Night Seasons- The God of my tight places (Sermon by TD JAKES)

                                             Photo Courtesy: http://www.craigladams.com

Bishop TD Jakes is one of my favorite pastors. Though I've never met him, I know him through all his sermons I watch on you tube. This is one of the sermons that I tried to type down as I listened.

Matthew: 26: 36-46

I believe there were three significantly important moments that prepared Christ into this destiny.  And these moments reflect moments in your life in between you and your destiny.  The wilderness, The garden and the Cross.

The wilderness is a place of personal temptation.

The Cross is a place where carnality is destroyed.

And Garden is the place where God will take us through a tight place

If you've never been through a tight place, then you wont understand what makes you keep saying the same prayer  again and again. You will tell God “will you fix this, or will you fix me or will you fix something. Next day you will go to God and say, God nothing has changed, I am asking you the same thing again…I need to talk to u about the same thing again. I have no updates, I have no new information but I am coming to you because I have nobody else. You are the God of my tight places.

You cant preach this sermon from a seminary, u have to come back from a cemetery .  you have to come from a very hard place where you had problems from every side to know how effective God becomes in your tight places.  And I sense there are others in the group who understand what it is to cry unto God  from a tight place.

Sometimes my greatest problem is not knowing for sure how things will turn out to be.  Some people write a will for their six month old child thinking they know how the story will end. Some people thousands of dollars on an elaborate wedding thinking they know how the story will end. Some people leave everything and move from a country to another country for a job thinking they know how it will end. But it’s a long way from a 6 month old to a 36 year old and a lot of things can happen to the junior.  It’s a long way from a wedding cake to a silver anniversary cake  and a lot of things can happen.  It’s a long way from taking a job to getting a gold watch after 25 years  and a lot of things can happen in between.   The truth of the matter is part of our agony lies in the uncertainty of how it will all end.  Some people are wedded long before they are married. That is because of their insecurity. The 30 minute ceremony of wedding may not make u emotionally inside a marriage, they are scared so don’t emotionally attach…just in case. Some people are not sure of their job and so don’t give their 100 percent thinking what if this is not it. Insecurity can make u angry, insecurity can make u leave a place which otherwise u enjoy.  Insecurity can make u overreact to situations. Insecurity can change ur personality, insecurity can blow up an issue.

I've been in some tight places. Places which made u wonder “am I going to make it through this alive?’  I made it through that before but this thing I am going through is so overwhelming and I am tired.  When I was young I would drive at 100 speed without a seat belt  But now I don’t do that..not because it is not exciting but because I know what would happen.  Before I used to not notice a black spot on my skin but now after seeing so many cancer patients, if I see a bruise or a spot, I go to the doctor coz now I know what can happen.

Have you ever got tired in a tight place? A tight place is a place when you are not there yet . you are closer than you were but you are not there yet.  And now it’s a challenge to get to the next level.  And u r not sure u got the push that u used to have. Have u ever secretly been in a tight place.. still smiling “good morning”  to people around and laughing with them and they would have no clue that they met u in your tight place. Its very human to have anxiety and live your life from a tight place.

I may understand when it happens to u or me but today in my text, its not an ordinary person, it is Jesus. He is the only begotten Son of God. He is the eternal son of God. He is in the board room of god and the council of god’s divinity. He was there when the worlds were formed.  He knows the beginning and he knows the end. He is omniscient- all knowing. Here Jesus knows how the story is going to end. He is not doubtful as to whether he is going to come out of this . he says ‘the temple will be destroyed and I will build it in 3 days…etc etc…”  he has the assurance he will get out of it yet , face to face with the process  that precedes the promise . sometimes you can have the promise, have faith in the promise, but when u r head on into the process , the process is so painful that u say “lord, I wonder, I have a vision, but I wonder, ive gone through more difficult times before, but I wonder, I have faith in your promise, but I wonder….”

The garden of Gethsemane was about the alignment of human will with the divine will, like 12 noon when 2 needles meet at one point.  It is a big process to bring your will into alignment with gods will, coz sometimes god wants things for me sometimes I don’t want. And sometimes god makes choices without asking  your opinion. Sometimes u want god to be the minute needle coming to your will with provision, money etc…  sometimes god shows u the beginning and the end, but when faced with the middle, it becomes stressful. Isaiah has said that they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  It is wonderful to wait but waiting can be great pressure. It seems it is unfair when I have to wait when I am a finite individual dealing with an infinite God. You ask me to wait for what I have the least of, Time. You've got eternity and I am getting old as I wait.  Jesus is not going to the garden to find out how the story ends, he goes to deal with the middle. And most of us are struggling to deal with the middle. We know somehow or the other in the end, we are going to win but in the meantime what about the hateful middle. What makes a happy ending a happy ending is a hateful middle.

Jesus comes to he beautiful garden of Gethsemane with a problem. Isn’t it funny how u can have an ugly problem in a beautiful place.  The place where pressure mounts and the garden is different from wilderness coz in wilderness you have an enemy u can argue with and on the cross u have a physical problem u can see, but in the garden there is nothing to be seen.  Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane trying not to cry. The five thousand he fed are nowhere to be seen. When people have nothing more to get from u, they wont come. He asks his disciples to wait. When the pressure becomes tighter, u have to get away from people, because pressure separates u from fellowship .

You might ask somebody for intercession but they can forget its your second eviction notice, they can forget that u don’t have a job but you cant forget coz u r going through it. So Jesus went a little further and that’s what pressure can do for u. it makes u go on a little further. But Jesus comes back to the three of them and asks them to pray not because Jesus thinks they are more closer to god, but just to know somebody understands his suffering. When u r in pressure, u want to connect on a human level too- somebody who understands.  U need somebody to hold ur hand when u r in sick bed, u will ask somebody to go with u to the courtroom even though u know ur friend isn’t a lawyer- just to be with u- the presence. Everybody u call is busy, and the pressure is mounting and u r alone.  Every moment it is getting tighter coz u r in a tight place. Normally u r connected, but right now u r in a tight place. What makes u keep going back to some of them that’s not working- in this case, the disciples were sleeping. But still went back to check coz when u r in a tight place, u want to see if something or someone is there. God cant get the glory out of ur life until ur expectations are removed from something else. I cant tell u how long u will have to wait coz jesus went back three times checking on folks who were somewhere else while he was under pressure. He goes from talking to them to talking to the father.  God if its possible take this cup away from me..nothing there…so then he goes to the disciples “would u watch with me one hour… nothing there, so he goes back to the father..“not my will but thine be done… then he goes to the disciples..”are u sleeping again”….but the 3^rd time,  Sometimes u have to pray through a process and period to find the God of your tight places.

You have to go through a process for the promise. You might have to pray the same things again and again till God says “my grace is sufficient for you, ive got u covered”. “iam not going to heal every blind man, every lame man might not walk but my grace is sufficient for them. Sometimes a happy ending is not a place is where everything is gonna be alright, but a happy ending is a place when ur problem doesn’t bother u anymore. Sometimes we have to stop preaching magic where everybody becomes a millionaire and everybody drives a Porsche and everybody gets a degree and nobody ever gets sick and all ur children turn out wonderful and everybody’s marriage works… Devil is a LIAR.  Some of the stuff is not going to work out but God said “My grace is sufficient for u” .

There is a grace for every tragedy, every problem. If u r a widow at 25, or if ur husband is in a wheel chair or if ur child is born with down syndrome. Even when the storms are rising, He is the God of ur tight places. He is the god of ur circumstance, ur wilderness, god of ur unemployment, god of ur failing kidneys, the God of ur dilemma.

The place of Gethsemane  where Olives are crushed, the place of refinement. U might buy a bottle of olive oil and somebody asks u how much it costs, and u will say 5 dollars. You can say that coz u r not the olive. Somewhere behind an oil refinery, in the trash can, in a dumpster is some bruised beaten, discarded half pulverized olive who could tell you how much it cost for every drop of this oil –something had to die and be up under pressure and be under agony . you can get this for 5 dollars but someone had to be under pressure . the reason because pastors got the anointing is because all hell broke loose in their life. The more the enemy afflicted them, the more they grew. He is a God of my tight places. This is how he gets glory out of ur life, by crushing ur flesh.  You don’t know the cost of the oil in the alabaster box. U don’t have a clue what the person next to u has gone through so before u get envious and jealous, u have to learn to keep smiling when all hell is breaking loose in your life.

Gethsemene- Jesus comes thrice to his disciples and finally he says “sleep on” if u speak to the God of ur tight places, u will speak to the place of ur frustration….sleep on…  God will be on the other side of ur “sleep on” taking u through what u thought u will never get through.  Now God gets all the glory.

When Jesus rose from the dead, he didn’t have clothes to wear, so he spoke himself the gardeners clothes that Mary didn’t recognize him. Jesus went through the garden and became the gardener to help me through my garden.