TD Jakes - Treasures In Darkness
I'm gonna talk to you about the treasures of darkness. God said, "I will give you the treasures of darkness". This is gonna bless your socks right off in the floor. Glory to God. Are you ready for this?
Holy Spirit, take over this room as we share the Word of the Lord with your people today. I thank you for doing great exploits in the midst of your people. I believe you for greatness to move in this house. Great God that you are, have your way. You are omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and I believe you to manifest your glory here with us this morning. "Early in the morning will I seek thee". In Jesus' name, somebody shout "Amen".
On the road to Damascus and the Bible said that Saul saw a great light, a great light that knocked him off of his beast. God is terminating the agenda of your enemies that are coming against you to destroy you. I speak to every anxiety that has kept you up at night, worrying about what's coming. Don't worry about what's coming. God's getting ready to knock it off its beast. He's getting ready to shut it completely down. He wanted you to be here this morning to get this word so that you could be at peace that God can stop it and knock it off of its beast.
My God, I feel like running. 'Course, I'm not gonna do it. But I feel like running. When I was young I used to shout and dance, and they'd have to put me in the car, and I'd still be dancing; and now that I'm older, I act like I'm gonna shout. I say, "Oh"! And then I think about my back, and I think about my ankles, and I think about, and then I say, "Yes, Lord". I know I got a witness in the house. I know I got somebody in here who knows.
Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, is on his way to do what he thinks is God's service. People will destroy you and think they're working for God. Watch out for anybody's ministry that is based on what they're against, rather than what they're for, 'cause religion will divide the body. It will split hairs about doctrine. It will lock people out. But relationship will open its arms wide and say, "Whosoever will, let 'em come".
That's what I love about Lakewood. You open your arms and say, "Whosoever will, let 'em come", without judgment, without condemnation. It's God's business who he draws to the cross. Hallelujah. And then it occurred to me that Saul saw a great light in the middle of the day. Now that's a great light. That's a great light that it shines in daylight. It has to be a great light, for the greatest light we have on earth is the sun, but there is a light that will outshine the sun. There is a light that is more glorious than any glory you have ever seen before, and it was such a bright light that even the beast didn't know what to do. It had never seen such a light. The beast stumbled in the light of the glory of God and Saul fell off his beast and onto the floor. And there, on the floor, he has a conversation with God. "Who is it, Lord"? And the answer came back, "It is Jesus whom thou persecuteth".
Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Saul never persecuted Jesus. He never persecuted Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible will you find where he persecuted Jesus. He just persecuted the people who worshiped Jesus but Jesus said, "When you fight my children, you fight me, too". I wanna warn every one of your enemies, when they fight you, they fight Jesus, too. Oh, I wanna warn every hater in here, when you hate on us, you hate on Jesus, too. In fact, the battle is not mine. It belongs to God. I need three seconds of crazy praise. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Touch three people and say, "It's not my battle". It's not my battle. Yeah, yeah, it's not my battle. It's not my battle. It's not my battle. It's God's battle. Cancer is not my battle; it's God's battle. Leukemia is not my battle; it's God's battle. Divorce is not my battle; it's God's battle. Oh, my God, I feel the power of the Holy Ghost. And the Bible says that they knocked Saul off his beast and he had an encounter with God.
Now, interestingly enough, until this encounter occurred, Saul was leading a band of men on the road to Damascus. But after his encounter with Jesus, the men he was leading are now leading him because the light left him blind. There is a light so bright that it will take away your sight. There are certain lights that are so all-encompassing that the eye was not designed to embrace and receive that level of light. It is blinding light. That is the light of the glory of God.
Can you imagine the kind of light that is so bright that it left Saul blind? But he was blind for a purpose, because God said in Isaiah, "I will give you the treasures of darkness". You wondered how I was gonna tie that up, didn't you? I got it, I got it. Yeah, stay with me. I got it, I got it. God said, "I will give you the treasures of darkness". In other words, "I can show you some things blind that I couldn't show you with your eyes wide open". What I'm trying to teach this morning is that sometimes eyesight is a disadvantage. "For we walk by faith and not by... sight".
Oh, you're awake this morning. I'm checking and you're awake this morning. You had at least two cups of coffee, you're good to go. You're good to go. If you'd have had one more cup of coffee, you'd have shouted off of that. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Think about the times in your life that you couldn't see no way out and God made a way out of no way. Think about the times that you had no plan and you just stumbled into a blessing. Is there anybody in here that's ever stumbled? You can't even take credit for it. But while you were groping in the dark, you stumbled into something that changed your life. To God be the glory.
The reason that eyesight can be a problem is because eyesight teaches us to assess what we see and sometimes what we see is arbitrary to what we believe. Sometimes when we look at our circumstances, our circumstances do not reflect what we believe. And if you're not careful, you will make decisions based on eyesight. So God took away his eyesight so that he might attain insight.
Oh, you didn't hear that. God took away his eyesight so that he might attain insight. Insight is stronger than eyesight. Insight creates innovation. Insight creates productivity. Insight produces wisdom. Insight tells you when to hold your peace. Insight tells you who's your friend and who's your enemy. Insight tells you don't go in that room, there's something about it. You don't need to go in there. I would rather have insight than eyesight.
There's a woman they said, "Oh, it's such a shame. Such a shame, such a shame that you've been born blind and you've never been able to see". And she said, "Oh", she said, "being blind is not so bad". She said, "There are things worse than being blind. I could have been born with sight and have no vision". The woman was Helen Keller. Helen Keller said, "It is better to be blind and have vision than to have sight and have no vision".
The thing I would never want to do is have no vision. I don't even like to be around people who have no vision. I don't wanna be led by anybody who has no vision. The reason you are in this building right now is because you're following somebody. Oh, you didn't get that. You're following somebody who had a vision. The reason that seat is right where it is, is because somebody had a vision. The reason there is a Lakewood Church is because somebody... You're sitting in vision. You're wearing vision. You're driving vision. You're living in vision. Without a vision, the people... perish.
So when the moment was over, he had lost his sight for three days, but he had gained his insight. And insight is better than eyesight. We should take just a moment and pray that God increase your insight. There are some decisions that you need to make that you're gonna need a deeper insight in order to make the right decision. We should take just a moment and ask God to increase your insight because your emotions are responding to your eyesight, but your spirit is moved by your insight. We should take just a moment and ask God to give you insight about every predicament that you're dealing with in your life right now.
There is a insight that will turn that thing around. Father, open up our insight. Let us see more clearly than we've ever seen before. Let us see on the inside in spite of what we see on the outside. I thank you for the treasures of darkness, the treasure. My treasure is in this dark place. My treasure is in the place where the enemy has tried to set me up, but I will not leave 'til I get it, in Jesus' name, amen. If you receive it, shout the house down. Shout the house down.
I bought buildings because of insight. I started businesses because of insight. I made choices because of insight. I said yes to some things and no to some things because of insight. Sometimes I couldn't even explain to somebody why I walked away from it, but I just had an insight. In the eyesight it didn't make any sense, but in the insight I sensed that this was not a good deal. Sometimes there was people who tried to befriend me. My eyesight said they were friends. My insight said, "Be careful". My insight is my protection. My insight is my guard. My insight is my guide. Is there anybody in here that's had supernatural insight in your life? Identify yourself.
And he was led blind to Ananias's house and he had no eyesight but he had insight every step of the way. And it all happened along the way. Now, I'm as goal-oriented as the next person. I admit that I am. I set goals for myself. I have goals in decades: where I wanna be in ten years, and where I wanna be in the next ten years, and where I wanna be in the next ten years, and where I wanna be.. oh, wait, I might not have that many ten years, but take about three of 'em then let me be with Jesus. But I have goals as much as anybody.
And goals are important, and goals are a great thing to have. But I would rather have the insight of understanding that it is not the destination that we ought to be the most concerned about, because it is not the God that we meet at the end of the destination. It's the God that we encounter along the way. Everything happens along the way. That's what seems to be leaving us as a people and as a society and as a generation.
We are so destination-oriented that we don't notice the things that happen along the way. We want the promises, but we don't want the process. We want the results, but we don't wanna take the journey, and it is the journey that makes you able to stand up to the destination. If you don't go through the process, you can't handle the promise. It is the process that equips you to be able to stand on the promises of God. When you go through a process, you won't let just anybody take your promise, because you went through too much to get it to let anybody take it away from you.
Oh, God, hallelujah. It is the things that happen along the way, and so there's Saul who becomes the apostle Paul. When he begins to write to Ephesus, he now has an appreciation for insight. So he does not go to Ephesus and pray that they would have greater eyesight, keener vision, bifocals, eyeglasses, or contacts. He prays that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened. The eyes of your understanding. He's praying for your insight, that your insight might be enlightened. Not outer light; inner light. Shine a light on the inside.
If you give me greater understanding and the eyes of my understanding are enlightened, a lot of my worries will just fall off. If I would have had the insight to know that God was working on my daughter through what she went through, I would have had so much more peace going through it. But because I didn't have the insight to see the treasures of darkness, I thought God's strategy was a demonic attack. But when I look back at it in retrospect, I say, "It was good for me that I was afflicted. If I had not been afflicted, I would have never seen the glory of God".
Who am I talking to this morning? If I'm coming right down your alley, make some noise in this place. I can't hear you. In summary, I'm trying to make you understand that some of the toughest places and the darkest places in your life are the places where God gives you the greatest glory. Both in this message and in the book I'm trying to tell you that when you feel pressure, and when you feel crushed, and when you feel at your wit's end, and when you feel like, "Where is God", he is always there. Jehovah-Shammah, he is a present help in the midst of trouble. He is right there in the middle of your problem.
And God wants to give you treasures. Treasures in the darkness, while all of your friends flee for the comfort. Stay right where he put you, because there's treasures in the darkness that God has for you that will make you stronger, that will make you wiser, that will make you brighter, that will make you fuller, that will make you richer, that will make you more complete in him. And when you come out on the other side, you can disciple somebody, you can witness to somebody, you can teach somebody, you can train somebody. God can use you like he'd never used you before. It is not my good times that reveal God the most in my life. It's not the shouting times that reveal God the most in my life. It is the times when all hell was breaking loose in my life that I saw God's glory shine the brightest.
Let there be light. He shined it out. And the darkness had to flee. My brothers and sisters, I came to Lakewood to tell you that there's more treasure for you. There's more promises for you. There's more blessings for you. There's more of what God has written in his Word you're going to experience in your life. But when he gets ready to bring the greatest treasure it may be wrapped in the greatest darkness. No one takes treasure and leaves it in the spotlight. If you have any valuables, you always lock them up in a dark place. And the level of the treasure that God is gonna release in this season of your light is not in the open places where everybody can see. It's how you go through your dark places.
To anybody in this room who has ever been or is in the middle of a dark place, don't be so overwhelmed by the darkness that you forget to get the treasure. There's treasure in that place for you. Would you stand? Reach out to your brother and sister. Leave no one untouched. I hate to go to a church and not be touched. This may be the only place where the person you're touching can find other believers to come into agreement with them. And sometimes, it is not you that's in the dark place; it's your child, or your husband, or your wife, or your grandchildren. But everybody in here has somebody that you love that's in a dark place and you need to realize that there is going to be treasure in that place.
You need to understand that you will not have olive oil without crushing the olive, that you'll never drink wine until a grape is crushed, that you'll never see the treasure that God has for your life until you withstand what you're going through right now. As simple as unhappiness, discontentment, and restlessness, God is going to bring you treasure if you hold on to what you have. Squeeze that hand you're holding. The Bible said: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them".
Father, I thank you for being in the midst of us right now. I thank you, Lord, for what you're working out right now. I thank you for those you are feeding, and healing, and touching, and blessing, and moving right now by your power, by your Spirit. We receive this Word. We receive this revelation. We receive this treasure. We receive this gift. We receive it now in the name of Jesus, and every believer gave God the highest praise they've ever given him before.
My God. While we're yet standing, if there's one amongst us who does not know the Lord and the free pardon of their sins, if there's one amongst us who's gotten out of the way, and gotten on the wrong path, and gone in the wrong direction, and you wanna come to Christ, and you need Christ in your life, right where you are would you just raise your hand up and say, "I need Christ in my life". God bless you. God bless you.
Put 'em up high. God bless you. Right where you are. If you're sitting near someone who raised their hand, just reach out to them. Right where you are, we're gonna pray.
Lord Jesus, I thank you that you've given me this opportunity to accept you in my life. Forgive me of my sins, wash me in your blood. I'm going to serve you. I know I'm not perfect. I may make mistakes, but I make this commitment. I'm going to serve you the rest of my life, in Jesus' name, amen.