TD Jakes - Wanted
The Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 4, Verse 21. There before us is my assignment for this morning: a very familiar passage of Scripture, framed in a familiar text. Freshness in familiar places is what God is going to do for the church in this hour. You must take another look because God is going to bring fresh oil out of an old house; He is going to bring fresh meal out of an old mill barrel. Freshness, freshness, freshness!
John 4:21–26. When you have it, say Amen. I intrude on this conversation in the middle of the dialogue, without the pretext that precedes the text. As I speak, I will put the text in context, but in consideration of the point I’m trying to make, I didn’t need the entire text to establish the subject for which God has assigned me stewardship. Are you with me? I’m going to talk about being wanted. Wherever I go to preach, I will take you with me. I would get you a plane ticket, whatever I have to do, because my co-host is being wanted, and that is important.
I think of people in nursing homes who don’t get visitors, or of orphans who are not selected. I think of people who are always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I think of people who have precious moments that go uncelebrated. Being wanted is not about the magnitude of the gift but rather about the feeling of being wanted. Conversely, I consider all the people who did nice things but didn’t really want to; sometimes it takes the joy out of the moment when I know it doesn’t come from a place of authenticity. We all want to be wanted.
Now, our text today begins at the 21st verse: Jesus says to her, speaking to the woman at the well, «Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you don’t know; you’re just doing stuff without understanding. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.»
Let’s be clear. However, when you add that «but» in it, we are getting ready to shift from a traditional theological context into a revelatory, transformative truth that stands in contradiction to the previous statement. The previous statement acknowledged that salvation is of the Jews, that the Samaritans worship in a mountain without knowing what they are doing. But the hour—watch this—comes, and that is a massive statement right there. It comes and now is. When the true worshipers—true ones—who we can clearly see are having an old argument about whether we should worship in this mountain or worship in Jerusalem, Jesus states that the hour comes and now is.
I’m afraid our world is having an old argument and we don’t grasp the fact that we need to move the narrative to where we are right now. I’m concerned that many couples are engaged in old arguments—if you can’t say Amen, say ouch. But the hour comes and now is when the true worshipers, true worshipers without discrimination—not Jews, not Gentiles, not Samaritans—the true worshipers, not black, not white, not brown, the true worshipers, not Baptist, not Methodist, not Presbyterian, but the true worshipers, shall worship the Father in spirit, not in mountains, not in temples, but in spirit and in truth, from a place of authenticity.
This truth is not merely theology; it means that in order to worship Him in spirit, you have to delve into your spirit, past your flesh, past your soul. How are you feeling about it? You must reach down to your spirit. And in truth, you must be authentic. Oh, God says, «I will not accept worship from someone who fakes their identity, who is more concerned about their image than their reality.» I will not anoint who you appear to be; those who worship the Father must do so in spirit and truth.
Here’s why I’m here today: for the Father seeketh worshipers. Oh, this message challenges my whole theology! How can an omniscient God seek? Where do we get this concept of an all-knowing being seeking anything? It seems contradictory; if you’re a father and you know everything, why seek? This concept has me caught up in the Father’s secret. I didn’t even know He could do that! How could you, who have everything, desire anything? The Father seeks worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth; that’s the only criteria. Not male, not female, not rich, not poor, not intellectual, not illiterate—only those who worship in spirit and in truth.
That’s what Jesus said to her. The woman said unto Him, «I know that the Messiah comes, who is called Christ; when He comes, He will tell us all things.» Jesus said to her, «I that speak unto thee am He.» The Father seeks. «Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.» I understand why I should seek Him, but who am I that He should seek me? I know why I should want Him, but for the life of me, I cannot understand why He would want me. My subject is «Wanted.»
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh upon us today. We need Your anointing. We thank You for it; we thank You for all that You have said to us. We’re still like babies being burped from what You said this week. You’ve said enough that we are still digesting and processing all that we’ve already heard, and now You are feeding us again. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. You may be seated.
It occurs to me that the pages of this text are wet; this text exudes a hydrated theology that is saturated with spiritual truth, if we can discern it. I unexpectedly became sick; I don’t know whether it was a virus, food poisoning, or simply old age. Regardless, it threw my entire system into chaos. While I focused on treating the illness, the side effects turned out to be worse than the illness itself. I was concerned about feeling sick, yet I didn’t notice that the sickness had dehydrated me. There’s no alarm that goes off stating that you’re dehydrated—not to me. Maybe to a doctor, but not, to me, it would seem there should be a light flashing, a button going off, an alert that indicates dehydration. I just knew I was unable to get out of bed; everything was shutting down. I had lost all appetite and energy. It was only when the doctor informed me that I was dehydrated that I realized what was happening. I was dehydrated while it was raining outside. How can I be dry when everything around me is wet?
It’s a personal drought, an internal lack of electrolytes, nutrients, minerals, and fluids necessary for my body to function properly. I can experience a drought while you drink water. I thought to myself that this is a great picture of the church because while someone in this church might be soaking wet, another person sitting right beside them is totally dehydrated. You might not even realize you’re dehydrated; you just know you’re lethargic, moody, and that nothing is functioning as it should. You keep trying to fix what’s not working when you don’t understand that the problem is a sign that you are dehydrated. Are you hearing what I’m saying?
Dehydration is an internal biological experience determined by whether you are a man or a woman. I average about 65 percent water; thus, when I begin losing water, I start losing myself. In essence, my physical existence is predicated on water. I can survive longer without food than without water because I am made of water. I need water.
Now, dehydration is a personal experience that has nothing to do with external environments. It is contingent entirely on what’s going on in my body, whether I am hydrating myself properly. Do you remember during the summer when it gets extremely hot? They always instruct you to ensure you stay hydrated because you can lose hydration without even realizing it. That’s why we’re at church—you came to get a drink, a real good drink. When you go back out into that wilderness we call life, you will require this hydration to withstand the drought on the outside. I’ve preached about droughts, yet I hadn’t truly understood until I visited Kenya and heard about the severe droughts affecting rural areas outside Nairobi. They shared stories of a woman who went into labor during a drought and died after being stung to death by bees while seeking water for her baby.
Water is important. As we were flying over West Pokot, the pilot remarked, «Oh, you’ve brought us blessings,» referring to rain—the very thing we often complain about, yet they recognized it as a blessing. This text unfolds against the backdrop of water. I have purpose in my heart that by any means possible, I must live near, close to, or around some water. I can’t explain why that is, but there is something about being near water that puts me at ease. People do not irritate me; it becomes manageable if I can just look at water, even if I don’t get in it.
This text occurs in a town called Sychar, a village in Samaria. The Samaritans were alienated from the Jews, and Jesus has come to Sychar in Samaria. Sychar means drunken, hilarious; it also means confused, falsehood, deceit, disappointment, impious, or ungodly. Isn’t it interesting that the woman at the well is introduced to us in a location synonymous with confusion? The ensuing conversation is also perplexing, signifying Samaria itself and specifically representing a mixed state of consciousness akin to idolatry—a confused, perplexed state of mind, as if someone is struggling mentally.
They named the city that, and Jesus is sitting—no, excuse me—Jesus is seated in Sychar, resting in my confusion, resting in my craziness, resting in my disorientation, resting amidst my schizophrenia. He’s sitting right there in Sychar. Now, the city of Sychar is believed to be what was known as Shechem in the Old Testament, positioned about a mile from Shechem. You remember Shechem, the place where Dinah wandered away from her brothers and was raped by the men of Shechem? Confused, in an odd place, and Shechem is in close proximity to Sychar, where Dinah was violated and her brothers took revenge on the men of Shechem. All of this history looms upon this mountaintop.
Certainly, it continues the tradition, and no wonder it is called Jacob’s Well because Dinah is a derivative of Jacob, and Jacob’s Well is where he dug something that outlasted him, by God! That’s what I desire: to dig something that endures. I want to dig something that blesses my children, my grandchildren, and the generations I won’t even get to see! Someone sent me a text last night discussing all the inventions expected by 2050. I told them it probably won’t do me much good, as it is unlikely I will be around in 2050. By the time they develop ways to grow limbs and legs and all of that, it likely won’t matter much to me. But today, I seek to build something that will outlast me; though Jacob is gone, the well remains.
Now, Jesus sits at the well. I want to reaffirm that Jesus, who has no time to waste, is seated here. Jesus, who has a three-year agenda to change the trajectory of the next two or three thousand years, does not have time to squander. I’ve realized that one of my biggest challenges is identifying what I do not have time for, and the more intentional I become about this realization, the clearer it becomes what deserves my attention, my time, budgeting my time, not allowing people to have my time for just the sake of occupying it, has given me more peace in my life. There are certain things I just don’t have time for; there are certain things I just let ring through. I found out that the phone can ring, and I really don’t have to answer it.
There are certain things I just let ring through because right now, I don’t have time for that. Somebody write that down: I don’t have time for that. Yeah, I don’t have time for that. Jesus does not have time to just sit around in confusion, but there he sits. He said that he needed to go through Samaria; he needed not because Samaria needed him to come through, but he said, «I must needs go through Samaria.» Jesus wanted to go to Samaria. Jesus wanted to sit by the well. Jesus wanted to wait by the well for this woman—a woman with six men. Jesus wanted a woman who had settled for less than what she should have accepted, not recognizing that she was valuable. She had had five husbands and a situation, and Jesus wanted her. Jesus wanted her.
Can you grapple with the notion that Jesus wants you? Can you grasp the idea that Jesus cares about you, that Jesus would hold up his schedule and sit there and wait on you? Oh my God, I don’t need John to teach me this because he waited on me while I was in the club, dropping it like it’s hot, while I was popping it, while I was leaning against the wall trying to look hot. He was waiting on me while I was behind the building. He was waiting—he was waiting on me. And that’s why you good church folks don’t have to praise him because you were always good, but all of us other folks who came from the other side of the tracks, we have to praise him because he laid it on us.
I’m wondering if there’s anybody in this room that God waited on you. You played the fool, and he waited on you. You said crazy stuff, and he waited on you. Your friends gave up on you, and he waited on you. Your family got sick of you, and he waited on you. Your ex-wife left you, but he waited on you. Your ex-husband walked off; he waited on you. That boy got you pregnant and went on about his business, but Jesus—yeah, that’s right—you have a right to praise him. You have a right to stick your chest out, hold your head up, look at everybody around you like you’re somebody, and tell them he wanted me. Yeah, he wanted me. He wanted me. It doesn’t really matter to me whether you want me, because he wanted me. You don’t have to like me; he wanted me. You don’t have to embrace me; he wanted me.
I could never be rejected because the Bible says I’m accepted in the Beloved. He wanted me. He has loved me with an everlasting love; he wanted me. So I’m through crying about who didn’t want me because I’m so excited about who did want me. If you would have wanted me, I would have had a less reward, but because God wanted me, I got the best person in the world to be my suitor, to be my lover, to be my friend, to be my partner, to be my cohort here with me. The water-walking Jesus and the Lazarus-raising Jesus and the lame-healing Jesus sat in a confusing place and waited to bring reason to insanity, righteousness to idolatry, and restoration to frustration. He sits by the well, waiting while she brushes her teeth and combs her hair back into a bun. He waited while she gathered her water pots, put on her dress, and decided which sandals to wear. Jesus sat down there. She’s oblivious that she has an appointment with destiny, like some of you sitting here right now are oblivious to the fact that you have an appointment with destiny. But all the while you were getting ready this morning, he was sitting by the well waiting on you.
It almost appears to the novice reader—can I preach this this morning? I’m about to feel like preaching. It almost seems to the novice reader that there are two stars in a multiple-scene plan—that one star is Jesus and the other is a woman. But that is not really the truth; there are actually four stars in this text, and neither are they the woman nor the master. There are four stars that validate the wanting, ravenous appetite of God who chooses to wait over walking, and sends his disciples to take a walk while he waits. He waits. You don’t wait on something that’s not important. Yeah, you don’t wait. My staff that travels with me laughs because if I say we have a lobby call at seven o’clock and you get there at 7:10, call Uber. I do not wait; I do not wait because they are expecting me, not you. And so, I can make it without you, but I’ve got to go.
That sounds mean, doesn’t it? Yeah, but it teaches you respect. It teaches you respect—be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. And the only way to show you how serious I am is to leave you in the lobby trying to get a taxi because I’ve got to go. You are an option; I am a necessity. Bye, I’ve got to go. Jesus—thank you! Jesus is sitting, and he’s waiting there. Four stars in the text: one of them is water, the other one is the well, the third is the Word, and the fourth is worship. We must start with the water, because it validates the Father’s seeking. The omniscient seeks. The oxymoron of it all is amazing because it contradicts the nature of the statement itself that the Father seeks for the Father, who already has all things. And yet he seeks; it is almost a contradiction. It’s like an oxymoron—it’s like hot ice. I started to make a joke and say «good lawyers,» but I’ve got too many lawyers in here; I won’t say that. Anyway, okay, I was just joking. I was just joking. I was just joking—don’t sue me!
Now Jesus says to her—let me go back and say—the conversation initiates not with her thirst for water, but with his thirst. He says to the woman who’s shacking up and has had five failed marriages, Jesus—the Holy One of Israel, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, the I AM of God Himself—says to this girl, «Give me a drink.» Really, the conversation starts not with what she wants but with what he wants. He says, «Give me to drink.» And while she does like you all do oftentimes, deciding whether he’s worthy of the drink, not realizing that he’s asking her for what he’s already full of. That the question is only the gateway to a bigger relationship with him!
You sit there and negotiate with what you think you ought to have. You say, «We don’t have any deals with you. You don’t even have anything to draw with. What’s up with you? You come down here? I’m not giving my money to no preacher—buying his suits! How much do you think a suit costs? Food! I’ve got to do this to get a suit? At least give me a yacht or something; a suit? Are you crazy?» And we sit up and have all these excuses, like she did, for not responding to what God wants. And he says to the woman at the start of the conversation, «Give me a drink.» The God who holds everything has asked the woman who has nothing for something, knowing that if she is willing to give something, it will prime the pump that releases everything she ever wanted.
Wait, the Father seeks such. The Father seeketh. The Father seeketh. The Father—who is determined, the end from the beginning—the same Jesus who said, «I saw you when you were up under the tree,» the same Jesus who said, «Go yonder; there’s a colt tied up in the other city. Tell the master; tell him the master hath need of him.» If he knows where the colt is, surely he knows where everything else is! And yet the Father seeks.
Do you understand the profundity of those two words: the Father seeketh? And Jesus comes down to the well and asks this thirsty, bare, confused, isolated, manipulative, frustrated woman. He asks her for a drink. What’s right about that? That ain’t the Jesus y’all taught me about in Sunday school! The Jesus y’all taught me about would have been helping this woman! Minister to this woman! This woman is in need. If she don’t need water, she needs therapy! She’s got five husbands—one is enough to drive you crazy! She’s got five husbands and a situation, and Jesus is asking her for yet something else!
What do you do when life has cost you everything and now, at a time of your most depleted state, life is asking you for something else? Who am I talking to in this place? And then Jesus says to her, «Give me a drink.» And in the same breath says, «If you knew who I was, you would be asking me for water. For if you drink of the water that you have, you will thirst again. But if you drink of the water that I have, you will never thirst again.»
All of a sudden, I begin to realize there aren’t just two people in the text; there are two dimensions in the text. This woman is talking on the dimension of the physical and Jesus is talking on the dimension of the spiritual. The only reason he asked her to give him a drink was to expose that what she has been drinking would never satisfy her, because she’s operating in the physical realm. She has to keep making trips over and over again to have her needs met. But if you drink the water that I have, you will never thirst again!
So Jesus is asking the natural woman to discover that there’s another realm to live on that would satisfy her thirst and change her natural life because she started drinking from another place! Jesus has the audacity to tell her that if you drink the water I have, you will never thirst again! I want to speak to every thirsty person in here, every needy person in here, every dehydrated, frustrated, empty, and aggravated person in here. If you want to see restoration in your life until all of your gifts work, and all of your organs work, and all of your body works—Jesus can heal your dehydration! Jesus can quench your thirst! Jesus can meet your need!
But you know what? You come to church, but you don’t come to Jesus! You’re sitting up there in church with your cute dress on and your fancy little pumps, but you won’t really give a praise to God! Coming into the building won’t quench your thirst, but if you open up your spirit, God would give you living water! If you stop worrying about what other people thought and really came to Jesus, something amazing would happen in your life!
And don’t get mad at the person next to you because you’re sitting up there dehydrated and they’re well-hydrated. They’re well-hydrated because they opened their mouth while you just sat there and said, «I’m not dying that way.» Don’t get mad at me because I’m drinking and you’re dry! If you drink of the water that I have, you will never thirst again! I want a 30-second praise for people that are getting some hydration in dry places! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Praise him if you’re not as thirsty as you used to be! Praise him if you’re not as uncertain as you used to be! Praise him if you’re not as desperate as you used to be! Praise him if you ain’t the fool you used to be! Praise Him when you stop letting other people make a fool out of you, because Jesus has quenched your thirst!
And you like them, but you don’t need them like you used to need them! Because you got another option! If it ain’t working in this realm, I’ll flip over into that realm! If I can’t get it in the natural, I’ll go into the spiritual and my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory! Is there anybody in here that’s drinking living water from the wells of salvation? Go ahead and give him a praise! Yeah, yeah, yeah! You might be living in a drought, but you’re hydrated! You might have to work with dry people, but you’re hydrated! You might have some dry relatives, but you’re hydrated! That’s why they don’t get on your nerves like they used to, because you don’t need from them what you used to need from them! Because you got another source—a well in your belly, a well in your spirit, a well in your soul! Somebody holler at your boy!
So we got two waters! We got two waters! We got two people in a conversation about two waters: living water and just regular old water! And they’re both in the same place at the same time! Like a Coke and Pepsi test! Have you ever seen Coke and Pepsi tests where they put the Coke right beside the Pepsi and do a taste test? God is doing a test at the well! He has put Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water, beside Jacob’s Well, the fountain of temporal water, and has brought the woman down to the well and said, «Which water do you want?»
If you drink of this water, you’re going to keep coming to this well for the rest of your life! And you know your life has been nothing but circles! You keep coming from man to man to man! That’s only a temperament of how you’ve been going! Out of the water! After water, at the well, you keep going to people who can’t satisfy you, asking them to meet your needs. But I decided to sit by the well and give you a taste test so that you might understand that it is possible to live your life without past burdens. Let me move from the water to the well. Jesus sits down at the well. Jesus sits down at Jacob’s well. Jesus is well, sitting on a well. Jesus is Jacob’s well, giving her the option of which water she wants to draw from. She says to Him, «You have nothing to draw with,» when, in truth, she has nothing to draw with; that’s why she keeps coming down to the well.
If she had something to draw with, she wouldn’t have been on her fifth husband, but she has nothing to draw with. Now she’s living with someone because she has nothing to draw with. Your pride, your ego, your arrogance, your anger, and your hostility are stopping you from having something to draw with. It’s not that the glory hasn’t fallen in this church; it’s that your mouth is closed when the glory is falling. It’s not that God isn’t healing in this church; your mouth is closed when the glory is falling. It’s not that God didn’t change lives in this place, but you’re sitting by, judging people while they’re crawling to the altar and drinking from the well. If you ever decide to open your mouth and start drinking of the water rather than judging others, you’ll be amazed at what will happen in your life.
Tell three people, «I want some of that! I want some of that! I want some of that!» I’m tired of watching people get filled. I’m tired of watching people get blessed. I’m tired of seeing people walking in victory. I’m tired of watching people smiling, happy on their way in and happy on their way out. It’s not just in church; I’m tired of people whose lives are working while mine isn’t. I fake it and dress up, hoping you won’t notice that behind all this camouflage, I am naked, wretched, blind, and in need of God to do something for me—right now. But I don’t want to come down front because I have too many degrees to lay on the altar. And God said that’s what’s wrong with you.
When you stop being important to yourself and start getting hungry enough, if you get dehydrated badly enough, you won’t care what anybody says about you. You’ll come down to the altar and prostrate on the floor, crying out to God, screaming in your spirit, and you won’t care what you look like because you need a touch from the Lord. Then, number three, there’s the word. They enter into a conversation about the word, and the word is a conversation where Jesus exposes to her that her normal is dysfunctional. Your people worship in the mountains; they know not what they worship. What is normal to you doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Until you challenge your norms, you’re not ready for transformation. The reason I wrote «Disruptive Thinking» was to address the fact that you can’t have a new life until you have the courage to disrupt your whole life.
As long as you pledge allegiance to how you used to be—"I’m like this because my mama’s like this; I’m like this because my auntie is like this; I’m like this because of the hell I went through with my first husband"—as long as you won’t disrupt what you told yourself, you won’t have the opportunity to walk into what God has for you. But I saw some people in here carrying sledgehammers this morning, ready to tear something up because they want a breakthrough in their lives. Whatever you have to do to get that breakthrough, run with my sledgehammer, Saints! I’ll wreck this place. I’ll turn this place inside out. I’ll flip this place upside down. I’ll break yolks and chains; I got to have a change, and I’m willing to be disruptive so I can be constructive. You can’t be constructive until you’re willing to be disruptive.
The enemy’s got you in love with your traditions, and your people worship on the mountain; they know not what. My people worship in Jerusalem; we know what we’re doing because salvation is of the Jews. But that’s nothing either. That’s the conversation, that’s the word. Anytime you see water, you’re going to see a word, for the Bible says you are cleansed by the washing of water through the word. So, the water is the physical embodiment of what the word is. Wherever there is a word, there is water; wherever there is water, there is life.
That’s why we live by the word of God; that’s why you’ve got to have water or you can’t make it. That’s why you’ve got to have a word. That’s why we’re putting the word out in every possible way we can. That’s why we’ve got 24 hours on Amazon, because you’re not promised a crisis at 9 o’clock on Sunday morning. Sometimes you have a crisis on Tuesday night at 2 o’clock in the morning, and you need to be able to get a right now word in the middle of your situation. Where are my real people? Where are my true worshipers? My true worshipers don’t wait till Sunday morning. True worshipers don’t wait for the choir to start. True worshipers don’t wait for the worship leader to lead.
True worshipers will worship God in front of the dishes; true worshipers will praise God in the grocery store. True worshipers will praise God in the car. True worshipers will talk in tongues in the shower. True worshipers will praise God while they’re lying in the bathtub. True worshipers will praise God in the emergency room. The real issue is that God takes us from water to wells to word to worship. I asked myself, «Wait a minute, how did we get to worship? We started out talking about water. How did we end up talking about worship?» Because worship is nowhere in the conversation. We’re not in a sanctuary. We’re not in a synagogue. We’re not in a chapel. Jesus is saying none of that is necessary to have worship.
For they that worship God must worship Him, not in buildings, not in choirs, not in cathedrals; they must worship Him in spirit and in truth. If you’ve got the courage to be real, if you’ve got the courage to be authentic, if you’ve got the courage to put away your shame, pride, arrogance, and ego—brothers, if you’ve got the courage to stop worrying about whether men should praise the Lord and stagger down to the altar with your broken self, laying out before God and saying, «I’m in need. I’m confused, frustrated, empty, and tired; I need a touch from the Lord"—God will give you a breakthrough. But if you want to act like you’ve got it going on, God will not bless people who don’t worship Him in truth. If the truth is that you’re tired, if the truth is that you’re broken, lonely, or hurting, then you are a candidate for worship.
I don’t care what you did; I don’t care who you did it with; I don’t care how many relationships you had; I don’t care who you’re living with—if you’ll just come clean, be honest before God, and say, «I need you,» God is looking for you! I need 30 seconds of crazy praise! Yeah, yeah, yeah! God doesn’t want your image; God wants you! God knows what’s in your head; God wants you! God doesn’t want your pretense; God wants you! You can have all of that but come out of any of it, lay on the altar, and say, «Lord, I come to you just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.» «And that Thou, O Lamb of God, I come. I come! I come broke, confused, hurting, with a sex addiction, a drug addiction, or a habit. I come heavy, tired, frustrated, lonely, and hurting, but here I come!»
If you need somebody who’ll keep it real with you, who’ll lay prostrate before you, cry tears, and open up their heart—"I will come.» I go to the rock when my heart is overwhelmed. I go to the rock of my salvation. I go to my deliverer. I go to God. Excuse me, let me get past you because you’re dehydrated. I need a touch from God, and I’m not going to leave The Potter’s House until I get it! Somebody make some noise in this place! Somebody shout in this place! Somebody holler in this place! Somebody cry out to God! Somebody cause a disruption! Somebody break through an old habit! Somebody take a sledgehammer and demolish your pride! Yeah, yeah, yeah! I want you, God says! I want you!
I left the religious people back in Jerusalem. I came down here because I want you! I left the cute people down in Jericho. I came here because I want you! I want somebody who’ll come with tracks and arms; I want someone who’s been cutting on themselves; I want somebody who’s been living in shame and wants a yoke to break. I want somebody who’ll come to me in honesty, lay prostrate before me, and don’t care what they look like. I’m seeking those to worship Me in spirit and in truth. Everybody that got a mouth, open it and try worshiping God right now! See, we do real well in praising God! I got a new job, and I’ve got to give Him some praise! I got a new car, and I’ve got to give Him some praise! They put the dress on sale, and I’ve got to give Him some praise!
I got two for one at Macy’s; frankly, I give Him some praise! I praise Him for food in the refrigerator; I praise Him for shoes on my feet! But that’s not who God’s looking for! That’s praise; anybody can praise God! «Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!» But the difference between praise and worship is that praise thanks God for what He does, while worship thanks God for who He is! Worship says, «If I don’t get the job, if I never get married, if I never have the house, if I have to live with my mama, You’re still worthy of the praise! I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth!» You are the only thing that God wants—somebody that will worship Him in spirit and in truth! I’ve got a lot of church people, but how many worshipers do I have in this house?
Let me hear the worshipers! Yeah! You may be watching online, but you need to turn your kitchen into a sanctuary! I want you to get this: The Father seeks! The only thing God wants—He doesn’t want your talent; He doesn’t want your gifts. He doesn’t care how cute or smart you are, or how great you are, or how you know how to fix the church and straighten it out. The church has existed for 2,000 years before your mama got pregnant, and it will be alright without you! He didn’t bring you here to save the church; He brought you here for the church to help save you! So stop waiting to be discovered. The thing that God wants is somebody who will worship Him in spirit and in truth! The very fact that He wants it is proof that it’s rare.
All over the world, people are having worship services, but they’re not worshiping! They’re just singing worship songs and doing worship stuff, but they’re not worshiping! Because if they were worshiping, the Father wouldn’t have to seek! You’d be surprised how many people come to church and don’t worship! You’d be surprised how many of you are standing here right now with something else on your mind! You’d be surprised how many people in this congregation think I’m talking to you and not to them; their arrogance stops them! So out of all of our crowds, the Father seeks! Out of all the people online—I don’t know the numbers this week, but they range from 60,000 to 80,000 people viewing right now—out of 80,000 people, God wants somebody watching who will worship Him in spirit and in truth! Out of all the clergy colors, preachers, apostles, prophets, evangelists, deacons, elders, church mothers, trustees, God seeks such to worship Him!