TD Jakes - Untouched
I wanna give you six touch points that God speaks of in this text that are important for us to consider in understanding this whole dilemma this baby is in, the nation of Israel is in, the church is in, the world is in, of being on touch. I want, there are six different things we want to talk about.
That the navel wasn't cut is number one, that's the first thing that God says about the baby, the baby is still attached to the mother in a way that is no longer natural. It is no longer natural for the baby to be dependent on what the mother eats in order to survive but the navel was not cut, there's been no separation so there's been no development, you are overdependent on the thing that birthed you. And I look at the church today, that we have to preach you happy every Sunday, and I wonder when is the cord going to be cut where you don't depend on me to do your Bible study. "Pray for me, Pastor," when are you going to be able to pray for yourself? When is my message gonna become a confirming word and not a revelatory word because you'll have your own devotion to God. The problem is no one has cut your cord.
Number two, the second indictment is no one washed you, you still look like what you've been through. That afterbirth is something else, child, I'm telling you, that afterbirth is not pretty. It's necessary, and in the right place at the right time it's wonderful, but if it stays too long it can be infectious and disastrous, and stink. When you allow what you came from to still cling to you, the question arises, "No one washed you"? Do you understand that that is part of the symbolism of water baptism, to wash away where you came from?
We baptize you in water, saying that, "The old man is gone and you rise walking in the newness of life," so that means that your old temper is gone, that your anger management issue is gone, that your domestic violence is gone, that your abusive, nasty mouth is gone. We washed off, if that's still hanging on to you, you might be a church member but, "No one washed you"?
The radical thing about this text is that, on one hand it is so successful, this mother has done what other women prayed to do, she has successfully had a baby that she doesn't care for. Anything you have, you have to care for. Stop praying for stuff that you're not gonna care for, if you get married you can't be selfish, this is why the marriages are not working in a narcissistic society because everybody's in it for themselves. "Me-me-me-me-me," no, it's not about you, it's about us.
Everybody wants to have a baby, do you want to care for it? Everybody wants to have a business, do you want to care for them? Everybody wants to have a church, do you want to care for them? If you don't really want to care for it, why did you have it? Maybe your request is ego-driven and not purpose driven, maybe you want to have the baby to prove to the other women that you're just as much woman as they are; maybe you want to have the job so when you go to the family reunion you can tell them who you are. Maybe you only got the degree so you could feel important, but the problem is now you're degreed and you still don't feel important.
Now you got the job and you still feel like nothing because no one washed you; getting stuff on the outside doesn't compare to get stuff on the inside. Has anybody heard the words that are coming out of my mouth? Jesus says the most radical thing, he says, "You are clean through the Word that I've spoken unto you". He says the reason I preach to you is to wash you, that little by little, every time you hear a sermon it ought to take something off, it ought to peel something off, it ought to clean something up, it ought to make you see yourself, it ought to make you govern your tongue, it ought to make you feel convicted in some way. Jesus said my way of bathing you is to preach truth to you.
You cannot hide that you didn't bathe, you know how you have a five year old and you say, "Did you brush your teeth"? "Yes sir," and the breath is hitting you all in their head, it's hit you like atomic neutron bombs, blowing up in your nostrils, and you'd say, "Get back in there and brush those"... People can tell, people can tell when you've not been washed but what's weird about this text, this baby is delivered, but damaged. I wonder how many people in this room or watching online, streaming, watching me right now, I wonder how many of you who are looking at me on your TV, I'm wondering how many of you that are watching on your iPad or on your cell phone, I'm wondering how many of you have really been washed. Can I go deeper?
Number three is the big one, number three is the big one. The third indictment he brings up against the scene before us is, "No one salted you"? And that's a funny thing because today you would not salt a baby, but in the Bible days you would salt a baby to heal the abrasions that were on the baby. Now the baby has been delivered but God is saying I don't question that you've been delivered, but are you healed? I don't question that you've been born again, but are you healed? Oh, in the church I grew up in, they were adamant, and biblically and rightfully so, that you do not marry unbelievers; they were adamant about it, it was totally taboo. It was just unthinkable that you would marry an unbeliever, the whole church would just sit you down, they would sit you down, you couldn't sing, you couldn't usher, the deacons couldn't deac.
If you've married somebody, you know, whatever, if you married an unbeliever, but what they didn't tell us is that some unbelievers are in church, that just because you go to church and just because you speak in tongues and just because you can quote Scriptures doesn't mean that you are healed. I don't want to pastor a gang, I wanna pastor a church, and in order to pastor a church, you gotta be healed, you got to be salted. Now the salt alone doesn't do the healing, it promotes the healing process, you understand?
So you can't salt the baby and all the abrasions immediately disappear, but it sets in motion a healing process. Be honest with me, how many of you feel like that a healing process has been set in motion in your life? That's salt, that's salt. Is it possible that those of us that are in processes of healing do not extend the same grace to other people to be in processes of healing? I want you to make it your objectives this week to be salt in somebody's life, to be salt in somebody's life is to help them to heal.
I want you to be salt in some coworker's life, some relative's life, some student's life, some neighbor's life; I want you to be salt. I want you to be salt in your marriage. You know what she came through, you know why she flares up like that. Instead of flaring up with her, be salt. Oh, it's a tough Sunday this morning, good God, it's a tough one this morning, I wish God would have let somebody else do that. I think you have lost a lot of good people, not because they were bad people but because you were not salt. And the Bible says that they cast him out into an open field.
Number six, they threw, honey, they threw the baby into an open field. You left me uncovered and threw me out there to the wolves, and now you're talking about me 'cause they bit me? They bit me but you threw me. Anytime you leave me uncovered, you throw me out into the open field. I want to talk to some open field people who got thrown out into stuff, found yourself with wolves, snakes, lions and tigers. When you say, "You threw me away," no, you didn't throw me away, you threw me to; your away sent me to an open field. Good God of mine, no wonder we're stressed out, no man swallowed you, no man salted you, no man covered you, no man cut you, and when they finally did make contact with you, it was to throw you to an open field.
Have you ever been thrown? Have you ever been divorced? Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever been thrown? Have you ever been thrown into a strange, foreign, dangerous, vulnerable situation? It's one of the reasons we're in church this morning, one of the reasons we're in church this morning is to get some cover and get some guidance and get some direction and get some help and get some healing, because it's hard on a baby in an open field. It's hard, you don't abuse me but you neglect me, and that neglect is abuse. And then the Bible goes real therapeutic and shows you what all of this does, and I'm gonna show you what it does and I'll be done. It says when they got through not salting, not cutting, not washing, not covering, not pitying you, it led to self-loathing, "To the loathing of thy person". Good God, woo, God, that's so heavy, "To the loathing of thy person".
How in the world can I convince you to love me, when inside, I loathe me and I wish I were not me? That's what led me to the loathing of thy person, I wish I wasn't me. If I open up this altar right now to people who loathe themselves and loathe their mistakes and loathe their memories and loathe what happened to them and loathe their abortions and loathe what they did and loathe who hurt them and loathe who they hurt, that's what this text means, it's my job to explain the text. "To the loathing of thy person," is a really deep thing when you don't like you and you can forgive you and you won't have mercy on you, and you're angry with yourself, and that anger turns inside into depression, and you're depressed and nothing seems to lift you out of it.
You know why you loathe yourself and you won't let anybody close 'cause, "How could you love me"? and you're only attracted to people who are mean because they are a reflection of how you think about yourself, 'cause if anybody comes along and they're are too nice you run them away. You run them away because you disagree with them, because you don't think you're worthy of love, and you won't receive the best of life because you don't really think you deserve the best of life, so you play the role and get the reward that you have pre-scripted in your mind that you deserve. "To the loathing of thy person".
How could a relationship work? Ain't no way for it to work, how could you have somebody that loves you when you don't love you, that's what the text means. "To the loathing". You were out in the open field, "To the loathing of thy person". Oh yes, you love Jesus, "Oh, how I love Jesus". Well, you do good at loving Jesus, that ain't the problem, I'm not talking about loving Jesus, it's easy to love Jesus. Yes, you love Jesus, but how about, "Oh, how I love you"? "To the loathing".
I found my enemy and it's me, I found my enemy, it took me awhile, took me years to find him, I found him. I looked in the mirror one day and I saw him face to face, I looked him head on, "So you're the one who's been making all of dumb decisions and messing up things and going it all, and crazy to... So you're the one who keep playing the fool and sabotaging yourself? So you're the terrorist who strap bombs around yourself and blew up that opportunity? You blew that up yourself, 'cause you don't think you deserve no better, do you"?
So you keep thinking back into what you think you deserve, "To the loathing of thy person," but I will not, I will not, I will not die here. I was ministering, I was counseling a brother going through a crisis and I was telling him, "I understand how you feel, I understand what you're going through because I remember taking a bottle of pills and being mad because I woke up". I'm not there now, but I have been there, and I wanted him to know I have been there, and you cannot help people if you're not willing to put yourself on the line. I will not die here.
And then it says, "When I passed by you," when I passed, that's why I love it when the glory of the Lord comes into a building like this, because whenever the glory of the Lord comes into a church he is passing by, he is doing inspections, he's doing checkups, he is dealing with issues, he's doing x-rays and ultrasounds and sonograms and checking you out. He didn't just come so you could get your praise on, he came to do a real inspection, "How you really doing? Are you really good? Are you really happy? Where is your joy? What happened to the twinkle that used to be in your eyes? It is not there. Adam, where art thou? It is gone, you are missing in action, I want you back".
"When I passed by you," when I passed by you, when I passed by you, when I passed by you, when I passed by you. Everybody else looked away, but when I passed by you; everybody else turned the corner, but when I passed by you; everybody turned up their nose, but when I passed by you. When I passed by you, when I passed by you, when I passed by you, when I passed, when I passed by you. I came to tell you this morning that God is passing by you, he's passing by your situation, he's passing by your circumstance, he's passing by your life.
I want you to open up your mouth and praise him like you're lost. He's passing by you, he's passing by you man, he's passing by you. He still makes house calls, he's coming right up your street, he's coming for you, he's coming for you, he's coming for you, he's coming for you, he's coming for you, he's coming for you. Ain't nobody else, he's coming for you, he's coming for you, he's coming into your darkest corner, your deepest agony, your darkest night, your moment of pain, your deepest secret, your... Oh, my God, "When I passed by you, I saw you," I saw you, I saw you. God wants you to know he sees you, he sees you, he sees you. He sees you, he knows what you're afraid of, he knows what life did to you, he knows what age has made you afraid of, he knows where you are in your heart and in your mind. God said, "I see you".
Look at three people and say something is about to happen. Something's about to happen, I'm not gonna leave here like I came, something is about to happen, something is about to happen, something is about to happen. Y'all must not hear me, something is about to happen. Resuscitation is coming into your life, resuscitation is coming into your spirit, resuscitation is coming into your marriage, resuscitation is coming into your home, resuscitation. Open your mouth, get ready, the wind of God.
I can't hear you, God is about to resuscitate somebody in this place this morning, somebody in this place is about to get a touch from the Lord. Breathe in, breathe out, get ready. They thought you was gonna die, they thought you wasn't gonna make it, they thought they threw you away, they thought you wouldn't be back, they thought you'd never get up but the devil is a liar. The devil is a liar, God said, "Live".