Another DREADFUL Sermon From T.D. Jakes!

T.D. Jakes and the Prosperity Gospel Claim

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about a sermon from T .D. Jakes.

As most of you now know, Jakes is a prosperity gospel teacher. This means, essentially, that he often preaches the message that Jesus not only died to save you from your sin, but also died to make you healthy and wealthy.

A good bit of this channel's videos have been dedicated to proving this assumption is wrong. And we hope we've done that successfully. Long story short, in a recent sermon entitled, quote, Unlock Your Limitations, T .D. Jakes made some pretty astounding claims.

What we're going to do in this video is have a biblical analysis of those claims as we compare them to the Word of God. So buckle up, folks, because this one's going to be a doozy. And without any further ado, let's get right into Jakes' central claim.

Watch this.

I have been ministering the gospel for 45 years, come September it'll be 46 years that I've been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Jakes says that he's been a minister and preacher of the gospel faithfully for almost 46 years now. That's almost five decades of preaching the gospel to people. In other words, if this claim is true, that would be quite an amazing accomplishment.

I'm sure we can all agree. But here we have the first sticking point. Is that true? Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that T .D. Jakes has never preached the gospel. That would be a very difficult claim to defend.

But what I will say is that I've listened to many hours of sermons from T .D. Jakes, and I have never personally heard a legitimate gospel presentation from him. Instead, what I have heard time and time again reliably have been assurances of health, wealth, and prosperity and success.

And virtually every time Jakes quotes any passage of Scripture, he manipulates it into talking about those very subjects. There are several questions that come to mind at this point. If T .D. Jakes is a faithful minister of the gospel, why is he participating in false teaching?

And also, if Jakes is a faithful minister of the gospel, why is it so hard to find him actually preaching the gospel? And by the same token, why is it so easy to find him preaching about health and wealth?

These are important questions to keep in mind as we move forward here. But in any case, having heard Jakes' claim at the beginning of this sermon, I was interested. So I took the liberty of listening to the entirety of this one and a half hour sermon while taking diligent notes.

And of course, unsurprisingly, Jakes never once gave a complete or even semi-complete description of the gospel of Jesus Christ, at least not that I saw. What he did do, instead, was rather predictable.

He offered vague yet passionate emotional assurances of breakthrough, financial success, healing, etc. Here's one such example.

Watch this. God's got the fish on reserve. They're waiting on you. The money's not going to be a problem. The buildings are not going to be a problem. The employees are not going to be a problem. God's got everything.

Everything you need waiting on you.

Money, Buildings, and Employees as Prosperity Promises

So that was pretty clear, wasn't it? Follow God and you will get, quote, money, buildings, and employees. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the prosperity gospel in real time. Now don't misunderstand me.

It is the case that God sometimes sees fit to bless Christian business owners with great prosperity and great success. And that's fantastic. We certainly shouldn't be desiring that Christian business owners would fail and lose their investments.

That's all well and good. But that is not what T .D. Jakes is saying. We must pay attention and know the difference. What T .D. Jakes is saying here is what he's said for years, that if you believe in Jesus, you are guaranteed a successful and wealthy life.

That is not the same thing as saying that God can choose in His providence to bless Christian businesses at will. Let's not forget the words of James 4 .13 which says this, quote, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town, and spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit, make money.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for but a little time, and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that, end quote.

It's pretty clear, folks. Jakes says that wealth is guaranteed. Success in the business realm is guaranteed. But the Bible tells us that we ought to say instead about all of these things, If the Lord wills.

That would indicate that it is not a guarantee. So before we watch the next clip, let me ask the question again, if I may. Does T .D. Jakes seem like he's been a faithful minister and preacher for 46 years if this is the content that he preaches every week?

I think we can all see the answer to that question. But in case there's still any doubt, let's check out the next clip. Watch this.

Luke 5 and the Meaning of the Miraculous Catch

They brought in multitudes of fish. That is great. That is wonderful. That is commerce. That is economy. That is prosperity. That is equity. That is resources. That is Peter's business exploding beyond human comprehension and filling his boat and filling his partner's boat until everything associated with Peter got blessed because Peter had an encounter with Jesus.

Just so you know, Jakes is talking here about the account of Peter and the other disciples being called in Luke chapter 5. As the story goes, they had fished all night and caught nothing. And then Jesus tells them to, quote, put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.

They do this, and as a result, quote, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. T .D. Jakes uses this story as proof that when you follow Jesus, He will bless your business just like He blessed Peter's fishing business.

What Jakes is forgetting, though, is that this miracle was used to accomplish a very different purpose according to the passage. In response to the big catch, Peter does not say, thank you, Jesus, please stick around and bless my business some more, give me more money and prosperity.

No, rather, in verse 8, it says that Peter, quote, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, end quote. You see, an encounter with the true Christ doesn't make you want infinitely more money from Him.

No, it makes you fall down on your knees and call Him Lord. And that seems to be lost on T .D. Jakes. And equally, if not more concerning, is the fact that Jakes fails to recognize verse 10, in which Jesus says this, quote, do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men or fishing for men.

And in response, quote, and when they brought their boats to land, they, the disciples, left everything and followed Him. So according to T .D. Jakes, Jesus' goal was to bless Peter's business and then later bless yours.

Yet immediately after this event, Peter leaves his business entirely to go follow Jesus. And the fish were not being caught in order to assure us of our financial blessing. No, they were being caught in order to show the disciples that they would be fishers of men.

To put it simply, this passage is not about the prosperity gospel. It's about the actual gospel going out to all the world successfully. And you'd think this would be easy to recognize from a minister of the gospel with 46 years of experience.

And yet there is the true and living gospel sitting right under T .D. Jakes' nose, and he still doesn't preach it. But sit tight, folks, because this is not the end of the clip. He goes on in the next one.

Watch this. When God says, go into the deep, go into the deep, stop telling me about the last two years. I don't care nothing about that. I want to tell you about the next two years. God said, launch into the deep, launch into the deep.

Just when they think you're gonna wash your nets, just when they think you're gonna quit, just when they think you're gonna stay at Burger King, launch out! What am I preaching to? Look at your neighbor and tell him I'm getting ready to launch.

If you can't launch, you can't go. If you can't launch, you can't go.

Launching Into the Deep as a Call to Mission

So let's pay attention to what he said at the end there. Quote, just when they think you're gonna quit, just when they think you're gonna stay at Burger King, launch out. End quote. Here he is referencing the part of the passage in Luke 5 -4 where, again, Jesus says this.

Quote, put out or launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. End quote. T .D. Jakes uses this as a metaphor for your personal life. He says that God is telling you personally to launch out into all your hopes and dreams and aspirations and take them on.

In Jakes' own words, launching out into the deep at the Word of Jesus is a metaphor for, for instance, quitting your job at Burger King. But if we look at what the passage actually says, that the disciples were to be fishers of men, launching out into the deep means something different.

Launching out into the deep is actually a practical parable, an example of the disciples going out into the world and preaching the Gospel as fishers of men. This is about the triumphant and glorious conversion of the Gentile nations, not about you quitting your job at Burger King.

But yet again, I have to say it, it seems rather far-fetched that a faithful minister of the Gospel with 46 years of experience would miss all of this. You see, if T .D. Jakes is so well acquainted with the Gospel, why does he seemingly miss it entirely here?

That is a question worth pondering. And how is it that T .D. Jakes can be a solid minister while at the same time he participates in false teaching consistently? You see, Jakes says one thing, but if you actually look at his track record, you see something altogether different.

He believes that he's faithfully preaching the Gospel, but what I've seen more often than that is that T .D. Jakes twists the Scriptures to make more money. And these two things couldn't be more different.

That is not the heart of a good minister. If Jakes truly was a minister of the Gospel, it's hard to believe that he would treat the Word of God with such manipulation. In reality, T .D. Jakes is not a solid pastor.

He is a prosperity teacher cosplaying as a pastor. We must be able to discern the difference, and we hope this video has demonstrated this for you in real time. It is clear that Jakes is a false teacher, and that he should not be followed by any Orthodox Biblical Christian.

And as long as the Lord allows us to on this channel, we will continue to investigate the teaching of people like Jakes and compare it to the Word of God. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a Biblical critique.

Please pray for this channel and for anyone discussed in the video. And if you're looking for teaching resources or trying to find a new church, check out the teaching ministries and church networks linked in the description.

And by God's grace, let's move forward joyfully, holding to the truth of God's Word. Thank you so much for watching that video. Please like, subscribe, hit the bell, and subscribe to our Rumble channel.

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Thank you and God bless.