Read Textual Sermon from TD Jakes
Growing Up Into God’s Favor
Isn’t it funny how people have already made up their minds before they ask you anything? They bring a preconceived ideology into the situation, and nothing you say will move them because they have prejudged.
It’s like the Jews who had already agreed that if any man confessed that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. In other words, they were just looking for an excuse to put us out. Therefore, said his parents, “He is of age; ask him.”
Then again, they called the man that was blind and said unto him, “Give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner”—talking about Jesus. See, in other words, you’re giving too much credit to this man. “Give God the praise. The man you respect is a sinner.”
He answered and said, “I don’t know whether He’s a sinner or not. All I know... I don’t know whether it’s the right day. I don’t know whether He stood on the right sidewalk. All I know is that I was sitting there blind, and now I can see.”
This is the part that touches me.
Do you know, I’m excited to have the opportunity to share the Word of the Lord with you—to make you understand that you have to grow up into favor. Favor doesn’t just come full-grown. Sometimes you don’t feel favored, you don’t look favored, it looks like everything is working against you—and then, all of a sudden, the next step you take opens up God’s divine favor in your life.
Growing up into God’s favor is God’s word for you today, and I pray that it would strengthen you and encourage you in the things of God.
The Bible says in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of St. John that Jesus passed by and saw a man which was blind from his birth. His disciples, who were hungry for information—they had to take a crash course in faith to understand who they were and how they were to operate—said, “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Whenever we have adversity in our lives, we have a tendency in our human reasoning to always want to understand why this happened. Who do I blame for this?
“Well, I’m like this because my parents were like this. I’m like this because I didn’t have parents. I’m like this because I’m black. I’m like this because I’m white. I’m like this because my father dropped me on my head. I’m like this because my mother ate ice cream when she was pregnant.”
We always look for some reason to explain the vicissitudes of life.
But Jesus blows all of this out of the water. He said, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents.”
In other words, it was nothing that he did to bring this on himself. Oh God, I want that to sink in, because somebody is blaming themselves for something that you have no responsibility in. He said it was nothing that you did that brought this on you.
This happened—it is nothing that your parents did that caused this to happen. Things happen. Bad things happen to good people.
So rather than spend your energy trying to figure out who to blame for this condition, you ought to be preparing yourself, because God is about to give you a breakthrough in your life.
Look at this: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
This is a profound statement. Jesus is suggesting here that the works of God are made manifest through the adversity of men.
I’m going to say that again: The works of God are made manifest through the adversities of men.
In other words, if you didn’t go through anything adverse, God would not have a way to show how strong He is in your life.
Are you hearing what I’m saying?
When you want to see the works of God made manifest, look for somebody who’s in the most deplorable situation—because God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
When we are at our worst, God is at His best.
And just because you are in a crisis mode right now does not mean that you’re going to stay there.
Too many times, we categorize people and put them in files: “This is a good person; this is a bad person. This is a successful person; this is a failure. This is the black sheep; this is the one with favor.”
But I want to warn you against snap judgments, because some of the very people who lag behind and look like they weren’t going to ever bud or blossom may be the very ones with an appointment with destiny.
Because you judged them prematurely—before they had developed and gone through their changes—you might have excluded somebody God had already decided to bless.
It might not be in January, it may not happen in February or March, but God has set a date on that seed: September 26 at 5:15—there is going to be a turning point!
Many of you have lived your life with a sense that something was about to happen. You’ve gone through adversity and challenges—felt like giving up, felt like throwing in the towel, felt like life wasn’t worth living.
But at the moment of your greatest despair, there was an intrinsic voice down in your spirit that kept saying, “Hold on—something is about to happen.”
Sometimes you’re holding on just because you know something is about to change. You don’t know what it is, you can’t describe it, you haven’t seen it before—it’s just a gut feeling that where you are right now is not where you’re going to end up.
And somehow, you will come out of this on your feet.
Now, this business about this brother being born blind—that means from the moment he was an infant, he was blind. He never saw a sunrise or sunset.
He grew up in a world where people described things he could hear but couldn’t see. Isn’t it amazing how you can live in a world where somebody is walking in blessings while you’re locked out of it?
You’ve heard about it, but you can’t see it.
You work with people who have a great marriage, but you don’t see it. You go to church with people who are getting breakthroughs, but you don’t see it.
Yet in spite of blindness, he’s still growing—growing in the dark, growing in isolation, growing through rejection, growing without the benefits of others, and still growing.
I have to respect people who grow in adverse circumstances. Some who dealt with what this man did might have given up, but he kept growing anyway.
There are people here who are growing in the dark—they got dressed in the dark, came to church in the dark, paid bills in the dark, raised children in the dark, dealt with adversity in the dark.
They don’t have everything everyone else has, but they’re still moving forward anyway.
If that sounds like you, then the Lord sent me here to preach to you, to teach you, to challenge you:
You can’t wait till the change occurs to strengthen yourself. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”
In spite of darkness, adversity, trauma, or rejection—you still must move forward, because a breakthrough is coming.
Look at somebody and tell them, “There has to be something else!”
Now this requires that you believe God for something for which you have no point of reference.
If the man had once seen, at least he’d know what sight was like. But being born blind, he had to believe God for something he’d never experienced.
That’s a nebulous faith—believing that things will not end like they started, believing there’s a U-turn where God can turn things around.
Jesus said this man is in this condition that the works of God may be made manifest in his life.
When He gets ready to heal him, His methods are unorthodox. He could have spoken the word, or touched him—but instead, He spat in the ground, made mud, and anointed the man’s eyes.
Now imagine: you’re blind, standing before the Healer, and suddenly you hear Him spit.
Isn’t it funny how God’s method of bringing you out may not be the method you would have chosen?
I’ve seen God bring me out, but not always the way I wanted. Sometimes I came out with mud on my face, but He brought me out!
How bad do you want out?
Some want change only if it costs nothing. “I want to lose weight, but still eat ice cream. I want to get my degree, but not go to school. I want more income, but not work another job.”
You’d be surprised how many want things but aren’t willing to go through what it takes to get the breakthrough.
I want to preach to people who say, “Whatever it takes!”
I’m past shame, past image, past what people think. Whatever it takes, I’ve got to get out of this!
He spat in the ground, made mud, and put it on his eyes.
Generally, you don’t open someone’s eyes by putting mud in them. Isn’t it funny how when you’re closest to your miracle, things get worse?
But this is not for the faint of heart—it’s for the tough, tenacious, relentless people who know things may get worse before they get better.
Mud and all, I’m still in!
Jesus mixed spit and earth, made clay, and said, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
Here’s the controversy: Jesus sent him somewhere else to get his miracle—outside the system, outside the structure.
People criticize what God does in your life when they can’t take credit for it.
But this man got healed outside the system, and some of you had to break some rules to get what you needed from God.
He went, washed, and came back seeing!
Suppose God sends you somewhere else? Suppose He uses something outside of your tradition?
Anytime you get blessed outside a structured institution, it breeds resentment because they didn’t validate it. But you know—if it had not been for the Lord on your side—you wouldn’t have made it!
For some people, other people’s normal is your miracle.
They take it for granted, but you know it took God’s hand to make it happen.
So as God blesses you, don’t let anyone intimidate you—celebrate the goodness of the Lord and what He has done in your life!
Bible References
- John 9:1–3 (KJV): “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
- Isaiah 40:31 (KJV): “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV): “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
- Psalm 27:13 (KJV): “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
- Romans 8:28 (KJV): “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Questions This Sermon Answers
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- How does God use adversity to reveal His glory?
- What does it mean to grow up into favor?
- How should we respond when God’s method doesn’t match our expectations?
- Why does God sometimes bless people “outside the system”?
