TD Jakes - The Making and Maintaining of Impact
I’m going to be in the book of Acts, chapter 20. I’m going to be moving around a little bit, but it’s going to be good, and I’m going to be talking about the making and maintaining of impact. The making and maintaining of impact. It’s one thing to make an impact, but then if you turn around and lose the impact, what good is it? You want to make and maintain an impact.
Now, I’m going to tell you something: nobody yields a hundred for a hundred days of every week in their life; nobody does. Nobody continues to have a fruit-bearing season without other seasons. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot have impact and maintain impact in spite of moments of disruption. You have to understand that even when it’s winter, it’s still working for harvest. Even when everything’s turned brown and dried up and gone back into the ground, it’s still a part of the process of bringing you to the next level of abundance. Don’t try to produce something every day because you have to replenish, restore, and recreate. And in those gaps, don’t let your faith waver and think that just because you are entering into a different season, you are no less impactful. But we’re going to attack this from a very interesting perspective. I love this; I’m excited about it. Are you ready for this? We’re going to read Acts 20:22–38. That’s a lot of reading. I don’t know if I’ll read all of it, but I guess I will.
«And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem.» This is Paul talking, «Not knowing the things that shall befall me there.» I don’t know what’s going to happen; I’m going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen there. «Save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.» But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That’s what I’m here for; that’s what I’m called to do; that’s what I want to do. Then he says, «And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.»
This is important. «Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.» Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. «For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock of God. Also, of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember.» He’s trying to get that impact that he made to remain. «Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.»
«And now, brethren, I commend you to God.» It always comes to a point where you have to do this with everything and everybody. «Now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all of them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man’s silver or gold or apparel. I’m not jealous of what anybody else has. Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities.» He had a job; he worked for himself. «And to them that were with me, I took care of them also.»
Then he says, «I have showed you all things, how that so laboring, you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'» I love the fullness of this ministry. I love the fact that Paul was dealing with the total man; he wasn’t just getting them ready for heaven and leaving. He taught them how to live in this present world, how to do better in their own finances, how to get to the point that they were givers and not just receivers. He dealt with the totality of the human experience and not just the spiritual part, separating one from the other. There isn’t much of that left in the world now.
Now they just want to get you ready for heaven and set you down like a suitcase on the side of the road and make you wait. But this is a practical gospel. When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with all of them, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. They accompanied him to the ship. This is so good; I’m just blessed to get to start. So I’m going to talk about the exit, the Epistle, and the epilogue, and I hope I get all of it in: the exit, the Epistle, and the epilogue. This is the exit. It comes at a time when Paul has been ministering and doing a lot of work in Ephesus.
I want you to understand and picture Ephesus a little bit because Ephesus is an ancient city. Its region is accessible both by land and by sea; it is a very important and significant city. It is, as it were, a bit of a metropolis. There are strong Asian influences in the city of Ephesus. There are Greeks in the city of Ephesus. There are Jews in the city of Ephesus. It is the epicenter of commerce and activity and prosperity, and a lot is going on. Some scholars even suggest the first banks were founded in Ephesus. Their understanding of economics was there; their worship is very diverse and eclectic; it’s an ecumenical city.
There is worship going on there to the goddess Diana, who is a silver goddess, not by accident, because there was a lot of silver, a lot of mines, a lot of money there. And God sent Paul to Ephesus to minister there for two years. And I want you to listen to this, particularly young people, because I think sometimes you give up too easily. Paul ministered for two years trying to convert the Jews in the synagogue, and they were not hearing it; they were not hearing it. Now, if you’re not hearing the Apostle Paul, you’re not hearing anybody. They were not hearing it. Finally, in exasperation, after two years of trying to make something work, he finally rent his garments; they had blasphemed the Holy Spirit. He turned his face not to leave the city but to go to a different group of Jews who were Hellenistic Jews, who had a Greek lifestyle and were perhaps more open-minded, more susceptible to the gospel. Primarily, he goes to the Gentiles.
So one of the things I want you to see is that often rejection is direction. Sometimes God closes a door over here to direct you over there. It feels like failure, and it feels like frustration, but it’s really God’s direction because He’s checked the box; He’s given them an opportunity. Many times, you feel personally rejected when, in fact, they have not rejected you; they’ve rejected the one that sent you. You have to understand that sometimes people will reject the one that sent you, but you bear the brunt of that feeling after having invested two years—two years out of the life of a martyr, somebody who didn’t have many years to work with.
Two years is a long time to have Paul with no fruit and no effectiveness, and yet he had to make some adjustments in order to do what God called him to do. It is understanding that, and flowing in that area, that you begin to understand that some of you feel like making an impact because you’ve tried to do something for a while and it hasn’t worked and the doors have been closed in your face. Let me tell you, if you give up, you’ll never be what God created you to be. You have to keep working and working. When you figure out that something is not working, then you make the necessary adjustments so that you can have the greatest impact.
Totally, you can be effective at doing what God created you to do. That is extremely important. I can’t even tell you how important it is for you to understand how to continue to make an impact and to be productive in your life. Now Paul has ministered and then turns to start ministering to these other open-minded people who are ready to receive what the Holy Spirit is saying. As he begins to minister to them, he ministers to them for three years, and he says, «I ceased not to warn you night and day with tears.»
Now look at the emotional investment he now has in this whole thing. He is really putting his heart into it. You’re not going to get anything done if you don’t put your heart into it; you have to put your everything into it. But I want you to understand; he’s coming to this city, this metropolis, this environment with all of this activity, all of this commerce, and all of these different ideas. Into this environment, he now comes, and yet he has to pour into them. Suddenly he starts to get some results, he gets a church going, and he starts a church in Ephesus. The church has impact and power and influence, and he’s really getting something done for the Lord. He’s working on it for three years because, in order to make an impact, you have to dig a deep foundation. He’s dug a deep foundation into the lives of these people, and he’s made an investment because he warned them day and night for three years with tears.
Then the time comes for him to go, and this is the exit part. As he prepares to make his exit, it’s an interesting feeling. If you read the text with feeling and passion, you understand that this is a love relationship between him and those he has mentored, that he has established a church in Ephesus. In its comparable region, Ephesus still exists today. You’re talking about a long impact; he’s made a huge impact. But he tells them now, «I’ve got to go, and I’ve got to go to Jerusalem.» If you read the text with me, he says, «I don’t know what’s going to befall me. I’m not certain about what’s going to happen, but I’m not worried about it.»
Look at how seasoned he is in his grace. You don’t get that in a couple of years; you don’t get that just coming out of the baptism pool. It takes a while for you to face uncertainty and not be rattled to the core. You don’t get that overnight. You have to walk with God, live life for a while, observe life, and become a voyeur of life. You don’t just watch your life; you watch the lives of other people and how they deal with things so that you can exponentially grow and expedite the learning process.
As Paul is getting ready to go, it is a bit emotional. He says, «Take care of yourselves,» to the leaders. He says, «Take care of yourselves and to all the flock which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.» He says, «Because I know, as soon as I leave, grievous wolves are going to come in, not sparing the flock of God.» He’s not talking about real wolves; to my baby Christians, he’s not talking about real wolves. He’s talking about wolves in sheep’s clothing—false prophets and preachers and doctrines and ideologies that are going to wait until he leaves. They’re kind of going to come in because this is an exit for Paul’s covering. He was protection. Good leadership is always protection. Good leadership is always protection; it’s always provision. He has fed the flock of God, he has protected the flock of God as a good shepherd.
He says, «I know that the wolves have been lurking in the woods, waiting for me to leave, and I have to mind my departure. Grievous wolves are going to come in that couldn’t access you before because I was present.» He said, «They’re not going to spare the flock of God.» And from your own selves—now this is two different levels of attack. Follow me in the Word of God; don’t just listen to me; follow me in the Word of God. He says, «You’re going to be attacked externally from grievous wolves coming in and from amongst your own ranks. And of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.» People with hidden agendas that couldn’t get to power because I was in place, but as soon as I leave, you’re going to have wolves from the outside, and you’re going to have from your own ranks people that you know.
Who rises up speaking perverse things, whispering in your ears with a hidden agenda to draw away disciples unto themselves? This happens all the time — it happens in the church, it happens in businesses, it happens in the kingdom, it happens in families; it happens everywhere. Everybody claiming kinship may not be related to you. Not everyone who wears the same uniform is genuinely for you. You can’t always trust even people on the inside. He said, «Therefore, watch and remember that for the space of three years, I ceased not to warn you every night and day with tears.» I got you ready for this moment; I got you ready for this. I walked among you, I lived among you, I slept among you, and I taught among you—all to get you ready for this day, to prepare you for my exit. He said, «So I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.»
This is a winning moment; that’s why I call it «the exit.» It is a winning moment. He said, «I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.» He said, «I never did it for the money; it was never about the silver, it was never about the gold, it was never about apparel. I worked my old jobs, made money to teach you how to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining, so I affected your life not only spiritually, but I also affected your natural life.» Ministers, take note; this is so important. Sometimes we are the only role model other people have, and as much as possible, we should show them how to do more than preach, teach, and serve communion; we should show them how to live their best lives and/or bring in people who can help mentor them in that area.
It’s part of the influence that God gave me. You need to take responsibility for whatever you do. Whether you taught someone to fish or to make tents or whether you taught them to make masks for COVID-19, I don’t know what you did. But what I do know is that when it was time for departure, they could hardly bear it. It was the fact that he said, «You shall see my face no more,» that brought the crowd to tears. When you have truly been mentored by someone and they have made a significant impact on your life, it’s not idolization or worshiping a man, but you love them. You love them because, seldom in this world, will you find anyone who really makes an impact on your life. He had made an impact on their lives. I pray every day, «Lord, let me make an impact on the people’s lives I touch, the people I interact with, and the people I manage.»
Please don’t let me just be a lot of noise among all the noise out there. I don’t need to be here teaching if I’m not going to make an impact on somebody’s life. I can deal with the haters and the naysayers, but I cannot deal with not making an impact. Because every time I face all the haters and hear someone say, «You made an impact,» that balances things out for me. I must make an impact; you must make an impact. You don’t have time to be doing something just because someone said to do it, or to preach just because you have to preach, or to be in business just so you can brag at the family reunion that you have your own. You want to make an impact in whatever it is that you’re doing.
And so he kisses them, reading in verse 37, «And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.» They walked him all the way down to the ship because the great Apostle Paul was leaving them. He had secured them; he had anchored them. They were going to continue in the faith, but still, there was that gratitude and a sense of loss, which held some value.
Now we’re going to pick this up and head to the book of Ephesians, but you must understand the backstory in Acts to appreciate Ephesians. Now, when he writes to them in Ephesians, he has departed, and he is speaking to them through a letter. This is what I found really interesting: Paul’s letter to Ephesus is a bit like us streaming the message to those we can no longer touch. We have traveled all over the country, conducting all these crusades and conferences while pastoring our church every week. I believe we’ll get back to some of that and be able to do some version of that again, but it occurred to me that now his letter is like our streaming, because they would see his face no more. He writes this letter, and I want you to understand he is not just writing a letter arbitrarily or doing something just to be doing something; he is trying to maintain his impact. He is trying to ensure that even if he can’t be there physically, he is still feeding them, that they still have access to his ministry and message, and the power of his word.
So, understanding that now, when we pick up in Ephesians, you’ve got the backstory. If you don’t understand the backstory and just read the book of Ephesians, you miss the significance. The book of Ephesians is very powerful; it is written to a very powerful city that rose in power to such a degree that they burned Ephesus down over its history about six times, and they always rebuilt it. It even attracted the attention of Alexander the Great. Ephesus was a tremendous city—it was a gateway city, a city of commerce; it was a powerful city. Paul made his impact, but he tries to ensure he maintains that impact.
You can’t just do right for a little while and then quit. It’s kind of like me losing weight: it’s easy to lose weight quickly, but maintaining the weight loss is where it gets hard. You do right, and then you get a reward; but after a while, I reward myself, or I get busy or start traveling, and it becomes difficult to maintain. It’s not important to make an impact if you can’t maintain the impact. In order to maintain the impact, you must be consistent. You must be consistent in everything. I don’t know what to do; you have to be consistent. People do that in their marriages; they do well for a couple of weeks and then slip back into old habits, wondering why it didn’t work. You have to maintain consistency so that trust is established and so that people feel they can open up to you and rely on you, knowing you will handle them appropriately.
Now he is writing back to them in the book of Ephesians. Are you ready? Come on, let’s go to Ephesians. This is my book right here! I love Ephesians because Ephesians is to the New Testament what the book of Joshua is to the Old Testament. The wandering is now over; they have come into their own and are about to possess the things that Paul has trained them for. He has prepared them in the wilderness filled with various religions, ideas, and philosophies. When he writes back to them, he is not writing to them as a child; he is writing to a mature church that he has nurtured and raised up. His tone is different because he has made an investment. Ephesians is not for wimps; it’s not for babies. It is for people who are ready to possess the things of God. I told you about the commerce and power of the city, so when we read this, it will have a new meaning. I hope you’re enjoying this. I love teaching!
Ephesians 1:1-9 says, «Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.» Whenever you hear Paul say he is an apostle by the will of God, he is reminding you that the other apostles didn’t necessarily like him and they didn’t necessarily choose him, but God chose him. When God chooses you, it doesn’t matter who doesn’t choose you. He says, «I am an apostle by the will of God.» I didn’t want to train to be an apostle; in fact, when the Apostle Paul first appears in the Bible, he is on the opposing team, holding the coats while they stoned Stephen. As a young man, he is a persecutor of Christians, but because of what happened to him on the road to Damascus—seeing a great light and being knocked off his horse—he is completely transformed by the power of God and becomes an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
I often say that sometimes people will refer to others as mere saints. I am not saying they aren’t Christians or that the saints in Ephesus aren’t legitimate, but being faithful in Christ Jesus is a different thing entirely. One is a position, the other is a condition. You are a saint, okay? You are a saint in Ephesus; that’s your position. The condition is that I have been faithful, which means my conditions line up with my positions.
All of this in the greeting, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, «Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.» Grace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you!
Persecution has come in; now wolves have entered in. Diverse opinions have arisen, just as he predicted in the book of Acts, and he is writing back to them, telling them about the grace of God. Did you know tonight that God’s grace is sufficient for what you’re going through? God’s grace is sufficient for COVID-19; God’s grace is sufficient for this obstacle in your life. I know you don’t like it. You don’t have to like it; I don’t like it either. I want it all to be over; I want it to go away tomorrow. I don’t like it one bit. But God’s grace is sufficient. When I have to deal with things I don’t like, I lean on God’s grace. So I say, «Grace be unto you!»
It grieves me unto you tonight in its vital place—peace: peace in your mind, peace in your rest, peace in your digestive system, peace in your emotions, peace in your attitude, peace in your marriages. Some of you are fighting about things that you’re not really quarreling about; your knees are shaking because you’re stressed out. Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is good.
Verse 3: «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.» Now, you have to understand when he says this. He is addressing a people who have been exposed to Diana, the goddess, worshipped by many, but he wants them to know that God is rich and blessed compared to any other god they’ve been exposed to. «Blessed be God!» If you do not see your God as blessed, you will never see yourself as blessed. If you don’t see your God as healing, peace, life, spiritual blessings, and prosperity in every area, how can you call Him blessed? Blessed be God! Let’s settle on that fact: we are not serving a weak, broken-down God who cannot handle the situation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Whoa, wait a minute! He has blessed us.
That’s two different things. It’s one thing for God to be blessed and be healing, peace, power, joy, and prosperity. It’s one thing for God to be rich; it’s one thing for God to be wise; it’s one thing for God to be powerful. It’s another for Him to communicate that power to us. He said, «Once you understand how blessed your God is, the next thing I want you to understand is that He has blessed us.» A blessed God is a God that blesses us! If you do not seek God’s blessings, you can never see how blessed you are.
You have to understand that the God we serve is not forlorn; He’s not confused; He’s not distraught. He knows what He’s doing. He may not have told you what He’s doing, but He knows what He’s doing. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Can you receive that blessing right now? Do you have the ability to claim something that didn’t come from the bank, your office, or your job? Can you receive directly from God? Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, somebody out there needs to receive that right now. They are going to walk in the blessings that God is going to directly communicate to you; these blessings do not come from your education, your friends, or anything that you did. They do not come through manipulation, nor do they come from Jezebel, sugar mamas, sugar daddies, or sugar babies. Blessed be God who has blessed us!
Oh, somebody ought to holler, «I’m blessed!» You might not feel it, you might not see it, but you ought to shout it out: «I’m blessed!» Blessed be God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Everything—every spiritual blessing—is in heavenly places in Christ. Someone says, «Where are these spiritual blessings?» They are not natural blessings. Everything starts in the spirit. You get healed in the spirit before you get healed in your body; you get blessed in the spirit before you see blessings in your finances. There is a spirit of prosperity, just as the Bible says there was a spirit of infirmity in Luke 13 that made the woman sick. It was a spirit of infirmity before it became an infirmity. In the same way, there is a spirit of blessings before the blessings manifest in your life. There is a spirit of prosperity.
I’ll prove it to you: Have you ever seen millionaires and billionaires go bankrupt and two years later come back again making much money? You might wonder, «How could you go bankrupt and come back strong?» They may have lost their business, but they did not lose the spirit of being blessed. You must hold on to the spirit! Even if you cut down the tree to the ground, it is better to cut it down than to strip the branches and leave it struggling everywhere. Even everything may be cut down to the stump, but it will sprout again! Don’t let temporary circumstances make you think you are not blessed; shake yourself off and recognize that the blessing of the Lord is still on your life. You might be in a season of testing and trial, but the blessing of the Lord is still on your life.
How will you get that? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You must get away from negative people who talk death and despair, and find somebody speaking life to your spirit, causing those things that are not to manifest in your life. Are you getting this? He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. «According,» this is a musical term, but it means «to the same degree,» like a chord in harmony. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, He is going to bless me not just according to who I am now but because He chose me before the foundations of the world.
Did you know He tells you too that you didn’t find Him, that you didn’t just make a decision? He chose you in Him before the foundations of the world so that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. God set this up so you would know Him like you do, so you would thirst for Him like you do, so you would need Him like you do! Some of you are stubborn like rams running from God; God lets you run right into a tree to make you turn around and recognize, «Oh yes, I need God!» Oh yes, He can get your attention; He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world so that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.
He has predestined us; He is pre-destined. He determined the end from the beginning. He has predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. You know, I thought it was for me, but He did it for Him; it was according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace in which He made us accepted in the beloved. Now I have to stop here; this is so important. Once you get this, all of you serious Bible students, I want you to understand this! «To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved.» I didn’t make myself accepted in the beloved; my talent didn’t make me accepted in the beloved. I chose Him because He accepted me. No, it wasn’t my talent; He made us accepted in the beloved. You don’t earn that; you don’t work for that! That’s what Jesus did—He made us accepted in the beloved.
I’m accepted! Now, if you can get into your head and spirit through this Word that you are accepted in the beloved, why are you crying about who else didn’t accept you when God has accepted you? You are accepted in the beloved right now. So, we’ve gone from the exit to the Epistle, and He’s writing back to Ephesus telling them they are accepted in the beloved. It doesn’t matter if the whole city doesn’t accept you; it doesn’t matter if they refuse you, laugh at you, or call you names. You are accepted in the beloved, and I don’t know who needs this tonight.
It’s easy to feel rejected; it’s easy to have a pity party, bake a cake, put candles on it, wear a hat, and blow a whistle, feeling like life is over and doom is coming because of what somebody said. I’m telling you what God said! I don’t care what they said; I’m telling you what God said: You are accepted in the beloved! Let that get into your spirit so you’ll stop chasing validation from people who are uncertain about themselves. The person you’re trying to get validation from is confused about themselves! You are accepted in the beloved; that’s such good news! You never have to run to God wondering if He still likes you.
The Bible says if you are a believer, you are accepted in the beloved. When my children lived here, they never rang the doorbell; they just came in the house because they are my children! They are accepted in the beloved. They could come here any time, and when they were living here, they had that access. You are accepted in the beloved! Glory to God, in whom we have redemption through His blood! Don’t get to redemption and blood before you grasp this: «In whom we have redemption through His blood.» The power of that sentence is not just in the redemption and the blood—that’s powerful in itself! But that redemption and that blood only work through the geographical location of being in Him. «In whom we have redemption through His blood.»
We have it—not hoping to get it, not wishing for it, not waiting until we get to the judgment seat to find out if we have it. «In whom» right now we have present-tense possession: redemption through His blood. We have the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace—not according to the power of my tears, not according to how many times I say I’m sorry, not according to whether the church wants me to beat the drums anymore, not according to whether they want to buy my books anymore, not according to whether they want me to preach anymore. I have redemption through His blood; I have the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, not the church’s grace, not the board’s grace, not even my own grace! Sometimes my grace for myself is hard; is there anybody out there who is hard on yourself?
You have redemption and you have forgiveness according to the riches of your God’s grace! That’s why I started out talking about blessed be God, because He is rich enough to cover you when you couldn’t cover yourself. And then it says, «Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.» Oh my God, if I could tell you how much I love this text, it is because so much of my life was spent not knowing the mystery of His will. We were predestined; He forgave us; He redeemed us. But in verse 9, it says He also let me know! It is one thing for you to leave me an inheritance, and it’s another thing to let me find out! It is one thing for me to be your favorite grandchild, and it’s another thing for you to tell me! It’s not merely one thing for me to be the apple of your eye, but it’s another thing for you to tell me how important I am to you! Verse 9 says, «Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.» That’s what God is trying to get into the heads of the church at Ephesus. God tells His secrets to those who fear Him; the Bible says the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He shall show them His covenant.
God wants to tell you things that other people don’t know. Away with all these strange people running around saying they dreamed about you, or they saw chocolate ice cream come down your face! Then God said, «Don’t eat bananas!» or whatever—it’s not about that. This text is about having made known unto us the mystery of His will. Get out of the prophets' faces and out of all these prayer lines, these $1,000 prayer lines, trying to find out who you are. Verse 9: «Having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself.»
God says, «I won’t let you in on what I’m doing because I’ve got a purpose in everything you’re going through right now.» There is a purpose in it! Be still and know that I am God; there’s a purpose. Hallelujah! There’s a purpose in it! You’re going through tragedy, a broken relationship, a broken heart, crying yourself to sleep every night, feeling like you can hardly get up in the morning, not even wanting to brush your teeth. But you’ve got to survive it because there’s a purpose in your life! The purpose is past the pain of this present experience.
There’s a purpose past COVID-19. As horrible, tragic, gut-wrenching, and sorrowful as it is, my heart goes out to all those suffering, all those in the hospital, all those afflicted, all those shedding tears, and all who have lost loved ones. I actually weep for them, but when I get through weeping, I wake up and understand that I’m still here because God has a purpose for my life. There’s something He wants me to do, and I need to be busy doing it. So, He talked a little about His exit, and we discussed His epistle briefly. I could go deeper into Ephesians and get lost there, so I just wanted to give you a little bit. I didn’t unpack the whole meal; this is just a little taste.
Now I want to move into the epilogue, done by John the Revelator. I must explain why this is done by John. The epilogue is not done by Paul because Paul is gone. In the exit, he said, «My face you will see no more.» Then in the Epistle, he writes to them because he cannot physically make contact with them. They are practicing distance and separation; he isn’t allowed to go there, but he sends letters to them to continue to feed them, to nurture what he did, so that he can maintain the impact. He ensures the wolves won’t devour them, and that perverse men won’t rise among them and put them out to hear from a man.
Of God, I don’t care whether it’s through technology, physically, YouTube, a letter, a blog page, or however He gets the word from that vessel that birthed you. The milk that nourishes you comes from that man or woman of God, and it has a different smell, a different scent, and a different amount of vitamins in it to nurture you. He birthed them, He begat them, He nurtured them, and He fed them through the breast of His ministry, whether by letter or in person. He nurtured them, but in Revelation, it is not Him writing because He has gone to Jerusalem; He has gone on His own to be martyred. Now John the Revelator has taken up where He left off. Revelations 2:1-7, I’ll share this. Hang in there with me, and I’ll be done.
«And unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus, write: These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.» Oh my God! This is John the Revelator writing to the Church of Ephesus. These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, which are the ministers, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, which represent the church. God says, «I am in the midst of My church; I am still in the midst of My church. COVID-19 didn’t run Me out from being in the midst of My church. I still have My ministers in My right hand—those in heaven and those on earth; they’re still in My hand. Those yet to be born are still in My hand, the seven golden candlesticks of My church, and I am in the midst of her, and she shall not be moved.»
He woke up in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And how thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and hast found them liars. No wonder they tried them, persecuted them, and found them to be liars. Could Paul have warned them and laid the foundation? He had an impact, and the impact has maintained, not only through his life, but even now that Paul is dead, the work and the word he put down continue to be effective. So false teachers came and tried to teach them; they claimed to be apostles but were found to be lying. We are still living in Paul’s teaching after Paul is dead. Now that’s maintaining impact!
Let me give you a few verses, and I’ll be out of your way. This is good stuff because I feel in my spirit that God is not only trying to get someone to have impact but also to be encouraged to understand that you haven’t lost your impact. You might be going through a down season; you might have to reset. You might have to rebrand your company; you might have to start over again. I’m pondering another name, but the root of the blessing is still within you. You might have a setback; you may have to start over, and you might have to get your kids involved in starting the restaurant. You might have to go through all kinds of challenges, but the root of the blessing is still alive because you are blessed in Him, in Christ—not in a building.
I don’t have to have the building; I don’t need the crowd. Anyone who thought I was preaching for the crowd didn’t know me. There isn’t any crowd here; I don’t have a crowd. The root is here, and as long as you have it in your root, you don’t need people all up in your face to do what God called you to do. If you need people to do it, then the people started it. If God didn’t call me in a crowd, as long as I have God, I can still do what He called me to do. I don’t know whether you can receive this, but I can preach it. I want you to understand that you’re going to maintain impact. You’re going to make impact, and now you have to maintain impact. Wolves are going to come; problems are going to come; perversity is going to come; betrayal is going to come. People are going to do all kinds of things to you over the course of your life to disrupt you, but God wants you to make and maintain impact.
Now John the Revelator is talking to the church, and it is so interesting to me as we go into this. He says that Christ is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Verse two: «I know thy works and thy labor, and thy patience. And how thou hast tried them which say they are evil, and found them to be false apostles; thou hast found them to be liars.» The reason they learned to try them is because Paul had laid such a great foundation, and he had borne his burden with patience. «For My name’s sake hast labored and hast not fainted.»
I’m talking about maintaining; it’s still there. You haven’t fainted for My name’s sake. These are… you’re not perfect. Verse four: «I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.» You’ve cooled down a bit. Even though you’ve done all those things right, I’m going to tweak that. He says, «Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent.»
I think this is the most amazing scripture. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen. I have somewhat against thee, verse four, because you have left your first love. You’re doing the work; you’re still fighting for the principles. You’re understanding how the union drives away those that don’t believe. You’re doing the work, but the passion—the crying down by the river’s edge when you waved goodbye to Paul—the love you had, the passion for ministry, the anxiousness to grab a letter from the Apostle and read it with tears and appreciate it, value the Word of God—you’ve lost that. You’ve had the principles; you’ve got the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law is all gone. You’ve lost your first love.
And then He said something that cuts to the core: «Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent.» That is an amazing scripture because the image of the word is not just the words. When you read the Bible, don’t just read the words; you will see the image. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen. Now, I’m a person who doesn’t like being up on ladders. I don’t enjoy working on a roof. I can fly a plane, so I can obviously fly at heights, but heights are not something I enjoy. If I fell from a great height, I would definitely remember it. Wouldn’t you? If you fell off the Empire State Building, would you remember? If you fell off a tall building—a three-foot building or a twenty-foot building—wouldn’t you remember that for the rest of your life?
So, what does He mean, «Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent»? Why is He telling me to remember the unforgettable? If falling is unforgettable, if it’s a source of nightmares, if it’s something that makes you wake up screaming, why would He say that you could fall and forget? It’s because you don’t fall fast. You don’t fall quickly in a marriage. You don’t fall quickly; it is a gradual erosion of things you used to do. Little by little, you don’t even notice that you stopped doing them.
It is a gradual erosion of what used to make you a great pastor. Little by little, you stop doing those things without even knowing it. You’re distracted; you’re so busy trying to be an apostle and arguing about this and that and the other, wrestling with politics, forgetting to love Me. You used to love Me, but now you’ve forgotten. «Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou repent.»
I don’t care about your works, your arguing with people, your wrestling about theology and determining who is or isn’t an apostle. I don’t care about any of that if you don’t love Me. What made Me choose you was not how smart you were, or how tough you were, or how much you used to love Me. Remember! He said you’re maintaining everything except what mattered most. I want you to maintain the love you used to have for Me, the priority you once gave Me, the way you used to seek My face. I want you to maintain that love in your life, in your marriage, with your children.
The making and maintaining of impact is only possible when you maintain the love that caused you to have the impact in the first place. It was never your voice when you sang that moved the people; it was your tears. It was never your degrees that made you a great preacher; it was your passion. It was never how strong and muscular you were that made you a great husband; it was your compassion. What makes a great father isn’t how tough he is; it’s his compassion. What makes a great wife or mother isn’t about eyelashes or how long your hair is or the letters written on your fingernails; that’s not it.
Remember tonight from what great height you have fallen and repent. That’s what John writes to Ephesus because he doesn’t want the impact that the Apostle Paul has made at the Church of Ephesus to be subtly corroded to the extent that it loses relevance. As I close this Bible class tonight, I’ll stop here. God put you here for a reason, and your impact is important. There are so many things attacking it all the time. I get it. I understand enemies from the outside, enemies from the inside, voices of self-doubt, insecurity, turmoil. Some of you fight pride and arrogance. Everybody has something they have to fight on the inside. You have to fight on the outside, and now you have this COVID-19 situation going on. You have pressures, problems, finances—all of these issues, and there’s turbulence. I get it, and it’s stressful.
But don’t move the thing that made God choose you in the first place. You may have to lose your car; I’ve lost mine. You may have to move out of your house; I have moved out of mine. You may have to downsize; you may have to do a lot of things, but don’t lose what matters most. You’ve lost your first love like a lover standing on the porch looking down the road. God is saying, «Come back to Me.» It’s your attitude that I want you to maintain because if you can keep your attitude, you can keep your impact. Can I pray with you tonight? Because I know how many demons are trying to kill the thing that made you chosen in the first place. I get it. I fight just like you every day. I understand what it is to be exhausted, pulled at from every corner, wrestling with tears and pressure and stress that you can’t even explain because you’re in a pressure situation.
The wolves come, even from your own selves, so perversion comes. I don’t know where you thought you could trust them. You thought you could depend on them. You thought you could hire them. I get it, and it can make you bitter; it can make you cold, and it can turn you into someone God doesn’t recognize until He’s standing out there saying, «Adam, where art thou?» Tonight, as you and I are shut in in our homes, let’s pray that you can turn things around just by remembering from what great height you have fallen, and be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Father, in the name of Jesus, as we pray, I ask that every person listening to me take these words seriously. I want them to understand Ephesus; I want them to understand Ephesians; I want them to grasp the errors of this time and space. I want them to see the beauty of the text and the artistry and articulation of how You have woven this together for the edification of the church. But if they don’t grasp any of that, if they forget all the information I’ve shared tonight, and the only thing they hold on to is that they miss the place they used to be, it is still a good night. I pray tonight for the person who feels like they are not making or maintaining an impact with their kids, their husband, their wife, or at work—nowhere. They feel like a failure, like a fool. I pray that they would bypass all the issues they’ve been praying about and return to the heart of the matter, saying, «I’m falling back in love with You. I’m going to be courageous enough to open my heart and love again, even when I may not receive it back the way I want.» I refuse to put myself further into isolation. Father, I pray for those who have been in the cave before; those hard times, tough trials, and tribulations have made them so hard. But You remember the hearts You saved, and You want that back again. I pray for every backslider. I pray for every grieving, hurting, wounded soul. I pray for every tired, frustrated pastor overwhelmed by results or maybe the lack of them, burdened by demands. I pray for the one across the street who is discouraged because he has been fishing all night and hasn’t caught anything. Discouragement doesn’t care what clothes it wears when it knocks on your door. It can come in a suit or a pair of shorts. It comes to your house in famine or success, and discouragement still arrives. I pray that encouragement reaches out and blesses someone in Christ tonight. I pray for those who stand in need of a miracle—whether it’s a physical miracle, a financial miracle, or an emotional miracle—a peace in their minds. I pray that when this Bible class is over, someone’s love will leap and their joy will stand on its tiptoes, breaking into the next dimension and ushering in a new day. I thank You, Lord, because the clouds are dissipating, and the sun is peeking over an alabaster sky winking at us from a mountaintop that we have yet to reach, but we will get to that mountain again, for the valley shall be made low, the crooked paths shall be made straight, and we shall see the mountain of Yours. In Jesus' name, Amen.
I’m Bishop T.D. Jakes, a senior pastor at The Potter’s House. It is my absolute joy to share the Word of God with you today. I love it, and I hope you love it too. I hope you are blessed. I would love to hear from you! Go to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and just send me a note. Let me know if something I taught tonight blessed you. Go to the icon, go to the specific page where it discusses Bible class, and talk back to me. If something touches your heart, changes your life, or gives you clarity, whether regarding how to create and maintain an impact in your life, business, marriage, or personal encouragement tonight, I would love to hear from you. Now, have a great night, and know that we love you right here at The Potter’s House.