TD Jakes — Have You Ever Been Double Crossed?
I got some things I wrote down. Both Joseph and Jesus were the firstborn sons of their fathers. Both of them were shepherds. Both are the most loved of their fathers. They're both, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased". Joseph is beloved of his father. Both were prophesied to be rulers. Both Joseph and Jesus had brothers that were jealous of them that did not believe. The Bible says of Jesus, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not". The prophecies that Joseph would rule over his brothers is the same as the prophecies that Jesus was King of the Jews. Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren. Jesus was sent by his Father to Israel. "I have not come but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel".
Joseph was apparently put to death. It looked like he had died. All they had was his bloody coat. Jesus truly was put to death and died for his own. They're, over and over, there's actually about 40 different ways that Joseph is a type of Jesus. Looking at Joseph, you're looking at a shadow of Jesus, A shadow shows my movement. It doesn't show the color of my tie. It doesn't show the color of my vest. It doesn't show the texture of my material, but it gives you enough shape that you know that whatever is moving over here is moving over there. Joseph is a shadow. A shadow is only possible when an object is positioned in light. So, the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, when God cast a light on him, Joseph becomes that shadow.
How many of you see that? I'm, nowhere is he any more of a shadow in the fact that this Hebrew boy has come to an idolatrous country, falls with love with an Egyptian woman, and marries a heathen. It's a shadow that Christ, rejected by his brethren, would come to the gentiles and marry the church. He is a shadow of Jesus. He falls in love with an Egyptian woman. It is a shadow of Christ, who is rejected of his brethren and falls in love with the church, and it is God playing etch a sketch in the Old Testament.
Nowhere is it more evident that God is strategic than in the life of Joseph. He shows us such shadows of Christ that one could almost pin the words to "Amazing Grace" without the cross ever been seen because, though the cross is not seen yet in the blood is not yet shed, we are looking at shadows of what be, that this Hebrew boy, who is a chosen vessel, would fall in love with an idolatrous woman, who was the daughter of a priest called Asenath of K'naan, and he would marry her and produce children is God whispering to us about his love for the church, who has no right to be in the family but is adopted into the royal family by marriage, and he gave us a name, and we became a people, and we became heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. I'm trying to tell you that God is giving you the hookup. Give him some praise.
So, I want you to look at, 'cause it don't look right to preach without having you look at a Scripture, so go to Genesis 41:50 through 52. Don't, you don't have to stand. I'm halfway through the message now. Genesis 41:50 through 52, "And Joseph, and unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of on bare unto him, and Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God said, 'He hath made me to forget all my toil and all my father's house.'" God said, "He hath made me to forget all of my toil and all of my father's house. I'm gonna call his name Manasseh means, "God has caused me to forget". Now, to all of you people that cannot forgive and act like you cannot get over it, Joseph has said, "There is a place in God where God can bless you so good that you don't have room to be angry at anybody about anything because God has been too good".
What are you angry about after God blessed you, after God delivered you, after God healed you, after God blessed your children, and you're still going to be angry? Shame on you. You ought to get pregnant this morning and give birth to Manasseh and tell the devil, "God hath made me to forget all of my toil. I'm not mad. I don't have time to be angry at anybody. I'm too blessed to be angry". So, she got pregnant again. I don't know how that kept happening, but she got pregnant again. Isn't it funny how that stuff just happens? You just look around, and you're pregnant, but anyway, she got pregnant again. She has a second son. First son's named Manasseh, which means "God has made me to forget," and you ought to receive that if you don't receive anything else. God has made me to forget all of my toil. You keep talking about what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened.
How can you worship and dance and skip and shout and run all over the church and still be bound by what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened? You need to birth Manasseh this morning. God hath made me to forget all of my toil. Have you ever had somebody walk up to you, and they thought you were still angry, and you weren't angry about anything? I told somebody, "I don't have time to be angry about that. Do you know how many people have hurt me since you? If for no other reason, I had to throw you out to make room for all them other people that came along later. I'm good with you". God hath made me to forget all of my toil. He's made me forget what my brothers did to me. I'm cool with it. What happened in my father's house is over. Is what happened in your And then she got pregnant again, and he names the second child Ephraim, and Ephraim means that God has caused me to prosper God hath caused me to prosper in the land of my affliction.
I know this is a multicultural church, and we got people here from all different types of ethnicities and nationalities, what have you, but, to my African American brothers and sisters, if nobody else gets this, you ought to get this part. God hath caused me to prosper in the land, in the same place, in the same place of my affliction. God hath caused me to prosper. Everybody who owns a car ought to be shouting. Everybody who's got a house ought to be shouting. Everybody who's free to come and go whenever you get ready ought to be shouting. It said that you can come in this way and turn around and go that way. God hath caused me to prosper in the land of my affliction. I don't have to go home to be free. He's gonna free me right here. He's gonna bless me right here. I don't have to move to another city. He'll bless me right in front of my ex-husband, right in front of him. Y'all ain't shouting near good, That's some terrible English, but it's some good preaching.
God hath caused me to prosper in the land of my affliction, in the presence of my enemies, in the face of the one who betrayed me, in the midst of who hurt me. God didn't have to get me out and then bless me in a corner. He caused me to prosper. All the prosperous people, make some noise. Touch three people, and say, "I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good right now. I'm good right where I am. I'm good right here. God's gonna bless me right here, right on that job where nobody likes me. God's gonna bless me right here. I'm gonna be the head and not the tail. I'm gonna be above and not beneath. I don't have to change jobs. I don't have to change nothing. God will prosper me right in the land of my affliction". My God, I feel the Holy Ghost about to take over this place. I don't know who I'm preaching to, but I swear I'm talking to somebody.
So, now, they go back, and they bring Benjamin in, and they bring Benjamin so they can get Simeon back, and Joseph reveals himself to his brethren, and he starts crying and weeping. You see, Joseph had everything that money could buy, but there are some things that money can't buy, and when they brought his, his family back, I told you last week, he saw the left hand of God; remember that? He saw the left hand. He'd seen the right hand, but he hadn't seen how God works with his left hand, and he brought his family back through the famine. Now, Jacob and all of Joseph's brethren are living in Egypt. Pharaoh has conferred unto them the deed and trust to the choicest property in Egypt, and they are living large.
At God's design, they were living large. God did not mind them living large. God had positioned them not just enough corn to get through, not just making ends meet, and, if the paycheck come in the mail on Friday, the check won't bounce. None of that. They were living large in a strange place, out of their element, with an unexplainable blessing. I prophesy an unexplainable blessing, an unexpected supernatural blessing to come upon you from an unlikely place. I prophesy a blessing that you never saw coming in the midst of all of your troubles, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Now, Jacob, Jacob grows old. Jacob grows old in Egypt. Jacob grows old in Egypt. Israel grows old in Egypt, and the death angel has come to get Jacob, but the Bible said Israel sat up in the bed and strengthened himself, and they brought around him his sons, his sons, because the sons knew the power of a father's blessing.
That's what we've lost, is an understanding of the power of your Father's blessing. Now, we just go do stuff, whatever we want to do, but back then, they understood that there's a power in your father's blessing, even though he is old and feeble and about to die, and there is no strength left in his arms or hand, but there's still power in his anointing. All of the sons are gathering together, preparing to go to get the blessing, and Joseph, who is a son in his own right, brings his sons, his sons born to an Egyptian woman, he brings them, and he brings them. Come here, Emmett, and come here, Sledge. He brings them, and he brings them, and he gets them, and he says, "I'm gonna bring you to dad so that the blessing that has been on us, should be upon you. My father has a blessing". And he says to them now, "Now, Manasseh, you were born first". Come down here, Ontario. Yeah. You were born first, so I want you to get in front of me. You're gonna be Jacob 'cause you old. Turn around and face me. Turn around and face me. "I brought my sons to you to bless them, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, Manasseh, you were born first, and Ephraim, you were born last," and so what Joseph does, since dad is old, he crosses his hands over to bless them.
Now, watch this. Jacob now crosses his hands and blesses differently than Joseph expected 'cause Joseph is trying to get the right hand on the right son, and he thinks his daddy is too old to know what he's doing, but the old man was still so smart, that he double crossed them. Joseph has tried to cross it this way, but Jacob has crossed it that way. Stay right there. I'm telling you, you're in a situation where somebody doesn't want to put you into position to get what God has for you, but the devil is a lie. God told me to tell you he's gonna double cross. They think it's gonna go one way, but God is gonna make it go another way. Shout, "Yes"! Slap your neighbor, and say, "You been double crossed". You were the tail, but I'm gonna make you the head. You were the last, but I'm gonna make you the first. High five somebody, and say, "Double crossed". Give him a praise. Take your hands, and do it like this. Double cross. Double cross.
The old man crossed his hands and blessed his, wait a minute. Look at your hands. That's the cross. 2.000 years ago on an old rugged hill, I was on my way to hell. Justice said I had to die, but mercy did a double cross. He brought me out of darkness into the marvelous light. They hung him high. They stretched him wide. He hung his head. For me, he died. That's love. That's love. That's love. That's, that's what the cross, that's what the cross did for me. Ephesians said it took we who were not a people and made us a people and made us heirs through Jesus Christ. Satan thought he had me in a position where I couldn't get my blessing, but, when God sent Jesus, he crossed, and, when he got finished with the cross, the head became the tail. The tail became the head. The last became first. The first became last. I want to talk to all of you people, that it looked like you wasn't gonna get the blessing. You never won anything. People been looking over you all of your life. Everybody got the blessing but you. I prophesy to you, you are in a season.