Your Date With Destiny Series

What do you think about when you hear the word “destiny?” For Bob Cartwright, the word was a morbid word.

On October 11th, 2006, Bob Cartwright was invited to join a pilot friend and New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle to see a playoff game between the Yankees and Detroit Tigers. Cartwright couldn't make the flight which crashed into an apartment building in New York City killing his two friends.

He communicated to the local newspaper: "I was supposed to be on that plane," Cartwright told friends at the time, I had a date with destiny and missed it.”

One month later Bob Cartwright died when his private plane crashed into the shoreline of Big Bear Lake, near his home in California.

On a brighter note, do you remember George McFly? In the movie “Back to the Future” he struggled with his “Date with destiny.” He consistently tried to get a date with Lorraine Baines. Remember this scene in the movie:

Video- “You are my density.” .19 sec.

Transition:

As God speaks to us today in the Book of Hebrews, he focuses in on us, God’s designed destiny for us, and how pleasurable to it to the heart of God when we embrace His ultimate and eternal plan for us.

To reveal His destiny for us He reviews passages from the Old Testament. He compares His plan for the angels to His plan for us. He likewise points us to the reason why God became a man.

This passage is rich and full of deep meaning. It drills deep into the heart of God and exposes how much He loves us and His desire for us that goes beyond this life. It’s an exciting and meaningful passage that I think is like a love letter to you and me, causing us to be stunned by all God has in store for those who respond to His love.

Transitional Sentence: The best way to understand God’s destiny for you is to ask several questions about life. Let’s ask them!

I. Question #1- What Has God Always Wanted For Us?

vs. 5- “For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere saying, What is man that you remember him? Or the Son of Man that you are concerned about him?

Explanation:

The verse begins with a conversation with a human being with God. Specifically, this conversation was recorded in Psalm 8 so this is specifically a record of a prayer conversation from David to Deity. It was a question David asked God in prayer.

Have you ever wondered why God has done things?

I was reading this week the top questions students want to ask God. Here’s the list:

a) God, why do you allow suffering in the world?

b) God what do you want from me?

c) God, will you really forgive all my sins?

Yet, David had a candid conversation with God and simply asked: “What is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you are concerned about him?”

It’s a pretty legitimate question. Basically he is saying: “God, why do you care about people?” Why did you give humans a second thought? Why did you care enough about man to become a man yourself in Jesus Christ?

This question blessed God so much that not only did he have the question recorded in the Old Testament (Psalm 8) He also had it recorded in the New Testament here in Hebrews 2: 6.

It’s a great question that God answered for David and answers for you and me as well by simply communicating His desired destiny for us.

To answer it, He points us back to the angels. In verse 7 he says: “You have made Him for a little while lower than the angels...”

What does that mean? It means we are:

a) Lower in rank- The word “subject” (hupotasso) in the original language is a military term

that was used by commanders to arrange soldiers in order. The Bible therefore tells us that

temporarily, angels have been placed in a position of high ranking in God’s Kingdom as far

as ability and responsibility. (vs. 5)

b) Limited in capability- Angels can do things we can’t do. Right now today, the angels have

one up on us. They are heavenly beings; we are earthly beings. Obviously this is a limiting

and major difference. Angels are seen with Jacob as ascending and descending from heaven.

You can’t do that.

Likewise, you can’t see what’s going on in the spiritual realm around. Knowing our limitations, Satan, a fallen angel takes advantage of our limits. He attempts to make us focus on earthly thing, and sometimes doubt or ignore the spiritual things around us. Often, taking them less seriously than we should.