What Does Your Character Say About You?

Pastor Sarah breaks down the connection between our belief system and our character. What does your character say about you? Is it aligned with your convictions? Take in the full sermon “Hungry For Hope” on Bishop T. D. Jakes’ YouTube channel.

We are experiencing basically every stage of parenting all at the same time, we’ve got a six year old all the way up to a 26 year old.
Yeah, pray. Um, so we’re not like all the way empty nester, even though some of our older Children are preparing to leave the home, one has already left because we’ve got an, a beautiful six year old who’s wide awake.
So I’ll make sure that I tread lightly there.
But uh she, we’ve got this six year old as well who still at an early stage, we still got time to serve there.
And, um, the thing about experiencing these different stages of life is that our desire, our focus as parents vary depending on what stage the child is in.
So with the six year old, we’re still discovering her personality.
She’s um, she’s um, oh, uh she, she’s uh Jesus. What is that word?
Um I’m trying a gentle parent so I can’t just say, you know, she, she’s spicy a little bit, you know.
Um I don’t know where she got it from, to be honest, but um, we’re still marveling at like the things she said it’s like, can you believe that?
She just said that like she had on some shorts the other day. It’s cold here now in Dallas.
I’m like, you can’t wear your shorts. She says, hold on. I’m gonna go negotiate with dad.
I’m like, wait a minute, who are you talking to? Like, can I talk to your supervisor?
You know, I’m like, he’s the head of the household and stuff but he not like my supervisor.
But let me know what he says because she was already gone.
She gets to her dad and she goes, dad, we need to negotiate, negotiate.
I don’t even know about her shorts and she goes, ok, we’re gonna negotiate.
You keep your $100 and I get to wear my shorts. Like, what are we even talking about?
So we’re dealing with her. We’re understanding her personality, our other Children though, we have a pulse on their personality.
Mckenzie. She’s 13 and her personality is now being introduced to the world.
And so we’re helping her to understand her personality and how it fits into different social settings and how it fits in with her friends and her peers and her adults.
And so we’re still in that personality stage with our younger Children.
The older ones are 20 and up, we’re wondering less about their personality and now we’re putting the finishing touches on their character.
There’s this parenting transition where it’s less about. Oh my gosh.
Can you believe what they said, and more about who are they and how does, who they are stand up to the world that awaits them.
We’re putting the finishing touches on their character, their work ethic, their integrity, how they communicate.
We’re helping them to understand that there are some things about character, having good character that will set you up for the rest of your life.
It’ll determine what or not. You have promotions, it’ll determine whether or not you stay married.
There are character things that, that, that don’t have anything to do with personality.
You can have a good personality and have bad character. We don’t really talk about that much.
You funny but you laugh through your teeth, babe. Like jeez, that’s a personality trait.
But that character part is so important. Personality versus character.
I was reading this article by a doctor in psychology today and he was talking about personality versus character.
He says that personality traits are often hereditary.
If you got all of the family in a room together, there would be some similarities because they were raised in the same culture, the same household.
And as a result of that have similar personalities.
But if the people in that family could talk, they would tell you we have similar personalities, but we have difference in our character.
Yeah, we just survived Thanksgiving where we had similar personality.
As long as we could talk about one thing we were ok.
But when we started talking about mental health or politics and what’s important to us.
Now, we’re getting into some character fundamentals.
And as a result of that, there can be some division, not based on personality, but based on character personality.
They say changes very easily. You could be in a room with someone and think that oh, they don’t talk much and then you get them alone and they awaken their personality, release their personality because in this room, I couldn’t be myself, but now I’m here and I can release my personality.
But character is not that way. Character doesn’t change depending on the room.
You’re in character is the same regardless of where you put it because character is not rooted in likability.
Character is rooted in a belief system. Personality is likability.
It’s whether or not you can engage with people. Can you strike up conversation? Do you wanna strike up conversation?
Do you like to be alone?
But character is rooted in a belief system and a belief system is rooted in conviction.
Help me, Lord. Character is rooted to a belief system.
Let’s talk about some examples of a belief system that produces character.
Think it’s important that we see character as neutral. Sometimes we tell people that they don’t have any character.
But the truth is that character itself is actually neutral. It is neither good nor bad.
It just depends on the belief system connected to it. So character could be good or bad.
The belief system that produces the character is what ultimately determines whether or not the fruit of that character is something worth passing on for generations.
Ok, let’s give an example. There is someone who has a belief that no one can be trusted.
And so their character makes them skeptical, skepticism has become a part of their character because they have a belief that they cannot trust people.
We say it’s just how they are.
No, that’s a part of their character because it is a part of their belief system.
Someone doesn’t believe that it is possible to get out of their community.
Someone doesn’t believe that it’s possible to really start a business and have a successful business.
And as a result of that doubt is now one of their characteristics. It’s a part of their character trait.
It’s not just who you’re upset with who they are, it’s not just who they are.
There is a belief connected to why they are and that’s why it has become a part of their character.
There are some people who believe, no matter what I do, I’m gonna do it with excellence because I believe that everything I touch is important no matter how big or how small it is.
And that’s why they bring the character that they bring to whatever the work they do.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a Potter’s house volunteer, they would think that they went through some type of CIA training.
They take this thing so very seriously.
If you don’t believe me, try and run up on here and take this microphone.
All of a sudden there will be ninjas coming from anywhere and they don’t do this from 9 to 5 every day, but they do this because they believe that what they do, it should be done with excellence and that is a part of the character and the fabric of who they are.
I don’t really care what colors you like. What I am more interested in is your character.
It takes time to really get an impression of someone’s character.
I could tell you that I like you when we leave, but I cannot commit to you until I get to see your character.
I wanna see how you treat people who you don’t think you need. I wanna understand.
Do you feel like people are opportunities or do you feel like they are actually gifts from God that should be valued?
I gotta see your character. I went for personality before it took me to a dead end.
I had to choose differently. And when I decided to choose differently, I started building friendship based on character.
I started hiring based on character.
I need to know who you are and I’m patient enough to wait and see your character.
I am not so desperate that I will fall in love with your personality and miss out on the reality of who you are.
I will hold my heart back. I will hold my money back because I wanna understand. Are you responsible?
Do you have work ethic? Are you faithful?
Your character matters and in a world where you are celebrated for being a personality church?
I wanna encourage you to still dig into having character because you can be an incredible personality.
You can have hundreds of followers. You could be the most popular in the world.
But if you do not have character, God cannot trust you just because someone has a crowd, it doesn’t mean they have any power because power is based based on trust and trust can only come from character.
And character is when you have integrity, you say what you do, you do what you say you’re gonna do.
If I say it, I’m gonna show up and I’m gonna stand in the moment. I’m gonna see it through.
Character is a little old school. I’ll admit that because we have a transactional generation.
But at the end of the day, character is the only thing that will stand that will with stay in the test of time.
My parents have been together for 40 years. I used to think it’s because they were so in love.
I used to think it’s because they just saw the sun and stars shining out of each other’s eyes.
Now, I realize that they had the type of character that said I committed 40 years ago and because I committed 40 years ago, I’m not gonna change my mind just because things get tough.
You want the position, but do you want the character required to maintain the position?
Do you have the integrity? Can you communicate? Can you draw a line in the sand? Do you have boundaries?
Can you express those boundaries without wounding people? Do you take care of the people God sends in your life?
Are you making sure that you are a good steward of every opportunity? I know you wanna be somewhere else.
But right now here is all you got and if you discard here, you’ll never get there.
So I gotta honor here like it is there because I got the character for where God has placed me.
Oh, I feel something on that.
I feel like somebody’s gotta be reminded that this isn’t gonna change because of your perspective.
This isn’t gonna change because you get another opportunity. This is gonna change because you put your character in it.
God help me, help me, helped me to have character, the kind of character character that makes me worthy of having weight placed on me.
Oh, I gotta figure that out character.
I want my insides to be tight.
I want my insides to be strong.
I want to understand that there is a certain level of resiliency required for where I’m headed and because there is resiliency required for where I’m headed.
I gotta take it seriously. I don’t wanna just be likable. Likable is cheap.
I’m sorry, I’m supposed to move on from this point.
But I feel like we need to really embed in this conversation. The vital necessity of character.
Anyone can be likable. You could go online and learn how to strike up conversation.
You can go online and learn how to win a room.
But character can to not be taught in a 30 minute class.
Character is when God deals with you about you. God. I think I’m manipulative. God.
I think that I might be hurting the people who come into my life.
God, I’ve got a belief system that is souring my character. So God, I need you to change my beliefs.
I need you to change my conviction so we can show up in my character.
God help me to be the kind of person who looks like Jesus so that I do not take on the character of my trauma so that I do not take on the character of my fear so that I do not take on the character of who everyone else thinks I should be of my heartbreak of my pain.
I need to take on the character required for who you’ve called me to be.
And if you are not asking yourself, God, what is it about my character that needs to be developed?
Then maybe you’re just asking God for things and God wants to make you a being God help me when Adam and Eva in the garden and the serpent Ask Eve, did God really say it looks like in that moment from her perspective?
I imagine I wasn’t there that maybe she’s just engaging in dialogue.
What she doesn’t understand is that the enemy is after her belief system?
Because if the enemy can get her belief system, the enemy can change her character.
And if the enemy can change her character, the enemy can change her actions.
The enemy can change what she believes is possible. The enemy can change her Dominion.
Oh You think that this attack is over your finances? You think the attack is over your family?
You think the attack is over your book.
The attack is not over your ministry, it is not over your family.
The attack is over your belief system because if he can get a hold of your belief system, then it will change your character.
And if it changes your character, you will not walk in power, you will not walk in authority.
You will not walk in boldness because you will have a belief system that says I cannot trust who God says.
I am. I cannot trust what God says about me.
And if I cannot trust it, then I won’t step out on it.
So if the enemy can change your belief, the enemy change somebody’s belief.
But I’m gonna prophesy in this room tonight that the same enemy that changed your belief system is gonna have to get the hell up out of your beliefs, out of your belief system so that heaven can make way for what God said.
I hear God saying, belief systems may be hard to change. But the impossible is possible with God.
I wish they would turn me up in the microphone because I got a devil to chase out of a belief system.
I got a devil to chase out of a marriage.
I want the hell to hear me because we got some devils to chase.
We got a belief system to change because I got somebody to be and I’ve got somewhere to go and I know I can’t be there unless I believe that I can do what God says, I can do and I can do what God says.
I can do. I can say what God tells me to say.
I got a belief system working against my destiny.
But I got a God that says I will go ahead of you.
So God, I give you full permission to get in front of me but mess up what you’re trying to do through me and change my beliefs.
So it changes my character.
If you don’t believe you can be a husband, you ain’t gonna never be one.
But if you believe that if God brings the right person into your life, that you have the character and the integrity and the discipline to treat someone like they are a gift from God, then God says now I can trust you.
I feel God on this if you don’t believe you deserve it.
If you don’t believe you can do it, it’s not just living in your beliefs, it’s showing up in your character.
So you think you, that everything is ok but everything is not ok because that belief system that you’re nursing is showing up in your character.
Who you are when you believe it’s different than who you are.
When you have disbelief. When you oh man, there comes this moment when I’m preparing for a message the first time I hear it, I’m like, oh Lord, I’ll be praying that the glory falls low key.
I don’t have to preach most of the time when I find out I’m preaching, I’m sitting at home with no wig on, no makeup on.
And I’m like, why would anyone want her to get up and preach?
But then I start setting and I get into work and something shifts inside of me and I start believing that maybe this opportunity exists because I have the character to stand up to the opportunity.
Maybe some of you have talked yourself out of it because this version of you cannot do it.
You were right about one thing but you were wrong about another thing.
You are the one who can do it, but you are wrong because this version of you cannot do it.
But God is never gonna call you to something that He won’t give you the belief system and can turn to back up.
You don’t have it yet but you do have access.
You don’t have it yet, but you do have the heart to change.
You don’t have it yet, but you do have the hunger for something different. You don’t have it yet.
But if you have hunger, hunger is better than anything you can possess because hunger will make sure that you have the appetite for where God is calling you.
I don’t know who you are, but there are some big rooms assigned to your name.
I don’t know who you are, but there is some destiny assigned to your name.
And I hear God saying, if you’re looking at who you are now, you’ll sit down.
But if you start looking at who you can become, if God gives you the character for where you’re headed, you will start opening up your mouth and prophesying in a way that doesn’t even sound like you because it will be the voice of God working on the inside of you.
I wish I had about two or three crazy believing people in this room because if we believe it, God’s gonna meet us on the level of our belief.
If we can have faith for it, God’s gonna give us the power for it.
And yeah.