TD Jakes - Sometimes Love requires Losing (04/20/2017)
A sermon focusing on worship as active participation, not entertainment, followed by a teaching from 1 Peter 1:18 and John 3:16. The core message is that our value is not self-determined but is defined by the ultimate sacrifice God made through Jesus Christ, calling listeners to live redeemed lives worthy of that price.
The Purpose of Worship
Let me explain to you what this is. This is a worship service. It's not entertainment. You didn't come to watch them. You didn't come to watch me. This is your opportunity to lift your hands, forget about your troubles, open your mouth, and connect with your God.
Say, "Oh, there's nobody like you, Lord." Church isn't just about what you came to get. It's about what you came to give. Do you have anything to give to God? This is a television show. Do you have anything to give to God? You ought to open your mouth and say, "Oh, there's nobody like your Lord."
There's nobody like your Lord. Not my mother, not my father, not my sister, not my brother. Oh, there's nobody like you. Nobody like your Lord. Let's clap our hands in His presence and celebrate His goodness. Oh, yes. There's nobody, nobody like you, Lord.
Shake hands with your neighbor and say, "You're cool with me, but there's nobody like the Lord." Yeah, you're a real nice person, but there's nobody like the Lord. I'm glad to see you this morning, but there's nobody like the Lord. Glory to God, there's nobody like you, Lord.
Cast your cares on Him 'cause He cares about you. You're a nice lady, good to see you. You're a nice gentleman, but there's nobody like the Lord. You may be seated in His presence. What a wonderful Sunday morning this is. This is the day that the Lord has designed, handcrafted, and made.
He's been the architect of this day, and He told us to rejoice and be glad in it. He didn't say, "Feel however you wanna feel." He didn't give us a license to be in a bad mood and have an attitude. He didn't give us a right to be disgruntled and dismayed.
He said we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Let's be obedient and rejoice. Let your feelings catch up with what you're doing. Let's rejoice. Oh, clap your hands all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Oh, clap your hands all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
The Shift from Self to God
Oh, clap your hands. I don't know, I feel something. I feel some kind of way about Jesus, baby. I feel like blessing His name this morning. I feel a little churchy atmosphere in here this morning. There's nobody like the Lord.
Isn't it funny when you get your mind off yourself and you get your mind on the Lord? How your spirit gets lifted and your mind gets renewed. He said cast your cares on me because I care about you. You don't like me? That's okay. He cares about me. I'm cared for by God.
I realize that some folks just don't care for me, but I'm cool with that because I am cared for by the Lord. So even if you don't speak to me, even if you act funny, if you feel some kind of way, don't expect me to have an attitude.
I'm not depending on your care for me to be cool. I am cared for by the Lord. Don't think that you walking out is gonna leave me in a deficit because I am cared for by the Lord. I'm feeling kind of churchy this morning. I didn't know I was gonna feel kind of churchy.
I just bumped into the Holy Spirit and I feel kind of happy. My soul got happy when I got in the house. See, some of you have been through so much this week that the devil says, "Ain't no way she's gonna praise the Lord." But as an act of defiance, if you don't do anything but wiggle your toe...
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. See, I'm trying to act right. We try to be real orderly and on schedule. I don't like to keep you too long. We have an order and a structure and a system that we move by. It's not that we don't plan it out and schedule it and arrange it.
But the problem is I got the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah! Y'all gotta behave. Y'all gonna mess me up. The service is going so good. The choir sang my jam this morning, "You're still God." How many people know He's still God? I don't care what's going on, I don't care what people say.
I don't care what the doctor said, the accountant said, the newspaper said, or the White House said. You're still God. If you believe He's still God, if you believe that He is still your walk of faith, you ought to give Him some kind of praise. Y'all act right. Woo!
Announcements and Recognition
I want to remind you that next week, Thanksgiving Day at 10 o'clock in the morning, we have our annual Thanksgiving Day service. We're just going to come out here and take maybe an hour or so and just express our gratitude to the Lord for all that He's done for us.
I don't care what you got on. I don't care if you got on your pajamas—if it's a full set, none of that baby doll stuff—just come on out here for a minute and give God the glory. You can come out here smelling like dressing, got onions under your fingernails.
It doesn't make any difference. We have so much to be thankful for. What I love about the Thanksgiving Day service is sometimes you can get your kinfolks to go, you know, the ones that don't really go to church. But if you threaten them and tell them you ain't gonna feed them if they don't go...
You'd be surprised how people start getting dressed. Just wave a little sweet potato pie right up under there. I wish you could have some, but you got to worship the Lord to get some. You'd be surprised how they convert real quickly.
We're going to give thanks unto the Lord and bless His name. We want our streaming audience to know you can stream in while you're trying to get them lumps out of that gravy. You can beat it with the whisk and receive the ministry of the Lord Thanksgiving morning at 10 a.m. right here.
Somebody say amen. I just want to recognize, not only because of Veterans Day, but because we're developing a ministry for our military people who have been in the military. All of your families, we're developing a ministry to the families as well.
Pastor Vowell is going to be telling you more about that in days to come. I had the privilege of meeting with all of the veterans and people who were still on active duty last Sunday. My God, it was a third of the church. Amen. And their families, and we're getting ready to do that.
But all the military men and women who have served or are serving our nation in any facet of armed services, would you stand? We just want to celebrate you today. Thank you so much for your service to our country. Thank you so much for your service to the United States of America. We appreciate you.
I want to mention this recording that Pastor talked about. It's not only the choir, but we have a choir coming all the way from South Africa, and they are absolutely amazing. It's just going to be such an incredible time of coming together and experiencing the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
South Africa is coming to America. Amen. And they're coming in round numbers. If they come from South Africa, I know you can come from South Dallas. Glory to God. Come on. You come from North Dallas and come on down and be in the house of the Lord.
We're just going to have a wonderful festival of multiculturalism. It's good for us to understand that. Let me see if I told you everything I needed to tell you. Our Medicare crew just came back from overseas, and I'm going to talk more about that later.
I just want to appreciate their service to this church, reaching out to the disenfranchised and serving people who need it most. It's just a good thing for us to be able to do that. Say amen, somebody.
Speaking to the Nation
One of the things that I'm grateful for in having my platform that the Lord has given me on daytime television is it's given me an opportunity to carefully and wisely address the issues in the nation from a platform that the world can hear.
A lot of times pastors say they're speaking truth to power and all that kind of stuff. They have a message to the nation, but it's really a message to the congregation. You have to get beyond your four walls to get it out there to the nation and do some good.
Our country has just gone through... in all of my vocabulary, I can't find a word to describe. I don't think Webster had a word for what we just went through trying to get somebody in the White House. Somebody's glad about it and excited, and somebody's mad about it, and somebody doesn't care.
But at the end of the day, leadership is important. Leadership is very important. But I don't want us to ascribe more power to the presidency than we do the kingdom of God. You understand what I'm saying? The power of God and what the Lord is able to do. Somebody say amen.
I'm going to say this just in a moment of real transparency. I have not yet seen an election where I fully lined up with any party or candidate. No matter who got in, I had to give up some of my values to get other of my values to get done what I wanted to get done.
And more than being for a party, I'm not looking for a party to commit to. I'm looking for a party that will commit to me. It's not who I'm for; it's who's for me. Who's for the needs that are on my heart that I see in my world and in my community, and who best reflects that.
So regardless of whether you're jumping for joy or you're having to take your heart pills that were up under the cabinet from the election, you got a case of diarrhea—at the end of the day, God is still God. I'm doing a show Tuesday, amen, and I'm trying to bring our nation together.
I want to find common ground and to find that there's more to unite us than there is to divide us. I take on tough issues. I let people talk from both sides. People say, "Why would you talk to so and so? Why would you let so and so speak?"
Because you don't really get a picture of America if you're only going to listen to people you agree with. You have to create a place for dialogue. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So this Tuesday, if you get a chance, I want you to pay special attention to watch the show.
I brought together the right wing and the left wing and the feathers that stood in between. We had a knock-down, drag-out conversation, and I let everybody express themselves. Part of bringing unity and healing is not shutting down truth.
Some people think unity is just shut your mouth and go along with the flow. But you can be a unifier and still speak your truth and still bring people back together. Do you understand that? That's important.
So I'm going to show you this little clip because I know all of you want to know what I think and what I thought about everything. Since I can't go to every Starbucks and have coffee with everybody and talk about it like I'd like to, this is just a little clip of a much broader conversation we're going to have on Tuesday.
Let it roll. "We have to have patience because this is not about Donald Trump. This is not about Donald Trump. This is a dysfunction that's been going on in this country for years, and it's not just about black and white. When you look at Bernie and all of his followers and support Bernie Sanders...
"He stepped outside and he started criticizing the system, and he started drawing huge crowds just like Donald—from two different belief systems. America is sick of a government that will not hear it. It is sick of a government that will not hear it.
"And here's the other thing I want you to see that it's very, very, very important. We are saying the same things. We are saying the same things. If we calm down a minute, we would recognize we're saying the same things.
"You are saying you're sick of a government that doesn't respond to you, that doesn't hear you, that doesn't create jobs, that doesn't create opportunities. And you are suspect that the people in positions do not care about you. Black people are saying that too. Why can't we say it together?
"We're saying the same thing. Latino people are saying that too. We're not saying something different. Don't go deaf when it's my pain. I'm looking at the Trump supporters and I'm looking at their hopes and their passion and their belief that they have found somebody who can fix it.
"A government that is tone-deaf to citizens. And they've got real hope on this guy. And I'm listening to people from my own community who are scared to death because they don't trust him. Why should all of our hope be in one person and not in each other? What is wrong with us?
"Do we really think that somebody... we're going to hire one person that's going to fix hundreds of years of foolishness? We are the people we've been waiting on. It's us." Clap your hands if you feel me.
Returning to the Message
So we've got a lot of work to do. I didn't want to. Too many pastors across the country have been texting me, tweeting me, calling me, "What you going to preach, Doc?" What you going to say? Everybody's giving their sermon over to the election.
I'm going to keep on preaching what I was preaching before. So if you're interested in hearing what I think about the issues surrounding us, the peripheral issues of our country, then watch the show and you'll hear what I think.
You'll hear what various surrogates think and you'll hear what people in the middle think. I'm not even going to go any further into it because if I get into it, it's going to distract me from the message.
Last week, I did this message called "Weigh It Out," and we were talking about not having two scales. A scale by which you measure out grace to yourself and another scale when you hear about me. You use another scale of justice.
You will allow God to be merciful over your maladies and misfires and dysfunctions. But then when you hear about somebody in your neighborhood, you're talking about, "I thought they were supposed to be saved. The blood of Jesus, the devil is a lie. Satan, the Lord rebuke you."
And when you're in trouble, you say, "God, if you just get me out of this, I promise you, Lord, I'm never going to do that again." And somebody brings up your stuff, you're talking about, "The Lord rebuke you, get these behind me." Two different scales.
I don't know that I have in recent years got as much response from a message as I did from last week. People said it touched them and moved them and ministered to them and challenged them to be more just.
They didn't realize that it is an abomination to have two different scales—one in which you weigh me and another in which you weigh yourself. How you evaluate a circumstance and situation has something to do with your values, has something to do with your scales.
And I want to continue down that path this Sunday. Is that okay? So that was just my attempt to give you—to those of you that weren't there or didn't hear the message—a context in which you can think with me as we grapple with the complexities of this subject.
Weigh It Out: Part Two
This week, I'm going to do "Weigh It Out: Part Two." I want to talk about this notion. I want you to think about this: that value is determined by sacrifice. Value is determined by sacrifice. Where there is no sacrifice, there is no value.
If you have something for sale, and I will give you nothing for it, it has no value. Because the value is dependent upon what somebody will give up to get it. It's not always dependent upon what you think about it.
The overinflation of the ideology that says self-esteem determines everything is not true. Because sometimes people have self-esteem beyond their value. Let me see. There was a friend of mine back in West Virginia used to say, "I wish I could buy you for what you're worth and sell you for what you think you're worth. I could live the rest of my life off the difference." It's a sly slap in the face; you'll figure it out later.
Some people think they bring so much to the table, but they're the only ones that think so. An overinflated ego is just as bad as low self-esteem. So if we think that value is determined by sacrifice, if we're going to try that thought in text, let's try it with 1 Peter 1:18.
And that's going to be the substratum where we're going to. Whether you're watching online or you're here in the service, I want you to go to 1 Peter 1:18. This is the premise with which we will start our discussion today: that value is determined by sacrifice.
1 Peter 1:18 says, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things." When God got ready to ascribe value to what he would be willing to give up for you, he didn't reach in the earth and get silver or gold. "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed."
Redeemed. Let me use that word redeemed. Theologically, we hear the word, "I've been redeemed. I've been washed in the blood of the Lamb." It takes on a theological connotation, but originally, the word redeemed didn't have anything to do with theology. It had to do with purchase.
Like you take something and hock a watch, and to redeem it is to get it out of hock. I redeemed it. And what Jesus did for us is that Satan put us in hock. He pawned us into a state of sin, and Jesus went down to the pawn shop. This is an ebonics methodology of explaining a theological discussion.
Jesus went down to the pawn shop and redeemed us. So we were held in pawn, in sin, and there was a price of value placed on us. It wasn't gold or silver, not corruptible things, from your vain conversations. "Vain conversations" is a King James version of talking about an empty lifestyle.
"Vain" meaning empty. "Conversations," poorly translated, really means lifestyle. He redeemed you from your empty life, and received by tradition. He was able to deliver you and set you free from your fathers, from your bondage, from your history, and he did it with the blood of Jesus Christ.
He redeemed you with blood. When hell said, "I got him. I'm holding him hostage. How much will you give for him?" God sent Jesus and died on the cross and said, "That's how much I'll pay." So how can you be saved and question your value?
When God gave his only begotten son as an expression of how far out he would go to get you back. So you're not important because you can sing. I'm not important because I can preach. He didn't redeem me because he needed my gift.
You're not important because you got a degree. He didn't redeem you because you're smart. He redeemed you because you are only worth as much as somebody would pay. Look at how much he paid for you. I remember telling him, "You're not getting no good deal."
I told him that when he called me to ministry, I said, "Oh, you shouldn't have done that. You're not getting a good deal. You should get one of those good people." Because I didn't feel worthy, but it wasn't about how I evaluated myself.
It was how much the market would bear, how much he would pay to get me out of hock. Why would he pay that much and leave you living in the pawn shop with your vain lifestyle? He didn't redeem you so you could go to church on Sunday and live in hell from Monday through Saturday.
He didn't redeem you to be oppressed, discouraged, depressed, and heavy laden with bondages that you can't break over your life, and anger, and insecurity. Then that was wasted money. He redeemed you with the blood. Value is determined by sacrifice.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us today as we delve into your word. Let it be illuminated in such a way that people receive light, inner light. Enlighten them as we share your word today. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
Understanding Value: Intrinsic and Appraised
So what determines value? I want to give you some secular metaphors to bring out spiritual truth. In business, there is a concept called intrinsic value. If a company was evaluated, it is evaluated on the basis of its intrinsic value.
My company is largely an entertainment production agency, and we produce television and movies and things like that. So if you got ready to do an evaluation of my company, an intrinsic evaluation says how much are the assets: the building, the staff, the amount of money, the profits.
But an intrinsic value goes beyond tangible assets down to the strength of the brand. The strength of the brand means McDonald's. If you evaluated McDonald's by its assets alone, you wouldn't have the full value.
You would have to include how well-known the brand is, what people think about the brand, what the perception of the golden arches does. When I drive home, I drive down a road sometimes that is full of restaurants that are mom-and-pop restaurants.
They are not a part of a brand, and they have to struggle for customers. And then you'll get to the corner and there'll be a Wendy's or a Burger King selling the same hamburger. Sometimes not as good, but because they got the name Wendy's or McDonald's on it, they are lined up there.
And at the other restaurant, there's two or three little cars. So this intrinsic value is the power of that name, of that brand, of that perception—how people feel about it. Intrinsic value. Are you following what I'm saying?
Let me go a little bit deeper. I have a wedding ring on, and if I took it down to have it appraised, they would have a value to my ring based on what the market would bear. That doesn't touch what it means to me.
I hardly ever take my wedding ring off. Shower, swimming, getting a manicure—you just have to rub around it. Reason being, I lost it about two times. Have you ever had to tell your wife that you couldn't find your wedding ring?
You know how in those horror movies where the white parts of your eyes go black? The white part of her eyes went black. She says, "What?" I said, "I'm looking for it." I started sweating like I was preaching. I said, "I'm looking for it. I'm looking everywhere. I can't find it."
She was over there moving chairs and furniture. She said, "Oh, yeah, you're going to find this ring." She was sweeping like the woman in the Bible who couldn't find the tenth coin. She was sweeping all over the place.
I was scared like I was seven. She had staff and everybody looking for the ring. I was down on my hands and knees like I was going to get a whooping trying to find the ring. Bless my soul if I didn't get it back and fooled around and couldn't find it again.
I didn't even want to tell her. "How come you don't have your ring on?" What had happened was... I mean, I talk for a living. I start going... When I got that ring back, I don't take it off anymore. Whether I gained weight or lost weight, sometimes the flesh around my finger swells up like bread dough.
I still don't take it off. If I lose weight and it's about to fall off my hand, I hold it on with my thumb. It's not just the value of the ring; it is the intrinsic value of what it means to us that I could never get back if I sold it.
I couldn't sell it for what it means to me. Because that's an intrinsic value that the market will not bear. Now, I remember when I bought my house. I bought my house in a neighborhood that they "overbuilt for the neighborhood."
What that means is when you build a bigger house than the houses surrounding it, that means that when you get ready to sell the house, you can't get how much it cost to build it. The appraisal isn't based on the materials that are in the house.
It is also assessed by the environment in which it is in. I told the owner of the house, I went to see the house about three times, and I got on the owner's nerve because I kept looking at the house and wouldn't make an offer.
The realtor told me the owner said for me not to come back if I wasn't going to make an offer. "I've been here three times and he hasn't made an offer." So the realtor told me what he said, and I said to the realtor, "You tell him that I said that I don't want to make him an offer."
"I see how much they love the house and I see how much care they put into it and, yes, how much money they put into it. The quality of the build-out and the quality of the infrastructure and the quality of the finish-out."
"And I know how much they love the unique nuances that they put in the house. But since I'm going to have to go to the bank, I can only offer you the appraised value, and I didn't want to hurt your feelings."
So she went back and told him what I said, and he sent back word to me, said, "Make an offer." And I said, "I got it." I prepared him for the disappointment of not getting back what he had put in it.
I was lowering his expectations to understand this offer I'm getting ready to make you is going to be disappointing. The issue is just how disappointing is it going to be? And from there, I got a wonderful deal on my house. You understand what I'm saying?
He was telling me the replacement cost. I was telling him, "I'm not an insurance company. I'm a buyer, and I'm not willing to sacrifice enough money to replace it." That's a different figure from the appraised value.
The appraised value is based on the neighborhood and the market and the economy. A lot of other peripheral things have to do with value. Isn't it funny? The same house that could be sold for $250,000 in 2015 might could have only been sold for $175,000 in 2010.
Same house, same location, same neighborhood, but because of the market. The value of the house is determined by how much people are willing to sacrifice to get it. And how much people are willing to sacrifice depends on the times and the environment.
Like when people get scared, they're not willing to sacrifice as much. They said that when President-elect Trump won the presidency, that the stock markets dropped immediately for a while. People got scared. When people get scared, they draw back.
Because value is not determined by the owner; it's determined by the buyer. And if the buyer is afraid, the price drops. You see, are you following what I'm saying? I'm going somewhere; just stay with me.
You got to understand that the value of the dollar. I went to London a few years ago, and the dollar against the pound at the time I was in London was worth about 50 cents. So if something said it was 200 pounds, I had to pay $400 to get it.
If I go over there now with the same dollar and it says 200 pounds, I can spend $100 and buy it. Same dollars, different perception. The value fluctuates on the same item based on the sacrifice—how much the buyer will pay to get it.
And God said, when Satan held you up on the slave table and said, "How much will you give?" My value isn't determined by my personal worth. My value is determined by how much He would sacrifice. Are you getting it? How much He would sacrifice.
So the Bible says you were not bought with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus. When you begin to look at the two different things... This is what the market would bear. God said, "I won't just give silver and gold; I will give my son for you."
So I know I'm valuable. I know I'm valuable because value is determined by sacrifice. I did some horrible things. I did some things I testify about. I did some things I don't tell. How many of you have never told your whole testimony? Everybody started grinning. They look guilty.
If I was in court, you would get arrested. Nobody tells everything except the crazy people. Because the truth of the matter is, if I told you everything, you would be shocked that He would give anything for me. Come on, somebody.
So the reason I have to worship Him and give Him the praise is that I realized that He paid more for me than what I deserve. If you've got that testimony, give Him a praise. Shake hands with somebody and say, "He got the short end of the deal."
I got more by getting Him than He got by getting me. He's more God than I am man. Come on, somebody. I got the blessing when I got the Lord. Value is determined by sacrifice.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
I want to put this in here. John 3:16: "God so loved the world." Value is determined by sacrifice. God so valued the world intrinsically—His attitude about it, like the wedding ring, like the homeowner. It was His love that made it valuable.
He saw the infinite God... God, so to the infinite degree; love, the infinite emotion; the world, the infinite deficit... that He gave the infinite sacrifice so that whosoever believeth... Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." He said, "That's important to me. I'll pay more than anybody else would pay because I feel more than anybody else feels. You don't have to like me. God likes me."
Value is determined by sacrifice. So when I see the cross... when I see the magnanimous sacrifice of the cross... when I see that they hung him high and stretched him wide and nailed him to a tree... and that he hung there from the sixth to the ninth hour...
And that he died until the ground got nervous and began to tremble and died until the sun refused to shine and died until graves opened up all over Jerusalem... when I see how he died so willingly that they didn't have to break his legs...
That he became obedient unto death and gave up the ghost... when I see that no man took his life but he laid it down... when I see that he despised the cross but for the joy that was set before him of having me, he said, "Go ahead, drive the nails."
Value is determined by sacrifice.
The Cost of Your Life
Let me explain something. I'm going to teach this. If I say to you... let me see, I'm going to get me somebody. I'm going to take you. Come on. If I say to you, I'm going to give you $200 a day... let me see. I'm not sure I got $200; it's going to be embarrassing.
We don't act like this is $200; it's not. But I said I'm going to give you $200 a day to work for me. Let me tell you what I just said. On the basis of your resume or skills or talent, I will buy a day of your life for $200.
That's what he just sold me. A day of his life, his skills, his talents is no longer his own because he took the money. I bought a day that he will never have again. I bought a day that he could never create again.
I bought a day that it doesn't matter how you feel, what you were going to do, what you had in mind, whether you woke up in a bad mood. The fact that you took that money means I own that day. Your time belongs to me for that day because you took the money.
Now, if he is selling that phone for $200, you just give him the money, take the phone. You just sacrificed a day of your life for the phone. Come on, somebody. The value of the phone is determined by sacrifice.
You worked, you sweated, you gave up your time, your labor to get the $200. Now you gave him the sacrifice of a day. You said, "I'll pay a day for a phone." That's why you ought to be careful what you buy, because you are trading your life for merchandise.
Let me go deeper. You are giving up the intangible for the tangible. You just gave up a day of your life for something that's only going to be valuable for a short period of time. They're going to upgrade, and you're going to have to give up another day of your life to get the next one.
Be sure you want it bad enough, because you just sold yourself for the phone. You give him his phone back, you give him the money back, and you give me my money. The illustration is now over. Everybody got what they had to start with. You understand? It's just an illustration.
I'm just teaching; we're not doing business. When you think about it that way, it changes how you spend money. Because when you spend money, you are spending life. That's why some people pay you by the hour. When they say $16 an hour, they are trading an hour you will never get back for $16.
That's why if you take the money and don't provide the service, you robbed me. You have robbed me. When have we robbed me? Unconscious robbery. To take the blessing and not give the service can be unconscious robbery. Can I go deeper?
I'm going to read you a Bible story out of 1 Kings 3, verse 16 through 28. Solomon is going to do a better job of explaining this than I will. I'm going to tell you about it; my wife is going to read it to you.
Solomon is the new king over Israel, and he is functioning both as a king and as a judge. Leaders have to make tough decisions. Solomon comes to reign after the order of David, who was an impressive king, and Solomon's gifts are different.