TD Jakes - Your Breaking Point is Your Breakthrough Point
Everything has a breaking point, everything. In the company I used to work for, they would rate different types of equipment by their PSI. And the PSI just meant how much pressure that particular machine was able to absorb, the pressure rating. It's strong enough to absorb a certain PSI. If you go beyond that, you're going to destroy it. A car engine has an RPM. It's rated to be able to go at a certain speed. It's rates per minute. So, at a certain RPM, it can continue to handle. If you'd go beyond that, there's no guarantee.
So, everybody's strength has a limit. Everybody has a limit. There is no sign on us. There's no tag on us. There's nothing written on our forehead. Where your limit is might not be where my limit is. Where his limit his might not be where her limit is, but everybody has a limit. In your family, everybody has a different limit. Some people can tolerate pain better than others. Some people can go through bereavement better than others. Some people can be up under attack and withstand better than others. No need in you turning up your nose at their limit, because you got a limit, too. Just because they're not the same limit don't mean you don't have a limit.
Jacob is, oh my God, he's at his limit. I want to talk to somebody tonight who feels like you're close to your limit. And if you're like me, whenever I get close to my limit, not only am I suffering from the pressure of being close to my limit, I'm suffering from the embarrassment that I have a limit. Because deep down on the inside, I think I oughta be strong enough to absorb everything. I don't care what they hit me with. So I can be close to my limit and not even tell anybody that I'm at my breaking point, because I'm ashamed that I feel... oh, y'all don't hear what I'm, saying.
When you are a Christian and a believer, there's another level of anxiety that comes on you, because you feel like "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me", and so I shouldn't have any limit at all. Christ has no limits, you have a limit. Christ can do anything. He can absorb anything, but you have a limit. "Well, it said I can do all things through Christ", but you're not just doing it through Christ, you're doing it through flesh. So, you gotta go to bed sometimes.
C'mon somebody, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. We have this treasure. The treasure is infinite, but we have it in earthen vessels. The vessel is finite. You have a limit. You gotta go to bed sometimes. You got to get some rest sometime. You gotta eat sometime. You gotta get away sometimes. You, trust me, you have a limit. And then folks who act like they don't have a limit are lying, they do have a limit. You can have more degrees than a thermometer but still have a limit. You can have more talent than anybody in your city and still have a limit. A lot of times, when you're talented, people see your talent and they think you have no limit, because you have a talent. Those are two different things. My talent is not me. I feel like I'm helping somebody today.
And Jacob, who has wrestled with God and prevailed, and the Bible says his name will be called Israel, because now you have wrestled with God and prevailed. Who wrestles with God and prevails? Jacob, who had wrestled against Esau and walked away with his birthright. Jacob, who has withstood everybody who withstood him. Jacob, who stood up, even when his father didn't like him. Jacob, who had withstood the scorn of his own father still has a breaking point. And when they told him, "We left your son back in Egypt. But we're about done, Daddy, we're gonna get him back. We're gonna get him back".
Youth is always optimistic, but age has seen some things. Age knows that every story doesn't have a happy ending. Age knows that if you keep driving real fast in the car, they're going to find you up under a bridge. Age knows that you can lose everything, so you don't gamble everything, you don't risk everything, 'cause you've been through enough, you've had enough winning and you've had enough losing to learn that losing is possible.
I told you that Jacob had had a series of winnings, but oh, he's also had a series of loosings. He has lost a lot of things. He loses his wife, the love of his life, the one that he's labored to have. He loses her after laboring 14 years to get her. He loses her first. She's barren and then she has a child, and then she has another child, and the birth of that last child killed her. He lost the love of his life. He's taken some real blows in his life. To finally find the love of your life, number one, that's the miracle, number one.
To find somebody that you can love for a lifetime is a gift from God. And then to have her die on the road to Ephratah, while they were just a few miles from Ephratah. She gasped, and died, and pushed, and gave birth to a son that would be called Benjamin. And there on the side of the road, he has to bury the love of his life. He's already lost his beloved son. He's lost his beloved son. He's lost him completely. And to lose his beloved son is a painful thing. He's lost Joseph. So he's lost his beloved wife, and he's lost his beloved son. And now they're telling him you're going to lose again, and he says this is too much. This is just, this is, I can't handle it. Maybe I could have took it when I was younger, but I can't handle it now.
See, every time you survive a blow, you spend something. Every time you come through a fight, yeah, I might have won the fight, but it cost me somethin' to win the fight. And now I've spent so much, I'm not sure that I've got enough left in me to fight this kinda fight again. It is too much. I feel like I'm talking to somebody who knows what I'm talking about. You've had some wins, but you've had some losses, and the sum total of the losses somehow always screams louder than the victories. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm sayin'. The sum total of the losses always sounds louder than the total of the victory.
You don't see Jacob rehearsing all of his victories here. He's rehearsing all of his failures, because when you're up under attack, the enemy won't show you where your won, he will always bring up where your lost, 'cause he's tryin' to get your mind. But God is sending his Word to you today to break that stronghold that the enemy's tryin' to use to make you forget how many times you won. Your whole life was not a waste. Your whole life was not a series of failures. Think back, old man. Think back how God brought you. Think back, old man, and remember how God blessed you. Think back, old woman, and remember how God brought you through, how you survived. How you were born alive and somebody else was died in the crib. Think back and remember how God brought you out of the hospital. Think back, think how God sustained you when you didn't have a job. Think back and remember how God delivered you when everybody had their foot on your neck, think back. All of a sudden, everything starts closing in on him.
Now, not everybody who's watching this video knows what it feels like to have everything close in on him. But I'm a good one to preach this, because I understand what it feels like to have to feel like it's not true, but feel like, feel like everything's closing in on you. And the old man, he says Jacob is gone and Simeon is gone, and you want to take my last Benjamin and take him. And he says all these things are against me.
This Sunday morning, I wanna talk to somebody who's dealing with collateral damage. You've survived a lot of things. You've been through a whole lot of things. But on the inside, your soul is tired. If your body was tired, a nap would fix it, oh, but when your soul gets tired, sleep won't do nothing with that. When your soul gets tired, you can't take a vacation and fix that. When your soul gets tired, you can't find nobody to talk to to ventilate your soul, and recuperate who you are. When your soul gets tired, you get tired of encouraging people. When your soul gets tired, you don't want nobody to even call you on the telephone. What do you want, and what do you want, and who's gonna...
When your soul gets tired, you start yelling at the kids, and slapping the dog, and kicking the cat. When your soul gets tired, Jacob's soul was tired. I feel like preaching. I feel like preaching. Jacob's soul was tired. I wanna talk to somebody who's soul is tired and you're bent over on the inside. You standing up on the outside, but you're bent over on the inside. And you feel like oh my God, all these things, these things, it's a whole collection. It's not one thing. If it was one thing I'd have whooped 'em If it was two things, I would have whooped 'em, but it's not just one or two things, it's all these things. All these things are against me. Look at how he interprets it. It's against me, not my son who's in Egypt, but it's against me.
Look at how he interprets it as it being against him, even though the attack was against them. Because it was people he loved, he said it was against me. See, sometimes the pain we carry is not our own. Sometimes the pain we carry is pain we adopted. It belongs to somebody else. It happened to them, but it affected you. And now the old man is standing there, he's free, he's alive, but he's not enjoying his life, 'cause he says all these things are against me. Jacob has counted up what's wrong, but he has not counted up what's right. And I'm just wondering this morning, have you spent as much time counting up what's right as you have counting up what's wrong? All these things are against me, and alas, I'm at my breaking point.
You gotta understand, when you have been other people's hero, there's a shame that comes on you when you need the help you gave. When you're always the one on the giving end, there's a shame that comes on you that you need to be encouraged, that you need to be uplifted, that all these things are closing in on you. And very seldom will we even utter the words, we'll just silently erode like sands off the banks of a riverside, never scream though they are dislodged. In the silence, the constant friction of life, the friction, the going, and coming, and getting up, and going to bed, and dealing with this, and dealing with that, and answering the phone, and handling this, and handling this one, and handling that one. And little do you know, everything that you went through, and everything that passed by you, eroded a little somethin'.
He says, all these things are against me. And he is at the breaking point. And his son says to him, oh, no, Daddy, no, Daddy, I promise you, on the lives of my two sons, I am going to get Simeon back. I'm gonna get him back, Daddy, I'm gonna get him back. Calm down, I'm going to get him back. These are the family discussions that nobody ever talks about. Oh, no, you don't put this on Instagram. This is not what you put on Snapchat. No, no, no, no, no, this is not goin' on Snapchat. No, no, no, you're not gonna FaceTime and talk about this. These are the discussions that go on behind closed doors, when you're at a breaking point, it affects everything in your house. You smile for the picture, but as soon as the picture is over, the grimace returns, because you are at a breaking point.
I'm talking to somebody, you did not need no COVID-19 to be at a breaking point. You were already dealing with this, and that, and this, and that, and this, and that, and now, on top of that, now we've got a pandemic. A pandemic, a worldwide pandemic. A worldwide pandemic that threatens your job, your future, your economy, and all of a sudden, you start, when nobody's looking, not when they're looking. When they're lookin,' you quote the Scriptures. When they're lookin', you're talking good. When they're lookin,' you're standing strong. When they're looking, you tell 'em we're gonna get through this. When they're looking at you, you got your game face on when they're lookin', but as soon as they all go to bed, about two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning, with your head bent over like you're carrying a cross, and you are. That's your cross, you're carrying a cross, like the weight of the cross is too much for you to bear. About three o'clock in the morning, you start thinking all these things are against me.
Can you imagine what it was like to be Jesus? And the cross will be too heavy, and your disciples are lookin' at you, and they saw you walk on the water, and heal the sick, and raise the dead, and now you're stumbling around with a cross that's too heavy. If Jesus said this weight is too much, if he's stumbled up under the pressure of the load of a breaking point, and somebody had to come and get up under him, who are you to think that you can handle all kinda weight, and take on everybody's problem, and fight every battle, and land on your feet? He said all these things are against me. That's what he said. That's how he perceived it. That's how he saw it, but that's not how it was.
Oh, I want to make a distinction between how you see it and how it is. The young folk have an expression talkin' about keeping it real. They think telling their business is keeping it real. Keeping it real is separating how you perceive something from how it is. Jacob perceived that all these things were against him, when in reality, all these things were working for him. Number one, Joseph was not dead. And if it were not for the famine, he would never find out that Joseph was not dead. Number two, Simeon was gonna be reconnected to him again. And if it were not for the famine, there wouldn't be this big family reunion. And everything, you can't handle this, I said everything that Jacob had lost was about to come back into his life again.
I don't know if you can handle this kinda preaching, 'cause you believe COVID-19 more than you believe me. But I came to tell you that everything you lost is about to come back to you again. Oh, y'all don't understand what it did to my job. Y'all don't understand what it did to my economy. Y'all don't understand what did to my marriage. Y'all don't understand what did. I don't care about all of that, I want you to understand that God is still sitting on the throne, and that he still working things out, and that Romans 8:28 is still true. Though it hadn't even been written yet, that all these things work together for the good of them that love the Lord. The things that he thought was against him are going to work together for his good. The things you think that are against you are going to work together for your good.
I feel a spirit of prophecy on me right now. I'm prophesying to somebody. It looks bad, but it's gonna work out good. They meant it for evil, but God's going to make it good. You cried all night, but joy is coming in the morning. You're bent over now, but you're gonna be standing strong in a minute. I came to tell you your breaking point is your breakthrough. God is about to give you a breakthrough. I know the devil don't want you to believe it. I know your flesh cannot receive it. I know your mind cannot encompass it. I know the evidence does not verify it. But my faith is my evidence. It's all the evidence I need of the thing that I have not seen.
And I came to tell you today that when it's all over, everything the enemy stole from you, God is going to give it back to you. I want somebody to take 30 seconds and just praise God like you lost your mind. Praise him like you're on the verge of a breakthrough. I know you feel like you're at a breaking point, but I want you to praise him like you're on the verge of a breakthrough. You're getting ready to confuse the devil.
He said I thought she was about to have a nervous breakdown, why is she jumping up praising in the living room, shouting by the couch, praising God, just leaped out of the bed and praising God? It's because I just realized my break point is my breakthrough. And a breakthrough is on its way, I dare you to give him some praise right where you. Dare you to praise him like you lost your mind. I dare you to praise him like you got nothing to lose. I dare you to praise him like you believe God radically. I dare you to praise him like you know God's got a plan. I dare you to praise him like the best is yet to come. Praise him like you're on the verge of a breakthrough. Praise him like you're about to get up out of that bed. Praise him like your body is about to be healed. Praise him like your temperature is goin' down. Praise him like your lungs are starting to breathe again. Praise him like you got money in the bank. Praise him like all your children came home. Praise him like God just opened up the window from heaven and poured you out a...
I dare you to open your mouth and praise God. I can do the preaching, but you've got to do the praising. I can do the telling, but you gotta do the hearing. I can do the declaration, but you got to receive it. You that are at the breaking point, give God a praise and put the devil to shame. The more you praise him, the more you put the devil to shame. Don't be afraid to give God some glory. Don't be afraid to lift him up. Don't be afraid to lift up hands that have been worried. Don't be afraid to lift up your head. Don't be afraid to open up your mouth. Don't be afraid to thank God, 'cause everything is going to shift in your life. And the tail is gonna become the head, and the head is gonna become the tail. And the sick will be healed. And the bound will be loosed. Somebody shout yeah.
The reason I chose this text, oh, you got me excited. The reason I chose this text is because Joseph perceives it, Jacob perceives it one way, but God perceives it another. Jacob thinks he's at a breaking point, but this is the beginning of his breakthrough. So, they load him up, and say come on, Daddy, just trust what you can't trace. Believe what you can't see. Come on, Daddy, get on in the cart by faith. Everything's gonna be all right. It's all gonna work out. And step by step, moment by moment, God was leading him into Egypt where he would be sustained the rest of his life. The rest of his life. The rest of his existence. He would not want for bread, he would not long for water, God would supply all of his needs through foreigners, through outsiders, through people who had nothing to gain. God had positioned Joseph to be in the right place at the right time, so that when his father was at a breaking point, his son had come into his own.