When God Turns The Tide - Tim Timberlake

In this powerful message from Acts chapter 7, we are reminded that God is never threatened by chaos, oppression, or fear-filled systems. As Stephen recounts Israel’s history, we see a divine pattern: when the enemy attempts to enslave, erase, or destroy, God responds by raising a deliverer. When God Turns the Tide calls believers to shift their focus from Pharaoh to the Deliverer, trust God’s plan in turbulent seasons, and recognize that what was meant to destroy them is often the very pathway God uses to bring purpose, freedom, and transformation.

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat saved for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you. And see you next time. Acts chapter 7. We're going to continue to march through the Acts of the Apostles, and I believe that today's text is timely. I believe it's prophetic. I believe it will answer some of the questions that you may have, and I believe it will give you clarity as to what it is that God desires for you to do in seasons such as these. How many of you know you're called for such a time as this? Okay, if you don't know that you're called, stay with me. And when you feel the call, pick it up. You're called for such a time as this. God is not alarmed by what he sees, he has a plan in place. Amen? And you are a part of that plan. So when you surrender, you submit to the plan of God for your life, you join a vision that's far greater than yours. You join a force that's far greater than yours. You become a part of a family that's bigger than you ever could imagine. And most importantly, you are obedient to the will, to the plan, and to the purpose that God has for your life. And so today, as we find our text, I want you to pay attention to verse number 18, is where we're going to start, which is where we closed last week. We're going to travel down to verse 21 today. And Scripture says, until another king arose over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph, it was he who exploited our nation and our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would abandon their infants and they would not survive. At this time, Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. And he was nurtured for three months in his father's home. And after he had been abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. I want to utilize this text for our topic today entitled, When God Turns the Tide. When God Turns the Tide. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that you would speak to us today. We ask God that your word would come alive, that our minds would be renewed, and our lives would not only be changed, but transformed by the renewing of our minds and the word of God. And so right now we declare you alone and worthy of all of our praise, adoration, and God, you are set apart for just this word we call holy. You holy and holy are you, Lord. So we thank you in advance for what we are going to see that you've already done. It is in your name we pray the name that is above every other name, the name of Jesus the Christ, our King, and everybody that's glad that he's still alive and well. One time, real loud, can you shout amen? You can take your seats in Jesus' name. When God turns the tide, this text is Stephan talking to the Sanhedrin Council, and he's utilizing some of the great patriarchs of the faith to demonstrate to the Sanhedrin Council that they are repeating history and that God sends deliverers. Humanity rejects them. Humanity is bound into bondage, and God raises other deliverers to set them free, and they get set free, and they repeat the cycle over and over again. They're accusing Stefan of blaspheming God, blaspheming the temple, and blaspheming Moses. So he takes them from Genesis to Exodus, showing them that they are doing the same things that happened to the patriarchs. He starts off with Abraham. He teaches them how Abraham stopped short of going the distance of what God desired for him to go. He then moves down to Jacob, how Jacob was uh sold into slavery, and he was taken to prison, and he was pulled out of prison and placed in the palace, and then he was promoted to be one of the uh highest ranking officials in Egypt. And then the scripture teaches us that his father Jacob goes to Egypt to get grain and he ends up dying there. He ends up dying in a land that God never promised him to fulfill and to occupy. And he continues to march down the list of the patriarchs and he goes uh from Jacob to Moses and he begins to teach how Pharaoh was put into power and he did not know the God of Joseph. And it wasn't that he was ignorant, it was that he had intentional amnesia. He desired to abandon the things that uh the God of Joseph had implemented. He desired to uh turn a people away from the righteousness of God. And so when scripture teaches us another king arose over Egypt who not who knew nothing about Joseph, this is not willful ignorance, this is intentional uh rejection of history. And one of the things that I want us to understand right here from the very beginning is when the enemy desires to enslave a people, what the enemy will try to do is to get you to forget the history of how God delivered you. When the enemy desires to enslave you and imprison you, the enemy will try to get you to forget of God's faithfulness. He'll try to get you so focused on the current season of pain that you're in that you forget that God has delivered you from past pain. God has delivered you from past trauma, God has delivered you from past trials and tribulations. And if he can get you to forget what God has already done, it will blind you from seeing what God is currently doing. And so Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council, you are repeating a cycle that has gone on for years and years and years. And my prayer for you right now is that you would break this cycle and you would honor the God you say you believe in by not trying to imprison his message. And so often when we are afraid of something, we try to put it in shackles. When we are fearful of something, we try to restrict it. And we may not restrict it with our chains and with ropes, but we try to restrict it with our words. And when we don't understand someone, we start talking down on them. And what Stefan is teaching in St. Hedrin Council is what you reject, and who you reject is the very same person you are waiting to save you. You say, I blaspheme Moses, but history will show you that it was the people that restricted him. If we're not careful, we will reject the message of Moses and we will reject the gospel of Jesus. And so he's not going through the history books for no reason. He's going to raise testimony and show the Sanhedrin Council that no matter how many times God has been rejected, he has always raised a deliverer to set his people free if they surrendered and submitted to his plan and purpose. Egypt is being threatened because the population of the children of God are growing in Egypt. Theologians and historians believe at this particular time, two million uh children of God were being born in Egypt, and it threatened Pharaoh. It threatened his economic power, it threatened his military power, and he feared losing control. And so he did what most uh dictators did at this particular time. It was a common practice. He tried to eliminate a generation through genocide, commanding that all children be drowned in the Nile River. And so what we see happening in Genesis and Exodus is a generation of children being drowned for the fear that out of these children there will be a deliverer and a savior that takes these people out of captivity into the very promise that God has told them that they can walk into. And have you noticed in your own life, whenever God gives you a promise, the enemy comes immediately to try to hold you captive. Whenever God speaks a declaration or a decree or he gives you a glimpse of what it is he desires to do in and through your life, the enemy immediately comes and tries to remind you of who you used to be so that you never see who you're becoming. Because if you get a glimpse of who you're becoming, you won't stay in the same position that you once found yourself in when you were wallowing in your own sin. So the enemy's job, and he can't stop what God is doing, is to try to get you to see differently than what God desires for you to see. And Stephen is teaching the Sanhedrin Council that God kept sending deliverers and the people kept resisting them. Moses was rejected before he was received, and Jesus was rejected before he would reign. This is important for us to understand because there are areas in our own life that we reject Jesus in. There are areas in our own faith journey that we still reject Jesus in. We open up portions of our heart to Jesus, but we reject him in other areas of our life that he desires to occupy. So what Stefan is teaching us in Acts chapter 7 is that as God raises deliverers, fearful systems resist them, but God's purpose still prevails. This was not random cruelty, this was intentional, this was strategic, and it was put in place by design by Pharaoh and other people in power. It was a strategic attempt to kill Israel's future. And yet, in the middle of a state-sponsored attempt to erase a generation, God was orchestrating deliverance. He wasn't orchestrating deliverance outside of Egypt. Moses was taken on a journey down the same river that was utilized to kill a generation. Which tells me when you are submitted and surrendered to the plan of God, the very thing that the enemy desires to use to kill you, God will use to transport you from the season you're in to the season he's calling you into. And right now our world feels tense. Fear is loud, the vision is heavy. And Acts chapter 7 reminds us that God has never waited on peaceful times to move powerfully. All he needs is a people that are crazy enough to believe that he is able to do anything anywhere at any given point in time. He's waiting on us to agree with him that he's able to do those things that many say is impossible. God has never waited on peaceful times to move powerfully. He does his greatest work in chaos. The chaos that we see it does not cancel God's plan, it all it often activates it. And God is waiting on you to stop talking more about Pharaoh than you are about your deliverer. See, the reason we can't see what God is doing is because we're so focused on what Pharaoh has done that we become victims instead of victors. And we talk what has happened to us and what is happening to us more than what God is doing through us. And if your focus remains on what happened to you, then it blinds you to what God desires to do through you. When you keep your eyes fixed on him, he reminds you, regardless of what's happening around you. I'm at work on the inside of you. And if I'm at work on the inside of you, it does not matter what's happening around you, for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. But we have to stop putting our focus on what Pharaoh has done and put our focus on what Jesus is doing. Point number one is this the devil never wages war on things that don't matter. Enemy is waging a war on you because you matter. Your destiny matters, your future matters. What you steward matters, and that's why you're in some of the worst trials and tribulations, and that's why it seems like there's so much chaos and confusion happening around you and happening in our world right now. It's because God is working his plan and the enemy can't stop it. So when the enemy can't stop the plan of God, the enemy will keep you so busy with distractions that you don't see the plan of God. And when fear becomes policy, oppression becomes inevitable. But here's the good news when oppression is inevitable, deliverance has already been born. Fear doesn't just panic, fear plans destruction. And you have to be careful to plan your own destiny from the lens of fear. What do I mean by that? Don't exaggerate your reality when God has not spoken. We do it quite often. We see something that's happening and we start saying, Oh my gosh, this is going to happen to me as I see it happening to others. And the reality is, is their reality is not your destiny. Did you hear what I said? Because it is happening to them does not mean it will happen to you. But it will, in fact, happen to you if you start thinking to yourself, it will happen to me. How do I know this? Because the word of God is clear. When Pharaoh sought out to kill a generation, God had already in the works a deliverer that would be carried on the same instrument and on the same river that Pharaoh was using to wipe out other people. God used to raise Moses and send him to the very place that was oppressing other people. God did not call Moses to free the people in the wilderness before God called Moses to free the people from the palace of his oppressor. Stop running from the very place God is calling you. Some of us are running from the place that God is calling us to go because we're afraid of the person that is in power instead of reverencing the plan and the purpose that God is placing you. Look at me when I tell you this. God is not fearful of who you are fearful of. God is not afraid of who you are afraid of. God is not taken by surprise by the things you are taken by surprise by. God is God, and He will continue to be God no matter who you deem to be in power in your life. But the reason we get thrown off, and the reason we lose hope, and the reason we lose faith, is because we put more faith in people of power than we do in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And every system that is built on fear will eventually turn against those that are innocent and those that cannot defend themselves. Pharaoh had a desire to wipe out a generation. And I believe his desire to wipe out a generation is because he understood that if a generation truly believes and knows God, they will become unstoppable. And so what the enemy desires to do in this particular day and age is keep you so distracted choosing sides that you fail to realize who's actually at work and who is in true power. Listen to me. We're sitting here fighting over red and blue and blue and red, and Muslims are infiltrating the very place that belongs to Jesus. And we bickering back and forth. And we have failed to realize that Pharaoh is trying to raise our kids. You will not notice what Pharaoh is doing if you continue to look at how wrong your brother and sister are because of a color. Not just in politics, but of their skin. And how wrong they are because of what they look like and sound like and their upbringing and where they came from. And if you think that you're better than them, you've already become a slave to a system that you were never supposed to be enslaved to. It is all wicked. Hear me. It is all wicked. All of it is wicked. Any type of division is birthed out of a wicked system. Are you listening to me? Well, Pastor, how can you talk like this? Because I'm not bought by any party. I am a free man. And I will not be swayed or swooned by politics. I will speak truth into it no matter who is in power. And you need to understand what the word of God says because if you don't, you'll be led astray and think to yourself, man, this is phenomenal. And you got shackles on your hands, and you don't even realize it because you're not following the God of your fathers, you're following the God that you put in place and the idols you have erected, and the people that you believe in more than you believe in God. And so we say things like this God and country. And we use it in the same sentence. Like country is just as powerful as God. And we think that we're better than other countries. When I read the word of God, and I am in the book, and I am in the word of God, it does not say that God came for a nation. It says, for God so loved. I couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear you. For God so loved the world. Matter of fact, in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, it says that He will give the Holy Spirit, He will impart the Holy Spirit, He will infuse the Holy Spirit so that we could be witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. But we don't even know what we've been called to do because we idolize America. And we forget how wicked this country is. And we are in dire need of Jesus. We don't hear that though. Because we don't know what the word of God says. And we think that we all dead in a bag of chips. We're not. We idolize money, we idolize possessions, we idolize material things, we push God to the background until we actually need him for something that we don't even need ourselves. And then we pull him out of the closet and we prop him up as a puppet and we say, This is God's country. It will not be God's country until God's people wake up and realize what is actually taking place. And we repent and we humble ourselves. ourselves and we turn from our wicked ways and we stop putting our faith in politics and policies and anchor our faith in the hope of Jesus Christ because it is only he who has the power to save it is only he who has the power to deliver it is only he who has the power to redeem it is only he who has the power to set free and if we are blind then guess what happens our kids will be led astray which is what the enemy desires and is hoping for I want you to think about this for a second at your age right now as an adult do you have new sin did you just pick up lust last year 50 years old you just start thinking man I'm gonna try lust out this year I'm gonna try it out see how it works out for me 60 years old you just start gossiping out of nowhere never gossip before 60 turn 60 girl let me tell you what happened today in church the pastor was talking about America you ain't just picking up sin you've been struggling with that sin for a long time as a matter of fact when you really do inventory you really think back you started with that sin when you was really really young because the enemy knew you had an assignment and if he can keep you so busy and distracted with sin from a young age let sin grow with you and what was once a little baby a lust you just rocking that little baby I don't know it ain't that bad I just watch a little pornography every now and again ain't that bad I just lust a little bit after someone that's not my own not that bad I just gossip a little bit not that bad and that little baby of lust that little baby of gossip that little baby of pornography turns into a full grown full blown demon that you can't wrestle out of your life on your own because you paid too much attention to Pharaoh and not enough attention to your deliverer and that's what the enemy desires to do to your kids and your grandkids and you so busy distracted with good things that you have failed to realize that the enemy is distracting your kids with bad things. You know why this is raising most people's kids because it's raising you y'all so busy doing this crazy ain't it I can't believe she did that and you spend so much time talking about people who don't even know you don't even know them but you're so distracted in what your kids doing what they see you doing. And you don't even know who they messaging on social media and you don't even know about their private Snapchat and you don't even know what they watching when their doors are closed because you're so busy entertaining Pharaoh that you have forgotten that Pharaoh is also entertaining your kids we're sitting here going back and forth over things that aren't eternal and we fail to realize what the purpose and the plan of the enemy is it is to oppress us it is to depress us it is to get us into a lifestyle of anxiety and fear and worry and we sit in here not in our word we don't pray we don't fast we don't set aside intentional time with God we throw him in our little bag every single day and we ask him for the things we need like he's a genius in a bottle and we tuck him away when he no longer does what we want him to do because we don't have a relationship we have an agreement with God and when things don't go according to our agreement we break our relationship and Stefan is showing the same heat in counsel you are repeating a cycle and the cycle that you are repeating is that you are using your relationship with God for your own platform for your own promotion for your own influence and it has nothing to do with what he's called you to do and when you do that you suppress the gospel of Jesus Christ you accuse me of blaspheming the temple blaspheming God and blaspheming Moses but you don't even remember the story of what you did to Moses and what you are currently doing to Jesus. This is what oppression is oppression is fear dressed up as authority and the louder fear screams you have to understand is the closer God's solution is to arriving. The attack on the next generation and the attack on children is always an announcement that God is about to shift history. And so it is not the generation of next it is the generation of now and so instead of trying to be your child's best friend why don't you be the parent instead of trying to relate why don't you lead them and have difficult conversations and have necessary conversations so that television teachers and their friends are not raising them. It is not the teacher's job to raise your kids it is the teacher's job to educate your kids on what you have already taught them because you are doing what it is God has called you to do and it eliminates the need for Pharaoh to do it for you. Point number two is this while Pharaoh was busy destroying God was busy delivering no matter what it seems like no matter what it looks like God is always working his plan in and through your life it may seem like you're drowning in the now but God's hand is keeping you afloat carrying you from one season to the next and God is always working his plan and so while the enemy is destroying God is also delivering God didn't wait for chaos to end he answered chaos with a deliverer look at where Moses was born he wasn't born after peace returned he was born in the peak of pressure and while Pharaoh was plotting death God was planting destiny and God always plants destiny where the enemy plots death God always plants life where the enemy plants chaos there is always a harvest that is being brought out of the weeds that you cannot see. If you put your trust in Jesus he'll open up your eyes and he'll open up your ears to hear the plan that he's working in the earth so heaven responds to crisis with greater calling and in the darkest seasons God often produces the brightest servant are you a servant of the most high God I'll ask it again are you a servant of the most high God so if you are a servant you must understand that God specializes in raising hope where despair feels permanent oppression didn't stop God's plan it positioned God's plan. And you may feel the pressures of life weighing down on you right now but God has positioned you exactly where he wants you so that he can get glory out of you. And you need to remind yourself that you are going to make it you are going to be okay you will rise again and nothing that the enemy has planned will overwhelm and overtake you and overthrow the plan that God is working in you. You are going to be okay I need you to look at your neighbor right now and tell your neighbor everything is fine. Everything is going to work out the way God desires for it to and you will rise again what the plan of the enemy is I know what Pharaoh is screaming at you but you will rise again there till you believe it sometimes when you hear it plural you think I'm talking to everybody no I'm talking to you and you need to say over yourself I will rise again I know the enemy tried to drown me I know he tried to silence me I know he tried to limit my ability to hear from God but I will rise again I know he tried to wipe me out I know he tried to eliminate my destiny I know he tried to eliminate a generation but I will rise again I know right now my body may be in pain and my mind may be confused and my relationship may look crazy but I will rise again and if you know that God lifts you and he raises you you know that where you are is not where you're going to stay I'm not standing here God is calling me higher I'm not standing here God is pulling me higher I'm not standing here God has a plan for me and the plan that God is working for me won't allow me to drown in the now you better declare and decree you gotta talk to yourself like that because your mind your mind be trying to talk to you in ways that God never spoke to you and you start to think to yourself am I going crazy? No you're not going crazy you declare the works of the Lord and the works of the Lord remind you I will rise like I'm not dying here I'm not staying here I'm not stuck here I will rise how do you know that because the book said that when Christ was resurrected I was resurrected with Christ which means what tried to bury me can't hold me what tried to take me out can't kill me. What tried to take away what God has already done reminds me that I arise high five your neighbor tell your neighbor you'll rise again you know but maybe you need to find somebody else somebody else that will agree with you a little bit better than that I need you to high five the right neighbor tell them you will rise you're gonna make it I know it doesn't seem like it right now I know things may not be going according to your plan but things are going just right and things are going according to the plan and the purpose that God has for you I know you feel stuck right now but you're not gonna stand in the place that you are right now. I know it feels like you're not moving but God is moving on your hand I know the feelings like God is doing nothing but God isn't feeling doing something you will again God is turning the time on your hand and what took other people out won't take you out because God's hand is on your life and he'll lift you and he'll carry you and he'll send you into the very season he desires for you to be in you're gonna be all right you're gonna make it you're gonna be just fine I promise you you will arise I know what the enemy is shouting I know what the enemy is screaming but I can scream too that is in me that he that is in the world you will rise again and if you believe it shall be somebody give God a thirty second place I know it feels like you're dreaming right now but you're russ I know it feels like you're being overwhelmed right now but you're gonna rise again I know it seems like you're losing your mind but you're gonna rise again I know it seems like the kids are forsaking you but you're gonna rise you're gonna rise again you will make it you're gonna make it you're gonna make it I said you're gonna make it you're gonna be alright you don't gotta holla fuck up nobody you have a full of yourself you tell you I'm gonna be okay because I know who's blacking me I know who's got my black when he got my black I don't need nobody else sit down things are working out just fine feel like when things ain't fine in my life I feel like I'm drowning in the Nile the book says God takes the good and he takes the bad and he makes it work together for the good of those that love the Lord so according to his plan and purpose things are working out just anybody in this place that loves the law somebody got to the good part yet number three point number three write this down I want you to look at this all week as a reminder what hell tries to cancel heaven commissions the enemy always attacks what God intends to use. That's why you're under the attack that you're under because God is using you the enemy does not attack people on the same team so every generation that fear tries to erase God marks for greater purpose. This is one thing you gotta learn about your life is that called futures are normally the most threatened. And threatened futures usually carry a powerful calling so the resistance against your life is often proof you are on assignment I didn't say you were perfect and some of you you've been striving and you've been stressing and you've been trying to be perfect. God did not call you to be perfect. There is only one that is perfect and his name is Jesus. But what he asked you to do was serve him all the days of your life and if you call on his name you will be saved and as you are saved you make daily progress because you make daily deposits and when you make daily deposits every single day you become more and more like him and when you become more and more like him you stress less and you fear less and you worry less. It does not mean you are perfect. It does not mean you will not make mistakes but you remind yourself that you're still called by God. You're still anointed by God. He is still giving you gifts and talents and he's still giving you the things that you could never give yourself because he sees more in you than you could ever see in you. So the resistance against your life is often proof that you are actually on assignment. So be encouraged if darkness is fighting you today it's because destiny is on you today and the future God desires to use will always be targeted by the enemy in Egypt it was babies. Today it looks like the confusion of identity it looks like the erosion of the family structure it looks like a mental health crisis among the young and the old it looks like hopelessness and despair it looks like systems that profit off of brokenness and people in dire need. Because the enemy always goes after who's coming next he's not just after your body he's after your mind he's after your purpose he's after your destiny he's after your identity because if he can get you to see you differently than how God sees you You will never see what God has in store for you. And it's not because God has not already released it, it's because you can't see it. That's why the prophets of old used to ask the question God is doing a new thing. Will you not? Because if you never can see, you never can possess. Sometimes the blessing of God is not what's in your hand. Sometimes the blessing of God is what He's already put in your hand. Point number four is this. Leaders may forget God's faithfulness. But God never forgets his promises. God's promises keep moving forward even when people and systems turn faithless. And the reality of this world is that oppression can slow people down, but it can't stop God's plan. Pharaoh changed, but God's covenant didn't. And when men shift in fear, God remains steady in purpose. The reason I'm not afraid of no system, no structure, no people, no person. Because I know I'm not by myself. I got my father on my right side. I got my big brother on my left side. And I got the Holy Spirit at work on the inside of me. And when you know who got your back and who's at work on the inside of you, you ain't afraid of nothing. I'm afraid of dumb and I'm already dead. How can you kill a dead man? I can't be shut up, I can't be silent, I can't be both. How can you intimidate somebody that's already dead? I know who I am, and I know who has saved me, I know who's delivered me, and I know how free I am because of it. And when you know who the sunset's free is free indeed, you can talk like that because you know where freedom comes from. God's plan doesn't depend on who's in power. God's plan isn't predicated upon if you believe it or not. God's plan does not happen when you think it should happen. No, God is all-powerful, he is all-knowing, he is omniscient, and he's going to work the plan, whether you believe he is going to work the plan or not. God said, I am God, and beside me there is no one else. So as Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew babies to be drowned in the now, God ordered Moses to be raised in the house of Pharaoh. The river was meant to be a grave, a weapon, a fool, a genocide. And God flipped it. I will make the pathway for deliverance. Moses was placed on the now. And instead of the now killing him, they carried him. I need you to get this. Because some of you believe that because you live in this world, this world is going to kill you. And this system is going to take you out. And this structure is overwhelming you. And I'm telling you, what you think is going to kill you, God is going to use to carry you. For God sent his son, and the sun came to give you life more abundantly. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And I encourage you to be very cautious with whose narrative you speak. Because if you speak the narrative of Pharaoh, you look more like an Egyptian than you do an Israelite. The word teaches us what was meant to kill Moses, became the corridor to his calling. The enemy had plans to use it as a weapon. And God turned it into a vehicle. The same river of destruction became a river of destiny. And what hell pushed towards death, heaven carried towards purpose. And I'm telling you, if you anchor your faith in Jesus, it does not matter where you are in this stage and in this season of life, God will utilize it as a vehicle for his glory to take you from faith to faith and glory to glory when you put your focus more on your deliverer than you do Pharaoh. Enemy tried to turn the river into a grave, and God turned it into a highway of destiny. What was designed by Pharaoh to drown hope ended up being deliverance that delivered hope to the people of God. God will often prepare your victory. The house of Pharaoh wasn't just a palace. It was the headquarters of oppression. So what was meant to crush Israel and the classroom for deliverance. Some of you are trying to escape the very place that God is trying to teach. And God is saying class is still in session. Stay here a little while longer. I know you're uncomfortable, but there's a lesson you must learn. And the lesson you must learn is a lesson that you will carry for the rest of your life. And the lesson that you must carry for the rest of your life is that this lesson that you learn must be passed down from generation to generation to generation so that it is not lost on you. And Pharaoh raised a generation coming behind you because you've forgotten who delivered you. You remember who called you. So stop running from the place of pain and sit down long enough for pain to teach you what only pain can. God doesn't always remove you from the system sometimes. Moses didn't grow up in the fields with slaves, he grew up learning how kings think, how power works, how nations are run, so that when he went back to the wilderness, he knew how to get back to the palace because that's where he was trained. So what looks like compromise in one season can actually be God preparing you for divine elevation in the next. From the outside, it looked like Moses was being raised by the enemy. But from heaven's view, God was shaping a leader who could confront Pharaoh face to face. God was building a deliverer who could speak the language of both slaves and kings. And I just came to tell you today that God is training you in pain. God is training you in the land that will hold you hostage without Jesus. In that land with Jesus, God will use it as promotion to platform you for his glory and for his grace. The oppressor's house became the incubator for deliverance when he was found faithful in the things that God called him to be faithful in. And when you anchor your hope in God, God turns the tide. God is turning the tide in your life today. He's turning pain into purpose. He's turning delay into destiny. He's turning what looks like oppression into greater victory. And what you must understand is oppression never gets the final word because fear never outruns God's purpose. It only prepares a greater pathway. And you must understand this. This season will not drown you. Because God is turning the tide. It's turning the tide. The sun never condemns the impurity in water, it simply shines on it. And in that shining, it begins the process of purification by bringing to the surface everything that is unpure in that water. Instead of going back and forth, they believe this, they should believe that. They doing this, they should be doing that. Just allow the sun to shine. And it'll bring to the surface everything that is not a reflection of the Son of God. You be a reflection. You be sought. You be the light. You be set apart. You be a peculiar people. You be a remnant. You be called different. Watch how God gets glory out of you. Bow your heads, close your eyes. If you're here today, you've been following Pharaoh. You've been following the systems and the structures. You've been nursing sin and carrying on your life absent from Jesus. And you know, you focus too much on Pharaoh and not enough on the delivery. You want to follow Jesus. I want you to throw both hands up right now. Because grace is sufficient for you. If you know that you are out of alignment with the heart of Jesus, the plans of Jesus, throw your hands up. There's no judgment. Only grace, only mercy. I want everybody to repeat this after me. Lord Jesus, I repent for my sins. I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me, redeem me, renew me, make right the things that I don't have the power to make right. Right now, I confess that I am in dire need of what only you can give. That is grace, mercy, salvation. I receive those gifts freely, and I remove every false God, every idol that I have erected in my life, and I prioritize my relationship with you. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Amen. Would you do me a favor? Bow your heads. Ask the Holy Spirit right now what he desires from you, what he desires for you. Listen to exactly what he says. At this particular portion of service, we have a tendency to check out, grab our things, rush for the door so we can beat traffic. I want you to just take this moment to slow down. Slow down your busy schedule. Slow down the schedule that Pharaoh has put in place in your life. Prioritize this time of God. Listen to his heart for your life. Listen to his ways over your ways. Listen to his wants over your wants. If you're watching online, maybe you're here in this room or whatever overflows. You just need to know that God won't fail. Because God can't fail. You may feel stuck in this season. May even feel forsaken in this season. But you're not alone. You're not by yourself. You will rise again. God is turning the tide on your behalf. He's turning it. You have an opportunity to break the cycle. Not just for your life. For the life of the generation that's running beside you and behind you. So today I want you to pray. I want you to ask God to point out the areas in your life that need to better reflect Him, His grace, His mercy. And I want you to walk that out for the rest of your life. We are not bound to Egypt. We're not bound to Pharaoh. We're in covenant with the Most High God. And He has freed you. He has redeemed you. Now we have an obligation to help the others discover freedom in Jesus so that they can get out of the grasp of Pharaoh, the enemy, break free of the things that have holded them hostage that God never desired to hold them hostage.