TD Jakes - Destiny Has A Stalker (09/10/2018)
Identifying three "stalkers" from Mark 4:19 that choke God's Word—cares of this world (worry/over-responsibility), deceitfulness of riches (false security in wealth), lust for other things (covetousness/never satisfied)—the preacher urges saying "enough" to reclaim focus, joy, and destiny by refusing to let distractions steal peace or purpose.
The Stalker of Worldly Cares
The reason we have made such advances is because our mind is our power, and if I was your enemy and I wanted to render you powerless, I would worry you to death with so much on your mind that you lost your creativity, that you lost your passion, that you lost your sense of impact and influence and purpose. I would just worry you to death.
I was reading in the dictionary up under the word "weary." One of the definitions is to have your sense of pleasure exhausted. If I was the enemy, I would stop life from being fun. I would make you miserable in all that stuff God gave you. "I could not stop Him from giving it to you, but I will worry you to death until you had a real nice bed you could not sleep in and a pool that you did not enjoy and a house that was not comfortable, and you look around at all that stuff, and you might as well be where you were because, if I cannot take your stuff, I can take your mind from enjoying the stuff I gave you."
I came to tell you this morning the devil is after your mind. He is after your mind. He is after your mind. He is after your mind, brother. He is after your mind, and let me tell you something: That is why the car broke down. That is why the roof started leaking. That is why they threatened your job. Let me tell you something: The devil does not drive, and he does not want to go to work, so he does not need your car, and he is not after your job. He is just using that stuff to go after your mind because your mind is your power. Your power is your mind.
So Jesus says, "Take no thought." I am going to go deeper. Can I go deeper? So when He said, "Take no thought," I was uncomfortable with it because I did not really want to preach it, and I thought, you know, because I am really trying to get us to think, and He says, "Take no thought," and I had to really look into it to understand that He is not telling us to be mindless.
You know what I think? He is actually telling us not to be distracted. Do you not know, you can be so into the possibilities of what could happen tomorrow, that you miss the pleasures of today? You could be so engrossed trying fend off what could happen that you do not embrace what is happening.
"The enemy cometh to kill, steal, and destroy," so everything he cannot kill, he wants to steal. Could the enemy be stealing your today with your worry about tomorrow? Could he threaten you with death tomorrow so much that you do not enjoy life today? So what good is being alive today if you are going to spend your life today worrying about death tomorrow?
"You are going to run out of bread next week." "Yeah, but I did not run out today, glory to God!" You understand what I am saying to you? Woo, I am talking to somebody! I do not even know who it is!
So I wanted to go back and see what led Jesus into this conversation, and when I read the text before it, it was schizophrenic, almost, because in the text before it, He says, "If your eye is single, the whole body is full of light," and I thought, "Jesus, now, come on, in the interest of being a good sermonizer, why are You talking about my eye one moment, and then the next verse, You are talking about my thoughts, the next? What does my eye and my mind have to do with each other?"
See, it is never what you know about the text that matters. It is what you ask of the text that counts. So I asked the text, why does Jesus make this radical turn from the eye being single? He said, "If the eye is single, the whole body is full of light," and then He starts saying, "Take no thought, take no thought, take no thought, take no thought." What are You doing?
Ah, what causes the eye to be single is focus. See, if you go to the doctor, the eye doctor, and you say to the optometrist, "I am seeing double," something is wrong because you are designed for your eye to be single. He says, "If your eye is single, the whole body is full of light." And then He starts saying, "Take no thought, take no thought, take no thought, take no thought."
And then I looked at my camera sitting over on the counter, and I looked at the lens, and I started playing with the lens to see what focus was because I could take my camera and put it up, and I could see the moment, but if it was out of focus, everything was still there, but it was blurred.
You see, some of us are living our lives out of focus. We see, but we see men walking as trees. We have been touched, but it has not been cleared up, and our opinions and our attitudes and our reactions and our decisions are not sharp like they could be because our lives are out of focus, then our body is not full of light, then our decisions are not smart, then we cannot see details, and we make dumb decisions because we cannot see clear details because we are out of focus.
That is why God sent this message because "The entrance of Thy Word gives us light," and when you get God's Word, it brings you into focus. Touch your neighbor and say, "God is bringing you into focus." God said, "I am going to bring you into focus because you are fighting without your central weapon." Your mind is the lion's teeth. It is the eagle's wings. It is the elephant's weight. It is the cheetah's speed. "So if I were your enemy and I wanted to paralyze you in any place, I would paralyze you in your mind until you did not make good decisions because you were so worried about things that only I can fix. Did not I clothe the lilies?" They were dressed with more finery than all of Solomon's array, and they did it without paint, and they did it without worry, and they did it without sowing and reaping. They did it by trusting and believing.
There is a higher principle. Did you hear that? I do not think they heard that. You heard it. That is me and you. We got that. We got it, huh? There is a higher principle. There is a principle beyond sowing and reaping. You do not hear people talk about it much in church, but there is a principle beyond sowing and reaping, yeah.
Yeah, the principle of sowing and reaping says, "If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you will reap bountifully." You okay? It basically says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you today, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over," so if you sow tomato seeds, you are going to reap tomato seeds. If you sow corn seed, you are going to reap corn seeds. If you sow love, you are going to reap love. If you want friends, you must show yourself friendly. All of those are basic biblical principles.
What about this? "I will give you houses that you did not build. I will give you vineyards that you did not grow. I will give you blessings that make no sense. I will give you something that you do not even know where it came from." Oh, y'all do not hear what I am saying to you. Have you ever got a blessing, and you could not say, "I do not know where this came from?" "I do not deserve it, I did not expect it, I did not sow it, but look at me!" All the blessed people, holler at your boy right there.
God says, "If you focus on Him, He will give you things that you never sowed for, that you never planted, that you never expected. He says He will pour you out blessings coming from all directions! 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God in all its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.'"
Touch five people and tell them, "God is getting ready to add to you!" When you find the one that is praising God, that is the one that got the blessing! Hey! God is getting ready to add to you! Shake your neighbor by the hand and say, "Neighbor, that is why the devil has been fighting you because God is getting ready to add to you!" I dare you to praise Him. I double-dare you, I double-dare you to open your mouth. That is why the enemy sends you trouble to shut down your praise and destroy your peace. I do not care what kind of news you got. Open your mouth and give God praise! Hey! Hallelujah!
So what the Bible is saying, what Jesus is teaching is "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added or given unto you as well." God is saying, "If you will focus on what I need, I will focus on what you need," but there is no need in God focusing on what you need if you are going to focus on what you need.
God said, "If you will focus on what I told you to do, I will focus on what you ask Me to do, but if you are going to stay up all night, I am going to bed. If you are going to watch out for you, why should I watch out for you? If you are going to open doors for you, why should I open doors for you? If you are going to protect yourself, why should I protect you?"
See, God is not so much telling us not to think about it. See, to be anxious is to worry about what could go wrong. It is negative faith. "Faith, I am not going to keep this. This is not going to work for me. People like me do not get stuff like this. I am going to lose it." See, faith comes by... and hearing by... Uh-huh. So what you are saying to yourself is bringing that faith.
If positive confession brought salvation, then negative faith... confession brings destruction. Let me put it in biblical terms. "You are snared by the words of your mouth." The only reason you are going down is because of what you say about you. It is what you say. If you are talking about what people say about you, what people say about you does not matter at all. If what people said about you could kill, you ought to have been dead long time ago. What people say about you does not matter at all. What you say about you...
Stop speaking negativity into your spirit that is canceling out what God wants to give you, and He says, "If you will focus on your purpose rather than your person, if you focus on your purpose rather than your problems, if you focus on your purpose with positive faith like you lay down with that negative faith every night and beat yourself up... 'I do not look right,' 'I am not tall,' 'I am not short,' 'I am too fat,' 'I am too thin,' 'I am too dark,' 'I am too light,' 'I wish I was not a woman,' 'I wish I would have been a man,' 'I cannot fight in this world,' all this negative stuff, 'Look at my hair,' 'I do not like my nose,' 'I need to get my face fixed,' 'I got...' shut up!"
Let me fix this for you: What is wrong with you is not what is wrong with you. God used Moses' mouth to deliver all the Hebrews from Egypt and M-m-moses could not even t-t-t-talk. So t-this is not about th-the way y-you talk or the w-way you look. And if you th-think right, Th-then nothing else th-that you are worried about is going to get in the way because your mind is your power, and your power... oh, there is some stuff right there! I hope somebody got it. Lord, let somebody get that way down in their spirit today.
The Deceitfulness of Riches
The second stalker is the deceitfulness of riches. And I want to work this thing, the deceitfulness of riches. Now, the way the church likes to teach it is that God hates the riches, but God does not hate the riches. For the Bible says it is God that gives us the power to get wealth, so if God hated riches, all He would have to do is not give it to you, but it is the deceitfulness of riches.
Riches are deceitful. If you are taking notes, make sure you write that down. Riches are deceitful. Now, there is a lot of deceit here, and I want to spend some time, and I really want to work on this. In Malachi He says, 3:10, "Bring ye all the tithes and offerings into the storehouse that there might be meat in My house, and prove Me now herewith if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven." And God says, "I will pour you out abundance, a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive."
I will give you more blessings than you can handle, okay? "Bring ye all the tithes and offerings into the storehouses that there might be meat in My house, and prove Me now herewith if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you will not have room enough to receive." Now, so to the person who does not have the blessing, and they are paying tithes to get the blessing they will not have room enough to receive, and God gives them the blessing they will not have room enough to receive, then once they get it, then why would they continue to tithe? If the object is just to get it, and you got it, would not it be over?
If He poured you out a blessing you will not have room enough to receive, and you are sitting good, and if riches were the destination, then the transaction is finished. The real deceitfulness of riches begins not with people who have it, but with people who do not. Because why would riches seduce who it has? Think with me now. Think with me. Think with me now. Think with me. Why would you seduce what you already have?
The seduction is to the person who does not have it. The deceitfulness that if you get me, if you just get me, you are going to be good. Let me show you how good I am. Let me show you how happy you would be if you could get this car. You get this house, you are going to have joy.
Notice how they sell it to you on TV. They do not show you nobody in a big house looking sad. But I can take you into all kinds of neighborhoods and show you people living in big houses that are miserable, but on the commercial, everybody who has got a private pool is playing in it, and they jumping in it, "Wee." "I am coming out with the burgers in a minute." And everybody is just smiling. The deceitfulness of riches associates joy with stuff. That the reason you do not have joy is because you do not have stuff. That the reason people do not respect you is because you do not have stuff. That if you get enough stuff, you are going to be important.
Hear me good, particularly young people, hear me real, real good. Do not think that the things that you own define who you are. I was sitting in church one day, and I was sitting maybe a couple of rows from some renowned singers, and we were in a worship service. And the renowned singer was just singing, you know, just a little bit, and there was this other girl on the other side, I did not know who she was, and she was just singing, she is going up down the scale.
And here this person is, who is a recording artist, I could not even hear her singing at all. The wannabe is hitting 10,000 notes. The one who already has been discovered is holding her stuff, and the other girl is exploiting her stuff. When you know who you are, and you know what you got, and you know what God did in your life, you do not have to try to impress anybody.
Come on, somebody. What you want is good success. The Bible says I will make your way prosperous. Joshua chapter 1, I will make your way prosperous, and God said I will give you good success. If there is good success, there is also bad success. The deceitfulness of riches is the enemy trying to trick you into bad success.
Can I go a little bit deeper? Just a little bit deeper. I really had to learn this, because God began to bless me, and as God began to bless me, I had to change my mentality and I had to change my expectations. I had to change my mentality because I had to learn that it was safe to be generous. It was important to be generous. And while I do not let anybody use me and tell me who to be charitable to, let me say that, so do not write me. Yeah, I choose my own charities, but I make sure that I choose them because it is out of the charitable heart that God pours in the blessing.
Here is the other thing I had to learn. When you are more blessed in any area, I am not just talking about money, education, wisdom, intellect, whatever it is, political influence, whatever it is, does not make any difference, any area that you are exceptional, do not look for reciprocity. When you are the one that is blessed, do not expect your brothers to be fair. If you do, you are going to be wounded, because the truth of the matter is, they do not have what you have on the level that you have it to give back to you, so you cannot look for fair like you did when you were both on the same level.
To him whom much is given, much is required. You have to learn how to expect to be the more giving one and understand that God will make it up to you and not them. Let me paint this for you and I am almost where I need to be. These are the thorns that choke you, that choke your growth, that stop you from being what God wanted you to be, that abort your destiny. I have given you two of them, let me give you the third one.
The Lust for Other Things
The third one is very interesting, because it is quite vague. Jesus said and lust for other things, and lust. This is the third stalker. This is the third thorn. This is the thing that would choke your destiny, lust for other things.
Now in our society, when we hear the word lust, we always think about sex, but that is not necessarily what He is talking about here. Lust for other things. I want to get into this. The third thing that will choke you is that nothing is ever enough for you. For you, it is the nebulous, indescript need for other things.
Whatever is other, it is the spirit of covetousness. I want whatever is not mine, I want it. You remember the Old Testament how the Bible talks about thou shall not covet thy neighbor's ox? Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, thou shall not covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, it is other things.
Your lust for things you do not have will choke you. Watch this, your lust to be somewhere else, someone else, can be just as simple as your desire to be married becoming so big that it chokes your destiny, because you cannot maximize where you are for lusting.
Let me show it to you. I am going to show it to you. Let me show you why it is a spirit. The single person, not all of them, but some lust to be married, while the married people, you cannot laugh, do not laugh, do not laugh.
See, it is not married or single, it is just something other than where I am. Thin people, "Wish I could put on weight." Big people, "Wish I could take weight off," the lust for other things. The kids, "How old are you?" I am eight and a half. I am nine and a half. I am ten and a half. They cannot wait to get to the next year.
Then when you get old, have you noticed you do not hear anybody saying I am 40 and a half. I am 42 and a half. I am 80 and a half. No, no, no, we cut that half right off. It is the lust. Come on, talk to me, somebody. It is the lust. Let me show you how dangerous this is. You will never be happy, never be happy, because whatever you get, it will always be the other. Whoever you marry, you will always want the other.
I would see people, "I wish I had a marriage like yours." How you know what my marriage is? "If I could just find a wife like First Lady." You do not even know First Lady. You know what is killing you? Other things, other things, other things. And the Bible said do not covet other things. Stop wanting what other people got. You do not know what is going on in that house. You do not know what is going on in their life. Shut your mouth and thank God for what He gave you. Somebody holler, "Enough."
We are getting ready to drive that stalker right out of your life. We are getting ready to drive it right out of your spirit and out of your mind. God wants you to appreciate what He gave you, like He gave you, how He made you, where He placed you, what He put inside of you. God wants you to say Lord, I thank You for how You made me, for where I am, for my age, for my stage, for my house, for my apartment, for these shoes, for my kids, for my husband. Lord, I thank You for what You gave. This is the day that the Lord. Somebody help me praise Him right now, shout, "Enough."
When Jesus teaches on this, when Jesus teaches this, He calls them thorns. He said I will sow good seed in thorny places. Be careful that you do not let life's thorns choke you. I am going to tell you something about what I preached today. It is really about balance. It is really about temperance. It is really about perspective.
And it is really hard, because I have seen some days that I had the blessing, and I have seen some days that the blessing had me. My sister and I were joking around, and I got more house now that the kids are gone than I need. I got big old pots, Serita got skillets big as me. Me and you could jump in the skillet and go swimming. And we got big old skillets and all kinds of stuff, and my sister said how long are you going to keep this stuff? I said I do not know. I said right now it is working for me. I said the day I start working for it, the day I am working for the thing instead of the thing working for me is the day I will let the thing go.