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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Bishop T. D. Jakes » TD Jakes - Beauty And The Beast

TD Jakes - Beauty And The Beast


TD Jakes - Beauty And The Beast

I wanna talk to some people out there who, you have potential but nobody sees it, you have gifts but nobody sees it, you have something that God has given you but nobody sees it. And you don't just not feel loved, sometimes you just downright feel hated. And the Bible says, in Genesis 29:31, "And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren". What I like about God is that God is a great equalizer; I don't care what you don't have, God will always give you something to compensate for what you didn't get. I wish I had a witness out there, somebody knows, "I didn't get this but God gave me that, I didn't get this door but God opened up that door, I didn't see this breakthrough but God gave me another breakthrough".

And when God saw how they were treating his daughter he said, "That's all right, I'm gonna give you something that makes you special". There's not a woman watching me right now that God didn't give you something that would make you special. I don't care how they laugh and I don't care how they scored. And I don't care what they say at the beauty shop, at the barber shop, and I don't care what they say on the blog sites, and I don't care how they treat you when you go in the office. God opened up your womb, I command you to birth your dreams and your visions and those things that seem impossible. And you don't have to compare yourself with anybody else and their vanity and their beauty, God gave you something. And until you find out what he gave you and start strutting in your stuff of what God gave you you'll never realize that, in spite of being loveless, you are powerful.

God just opened up your womb, God just opened up your business, God just opened up your mind, God just opened up your intelligence, God just opened up your life. Huh. Beast, if you please. The sacrament said, "And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, 'Surely the Lord has looked upon my affliction; and now therefore,'" check this out, maybe if I give him this baby, maybe, "My husband will love me". That's the dynamics of this text, is that this woman, for the next four children, is trying to have a child. And each one of them, whether it's Simeon or whether it's Levi, they're all her attempts to find out who she is, to find out, "Do I have any value? I know I'm not as beautiful as my sister, but can't you see that I have my own gifts"?

The contrast between the two women is absolutely obvious. It's obvious that Rachel has his love and Rachel has his eye and Rachel has his attention, and Jacob is willing to work another seven years to be with Rachel. How terrible it must have been for Leah to lay in the bed of a man whose eyes were somewhere different from where his body was. But I know that there are some sisters out there who know what it is to have his body but not have his eye. "Beauty and The Beast," indeed. What bothers me is that I could see why Leah would be envious of Rachel, I could see her laying in the bed, being jealous of Rachel, wishing she had what Rachel had; wishing she was the beauty and wishing she was the one that was beloved and wishing she had all the talent and wishing she had this and that and the other.

That's why I'm so confused. The text does not say that Leah envied Rachel, it says that Rachel is envious of Leah. Why is Rachel envious of Leah? Have you ever had somebody jealous of you and you wondered why they were jealous? Have you ever had people try to fight you and you wonder why they fought you? Because they didn't understand how hard it was for you to be you. I wish I had somebody out there who understood the feeling of being under attack even when you are vulnerable. And it's crazy because the person who is envious of you looks like they have more than you. But one thing about hate, hate is never prejudice, it will dispute itself, it will dispute, it will distribute itself anywhere, amongst anybody, at any time, in any way, and you are not exempt from being hated. It's just odd to be hated by somebody that you admired, it's terrible to be hated and envious by somebody that you respected.

It's tough to walk into a room where, "I thought we were sisters and I thought we were friends and I thought I could trust you". And why in the world would a woman like you, Rachel, be envious of a girl like Leah? Leah was gangly, Leah was uncoordinated, Leah couldn't hardly see, Leah was tangle eyed, Leah had problems, Leah was unloved, Leah had been mistreated by her father, Leah had been abused by her husband. Why would you be jealous of Leah? The only thing that Leah had going for her, the one thing that she had going for her is that Leah was fruitful. I wanna speak to rejected women everywhere. God is opening up your womb to make you fruitful in ways where you have been ignored and you have been ostracized, but I want you to text, tweet, put it on your notepad, "God gave me something".

One thing I love about God, God will not leave anybody without anything, he will always give everybody something but nobody will have everything, and Leah had her blessing. And Leah had her blessing and Rachel, with all of her stuff, is not satisfied to have what she got, she wants what Leah has. Because the truth of the matter, Rachel may be fine, and she may have long hair and she may be built like a Coke bottle, and she may stop traffic when she walks down the street, and she may have the eyes of all the men, and she may have the scorn of all the envious women, but Rachel was still barren. Rachel was beautiful but Rachel was barren.

You see, Leah was fruitful but she was loveless, Rachel was loved but she was fruitless, Jacob was blessed but Laban was abusing him, and each of them had a story that was complicated. I want to talk to people who have a complicated story. On one hand you've got a blessing and on the other hand you have a barrenness, on one hand you have a beauty and on the other side you've got a burden, on one hand it is the best of times and on the other hand it is the worst of times. Can you look down into Laban's house and see, and see, and see the complexities of the beauty and the beast? I want to preach to you because I see poor people thinking that if they had more money they'd be happy, but I know rich people and I know that money doesn't necessarily make you happy, and sometimes you can have so much that your life becomes so complicated you get rid of all of it just to have some peace of mind.

And I see homely people who wish they were beautiful but I see beautiful people who commit suicide. And I see illiterate people who wish they were intellectual and I see intellectual people who are smart as you could be but miserable as you could be at the same time. Everybody got something in the story, but everybody has a deficit and everybody has a defect and everybody has a problem. Everybody in the story you see has their own beast. See, you thought when I started talking I was talking about Leah being the beast and Rachel being the beauty, you don't really hear the context of what I'm saying. I'm saying that everybody has a little beauty and everybody has a little beast. If it were not for that reality, I wouldn't be standing where I'm standing right now.

Every one of you is hated by somebody, jealous people are jealous and envious of you because of something you have that they don't and they are totally oblivious to the beast of the voice that sits on this shoulder. Yes, this shoulder looks good, but on this shoulder you've got something eating at you that you can't even talk about, that hits you at the core of your spirit, that contaminates every success at every moment in your life. I'm trying to tell you that every beauty has a beast and every beast has a beauty. My friend, what is your beast? What is the thing in your life that doesn't work, that isn't glamorous, that has been traumatized, that has been ostracized? What is the thing that you keep backed up in the room that nobody sees? What is the thing in your life that breaks your heart and drives you to your knees?

You'd never put your beast on the resume, you'd never put your beast on Instagram, you'd never put your beast on Facebook or Twitter or TikTok or anywhere else. Oh, no, we want everybody to see your beauty. You'd never post a bad picture, you'd never post the pain, you'd never post a problem. We always wanna show everybody our beauty, here comes Rachel, but I want to talk to you about the beast side, because I have come to learn that it is not your beauty that makes you great, it's your beast. It is not the things that went right that causes your destiny to unlock, it's the things that went wrong. The most beautiful part of you, the most fruitful part of you doesn't come from the most beautiful part of you, the most fruitful part of you comes from the barren place.

And I want the barren woman to sing, to lift your hands up and sing your song. I want the barren woman to wipe the tears out of her face and break out and start singing your song because God made you and because God created you. And I want the woman who's been used and abused and ostracized to understand that maybe you did go through that, and maybe it was terrible and maybe it was tough and maybe it was rough, and maybe you had to cry yourself to sleep and maybe the only thing that you could trust to hold you was a pillow that you had to hold. Maybe you went through hell and high water, and lost your job and lost your friends and lost your helping, and had to walk by yourself, and raise your kids in the storm. Maybe you're raising your grandchildren and maybe you don't have everything you wish you had and maybe life has not been so beautiful for you, but I wanna tell you it is the beastly things that bring the blessing.

It is being ostracized and criticized and denied and setback and down to your last dime and trying to figure out how you're gonna make it, it is those things that make you tough and make you strong and make you fight and make you drive and make you stand. It is the beast that makes you drop down on the floor and worship God while somebody else is trying to show off their nails. You ain't got nothing to lose, you will shake your hair down, fall down on your knees and bless the God of your salvation 'cause you know, if it had not been for the Lord that was on your side, Leah, you would have been swallowed up. But every time it looked like Laban had you and every time it looked like Jacob didn't love you and every time it looked like Rachel was just a jealous, vindictive, envious soul, God opened up something, and then he opened up something else, and then he opened up something else, and then he opened up something else. And now, Leah said, "I will bless the Lord at all times".

I understand now why Leah had Judah, because Judah means "Praise". And every Leah who has ever been too ugly stuff and painful stuff and rejection and ostracization, I want every Leah that's watching me right now to birth Judah, let a praise come out of your mouth, let a praise come out of your lips, open up your mouth and give God the praise. Rachel hated you but she couldn't stop you, open your mouth and praise God. Because Satan meant it for evil does not mean that God did not make it good. And it's amazing, all through the relationship between Rachel and Leah, you would think Rachel was the disadvantaged one, when she had all the perks and all the privileges and all the opportunities. She went to all the parties, and Jacob spent most of his time with her, so much so that at one point Leah had to make a deal with Rachel to get Jacob to spend the night with her, and every time he did, that girl was fruitful again.

See, there are some of you who have so much going for you that when you have a chance to have a God encounter you don't know how to be fruitful, 'cause you don't want to mess up your hair and you don't want to mess up your nails. But every now and then, there are some other people who don't have anything to lose, and when you see a moment like this and when you see glory like this and when you see presence like this and when you see power like this you know how to cease it, you know how to lay prostrate in the floor, you know how to open up your mouth and give God the praise because he was the only thing you had going for you, he was the only thing you had on your side, he was the only thing that brought you through the fire and the flood and the fight. And he told you, "When you pass through the fire, I'll be with you; and when you go through the pyre, I'll be there; and when you go through the flood, I will be with you". And you know that if it had not been for the Lord that was on your side, you would have been swallowed up, and you owe him a praise. Clap your hands, lift your voice, shout unto God, because he blessed you anyway.

Oh yes, Leah was the beauty and the beast. It took Rachel a long time to stop being jealous of Leah, because just because something is beautiful on the outside doesn't mean that it's not beastly on the inside. I want to talk, as I come to the close, to the women who have beautiful things on the outside and beautiful clothes and beautiful cars and beautiful houses and beautiful lawns and beautiful resumes and beautiful opportunities, but down on the inside there is a beast. When the doors close, when the garage door goes down, when you get off work and you kick off your heels and you wash off your makeup and you take off your eyelashes and you shake down your hair, you deal with your own kind of beast.

And as weird as it may sound, people look at your beauty and think you got it going on, and they don't know that beneath you having it going on at work or at the university or at the country club or in the community or in the choir or in the church, beneath all of that voice you got and all of that singing you got and all of that noise you make, they don't know that you got your own kind of beast. And sometimes you are envious of people that don't make sense, because people can't see your beast. But yeah, Rachel, you got your beast, but I got good news for you. Because, in the fullness of time, the Bible said that God opened up Rachel's womb and even Rachel conceived.

I wanna prophesy to somebody: it's been a long period of barrenness, a long period of being disadvantaged, a long period of wondering when things were gonna work out for you, a long period of tossing and turning, a long period of whispering to God and driving to work with tears messing up your make-up. It's been a long time of being ostracized and denied, it's been a long time of having to do for yourself, it's been a long time you had to negotiate for yourself, take the car in for yourself, fight the mechanics for yourself, deal with the contractor by yourself. It's been a long time that everything that happened, you had to do it by yourself, but I prophesy to you that you are coming into a season and God is gonna break the curse over your life. I said, God is going to break the bondage over your life, I said, God is gonna do what you couldn't do before. God is gonna make a way out of no way, and when he makes that way, the thing that didn't work, I said, the thing that didn't work, I said, the thing that didn't work is about to change.

And Rachel got pregnant and birthed Joseph, and they started going back and forth; Rachel has Joseph and Leah has her sons, and then Leah has Dinah, and then Leah offers up her handmaid, and then Rachel offers up her handmaiden. And after a while they had all of these sons and these daughters, and they had 12 sons and a daughter, and it's only then that we realize that God was in control of the chaos all the while. You see, Laban's house was a setup, because what gave Jacob distinction from Abraham and Isaac is that Abraham produced a seed after his body was dead; God gave him a seed so strong that when it hit Sarah's womb it brought it back to life and she birthed Isaac. And Isaac passed the seed, but it was Jacob's calling to multiply the seed. And if there had not been conflict in his house he would not have had 12 children, but it was the fight itself that produced the 12 sons, that produced the 12 tribes, that caused Israel to be a nation. All of the nationality of Israel was predicated on the conflict that went on between beauty and the beast.

As I close, I want to tell you, it might not make sense right now and it might be painful right now and your life might be complicated right now, but if God puts you in a beauty and beast situation, he's working on something; he's working for your good, he's working for his divine purpose. And when God gets through working it out, you're gonna say, "It was good for me, it was good for me, it was, the beast was good for me". Because the truth of the matter is it's not your beauty that drives you to greatness, it's your beast. It's your beast. It's your beast that makes you go back to school. It's your beast that makes you take an extra job to get up the down payment to buy your own house. It's your beast that makes you stand up on your own two feet and say, "If you don't love me, I'm going to love myself".

It's your beast that gives you the tenacity to wipe your face and teach your daughters and your sons how to stand up and be strong. It is not your beauty that causes you to be successful, it is that beastly thing in the background. That's why when women rise to the top, that's why when they shatter glass ceilings, that's why when they conquer empires, that's why when they run movements and organizations they don't say, "She's a beauty". No, they say, "That girl is a beast," because it is never your beauty that gets you to your destination, it is always your beast.
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