Branded! - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] i would invite you to one of the pauline epistles where paul begins to delineate for the early church christians a deeper understanding of what it means to be a child of god and so he does this in the book of philippians chapter 2 verse 5 through 11. and if you'll go there i i want to share something with you as he begins to open up the oracles of god and sticks his hand into the manifold wisdom of god and extracts from that wisdom truth that becomes bread to the congregation it is not meat to give the children's bread to the dogs we are the children of the living god hallelujah and god has bred for us this sunday morning or if you're in europe this sunday afternoon or if you're in nigeria this sunday evening or if you're in south africa this sunday night wherever you are in the world god will meet you in your time zone he'll show up right where you are he'll come right on your island he'll come right into the caribbean he'll go right into jamaica he will show up for you now i'm going to be reading this out of another translation but follow me along i'm going to be in philippians chapter 2 of verse 5. think this in your cells which was also in christ jesus oh think this in yourselves which was also in christ jesus think this in yourselves which was also in crisis so this is this is the epitome of teaching not just to convey a truth but to teach you how to think not just giving you answers that you memorize but teaching you how to reason and to rationalize and he says think this in yourselves which was also in christ jesus that alone i can't hardly get past that that alone that he wants me to think that i have in me what was also in christ jesus to think differently about myself and to understand that i am more than a follower of christ but his divine nature has become incarnate in my humanity and so that as i am amazed at his splendiferous grace i am also aware that i have been empowered and am fueled by that same grace which has become a refuge for the weakness in my life as i think of myself and think of myself up under the canopy of what was in christ jesus give me my next verse who did who exist who existing in the form of god did not consider being equal with god something to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave wait but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave by becoming the lackness of people and being found in appearance like a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death that is the death on the cross therefore also god only god exalted him and graciously granted him the name above every name i keep wanting to say god highly exalted him because in the king james version god hath highly exalted him a high exhortation so that in the name of jesus every nation battle of things in heaven and of things on earth and of things under the earth everybody's got about the atheist the agnostic uh the procrastinator the scandal it's the whoremonger the hypocrite have the name of jesus every knees about and every tongue shall confess do you hear what i'm saying both in heaven and of those things on earth and of those things under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father shout amen down about that seventh verse i want to look at that seventh verse because it has a very interesting phrase and it really led to me using the lex ham english bible translation to discuss this but he emptied himself that that's good right there he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave i want to use for a subject this morning branded branded branded branded god was branded spirit of the living god fall fresh on us like morning do condense upon us like steam on glass condensate in such a way that we are moist with your glory wet the text with the word until it is dripping with truth and transformative properties i thank you in advance for what you're going to do because can nobody preach like you can't nobody teach like you it is not just that you can declare the word but in fact you are the word now let the word be made flesh in us today in jesus name amen you may be seated in the presence of the lord grace and peace grace and peace be multiplied under you from god our father in the lord jesus christ when i think of his goodness and what he's done for me when i think of his goodness and how he set me free when i think of his goodness and how he died on the tree could dance dance dance all night all night because because when he died on the tree he gave me irrevocable blessings i got some blessings that are revocable i got a car but i could lose it i got a house but i could lose it you know what i mean i got a job but i can those are revocable blessings but when he died on the tree he gave me an irrevocable blessing hell can't take it demons can't take it sickness can't take it guns can't take it a sword can't take it a knife can't take it i'm saved if i live i'm saved if i get sick i'm saved if a dime saved for me to live is christ to die is gay it's an irrevocable blessing god has freely bestowed upon us but do not allow the freedom the free low-cost gift to circumvent the fact that every gift comes with responsibility and one of those responsibilities includes that there is there's a certain amount of suffering that comes with power there's a certain amount of suffering that comes with power there's a certain amount of suffering that comes with influence when you don't have influence and you don't have power you can say whatever you want to say nobody says anything about it nobody cares the higher you get the more people study you pick at you try to throw you down try to ostracize you new levels bring new devils but we don't talk to you about suffering and i think that we are entering into an age where we're having a generation that is facing suffering that has never seen suffering we are seeing a generation that's having to make do that never had to make do i'm a little bit older than some of you so i i grew up uh watching my grandmother churn buttermilk i remember the buttermilk jar in her kitchen and how she would just be sitting there so patiently she didn't go to the gym but by time she got through turning that butter she had done some curls come on talk to me somebody yeah she go out in the field and pick peas and gather them in for dinner and cook them and wash them and cut them and cook them and season them with meat that she had taken from all killing time that had been salted and put away and get yams that were covered up with leaves up under the porch and bring them in and wash them and cook them and and now if we don't get our car if we don't call up somebody to deliver us something we can't hardly eat if we get married and we run into any kind of trouble we want out if we have a child and they give us any kind of trouble we're ready to give them to somebody because we are not acquainted with suffering the bible says about jesus that he was acquainted with grief and he has raised a generation of children now that have no acquaintance with discomfort and i admit myself i i have become accustomed to luxuries i like luxuries i like nice things i like the finer things of life but i often remind myself you weren't going like that back in the corner and shove to the wall you do know how to make it you do know how to make do you do know how this week proved that you do know how to heat your own water and boil your own water and wash up in the sink and keep it moving you do know how to do what you have to do to keep it going you do know how to survive suffering leads to survival oh you don't hear what i'm saying your ability to endure suffering leads to survival you can't survive if you can't endure temporary afflictions suffering is a part of the process and we have built no real theology around suffering and the irony of it is is that we wear crosses around our neck to indicate that we are christians and yet we have no theology of suffering when the very emblem of our faith is suffering you don't see anybody walking around with an open tomb on their neck no no no no we don't have any open roll-away stones on our neck we carry crosses to remind us that this did not come cheap it did not come easy it cost us something to get where we are when paul writes to the church at philippi he writes in a very precarious situation you will remember that the church at philippi started with him being incarcerated the ministry was born out of jail i i don't think you i don't think you heard that the ministry was not born out of a board meeting at a council meeting with five donors and 20 donors and a hundred dollars the ministry was born with chains and bars and shame and degradation and the apostle himself had been incarcerated and out of the incarceration comes the birthing of the church in the book of acts paul now writes to us and theologians agree that paul wrote the book of philippians he is now writing to them having survived the jail but facing the gallows he is in between sufferings writing to the church at philippi there's nothing like being in between sufferings that make you tell it like it is when you know that death is imminent a deathbed confession has far more weight than a curbside confession because when you're dying you got nothing to lose you tell it like it is and he writes to the church at philippi says i know that i'm going to rome and i'm going to lose my life and i'm okay with that he was okay he was okay with dying he just wants to write them most theologians agree that the book of philippians is not actually one book but a composite of three that there are three books at three different occasions that he has written to them intermittently dealing with three different subjects leading up to this time of suffering that he was to undertake he understands full well the importance of what he's about to go through and he writes to them with urgency trying to tell them not just truth but how to think there's a great deal of difference i was i was down uh in kenya and and i wanted to donate some books to the school and they said we can't use american books in our system in a conflict with the way that that that we educate we educate through memorization we teach our children to know the facts and to memorize the truth and your style of educating people is to stimulate them to think not to know now now i i've never looked at the distinctions between the way people ingest and digest information but clearly i begin to recognize that there's a difference between having you memorize a fact and having you solve a problem because once you have grappled with the complexity of the problem there's an ownership in the answer that becomes more solidified in you because you have got it through a process of deduction and reasoning and this text opens up with him talking to us about how to think how to think to think of ourselves in the same way that we think about jesus and what about jesus because there is so much to be said about jesus what about jesus does he want us to understand he talks to us about christ in a few simple verses he spans thousands of years of christology a few simple verses bear with me i'm going to take my time but i'm going somewhere a few simple verses and he covers thousands of years of christology he deals primarily with the pre-incarnate christ christ before he took on flesh the incarnation of christ christ after that he has wrapped himself up in flesh incarnation in car where we get carnality incarnation pre-incarnation incarnation and ultimately exaltation it is from the premise of the scriptures i've read can be divided into those three categories if you are going to cover christ's life from pre-incarnation then you've got to go down to the fourth one in the fiery furnace you've got to go to the voice and walk through the cool of the garden you got to go through the shekinah glory that appeared in the in the wilderness because all of that was pre-incarnate experiences with christ you have to deal with him wrestling with jacob that he might recognize his name and he said i wrestled with one that was lacking unto the son of god all of those are theophanic manifestations of christ that christ existed before mary was born that christ wasn't waiting on mary to be born to exist the bible says that the lamb of god was slain from the foundations of the world this if you don't understand this and you don't understand why he thought it not robbery to be equal with god because back in the beginnings of the eons of time when when the divinity looked at humanity and said let us let us make man god was in counsel with himself and if you read over in the book of hebrews god said i wanted to give you an oath so that you would have comfort for your soul and i looked for somebody to swear by and i could find no one greater than myself so he said i swear by my s i swear by myself that the word first of all thank you for wanting me to have comfort bad enough to swear and then thank you for giving me enough mind to understand that you didn't have anybody to counsel with but yourself that you can counsel within yourself that everything god has god answers everything god needs god supplies everything god wants god's god that everything that the fullness of god encompasses all that is necessary for him to be the vested one this god is a god that christ says i didn't think it would be robbery to call myself equal with god it is from this pre-incarnate state that we recognize that christ is not a good man he is the god man he is divinity himself he is in the counsel of the let us he is in the pre-incarnate existence of god he is the one that broke jacob's hip and sent him down off the hill with the limp he is the one that stood in between the fire and the hebrew boys and became a perpetration that stopped the heat from getting to the faithful he is that kind of god he is the water that flows out of the rock in the wilderness that when moses smote the rock and the water came out this rock is jesus he always was and he always will be here he which is and was and is to come the first and the last the beginning and the end alpha and omega jesus glory to god you really can't celebrate his birth date you can celebrate his earth date but you can't celebrate his birthday because he's older than his mama come on somebody i want you to understand what we're talking about when we're talking about the pre-incarnate power of god and jesus started not robbery to be equal with god but did not want to take advantage of it put my text back up because i want to get it right in the language of what they had i quoted in king james but i want to read it in in the language that i that i put it up there i want you to understand that he thought it not robbery to be equal with god but made of himself no reputation no reputation he he was not intent on showing you who he was he was not walking around trying to prove to somebody that he could do anything in fact he resisted the temptation to show off he resisted the temptation to turn a stone to bread he resisted the temptation to cast himself down off a mountain he resisted the temptation why do you keep needing to prove to other people who you are if you know who you are you don't have to show who you are think of yourself like this [Laughter] think of yourself not needing to prove what god has already ordained think of yourself walking in enough confidence and enough security that you understand who you are that what was in christ is also in you and stop allowing people to provoke you to show off so think this in yourselves which was also in christ jesus give me my next one who existing in the form of god did not consider being equal with god something to be grasped he said i don't i don't think you could grasp it i don't think you can understand i don't think you could understand i don't think you can handle it in fact i can't come in my fullness into mary because she couldn't grasp it her little womb couldn't hold it oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying if i came in my phone and she couldn't grasp it no man has looked at me and lived they can't handle who i am and so i better empty myself out if i'm going to become incarnate if i'm going to come from divinity into humanity i've got to pour myself out reduce myself down to my lowest common denominator and so the bible said he emptied himself and it makes me wonder with all that we have collected in life good and bad if we have ever gone through times of emptying ourselves are we walking around carrying around too much of ourselves christ emptied out himself so that he might be effective he said too much of me will destroy my mission oh y'all didn't hear what i said too much of me will destroy my mission so in order to be effective being effective is not necessarily being voluminous it is about being empty so now when you want to be effective you try to be voluminous you fix your shape up you take your pictures and have them doctored up and you do everything to make yourself more he said instead of making yourself more make yourself less he emptied himself you don't see anybody on facebook twitter or instagram trying to empty themselves but if you're going to be like jesus he emptied himself now in order for you to appreciate that you have to realize how much he was he's sovereign he's absolute he's on the present he's omnipotent he's omniscient he is gone all by himself he hollowed out the mountains the ridges and the streams spread out the seas the oceans and the waters put the stars in the high and made the sun to shine and you're going to put all of that into the virgin no too much i gotta empty myself out and so he emptied himself and took on the form of a slave by becoming in the likeness of people for him to come down to us is like us becoming a slave to be human is slavery for the first time in all of the eons of the ages he got to be tired he didn't know what time was he'd never been sleep he'd never been sleepy as god you'd never sleep or slumber but he emptied himself out and now he becomes subject to tiredness to sleep to thirst to hunger the bible says he took on the form of a slave by becoming in the likeness of people and being found in appearance like a man he wasn't a man but being found in the appearance like a man that's what his process was he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death you've seen a steady decline in this text he has introduced this god he is not boastful but he is divine he has emptied out himself to become human a lower level he has become human so that he might die [Music] each step is a step lower and lower and lower it was a step down to be born [Laughter] to be born to have to be carried to have to be nursed by the milk you made it was a step down for him to come in human form and be subject to parents that he was older than and just said come on come on back home jesus you know you have no business at the temple and he becomes submissive to people who were less than him but he humbled himself but what caused all of heaven to be aghast is that when he became obedient unto death it's one thing to be born is another thing to be human it's another thing to become obedient to the great enemy that he came to destroy he came to destroy death he put himself in his enemy's hands he put himself in the clutches of the one who wanted to sting him the most and became obedient unto death all of this as a slave because he knew that death was the only one that could brand him [Applause] i feel like preaching this morning i feel like preaching this morning he knew that death is the only one that could brand him success cannot brand you it doesn't have anything hot enough it doesn't have anything hard enough it doesn't have anything deep enough to leave a brand on you you can be up today and be gone tomorrow he said but in order to be branded i have to become a slave what does it mean to be branded i'm glad you asked me that all kinds of soup is coming off of the shelves right now in the factories are passing down the line but they'll never let them go out the door without putting a label on it because the label is the brand that tells who owns the content so that you know that it's campbell's and not kroger so that you know that his krogers are not a p or big bear they put a brand on it to authenticate who it belongs to jesus was branded the word brandon is interchangeable with seal to be sealed or to be branded is to authenticate or to keep in its original form to put a brand on something in sport you know what a brand is they put a brand on cattle so that they don't wander off and get taken into somebody else's domain they put a brand on it so that anybody will readily see oh no that didn't come from this ranch that came from that ranch over there you pick up the phone and call it one of your cattle has gotten over in our fence how do you know cause i checked the brand how do you know it's camel soup because i checked the brand how do you know that you're at kfc because i checked the brand the brand authenticates the identity of the product whether it is a company a soup a restaurant a cattle or a man the brand authenticates the authenticity of the product he now says to suffering stay with me till i'm branded i cannot come as a slave and not have a brand because the brand authenticates the identity of the slave who owns you where did you come from what are you what do you belong to i need that brand can i go deeper with this now we must then begin to realize that not only is a brand a sign of ownership and authenticity a brand is also a warning to those who would steal it don't bother that that belongs to so-and-so don't bother him he belongs to so-and-so don't whip that child that one belongs to so and so don't do this one this kind of way that belongs to so and so a brand lets you know where the limits are because you're fooling with something that's not your own and christ himself had to be branded he could not be branded in his pre-incarnate state he could only be branded once he had something to brand carnality flesh incarnation your brand that which is brandable you cannot brand a spirit can i go deeper i wanted to see how i could show you how to understand the sensitivity of the brand and then i thought to myself i need to make you understand that in the course of this text he takes us from preincarnation to incarnation to exaltation but god have highly exalted him and given him a name wherefore that's right wherefore god have highly exalted wherefore why for because of how he became a slave because of why how he died because of how he faced death now god has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name in other words the resurrection was not to negate the crucifixion the resurrection was not in spite of the crucifixion it was because of the crucifixion it did not nullify the crucifixion it rewarded the crucifixion oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying can i go deeper with this i need to go just a little bit deeper with it you need to understand so you can stop separating your pain from your power your sorrow from your success you got to understand the inner connectivity you cannot have a resurrection until you have a crucifixion it's cause and effect is what went wrong that made what went right somebody asked me did i regret my life i said no i don't regret my successes and i should only regret my failures because if i hadn't failed like i did i wouldn't have succeeded like i did my cross and my crown are inextricably connected y'all don't hear what i'm saying to you [Applause] so then if we don't understand this then we get these foolish statements coming back at us talking about when is my resurrection coming i've been down long enough i'm waiting on my change to come it's not fair it's not right shut up you must understand that until you learn to recognize god on the cross you will never recognize him in resurrection until you stop trying to get away from it and come out of your garden of gethsemane your place of compromise and frustration and become obedient and submissive under death and say father into their hands i commit my spirit my money my finances my situation my marriage my children my job my career i turn it all to you and i am not going to put my praise on hold and wait till i get out to give god the praise but i am going to praise him in the midst of my affliction there you go devil if you thought you were gonna take my praise your crave i'm gonna praise him when my stomach is full i'm gonna praise him when my stomach is empty i'm gonna praise him when things are going right i'm gonna praise him when things are going wrong i'm gonna praise him at my wedding i'm going to praise him at my divorce i've learned whatever state i'm in there with to be content i want somebody who's going through hell and the devil don't think you're going to praise him he thinks he shut down your mouth i want you to open your mouth in defiance and give him 30 seconds of absolute holy ghost supernatural divine i dare you to praise it i dare you to praise him i dare you to praise it i dare you to pray i'm glad y'all you got to see god you got to see god in it you got to see god in your pain you got to see god in your problem you got gotta see god in your storm you gotta see god on your cross jesus is talking to god while he's bleeding while he is bleeding he is yet honoring him father into thy hands i command my spirit while he is bleeding he is yet serving he is a slave forgive them for they know not what they do woman behold thy son son behold thy mother hey jesus how do you have time to worry about anybody else you're the one dying but he has taken on the form of a servant have you or have you just taken on the form of a complainer are you only serving god for the last chapter of the story i'm just enduring the rest of it i'm waiting on you to get me out and as soon as you get me out i'm gonna give you the prayer no you are not you're not going to get out until you learn how to praise him right now praise him through grief praise him through pain praise him through problems praise him through heartache praise him through discontentment praise him through doubt praise him through fear praise him through anxiety oh you don't hear what i'm saying to you you gotta praise him anyway you'll try you gotta pay them anyway you gotta praise him anyway you gotta patient anyway you're not amazing anyway if you don't pass this test you can't graduate if you don't pass this test you can't graduate if you don't pass this test you can't go to the next level if you don't pass this test you'll never get the breakthrough you'll never get the joy you'll never get the peace you'll never get the power you'll never get the delivery you're waiting on god to deliver you so you can praise him you praise him now he's worthy of the praise right now can i go deeper with this you remember with me that when thomas after jesus was crucified and they told thomas that jesus had appeared in the upper room and thomas said look i'm not buying none of that i am not buying that whoever y'all saw could have been an imposter and unless i see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side i will not believe why does thomas use the scars as the criteria of whether he believes that jesus is authentic or not why didn't he say unless i see his face unless i hear his voice unless i see his hair unless i see the shape of his head unless i see his feet i washed his feet if i see his feet i recognize he said no i want to see the bran [Music] jesus wounds were to pray so in order for god to raise him from the dead his heart is start beating his blood had congealed it had separated until the white hemoglobin had separated from the red hemoglobin we reported a out of his sight came both blood and water but it's really the blood congealing white and red everything has stopped functioning his kidneys had shut down his liver and shut down his windpipe had dried up his lips had become parts everything had dried up his eyeballs had dried up he was dead and god who raised us from the dead quickened his mortal body brought it back to life again and all of a sudden his heart started thumping all of a sudden his blood started moving all of a sudden his breath came back to his body all of a sudden his kidneys started working all of a sudden his digestive tract started how do you know it start working because the bible said in his resurrection he was eating again now if god could resurrect all of that why didn't he take away the wounds he didn't remove the wounds because your wounds are your brain you ain't nobody until you have some moves you ain't no kind of preacher until you have some wounds you're no kind of leader until you have some wounds you're no kind of mama until you have some homes you're no kind of person until you have the wounds god said i will change his liver i will change his kidneys i will change his blood flow i will change his heartbeat i will raise up everything but i must not remove his brand because the pran will remove all doubt as to the fact that he is authentically a slave of the gospel [Music] not only did god not remove it in his resurrection he still hasn't removed it because the bible says that in the last days when he returns that they will look on him whom they have pierced and a nation shall be saved in a day so god preserved for thousands of years his brand oh my god i feel something in this place right now because paul wrote all of this to teach me how to think and he's telling me how to think about my scars he's telling me that my scars have worth he's telling me that my scars have value he's telling me that the thing now people put on makeup to hide scars people put on eye shadow the head scar people go to dermatologists to remove scars and paul is telling me the very thing that i think i should be ashamed of is the very thing that god used to prove that i am his child nevertheless the foundation of god standing sure having this seal that the lord knoweth them that are here how do you know by your brain how do you know by how i wounded you by where i hit you in the hip joint by how i humbled you by how i brought you to your knees but how oh my god taught you to say yes by how i made you to surrender but how i broke every yoke in your life that's how i know that you are mine and not another and that's why nobody else can get your blessing because they don't have their brand if they don't have their brand they can't y'all don't hear what i'm saying if they don't have your bread they can't get your blessing if they don't have your bread they can't get your blessing if they don't have their bread they can't get your blessing that's why pharaoh drowned it in the red sea he didn't have the bread and so he could not get the blessing stop worrying about people trying to get your blessing they don't have your brand they don't have your brand they don't they don't have the right moves to be eligible to pass the brand tests for what god is about to do in your life holla at somebody and say something's about to happen holla at somebody else and say something's about to happen [Music] type it on the line something's about to happen something's about to happen something's about to happen something's about to happen god wouldn't brand me if he didn't have something in store for me something is about to happen in my life wherefore god has highly exalted him look at your neighbor and say you get ready to go up you get ready to go up you get ready to go up you get ready to go up you can't go up if you ain't been down but if you've been down you're gonna go up if you don't have a brand you can't get the blessing if you got a scar you can have the success get ready to go up wherefore god has highly exalted him and giving him a name above every name that at the name of jesus every leash of bowel and every tongue shall confess god said i'm getting ready to move stuff out of your way stuff that wouldn't bow god said i'ma bring it to its knees stuff that wouldn't honor you god said i'ma lay it prostrate in the floor stuff that wouldn't recognize what god has done in your life not just things in earth but things under there the spell will be broken the curse will be broken the yoke will be broken the demonic attack that's been over your house for generations no more it breaks right now somebody type no more no more no more no more no more no more no more no more no more cancer no more no more no more no more diabetes no more no more no more divorce no more no more no more no more no more how do you know because i got the brand and when i got the brand it controls the outcome when i got the brand it controls the outcome kane thought after he killed abel that was sent to the land of nod that he was going to be destroyed and god said to cain don't worry about it i'm going to put a brand on you and i'm a brand new so that anybody who thinks to take your life i will kill them because of this brand i put on your life do you hear what i'm saying there are some folks that are listening at me right now there's a reason the gun didn't go off there's a reason the haters didn't kill you there's a reason that the witch couldn't hex you god put a mark on your head all the demons know that god has branded you the demons are talking to god saying have you considered my servant job you know we can't touch job you got a heads all around him do you not know god's got you covered as i come to the close of this text suddenly i begin to expect a different expectation when i walk now when i walk i'm expecting obstacles to bow [Applause] [Music] now when i get ready to go into new places i'm expecting tongues to confess i'm not gonna have to brag on myself god's going to send somebody else to brag for me because every tongue is going to have to confess and every knee is going to have to bow because paul says this is how i ought to think of myself this is not just how i'm supposed to think of my god this is how i'm supposed to think of myself you got to bow yeah you got to buy yeah you got to buy i see i see you but you got to buy you you got to get up out of here i don't know where you're going but you're going to have to you got to buy that you got to bow sickness you got to bow pain you got the don't you see these don't you see this don't you reach your hand touch me right here don't you know who you foolish my body belongs to god my whole body belongs to god from the count of my head to the souls of my feet my body belongs to god my hands belong to god my feet belong to god my voice belongs to god my walk belongs to god my talk belongs to god how do you know jakes because i've been branded somewhere in your life you've been branded paul said i bear in my body the marks of the lord jesus christ some test some storm some trial some pain some heartache some blemish in your life something that you tried to put makeup on and cover up and you don't want nobody to see that that was really you take the makeup off that's your brand that's your brand that's how god's gonna recognize you that's how god's gonna bless you that's how god's gonna make a way for you that's how god's gonna feed you that's how god's gonna bring you to the store because of not in spite of your brand because wherefore god have highly exalted because of this because of how they abused you because of how they mistreated you because of how they hurt you not in spite of because of how you cried because of how you did without you because of how you worshipped me when your heart was in pain because of what happened to you when you were a child because of what happened to you on your last job because of that god said i am going to be the equalizer i'm going to highly exalt you and i will move everything out of your way except your scars [Music] because your scars i feel like preaching up in here somebody better come get me because i feel something about to break loose in here somebody that's been bound is about to get loose somebody that was tied up is about to be set free somebody that's been in a state of depression something just broke in the name of jesus oh my god oh my god oh my god says seven times i've been branded i've been branded typing i've been branded tweeted i've been branded tell your neighbor i've been branded i've been branded you can't touch this i've been branded you can't kill this i've been branded you can't put me down i've been branded get out of my way i've been branded bow your knee i've been branded [Applause] [Music] i prepare to bring to the end the texts that the lord have laid before me now i realize why it's a glory and tribulation now i've realized why i should be happy about what hurt me because if i i had not been hurt i would have no evidence to show the doubting thomases in my life that i made it thank you for giving me a response to all my skeptics by leaving my wounds alive as proof that i am the same tommy jakes that i am the same tommy james that y'all said would never be nothing i am the same tommy jakes that you said i'd never be able to write i'm the same tommy jakes that you said would never be a speaker i'm the same tommy jace just you said i could preach but i couldn't pastor i am the same tommy jake that you said i didn't know how to organize anything i am the same tommy j leave my wounds so it will move all doubt so that they can see that i'm the same one you nailed up and said i was worthless wherefore have highly exalted us i am the pastor of the wounded i am the bishop of the banner i am called to minister to the people that were voted least likely and yet somehow god had highly exalted you if you had to fight your way up if all the odds are against you i'm your pastor if you had to come up and you got dirty in your fingernails i'm your pastor if you had to rise against the odds of all the people who thought that they were gonna hold you down and put their foot on you i'm your guy if you are the person that started with nothing but refuse to accept anything less than what you saw in your spirit then i am your pastor if you are the person who broke the rules and broke the odds crash through glass ceiling to get to where you are that's why you're drawn to my ministry you're drawn to me because you liked me you branded and i came to tell you don't die till you do it [Music] don't die till you beat it don't die till you reach it don't die till you become it don't die until he highly exalts you [Music] and makes every knee bow and every tongue confess that's not arrogant that's confident and the bible said this is how you ought to think about yourself now as i close today this is the point of the message god said things will not turn out right until my people start thinking right yes all they want me to do is run an ambulance to get them off their cross they do not recognize suffering as the process that leads to success and what they're asking me to get out of is the highway to their destiny so put the scripture back up on again the first one think of yourselves think this in yourselves which was also in christ jesus when jesus went to the cross he reenacts what he did when he washed feet when he washed feet he laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel when he was crucified they stripped him of his clothes and they covered him with blood so his towel was his blood so that through his blood he might serve you oh you didn't get that he laid inside his garments and gird himself with a towel they stripped him of his clothing and he was covered with his blood so his blood becomes the towel so that he could serve a dying world a living bread because he was branded he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with him and with this and with his stripes ye are healed he heals you watch this he heals you through what hurt him [Music] you want to find your healing find what hurts you because whatever hurts you is what god's going to use to heal them close your eyes with me for a minute i want to talk to people who have been hurt and you realize i've been hurt and i haven't been thinking about it right i've been wounded and i haven't been thinking about it right i've been covering up my blemishes and i didn't want anybody to see my wounds i wanted them to see how whole i was never recognizing that me being broken is my brand and right now this sunday morning i make a commitment to change the way i think about the crosses in my life to understand that my branding is my blessing it sets me apart from every imposter it authenticates the accuracy of my ministry and i'm going to heal them with my stripes father i pray that the healing power of the holy spirit [Music] ironically would flow through the people who hurt the most that their stripes are for somebody's healing that their wounds will remove unbelief that people will be caused to believe in god not because of how they want but because of how they handle suffering help them to change the way they think of themselves until they understand that what works in christ now works in us i understand finally lord as i close this prayer that this is a class in humility and that some of us can't be used because we're too high and we need to pour out ourselves and i pray for a national and an international pouring out of what you know and what you think and what you heard and what you read and just pour it all out before god until you get down to a yes a yes in your soul a yes in your walk a yes in your talk so that god can use you i pray for that branding to manifest in their life in the name of jesus keep your eyes closed and pray one more thing father in this final moment of the service i pray for the returning of jobs and businesses and opportunities in the life of your people i believe you lord that somebody has a concept in their mind that will become a brand that will open up a business that will bless the next three generations i pray right now in the name of jesus that what they've been putting aside and what they've been looking over and what the enemy's been talking them out of because it's not the right time and it's not the right place and i don't have the right money and i don't have the right people and i don't have the right contacts i pray god that you would develop that brand and cause him to increase in this moment i speak to those persons i don't know who you are to sow in this moment a yoke will be broken over the brand you have created for your business for your ministry for your life there are some things you've got in concept in plan and drawing but it hasn't been fully executed yet this is your word this is your word seize that word for your life and as you sow today i pray god for supernatural harvest in their lives mind-boggling harvest in their businesses in their plans in their careers yes lord in their partnerships god said there's going to be some partnerships there's going to be some connections things you couldn't do by yourself he's going to make the right connections for the partnerships to build a brand that's even stronger to take you further in the kingdom of god i don't know who i'm talking to i don't even fully know what i'm talking about i'm just following the direction of the holy spirit god said you've got a brand this is a career brand the enemy's been fighting it but god wants you to have a breakthrough those scars are your stars god is going to resurrect that business in your life i don't know who you are but this is god's word concerning you and about if it is you sow into it if it's not you just ignore it but if it is you saw into it and god will bring it to pass and god will bring it to pass and god will bring it to pass i know you've been humiliated i know you've been out front i know you've been hung high and stretched wide but that was just so god could brand you and the blessing is on its way have a wonderful sunday be blessed in your heart and in your spirit i'm bishop t.d jakes the senior pastor of the potter's house bringing you greetings from dallas texas and i'm checking your hands i'm checking your hands i'm looking for wounds i'm looking for scars i will check your back i want to see your strengths because i am healed through your strikes in jesus name amen god bless you [Music] you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 454,431

Rating: 4.8754077 out of 5

Keywords: td jakes, faith, potters house, bishop jakes, The Potter's House of Dallas, TPH Dallas, td jakes sermons, bishop td jakes, inspiration, td jakes motivation, motivation, sermons, td jakes ministries, motivational speaker, motivational speech, gospel, motivational, sundayservice, tdjakes, td jakes 2021, td jakes sermons 2021, branded

Id: zgYVqPQ2Wb0

Length: 64min 36sec (3876 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021