TD Jakes - Get Out of Gethsemane
During this season, everyone focuses on the cross, and it is powerful, and it is the opiate of transformation, but I think that we overlook the Garden of Gethsemane, the very hard place where the mindset changes. Because it was there that he wrestled in the garden and prayed until great drops of blood came through the pores of his skin. That's some kind of praying. That's laboring to come to a place of submission in a hard season and a difficult time. But it is at that point that he yields and says I surrender. Not my will, but thine be done. That perfect peace comes into his soul. I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that the victory is not won in the public where everybody sees the results, the cross.
No, the victory is won in the garden, where few go to wrestle with their flesh and their will, and find that place of perfect submission. Where even if it is an unpleasant moment, we yield to him and say I surrender all. I'm through fighting, I'm through wrestling, I'm through trying to get my way, I surrender. I wean myself from myself, and I yield myself over to God. It's not easy, it's suffering, it's difficult. Every time you go to that place in your life, like Jesus you often end up alone, because even those who love you cannot go with you, but you will come out with the victory if you stop by the garden before you try being nailed to the cross. You can't have resurrection until you have crucifixion, and you can't have crucifixion until you make a decision. Come to the garden.
No, the victory is won in the garden, where few go to wrestle with their flesh and their will, and find that place of perfect submission. Where even if it is an unpleasant moment, we yield to him and say I surrender all. I'm through fighting, I'm through wrestling, I'm through trying to get my way, I surrender. I wean myself from myself, and I yield myself over to God. It's not easy, it's suffering, it's difficult. Every time you go to that place in your life, like Jesus you often end up alone, because even those who love you cannot go with you, but you will come out with the victory if you stop by the garden before you try being nailed to the cross. You can't have resurrection until you have crucifixion, and you can't have crucifixion until you make a decision. Come to the garden.
We're going from the wilderness and we're going into the garden, the garden, the garden. The garden is the place were you have passed the temptation from the enemy, but now you are in your own way. No devils, no demons, no witches, no hexes, no curses, no satanic attack. It is in the garden where you fight you, and the garden is the place where Jesus now comes to fight himself. I love this text. I've never seen it this way. "Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup from me". This is the place for all the people who wouldn't listen at anybody who told you how to get there, because you thought you could do it your way and get there. You rejected all systems, all structures, all policies and procedures. You were gonna get there another way, and you didn't, and you lost time being stubborn because you think you have some special visa that means you can get what you want from God some other way.
That it won't cost what it costs. That you can have it in your convenience and in your comfort, and that you won't have to sweat like others sweat, or go through what others had to go through. Pass this bitter cup. I want the calling but not the cup. I want it, I want it, I want it, but I don't want to go through anything. I don't want to suffer. I don't want to endure anything. I don't want to sacrifice. I don't want to have to work over. I don't wanna have to roll up my sleeve. I don't wanna have to grunt and grind. I want it, I do want it, don't get me wrong. I absolutely do want it, but I want it my way. God said this ain't Burger King. This is not Burger King. You don't get to have my promise your way. Do you hear what I'm saying?
You don't get to have my promise your way, and your stubbornness has delayed your life. If you would have done what I told you to do, when I told you to do it, you would have already been there, but you spent years out of your life trying to find another way around doing what you gotta do. Baby, you gotta do what you gotta do. Gethsemane, Father, is there another way that I can get what you promised me without going through what you're showing me? In the text that I read before you, there are supporters. There are three different supporters. At one point in the text, if you look at the text it says that he left the crowd of them behind and took Peter, James, and John, and went a little further. I want to give you three different types of supporters. One of them is the distant supporters, the people you left behind who are with you but not with you. They are distant supporters.
In order to be successful, you will need distant supporters. It doesn't mean that they're bad because they're distant, it just meant that they were not meant to go all the way in with you. Everybody should have distant supporters. They don't go all the way into the apex of your destiny. They do not epitomize what is going to happen in your life. They do not validate who you are by their presence, but they are in the shadows rooting for you. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have distant supporters, people who helped me, but they didn't go to my church, people who were praying for me, but they weren't in the room. Distant supporters are important. And if you're going to be a great man or woman of God, be sure that you maintain distant supporters. Understand that you cannot be petty enough to think that if I am not up close, I am not there. I am a distant supporter. You must have them without staying with them.
Come on with me. Come on, come on, I'm headed somewhere. I'm headed somewhere. Give me ten minutes, I'll get right there. You have to understand that they don't have what it takes to go all the way. If you stay with them, you will make the mistake that Adam made with Eve. When Eve was the partaker of the forbidden fruit, Adam should've went, "Bye honey. I love you. I'm praying for you. God help you". But he chose to stay with the dysfunctional. You'd be surprised what people will do for company. The distant supporters are the people who are with you, but you had to go on a little further. I don't know what this means, but church people do it all the time. Put your finger up, and your head down, and say I got to go further. That means I'm moving into the next dimension because I cannot stay in Gethsemane.
He goes on a little further, and got Peter, James, and John, and he puts them all together, and says pray for me. Pray for me. This is the inner circle. These are not distant. These are not distant at all, these are designated supporters. So, while if the distant one's over there, the designated supporters are the handpicked people that you can bring a little closer. Designated supporters are closer than distant supporters. They get to see more than other people saw. They get to know more than other people knew. They have been designated. They have been handpicked. They have been selected. They don't wander into your inner circle, they are called into your inner circle. Stop letting people slip up on you. In order to get that close, you have to be designated. You don't come into the presence of a king until the scepter is extended.
Some of you have lost all control of your life because you have left your doors open and anybody can come in and out at will, and now you've got distant people in designated places. The designated followers, you can let them in on the real prayer need. This is what I really need prayer for. This is what I'm really going through. This is what's really happening to me. This is what's really going on in my life right now. I need you to pray with me. He says, and then the final thing that he teaches us, is that you go from the distance to the designated, but ultimately you have to go to the divine. In the presence of the divine he finds healing that he could not find even in the designated or the distant people who followed him. He went into the divine presence of God.
Some of you don't know how to go into the divine presence of God. I noticed when we were in the worship service you looked so uncomfortable because you are uncomfortable with your God. Isn't it funny how we can be comfortable with our sin and uncomfortable with our God? Whatever you like to do, when you do it you're not uncomfortable when you do it, but when you get in the presence of your God, you don't even know how to talk to him. You don't even know how to open up to him. Jesus goes on a little further, and he goes into pray, and he's now in the presence of the divine. This is the state, because see, if he does not get out of the garden, he cannot fulfill his destiny. And the problem with some of you is that you have been in the garden for 20 years. You have been in the place, the garden is the place of pressing. You have been in the place of pressing, and pressure, and indecisiveness. You have been in the place of fitting to, getting ready to, I'm about to, for 20 years. You've been on the verge of thinking about it, one day I will, for 20 years, 20 years.
Slap somebody and say, "Get out of the Gethsemane". Jesus shows me something. Jesus shows me something, watch this. Watch this, this is good, because Jesus goes into the presence of the Father, and then he comes back to the designated. He goes from the divine to the designated and said, "Won't you watch with me one hour"? And then he goes back to the divine and he prays again, and he goes back to the designated, "Are you asleep again"? See, that's what happens when you're in Gethsemane. You keep trying to go from the divine to the designated. From the divine to the designated. From the divine to the designated. Trying to solve the conflict in your own head. But finally, he gets so lost in the divine. You know you're lost when his will becomes your will. You know you're lost when you stop trying to have it your way. You know you're lost in his presence when you've lost sight of your personal opinion, and all of a sudden you're saying to yourself, "Not my will".
If you're going with me, you gotta come on, because I'm leaving Gethsemane. I'm leaving Gethsemane. I'm leaving the place of excuses. I'm leaving the place of procrastination. I'm leaving the place of frustration. I'm going on. I'm going on. Gethsemane, as many of you know, literally means the place of pressing. It is the place where the oil is excreted from the olive. It is the place where the olive comes in one way and goes out another. When I went in, I needed all of y'all, but when he got through pressing me, I came forth pure oil. Oil is energy. Oil is energy. Oil is light. Oil is fruit. Oil is heat. Olive oil is that part of the oil that survived, of the olive that survived the crush. God said I'm gonna do it with what's left of you. I'm gonna do it with what's left of you. I crushed what you were impressed with. Just because you was impressed with it doesn't mean I was impressed with it. I'm gonna take what's left of you and get the glory out of your life. Who am I preaching to?
The Lord sent me to say to you, get out of Gethsemane. It means I'm gonna ebonize it. Get out of your own head. Stop rethinking the same stuff over. Stop wrestling with coulda, woulda, and shoulda. Get out of Gethsemane means you need to understand it costs what it costs, and it's not going on sale. You gotta do what you gotta do, and there is no escaping it, and there is no out clause, and there are no coupons, and there's no discount Fridays. It costs what it costs. For what I'm gonna do in your life, you might as well buckle up your seatbelts and get yourself ready, because it costs what it costs. I don't know who that's for. I don't even know what God is talking to you about, but whoever that's for, God just sent you a direct message. He doesn't want to argue about it anymore. He doesn't want to hear you crying about it anymore. He doesn't want to bring it up alternative ways anymore. Get out of Gethsemane. Go ahead.
Jesus says, come on, boys, let's hurry out of Gethsemane, my betrayer cometh. What amazes me about Jesus is that he never lost awareness of where he was and what was happening. He says, I don't have time to struggle with this anymore, destiny is on its way. You know you got faith when you can say hurry up, Judas. Hurry up, Judas. He said, come on, we gotta go. We can't be late. I gotta get out of Gethsemane because Judas is coming. He literally tells Judas at the table what thou doest, do it quickly. Hurry up, Judas. The only way you can say hurry up Judas is that you know that what Judas will do will not stop your destiny. Who am I preaching to? If you can receive this word today, you will break the pattern, the circle that has had you going around and around for a long time. You're like the children of Israel. You're wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and it should have taken a few days.
Stand on your feet, I got something to tell you. This is really important. Glory, woo. What you have been wrestling with for months and years should have been over long time ago. It is not Satan holding you captive, it is your relentless commitment to your own opinion. And when the Lord said get out of Gethsemane, he's talking to you. I don't know what your Gethsemane is, but he's talking to you. You've been like Dorothy. You've been running all over Oz, talking to the tin man, and the straw man, and the lion, looking for courage and smartness, looking for all the things you thought you didn't have. You're trying to get back to yourself, so you went to see the wizard. Hey, Dorothy, you could have been home long time ago. You have the power within yourself. You can get back home whenever you want to. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".
You want change? You got up this morning 'cause you want change, and you brought yourself out to church because you want change. This is not a golf club, this is not the country club, and you are not on your job. You did not have to be here. You came here because you want change. You could have been home. Oh God, help me. Help me to pierce the darkness. You could have been there. Get out of your head, going around, and around, and around, back and forth to the tin man, and the straw man, and the lion, and the tin man, and the straw man. Stop. There is no other way. There's no way around it. There's no other place to go. There's nothing else to do. There is no way out. There is no way out. There is no way out. There is no way out. You could have been straight. You could have been whole. You could have been healed. You could have been loose right now. You could have been there. What you've been looking for in all them people, it was already in you. Today I break that yoke over your life and set you free in the name of Jesus. Lift your hands and open your mouth. Worship is in this place. Somebody shout, "Get out of Gethsemane".