The Courage to Change Course - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] this morning the holy spirit has spoken to me i want you to go to genesis 21 4-14 and there you will find the assignment that the lord has espoused for me to share with you on this sunday morning genesis chapter 21 verse 4 through 14. it's our custom to stand for the reading of the word if you're a visitor and everybody stood up you thought they were leaving but they're not genesis 21 beginning at verse 4 going through verse 14 and abraham circumcised his son isaac being eight days old as god commanded him how was he he was eight days old and abraham was a hundred years old when his son isaac was born unto him and sarah said god hath made me to laugh so that all that here will laugh with me and she said who would have said unto abraham that sarah should have given children suck for i have borne him a son in his old age i don't know whether that's so good or not but and the child grew and was weaned and abraham said party he made a great feast the same day that isaac was weaned he threw a party and sarah saw the son of hagar the egyptian which she had born under abraham mocking wherefore she said on abraham cast out this bondwoman and her son for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son even isaac and the thing was very grievous in abraham's sight because of his son and god said on abraham let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of that bondwoman in all that sarah have said under thee hearken unto her voice for in isaac shall thy seed be called and also the son of the bondwoman will i make a nation because he is thy seed and abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto hagar putting it on her shoulder and the child and sent her away and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of bear sheba today i want to talk to you about the courage to change course the courage to change course don't minimize that don't sleep on that that's that's not easy to do the courage to change course i do sense a prophetic utterance i do believe that somebody is going to get a word from the lord that is going to be cut to the continuity of your situation that will begin to liberate strongholds and yokes in your life in an area that we seldom touch the courage to change course shout hallelujah spirit of the living god fall fresh on us today we don't want to operate in wednesday's anointing or sunday's anointing we want a fresh anointing let fresh oil flow upon us in this moment in the name of jesus and i thank you in advance for what you're going to do i don't even have to see you do it i'll praise you now you can do it later have your way in this place have your way in this place break some yokes in this place heal some bodies in this place change some lives in this place reach out lord through the internet and let the power of the holy spirit sweep over the viewing audience that's watching us through cyberspace i thank you jesus you can cast out a demon online i thank you jesus you can rebuke a disease online i thank you jesus you can give divine direction do it for your people today do it for your people today do it for your people today in the name of jesus give him the best praise of god [Applause] amen you may be seated yes sir let's go to work it has been said about people that when people know better they do better and that sounds really really profound but over the years of my life i wonder is it true because everything that sounds good isn't always true when people know better they do better i can't even say that's always true in my own life because there's a difference between knowing better and doing better i know i don't have no business with dessert i said i was gonna watch my carbs i know i should get up every morning early and exercise about 5 30 and jog about three miles i know better i know what to eat and what not to eat i know what is healthy what is not healthy i have been informed i have been educated i know not to eat those oxtail i know oh y'all not gonna talk to me this morning i i i know i don't need those barbecue ribs and the french fries the waitress even asks you do you want salad and i sometimes i just say no i know not to let them bring bread to the table because i know if it gets to the table it's gonna you know especially if it's hot and it's warm and they've got good but i know not to even risk bringing it that close to me because i know i'm not strong enough to resist it when people know better they say they do better but it is possible i know how to do curls i know how to bench press i i know how to do lat pulldown i know how to do it i know the form i know what i ought to be doing i know i should stretch every morning it is not the absence of knowledge that always deters the activity but the gulf between what we know and what we do is often a wide gulf and we don't always reach across while it is impossible to do better if you don't know better it's impossible you can't do better if you don't know better often we still know better than we do the truth of the matter is doing better isn't always easy sometimes it's real tough doing better isn't always easy doing better as a husband or wife isn't always easy we know what we should be doing but we don't always do it sometimes we don't do better until we get in trouble sometimes we don't do better until we're under threat sometimes we don't do better until we have competition oh it's going to be quiet this morning jesus angels y'all shout for me this morning cause the people gonna be quiet doing better on the job we know what to do we used to do it when we first got the job and we didn't take it for granted we knew not to take a two and a half hour lunch we knew how to be in our place we knew not to be on the phone and playing video games in our office we knew better yeah you should wear some strong shoes because i'm going to step on some toes today but whether we know better and what we do is two different things altogether especially when you realize that the people we admired the most were people who put into action what they knew who grew and changed and made corrections they became our heroes because they had the courage to change course all of the people that we highlight in our country in our history are people who had the courage to change course leaders like abraham lincoln had the courage to change course it is not not it's we always honor people after they're dead but in real time speed our heroes were not popular because they went against the course and they swam upstream against the grain and they had to have courage to change the course that's not easily done dr king had to have courage to change the court nelson mandela went to jail to change the court you can get in trouble to change the course corrections can often have severe consequences corrections can often have severe consequences getting it right can have severe consequences because see you you you make a decision at one stage in your life and then later you know better but you're already in the situation i never will forget i was teaching a bible class one time and i was doing q a right here at this church and a young man said something to me i will never forget he said i am the world's best at getting into situations and the world's worse at getting out and i think the reason it becomes so difficult to get out is because sometimes it's become so complicated it requires humility that some people lack the ability to quiet their ego enough to achieve the ability of change because sometimes you have to go against what you said at this stage [Applause] to correct where you are at that stage and so until you become strong enough to admit yes i said it but i was wrong you can't bring about change and sometimes your ego will make you be loyal to a mistake i'm wondering if there's anybody in here who's ever been loyal to a mistake and you it was a mistake and you knew it was a mistake but you counted up the cost to fix it and you decided you would just take the easy way out and live with it our decisions you see to correct our mistakes can create disruption and not only disruption for us disruption for other people and when you look at what it's going to take to straighten it out sometimes you just don't do it and when you don't do it you become trapped in a nightmare of regret you'd be surprised how long you can live in the prison of your problems [Applause] you'd be surprised how long you can live a life where you clap like you're free you talk like you free you move like you're free but you're really not free at all because you are trapped in a complicated situation you can't get out and you can't get in you're just stuck and so you clap stuck and you sing stuck and you go to choir rehearsal stuck and you go to work stuck and you come home stuck and you go to church stuck and yes you get your dancing every now and then but you go back to a situation that's stuck because dancing doesn't bring about change i don't care how much you praise the lord until you correct your past decisions you are not going to get the breakthrough that you need and still use until you stop using shopping for therapy you're never going to have the credit rating that you should have no matter how much he's jehovah's job or he can't be jehovah jihad to you because as fast as he pours it in you leak it out and god is too much of a businessman to keep investing in a bankrupt system and you know what it takes to fix it and you know the discipline that's required to get your life together but it's not always true that people who know better do better and not doing better simply leaves you stuck people often like the stomach for it i think to risk the pain of changing course the uncertainty of what would life be like outside of the bubble of my normal i hate my normal but i'm afraid of change so i'd rather stick with the devil i know oh y'all not gonna talk to me this morning have you ever grown up and rethought your choices have you ever got more information and rethought your choices have you ever looked back at your life in retrospect and found yourself in situations that were based on bad information immature decisions selfishness emotionalism pride discontentment and restlessness and now you're more mature and you're wiser and you wonder what you could have been had you started earlier on the right road i wish i maybe it's somebody that's streaming that needs what i'm talking about and you lay down at night and live with the frustration wonder what would have happened had i not got myself stuck [Applause] we're almost like the woman in the commercial help i've fallen [Applause] and i can't get up i change churches and i can't get up i change spouses and i can't get up i change jobs and i can't get up i change my major and i can't get up i change my hairstyle and i can't get up i change the way i dress and i can't get up it doesn't matter what i got on it doesn't matter what i look like i cannot seem to get up so you give up when you can't get up and you decide to yourself maybe i just have to make the best of a bad situation i guess i'm really talking about making a decision to live with regret and you'd be surprised how many people in this room are living with regret that they could clean up that they could fix it they could change it they could alter but sometimes the dilemma is is it easier to live with regret or live without it and cause the disruption that is necessary in my normal to see the growth that i long to see in my life [Applause] are you hearing what i'm saying about either way you go have you ever been in a situation where either the season you made is gonna cause pain where am i real people at have you ever been weighing the pain you know when i got ready to have back surgery i wouldn't have had back surgery if i wasn't in pain but i had to weigh the pain that i had before the surgery against the pain of having the surgery and it took me a long time to make up my mind to have the surgery because either way i went it was going to be pain and i had to decide i ultimately decided that i would rather live with the pain of recovery rather than to live with the pain of ambivalence and indifference and the pain of ignoring and the pain of looking the other way and the pain i never will forget i was in washington dc and i was in the hotel room and i was walking across the hotel room and fell and hit a glass coffee table and shattered the table and i said that's it i got to go i got to do something about this this is unbearable i have been laying on the floor in the back before i went out to speak each night at the new year's revival because my back was in such pain that i couldn't hardly take it one time i sat down in the service and i couldn't get up and my security had to come get me up out of the seat and i was in front of people and little by little by little by little i thought this pain is too much the pain of ignoring it the pain of looking the other way the pain of making the best out of a bad situation the pain of not wanting to make any way the pain of dealing with my inability to walk into the unfamiliar to walk into the unknown i had never had surgery i couldn't imagine what it would be like it didn't sound good when they described it to me they said we're gonna cut into your back four inches i thought not mine you know [Applause] you're not going to cut me up like you're slicing ribs at a barbecue the devil is alive but the pain the pain you're wearing pain i wasn't wearing promises i wasn't wearing miracles i wasn't weighing god's purpose i wasn't wearing what god was going to do in my life i was trying to go the way of least resistance the real truth of the matter is we get trapped we get trapped we get trapped in our relationships we get trapped in our health we get trapped in the argument mask no mass vaccine no vaccine i heard this i heard that i heard another we get trapped until being trapped makes us sick and somewhere with a respirator in our mouth don't don't don't tell me because we're the ones that bury people so we know we know we talk to the families we deal with the people who didn't have the courage to change course in fact you have to have the the adaptability in life to be able to change course it's not like you get it right and it stays the way you left it life keeps changing and as life keeps changing and seasons keeps changing and circumstances keep changing you got to be flexible enough to change on a dime and switch this way and turn back this way and if you don't make the right switch at the right time you find yourself stuck [Applause] and you wake up one morning and you realize i'm getting older and i don't know what it feels like to have lived my best life i i i'm not lived my best life i've not lived at the top of what my potential was i've not reached the zenith of possibilities of what i could be i've not fulfilled my purpose i've not finished my core i don't get any crown for me because i wasn't living my best life i was surviving my old life i know it's hard to shout this morning but just keep breathing and rather than to be free we peer through the bars of depression watching others move forward where we are stuck going in circles our text today we step into the text that reads like a dream come true a dream deferred and finally realized that abraham in his old age would finally have a son it is absolutely amazing it's exciting it's invigorating that this old man whose body was as good as dead and his wife with her wrinkled knees has got in the birth position and delivered him a baby at a season in her life that it was illogical i don't know who i'm preaching to but whoever i'm preaching to today what is at stake in this message is that god wants to give you a blessing that doesn't even fit the season of life you're in he's going to give you a blessing out of season he's going to give you a blessing that's out of step he's going to give you a blessing that's going to make people laugh when they hear it because nobody's going to believe that a person like you could be in a position in fact some of you right now are in a position that would blow people's mind because you haven't always been ill to flip-flop and you haven't always been deacon wonderful and you haven't always been missionary price and if your old friends could see you now yeah yeah yeah somebody shout it's late but it happened typing on the line it's late but it happened it's late but it happened it didn't come when i thought it would it didn't come through who i would like for it to come through it didn't even come how i would like for it to come don't let me say it like the old folks do he may not come when you want him oh but he's [Applause] we're talking about a family moment here we're talking about a family moment we're talking about a family moment that happened to a man that's a hundred years old he has waited a long time when you have waited a long time for a blessing it will make you give god the praise see some of y'all get stuff too easy and you get it too quick but after you suffered a while when god comes through for you it'll make you want to [Applause] i want those of you that have been waiting on a blessing to get this word from god it's still going to happen oh y'all don't believe it but the lord said it's still going to happen just because it didn't happen when you plan for it to happen doesn't mean that god's not gonna do it it's still gonna happen tell your wrinkle needs it's still gonna happen tell your birthdays it's still gonna happen tell your situation it's still gonna happen go back into that raggedy house and say it's still gonna happen i'm gonna give about 15 seconds for somebody to praise him like you've got a determination that it's not too late [Applause] it's still going to happen it's still going to happen it's still going to happen it still won't happen it still don't happen it's still gonna happen [Applause] it's still gonna happen it's still going to happen it's still going to happen you need to get your faith out of jail and say it's still going to happen look at somebody say it's still going to happen typing on the line it's still going to happen yes yes yes sir yes make you want to celebrate make you want to celebrate make you want to cop your hands make you want to do your dancing make you want to turn around in a circle make you want to do the shuffle make your water cheap and shout make you want to run all about it's still going to happen [Applause] yes that's right sister praise him up there praise him you don't need no music you don't need no handcuff sometimes you got to throw your own party cause god just spoke to you he spoke in your spirit he spoke in your belly he spoke in your heart it's still gonna happen [Applause] so look here sit with me a minute so sarah is having a party because she said who would [Laughter] who would believe that god would do it for me that i would give abraham a child in his old age she said god had made me to laugh she said who would have thought that at this stage in my life god would make me to laugh and all that hear it will laugh with me and while she's laughing abraham is going through the ritual of circumcising his son pay attention to that i'm going to deal with that a little bit more in a minute abraham according to the customers of the time circumcised his son as god had commanded him to do when he was eight days old okay eight days old eight days old i told you last week eight is the number of new beginnings this is a happy moment he's eight days old and abraham circumcises him and he finally gets to circumcise his son born of his wife in his house and he's eight days old when he did it and i was studying it and i was thinking about it being his his first son by sarah and it was eight and he was eight days old and i thought about this being the eighth month and the first day of the eighth month and we're in it today and god gave me this word for this day at this time eight days old first son eight one god is about to oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying [Applause] tell everybody around you something's gonna happen in here this morning it's the eighth month is the first day is the eighth month it's the first day something is going to happen in here today and when the child was eight days old abraham circumcised his son and the interesting thing said i'm just talking to you the interesting thing the interesting thing about the text is when it when you read the text it reads it as if it is all one occasion but there's a time lapse here because we know that isaac is eight days old when abraham circumcises him and then we read that when he was weaned god abraham threw a party okay and we know he wasn't weaned at eight days so there's a time lapse in the text so the writer is only gleaning highlights of significant moments in the life of abraham and that's all life is is significant moments it's not hours or days or weeks or months all that matters is significant moment from eight days old when he circumcised it to however he old he was when he weaned him nothing significant happened but when he when he was weaned abraham throws a party and it was an amazing party he threw the party no doubt a quite a distance from when he circumcised his son now circumcision is the cutting away of the part of the flesh on a man that was originally a religious sign of being a hebrew it is not the covenant that god made with abraham but it is the sign of the covenant so god made a promise to him and then used a sign of circumcision to indicate that he had a contract with god the circumcision put blood on it [Music] i was doing some real estate business with some investors and they asked me do you have any skin in the game god wanted you god's gonna do the work but he wants you to have some skin in the game oh y'all don't hear what i'm saying because when you got some skin in the game you don't violate the covenant when things get tough because you got some skin in the game and god says i'm going to do it for you but i want you to have some uh oh y'all ain't gonna talk to me yeah yeah yeah yeah cause you won't quit when you got some skin in the game you won't just walk away easy when you got some skin again when you don't have nothing invested it's easy to walk away when there is no no skin in the game this circumcision that starts the text permeates the text itself i'm going to pick it up later and weave it into the text to show you that the text is all about circumcision the text is all about circumcision the courage to change course is all about circumcision and i'm going to tell all the women so you don't so you can know and i'm saying this circumcision hurts not a little bit a whole lot yeah circumcision hurts change i love him i've been waiting on him to come back to church i need him changing course hurts there's no way for you to make significant change and not hurt cause you gotta have some [Music] he did it on the eighth day and then he begins to celebrate and he throws a party and things couldn't be better he got his promised seed his wife is happy life is good it's hard for life to be good when y'all girls ain't happy it's not that we're not happy but when y'all are not happy it's contagious an unhappy woman is worse than kovid because you can vaccinate for kobe and father unhappy woman they still in the laboratory trying to fix something to make it easier to live with an unhappy woman you can be happy but when you come home and she's not happy all of a sudden i know you can't say amen because you're sitting beside it but just wiggle your toe and i will hear it i will hear the vibrations on the rug it couldn't be better sarah is happy she laughing ain't nothing like the laughter of a happy woman she's laughing he's got his son his promised seed he's got it in his old age god has strengthened his loins [Music] i don't blame him for throwing a party anytime you're that old no cialis no it's time to get the popcorn out roast you some hot dogs have you a barbecue blow a whistle it is a happy moment [Applause] everything is going wonderful and then sarah the bible says looked out and saw ishmael hagar's son by abraham mocking isaac and the party was over she stopped laughing put the cake back take the hot dogs off the grill put the party hat away stop the music she mad again what you mad about now i looked out the window and do you not know what i saw that woman's son was mocking my child now if you want to make a woman mad i mean even them little quiet nice dainty little women who walk around with lace on their toes and and got their fingernails with glitter on it they turn into guerilla warfare if you mess with one of them kids sarah said put the cake up something's got to be done this girl have lost her mind her boy is out there mocking my boy you got to do something what you gonna do what you gonna do i just wanna know what you're gonna do i just wanna know what you're gonna do about this what you gonna do about this i tell no i'm gonna tell you what you're gonna do let me tell you what you are going to do about this [Applause] i don't care where they're gonna stay i don't care where they gonna live but she gonna get up [Applause] i ebonized it just a little bit but [Applause] and all of a sudden all of a sudden he has gone from cutting to casting he's he has gone from cutting to being asked to cast out the upon woman and her son which incidentally is his son when sarah says it she says cast out the bondwoman and her son but she knows that's his son but sad don't have no skin in the game [Applause] and when you don't have no sin and against skin in the game it's easy to tell people what they ought to do about their situation cause you don't have no skin in the game now if this would have been me this text would have been longer because when she said cast out the bond woman and her son i would have got right back up in her face and said she wouldn't have been here in the first place if you had no brother in here it ain't like i asked you for this woman this was your idea in the first place and now you want me to fix what you wanted me to you see hager was never abraham's idea [Applause] it was sarah's idea cause she thought it wasn't gonna happen and when she thought it wasn't gonna happen god's way she said i'll do it my way henceforth israel becomes a child of the flesh how many things have been born in your house out of the flesh out of your unwillingness to wait out of your impatience out of your frustration how many decisions did you make without god [Applause] and by the way wouldn't you hate to live in this house you got two women in this house yeah yeah i can stop right there that's the end of it right there i got two women in the house they don't like each other and i got two sons in the house one is born in the flesh and one of them is born of the promise and this just sounds like a mess but abraham lived with it because sometimes change creates such disruption that you just make the best of a bad et cetera how does abraham go from throwing a party for his son to the biggest fight with his wife ever recorded the fight was so big they didn't have to call the police god had to come now you know that's domestic violence when god has to come y'all are really fighting when the only one who can break up the argument is god because sarah has asked him to cast out the bondwoman and her son and i believe that abraham was born to the bondwoman bondwoman actually means that she was a servant a slave but i want you to understand that you can't spend that much time with somebody you can't spend that many nights with somebody listening at them talking about their dreams and their hopes of what happened to them when they were seven and when i was 12 my dog died and all of that and after a while there's a bond to what you bond with you become bond too oh there's only 12 that could say man the rest of them is using that mask as an excuse because as long as you got your mask over your mouth you don't have to say nothing you can say i said it under my breath what you bond with you become bond too and and hangar had become unnecessary flesh she was attached ishmael was his flesh and god is now doing to him what he started out doing to his son for to cast out the bondwoman and her son is circumcision and abraham is good at giving it but now he's got to receive it oh he's been circumcised in his body but but not in his relationships and there is no way to get out of this without blood this is going to hurt and yet in order to get his house together he had to have the courage to change course in fact in all fairness i have to give sarah some credit sarah is making a correction because she is no longer the woman she was before i want to talk to some people who are no longer the woman you were before and yet you've got kids angry with you about what you did [Music] [Applause] before you you've got spouses angry with you over what you did before that ain't just for women let's talk to some men who have got some wives that are angry with you over what you did before and the kids don't like you over who you were before the problem is people never give people room to change to grow to evolve and even though we are christians we are the world's best at alienating people over what they did before and it takes courage to correct or to change course because if he changes course what will become of hagar where will hager go where has the ring of isaac's flesh gone hangar is cast into the wilderness and when god comes down god does not talk like sarah see sometimes sisters you can be right about what you said but wrong about how you said it you said cast out the woman the bomb woman and her son god comes down and says i know ishmael is your seed understanding is important to bring about change you can't just look at it from your perspective just because you don't have no skin in the game abraham has skin in the game ismail is his son too ishmael is his son but ismail is your mistake stay with me stay with me stay with me stay with me i'm going somewhere i'm gonna get it back to you in a minute because everybody in here has ishmael everybody in here male or female has nothing to do with gender has has something that you would bond to because you bond with that created a problem that you live with whether it's baby mama drama or whatever it is or baby daddy drama you you went out with him he a dog you went out with a dog you picked the dog you liked the dog you brought the dog home you went to bed with the dog you had a baby with the dog now all you can see is he a dog well what does that make you [Applause] i guess you're a dog lover because save he raped you see until we take responsibility for the mistakes we made we cannot change course as long as you push it off and act like it was just them and you tell the story where you are always the hero this woman would have never been in abraham's life you brought the woman into his life you came up with the strategy of them sleeping together you told him to have a baby you made this woman a your slave and made her sleep with a man that she never picked to sleep with and now it's all blown up in your face and you want to act like it's his fault but what is amazing about the text is god comes down and says to abraham hearken unto the voice of your wife's arrive because a woman is right even though she said it wrong she is right and what is happening here is correction now i'm almost finished in order to have correction you have to have the challenging responsibility of trusting god to handle our mistakes god says to abraham leave hagar to me i know ishmael is your son i will make of him a great nation but you can't take your mistake and your miracle and put them all in the same house and make it work there has to come a cutting away a cutting away you can't change course if you can't cut you can't change course if you can't cast out and the challenge is to trust me with the collateral damage who am i preaching to trust me that i don't need you to take care of israel god says my grace is sufficient for your mistakes my grace my grace my grace my grace is sufficient you don't have to live in this chaos your spirit has been in a state of constant disruption because you won't change course and i don't want you to live in this constant chaotic stressful environment of full ornament because your mistakes and your miracles are cohabitating in the same space all i need from you is the courage to change course [Applause] if you don't change course you're gonna mess up your destiny if you don't change course you're gonna mess up your future if you don't change course you're not gonna be in the place you need to be to become who i created you to be if you don't change course you're going to spend the latter years miserable because you won't own up to your mistakes and acknowledge that you were wrong and you won't fix it and all the dancing and all the shouting and all the giving you do over top of it will not take away from the fact that you still need the courage to change of course who who who in here needs the courage to change course you know what they say the definition of lunacy is to continue to do the same thing expecting a different result you can't be the woman you want to be and the woman you used to be at the same time you cannot be the man you were created to be and the man you used to be at the same time and you know that now but the problem is you just can't bring yourself to change course because of all the people that it would hurt for you to change and how long will you make those people more important than your destiny god said turn them over to me oh god i'm talking to somebody i'm talking to somebody i don't know who it is i'm see the lord sent me here to lose somebody this morning to liberate somebody this morning you've been in bondage you can't even be your best self you can't do your best work you can't be who you were created to be because you're stuck in a situation that you help to create and you're guilty and you feel guilty and you overcompensate because you're guilty and you're in this situation because you're guilty and you're stuck because you're either way you move somebody's gonna get hurt and if you don't move it's gonna be you lift your hands up and say god give me the courage to change course that means i might not get to say everything i want to say that means i got to hold my peace sometimes that means sometimes i got to bite my lip that means sometimes i've got to learn another discipline that means sometimes i gotta bleed but if i have to bleed to be better i'm willing to bleed i'm willing to bleed a little while to be better for a long time see i realized that if i didn't have the surgery the pain would never go away and if i had the surgery i would have pain for a little while but eventually the pain of recovery will go away see circumcision hurts real bad but it doesn't hurt real long putting out the bomb woman hurt real bad [Music] but it didn't hurt real long and you got to decide are you willing to have a little momentary discomfort to be where you are called to be or are you so concerned about the disruption that your change creates that you're willing to be a prisoner in your own life the rest of your life that's what this text says to me that's what i get out of this text that's why this text is important to me because every time i ever made a change somebody got hurt when god called me to come to dallas somebody got hurt in west virginia there are people who don't like me now i've been here 25 years and they still mad there are other people that accept it and they're glad about it they see it they get it but there are some people that just simply refuse to get over and i had to decide am i going to spend the rest of my life honoring your expectations of me or do i get to live my life the way god called me to live my life you leave when you want to leave you come when you want to come you miss church when you feel like missing but if i'm not here you say i came to church and you wasn't there don't i get to be a person too i'm gonna break your chain today the chain that ties you to living up to other people's expectations all of your life the chain that circumvents you from reaching your destiny and your purpose so you can go ahead and fulfill what god created you to [Applause] fulfill we are going into a week of change we're going to change course we're going to change direction we're going to change our focus we're going to change our attitude we i don't care whether we get to have worship or preaching or whether we just come in here and lay flat out on the floor i want a gulley washing holy ghost anointed supernatural revival revival is to wake up what's bad to bring back to life that that has gone away to restore to bring back the luster of really knowing god i don't want to pass the church people i want to pass the saints real believers who are washed in the blood of the lamb who really want to serve god i'm i don't want to pass the people who just want to take god on a weekly date on sunday some of you all don't love god you date him y'all got a weekly date on sunday but monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday belong to you and if it's not sunday you don't have no skin in the game and you're asking god for a seven-day blessing with a one-day commitment and you've lost your ability and god sent me to say to you that in order for him to do what you have been praying about you are gonna have to be disciplined enough to put some skin in the game if you don't put any skin in the game god cannot do what he wants to do in your life but if you present your body a living sacrifice before god god said i will do a new thing in you and the former things in your life will be passed away i hear god talking to somebody i don't know who it is but if you're ready for change give him 30 seconds of crazy praise yes yes yes yes yes yes yes again yes yes lord yes lord yes lord yes lord elbow somebody tell them i want change i want change i need change i need change on the inside i need change on the outside i need change in my heart i need change in my spirit give me my anointing back give me my power back give me my consecration back i gotta have some change for the devil that i'm fighting right now i need a real holy ghost change i can't hear you praising god [Applause] i can't hear you i can't hear you i can't hear you i can't hear you i can't hear you see the problem with the church we want to have a good service but we don't want to put any skin in the game open your mouth and praise him till you got skin in the game i'm gonna put some skin in the game i'm gonna put some skin in the game for the breakthrough i've been praying for i'm willing to put some skin in the game i'm willing to invest in it i'm willing to sow into it i'm willing to work on it i'm willing to labor for it i'm willing to hurt for it lord here i am just as i am i put skin in the game open your mouth and give god some praise [Music] yes yes yes yes it costs 20 costs it costs 20 costs it costs 20 costs it costs 20 costs whatever it takes whatever it takes whatever it takes [Applause] [Music] this is how bad i want it this is how bad i want it this is how bad i want it i rearrange my schedule i'll move if i gotta move i'll change if i gotta change whatever it takes i'll apologize i'll lay on the face but whatever it takes i want change somebody holler with all your might [Applause] [Applause] god tell eight people i'm getting ready to change course go to eight people tell her i'm getting ready to change court i'm gonna change course i'm going to change course before the week is over i'm going to change course before the week is over i'm going to change course before the week is over before this week before this week before this week before this weekend [Applause] i'm gonna change i'm gonna change it i'm gonna change it i'm gonna break that chain i'm gonna break that yoke i'm gonna change i gotta change it look at somebody say i gotta change it i got it i gotta change it i got it the angels ain't gonna change it the prophet ain't gonna change it the bishop ain't gonna change it the choir ain't gonna change it the partner's house ain't gonna change it i gotta change it i'm gonna change it i'm gonna change it i'm gonna change it if you don't change the rocks will cross if you don't change the rocks will crowd change change it change it change it change it change it change it change it if i change it change it in my life change a change a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a change yeah it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming change is coming it's coming change is coming is change is coming change is coming change is coming changed change is coming change is coming change [Applause] yes [Music] is i make the change make the change make the change make the change change you're ready you're ready change change change change into balcony change change has come is is [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i don't want anybody to do this before i do i want to ate one a new beginning a season of change take 81 out of there i don't want anybody to do it before i do it i dedicate this week to god august the first eight one the baby was eight days old i decree and declare there will be change [Applause] there will be a cutting away there will be a casting out there will be a singleness of heart a wholeness in spirit i'm not just talking about you i'm gonna do this for myself i want the courage the courage the courage the courage the courage the courage the courage to change the courage to change i'm running out of time i don't have time to play games the courage to change you're watching online join me if you want to you're in the building join me if you will but i send this up this little seat ain't much as a little seed a little seed offering to god i offer up a sacrifice there will be change i decree and declare a new beginning i decree and declare a new beginning in the midst of all of this chaos and political antics and racial indifference in the midst of all of this turbulence in the midst of this pandemic i decree and declare a change in the name of jesus this is my garden of gethsemane this is a place where i make up my mind not my will but thine be done this is a place that i cast out the bondwoman this is a place that i cut away the flesh this is a place where i put some skin in the game this is a place where i decree and declare for discipline how many of you struggle to be disciplined i decree and declare for a greater discipline in your life in your business in your affairs in your finances in your relationships you're going to stop being guided by your emotions and you're going to be guided by the promise of god no more guilt no more shame no more incarceration to your past no more nursing people's feelings that shouldn't even be in the house [Music] cast out the bondwoman [Music] i want to be new i want to you the pastor what you talking about you want to be new yes pastors need to be renewed singers need to be renewed you can't keep giving out to people and not become depleted you need to be renewed deacons need to be renewed the elders need to be renewed the saints online need to be renewed the people in this building need to be renewed we need a renewal somebody shout yes and it's just a little seed but i'm gonna sow it as a sign as a sign that i'm committed to the discipline that's necessary i'm gonna stop running a nursery for everybody else's feelings but mine [Music] today god liberates us from people from the bondage of their expectations from the fear of their criticisms from the pain of their mar their remarks today we come into a new place of alignment admittedly we've made some bad choices admittedly we've made some poor judgments but now that we know better knowing better don't mean a thing if you don't do better knowing that you should eat right ain't eating right knowing that you should save ain't saving knowing that you should shut your mouth don't shut your mouth it don't count till you do it how many are making a commitment i'm gonna do this thing i'm gonna do this thing eight one a new beginning and in fact in fact today in fact as other people are sowing and as they're giving if there's a person in this room and you need newness jesus came to make us new and he put skin in the game he went to calvary and he put skin in the game but if you don't put yours in you can't have new life i cannot dwell in the tent with the wicked today whether you're online whether you're watching in houston or atlanta new york or desoto whether you're in south dakota or south africa whether you're in nigeria or birmingham alabama i decree and declare there will be change there will be change i'm not waiting on nobody to come save me i'm not waiting on nobody to come get me i decree and declare [Music] there will be change it may it may hurt a while while i get the discipline to commit my way unto the lord but whatever it takes there will be change if there's a person in this room the only one i know [Music] who can help you to really change your life is jesus abraham and sarah argued all the way until god came in the tent when god came down and came in the tent he straightened everything out he put everything in order he moved the flesh out he moved the spirit in the flesh out and the promise came in [Music] and he gave abraham the thing that you can't buy in a store and you can't get with a degree he gave him focus when the eye is single the whole body is full of light but a house divided against itself shall not stand we praise you with singleness of heart we've had too many distractions trying to keep this one and please that one and please that one and satisfy that one and and and not make waves and and trying to compensate and overcompensate over doing it giving out a guilt but today we make a change friend if you're in this room and you don't know jesus if you're in this room and you've said new year's resolutions and you've had moments where you felt guilty and cried but you're tied to an addiction and you're tied to a problem and you're tied to a way of living and a way of thinking and a way of doing things that's just dragging you down you got to decide which pool is stronger the pull of the holy spirit or the pull of your flesh [Music] it is a gift to come to god the bible says nobody can come to god say the spirit draw them it's a spirit if you are here and you are unbeliever or a backslider and the spirit is calling you home hold your hand up right where you are hold your hand up i see you i see you i see you where else i see you i see you i see you hold it up high don't be ashamed hold it up i see you all the way in the back i see you i see you i see you if the holy ghost is saying change your life hold your hand up i see you i see you the spirit of god sees you i want you to leave put the other hand up with it means i surrender the fight is over i give up and i want to pray with you with both your hands up father you see those raised hands you see the ones that are online you see the ones that i cannot see you know that their hearts are open and they need a touch from you and right now in the name of jesus in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of a world gone crazy in the middle of tough times and personal problems and past pain and trauma and abuse and all types of things [Music] we confess ourselves we've been wrong we've made some bad choices we've done some dumb things some of this trouble wasn't saying some of it was us but be that as it may we come clean right now come into their hearts we believe that you died for our sins and that you rose for our justification and right now right where i stand with my hands up i invite you into my life into my crazy house into my chaotic situation into my contradictory circumstances i invite you in right now with my whole heart i say yes to you i say yes to your will and yes to your word i say yes to you i say yes to your way [Music] and whether i'm weak or whether i'm strong or whether i'm right or whether i'm wrong i commit to you right here and now i'm gonna walk with you all the way back home lord it sure feels good to have a new beginning this is my eighth day this is my new beginning this is my fresh start this is the day that i cut away my flesh and my fleshly choices this is the day i say yes to god now i want you to praise him right where you are and accept what he did in your life in jesus name [Music] you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 1,177,377

Rating: 4.8559504 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, the courage to change course, courage, thecouragetochangecourse, the courage to find change, being a leader for others, finding the courage to change

Id: 5ugu9KJ8X0E

Length: 91min 56sec (5516 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021