Left for Dead - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] this sunday morning i would like to draw your prayerful consideration to the book of acts chapter number 14 verse 7 through 20 where we will find a very interesting moment in the life of the apostle paul as we discover it we do it to the intent that we might first of all become biblically literate because we are living in the most biblically illiterate generation of the history of this nation not that we don't have a lot of religious people they just don't know what they're religious about it's not that we don't have a lot of believers they just don't know what they believe come on talk to me somebody it used to be you could pick anybody at random and they could explain their faith in great detail anybody in this sanctuary could lead you to jesus but now more and more we have people who just like to be in the atmosphere of jesus stuff but do not want to apply themselves to knowing jesus personhood do you hear what i'm saying to you but i have labored over the past 45 years of my life to preach the gospel in a way that i might convince you not to fall in love with me but to fall in love with your bible to fall in love with the word of god you have no more of god than you do of his word do you hear what i'm saying to you and so as we go into the word of god today we do it to the purpose that you might be biblically literate that you might see the text in the context for which it is extrapolated understanding how hard it was to be a christian we hope that it will humble you down from complaining about silly things like parking spaces and rain when you see what the early church had to endure to name the name of christ we hope you will grow up some and not be petty enough to say roll your eyes at your sister in christ and say she thinks she's something when you see what the early church had to endure it'd change your definition of pain and ultimately you will redefine what it costs to be a christian and you will recognize that god has favored you even in the midst of your problems the fact that you're breathing good the fact that nobody's coming to your house that assaulted you for being a christian you're privileged the early church would have passed out to have the kind of favor you ignore but to that ends we preach today and i believe with all of our heart that something is going to happen i wouldn't have got out the bed this morning if i didn't think that something was going to happen are you ready again acts chapter 14 verse 7 through 20 and it reads thusly and there they preached the gospel and there sat a certain man and lystra impotent in his feet being a from his mother's womb who never had walked the same heard paul speak who's steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice stand up right on thy feet and he leaped and walked and when the people saw what paul had done they lifted up their voice saying speech lyconia the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men and they call barnabas jupiter and paul mercurius because he was the chief speaker then the priest of jupiter which was before their city brought oxen and garland unto the gates and would have been sacrificed with the people which when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying sirs why do you these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living god which made heaven and earth and the sea and all the things that are therein who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways nevertheless he left not himself without a witness and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and going hold it right there i just got to stop a minute and praise god for being good to us when we were ignorant of him paul's point is that god took care of people who were ignorant of him who served other gods and did other things and god still clothed them and let it rain down on them and overshadow them and that's shouting stuff because you know that god was good to you when you weren't thinking about him oh my god i would read again nevertheless he left not himself without a witness and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness and with these sayings scarce restrained they the people that they had not done sacrificed unto them they still wanted to do it and there came the other certain jews oh this is a new development there came that there are certain jews from antioch and iconium who persuaded the people and having stoned paul drew him out of the city supposing he had been dead how being as the disciples stood round about him he rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with barnabas to derby i want to talk to you about left for dead let's pray spirit of the living god thou who causes the rain to descend on the just and the unjust thou who lavishly gives air to breathe even to atheists and heathens thou who has regulated the beating of our hearts even when we were busy doing wrong now that we come to our senses we recognize that you didn't wait for us to be good to be good to us over the next few moments i ask you to honor my time with you as i have my time with him that you might use me as a conduit through which you might flow through to touch the hearts of your people i believe you for excellence i believe you for excellence i believe you for excellence define it in this room in the name of jesus we pray somebody who really loves him shout amen you may be seated in the presence of the lord [Music] now we know and understand that in the early aspects of jesus ministry that he had set aside 12 men that had the distinction of being categorized as apostles we are quite clear that he found them during different aspects of labor some were fishermen some were tax collectors some were physicians but he gathered them all and coalesced him together into becoming a team around him a fortress a bulwark a board an executive board a mentorship board and through the auspices of their connection with jesus they began to do exploits in the land the criteria for them being an apostle included them being an eyewitness to the resurrection of christ from the dead and so after he was crucified he made it his business to show himself alive to all that remain seeing as judas had now hung himself and his mouths had spilled out in the potter's field he shows up to the eleven that remain so that they can be an eyewitness he wanted to leave an irrevocable mark on their lives that was strong enough to cause him to withstand the persecution that inevitably would occur for naming the name of the lord i took the young man the other day i said when you associate with me you gained my friends but you also gained my enemies you can't gain one's friends without gaining their enemies they all go together and when you accept the name of jesus you gain his friends but you also gain his enemies and the 11 were locked up and you know how they did and how jesus appeared in the room to make them an eyewitness and settled all doubts by letting them touch the nail prints in his hands and where they pierced him in the side be not faithless and believe because he wanted them to know that he was lord over death because if he could be lord over death he could be lord over anything death was the greatest enemy but he took the sting out of death and the victory out of the grave and rose up and taunted them and said oh death where is i sting o grave where is thy victory we read in the book of acts how they cast lots to replace judas with matthias by the casting of lots they appointed matthias to stand up in judah's place there's a great deal of controversy as to whether matthias is then legitimately an apostle or whether this was something they did in a human effort to fill a divine void what we are sure of is that god called a very unlikely individual named saul saul was a christian killer he was a christian killer not because he was an evil person he was a christian killer because he was a religious person his religion informed him that what christianity represented was a cult being an orthodox jew all of his life for christianity to now come and threaten judaism he thought he did god's service to kill out the christians because he is a pharisee he was devoutly jewish because he was of the tribe of benjamin he comes from royalty because he was part of the sanhedrin court he had influence and affluence because he had been educated at the feet of camille he was articulate and multilingual and he was a christian killer until god stopped him on the road to damascus and arrested him and knocked him down off of his beast and left him impaired and partially blind initially totally blind most historians say he continued to be partially blind most of his life and those who do describe him often describe him as being short and humpback and there was nothing amazing about him and yet god did amazing things through him suck it only to jesus in the new testament paul contributes more to our understanding of god than any of the other apostles even though he never had the last supper with him he wasn't there when he turned water into wine he wasn't there when he healed the woman with issue of blood he wasn't there when he lays lazarus from the dead he never got the benefit of growing up in the pedigree of christianity he is an outsider brought in sometimes you can do more with an outsider than you can and inside [Music] because when you're an insider you have a tendency to take for granted the experience but when you come from the outside there's a greater level of appreciation for the illumination of the word of god and paul was brought into a place where first he would go to his own and his own would receive him not like jesus he was steeped in jewish tradition but they rejected him they laughed him to scorn and ultimately he became the apostle to the gentiles what a humbling experience for a pharisee who wouldn't eat with the gentile to now be called to serve the gentiles i'm just saying that in context you see to serve the gentiles would be like asking you to go feed the swine the gentiles were called swine sometimes dogs you will remember jesus said it is not meat to give the children's bread to the dogs and now the apostle paul with all of his intellect and all of his language and all of his religious pedigree is now sent to feed the dogs when we step into this text we step into this text at a time that paul is with barnabas and it is not just that paul is mentoring barnabas barnabas is also mentoring paul while paul knew how to articulate and argue the faith once he was converted with jews he was unaccustomed with communicating with gentiles in my book i wrote recently and i'm gonna make a shameless plug don't drop the mic uh if you haven't read it you ought to get it one of the things i talk about is being able to communicate with diverse groups of people because when you can only talk to people who look like you dress like you vote like you think like you you limit the breadth of where you can go you have to be broad enough to understand how to be diverse and often you have to do that intentionally that does not happen accidentally i say that because some of the places god's getting ready to take you is away from the familiar it's off of your territory you have to be mentored and you have to be groomed to find out how to work in that atmosphere this was strange but not to bother me see barnabas was used to winning gentiles when paul says i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ it is the power of god unto salvation unto the jew first and then to the gentile so there was a boomerang of faith it started amongst the jews but little by little by little by little throughout church history it moved toward the gentiles it started in jerusalem it ended up in rome because the gentiles being heathens were more open to christianity than the jews were being religious they thought it was sacrilege for jesus to say he was god it is into this atmosphere that paul steps now with barnabas and they come to lystra which is a greek country a greek country being not a jewish country paul is learning how to deal with him and in the midst of this atmosphere he begins to minister paul is often considered the most important person after christ in history his epistles his letters have influenced every aspect of what we call christian theology without the apostle paul we would know little about the resurrection from the dead we would know little about the catching away of the saints without paul we wouldn't understand the mystery of godliness for paul teaches us greatness a mystery of godliness for god was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit scene of angels preached unto the gentiles and believe on in the world and received up in the glory without paul we would not know that if this earthly house or tabernacle shall be dissolved we have another building eternally in the heaven without paul we would not understand what the fruits of the spirit were love joy peace meekness temperance we would we would not understand without paul we wouldn't understand what the gifts of the spirit were we wouldn't understand the unknown tongue the interpretation of times of discernment of different kinds of spirit without paul we would not understand therefore being justified by faith we have peace with god without paul we wouldn't understand i can do all things through christ which strengthens me without paul we would not understand the apostles the prophets the pastor the teachers the evangelists we would never understand without paul we would not understand that having made known unto us a mystery of his will without paul we would not understand the providence of god the prudence of god the manifold wisdom of god without power we would not understand those sorts of things about god without paul we would not understand the glorious grace wherein we stand without paul we would not understand shall we continue in sin that grace may for abound grace for god forbid he that is dead is freed from sin without paul we would not understand that as many of us have been baptized have been baptized into jesus christ's death that if we are buried together with him in the likeness of his death we shall be also like him in the likeness of his resurrection without paul we would not understand that the same spirit that quickened jesus body and raised it from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body we would not understand that without paul we would not understand the foundations and the fundamentals of the faith he teaches us our relationship with god the father and jesus and on the mystical human relationship with the divine he teaches us the power of prayer he teaches us uh the contribution of understanding that we can come boldly to god in prayer that god hears us when we pray he teaches us having peace with that therefore being justified we have peace with god he teaches us about peace he teaches us about power he teaches us about majesty he gives us all of these contributions but he also had his controversies he was not one of them and anytime you're not one of them didn't come from among them there's a certain invisible wall you have to contend with anybody know what i'm talking about you can move into a city and there's a certain invisible wall that exists because you didn't grow up in that city you're not considered one of them you can join a particular board and because you're an outsider and you come in you're not considered one of them paul was not one of them he was an outsider they didn't like him they didn't appreciate him they didn't particularly want him they didn't trust him they didn't believe him they had reason not to trust him he used to be a christian killer they doubted his conversion they doubted the authenticity of his faith they did not see him and jesus interact with each other he was controversial you cannot be the kind of person that makes great contribution and not have to endure great controversy oh can i come on with it jesus made great contribution but he also had to contend with great controversy some of you are saying lord i want to make great contribution but i don't want any great controversy you cannot have one without the other they are siamese twins they are connected together and if you are a person with a lot to contribute then you got to be strong enough to deal with a lot of controversy there's always somebody trying to knock you off your position there's always somebody laughing at what you do there's always somebody trying to discredit the authenticity of your work the legit the legitimacy of your apostasy there's always somebody who's always trying to put you down and you have to be strong enough and tough enough to withstand the controversy is there anybody in here that can stand to be blessed and of all things he describes himself as the chiefess of sinners and in god's response to that god gives him a call to go to the gentiles to go feed the swine in our text today we find him feeding the swan he has gone to lystra to minister he is preaching the gospel of jesus christ just merely preaching the gospel he has touched no one he has laid hands on no one he has not spoken in tongues he has not cast out a devil his shadow has not fallen on anyone just preaching the gospel was strong enough to create a disruption the gospel all by itself the gospel that needs crutches it doesn't need help it doesn't need tricks or gimmicks or scams and a standoff by itself when it is preached right somebody will grab a hold to the gospel and the bible said while he preached the gospel something began to happen something began to happen something amazing began to happen somebody in the crowd got healed oh you you you got to see the beauty of this i said somebody in the crowd got healed [Music] the beauty of the text is paul himself is called the of tarsus and though he is called the of tarsus no doubt because he could barely see and hunchback no doubt because he prayed to have his thorn removed out of his flesh and it had not been removed he was crippled and yet healing the sick y'all didn't hear that i'm gonna say that again he was crippled and yet healing the sick all of you think everything in your life has to be perfect before you can serve anybody else but god has a way of using ordinary people broken people wounded people hurting people bleeding people suffering people the of tarsus is preaching the gospel so that a can be healed good god almighty i wish i had me at church the of tarsus is preaching the gospel and there's a lame man in the crowd and the bible said that the lame man was laying in both his feet he was lame in both his feet he was lame in both his feet he had been crippled from his mother's womb that means not only was he lame he never knew what it was like to walk he had never walked and yet he was fastened on paul and paul noticed him while he was preaching discerned that he was fasting on it see when you preach the gospel it don't hit everybody you have to know that in a room like this you don't hit everybody everybody on the zoom you're not going to hit everybody but there are some people who become fascinated to the message they become attached to the message they focus on the message there are other people that can't focus they're thinking about what they're going to cook for dinner did i leave the stove on i hope i unplugged the iron i don't know what i'm gonna wear to work monday you can't get no healing because you can't get no healing if you don't have no focus you have to have a focus if you want to get healed somebody say focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus i can't afford not to focus i got a lot to think about i got a lot to do next week but i can't afford not to focus cause i got a devil to fight i got a devil to fight i got a devil to fight i got a devil to fight and i'm listening at the word listening for clues how i can fight this devil that wants to come against my life and my mind and my heart and my spirit is there anybody in this place that's got to focus focus focus focus is there anybody watching me online who has to focus focus focus is there anybody in here the bible said that the man had been laying from his mother's womb he was a heathen he was not used to christianity he wasn't even used to judaism but when he heard the gospel oh wait when he heard oh wait when he heard the gospel i gotta stop him in it and thank god that god didn't let everything break down at the same time both his feet were lame but both his ears was good look at somebody say i could hear it i could hear it i may be broke but i can hear it i may be divorced but i can hear it i may be heartbroken but i can hear i may be under attack but i can hear when he had the gospel i feel like preaching this world faith coming by hearing and hearing by the word of god if you can hear it you can get out of it if you can hear it you can get a release if you can hear it you can get a break too if you can hear it things can change if you can hear me sitting on that couch if you can hear me sitting on the side of the bed if you can hear me sitting in your living room if you can hear it a yoke can be broken a yoke can be destroyed a yoke can be released in your life how did somebody say can you hear me now can you hear me now see the devil don't want you to hear he'll do anything to distract you he'll get you playing on your phone anything to distract you from hearing the word of god because the devil knows faith coming by hearing and hearing by the word of god and if you mess around and hear something you can be healed from something and the bible said that paul fastened his eyes on the man and he yelled out at him and when he yelled out at him and told him to get up and walk he asked him to do something for which he had no point of reference it's one thing to ask a man who to walk who has walked before but to ask a man to walk who has never walked before i don't even know what that would be like i don't even have the coordination i don't even have the muscular dexterity i'm not sure my nerve endings are connected in my feet my ankles have never worked together with my feet in a coordinated method in order to be able to walk i have never walked since my mother's womb i was born broken i was born broken that me can i take time oh god i that that means broken is my normal i'm gonna keep going until again that means anger is my normal that means alcoholism is my normal that means malice is my normal and you're asking me to leap out of my normal paul challenged him to go beyond his experience and do something he'd never done before to leap out of his normal the lord sent me here to tell somebody i don't know who it is that he's calling you to do something you've never done before and in order to do it you can't gradually do it you can't do it one toy at a time you can't stick one foot in and see if it'll hold you up god says you're gonna have to leap out of your door somebody just leap just sleep that's how you're gonna come out of it that's how you're gonna come out of it that's how you're gonna come out you're just gonna leap out of your door you're just gonna leap out your friend's not gonna understand it your family is not gonna understand it your neighbors are not gonna endorse it but what god is gonna do in your life is so quick it's so sudden it's so massive it's so comprehensive it's so complete it's so all-encompassing that you get ready to leave look at somebody tell them give me some room i gotta leave [Applause] give me some room i gotta leave give me some room i gotta leave if i don't leave now i won't get out of this if i don't leave now i won't get a breakthrough if i don't leave now i won't start the business if i don't leave now i'll be where i always were if i don't bleed now i'm not like my mama die if i don't leave now i'm getting ready to leave give me some room give me some room give me some room give me some room i'm getting ready to leave [Applause] there is a leaping anointing in this place right now i don't know who i'm preaching to i don't know who i'm preaching for but you're getting ready to leap out of it you thought you were gonna eek out of it you must go gradually get out of maybe in the next five years god said no leap out god is gonna make you leap [Applause] [Music] god is gonna make you leap and it's not because you're lame he's going to make you leap as a witness to all those people who doubted that he was who he said he was god said i meant for you to be lame because i chose such a time as this to prove who i am by making you leap oh somebody's gonna get a miracle somebody's gonna get a miracle somebody's gonna get a miracle and god's gonna use your life all on the line type leap out leap out leap out leap out all in the room say leap out leap out leap out leap out leap out leap out leap out leap out leap out of that bitterness leap out of that anger leap out of that hostility leap out of that poverty leap out of that neighborhood leap out of that situation leap out of that dead end job god is going to make you leave he's going to let you leap out it ain't going to be gradual you're just going to leap out you're gonna leap out and the bible said when he leave he started walking he didn't even you're getting ready to do something that you've never done before who am i preaching to make some noise in this place yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah look at somebody say i'm a leaper i'm a leaper you you might not you maybe you are not sitting next to me because i'm a leaver i might make you uncomfortable because i'm a leaper i might get thrown out of the click because i'm a leaper i might not be in the club because i'm a leaper god is going to make me leap out of my situation god is going to make me leap out of my circumstance i wish i knew who it was but you're gonna have to leave you've been looking at it you've been thinking about it you've been hearing the gospel your faith has been stirred this is about god said leave [Applause] [Music] [Applause] sit down i'm gonna go deeper [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i'm getting warmed up sister i'm getting warmed up i'm getting ready to leave i'm getting ready to leave i'm getting ready to leave anybody getting ready to leave i i never did before i'm gonna go someplace i never went before i'm gonna walk like i've never walked before i'm gonna move like i never pulled before i'm gonna talk like i've never talked before i'm getting ready to leave i'm leaving i'm leaving from charleston to dallas i'm leaking i'm leaping from a storefront to a mega church i'm just going to [Applause] [Music] [Applause] now we're going to set that to the side that's so appetizing that's what get him here [Applause] you know you got to have some courage to leave most folks are scared to leave you got to have some courage to leave lord is there any courage over here any courage over here is there any any uh courage anybody got some courage you don't think it's too late you don't think your time has passed you by you think you got one more leap left in you come on come on you you and anybody got some courage over here everybody got some curry anybody watching me online have you got some courage have you got some courage have you got some courage this is a moment you're gonna have to leap into glory to god when they saw him leap bear in mind they're not jews [Applause] they're not familiar with jehovah they're amazed they experienced god they experienced paul's ministry but it is through the lens of their theology so god has done it through paul but those who behold it don't know how to understand it a lot of you have an experience with god and you go home and you try to explain it to people and they don't understand what you're talking about because they're experiencing it through their theology their theology was built around jupiter who was the king of the gods of a polytheistic society in roman mythology jupiter he's the same thing as the greeks were called zeus so they figured well maybe barnabas is jupiter and then they figured paul must be mercurius another one of their gods what i'm trying to get you to see is that we behold the same thing but from different perspectives [Applause] and how we interpret what happened depends on how we think so they think that they're mercurius and jupiter and the priest who prepares sacrifice for jupiter gets an ox and gets ready to prepare a sacrifice to the apostles and the apostles heard about it right now here i am trying to bring you to jesus and jesus has performed a miracle and you're ready to praise somebody who didn't do it do you know how many people praise other people for stuff god did do you know how many people call grace luck their mentalities are in such a way that they they can't really embrace the splendiferous grace of jesus the magnanimous ability of god to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we may ask or think we bring him down to mercurius and jupiter and fall back into our routines of worshiping gods we made and paul and barnabas rend their garments said our whole purpose in coming here is to get you delivered from vanities [Applause] [Music] are there any vanities in your are there areas in your life where you worship things that don't matter are you in a place right now that you got a little bit of jesus and a little bit of jupiter one of the problems in the early church that led to the niacin creed was they started calling everything christian it became difficult to distinguish the theology of christianity the new testament has not yet been written so anything you did you could call it christian like praying for somebody else's husband [Applause] i'm just i'm just [Applause] i'm just giving examples i'm just giving examples i'm just i'm just giving examples [Applause] i'm just getting exactly like like trying to curse somebody because you don't like them so you a witch and an alto in the choir i i i'm just asking questions so they got the jupiter and the jesus and the mercurius and the paul and the barnabas all mixed up and paul rins his garment he does not want them to make him a god let me tell you why when people make you a god they later kill you for not being what they made you for everybody to think you're amazing and admire you might look like it's wonderful but out of that everybody there's always somebody who lifts you up and denies you of your humanity and they turn you into a deity only to destroy you for not being what you never said you were in the first place oh that's so good i'm gonna shout myself i'm gonna shout myself i'm a child myself i'm shocked i'm a child myself [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] don't let nobody make you a god player you don't have to solve every problem you don't have to fix every situation you don't have to have all wisdom you don't have to have all the answers you don't have to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning because you are not god and they will make you a god player and generally the same the same the same people who make you a god player [Applause] they kill you for being like them paul told them don't worship me we are men of like passions and they killed him they stoned him for being too much like them [Music] and that's what happens in the church today we kill people who get caught acting like us [Applause] oh y'all ain't shout now cause when you kill somebody for having like passions it throws the heat off for you because if you can kill them nobody would suspect you but they had a little help i'm almost finished they had a little help because the jews came down and talked to the men of lystra into killing paul now bear in mind they didn't like paul anyway but it's funny how when folks hate you they won't like kill you themselves you don't hear me they won't kill you this hell they'll turn a posse is there any witnesses in here have you ever had a strange posse rise up to take you out and you didn't know where it came from only to find out that it was one of your [Applause] own so they said if they men are like passions you ought to kill them and they took rocks and they stoned paul with rocks big rocks hitting him in his head lacerating his skin knocking him down to the ground they stoned him which was a custom amongst their people like they were going to stone the woman caught in adultery they had experience they knew how to kill you with rocks i want to talk to some haters you're good at what you do you know how to kill with rocks you throw your rocks you hide your hands and you keep throwing rocks and you've had experience at being a rock thrower and the bible said they threw rocks and supposed him to be dead this is where it gets good to me they supposed him to be dead now i realize maybe 50 of the church won't know what i'm talking about so i got to preach to the other 50 have you ever had anybody do anything to you to take you out and they supposed you was dead and they suppose you'd never be back and they suppose you'd never get up and they suppose you'd never be nothing have you ever had anybody tell you you can't beat nothing without me and they supposed you to be dead and they left you in trouble and they left you in debt and they left you with the kids and they left you with the bills and they laughed and they went on to the strip club and they suppose you to be dead have you ever had somebody leave you and think you can't cook you can't clean you can't iron you can't wash you can't make it without me i'm going to expose what a bum you are and they suppose you to be dead they supposed paul to be dead and they left him for death everybody who's ever been left for dead give me 60 seconds of praise [Applause] well this is a resurrection service we are about to have a resurrection service we're about to give you some tips that are going to prepare you for what god is going to do next sometimes you got to lay there and let them think they won oh i'm going to give you a pathway sometimes you got to stop fighting and stop kicking and stop fussing and stop cussing and stop calling and stop yelling and stop texting and stop writing and just play real steel and act like you got me i just lay there with blood running down your forehead and act like i'm harmless i ain't got no more power i don't have no more message i can't get up so that they can go on somewhere else cause as soon as you shut up they gonna leave you alone your mouth is fueling the fight if you be still and know that god is god god will fight your battles for you you don't have to defend yourself oh god this is so good i'm gonna get my own cd you don't have to defend yourself because the battle belongs to god if you just be still and lay there they will leave you for dead but just because they left you for dead does not mean that you are dead i feel a resurrection spirit in this place right now look at somebody saying ain't over i may be broke but it ain't over i may be sick but it ain't over i may be down but it ain't over my business might close but it ain't over as soon as y'all get out of my way i'm getting back up again so this is what you're gonna do you're gonna form your committee [Applause] you'll get a few people to surround you who believe in you and the bible said the apostle surrounded himself with a few people that believed in him and they made a circle around what they thought was dead this is nature's way of incubation whenever nature gets ready to incubate anything it will always put it in an egg it will wrap it in a shell and you've been out there by yourself but god said for this second half of your life you need to surround yourself with a few people who know it ain't over a few people who are wishing you well a few people who can get a prayer through a few people who are expecting a return a few people who got the same mind and the same spirit paul was laying there bleeding laid up looked dead changing colors getting cold but because he surrounded himself [Applause] get you a handful of people that can come into agreement and come both shy [Applause] this is your year i know it don't look like it because your head is bleeding and i know it don't look like it because they've been rocking you ever since january but the devil is alive can you hear me on the internet the devil is alive this is your year don't let the stones fool you they rocked you they stole you they scandalized you they laughed at you they left you but now that they're gone [Applause] it doesn't say they bandaged him it doesn't say they poured wine in his wounds it doesn't say that they set him on the beast he just stood up and i said my god he ain't doing number reaping what he saw [Applause] god said what you make happen for other people god will make happen for you and because you raised up the lame man god said i'm getting ready to raise you up who am i preaching to god said i have not forgotten your kindness to other people and in your day of vulnerability because you had the courage to make a lame man leap i'm gonna leap you up out of this thing he leaped up on his feet and he started walking and passing by this is what got me i would have walked away from lystra but he went right back into lystra just to let them know no weapon formed against me chad pastor against me shall prosper can i get a witness it won't work god will do what he said he would do he said he will stand by his word he will come through i know god will do he will stand by his word he will come through against me shall prosper oh hold it right there don't let it go just hold it right there i want you to take a minute and think about the weapons that have been thrown at you this year [Applause] over the last 12 months everybody's taking some blows [Applause] some hits some scrapes wanted you dead left you for dead wanted to drive you over the edge [Applause] wanted to wear you completely down [Music] but the lord sent me here to tell you that what they threw at you [Music] it won't work think about it [Applause] it hurt but it won't work [Music] this and that and the other and this and that and the other and i've been sitting up at night on the side of the bed and my sleep's been mad and my mind's been upset and my body's been in turmoil and i've been walking the floor at three o'clock in the morning but the lord sent me to church this morning to tell you it won't work [Music] nothing they did nothing they said nothing they're trying to do nothing that you've been worried about the holy spirit just spoke in my belly and said i don't care how many rocks they through [Applause] you hear me real good i don't care how many rocks they threw and i don't care how dead you look and i don't care how broke you look and i don't care how depressed you've been and i don't care how upset you've been and i don't care how lonely you've been and i can see you laying in the bed crying at night i can see you crying on your pillow in the middle of the night thinking that you can't get up and that you're tired and you had too many battles and you can't make it out of this one but the devil is alive the devil is alive the devil is alive the devil's the devil is alive [Applause] god's got you surrounded yes sir he got to surround the angels of the lord and camp about them that fear him yeah no weapon that they sit against you it's going to work and i want you right now to be renewed because you have made other people leap all your life you have made other people leave all your life but you are coming into a season that you are not just gonna make other people leave you will get ready to leap into your destiny you gonna leap so far in your destiny that you can confront your haters and smile at them because you know it didn't work and i want you to lift your hands and open your mouth and fill this room with praise as the holy ghost comes in this room here he comes here he comes here he comes here he comes god [Applause] god [Music] foreign [Applause] foreign [Music] just [Music] thank you oh [Music] [Music] the anointing of god is in this place the spirit of god is right in your house right in your living room sitting there with you and you got a whole list of things you've been stoned one thing after another after another after another after another there just ain't one [Music] but it's not gonna work and i want you to step into an attitude of gratitude [Music] he goes back into listener and then he moves on the derby and he keeps on moving and he keeps on going can i tell you something god is not through with you yet he goes to iconium brother he goes to antioch he keeps on moving your future is waiting on you your future is waiting on you your future's waiting on you your future is waiting on your future's waiting on me do you receive it lift your hands up and receive it [Music] i believe our best days [Music] are ahead of us honey would you come here and stand with me for a minute [Music] i know i know we might not we could have another 39 years [Applause] [Music] but whether it's 39 or 29 or 109 i believe our best days are in front of us you believe that do you believe that about you [Music] shake off every other spirit that would tell you every other thing cause those are stones get rid of your stones and make up in your mind my best day is coming my latter day she'll be greater than my foreigner i told her i said we're going to live our latter days differently than we did our early days yeah we're coming into our own yeah i know we're getting great but we're coming into our own yeah we're getting to the good part yeah how many of you believe you're getting to the good part i want to i want to sow a little seed on our anniversary for the future just just a small seed just a hundred dollar seed but i want to sow it into our future that we're gonna make it 100. yeah we're gonna make it if you got the courage it takes courage to believe that you can get older and get better [Applause] in a culture that glorifies you it is easy to get to 40 and think your life is over but that's a lie i want to challenge you to join us and sow a hundred dollar seed everybody listening at me everywhere in the world and i want you to make it 100. i want you to leap up out of where you are right now and start walking into your antioch in your iconium and start moving around in your future and start moving around in your destiny because your future is waiting on you let's make it 100. [Music] that means you got to let some people call and not answer the phone and you may even have to get radical and change your number [Applause] but we're going to make it 100. look at somebody say let's make it 100. i want everybody online streaming zooming looking in to make a commitment and i'm going to pray that we make it 100. [Music] i know we've been stoned i know we've been scarred i know we've had the wind knocked out of us and i know they have left us for dead either physically emotionally attitudely in some area of our lives we have shed some blood but in that same spot [Music] we're gonna make it 100. and take advantage of this moment to covenant with yourself i i'm gonna stop murmuring i'm gonna stop complaining i'm gonna stop trying to fix the pass it's over i can't do nothing about it it doesn't matter who was right it doesn't matter who was wrong it's over i pronounce benediction on my past and i open up the door to my future and i'm gonna make it 100. i'm gonna find something to laugh at every day every day even if it's the last thing i do before i go to bed even if i have to turn on a comedy show even if i have to get in the mirror and laugh at myself i am going to laugh myself to sleep i will not cry myself to sleep another night i'm going to make my life 100 and i will get better and i will get richer and i will get stronger and i will get tougher anybody with me anybody shout out with you bishop lord i now realize why the shepherd left the 99 left the 99 unattended and went out looking for one sheep he was trying to make it 100. whatever's been missing in your life [Music] pull it back in and let's make it 100. we're not gonna argue with people in the parking lot we're not gonna get upset with nobody at the drive-through window we're not gonna argue about dinner being late we're not going to do anything that breaks the peace that we have right now we're going to make it 100. let me do one more check before i close if there's a person in this room that doesn't know jesus i hope i inspired you but inspiration is limited what i really want to do is convert you converting you doesn't mean i'm going to start going to that church i want you to come i'd love for you to come i'd be happy to have you but that's not conversion conversion is when you change the way you live and you say lord i'm ready to walk with you i may not be perfect i may get it wrong i may need to be corrected but i'm ready to walk with you i haven't been walking with you but i'm ready to walk with you hold your hand up real hard i just want to pray for you thank you somebody else thank you thank you leave it up leave it up thank you leave it up while i pray for you leave it up anybody i see you in the balcony i see you i see you i see you i see you father god in the name of jesus every hand that's been raised up is raised up in submission to you asking you lord to take over residents in their heart in their life repenting of their sins confessing you as lord and savior they invite you into their heart i pray they'd never be the same again i pray they'd never be the same again that a new joy and a new peace and a new fullness will come into their heart and soul and that they walk in that peace and that power and that they'd never be the same again and lord finally no weapon formed against him shall be able to prosper in the name of jesus again 60 seconds of praise and we're and we're going shout out for us [Music] just before i dismiss you give me just five minutes just three minutes just before i dismiss you if you can if there's somebody here who would like to make this your church we're prepared to open up the doors of the church we've got everything prepared for you in a very safe and sanitized way to give you the right hand to fellowship welcome you into the church if you come to my left the doors of this church are open for membership whosoever will let them come we're getting back to normal y'all [Applause] [Music] come on down [Music] so glad to have you so glad to have you so glad to have you so glad to have you so glad to have you [Applause] so glad that yeah somebody clapped while they come somebody climb up [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't care where you come from i don't care where you come from i don't care what you got on i don't care what your culture is i don't care about your ethnicity if the lord is nudging at your heart don't let the devil teach you come on come on again come on in come on in this is the father's house [Music] you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome so glad to have you [Music] somebody get bishop steal a mike and i want bishop steele to come and greet the church and pray the closing prayer on us as we prepare to go all the way from arizona clap your hands and make him welcome as he comes such an honor to be here how many were blessed by the word on this morning my god in heaven my life will be forever changed left for dead my god in heaven everyone lift one hand to heaven father we thank you we honor you for this powerful word on today and we thank you for even the 39 years of bishop and first ladies anniversary god continue to extend years on this earth oh god continue to use them continue to anoint them now god give us peace as we leave on today now god as we even leave traveling mercies over your people in jesus name we pray and everybody said god bless you you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 770,155

Rating: 4.829412 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, left for dead, leftfordead, apostle paul

Id: djpiEHmOKd4

Length: 81min 24sec (4884 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021