TD Jakes — Wedding Gone Wild
Hey, everybody, greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and King. I am excited that you're watching today. I believe this message is gonna speak to your life in an amazing way. I'm gonna be in the Gospel of Saint John chapter 2, verse 1 through 12. Who would have ever thought that Jesus's ministry, the power thereof, with all the miracles and the healing and the raising of the dead, and all the things that he did with the two fish and the five loaves of bread, and the woman with the issue of blood, that it would all began at a party, a party, yeah, Jesus at a party. This is gonna bless your life because when Jesus gets to the party, he changes the game. The message is called, "Wedding Gone Wild".
They come to him in a crisis because the wedding has lost its wine. I won't even talk about the many weddings that have lost their wine. Still married, but out of wine. The joy is gone. The thrill is gone. The excitement, the enthusiasm, the exuberance is gone. The wedding remains, but the wine is gone. Maybe this is more of an emergency than I thought it was. Maybe this is more than God feeding and fueling a frenzy of a wild party that is frustrated because they had no beverages of intoxication. Maybe God is telling us that if you're not careful, your wedding will run out of wine, that your enthusiasm will wither, your excitement will drain, the gleam will go out of your eye, the pep will go out of your step if you're not careful. You'll lose the joy of doing what you're doing. Still got on the right clothes, still sayin' the right things, but the thrill is gone. Maybe this is more of a crisis than I thought, a wedding without the wine.
What do you do when your wedding has run out of wine? What do you do when your job has run out of wine? What do you when your life has run out of wine? I don't know whether you can understand what I'm talking about. Sometimes you come to a point in life where you're just going to work. You used to be excited 'cause you had a plan and a strategy but now you're just going to work 'cause that's where you work, or you're comin' home 'cause that's where you live, or you goin' to church 'cause that's where you belong. And the wedding has lost the wine. What do you do when something that should be happy and wonderful and exciting has become mundane and ritualistic and routine? And there you are, stuck at a wedding that has run out of wine.
Can I talk to you this morning? The truth of the matter is, many of us, in some aspect of our lives, are dealing with something that used to be wonderful, but it has run out of wine. Keep lookin' straight ahead. Wrinkle up your forehead. Act like you don't understand what I'm talkin' about. That way, you won't have to discuss this in the car on the way home. Just look confused. Say, "I don't know what he meant, baby. I don't know what Bishop was talkin' about today. He was kinda off today. I don't know. I can't relate to that at all". 'Cause if you admit that you can relate to it, you gonna get 10.000 questions about it in the car. "Well, when did we run out of wine? Is it my fault that we ran out of wine"?
Mary comes runnin' to Jesus like the house is on fire and she says, "The problem here is that it's something that should be celebrative and wonderful. We have run out of wine". "Woman, what am I to do with thee? My hour has not yet come". She doesn't tell him what to do with her. She doesn't answer his question. She doesn't give him another word at all. She just turns to the servants and says, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it. It might sound stupid. It might look crazy. It might not make any sense. But whatever he tells you to do, do it". What made her say that? He didn't even tell her that he was going to do the miracle. But she had enough faith to believe that "if I ask you to do it, you are going to"... Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. So she says, "I know he's gonna do something. I know he's gonna do something. I know he's gonna do something". But he didn't tell her that he was gonna use the servants to do it. But Mary understood that if God is going to do anything in the earth realm, he's going to do it through you. So she said, "Whatever"...
Would you get into your neighbor's ear and holler at them, and tell them, "You got to get involved in this". Your miracle is not going to happen while you sit on your knees and pray. Your miracle is not gonna happen while you lay in the bed and wish. Your miracle is not gonna happen just because you need it. You gotta get involved. Do you see what I'm saying? She says, "Baby, we've run out of wine". He said, "Woman, what am I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come". He didn't say, "Yeah". She didn't tell him, "Well this is what you oughta do for me". She didn't say another word to him. She turned to her neighbor and said, "Get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready".
The question I wanna ask the church this morning is: Do you have the faith to prepare for what shall be while you're worried about what is? Until you develop the faith to get ready for step two while you're still dealin' with step one, you'll never understand what God, oh, God, y'all don't hear me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, set the stage, yeah, get things in order, yeah, yeah, start givin' your marchin' orders. You know why? Somethin' is about to happen. Somethin' is about to happen. I said, "Something is about to happen". Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Tell your neighbor, "Something is about to happen". Tell your other neighbor, "Something is about to happen". Find somebody excited and tell 'em, "Something is about to happen".
Can I work on this text a little bit? The woman speaks to people who are surrounding the God who is about to do something. Not only because she knows if God is going to do anything he's gonna use you to do it, she also understands that God works in the middle of expectation. There is nothing harder to work in than to work in an atmosphere of unexpectation. If you lose your expectation, you lose your potential for a miracle. Lord, deliver me from people who don't expect nothin' else to happen. If the enemy took your stocks, and he took your bonds, and he took your benefits, and he took your insurance, and he took your job, and he took your house, and he took your car, as long as he didn't take your expectation, you can still get a breakthrough.
Is there anybody in The Potter's House that expects something to happen from the Lord? Hear me when I tell you the enemy is after your expectation. He wants you to accept a wedding without wine, a life without joy, a house without a home, a marriage without love, but the devil is a liar. Touch three people and say, "I'll never accept it". I'll never accept it. I'll never accept it. I'll never accept it. I'll never accept it. I know life has more for me than this. I know God didn't deliver me from everything he delivered me from to get me here and settle for this. The devil is a liar. I don't know who I'm preaching to. But the Lord sent me to wake up your expectation.
Mary told the servants, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it". Slap somebody and say, "Do it". You gotta be a doing people. You can't be a hoping people. You have to be a doing people. You have to take action. You have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to be willin' to look like a fool. You can't just keep prayin' about it. You gotta do somethin'. Tell 'em, "Do, do, do somethin'. Do it". And the interesting thing, to me, is that she said it and left. "Whatever he tells you to do, do it," and went on about her business. I don't know who this is for, but whatever you've been worried about, God said, "Walk away. It's already done". You don't have to keep telling God the same thing day after day after day, naggin' him and worryin' him about it. Once you speak the word, walk away.
Now, I'm almost finished, but I want you to think about this because after she said to them, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it", She asked him for wine. She spoke to the servants, said, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it". He didn't speak to them about wine. He spoke to them about water. Why is it when you ask God for wine the answer comes back, "Water"? It will make you wonder, "Did you understand what I was prayin' about? I asked you to heal my body. You answered with somethin' totally different". Look at this. He says, "Those pots that you have been using in ceremony must become the place of miracles". I'm tellin' you, if you don't use this church for more than religious ceremony, you're going to miss your miracle. If you don't stop bringin' your cute self in here and sittin' down 'cause it's Sunday mornin', and goin' through the same thing Sunday after Sunday, and tryin' to get in the same parkin' spot, and get in the same seat, and leave at the same time at the same hour, you're not going to get your breakthrough. You want to come to this place expecting a place of transformation, for the glory of the Lord to break out in your life.
And he says, "Those pots that you've been using for ceremonial washings are the same pots through which your greatest miracles will flow". And he sends them to draw water to fill these large caverns of ceremonial washings. And so they go and fill them with water. And the Bible takes the time to let us know how much water, that here are 6 pots filled with at least 20 to 30 gallons of water. That's a lot. That's potentially 180 gallons of water. That's heavy, that's cumbersome. That's more than one trip. That's going down to the well or the river again and again and again and again, drawing water, handling water, moving water, pouring out water, wishin' for wine.
All the while, they're handling buckets of water, and fillin' it up, and goin' back to the well, and pumpin', and fillin' it up, and passin' out the water. And goin' back to the well again, and pumpin' it again, and fillin' it up, and carryin' it back, and pourin' it into the cisterns for 180 gallons of water. You will go through a season that you need wine, and you have prayed about it, and God will have you handling water. It would be easy to get this miracle if, when you drew it out the well, it turned to wine. But it was still water. It would be easy to have the faith to carry it to the cistern if it would turn to wine while you're walking. But it was still water. It was water when they drew it. It was water when they filled it up. And they had to go back and forth, over and over and over again, handlin' nothin' but water.
And the Lord told me to tell you to, "Despise not the day of small beginnings". Because if you can be faithful while you're handlin' water, there's something in the process of being committed to your vision when it looks like ain't nothin' happenin' supernatural, and the devil is sayin', "Where is your God? I thought you had a word from God. I thought God was gonna do somethin'. Why are you carryin' what you could have done by yourself? What good is it to have God just to get water? You could have got water by yourself".
Touch somebody and say, "I'm in the water days". I want some wine, but I got some water. But I want the devil to know that I'm gonna do what God told me to do so I can see what God says I can see. How many trips? How many trips? I'm about to feel like preachin' in a minute. How many trips did they have to make back and forth from the well, carryin' nothin' but water? And they finally got the whole cisterns, six of 'em, filled with water. They said, "Lord, we did what you said. But we're no better off than we were when we started".
You know, I got a Facebook statement the other day, where one of the members said, "You ought to stop preachin' faith". She said, "It don't even work. I'm tired of shoutin' and dancin' all over the church. And the more I shout, and the more I give, the harder my life is. It don't even work. It's just a joke. You ought to shut up". Well, I hope you came to church this mornin' 'cause I got somethin' to tell ya. I'm not about to stop. I've been preachin' this gospel for 35 years, and the devil is a lier. It'll work if you work it. But you gotta have the faith to keep on walkin' in the Word. Even when it looks like it's not workin', God is up to something. If I got a witness in here, give God a praise. I said, "Give God a praise". I said, "Give God a praise". I said, "Give God a praise".
Oh, yeah, look at your neighbor and say, "I'm about to get on the devil's nerves". Yes, I am. 'Cause I refuse to doubt God. It's still water, but I'm not gonna doubt God. I'm still in debt, but I'm not gonna doubt. Lord, we've been working in this dimension all of this time, 180 times, we've been working in this dimension, and it's still nothin' but water. He said, "I'm gettin' ready to take you into the next dimension. You're not gonna have to do what you used to do anymore. 'Cause you passed the test of operating in this dimension. And now that you passed the test of walkin' with me when it looked like I had no power, and it looked like I didn't care, and it looked like I didn't love ya, and it looked like I wasn't gonna bless ya, I'm gonna let you step over into the next dimension". Somebody give God a praise!