TD Jakes - Hand Out to Hand Up
The man was laid daily at the gate of the temple, where the presence of the Lord was supposed to be, and he stopped expecting to be healed, and he has developed a system of surviving by begging because he has accepted that things will not get better. The hardest person to help is somebody who has become comfortable being dysfunctional. When you try to help somebody who has become comfortable with their dysfunction, and you come in and offer them help, the first thing they'll say is, "Leave us alone. I don't wanna go to no counseling. Leave us alone. I don't need a better house. I like this house. It's fine. It's okay". "How you doing"? "I'm fine".
Have you ever settled for less than what you really believe for? Because sometimes settling is comfortable. When you settle, it stops hurting. When you settle, you're no longer frustrated. I'm trying to make you understand that this man had people carry him to church not every week, every day, not expecting a miracle, because that hurts, to expect a miracle and go home with misery. It hurts to expect a marriage and go home with you. So, "if you just pay the bills and if you just take out the trash, if you just be a good father and if you just take the kids to school, I just need some help. I just need some help, man. You don't have to love me. You don't have to treat me right. Your eyes don't have to light up when I come in the room. I just need a handout. I'm no longer expecting to be happy. I'm no longer expecting to be in love. I'm no longer expecting romance. Let's make a deal".
It doesn't matter that I go to church Sunday after Sunday and there is no move of God and there is no troubling of the water and there is no miracle and there is nothing to be excited about on Monday. That's okay. It bothered me at first but now I've kinda gotten used to it. It really doesn't bother me. At least it's quiet in there and the quietness has a certain sanctity about it. Let's make a deal. It doesn't matter that we don't have a good relationship with our children. We have now accepted that's just the way he is, because once I accept that's just the way he is, I don't feel like a failing parent. Let's make a deal, so if you just do two or three little things, and I'll do two or three little things, we'll take this handout.
"I know I never lived my life the way I wanted to or became who I wanted to be or got what I was after, and once I saw how hard it was to get it, I decided that it was easier to stop wanting it". Oh, I'm all up in your business. I know I'm all up in your business. See, see, everybody else likes when the church shouts. I like when the church gets quiet. Oh, I can put up with the shouting, but when you get that little funny look on your face and you start going, then I'm really preaching, when I'm all up in your business. This text teaches us the death of expectation. Call the pallbearers and dig a hole because we have come to the side of this text to mourn the death of expectations. "It doesn't matter that you're not calling. It's okay. I'm used to it. That's just how he is. I used to expect something, but now I have adjusted to being miserable, and it's okay".
And you can never get a miracle when misery is okay. This man had gotten so used to being down, that until he got a commandment he didn't even look up. It no longer matter who passed by. "Alms, alms, alms, alms, alms, alms. Give me a handout. Give me and a handout". And then, Peter and John said, "Look on us". He had stopped even looking up. I wonder if there's an area in your life that you have developed a routine, a survival mechanism where you have done it to stop the pain of expectation, and you have stopped looking up. You remember the woman in the Bible when the prophet came to her and told her, "By this time next year you're gonna have a child"? And she said, "Shut up. Don't make me want it again. Don't rekindle my passion again. Don't disrupt me. I got a little system here. I'm kinda cool with not having it and now that, you remember that old song, "Now that I've cried my love to sleep, don't wake it up"? Now that I've gotten used to being alone, don't promise me love. Now that I have gotten used to not having any money, don't promise me hope.
Can I work on this a little bit? See, poverty has a system. There is a way you get things done when you're broke. It's not that nothing happens. There's a way you get things done and if there is anybody in here who's really broke, I mean, not sort of but really broke, you have a system. You know how to get things done. You know how to go down to the place and get an old muffler off an old car and put it on another car and give a guy a fifth of liquor and have him put it on. There is a system. I don't know where to go, but you know where to go because you have... oh, don't talk to me. I'll fight you right where I am. You have a system. When your windshield is cracked, you know where to go get another windshield for 50 bucks 'cause you know Joe will give you a hookup, and you know your car won't pass inspection, but you know where you can get... I wish you would play with me. I wish you would play with me. I will fight you back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, see, rich people don't know where to go. Rich people don't know how to get nothing done, but when you've been poor long enough, you have a system. You know how to get things done. You know if you go to the back alley and you blow your horn, Joe will come out the door, and he'll put your sticker on there for $10 and a bottle of wine. I wish you would act like you don't know what I'm talking about, 'cause if you are not there you have been there before. You got a system that stops you from hurting, that pacifies your dreams, that makes you content to live on the floor by the gate called Beautiful. It ain't pretty, but I get close to pretty, and I sit right here and beg, "Alms, alms, alms, alms," of what I asked for, when I no longer believe that my situation will change.
So, you got religion and you got rituals cohabitating at the same time and here comes revelation. You all with me? Here comes revelation and when they looked at revelation they're trying to get overall revelation. This is a critical point, because when good times do come crippled people don't know how to receive it. There are so used to asking alms that in the face of a life-changing opportunity they're still trying to get a handout, so Peter and John had to drop the bomb on the brother. They had to drop the bomb on the brother. They had to let him have it. They had to let him have it. They let him have it. They said, "I know I'm a church boy, but I'm not stupid. Silver and gold have I none. You ain't getting none here, but this is not gonna be like your last church, but this is not gonna be like the last 20 years of your life, but this is not gonna be like the last relationship that broke your heart. But silver and gold have I none". You better pray for me. "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, such as I have".
Everybody got the Holy Ghost. Touch somebody and say, "I got something". I got something, I got something, and if I turn loose what I got in this room, demons are gonna tremble. If I turn loose what I got in this room, drug addicts are gonna be delivered. If I turn loose what I got in this room, you ain't gonna go home the way you came. If I turn loose what I got in this room, you will never be the same again. Silver and gold have I none. I ain't gonna let you use me, but such as I have give I unto thee. Ain't gonna cost you nothing. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Oh, I wish I had 30 second praise for the name! Touch everybody you can reach and tell 'em, "There is something about the name". There is something about the name. There is something about the name. There is power in the name. There is healing in the name. There is deliverance in the name. There is a breakthrough in his name. There is glory in his name. There is help in his name.
Somebody call his name. In the name of who? Jesus. Who's gonna get you out of this mess? Jesus. Who's gonna raise you out of your condition? Jesus. Who's gonna turn your life around? Jesus. What's his name? Jesus. Let the devil hear you. Jesus. Let your trouble hear you. Jesus. Let your ankles hear you. Jesus. I speak to every lame thing in your life. I speak to every lame condition in your home. I speak to every lame condition in your finances in the name of Jesus. I feel a breakthrough coming. I feel a breakthrough coming. Everybody who wants to stay lame, leave now. Everybody who's happy to stay the way you were, exit the building right now, because if you stay any longer God is about to turn your life completely around. If you stay any longer, you're never gonna be the same again. If you stay any longer, you're gonna get beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I need three seconds of crazy praise in this house right now.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth they told him, "Rise up and walk". Shout it in your neighbor's ear, "Rise up and walk". In your finances, rise up and walk. In your marriage rise up and walk. In your ministry rise up and walk. In your healing rise up and walk. In your prayer life rise up and walk. Shout it again. Rise up and walk. Yeah, the glory of God is in this place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel a shift in the room. I feel a shift in the room. I feel a shift in the atmosphere. I feel a shift. I want you to understand it is possible to live a better life than you're living right now. It is possible that you can have the joy, the peace, and the power of the Lord. I came to tell you Jesus didn't die for you to have church. He said, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly". Jesus wants to get in your life. He doesn't wanna get in your church. He wants to get in your life. Rise up and walk. Somebody holler, "Come on in, Jesus". Get in my life. Get in my business. Get in my finances. Get in my circumstance. Get in my body. Get in my soul. Get in the way I think. Get in the way I talk. Get in the way I walk. Somebody shout, "Yes"!
Now, any good preacher could bring you this far. Any clergy and collar-wearing preacher could get you this far. Any preacher with $99 to get a clergy shirt could get you this far, preach a good, ole sermon. "In the name of Jesus rise up and walk," and it should be that he jumped up and started running but he didn't. What do you do when you hear a good Word but it ain't working? Most people, when you said the name of Jesus, they got healed. Most people, when you said the name of Jesus, they got set free. But when Peter and John said the name of Jesus, he was still laying on the ground. This next moment is the moment that sets this text apart from any other texts in the Bible. This is the moment where this text goes rogue. This is the moment where this text goes wild. This is the moment where this text becomes radical.
Any preacher can preach a good sermon and go home, never look back to see whether it worked or not, say the right stuff at the right time to the right person and be done with it, but it wasn't just any preacher at the gate. These were radical preachers. They had just been filled with the Holy Ghost and when you've been filled with the Holy Ghost, it makes you radical. Where my radical Christians at? You Sunday-morning Christmas don't understand this, but there are about 5.000 radical Christians. You see we've been praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and our faith has gotten stirred up, and we know that any moment something is about to happen. If I'm talking about you, give God a praise in this place.
It was one thing for him to preach a message, but then he got radical, and the Bible said he took him by the hand... now, the man is crippled. He's laying on the floor. Peter reached out and snatched him and said, "Rise up and walk". Grab your neighbor by the hand and snatch them, "You gotta come out of this. You gotta come out of your circumstance. You gotta come out of your situation. You gotta come out of your depression. You gotta come out of your heaviness. You gotta come out of your storm. You gotta come out. You gotta. You gotta come out. I pull you out. I pull you out of suicide. I pull you out of depression. I pull you out of fear. Yeah! Come out. Come out". Yeah! And the Word said gradually, slowly, after a while... no, it said immediately! I don't mean next Sunday. I don't mean in three weeks. Somebody is gonna get a breakthrough this Sunday morning. I don't care how long you've been down. I don't care how long the devil's been working, you could have been dealing with this from your mama's womb, but slap your neighbor and say, "Immediately". Oh, y'all didn't say it right. I said, "Immediately".