PASTOR TD JAKES SERMONS HOW TO HANDLE BEING ALONE :Pastor T.D Jakes The church exists inside of two different sociological, constructs at the time while it is not of the world, it is in the world and the fact that it is in the world means it is affected by the world. We cannot claim autonomy from the in the church to the degree that we completely ignore what’s going on in the world, because what’s going on in the world affects the church. It’s not just that the church affects the world; the world also affects the church. Such were the times from the earliest of stages and even to now it is arguable which one affects the other the most because we are affected by the environment in which we are planted just like a seed is affected by the soil it is placed in and the seed affects the soil in like manner, the church is in the world and yet, not of the world and yet it is affected by the world and yet it has an effect on the world.
We are seeing the church at a time, that it is born out of the scars and the scrapes and the oppression of a suppressed people called Jews who are being suppressed in their own land, they have not traveled by boats into a far country to be suppressed and to be oppressed, they are being oppressed in their own house, can you imagine somebody taking you captive in your own house? Rome has come into Israel’s house and taken them captive in their own community and subjugated them and caused him to submit to the sovereign powers of a political system that is enforced and imposed on a Jewish community and out of that Jewish community the church is a sect of that community.
So you have Rome the sovereign power dominating the Jewish community or Israel as if they were trying to set up an offshoot of their Roman empire and then inside of that offshoot which is Israel, is a religious sect called the church and peter is ministering to the church, hoping to affect the nation and ultimately the world but he is fighting at a complete disadvantage, he is not fighting as if he were the emperor of the roman empire with all the support of power and influence, no he is a sub category of a sect of people that are basically ignored not only by the romans, but by the Jews. That’s why the text is careful to talk about him overcoming not only the oppression that Herod had placed on him but the expectation of the jews in other words he was ministering to a people who were not interested in his message. Have you ever tried to help somebody who didn’t want your help and there you were fighting off their enemies and they didn’t even appreciate you for what you had to bring.
It is so with most of us today, in the crowd, in the right environment you’re tough and you’re strong and you’re rambunctious but when you go home and you take off your makeup and you get out your clothes and put your hair on the stand, you come down to the real you, real faith always strips you of all of the mechanisms that make you seem mighty and bring you down to your lowest common denominator and the enemy wants to know how you like me now, who are you now, it’s not who you are on the stage, it’s not who you are when you’re doing what you do, like you do, when you do it.
Pastor T.D Jakes teaches us that the real test and agony of life is how many years do you cut it when you are alone and how much water do you walk on when you are lonely and how much power do you have when you are by yourself, but there’s nobody egging you on and there’s nobody believing you, there’s nobody to bear witness to who you are how do you handle alone.