TD Jakes - Untouched (01/26/2021)
God uses the vivid image of an abandoned newborn baby in Ezekiel 16 to confront Israel—and the church today—with its spiritual neglect: the umbilical cord uncut, unwashed, unsalted, unswaddled, and ultimately cast into an open field, leading to self-loathing. Yet in the midst of this despair, God declares that He passes by, sees the struggling soul, and commands it to live.
The Uncut Cord: Overdependence
I want to 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 untouched. 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 has been no separation, so there has 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 the cord is 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 going to become a confirming word and not a revelatory word because you will have your own devotion to God? The problem is no one has cut your cord.
Unwashed: Still Marked by the Past
Number two, the second indictment is no one washed you. You still look like what you have been through. That afterbirth is something else, child, I am telling you—that afterbirth is not pretty. It is necessary, and in the right place at the right time it is 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 this is part of the symbolism of water baptism—to wash away where you came from? We baptize you in water, saying, "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 it off. If that is still hanging on to you, you might be a church member, but "No one washed you?"
The Need to Care for What We Birth
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 does not care for. Anything you have, you have to care for. Stop praying for stuff that you are not going to care for. If you get married, you cannot be selfish. This is why marriages are not working in a narcissistic society—because everybody is in it for themselves. "Me, me, me, me, me." No, it is not about you; it is 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 it? Everybody wants to have a church—do you want to care for it? If you do not 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 are 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 are degreed and you still do not feel important. Now you got the job and you still feel like nothing—because no one washed you. Getting stuff on the outside does not compare to getting stuff on the inside.
Washed by the Word
Has anybody heard the words that are coming out of my mouth? Jesus says the most radical thing: "You are clean through the Word that I have 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 did not 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 the face—it hits you like atomic neutron bombs blowing up in your nostrils—and you say, "Get back in there and brush those..." People can tell when you have not been washed.
But what is 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, iPad, or cell phone have really been washed.
Unsalted: Delivered but Not Healed
Number three is the big one. The third indictment He brings up against the scene before us is, "No one salted you?" That is a funny thing because today you would not salt a baby, but in 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 do not question that you have been delivered—but are you healed? I do not question that you have 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. It was totally taboo. It was just unthinkable that you would marry an unbeliever. The whole church would just sit you down—you could not sing, you could not usher, the deacons could not deacon.
If you married an unbeliever, but what they did not 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 does not mean that you are healed. I do not want to pastor a gang; I want to pastor a church. And in order to pastor a church, you have to be healed—you have to be salted.
Now the salt alone does not do the healing; it promotes the healing process. You understand? So you cannot salt the baby and all the abrasions immediately disappear, but it sets in motion a healing process.
Becoming Salt for Others
Be honest with me—how many of you feel like a healing process has been set in motion in your life? That is salt. Is it possible that those of us who 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 objective this week to be salt in somebody's life—to help them 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 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.
It is a tough Sunday this morning—good God, it is a tough one. I think you have lost a lot of good people—not because they were bad people, but because you were not salt.
Thrown into the Open Field
And then the Bible says that they cast him out into an open field. They threw the baby into an open field. You left me uncovered and threw me out there to the wolves—and now you are talking about me because 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 did not throw me away; you threw me to. Your away sent me to an open field.
Good God almighty—no wonder we are stressed out. No one swaddled you, no one salted you, no one washed you, no one cut the cord—and when they finally did make contact with you, it was to throw you into an open field.
Have you ever been thrown? Have you ever been divorced? Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever been thrown into a strange, foreign, dangerous, vulnerable situation?
It is one of the reasons we are in church this morning—to get some cover, get some guidance, get some direction, get some help, and get some healing—because it is hard on a baby in an open field. You do not abuse me, but you neglect me—and that neglect is abuse.
The Result: Self-Loathing
And then the Bible goes real therapeutic and shows you what all of this does. 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—that is 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 is what led to the loathing of thy person—I wish I was not 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 is what this text means.
"To the loathing of thy person" is a really deep thing when you do not like you, you cannot forgive you, you will not have mercy on you, and you are angry with yourself—and that anger turns inward into depression, and nothing seems to lift you out of it.
You know why you loathe yourself and you will not let anybody close—because, "How could you love me?" You are only attracted to people who are mean because they are a reflection of how you think about yourself. If anybody comes along and they are too nice, you run them away because you disagree with them—you do not think you are worthy of love.
You will not receive the best of life because you do not 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? There is no way for it to work—how could you have somebody that loves you when you do not love you?
God Passes By and Sees
Oh yes, you love Jesus—"Oh, how I love Jesus." Well, you do good at loving Jesus—that is not the problem. I am not talking about loving Jesus; it is easy to love Jesus. But how about, "Oh, how I love me"?
I found my enemy and it is me. It took me a while—years to find him. I looked in the mirror one day and I saw him face to face. "So you are the one who has been making all the dumb decisions and messing up things? You are the one who keeps playing the fool and sabotaging yourself? You are the terrorist who straps bombs around yourself and blows up opportunities—because you do not think you deserve better."
But I will not die here. I was counseling a brother going through a crisis and I told him, "I understand how you feel because I remember taking a bottle of pills and being mad because I woke up." I am not there now, but I have been there—and you cannot help people if you are not willing to put yourself on the line.
And then it says, "When I passed by you." When I passed—that is 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, checkups, dealing with issues, doing x-rays, ultrasounds, and sonograms—checking you out.
He did not just come so you could get your praise on; He came to do a real inspection. "How are 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?"
"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.
I came to tell you this morning that God is passing by you—passing by your situation, your circumstance, your life. He still makes house calls. He is coming right up your street—for you.
"When I passed by you, I saw you." God wants you to know He sees you—He knows what you are afraid of, what life did to you, where you are in your heart and mind. God said, "I see you."
Something is about to happen. Resuscitation is coming into your life, your spirit, your marriage, your home. They thought you were going to die—they thought you would not make it—but the devil is a liar. God said, "Live."