TD Jakes - Redemptive Recognition
I’ve got a great message and a fantastic Bible class that I want to share with you today. It’s going to speak life into you. If you want to get ahead of me, go to the book of Genesis, chapter 42, verses 3 through 8, and get ready, get ready, get ready for the word of the Lord. I’m going to take just a moment to pray and ask God’s presence to open our hearts and minds, to move all distractions out of our way, and to give us the ability to focus on the Word of God so that our souls might be fed. We’re getting all kinds of news and stories from various places—some right, some wrong. Everything is going everywhere, but in the Word of God, folks used to sing, «In the Word of God, I have a hiding place.»
So let’s get into the Word of God, where it’s safe, and understand what the Lord is saying about the times we’re living in right now. I promise you a word from the Lord, and I assure you it’s going to be relevant to what’s happening now. I promise you that if you’ll follow me and really study this word, you’re going to grow. You might need a pen and pencil if you’re old school; you might need your iPad if you’re new school. But let’s go into the Word of God.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we believe you for blessings on top of blessings and revelation on top of revelation. Above everything else, we seek understanding of your Word. We crave understanding; we want to grasp the Word. We want to understand the times we are in. We want to comprehend our responsibilities. We are willing to adjust our attitude to conform to your Word so that we might be the people you are calling for in this last and evil day. Drive out the devices of the enemy, the tactics of Satan, and use us for your glory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen, amen, amen.
God bless you, God bless you, God bless you! Now I’m ready to get into this. I’ve got something I want to share with you, and it might sound strange, but hopefully, by the time I finish, you’ll understand «redemptive recognition.» You’ve hardly ever seen those two words together, but I’m going to focus more on the recognition than the redemption. However, redemptive recognition is a powerful concept that I believe is important. Recently, I had the privilege of preaching for Hillsong in New York for Pastor Carl Lentz. I was a guest speaker; I didn’t really preach. We had an interview on Sunday morning, and he aired the interview during which we discussed race relations in the US. During our conversation, spontaneously, God dropped something in my spirit as an illustration. I held up this cell phone, and I told him, «This is an Apple phone.»
You might have another type, but this particular phone has face recognition technology. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Several articles have been written about how even the best algorithms still struggle to recognize Black faces as effectively as they do white faces. It’s not that the phone is bigoted or racist; it’s just that the people who designed it created it to recognize their faces, and there weren’t that many faces of Black and brown people in technology, especially in the creation of face recognition. This affects everything, especially at airports. As we go increasingly digital, face recognition becomes very important.
However, the stats from US government tests indicate that the top-performing facial recognition systems misidentify Black individuals at rates five to ten times higher than they do white individuals—five to ten times higher—only because the technology hasn’t been programmed to recognize our features. Its cognitive ability to reason and recognize someone’s face is limited by its experiences. Do you see where I’m going? It doesn’t dislike me; it doesn’t hate me. I own the phone, and I bought it, but it has trouble recognizing me because it isn’t wired for my features. Think about that and let it marinate a little as we start talking about recognition, whose root word is cognitive.
What we remember and how we experience that memory has a lot to do with where we are in our text today. We’re going to start talking a little about Joseph, but I will cover many aspects of redemptive recognition. What stimulated this thought was when I read this verse about Joseph in Genesis 42:3. Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, for there was a famine in the land. Egypt was the only place prepared for the famine and had food. They went there to buy grain, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his other brothers, fearing that harm might befall him. You can see how Jacob is still tormented by the loss of his sons. He is afraid to send another son for fear of losing yet another one. He clings tightly to Benjamin, who is like Joseph—a beloved child born to him and Rachel. He does not want to lose him like he lost his mother, and he thinks he lost his brother.
The sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Joseph was governor over the land, the one who sold to all the people. Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. He changed his voice slightly and asked them, «Where do you come from?» They replied, «From the land of Canaan to buy food.» Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not recognize him. They failed to recognize someone whose very presence was essential for their survival. In order for them to benefit from their relationship, they eventually had to recognize him as their brother, but they did not do so at first.
Later in the text, you will read where Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and they all began to weep because they had not treated him like a true member of the family. They had told their father he was dead, yet now they needed the very one they had rejected. It was a significant moment of family healing. Joseph comforted them, saying, «You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.» You’ve heard this preached many times; he’s truly trying to ease their fears and help them understand they don’t have to live in guilt for the mistakes they made in the past. It’s a moment of family healing. If you have any family at all, you’ve had or will have these moments. Families can become estranged and must reconcile. They must recognize that they are on the same side.
If you’ve been married for over 30 days, you’ve experienced those moments where you had to stop fighting over a specific issue and realize you are on the same side. You don’t need to attack the individual but rather address the issue. However, when you don’t recognize someone as an ally or brother, it complicates resolving conflicts. Sometimes this leads to tragedy or years of silence between siblings, discord in families, tensions in the home, and divisions over assets that may end up in court. It can escalate when you don’t recognize your own relationship. For clarity, Joseph in the Old Testament is a real figure, but he also represents a type of Christ. It is significant that he illustrates how his brothers did not recognize him, as a picture of how Christ would come to his own and not be recognized. What you cannot recognize will not redeem you.
Consider this: I want you to look at the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 10 through 14. You will see a depiction very similar to what we read in Genesis 42:3-8. Quickly go to John 1:10–14, which states, «He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.» Let’s stop right there. He was in the world, a remarkable fact to grasp. The creator of the universe, the CEO of the planet, came into the world. Something so immense entered something so small; he humbled himself. Paul later discusses this, how he humbled and shrank himself, pouring out his glory and honor. He entered the world he created, yet «the world knew him not.» This is about Jesus.
If you read earlier in John 1:1, you’ll find «In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.» All things were made by him. Without him, nothing was made that was made. In John 1:14, we understand that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is talking about Jesus, the same Word that said «Let there be» is the same Word that entered the womb of Mary, wrapped himself in flesh, and became a carpenter’s son. Yet, the world did not recognize him; they dismissed him as merely a carpenter’s son, just as Joseph’s brothers failed to recognize him. But the next verse provides a closer illustration: «He came unto his own and his own received him not.»
Now, we are not just speaking about the world; we are speaking about his own people, his own culture, his own background. They did not receive him either. However, «As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.» This experience of being born again hinges on recognition. Do you recognize him as the Messiah? Do you recognize him as the Son of God? Do you recognize him as the Lamb of God? Do you recognize him as the master of your life? Salvation isn’t merely predicated on the existence of God; it requires recognizing God. You can have God exist in you without being redeemed.
But if you recognize him as Lord of your life and King of Kings, it is this recognition that brings about redemption. It is not self-righteousness or morality—though you should strive to be better—but it is, in fact, recognition that ushers in redemption. Do you remember when Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead? Thomas entered the room and said, «I will not believe unless I thrust my hand into the wound in your side and feel the nail prints in your hands.» Jesus responded, «Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe.» Thomas was declaring he wouldn’t recognize Jesus until his conditions were met. Recognition brings about redemption, a pivotal moment when he finally acknowledged Jesus as Lord to His knees.
I believe the scripture said that he exclaimed, «My Lord and my God!» What happened? He recognized Him. It is possible, my friends, to live in God’s world, breathe God’s air, appreciate God’s Son, and smile at the moon in the middle of the night against a backdrop of twinkling stars and still not recognize the Creator or His creation. It is possible to be left calling the creation the Creator. To all of you who pray to the universe, you are praying to the creation and not to the One who created it. It is possible to enjoy the wind blowing on a sandy beach and to dip your feet into the chilly waters while it tickles your toes as you walk down the path of a sandy beach, watching the sun set against an alabaster sky, and still not recognize that all of this did not happen by chance, but that God did it. The point of recognition has everything to do with redemption.
Do you recognize? It’s possible not to recognize God because you’re in a storm. The disciples had that problem. You remember they had been with Jesus all day long. Jesus went apart into the mountains to pray. When He came down from the mountains, the boat was now out in the ocean. The Bible says that Jesus came walking on the water toward them, and they did not recognize Him; they thought He was a ghost. They recognized Him in good times, but they did not recognize Him in bad times. There are some people who recognize God in good times, but when the storm is raging, they do not recognize Him in the storm, and they ask, «Where is God?»
Even though He is coming right at them, they don’t recognize Him; they think it’s a ghost because they do not recognize God in a storm. I want to talk to you about your cognitive skills and your ability to recognize God when the conditions change, when the storm arises, when the lightning flashes, when the job is lost, when your body’s in pain, when a loved one dies, or when a partner leaves.
Can you recognize God in a storm? Recognition: do you have the cognitive ability to recognize God in a storm, or is your attention so distracted by the storm that you don’t see the Savior of the storm? Are you so distracted by the creation that you don’t see the Creator? Are you so distracted by how you feel that you don’t pay attention to the fact that God is with you in the storm? Is the enemy fighting you more through your conditions, or is he fighting you through your cognitive ability to recognize God in spite of the conditions? In fact, I would suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that it could be possible that the only reason he sent the storm was to block your cognitive ability to recognize God in the midst of it.
What am I saying? I’m saying that the storm may be a distraction that causes you not to recognize that the one walking on the water is the same one you walked with on the beach. I’m saying that the same one who was with you before you got into trouble is with you now, in the middle of your trouble. I’m saying that the same one who was with you at the wedding is the same one that’s with you at the graveside. I’m saying that the real pivotal point of revelation is based on recognition. Recognition may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. The truth of the matter is joy never left, but sometimes we’re so busy weeping that we don’t recognize joy in the night. It takes daylight, the conditions changing, for us to see that He was there all the time. So rather than praying about the circumstances all the time—and I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray about the circumstances—sometimes we need to pray for our recognition.
No wonder Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1, «I pray therefore that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you might know what is the hope of His call.» He said, «I’m praying for your eyes, not your circumstances.» I’m praying that you might recognize. Here, Joseph’s brothers—I have not lost my place. Joseph’s brothers have come into the place of plenty and they have kin over there, but they do not recognize him. In order for them to really benefit from who they have on the other side, their cognitive ability has to be able to recognize him as kin to them. Until they do that, the real breakthrough of the text does not occur.
You can be right beside the greatest blessing of your life; you can be within a stone’s throw of your own deliverance and not recognize it. You can be just one breath away from the greatest idea you’ve ever had and not recognize it. You could have met your husband and not recognize it; you could have met your wife and not recognize her. I actually met my wife on many occasions and did not recognize that she was going to be my wife. It is possible to be in close proximity to your destiny, but until your recognition of what you have comes to light, you cannot receive what you do not recognize. You cannot embrace what you do not recognize. You cannot be redeemed by what you do not recognize. Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.
O God, open my eyes that I might recognize what I have available to me because sometimes I do not recognize my friends for my enemies. Sometimes I choose the people who say the nice things, never realizing that the person who told me the truth was really more my friend than the person who heaped lavish accolades and platitudes upon me that amounted to monuments of absolutely nothing. I thought that they were my friends, and it took me years to recognize that the one who wrestled with me did so because they loved me. So I want to talk to you about recognition, understanding, and the evolution of our understanding—not just that we recognize, but how we recognize.
I was on the phone the other day, and we were having an interesting conversation. Some great thinkers were on the phone, and we were discussing these mice that went through lab tests. They would put perfume in the room, and whenever the mice smelled the pleasant aroma or scent that they put in the room—whether it could have been perfume or the smell of food—whatever it was, the mice responded in a very positive way until they started shocking the mice every time they smelled the pleasant smell. Eventually, without shocking the mice, when they smelled what used to smell good, they developed an aversion to it because lodged in their cognitive memory base is a memory that something bad happened when they smelled this pleasant scent.
Now, without being shocked, they are still reacting as if they were being shocked because built into their memory system is that this smell brings pain. We can all understand, and we ought to be able to understand that what was shocking about the conversation is that when the mice had children and their children had children, when they were placed in an environment where they smelled the scent, they recoiled, just like their parents, even though they had never been shocked. What they began to understand is that trauma is cross-generational; trauma passes down from generation to generation. Even when you don’t have the same experience, you have the same reaction because it is wired into your DNA.
That’s why history matters; that’s why yesterday matters, young people; that’s why your background matters. Because sometimes you’re reacting to something not because you had the experience, but your grandparents had the experience. When you smell the smell, you still jerk back because it is wired that way. I wonder how that plays out when you’ve had a bad experience with a race of people, and then you have children, and your children have children. They have not had the experience, but they still have the reaction because it’s been wired into them. I wonder how that plays out if you had a bad experience with a gender; it passes down generationally to the point that it’s wired into your DNA that there’s trouble when you see that gender.
I’m just asking, I wonder how that plays out with certain types of music and certain types of stimuli. Maybe we are not born with a clean slate as we thought we were. Maybe we are born with predispositions down inside us that create certain reactions and fears. I wonder why you’re scared of heights. I wonder why you don’t like chocolate; I wonder why you don’t like strawberries. I wonder why you came here, and nobody in your family likes marshmallows. I wonder why we have predispositions toward certain attitudes. When they walked into the room with Joseph, they did not recognize him, and they were uncomfortable and ill at ease, yet they still did not recognize him. When they came to Jesus, they did not recognize Him.
I’m starting down a trail of something that I think is important that we need to talk about. It kind of goes a little bit deeper with this. I’m headed somewhere; you just bear with me a little bit. Not recognizing things correctly has a lot to do with how well you are, your wellness, your spirituality, and your ability to receive things from God. Many, many times when we don’t recognize things correctly—or I’ll use the word discern them correctly—sometimes we don’t get the blessing that we ought to get, and sometimes we receive a curse we could have avoided because we failed to recognize properly what we should have recognized. For example, let me talk about this; I hadn’t planned to use it, but I will.
At the Last Supper, Jesus was sitting around the table with His disciples, and all their lives they had been wired to see this as a Passover meal. They had a little bread and a little wine, which is normal; the elements are the same things they had been using for years to recognize the Lamb that was slain and painted on the doorposts of the believers when their ancestors left Egypt. It was a good thing; it was a redemptive thing. But they were thinking backward on the Lamb, and all of a sudden, Jesus shattered their old memory when He took the old elements and gave them new meaning. He said, «Take, eat; this is My body.» Not the Lamb of your ancestors, but «This is My body that was broken for you.» All of a sudden, He had to shatter through years and years of their cognitive understanding that this represented the Lamb that was slain in the Passover when they left Egypt. Jesus shattered it.
A revelation can bring a paradigm shift; then all of a sudden, you see something old in a new light. O God, I pray that you would grant us a revelation and help us see something old with new light—see new opportunities, see doors where you used to see walls, and see God making a way in a place where you didn’t see Him making a way. See not just the historical context, but suddenly Jesus said, «This is My body,» and He offered the wine, saying, «This is a new testament in My blood.» He shattered years and years of preconditioning and their thinking. That’s what revelation does; it shatters years and years of stinking thinking or bad dispositions or reactions to things in a certain way.
O God, give us a revelation where we begin to recognize things from a different perspective than how we used to see them. Just don’t give us religion; we don’t need more religion. We need revelation; we need revelation and a relationship so that we can have a new understanding about an old idea. Because when you have a revelation—when you have the ability, through that revelation, to recognize something in a different light—it shatters every curse that has ever been on your life. Before Jesus shattered it around the table, He shattered their way of thinking about it. He shattered what their parents thought about it. He shattered what their grandparents thought about it.
With the moving of a piece of bread, He said, «This is My body that was broken for you,» and it shattered everything they’d been pre-wired to understand about it. O God, give us a shattering preacher—a shattering church that shatters old ideas—not steeped in such tradition that they will not shatter the tradition in order to walk in the revelation of God. You need a revelation of God that will shatter your old principles and ideas and cause you to grow and shift. Because God could be trying to reach you on the water, but you’re running from Him because you think He’s a ghost.
So I’m praying that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened—that we behold; we see it over and over. In the scripture, we see «behold.» All of a sudden, God is trying to unveil something. It’s an apocalyptic unveiling. God is trying to unveil something in a new light, in a new capacity. You may be asking God for a new situation, when all you really need is a new revelation: Do you recognize? This is My body; this is My blood. And so the physical body of Christ now serves them—the memorial body of Christ—and He serves it to them.
The disciples are the mystical body of Christ, and soon He will return as the glorified body of Christ. There are four bodies of Christ: the physical body of Christ, the communion as the memorial body of Christ, the Church as the mystical body of Christ, and upon His return, we will experience the glorified body of Christ after He has risen from the dead. It’s all a matter of how you recognize it because, if you don’t recognize it rightly, it’s just wine and crackers; it’s just grape juice and bread; it’s just some mead, and I’m hungry. We see later in the Church at Corinth that they were getting drunk at the communion table because they did not recognize the sacredness of what they had. Oh my God, how many times do people not recognize the value of what they have until they lose it? In retrospect, they realize, «He was a good man; my father wasn’t as bad as I thought he was.» «Mama, my mother was right about that.» «But my ex-husband wasn’t who I thought he was.»
All of a sudden, it registers. Don’t wait until you lose something before you recognize the value of what you have. Behold, this is my body that’s broken for you. Behold, this is Joseph; I am your brother. Behold, this deals with your cognitive ability to recognize and to be redeemed on the basis of your recognition. So, if I were the devil and I couldn’t stop redemption from coming, I would stop you from recognizing it. If I were the enemy and I couldn’t stop you from having a brother, I would stop you from recognizing it.
If I were the enemy and I couldn’t stop you from having a friend, I would stop you from recognizing it as a friend. If I were the enemy and I couldn’t stop the truth from being the truth, I would stop you from recognizing the truth and allow you to believe a lie and be damned because I want you to be cursed. I can’t stop the truth from coming, and my only hope is to stop you from recognizing the truth when you hear it. «He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.» Do you hear how powerful that is?
It’s not that the word is to be preached, but do you have an ear to hear? Do you have my eyes to see? Do you recognize your brother Joseph? Do you recognize your Savior Jesus? Do you recognize the Lord’s Body? The ability to recognize is very, very important. Most of the time, I get ready to use this phone, and five times out of ten, I have to punch in the code because it doesn’t recognize me. I own it, but it doesn’t recognize me. It’s mine, but it doesn’t recognize me. It’s not wired to recognize features like mine.
Why is it that some people go to church and they get blessed, while other people get in the car, and all they do is gossip? Why is it that some people are slain in the Spirit, while other people are flirting with somebody across the pew? How can we be in the same atmosphere and have two different experiences? It’s because one recognizes the holiness of the moment, and the other one is so carnal that they do not recognize God at all, nor do they recognize who’s walking up there or moving through the pew. How is it that you could be so close, and one person walks away with a blessing and a healing, while the other one goes home talking about how they think Sally is gaining weight?
Do not be the kind of Christian who does not recognize the privilege of being in a moment with God, an encounter with God, a touch of God, a word from God. To be spiritually alive and to have your senses alive to the point that you’ve recognized that God is with me: Henry left me, but God is with me. Sally left me, but God is with me. I’m in a wheelchair, but God is with me. I’m in a nursing home, but God is with me. I lost my legs in a war, but God is still with me. Rather than be so carnal that you only recognize God on the beach and never recognize Him in the storm, you don’t recognize the elements to be His Body, or you don’t recognize me to be your brethren because you are not wired to see me as family.
If you don’t see me as family, you’ll treat me as a stranger. If you don’t see me as family when I’m walking down the street, you’ll lock your car door. If you don’t see me as family, you’ll fellowship with me but exclude me from the jokes and the conversation and the camaraderie that exists when you see me as family. Am I not your brother? Are we not the family of God? I started thinking about this text. I was reading in Ephesians about how we are all the family of God, and it brought me into a study about how we could be family and still feel so foreign. How could we proceed out of the mouth and nostrils of God, and He breathed into us a breath of life that we all share? And yet, we fight so much.
While I was meditating on it, I thought, «Lord, you have a big family with all types of ethnicities, languages, music, styles, dances, personalities, and moves.» You have a huge family, but I’d say, «God, you have a dysfunctional family.» Lord, we don’t always recognize each other as brothers and sisters; otherwise, we wouldn’t treat each other the way we do, and we would fight for each other better than we do. Oh, we would stand united better than we do. Why don’t we recognize? How could we have eyes and not recognize? Why is it that throughout the New Testament, Jesus healed more blind people than any other physical infirmity? It’s because of all things, God wants you to be able to see— to see!
Do you see, or are you so wired that you do not recognize what you see? The men of Korah had a distinction because they discerned the times they were in. Do you discern? Do you discern the times we’re in, or are you blinded to it? Do you recognize where we are in history? Do you recognize where we are as a people? Do you recognize family? Do you recognize family? I told you last week that in the last days the Bible says mothers will be against daughters and fathers will be against sons; there would be all this dysfunction in the family. And that’s in the natural and the spiritual family—there’s this dysfunction. You raise somebody in the ministry and then end up falling out with them and despising your own son or despising your own spiritual father.
That happens in the church all the time. It also happens in the natural family, where your own blood kin don’t speak to each other. Do you not recognize me? The pain— it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong; the pain of not being recognized around the table is real. They call all the sons, but they don’t call you. They don’t call you. The pain of not being recognized is a painful thing when other people are recognized. You have the history, you have the DNA, you have the calling, and yet you’re not recognized. There’s a certain feeling of rejection and bitterness, and if you’re not careful, it’ll make you lash out and fight rather than humble down and come home like the prodigal son.
You must say, «I just want to come back. I did some crazy stuff. I spent all your stuff—my inheritance—and I messed up the family name, but I still want to come home.» That humility it takes for reconciliation comes when you recognize that the value is not the father’s stuff; it’s the father’s presence. In your youthful zeal, you went after the father’s stuff, but that’s not the best part, prodigal son. The best part is not the father’s inheritance; it’s the father’s presence. He says, «I am no longer worthy to be called your son.» I now recognize. I came to myself—it took me a while to grow up. What age do we grow up? I don’t know; they say at 18 we can drive or we can vote. We can own property at 21. We can be drafted. What age do you «grow up»?
Some people are 30 and haven’t grown up; others are 40 and haven’t grown up. What age is that? You recognize: «When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child.» But when—when—when? I don’t know. But when I became a man, I’ll tell you what the sound was: I put away childish things. Putting them away doesn’t mean that I don’t like them anymore; I just put them away because I have different priorities. When I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child, and I understood like a child, but I knew I was growing up when I could put away the way I thought, the way I spoke, and the way I understood. I became a man when I recognized that it’s childish. It was fun, but it was childish.
Now, I don’t know who I’m talking to right now; it was fun, but it was childish. I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, and I understood as a child, but now I’m beginning to recognize I’m starting to put away childish things, and I am becoming a man. I cannot tell you what day that happens; it may not be in a 24-hour period, but eventually, there’s an evolution that overcomes the soul, and you go through a metamorphosis, where all of a sudden you put away childish things. If you don’t, you remain in the famine, and the famine is not always about money. You remember Joseph’s brothers came to him because they were in a famine. The famine isn’t always about getting corn; it’s not always about getting coin; it isn’t always about a raise. It can be a famine for love, a famine for peace, a famine for understanding, a famine for acceptance.
Will you stay in the famine? Are you so stubborn that you would stay in a famine rather than begin to recognize what you need to recognize to receive the harvest that you need to receive? I’m going to go a little bit deeper with this. I feel like I’m talking to somebody; I don’t know who it is, but I’m about to break through some ground. In First Corinthians, we were talking about communion. I want you to see this: 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23 through 29. Follow me quickly. I’m going deeper into this word. Let’s go deeper into this word.
Here Paul says, «For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.' And in the same manner, also, He took the cup, when he had supped, saying, 'This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He comes. Wherefore'», watch this: «'whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.'»
Do you remember reading that when you were a child? Cold chills broke out over you, and you were sitting up there thinking, «Oh God, I’m not going to take communion because I’m afraid I’m not worthy, and I don’t want to drink unworthily. Whosoever drinketh unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.» But let a man examine himself—not his neighbor, not his wife, not his son, not his daughter. Some people can discern everybody but themselves. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Oh, wait a minute—he drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. That means that if we take of the cup and eat of the bread and we don’t discern the Lord’s mystical body, you could take communion and not discern that I’m a part of the body too!
If you don’t see me as an equally significant part of the Body of Christ, and yet you take communion, then you drink damnation to your soul. Paul goes on to say, «For this cause many are sick, many are weak, and many have gone to sleep because they did not discern the Lord’s body.» Church, wake up and hear me: until you’ve really discerned me to be an equal part of the body, then don’t drink from that cup and don’t eat that bread. For the damnation is in not discerning me to be an equally equivalent part of the body of Christ. There is no sub-body; there is no subordinate body; there is no altered body. I’m either part of the body, or I’m not. If I’m not equal to you and you don’t discern that in your behavior, if you don’t see me as your brother, then don’t take communion anymore. For this cause, many are sick, and many are weak, and many have gone to sleep.
They’ve died not discerning the Lord’s body. Because of my denomination, or because of my theology, or because of my skin color, or because of my gender, if you don’t recognize me as part of the body, how dare you not recognize us when you need what I have, and I need what you have, and we need what each other has? We are connected for a reason, and we’re supposed to be together. But if you only want me to decorate your stage and not infiltrate your spiritual family—if I’m only there to make the stage look good or the front of the church look good, or I’m there so you can brag that you have me in your church and you don’t discern me to be part of the body—if I don’t discern you to be part of the body, or I don’t welcome you to the table of fellowship, then it’s more than just church. I can’t have a multicultural church if I don’t have a multicultural life because if I do, then they’re just props used on stage for advertisements.
Until we can wash cars together, play golf together, laugh, go out and eat afterward, and cry together—when my pain becomes your pain and my joy becomes your joy—then you don’t discern me to be your brother. So the famine breaks out, and you’re in need of corn because you don’t know your brother. Here you are, weak and sick, and possibly dead, because you don’t recognize me to be a part of the body. Let’s go deeper; let’s go deeper with this. I think the Holy Spirit is penetrating something. I can sense it in my spirit; He’s penetrating some barriers. Whether you’re black, white, or brown, it doesn’t matter. We all have some things that must be penetrated because some of us are still acting like mice—the shock is gone—but every time we smell the smell, we react in a certain way because we don’t discern one another to be family. I know we don’t discern one another to be family because if you do, then my pain is your pain, my loss is your loss.
A little boy came in; I think he said he was eight or nine years old. He saw his mother sitting on the couch crying, and he said, «You know how it is when you’re a little boy. When you see your mama cry, you start crying too. You don’t even have to know what she’s crying about.» That’s family: rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. That’s family. When my pain becomes your pain and your pain becomes my pain, that’s family. That proves we’re Christians. We’re not Christians just because we wear crosses. We have the same sacraments in the same ceremony. In fact, it’s dangerous to take the sacraments without discerning that we are part of the body and telling yourself you don’t have the same experiences that I do. But you’re connected to me, and I’m connected to you.
I don’t have to be molested to be concerned about the molested, and I don’t have to be a woman to fight against rape. I don’t have to be abducted to fight against human trafficking. Stop giving yourself a pass to be blind. Let me go a little deeper, and do not resist the Holy Spirit as He opens up areas and goes into our cognitive reasoning, beginning to change the way we think because that is what ministry is all about. «Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.» How am I to be transformed? «By the renewing of my mind.» That’s how transformation occurs. Change my mind, transform my mind, by the renewing of my mind. By the metamorphosis of my mind, by the transition of my mind. That’s how real change happens.
You know you’re growing in a church by the renewing of your mind when it gets into those uncomfortable places and challenges you to come out of your feelings and into the revelation. Behold, I show you a mystery. Behold, we survive. Behold, God is saying, «Do you not recognize me?» Is the storm so bad that you don’t recognize me? Come on, let’s go deeper. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians, and I’m almost finished, but I want to give you this one last scripture. I pray that you’ll be blessed, and I pray that after this is taught, God would open up the windows of heaven like He did for Joseph’s brothers, blessing them the rest of their lives so they lived in plenty because the family was reconciled.
Anytime there’s reconciliation, there’s going to be celebration. The famine was over, and the rest of that generation continued to be blessed because they recognized their brother whom they had sold into slavery. The recognition of Joseph as legitimately a brother, though he had been sold into slavery, is what broke the famine. If there’s a famine somewhere in your life, it could be possible that your guilt, pain, shame, aggravation, irritation, or preconditions—however you interpret it—make you not recognize that the brother who was sold into slavery is still your brother and holds the key to unlock the famine happening in your life right now. No matter where you are, no matter what the color of your skin is, no matter what part of the world you’re living in, I’m still talking to you. Nobody escapes this word; nobody misses the need for the word to penetrate and change how we recognize things.
This is good. I’m going a little deeper. I know you’re not going to shout today. You’re not supposed to shout. This is not the kind of word that makes you shout; this is the kind of word that gives you something to shout about. This is the kind of word that readjusts your thinking. This is the kind of word that transforms your mind. This is the kind of word that breaks the curse over your house. This is the kind of word that breaks the famine in your life. This is the kind of word that brings prosperity into your life. This is the kind of word that breaks the yoke of poverty off you. This is the kind of word that breaks loneliness, pain, guilt, and shame off your life. It deals with your history, your past, and the abortion you had. The problem is that when they came face-to-face with the blessing, they didn’t recognize the blessing because they were still bound by the shame of what they had done to Joseph. Shame is its own form of slavery. Let’s go deep. It’s good.
1 Corinthians 12:12–27—here the Apostle Paul teaches the church at Corinth, using a metaphor of us being one body. Even as Christ said, «Take, eat; this is my body,» He offers the memorial to the mystical body of Christ, which is the church. Paul builds on that in 1 Corinthians 12. He introduced it in 1 Corinthians 11 at the communion table, but in 1 Corinthians 12, it explodes into powerful revelation and addresses how we treat each other in the kingdom. He says, «For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are still one body, so also is Christ.»
He says, «I have one body. I have two knees, two big toes, four toes on this side, and four toes on this side—ten toes across my foot—but it’s still one body. I have two legs, but I have one body. I have two hands, but I have one body. I have eight fingers and two thumbs, but I have one body. I have two eyes, but I have one body. I have two jobs, but I have one body. I have one mouth, but I have one body.» You understand what I’m saying? I have two ears, but I have one body. All of them are shaped differently, look different, and function differently, but you cannot allow the differences of the members to divide the body because it is one body, and it was built to be different. That’s what makes it beautiful. That’s what makes it wonderful. That’s what makes it work.
Let’s read it again: this is good. You’re about to see something here that will break the yoke over our country and our world. It will break the yoke in Venezuela, and it will break it in Nigeria. It will break it in America and Canada. If we discern the Lord’s body, it will break through and break out of the conditioning and the stimulus of the electric shocks placed on both of us—in different ways and on all of us—in different ways to restrict us, causing us to react when we hear this, when we smell a smell, like our ancestors did.
«For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are still one body, so also is Christ.» For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles. There is no difference regarding your ethnicity, background, or racial makeup, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re part of the upper echelon or whether you’re lowly. We have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot says, «Because I have not the hand, I am not of the body,» is it therefore not of the body? The foot doesn’t get to renounce the hand and say you’re not legitimately a part of the body. If the ear says, «Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body,» is it therefore not of the body? In other words, one part of the body doesn’t get to reject the other part simply because it looks different. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were members, where would the body be? But now they are many members and yet one body. Many members, yet one—that’s what our nation is built on: many yet one, many yet one.
Now are they many members yet one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, «I have no need of you,» nor again the head to the feet, «I have no need of you.» Nay, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are still necessary. We need each other. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need. But God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
God gives more honor to the part that lacks, that there should be no schism in the body—there should be none, zero, no schism in the body—but that the members should have the same care one for another. You can’t not care just because you came from a different zip code and still say you’re a Christian. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. You can’t just watch the suffering and turn your head because if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, then all the members rejoice with it. We are in this together.
Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular. You know you are the body of Christ when you feel my pain. You know you are in the body of Christ when you rejoice when I rejoice. You know that you are the body of Christ when you weep when I weep. That is the proof. When you recognize me as part of the body, as your brother, it breaks the famine. To see your Savior in the storm stops the wind. And I said there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free; that we are one. That would change this country, that would change your family, that would change your workplace, that would change your stress level, that would change you. If you would reprogram yourself to recognize my face, even if it looks different from your own.
This is the word of the Lord. This is the Bible study we need right now. This is what we need in Congress, in the White House, in my house, in your house, in the crack house, and in every other house—to recognize that we’re a family. If your child has a drug problem and they need a therapist and they need a rehabilitation center, then you can’t send my child to jail when they have a drug problem and say you’re a Christian, not recognizing that I love my child like you love yours. This is the kind of preaching that will not allow you to scream insults when Colin Kaepernick bends his knee and then get quiet when a police officer takes his knee and crushes the neck of a man who is in so much pain he is screaming for his deceased mother. How can you take communion if you’re not crying about their pain? How can you be outraged by the bending of one knee and totally silent about the other?
I want to pray with you today. I want to pray with us today. I want to pray with our world today. I want to pray with all the people who are burning up other people’s stuff and using this as an opportunity to go out in the streets—not crazy—but down to the people who are wounded and hurt and in pain, acting out on that pain in a way that distracts from an issue we desperately need to cover. We don’t need to cover marches; we need to cover this case because you can’t change what you can’t see, and right now, you’re blocking the image of what America needs to see to make the changes it needs to make. We don’t need to see looting and crime; we need to keep our eyes on that knee on that neck because it represents everybody else who did not have a camera when they were crushed. Until the church weeps, how can we expect the world to recognize what the church refuses to see?
I want to pray for you because in some way, this affects how you see your children, your cousin who gets on your nerves, your wife who hurts your feelings, and your husband who broke your heart. Until America learns to weep, to love, reconcile, reconnect, and forgive, we’ll always have a famine and always have a fight. We’ll always be talking about getting somewhere that we never quite get to because the hearts of men don’t change.
The laws can change, but if the hearts don’t change, it’s the hearts of men that write the laws. The only thing wrong with my phone is that it was not programmed with me in mind, and that is privilege. I can buy it, but it does not recognize me as its owner because I don’t look like the guy who made it. Let me pray with you today because there’s something in this message that ought to resonate with every human being. I don’t care what the color of your skin is, whether you’re rich or poor; there ought to be something inside of you, where the Holy Spirit is knocking at your heart, you need to recognize this truth.
If you do, somewhere in your life there will be redemption; wherever there is recognition, let’s pray. Just maybe it’s me and you. Don’t say, «Open up your heart.» Don’t be defensive; don’t be at war. Just crack open the door of your heart and let the Holy Spirit flood in. Allow Him to show you something and give you a revelation. This is my body that could change how you see the rest of your life.
Father, in Jesus' name, we bow our heads because we are sinners. We bow our heads because we are wretched. We bow our heads because we are human. We bow our heads because we are flawed. We bow our heads because we are not finished yet. We bow our heads because sometimes we are angry without reason. We bow our heads because sometimes we are full of rage and not revelation. We bow our heads because sometimes we are not enraged; we just don’t see it. We just don’t get it, and we are conveniently blind, thereby consistently quiet. Shatter the quietness; break through the darkness. Transform the dark places into light by renewing our minds until when one of us weeps, all of us weeps. We are changed and redeemed because we recognize. Don’t let this be just another moment that passes us by without recognizing anything except what others tell us to think about it. I pray that this would be the launching pad of the greatest revival America has ever seen. But we cannot revive the world while the church walks in darkness. Let it start with the church; let it start with its leadership. Let it start with the men and women of God who claim to know You. Let it start by breaking down our traditions until we are less concerned about football players and more concerned about murder. Our values are so far off base, and we have forgotten the love of God. Give us a miracle in the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen, amen, and amen.