Sermon Central
-
Divine Destiny
Contributed by J. Yeargin on Sep 2, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the great American way to success. We hear the world telling us to, “Go for it.” We should ask ourselves, “Go for what?”
Text: Philippians 3:4,5 and 12
Prayer:
Review of last week’s teaching.
Let me clear the air regarding what we should be looking for in having DESTINY for our lives. There are two types.
Man’s Viewpoint
As a child we may have been told we were never going to amount to much in life. Maybe we were too tall, too short, too fat or too skinny. For whatever reason, our parents may have looked at us and said, “Good Luck! You’ll learn about life the same way I did when I was your age…”
There was just not much to look forward to.
Or maybe we were pushed from those who expected too much from us. Many people have been faced with this form well meaning parents, and have become over achievers.
The only thing that is important to us to charge ahead in life and don’t get left behind.
This is the great American way to success. We hear the world telling us to, “Go for it.”
We should ask ourselves, “Go for what?”
God’s Viewpoint
The Lord has preordained you to be prosperous in His ways, and in His timing.
Divine Destiny is not a final destination of where we are told or we think we should be. There is only one ultimate with everyone and that is to be with the Lord.
Aside from that thought that should be obvious, let me say that your destiny is not about your attaining one thing.
Rather, it is about being moment by moment aligned with the perfected and preordained will of God. Let me explain.
We are wrong to believe that the ultimate destiny for your life is to own 3000 square foot home on the posh side of town, belong to the country club, and be on the front cover of People Magazine.
It is not only about the final achievement for our lives.
We know this to be true in that many sports and Hollywood celebrities have destroyed their careers with this thinking.
Divine Destiny is not about achievement. My career, my health, my family, my friends, my possessions do not drive my Divine Destiny with God. These things that we allow to drive our personal destiny will eventually bring exhaustion to us.
Because we always think there is more to achieve.
And this is because we do not understand the Divine Destiny that God has foreordained for us.
The ultimate Destiny God has for you is not in your hands.
Rather, that kind of Destiny God has for you in His hands.
He will unfold these plans for your life before you, show you them, and offer them to you. It is your choice to choose His Divine Destiny instead of the world’s destiny of achievement.
We have two questions we need to answer:
1. What am I ultimately called to do?
2. What is God’s Divine Destiny for this time in my life?
A young mother may have an Ultimate Destiny to serve God on a foreign mission field.
But in the meantime she has a greater Destiny that is Divine and called of God to take care for her children.
To nurture those children in the admonition of the Lord.
I ask you, which destiny is more important for that mother to concern herself with? The answer is obvious.
That mother may one day become the greatest woman of Calcutta, India, since Mother Theresa.
But that is nothing more than an Ultimate Destiny.
She cannot afford to become distracted with the potential she has waiting for her in the future (the Ultimate Destiny) while she is committed to her Divine Destiny. The nurturing and raising of her child is the only Destiny that is important.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
We have to make sure that we do not get carried away with the hype and drama of a future calling that we know God has for our destiny.
You have been conditioned by the Lord to live in this moment, and to excel in the Divine Destiny you are living in.
God knows what He is doing to shape us into becoming what He has for us in the future.
Why is all of this information so important?
Because there are a lot of Christians that are missing out on what God is wanting for their life right here and right now.
The New Testament Church is spinning it’s wheels because there are so many “geeked Christians” that are suffering in the “wanna bees”. They wanna be an evangelist, or they wanna be a prophet. But what they don’t wanna do, is to live in their Divine Destiny.
Which is to say, serving God in the here and now.
