TD Jakes - Destiny Has A Stalker
You worrying people who keep worrying about this and, oh, the kids, and oh, the kids, and oh, Mary's not speaking to Fred, and Fed didn't speak to Jimmy, and Jimmy called me last night about Willy. Stop answering that phone. They gonna be crazy when you're dead. Go to bed. Take a break. Put them on a shift. I'm open from 3:00-6:00. I'm getting a bath from 6:00-8:00. Come on, somebody. Because the cares of this world will choke you, you will die, they will still be arguing. I'm not saying you shouldn't care, but when you care to the point that it chokes off your source of life, there is a stalker chasing you right now looking for an opportunity to choke you to death with the cares of this world.
The cares of this world. You were not designed to handle the cares of this world. Why do you think Jesus said cast your cares upon me? He built you. He said I know you are not designed for the weight load you are under. Throw it on me. I can handle it. I can stand up to it. But no, you're gonna be a superhero, then you wonder why you can't sleep. You wonder why your food doesn't digest. You wonder why you don't have no peace. You wonder why you don't have any joy. You wonder why you're filled with anxiety. You wonder why you're having mood swings and temper tandems. You're stressed out. Paul said it this way, he said, "I was pressed above measure and beyond strength".
You are not...Jesus didn't come to bring you the bad news, he came to bring you the good news. He said I got good news, good tidings, good news to the poor, good news to the oppressed, good news, good news, good news. I'm talking about balance. The cares of this world. You surround yourself with people that need you and you have more people who need you than you do who feed you, and you wonder why you are choked. You can't get air. You're a good person, you got a good heart, you want to be there for everybody, but over a period of time, you get choked by the cares of this world. And let me tell you what they're doing, they're all dumping their stuff on you, and they go to bed and you sitting up like this. You want to help people to manage their life, you don't want to carry their life, and if you do, the stalker will choke you. You'll counsel other people's marriages and lose your own. You'll help them with their kids and can't get yours back.
Come on, talk to me, somebody. And you won't reach your destination because you were not designed for the weight load that you carry. What do you do? Y'all missed it. You just shake it off. You learn to say call me back. Not right now. Call me on Tuesday, Monday is my day. I'm taking me a bath, call me later. I'm doing what I need to do to keep afloat, so that I can keep my altitude, not crash and burn, and fall short of my destination. What I'm saying to you in short is are you caring about things that are beyond you? Are you caring about things you cannot fix? Are you loaded down with the weights of this world? Because if you are, it is because the stalker is trying to destroy your destiny. I want you to say this with me as loud as you can, "Enough".
If you are spiritual, you felt something just break in that phrase that felt so good. It felt so liberating to set boundaries, to say this is enough. This is enough. It's not that you're not important, it's not that I won't help, it's not that I won't do, but I cannot carry more than I can carry. Somebody shout, "Enough". Oh, God, if you don't get anything else out of what I preach today, if you can only remember one word out of what I said today, that one word is? Good God of mercy.
So, when you go home and everybody's going crazy, and everybody's calling you, and how come you didn't move me, and when are you gonna change this, and you need to do this, and you need to do the other, do what you can, and when you've done enough, just holler? Saying enough may be the difference between you finishing your course or ending it in a body bag, and they'll be talking about what a good person you were. She was always there for me. That's the problem. I was always there for you, I was never there for me. And by the way, I noticed you weren't there for me either. Yeah, ain't that something? I was always there for you. That says it all.
Number two, this is the second stalker, 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'd have to do is not give it to you, but it is the deceitfulness of riches. Riches are deceitful. If you're taking notes, make sure you write that down. Riches are deceitful. Now, there's 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 here with 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 here with 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 ties to get the blessing they won't have room enough to receive, and God gives them the blessing they won't 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, wouldn't it be over? If he poured you out a blessing you won't have room enough to receive, and you're 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 don't. 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 doesn't have it. The deceitfulness that if you get me, if you just get me, you're gonna 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're gonna have joy.
Notice how they sell it to you on TV. They don't 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's got a private pool is playing in it, and they jumpin' in it, "Wee". "I'm coming out with the burgers in a minute". And everybody's just smiling. The deceitfulness of riches associates joy with stuff. That the reason you don't have joy is because you don't have stuff. That the reason people don't respect you is because you don't have stuff. That if you get enough stuff, you're 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 didn't know who she was, and she was just singing, she's going up down the scale. And here this person is, who is a recording artist, I couldn't 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 don't 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 don't let anybody use me and tell me who to be charitable to, let me say that, so don't 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's the other thing I had to learn. When you are more blessed in any area, I'm not just talking about money, education, wisdom, intellect, whatever it is, political influence, whatever it is, doesn't make any difference, any area that you are exceptional, do not look for reciprocity. When you are the one that is blessed, don't expect your brothers to be fair. If you do, you're gonna be wounded, because the truth of the matter is, they don't have what you have on the level that you have it to give back to you, so you can't 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'm 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've given you two of them, let me give you the third one. 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's not necessarily what he's 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 neighbors ox? Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, thou shall not covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, covet, it's other things. Your lust for things you don't 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 can't maximize where you are for lusting. Let me show it to you. I'm gonna show it to you. Let me show you why it's a spirit. The single person, not all of them, but some lust to be married, while the married people, you can't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh.
See, it isn't married or single, it's 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. It is the seduction of the enemy who always makes other people's lives look better than yours, that somehow you are missing out on something that drives you over the edge to say, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. The enemy couldn't take away what God gave you, he just devalues it in your eyes until you don't appreciate being you. It is the lust for other things. It is the lust for other things. Yeah, you're nice looking, but your nose looks funny. Oh, you got pretty eyes, but your lips are too thin. It is always something wrong with you. You've never been happy to be you. It is the lust for other things.
That's why he doesn't define it, it's nebulous, it's infinite, it can change at different stages and ages in your life. It's just other, anything other than me, anything other than where I am. The kids, "How old are you"? I'm eight and a half. I'm nine and a half. I'm ten and a half. They can't wait to get to the next year. Then when you get old, have you noticed you don't hear anybody saying I'm 40 and a half. I'm 42 and a half. I'm 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'll always want the other.
I'd 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 don't 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 don't know what's going on in that house. You don't know what's going on in their life. Shut your mouth and thank God for what he gave you. Somebody holler, "Enough".
We're getting ready to drive that stalker right out of your life. We're 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 don't let life's thorns choke you. I'm gonna tell you something about what I preached today. It is really about balance. It's really about temperance. It's really about perspective. And it's really hard, because I've seen some days that I had the blessing, and I've 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 gonna keep this stuff? I said I don't know. I said right now it's working for me. I said the day I start working for it, the day I'm working for the thing instead of the thing working for me is the day I will let the thing go.