We Need an Epiphany! - Bishop T.D. Jakes

and now that he's blinded there i said keep a blind jesus keep it glad in the gospel of luke chapter 15 verse 11-24 there you will find an almost embarrassingly familiar text and yet i have been commanded to go to it that i might extrapolate from it some truths that are relevant and i want you to find it and also hold on give me my other text matthew chapter 2 verse 7 through 16 and hold it because i'm going to read both of them one behind the other so we're going to read more bible than you've read since christmas the two texts are going to seem remotely juxtaposed one against the other and having no relativity with the other but it is my job to coordinate the text in such a way that you extrapolate from the text the profundity of the truth that has been made available to us through the author himself as he spoke to me by the way in the gospel of saint luke chapter number 15 verse 11 it says and he said he being jesus now tells the narrative he is he is the ultimate storyteller what is called parables i call movies if jesus was here today he would be a producer because he used stories and he shared these stories to promote truth the profundity of which is so profound that every time we look at the story we see a different truth and so is the case today and he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that followed to me and he divided unto them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living and when he had and when he had and when he had spent all there rosa mighty famine in that land isn't it how funny how trouble comes when you are the most vulnerable and he began to succumb to it and be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent himself into his fields to feed that which no jewish boy would normally feed or touch he went to feed the pigs and they don't eat pork but he had fallen so far beneath his standard that he would find have filled his belly with the hus that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he when he when he when he when he [Music] and when i don't know how long win is but and when he came to himself everybody in here has had moments that you came [Applause] to yourself he said wait a minute how many hired servants of my father's house have bred enough and despair and i perish with hunger i will rise in the words of maya angelou as yet i rise i will arise and go to my father and will say unto him father i have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called our son make me as one of the highest servants and he arose and came to his father but when but when i love this i don't know y'all might be in trouble i might preach all the way up tonight but when he was yet a great way off he didn't even get up close yet the father had been looking for him that he could see his boy at a distance i was walking down the hallway in the back and i heard somebody say daddy and i stopped right where i was and without even looking at him i knew it was jermaine because the father knows the sound of your children's voice and while he wasn't yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed his dirty smelly absolutely neck that's how you know it's your daddy you don't have to be clean to be kissed [Applause] and the son said unto him father i have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and i'm no more worthy to be called our son i embarrass you i disgrace you i humiliated you i took advantage of your love i'm not worthy of the kiss i stink outwardly and i stink inwardly but the father said to his servant bring forth the best road and put it on him put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry let's party for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost hallelujah and it's foul the the point between lost and found it's where i want to be today the point between lost and found because that point is the point where he came to himself [Music] the text you know i'm gonna do it the title of the text this morning is we need an epiphany [Music] and an epiphany an awakening a moment of illumination of revelatory instantaneous dispersion of wisdom that supersedes what we thought the moment before we had it we need an epiphany give me my other text and and let me go on because the text comes from a completely different place but the principles are synergistic then herod when he had probably called the wise men and inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared and he sent them to bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you found him bring me word again that i may come and worship him also i just love him when they had heard the king they departed and lo the star which they saw in the east went before them they were easter till it came and stood over where the young child was and when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy when they saw the star underline that when they saw the star not the sun when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and when they were come into the house then they saw the young child with mary his mother and fell down and went from joy to worship and they worshiped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh and being watches and being warned of god an epiphany in a dream that they should not return to herod they departed into their own country another way the epiphany led to another way [Music] and god told me to tell you that there is another way [Applause] and when they had departed behold the angel the lord appeared to joseph in a dream saying arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into it into egypt and be thou therefore until i bring thee word for herod will seek the young child to kill him not i thought he wanted to watch him but no he really wanted to kill him but because they got an epiphany they escaped the would-be worshiper who really was a murderer because they got an epiphany when he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into egypt and was there until the death of herod this is herod the great herod number one that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet saying out of egypt have i called my son then herod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceeding wrath he was mad because they never came back to him they went home another way and when he kept waiting on them to come back and tell him where jesus was he was angry and exceedingly violent and sent forth and slew all the children that were in bethlehem and then all the coasts of from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently endured inquired of the wise man he killed every possibility of jesus but jesus was gone they had hidden him in egypt there are some anointings you have to hide [Applause] my subject is we need an epiphany bear with me one more moment on your feet i did not tell you to wear them christian louboutin red bottom seven inch heels so in dear hardness as a good soldier our father and our god epiphanic moments come from you words where your spirit speaks to our spirit bypassing our intellect bringing us into an awareness that we cannot always prove but we know an epiphany an awareness an awakening allow the spirit of god to move in such a way that this is a pivotal word a life-changing word in the name of jesus christ we pray amen you may be seated in the presence of god the lord said the strangest thing to me this morning and and i have been preaching for 45 years he said this may be the most important message you will ever preach so whatever urged you to be here today it is a divine arrangement because i can't recall him ever saying to me that the message would have that level of importance so i want you to listen with the prophetic ear as if it were a word of knowledge because the most important thing you will ever say to somebody is always the most relevant to where they are right now and there is a spirit of revelance uh revelation and relevance that is coming through this word and the lord spoke it to me and he confirmed it by the diversity of people that he drove to hear it so i feel as though that i have come to deliver a message that is male to you though it is sermon to me it will be important to how you proceed from this point on i thought i would start the discussion by defining epiphany even though i knew what an epiphany was i have learned not to trust my own knowledge and i went back to look up epiphany and originally i was surprised to know that the first definition of epiphany has nothing to do with awakening illumination understanding of revelation knowledge it actually has to do with january 6 observed by the greek orthodox as a church festival in commemorating of the coming of the magi as the first manifestation of christ to the gentiles the you would know them as the wise men but they are also called the mighty of christ to the gentiles or in the eastern church in commemoration of the baptism of christ the word epiphany evolves out of that revelation and i thought it ought that the king of the jews would first be worshiped by gentiles that the wise men that came to see him were not from judea they were from the east and they came following the eastern star and the star moved from the east to bethlehem and they rejoice to see the familiarity of the star they're called magi where we get magician because part of their religion was astrology they were not jehovic they did not come from old testament theology instead herod had sent for the magi to find him because there were no prophets in israel that knew where he was they just knew that he was so he consulted the stargazers to expedite the process of locating jesus and epiphany also means an appearance or a manifestation of a divine being a a a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something we've all had epiphanies ah-ha moments an intuitive grasp of reality through those something or through something such as an event usually simple and striking and yet it has powerful impact on you you you you and mama i told you i one time my mother was making eggs one time and then she she cracked an egg and called me and said tom i said what mama she said jesus is god i said okay she said i was scrambling eggs this morning and i saw the eggshell and i saw the egg white and i saw the egg yolk and suddenly i recognized that there were three parts for 188. an epiphany is when god takes something simple and ordinary and brings out profound truth to it [Applause] an illumination discovery realization or disclosure a revealing scene or moment that is what an epiphany is beyond its original meaning and understanding when we start looking at this epiphonic tight moments it is a divine intervention of god into the normal rhythm of our lives to deliver pertinent information in such a way that our course is disrupted our path is changed and our destination is altered lord we need an epiphany our world is in crisis our nation is in utter chaos we stand on the brink of world war iii china and russia are aligning together and america is moving around nato while we are casually looking at our television sets as if that has nothing to do with us we are naive to the fact that it is the gathering of powers that threaten our existence as we know it and it comes at a time that our nation is the most divided it has ever been in the history of my life anyway that we would find ourselves sending troops after that thought it was just a few months ago we were bringing troops home so before they got used to being home now they are packing up to go back again to go back out there to wrap themselves up in an attempt to create intimidation for further negotiation but that's how wars always start and i hope that we don't but we could end up in world war three i hope that we don't because if we do it would be unlike any other war we've ever had we will not be flying bomber planes not now we will not be doing dropping nuclear bombs not now don't be too disturbed about north korea adoring nuclear bomb because we're having old arguments in new times our greatest threats are not dynamite or nitroglycin glycerin our greatest threats are not nuclear war our greatest threats are cyber attacks are you hearing what i'm saying our greatest threats are bowed chemistry type wars where massive diseases break out and people die it's not about bombs it's about what was alleged to have happened in a recent foreign country where our representatives just started dying through something invisible that was emitted into the air do we not realize that is it possible to fight what we do not see these are testing times there is a certain amount of stress that is accumulated on the human spirit right now not only because we have trouble in our own lives and trouble with our children trouble in our marriages trouble with our debt lows trouble with home ownership trouble with the economy trouble with the changing frontier of of a society that has even more rapidly moved progressively to the detriment of jobs that you and i normally would hold they are deteriorating so much so that the stats say that 40 of african americans will lose their jobs over the next 10 years and fall beneath the poverty line if they do not prepare themselves for a world that is becoming increasingly technically savvy [Music] so all of our jobs are gradually easing away right up under our nose and we don't even know it we go in the airport and we we think that we expedite time by going to machines not reeling like realizing that the machines used to be us and every time you check out your groceries on automated machines and technology those used to be our mothers and daughters and brown mothers and daughters and white mothers and daughters all left jobless and all of our society is starting to drop and as we drop beneath the poverty line anxiety intensifies so the murder rate is going up in every major metropolitan city in the united states the murder rate is exponentially increasing because when people are edgy about the future they look for somebody to execute judgment on racism is on the upswing in this country because violence all because anxiety always needs somebody to blame i noticed in my marriage counseling that marriage couples don't come to you for resolution they come to you to choose who they blame very rarely do you get a couple anymore that wants to work it out they just want you to validate that their perspective is right and he did what he's not telling you is that he did that and that's why i did that the reason i stabbed him with the butcher knife because he's that's what we've come to we're not safe in our own beds shot down in our own beds half the sleep wake up and then they say oops we are living in turbulent times when you take the combination of all of these influences and add the fact that we have more ways to receive communication than we have ever had before it used to be we had to wait for the six o'clock news or the morning paper to find out what happened now your phone is buzzing your your tv is going off 24-hour news cycles if you're smooth from instagram it's on facebook if you move from facebook it's on twitter and you're bombarded with world problems global problem for which you have no power to change and not to mention your child comes in the house bleeding and you got problems with your own children and you're trying to deal with your own issues and national issues and state issues and municipal issues until the heart is overwhelmed what is common in both texts is common in our society today it's the perpetuation of deception the wise men you see were from the east and they were brought by herod to go after jesus that he might worship him but they were deceived the reason that herod deceived them is that herod had set up an empire in judea and he had this dream of being the king of the jews because on his mother's side he was judean but on his father's side he was greek and the jews were not really accepting him as a leader because he was a biracial child and they did not think that their king should be biracial they wanted him to be authentic and a part of the royal davidic dynasty that the scriptures might be fulfilled and he was known for building buildings and and and large coliseums and much of the big humongous buildings that were built in the air were built by herod he was so powerful and so profound that he started a dynasty of successors so that you have to be careful when you read about herod which one are they talking about herod 1 herod 2 herod 3 they go on down the line his children his offspring he created a dynasty over people of which he was only partially related to he was a tyrant as it were because he he was not subject to any committee the sanhedrins and nobody else could control him he had the last say he was boss and if he decided to kill every child under the two they were dead he had this kind of power and he had built these coliseums right down to restoring the second temple that had laid in ruins that is now called herod's temple you read it in your bible and they came to herod's temple this herodious ideology that he has has has become so strong that he pretty much controls the region he reaches out then to these eastern magi that we call wise men because they were stargazers having talked to the prophets the hebrew prophets they knew the messiah was coming but they did not know where he was the reason that herod is concerned about the messiah coming is because he is the king of the jews and now he has competition so if he can kill him early he will knock him off before he becomes a threat note to self whenever the devil knows that you have great destiny he will always seek to knock you off early before you reach the hope of your calling i bet you there are many people in this room that have some childhood story that happened to you early in life because hell saw you coming and thought if i don't pollute her dilute her or destroy her early she will rise to the full potential of power but the bible said no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper and every tongue that rises against you god will condemn i don't want nobody to praise him but people who went through hell when they were young [Applause] you went through hell when you were young you're still recovering from some of the trauma that happened to you when you were a child either it was a disease or it was an abuse or it was a molestation it was something that the enemy did because he saw you coming oh but jump up and down and say but i made it oh you watch it on television you ought to tell god i made it they they had me on the hit list of hell but i made it i made it through i made it through in spite of the deception in spite of the lies in spite of the corruption in spite of those that smiled in my face and stabbed me in the back i made it to where i am in spite of the bad deals in spite of the bad contractors in spite of the house i thought i bought and they sold it out from under me still i made it that's why i know i got the victory i'm not waiting on the victory my standing here is victory i had to hide sometime i had to bow down sometimes i had to sneak through the crowd sometime but by hook or by crook i made it and the reason i'm tenacious and relentless and the reason i'm driven and the reason i'll fight you is i've been fighting since i was a child make some noise if i'm talking to you so let me move on because i'm just in my introduction the wise men thought they were going to find jesus so that they could go back and tell herod where the worship herod thought i have sent them to find him so i can go and kill the right one and i won't have to kill everyone to get to the right one so the wise men were deceived for a while and then the lord spoke to them because what happened to them three things first they were rejoiced when they saw the star because they are astrologists so the stars are like gods and they rejoice when they saw the star but when they saw the sun they wash it there's a difference between being glad and breaking into worship because he is the bright and morning star and when they saw the star they saw a connection between their theology and his identity and they tied into that connection and fell out before him and started worshiping and started giving him gold frankincense and myrrh and to all of you who say jesus were poor you didn't read the text the baby was born with gold frankincense and myrrh he's just a toddler and he's already being given gold frankincense and myrrh and they opened their treasures the bible said and they presented unto him gifts of gold and frank how many babies you know got gold frankincense and myrrh brought to them from eastern kings that's jesus juxtaposed between born in a manger they now find him not in a manger but in the house which means some time has gone by from the manger to the house it took them a while to get there but he got there i don't know who i'm talking to but my next point is god's got something coming your way it's taking a while but it's gonna get there it didn't come while you were in the manger but by the time you get to the house press down shaking together and running over god is going to release everything that's been held up to you and i came to tell you this morning the camels are coming the camels are coming nudge somebody and tell them the camels are coming the camels are coming i might have been born in a manger i might have been born on welfare i might have been born on wick i might have been born off of government chief but the camels are coming i might have been born to illiterate parents but the camels are coming i might have been born on the wrong side of the tracks but the camels are coming and they know exactly where i am and god's going to make sure i get everything i need you need to type on the line the camels are coming the camels the camels the camels are coming the camels are coming and they will find me if you don't find me in the manger you'll find me in the house cause even though but before i got the frankincense and the goal i was moving until somebody said keep it moving you may be broke but keep it moving you may be tired but keep it bro moving you may be frustrated but keep it moving you may be at your wit's end but keep it moving you may be nervous but keep it moving the devil might be talking to you but keep it moving you might have haters all around you but keep it moving they might say they're going to kill you but keep it what is it like about them and the prodigal son is that both the wise men and the prodigal son have been deceived give me the portion of goods that followed to me and he divided unto them his loving living and the prodigal son thought he could handle something that he had not grown up into sometimes there's a reason god doesn't give you what you asked for sooner it's not that your camels are slow is that you're not ready and if you get something that you're not ready for you will lose everything that you got anytime the blessing gets greater than the receiver the receiver will lose the blessing because you don't have the infrastructure to carry the weight of what god is about to place on you it's good that you've been afflicted it's good that you waited it's good that it took time god gave you time to grow up and get yourself together but because the prodigal son was deceived he said i'm ready for it give it to me now i don't know how old he was but the brain doesn't fully develop to understand consequences until the early 20s so he's living in the moment this is where it gets good the problem is we are living in the moment and we don't think about consequences or future everything we get we spin the reason we spin everything we get because we have not thought about the consequences and we are not trained to think about the future because we didn't think we would have one you see slaves didn't live long so your great great great great great grandmother might have been a slave depending on your ethnicity and most slaves didn't live long because when you got old and you couldn't pick cotton or do work you were easily destroyed because the value of your cell went down so we come from generations of generations who glorify youth not age [Music] in africa they glorify age not youth in america they glorify youth not age because we never got old so all the advertisers paid the biggest dollars for the television networks that appeal to the youngest audience because young people spend money old people don't spend money because you got about what you need and you know how to make it and you know how to make doing you know how to survive young people spend a lot of money trying to be fashionable so that they can look blessed and they think if they look blessed they'll have a lot of friends and they have a lot of followers in other words there is power in the fact that it is the younger brother that says give me the portion of goods that followed to me because young people are seeking affirmation [Applause] and for the hunger of affirmation you will open your pocketbook and your legs for the hunger of affirmation i know put your head down pray for me energy for the hunger for affirmation you will praise god in church and then turn around and twerk for for the hunger for affirmation you will be five different people with the same last name because you don't know who you are and whoever gives you a clap you will turn into what they want you to be cause you're a magician you're a magician in church your sister so-and-so but on the internet you buck and betty you're magic you're a magician you go wherever the clap is you go [Applause] wherever the copy is the distinction between the prodigal son and and the magi is the magi had an external source of deception the prodigal son had an internal deception his enemy was inside of him his enemy was the deceptive voice that thought he could handle it that thought give it to me now give me the church now give me the wife now give me the house now give me the position now give me leadership now i got a degree in that give me leadership yeah but you have no experience so you can be degreed for something that you're incompetent at because you have the education for it but you like the experience to be functionary in that area and now they've hired you into a position that you've got a book a bunch of books for but no history with because you have not been taught to appreciate experience we were taught to respect your elders we were taught you didn't say just anything just by virtue of them having gray hair they could be drunk but if they were older than you you handled them with respect because my mama taught me to respect my illness today your children are calling me td and the reason they're okay with calling me td is because they see themselves as an equal not understanding if i didn't learn but one thing a year i know 65 things so we will we will pop our neck and go off on somebody who's 20 years older than us as if we are equals because we are deceived so the younger of them said to his father how dare you say that to me i'm your father you gonna run up on me i'm your father i spat you out i know the younger them said to his father give me the portion of good in other words i can't wait for you to die [Applause] you in my way give it to me now you are not important your stuff is important giving your stuff to hell with you i got to go somewhere because i got some friends to impress [Applause] both the younger son and the wise men were deceived but one of them was deceived from the outside and the other one was deceived from the inside when a person is deceived from the inside it takes a whole lot to bring them to a place [Applause] of breaking when a person is deceived from the inside they think that the world works the way they imagined it and they will bypass every opportunity to better themselves waiting on the world to turn the way they imagined it so they will never be successful and they will become increasingly bitter and frustrated because the world isn't working like you thought it was because you thought you could make it work the way you thought it because you thought it and you never even noticed you were being deceived and we tried to tell you it didn't work like that but you won't hear us because in your mind you are tyrannical you're your own king yo you're kind of going a little bit further you're your own king you don't respect anybody above you you don't respect anybody above your own opinion and there's not much room in your life for god because your opinion has become your god [Applause] so change becomes difficult for you to achieve because you are so intoxicated with how you thought it was going to be that you lost your 20s your 30s and now you're over into your 40s and if you're not careful you'll be in your 50s and the world will have been passing you by buying buildings buying property spreading out land taking over territory moving on the internet working on the metaverse and you'll be stuck in your own skin waiting on it to be like what you had in mind because what you had in mind has become your god my fear for you is that by the time you have an awakening and epiphany you won't have time you won't have time you won't have time but then your knees are going to start to break by then your back is gonna start to swell by then your teeth are gonna start to fall and you won't have time to respond to the epiphany because you need to have the epiphany while you still have the strength to go back another way y'all ain't gonna help me but i'm preaching real good i need to have the strength to go back another way i need to be able to recreate myself but i can't recreate myself because i can't admit i was wrong because i got pride and i'm wrong and when i got pride my pride becomes more important than my progress and when your pride becomes more important than your progress you'll keep the pride at the expense of the progress and never go any further than what you could have gone because you are intoxicated with deception self-deception it's how you decided it was it's the way you want it to work i don't like mornings i'm not getting up in the morning i don't like staying up late at night i'm not staying up late at night but if it requires staying up late at night and you want progress you better get out of the bed if it requires getting up early in the morning you better set an alarm clock because you don't get to change the world to fit your opinion because there are eight billion people on the planet and all of them got opinions [Applause] so our marriages are falling apart because it wasn't what you pictured [Applause] you have deceived yourself into being an expert on something that you have no experience so you don't mind coming out and telling me what a husband ought to be even though you've never been one and you didn't have a daddy but you're an expert on what a man ought to be because you have a spirit of deception or you run up on her and tell her you ain't no kind of mama and you ain't never had a baby and you say her job is easy but you won't do it and you can't be fixed because you are fixated and you are fixated on deception and you won't change so now the father who has everything is at home and the son is at the whole pen let me show you why he's at the hog pin he did not have sustainability he had success without sustainability he got the father's stuff but he didn't get his infrastructure the father is still back home raising cattle growing crops doing business having commerce the sun has run away with the profit but has lost the sustainability so he lost his substance in the feeling of being affirmed because he partied it away but when he ran out of money he ran out of friends and then he discovered they were never friends in the first place and then he found out that money is only money if it is sustainable so you say what i need is for god to send somebody to pay off all the bills who gonna pay off the next batch you are praying for things that don't have sustainability what you need is a cycle and a system that is sustainable but without sustainability you have a moment of jubilation and a lifetime of regret [Music] so the wise men have come down having seen jesus they are now eligible for an epiphany that they couldn't have had worshipping stars and god speaks to them and says something very simple and let me tell you something oh god this is good oh this is so good i i almost want to shout before i tell it you're just a simple statement away from the greatest blessing you ever had in your life it won't be deep it won't be profound it won't be provocative just a simple statement the simple statement was go home another way who am i preaching to this morning i feel like i'm talking to somebody i feel like i'm talking right to somebody i feel like i'm speaking right to somebody the spirit of the living god told me to tell you that there's another way to live your life and until you humble down to the point that you become open to another way you will be vulnerable to the hatred of herod because you lack the flexibility to do the same thing another way [Applause] and if you don't learn another way you will lose your opportunity and worse still you have lost so much time being stubborn and set in your way and insisting on it being the way you want it to be you have lost so much time you have let me let me let me get back let me get on track uh you you you you you have lost so much time because you don't value spiritual things like epiphanies [Applause] you're not asking god for an epiphany because if you get an epiphany you might have to admit you was wrong you're not asking god for an epiphany because you have to be strong enough to change and because you refuse to change you don't want an epiphany you want god to fund your dysfunction [Applause] oh god oh god i feel the holy ghost coming up in this place it's coming like a flood see everybody in your life you have manipulated to fund your dysfunction and now you call yourself spiritual and now when you pray only thing you want from god is to capitalize your craziness an epiphany is an awakening and epiphany is the sunrise and epiphany is seen clearly now and epiphany is admitting i see trees as men and men as trees and epiphany is coming to grips with the fact that i don't see it right [Applause] [Music] and in order to do that you have to be willing to come down off of your high horse and to understand listen to this that you could live your life another way absolutely that if you're miserable you don't have to be that if you're secretly depressed you don't have to be that if things are driving you crazy they don't have to it's a matter of choice there is more than one way back home you could go back another way now i know you weren't gonna shout when i got to this because the onus and the responsibility is on you you shout when the onus is on god order my steps lord order my steps because that absolves you from the responsibility of making a great decision and it takes away from you the joyful experience of murmuring and complaining about what you don't like about life rather than taking responsibility and making a change give me 30 seconds of crazy praise yeah yeah yeah come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on for every problem in your life for every worry in your life for every stress point in your life there is an epiphany and the reason you don't have one is you never ask for one because you think that you're gonna think of something that's smart enough to straighten it out or you won't argue till it becomes the way you want it to be or you're gonna stay out the game till they change the game and finally admit you're right you're a fool they're not gonna stop for you they don't stop when you're born they don't stop when you die they don't stop when you have a car wreck they don't stop when you have cancer what in the world made you think that the world was going to stop till it all lined up with you we didn't raise you right let's go back let's rewind the tape and let's start this over and get you from the crib and let you know that you are not the boss of the planet you don't control the business climate you don't control the world you don't control the universe and frankly you ain't doing a good job of controlling you come on and as soon as you accept that fact you become eligible to have an opportunity at what jesus came to do jesus didn't come that you might have more church he said i come that you might have more life and have life more abundant life there's an abundant life waiting on you anybody want abundant life make some noise in this place i want abundant life i don't care what you call it you can call it baptist you can call it method you call it i don't care what you call it the only reason i'm here this morning is i'm after abundant life make some noise if you want abundant life [Applause] yeah yeah yeah i've been on better i've been on better i've been on better i've been on better i've been on better i've been on better nudge five people saying i've been better i've been on better i've been on better that's why i'm at church that's why i clapped my hand that's why i raised my hand that's why i'm studying my word that's why i'm taking night classes that's why i'm going back to school i've been doing better i've been doing better that's why i don't say everything i say that's why i don't speak every time i'm mad that's why i hold my peace when my temper is trying to make me fly cause i'm bent on better and when i say too much i mess myself up and i don't have time to take another lap around the same old stuff again i gotta have better and i need it now it's my money and i need it now it's my wisdom and i need it now it's my victory and i need it now it's my power and i need it now and if i got a friend in the house that feels the same way make some noise in this place [Applause] [Music] oh my god oh my god oh my god he sent him from the north the south the east and the west so he could tell you come to yourself [Music] don't go to them come to yourself don't try to morph into the culture come to yourself the victory isn't in becoming more like them the victory isn't coming to yourself and the bible said he was surrounded by pigs but he came to himself somebody better grab my coattail because i feel like preaching this word there's power in the word of god the bible said he came to himself he made an internal journey he made a change in his spirit he moved without moving he didn't start the car but he went on a trip and he came to himself not somebody said i gotta come to myself i gotta come to myself i gotta come to myself i gotta come to myself if i come to myself i can get out of this if i come to myself the devil can't stop me if i come to myself i can reach my goal if i come to myself i can get a breakthrough somebody helped me shout i feel like running i feel like leaving i feel like rejoicing i need 10 young people better jump out of the age and give god a praise in the aisle [Applause] you don't hear me i'm too old to dance like i used to dance but i need to borrow the legs of 10 young people that'll leap out in the aisle and praise god for an epiphany praise god for an awakening praise god for breakthrough praise god for an illumination praise god for it right now put your hands together and pray i can see clearly now the rain is gone i can see clearly now the curse is gone i can see clearly now the abuse is gone i can see clearly now the pain is gone i can see clearly now the ego is gone i can see clearly now i can see clearly now he came to himself [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and he said i got the plant but i left the source [Music] i got the plant but i left the sauce i got the fish but i left the water i got the blessing but i left the blesser absolutely i got the healing but i left the healer i ran off with the stuff without the source i will arise this is what an epiphany will do for you when you're surrounded by pigs if you want to know who you are show me who you hang out with when you're surrounded by pigs and you know you're with him but you're not really one of them oh i gotta stop right there just a minute there's a lot of people you run with that you are not one of them but because they accept you you're a prince hanging out with a pig and of course the pig needs you [Applause] and of course the pig likes you and of course the pig makes you feel important it's a pig it's got nothing to lose [Music] you're a prince in a field of pigs there's something wrong with it [Applause] anytime you seek the lowest and not the highest anytime you feel more comfortable with less than you do with more with down instead of up time you will not give yourself permission to get up and instead lay in the hog pin of a bed full of excuses and a butt pack with mud mats around your head flies all in your hair and you're a child of the king [Applause] glory to god promotion glory to god glory to god you're a child of the king you're not a pig you're a child of the king and the moment he had a the first thing he said even before he said anything about his father is i will arise not somebody tell him i'm getting up out of this [Music] [Applause] just because it comforts me does not mean it compels me often what comforts us does not compel us because what comforts us requires nothing of us the pigs ask nothing of him [Applause] and so he could lay with the piece and would feign have filled his belly with the corn husk that the swine did eat we don't even eat corn husk ain't a person in this room cook corn husk he wanted to fill his belly with the leftovers with what the pigs left [Music] and the first thing he realizes i can't go till i get up so watch this brothers oh it feels so good it feels like family all in the room he makes a decision i don't think there's anything as powerful as a decision a decision is one of god's great gifts he gave to men he didn't give it to chickens he didn't give it to goats he didn't give it to apes he didn't give it to snakes he gave it to us the power to make a decision the i will shunto that i will is our answer to god's i am [Applause] i will arise and instead of waiting on my father to come to me because some of you are i ain't gonna forgive him till he comes to me i'm not gonna take it till it come to me i'm not gonna change till they come to me you gonna die with pigs because you need an epiphany he says i will arise and go to my father's house and this is watch this watch it i ain't going back talking about if i did anything to offend you [Music] he took complete responsibility for what he did long may you live we preach together we preach together me and you we preach together i should put your face on my table we preach together he comes in and he says i am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as a hired servant because ever since i had an epiphany i miss what i left so bad that i would rather be a servant in your house a slave in your house is better than a free man lost when i was thinking about it jackie i thought about how hager got smart with sarah [Applause] she the slave she got smart with with the woman of the house packed her stuff and ran out into the desert thinking because she was around greatness that she had become greatness some folks you can't let around you because they can't handle being around you because they start thinking it's them and the arrogance oh god i'm preaching this morning i believe i'm gonna get this cd myself the arrogance the arrogance time god can't let you in the room because you can't handle the room hangar gets in the room with greatness and she can't handle it now she's telling her boss off are you a fool now she didn't got out in the desert left her job went out in the desert with her baby and almost died and god told her go back to your mistress sarai because i have put your provision in her house [Applause] can you imagine hager having to go back and say uh uh i know i slammed the door and walked out and i didn't give a notice and quit and ran off and uh but uh the lord gave me an epiphany and and i uh i i wanted to come back and can i wash your sheets for you and set out the tables for you see how humble you got to be to make a change to make a change do you see how much crow you got to eat when you that showed off and walked away good one that god hadn't provided for her but he provided for her in sarai's house that doesn't mean he'll provide for you in the desert the provision was conditional on the place always if you leave the place you lose the provision am i saying anything worthwhile so i'ma wrap up with this he said make me one of your hired servants his father ran out there and kissed his neck and hugged him and he stayed and that's in his hair and flies are all around him and he's got manure between his toes and he smells like a pig and there was no hotel to shower him before he got back home and he's been walking for miles to get back and he's sweaty and he's musty and he's smelly and he's broken and he's wounded but he's my son absolutely do you know god loves you like that that he'll take you [Applause] he's he's my son and and the son says daddy look i i don't expect things to be like it was step two don't come back expecting things to be like it was after you have proven to be unfaithful don't come back and expect everything to be normal he said i don't expect it to be like it was it might be normal but don't you demand it because before you make demands be sure you're in demand come on with this come on with this come on with this so so he said make me a hired servant make me a hiring shirt even though i'm related to you even though i got your nose and your lips and stuff and i got my grandmama's forehead and my grandfather's ears i like like i'm not related and work for you like a servant if you let me back because there's something about being in the right place john dobb of course if there's some if there wasn't something about being the right place you wouldn't be here this morning there's something about being in the right place that provokes a blessing and he went back home and his father said told the servants he he told the servants he told the servants the father told the servant the whole man was loaded the father told the servants the boy had been talking to pigs the father is talking to servants he said bring bring the robe and put it on it covered up everything he had done wrong [Applause] put the ring on his finger the ring was the family crest that identified him as one of them you don't belong out there with them you belong with us you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 630,079

Keywords: td jakes, faith, wtal, woman thou are loosed, megafest, potters house, bishop jakes, pastors and leadership, pastors, leaders, instinctbishops, village, using faith for others, not letting pride get in the way

Id: fI_5IlFT5uY

Length: 73min 42sec (4422 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 06 2022