Read Scripture:
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Definitions:
Destined: to decree beforehand; to set apart for a special purpose
Greatness: knowing your purpose in life and sowing it into the lives of others
Opening Statements:
You have been set apart for a special purpose in life and then use that life to bless others – that’s what God has destined you for greatness!
People will and have put you in a box. They have labeled you. Let’s see some of the labels:
Poor, broken home, AA, old, fat, no child, no degree, divorced, single, depressed, kids on drugs, husband alcoholic, and poor family background.
IT’S TIME TO GET OUT OF THE BOX!
You have to learn how to fight all these stereotypes that you have been labeled in your life. Turn to someone and say, “I’m getting out of this box, because I am destined for greatness!
Many of you today do not realize just how close you are to the success or greatness God has destined for you. There is a dream in you that is bigger then you that is really the real you – that’s the destined for greatness God has deposited.
Here are a few steps to "GET OUT OF THE BOX" that people have created for you and start walking in God’s will for your life:
1. If you don’t see the potential or seed in yourself, God has ordained someone to recognize the seed of greatness in you.
Parents – Guardian – Grandparents – Teachers
Esther had Mordecai. He was her cousin and he saw the beauty in her that would make her a queen.
Personal Illustration – I had a teacher in the 6th grade Mr. O’Shea. I was a straight "A" student and one day I was out on the playground with the wrong crowd. One of the girls in the crowd started a fight with someone on the playground. Upon seeing the fight, Mr. O’Shea came over and grabbed me and the girl who instigated the fight. I was so mad. I didn’t even start the fight but was around the girl who started the fight. He took her to the principal and took me to the classroom. He yelled at me and said that I had too much purpose and destiny to fulfill to start hanging with the wrong type of girls who started fights. I didn’t realize until many years later that he was making sure that my destiny and purpose wasn’t aborted. He saw a greatness in me that I didn’t see in myself.
2. Find the Exit off the Excuse Freeway
Stop making excuses. Excuses are the crutch of the uncommitted.
Excuses cause you to:
Cover Up - It’s human nature; don’t waste your energy covering up excuses.
Speed Up - Keep plowing ahead and never acknowledging you are making excuses.
Give Up - 90% of all people who make excuses are not defeated, but they quit.
Remember the box? Many have placed labels on you and you use them as excuses not to move forward into your destiny and purpose.
It’s time to WAKE UP and stop making excuses! Find the exit ramp off the excuse freeway.
Mordecai could have had the excuse of having to care of Esther and missed her destiny to save a nation.
The only way to get off the excuse freeway is to take full responsibility for yourself and your mistakes.
Change your excuses by accepting responsibility.
You make excuses because you do not want to take the consequences of your mistakes or the responsibility.
Develop a plan to build on your strengths.
Change yourself and things will change.
3. Don’t You Dare Miss It!
Be bold. You cannot afford to miss any opportunity that comes up to propel you into your destiny. Mordecai saw the opportunity to enter Esther into the beauty contest and she became queen. But Esther almost missed the opportunity to save her nation.
Read Esther 4:7-13:
7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.
8 Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.
9 And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai;
11 All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. 14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement F16 and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
But she became a Don’t Dare Miss It Person!
Read Esther 4:15-17:
15 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
a. She faced her inadequacies
b. She fished for solutions
c. She finalized her decision - …If I perish, I perish.
Closing Statements:
Esther got "out of the box" and started thinking beyond her limitations and looking at God’s destiny for her life. She was brought into the palace for such a time to save the lives of many Jews.
You are also destined to get out of the box and start thinking beyond what you can or can’t do. You are here to fulfill God’s will for your life and make a mark on this generation that can’t be erased.
It’s time for you to "GET OUT OF THE BOX"!
