The Convergence Bishop T.D. Jakes
The Convergence Bishop T.D. Jakes
Paul’s journey from a Jewish Pharisee to an apostle for the Gentiles is one of several examples of God using our dichotomy for His purpose. Moses is another example. Being born an oppressed Hebrew but raised as Egyptian royalty prepared him for greatness.
Perfection isn’t a prerequisite. True service means stepping out of your comfort zone, coming as you are, and totally submitting to God. Paul urges us to be living sacrifices, embodying both the offeror and the offering, just like Jesus did.
Welcome the challenges as requirements for your evolution. Have faith in the process and embrace the transformation!
[Music] I’m going to Romans 12 1-4 yeah Hallelujah God is good y’all took me serious Sunday came on out here to hear what the Lord has to say we’re going to start reading at the first verse and read down to the fourth verse uh God is so good to us and we’re grateful to him uh for the many many things that he does in our lives that only God can do Paul says I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice who presents it you do you present your body a Living
Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind by the renewing of your mind by the renewing of your mind you need a new mind you need a new mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think oh but to think soberly as God have dealt to each one a Measure of
Faith Can you say Amen am go back to that first verse that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice I want to talk from the subject the convergence tonight the convergence the convergence if it doesn’t make sense now it’ll makes sense in a minute the convergence the convergence Spirit of the Living God fall fresh on us tonight we’re desperate for you we long for you we crave you as a deer panteth at the water Brook so plant I after thee Oh God come and quench the thirsting of my soul I’m thirsty water won’t quench it
I’m thirsty and friendship won’t quench it I’m thirsty and friends can’t quench it only you can give me Living Water fill my cup fill my cup and let it overflow I thank you for what you’re going to do in Jesus name somebody shout amen amen relaxing and comfortable let’s talk The Book of Romans is written almost like a legal closing statement it is profound it is prolific it is Pauline it is clear it is meant to eradicate misunderstandings about how God might be perceived uh in Rome which is a
metropolitan superpower at the time Rome was the dominant kingdom whose power and influence had reached far and wide be beyond the borders and the parameters of where it started from it had captured much of Israel it had brought Jerusalem into captivity it had taken over many provinces and areas had all come up under the rulership and the leadership of Rome Caesar uh had such power and such fluence Augustus many others who attributed to the uprising of the superpower of which Rome was and is no more because superpowers
come and superpowers go kingdoms come and kingdoms go and we have to understand that not only in the scriptures but in life there is no guarantee that who is up today will be up tomorrow that who is in charge today will be in charge tomorrow God has a way he said I I raise up one and I bring down another I alone am God and beside me there is no other the teacher here was once a student the the saint was once a sinner yes the lifegiver was once a lifetaker that’s why you have to be careful about counting people
out because you never know God has a way of using the most unlikely people to do the most amazing things and it is difficult to forecast a person’s future by looking at their past because our God is radical he is so radical that he can take somebody uh from the from the pit to the Palace from the bottom to the top so was the case with the Apostle Paul when he comes on the holy word he comes on through the name Saul because he is a Hebrew he is from The Tribe of Benjamin he is zelous concerning the law he is a
lawkeeper he was a part of the Sanhedrin he was a Pharisee he was an orthodox committed Jew and thought he did God’s service by arresting and apprehending as many Christians as possible and it was while he was trying to do that and on the road to Damascus that God disrupted his entire life do you know the God can disrupt your entire life without your permission you don’t get to vote on it you don’t even know when you wake up that morning that you’re your whole life is going to be disrupted but God can
disrupt your whole life and and he can disrupt the life of your enemy he can disrupt the life of the person that’s pursuing you right now in such a way he can do things that you can not do that’s why he said vengeance is mine sayith the Lord I I I will repay you don’t have to get even I know how to settle the store if you just wait on me I I I I I I I’ll fix it you don’t have to fix it and concoct anything and get out of character because of some injustice that has come upon you I I’ll
I’ll fix it I I’ll fix it and so God decided to fix it and and and and he didn’t know who it was he said he saw a great light and it knocked him off his beast and he fell down on the ground and he said who it is who is this and he said it is Jesus whom thou persecutest now Jesus has been crucified rose from the dead ascended up into the heavens Seated on the right hand of the father but he still appears on the road to Damascus isn’t it amazing how God can do whatever he wants whenever he wants however he wants because he’s
God one moment we see him uh in the grave and the next moment we see him walking around in the garden he showed himself alive for 40 days with many infallible proofs according to acts 1 chapter 1 verse 1-4 and then he ascended on a cloud and the Bible said the next next time we saw him he was Seated on the right hand of the Majesty of the Father which was on high until they stoned one of his disciples and then the seated Jesus got up yeah yeah yeah he can be sitting one moment and standing the next moment and
then appear back in the earth realm again after he has left and ascended he can turn around and descend again and bring discourse and disruption into the life of a tyrant who had made such a reputation that the Christians were afraid of Saul they were afraid of Saul they were afraid of the Saul of Tarsus they were running from a but when God gets ready he can show up and disrupt everything and turn everything thing around so we understand according to the scriptures that that that Saul has this amazing experience
with God that he sees so we know he’s not blind then he saw a great light and then the Bible says right after that he was blind so he saw it and then he didn’t see it uhhuh and and and the and the people he was leading ended up having to lead him he lost his eyesight but he got insight there is a difference between eyesight and insight sometimes we take for granted eyesight and we don’t pray about Insight but there’s nothing that you’re going through that God won’t give you insight about it if if you seek him for it
another word for insight is wisdom to to be wise enough to see into a thing rather than to see outside of a thing for man look at at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart so in order to get insight you have to get Revelation from the Lord to see into a thing and there are some things going on in your life right now that you need Insight insight insight into how to make this marriage work insight into how to raise these children Insight how to budget my finances Insight how to maneuver a certain situation or obstacle
that I’m going through and he became weaker on the outside but stronger on the inside he looked bad in front of the people he was leading now they are now leading him but in the long run God fills him with the Holy Spirit brings him to ananas say house he brings about a change in his life a metamorphosis that even the disciples question so you can’t let other disciples make you question what God has done because God uses whom he will you you don’t you don’t you don’t have to get elected you don’t have to
get appointed they don’t have to like you they don’t have to agree with you they were afraid of him but God decided to use him for his glory and his ministry starts though he is a bit outside of the Fellowship of the disciples and they are afraid of him and the Bible said that God had to speak up for him and said don’t be afraid of Saul he prayeth now am I in the word of God or what the Bible said God said he prayeth now yesterday he was p r y i n g and today he is p r a y i n g God can take somebody who was uh praying p r e y and
turn them into a p ay at the same time and change them so completely that you don’t know who they are because you’re looking at what they were and that to the degree that you don’t understand who they are and that is his history but that is not his Destiny there is a difference between your history and your destiny and uh he he wrote the book of Thessalonians was actually the first epistle that Paul wrote uh with a fairly limited understanding about God if you read thessal Thessalonians chapter 1 he’s
focusing on the return of the Lord he doesn’t Focus as much on the death burial and Resurrection as he does as he matures in God his Revelation matures and by the time we get to Romans he has a full-fledged understanding of who Jesus is in a way that is absolutely mindboggling uh because when he wrote Thessalonians the only thing he knew is that Jesus was coming back and it was easy for him to believe that Jesus was coming back because that’s how he got saved cuz Jesus came back so he started with what he knew about Jesus in
Thessalonians and then moved into other aspects about who Jesus was and the Epistles progress in Revelation because Revelation is Progressive it is not instantaneous it is not just momentous it is a gradual uh in the Greek is Gasco it is Progressive knowledge it is to grow in knowledge we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Jesus Christ you got to teach what you know until you get to where you’re going and then you can teach more as he reveals more to you give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive every day God gives you a little more bread than you had the day before a little deeper understanding and so by the time we get to Revelations he’s at Full Throttle he is completely Rich he’s no longer grumling with ideas he’s no longer acquiescing to society he’s no longer responding to society’s dictates like when he wrote Corinthians and he says it’s not natural for a man to have long hair and it’s not natural for a woman to cut her hair and you watch how
he progressively develops in his understanding of God uh he in Corinthians he is a little intimidated because while he was gone Apollos came and Apollos came and when he came back they were all talking about how smart Apollos was and and and he said I do not come with you with swelling words or Excellency of speech there’s a little bit of intimidation in the text because he’s a little intimidated but he was wise enough to say one man plants and another man WTH and God gives the increase and it took him a little while
to grow into the full stature of who he was to be in God just like it takes you a little while to grow into the full stature of who you’re going to be in God how many of you can admit you’re still growing by the time he comes to Rome he comes into Rome up under duress because they were trying to kill him in Jerusalem they were trying to kill him in Jerusalem they had slapped him around they had stretched him wide they were getting ready to beat him to death and then he said is it lawful for you to execute a Roman citizen now all of a
sudden Saul is now talking like Paul because Paul is his Roman name Saul is his Hebrew name and sometimes you have to see the convergence between who he is as an ethnicity and who he is as a citizen when you call him Saul you’re tying into his ethnicity like King Saul the first king of Israel he’s named after the king and he’s exercising under that manle because he is from The Tribe of Benjamin as was Saul from The Tribe of Benjamin and then later on he when they get ready to kill him that he says
wait a minute you can’t kill me I’m a Roman citizen it was he was a Hebrew by birth but he was a Roman citizen by experience and there was a conversions of two different totally opposite ideologies happening between the word Saul and the word Paul is two different expressions of one [Applause] [Music] individual do you hear what I’m saying to you so he comes to Rome and he comes to Rome not as a stranger but as a citizen and and the enemy did not want him to get to Rome he did not want him to get to Rome he would have rather that
they beat him to death in Jerusalem because God had called him to minister to the Gentiles which was a humbling experience because as a devout zelous Pharisee he wouldn’t even eat with the Gentile and now he is called to serve the Gentiles and God has a way of humbling people that we can’t humble and bringing them to a place of submission and God sends him to Rome albe it he goes to Rome because it was better to go to Rome than to stay in Jerusalem and risk being killed and along the way it’s not the destination that’s always
important it’s the things that happen along the way yes that’s how life is you you’re you’re praying about the end of a thing but God shows himself along the way and along the way God begin to reveal him self and along the way God be to show who he was and along the way he be to mature in in his faith and along the way he developed as a Believer the the incident at Antioch they almost came to blows with the other disciples they almost got into a fist fight fighting over theology because they couldn’t
agree about what they were going to teach should we be circumcised should we not be circumcised should we abstain from eating meat that’s offered up to Idols or if we pray over it can it be blessed they didn’t have their Doctrine just right they didn’t have their ideas just right and yet they moved in the power of God isn’t that amazing how you can not know all of your theology and yet God can anoint you and they were walking past people and their Shadows were healing people and the Bible says
along the way he was preaching the gospel and one man fell asleep on Paul’s preaching and fell out the window and died and Paul went down the steps and raised him from the dead and came back upstairs and kept on preaching but he’s still growing he’s anointed but he’s still growing he’s powerful but he’s still growing he’s raising people from the dead but he’s still growing and it takes him a long time to get to writing the book of Romans which is like the Magna Carta of the New Testament it took
him a long time before he got the courage to write the book of Romans and to settle into the fullness of his ministry and to settle into the fact that God has brought him and made him an apostle to the Gentiles though he is a Jew but he was still a citizen of a of a of a of a Roman nation and a Roman Empire and there’s a convergence and everybody I see in the Bible that God uses uh there’s converences there’s complications there’s idiosyncrasies that makes them hard hard to describe one from the other
you you you you can’t understand how Moses could be born a Hebrew and yet be educated as an Egyptian and have an Egyptian mentality but a Hebrew bloodline and he didn’t even understand himself he’s standing in the palace Like An Egyptian but he sees an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew and all of a sudden his ethnicity kicked in and he said he starts fighting and there was a converion between his experience and his ethnicity because it’s not just ethnicity it’s also experience what brings us together
