Our Greater Destiny
Intro:
More then 140 years ago, the U.S. fought a devastating war to rid our country of the practice of slavery.
When the slaves escaped to the north, they didn’t find the land flowing with milk and honey they had dreamed of but it was better then the hell of beatings, lynching and rape they had escaped in the south.
During that time and for decades prior, freed blacks in the north gave time and money, risked their lives and their livelihood to free more of their black brothers and sisters.
Instead of keeping their new found freedom, they turned their concern outward and had mercy on those who suffered.
As we sit here this evening, there are more slaves locked away being beaten, raped, and killed then were ever trafficked in the entire four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought our people to this continent.
As we sit here tonight, 25 million of the 40 million AIDS victims live in Africa with nearly 6000 AIDS orphans being orphaned per day.
As we sit here tonight, there are problems in the world that require our response.
As African-American wealth and power have proliferated, so has our responsibility to be world changers in a world that needs changing.
Our world has real problems.
And I’d like to ask the question, “Could it be that God desires to use the American black man, the freed slave of the last great global tyranny, to help free the millions of slaves around the world tonight?’‘
Could it be that God desires in these dark days to use the least likely people group, the downtrodden and oppressed American Black Man, to bring hope not only to the United States but also to the world?
I believe that He does. I believe that we as a people have a greater destiny. We have a destiny that goes so far beyond 40 acres and a mule. Far beyond a Chevy with butterfly doors.
Far beyond the self-indulgent message of our culture-we have a divine destiny to not only be free but also to bring hope to those who are enslaved tonight.
Tonight, there are 5 year-old girls and boys sitting in cardboard houses being sold for as little as $.90 to international sex predators.
Little girls like Jyoti. Jyoti was 8 when she was enslaved in a sex brothel. Forced to perform oral sex at first and later intercourse, Jyoti serviced literally hundreds of men before becoming pregnant.
Her captors forced her to continue having sex until the day of her delivery and immediately after her recovery put her back to work.
Tonight, I believe that the freed American slave can be God’s weapon to bring hope to the hopeless if we can just recognize our greater destiny and embrace hope.
Much of our history revolved around our own freedom, our own suffering, our own aspirations to overcome and enjoy the benefits of a wealthy society.
We’ve drunk for too long at that well and it has made us drunk with self-centeredness and it is time now to look outward.
No matter what we don’t have in this country, there are people with far less then we and we must begin to embrace our destiny of bringing hope, even hope to our oppressors.
These are dark days for America, and could it be that we who were brought here as slaves could be the very instrument to bring freedom to a land that has sold itself into bondage?
Wouldn’t that be just like God!?!?
In the coming days, we can be a force for good, a force for God, a force for freedom for those who suffer even right here in this city.
In America today, we know that the battle for true freedom continues to rage in many ways.
In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, President Bush admitted that the problem we saw in the disproportionate number of blacks who suffered and died in New Orleans is rooted in historic inequalities and racial injustice.
One needs only look at the sea of black faces that crawled off roof tops and floated in storage bins only to find themselves enslaved within a water-logged city to understand that we live in a country of inequality.
But I want to say to you that the roaring seas we were transported through to here couldn’t wipe us out and the storm surge of Katrina couldn’t wipe us out because God has a greater destiny for the African-American.
Bridge: Making a Difference in the World Begins When We Have Hope
You see, making a difference in the world begins when we have hope for ourselves and when we bring hope to the hopeless.
Our culture is a self-indulgent culture but by beginning to look at the plight of those who suffer in even greater form we realize that we can begin to embrace a greater destiny.
Earlier, I mentioned two of the greatest moral problems we are facing globally, the human trafficking pandemic and the AIDS orphan pandemic.
We could talk about many issues, the globalization of economies with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, the Iraqi war, the Darfur genocide, Congolese child soldiers, and the list could go on and on.
There is no end to the places where the world needs us. African-Americans have a strong history of activism and social involvement, but much of it has been inwardly focused and now it is time to look around and ask the question, “How can we bring hope to the hopeless?’‘
Embracing this great destiny individually and as a people begins by embracing God’s hope-God’s solution for the real human problem.
As we look at the human trafficking industry we see a human horror that is on the level of the rapes and slaughters of women and children that occurred on slave ships.
The real question as we look at the horrors of the past and the present is, “What is in the human heart that enables us to do such evil?’‘
In Detroit recently, we’ve been shocked by the expression of evil in the story of a young black man who beat an infant to death when his girlfriend finally admitted that it wasn’t his child.
Could you imagine, holding life in your arms, looking into the eyes of an innocent child full of potential, full of life, with everything to look forward to and taking your fist and crushing its skull, slamming its listless body against the wall and throwing the bludgeoned body in the trash?
There is a soul-sickness in us all and it is at the heart of the problems we see in the world.
Going into the world to make a difference, to bring hope to the hopeless, requires us to recognize that the world’s problems are primarily spiritual, not political or financial.
We are all slaves, slaves to the soul-sickness that enables us to do great evil.
The great evil in our hearts keeps us focused on our own needs, our own wants.
We complain because we don’t have the best of everything while others are the property of evil men, suffering in unimaginable ways.
You know someone has pointed out that the difference between a complaint and concern is that a complaint is all about me and a concern is all about others.
God wants us to become less preoccupied about our own wants and complaints and more concerned about the most basic needs of those who suffer.
The Bible says, “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.’‘ (James 1:27)
Body: Embracing Our Destiny (Hope) Requires Us to Reach Out for God’s Love
Embracing our greater destiny requires us to reach out for God’s love.
We can’t give people what they need unless we’ve first received ourselves.
After Jyoti was rescued from the sex brothel where she was forcibly raped for pay from the age of 8 to 14, she helped the International Justice Mission go back and free the other children who remained because she knew that the gift of freedom given to her required her to seek the freedom for those who continued in slavery.
We need to receive God’s love first for ourselves if we are ever going to care enough to reach out with God’s love to those who suffer.
More then earthly blessings or physical health, God wants to bless us with spiritual health.
He wants to take away our soul-sickness.
He has provided the cure for our sickness in Jesus.
The sickness that Jesus talks about can be seen all around us.
As was mentioned, I was one of 10 founders for our chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi. All Kappa’s also have a universal disease, it’s called PBS-Pretty Boy Syndrome.
We are a bit preoccupied with our looks.
We have a better name for our syndrome-now were called metrosexuals, but back in the day we were just called pretty boys.
My PBS shows up in my preoccupation with getting a good night’s sleep. When I really want to get a good night’s sleep I pinch earplugs deep into my ears, cradle myself with not one, not two, but three down pillows, wrap myself in my thick down comforter, and top it all off with strapping on my silk blue light mask.
My silk mask keeps all the light out so I am oblivious to what is going on around me.
You could break into my home, cook yourself a meal, watch a movie, and steal my car and I’d never even know.
Our soul sickness is like my earplugs and mask. Our sickness prevents us from seeing just how far we are from God or how much we need him in our world.
Our soul sickness blocks out the light of his love and truth.
The Bible tells us that we are separated from God’s love because of our sickness and God’s holiness.
This separation will ultimately result in judgment from God.
I’m glad that there is a God who will one day judge the evil in this world. Evil is real and it needs to be punished.
God’s punishment, however, if it is to be a just punishment must be given to all evil.
The pedophile must be judged just as the consumer of pornography. The slave owner must be judged just as the one who uses products from exploited people. Every wrong deed must be judged.
The Bible tells us that because of our wrong deeds we must be judged as well.
For our sexual sin, our lies, our anger and hatred, our gossip, our disregard for others and the failure to act to save those we can save-we must be judged.
The good news is that God loves us and sent Jesus into the world to go to the cross and take our soul-sickness and judgment upon himself.
When Jesus died he died to cure us of our soul-sickness and that was done through his blood.
Through the blood of Jesus we can be cured and purified and given the power to live lives of a greater destiny.
When we have God’s power living on the inside of us there is nothing we can’t do!
God’s plan is to change the world around us by first changing the world within us.
If you want to make a difference in this world, if you want your life to count you must first be changed from the inside out.
Conclusion: Living Our Destiny Requires Us to Reach Out with God’s Love
Living out our destiny requires us to reach out for God’s love but also to reach out with God’s love.
We’ve come together tonight as a community because we want to make a difference in this city, on this campus, and in the world.
We want to throw light on those places of darkness.
God reached out to us in his love through Jesus Christ and by receiving his power, the power to deal with our soul-sickness, we can reach out to others.
Because Jesus rose from the dead, he is alive and can give us the power not only to live holy lives but also to make a difference in the world.
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When we embrace God’s solution for life, we can begin to help others around us.
We begin to experience God’s spiritual health, a health that transforms us and the circumstances around us.
The decision is ours. God wants to give us a greater destiny as a people and as individuals.
God wants us to be change agents in our world, to stand in the gap and bring hope to the hopeless but it must start in our own hearts.
We must first individually say yes to God’s plan for our lives, our true destiny.
We do that when we repent.
When we have a change of heart about our lives.
We must have a change of heart about our soul-sickness. We must recognize that we need God’s help to heal.
We must have a change of heart about where we want to go-we need God’s hope to guide our lives.
We must have a change of heart about who is in charge of our lives-we need God’s leadership to direct our steps.
Only when we live our lives under his leadership can we receive God’s hope and be able to give hope to others.
Many of you grew up in the Church, I am not one of those people¡K
Many of you know this story, the story of Jesus, but you are not following Him.
Tonight, you can embrace your greater destiny by choosing to yield your life to the leadership of Jesus-to begin to live His way, to think His way, to choose His way
To embrace your greater destiny.
Action:
Before I’m done here tonight, I want to give each of you here in the room an opportunity to respond personally.
God’s plan to fight the evil, suffering, and sickness in the world begins with you and I. We are God’s plan to make a change in the world.
It begins, however, by receiving God’s love.
If you want to acknowledge God’s leadership and ask him for the cure to your soul-sickness then in just a moment I’m going to ask you to respond.
I don’t care how long you’ve been going to church or whether or not you’ve never been to church in your life.
This isn’t about being religious, it is about allowing God to bless you with spiritual health and take control of your life to lead you into a greater destiny.
Some people call this “getting saved,’‘ “becoming born again,’‘ or “becoming a Christian.’‘
However you refer to it, the basic thing that will change is that you are giving God access to your heart so that he can heal you, forgive you of your misdeeds, and begin to lead your life.
If you are here tonight and you want to receive that gift of God, right where you are at I’m going to ask you to come forward.
