TD Jakes - Faith To Build (06/04/2017)
True faith is expressed in worship (Abel's offering), walking (Enoch's endurance), and work (Noah's ark-building); while waiting for unseen promises, we must actively build futuristically by faith—renewing strength, taking steps, and investing forward—ready for God's glory and blessing when the rain comes.
Faith Expressed Three Ways
I told you the other week that Abel worshipped by faith, Enoch walked by faith, and Noah worked by faith. So we must understand that in order to have faith, we need to worship by faith.
Worship being not this stuff we do like this, but worship being what we offer to God has to be by faith. Worship, as it relates to Abel, was about offerings. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, and he did it by faith.
His faith was expressed through what he gave. And I told you faith is often expressed through what you give. When somebody loves you and somebody believes in you, and they do not give you anything, be suspicious.
Because if you have faith for something, your offering is a reflection of how seriously you feel about it. You do not give to nothing you do not love. So Abel worshipped by faith.
Walk by Faith
Enoch teaches us the next dimension. You got to walk by faith. A walk is a walk. Just because you have faith does not mean you do not sweat. If you do not believe it, walk home.
Enoch walked by faith, but that does not mean he did not have human reactions to the walk. Do not think that your faith is going to exempt you from human reactions to life.
Life is life, but your faith will give you the momentum to take a licking and keep on ticking. It will resurrect you. It will strengthen you. It will make you survive.
Are there any survivors in the house this morning?
Work by Faith
This third dimension—it comes to us through Noah. And the Bible says Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, built an ark to the saving of his house.
Noah worked by faith. Noah worked by faith. His faith affected his intelligence. Watch this. His faith had now become a communication device.
Yes, that is right. Whoever said that had the proper reaction to that point. When I planned to say that, I planned for you to holler just like that.
Because Noah—faith caused him to have the intelligence that other people did not have. What the Bible says, "Being warned of God of things not yet seen."
When you have faith, God will tell you things are coming before they come. I wish I had a witness somewhere in here. God will show you things that other people do not see.
And since your faith affects your sensibilities, you do not try to live like your neighbors live, because you know some things that your neighbor does not know. You have been warned of God of things not yet seen.
Not Shocked by the World
That is why I do not understand why Christians are shocked about the way the world is going today. If you ever read your Bible, you would understand everything is happening just like God said it would happen in His Word.
Everything—just like He said. Just like He... I mean, everything. The very fact that we are using less and less money to purchase things is biblical—setting the stage for the mark of the beast.
If you do not have the mark, if you do not have the numbers, you cannot buy anything. How do you think somebody from John's era would describe today?
Do you know what a miracle it is for somebody who has never seen the telephone, never seen a cash register, never heard of radio, never saw anything like that—to talk about there is going to come a time that numbers on your body will release money in your life: buy bread, buy houses with the mark.
And you are right in the middle of it. No natural affections. You have got 12-year-old kids going up before judges, looking hard.
When we came up, we were scared to go to the principal's office. Now they are coming up looking hard—you know? Going up looking in the casket, and somebody 22 years old talking about, "He died hard, man. Keep it hard. Keep it real."
What happened to kids being kids? What happened to kids being kids? But the Bible said it was going to be.
All the issues we are dealing with about same-sex marriage—it is all been said in the Bible—in the last days that all of this was going to happen. This is not shocking.
What is more, it was going on in Jesus' day. It was going on before Jesus. People have always been people. They always will be people. They are going to do what people do—that is why you cannot build on people.
People will change their mind in a minute. But whatever God said, He said, "I am not a man that I should lie, or the son of man that I should repent. If I said I am going to be with you—if you make your bed in hell, I am still with you. If you take the wings and go to the outermost parts of the earth, I am still with you."
Moved with Fear
Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear. As a leader, as a man, as a woman, as a head of a household—are you hearing things from God that affect how you move, or are you moving according to the newspaper?
Because the newspaper will change its headlines every day. God's news is still the same.
Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear. He got in there... now this is the first time that we see fear and faith in the same sentence.
Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear. In fact, it says, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen."
"Well, I thought if he had faith, he would not have fear." That is not true. I told you fear has a next-door neighbor. Faith has a next-door neighbor. They live right across the street from each other, and you have to be able to feel both of them.
He moved with fear—but this is not the kind of fear that you have because of intimidation. This is the kind of fear that you have because of respect and reverence.
He moved with fear. He took it seriously. He took the warning seriously.
I want to ask you something: Are you just here, or do you take this seriously? Do you take it seriously?
Being warned of God of things not yet seen—you ought to be walking toward what is ahead of you, not what is behind you.
You are spending all of your energy trying to fix yesterday. You cannot fix yesterday. Whatever happened, happened. It is what it is. It is going to be what it is going to be, and it is going to do what it is going to do.
The past you cannot fix—but the future you have an opportunity to change. Your future will only live in what you build.
Build Your Ark
God told him what was going to happen—but he did not build his ark. Are we asking God to do too much? Are we asking God not only to tell us what is next, but to build our ark for us?
Have you been sitting around waiting on God to come down with hammers and nails and build your ark—and are you disappointed because He has not built it for you?
He was never supposed to build your ark. He was not supposed to build your ark. He was not supposed to build your ark. It is your job to build the ark.
It was His job to warn you. It was your job to build it. Touch three people and say, "Build your house."
It is time to build your house. It is time to build your house. I am talking to you on the Internet—it is time to build your house. It is time to build your house.
Stop crying about, "Oh, things are not going right. Things are not working out. When is the Lord going to do something"—because the Lord is sitting up very quietly in heaven saying, "O God, look at how her life is not working out." When is she going to do something?
Faith does not mean that God does your work. Faith does not mean that God does your work.
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, built an ark. Faith does not mean that you do not have fear—and faith does not mean that you do not have to work.
Faith will not do your work for you. "I am waiting on the Lord to do something." He is waiting on you to do something.
In fact, your next action is God's trigger. I am going to prove it to you by Scripture. Your next action is God's trigger.
Let us see: "Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in that law doth he meditate both day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that bringeth forth fruit in his own season; his leaf shall not wither"—there it is—"and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
"Whatsoever he," what? "Shall," what? God cannot prosper what you will not do. If you do not build it, He cannot bless it.
Oh my God—I do not know who I am talking to, but somebody is getting ready to build something that God is going to bless.
If you build it, God will bless it. Touch your neighbor and tell them, "If you build it, God will bless it." If you build it, God will bless it. If you build it, God will bless it.
If you build it, God will bless it. If you build it, God will bless it. If you build it, God will bless it.
But God cannot bless what you will not build. God cannot bless a ministry that you do not study. God is not going to study for you.
He told you to study to show yourself approved—a workman under God that need not be ashamed. So there is no need of you praying talking about, "Give me the Word, Lord." Study the Word.
Noah did the building—and God did the blessing. And they did it by faith.
Build a Life God Can Bless
Are you building a life that God can bless? Are you building a life that God can bless?
Are you... or are you building a mess and asking God to condone you in your mess?
If you are building something that all your neighbors are building who do not have your faith—you are building the wrong stuff.
Because if you have got real faith—first of all, you are building for something that has not happened yet.
Real faith—real faith has to be willing to look like a fool for a while. Lord, I feel something about to happen in here.
Real faith has to be willing to look like a fool for a while. Real faith is a blind man walking in the dark—stumbling trying to get to Jesus because he heard a voice that he cannot see—and he is walking in the dark until he makes contact.
Real faith is a guy building an ark and there is not a drop of rain in the sky—and everybody is laughing at you and you are looking like a fool.
Real faith is carrying Jesus down to the tomb where your brother is in the grave—and rolling the stone away—and everybody saying, "He is stinking now."
Real faith is willing to look like a fool for a while. I am going to preach to some fools. Give me a church full of fools.
Give me a church full of radical Jesus-Bible-toting-believing fools for Christ. High five somebody and tell them, "I am a fool for Christ."
The Apostle Paul said, "I am a fool... I am a fool for Christ."
Greet somebody by both hands and shake them real good and say, "I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something. I am getting ready for something."
That is why I came to church—because I am getting ready for something. That is why I hear the Word—because I am getting ready for something. That is why I am studying my Bible—because I am getting ready for something.
I have got a strategy. I am getting ready. You do not... I might look like a fool right now, but I am getting ready.
Are you getting anything out of this? Oh my God—I feel the glory of the Lord in this place. I feel the glory of the Lord in this place. I feel the glory of the Lord in this place.
Get Rid of Pride
Now you got to get rid of pride to do this—because if you have too much pride you are not going to be willing to look like a fool.
And you got to be willing to have everybody talking about you—and still keep on building what you...
Now listen to this. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The Bible said he moved with fear. He got in a hurry about it. He rushed to build. He rushed to look like a fool.
He rushed to do something that was out of step—because everybody around him is looking at what is, and he is looking at what is next. He is a step ahead.
Now you got to decide: Do you want to be a step ahead, or do you want to be in sync with your friends?
Peer pressure will put stress on your faith. If it is more important to you to fit in—you cannot have faith and fit. You cannot have faith and fit. You cannot have faith and fit. You cannot have faith and fit.
You got to be cool with being different. People snickering and smirking at you and saying, "She thinks she is something." You got to be okay with that—and you got to still be building.
Just building. Just building. Just building. Oh my God. Glory to God. Glory to God.
Look at your neighbor and say, "Hand me some nails." Pass me some wood. Give me a hammer. I am building something.
I do not have time to look back at yesterday. I do not have time to argue about what you said. I do not have time to legislate your opinion. I am building something. I am building.
Good God—I feel the Holy Ghost. I am building. It must be some builders in this room—because I feel the wind of the Holy Ghost pushing me.
Money Thrown Forward
Now you will remember a few weeks ago I was teaching—and we were teaching about finances. And I was teaching you that money thrown backwards diminishes. Remember that? Anybody remember that?
When you throw money backwards it diminishes. Like, you are throwing it at debt. And by the time you throw it at debt, by the time they take a percentage of it—it is diminishing.
The farther back you throw it, the more it is losing the value. It was a dollar when it left your pocket—but as they took interest out of it, maybe only $0.40 got to the principle.
So you see—money thrown backwards diminishes. Money thrown forward increases. Come on, somebody.
So you do not want to throw more backwards than you are throwing forward—because what you are throwing backwards is decreasing. What you are throwing forward through investments is increasing.
So the money you throw forward is investment. Oh—this is good. This is good. You must understand the difference between an appreciating asset and a depreciating asset.
Depreciating assets are robbing you. Why are you buying it? I am not saying do not buy it. Just understand that whatever you paid for it—when you drove it off the lot you lost half of that. Understand that you bought a depreciating asset.
Those clothes—all that stuff: depreciating asset. Money thrown forward appreciates: annuities, investment, mutual fund, stocks and bonds.
So forward—increases. Money thrown forward... the farther you throw it... God said, "If you throw it up to Me, I will put it in a storehouse for you. And I will give it back to you pressed down, shaken together, and running over."
You all do not hear what I am saying to you.
Build Futuristically
I said that to say Noah has put his efforts into his future. Most of us put all of our efforts into our past.
"I am still trying to get over the fact that I never knew my father." If you ignored him, he would have been dead by now. How long are you going to cry about that?
All of your energy is going into something you cannot fix. It is what it is. I am sorry. I am all jacked up too—if that makes you feel any better. My background is crazy too. It is okay.
But I am a living witness that your past can be a mess—and your future can be amazing. It could be amazing.
If you stop working backwards and be moved with fear and start building futuristically—now he looks like a fool because he is building something that does not fit where he is.
He is building something that does not fit where he is. And all the neighbors were going about talking about, "Look at that fool. What is that big thing Mr. Noah got back in his back... have you ever seen such a mess in all of your life? They have been out there working on that thing every day. What is it? What is it? Does it crawl? Does it walk? It is on the dirt. That is stupid."
But the rain had not hit it yet. I do not know who I am preaching to this morning. Your dream looks crazy right now.
It does not fit your circumstance—you cannot even afford to do it—but the rain ain't hit it yet.
Over thy head I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. Touch ten people and tell them, "The rain is coming. The rain, the rain, the rain."