TD Jakes - The Conception of Faith - Part 2
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word about Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? The Word that sticks, the Word that sticks, the Word that sticks. I'm still living off of steady in the storm. Every time a storm comes in with my life, my mind says, be steady in the storm. Keep your hand on the wheel, don't let the wind rock you, don't let your emotions break you, don't let the situation shake you. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. I preached that like four or five months ago, and I'm still chewing off of that Word right there. You know why, storms are still coming, and as long as storms are still coming, I'm gonna be steady in the storm. You can't be faithful if you're not steady in the storm.
If you're tossed to and fro by every wind, you can't be steadfast, you gotta prove that I'm gonna stand flat-footed right here, come hell or high water, I'm gonna stand right there. This is where I stand, I can't control where you stand, I can't control where you stand, I can't help where you stand, I can't change how you stand, but as for me and my house, this is where I stand. I'm gonna stand flat-footed on the Word of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Let me give you the references so you can take it home, James 1:20 through 21, so you can add it to your repertoire about the importance of the Word sticking. "For the wrath of men worketh not the righteousness of God". The wrath... wait, I gotta stop there. "The wrath of men worketh not the righteousness of God".
You can forget working righteousness with temper. I'm teaching Word, I'm sowing seed. Something's gonna fall on different ground but I'm sowing seed. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God". Watch this, have you ever seen our country as angry as it is right now? I stopped scrolling down through comments on Instagram because you could say good morning, who told you it was morning, it's not morning in our part of the world. That's what I can't stand about you Americans, you think you control everything. I mean, anything turns into a fight because everybody, I can't figure out what they're mad about, but they're all angry about something, and then they start arguing amongst themselves, and the argument gets off the post that was ever made in the first place.
And the next thing, we're back to the Byzantine Empire, fighting about something, and all I asked you was, have you had your coffee yet? And they're fighting about all kinds of stuff because they are just angry, and the problem with anger is that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. You will never fix that marriage being angry. You will never help that child being angry. You will never solve that problem being angry. You will never succeed in your company going to work angry. Nobody wants to work with somebody with attitude. Nobody wants to sign a contract with somebody who's got an attitude. Nobody wants to come home to an angry man. Nobody wants to come home to an angry woman. Things will never get better, I'm just mad, I'm just gonna be mad, but I'm praying about it. Stop praying about it, because the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
So you gotta do something with your wrath, you gotta reel it back, because your wrath is stopping your prayers from being a... let me get off it, I'm sorry. "Therefore lay apart all filthiness and the superfluity of wickedness," you gonna have to clean it up, baby girl, you gonna have to clean it up, brother, you gonna have to clean it up. You can't just slip in here, and be in here, in a crowd like this, and be an impostor, secret agent, hiding out over in the corner. You gotta lay apart, and your faith has to come with a level of conviction. "Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of wickedness, wickedness, wickedness and receive..." See if you have filthiness and wickedness and anger, it will abort the Word. You heard it, it's floating around in your ear, but it never stuck, because all of these agents of abortion are stopping you from conceiving what is possible to be done in your life. For the enemy comes not, but to steal, kill, and destroy.
So, every day that he takes is a day you'll never get back. I'm just mad right now, I'm just mad right now, I'm just hurt right now, I'm just hurt right now, I'm just upset right now. No, no, you just got robbed right now. I'm not saying you're going to hell, I'm not condemning anybody, I'm just saying, that day you will not get back. How many days have you lost? When you're laying on your death bed, how many of those days will you wish you had, and I don't care who did what to you, are they worth what it would cost you? Maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, I'm a pastor, I'm always by death beds. I've seen many people give up the ghost, and let me tell you something: seconds matter, seconds matter, seconds matter. Tick, tick, tick. Seconds matter and you can't buy it. Rich folks, you can't buy it. Intellectual folks, the PhD won't help it.
All you beautiful, fine people, you so gorgeous, gorgeous people die. Beautiful people die, hunks die. Black folks die, white folks die, brown folks die. It's the one equalizer that nobody gets to be superior over anybody else. There's not a rich way to die, and a poor way to die, we just die. And every day you lost, making excuses, giving the enemy permission to rob your house, you might as well leave your front door open, and drive through Chicago. See, most of us believe God when things go good. Oh, won't he do it. Won't he do it, won't he...oh, won't he do it. Won't he do it. Won't he will. To all of my white members. I know y'all don't understand what won't he will means, I scarcely understand it myself, but let me try to interpret it, won't he will, it's kinda like, won't he do it, but we don't put he in it, we don't put do it, never mind. It's Ebonics.
Don't even worry about it, don't even worry about it. Won't he will. What about when he won't? What about when he don't? What about when what you will doesn't line up with what he wills? Is he still God then? Can you have faith when you don't get the expected outcome that you want, or is your God really a butler and a maid that you have in your life as long as it serves your purpose, because if that's the case, you're not working for God, you think God works for you. Until we get this stuff untangled, we're not gonna really have the kind of faith that breaks out revival in America, because we are using faith like witchcraft.
God is good when things are good, but when things are bad, then we don't have a theology that embraces the cross. The cross is a big clue, that everything doesn't go right, that the will of God can land you in trouble. Come on, talk to me somebody. It's a clear sign, you're not walking around with a necklace around your neck of an empty tomb. They don't sell necklaces of empty tombs. They sell necklaces with crosses on it. "Take it not strange, that these fiery trials have come against you. If they came against your master, they will come against you". This is the trying of your faith. Nobody wants to teach about the trying of your faith. Your faith must stand trial, so your faith cannot be conditional.
Faith flourishes from embracing the irrefutable character of God, the character of God. Not the doings of God, the character of God. I know his character. One of my favorite scripture series is, "Unto Israel, he showed his acts, but unto Moses, he showed his ways". It's one thing for people to talk about what you did, and it's another thing for somebody to know who you are. Does your faith embrace God for who he is, or do you just love him because of what he did? Because if you only love him because of what he did, what happens when he stops doing it? What happens when you enter into another season? What happens when grandma dies? What happens when you have a vasectomy? What happens to your faith when life gets tough? If your faith embraces who God is, rather than what God does, you're immovable, you're unshakeable. Until you love him for who he is, rather than praise him for what he did, you will never please him, because your unbelief suggests that God is a liar.
Now, this is not revelation. If you tell me something right now, and I say, I don't believe you, that's an insult to your character. I don't believe you, I wasn't there, I don't believe you. That means I don't trust your ways enough to believe your word. No wonder Abraham became the friend of God, because he believed it. God said if you believe me, even though you ain't righteous, and even though you lied about your wife, and even though you put her in a precarious situation, and even though you made some mistakes along the way, I'll look over all of that if you believe me. Your faith is anchored into my character and not my activities, and if you can love me for who I am, I can love you for who you are.
Oh come on somebody, I'm shouting by myself here, I'm shouting by myself. I'm almost done, but I feel something creeping up my spine right now. I feel something creeping up my spine right now. And the thing about faith, if it's impossible to please God without it, that he only gave it to some people, it wouldn't be fair, because then we would have the haves and the have nots. I have it, you don't have it. I got it, you don't have it. So forth and so on, but the truth of the matter is, according to Romans 12 and 3, "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith". Everybody's got some faith. You might not use it, you might not accelerate it, you might not go up the ladder with it, but everybody has some faith. Even the atheist who says he doesn't have any faith at all, has some level of faith. He may deny it, he may betray it, he may turn from it, something may hurt him, but God hath dealt to every man enough faith that you don't have to perish.
You have to choose to go to hell. God would never send anybody to hell. I'm gonna move on, I feel something about to break loose in this place, I feel something about to break loose in this place. Let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see. Something is about to happen in this place. What I'm doing right now is sowing seeds. I'm sowing seeds, I'm sowing seeds, I'm sowing seeds out in this room. I'm sowing Word out into this room. I'm sowing Word into this room, and if your ear catches it, your life is going to be changed forever. If your ear will ingest it, and digest it, and it sticks to you, and you say, Lord, I don't care nothing about being a Baptist, I don't care nothing about being a Methodist, I don't care nothing about being a COGIC, I don't care nothing about being Apostolic, I just wanna be a believer, let me be a believer.
When all hell is breaking loose, let me be a believer. When things get hard, let me be a believer. When I'm going through a storm, let me be a believer. When I'm backed up against the wall, let me be a believer. When you give me a blessing that I think is too big for me, let me be a believer. When I'm scared to walk into something that I don't know what I'm walking into, just let me be a believer. I don't have to be a billionaire, let me be a believer. If I'm a believer, I can get a billion dollar, let me be a believer. Is there anybody in this room that wants to be a believer? I just wanna be a believer, I wanna walk with God, and talk with God, and hang with God, and understand God, and open my heart to God. You can have his acts, I wanna understand his ways. Oh, oh, that I may know him. Paul, who speaks five different languages, is from the tribe of Benjamin, is zealous concerning the law, said I counted all of my attributes as dung, it don't mean nothing, I flushed it, that I might gain the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
And he falls down on his knees before God and says, oh, that I may know him. Not just in the good times, in the fellowship of his suffering, and the power our of his resurrection. I wanna know him, I don't care how the weather changes, I don't care how the climate changes, I don't care how the culture changes, I don't care how the situation changes, he's my anchor, he's my rock, he's my shelter, he's my fortress, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. If I know him, I don't have to know you. If I know him, you can't shake me, you can't break me, you can't block me, you can't stop me. If I know him, God will always find a way to get it done if I know him. Hallelujah, if you know him. The Bible says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he's yet near; let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts".
The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth, let all the earth. Keep silence before him. I am hungry for you. I cannot be a better person until I'm hungry for you. I'm tired of being a different person. I've been 10 different people. I don't wanna be different, I wanna be better. I'm tired of thinking that hooking up with you is gonna make me better, because all you did was get on my nerves, but if I can hook up with him. If I can hook up with him. If something that he said sticks in my soul, soul, in my soul. The Greek word, where we get psyche, where we get psychology, where we get mind. If he gets in my head. I want you in my head, because I need to be, not act like, but to be a better person. Make me better.
Is there anybody in here that wants God to make you better? I'm tired of trying to accomplish the righteousness of God through the wrath of my ancestors. I'm talking about generational curses. Your mama was angry, your grandmama was angry, your great-grandmama was angry, all of them were furious, and now you got your mama's temper. I don't need my mama's temper, I need my God's character. I need my God's character, and I am praying this morning that one seed out of what I just shared would get in your fallopian tube and stay there till it engrafts in your heart. I am praying that you didn't come to church because it was Sunday, or because a cute girl goes to this church, or because you wanna do business in this church, or because you wanna meet somebody in this church. I am praying that you want an encounter with God, an encounter with God.
An encounter with God will make my week stabilize, it'll strengthen me in the storm, it'll fortify my moods, my attitudes, my dysfunctions, and all of the voices that are trying to convince me that they are God, are nothing but idols. And every time I obey them, I am idolatrous. The voice that tells me to worry, the voice that tells me I'm not good enough, the voice that tells me I can't handle what God has given me, the voice that tells me I'm stupid to go to a place that I don't know, to do something I've never done before.
If I obey that voice, I am an idolater. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Whatever you obey, that's your god. I will not go to a church like this and go home and worship another god. Not the god of fear, not the god of doubt, not the god of agony, not the god of envy, not the god of jealousy, not the god of pain, not the god of bitterness. I will not worship another god. If I had to wait on him, if I had to lay on him, if I have to call on him, if I had to weep before him. All of that I may know him.