TD Jakes - Throw it Behind You
We leap into the life of the text at a moment that we have caught David at the intersection of his life. He is at a crossroads moment in his life. He has been anointed to be king over Israel. He has been endowed with grace and power to do exploits in the kingdom of God. He has been mighty in battle. He has pulverized the Philistines, rendered them helpless over and over again. He has left the dead carcass of a Goliath laying flat footed in a field, cut his head off his shoulders, mocked his name, ruined his reputation as a giant, and walked away, a little boy, carryin' a big head. He had done some great things. Moved into the palace. Changed his entire life.
And yet, on the other hand, he had had some of the greatest failures you could ever imagine, moral failures, character failures, bad choices, bad decisions. Fell in love with somebody else's wife and wanted her so bad he had them killed to get her. And she is now pregnant. And we find David praying after the word has been delivered to him from Nathan, saying that God has pronounced death over the child. David is trying to reverse the curse, and we find him at the intersection of life asking God to fix it. David knows that God is merciful. He has experienced the mercies of God over and over again. He's seen God forgive him.
You could not beat David for repenting. David is one of those people that get in so much mess that you don't know what they're gonna get into next, and you get ready to just knock them out, but they repent so good you can't. David would fall out in the floor and cry until there was a puddle of mud up under his feet, and you got to just drop your arm and say, "All right, David, don't you do that anymore". But this time when he prayed, there was no answer. And so he lay flat out on the floor.
The mighty man of valor who brought giants to their knees is now laying flat out on the floor, facedown in the dirt in the presence of those who follow him. "How are the mighty fallen". It's one thing to be on the ground and stay on the ground, but it's another thing to be up and fall to the ground. To have once had it and lost it, to have once known it and can't find it, to have touched it and can't taste it is a painful thing. He came so close to rising up, and now the mighty king of Israel lay flat down on the floor, head in the dirt, crying before God for seven days, seven days. He's crying out to God, working feverishly without food or water. He fasts for seven days, face in the dirt, asking God to somehow, somehow save this nameless baby, save this baby.
Now, we have seen people cry for babies before, but David is the first man, to my recollection, in all of the Scriptures that we see crying over a baby. We've seen Hannah cry over a baby. We've seen Rachel cry over a baby. We've seen Mary cry over a baby. But we have never seen a man fall out and cry for a baby he has not seen, not met, and not touched, not even named. And he is on his face, crying for the baby. The man cried. The big man cries for the little baby, "God, save the baby".
Oh, and the stress of seven days crying out before God. It's real hard when you're tryin' to save somethin' that God is trying to kill. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of work to resuscitate something that God is trying to terminate. "Oh, God, keep it goin'". And God says, "No, I'm tryin' to kill it". And before you disrespect him, it is hard sometimes when you're at the intersection of your life. There's some things that come along that knock you to your knees. The preachers up here might not tell ya. The preachers down there might not tell ya. And all of your heroes might not tell ya, but every great man and great woman goes through a time in your life that something knocks you to your knees and makes you doubt yourself. And you wonder, "Lord, is this the big one? Will I ever come back from this"?
I wish I had a witness of somebody who knows what it is to go through somethin' that you're sayin', "I know this is the big one. He wonders, will he survive this? He is praying to keep something that God is trying to take. But don't be too hard on him. He is not alone. He is not alone. The Apostle Paul prayed for something that God was not going to do: "Take this thorn from my flesh". Three times he prayed. God said, "I'm not gonna take it. I'm gonna give you grace to carry it".
What do you do when you are asking for something that's going this way, and God's answer is going that way, and you're trying to save what God is trying to kill, and you're trying to keep what God is trying to take. Don't judge him. Don't judge him, because even Jesus went to the garden alone and said, "Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup. I don't wanna go through. I don't want to go through this to get to where you're trying to take me. I don't wanna go through this".
"I want to know you're a Healer, but I don't wanna be sick. I wanna know you're a Waymaker, but I don't wanna be in a jam. I wanna know that you're a Provider, but I don't wanna be broke. I wanna have a great testimony and a strong anointing like the people I see up front, but I don't wanna go through the hell that they went through to have that power. No, let me buy it in a bottle. Let somebody shake me down with oil, grease me up like I'm a piece of KFC chicken. I don't wanna pay the price". "If it be thy will, pass this bitter cup from me. Is there a way I can be what I need to be without going through what I gotta go through? Is there a way that I can come to power without going through this terrible moment"?
And David is wrestling, and it is the worst kind of fight. David was good at fighting external fights. Give him a giant, he'd kill it. Give him an army, he'd destroy it. Give him a Saul, he'd handle it. But what do you do when your greatest enemy is not out there? Oh, I wish I had some real people that would admit, "I am not scared of you. I will fight you every day. But the fight that threatens to kill me is when I have to fight myself".
How do you win the fight when the enemy is in me? He's fighting the fight of his life with his face down in the dirt because the real battleground is in your mind. It's never in your circumstance. It's always in your head. You can be mighty in your circumstance, and be Minnie Mouse in your head. You can have advice for everybody else's situation, and when it comes to your own, you can't get it together to save your life. You can tell everybody else what they oughtta do, and then go home and eat dirt because you can't figure out.
"If it was a Goliath, I'll kill it". This is the battleground. It's not a geographical location. It's not debt. It's not money. It's not haters. It's not enemies. It's not liars. It's not backbiters. That's not the battleground. Stop wasting your weapons on what people say because it is not what they say about you that matters. It is what you say about you that threatens your destiny. You will never be defeated by what they say about you. You will be defeated by what you say about you.
Why is David crying over this child? He is the only man we see in Scriptures crying over a baby. Perhaps the truth lies in the fact that some historians suggest that David's own birth was questionable, that when he says, "In sin did my mother conceive me, I was born in sin and shaped in iniquity," some suggest that he said that because Jessie looked at him and said, "Mama's baby". Could it be possible that the questionable shadow over David's life might be the reason why Jessie does not readily point to him as one of his sons when Samuel comes looking for somebody to be king? Could it be that it is more than his stature? Could it be that Jessie wasn't really sure about him?
And why do we have this mighty man of valor crying over a baby if he did not see himself in the baby? And don't you really work twice as hard to save people who are troubled with your kind of trouble? You are energized and motivated to fight for people who remind you of you. No wonder David is layin' on his face, eatin' dirt, saying, "Save the baby," because he relates. Perhaps he relates to the baby himself. And for seven days, he would not eat. And all the men around him came and saw him eat dirt. And the Bible says that they tried to raise him up, but he would not be raised.
Have you ever been so low that nobody could raise you, nobody could lift you, nothing they said, nothing they did, nothing that they proposed to you made things any better for you? Because you were going through a personal hell and they didn't understand that what you were trying to save is something that you are related to, connected to. Sometimes your history determines the fierceness with which you fight against what is in front of you. Ooh, it's awful quiet in here tonight.
And there he is, "As the man thinketh in his heart, so is he". The Bible says, "We are transformed by the renewing of our mind," a new mind. What I'm trying to tell you, beloved, is that you can buy a new car, but if you put the old man in the new car, you'll still gonna have the old experience. I'm telling you that a new house doesn't make a new marriage. I'm talkin' about a new outfit doesn't make you a new person. And if you think that when the clock strikes 12, you are magically gonna be a new person, I hate to be the bearer of bad news because new life doesn't come by the ticking of a tock on a wall.
A new life comes from a new mind and a new way of looking at your life. I cannot step into the future and still think in my past. I cannot let the rumors and the stain of what they said about me destroy my opportunity. God, who am I preaching to? If you can kill it in your head, you can kill it in your life. But if that thing is still livin' in your head, it's gonna still be livin' in your life. If you're still bitter in your head, you're gonna be bitter in your life. But if somethin' fits in your mind and you say, "Wait a minute, devil, it is over. 'Forgetting those things which are behind me, and reaching to those things which are before me.'" Slap somebody and say, "I gotta get it behind me". I gotta get it behind me. I gotta get it behind me.
So they started whispering. They started whispering. "What? He's dead? Don't tell David. He's already flippin' out. We've done everything that we normally do to raise him up. It hasn't worked. We've said all the things we normally say to lift him. It has not worked". Somebody in here, you're used to bein' in trouble, and normally, you do certain things, and it fixes it. This time it's not workin'. The people who normally come to your rescue, they didn't come. The things that normally lift you up, they didn't come through.
Oh, I'm talkin' to somebody tonight. The things that normally give you power and passion, they didn't come through. What do you do when what normally works doesn't work? "We tried to lift him, but we couldn't lift him. And now we hide the truth from him because we don't think he can handle the truth. So don't tell him that the child is dead, 'cause he's really gonna flip out if he finds out that bad has gotten worse. He's trippin' over bad, and if we tell him bad has gotten worse, he's gonna go absolutely bananas". But the Bible said that "while they were whispering, David looked up and saw them whispering," and it said, "and he perceived, he perceived that the child was dead". "Perceived" means "his mind, in his mind, he sensed that the child was dead".
And that's what changed everything. Your perception has everything to do with how this year's gonna work. It is not what you perceive about me. It's what I perceive about me. I don't need you to come prophesy, "Yea, I say unto thee, by 4 o'clock"... Shut up, it is not the Word of the Lord in your mouth that's gonna save me. It's the Word of the Lord in my mouth that's gonna. As a man thinketh so he is.
And here he comes. The child is dead. And what blew their mind was his reaction. It did not blow their mind that the child was dead. It was the king's reaction to the child being dead that blew their mind. See, he was on a downward trajectory. He had collapsed. He had fallen on the ground. He had stopped eating. He had rent his garments. He had cried and screamed. The logical next step for him goin' down was to go further down than he was before. What makes this text radiate is that for no logical reason, in spite of natural evidence, in spite of the stench of death, in spite of his childhood insecurities, in spite of the odds being stacked against him, what makes this text powerful is when everybody around him expected him to give up and die. Suddenly, I prophesy a suddenly. Oh, God, I feel like preachin'. Y'all better stop me. I prophesy a suddenly.
Slap your neighbor and say, "Suddenly". I know they're betting against you. I know they said you'd never get up. I know they said you'd never go on with your life. I know they said you would never be nothin', but the Lord sent me here to tell you tonight, the devil is a lie. Just when they dug a grave for you, God's about to turn everything around. Somebody turn around right now. God is about to turn it around. You're about to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I want you to take 30 seconds and give God a crazy praise. Praise him like it's about to turn. Praise him like the devil is a liar. Praise him like you're comin' out with the victory. Praise him like you're about to make a U-turn. I can't hear ya. Give the Lord a crazy praise right now!
Run over to somebody and tell 'em, "This is my year. I'm gonna turn it around this year. This is my year. Devil, you're a liar. You tried to kill me. You tried to destroy me. You tried to drive me crazy. You left me eatin' dirt, but the devil is a liar. I'm back, I'm back, I'm back. Tell your neighbor, "I gotta give God a praise for resurrection. I got my joy back. I got my fight back. I got my praise back". Find you somebody that's makin' a U-turn. Take 'em by the hand and say, "O magnify the Lord with me". Give him a praise right now!
As long as people throw dirt on ya and you accept it, they'll bury ya. But if every time they try to cover you up, if you just throw it behind ya, the more they throw on ya, throw it behind ya. And every time you throw it behind ya, God will raise you up. Tell your neighbor, "Throw it behind you". Throw it behind ya. Throw it behind ya. Throw it behind ya. Throw it behind ya. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, give God a praise!