TD Jakes - I Got This
Greetings, brothers and sisters in the name of Christ our king. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share the word of God with you. We've been embarking on a journey from the beginning of the area the message exceptionalism. It's profound and exceptional and provocative. I want to take you into the next dimension of the series when we share a message that really inundated our people with a profound response that I had to share it with you. The message is called, I got this. Take a look at this. It will bless you.
Somebody say, I got this. In our text this morning we're dealing with Jesus and the Bible says Jesus has come down to Capernaum. So the first thing I want to talk about is his relationship with Capernaum. This is the place that's become his headquarters. This is the place he's worked from. He was born in Bethlehem and set up in Capernaum. You'll see in the synoptic gospels over and over again a reference to Capernaum because Capernaum was the place Jesus performed miracle after miracle after measure call. He showed himself strong. He showed himself relevant. And he showed himself as being powerful. And he always came back to Capernaum.
The reason I want to start this teaching today with his relationship with Capernaum because he has poured so much into this city. And came to be a leader, a spiritual leader in a city that after all of the miracles that he has done in this city, Capernaum saw them and still did not believe on it. He is a cursing Capernaum because he has a spiritual head has come into Capernaum an invested so much and seen so little. There is nothing worse than investing a whole lot and seeing so little. He has come as the spiritual head and a spiritual leader to perform miracles in Capernaum and they let him do it. They let him do miracle after miracle after miracle but they were so pious and self righteous they couldn't receive what he had.
Sometimes religious people are the most dangerous people to lead because they have so much criteria that you have to stand up to before they will receive what you've got to say. They love the principles more than they love the Prince. And Jesus had to struggle with all of their religious notions and all their ideologies because Jesus was radical and out of the box and he didn't fit into their idea what Messiah ought to be and they tried him and rejected him choosing to hold on to their images of God rather than the reality of God. They walked away from the reality and held on to the image and missed the moment and ended up cursed.
The reason I want you to understand about Jesus' relationship with Capernaum, because I think it is so ironic that it's in this same city where they have rejected his leadership that we're studying a man who is a paralytic. So I want to move from the relationship that Jesus has with Capernaum to the individual in Capernaum who is paralytic. When the Bible says he's sick of palsy or paralytic you focus on the fact his body does not move. But I want you to think deeper than the fact the body doesn't move. Your body cannot be moving right now that doesn't make you paralytic. It's not the fact his body doesn't move.
It's the fact his body doesn't obey his head. That is the great take away point. And that is the point of synergistic thought between the relationship between Jesus and Capernaum. And this man's physical condition. Because he's a paralytic only because when his head sends a signal, his body does not respond. This man is then physically what the city is spiritually. Are you with me? Because Jesus, as the head, is sending a signal to the city that doesn't respond to the head. The paralytic man is a physical picture of a paralytic city that rejects the signals from his head.
Let's dig deeper into this paralytic man's relationship with his body because here lies the problem. His head is saying something that his body will not do. Let's see what we can get out of that. How many times have you made a decision that you didn't keep? How many times have you made a vow and broke it? How many times has your head said something that didn't reflect in your body? How many times have you prayed a prayer and made a covenant with God and went out and broke it? Or made a promise to yourself and broke it. Or made a promise to your wife and broke it. Or made a promise to your kids and broke it. How many times has your head said something that your body didn't act out?
If you can relate to that, then maybe you are the man on the mat. The man would not be on the mat. I think king James calls it a bed. He wouldn't be on the bed if things were working. What systems have we put in place for the things that don't work right? These systems and structures are the things that we do to compensate for the things that don't work. There are all kinds of things that people build into their lives to compensate for their inabilities or over compensate. Or go overboard, trying to distract you from the fact I'm really not good about this. I razzle-dazzle you because I don't want you to see other here I'm not much.
These little mats we lie in. These little systems we put in place. These little systems we put around ourselves to cover our incapacities, never confronting what's wrong, we comfort what's wrong. I'm preaching better than you're amening. We don't confront what's wrong, we comfort what's wrong. We make a bed for it. We make a pallet for it. We make an excuse for it. We have a list of rules not to challenge our limitations.
So we are not growing, because there's nothing wrong with his head. There's something wrong with his body. His body is not responding to what the head is saying. And in order to survive, we make these systems to compensate for our weaknesses and our willfulness and all of a sudden we find ourselves laying in a bed that we built to compensate for what doesn't work. We won't confront the issue in the house, we make a bed for it. You sit there. I'll get to you in a minute. When I get through, I'm coming right up your street. We won't face the challenge of being a better father, better mother, better business person, handling our money better, whatever we've got to do.
No, no, no. We make a bed for it. We make a bed for all the things that the don't work right. We make allowances for it. We don't have husbands but we have uncles that sleep over. We make a bed for it. Sit there. No. As long as you're quiet the deeper I'm going to dig. You will learn to shout quick, because if you don't shout quick, that makes me dig deeper. How many beds have you made for the things you won't confront?
Get ready to experience the exceptional today. How many beds have you made for the things you won't confront? For the way you handle money? For where you could have been in your life and in your career? For the souls you should have won? For the people that should know Jesus in your life? But because they know your temper better than they know your Jesus, you still can come to church and get your shout in. You don't feel convicted because you made a bed for it. Any time you make a bed for it, you get comfortable in your incapacities and you never challenge yourself to be who you could be, you just make a bed for it. How many people recognize you have some beds in your life? You make a bed for it.
You could have been great. You can walk all day. You might as well sit down. I'll be all over this place today. You would be so much further if you would grasp the God of the church you go to rather than the church of the God you worship. People do better about grasping church than they do grasping God. Because if you ever grasp the concept that you're not just coming to church but you're worshiping a Living Savior who is able to challenge every limitation in your life, there is no way you could hear this word and go back home and get in that same bed and still argue like you argue and fight like you fight. And ride home and fuss and cuss and still be the same person that you used to be.
Why are you not changing? You made a bed for it. How can you come to church and worship and raise your hand and have such a good time and then go home and be hellish and spiteful an evil and contrary. And the kids don't even know mom and dad are Christian. How can that be possible? How can you take communion and baptism and fallout in the aisle and slain in the spirit and never be altered? It's because you... You made a bed for it. And hear this man is in a disconnected city. He now has the disconnected body. And he's made a bed for it. And he's laying in it. And everything in his life is present but not connected.
How many things in your life are present but not connected? I went to bed the other night, I thought I had put my iPad on the charger and I thought I had. I had put it in the little slot it should go but it wasn't pushed in deep enough and I got up the next morning and it was dead. It looked like it was dead. I had everything I needed to have power. It was present, but not connected. Yeah. This is not a man that doesn't have a body. This is not a man that is a lunatic. Everything is there. It is present, but not connected.
You'll be surprised by the things that look better on the outside than they are on the inside. They are present but not connected. You would be surprised at the people who sleep in the same bed. Both people are there. They are present. But not connected. I hear a lot of talk about people who don't have a dad. Let me tell you, there are people who did have a dad. They were present but not connected. Yeah. Just sit right there. I'm coming right where you are. Hold tight baby, I'm coming your way. You can smile in the camera and take good pictures and celebrate your 25th anniversary and 28th anniversary, talk about how many years you've been together. Everybody collapse. Yeah you're present but not connected.
You would be surprised how many women have babies and wear the title of being a mother and the kids know mom lives in the house. She's present. But not connected. Stella is too busy trying to get her groove back. Stella is too busy going after a career. Stella doesn't understand there's more to being a mama than pushing out a baby. You thought I would get the men and not the women. The devil is a liar. There are a whole lot of women who are present but not connected. How can you say somebody is cheating on you when you are present?
Let me go a little bit deeper. I'm coming. You look at your statement every year how much money you made and you don't know where it went. You know they're not lying. You did make the money. It was present. Any time you have everything you need to function but the things don't function that are in place, any time things are in place and don't function, that is dysfunction. I might as well not put the iPad up at all if it's not connected. If it's present and not connected means the iPad is losing power not because it's not present, but because it's not connected.
I wonder how much richer, fuller, stronger, vibrant your life would be if you would just plug up and really be connected. If you were connected to where you are right now. If you were connected with the roles you have and the rings you wear and the people you say you love and the life you want to live. And the place you expect to be if you are not connected, you are paralyzed. If you are not connected, you are dysfunctional. If you're not connected maybe that's not you're not respected. You can't be respected if you're not connected.
I was just thinking about that, you know? That's what has this man laying in the bed. Now, I already told you, I hate laying in the bed. That's different. My wife says yeah she knows. I hate laying in the bed. My wife can get in the bed. I look in the bed, something has got to be in here. For you to be in the bed if you enjoy being in the bed like that, something is going on. She'll be curled up this the bed seventh wonder of the world. I cannot stand, I get in there when I have to and come out when I'm finished. I figured out I might be in the bed soon enough. I'm not practicing for the nursing home. I'll let it catch me by surprise. I'm just not going to do it. I get up with no place to go. I get up tired and stumbling.
Where are you going? I don't know. I'm getting up out of this bed. I think I'm dead. One day I'll get stuck many the bed and I'll not be able to get out. How many people want out of the bed? I want to get out while I can get out, while I can move. I don't want to be rolling if I don't have to. I don't want to be pushed if you don't have to push me. I don't want you to fluff my pillow if I can fluff my own. I fight like that. I warlike that. I want to live until I die. I want to run if I can run. I want to walk if I can walk. I want to leap if I can leap. And I want to fight if I can fight.
Touch three people and say, function. Please. Do not sign up for more than you will willing to plug up. Please. I beg you. Don't take a title you're not going to do. Don't be a wife if you're not going to be married. Don't be a mama if you're not going to be a mama. Don't get married if you'll not be a husband. Don't sign up and then be paralyzed. Don't start a business if you're not going to work it. Don't take a job if you're not going to do it. And don't volunteer for stuff if you're not going to show up. We don't need paralyzed people taking up space.Touch your neighbor, say, God told you to function. In every area that you signed up for, God told you to function. God called you to function. Don't just take the title. Function.
I got to get off that point because I like that point. I wear that point out. I got a secret pet peeve with all the little boys calling themselves ministers and don't have churches and calling themselves pastors and don't have ministries and call themselves evangelists and have no gifts. I get sick of people wearing titles who don't function in the title they have. If you don't take the title, do the job or shut up! That's right. I'm here to represent. That's right. You might ought to get out of some things you signed up for if you'll be in the choir, sing. If you will be EMT get up and put on the uniform. Greet somebody. Smile at somebody. If you'll be a musician, play me a song. I'm sick to death of people perpetrating that they are something that they're not demonstrating. Put up or sit down.