"The Tipping Point" - Stephanie Ike

[Music] God is so good family I believe that that is exactly what will happen tonight that God is gonna give us a word that will bring us to a place of affirmation and confirmation of what he is doing in our lives you see the year is ending right and normally these are the times where we start to examine what we did with the year and for many of us these are times that anxiety starts to creep in because as we go into the new year we're trying to post 2018 goals and what we accomplished but you see I'm I've learned something about God because we look at 2018 and we're like God is the last quarter of the year and we use like maybe like football analogies like God plays football and we are expecting him to do something like this is the last quarter this is where magic happens right but when it comes to the season and times of God it's not based on it's not like an annual thing like oh right now this is the time where the most favored and your lack is gonna come you see I remember when I was 17 years old the Lord gave me there's a particular promise that the Lord gave me and he said to me this is gonna take a while before it manifests and I wish he told me what a while was but he never did and I'm like wow what is that you know what is exactly a while but he gave me that word back then so that I would understand that no matter what comes my way I should not look at it like the enemy but what he is perfecting in me there not so long ago he actually gives me a date and he says I'm getting and I'm gonna show you the time that this very word is gonna manifest in your life I went back to look at the very time the day that God gave me that word that 17 years old and when I calculated the dates it was exactly 12 years exactly to date and I did I won't forgot about the date I had to go we check what day it was and I look I've thought about that I'm like how intentional God is now if somebody tells you that God is gonna do this in your life but hold up the best part is coming it's gonna take 12 years [Laughter] you will be like God can we do it in like two months and so when I'm learning family is that in life sometimes the answer to our anxiety and frustrations is understanding the character of God because when we understand his character we're not living life like society wants to put pressure on us to say you know what at this age at this stage this is supposed to happen because with when God is involved he is he is more concerned about perfecting you because his plan is connected to your life is connected to other lives and so today I want to touch on something that reveals the character of God in our lives you see at the top of the year our pastor said that this is the year of becoming and for many these has been some of the best times and the worst times in your life all are the same Sam and what I find fascinating about becoming is that to me becoming is this an ending journey of transformation but with that journey I have found that in everyone's journey there is a defining moment it doesn't mean that we don't continue to evolve but there is a moment that defines your life and that it changes the very trajectory of your life for good you see when you think of a caterpillar when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly it can never go back to being a caterpillar no matter if the butterfly tries to crawl no matter what it tries to do it would always be it would die a butterfly and so there are these defining moments in life that sets you apart and that's a moment where everything that you have been through begins to make sense that God begins to make sense of the heartbreak of the loss of a loved one the loss of a job the moments you were homeless the moment you were couchsurfing the times that you felt betrayed you felt abused you felt rejected you felt lost that all these moments God gathers it up and he begins to show you how everything made sense in your it's making sense for where he's taking you and all of that leads see this place in time that there is no going back and what the Lord showed me is that truth for you for all of us really to trust what he is doing in our lives because it's taking us to this defining moment that even if you try to go back you can't even if you said Lord I just want to conform a little bit there is no room for you because that is a moment where God has brought you to the forefront that is a moment when your light shines and so not only do you have to be accountable to your truth but you have to be accountable to the people that have seen the truth about you and so when I thought about this before we really go into the text that God highlighted to me I thought about David you see when David killed Goliath that was a defining moment there was no way that he could kill Goliath and go back to its being just a shepherd boy because at that time if there was gonna be another war in Israel the people would say well where's the guy who killed Goliath that was a defining moment in his life that set him up but you see the the the crazy things about the moments that lead to that very particular time is that we go through so much that seems confusing and I've learned something in life that the very things that the enemy tries to use against you is what God is actually using for you depending on your perspective you see David David was a man that if we were in David shoes he was actually kind of rejected by his father when the Prophet came to their house and the Prophet was saying that you know what someone in this house the Lord has chosen and appointed this person to be the next king of Israel the father called all of his sons and never called David so you could choose the enemy's narrative and say David your father doesn't even like your father rejected you you're worthless you don't mean nothing you would never mean anything but you see what I learned about that story was that God was preparing David of how to deal with rejection because David's very call would also deal with rejection from the king and so you can look at it from one side and say you know what ah this was just so bring David to a place of knowing that he wasn't worth anything but God was saying no David if you can deal with your father's rejection and still choose and and not even choose but not select how he treats you alter your position as a son because no even though that David was rejected by his father David was still the shepherd over his father's sheep so he did not let the father's rejection change his position as a son and the same thing David because he had mastered because God he allowed God to humane faithful to what God was showing him to do he did not allow the poison to get in when David was being increased to higher levels when the King rejected him it did not change David's position according to what God said he was he did not care that the King rejected him he was still a man of integrity he would not even want to take the King's life and so depending on your perspective depend it tells it reveals the story that you live David could have lived the story of a victim and say my father rejected me I don't mean anything and because of that the very moment that would have changed his life he would have missed it because that was a moment where the father tells him just go give your brother some lunch just go run this errand real quick if David had a fence against his father he would have done something else not knowing that he was about to have an appointment with destiny and so these moments but it leads us to a place that were prepared to handle whatever comes against us it leads us to a place where we know that God no you are actually you're a for real for real for me and so I recognize these defining moments I identified to be the tipping point in life and there was a father that I saw what are the research I wanted to look at what what graphics represent what the tipping point looks like and there was a picture that I gave to me that I want to share with you and what I love about this image and I'm gonna just really quickly define what it is what I love about this is that this tipping point moment to get there is one of the most trying things and what we don't see is that on the way up we don't know how many times the person fell back we don't know when it was raining when it was stormy when it was just not the weather for trying to push you know this heavy object but when it gets to that tipping point it's a whoohoo down the sling but what I love about this is about what it says I was like you know you preaching to me and it says it gets easier from here and if you hit another Hill you've got some momentum behind you you see family I looked at what the tipping point can be defined as and there were two things that stood out to me it says it's the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger more important change it is also defined as the critical points in a process beyond which significant and often unstoppable effects or change takes place just start to someone and say God wants to make you unstoppable a man that is the plan that is the purpose of God because when you're rolling with him come on somebody ain't nothing coming your way but family as we as I looked into this as a particular man I want to speak about and his name is Joseph and I want to share about the tipping point in his life that really I mean change does the whole trajectory of his life but before I look into this I just want to give a little backstory about him you see for many of us we know about Joseph but Joseph was a man who at 17 years old he he know God gave him these dreams dreams that showed him that Joseph have called you as a leader I've called you not just as a leader in your family but I've called you as a leader to the earth and these were dreams too big for Joseph to understand but Joseph was you know in a family where he was hated by all his brothers because of how much his father loved him and so one particular day Joseph is going out to meet his brothers and throw him in a pit and they're planning to kill him and then they decide to okay let us sell him let's sell him as a slave Joseph is sold as a slave he's taken to Egypt in Egypt he starts working for the Pharaoh who you know the Kings one of their officers so he's working for this man and everything seems to be going at least okay because he found favor he's being put in the position he has you know some leadership and all of a sudden the officer's wife inna wants to get with him because he was a handsome man man she clearly you know did not believe in monogamy so so she wanted to sleep with him he says no she lies and tries to claim that he raped her so this word gets out Joseph is thrown into another pit now he's put in prison in prison he's this is and you have to understand that this is all confusing first of all god I'm sold into slavery by my own brothers I'm put in this place I'm keeping my integrity I'm honoring you and I'm not trying to do anything against that would dishonor you and then I'm put in prison and in prison we see that you know the favor of God is with him again and that just fascinates me because when we talk about the favor of God we don't talk about the favor of God in prison we don't talk about what God just favored you in that low place Wow can you see the favor on you okay and you are in prison if somebody's like Wow actually the favor of God all over your life you are confused you don't even understand where you are what you're going through and somebody tells you why the Lord just tells me that you are favored it is very confusing and even in that act the Lord Lord what really is favor because how can someone be in prison and you say he's favored by you and the Lord began to show me that no favor is when God makes you room for your identity to blossom and so it may not look like when you are on the hill sometimes God is perfecting you in the pit and his favor is with you in the pits because that pit is positioning you and preparing you for your destiny and so even though the the area of the place looks unfavorable because it is a womb designed by God for you it is the favor of God on your life and so what I'm learning about God is sometimes favor does not look like what we expect but if God has created it to say don't know this is a womb that I have for you your favored it's just that we have been lied by society to say that the favor of God looks like this and when our lives don't look like that it's just the same way we think about love when we think about love we think that while love is just this fairytale faith and then the Bible tells us that do not despise the discipline of the Lord because the Lord the Lord loves those he disciplines but the when the Bible is telling us do not despise something that means it looks like it should be despised but then the Bible is also telling us that this is what God does to those he loves and so if we take on the culture or perspective of love and favor then of course we're going to have anxiety issues because as believers we will think but God I am your child God I am with you God I worship you God I serve in your house why is this happy to me not knowing that you are favored by God and so Joseph Joseph is going through this weird place in life he's in the pits and then there are two more people that join him in the pits and these two people one day they have a dream they're kind of bothered they don't know how to interpret the dream job Joseph is like oh no let me know interpretations belong to God and he was still willing that's what I loved about him what I recognized in the life of Joseph in the life of David is that even in a low place they were always willing to be vessels for God in that place Joseph had no agenda in that low place he tells them let God use me to bring interpretation to your dream and he served in the place that looked like the worst times of his life he still was willing to say God you use me I remember when I wrote my first book it was one of the most horrible times of my life and God gives me this vision and he says you're gonna write a book called moving forward I said god I don't even know if I moved one step you know for today I've been in bed all day I feel a little depressed I'm not even taking a shower how are we supposed to do this well the Lord said I don't need you to have the wisdom for this book I don't need you to have the experience I just need you to have a willing heart so that this book will not only get you out of your funk but you would also use it to bless others and so in this low place they were still willing to be used by God and this is the character of God and I'm learning family that in order to manifest the promises of God we have to also take on his character because you see there's a fascinating story I'm gonna just divert it a little bit there's a fascinating story with Moses and we see that Moses was called by God I mean he called him himself it was not another person who gave him a prophecy he had an experience where God told him this is what I'm calling you to do but if you read your Bible you will recognize that there was a point in Moses life and it tells us that the Lord came to kill him and it sounds confusing because Lord how would you kill the person you called but you see there was something God required from Moses and he had not given that to him yet and God said even if I call you if you do not do it by my way you are ineffective and so oftentimes when we are in this place you know there was a popular saying that we you know we used to say years pass and it was what would Jesus do and a lot of times we like to embrace this thing well I'm not Jesus okay and something to cut you both that has to be our lifestyle what would Jesus do because it is the character of God that would take us to the promise of God and so Joseph is in this place he interprets their dreams one of them you know when one is killed the other one is taken back to the the other the one that was saved was a man who was the cup bearer for the king and so Joseph tells him he says look when you return to your position of that the king has placed you remember me but the Bible tells us it took two additional years we don't even know how long Joseph was in that pit for but it took two additional years before God orchestrated an urn events where the King had a dream so the King has a dream the dream troubles him because he does not know the interpretation and then this man remembers oh my there was a man in the pits who interpreted my dream and so he says let me call this man for we I know that he will reveal your dream so they pulled Joseph out of the pits they bring him to the presence of the king Joseph here's the dream and immediately God gives him the interpretation and wisdom for the dream so Joseph tells the King the dream dealt with that the Egypt was going to go through a seven year of abundance and then seven years of famine and so not only did he tell him about the dream he gives him wisdom he gives him strategy about how they can conserve their resources and so when the King heard this this is what the King said and this is the moment that was Joseph's tipping point and this is in Genesis 41 verse 37 to 45 and so it says that this is the King sperm well let me just read so the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants and Pharaoh said to his servants can we find such a one as this a man in whom is a Spirit of God then Pharaoh said to Joseph in as much as God has shown you all this there is no one as discerning and wise as you you shall be over my house and all my people shall be ruled according to your word only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you and Pharaoh said to Joseph see I have set you over the land of Egypt you see what is fascinating as we continue to read is that every place every position that Joseph was that reminded him of Payne the place when he wasn't in the officers house and he end up being in the pits when he was in the pit and he was not he was confused as god why am I here God ends up elevating him to a position that is over those that were over him and so the very place of his pain serves the position of his promise and this is what God does if we give him the patience to bring us to a place of establishment but you see as the the passage goes on it says then Pharaoh took his signet ring the signet ring was a symbol of authority the signet ring was almost as though joseph was gonna make decisions as Pharaoh so it says so he took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck and had him right in the second chariot which he had and they cried out before him bow the knee you see all this was a setup for a defining moment because at this point in time all of Egypt has recognized Oh Joseph his second in command I thought he was like the slave boy I thought he was a guy who was kind of like in charge in the prison but God showcased him in a way that all of Egypt not only recognized him they even bowed down to him and then he continues and says so he set him over all the land of Egypt Pharaoh also said to Joseph I am Pharaoh and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt and Pharaoh coach called Joseph's name you know as a papa okay and well what I said okay Zach ends it and he gave him you know we're not here for the names we're here for the story and he gave him as a wife that person the daughter of cata ferris priest of on so Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt you see even the marriage was symbolic because the marriage was to assimilate Joseph into the Egyptian culture so that the Egyptian people would further embrace him as their leader so everything was set up to be a defining moment that Joseph from this point there is no going back we have recognized you higher than anything we have ever seen you as before but you see the thing that I came to share on today is that we must understand Joseph's life to appreciate what happened here you see when Joseph was when when we talk about the the Bible tells us that Joseph was hated by his brothers many of us have had times in life where we felt rejected and abandoned or just you know abused by the ones that we thought love should come from but you see this was even this was orchestrated by God because in order for Joseph the reason why Joseph was hated by his brothers was because his father loved him so much but for the father to love him so much there were events that took place you see Joseph's mother was a woman named Rachel Rachel his father was Jacob and he had two wives you know he was married to two sisters Rachel and Leah Leah had seven children before Rachel ever had one Rachel was buried and if you when you love someone you were moved by what moves them you hurt by what hurts them the Bible clearly tells us that Jacob loved Rachel and so to experience her being barren while her sister is having child after child that's a child that's a child they had to be a deep heaviness in her questioning herself would I ever give a child to the man I love and this bitterness must have affected Jacob that the moment she had a child his love for the child reflected his love for her that finally something has brought you the joy that you have been anticipating and so family you have to understand that God even orchestrated her barrenness so that Joseph will be born in a time that his father will love him in a way that the brothers would hate him because even though we might wonder and and this is another word for some that might be expecting like God this thing has not happened it could be a child it could be anything and God says I am perfecting something that is concerning this child because if Rachel just had five kids the same way that her sister was having kids nothing about Joseph would have really stood out to the father but because of the condition and the circumstance surrounding his birth he was loved in a way that was unique to every other child but God was orchestrating this you see because something that God recently taught me and this has changed how I see a lot of things because and when he said to me it was a it was a whole thing that happened but the message that came out from me he showed me that evil is not based on how a thing begins evil is based on the outcome and many at times we're looking at how something started and we're calling it evil too soon because we might see that God why would you allow her to be barren for all these years god this does not look like you i rebuked the devil and God is saying no no this is not evil it may look evil but the story is still unfolding and live the outcome is for good then he was never evil to start with and so God orchestrated it even before Joseph was born the events around his birth was orchestrated by God for the purpose God had for him and so job that Joseph is born into this family he is hated because he needs to be hated in order to be sold to slavery but the fascinating thing is that there are two pits that were symbolic to Joseph's life the first pit is the pit that the brothers threw him in and the second kid was when he was thrown into jail but both pits represented something because the first pit led him to the place of his destiny you see many times when God wants to bless you it's located it's it's unconnected to a place he said to Abraham Abraham go to land that I will show you and there I will make your name great he didn't say I will make your name great wherever you are he says no in the land I will show you and so are their locations as connected to your destiny because your destiny is not just about you and so even though we may look at the first pit in Joseph's life as this time of confusion God said no this is the vehicle to the place of your destiny then he was thrown in another pit and this was the time that he was in jail and all kinds of confusing things were happening to him but you see family one thing I learned about Joseph's life is that I wanted I said God why would you first have him serve as a leader in the house of an officer and then in the jail you also had him lead in the in the jail cell be you see that both things were connected to his destiny because Joseph's destiny was connect was concerned with managing resources he had to manage resources when there was abundance and he had to manage resources in the family when Joseph served in the house of the officer he managed everything that he had so joseph learns how to manage abundance when God put him in the jail and made him a leader of all the prisoners God was actually teaching him how to manage and lack because everything was connected to what Joseph what he would I mean it was like this is what you're getting because this is what Joseph put a credo put as your portion but God was preparing him and so the second pit in his life led him to the position of his destiny because family God can open a door for you but will you have the experience will you have the patience will you have the compassion to actually stay in the door you see many of the things that we have gone through our pastor says something that I love so much and he said one time that you go through something to get something and so many of us you have gone through a heartbreak you have gone through the loss of a job you have gone through whatever your circumstances as look like but what she went through perhaps it's hot you had to be more compassionate it gave you it gains you patience they taught you the ability to say no sometimes that's one of the big hardest things in our lives just as use those two words and oh and so sometimes God will put you to a process that your yes has brought you to a place of abuse so that finally you can say no when it matters but however God orchestrates it we have to know that God this is actually part of your process this is not a foreign thing the devil is not doing anything to me this is part of your process you see when God told me that Stephanie this thing I've spoken to you at 17 years old is gonna take a while there was no prayer and fasting that could make it faster because the Lord said that there is an appointed time that this is marked for and it will happen if you submit yourself to the process and so I just said God you know I don't know what a wild is but I just pray it's not like crazy wild you know because your timing be off you know sometimes but the prayer and the fasting was what gave me the strength to endure it didn't make God say oh wow look at that let me just make it tomorrow because if he did it and I asked them many times I said God I'll be in prayer I said God you know I don't know what a while is but I think I'm ready you know I just you can trust me with them with a blessing Lord you could trust me just test me with a blessing test me in this [Laughter] for the Lord but then when you look back I'm like God if you gave that to me then that literally either would have destroyed me or I would have destroyed it and so family this is a word that God gave to me to bring you to speak for it to let you know that you're okay there you were just where you need to be the biggest thing that you can do is to live a life of surrender to say that God no matter what happens you can use me you am Here I am willing lord I want to submit myself to the process cuz I don't want this to take any longer than it should but we have to trust the character of God earlier we were singing reckless love and that talks about the character of God that God you will leave the ninety-nine for one we have to know that really and truly God is a God of love and God is a God that is for you not against you even when it looks like it's against you the story is still unfolding you're still in the beginning of the chapter a good memory with worship God so greatly because when you remember what God has actually brought you through because all of us know I think this is a moment that we should praise Him because sometimes what works against us is a bad memory hallelujah hallelujah it is not even far-fetched if you simply remembered what God brought you through if you simply remember the times that you thought this was gonna kill me and you look back in your leg I'm living my best side and going back and forth in my past we will praise now can we give God a praise in this house if you know that you are grateful for what God did in your life can we take a moment to praise Him thank you Jesus this is not even far-fetched thank you Jesus Thank You Lauren Lee while we're standing I just want you to hold the hand of the person next to you and if you know maybe you're you don't have a sanitizer you could just you know be in a prayer position and just look up father God I thank you for what is happening in this moment you see it's interesting because as we're holding someone's hand we are mindful that we're holding a person's hand but they're also holding our hands and Lord many of us feel like we are trying to hold on to you for air but we have to recognize that you're holding on to us then as much as we're clinging on to you that you are holding on to us Lord your word says that you will not let our foot to be moved and so lord I thank you then our stories might not look the same but the God we serve is one and so Lord Jesus we worship you because we know that you are our keeper you are the foundation upon which we stand on and we are favoured by you we thank you Lord that you are holding on to us that this may be a reminder as we hold our neighbors hand and as much as we're holding on to them they're holding on to us Lord God we love you we thank you for that which you're doing in the hearts and minds of your people we thank you Lord that we are okay we're not gonna be anxious about how many days are left in the year one how old we are gonna be but Lord we're gonna look to you and know that your process is perfect and that you are focused on maturing and perfecting who you have called us to be and Lord that our tipping point is coming then Lord there is a moment that you have cause that would define us that we can never go back even if we tried Lord you are holding on to us as much as we are holding on to you because Lord what you have purpose in our lives is a plan that you have for the earth and you said I have purpose to do this through you so as much as we look at we say god we need you there is always there's also a moment of truth that we realize that the kingdom also needs us to be who God has called us to be so that this earth will know his name and we will glorify the father God we thank you that you are holding unto us just as much as we are holding on to you Lord that nothing can ever separate us from your love nothing can ever separate us from your presence because Lord even when we think that we have run away Lord God you come after us we thank you Lord in this house that your love is reckless your love has no laws it has no boundaries your love is reckless and so Lord we surrender we surrender our will we surrender our offense we surrender what we think was working against us we surrender gossip we surrender hate we surrender unforgiveness Lord because that we would embody your character in all things father have your way in our lives heal our hearts heal our hearts Lord even now may your love fill our hearts so the overflow that we will know on the Thursday night we were touched by God that the very thing we struggled letting go of that we wouldn't know we were touched by God because you are holding on to us just as much as we are holding on to you Lord we love you have your way in our lives in Jesus name Amen can we give God praise in this house [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: ONE | A Potter's House Church

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Length: 37min 4sec (2224 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 15 2018