TD Jakes - Moving from Disgrace to Grace (09/16/2018)
From Romans 5:20-21 and the Parable of the Talents, the preacher explains that the law reveals sin to make grace abound even more; grace not only forgives but empowers us beyond our ability, and with every gift or grace God gives comes the responsibility to build on it faithfully—ruling our spirit, giving generously, and investing what He's allocated so He can increase us to the next level.
The Law Reveals Sin—Grace Overcomes It
Romans 5:20 and 21, "Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might abound." Now, I want to be sure that you understand that the law comes to reveal sin, not to cure it. Let me break it down this way, because I think this will make it quite clear. Right out there on Interstate 408, they will put a speed-limit sign out there. It is not there to stop speeding, it is there to reveal speeding. For if there is no law, then there is no sin.
You could just drive like you are on the Autobahn, just do 140 miles an hour, but the moment they put a sign up there, it will reveal who is a speeder. So what God did in Exodus chapter 20 when He gives us the law, He does it to reveal sin. So when sin comes into existence, it comes because the law shines the light on where God draws the line. Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
Okay, so, "Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Now, I want you to think about that, "For where sin abounded, grace did much more abound," and before you move into your guilt mode and start looking at this from your personal perspective and wrestle with the complexities of sin, what I really want you to see tonight is the correlation between sin and grace. "For where sin did abound, grace did much more abound."
Look at this for a moment, it is as if wherever sin did its dirtiest work, grace climbed to its highest degree, almost as if there was something about sin flaunting itself that attracted grace to come and douse out the fire of the raging sin. So you must understand that there is some correlation between the abounding sin and the abounding grace. "For where sin did abound, grace did much more abound." So grace stood back and said to sin, "Take your best shot."
And when sin had done every little nasty, dirty, filthy thing that it could think of to do to you, grace came in and said, "I can handle it." And so, you are here today not because you have not been a flamboyant sinner, but in spite of the flamboyancy of your sin, grace said, "I got you covered."
Grace: More Than Forgiveness—It's Empowerment
Now, when we think of grace, let us not limit grace to the elementary definition of the unmerited favor of God. I do not disagree with that definition, I just think it is very elementary, because when you reduce grace down to the unmerited favor of God, you are dealing with grace as it relates to its redemptive properties, but grace is more than a saving agent, grace is also an empowering agent.
In other words, I have grace to teach this class. That means that God has empowered me to teach this class, and I can do this tired, weak, sick, weary, cross-eyed, and blind, because the grace of God is on me to do it. If God's grace would back up from me, I would not be able to pull my Scriptures, my thoughts, my mind. I do not, very seldom, work with a lot of notes, so most of my stuff is in my head. How can you do that?
Well, the first time I went to a Bible school, I was teaching, so I never studied there, I taught there and never studied there. How could you do that? Because there is a grace. Why do I take the time to say this? Because your prayer should be, "Lord, give me the grace for the challenges I face." So grace is more than forgiveness, it is more than favor, it is empowering you to function in an area or in a place that you would be impotent to function without that grace.
There is a grace to be a pastor, there is a grace to be a wife, there is a grace to be a mother, there is a grace to be a husband. God just graces you to deal with some things that other people could not deal with. You have a grace to deal with the situation that somebody else could not deal with, that is why you cannot allow people to tell you, "If I was you, I would not take that." The reality is, you cannot take that because you do not have the grace, okay?
Grace Reigns Through Righteousness
"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." I love the way Paul talks about grace in the Book of Romans. He takes the weight off of my willpower and turns it over to God's ennoblement.
He says, "When I would do good," in the 7th chapter of the Book of Romans, "evil is present with me. That which I would do I do not, that which I would not do, I do. O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is saying I know that my redeemer must come from outside of me, because I lack the power inside of myself to save myself from myself.
So, see, and I think that sometimes you have to come to a place in your life that you have given up on delivering yourself by yourself so that you can experience the power of God to enable you to do what you could not do alone. That is the grace of God that enabled you to stop smoking. That is the grace of God that took the taste of alcohol out of your mouth.
Some of you were stoned-out alcoholics, but God has just flat out delivered you by the grace of God. He has given you a grace. We did a prayer line Sunday for people who were addicted, and many of you got delivered because God gave you a grace to step out of what you could not do by yourself. There is a grace from God to enable you to do that, glory to God. Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
So, what we begin to understand as we walk through these various instances and identities is to begin to realize that there is a grace for which we must be responsible for and begin to build on that grace so we can take it to the next level. Touch somebody and say, "Let us build on the grace." We have a responsibility to build on the grace.
The Parable of the Talents: Build on What God Gave
Now, go to Matthew 25:14 through 30. He built on what God gave him, that is what I want you to walk away from this seeing, that with the gift of God comes a responsibility to build on what He has given you. Not just to say I am gifted and sit down, what are you doing with the gift that He gave you?
See, if you are going to be an effective leader, if you are going to lead anything worth talking about, you have to learn the art of delegation, because if you are going to build anything bigger than your own two hands, you have to be able to delegate to other people, okay? Some people cannot delegate, and when they cannot delegate, what they do is snuff out the potential to grow to the next level, because whatever it is you have will never get any bigger than you.
But in the process of delegating, you must also come back and regulate what has been delegated. If I delegate it to you, and I never come back to check to see if it is done, then I have not regulated what I delegated, and now I am in a dilemma. So, that brings in accountability, so if I delegate something to you, "To him whom much is given, much is required."
You cannot enjoy the much of the gift without dealing with the much of the requirement. Because I would not have given it to you if I were not expecting you to build on it, okay? This Scripture clearly shows that God expects you to be participatory in the level of gifting that He has given you.
Now, I do not have to be responsible for somebody else's gift. I do not have to be responsible for Fred Price's gift, I do not have it. I do not have to be responsible for Benny Hinn's gift, I do not have it. I only have to be responsible for the measure of gift that has been allocated to me.
Faithful Over Few—Ruler Over Many
So I do not have to waste time competing with other people because we are not comparable. You cannot compare me to anybody else, you cannot compare them to anybody else, because what God gave me is unique to me, and so I am not running against what God did in you, I am running against what God did in me that I might make full proof of my ministry. It is mine, but I still got to prove it. Touch somebody and say, "Prove it."
Now, you do not see the guy with the two trying to compete with the guy with the five, because he is not running against the five, it would not be fair for him to run against the five because he never had five in the first place. And so, he is going to be judged on the basis of what you did with the two. God is not going to judge you by what He did not give you, He is going to hold you accountable to the level of gifting that He gave you. Are you hearing what I am saying? But whether you are a five or a two, you better build on it.
"You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many." In other words, He is saying because you took what I gave you to the next level, I will increase the level of what I gave you. So if you are not getting increase, maybe it is because you have not taken what He has given you.
See, because what happened, the two turned it into four, the five turned it into ten, He said, "Oh, you have been faithful over a few things, I am going to make you ruler over many." In other words, this was just a test, I just wanted to see could I trust you?
Be a Giver—Rule Your Spirit
Incidentally, the word talents actually means money, okay. So He says, yeah, if you look at the NIV and different translations you will find that it actually refers to money, and what He is saying to you, what I love about this text—and I do not have time to really get into this text because that is not what I am after—is that it is really teaching about investments.
And what He is saying to them is that you should have taken what I gave you to the next level. Every time God gives you something, be it an opportunity, be it a gift, be it a talent, be it money, He says I expect you to take it and be fruitful. That is the first thing I told you when I created you, was to be fruitful, to multiply, replenish, subdue, and have dominion.
Most people I have seen that were incredibly blessed of God were always givers, they were givers. They would give not just money, they bake cookies, they clean the house, they come over and answer the phone, they find some... it is like a child, you know, a kid does not have no money but they will draw you a picture. "Mama, I got a picture. I came to give you a picture," because love gives itself away. I said love gives itself away.
Now, come on, let us think about it a minute. You are a good person, you are a nice person, you are a loving person, how many of you want to empty out your 401K and invest it in some stock that is failing? You do not want to do that. So, what God does, He will give you a test blessing.
Now, as we talk about this, though this particular text is talking about money, it could be anything. See, it would not be bad if you could not sing, but for you to be able to sing and really be a blessing, be gifted to do it, but be stingy with it... I am going to get out of that, y'all do not want that.
Rule Your Spirit—Stop the Enemy
I got to go over here to Proverbs and pull this, because when we got to talking about this, it drove me into Proverbs. I got to go to Proverbs 25 for a minute, verse 28. "He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city whose walls are broken down." Now, you have to understand, putting in the context of the times we are in, in the Bible days, a city was only as strong as the walls around it.
So how do I know I have walls? I have walls when I can rule my own spirit. I do not have walls because I can rule you, ruling you is not the goal. I am not trying to rule you, that is manipulation, I am trying to rule my own spirit, and the more you can rule your own spirit, stop your own depression, lift your own mood, put yourself in a place of stability, the more you can stop the onslaught of the attack of the enemy. Somebody holler, "Stop it."
The Bible said that God commanded the angel and he put his sword back up in the sheath. I do not know what is about to happen, what has been threatening you, what has been hanging over your head, but God is about to stop it tonight. Somebody holler, "Stop it"! I got to stop it, I got to stop it tonight. Somebody ought to give God the praise. Stop it tonight, arrest the enemy, stop him in his tracks, put him out of business, shut him down, stop it tonight.