TD Jakes - The Timeless Thesis of God - Part 1
You may be seated. Well, it might be redundant to say so, but I think it's important that we define what is a thesis. In philosophy, years of your thesis will state a position or a claim. It will state a position or a claim. It's to take a stand about something. The thesis is the most important part of your paper. It tells the reader what your stance is on a particular issue or topic and offers reasons for that stance. In theory, then, a thesis has to be argued. It has to be proven. It has to be articulated in such a way that it removes all uncertainty. Now, I'm going gonna take my time this morning. It must not be lost on us that we are in the book of Hebrews. We then understand that we are reading a thesis that is directed to a group of people with a predisposed idea about God.
The book of Hebrews has a theme of better things. Throughout the book of Hebrews, you will read about the better priesthood, the comparison between the Melchizedek priesthood and the Aaronic priesthood. The comparison between the blood of bullocks and goats and the blood of Jesus. The comparison between the mercy seat on earth and the mercy seat in heaven. It is comparing the former with the latter. It is comparing the old with the new. Hebrews, then, is a disruptive book to the hearer who has embraced the former and doubts the latter. So, when you read it, you must read it as a thesis as the author makes his argument to prove his thesis of who God is currently, not historically. If you understand that he is dealing with the pejorative that establishes the fact that God is sovereign. Sovereigns, that God is absolute, that he is complete within himself, that he is the single voice through which God has chosen to speak through in the last days. But in former days, he has spoken to us through the prophets.
Now, let's examine that. In former days, he has spoken to us through the prophets in diverse manners and in different ways. So, in other words, God has diverse manners and different methods. God has what? Say it again. God has diverse manners, and different methods. I got confused myself. God has diverse manners and different methods. Why do we need to know that? Because we cannot hem God down to moving a particular way because that is what we are accustomed to. God has diverse ways and different methods. Sometimes people think, like if they have a favorite preacher and if that preacher's not preaching, they cut it off. And the very time you cut it off, God will send the greatest blessings. Because God wants you to know I have diverse ways and different methods.
I don't want you to fall in love with the pipe, I want you to drink the water. I have diverse ways and different methods. So, one blind man, he spits in his eye and tells him to go to the pool and wash. Another one, he touches him two times and says what do you see? He has diverse ways and different methods. Another person, one person he raises from the dead by laying on them, putting everybody out the room and laying on them. Another one, he touches the casket and the dead man gets up. He has diverse ways and different methods. Do not lock God down to your formula. He has diverse ways and different methods so that we do not fall in love with his ways or his methods more than we love him.
A few weeks ago, I was teaching about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. I didn't use the Scripture but I had the Scripture in my notes that later the children of Israel started worshiping the brazen serpent. It became an idol because they fell in love with God's methods and not God. A lot of our doctrine is falling in love with God's method and not God. Anytime your doctrine makes you mean, makes you nasty, anytime your doctrine makes you disrespectful and hateful, anytime your doctrine makes you divisive and hateful you have made a God out of your doctrine more than you love God. If you love God, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one toward another. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but anytime you believe it to the point that you become nasty, then you've fallen in love with his ways and his methods and not God himself.
And God will test you many times by not showing up in the manner or the method you expected him to do to see, do you still believe me if I don't do it the way you thought I would do it? Oh, come on, talk to me. Let me bring this out home. If it doesn't come through who you thought it would come through, do you still believe me even if the who disappointed you? Were you believing on the pipe or were you believing for the water? Whether I bring it in a bucket, a plastic jug, it's still water. Don't be upset if it didn't come through who you thought it was going to come through. I don't know who I'm talking to, but I feel like I'm talking to somebody. I didn't even plan to say this. God said he's going to send it by diverse ways and different methods. He's still going to get it to you because he's God.
Now, I read it in the NIV because I'm sensitive to the fact that the NIV breaks down the language simpler and makes it easier and more palatable and more digestible especially for those who are beginning in Scriptures. But I learned it in the King James Version. In the King James Version, it says, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, has spoken to us by the prophets, but hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son". It starts out with the word God, because he is before all things and by him all things consist. Because he is the eternal, everlasting, immutable God. He is the absolute one. He is the absolute source from which all things, do you hear me?
All things, all things come from God. God is not a thing, he makes things. He is the manufacturer of things, by him all things consist. He is God so the writer doesn't bother to explain him. The book of Hebrews is written, I believe it's written by Apollos. Some people would debate that but I really believe it's written by Apollos because we don't see this language anywhere else in the Bible like we do in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is both prophetic, it is profound, it is prolific, it is articulate in such a dynamic way that I understand why the apostle Paul would be intimidated when he came to Corinth and they had started following Apollos and he said, "I came not to you in swelling words and enticing language, but demonstration of the Spirit".
I get why he said that, because Apollos had just left. And Apollos was so profound and so prolific that even though Paul was a scholar, I believe there was a degree of intimidation there and he says, "Some are of Apollos's and some are of Paul. One man planted, one man watered, God gives the increase". Why are you talking about this? You know, whether you're of Apollos or Paul, it matters not. The reason he's having this debate is because Apollos is profound. Further, I believe it because Acts 18 talks about Apollos who was fervent in the Scriptures, mighty in the Scriptures, understanding the way of the Lord. So, even in Acts it says, Apollos was bad. So when you read the book of Hebrews, you can't run through it, tipping through the tulips, like it's easy because Apollos was an intellect even beyond Paul, who was known to be brilliant.
God always got somebody smarter than you. God's always got somebody brighter than you. Be happy to be who you are. Don't be intimidated by somebody who's got more than you. Understand who you are because nobody can do what you do like you do when you do it, but don't become arrogant and think that you're the only one that can do it because God has a thousand prophets that haven't bought the bell nor... I mean, God will raise up somebody while you still looking and they will replace you. God's got people sleeping up under a bridge with more degrees than you. God's got people locked up in jail who are smarter than you. God's got people who speak so many different languages, it would blow your mind and you've never heard of them and they got no name and you didn't see them on TV, but they exist.
Just because we're not on Facebook doesn't mean we're not there. Just because we don't have followers doesn't mean we don't matter. Just because we haven't been lauded and we haven't written books and we haven't sold out and we're not on the "Time's" list does not mean that there is not a profundity, a provocative theological understanding of the magnitude of the authenticity of the erudite charismatic power of God himself. God is God. He will not be explained. He will not be explained, he just exists. He leaps on the page, the first word God without explanation, without argument, without debate, without anybody voting him in or voting him out. He just leaps on the page as a fact, not debatable, as a fact, not explainable, as a fact, not provable. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners has spoken unto us by the prophets".
If I lost you there, you are already lost. If you don't accept him as an absolute, if you don't accept him as a reality, if I've got to debate you about God, then you're in the wrong room right now. You have to be sure that you understand that God is God. "God, who at sundry times and diverse", we can debate about his timing and his methods, but we cannot debate about his existence.
Look at someone, say, "God is God and he always will be God". Yes, God is God and he always will be God. Everything else in this story changes, but God remains the same. Everything else is changed. His manners change, his times change, but he remains the same. He is the same God. He is absolute. He is stable. He is the foundation. He is the rock. He is all sufficient. He is complete within himself. He is the mighty God. I am the Lord thy God, I change not. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
"I am God. There is no premise to be made. There is no debate. There is no argument. There is no thesis. This is an absolute. There is no pejorative to be taken. I am God and beside me there is no other. I alone am God, I look for someone greater than myself and finding no one greater than myself, I swear by myself that my word is true, I am God. That's why demons tremble, I am God. That's why witches run, I am God. That's why demonic powers beg me, 'Leave us alone,' because I'm God. I'm God in your world, I'm God in their world, I'm God in heaven. I kicked Lucifer out of heaven because I'm God. I'm in charge and it is what I say it is. If I say live, they can't kill you. The gun can't kill you, the cancer can't kill you, the trouble can't kill you, the disease can't kill you because I'm God over cancer, I'm God over leukemia, I'm God over diabetes, I'm God over kidney failure, I am God".
God! Somebody shout God. The very notion of him causes us to adore him. The very notion of him causes us to worship him. The very notion of him causes us to understand that we are covered and protected by the sovereign God. Sovereign means he absolutely reigns. He reigns over warlocks, he reigns over riches, he reigns over roots, he reigns over hate, he reigns over malice, he reigns over disease, he reigns over molecules. By him all things consist. He is God. He is God, can you get it in your head? He is God. We worship about him, we sing about him, but we don't teach about it. He's God. He's God, he sits in the circle of the earth. Hallelujah, heaven is his throne. Earth is his footstool. He's God.
The court is in order, when he sits down everything comes to order. When he sits down everything comes to session because he's God, he's complete, he's a complete circle. He doesn't lack anything, having neither beginning nor end. He is the ancient of days. He is the mighty God. He is absolute. I am God, God! So, now, I ain't gonna get very far if I keep going like this. I'm still on the first word. Somebody holler, "God". Oh, do you understand what you said when you said God? Oh, the devil understands what you said when you said God. Somebody shout, "God". God is not church. God is not doctrine. God is not denomination. God is not religion. God is not a building. God is not a place. God is not a direction. Face east, face west, face north, face south. I don't care which way you go, he's God in the south, he's God in the north, he's God in the east, he's God in the west, I don't care which way you face.
Lay me down, lay me in a casket, he's God. Put me in a cradle, he's God. He was God when I got here, he'll be God when I'm gone. God! If you don't serve him, he's God. If you don't love him, he's God, and if you don't believe in him, he's still God. I want you to understand this. I want you to understand this in a permanent way. I want to tattoo this in your soul. I want to attach this to your mind. I want to stitch this into your understanding about God. I want you to understand that you live in time. God visits time. He spends vacations in time. Yeah, he spends vacations in time. He incarnates in time, but he lives in eternity. Okay? See, like you're sitting in section A and this is section B and this is section C, but, see, from where I am, I can see all of it at one time because I am not sitting in a seat. I am standing above it all.
God lives in eternity. We live in time. So, let's imagine past, present, future. Let me get back so I can get a good, I can see all of it at the same time. I am the same. They can see... can y'all see me up there? That's the poorest yeah I ever heard in my life. Can y'all see me up there? Can y'all see me right there? Can y'all see me right there? So, if this is the past and this is the present and this is the future, all of you can see me at the same time? So, the Bible says, "I am the same yesterday, today, and forevermore". God lives in eternity. He is above all things, he is before all things, and by him all things consist, meaning that when we say God is omnipresent, it doesn't just mean that he's in Alabama and California and New York and Europe and Africa and Ghana and Australia, that's true. He's in North America at the same time, that's true, but it also means that he's in all time periods. He is in the past. He is in the past. He is in the present. He is in the future.
I want you to get this in your head because, I can already tell I'm not going to finish, so I might as well break this down because I'm still in verse 1. I want you to get this in your head and get it straight so that you can understand he is the only one that you can pray to in your present about what hurts you in your past. And he has the ability to go back in your past and heal you from something that hurt you in your past. The person is dead, the house is turned down, they got a Kmart built where it used to be. God said, "I don't care nothing about none of that because I am the same. Yesterday, today, and forevermore. And if yesterday's hurting you, I can heal your past. I can heal your present. What? You worried about your future? I got that, too. I'll go into your future. Your fight is fixed. Your end is settled. I determine your end from the beginning. Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. I ordained you and I sanctified you to be because I'm God".
Somebody shout God. "I am the maestro of time. I am the absolute", yeah, there we go. We're getting there. "I am the absolute maestro of time. Time serves me. Time worships me. Time is on my staff. Time is on my payroll. I created time to release what I decreed in eternity". Come on, come on, are you with me? Are you with me? Stay with me, stay with me. Look at somebody and say, "It's only a matter of time". You might not see me as I'm going to be, but it's only a matter of time. I might not look like I'm there right now, but it's only a matter of time. It's only a matter of time.
It might look like I'm drowning, but it's only a matter of time. It might look like I'm not going to make it, but it's only a matter of time. Don't bet against me. Don't bet against me. Don't bet against me. Don't bet against me. Don't bet against me because it's only a matter of time. You think you got the upper hand today, but by the time we get to tomorrow, God has already got it fixed. Your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither have entered into your heart the things that God has in store for them that love him. But, it had been revealed unto us by his Spirit because he's God. Somebody shout, "He's God". If God is liberating your soul through this Word, give him a crazy praise right now.