TD Jakes Sermon You Must Give Up Safety to Walk with God : Pastor T.D Jakes say the grape is the only fruit that is raised to die, it is raised to be crushed but if they can endure the pain of the crushing and trust the Viner, who is God our father to take me through this, process my latter days will be greater than my former days and finally I’ll be more valuable and I’ll be worth more and I may get shipped abroad and i may be served to kings and princes and set before great men only because I’ve been crushed.
In the gospel of saint john, Jesus identifies who he is and he says, I am the vine and ye are the branches and every branch in me that bear fruit, I purge it that it might bring forth more fruit, that’s the sentence because it would seem like to me that if the branch was doing good you would leave it alone but he says every branch in me that beareth fruit, I cut it back, I cut it back not because I’m a serial killer, not because I’m out to destroy the bush, not because i hate grapes, not because I don’t want it to win but I cut it back so that it might bring forth more fruit.
So we don’t we don’t go through these crushings because we are not his and we don’t go through these crushings because he doesn’t love us and we don’t go through these questions because we’re not fruitful, he cuts us because we are fruitful, because as fruitful as we are he knows the potential of what is yet down inside of us and he knows how to get you to that potential and he stops you from being safe, and he stops you from being satisfied, you have to give up safety.
If you’re going to walk with God, you have to trust him that he is the farmer that he knows what he’s doing and when he says that I am the vine and you are the branches, he says my father is the husbandman and the husbandman is the farmer, he’s the witner, he’s the one that controls the process, he knows exactly where to cut to make you more fruitful.
He knows where to cut and he knows when to cut and he knows how to cut to bring you to the place that you can be more fruitful because ultimately he wants you to have enough fruit that we can become wine, that we can enter into that state of being, that lasts for years and years and hundreds of years as wine.
It is raised to be crushed it is meant to be stepped on it is meant to be bruised if grapes could scream they would cry out from the pain of becoming wine but if they can endure the pain of the crushing and trust the vinner who is God our father to take me through this process my latter days will be greater than my former days and finally i’ll be more valuable and i’ll be worth more and i may get shipped abroad and i may be served to kings and princes and set before great men only because i’ve been crushed