Our Greater Destiny Series

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.