TD Jakes - Dedication to Destiny (08/17/2021)
In prison, God gave Joseph His presence, mercy, and favor with the warden—enabling him to remain dedicated amid deficit, interpreting dreams and running the prison, proving consistency in hardship positions us for palace destiny.
God's Presence in Prison
There were three things that God gave Joseph in the prison that helped him through the prison. Number one, the Bible says the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. He gave him company in the prison. He said if you are in it, I am in it with you. I do not know who I am teaching today, but the Lord said I am in it with you.
You had to sell the car, I am in it with you. You had to sell the house, I am in it with you. He left you for another woman, he said I did not. I am still in the house with you. I am still going to open doors for you. I am still going to make ways for you. I will not leave you by yourself.
She does not appreciate who you are as a man, God says I do. I am with you in the prison. Not just in church, not just on Sunday morning, not just when the praise team is singing, not just when everybody is beating the drum, not when people are happy and shouting, God says I am with you when it does not look profitable to be with you. I am with you.
That is what separates me from some of them folks you call friends, even when there is no opportunity. Oh God, you do not hear what I am saying to you. So, you go ahead and praise him for your car, and you praise him for your stocks, you praise him for your mutual fund, I praise him for not leaving me. Thank you for being with me when all hell was breaking loose. I am just glad that you were with me.
We are going to practice that. Shake somebody by the hand and say, "The Lord is with me." The Lord is with me. I may be sleeping on this floor, but the Lord is with me. I may be in some kind of trouble right now, but the Lord is with me. I may have a lump in my breast, but the Lord is with me. I may be down on my luck, but the Lord is with me. Luck comes, luck goes, but the Lord is stable. The Lord is with me.
I do not know who I am talking to, the Lord is with me. He was with me in 2019. He is with me in 2020. He is going to be with me in 2021. If you want to get with God, get with me, because the Lord is with me. If you want to fight God, fight me, because if you and me get into it, he is on my side. That is how I feel about it.
You have got to know that you know that you know that you know I am with you, even when you do not feel me, even when you do not like the condition, even when you do not like this circumstance.
God's Mercy in Difficult Times
So number one, the Lord is with him. Number two, he showed him mercy. Mercy sure do look good when justice is not just. He showed him mercy. He showed him mercy, have mercy. I do not understand how people who need mercy can be so merciless. His mercies are new every morning. He showed him mercy.
That is why I beat everybody praising God, because he showed me mercy, and I owe him a praise. I do not mind raising my hand. I do not mind clapping my hands, because had God dealt with me according to my sins, I would have been cut off, but the Lord showed me... whoo, whoo I feel a shout coming on. I feel a shout. I am not even trying to shout, but I feel a shout. Because when I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all that he has done for me, my soul cries out. He showed me mercy. He showed me mercy. He showed me mercy. He showed me mercy.
God's Favor with Authority
Number three, he gave him favor with the warden. He gave him favor with the warden. He gave him favor with the warden. You might not believe this, but God will make folks like you. You think it is just because you are so charismatic, no, God will make folks like you. He gave him favor with the warden. You walk in like you know they like you, because God is going to give you favor. Favor with the person in power. Am I talking to anybody in here?
Dedication in Deficit
Now, let me go a little bit deeper with this. I am almost where I want to be. The thing that gets me about Joseph is that he was dedicated in a deficit. I understood him being dedicated in Potiphar's house, because he was on the upside, but this boy is dedicated in prison. He is running the prison. The inmate is running the prison.
If you stop crying about being an inmate, you will see why you are in the situation you are in. Because God is going to get some glory out of the situation that you are in. God does not just reveal himself by changing situations, sometimes God uses the situation to change you.
So, what gets me about him is that he is dedicated in a deficit. In prison, he is still serving, he is still leading, he is still helping, he is still giving. And had he not been dedicated in a deficit, he would have never reached his destiny.
Had he gotten bitter, or depressed, or discouraged and said I am through, last time I was dedicated, it did not work. I am not going to do it anymore. I am not going out there like that. I am not going out like that. I am not going to do it. He would have died in prison, but he was dedicated in a deficit.
Can you be dedicated in a church that is not growing? Can you be dedicated to a job you think that is beneath you? I know you say you are going to get dedicated when you get the promotion. No, you are going to be dedicated now, that is how you are going to get the promotion. I am helping somebody, I do not know who it is.
So, dedication has to be an internal impulse and not an external reaction. He must be dedicated because he is dedicated. He is not dedicated because things are going good. He has not allowed external circumstances to define internal character. He is just dedicated. He is a dedicated person.
He has been dedicated all his life. When he is in, he is all in. When he is there, he is really there. When he is giving, he is really giving. When he is serving, he is really serving. Regardless, this is who he is. Do not let life change who you are. You have got to be consistent even when life is chaotic.
Because now I see why God chose Joseph. He could trust him. He chose Joseph because he could trust him. And Joseph ends up the Prince of Egypt because he is consistent. Can God trust you in prison? No pay, nobody there to say attaboy.
God blesses people he can trust. Can he trust you with power? See, because power, see, see, see, trusting you with money is not the problem, trusting you with power?
Consistency Leads to Elevation
All of us have some area that we have not mastered. I am not preaching this to convict you, I am preaching this to challenge you. What is it about you that is consistent, that you are willing to be dedicated to? Because that is all we can use for destiny.
Joseph, down in jail, interpreting other people's dreams, and he is doing it for people, and saying, "Man, this is what is going to happen. You are going to get out in three days. You are going to get out, and you are going back to the king. And in three days," to this other joker, "You are going to be dead. You are faking, you are phony, you do not know who you are, you did not dream nothing. You are trying to slip in on somebody else's anointing. In three days, you are going to be dead," and he is dead.
The butler gets out and forgets Joseph, but Joseph is still dedicated. The butler forgets him for two years. I told you it is going to take a decade. It is going to take a decade to anchor down everything that you are doing right now. It is going to take a decade to get it where it is established, and it is solid, and where you are fully respected on the next level of where you are going. Expect it to take some time.
Two years he spent forgotten by the people he helped. But Dr. King said, "Truth smashed down to the ground will rise again undaunted." It may take a long time, but if you just keep doing right, if you just stand your ground and be dedicated, if you keep doing right, you can overcome anything.
You can lose weight, you could go back to college, you can get your doctorate, if you just keep... God can only bless what you are consistent about. Dedication to destiny.
This is my opportunity to dedicate my way unto the Lord, and say you know what? I am going to stop being up and down, and back and forth, and flipping in and flipping out, and I am going to be consistent, even though my life is not. Even though this year will not be consistent, even though my friends will not be consistent, and my family will not be consistent, my spouse will not be consistent, everything around me may not be consistent, these are the areas that I vow I am going to hold to.
Locking Down for Breakthrough
I will not drop this. I may drop something else, I am not saying nothing about no banana pudding, but we still working about that. Well, that is where the mercy, that is where the mercy back another part. That mercy, and the pudding, and the mercy, and the pudding and the mercy go together. Lord, have mercy.
But this right here, this right here, Jesus, this right here, we are going to lock this down. We are going to walk this out. If I do not save but $10 a week, we are going to walk this out. If I do not lay but 200, if I do not lay but 200 pounds, 200 calories down a week, we are going to walk this out. If I do not take but one class a year, we are going to walk this out.
This right here? I am going to put this on lock. I am going to put this on lock. Because if I put this on lock right now, by the time I get through walking through this, I am going to be exactly where I need to be.
Shake your neighbor and say, "I am after something." I am after something. I am after something. I am after something. And I am willing to lock down to get it. I am willing to be stable to get it. I am willing to dedicate myself toward it.
I am not waiting on you to give me nothing. You have not got to give me a thing. I am not going to be chasing them behind you, sniffing up behind you, trying to get on your good side in the... I am not tap dancing or none of it. I am going to get this myself. And whatever it takes, I am going to pay the price, and I am not going to owe nobody when I get it. It is going to be me and Jesus. It will not be nothing about you. It is going to be me and the Lord.
Touch three people and say, "I am after something." Yeah, I am going to do this. I am going to do this. I am going to do this. I am going to do it when I am in jail. I am going to do it when I am out of jail. I am going to do it when things go right. I am going to do it when things go wrong. I am going to do this. I am going to be consistent.
Lord, you can count on me for this. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall what? What can he count on? I learned a long time ago, 50% of winning is showing up for the fight. The fight is half over when you show up. You will never win a fight you do not show up for. I am showing up for this. I am showing up for the fight. Here I am, ready for duty.
I am through hiding in the shadows for fear that I might fail. I am going to face this head on and let the chips fall where they may. Yes, sir, let the chips fall where they may. I am going to show up for the fight. You can count on me to take action. I will not waste another decade complaining about who did not love me, and who did not raise me, and who did not invest in me, and who did not teach me. I am tired of my old story. I want a new story. I want a new testimony. I want to see the hand. Oh, I feel God in this place.
Took them two years to get rid of the amnesia, and all of a sudden, Pharaoh had a dream, and nobody could interpret it, and the butler said, "You know that old whatchamacallit down there in prison, Joseph, yeah, I was in the joint with him. Yeah, he pretty good, Lord. He is pretty good."
Had he not been good in prison, he would have never got to the palace. It was what he did in prison that brought him to the palace. Suppose he would have cussed the butler out and said, "Forget you, get out the best way you can. I have got my own problems right now." But he was consistent, and they came and knocked on his jail cell, said, "The king has need of you."
And he washed up, got a line, got his face just right, said, "I am going to see the king." I prophesy to you this day, somebody is going to see the king. Your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither has entered into your heart where God is about to take you. He is about to take you into another dimension. You are going to see the King.
Touch your neighbor and say, "I am going to see the King." I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King. I am going to see the King.
I am not dressing for where I was, I am dressing for where I am going. I am going to see... The guy who was an inmate in one chapter, becomes the head of the treasury for the nation of Egypt. That is why I do not believe in killing yourself. Because when you are killing yourself, you are killing a self you have not met yet.
You are killing yourself over your past, but what you are killing is not your past, it is already happened. You are killing your future. Twenty-four hours can turn your entire life around. You can be on your way down, and God can turn your whole... I wish I had a witness somewhere. I wish I had one Holy Ghost witness. I wish I had a fire-baptized witness.
Your Part in Dedication
So, now it comes down to your part. Why does God have you here today? What do you need to be more dedicated to in order to win? You know, most people have never thrown their whole weight at anything, ever. Most people have never put in the work for their dream.
The 10,000 hours, no, no, no, they want it on credit. They will not read what they are supposed to read, work the way they are supposed to work, do what they are supposed to do, and they will blame God for their own trifling, lazy, inconsistent, behavior. And they will act like God did not come through, when the truth is, you did not come through. And God has been waiting on you. God has been waiting on you.
And he says as soon as he will, I will. As soon as she does, I will. So, here is the question. What is this about? What is he talking to you about? And only you can answer that. What dream do you have that you have not fully been dedicated to? That you have not thrown your full self at it, consistently?
Because God said if you do it consistently, he will bring it down. He will bring it down.