“Interrupted by Destiny”
Text: Judges 6:1-16, 6:25-27; Psalms 37:23
Introduction:
I believe that there are 3 levels of living. The first is Survival. Too many of us are caught in this mode of living. We glamorize survival. We make game shows based on the idea of just getting back and just lasting. We say things like, “If I can just make it through the week. If I can just make it from service to service. If I can just make it from camp to camp. If I can just get through high-school and into college. If I can get from this paycheck until the next.” Survival.
The second level of living is success. We all want to be successful. We run after success as if it is the ultimate object of desire. Success is our number one all consuming goal and destination. But you can sale all the books, tapes, be on every television show, make the “big” time and still never be satisfied and content. Success is nothing more than a platform that God allows you to get on so that you can be heard and heeded. Success is nothing more than a catalyst to move you to the final level.
God desires for us and designed us to live at the third level of living, which is significance. God wants us to do more than survive or be successful. He has something significant for us to accomplish. He wants us to live at this level. We have a destiny and a purpose that must be fulfilled in order for us to live at the level that God desires for us.
Why I want to speak to you about being “Interrupted by Destiny.”
Prayer:
I. The Hiding
The setting is this: The Midianites had prevailed against the land of Israel for 7 years. Bondage had become so bad the children of Israel had begun to make houses and dens in the mountains to stay hidden from the Midianites. This is where we pick up the story. Gideon is hiding. The Word says that he is trying to thresh a little wheat and keep it from the Midianites. He is trying to be as stealthy as he can be. Don’t draw any attention. Hiding. Looking out for himself and his family. Minding his own business. Just trying to get what he needed to get by. SURVIVAL. But right in the middle of this he gets interrupted by destiny. Right in the middle of playing hide and seek destiny steps in and changes the course of his life. HE IS CALLED OUT OF SURVIVAL INTO SIGNIFICANCE. We have many accounts of men hiding, doing their own thing, and minding their own business when destiny comes calling. Moses is hiding on the back of a dessert when he is interrupted by a burning bush to be named a deliverer. Saul was hiding in the luggage when destiny interrupted and made him king. David was hiding as a cheese delivery boy when destiny called his name and he faced a giant. Paul was masquerading, hiding as an assassin when he was interrupted by destiny on the road to Damascus. Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernal were minding their own business. Unknowns. Hiding as normal teenagers when destiny interrupted their life.
Many of you are in this place. You are hiding. You are trying to just get by. Minding your own business. Trying not to attract too much attention. Doing your own thing. But I am here to declare that this morning you are being interrupted by destiny. You may have thought you are here on a fluke. You just came because your best friend came. You may just be visiting to get away from home for a weekend. It is just a good road trip. A mini-vacation. A chance to see the college babes or guys. A chance to miss a day of school. You may already have your whole life planned out. But the reality is that your steps have been ordered. This was a set up. You are being interrupted by destiny. This is no fluke. This is no accident. This isn’t just coincidence. God is speaking to you today. He is interrupting the course of your life. This weekend and this service is a divine appointment.
II. The Response
But we have to go back to the account because we are so much like Gideon. Listen to what happens when he is interrupted by destiny. God calls him Gideon a man of valor. Immediately Gideon begins to make excuses, “look at all that has happened. God can’t be with me.” “Look at how I was raised. I am poor. I was raised on the wrong side of the tracks. I didn’t have a dad at home. My parents don’t want me. I have been addicted. I have been messed up.”
Gideon makes excuses based on who he perceived himself to be. He says, “don’t you know that behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house?” I am nobody. I don’t have the right name. I don’t have the right heritage.
But I want you to know that the excuses were just that. What mattered was how God saw Gideon. He saw him as a mighty man of valor. I am here to tell you that everything you been through may have been bad. Your world may be falling apart. You may be dreading going home after this weekend because of what you will face. But I want you to know first that all those things are what happened to you that’s not who you are.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” -Emerson
You need to understand who you are. You need to know what lies in you. You are a mighty man or woman of valor. You are destined for significance. You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. The head and not the tail. You are more than a conquer and more than an over comer. You are a world changer and a history maker. Regardless of your background or who your family is or isn’t, according to John 1:12 you have been given power to become the Sons of God. You have royal blood running through your veins. You are indeed a mighty man of valor. Excuses aside.
In verse 14, the Lord tells Gideon to go in the power he has. With all of his hurts, doubts, low self-esteem with all of that God says he is still to walk into his destiny. In spite of all your hang ups and issues you can still walk into your destiny. How? God makes Gideon a promise that you need to hear because you have been given the same promise. It is a promise that will empower you to grasp destiny.
III. The Promise
The promise is so simple that you may have missed it. It is in verse 16. He doesn’t promise Gideon tanks, men, fame, wealth, or provision. He makes him the best promise of all. Go, I will be with you. He promises His presence. Provision runs out. Strength runs out. Fame fades. Wealth dissolves. But His presence is consistent and secure. You have been given the same promise. With all your baggage. With all your hurts and self-esteem issues God says make history and then He says I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will be with you, lo even to the ends of the world. Greater is he that is in you, present in you, than he that is in the world. Strong and mighty is Lord thy God in the midst of you. He is with us. We can become something significant. We can fulfill our destiny, we can change our world, and we can drive out the enemy because of His presence. For if God is for us who can be against us?
IV. Our Step
But before Gideon could free others. Before he could produce freedom in the nation. Before he could run the enemy out of other people’s lives. Before he could move into the realm of the significant. Before he could fulfill his destiny he had to clean out his own house. Gideon had to make sure his own house was in order and clean. He had to remove the idols from his own house. Interruption demands action. You either have to ignore the interruption or respond to it. It demands a response.
You have been interrupted this weekend. It demands a response. You are without a doubt a destined young person. Without a doubt I can say that God has interrupted your destiny by ordering your steps to come to this weekend. But the bottom line is that before you can achieve the significant, before you can fulfill the destiny of God on your life, before you can impact your generation you must first clean out your own house. You have to do a self-inventory and cut down and destroy every idol. Every thing and anything that comes before God must be destroyed. You must begin in your own house. Any relationship, any object, anything or anyone that must be removed. Music, dates, reputation, materials, anything that is an idol must come down. A total commitment to fulfilling your destiny in God mandates that you destroy every idol in your life.
You have been interrupted by destiny this weekend. What is keeping you from fulfilling your destiny? What is keeping your from the significant?
\The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. -Herbert Spencer
“In the end, our worst fears are not that we cannot do something significant. Our worst fears are that we might actually be someone and have something to offer that could change this world. This represents such a weight to us that we choose not to bear it, instead, living at a level far beneath our potential.” - Nelson Mandela
Clean your house now so that you can fulfill your destiny in the future.
