Your Desire Determines Your Destiny
I Corinthians 9:24-27
Everyone wants to win!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race.
Everyone runs; one wins.
Run to win.
25 All good athletes train hard.
They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades.
You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
26 I don’t know about you,
but I’m running hard for the finish line.
I’m giving it everything I’ve got.
No sloppy living for me!
27 I’m staying alert and in top condition.
I’m not going to get caught napping,
telling everyone else all about it
and then missing out myself.
(The Message)
The will to win is important,
but the will to prepare to win is imperative!
Jude 1:20
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
(NIV)
The scripture tells us to build ourselves up.
Instead we beat ourselves up!
God’s plan is that we build ourselves up so that we might win. Satan uses guilt to strip you of every radical dream you ever had or might have. In their place, he gives you a happy, safe, secure, American life of superficial pleasures, until you die in your lakeside rocking chair.
“Success is going from failure to failure
without losing your enthusiasm!”
- Abraham Lincoln –
Abraham Lincoln’s record is as follows:
• Lost job, 1832
• Defeated for legislature, 1832
• Failed in business, 1833
• Elected to legislature, 1834
• Sweetheart (Ann Rutledge) died, 1835
• Had nervous breakdown, 1836
• Defeated for Speaker, 1838
• Defeated for nomination for Congress, 1843
• Elected to Congress, 1846
• Lost renomination, 1848
• Rejected for Land Officer, 1849
• Defeated for Senate, 1854
• Defeated for nomination for Vice-President, 1856
• Again defeated for Senate, 1858
• Elected President, 1860
How to Handle Failure Successfully:
1) Quit Making Excuses, Be Responsible!
How many politicians or corporate big shots take the rap for things that aren’t their fault? It’s not usually the American way. But Joe Montana, among the best quarterbacks in NFL history, says he owes part of his success to being able to say, "I dropped the ball," even if he didn’t. In his sixteen-year pro career (he retired in ’95), Montana was a leader who accepted the blame and shared the credit. Whenever he received a bad handoff from the man playing center, Montana says, he’d return to the sidelines and tell the coach it was his fault, even if it meant getting chewed out. "When you’re a leader," he says, "you’ve got to be willing to take the blame. People appreciate when you’re not pointing fingers at them, because that just adds to their pressure. If you get past that, you can talk about fixing what went wrong."
2) Learn from Your Failures!
3) Never Surrender to Your Failures!
Paul Harvey said, "Someday, I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that if somebody asks me, ’What’s the secret of it?’ I shall say this: ’I get up when I fall down.’"
4) Focus on Winning!
1 Samuel 30:6
“David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
(KJV)
Your desire determines your destiny!
Hebrews 12:1-13
1 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
3 When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
4 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed!
5 So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either.
6 It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.
7 God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training,
8 the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?
9 We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live?
10 While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best.
11 At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
12 So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet!
13 Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
(The Message)
Jude 1:24-25
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy--
25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
(NIV)
