It’s not very often that bishop’s birthday actually falls on a Sunday.
And yet for this particular season of his of his life, I believe that God was intentional about making sure that his impact was seen on a day that he has dedicated.
His whole life revolves around Sunday. Oh, goodness.
His whole life has revolved around making sure that on Sunday, he took his place, that he stood in the gap, that he sought the Lord Monday through Saturday.
I can tell you I’m just a baby in ministry.
I did not know it was this hard.
Preaching with me pregnant, preaching with your mom dying, preaching with quite literally all hell breaking loose, daddy.
I didn’t know it was this hard. Preaching while they talked about you, preaching while they praised you.
And you never gave up. You never quit.
Sunday at 9 o’clock in the morning.
And I know you didn’t always feel like it.
And I know you came in here bleeding sometimes yourself.
Thank you for being a suffering servant.
I used to watch these movies growing up of women who went on these perfect first dates, and their dates would lay a jacket down on the ground so that they wouldn’t have to step in a puddle.
And I feel like time after time after time, I’ve seen you take your jacket off, lay it on the ground so that we didn’t have to walk in puddles that the enemy meant to drown us, so that we could walk easier into entrepreneurship, into real estate.
All of my father’s kids are grown. He has no reason to create a steam camp.
All of us are grown, but he’s still taking care of somebody else’s kids, daddy.
I didn’t know it would be this hard.
But I just want you to know, I don’t know if the world will ever fully understand it, and maybe we never will fully.
But one thing I know for sure is as long as you showing up, we gonna show up with you.
And I’ll tell you another thing.
When you are tired of showing up, we will show up for you, not just with you.
Because the least we could do is give back to you the decades of service that you have given to us.
We are not just here to take, we are here to give as well.
So on behalf of the entire Potter’s House family, present and online, we say we got you.
We love you. And we thank you for paying the price to be you.
I was walking through the house one day and I was listening at the news and the stats and all of the detrimental things that are supposed to be headed our way through the confluence of technology changing job requirements and racism, and genderism, and all of those things that has created the perfect strong COVID.
All are contributing factors to the crisis that we find ourselves in.
And I thought to myself, somebody ought to do something.
And then I thought, maybe you are the somebody.
If we would stop relegating the solution to somebody, if it’s 1 house, if it’s 1 kid, if it’s 1 block, that would change the country and ultimately change the world.
We’ve got about a 5 year window before the world radically changes.
70,000,000 jobs are projected to be taken out of America.
For us to do the things we need to do, we have to think differently.
I care. If you care, you bring the best of your talent to the task.
Change is hard. Conquering the change is gonna require champions.
We are a champion for the underrepresented, for the underserved, for people who don’t have a voice.
That’s what change is.
Our hope is to create a more equitable society. We the People is all the people.
And we are all the people that we have.
I am here because somebody spent time with me.
I am where I am because somebody invested in me.
If we don’t get everybody and we get somebody, that somebody will get somebody and somebody will get somebody.
That’s how we made it throughout history. We started helping each other.
So ladies and gentlemen and our distinguished So ladies and gentlemen, and our distinguished guests, and our cherished church family, both here and streaming online, we are just so excited about Bishop’s 67th birthday.
And let’s just give him a hand one more time for his birthday as we honor him.
Our bishop has touched so many lives, and you’ve just seen a glimpse of it in the video.
Um, as I had the honor to serve as the president and CEO of the T.
D. Jakes Foundation, we just wanted to take a moment, um, with our bishop and our chairman and our chancellor and our CEO and one of the greatest minds of all time to say thank you.
For those who have given to the foundation, I say thank you.
And I learned a few hours ago, I think it was yesterday, that pastor Keon Henderson of Lighthouse Church in Houston has donated $25,000 to the foundation for Bishop Jake’s birthday.
So we thank you, pastor Keyon.
So thank you all who are sowing into the work that we are doing.
In the words of scripture, 1st Corinthians 924 reminds us, do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
Run-in such a way as to get the prize.
Today, we honor a true champion who has run his race with unmatched vigor and grace.
Chairman, you do so many things. You are so many things.
You constantly strive to positively impact the lives of others.
I want to remind you and share with our church family a few things that they might not know.
As the chairman of the T. D. Jakes Foundation, you serve, he serves on a volunteer basis.
He does not accept compensation.
He just delivers his vision in an invaluable time and with complete effort.
And for that, we say thank you.
He is a model humanitarian, an extraordinary philanthropist, concerned with promoting human welfare around the world, a champion.
Today, we honor you for your extraordinary humanitarian efforts and pioneering spirit.
Through mega care missions, you have provided crucial disaster relief in humanitarian aid globally, demonstrating immense empathy and commitment.
Wherever disaster strikes, you are there with solutions.
Your work in housing and economic empowerment underscores your dedication to uplifting underscored communities.
Additionally, your work with the T. D.
Jakes Foundation focuses on education and workforce development, bridging the skills gap, empowering many to achieve economic advancement.
A champion. Your initiatives against domestic violence, prison reform, youth empowerment, and health and wellness further highlight your unwavering commitment to making a positive impact locally and globally.
You are a champion. You are a world class entrepreneur, paved the way for many of us to follow our dreams.
You have opened doors and sponsored us in spaces where we weren’t invited, often kicking those doors down yourself.
You have allowed us to stand on your broad shoulders to climb the ladder of success.
You are a voice for the voiceless. This list. Yes. Yes.
This list could go on and on and on, but hear me when I say you are the definition of a champion.
You are the epitome of a true leader.
So at this time, we have a special presentation.
If I can get him to come forward.
Come on. Chairman, with profound admiration and respect, the T.
D. Jakes Foundation proudly presents this first ever envision tower to you, our chairman, our bishop, T. D.
Jakes, honoring your unparalleled dedication and leadership. We present this to you.
And it says, the champion for change in vision tower is presented to our chairman, Bishop TD Jakes, on today, June 9th, his birthday, 2024.
Let’s give him a hand, our true champion of change.
One more. And one more presentation. We’ll bring it out. Yes.
We are honoring our champion with the first ever champion for change t shirt.
The T. D. Jakes Foundation, we present to you the first official champion for change t shirt.
Yes. And church family, this is the beginning.
He receives the first, but we have many available out in the lobby.
And we hope that you and your family and your loved ones ones and people that believe in the mission will gather 1, will will will buy 1, will purchase 1, you can do it online as well in the store.
And when you wear it, you think about the change that you can be in the world, that you too can be a champion the way our champion we thank you for being our champion for change.
Clap your hands and give the Lord a praise everybody.
I wanna I wanna take just a moment and acknowledge how much it means to me, uh, for as I enter into this legacy stage of my life, that the work that I started continues.
That it outlives me, that it outlasts me, that it’s not really about me.
It’s about you and your children and your grandchildren and our world and our nation and our country and what I believe is important to the equilibrium that is necessary for us to live the abundant life that Christ said we were supposed to live.
So I thank you for supporting the foundation today.
I thank you for all of you that came out today, that even those of you that normally wouldn’t come out but came out because you knew it was my birthday.
Thank you so much for recognizing me. I love you. I love you.
I broke a little bit when my daughter got up and started talking.
She got up under my skin talking about, uh, my life and she said, had a front row seat and what it cost to be a leader.
And then when Bishop came up Bishop, thank you so for your amazing amazing ministry.
I I might would have made it had he not gone into the issue of how you have stood by me.
How you have loved me, how you have encouraged me.
How you have fought for me, how you’ve been right here in the pews, in the service, online, Any way you could singing in the choir, doing music.
Even got Joel Tugman to lead a song. I don’t I know there’s a God somewhere.
And, uh, and if I pass her by, we all know how she can sing.
And, uh, just the effort that went into it, uh, doctor Oscar on the piano and all of you.
I better not start calling names.
I’m gonna leave somebody out to the whole fam, uh, team and how Tonya and all of them do so amazing jobs.
Not just today, but every week and every day. Let’s clap our hands for the excellence.
And I wanna say this, I want you to go out and really be a champion for change.
Really be a champion for change.
And I’ll tell you a little thing that I have learned and I’m still learning so much right now.
It’s not about me.
What people think or say or do about me, it’s not about me.
I’m called for him.
And if you can get your mind off yourself and yourself off your feelings and focus on your mission and do what God told you to do, Like Paul told Timothy, in season and out of season, uh, reprove and rebuke with all long suffering for the time will come that men will not endure sound doctrine, heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears.
You can if you let it be about you, the enemy will easily kill you.
But if you let it be about him, he’ll he’ll make you completely unstoppable. Amen. Amen.
So we bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Because we are his servants and his soldiers.
And anytime somebody calls you a soldier, you know there’s gonna be a fight. Amen.
How many soldiers do we have in the house?
So I want you to champion for change.
I want you to make a difference. You’re online.
You don’t you don’t have to be Bishop TD Jakes to be a champion for change.
My mother was a champion for change. My grandmother was a champion for change.
My wife is a champion for change. My children are a champion for change.
You you don’t need a platform or a stage. I appreciate the trophy. I’m glad it’s a nice trophy.
I’m a put it up and show it off to everybody. But I didn’t do it for a trophy.
I did it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a heart thing. It’s a heart thing.
It’s not just a head thing, it’s a hard thing. You have to do things from your heart.
And if you do it from your heart and not from your head, and to lift him up and not to make a name for you, they can wound you and never stop it because it was never about you in the first place.
And I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt. I’m not saying you don’t have feelings.
And I’m not negating the fact that you’re a human. Yes. You’re human. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
It hurts. It hurts. But the cross hurt.
But early Sunday morning, I ain’t gonna bother you.
You already been preached to real good. I said, but early Sunday morning.
And I want to say to all of us who have had a Friday night experience, it might be Friday right now but Sunday’s coming.
Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, mister Tim Clark who left your wonderful congregation in Columbus and came down here and ministered to us.
I got so much out the message. I took notes. I got thoughts.
I got ideas that I’m gonna put to work and I’m gonna redress it and put some different earrings on it and go preach it somewhere.
And I I don’t know none of those bishops he was talking about but I’m gonna put something with it and and and and make it work.
The Bible said that the thing that leaked out to me was at the end of the text.
It said, he stood up trembling.
So do you hear me up talking about that?
You you can tremble and still stand. You you can cry and still be courageous.
You can be wounded and still shoot back.
You can have tears running down your face and still have your fist balled up in a knot.
Do you hear what I’m saying to you? One thing doesn’t negate the other thing. He stood up trembling. Hallelujah.
Some of us may have to tremble but we gonna stand.
How many of you made up your mind you gonna stand? I love this church.
I love all the things. They got balloons, they got ice molds, they got pictures. They got trophies.
They got everything everywhere. Thank you, Jesus. I came in the place. I didn’t know what to think.
I was running around peeking trying to see everything.
I thank all the people who were working last night, working yesterday and working early this morning and got up in the middle of the night, planned and drew, uh, just so that I could have a birthday.
I feel like a 9 year old.
I feel like a 9 year old at a birthday party with all the school kids.
You have shown me over the tenure of my ministry here.
And I know that this is a whole new generation of leader, but some of my charter members are in here.
Charter members, make some noise. You have shown me so much love over the almost 30 years that I have been here, uh, in this church.
You have shown my wife and my family so much love and so much compassion and through every storm, and this ain’t the first one and it ain’t gonna be the last one, there have been many storms along the way but through every storm, you stood, you sang, you clapped, you serve, you ushered, you do you were the deacons was deaconing.
The preachers was preaching in. We laid our hands on each other. We encouraged each other.
We buried our loved ones together. We cried together. We wept together. We stood together. We ate together.
We built this church. They said we couldn’t do it.
We built this church from the ground up, then built the annex on the other side, then built all the houses across the street.
They said we couldn’t do it but we did it.
We built that bridge and paid for it cash and didn’t take out a note.
We did it right here at this church because you love this ministry.
And I am so proud of you.
I am so proud of you, I’m grateful to you, I’m grateful to all of you online that faithfully support.
And so I know some of them have dropped off, but some of them ain’t gonna lead to the to the last hoorah.
They still gonna be standing there serving. Be a champion for changing.
I want everybody in here to make up in your mind this week.
I’m gonna do at least one thing that changes something for somebody.
Will you do that for me? Just one thing. Just one thing. One little thing.
If everybody in here does one thing, it’ll be a big thing.
Amen?