Bishop TD Jakes - Hit The Spot

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Luke, chapter nineteen, verse one through ten in the NIV,
and it reads as follows. Jesus entered Jericho and was
passing through a man that was there, a boy the
name of Zachius. He was a chief tax collector and
was wealthy. He wanted to see He wanted to see

(00:37):
who Jesus was. But because he was short, he was what.
Because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
So he ran ahead.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And climbed the sycamore fig tree to see him, since
Jesus was coming that way. Oh, do you believe Jesus
is coming your way? This next part of the aclause
of a sentence possessed me. When Jesus reached the spot,

(01:22):
that's it, right there. When Jesus reached the spot, zach
he has had already gotten there. But when Jesus reached
the spot, he looked up and said to him, come
down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So

(01:52):
he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
All the people saw this and began to mutter, he
has gone to be the guest of a sinner.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
But zik he has stood up and said to the lord, look, Lord,
here and now I give half of my possessions to
the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,
I will pay back four times the amount Jesus said
to him. Today, salvation has come to this house because

(02:34):
this man too is a son of Abraham. For the
son of Man came to seek and to save the loss.
Can you say, man, take me back up to the
third verse, please? No five, Verse five, when Jesus reach

(03:04):
the spot. My Sunday this morning is simply hit the spot.
Whatever you got to do, whatever you got to crawl through,
whatever you got to cry through, whatever you got to
pray through, whatever you got to endure. Whoever's got to
hate on you, who having the spies you have it
turned against you. None of that is going to matter.

(03:25):
As long as you hit the spot. You will not
spend the rest of your life nor legacy talking about
the obstacles that got in between you and the spot.
If you hit the spot, you will forget the struggle
that proceeded the spot. Somebody in here has been commissioned
by the Holy Spirit. Somebody watching online has been commissioned

(03:46):
by the Holy Spirit to hit the spot. Somebody shot
hit the spot on your way down to you see.
Tell your neighbor, I got to hit the spot. Holy
Spirit speak in this place today rightifire yourself, establish yourself,
extend yourself, magnify yourself, electrify, illuminate, declare yourself in such

(04:09):
a dynamic way that we are left all by the
presence of glory. I thank you in advance for what
you're about to do. I believe you, Oh God, to
have your way. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Doctor
Maya Angelo, who is known to have quoted this statement,
which has become a household reflection of some of the

(04:30):
many granular wisdom thoughts that she left as grains of
sand in time that extend beyond death. She says, when
a person tells you who they are, believe them. And
this grain of wisdom is quite profound and quite prolific.

(04:53):
It is quite impactful. It helps us to understand the
sociological impact that we have dealing with people, the psychology
behind people. To understand that when a person tells you
who they are, to believe them, not to argue with them,
not to be have such a Messiah complex that you

(05:13):
are trying to turn water into wine. Leave that for Jesus.
It is what it is. You will notice the enemy
tempted Jesus to turn the rock to bread. But if
it's a rock, it's a rock. And some of us
are bent on turning people into what we want them
to be, rather than to accept them as they are.

(05:37):
So doctor Angelou concluded, when people tell us who they are,
believe them. The reality, however, is most people don't know
who they are. So it is not that you meet
people so often who have a definitive that describes accurately

(05:57):
and profoundly who is, But rather, in fact you have
most people who have a question, not an exclamation point
over their head, because they are uncertain about who they are.
They're not foolish or ignorant, simply evolving, simply transforming, simply

(06:17):
vessels of clay spinning on a wheel touched by a
master who it does.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Not yet appear what they shall be.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
And so when we ask them who they are, it
becomes difficult for them to define who they are, because
they are yet becoming. The process of yet becoming is
very important. The process is more important than the product,
because if the process is not comprehensive, the product will

(06:49):
be fragile and broken. We race to the finished product,
but we don't have a great appreciation for the process.
I personally believe one of the reasons that it became
difficult for Adam to withstand the temptation that Eve offered
to him is that Adam was created, grown. And any

(07:17):
time you are thrust into something without process, you like
the ability to be able to manage what has been
given to you, because it is in fact the process
itself that helps to teach you how to manage what
has been given to you thrust upon you. He was

(07:38):
born a man. Being born a baby and evolving to
a toddler and becoming a young person and ultimately going
through adolescence is a part of your development that helps
you to self discover who you are. But to be
shaped out of clay and blown a breath of life
into and wake up a man, and wake up a husband,

(08:03):
and wake up a father is a lot to thrust
on somebody who was a lump of clay a moment
of God. And yet there are some people in this
room that will be thrust into areas that do not
reflect your background, and it will be difficult to withstand

(08:23):
the very thing you ask God to do, because you
ask God for.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
The product, not the process.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
And many times God will oblige you and allow you
to have the product without the process, and you don't
realize that it is in fact the process that prepares
you to withstand the weight, the pain, and the agony
of the product itself. I submit for your consideration that
eighty percent of people who hit the lottery go broke

(08:53):
in two years. They go broke in two years because
they are thrust into a life style for which their
life has not been built up to. They don't have
the right attorneys, they don't have the right pr people,
they don't have the right accountants, they don't have the
right relationships. The accruitiments that access arize the level of

(09:13):
grandeur to which they have been lifted. So there they
are with a Bill Gates wallet and a Joe Pools
Hall mentality. It is better to enter into a thing gradually.
So the first man, Adam was born a man. The

(09:36):
second man, Adam was born of a virgin. And look
at how much better he did with temptation because he
went through process. He was born of a virgin, He
lived in a manger, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes.
He confounded the doctors and lawyers. At twelve years old,

(09:57):
he drops out of sight for eighteen years because real
greatness must be incubated in isolation. I said, real greatness
must be incubated in isolation. You you don't want the
spotlight to hit you while you are yet evolving, because

(10:19):
the critics will kill you before you become who God
wants you to be. So sometimes God will hide your
eighteen years of confusion about who I am until you
come to some conclusion about who you are, and then
bring you back into the spotlight. Tina Turner was better

(10:39):
on her second round than she was her first round
because she had time to incubate for a moment in obscurity.
To sort through the linen of her marriage and her
life and her trials and her failures.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Requires privacy for reflection.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
What I exult before you is not the promise, but
the wilderness.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
It is not the mandrakes.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
It is not the milk and honey that I came
to preach to you about. It is the significance of
the wilderness. The isolation, the frustration, the murmuring, the complaining,
the times that you feel like throwing up your hands
and walking away, Those are the times that prepared you
for the promised land. And if you don't have that preparation,

(11:27):
you won't be able to fight off the amorhites a hittite, cigevisites,
cigarret sites, and all the things that go along with
what you have been placed into. D Indr says it
like this, Slow down, baby, you move into fast. You
got your hands on the wheel and the foot on

(11:48):
the gas. You're about to wreck your future running from
your past. Slow down, baby, you're moving too fast.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Now. Slow down.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Messages are not easy to preach because people like right
now messages, immediately, straightway, suddenly messaged. But the reality is,
in order to have something that lasts a lifetime, you have.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
To slow down.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Sudden decisions are not good decisions. Sudden decisions are often
built off of emotionalism, and then when the emotion the
changes the decision it's made, and all you're left with
regret and pain and agony. I bring all of this
before you today because finding out who you are it

(12:37):
takes time. It takes a long time. Because somebody asks
you who you are at fifteen is a completely different
answer from who you are at twenty five. And then
somebody comes along and asks you at forty two who
you are, and you want to cancel everything you said
about twenty five because you are yet becoming. It takes

(12:57):
you a long time to really be able to answer
that question. And at the risk of disagreeing with doctor Angelou,
please don't tell me too fast who you are, because
I might believe it, and then my belief would imprison
you to who you were. It's okay to say I

(13:22):
don't know yet. I'm becoming, I'm developing. I'm not sure
of who I am. It's okay to say I'm still
on a journey. I want to give you language that
describes confusion, in completeness, isolation, and wandering. You can just

(13:45):
say I'm still on a journey. I'm still becoming, I'm
still evolving. I'm on the road to greatness. I'm on
the road to wisdom. I'm on the road to victory.
I'm on the road to mastery. I'm not on Maestro yet,
but I'm on the road to becoming. I'm not proposial yet,

(14:08):
but I'm on the road to be coming, and I'm
satisfied to be on the road. Anybody okay with not
being finished? Because if you are not okay with not
being finished. You will torment yourself trying to be what
you are, not to live up to an image that

(14:29):
if you are not satisfied with being on the road,
you will build camouflage to cover your imperfections so that
you will appear to be further along than you are.
If you are not willing to be on the road,
you will spend too much money on bling to look

(14:51):
like the room you're in and not have the experience
and the language to communicate in the room you in.
Just because you can bub real sou doesn't make you
have a PhD. You have to learn how to give
yourself time to evolve. I take the time to set
it up this way, because what is There are many

(15:13):
things that are distinctive to me about this text. I
think we have done Zakis a disservice because the Keith's
sermon should at least be preached as much as a
woman with the issue of blood. He is in the
same straits. He is rejected by his people, he is
ostracized by his own, he is alienated and regulated to

(15:36):
a group of people that has earned the ire of
his peers. And yet he would see Jesus. He's in
the same situation because Jesus does not come to see him.
He goes to see Jesus. He's in the same situation
because he has suppressed his way through the crowd in

(15:57):
the hopes of getting in the path of Jesus that
he might receive something meaningful that is life changing. And
we hardly have a talk about Zachis at all. And
I want to bring it to light this morning and
talk to you just a moment or two about za kids,
because everything important that happened to Zachis happen on the road. Now,

(16:24):
let us put the text in context. Jesus is himself
on a journey. He is on a death march to
a cross. He's on a death march to an execution.
He is on a death march to have everything that
he has taught put on trial by the nails in
his hands and in his feet and the piercing of

(16:47):
his side. And now we have to prove what we've
been preaching all of this time, and he's marching toward it,
perhaps with some anxiety, with some trepidation, with some some resentment.
Perhaps there is some turmoil. Get that from me. Perhaps
there is some turmoil going on in his life because

(17:09):
Jesus has to grupple with the fact that the only
way he can validate who he is is to.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Become more vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
And anytime you have to become more vulnerable to be successful,
it becomes more difficult because we are much better at
camouflaging vulnerability than allowing our vulnerability to become the canvas
of which greatness has shown on. Because you have to
be strong to be weak. See, little people can't let

(17:48):
themselves be weak.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
You have to be.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Strong enough to lay your armor down to know that
if I lay it down, I can take it back
up again. You have to be confident enough in who
you are are in order to be nice to people
that have been nasty, because you know you didn't lose
anything by being nice to them. Little people can't be
nice to nasty people. They have to get even because

(18:12):
they are so little that they don't want you to
see their littleness. So they dress up in their daddy's
shoes and their daddy's clothes and they walk around like
they're important. But just because you got your daddy's shoes
on doesn't make you anything but a five year old
with a ten foot stwo with a ten size ten
shoe on. It doesn't even fit your foot, but you're

(18:34):
wearing it because you want to camouflage your vulnerability. Jesus
is on the road, unlike any other road that we
will ever see him on. It kind of reminds me
of David being on the road back to bill to
establish his kingdom after he has taken Judah. Now after Israel.

(18:57):
He is on the road. The trouble happens on the
road road as it reaches out and touches to the
ark of the Covenant, and he dies, and the trouble
happens on the road, and David is delayed for three
months out of frustration. Because the trouble happens on the road.
You don't have to remember the Bible story. Just remember
that the trouble happens on the road. Every trouble happens

(19:19):
on the road. The woman with is your Blood was
trouble happening on the road. Blind Bartimaeus was trouble happening
on the road. The trouble happens on the road. Once
you get to a steady place, a safe place, you
get to a place of resoluteness and confidence.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
But while you are in.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Transition, all hell breaks loose, all kind of termil breaks loose,
all kind of inner pain and insecurity breaks through, and
all of a sudden, you have to grumple with who
you present yourself to be while you are resting with

(20:00):
who you are now. I know you can't afford to
say men to this, because you cannot afford to let
anybody know that there is any contradiction between what you
have presented and what you represent. When the lights are
out and the crowd is gone and the people have
gone away, I know you can't let anybody know on

(20:22):
your job, all the different voices that are talking on
your shoulder while you go into work. I know when
you walk in the office, you're going to walk in
with total confidence, and nobody will ever realize that you
were scared to death of the promotion that God gave you.
And I also know that you will secretly resent them

(20:42):
for not comforting what you couldn't even show them. I
know your marriages will implode because your real self starved
to death while your companion fared your faith self. I

(21:03):
know that loneliness exists no matter how many people around,
because it doesn't matter how many people are around you,
as long as they're around you and they.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Don't know who you really are.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
We are only comforted when we are transparent, when we
find the kinds of relationships with which we can be authentic,
and we can be real, and we can be who
we are. And it needed to be okay. Now. I
don't know if you can handle this, but it needed
to be okay for Jesus to be worried. He couldn't

(21:36):
show Matthew and Bartholomew or Judas or any of the
rest of them, but he needed to be able to
go in the garden to Gatsimone and wrestle with himself
a little bit and say, you know what, I love you, daddy,
But I don't know about this cross thing. I don't
know whether I want to do this now. If it be,
I will pass this bitter cup away from me. You

(21:56):
can't take everybody into transparency. Only a few people can
handle who you really are and respect your ability to
produce real miracles. But Jesus had the benefit of growing
up grown in the spirit, but growing in his humanity,

(22:18):
full of God in the spirit, but growing like a
child in a manger, nursing at his mother's breast, playing games,
And it was hard for him to be understood because
they kept saying, is not this the carpenter's son, the
hardest placed to flourishes in the place where you grew up.

(22:43):
You ain't got to say nothing. The people you grew
up with know too much, they remember too much, they
seemed too much, and they start saying things like I
knew you when I knew you where, I knew you how,
And they can't know you now because they're still stuck
on win.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Sa.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Jesus is on the road to fight with the angel
of Death to rip the sting out of its pall
the victory away from the grave. This is not a
time that he needs distraction, because he is headed toward

(23:31):
the cross. Everybody in here has had their crosses. It's
hard to be pleasant and polite when you're headed for
a cross. Is hard to be congenial and mannerable when
you're headed for a cross. Is hard to be compassionate
and giving when you're headed for a cross, because it

(23:54):
is natural to do reflection of can I handle not
the crown? But can I handle the cross that creates
the crown? Meanwhile, zach Kiss the Bible takes the rare

(24:22):
occasion to tell us that he is short. Why does
a Bible who seldom describes the height of its characters

(24:43):
take the time to point out to us that he
was short. It doesn't say that about many other characters.
The only one I can think of off the top
of my head is that Saul was tall. He was
a head and shoulders above other men. But as a rule,
the Bible doesn't tell us about the physical characteristics of

(25:05):
the character, especially this one off mention of Zachias.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Why was it important that he was short?

Speaker 1 (25:15):
And I assume that if you are a short man,
you are a short child. And having been a child myself,
it is a disadvantage to grow up around other kids.
When you are shorter than them. You are more apt
to be bullied, more apt to be picked on, more
apt to be ostracized, more apt to be criticized, more

(25:38):
apt to go home crying to your mama, more apt
to go home with scars and bruises because you are.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Short.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
So we must then understand that what we call the
Napoleon spirit is a derivative of the anger that mounts
into the victim after they have become weary of being short.
They're attacked with severity they're shown you don't like them,

(26:11):
you come up on me. I'm not gonna have you.
You don't know who you feel. I know if you
don't live union. Zach Kiss is short, so we know
about his height, and we know about his job. He

(26:33):
is neither he Brew enough or Jewish enough to be
embraced by his brethren because both culturally and spiritually, he.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Is an outcast. Bear with me, I'm going somewhere.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
He is an outcast because he is a tax collector.
Not at first you will compare that to working with
the rs, but you have to realize that he is
not collecting for the Jewish nation. He is collecting for
the Roman Empire. So he is a flunky. Let me
break it down into an African American colloquialism. He's an

(27:14):
Uncle Tom. He's a big old Uncle Tom who has
gotten rich from ripping off and exploiting and exposing his people.
So he has no hiding place amongst his people. And

(27:35):
he is rejected from the Romans because no matter how
good you try to act, you still not one of us.
And he was short. Watch out for people that nobody likes.

(28:07):
Watch out for people that have been lucked out of
the click and lucked out of the group and locked
out of the club. Watch out for people that are
misfit misplaced people. I know they got some problems, but
when they get the problems worked out, God is going
to do amazing things in their life. Are there any
people in the room. I want to talk to some

(28:28):
people in the room that have never been able to
fit nowhere, at no time with nobody. No matter what
you did, no matter what you wore, no matter how
you change yourself, you still didn't fit. And you had
to learn how to be cool with being a misfit,

(28:49):
a short tax collector. He cannot reap the benefits of
the camaraderie that comes along with being the oppressed, nor
can he have the fraternity of being the oppressor. In

(29:10):
other words, he can't go to the country club, and
he's not accepted at the barbershop, and he was short.

(29:31):
Any short people in the room vertically childlengesh feople. The
truth of the matter is everybody should have put the
head up because the Bible said I all have sin,
and come, yeah, all have sin, All have sin. Rich folks, folks,

(29:59):
well dressed folk, white folks, black folk, brown folk, Canadian
folk American folk, Nigerian folk, Brhdian folk, pau have sin
and come short, and he was short. I want to
talk to some people who can admit.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I come up short.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I come up short as a Christian. I come up
short as a preacher. I come up short as a mother.
I come up short as a father. I come up
short in my life. I come up short as a professional.
And I'm doing the best I can with what I
got because every day I gotta deal with the fact

(30:44):
that I am I had to fight harder because I
was short. I had to fight longer because I was short.
I had to do what I had to do to compensate,

(31:11):
to compensate for the nagging, knowing reality that I am short.
I'm married, but I'm short. I'm gonna mess with you
a little bit. I'm a mother, but I'm short, and
I deal with the guilt of being short. And I

(31:32):
have a dream, and I have a goal, and I
have a vision, but I'm short. And the worst part
about being short is I thought, maybe if I wear
these heels, or maybe if I stood up on a
step ladder, or maybe if I climb up on a rooftop,

(31:54):
or maybe if I climb up a tree. Maybe you
won't notice that I'm short because we spent our lives
trying to hide our vulnerabilities. So he was short, so

(32:15):
he was rich. There is a correlation between short and rich.
If I don't excel at this, at least I excel
at that, or y'all ain't gonna help me. See, I'm
trying to tell you that, so oftentimes what drives you

(32:38):
to be the most successful, it's the terror of being short.
I'm trying to tell you what makes us need to
compensate for our inadequacies is the awareness that if you
saw who I really was, you wouldn't like me. And

(33:00):
so I bought all of this stuff so you wouldn't
see that I'm short. Now I have to live with
the contradiction of I'm powerful but i'm short. I'm connected

(33:23):
but i'm short, I'm wealthy but I'm short, And I
can't make either truth go away. I can't stop being
rich and powerful, and I can't stop being short. Can
I talk to some people this morning that are living

(33:45):
with contradictions that you can't talk to anybody about because
deep down, on the inside, they talk about how great
you are, but you go home with how short. Come on,
where are my short people? Make some? Where my short people?
We are my short people? Who are my short people?
Where are my short people?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Make some?

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Now? I want to talk to some short people. You
might be seven ft two, but you're still short. You
might be six foot eight, but you're still short. You
may have more degrees than a thermometer, but you're still short.
In fact, that may be why you got the degree.
Because if I get enough degrees, maybe you won't see.

(34:32):
Oh y'all don't want to talk to me, let me quit.
Maybe you won't see where am my real people at?
I want some real people. I need about three thousand
real people that'll take thirty seconds and praise him in
spite of your shortness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They can come
out of the choir, they can come out of the musicians,

(34:54):
they can come out of the bag, they can come
out of security. But I need about three thousand people
who knew the odds were against him, and in spite
of your shortness, God bless you to make it anyway,
make some noise in this place. See all of you

(35:25):
people that can't clap about being short. You just proved
how short you are because your ego won't allow you
to even admit in a church that you are short.
But your wife knows it, your children know it, your
best friend knows it, and you just a liear trying
to act like you not short. So I'm gonna give

(35:47):
you a repentance moment. All the short people give God
a praise.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Why yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
YEAHS three people are telling them. I come up short.
I come up short. I come up short. I come
up short. I come up short. I come up short
at the banks. I come up short with compassion. I
come up short with empathy. I come up short with patience.
I come up short with longevity. I come up short

(36:39):
with loyalty. Somewhere in my life I come up short.
So I dress up more, so I stand up more so.
I bought me a boat, so I got me a god.
So I tried to be more to sting with. So
I try to be more intellect sort because I don't
want you to see.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
That I'm shut. And the Bible has told me that
I have sin.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
And come short. I wish i'd have known it was
all of us. I thought it was just me, And
as long as I thought it was just me. I
kind of hated me, and I prayed to be like you.
And then I met you and found out you short too.
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,
come on, come on, come on. I met you and

(37:33):
find out you short too, and find out you were
short too. Is what helped me with me, because as
I found out how short you were, I found out
I wasn't as weird as I thought I was. Maybe
there is no such thing as normal. Maybe we're on
the Wizard of Ours and we off to see the
Wizard the wonder of a war.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Of all because all of us are.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
I'm tired of counseling husbands and wives who always want
to tell me how short the spouse is.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
And never admit that you shot too.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
You are proficient at measuring the wrong person. Take out
your yardstick and measure yourself. You shut too. That's why
y'all got together, y'all too short people, too messed up,
crazy people, too radical people. I saw something on the

(38:55):
TV the other day and they said, you want of
you is an introvert and quiet, and the other one
is crazy. Which one of you? Are you the crazy
one or the quiet one? One way or the other
we'd come up. He was shot, he had a wicked job,

(39:22):
he was sociologically deprived, he was, no doubt psychologically introvided.
He's wrestling with who he is.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Buddy, had.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Look at him. Tell somebody and then tell him I
heard something. I know you don't want nobody to know
you a gossiper, but everybody in here gossips a little bit,
telling him I heard something.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I heard something. I heard.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
I heard I heard I heard it through the break by,
and I heard I heard that.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
I heard that.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
I heard that Jesus was passing by. Watch this, your
shum boy, Glory to God. Watch this this road he's on,
it's the Jesus Roads. It's leading to Jerusalem, and it

(40:18):
has a traffic flow. And he decides, I may be short,
and I may be rejected, and I may be ostracized,
but I'm gonna get in the flow. Somebody in this room,
you're still not perfect, You're still wrestling with stuff, you're
still trying to figure it out. But at least you're
on the right road. Come on, come on, give him

(40:43):
a praise. If you're on the right road. I'm on
the right road. I'm on the right road. I may
be short, but I ain't deaf. I may be short,
but I heard Jesus was passing by, and if I
can find the right spot, I need a spot. I

(41:07):
need a spot. Ya hot. I'm trying to find a
spot where shortness don't matter. That's why worship has become
so popular in the modern church today, because nobody measures
the height of the worshiper. You can be high, you

(41:28):
can be law, you can be rich, you can be poor,
But if you open your mouth and start praising God,
nobody measures the height of the worshiper. And that's why
when we say worship, you get all kind of people worshiped.
People who've been fasting, people who've been praying, people who've
been partying, people who've been getting along, people who haven't

(41:50):
been getting a law can get sucked up in the
worship because worship makes something difference between where I wanna
be and where jim me thirty seconds of worship, come on.

(42:15):
I understand, I understand, I understand. I understand. Some of
y'all can't worship because you're too dignified. And that's okay,
go ahead and be dignified. But see when you short,
you get bullied. But when you worship, you get help.
For the Bible said that the Angel of the Lord
and camp about them to fear him. And if you

(42:37):
feel in kind of short this morning, you need to
open your mouth and give God some pass until the
angels come and stand by your side. Yeah, I'm short,

(42:59):
but I can praise him. I'm short, but I can
clup my hands. I'm short, but I can lift him up.
I'm not there yet, but I can give God the glory.
I haven't accomplished everything, but I still know.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
How to praise it.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
I count on myself if I apprehended, but I still
give him the glory. Don't let the suit fool you.
I will break how they're praise, sir. Don't let the
head no fool you. I will praise the Lord. In fact,
I got the praising because I know I'm short, and
if I don't praise him, I can't get high enough

(43:35):
to be recognized.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
But when I oh, I'm gonna quit.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
When I hide. Beginning though, when I just begin to
give God the praise, I start standing up. Paul. Somebody
stand up Paul and give him a praise and praise.

(44:26):
Something's happening to you just because you're in the floor,
just because you're in the floor, just because you're on
the right road, just because you're in the right direction,
just because Jesus is coming your way.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Can I tell you to tell.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Somebody Jesus is coming your way. You may not see
him right now, but he's coming your way. He's headed
in your direction. He's coming up your street. He's coming
into your circumstance. He's coming into your situation. He's coming
into your circumstance. He's coming into your dilemma. If you

(45:02):
just stand still and wait on the Lord, somebody's spent
around Jesus. It's coming your way. He's coming into your storm.
He's coming into your pain. He's coming into your shortness.
He's coming into your crisis. Oh here he comes, he said,

(45:32):
there of Alita. Oh here he comes. He's a del belita.
Oh here he comes. I got a prophetic word for somebody.
Oh here he comes. You've been trying to fight this
about yourself, but oh here he comes.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Oh here he comes. Oh here he comes.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Don't run, don't d don't hide, don't gods, just wait
on him.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Because you're in the floor. You're in the floor.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
They're the flow in the spirit, the Bible is call
the Holy Spirit a flow of living water. And if
you get in the floor, it will change your life.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
For the next land.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Of this message, I need a thousand people that are
getting the floor. You may be dirty, naven, but get
in the flow. You may have leprosy, but get in
the flow. You may be blind, but get in the flow.
Because if they're be any healing, if they're be any healing,

(46:57):
it's not gonna come because of how tall you are.
It's gonna come because you got in the flow. See,
zach he Is was hated. They called him a sinner.
He worked for the Romans. He ripped off the Jews.

(47:20):
The Jews hated him, the Romans didn't respect him.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
And he was short. See, but he got in the flow.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Sometimes God doesn't bless you because of how gifted or
talent or intellectual or smart you are. You just happen.
You just happened to get in the flow. You didn't
get that job because you were the most qualified. You
just happened to get in the flow. And if you

(47:57):
get in the flow, for Jesus is passing by, something
amazing is gonna happen in your life. That's why I
can't go to church with people who are trying to
be cute, because cute can't heal cancer. But if I
can get in the floor, God will open up the

(48:18):
windows of a heaven and pour me out of blessing her.
I won't to have role to receive it. If there's
anybody in this room that needs some miracle, get in
the floor. So let me hear, Let me hear it,

(48:38):
let me hear. Sit down, because you'll make me. You'll
make me. You will make me holler. And if you
make me holler, you will make me run. As you
make you run, you will make you shock. If you
make me shot, you will make me holler. Because I
don't mind hollering because I'm short. And if God is

(49:00):
gonna get my attention, I gotta do something radical. I'm
too short to be cool. I gotta do something radical
to get God's attention.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
The shy yes, and so.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
The story goes that the short man found a tall tree.
There is a way out of this for you. You
just gotta find a tall tree.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
And the Bible.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Said that this rich man climbed the tree. Let me
tell you something that rich folk don't climb trees. Rich
folk hire people to climb trees. I got some rich
folks in here. There's not a rich person in here

(50:04):
that climbs trees, because that's why you got rich, so
you wouldn't have to climb the tree. You don't trim
your trees, you don't cut off dead limbs. You call somebody.
Zac Chis was rich. But the richness was not enough,

(50:27):
my lord sometimes, because sometimes the money don't pay for
the poverty of living with the reality that try all
I want, and I come up and every night I

(50:53):
lay down. I don't lay down. I'm six ft two.
I don't lay down as a person that's six foot
two laid on.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Short.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
But if I were not short, I would not be
eligible for grace. That's why Obama said, let the week
say I'm strong, let the poor say I'm rich. Because
Grace is the differential betwixt and between where I am

(51:35):
and what I am called to be. Grace is the equalizer.
Grace makes up the heads and closes up the gap.
Grace enables me to appear taller than I am. That hunt.
That hunt. Now I got to live with you defining

(51:57):
me by what Grace has done.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
I like it, and I have to accept.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
It as my identity while I deal with the reality
that if it were not for God's grace, Oh y'alld
I go ah help me. If it were not for
God's grace, I'm so sorry. The Bible says he came

(52:25):
to the sycamore fig tree, and he came to a
tree that Jesus had cursed just a few pages back.

(52:48):
Jesus has cursed a fig tree.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Now blind?

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Now now's I kiss? Whose name incidentally means pure? What
short but pure? Say? Messed up but innocent, wrong but right,
guilty but innocing. Y'all don't understand that dichotomy of the

(53:18):
human experience. That's why I can't tell you who I am,
because you don't have time to hear.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
I can tell my therapist about the hour.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
But when you say how I'm doing, you don't really
want to know, because I would have to say I'm good,
but I'm bad, and I'm excited, but I'm scared to
death and I'm nervous. But I got faith and I
believe God, but I'm worried to death, and and I'm
righteous but I'm freaky and holy but I'm broken and

(53:54):
I'm sanctified, but I'm wild and yoh, y'all not gonna
talk to me. Come on, where the real people are?
I just need some real people. Come on, I don't
need no religious people. I need some real people that
are filled with conflict and contradictions and things that are
too difficult to explain. So we just say I'm fine.

(54:18):
I'm fine. Is easier than telling you I'm fragmented, I'm broken.
If you flip me off, I go crazy. I got
a temple like a lunatic, but I got a heart
like to your gold. I give you the shirt off
my back, but if you're still twenty dollars, I'll run
over you with the car. See I don't have time

(54:40):
to explain. Come on, real people, Come on, real people.
We got to take over so that this climbs a

(55:02):
tree that Jesus would curse because he wants to be
in the spot and he cannot wait until Jesus gets

(55:22):
there to hit the spot. See you all say, when
Jesus comes, I'm going to the spot. But when Jesus comes,
it's gonna be too late to go to the spot.
You got to already be in the spot before Jesus

(55:43):
passes by. And the reason your life is a mess
is that you think you get to act a fool
until you see Jesus and then you're going to hit
the spot. But no, you got to hit the spot
while Jesus is still coming on this, and I'll quit.

(56:11):
I'm quick because I'm messing around feel like preaching. And
if I mess around feel like preaching, it's gonna be
a problem because I feel something down on the inside
that's pushing me around right now when I start preaching it.
And then when I started talking about being short, and
I judged the poles being short against trees, I started

(56:33):
to realize that every major redemptive thing that God would
ever do, he would do it on a tree.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Is starting in the garden of Eden.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
With the tree of life, fucking and the tree.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Of knowledge of good and evil.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
And it ended up from the pass when Jesus was
hung out on the crawl.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
And here we are studying trees.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Zakias climbs a type of tree that has been crushed,
and he waits on Jesus to pass by. Look at somebody,
say hit the spot. Once you get in the spot,

(57:29):
watch this, y'all, listen, this is good. Once you get
in the spot, don't let no devil in hell, move you.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Out of the spot.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
I know the blessing ain't come yet, but stay in
the spot. Stand fast in the liberties where with Christ
is major free, and stay in the spot. Neither give
place to the devil. See, the devil is out to
tell parritory. He's trying to move you out of your spot.
I don't know who I'm talking to, but the Holy

(58:05):
Dods sent me here to tell you. Don't you move
out of your spot. Stand stail and see the salvation
of the Lord. It might not be working right now,
so I'm out of time. I got to close it.

(58:28):
Zakius climbs the tree to see Jesus at the bottom
of the tree, and all that kids had to do
was hit the spot. Now, the Bible says, za kids
didn't come to the spot. He actually got in the

(58:50):
floor and created the spot. When it says somebody came
to the spot, it wasn't Zakius, it was Jesus. So
God says, if you position yourself right, Jesus is gonna
come to the spots. Oh, come on, come on, come on.
I wish I had time. You're messing with me now.

(59:12):
You're messing with me now, watch this. Jesus didn't come
to the person. He came to the spot. Jesus didn't
come to the woman with the issue of blood. He
came to the spot. Jesus didn't come to blind bartle Mass.

(59:34):
He came to the spot. Abraham wasn't looking for the ram.
He came to the spot. Whenever you get in the spot,
you don't have to worry about the blessing, because the
blessing will allway.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Come to the spot. Your question needs to be Lord.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Help me to hit the spot. I may be out there,
but I'm in the spox. I may be broke, but
I'm in the spot. I maybe hate at it, but
I'm in the spot, and I ain't gonna let no

(01:00:14):
devil in the hell plush me out of the spot.
So Pastor Cheryl, the Bible says the Bible, the Bible,
the Bible, the Bible, the Bible. The Bible says the Bible.
The Bible says, not as our kids came to the spot,

(01:00:36):
but Jesus came to the spot. Can I tell you
that Jesus is coming to the spot and all listen.
All you have to do, you don't have to be taller,
you don't have to be smarter, you don't have to

(01:00:57):
be richer. All you how to do is hit the spot.
Because he's coming to the spot. He told Abraham there's
a spot where the miracle will work. If you offer
your son up on any other mountain, he's gonna die.
But go to the place. I will show you when

(01:01:19):
you get in the right place. The provision is in
the place. Come on, somebody, I don't have rams on
no other mountain. I only got rams on the mountain
that is the spots. Somebody holler, hit the spots. You've
been thinking that it's something about your talent that made

(01:01:39):
you exceptional. I hate to hurt your feeling. There are
people in jail who can outsing you. There are people
sleeping up on the bridges who are a better architect
than you are. There are people who are shooting up
dope that would be a better CEO than you. The
only reason you've got where you got is because you

(01:02:01):
you hit the spot. So here's this quick exchange, and
I'll stop because we're gonna go eat now. Zach Kiss
is up in a cursed tree looking down at a

(01:02:24):
blessed Jesus. The blessed Jesus said, you got this backwards.
I am supposed to be on the cursed tree. So
in order to straighten this out, you gotta trade places

(01:02:47):
with me. I got to go up on the tree
so that you can walk down on the ground. And
if you letting me go up on the tree, I'll
draw all men to me. Can I preach this word?
I need to preach this word. I need to tell

(01:03:08):
somebody come down out of your tree.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Zakius is a sinner.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
He can hang on the tree, but he can't redeem
anybody on the tree. It has to be a righteous
man who dies for sinners. If Jesus goes to the
tree with him, he will have made the mistake of
the first man Adam. The first man, Adam died with

(01:03:45):
his bride. The second man, Adam died for his pride.
So Jesus says, both of us can't be on this
tree together. So you got to come down so that
I can go up. Who am I preaching to in
the room? Is there anybody in this room that understands
this is good preaching? If you know this is good preaching,

(01:04:09):
give God a praise right now. I gotta quit. God
wants to trade places with you. And here is the challenge.

(01:04:33):
You won't come down out of your tree because you're short,
and you built the tree so that nobody could see
that you're short. What's this the very thing you're hiding,

(01:04:55):
It is the very thing God wants.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
See.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
The people wanted you to be taller, but God loves short.
So God says to za kids, if you will give
up what you built to make you look good, if

(01:05:25):
you will let go of your implicit desperate need for
influence to compensate for your deep intrinsic insecurity. I blessed

(01:05:47):
you because you were insecure. I bless you because they
were dense in your armor. I blessed you because there
were cracks in you. And now you up on the
tree trying to like you that tall. You know you
ain't that tall. I don't recognize you in that tree.
If you come down out of your high horse and

(01:06:11):
humble yourself past ship, oh I'm trying to stop. If
you humble yourself, God says, I will exalt you. So
what it is is a peak at substitution. Zachis comes

(01:06:36):
down so Jesus can go up. And God says, if
you come down out of your tree, and become cool

(01:06:57):
with being short. I can handle you being short better
than I can you camouflaging your shortness in a tree.
I don't recognize you in the tree. I loved you
when you wasn't important. I loved you when you was nervous.

(01:07:21):
I loved you when you were scared to death. I
loved you when you were insecure. I loved you when
you were on your face. I loved you when you
wasn't worthy. I loved you when you're laid on your
face and sping me early in the morning because you
thought without me.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
I can do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
And now you so important, and I cannot give you
what I want to give you until you come down
out of your tree. So insistance, I can't listen. I'm closing.
Stand up, Stand up because of got clothes. He says,

(01:08:02):
Make haste and come down.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Don't gradually.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Come down, he says, make haste, he make hate, come
down in a hurt. Don't gradually forgive. Make haste and
come down. Don't gradually transition. Make haste and come down.

(01:08:35):
Don't gradually evolve. Make haste and come down. Don't protect
your image.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Make haste.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
And come down. So our kiss made haste and he
came down, and then Jesus says to him what he
never said to him in the tree. As long as
he was in the tree, Jesus never offered to stay
at his house. Wow that Jesus says, I will not

(01:09:13):
live with you until you come down. If you come down.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Out of your tree, I will come and stay with you.
When zach Kids made haste to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Come down, everybody was talking about it. He a sinner,
Jesus don't know who he living with. How could Jesus
go stay at his house, he's a tax collector. None
of that was the problem. The problem was Zach Kids
had a complex about his insecurities that he camouflage. I

(01:10:04):
have learned that most people's behavior is dyslexic. Weak people
are generally mean to protect the lamb.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
They wore arrogant people.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Whenever you meet a man that's arrogant, don't respond to
his arrogance because his arrogance is his tree. His insecurity
is what drove him up the trees. So the reason
he's trying to be important is because he's short, and

(01:10:47):
you're attacking him like he's a tree person annoyed at
his arrogance, rather than ministering to his insecurity. I'm not
a billionaire. I might not ever be a billionaire, but
I got friends who are billionaires, and I found out
that the only people who dress rich is poor folks.

(01:11:14):
Billionaires have on tennis shoes and jeans from Target, while
you got Gucci bags and Louis Vatan. You know why
the billionaire dresses down because they don't need a tree.
You know why poor people will spend their last dollar

(01:11:37):
to get a rich bag because they don't want you
to know how short they are. You know how people
who need love act like they don't have time for love.
I'm a career woman. I'm a career man. I'm needing
it out of there. I got shut up as well

(01:12:00):
as I do that money ain't no company at two
o'clock in the morning. So to all my tree people,

(01:12:22):
if you come down this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Out of your.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
Tree, Jesus will stay at your house. As I close
this morning's message, I just wonder if there's anybody who's
got the courage.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
It ain't easy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
It takes a lot of courage to come down out
of the tree. The tree makes you look good, The
tree makes you look tall. The tree puts you in
a categor going of exceptionalism. Why do you think he
was a tax collector in the first place. He wanted
to be important. You think your ambitious. No, you're broken

(01:13:18):
and you are trying to use ambition to add value
to your life. And as long as you need a
thing to make you valuable, it's an admission that you
are not valuable. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you.

(01:13:45):
The tree has become your idol. You praise God with
your mouth, but you won't let nobody touch your tree
because your tree is your God. Where is my musician?
Did he die? Your tree? Call it paramedics, your tree.

(01:14:15):
Come on, stay with me. I'm a human. I already
told you I'm complicated. I can quote scripts and go
off all at the same time. I'm weird like you
look at me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Here's some question.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Will you hold on to your tree at the expense
of losing Jesus? Will you spend the rest of your
life climbing up on stuff to give you a strategic advantage,
or will you trust God for your shortness? S