Living Off A Memory! - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] lord has shared with me i want to invite your prayerful consideration to the book of psalms 137 the 137th division of psalms verse number one through nine and there we're going to find our assignment for this morning on the first sunday of the year normally on the first month of the year we forego the worship service we shut down everything and i teach in a bible class format uh i'm gonna do a little bit of teaching a little bit of preaching mix it up together uh today but it is exciting psalms 137 verse one through nine when you have it say amen if you still look and say wait a minute oh you're good now that you don't have to turn them pages you can find them scriptures now back in the old days y'all would have still been in genesis but god is good amen by the rivers of babylon there we sat down yay we wept when we remembered zion hanged our hearts upon the willows in the midst thereof for there they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us first saying sing us one of the songs of zion how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land if i forget the old jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if i do not remember they let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if i prefer not jerusalem above my chief joy remember oh lord the children of edom in the day of jerusalem who said raise it raise it even to the foundation thereof o daughter of babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou has served us happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones can you say amen if i forget jerusalem made my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth today i want to talk from the subject living off a memory living off a memory let's pray spirit of the living god fought fresh on us now we need a fresh impartation of your spirit we cannot go into a 2021 devil with the 2020 anointing we need an anointing that fits the times that we're in right now we need a direct and compelling word from you that penetrates the darkness that centers our soul that saturates our spirit that endows us with the grace and the tenacity that is necessary to be effectual and fervent in the things of god we need it's not just that we want it we need your anointing to break the oak to set the captain free to loose the bound let the word be made flesh while it's being preached today let it change lives and renew hearts and open minds as we seek your face today i'm going to thank you in advance for blessing your people all around the world i don't even have to see you do it i'll praise you now you can do it later your credit is good with me have your way great god that you are [Music] i thank you for what you're going to do and i believe you for it now in the name of jesus we pray somebody who loves them shall they man [Music] you may be seated in the presence of god i have come to realize as i walk out this journey that even though we chronicle years and months and dates in phrases of anniversaries and birthdays and we commit and commemorate those things with silver anniversaries and golden anniversaries and then we saturate them with the ideas of appreciating the time that we have spent together with people or with companies or with children or with spouses i have come to realize as i've gotten older it is not so much the days the weeks the months or even the years that stay with you i've been married to my wife 39 years and then and in all honesty 39 right glory to god hallelujah no one hear about that in the car and it all in all of the 39 years i don't remember 39 years i don't remember 39 christmases i don't remember 39 easters and 39 anniversaries not one by one a name but name i remember some of them i don't remember all of them i don't remember every week of every month and every year i remember moments and memories and i have come to understand that all that really matters about life are moments and memories one of the worst things you can lose is lose your mind your ability to remember memories because all life is really all about are the moments and the memories the memories are very important because they define you that what you sit on the couch and laugh about with your teeth in a cup [Laughter] what you enjoy laughing wrapped up in blankets sitting on the back porch when it's too cold to be outside but you wrapped up drinking hot chocolate giggling about things that happened along the way for example i didn't get permission for this so i may have to give forgiveness i had not long been married and uh yes and she said bless him i had loved and married and and not long after i got married i lost my job and the economy went down and we were struggling and we were having a hard time we lived in a little wood frame house right beside uh a little creek and and my i just got married i brought my wife into the house we were living in the house first winter in the house she did not realize in the winter we didn't have rats but the creek had big old rats you know and in the winter the rats are looking for some place warm they'll try to crawl under the house and crawl in the house and get anywhere they can i mean now y'all are from texas and and y'all have mice we're from west virginia we have rats rats our rats are big enough that cats look at it and say not me so what about getting a cat or a rat out of a riverbank is as big as a cat i come home and open up the door and every every kitchen cabinet is open and my wife is standing there like a sumerian warrior and she's got blood in her eyes and i know she's mad about something and she's ready to fight the good fighter i thought what did i do it wasn't me one of those rats had gotten in the house and it was a big old rat my biggest biggest two of your feet put together it was a big way they had gotten in the house and i was going to be the hero but she already had it together she thought she's standing in the middle of the kitchen with all the cabinet doors open frank she got a can of rain i said what are you doing she said a rat's in the house i said okay we're getting we're catching we're kelly she said i think i got him i said what did you get him with she said the rain i said why are you spraying rain all the rest she said cause i read on the can it's harmful to pets and i'm telling if you killed the rat with the raid it's because he laughed himself to death i imagine a big old rat laying over in the back of the cabinet falling out laughing going into a heart attack laughing at this woman who escorting him like he is a roach with a cannery it was crazy it was funny we laughed about it for years i didn't get the can of raid pray for me forgive me don't judge me i got a pistol one thing is about as ridiculous as the other she's got a can of raid i got a gun i said if you don't pay no rent you can't stay in here you're gonna have to die a brother up and he needs some rent money if you're gonna stay here i want to see some i want to see some dead presidents and that's how our americans got started it's a wonder we're still married today but that's how that's how it got started and when we're sitting back laughing and talking we're talking about crazy moments and memories that define it's not always the contrived special moments where you got dressed up and you think you're all looking good and you're trying to be important and you smell like a bottle of flowers those are not always the greatest ones the greatest moments are in the little cute crazy idiotic things that make people love you make them remember you make them stay with you god understands the importance of moments god understands the power of memories and there are some things god does so that you will define your relationship with him on the basis of a memory he told moses he says i'm gonna bring the children of israel out of egypt i'm going to cause the death angel to pass over by night i want you to put blood on the doorpost and on the lintel and he said when the death angel passes over when he sees the blood he will pass over you and that one moment became a point of reference for the next thousand years god referred to am i not the god who brought you out of the wilderness am i not the god who brought you out of egypt am i not the god who delivered you from the hand of pharaoh that one moment was done so that they would have a memory so that whatever they face the hittites the jebusites the philistines whatever they came into they would remember that moment and use that moment as a point of reference to build their faith up to strengthen their faith to define their relationship with god and say if god can do that he can do this too in the new testament on the night before jesus was to be offered up he had a passover dinner with the disciples and he brought them together and he took it and he changed the meaning of the passover to what we call communion he took the bread and he broke it and he blessed it and he gave it to them and told him to eat and he said this do what say it again say it again this do in remembrance of me and so as often as you do this you do show forth the lord's death till he comes he is replacing the blood of the lamb with the blood of jesus he says i'm going to give you a new memory a new reflection a new way of identifying yourself and as often as you do this you let me know i still remember i still remember i hate it when people forget i hate it when they forget i'm not talking about forget where you put your watch or forget where you parked your car i'm talking about forget when i've been good to you i mean forget when i helped you out of trouble i i don't mind being betrayed but i hate being betrayed by people i was good to it just gets on my nerves and say how did you forget am i not the same person that you called it two o'clock in the morning and you were in trouble and you gonna talk me at 2 10. you you too people forgets they forget they forget and they walk away from you and fail to remember the things that matter the most in life in our text tonight this is probably the bloodiest psalms of all the 150th division of psalms it is bloody because he openly and adamantly hopes god kills the and praise they kill that he kills their children and everybody it is naked and it's honest it is as young people say keep it at 100 he doesn't try to impress us with being deeply spiritual his emotions are all over the place in the course of nine verses he's spiritual one moment he's he's remorseful the next moment he's angry the next moment all incorporated in nine verses of the 137th division of psalms and in order to appreciate the magnitude of what is going here what is happening here you must understand that he has left jerusalem on the run his home has been besieged by the babylonians and the the nine tribes have been lost and the remnant has escaped and only a few have stayed in jerusalem they have been beaten fiercely beaten not beating like you got a weapon i mean beating like you're a dog like you're an animal they had been beaten until they were bloody and battered and tired and torn the women had had their clothes yanked off of them and rapes denied of any dignity or able to resist that women had been raped and the men who resisted were castrated and with blood running down their legs and chains wrapped around their ankles and the hot palestinian heat they dragged them away defeated out of their own country in their own land and their own customs away from jerusalem oh jerusalem away from the place that they woke up in the morning to the smell of baking bread and could hear the cobbler as he began to get out his hammers and prepare to make his shoes the copper smiths and the sound of the copper smiths early in the morning and the women singing down at the rivers that say wash their clothes singing the hebrew songs dancing on the riverbanks jerusalem there was no place like jerusalem but now it lay in ruins there is no hammering there is no nailing there is no bread being baked instead the smell of fresh baked bread has been replaced with the stench of burning flesh the screams and anxieties of hebrew boys and girls who are killed like you would kill a roach the men have been castrated and the women have been humiliated and they are drug away from jerusalem the holy city of jerusalem that not only defines their culture it defines their faith it defines everything about them who would have ever thought that jerusalem could be lost it was lost to them only a few remained the rest were drug away and it was a bitter moment it was a painful crushing moment because when they were drug away they never knew for sure kevin whether they would ever get back to jerusalem again because there are some things when you lose them you can't be sure you'll ever get them back that's why you have to take care of things when you have them because you have no guarantee that if you lose them you will never get them back again and i can see the young handsome hebrew boys with hair flowing down their back and blood running down their legs and sweat crossing down their brow looking back at jerusalem on fire trying to get it etched in their mind so that they would never forget jerusalem jerusalem the place of solomon's temple to beautiful majestic solomon's temple you remember the one that when the temple was finished built the shekinah glory sat down on the temple and the priests laid prostrate in the floor and it was so amazing that solomon had asked what would happen if you change your mind and shut up the heavens and there'd be no more rain and god said if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my faith and turn from their working way then will i hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land they weren't supposed to lose jerusalem the worst that should have ever happened is that they messed up in the had to repent and now they have lost jerusalem they have lost what defines them what gives them distinction what sets them apart do you not know the enemy wants you to lose what makes you distinctive your integrity your honor your class your personality your disposition the uniqueness of you there is never ever going to be another you 200 years from now nobody will have your fingerprint nobody will have your voice patterned you are one of a kind there has never been one before you and there will never be one after you and yet the enemy wants to destroy what makes you unique or make you so envious of other people that you give up on being you and trade at a designer's original for a cheap copy [Music] of something you saw you must realize there'll never be another you they realize there would never be another jerusalem and they defined themselves by jerusalem and it was gone and in spite of the pain i don't think i would like to take a walk if i was castrated it just doesn't sound i've never been castrated but it doesn't sound like something a guy would want to do with blood running down his legs and yet they walked 540 miles on foot bleeding and hurting and suffering to nothing chord no music just the sound of the rattling of chains around their ankles and those who were known for their liberty had become captive and they were captive and they were bound and when we step into our text we step into the text of people who have carried their bloody beaten body away from the holy city of jerusalem and found themselves in a strange place called babylon brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen we find ourselves in a strange place today we find ourselves in a place that we have never been in before i have seen a lot of things happen in my life i remember that i have a dream speech when dr king spoke i remember the day that they shot him in the hall in the motel in memphis i remember it i was a young boy but i still remembered i remember his funeral and then the wood drawn horse-drawn uh carriage that they put his body i still remember mahalia jackson singing move on up a little higher at the funeral i remember it like it was yesterday i remember the vietnam war i remember the vietnam war and i remember the hippies and i remember a lot of things that i remember when john kennedy was killed right down here in dallas and i i remember when bobby kennedy was destroyed and i remember when we were lying to about vietnam and i remember watergate and the scandal in nixon and i remember the civil rights and i remember the penance bridge and i remember when they carried the charred bodies of black little girls out of a church service and emmett till and medgar evers i remember all of that i've seen all of that in the spread of my life but i have never seen a time like this i have never seen a time where trust just were closed down and those who dared to come were masked like they were getting ready to rob a bank and i have never seen a time that you had to pray about whether it was safe to go to the grocery store and i have never seen a time that people were taking your temperature before you walked into a mall and i have never seen a time that hundreds and thousands of people are dead an invisible disease that you can't tell whether you're walking into it or not i have never seen a time like this and so when my brother sits by the rivers of babylon i sit there with him i sit there with him because he has never seen babylon and i have never seen this and the bible said that he sat down by the rivers of babylon and he wept and when i studied the rivers of babylon it is in all likelihood not so much a river but a canal that was built from the from the rivers because the babylonians irrigated their crops by building canals that caused water to flow so that they didn't have to carry water so far in order to water their crops and this man-made river is accentuated by man caused tears and as the tears run down his face the rivers flow until you cannot tell one from the other we sat by the rivers of babylon they said about the rivers of babylon and we wept we wept not because of the pain in our bodies or the laceration in our flesh or the the discomfort of the chains around our ankles we wept when we remembered what we lost oh what we lost i come in here every sunday and preach and it really doesn't bother me to preach in an empty building it didn't bother me it didn't upset me because it put me in a war mode and when i get into war mode fighting becomes the optimum drug and all i'm going gonna do is fight and i'm gonna fight whether anybody's sitting there or not to let the devil know you ain't gonna take me out like this i'll fight you and don't nobody i'll preach in the room by myself it didn't bother me to see the empty room but the other night the other night the other night on new year's eve when they showed the room full and the balcony was loaded and the choir stand was jumping and the music was everywhere and the traffic was backed up i looked at it in tears well up in my eyes because i remembered i remembered what normal looks like i remember what we lost i remember that i remember the thunderous sound that i'm used to hearing on sunday morning when thousands of people break out in spontaneous praise and the owl is filled with dancing and it's funny the emptiness didn't hurt like the memory of the fool it was all i could do to fight back the tears faster when i remembered what was and i said with my brother by the banks of the river with tears in my eyes not over a torture or pain but over a memory a memory of what we had lost the bible says in revelation remember from what great height you are falling and repent and it seems like a weird thing to say but sometimes you forget what you lost until something comes along and reminds you no wonder he got angry no wonder he sat there and got bitter and condemn their children and ask god to destroy the and the babylonians and to rise up against him because he knew three things and there are three things i want you to get and remember they're very important number one taking me to babylon doesn't make me a babylonian [Applause] you can take me to babylon but you can't make me a babylonian i will always be who i am i don't care where you dragged me i don't care what you do to me i don't care what you take from me taking me to babylon doesn't make me a babylonian you can change my name and they did you can change my clothes and they did you can impart a name on me that honors your god and they did that too but you can never make me forget who i am i am not this i may be in this so shut up i may be in this but i am not this i don't know who i'm preaching to you may be in it but you are not dead don't let the devil convince you just because of a temporary circumstance that you forget who you really are you might be in a storm right now you might be suffering right now you might be broke right now but don't believe it [Applause] tell the devil you took my clothes and you took my name but you did not take my memory and i still remember who i am number two remember this that my memories define my identity and you can take my clothes but it wasn't in my clothes and you can take my bracelets it's not in my bracelets and you can change my name and cut my hair but you cannot take my identity because i still remember who i am the last thing i told my youngest son when i took him off to college i hauled it out the window said hey boy don't you forget who you are i want to tell this church i don't care how long the pandemic lasts i don't care how much we go through i don't care how tough it gets i don't care how much they fight in washington hey don't you forget who you [Applause] are hold on to your memories there's not a person in this room that god didn't do something in your life as an evidence to you that he is god over every circumstance in your life some momentum some moment sometimes some situation where god showed up in your life and don't you get in this storm and forget what he taught you number three why do we value more in retrospect than we do in real time sometimes we don't appreciate the good things till we lose him sometimes we don't value the people we have in our lives till we lose them sometimes we don't appreciate a good job a good ministry a good opportunity a good friend to their god why do we value more in retrospect than we do in real time we throw people away so easily we get rid of them like they're expendable commodities sometimes you ought to remember before you make a decision that you may be throwing away somebody today that you need tomorrow [Applause] and he said i hung my heart by the willow tree we hanged our harms upon the willows in the midst there if you've ever seen a willow tree out of all the trees that stretch their branches upward toward heaven a willow tree always looks sad because his branches hang down and he said i hung my harp on the willow tree i took the instrument of praise that i sang and danced before god with and tied it to a tree that was pointed to the ground and on the willow tree we hung our herbs and when we hung our harps by the will of trees the only sound they could hear from us is weeping you can take me from it but you can't make me not want it you can lock me up but you can't stop me from remembering it i took that last look as you dragged me away and it burned a picture in my mind before a camera had ever been made if i forget jerusalem let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth my only defiance to the times we're living in is the memory that god gave me to hold on and this dude in remembrance of me and as often as you do this i don't want you to ever get in a situation that you forget that i am go i don't want you to ever let some change get on you so tight that you forget that i'm god don't you ever get so broke that you forget that i'm god don't you ever get so lonely that you forget that i'm god don't you ever get so depressed that you forget that i'm god i'm wondering if there's anybody in this room or listening online who has anything that god ever did for you that you know that you know that you know that you know that god did for you that whenever all hell breaks loose and the enemy tries to take you captive you can remember it and say devil you're a liar i know god is real if there's anybody who's got a memory of god in your life open your mouth and give him a praise [Music] [Applause] yeah yeah yeah yeah just the praise i know he did that i know he did that i know he did that for me i know he did that for me i know he did that i don't know what i'm gonna eat tomorrow but i know he did that i don't know whether my marriage is gonna work but i know god did that i don't know whether i'll get my job back but i know god i know i know i know i know that my redeemer lives though the skin worms eat up my flesh the boils are all over my body i know that my redeemer lives job said that with his kids dead and his house burned down and his crops all eaten up he said all of that might be true but i know that my redeemer i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know i know somebody i'm preaching to [Music] the enemy is trying to make you forget what you know about god do you not know the enemy comes against your memory of god the bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god for the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every hot thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god somebody holler i know it it might not look like it but i know it i may be tied up right now but i know it i may be down to my last time but i know it i may be hurting right now but i know it i might be tired and changed but i know it i might be crying by the willow tree but i know it i died and they asked us to sing the lord song they wanted us to reduce our worship down to their entertainment i will not allow something that's holy to me to become entertainment to you this song belongs to god and if i can't sing it to him i won't sing it to you i won't let anything be another god before me come on somebody somebody wants to replace god in your life and get you to be as dedicated to them as you are to god but hang your heart by the willow tree and say don't nobody get that part of me but god you can have this and that and the other but don't nobody get that part of me but god i love you to my heartbus but you don't get this part of me this part belongs to god i have an inner sanctuary that i don't let nobody in but god to god be the glory i will not dance and sing and become your entertainment no no i lost my culture i lost my name i lost my apparel i lost my environment but i have not lost my memory [Applause] if i forget jerusalem let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth there ought to be something that you remember about god that can make you sing in your house well you ought to hear me not not in the church in your house there ought to be something that you remember about god that'll make you shout while you washing your dishes there ought to be something that you remember about god that you don't need praise dancers you don't need praise singers you don't need equipment all you need to do is think on the goodness of jesus and all that he's done for you you ought to be able to praise it right in front of that computer when you look back and you see where god brought you from there to be something in your life that you've not let the devil take from you and if you can hear me you ought to give god a praise for that thing you still got i still got it i still got it i still got it i was young but now i'm old but i still got it i lost some friends but i still got i got my anointing i got the glory i got the power of god i got the thing that i know that he did in my life if there's a witness out there if god's got a witness anywhere open your mouth and give god the praise [Music] the praise if there's a cancer survivor out there give god the praise there's anybody that's ever been held your sick man has got up give god the praise if the devil tried to destroy your mind and you're still here give god [Music] yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah hollering somebody say excuse me but i gotta praise him i might get on your nerves but i gotta praise him i might get loud but i gotta praise him i just remembered something i remembered something something between me and god i remember what he brought me through i remember how he raised me i remember how he brought me out of jail i remember how he opened up the door i remember he brought me off of drugs if you got a testimony for the next three minutes give god a crazy praise justin crazy a crazy a crazy praise a crazy spontaneous gut wrenching goalie washing just quitting yes you got a minute left you got a minute left don't waste it looking at me give god [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i feel the holy ghost walking in this room i feel the power of god going through technology i feel the power coming in your house let the redeemed of the lord say so every now and then every now and then i tell the lord i got some goals i got some things i want to see you do i got some more mountains i want to climb i got some ballasts i want to go through but then i tell them i want you to know though if you don't do anything else for me the rest of my life i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth is there anybody out there that if god don't do anything else is there anybody over here if god don't do another thing for you you're praising the rest of your lives look at today but holler he's still good type it in the comments he's still good he's still good i've been tempted but he's still good i've been tried but he's still good i've been lonely but he's still good i've been light on but he's still good i've been rejected but he's still [Music] [Music] [Applause] fool with me i shout right now fool with me i shout right now when i think of his goodness and what he's done for me when i think of his goodness and how he died on the tree i can pass with no car i can dance with no job i can dance with no friends i can dance [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] so they asked me how do you walk into an empty building and keep on preaching anyway i told them because i remember when the building was full and so i preach to the people that aren't there as if they were there because i got enough faith to live off the memory is there anybody in here that the devil's trying to wear you down but you remember what the lord did in your life [Applause] yes let me tell you something anybody who thinks that you can run your mouth about me and run me away you don't know me yeah yeah yeah i'm tougher than that i don't break that easy you can't roll your eyes at me and run me home i don't break that easy you can't run your lips and talk this out of me i got too many things down in me to remember that i know that i know that i know god did for me i know i know some of that stuff god did for me you weren't even born yet [Music] [Applause] i know [Music] [Applause] under your crusher i know i know i know who wait the lord just spoke to me somebody's watching us right now you have drifted a far from god but god has done some things in your life that you can't get away from you've gone in your own way trying to please other people got mad at people went in your own direction but god said there's something he did in your life long time ago that you know that you know that you know that you would not even be alive if he had not done it for you [Applause] and what has happened to you that you have forgotten what god did in your life and start acting like them other people you ain't no babylonian [Applause] you're not a babylonian take the rings off take the robes off and come to your senses [Music] [Applause] you're a child of the king no preacher you can't say that i've been drinking you're a child of the king preacher you can't say that i've been high you're a child of the king i don't care what kind of babylon you got into you still belong to god and you're not going to be able to rest till you come out with your hands up the holy ghost has got you surrounded and you are up under [Applause] arrest to my brothers and sisters in the church you might be going through a tough time right now but the bible is really clear it is really clear in hebrews 6 and 10 it makes itself clear god is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister now now they're not calling you right now and it's not moving right now and man may have forgotten you but god still remembers you in fact the lord told me to tell you that if you will remember god god will remember you if you will build your altar and put him first and stop giving him the scraps out of your life and stop giving him what's left and put him first in your life if you remember god god will remember you seeking for us the kingdom of god and his righteousness and everything else you're worried about should be added unto you you want god to add it to you and then you're gonna come to him and don't work like that you have to come to him and put him first and then everything will be added unto you you laugh at our living you laugh at our worship you laugh and are giving you laughing that you don't laugh at people getting high you don't laugh at the people paying to get in the strip club it only comes to the kingdom of god because there's a demon spirit there's a demon spirit that is trying to twist your mind to forget what it's like to be a real worshiper come to yourself this is about jesus [Music] you become more concerned about fitting in with people than fitting in with god [Music] so i stand here as a willow tree by the rivers of babylon asking you to remember jesus [Music] remember what he did for your mama and your grandma remember what he did for you remember the many times he brought you through things you thought you would lose your mind it's time for you to put him first [Music] it's time to put him on your mind oh i thank you for those that are sowing and i thank you for those that are giving and i thank you for those that are helping us to do all the things that we do in the ministry i appreciate every bit of it and if god speaks to you to do that i want you to do that and obey him right now as he speaks to your heart but none of your stuff will take the place of you [Music] if you give him everything you got and you don't give him you [Music] you've wasted your time so this first sunday morning [Music] until he gets us out of this [Music] until our mass come down and we come into whatever is next for us to come into as a people you got to live off the memory [Music] i shouldn't have to keep telling you i love you you ought to be able to remember by the things i've done i should have said enough that you are not have amnesia somebody lift your hands up to it just between you and god this is personal your husband ain't got nothing to do with it none of his business your wife ain't got nothing to do with this you got to remember [Music] always always always remember [Music] jesus [Music] can he get your mind right now can he get your mind come on come on always always [Music] i'm starting a year off right [Music] i'm going to start this year off right [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] always keep him always one of the short passages of scripture in the bible is used after 40 days of flooding and and all of the souls that were buried beneath the water and every living thing in the cattle and everything else that god created that was not on the ark had perished and when it was all over and when it was safe the bible says and god remembered noah he brought him to the mountain he opened up the door he brought him out god's got us in a holding pattern right now we got to stay safe we got to be careful but he has not forgotten us and when it's safe he's going to open up a door and like noah came out and god remembered noah now i see why noah built the altar before he built his own house [Music] noah had to remember god [Music] because god remembered him this sunday morning i'm talking about living off a memory until the next door opens don't you forget who you are as often as you do this do this in remembrance of me till i come am i not the god who brought you across the red sea [Music] what is the thing that you remember that you can't afford to get put it on your phone text it in the comments put it on your refrigerator always keep it on your [Music] always keep them on your mind [Music] always keep you always keep [Music] always keep it please listen if you're in this room and you don't know jesus if you're watching over the internet from anywhere in the world [Music] enough has been said that if you want to get free you can be free i'd like to invite you to give your life to jesus to pray this prayer with me say lord jesus i confess my sins i'm not blaming anybody i confess my stuff [Music] i've made some bad mistakes done some things i'm not proud of [Music] forgive me have mercy on me [Music] but i believe you died for my sins and i'm giving my life to you right now [Music] come into my heart jesus fill my life with peace save me till my children feel the effects of it save me till my grandchildren are born into a different atmosphere [Music] an atmosphere of change saving me to people who have put me in one category have to move me to another i'm giving my life to you and i will never forget what you did for me in jesus name amen just before i close to you latecomers to you slow movers on the first sunday of the year i want to pray over any seed that you need to sow if you believe that god is opening up a door and you're about to get off an ark i want you to build an altar and give a sacrifice before you do anything else and i just want to pray over your first act of faith now that your heart is connected to him just a quick prayer as you and i come into agreement before you do anything else nor built an altar offered up a sacrifice on the first sunday of the year you cannot keep being a spectator [Music] you got to participate we got to get this right this year because i'm looking for some things to open up for us that have been shut down we got we got to get god with us let me pray with you real quick father i bless every seed every sacrifice that came in even while i was preaching for the late comers who so i bless that seed right now for the person who was slow to be persuaded i thank you for what you're doing in their life for the purpose for the person who just wants to see the door open and get things right with you and they're tired of being a spectator touch every seed and sacrifice and we will remember the name of the lord in jesus name amen everybody giving the best praise you got always keeping [Applause] [Music] god bless you may heaven smile upon you have a wonderful year have a wonderful year [Music] [Applause] 2021 doors are opening [Music] always [Music] always your mind you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 499,097

Rating: 4.8591647 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, td jakes 2020, td jakes sermons 2020, sundayservice, tdjakes, living off a memory, livingoffamemory, remember what god has done for you

Id: wTjf8XpU8hw

Length: 65min 24sec (3924 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021