Singing In The Dark - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] i want you to go to psalms 137 a very familiar scripture but i'm going to use it as a leap off point tonight to go into the word of god psalms 137 1-9 psalms 137 1-9 when you have it say amen let's stand for the reading of the word just just one last time then you don't have to get up anymore till tomorrow you can leave here bent over still sitting you're gonna look funny but you can do it listen at the language of this of these psalms how how beautiful how poetic almost poetic almost prose the language is so fluid and yet the message is so sad by the rivers of babylon there we sat down yay we wept when we remembered zion we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst sarah for they that had carried us away captive required of a us and they that wasted us required of us mirth saying seeing us sing us sing us sing us one of the songs of zion how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange la anybody ever been in a strange land if i forget the o 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 oh 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 i want to go back up in that verse about verse one through three right up in there by the rivers of babylon there we sat yea we wept when we remembered zion keep going we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof for there they that carried us away required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us from earth saying sing us one of the lords i'll keep on how this is the question how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land let's stop there i want to talk about singing in the dark singing in the dark now holy spirit i invoke your presence to overshadow us now as we delve into the word of god not for the purpose of exploitation but communication information and inspiration and articulation with clarity of thought and nimbleness of mind we come before thy throne oh god that you might dispense wisdom and revelation in such a profound and didactic way that we are never the same again i thank you for this cluster this remnant this group of people that have gathered here to hear what thus saith the lord god and to all of those thousands of people that are joining us online tonight i pray that they would be edified and that hell would be horrified in the matchless invincible name of jesus we pray somebody who loves him at the top of your lungs shouty man glory to god you may be seated you did that so good i almost started a choir i was listening at the news some time ago before the late congressman john lewis passed away he had come out to this protest this demonstration and he must have been very sick then but he came and he was out there in the midst of the demonstration and the interviewer came over and interviewed him and asked him how do the demonstrations of today compare with the demonstrations of the 60s he said in a lot of ways he said they are quite similar and he said we were young and we were vibrant and we were fighting for what we believed in and we were peaceful peacefully demonstrating but defiantly fighting for what we believed in he said there's only one thing that i wish they would do differently that that we did that they don't do and i waited with baited breath to hear what he had to say and he said they should sing and i thought what i thought he was gonna say something you know profound and it was profound but it took a while to hit me in the face he said the strength of our march was our song and i thought to myself how how could you sing with hoses turned on you and dogs biting you and people beating you and yet you sang and then my mind went back to our ancestors in the in the cotton fields singing while some were beaten and hung and raped and killed and yet they sang and then i went all the way back to this text and i thought what is it about singing that soothes the soul in times of adversity what is it about music in general and i started doing some research music stimulates the part of the brain that produces dopamine dopamine is the kind of hormone that affects emotional behavior and moods influence of music literally has a biological orientation and affects a psychological presentation and it is powerful so i turned away from what the secular people said about it and i started thinking about what the holy spirit says about it i began to realize that music is a weapon music is a weapon all through the bible that was used to attack the enemy it was so effective that god used david to play on his harp to drive the demons out of saul so while the psychologist talks about the release of dopamine and the biologist talks about the effect of music on the brain there must be an effect of music on the spirit that changes things that fights back the enemy that drives forces away that music not only affects mood but it also affects what we cannot control ourselves now think with me tonight as we play around with this let me set the stage and take a little time with you this is not a happy occasion this is not quite rehearsal this is not a singing convention and this is not the quartet convention this is not a nice situation this is not a bar mitzvah this is not a wedding this is not a social event this takes place at one of the most hideous moments in the history of all of jerusalem you see jerusalem which is controlled by uh the jews at this point and judah in particular has run into a conflict with nebuchadnezzar of babylon and nebuchadnezzar has besieged jerusalem resulting in them having to pay money to get him to leave him alone now nebuchadnezzar is the king over babylon and babylon is a superpower of its era babylon has such power and such depth it was what rome would be it was what other superpowers had been through history there was a time that egypt was a superpower there was a time that babylon was a superpower there was a time that rome was a superpower and they had the ability to come in and dominate and control and move and take whatever they wanted to take and they demanded of king jehoiakim that he paid tribute or taxes to them or they would attack him they bullied them they bullied him they bullied him and so jehoiakim paid it at first and then he got tired of paying it and decided i'm not going to pay this tariff anymore have you ever had the enemy bully you and you make up in your mind you push me as far as you can push me you're not gonna threaten me anymore you're not gonna take over my life anymore whatever happens has to happen it's gonna happen it is what it is it's gonna be what it's gonna be it's gonna do what it's gonna do but you're not gonna come in my house and do it you're not gonna come in my life you're not gonna come into that that was the spirit of jehoiakim jehovah can refuse to pay tribute to nebuchadnezzar the fourth year which led to another siege in nebuchadnezzar's seventh year it culminated in utter chaos and confusion it culminated in conflict and war and struggle and all of a sudden they begin to beat judah out of jerusalem to beat judah out of jerusalem it's it's it it's hard to articulate what that means there's so much history there there's so much legacy there there's so much power there there is a mixture of the political force of being jerusalem but there's also the religious power of being jerusalem it is the epicenter of three of the major religions of the world today for them to be beat for judah to be beat out of jerusalem it is more than land it is land but it is heritage it is culture it is language it is music it is food it is a way of life and it is unthinkable that judah would be driven out of jerusalem that has power like babylon would come in with their polytheistic ideologies and drive judah out of jerusalem because judah knew who god was the one true and living god didn't always serve him but they knew he was didn't always obey him but they knew who he was didn't always submit to him but they knew who he was and sometimes when we become disobedient god will allow our enemies to triumph over us to bring us to a place of submission where we begin to appreciate what we have ignored it doesn't matter whether you're from jerusalem or africa or istanbul or afghanistan sometimes the enemy that comes against us or from here in dallas sometimes the enemy that comes against us comes against us as the weapon of the lord to correct us and all of a sudden judah goes into captivity it is almost as awkward as when in the old testament when they captured the ark of the covenant and it went into captivity and eli fell off his throne you remember that and he broke his neck now instead of the ark of the covenant being brought into captivity the people of the covenant have gone into captivity i don't know which one is more astounding that the ark of the covenant would go into captivity up under the philistines or that the people of the covenant would go up under captivity babylonian captivity and it was not till they got to the rivers of babylon that they wept and they went because they said how can we sing the lord's song in a strange land and i want to talk to you about this tonight because i think it's important give me a little time with this let me play around with this just a little bit you have to understand that music itself is captivity the way music is written it is written in such a way that you have a signature on the music that tells you what key the song is in and when this when the music signature tells you what key the song is in it holds you captive to what you can do in that key the the notes define the parameters with which the melody can flow in contrast with the key signature the key signature lets you know whether you're in b flat or f or g or where you are and what is flat and what is sharp in that key and it sets the stage for you to function in a particular way because music at its best is captivity out of 88 keys it's telling you which one to touch it which one to stay away from what you can use and what you can't use the key signature sets the guard rails on what you can do in that key are you hearing what i'm saying and so it sets the condition for the melody and whoever is writing the melody they can put all the notes in as long as they obey the signature because the key signature tells you what is lawful to do in that situation so when you understand that about music you begin to understand that music flows with laws and principles and the key signature sets the tone of what all you can do in that particular key and you can break out of it you can modulate you can move you can digress you can go up you can go down but you have to do it strategically because there are parameters with which you can move now if music has laws and people have laws and situations have laws that means that we don't get to be lawless there are certain laws that you cannot break even though you have freedom for instance the law of gravity you can be as free as you want to be you can be free go where you want to go do what you want to do but that doesn't mean you can define the law of gravity if you jump up you coming back down again whether you're black whether you're white whether you're rich whether you're poor whether you got long hair short hair store bought hair uh any kind of hair you still have to obey certain rules and certain principles those cannot be broken now they have asked them to sing the lord's song in a strange land and now judah is saying how can we sing the lord's song even though nebuchadnezzar has been ruthless even though he's been mighty even though we they've been exiled there and nebuchadnezzar has been there for 18 years and even though they've been empowered and in control and done whatever they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do when they asked them to sing the lord's song the children of israel said i could do it if i was in jerusalem but i can't do it in babylon because i'm in captivity and it occurs to me that the way we worship for for some of us depends on where we are oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying to you the way we worship depends on where we are i'm not talking about geographical locations i'm talking about where you are in life what's going on with you at that time whether it's a good season or a bad season whether you are captive or free whether you feel blessed or whether you're in the mood for it or not in the mood for it and when the conditions are not right and the key signature is right you don't know how to get out out of key out of pitch out of the range you don't know how to defy the environment that you're locked into and break into the next dimension and you think it is impossible to sing the lord's song because you're in a strange land and i want to teach on this tonight because we are in a strange land now yes we are still in our country and i hope you're in yours too many people are not but that is not the only issue you can be in your own country and still be in a strange land you can be on your own job and still be in a strange land thank you for the three people that understand what i'm saying you you can be in your own house and be in a strange land is there anybody in here that knows what i'm talking about what it means to be in a strange land if you are spiritual you recognize that we are in a strange land right now we are in strange times we are in a strange place we are in strange situations we are in a time where the enemy is defying us to sing the lord's song because we're in a strange land at a strange time dealing with strange issues and strange plagues and strange news and strange issues and it's not just what's happening globally it's what's happening in your own life i don't know whether you noticed it or not but hell has turned up the heat oh y'all ain't gonna say nothing to me i don't know whether you realize it or not but the hell has loose new demons some of you 40 years 50 years old you never saw the demons you're dealing with right now you're doing hand-to-hand combat and then enemies attacking you in places you've never been attacked before and you find yourself in a strange land and you're almost in a fog in your mind in your emotions in your spirit and the enemy wants you to lose your song he wants you to lose your soul because your song is your strength it is your joy it is your peace it is your power he wants you to lose your song and to your looking like you're standing outside of your own life looking through the window at your own life like you're really not there it's so strange people are acting strange friends are acting strange relatives are acting strange strange situations breaking out in your life you're feeling kind of strange in your body everybody's walking around in a fall it almost feel like your life is a movie that played late at night when you was a child and you had to deal with situations you never had to deal with before and you're trying to figure out what do i need to kill it with what does it take for me to get a breakthrough what do i who do i need to call where do i need to go and you don't understand that the power of life and death is in your tongue that the power of life and death is in your mouth that if you would open your mouth and cry out that god would break yokes off of your life and off of your spirit and off of your soul that you don't have to submit to the enemy just because there's a strangeness in the atmosphere you don't have to succumb to the strangeness around you you don't have to hang your heart by the willow tree and sit down and cry and forget everything you know you might be in babylon but you are still jewish you might be in babylon but you're still a child of god you might be backed up on your car payments but you're still washed in the blood you might be in foreclosure but you still got the power of the holy ghost and until you learn how to use what you do have against what you don't have you'll never get out of captivity and so what i'm teaching you tonight is how to break out a captivity because the enemy is sin in captivity to shut your mouth but the devil is a lie there's a breakthrough coming for the people of god if you learn how to ignore the environment around you and open your mouth and sing open your mouth and shout open your mouth and praise god open your mouth and give god glory that was not the case for babylon they sat by the willow trees and they wept when they remembered zion you see they had attached their song to a city they had attached their song to a place you'd be surprised at the people who can only sing when they're in love oh i'm going to sit there i'm going to step on your toes just sit right there i'm coming they can't sing through a divorce they can't sing through a crisis they can't sing through loneliness they can't sing through a test and all of a sudden instead of things getting better they prolong the captivity because they lose themselves to their environment and they don't know how to sing the lord's song in a strange land but i came to tell you tonight that the land does not control the lord y'all don't hear what i'm saying but i'm gonna keep driving until i get it on the land does not control the lord if god is god in jerusalem he's god in babylon if god is god when things are going well he's god when things are going bad if god is god when you're on the mountaintop he's still god when he's in the valley and if you would break past your environment and what you see around you and the strangeness of the time and the weird things people say to you and the weird things that they're doing right now and the weird things that are jumping off in your life the lord sent me here tonight to teach a class to arm you with the weapons that are necessary to get the breakthrough that you need to move into the area that you're trying to move in because what god has for you you have to release it out of your mouth and when you open your mouth and you begin to rejoice unto god you're going to bring way i want to i want to explain some see when when you proud for the choir of the praise team they do auditions but when god says sing he doesn't do an audition because god is not saying sing according to how melodious your voice is and how well trained you are and how well you can do riff when the bible says sing unto the lord a new song he doesn't talk to you about what key you're in and whether you can hold a tune or not because god is not measuring the song by the melody he's measuring it by the intensity oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying this this is an equal opportunity thing now when you talk about singing on stage some folks got it some folks don't some folks can some folks won't but when it comes to singing before the lord even the folks who sing well don't have any more opportunity to please him than the people who sing out of tune because the kind of singing that god is talking about you doing has nothing to do with pitch and tone and frame and structure and order it is a defiance it is a defiance to sing the lord's song in a strange land it doesn't matter about the key flat or sharp off-pitch on it is defined to sing the lord's song says i refuse to succumb to the environment around me i'm going to bless the lord at all times and praise him anyway in fact you won't get out till you learn to sing you won't get a breakthrough until you learn how to sing the lord's saw in a strange land crying won't get you out of trouble weeping won't get you out of trouble going into depression won't get you out of trouble throwing up your hands won't get you out of trouble but i dare you to open your mouth and lift your boy and start singing out to god god does something when you sing a song under him she can be singing an a and she can be singing at c and he can be singing an f and together it just sounds like noise but that's okay he says he'll make the noise make a joyful noise under god make a joy for what noise unto god because god says what blesses me is not your talent it is your spirit it is your heart it is your defiant your singing breaks through something pierces something in the spirit world gives you a breakthrough over the nebuchadnezzar that's trying to hold you captive everybody in here has a nebuchadnezzar that drags you into captivity that changes your mood that brings tears to your eyes that every time you try to stand up nebuchadnezzar comes along and wants to bring you back into captivity and defy you and make fun of you and say where is your god now where is your song now how are you going to sing now how are you going to praise him and i saw every now and then i don't just praise god because he's good i don't just praise god because he's great i don't just praise god because he's made sometimes i praise god just to get on the devil's nerve to let him know i still i'm still going to praise him everything might not be right all my bills might not be paid everything might not be in order i may not even be happy but in the midst of all of this if you think i'm gonna lay here and cry and hang my heart by the willow tree i got news for you tonight ah oh god i gotta quit i don't want to get that far woo i will bless the lord at all time his prey shall continually it'll be in my mouth it's babylon it'll be in my mouth in jerusalem it'll be in my mouth in judea it'll be in my mouth in crisis it'll be in my mouth when the bills are paid it'll be in my mouth when you walk off and leave me it'll be in my mouth when my feelings are heard it'll be in my mouth when i lose my job it'll be in my mouth when i gotta move in with my mama it'll still be in my mouth because i'm a soldier [Applause] i respect the fact that these are people who have been drugged into captivity and the women have been raped and the men had been neutered with blood running down their legs an ankle uh chains on their feet and their hands tied behind their back that they left jerusalem in dire straits the crisis is momentous it is not comfortable it is painful they are away from their homeland they are away from everything that is familiar they are away from everything that defines them but they are not away from god david said if i make my bed in hell thou art there he said if i take the wings of the morning and ascend to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there i want to talk to somebody whose life is inconsistent and everything around you is inconsistent and you can't find anything solid to nail into everything around you is inconsistent the only thing that is consistent is god god doesn't change god doesn't move god doesn't move because you move god doesn't move because your conditions change and if you learn to be like god that means you got to be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord you can't i deliver me from moody christians people they're one day they're this way the next day they're this way the next day they're this way god is calling for consistency god is calling for people who can sing in the dark god is calling for people who will open their mouth and praise him no matter what's going on in your life no matter what is running through your mind no matter what's going on in your body you got to find a way to praise god because things are not going to get better until you open your mouth and learn how to sing in the midst of adversity [Applause] we hung our hearts by the willow trees who went when we remembered zion if i forget jerusalem let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth jerusalem is not just a geographical location jerusalem is a centered place in your soul if i forget who i am let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth you got to know who you are even when you're in a strange land you got to know what your center is even when it's a strange time you got to know what your center is even when you lost your job you got to know what your center is even when you're destabilized by people you thought you could trust and you couldn't people you thought you could count on and you can people who said they'd be with you and they left but you got to stabilize yourself by your jerusalem jerusalem is your spiritual epicenter it is the place from which you draw strength it is the place from which you draw vigor it is a place from which you draw identity our jerusalem is not a physical jerusalem there is a jerusalem that comes down out of heaven there is a jerusalem on earth in your heart there is a jerusalem there is a spiritual epicenter called a pavilion god hides you in a secret place you go into the secret place with god when all hell is breaking loose there is a secret place that anchors you so that you are not at the mercy of the environment to control the intensity of the power with which you operate if that were true if i set you in a situation where there were witches you would lose your glory god's got to have a power that transcends an environment god's got to have a power that'll work in a hospital room god's got to have a power that'll work in an unemployment line god's got to have a power that will work i don't care where you are the only thing that is unstable is him because god is able to do what's this exceedingly abundantly above all that ye may ask or think hold up according to the power that worketh where in you according to the power that worketh in you not not in your church not in your bishop not in your denomination not in your city not in your town god said i can do exceedingly abundantly above all ye may ask or think according to the power that worketh in you now they got taken away from jerusalem but you can't take me away from me [Music] [Applause] you cannot take me away from me god said it's not according to what river you're sitting beside it's not according to where you're working it's not according to how you feel in your body it's according to the power that works in you and god said if you work i can work if you oh if you move i can move if you look up i can look up if you reach out i can reach down i can only do it according to the power that so hell wants you to hang your heart by the will of trees and forget who you are and think that you can't do it because you don't get what you want and so you're just like a baby crying because god will wean you from this and put you over in that and say will you praise me now can you praise me now can you praise me in this situation can you love me like this am i still god in this situation can you glorify me now and if you are well taught in the word of god you will offer up to him the sacrifice of praise from the fruit of your lips continually with thanksgiving the sacrifice i know you don't feel like it you don't have to do it you can stay bound all you want to but if you give him the sacrifice of praise if you give him the sacrifice of praise from the fruit of your lips your lips your lip choir can't do that for you praise team can't do that for you band can't do that for you because god is watching your mouth you say i can't even sing i don't even care god says when your lips move my lips will move when you open up your mouth i'll open my mouth when you start thinking about me i'll start thinking about you i am watching your lips i want you to take about 15 seconds and just open your mouth and make any kind of joyful noise anything you got [Music] anything anything you got any key any tool any kind of sound oh oh oh oh y'all don't remember but the old folk used to walk the floor and they just said oh see when you start opening your mouth yolks start falling chains start falling barriers start falling problems start falling it don't matter what river you're sitting beside it don't matter what will a tree you're standing by you don't even have to have no heart if you got a mouth let the redeemed of the lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the devil will defy you he'll try to shut you down he'll try to shut your mouth he'll try to shut you up he'll try to make you be still but the devil is alive we are in a fight tonight y'all we are in a fight tonight you listening to me online we are in a fight tonight you can take them little cute shoes off we are in a fight tonight glory to god you better take the nails off and pull your earrings off we are in a fight tonight and you got to learn how to go into spiritual warfare and sing and shout and dance and pray and drive back the forces of the enemy because there's something that we got to drive back and we got to drive it back with our mouth and we got to drive it back with our saw and we got to drive it back with our prey and we got to drive it back if you drive it back if you drive it back if you push it in a move if you push it in a move if you push it in a move if you push it in a move if you push it in a move if you push it in a move if you push it you're gonna make me preach i don't wanna do that i don't want to do that hallelujah look at somebody say if you push it in a move if you push it in a move it'll move you got to make them in your mind do you want to be a captive or do you want to be a conqueror i say do you want to be captive or do you want to be a conqueror do you want to be captive or do you want to be a conqueror now if you're a conqueror that still means you got to fight that on me you don't get to be a conqueror if you don't have opposition but if you make up in your mind you're going to be a conqueror that means this will not whip me i might die somewhere but it won't be right here this right here will not whip me because i am a conqueror in fact according to the word i am what more than a conqueror give me that word like you like you've been to bible class before i am more than a conqueror i might not feel like a conqueror i might not look like a conqueror i might not have the emotions of a conqueror but the bible says i am more than a conqueror i just happened to be in babylon i just i just happened to be in babylon i just happened to be by the willow trees i just happened to be in this situation but my situation does not define my reality can i go deeper with this what strikes me about this singing in this dark place and their inability to be able to get past their rage this in fact you have to realize this text is a song itself that the jewish tradition the rabbis sing as much as they talk because there's something about your voice that cries out to god and when you open your mouth and cry out to god he moves in your behalf the paradoxical situation of the texas so fascinating to me because on one hand it is a deplorable place and on the other hand probably just to mock them the babylonians ask them to sing this is just me i think they should because i have learned the power of singing in the dark i know why the old folks moaned um [Music] the same reason the slaves sang in the field it's a message it's a code it's a system it's a message it's a code it's a system it's a message it's a code it's a system it's a steel away to jesus he got long he got long to stay still away to jesus to stay all the states my lord he calls me it sounds like it's just singing but but it's a message it's a it's a code it's a code it's a code hell can't break it's a code that the devil don't understand it's a code that the demons can't understand it's a code that lets them know i'm getting ready to come out of captivity it's a code that says i'm getting ready to break my lord he calls me by the thunder [Laughter] hallelujah and when you start understanding that cold things began to break don't say to myself if if this is true if this theory is true let's try it in other places so i left the psalms and i went to the book of acts and when i got to the book of acts i got over the book of acts and they had thrown paul in jail [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] they were going to kill him in the morning this is serious the first mistake is that they locked him up with silas because if any two of you agree as touching anything on earth it shall be done see the devil messes up when he lets you be locked up with somebody else that's on the same frequency that you're on and and then y'all don't hear what i'm saying so the bible says the bible says that they put paul and silas in jail and notice what time it is it says and at midnight midnight is the darkest part of the night it was when there was a complete blackout everybody should be in the bed at midnight at midnight the jail is quiet at midnight the lights are out at midnight the night shift is the easiest shift to work because all the prisoners are asleep at night except paul and silas instead of being sleep the bible said at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises under god and the prisoners heard them see don't just sit there in the jail and be passive and be quiet and be still you got to make some noise in your jail you got to open your mouth in your jail you got to cry out in your jail you got to open your mouth into fire but wait till it's midnight wait till it's real dark don't wait till it's just kind of dark don't wait till it's fixing to be dark wait till it's midnight because there's something about singing in the darkest part of your night that lets hell no i will not submit to your son at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises unto god are y'all listening to what i'm saying they prayed and saying praises at the darkest point in their life i don't know who's listening at me tonight but if you're at the darkest point in your life if all hell is breaking loose if before you can get out of this here comes that and before you can get out of that here comes the other if you're going through first one thing and then another if your moods are all over the place your kids are all over the place your emotions are all over the place your body's all over the place just wait till midnight when it gets real dark when it gets real black when the devil expects you to roll over and die open up your mouth and shout unto god and midnight at midnight and midnight paul and silas the bible says paul and silas prayed and sang they prayed and say what fool sings in prison at midnight you got to be a fool for christ you got to be a fool for christ if you're trying to fit in this message is not for you you have to be daring enough to be different enough to sing at an unexpected time sometimes you got to dance no music no drums no tambourine nobody to say go ahead nobody beat no nothing it don't matter whether you own beat or offbeat it's just minus that it's midnight because if you do it at midnight if you do it at midnight if you do it at midnight if you do it at midnight i wish i had somebody in here who was going through a midnight because i needed to be dark enough for your praise to stand out strong enough that when you give the praise it will set it off if you're watching online and you're going through a midnight if you open your mouth and praise it now it will set it off somebody prays about somebody praise it now [Applause] [Music] yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's what i'm talking about right there that's what i'm talking about right there yeah that's what i'm talking about right there that's what i'm talking about right there that's what i'm talking about right there that's what i'm talking about right there that's what i'm talking about you you can't tell it but the wall is cracking what you say joshua you mean when i shout the wall cracks yes when you open your mouth and shout unto god i see a crack in the wall when you crack your lips god cracks a wall i see a crack [Applause] ow you got a wall of debt you got a wall of bills you got a wall of problems you got a wall of crisis but if you open your mouth you get shout to the wall right now now sit with me sit with me it's okay sit with me sit with me i'm gonna behave i'm gonna be good in a minute i'm gonna be good in a minute hallelujah hallelujah at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises unto god they sang and prayed unto god but at first the prisoners heard them that's all who heard him the prisoners heard them that means they haven't broken through the earth for him yet when they first started singing and praying you pray and at first the only thing you move is other people so other people start stirring around in the prison other people start because you're still in the earth realm but at some point at some point it must have been a point because the bible said suddenly have you ever had a suddenly happen in your life you didn't even it felt like you was just going through the motion but suddenly suddenly suddenly means you can pinpoint the moment that you penetrated from the earth realm into the spirit realm and the bible says that suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately so we got to suddenly and we got it immediately if you get a suddenly then you get it immediately once you get the suddenly you just suddenly brought the earthquake but they immediately open up the door you need a suddenly and and immediately that suddenly will bring the earthquake but the immediately will open up the door everything that need a door open up give him some praise for it immediately so watch this [Applause] so so they so they the first one they did it the prisoners heard them and it had to go beyond the prisoners because the prisoners couldn't have caused the earthquake so they praised him until they got a suddenly and the suddenly brought the earthquake and once they had pierced the suddenly then they got it immediately [Applause] and the doors open up anybody in here need a door to open up it's in your mouth it's in your mouth it's in your mouth but it's in your head come on it's in your mouth it's in your mouth it's in your mouth the door you need to open it's not in the judge's mouth it's not in the people's mouth it's not in the governor's mouth it's in your mouth it's in your mouth and when you open your mouth not just you but everyone's bands were loose now everybody wasn't singing [Applause] everybody wasn't singing but everybody got loose that's why the devil got you in jail in the first place because when you open your mouth you're not the only one that's gonna lose get loose everyone's bands were loose everyone's bands are loose and the devil is scared of you because he knows that if you get free and you open up your mouth everyone's bands are going to be loose i don't know who your everyone is but everyone's bands everyone's pants a loose but it will not happen if you cannot sing in the dark at midnight he sang in the dark at midnight he sang in the dark at midnight he sang in the dark and then i started thinking about singing in the dark and i thought about what they said about jesus on the night of the passover the bible said that on the night of the passover after that they had had the lord's supper the bible said that they all begin to sing now this is the night before they apprehended jesus to take him to the cross and this is the night that the pasha lamb becomes the jesus of glory the carnation the incarnation of god himself is to go to the cross and he's the only one that knows that he is the lamb that's going to the cross and on this night and one that they say is that he's saying with them the last thing they heard him say in the darkness of the passover night was he started singing with it who can sing on the last free night you do know that god can sing [Music] the bible said he sings over us that god literally sings over us jesus sings on the night they're about to take him why would you say when you know you're about to go to cross you already told us in the garden of gethsemane that you didn't want to go to the cross so you're not singing because you're happy about going to the cross so your emotions are in captivity they're in babylon and yet your discipline says sing and he's saying and of all things psalms 118 he's saying this is the day that the lord hath made we shall rejoice and be glad in it now what kind of craziness is this for this particular day of all days to be the day that you sing psalms 118 this is the day that the lord hath made we shall rejoice and be glad in it you know why it's a day of redemption it's a day of atonement it's a day of restoration it's a day of renewal it's it's a day of healing it's a day of divine purpose how do you know it is that day because it's dark it wouldn't be dark if god wasn't getting ready to do something it wouldn't be dark if god wasn't getting ready to move it wouldn't be this dark not this kind of dark if it weren't if this weren't the day that the lord has made and jesus knows the day by the dark jesus knows this is the day by the dark what do you mean by the dark by the betrayal by the attack by the pain by the level of problems is a sign that this is the day that the lord hath made psalm 118 has a lot more in it than that but this is the day that the lord has made we shall rejoice and be glad in it this is crazy be glad in the dark yeah but i can't see that don't matter but i can't see and i just got betrayed and i just told him what they'll do is do it quickly and i'm going to sing while you go get them what kind of faith is this that sings while your judas goes to get the soldiers it's the same kind of faith that made you feed your enemy if you were sitting at the table with me and i knew you was my enemy you wouldn't be getting no bread from me how to get john your piece you you if you're gonna eat you better go ask your mama because you get nothing from me but jesus fed his enemy he served his enemy he sat with his enemy with his john on one side and his judas on the other he sat with his enemies and you cannot be a great man or woman of god until you can sit in between john and judas and treat them both the same oh y'all ain't gonna talk to me you gotta be able to sit with john and judas and know which one is which and feed both of them the same bread and the same cup with the same peace and then have the audacity to sing in the dark this is what happens when you have to sing against the atmosphere this is how you become lord of the atmosphere let me show you can i show you a little bit more first corinthians 14 26 talks about what's then shall we say brothers and sisters when you come together each of you has a hymn or a word of instruction of revelation a tongue or an interpretation everything must be done so that the church may be built up and the king james says that the church might be edified when you sing the church is edified when you give word of knowledge the church is edified edified is an architectural term that needs to be built up like renovated like resurrected so singing bills singing bills say that with me singing bills singing bills you know see we we don't have maybe we have it i don't know because i don't live in your house but you don't see it like you used to see it people standing over the sink singing people washing clothes singing people going through the house shaking their head and singing nowadays you don't see church folk having church until they come to church but it used to be it used to be you could go in your house and you could sense glory in the house because you begin to understand that if you're going to be built up you got to open your mouth and sing out to god and give him glory when nehemiah was building the wall he didn't just call for the builders he called for the levites to sing because singing bills now in corinthians it says that it will build up the body of christ in nehemiah it proves that if you're going to build up walls you got to call the singers because singing builds walls and some of you your walls are torn down and that's why this has gotten to you like this because a man that cannot rule his own spirit is like a city without walls and what made nehemiah go to jerusalem in the first place was to build back the walls and what you must do instead of giving advice to everybody else is build back your walls until you can rule your own spirit you don't get to tell me what to do if you can't rule you oh y'all ain't saying unto me so he then just called the masons he calls the levites to sing because there's something about singing that hastens the edification the building up nehemiah used singing to build the wall joshua used it joshua used it to tear down the wall so the same voice that builds a wall has the power to tear down a wall and why does it do both things because sometimes in your life you need to build a wall and sometimes you need to tear down a wall and god said i know which one you mean when you see when you sing i know what you mean i know whether to build up or to tear down anything that's standing in your way god said i'll bring it down the high places i'll bring it down the obstacles i'll bring it down that that's resisted my will i'll bring it down that that's standing up in your way and the promises of god god said when you sing i'll bring it down anybody who has become vulnerable and you need more walls god said when you open your mouth i will build walls where you never had water where your mama didn't have walls and your grandmama didn't have walls and your great-grandmama didn't have walls and you living up under a generational curse but what's gonna break the curse is i'm gonna give you walls that your mama didn't have i'm gonna give you walls that your grandmama didn't have i'm gonna give you walls that your great-grandmama didn't have because you're gonna do something that they didn't do you're gonna open your mouth under me god said i'm watching your lips when you get tired of sitting up there with your face all twisted up and tears running down your face and your lips glued together god said i will rescue you when you open your mouth i will bring you out i don't care it may take three days to do it you may be on the cross on friday you may be in the grave on saturday but by sunday morning i will raise you up out of everything that ever held you down and you got to sing and open your mouth and understand there ain't no wall that will stop me from getting to you there ain't no stone they can roll in front of the tomb that i won't roll up out of your way because you were singing in the dark [Music] yeah yeah yeah then sings my soul my savior god to thee wait a minute how can a s how can a soul sing then sings my soul my saying your god to be [Music] how great thou art how great god then is my soul my say your god to thee how great thou art how great though [Music] then things [Music] tell them how great how great they are [Music] come on sing it right in your living room [Music] how great thou art [Laughter] how great though [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] how great [Music] my soul my savior god [Music] how great though [Laughter] how great [Music] [Laughter] [Music] hannah sing a song [Applause] that drove away her barrenness and enabled her to conceive and when the angel came to mary and said hail mary you've been highly favored amongst women you shall bring forth a son mary was barren too because she had not known a man it was just two different kinds of barrenness hannah had known a man but her womb was barren mary's womb worked but she had not known a man both of them are two different kinds of barrenness but mary remembered hannah then sings my song my say your god to me [Music] how great thou art how great thou are is there something buried in your life you need to say this my [Music] how great thou art how [Music] there is something that god wants to leave in the womb of your soul tonight that the dark cannot take away from you there is something that god wants to leave in the womb of your spirit that will take you from weeping to dancing by the rivers of babylon we wept they asked of us to sing the lord's song and we did not know how how can we sing the lord's song when we are in a strange land how can we sing the lord's song in a pandemic how can we sing the lord's song worried about our children and grandchildren going to school how can we sing how can we sing the lord's song while our backs are being beaten how can we sing the lord's song with the holes of oppression in our face how can we sing the lord's song when every day the phone rings about somebody who's sick or somebody who's passed away how can we sing [Music] the lord's song you can't sing it if you can't sing it in the dark in fact stop singing in the light if you're not going to sing in the dark because god don't need no part-time soldiers he needs people who can sing in the jailhouse with their hands tied and their feet shackled at midnight he needs people who can say though he slay me yet shall i trust him he needs people who can say to their enemies what thou doest do it quickly and still keep their soul and if you keep your soul you can overcome anything as we bring this bible class to a close tonight i do not know who god sent me for but i do know that they are here or there or there or there somebody has been having their own personal captivity your own midnight your own dark place your own emotional roller coaster and you're saying how can i sing the lord's song when everything in my life is feeling kind of strange right now and i am saying to you you do your best singing in the dark i want the praise team to come and close us out with a song in just a moment but tonight i want to pray for people emotions have been all over the place who've been feeling like [Music] i don't know what to do i want to pray that god would restore your song [Music] because if he can restore your song you're going to get a suddenly and if you get a suddenly you're gonna get in immediately and if you get in immediately the doors are gonna open and if the doors are gonna open god's going to take your opposition and turn it into opportunity [Music] can i pray for you tonight i mean just just me and you coming together like paul and silas into agreement that everyone's bands would be loose that the captive would be set free can i pray for you until you move away from the willow trees and you start singing in the dark spirit of the living god [Music] fall fresh [Music] on us tonight not because we're so good or so special or so holy or so wonderful but because we are so needy and so desperate and so longing and so in need of you today we need you we need your great god [Music] we need you to do some things that only god can do [Music] you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 530,072

Rating: 4.7948971 out of 5

Keywords: td jakes, faith, wtal, woman thou are loosed, megafest, potters house, bishop jakes, pastors and leadership, pastors, leaders, instinctbishops, village, having faith in the dark, finding internal peace

Id: ATan1NAS-3c

Length: 76min 20sec (4580 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 26 2021