are behind me, and I’m reaching for those things that are before me. I’ve made up my mind, come hell or high water, I’m going to press toward the mark! I may be tired, but I’m going to keep on pressing because everything God has for me has got to be in front of me. I’ve already checked out the past, and if it’s not behind me, it’s got to be ahead of me.
I want somebody in this room to praise Him on credit! Praise Him for what He’s about to do! Praise Him for what He’s about to release in your life! Clap your hands like you’ve lost your mind! And then God says that the hope I place on you is an anchor for your mind, an anchor for your emotions, an anchor for how you feel about things, an anchor against the enemy, an anchor against the pandemic, an anchor against your job being in upheaval!
And I said, «Wait a minute, Lord! If hope is an anchor for the soul, then I’ve got to realize that faith is the substance of the thing I hope for and the evidence of the thing I can’t see.» That means I cannot throw my anchor into my past because if I throw my anchor into my past, it’s going to drag me down. I can’t throw my anchor into where I am right now because if I throw it into where I am right now, I’ll never go forward! So I’m telling you, in order to be ready, you’ve got to throw your anchor forward. Throw it forward! Throw it into next year! Throw it into next month! Throw it forward! Throw your leg, throw your head back, throw up!