TD Jakes - Overcoming Adversity
People still have an attitude here. I got off my job, ran down here to bring you lunch, and you still have an attitude, talking about me and calling me a vile fellow when, in fact, I’m trying to help you. Sometimes the people you are trying to help hurt you the most. He had to go through struggles; he had to fight lions and bears to protect sheep—altercations that could have killed him to get to this moment. But all of that was preparation for this moment because dealing with the bear and the lion gave him the skill set to kill the giant.
So, a lot of times, you ask God to save you from something that He is training you with. I’m talking about preparation. There are tests that have come into his life and trials that have come into his life. It would be very painful for a son for his father to forget him, but David’s father had forgotten him. When they came to anoint someone to be king, he left David out there in the field. Some theologians have suggested he left him out there because he didn’t really think David was his. Some theologies say that when he mentions, «In sin was I born, and in iniquity did God shape me,» it is because there was some question about the authenticity of his lineage.
Now, I don’t believe that because it’s very important that he be Jesse’s son, as this leads to the lineage of Jesus Christ. But it doesn’t matter what the truth is if you don’t see me that way. Are you hearing what I’m saying? Maybe two or three people in this room know what it is to be raised in an environment where you were not highly thought of. It changes the trajectory of your life, but it can also be the catalyst that makes you succeed because you have something to prove. There are the tests behind him that brought him to this moment. Every one of those tests were steps of a good man ordered by the Lord, leading him down to Goliath. Goliath was the usher who opened the door to the palace. Goliath represents the great challenges; you cannot get to your kingdom until you face your giant. Goliath exposed him; Goliath gave him attention.
Saul wouldn’t pay David any mind. He’s the son of a pauper, a shepherd boy—what does the king have to do with a shepherd boy? Goliath gave David a platform to demonstrate what his trials taught him. Thank you, Goliath! Thank you for roaring at me. Thank you for coming at me with your shields and swords and trying to destroy me, because you put my talents on display. I have no bitterness in my heart against my Goliaths because they made me who I am. There was a woman in Charleston who wrote for the Charleston Gazette, authoring the first mean article ever written about me. If I ever meet her, in case you’re listening right now, can I take you out to dinner? I’m serious; I’m not mad. I would take you out to dinner. God really used you.
I doubt I would be standing here in Dallas today if you had not attacked me like you did. I hold no ill will against you; you became a Goliath that gave me a platform that created a stage for me. I am so grateful to you. I am so thankful to you. I am so happy for you. I wasn’t happy at the time; I was angry at the time. That’s why you can’t trust your emotions. Today I realize that it was good for me that I was afflicted. You made me understand through that attack that I didn’t fit. That was a good thing because I was determined to fit into a place I was not supposed to be, and your attack announced to me that they were not wrong; I was wrong. I was the right person in the wrong place, and you shifted me. Oh, thank you, God! Oh, I love you!
So I hope you’re doing well because I am. There are tests behind him, and there are tests before him. Do not think that because you come to a pivot point that you are through with tests. The tests that push you to the pivot point only bring you to another level of tests. The reward for overcoming this test is the right to fight on the next level. Look at the preparation that has gone into making David who he was. If his brothers had embraced him, he would have stayed. Had his father accepted him, he wouldn’t have moved into Saul’s house. Perhaps Saul’s invitation to move into the house was alluring to David because he longed for a father’s voice. Perhaps David would not have been willing to move into the palace for the sake of the drapes and the pillars, but at the voice of a senior statesman, he moved into the house, and from that day forward, he never went back home.
This was a pivotal moment. Anytime you have a moment where you call everybody and say, «I won’t be coming back home anymore,» that’s enough pressure. Y’all don’t need it anyway. That’s a pivotal moment. Bella Reese was in the movie. I know. Yeah, David called home and said, «I won’t be back.» Can you imagine David calling his hometown, Jesse, «I’m out of here. I’m gone. I won’t be back?» Look at how open David’s heart was to the love of a father. God knows exactly what to do to get you to pivot. So David pivots and moves into the house, while Saul was the debate, but Jonathan was the hook. In the moment that he reached after Saul, he met Jonathan. Sometimes you do a thing, and it’s not what you thought it would be, but it leads you to the thing that matters. So don’t be too busy being depressed about the thing that didn’t work, because the failure led you to the success.
So that you can have an encounter with God. Are y’all with me? Everything he has gone through has prepared him for this moment. That’s why you shouldn’t despise anything that happened to you. No matter how tough or difficult, it’s taking you somewhere. If you got that, I could sit down. If you understood that the very thing you’ve grieved about, worried about, or felt sorry for yourself for—asking why me, Lord—is a conveyor belt ushering you into your destiny, then you’re on the right track. Those light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding weight of good. While we look at the things that are seen, for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.
I can remember what I can remember, but I can’t see what I can’t see because it’s going to be great. Everything I’ve gone through ushered me into what I’m about to do right now and gave me the grace to pivot. Because I am loyal to a fault, I would have stayed in that house. I would have stayed trying to convince them that I was a good person. I would have stayed running up and down the hills, bringing them lunch. I would have stayed in the desert, writing poetry, singing songs, taking care of sheep, and shoveling sheep dung, because I’m loyal.
So, God had to send something strong to make me shift. I want to talk to my loyal people in the house. People get hurt because others expect loyalty, and when you show loyalty and don’t reap it, it can shatter you emotionally. You’re saying, «I don’t deserve this,» and you’re right. But God is using something you don’t deserve to bring you into something that you do deserve. Oh, come on, somebody! Everyone who has ever had their heart broken, been disappointed, cried themselves to sleep, stayed up all night worrying, and woke up in the morning feeling lost—shout, «I’m in preparation!» Everybody who fought battles bigger than you, without the weapons to win those fights—shout, «I’m in preparation!»
Everybody who’s been hated on or envied while you were just trying to make it through—shout, «I’m in preparation!» You might not even know what you’re preparing for, but you know God, and you ought to get happy because God is preparing you. He’s taking you somewhere; He’s got something greater for you. The greater the preparation, the greater the promise. The greater the preparation, the greater the prophecy. The greater the preparation, the more God will use you. I’m so glad I was afflicted; if I hadn’t been afflicted, I couldn’t stand what I go through now. But God was preparing me, turning up the heat. What you call putting the heat on me is my normal. I eat tough things for breakfast because of what I’ve been through.
Who am I talking to in this house? Three people, say, «Preparation!» Preparation is preparation! The trial is preparation! The test is preparation! The adversity is preparation! The crime is preparation! The divorce is preparation! The loneliness is preparation! It’s preparation! You wouldn’t have discovered your toughness if you hadn’t gone through preparation. You didn’t even know you had that talent. You didn’t even know how to handle things by yourself. You learned because God put you in a state of preparation. I need 36 people to praise God for preparation!
Now let’s move to number two: perspective. He is entering this new environment, this new setting. Now, this is going to resonate with some people. You come into a new environment where your gift has brought you into a room, but you might not have what you need to fit in. Picture this: he’s sweating; he smells; he has sheep hair on him and dung on his shoes. He’s been fighting a giant, and he hasn’t been home for a bath.
Now he’s brought into a palace, walking around on granite floors and marble columns, with cascades of drapes puddling on the floor. He’s in an environment where women carry water on their shoulders to prepare bathwater for the king, dining amid culinary artists preparing exquisite cuisine for the royal family. Yesterday he was out there with no one around him but sheep. I’m telling you, God will put you in a room so fast you won’t have time to fix yourself. You won’t have time to read a book on protocol. You just have to stand up in that palace, bow in service, and figure it out.
You don’t know who to address; you don’t know the proper titles. God is getting ready to shift someone quickly, and if anyone walked into that palace and saw David, he appeared out of place. Watch this: you have to be willing to appear out of place. A lot of you can’t handle that, because if you don’t get accepted right away, you’ll think, «They were acting funny when I came in, and I left.» You quit. You resigned. You were resigning from your own destiny. You were resigning from your own purpose. You’re going to be out of place for a while; it’s okay. I know you might smell right now; I know you might not have the right clothes or degrees. But if God invited you into the room, walk right up in that room. Say good morning!