TD Jakes - It Works For Me
From the healing of the man born blind in John 9, the preacher highlights the double torment of disability—being blind and feeling different in a seeing world—yet after the miracle, new battles arise; true testimony is simple: "I was blind, now I see"—it works for me, no need to argue doctrine when Jesus changed your life.
The Double Torment of Blindness
My heart bleeds for the blind man. My heart bleeds for the blind man, because he has been blind all of his life. He has never had his sight, and yet he lived in the midst of people with sight. Now, if all people had no sight, then being blind is normal. But if you are surrounded by sighted people, and you cannot see, he is not only dealing with the agony of being blind, he is dealing with the agony of being different.
No matter what you say, all of us to some degree want acceptance, and we want to fit in. We would like to feel like we are normal. There are very few people in here that would like to walk on four legs. Not that that would be bad, it might be good. We do not want to find out because it is different. Very few of us want a third eye in the middle of our head or an eyeball behind our ears so we can see behind us. That might be very convenient. But we do not want to explain to everybody why we have an eyeball in the back of our head. Not because it might not be convenient, but because it is...
Anytime you have a problem, you are tormented by the problem, but you are also tormented by the difference. The assumption that everybody else got something that you did not get produces its own pain. That alone is a message. You would be shocked at the people that would be happily married right now if it were not for their neighbors? Yes, hear me out.
The assumption that your neighbors are happier than you, that she has a better husband, that he has a better wife, that they are a loving couple, look at them sitting on the front porch drinking lemonade. And there you and I have been arguing all day, and the assumption that they got something that you did not get produces pain to the point that some people will divorce over the commercials that they saw on TV, over soap operas and love that is sold to us by the gram every day on television. We want what everybody else has.
The blind man did not have it. And so, he had to live in a world of sighted people, and he was blind. And he was tormented by the fact that he is blind and that he is also different. And then he is tormented by the fact that even though he has some other people who may be blind, they have not always been blind.
They can remember what cobblestone streets looked like. They can remember what ocean waves looked like hitting up against rocks. They can remember the sound, what sand looked like on the beach. He has nothing to remember. And for the first time in his life, under the ministry of Jesus Christ, he receives a miracle, a radical change, a life-changing change, a change that is so wonderful, so amazing, a change he has been waiting for all of his life.
He dips in the pool, washes the mud out of his eyes, and for the first time in his whole life he can see. And the reason I feel sorry for him is, when he was blind, no doubt he thought, "If I could just see, my troubles would be over. If I could just see, my trouble..."
One Problem Ends, Another Begins
Let me tell you something. They might not stand up because there is too many people that might put them on the spot. You would be shocked at the people who are in financial trouble right now, have been in financial trouble most of their lives, their parents were in financial trouble, and they think, "If I just had a million dollars, if I just had $2 million, if I just had $500, all my troubles would be over. I would be just fine." And they have no clue that the ending of one problem is the beginning of another.
You cannot make them understand that to save their life, because we worship the idea of getting what we do not have. There are people in this room right now who have been single 20, 30 years, and they said, "I hate being alone, and I hate being single, and look at all the other people who are happy. I hate Valentine's Day, I hate all of this, I hate that, I hate the other. I hate being alone. If I could just be married." They do not know that right behind them there is a married person sitting there saying, "Oh my god, I am so sick of this joker. If I could just..."
What I am trying to get you to see is that the pool took care of one problem, but it started another one, and before he could enjoy, salivate, titillate, explore the moment, the greatness to the fantastic, intoxicating feeling of being able to see... He does not get to throw a sighted party. He does not get to go to a museum. He does not even get to bake a cake or nothing. He comes right out of the pool, smack dab into a fight of another kind.
I want to talk to the people in this room that as soon as you get through with one thing here comes something else. If it is not this, it is that. If it is not that, it is the other. I want to talk to the people who had blessings that you did not even get to enjoy because there were so many circumstances... Oh, talk to me somebody.
I want you to understand that this is an important moment in this man's life. It is a moment he has been waiting on all of his life, and he finally gets to this moment, and he cannot even enjoy it because he has got to fight. And they began to say, "Is not this the man who has been begging?" Oh, wait, begging. Isn't he the beggar? Excuse me. I just thought about something. What is this guy's name anyway?
We do not even get to know... He is not... he is treated like a non-person. Either they are calling him the blind man or the beggar. It is a bad thing when what you are going through has robbed you of who you are. I want you to understand that if he was a beggar, you never beg if you are not broke.
Whether you are begging for money or begging for attention or begging for love or begging for recognition, people who are full of something never beg for it. I would not beg you for a glass of water if I had a whole lot of water. If I am begging you for something, I do not have it. He is the beggar, the blind man, the broke man, the beggar, the blind man, the broke man. Everything in his life has been affected by this one thing.
I am telling you right now, you can teach financial stewardship all day long, but most people are not broke because they do not know how to handle money. There is generally some area in your life that has affected you economically that has nothing to do with money. Whether it be fear or whether it be just a nasty attitude, your smart, sister, but you are hateful and nobody can work with you, and after three or four jobs, you cannot keep saying what was wrong with them. You have to tie in, there must be something wrong with me that is creating this condition.
The blindness has nothing to do with the brokenness, but it does. Because he cannot do this, it has affected that. Economically he is affected. His eye, number two: His identity is affected. We do not know who he is or what he has been through. His name is swallowed up by his conditions. A name is a lot to lose. I am going to say that again. A name is a lot to lose.
Let me tell you something. When you do not have a good name, it will go ahead of you. A bad name will close doors you have not even got to yet. By the time they meet you, they are already pre-set to dislike you because of a bad name. A good name on the other hand will open up doors you do not even want open.
I had two or three different car dealerships asking me just to drive their car. I said just drive... Yeah, we just want you to just drive the car. Just drive around in the car, just drive around in the car, and I said for test drive. No, just take it and drive. I said, like, just drive. Yeah. You do not want me to buy it or anything? No, we just want you to drive the car, because you are T.D. Jakes. We want you to be seen driving the car.
And I could not help but think about when they repossessed my car, and I really needed a car, I could not get nobody to let me have a car. They wanted one leg, two children, and one of my eyeballs when I was broke, but now they are ready to give me a car. I do not have to sign for anything, just on the strength of your name. I want to tell somebody in here, the devil has been after your name for years. He has been after your integrity, he has been after your credit, he has been after your name, but God is about to restore your name. Open your mouth and praise Him if you receive it.
New Battles After the Miracle
So, it affected his economy. It affected his identity, and when they could find nothing else wrong with him, then they attacked his methodology. They kept asking this guy over and over and over again to tell the story. He said, it is just like I just told you. Then they took him to the Pharisees. Tell them again. Now, tell it again. It is interrogation.
They were not even interested in whether he could see or not. They were using him to attack Jesus. Some of you are up under battle right now, and the battle is not even about you. They are using you to attack somebody else around you. You might be going through a battle that is not even yours, because if they could get him to say the right thing, they could use his mouth to kill his Master.
And when the enemy is out to assassinate someone who is gifted or anointed or promising, he will always try to use somebody's mouth. Are y'all going to talk to me or not? They do not care whether he is blind or whether he could see. They do not care whether he got a job or does not have a job. They do not care whether he has a future or does not have a future. They just keep asking him the same thing a different way, trying to get him to say something that they can use to attack Jesus.
They do not care that he is blind or that he can see or that he is now healed. They are trying to get him to say something. And then the Bible mentions that Jesus did it on the Sabbath day, and from the fact that He healed him on the Sabbath day, they concluded He is a sinner, a sinner.
It is not like Jesus was washing clothes or mending fences or working on the Sabbath day. Jesus had a conversation, and He spit. That is all He did on the Sabbath day, and from that they said He is a sinner. He is a sinner. Once people put a name on how they hate you, once they give that hate a name, and the name is hatable, they want to find a category to put you in so that they can hate you better.
When I came here to pastor this church, the Lord told me to call it The Potter's House. In the early days of the church... You know what I am about to say. In the early days the church, new members were coming to me, and they said they want to know what kind of church it is. Is it Potter's House Baptist, Potter's House A & E, Potter's House Church of God in Christ, Potter's House Apostolic Church? What kind of church is it?
So, I went to God, and I prayed about it. I said, the people want a name for The Potter's House. They want to know what kind of church it is. And the Lord spoke something to me I will never forget. He said, "Son, do not give them no name, because if they cannot fight you, they will fight the name you gave it."
Once they got a name that they could say that Jesus was not doing it. They could not hate Jesus. But when they said, Jesus is a sinner, now people who would not have hated Him now hates Him off the label that they put on Him. Let me tell you something. And all of a sudden, Jesus is up under this cloud of suspicion that the Pharisees have created around something that He set out to do that was good.
Now, I am really going to dig down in something. Y'all with me? Have you ever been doing something good with good intentions, meant right, really trying to help somebody and got kicked in the face for doing something good. It is not like you have never done anything bad. You have done things bad before and got away with it and then did something good, and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose.
And you are saying, "How in the world could you attack me? You? You are going to attack me after I paid your rent, talked for you to get a job, opened up a door? You go avoid... I do not mind being attacked. But you? Everything you have got on that body, everywhere I went, I took you. Every time I have... you?"
And more times than not, those are the very people that try to destroy you. It is the very people... and next, they are trying to destroy Jesus for healing a blind man, somebody they could not heal. And let me prove to you that they did not care about the man. They were not even sure he was the one.
That means they have been walking past him for years, had not even paid him enough attention to recognize him because some said he was a blind man. Others said he was like him. But the Bible said that he said, "I am he." That means you walked past me every Sunday. So, this is not compassion about my blindness.
Be careful of people who befriend you so that they can get close to somebody they want to kill. Oh, you are not going to talk to me this morning. I thought y'all came to have some church this morning. I am going to preach some truth in here this morning.
They did not care anything about this blind man. They were trying to use him to kill Jesus. They were not even sure it was him. They did not notice his pain. They did not care about his condition. Now they are asking him all kinds of questions. Where were you when I was begging?
You would be shocked at the people who are following you on social media that you do not hear from until something negative comes up, and you think, "Where were you when all the good things were going on?" They start swooping in like bees. I just never got to talk to...
Why are you following somebody you do not like? Leave me alone. All of a sudden, my point is this, there are people who cloud your life with ulterior motives, who question you and seek closeness with you, and it will not even be about you, but it is to get an opportunity to sabotage somebody else, because what they want to do is take advantage of your closeness.
The blind man had gotten closer to Jesus than the Pharisees could, and when people see you have favor, they will try to ride in on your favor. Y'all are not going to talk to me. Y'all are not going to talk to me. Y'all are not going to talk to me.
When God opens up a door for you, be careful who you walk in that door with. Be careful who you walk in that door with. Be careful who you talk to. When they found out it was a Sabbath day, they said He is a sinner.
When they called Him a sinner, the blind man said, "I do not know." He said, "I do not know whether He is a sinner or not." He said, "I do not know anything about His doctrine. I do not know anything about His theology. I do not know anything about that. I do not know what you all are talking about it. I never read the book of Revelations. I do not know what His stance is. I do not know whether He Democratic or Republican. I do not know whether He has got two wives or a dog or billygoat. All I know is that when I met Him I was blind, and when He finished with me I could see. Now, the rest of it, y'all can fight all day long. But all I know is that it works for me."
Touch your neighbor and tell him, "It works for me." You are in a season in your life that you do not have to prove anything to anybody. All you got to do is tell them all I know, all I know is that it works for me. I do not know about your God. I am not going to argue with you about your religion. I do not care if you worship Buddha. I do not care if you serve the moon and the stars. I do not care if you pray to Pluto. All I know is that it works for me.
This man, Jesus, healed me. This man, Jesus, set me free. This man, Jesus, broke yokes in my life. This man, Jesus, stopped me from killing myself. This man, Jesus, picked me up off the ground. This man, Jesus, gave me a second chance. I want somebody in this room to give His name the praise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
High five somebody, tell them, "It works for me." My faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith.