TD Jakes - No Receipts, No Respect
I want you to stand and get the Gospel of Saint John, chapter number 20. I know you’ve been up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and I’m trying to get your cardio in. John, chapter 20, verses 19 through 31. When you have it, say amen. You still look and say, «Wait a minute, amen?» John 20, verses 19 through 31: Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, «Peace be unto you.»
And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Watch closely. He showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, «Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you.» Notice that. Go back to that verse again. Then said Jesus to them again. When he said it the first time, he didn’t get a reaction. He said, «Peace be unto you.» The first time, they were just looking at him. So he escalated and showed them his wounds, where they had pierced him in his side, and the nail prints in his hand. Then he said it again. The Bible said when they saw that, then they believed.
Now he says, «Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.» And when he had said this, he breathed on them, hallelujah, and said unto them, «Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.» But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, «We have seen the Lord.» But he said unto them, «Except I shall see in his hands the prints of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.» And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said—wait a minute, I just realized—Jesus would come back for one person. Jesus wasn’t worried about the numbers. He wasn’t worried about the crowd. He wasn’t worried about the multitude. He came back for one person and did the whole thing over again. He says, «Peace be unto you.» Then he says to Thomas—then he saith to Thomas, «Reach hither thy finger.» Wait a minute, Jesus, you weren’t even here when he said that! How did you know what Thomas said to them when you weren’t around?
«Reach into thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.» Thomas answered and said unto him, «My Lord and my God.» Jesus saith unto him, «Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.» And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that believing, ye might have life through his name. Can you say amen? I want to talk from the subject, «No Receipts, No Respect.» No receipts, no respect.
Father God, in the name of Jesus, as we approach that throne today, we ask for the endowment of Your anointing to rest upon us in a supernatural way. Give us grace to preach, the anointing to teach, the power to minister, and the glory to reach souls here and around the world. I thank You in advance for what You’re going to do. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Somebody who loves Him shout amen!
You may be seated in the presence of God. Get ready. You had me when you hollered out «evidence.» I thought you had seen my notes and read my mind because this is about evidence; however, the word «respect,» which I used, is not necessarily mentioned in the text at all. Neither «receipt» nor «respect» is directly referenced in the text. When I think about respect, I consider it in traditional terms. But if you study the etymology of the word «respect,» you come to understand that it means more than how we use it in a contemporary sense today—as giving honor, tribute, or recognition to someone. It is actually a perfect passive participle that is designed in such a way that it means to look at, or, in the case of respect, to look back at. The word «expect"—like «spectacle"—refers to eyes seeing; thus, respect is to see again. So when you say «respect,» in its initial intent, it was to see back, or to take another look, or to look back again.
Let’s go further. When you start thinking about the word «respect» in the tense of its original meaning, you begin to understand that respect is more than merely giving honor, tribute, or recognition. It is more than that. You can «respect,» you can «inspect,» you can look into something, which is to inspect, or you can «respect,» or you can have a «spectacle,» something that is amazing to look at, but it is all centered around seeing. And though the word «respect» is not there, unless I see the nail prints in His hands and see where you have pierced Him in the side, I will not believe. Respect is to see again. Are you hearing what I’m saying?
Now, the word «receipts» is really funny to me because when I think of receipts, I think of proof of payment. Like you’re in the grocery store; they give you a receipt. You buy some clothes; they give you a receipt. But today, the urban slang in the dictionary for the word «respect» is different; it means to authenticate a rumor. So when you talk about people, «Have you got receipts?» means, «Can you prove that what you said is true?» Can you prove it in a world where everyone is a journalist? In a world where every person who’s got a phone is a journalist, there are no ethics, guidelines, or rules. And then when you add that we’re living in an era where we have terms like «fake news» and «alternative truths,» people have become more and more skeptical of everything they hear.
There’s a spirit of doubt that is pervasive in our society, and I don’t know if we believe in anybody anymore. There’s a spirit of such doubt that if you don’t have absolute receipts, and sometimes even with receipts or pure evidence, people still insist on not believing because they are so filled with an attitude of doubt. Since everyone is editorializing facts and these are often mere opinions that pass as facts, anyone who says anything on any format has to fight their opinion as if it were a fact. We have become investigators of legitimacy. Everybody’s snooping; everybody’s talking about, «Have you heard?» Everybody’s trying to get down—is it true or not? Everybody’s passing around rumors to see if they can get the receipts. There are people who just ask for receipts; they’re looking for anybody to validate anything.
So many people are searching for receipts all the time. Often, they accept fake receipts as evidence, so they’re satisfied if somebody else corroborates and agrees with them; they accept that as evidence. «Yeah, child, I heard it; three other people told me about it; it must be true.» You know that saying: «If Oprah said it, it’s got to be true.» People have different individuals they believe in, and if they said it, it’s got to be true, and they base their evidence on faulty information. Wherever there’s no regulation in place, rumors or receipts have created the Wild West, with people arguing and debating online about almost everything imaginable. It has become crazy—a completely unregulated ability to say whatever you want to say about anybody at any time without any rules or regulations. True journalists have rules; they have boards of ethics that they must consider. They have to be careful about what they say, and they have to retract if they are caught wrong.
But these iPhone journalists, these YouTube journalists can say whatever they want without consequence, and they often do it without having proper receipts to validate what they said. Are you hearing what I’m saying? For example, we get hundreds of fake accounts on Instagram. I’m just going to be honest with you—I’m talking about our ministry. We get hundreds—I mean hundreds—of fake accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter each week that have real pictures from fake pages designed to ultimately deceive innocent people or to get their money, power, sex, or whatever the schemers value. They have put together and can drive something contrived that is quite believable but totally unreal.
And it brings us to a point that we have become a cynical society, a doubtful society, and an uncertain society, and it’s hard for an uncertain society to have peace. You will notice that the first thing Jesus says when He walks into the room to them, the first thing He says is, «Peace be unto you.» The reason He says «Peace be unto you» is that it is difficult to have peace when you are uncertain. And we’re living in an era of uncertainty where it is difficult to know absolute truth—what you believe, what you can count on, what laws will be exercised, whether they will be just for everybody, and whether they will be fair for anybody. We don’t know what to believe; we don’t know exactly what is going on in Ukraine. I have read every piece of news from every source I could find; I listened to what we said, I listened to what the cable news said, I looked at what the evening news said, and I examined what the BBC said. I called people in other countries to hear what they said because, in the multitude of counsel, there is safety—trying to get to the truth because I don’t want to stand on my truth.
Now, there’s nothing I can do about any of it anyway, but if I’m going to be angry, I want to know who I’m supposed to be angry at. If I’m going to have a conviction, I want that conviction to be based on something that is absolute and certain. I just don’t like the uneasiness of uncertainty. It used to be that when we had stress, it was stress over something that happened. But now, nothing has to happen for you to have stress; just living in an atmosphere of uncertainty—uncertain about the economy, uncertain about your job, uncertain about gas prices, uncertain about what’s going on in Congress, uncertain about what’s going on in the White House, uncertain about what’s going on in Ukraine—we get to fighting with each other and neither one of us knows for sure that we’re right.
At the end of the day, people who love each other have stopped speaking. The bond of family and unity ought to be strong enough to withstand opposing opinions, but people have fallen out with blood relatives, and neither one of them is sure. Both of them are going by what they read in an uncertain atmosphere. You don’t even know what to believe. Does anyone know anymore what to believe? When Jesus walks into this room, He walks into a room filled with uncertainty. Was He who He said He was? How could He be the Lord of Glory and the Son of God, stripped of His clothing, nailed to a tree, and die before our eyes, placed in a tomb? Was He real? Did I spend the last three years wasting my time?
Uncertainty—we have that kind of uncertainty in relationships. Relationships that have broken off: Did you ever love me? Was any of it real? Can I believe the flowers? Can I trust the cards? Can I trust your niceness to be authentic, or was it manipulative? Long after the marriage is gone, the uncertainty lingers. Oh, y’all not gonna talk to me today! Sometimes it’s years before we know what really happened. Generally, it takes 50 years or so before they unlock the vaults and give the records and the history of what really happened behind closed doors. But in real-time speed, it is hard to be certain when you are surrounded by false information, and you wonder where are the receipts? You want some evidence. You have to calm yourself down and not get caught up in the whirlwind of what everybody thinks and what everybody’s saying about anything because we develop mobs quickly when we are uncertain.
Many other people have joined mobs and gangs to fight about something, and they didn’t even know exactly what it was they were going to fight about. We have heard mentality—the instinctively and inherently inclined species. We are inclined to be in herds. You’ve heard of herd immunity; I’m talking about herd mentalities. When everybody in the barbershop starts talking a certain way, to fit in, we will join in because we don’t like to stand apart and hold our ground and maintain our convictions—we have a tendency to join the herd. It is the depth of the freedom of thought. Thought is the final frontier of freedom. Everything else has been invaded. You never know for sure when you send a text who sees it. You never know for sure when you take a picture who saw it. You never know for sure when you read information whether it’s authentic or not. We live in an atmosphere of total uncertainty and the loss of privacy; and the only thing we have left is our thoughts.
And now uncertainty is after our thoughts. If you’ve ever been uncertain, it’ll keep you up at night; it’ll take away your sleep. People who normally fall asleep easily will stop sleeping because they’re in an atmosphere of uncertainty. If you’ve ever had a lump in your body and you weren’t sure what it was, it will make you sick with worry, even though you don’t have evidence as to what it is. The uncertainty is often worse than the diagnosis. I have a tendency to be confrontational because I would like to face things head-on. I don’t like ambiguity. I don’t like to spend days trying to figure out what you meant when you said what I heard. Was it this or that? If you don’t like me, just tell me! Tell me you’re through with me. Tell me you don’t want me. I would rather have the pain of rejection than the trauma of uncertainty.
When Jesus walks into this room, He walks into an atmosphere of uncertainty. Yes, we know thousands of years later that He was risen from the dead, but if the common trending rumor had Twitter, it would have trended that it was not authentic—that His body was stolen. And now, the disciples are hiding in a room for fear of the Jews. That means they thought they had killed Him, and they would kill me too, so we’ve got fear and uncertainty mixed together. Sounds a lot like today. If you can get over the uncertainty, you’re still stumbling over fear: fear over who’s going to die next, fear over who’s going to be shot, fear of who’s going to be in a drive-by shooting, fear of who’s going to be violated, fear over your reputation, fear over your future, fear over your job, fear of whether or not you can make ends meet, fear of whether or not you have enough gas, fear of whether or not you can take care of your kids—fear, fear on every hand.
Fear for your children: call me when you get there, text me when you get home, call me back—fear, fear, fear. Uncertainty and fear; uncertainty and fear is a thief sent by the demon spirits of hell to rob you of peace. So the first thing Jesus says, I’m going to say it to you: «Peace be unto you.» He spoke peace. When I was young, I prayed for joy. When I got older, I prayed for peace. When I first got into church as a teenager, all I wanted was George, Giorgio, Giorgio, JoJo. You remember! I don’t have to dance; I don’t have to jump; I don’t have to shout; just let me sleep. Somebody really ought to talk to me in here: just let me sleep. Just let me sleep. I don’t need joy; I need peace right now. I need some peace; I need some peace. And Jesus said—He didn’t say, «Joy be unto you»; «Dance when I come into the room»; «Shout when I come into the room»; «Be slain in the spirit when I come into the room.» He stepped into uncertainty and said, «Peace be unto you.»
It’s the same kind of peace that He spoke over the winds and the waves. See, the truth of the matter is that the same thing which was going on on the boat was going on in the room. Uncertainty: «Carest thou not that we perish?» Peter’s saying, «I don’t know whether I’m going to live or die—'Carest thou not that we perish? ' I’m in a storm! Is this the big one?» You remember Sanford and Son—"This is the big one!» How many of you have gone through something you thought, «Oh my God, this is a big one»? Or prayed a prayer, «Lord, if You just get me out of this, I promise I will never do that again! If You just please, just get me out of this! I know it was my fault; I know I brought it on myself, but oh God, I need You to get me out of it because I don’t know how this is going to turn out uncertainty.
Jesus comes into the room, and he speaks peace just like he did on the boat. He woke up out of sleep, spoke to the storm, and said, „Peace, be still.“ Somebody shout „peace.“ That’s what you need; shout it again: „Shout peace!“ I need peace over my finances; I need peace over my marriage; I need peace over my children; I need peace over my job; I need peace about my future; I need peace about where I’m going to stay; I need peace in my mind; I need peace to bring my blood pressure down. I need peace about this feeling I have in my body—every time I sneeze, I think I’ve got COVID. I need peace; I need peace; I need peace; I need peace. I can’t have peace if my nostrils drain. I’ve got uncertainty about that. If I get hay fever, the devil says, „Oh, you’ve got COVID, and you’re going to die.“ I need peace—speak peace! Speak!
Somebody shout „peace!“ I can’t fight everywhere; I can’t fight at work and fight at home and lie in my bed and fight with myself. I can’t fight everybody at the same time. You’re fighting with your mama, you’re fighting with your daddy, you’re fighting with your wife, you’re fighting with your husband, you’re fighting with the dog, you’re fighting with the cat. And when you finally get by yourself, you’re fighting with yourself. Jesus said, „Peace.“ They saw him when he came through the door. The Bible records vividly that he came through the door—Jesus appeared in the room. They saw him when he came in, but knowing that he was there did not bring peace because they were now uncertain of him. He said, „Peace be unto you,“ and it still didn’t bring peace. They were uncertain of him, so he had to show the receipts.
Now Jesus is having to prove to the believers, to believe in him that they had been with for at least three years. This is not the world; this is the church. Now Jesus is having to prove to the saints that he rose from the dead because on the other side of it, the evidence was so strong. Lord, have mercy! The evidence was so strong, it was so compelling. They saw him hung high; they saw him stretch wide; they saw the nails in his hands; they saw where they pierced him in the side. They had taken his rigor mortis-ridden body down off the cross, pulled his dead, cold arm away from the nails with a thud, and they had seen the blood congeal. They knew that he was dead, and they had forced his arms into the death position and prepared him for burial. They had wrapped him in linen strips as was the custom of the day and surrounded him in linen. They were not sure that he was living, but they were sure that he was dead.
Once you get a mindset that is set in a particular direction, it is difficult to get you to change it. It is difficult to get it out of your head because it has almost been seared into your mind with a hot iron that what you saw with your eyes is true. Jesus is trying to get them to look again: „Respect your first look might be wrong.“ Your first look has to fight through your perspective, and you don’t have any respect for me because you have the wrong perspective. So, in order to get some respect, you’re going to have to look again. You can’t offer medication with one test; you can’t make a cake with one test. There are several ways you have to test that thing before you pull it out of the oven, or you’re going to get embarrassed.
If you have one of those cakes, you have to explain, „I know it doesn’t look good.“ But anytime you have to explain the cake, you have really made a mess. Jesus is trying to get them to look again. And my text, Jesus appears in the world with receipts to dispel the pervasive view that the resurrection was a hoax. Is anything real anymore? In the text, he makes two trips to ensure that all of his disciples would not doubt what most of them would die over. He was going to ask them to die over it. He knew they had to be sure of it, so he gives them a chance to respect respect by showing receipts. The receipts of authenticity of his lordship are not in his crown; they are not in the ten thousand angels that he could have called from heaven.
The receipts of authenticity of his lordship are in his wounds. Y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. Thomas didn’t say, „Unless I see his crown“ or „Unless I see angels all around him, I will not believe.“ „Unless I see him walk on water, I will not believe.“ „Unless I see him standing in clouds of glory, I will not believe.“ No, Thomas required the receipt of the thing he had survived. Y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. Jesus, you see, has appeared in fresh garments but with old scars. That’s a write-down moment right there: fresh garments but old scars. He doesn’t have on his grave clothes—that might have been admissible at some level of evidence—but Jesus has changed his garments.
In other words, he doesn’t look like what he’s been through. There are people in this room that don’t look like what they’ve been through. They have on fresh garments, but they have old wounds. They’ve changed their hair, but they have old wounds. They wear nice cologne, but they have old wounds. They’ve cut their hair differently, but they have old wounds. They don’t look like what they’ve been through, and they’re wondering why people don’t believe in them. I will never believe in you as long as you change your garments and don’t show me your wounds. I will only believe in you when you have the courage to be transparent enough to show me your wounds because your wounds are the receipts that become evidence that builds faith.
Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. So, the problem with most of us—and preachers in particular—is we have difficulty being effective in ministry because we keep showing them new clothes but don’t have the power to show them old wounds. Are y’all hearing what I’m saying? Y’all with me? Y’all with me right now? No receipts, no respect.
Say it with me: no receipts, no respect. Again, say it again—that means I don’t respect anybody who doesn’t have receipts. I don’t respect a friend who doesn’t have receipts. You’ve got to show me something. Don’t date anybody who doesn’t have receipts. If you haven’t got any wounds, I ain’t got no time. If you haven’t been through anything, don’t try to talk to me. You can’t be my pastor and be perfect. You’ve got to have some flaws because I can’t relate to perfect people. I’ve got to have somebody who’s been through the fire and been through the flood. I’ve been broken sometimes, and doubted sometimes, and cried sometimes. Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. No receipts, no respect.
Look at somebody and say, „No receipts, no respect.“ I’m scared to death for people who try to convince me that they have no receipts. I’m not impressed by your new clothes; I want to see your old wounds. Don’t hire anybody till you check out their wounds. So even if we have to call you back for a second interview, a third interview, I’m trying to get you to an interview where you can be honest enough to show me your receipts because no receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no receipts. So don’t be dating nobody who looks perfect. Don’t be dating nobody who hasn’t made any mistakes. Don’t be dating because they’re lying. Don’t be dating nobody who’s trying to convince you that they haven’t done anything wrong because they’re lying.
Don’t be fooling with nobody who’s trying to impress you with how sharp they are because they’re lying. Anybody can buy clothes; I’m not going to believe just because you dress nice. Jesus, show me your receipts! No receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no respect! Jesus knows he has stepped into a room full of propaganda. He knows he has stepped into a room full of propaganda. The final frontier of warfare is propaganda. There are a lot of articles being written right now about the possibility of us being in World War III. The truth of the matter is, we’re already in a world war. We’ve been in World War III for a long time. We’ve been in World War III for several years; it is a war for truth. If I had time, I’d go into this: propaganda is as deadly as a nuclear bomb. You drop an idea among people, and they’ll do anything. They’ll kill people; they’ll shoot people; they’ll hang people in the woods; they’ll climb over the Capitol walls.
If you drop propaganda in a room, you can get a mob to go crazy about anything that they have not seen or for which they have not received proof. But propaganda is a deadly thing to drop into a room. So the common ways of fighting a war start with propaganda. The holocaust started with propaganda. They didn’t start out killing Jews; they started out telling jokes, and then the jokes turned into flyers, then into rumors. Because you’ve got to get the people’s will involved to get enough willpower to start really killing, we’re already in World War III. All this hacking going on is warfare. All this hemorrhaging of certainty is warfare. All this pitting us against each other is warfare. We have always had divisions; that’s what made America beautiful. We’ve always had two different ideas of government; that’s what made democracy work.
We’ve always had opposing opinions. We have never been as hostile about it as we are now. We are fighting about stuff that don’t have anything to do with anybody. People come up to you talking about taking off your mask or putting a mask on, and we’re fighting about stuff that makes no difference. We’re fighting about the same people who won’t wear a mask or put on a seat belt. Now, you won’t wear a mask because it messes with your freedom, but a seatbelt is cool? We don’t even think through anything; we’re just mad—Black folks mad at White folks, White folks mad at Black folks. Millennials hate boomers. How are you going to hate your parents? The Bible says in the last days, sons will turn against fathers, and fathers against mothers, and daughters—that’s happening right now! Generation against generation—we’re at war with each other. You’re at war with the people who birthed you, or you’re at war with the person you birthed. Stop telling me what’s wrong with Millennials, Gen X’s, Gen Y’s, Gen Z’s, and all the other alphabet—these are your kids! If there’s something wrong with them, you did it. They came here as a blank sheet of paper. Y’all ain’t going to talk to me.
Now, he’s getting quiet now. Jesus walks into a room filled with propaganda, and he manages the crisis by showing them receipts. The only problem is that Thomas isn’t there—it’s no one else. And if no one else is sure, they had to know he who had last been seen dead is now alive. They had to know that they knew that, but Thomas wasn’t there. Jesus comes back. In the Baptist church, they say, „Do you know him as your personal savior?“ I love that phrase. I have a little bit of Baptist in me, and a little bit of Pentecostal, and a little bit of Methodist. My father’s people were Methodists; my mother’s people were Baptists. I got filled in a Pentecostal church, so that means I’m Baptistal, or my enemies would say confused. Whatever term you like; it doesn’t matter. Call me what you want, but what I do know is he is our personal Savior. Thomas teaches me that he is our personal Savior; Jesus teaches me the importance of having receipts.
Now wait a minute—receipts are expensive! It’s one thing to get something to come out of a cash register; it’s another thing to get it to come out of my side. I didn’t know when he was wounding me, he was giving me receipts. Do you understand what I’m saying? I didn’t know when they took my car. I remember when they rolled my car out of my driveway, and I was looking out the picture window when they took my car away with tears running down my face. I thought they were repossessing my car. I didn’t know it was receipts. I didn’t know when that car that Wes had fixed up for me to drive in broke down on the side of the road and I had to thumb it to go teach Bible class, that he was giving me receipts.
The problem with quick success is that it has no receipts. You have to go through enough stuff, enough trials, and enough tests that once you become successful, when it gets hard, you can walk into the propaganda and show your receipts and say, „I walked for this, I crawled for this, I worked overtime for this, I cut my budget down for this, I didn’t get my hair done so I could get this stuff, I did my own nails, I did my own hair so I could get enough money to open up this business.“ And I’d be doggone if I let you come up in here and take what God has given me. Receipts give you tenacity; they give you an absoluteness; they give you a fight; they give you a fire. You ain’t going to walk up in here and take this out of my hand until I’m ready to let it go. You can put all the grease on yourself, and you can be the greasiest from KFC, but you are not going to take this because olive oil isn’t going to do this.
You’re going to have to have some receipts to get this stuff. You have to have gone through some things; you have to suffer some things; you have to have some setbacks and some almost, and some calamities, and some disasters. You’ve got to have some nights when you cried and some nights you stayed up all night long, and some nights you felt like throwing in the towel, and some nights you lost confidence in yourself, and some nights you thought you were going to quit. You can’t buy the anointing at the Bible bookstore; you’ve got to go through hell, you’ve got to go through high water, you’ve got to go through tribulation, you’ve got to go through adversity. I wish I had some „go-through“ folks in here—somebody who’s been through enough to have some receipts.
Jesus, this is just as important as Jesus washing the disciples' feet. He is showing them the value of wounds because, after all, almost all of them, but one, would have to die for Him, and He had to teach them not to be afraid of wounds. If you run from wounds, you run from destiny. I’ve got to find the perfect husband; if I get the perfect wife, we’re going to get along all the time, and everything’s going to be wonderful. And when the movie is over, you’ll get paid, 'cause that only happens on TV. You have to have misunderstandings and disagreements and times when you didn’t understand each other, and times you’ve been through the fire, and times you cried yourself to sleep—where you faced the east and he faced the west and tears were crossing the bridge of your nose. Before you can say that you are really a couple, a wedding only takes thirty minutes, but a marriage might take thirty years.
Who’s talking to me in here? Somebody be real up in here with me! Not only is He settling their unbelief and their uncertainty and putting a hush on all the propaganda, but He is modeling what it looks like to follow Him. He is showing them that the wounds won’t stop your destiny. Oh my God, this is so good! I think I’m going to get a recording of this myself; this is so good! Did you hear? I think she heard me. The wounds won’t stop your destiny. In spite of who left you, in spite of who hurt you, in spite of the job you lost, none of that has anything to do with the resurrecting power of God to raise you back up again and bring you back up on your feet again. I wish I had a witness somewhere in this place. Maybe there’s somebody over here who’s been through enough hell to appreciate my message.
If you haven’t been through anything, you won’t understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. But if you’ve got scars and wounds and lacerations and bruises and cuts and you dressed over the top of them this morning, and nobody can see them but you’re carrying them, then give God thirty seconds of crazy praise! When, when, when later, when they would crucify Peter, he said, „Don’t crucify me like my Lord; crucify me upside down, because I’m not worthy to be crucified like my Lord.“
What gives Peter this kind of courage in the face of death? He’s seeing the wounds. He’s found out that the wounds are not God, that the wounds are not Lord, that the wounds don’t have the last say, that God is greater than whatever hurts you and whatever you’ve been through and whatever you’re going through right now and whatever you’re going to go through next week. Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. Don’t be afraid of him that can kill the body, but be afraid of the one that can kill both body and soul. Come on, talk to me! Somebody type online: „This will not kill me! This will not kill me! This will not kill me! This will not kill me!“
I may cry over it, but it won’t kill me. I may hurt over it, but it won’t kill me. I may even lose sleep over it, but it won’t kill me. Away with every devil who tells you this is the end; the devil is a liar! That’s fake news; that’s false propaganda! He got up on the third day—tell hell to read the Bible! He got back up again. Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. Who am I talking to today? I feel the power of God about to give somebody a breakthrough in here! Some people left you for dead and thought you were finished, but the devil is a lie; you’re not done yet! Make a joyful noise unto the God of your salvation.
Let me go further; I want you to look at Galatians 6:11–18 real quick, and I’m going to get out of your way. You see how large Paul is writing? Apostle Paul is writing to Galatia in the book of Galatians. He says, „You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. These are Jewish converts trying to get the Gentiles to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. They’re trying to make you follow the law because they don’t want to be criticized by their friends, that God would fall on the uncircumcised.
See, some people are embarrassed by their own converts because you got peer pressure to make your church look more virtuous than anybody else’s church while you know you’ve got the same mess going on in your church I’ve got going on in mine. You know you do! You know you do! Don’t you sit there and act like, because you got baptized in this name or that name or the other name, that all of a sudden all your people came up holy. I don’t care if your dresses are down to the floor and you haven’t worn makeup since you were born; you still got some mess going on in your church.
Oh yeah, I’ve been in all of them; I know. I’ve been in all of them! Dresses come off, baby; they come off! They come off and pants come all the way down to your ankles! Y’all can cut that out of the paper if you want; I don’t care, but it’s true anyhow. They were going through the same thing in the early church. They were embarrassed because God was saving Gentiles, and they were trying to force the Gentiles to be circumcised so the other Jewish converts wouldn’t look bad. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, thank you, Paul. Neither they who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. Y’all didn’t hear the beauty of that?
Tags—people who can’t do it themselves are trying to make you do stuff that they can’t do and make you feel bad about yourself when in reality they ain’t no better than you are. Come on, talk to me, somebody! Somebody real, talk to me up in here! Oh gosh, I’m getting happy by myself; I feel God in this place. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. He said, „I’ve got nothing to brag about save the cross! The cross, the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross!“
We quit talking about it; we quit singing about it; we quit preaching about it. We’ve got to go back to preaching about the cross! You’ve got to stop preaching about you! You’ve got to stop preaching about your flesh! You’ve got to stop preaching about what you think and preach Jesus and Him crucified, because we don’t have any gospel; we don’t have any good news; we don’t have any hope; we don’t have any righteousness. Our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. The only right we have to eternal life, Christ paid for it on Calvary. And if you’re glad about it, give Him a praise right now! God almighty, I feel Him in this place! I feel Him in this place! I feel Him in this place!
Whenever you preach the gospel right, the anointing will come in the room. You don’t have to do tricks and antics and stand on your head and bark at the moon and throw balloons out there or jump out of a cannon—just preach the gospel! If you preach the gospel, yolks will be broken and people will be set free. There’s power in the cross! There’s power in the blood! There’s power! Demons tremble; witches back up; pressures are broken; hexes are cursed! There’s power! Watch this; watch as I’m headed somewhere; I gotta get there quick. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; it only matters that you are a new creature.
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace—there’s that word again—Lord have mercy! As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. If you would stop trying to earn it and just receive it, you would have peace in your life and mercy upon the Israel of God. Forth, let no man trouble me. He said, „I’m not going to let nobody"—no, no, this is a little bit of Paul leaking out in this, because they had always fought him. Everybody fought him; his scholars that he grew up with fought against him. They mocked him and shamed him because he believed in Jesus. And yet when he went to the apostles, they never really fully accepted him because he didn’t walk through the earth with them and Jesus.
Anytime you didn’t come from among people, they have a way of letting you know you are not really one of us; you’re okay, but you’re not really one of us. You know how people can—call it, throw shade? They have a way of throwing shade. They didn’t really just talk about you, but they threw shade, and they doubted him; they doubted his authenticity. But he said, «From henceforth, let no man trouble me.» He said, «I’ve gotten to the point now; I’m not going to let nobody get on my nerves.» I want some folks who have been to the point that you are tired of trying to please people, trying to get accepted by people, trying to fit in with people; you’re not going to let nobody trouble you!
Get out of my face; I don’t care what you write; I don’t care what you put in the comments; I don’t care what you say online. I am too old to let you get on my nerves, little strange person on the computer! I don’t know you; you don’t pay my bills; you don’t live in my house; and you are not my God. And if you don’t fall into one of those categories, I’m not going to let you trouble me! I’m not going to let you trouble me! I’m not going to spend my life trying to change your mind! «From henceforth, let no man trouble me.»
You know why I’m going to let you trouble me? This is what Paul said: «For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I’ve got too many scars to let you get on my nerves! I survived too much to let your rolling your eyes bother me. You can sit there like a mummy all you want to; I can preach on top of a casket; you’ll never bother me because I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus!» Somebody shout up in this place! Tell them, «I’ve got the scars to prove it! I’m a grown man; I’ve got the scars to prove it! I’m a grown woman; I’ve got the scars to prove it! I’ve got the wounds to prove it! I’ve got the lacerations to prove it! I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus!» Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And then he says, «Amen.» Somebody say «Amen!»
When you get through telling somebody off, say «Amen!» I’m not going to let you bother me. I’ve been through too much; I crawled too long; I cried too long; I studied too wrong; I’ve been through too many trials and tests; I’ve been faithful in the storm and faithful in the wind and faithful in the rain and kept on going while you were playing games, watching TV, shooting ball at the hoop. I was laying before God! I’ve been through too much to get down here and back up 'cause you don’t agree! I don’t care what you think! I don’t care what you say! I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus! And then look at Him and say «Amen!» I felt a good «Amen» come in here! I felt a good «Amen» in here! Somebody’s got a good «Amen» in their spirit! Somebody’s got a good «Amen» in their spirit!
Oh yeah! One of my sons in Nigeria said to me, «A person would have to be a masochist to want to be you.» He said they would have to be a masochist to want to be you. I’ve had other sons tell me in my own church that while they learned from my teaching, they grew from my suffering. They grew from the things we suffered. And when you suffer on a stage like this, you suffer out loud. When you grieve, you grieve in front of everybody! When you’re hurt, you’re hurt in front of everybody! There’s no way to hide the pain you go through, so everybody gets to inspect your wounds.
Gang members often proudly display their healed wounds in the fight for the turf. You can’t be in the gang if you don’t have wounds; no pretty boys in the gang—if you ain’t been shot nowhere, you ain’t been cut nowhere—you can’t show no wounds! You can’t be in the game, they’ll put a gun in your hand and send you onto the street until you shoot somebody to prove your authenticity because they want receipts. Do you hear what I’m saying to you? If you ain’t got no wounds, you can’t be in my game. If you ain’t got no wounds, you can’t be in my gang. I’m scared of people who join your gang and ain’t got no wounds. Stop showing people your rules if they don’t show you theirs.
Now you ought to shout me down off of that. The first thing I learned in management is that when you step into a corporate situation or you’re leading a group of people or you step into a crisis situation as a parent, the first thing you want to do is stop the bleeding. You stop the bleeding, you stop the bleeding before you do anything else. You stop the bleeding. You don’t run down the street going to get help and leave me bleeding. The first thing you want to do is stop the bleeding because by the time you get the help, I’ll be dead. The first thing you want to do in the company is stop the bleeding, and sometimes you’ve got to find it.
Sometimes you’ve got to find it because people are bleeding out in your organization, and you’ve got to find where it’s coming from. Then you’ve got to apply pressure; you’ve got to put pressure right on the wound and stop the bleeding. You can’t tell where it’s coming from because everybody around you will tell you what you want to hear, so you have to investigate and do some X-rays to find out where the blood is coming from. Once you find out where it’s coming from and you stop the bleeding, don’t worry about the swelling and all that stuff; it’ll go down if you can stop the bleeding. You’re going to come out of this okay. Am I helping anybody?
The only reason for marital counseling is to find out where you’re bleeding from because if I can stop the bleeding, I can save the marriage. If I can cut out the cancer without cutting out the kidney, you’re going to have a better life. Some people just cut the whole kidney out, but the real art of the surgery is to get the cancer and save the kidney. You can’t be no pastor if you’re a kidney snatcher. You’ve got to value the kidney enough to go after the cancer rather than take the shortcut and just cut people off. The truth of the matter is you don’t get scars without some sort of trauma, and most of the time, it’s blunt force trauma—trauma that’s been executed on you, fam, shattering, tearing, lacerating you. They were not gentle with Jesus on the cross; they were not nice; they didn’t care anything about Jesus.
They were Roman soldiers; they weren’t even Jewish. They were Roman soldiers—they cared nothing about him; he was just something to do before lunch. Blunt force trauma! Pam! It cost him something. It cost him something to have receipts. Some of you have been through blunt force trauma; it’s kind of different from the woman with the issue of blood. She was hemorrhaging; it wasn’t what happened to her on the outside; she was dying over what was happening on the inside.
Somebody’s listening to me right now; it’s not that you went through blunt force trauma on the outside. You’re bleeding from the inside, but you’re still bleeding. You’re bleeding out of sight because you have an issue, and until you touch Jesus—until you touch Jesus—the issue will not stop until you change your perspective and stop focusing on the bleeding and start fixing your eyes on the cure. She wasn’t looking at herself; she was looking at Jesus saying, «If I could just touch the hem of his garment.» But you’re so busy rehearsing what hurt that you can’t see what heals.
Can I go deeper? I’m almost there. You can’t be useful. Wait a minute; I’m going to stand right here where you can see me good. You can’t be useful if you can’t stop bleeding. You can’t be useful in your marriage; you can’t be useful in your business; you can’t be useful in your church; you can’t be useful in any area of your life if you can’t stop bleeding. Jesus does not come into the upper room bleeding. God cannot use you bleeding on people. I can be honest with my wife; I can tell her anything. I trust her with anything; I can talk to her about anything. But there’s a difference between talking to her and bleeding on her.
Exercising rage from my past on her is bleeding. You can’t be used if you can’t stop bleeding. I don’t care how gifted you are—you’re gifted, but you’re bleeding emotional blood. Like in Second Corinthians, when Paul said that they were pressed above measure and beyond strength, so much that they despaired of life itself—Paul! The Apostle Paul! —says he went through so much stuff that he was suicidal. When he says, «I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,» it’s not just the stones at Lystra; it’s what happened in Asia—the depression he carried. He said he wanted to die to carry this anointing.
I went through a period where I despaired of life itself—not I want to quit preaching, I want to die. That’s the scar. There are no crowns without crosses—crosses, terrible heavy crosses that fall on your life, and with your children and in your marriage, and on your reputation and friendships that cause hemorrhaging on the inside while you’re smiling on the outside—new clothes, old wounds. And that’s why Paul writes later in Galatians, «I come to a point now I’m not gonna let none of y’all bother me because I have been through too much internally and externally to let you drive me away. Forget it; it ain’t gonna happen.»
That’s why I can preach in an empty room by myself for two years on my own because the power that I have ain’t coming from your reaction; it’s coming from the wounds I’ve already been through. And I told Hell when he put me in the room by myself, «You put me in my element.» I started in a room by myself; I came up preaching by myself. I walk these aisles like they’re real people sitting here and talk to your shadow. So you know if I can preach to your shadow, you sitting on me would never stop me because I preached to your seat.
Commit the gospel into the hands of faithful men that they might preach to others also. Are you hearing what I’m saying to you? You’ve got to be instant in season and out of season; reprove and rebuke with all long-suffering, even when they won’t endure sound doctrine and heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears. You can’t just preach when you’re popular; you gotta preach anyway. Sometimes God will test you to see if your motives are pure—to see if you can do it without a crowd—to see if you can do it by yourself—to see if you can do it lonely—to see if you can do it empty—to see if you can do it tired—to see if you can do it frustrated. You have no right to call yourself faithful if you have no wounds.
Show me your receipts! No receipts, no respect; no receipts, no respect; no receipts…! I want to tell you something right now: God is about to do something! When Mary was about to touch Jesus as he came out in the garden, he said, «Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.» He said, «I got to put the blood on the mercy seat, and I don’t want nobody touching on me because I got to get this blood where it’s supposed to go. Then I’m going to show myself alive for 40 days with many infallible proofs. Once I get this blood, I got to get this blood thing taken care of because I can’t be bleeding on people. I got to put the blood on the mercy seat so that when I show myself alive, I won’t be dripping on the road to Emmaus, I won’t be dripping in the upper room; I won’t be dripping wherever I go.»
See, some of you are trying to preach, but you’re dripping. You got to get that blood on the mercy seat; lay it out on the mercy seat. Put the blood where it’s supposed to go. Don’t give it to your friends; don’t give it to your co-workers; don’t give it to your neighbors; don’t give it to your class; don’t give it to your students; don’t give it to your children; don’t give it to your wife. Because all you’re doing is creating generational curses, passing it down to the family. Stop bleeding on your children about your husband, about your wife! Shut up! All you’re doing is putting pressures on that child. I got one final thing, and I’ll be through.
I’m hot mad about the way they talk about Thomas—the propaganda, the rumor Thomas had to live through is still going on today. Even though it is not mentioned in the Bible, to this present day they’re still calling him «Doubting Thomas.» They never called him «Doubting Thomas» in the Bible, but somewhere along the way they started calling him «Doubting Thomas.» It’s fake news! It’s propaganda! I want to clear up this myth about Thomas. Thomas was not «Doubting Thomas»; his name was simply Thomas. He’s the same guy who said, «If Jesus is going to die, I must go and die with him.» He is not «Doubting Thomas.»
And by the way, he’s no worse than the other disciples who didn’t believe Jesus when he came in the room. They didn’t believe him either until he showed the receipts! What is the difference between Thomas wanting to have receipts and the other ten wanting to have receipts? They both had to have receipts before they would believe for peace, and yet you hung this title on him. The reason I’m fighting for him is I’m fighting for every preacher who can’t get out from under a title that somebody put on you that says, «I know you.»
The devil is a lie! I break that curse off of your life! I break it off for your ministry! I break it off for your reputation! The person who’s talking about you is no better than you are! I break it off for you! Everybody in the room had to have receipts. No receipts, no respect! The thing I tell the devil when I get ready to close—I tell the devil this: When the devil comes after me, I don’t go to the devil. «Devil, you got to get off of me because I was on the cover of Time magazine.» «You got to get off of me because I’ve been to the White House many times, and devil, I’ve sat with many presidents—Democratic, Republican—you got to get out of my way! Don’t you know who you’re fooling with? I’ve been on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.»
I don’t tell him none of that! Devil, I filled up the Georgia Dome and the World Congress Center and the Phillips Arena! You got to get off of me! I don’t tell him that because those are all crimes! When I get ready to rebuke the devil, I start showing him my wounds! I preached in a storefront church! I preached by myself! I preached when I was laid off! I preached prosperity when I lost my car! I preached God was able when we were shaken in the hospital! I’ve been through trauma, and I preached! They operated on my back and I dragged my swollen self out here and preached in this church when I couldn’t even walk! You don’t know who you’re fooling with! You are not powerful because of the accolades of men; you are powerful because of the anointing of God on the wounds in your life.
If you don’t have receipts, shut up! You ain’t got no ministry! But I want to talk to people who’ve been through hell and high water! You are the people that are going to carry the anointing into the last day, and you are the people that can give God the sacrifice of praise! I want you to take a minute. If you’ve been really wounded, if you’ve stopped bleeding and you’re in recovery, I want you to take a minute and tell your neighbor, «I earned this praise! I got a right to praise him! I may be getting on your nerves, but I’m gonna give him the praise! I might holler too loud, but I got a right to praise him! And if you doubt my dance, check my receipts! If you doubt my praise, check my receipts! If you doubt my anointing, check my receipts!»
This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice! I cried long enough, I will rejoice! I moaned long enough, I will rejoice! I will rejoice! I will rejoice! And be glad! Somebody open up your mouth and give God a praise! Hallelujah! If you got receipts—if you got real receipts—look back over your life! Get your receipts together; it’s tax time! Get your receipts to heaven and give God a praise!
If you don’t praise him, the rocks will cry out! Open your mouth! We are in this place right now that will drive out cancer! If you open your mouth, hell will have to run out! Yes! Yes! Get your receipts out! Get your receipts out! Remember where he brought you from! Get your receipts out! Remember where he brought you from! Open up your mouth and give God a praise! Flash your receipts in the devil’s face and let Hell know—no receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no receipts, no receipts! I dare you to praise him! I need victory! Wild folk to jump and praise him like you got receipts!