YOUR DESTINY AT CHRISTMAS
Ex. 2 – Christmas Story of the Old Testament
TEXT: Is. 9:6-7
- Dates to the mid-8th century BC (around 734-732 BC) when the Assyrian Empire was devastating Israel’s northern territories (Galilee) and pressuring Judah. The chapter offers hope amidst national distress, predicting the end of oppression and the rise of a righteous, eternal Davidic ruler, foreshadowing both King Hezekiah and ultimately, Jesus Christ
It is in the moment of UNCERTAINTY that we must hear what God is saying.
His voice to our ears and hearts.
I want to talk today about the directives, purposes & plans of God for our lives. God has a destiny for every person.
Some achieve God’s destinies while others don’t, but they can!
ILLUS.: Is it because of Family Background? (No, I know many people being used by God from broken homes) Is it Wealth? No, God has promised to supply our needs.
Are there better opportunities? No opportunity is in the eye of the beholder.
What about if I don’t have any problems?
Tell that to Helen Keller, Victor Frankl, Paul the Apostle, and Daniel in the Lion’s Den.
The Christmas story gives us great hope because in the midst of human failure, in the midst of mankind’s sin, God’s love and man’s need sent a Savior. Destiny was born!
When it comes down to God’s plan for our lives, I know of only one factor that separates those who find God’s destiny from those who don’t:
POINT: GOD’S DESTINY IS LARGELY DETERMINED BY OUR PERCEPTION AND OUR RESPONSE TO CIRCUMSTANCES AND FAILURE.
-It isn’t what God says, it is what you think God says.
And to a greater extent, how we respond to the players in
-Nothing else has the same kind of impact on people’s ability to achieve and accomplish what God has put & into their minds and hearts’ desire. People stay defeated when they don’t look beyond present circumstances.
*How people view defeats and deal with defeats will determine how they keep achieving God’s destiny in their lives.
I REMEMBER PETER’S TEMPTATION: Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat.”
“I have prayed that after you have been tested and passed. (I have prayed for you that after you have failed, and when you have turned back, that you will strengthen your brethren.”
Peter responds, “Lord, I will go with you to the prison.”
JESUS SAYS: “Before the Rooster crows, you will deny me.
JESUS- KNOWING WHAT PETER WOULD DO – STILL ORDAINED PETER TO BE THE PREACHER ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
Jesus said: “You will still have your destiny, but I want to show you who you are on the inside 1st.
A.W. Tozer: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply,”
Job 5:18- God’s wounds bring pain, but they also bring healing.
ILLUS.: Peter learned to praise anyway. If we are going to win, we will have to learn the sacrifice of Praise, the life of worship.
-It is important to know what God wants for your life.
God has a plan for you, our lives, our future.
We will hopefully find out that when we praise Him, He is putting His nature, His destiny, on the inside of us. (It is strength, resources, faith, and hope for tomorrow. He is planting you with your future.
OUR FUTURE DESTINY IS HIS PLAN – Your future is His business.
It is freeing for me to know that I don’t have to be the one to decide my destiny. I just need to know HIM!
When I became born-again, I transferred the dictatorship of my life from my mental capacity to His spiritual life. From my inability and lack of wisdom to His ability and wisdom to direct the affairs of my life.
God is as acquainted with our tomorrow as we are with our yesterday.
He knows our future. He will implant you with His future.
Many people enjoy how they feel, feel justified in how they feel, and believe they have a right to feel the way they do. This is where the sacrifice of Praise comes in.
OLD PROPHET SAID: “If you feel like you are going through hell, then keep going.”
So if we don’t like the future we are getting, then seek Him for Destiny.
THERE IS A DIVINE DESTINY TO YOUR DESIRE. Many think desires are something we want. DESIRE is something that we cannot live without.
A LIFE WITHOUT PASSION IS A MINISCULE LIFE.
In your desire, you will uncover divine desire for your life. GOD IS ALWAYS ON TIME.
GOD HAS A WORD FOR YOU, AND IT IS ALWAYS RIGHT ON TIME.
*If you are weary, He has a word for you that is right on time.
*God has a word for those who are distraught, disconnected, and discouraged.
*If you are OPPRESSED, DEPRESSED, OBSESSED.
His word is always right on time. His words are spirit, and they are life.
God says: He has a word for the area of your life that is dead, but don’t worry I’m not late, I’m right on time.
God says, “I will speak a word about your destiny at Christmas that will help you to invade your future with great desire.”
ILLUS.: God has a remnant; He has always had a Daniel, a Moses, an Abraham, a Paul. You are part of the seed that God is bringing forth in these last days, that will not bow, will not bend, & therefore will not burn. God’s seed is His elect.
Those who are set out and called out. For such a time as this. God has a PURPOSE FOR YOU, and you can find it, because He is the Alpha/Omega. The First/Last. A/Z.
ILLUS.: You have got to go through the Anxieties, Beatings, Cleansing, Disappointments, and the Enticements, failures, Goliaths, Husks, immaturity, Jezebels, kisses, lashes, myths, night, offenses, people, places, questions, rebukes, snares, tests, unbelief, voices, whips, if you will get to God’s destiny.
1. LIFE MESSAGE: THIS IS THE MOMENT I WAS BORN FOR.
I believe there is a moment when we realize this is the moment I was born for. Moses was born for a purpose, but it would take him 80 years to discover it.
ILLUS.: Doctor who operated on Ronald Reagan; March 30, 1981-John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. The surgeon who operated on him, Dr. Joseph Gordiano, was about to start the operation, and Pres. RR asked: “Please tell me you are a republican.”
Dr. Joseph remarked after the surgery: “This is the day that I was born for.”
Winston Churchill: When attacked by Adolph Hitler and the German regime. When he told the British people, “Never, never give up.” He became a pillar of strength: As he said, “I walked into Destin
A. OUR LIVES ARE DESIGNED AROUND SEASONS.
I believe seasons are for growth, trial, learning, and development.
Our lives are designed for a moment in time. When we learn that purpose, we walk in that for the rest of our lives.
There is a purpose for which we were created; our life is a book that God is writing, and it is good to remember that God is not finished writing it.
You may be in a season of joy, pain, or a season of misunderstanding. A season of confusion.
May you know that God understands where you are at, and where He is taking you.
Daniel’s life was remembered as he resisted King Darius, when he would not bow down: “He said my God is able to deliver me.”
- Moses’ life was designed around (3) seasons of 40 years.
40 in the Bible is a set time of new beginnings.
- Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness.
- Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness.
- When the flood came, it rained 40 days and 40 nights.
- When the spies entered the Promised Land, they searched it for 40 days.
-Moses’ name was destiny: “Picked out of a Stream.” (human history).
-Picked for such a time as this. Moses was drawn out; he was literally picked out of the water.
*Mary, the mother of Jesus, was picked out of human history for such a time as this. A young Jewish girl praying that her life would count.
-Mary, the Most High will overshadow you, and you shall be with child.
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. “
B. LEARN THE SIGNS OF YOUR SEASON.
The Bible says, “In the fullness of time, Christ was born. Time had to be fulfilled, time had come to a place of destiny.”
I Cor. 2:1-3
Maybe the weakness and trembling is part of the process. You go from defeat to destiny in the process of trembling.
“I was with you in fear, and in trembling.”
I did not come with eloquence or enticing words of man’s wisdom.” vs. 4-9
Our eyes have not seen all that God has. Your eyes have not seen the end of the story. Our eyes have not yet seen the destiny, but I want you to get a glimpse today. Your ear has not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.
Vs. 10-But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. Now we have a paradox
A contradiction. Ear can’t hear, eye can’t see……but God hath revealed them to us, by His spirit. You know something that you didn’t know. Have you seen something you didn’t see before? You heard something that you couldn’t hear?
THE Holy Spirit is the Mediator to reveal the purposes and plans of God.
He is the GO-BETWEEN between the natural and the Supernatural.
He explains and translates what God has been telling us all along.
In your flesh, you can’t see God. With your eyes, you didn’t see. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t know what your ears didn’t see. Are you getting this?
The same Holy Spirit that allowed Mary to conceive God’s promise- God’s destiny is the same Holy Spirit that will tell you things you didn’t hear.
He will show you things you have never seen before.
Therefore, He will disclose what you cannot know, so that you can do what you couldn’t do. It takes the Holy Spirit to reveal, disclose, open, and explain, but nobody but Him can tell you.
The HS spirit in the pavilions of God hears the divine decree.
God catches that and infuses that into your spirit by His power.
WHEN? When you are praising Him! He tells you what He just heard, because the three is one. God is not just trying to make you feel better, and feel good, “He says what He means, and He means what He says.”
God only speaks the truth. He is not a man who should lie. God speaks when you’re down on the mat, and the 10 count is coming down. Something says: “I won’t die here, I’m going to live.”-HG
ILLUS.: When Jesus tells you it means more.
Many doctors of hindsight remind people what they should have done after it is all said and done
Ex. 18:4-Greatest jailbreak of histo
- Let God be your helper. Eleazar: “God is my helper.
- Earn your degree in desert survival. Moses earned a Business B.A. in desert survival.
2. LIFE APPLICATION: CONVERGENCE IS WHERE LIFE COMES TOGETHER.
-It is easy to report everything bad.
-See everything from 1 frame of time, one chapter of life.
-Speak the word….Look beyond the FRAY for God’s plan.
It isn’t a question of whether you will make mistakes, but of how you will respond to what God wants to do in your life through your defeats.
We Americans shy away from words like FAILURE and DEFEAT. DISCOURAGEMENT.
II Cor. 12:9
It isn’t where we are at. It is where we will end up. Our Faith is not what it is at the moment, but what it will become.”
We must stop viewing things through the lens of now. Look.
- Did you see that? Do you know what I heard?
- Amazingly, we talk more about what people say than what God says.
We must learn to see through Jesus’s glasses. We must learn to hear with Jesus’ ears.
This is why He said: “Let Him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.”
We are not what we were – But we are on our way. We have turned our back on destruction and turned our soul to the divine APEX and summit of God.
-God’s journey is taking us to trust and faith in God. We haven’t got it all yet, but we are going somewhere!
We will go to where He promised we would be, just as soon as we go through what He is taking us through. You are going to end where He said you would be.
Number one key for seeing your prayers answered-BELIEVING?
That is not what the verse says.
It says, whatsoever things ye desire when you pray. God’s divine desire in your life is totally and unequivocally wrapped up in your desire.
[Not wants- It is much stronger than that. It is much more focused than that]
Something that makes you stay awake at night, something that gets in your mind, but won’t leave. Something that gets in your spirit but won’t leave.
Something that gets on you, but doesn’t get off you.
Something you can’t shake, something you can’t get rid of.
It is in your heart. No matter how long you run, how high you go, pray…it is there.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken out of obscurity, and she became the mother of the Son of God. ‘Whatsoever things ye desire when you pray, believe and ye shall have them.”
A. TWO FACTORS: STRATEGY & SOVEREIGNTY
Our part is strategy, and God’s part is sovereignty.
“Many spend 15 years working for Christ and finally let Christ work for them.”
We must go deeper before we go wider.
3 miles wide and 2 inches deep is a weak life. God will take care of the breath of your life, if you take care of the depth of your life.
B. WHAT YOU DO EVERYDAY EVENTUALLY SHOWS.
One guy said, “Took 20 years for me to become an overnight success.”
God said: Until you get a desire like you need a necessity for living. Until it becomes so important that nothing else matters, until you’re able to pull the blinds, shut the TV off, and say God, I need a desire. We are impotent and unable to produce. You desire it, you pray it, heaven will back it, and God will bring it to pass.
DESIRE makes you powerful-Business, athletics. “Stay Hungry”. Football. We must resist the temptation of lazily going through the motions. Little desire, half through the motions, having a prayer list they look at once in a while.….the devil will run over us.
*You may have all the spiritual mechanics, but if you are not set ablaze with the spirit of God, then we are impotent. We are powerless.
A. LEARN FROM THE ANONYMITY OF YOUR SEASON.
Worry about getting better, getting spiritually healthy.
Let God take you higher and farther.
- It is our responsibility to go deeper.
- It is God’s responsibility to take us wide.
Do not bankrupt your future by rushing your need for significance.
-Beware of the temptation of rushing God.
-Learn that it is God who elevates. It is God who blesses.
Keep your desire. When the desire consumes us. It is hard to even put it into words. You have the engrafted word within you.
You may be walking through the PIT, through the dungeon, through the valley, so you can go to your desired destination. HEAR me-Some of you are driving the devil crazy. Let’s make hell nervous. You are headed to your destiny by the divine plan of God! Why is the devil always picking on me?
ILLUS.The devil desires you because of where you are going and who you will become. When you get knocked down, you’ll get up after a while.
What doesn’t kill you will make you better.
Satan wants to disconnect you, discourage you. Distracts you.
BUT YOU ARE ABOUT TO COME INTO YOUR SEASON! COVERGENCE!
ILLUS.: How they would sift wheat.
We just can’t get our focus, and then we get hit again.
You are like the cat, always landing on your feet. “I have prayed for you, that your faith would not fail.” He prayed one thing, but prophesied another. He didn’t pray that he wouldn’t fall. He prophesied that he would fall. He said Before the cock crows, you will envy me 3 times before a 12-year-old girl. How you like that ROCKY?
Jesus taught them, saying:
Matthew 5:3-12
This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. When you get defeated, when you fail. You remember: “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” I am about to come into my Season!
You remember: “Nay in all these things I am more than a conqueror.” “But, I will not leave you comfortless. I am not alone. He’s with me. If he’s with me. My faith won’t fail in the furnace, my faith won’t fail in the fire
I remember that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He is praying that your faith will make it from Midnight until the morning.
-He is praying that when you are in prison, when you are discouraged.
-When you feel like you have to quit, you have fallen, but Peter, you are going to make it. When thou art converted, when you are changed.
-When there is nothing to trust in. Hold on in the midnight, because joy comes in the morning.
God is saying when you are on the mat, the count is coming down, you get up, because he is praying for you. You remember that when you are converted. to get up and share what He’s done for you. You share how He’s taken you through for everyone else, because many others are going through the same thing!
YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT!
LEARN TO TRUST GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY.
“It is God’s problem if He doesn’t take you wide.”
It is all about the sovereignty of God! Give gifts to where I want to be.
Self-pity is an act of unbelief- Ps. 115:3-His will keeps all others.
“I resign from significance for myself.” Get over ourselves.