TD Jakes — Faith Is A Perspective
Greetings to you in Christ's name. I'm delighted and excited to share a series that I believe will impact your life in a very powerful and profound way. We're gonna be talking about faith as a perspective. To understand it is very, very important.
Do you only define faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen? And even if you do, what does that mean in your everyday life? We're going to take a look at this word, and begin to understand how God can change your perspective. If he can change your perspective, it will change your reality.
Let's take a look at the Word of God, and see what God has to say about faith being a perspective. I wanna suggest to you, this morning, that faith is a perspective, that faith is a perspective. And the other thing that I wanna share with you, and I'm gonna make this clear as I go along, I'm gonna use a term, the community of faith. And when I use the term the community of faith, generally it is used in a global sense when you're dealing with secular people, and they want to pull out a segment of the community that is faith based.
They call it a community of faith. It's a very ecumenical statement that refers to all the diversity that exists within that community of faith. But, I wanna use it in a different context. I wanna tell you, in your soul, in your heart, in your life, faith lives in there, but it doesn't live alone. It doesn't live alone. There's a whole community around your faith.
So, I don't care how faith filled you are, your faith is not holdin' down that block by itself. Right across the street is Brother Doubt, and down on the corner is Sister Fear. And then, three doors down is Sister Anxiety, and Aunt Depression lives over the garage, she's got a small apartment over there. All of them live in the community of faith. When you walked in the door, you brought the whole gang with you.
When you get in the car, you bring the--now, some people will get on Twitter, and Facebook and Instagram, and they will act like they have no doubt, but there is a--let me tell you something, every person in this room has some level of doubt. Every person in this room ha some level of fear. Every person in this room has some level of anxiety.
Every person in this room has to fight some level of depression. All of that stuff lives in the neighborhood, and depending on what happens that day, what you read, what you heard, what you confronted, how you react to that. Our goal, as we preach the Word of God to you, is to gradually regentrificate the neighborhood until faith begins to dominate and take control over the neighborhood one house at a time.
We are takin' over the community till you start walkin' by faith, talkin' by faith, livin' by faith, thinkin' by faith, raisin' your family by faith, doin' business by faith, facin' adversities by faith, trusting in God. And I don't care what else you do, you can sing, and you can cry until your face looks like a rainbow, but if you don't have faith when you get through cryin', it doesn't do anything at all. You can live clean as a whistle, I mean so--you can live so holy your breath doesn't stink in the mornin', but it still doesn't mean you got a breakthrough.
That's pretty holy, isn't it? But it doesn't mean--if you don't have faith, righteousness apart from faith will not get the job done in your life. If there's only one thing that you needed to survive, to survive in this world, and survive in the kingdom, and survive in God, it's just simply--Jesus said it better than I can.
Have faith in God. Have faith. Not just have faith, but have faith in God, havin' faith in God. Let me tell you, I have faith in God when I don't have faith in me. Sometimes God pulls me out of self, and it's just like pullin' a bag of trash out the garage. I said, Lord, you sure ain't you pullin' me out. It's not because I'm righteous, and it's not because I'm holy. It's not because I prayed all day, it's not none of that, just your goodness, your mercy, your kindness, your love. You brought me out, glory to God.
Can I get a witness? Can I get a witness? So, you've gotta understand that this faith thing is real important. I don't care what church you go to. I don't care how nice it is, I don't care how posh it is, if you don't have faith, you're not doin' nothin'. You're not doin'--you can join all the axillaries, you can pay all your tithes, and give all your offerings, but your Christian experience is built on faith, and you have to possess faith in your soul. And if there's one thing that the devil is constantly after, constantly after, he's after your faith.
Oh, bless his name, he's after your faith. I've heard people say, The The devil's after my house, mortgage payment. The devil's after my marriage. The devil don't want your Well, why does he attack all of that stuff? He attacks that stuff to get to your faith. Everything that the enemy is attacking in your life right now, he is attacking to get your faith. Your faith is the valuable commodity.
Your faith moves God. Your faith shakes heaven. Your faith rebukes the devil. Your faith rebukes diseases. Your faith gives you courage. Your faith gives you confidence. Your faith reaches in the Spirit. Your faith's not just the promises, your faith embraces the Word of God. It is your faith. Is there anybody in here that's got faith?
I'm not one of these people that tells people not to take medication. I think you ought to take whatever you need if you need it. I believe that when God heals you, he'll heal you to the point that the doctor bears witness to the healing. Jesus healed the lepers, but he still send 'em to show yourself to the priests. He said, Go show yourself to for them was not intimated by medicine. He told 'em, Go show yourself priests in Jesus' day had to declare you clean.
So, Jesus didn't just heal the lepers, just tell 'em, Just go on walkin' anywhere, he says, you're really healed. So, away with this, I'm not walkin' by faith. Take it till you don't need it. When you don't need it, the doctor will have to admit it. Maybe God is usin' the sickness to witness to the doctor. Maybe God is usin' your sickness to witness to the doctor, and if you don't go back and get the report, then the doctor can't find out that Jesus is Lord. You knew Jesus was Lord before you ever got sick.
I'm gonna talk to you about faith this morning. I'm gone talk to you about faith, glory to God. Shake hands with somebody and tell 'em faith is a perspective. See, when the Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and that it is the evidence of things not seen, it is talkin' about how faith works on the outside, that it is the substance of the thing that you hope for.
It is the ingredients that makes up the end game of what you're tryin' to get. It's tellin' you it is the evidence of things not seen. When I say faith is a perspective, I'm talkin' about it is a selection that you have to choose on the inside, that you can walk in faith, or you can walk in fear. You can walk in faith, or you can walk in depression. You can walk in faith, or you can walk in confusion. You have to choose to walk by faith.
God is not gone come down here, burglarize your house, and make you walk in faith, Lift your gonna do it, you have to choose to walk by faith. I guarantee you right now there's not a person in this room that is not severely up under demonic attack. Severely, from the bishop to the back door, there's not a person in this room that is not severely up under satanic attack. And the enemy just didn't start the attack when you ran into the problem, he's been plottin' on you all your life.
He was plottin' on you before you even got here. He was plottin' on you in the house you were born into. He's been after you all of your life. And the only way you gonna make it, the only way you gonna survive, the only way you gonna get through life, and all the things that life does to you, is walk by faith. If you don't walk by faith, you're not gonna be able to do it.
It is a lot easier to sing about it, and preach about it, and teach about it, than it is to walk in it, because I need my faith the strongest when my fear is the loudest, that's why comin' to church is important. It's important, it's very important. And I'm gonna tell you why it's important. It's your only time to fight the enemy on his turf. What do you mean by on his turf? Every other way you're fighting him, you are fighting him through tangibles.
Here, you are being armed with weapons that are not carnal so you can do spiritual warfare. We are in Hebrews chapter 11. Faith is the substance of of things not seen. One thing is clear, we know who He is writing to Jews, Hebrew children that are being converted, whose whole religion, for the most part, was built on sacraments, ordinances, cleansings, and eatings of meats, and holy days, and all of that.
They served God through religiosity. So, he is layin' the case for faith, because the whole notion that faith is what it takes to please God was a new idea. You mean I don't have to bring no turtledove, no goats, no peace offering, no wave offering, no drink offering? You mean I don't have to slay the lamb? You mean I don't have to put any blood on the doorpost? He said faith will bypass all of that.
It was shocking stuff to hear after years of being groomed with works. Works had been groomin' 'em for years. It's a day of atonement. It's a feast of the Pentecost. It's the feast of unleavened bread, it's this day, it's that day, wear white linen, come before him this way, back up into his presence, light the incense, and faith just blotted all of that out and said you don't have to do any of that if you believe me.
Whoo, good God of mercy. So, he's layin' a case for faith, and I want you to understand that. And then he goes on to lay--he said, For by it the elders obtain a good report. Now, what he's tryin' to say, coming to fruition now, but it has been being developed all through your Judaistic history. He says your elders obtained a good report by faith. It was never the works they did that got them favor with God, it was the faith they had to do the work. By it, the elders obtained a good report.
Say that with me, By it, the Oh, my God, they're shoutin' stuff right there. That means, okay, you never came to class, you never turned your homework in, you're down to the end of the nine-weeks course, you gone flunk the semester, and the professor says, If you smile at me, I'll count it as an A. That's what--to obtain a good He didn't say the elders were good, he said that by faith, the elders obtained a good report. I did everything wrong, and I still got a good report.
I messed up on every decision, but I still got a good report. Lord, have mercy, that's some shoutin' stuff right there. By it, the elders obtained a You see, God is really into your perspective. You serve God every time you submit to a higher perspective. Abraham, you know Abraham, lyin' Abraham, that's the one I'm talkin' about. The one who married his wife and then said she wasn't his wife, you know, lyin' Abraham. God told Abraham, If you righteousness, I will count it as righteousness. I need a Bible class to do this. I can't do this in a Sunday morning.
See, let me tell you something about this whole accounting thing. I saw Susan over there somewhere, I need a good old accountant. Accountants, you know, they do things differently, because an accountant will tell you how much profit you've made, but the figure they give you is not always what you see left in the bank. So, when they tell me that this is the profit, I say, Where the money? where you count it, not where it is, it's where you count it. You might have spent the money, but it still counted as profit.
You might have bought more pews, but it still counted as profit. It's not in the bank account, but it counts as profit. God's saying you didn't do right, but I'll count it as right. Come on, come on, talk to me. Come on, talk to me, church. I know your little dirty secret, the one that don't nobody know with your holy self that you do. And if I would judge iniquity, I woulda cut you off, but if you believe me, it will be counted, For by it, the elders obtained a good report.
Abraham believed God, and it is righteousness. He's not right, but it was counted as right, he got credit for it. It's counted. Let me show you why faith is important. Works is based on my integrity, faith is based on his integrity. To not believe God is to suggest that he's a liar, and God said, I'm not a man that I should lie, or the Son of Man that I should repent. He said your salvation can't be frankly, you don't have no integrity.
You don't even keep the promise you made to yourself, so I know you're not gone keep the promise you made to me. But faith ties into my integrity. Good God, have mercy, I feel like teachin' this thing. God can't lie. It is the one thing that it said it was impossible for him to do. It is impossible for God to lie. And he says when you believe me, it means that you have tapped into my character and not my gifts.
You're not servin' me 'cause I took your fever away. You're not servin' me 'cause you got a new car, you're not servin' me 'cause you got a new job, you're not servin' me 'cause everything's goin' right in your life, you are servin' me because you know that I am holy, you know I am righteous, you know I am just, you know I am pure, you know my heart.
They know my ways, you know my heart. And Abraham, check this out, became the friend of God. Now, you ain't got no better friend, than to be a friend of God. Abraham became the friend of God just because he believed him. Now, then he goes through this thing, watch this, watch this. Through faith we stand under the truth. Now, this is the truth that he says, that the worlds were framed, that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
Okay, I need, I need 16 men up here, 16 men, 16 men, 8 on one side, and 8 on the other, and I want you to face each other. Eight on one side and eight on the other till you're facin' each other. Now, you got me framed in. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
Okay, I can't go but so far, 'cause you got me framed in. That that I would do, I can't do, 'cause you got me framed in. I can't get out of control, 'cause you got me framed in, and devil, you can't get to me, either, 'cause you got me framed in. Touch three people and tell 'em, I've been framed in. I've been framed.
Now, watch this. Now, I'm gone take you deeper. Can I go deeper? The word worlds there is not for ages. So, through faith we understand that the ages, time is framed by the Word of God. Yesterday, today, forevermore, it's all framed by the Word of God. The Word of God has got control of my now, my then, and my tomorrow.
So... when God speaks a thing, he speaks eternity into it, because he is an eternal God. The reason all of my children are African-American is because--I love Asian people, the beautiful long hair and everything, but I cannot have an Asian child because it is not authentic to my core. You can only produce what you are.
So, watch this. An eternal God cannot speak a temporary thing. Come on, come on, come on with me. So, when God speaks a thing, I don't care what time in your life it is, God said I got you framed in. I don't care what season it is, I don't care what stage of life you're in, you can be at the beginning of your life, you can be in the winter of your life, he said I took all of that in consideration when I said, Let It was let there be, be, be, be be...
My word is eternal because I am eternal, and I got you framed in. I got you framed. Now, watch the frame, watch the frame. The frame is two-dimensional, okay. It lets me know that anything that has got framed has got space. So, this is grace. Grace gives me space.
Before I hit the frame, I got grace. I got a certain amount of room. I got a certain amount of grace. I can kinda hang out, I can kinda chill out. I can do my thing. I can do anything I wanna do until I get ready to do somethin' that will mess up the picture, and then the frame, the frame won't let me out.