TD Jakes - Overcoming Fear and Stepping Into Faith
Through Christ’s blood on Calvary, believers are truly set free from all bondage—past sins, habits, generational curses, and controlling people— and this liberation, purchased once for all, must be proclaimed, celebrated with extravagant praise, and remembered continually, just as deliverance comes in stages like the four cups of the Passover Seder. The conclusion is clear: if the Son has made you free, you are free indeed, so live like it and announce it to everyone.
Reminding Yourself of Freedom
Sometimes you have got to remind yourself you are free. Sometimes you have got to remind yourself you are free, especially when people try to dominate you, control you, and tell you what to do and where to go. Sometimes you have got to remind yourself, «I am a grown woman. I am a grown man. I do not want to go!» «Why?» «Why not?» «I do not want to go! That is my reason—I am free!»
Somebody shout, «I am free! I am free!» Somebody shout, «I am free! I am free!» Somebody shout, «I am free! I am free!» I am free from the bondages that held me from the past, that constricted me, from the fear that intimidated me, from the demons that attacked me, from the witches that tried to hex me, and from the generational curses that sought to bind me. I am free from my habits and my past, from my proclivities and my weaknesses.
Somebody shout, «I am free!» Every time you say it, hell gets nervous. Every time you say it, demons tremble. Every time you say it, there is an earthquake in Hades because the devil does not want you to know that you are free! When you know you are free, you do not need a Juneteenth! If you do not know you are free, you will keep working like a slave because you have not received the message yet—you are free!
The Power of Proclamation
That is why preaching is so important, because it announces to the captive that the price has been paid on Calvary, which purchased your freedom. If you do not want to be a drug addict, if you do not want to be a dope dealer, if you do not want to be a whore, if you do not want to be a liar, if you do not want to be a hypocrite, I just came to tell you what has already been paid for by His blood: I am free!
That is why they celebrated with unleavened bread. That is why they celebrated with unleavened bread, because when they were in Egypt, they had to make bread with leaven. They did not want to think of themselves the way they did when they were serving the Egyptians, so they celebrated with unleavened bread.
In the New Testament, it takes on a new meaning—leaven represents sin, but in the Old Testament, unleavened bread was rebellion against Pharaoh. There are some things that you do that are not even for you; they are for the one who held you. I dressed up to let you know I can. I dress up to let you know I can make it without you.
Defying Former Captors
There are some things you do just because you want them to know. I will never forget when a young lady told me, «I am your intercessor, and if you do not let me intercede for you, you will not be able to preach.» I said, «Let us try it. Let us try it. I dare you—let us try it!» That is all right, I like it! I opened up the door and let her out of the building and said, «Watch me! See if I can have power without you!»
See, once you know you are free—oh, you all are not going to talk to me this morning! But you know you have got some people in your life who did not think you could make it without them! Do not sit there and look at me all cross-eyed and funny-looking! You know some people who, when they walked out on you, thought you were going to die, and you are still standing right where you are.
Do not sit there and act like I am not coming right up your road, preaching this gospel! I am preaching up in here! Liberation is to be celebrated! I said, «Liberation is to be celebrated!» You cannot appreciate it until you have been bound, but if you have ever been bound and then set loose, you are praising God for stuff people do not even understand.
Celebrating Liberation
Your praise gets on other people’s nerves because they have never been bound like you have been bound; they cannot be grateful like you have been grateful. But if you have ever been tied up, thought your life was over, thought you would die and go to hell, and Jesus broke the chains and set you free, it will make you run all over this church!
It will make you leap out of your shoes! It will make you dance with no music! Somebody give Him 30 seconds of crazy praise! Praise Him like you know you are free! Praise Him like you know who you are! Praise Him like you have made up your mind! Praise Him like you are a free woman! Praise Him like you are a free man! Let everything that has breath…
One more thing about the Seder meal: The Seder meal, done correctly, in the Old Testament, had four cups of wine, each representing a different stage of the Exodus story, because real deliverance comes in stages. It is not a one-cup experience! Real deliverance comes in stages; it is a cup kind of thing!
Deliverance in Stages
That is why Jesus said, «Father, if it be Thy will, pass this bitter cup from me!» Come on, somebody! Freedom is a process! You do not get it at the first cup! You do not get up off the altar and have everything you need! Some of you are trying to do four-cup work with a one-cup experience!
Now, somebody say, «Drink again! Drink again!» The reason you do not drink again is that you had one cup, and now you are judging everybody else for going back to get more and more and more! You need to stop judging and keep on drinking, because God will fill you up! «Woman, if you drink of the water that I have, you will never thirst again!»
The scripture said, «Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.» You say, «Well, I thought you were talking about wine; why are you talking about Jesus?» God is going to take the dismal waters of your life and translate them into wine miraculously, and it is a process!
Water Turned to Wine
You will not know when it happens, but somewhere in the process of being poured out, in the process of giving, in the process of serving, in the process of carrying heavy loads, in the process of helping other people, Jesus turns your water into wine! Go back and read the story! You cannot tell when He did it; you just know that He did it!
Have you ever been healed and you do not know when it happened? You just looked up and knew the part that used to hurt does not hurt anymore! The first cup was for the arrival of the Messiah, the second was for the redemption of Israel, the third was for liberation from Egypt, and the fourth was for the coming of the future Messiah.
They were drinking forward and backward—past, present, and future! Like the text, the Bible says, «We do show forth His death”—that is past—“until He comes”—that is future! There is an eschatology involved in communion that says, „I am just doing this till You come back!“
The Blood of the Covenant
Jesus says, „I will drink no longer of the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in the kingdom of God!“ You keep on drinking, waiting on me to come! I am going to abstain until I come, and the next time we drink together, it will be a toast at the marriage supper of the Lamb, where the wicked shall cease from troubling, and the weary shall be at rest, and all the saints of the ages—oh, hallelujah!
Lift your glass up like you are toasting somebody! Hallelujah! When you hear that clink come from heaven, when there is a sound from heaven, when the clouds roll back, and when He whom we have waited for suddenly appears—behold, the Bridegroom cometh! The blood is my covenant!
Say, „The blood is my covenant! The blood is my covenant! It represents everything I needed!“ Before they picked up a pen to begin writing the New Testament, the Bible is clear that the New Testament, or the New Covenant rather, is in His blood. It is in His blood! It is in His blood!
Everybody else that was crucified—when the Roman soldiers came to check them, they were dead. But Jesus—when they came along Jesus—He was alive when they checked Him! When the Roman soldiers found Him alive, they broke their bones so that they could not resist the nails and become obedient unto death.
But Christ was already so obedient unto death that when they got to Him, He was already dead! And the reason He had to be already dead is that He was the Lamb of God, and there was not to be a bone broken in His body! Hallelujah! Because He cannot be a broken Savior and save a broken world!
They hung Him high, and they stretched Him wide. He hung His head and for me, He died! So rather than break His bones, they pierced Him in His side, and the Bible said, „Out of His side came blood and water.“ So when I talk about water, I am talking about blood. When I talk about blood, I am talking about water!
Out of His side came blood and water—the atonement for my sins! The liberation from my past! Yes! So I do not have to sit up here and be at war in my head because I am free! Now let me announce to everybody: „You are free!“ Now let me announce to every convict: „You are free!“
Now let me announce to every drug dealer: „You are free!“ Now let me announce to every person: „You are free!“ You might still be doing it, but you do not have to! He whom the Son has set free is free indeed! You need to have you a Juneteenth! Shake hands with seven people and tell them, „I am free!“