Compiled by: Herman Abrahams (Pastor), Cornerstone Faith Ministries, P.O. Box 740, Westridge 7802, Rep. of South Africa.
E-Mail: Mentorship2003@yahoo.co.uk
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed with this sermon compilation, I would be honoured to receive an e-mail from you simply stating where in the world you are based; I do not need any other information. However, you are welcome to communicate with me. This is merely so that I can have the pleasure of giving thanks to Almighty God that all over the globe, the ministry which he has entrusted to me, is blessing the body of Christ and helping to extend the Kingdom of God.
Thank you.
Herman Abrahams,
Cape Town, South Africa.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Breaking the Barriers of the Past
Primary Resource – “Your Best Life Now” by Joel Osteen
The Command to Leave Horeb
Deut 1:1-8
Dt 1:1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. Dt 1:2 (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) Dt 1:3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them. Dt 1:4 This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. Dt 1:5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying: Dt 1:6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Dt 1:7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. Dt 1:8 See, I have given you this land . Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”
INTRO
---------
Olympic games & the four-minute-mile barrier.
Every four years, the world’s attention turns to the summer Olympic games.
For a few days, men and women from around the globe gather to compete against the best.
Amazing records are broken and new ones are set at these games.
The Four-Minute-Mile:
Just a few decades ago, track-and-field experts proudly declared that no runner could break the four-minute-mile barrier.
It was said that a human being couldn’t run that distance that fast.
"Experts" conducted all sorts of profound studies to show it was impossible to beat the four-minute barrier.
And for years, they were right. Nobody ever ran a mile in less than four minutes.
Roger Bannister:
But one day a young man came along who didn’t believe the experts’ opinions.
He didn’t dwell on the impossibilities.
He refused to let all those negative words form a stronghold in his mind.
He began to train, believing he was going to break that record.
Sure enough, he went out one day and broke the four-minute-mile barrier.
He did what the experts said couldn’t be done.
His name was Roger Bannister, and he made sports history.
Other Runners:
Now, here is what is so interesting about the Roger Bannister story……. Within a month, the Australian runner John Landy had broken Bannister’s record, but Bannister had the satisfaction of beating Landy at that summer’s British Empire Games in Vancouver. In a race billed as "The Mile of the Century," both runners beat the four minute time, but Bannister came in first at 3:58.8 to Landy’s 3:59.6……..Within ten years after Roger Bannister broke that record, 336 other runners had broken the four-minute-mile record as well!
Think about that. For hundreds of years, as far back as statisticians kept track-and-field records, nobody ran a mile in less than four minutes; then, within a decade, more than three hundred people from various geographic locations were able to do it.
What happened? Simple. The barrier to running a four-minute mile was in the athletes’ minds. For all those years, runners believed what the experts were saying. They were convinced that it was impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes.
ROBER BANNISTER IGNORED THE BARRIERS …
You Too Can Break The Barriers Of The Past !!!
1.The Battle in Your Mind
A. Here’s the key point: You will never go beyond the barriers that are in your own mind.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you think you can’t do something, then you never will.
The battle is in your mind.
If you are defeated in your mind, you’ve already lost the battle.
If you don’t think your dreams will ever come to pass, they never will.
Illustration
For 23 years I lived in a small three-bedroomed duplex house which was attached to other duplexes on either side of my house. My (duplex) house stood on a 120sq metre plot of ground. I used to tell my family that one day I would have a big house with an office at the back of the house so that when the doorbell rings, I will not be able to hear it. I also trusted God that my dream house would be a house that I could walk around and not have to bring the trash can from my backyard through my kitchen and lounge to take it outside on garbage collection days. I always wanted some trees on my land so that on sunny days I could sit under a tree. God has made my dream come true in every respect. For the last 9 years I have been living in exactly such a house – glory to God!!
B. The barrier is in your mind…
-----------------------------------------
That’s what the Scripture calls a "stronghold."
2 Cor 10:4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2Co 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
C. It’s a wrong thinking pattern that keeps us imprisoned in defeat…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
And that’s why it is so important that we think positive thoughts of hope, faith, and victory.
Perhaps somebody has spoken negative words over your life.
Maybe someone has said:
that you would never be successful;
you’re never going to rise to the top;
you just don’t have what it takes to make it.
D. Don’t listen to those lies.
------------------------------------------
If God is for you, who dares to be against you? (Romans 8:31).
Break through those limitations of the past and let your mind dwell on fresh, positive attitudes of faith.
Breaking those barriers will change your life and the lives of your children - YOU WILL LEAVE A LEGACY TO YOUR CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN.
You have to believe, you have to have faith that God will exalt you, that he will lift you up.
You Can Break The Barriers Of The Past !!!
E. Dr Martin Kuther King Jr and Dr Nelson Mandela …
---------------------------------------------------------------
These, and many others, were men who ignored the barriers placed on them and believed that one day their change would come… THEY WOULD BREAK THOSE BARRIERS that were placed on them.
Nelson Mandela and his comrades faced legal and physical barriers. Mandela was locked up in a cell for 27 years. However, this did not deter him from believing that one day South Africa would be free of oppression and racial segregation.
Martin Luther King .. had a dream; he believed that change will come!! The following extracts from his speech, I HAVE A DREAM, shows the degree of belief, faith and hope that he had in Almighty God for change would come.
Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.:
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality…. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
Dr Martin Kuther King Jr had a dream. You too need to dream that your change will come!!
Break The Barriers Of The Past !!!
F. Leave A Legacy
-----------------------------
Today, it’s common for professional runners to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
It is no big deal. Roger Bannister set a new standard. He cleared the path.
Similarly, if you’ll break through the barriers in your mind and start stepping out in faith, you will go beyond those old barriers, …
and the same thing will happen in your family.
Your children, grandchildren, and future generations will continue to race past those barriers.
They will continue to go further than people ever once thought possible.
And it will be because you were willing to step out in faith, setting a new standard, paving the way for future generations.
Illustration
--------------
My youngest brother and I were the first in our family tree to obtain University qualifications. Now our children have and are following suit.
If you fail to break through those barriers of the past, you run the risk of going round in circles. For instance, when God led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, where they had lived in slavery for four hundred years, they headed straight toward the Promised Land. It was an eleven-day journey, but it took them forty years to get there. Why? Why would they wander around in the wilderness, going around the same mountain, time after time, not making any progress?
After all, God had prepared the land flowing with milk and honey. It was a place of great abundance, a place of great freedom. But God’s people had been beaten down by their oppressors for so long—mistreated, used, and taken advantage of—now, even though God wanted to do a new thing, they couldn’t conceive it. They couldn’t make room for it in their own thinking. Instead of moving forward with an attitude of faith, expecting good things, they insisted on going around with a poor, defeated mentality. Around and around they went, focusing on their problems, always complaining, fretting about the obstacles standing between them and their destiny.
G. “You Have Dwelt On This Mountain Long Enough.”
--------------------------------------------------------
God finally jolted them out of their complacency. He said to them,
"You have dwelt long enough on this mountain." (Deut 1:6)
God is saying to us today... You’ve been wallowing where you are long enough.
It’s time to move on, …
Time to let go of past hurts, pains, or failures.
It’s time to believe for bigger things…
time for increase, time for promotion, time for supernatural favor.
But if that’s going to happen, you can’t keep going around in circles, doing the same thing, the same way, year after year.
Pressing on Toward the Goal
The Apostle Paul put it this way:
Phil 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul wrote from a background of a sport-mad culture. The Olympic games were birthed in Greece (Athens0. In running the Christian race there is no time for looking back. We have to forget the past.Just like the Olympic runner, there must be a pressing on, a straining ahead, a looking unto Jesus for that which we are trusting Him for.
Start a fresh vision for your life today and …
break the barriers of the past !!!
2. Today Is a New Day
A. Don’t let your past determine your future.
------------------------------------------------------
No matter what you’ve gone through in the past, no matter how many setbacks you’ve suffered or who or what has tried to thwart your progress, today is a new day,
and God wants to do a new thing in your life.
He has great things in store for you.
Don’t let your past determine your future
Maybe you’ve lived in an abusive situation where somebody mistreated you,
somebody walked out on you,
somebody did you a great wrong.
Don’t inhibit the great future God has for you by dwelling on the pains in your past.
B. A Double Portion Is Waiting For You.
-----------------------------------------------
In Isaiah 61:7 God promises you this:
Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
That means if you’ll keep the right attitude, God will pay you back double for your trouble.
He’ll add up all the injustice, all the hurt and pain that people have caused you, the abuse and He’ll pay you back with twice as much joy, peace, and happiness.
That is God’s desire for you. But you must do your part and start expecting good things.
Keep your mind moving in the right direction.
You can’t have a victim mentality and expect to live in victory.
Come away from having a perpetual pity party and then wondering why situations aren’t improving in your life.
C. His Mercies Are New Every Morning.
-------------------------------------------------
La 3:22-23 Because of the LORD’S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. La 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
There Is Something New Waiting For You Today & Every Day…
break the barriers of the past !!!
3. If You Will Change Your Thinking, God Can Change Your Life.
A. CHANGE STARTS RIGHT HERE
---------------------------------
Are you willing to change your thinking?
Will you take the limits off what God can do in your life?
Will you start believing Him for bigger and better things?
Change starts right here. If you will change your thinking, God can change your life.
Proverbs 23:7 Solomon wrote,
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
You can’t go around thinking thoughts of defeat and failure and expect God to fill you with joy, power, and victory.
You can’t go around thinking thoughts of poverty and lack and expect God to fill you with abundance. The two concepts are incompatible.
Surprisingly, many people have a narrow, limited mind-set.
They think small, believe small, and expect small. …
And then they wonder why nothing big ever happens to them.
It’s their own thinking that’s keeping them in defeat.
B. ENLARGE YOUR TENT
--------------------------
We often set our standards too low:
God wants you to live an overcoming life of victory
He doesn’t want you to barely get by … He’s called El Shaddai, "the God of more than enough." He’s not “the God of barely enough!”
Don’t let anybody convince you that God wants you to barely get by in life.
In Isaiah 54:1-2 the Bible says:
Isa 54:1 “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. Isa 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
What a powerful picture of God’s desire for you!
God is saying get ready for more.
Make room for increase. Enlarge your tents.
He’s saying expect more favor, more supernatural blessings.
Don’t become satisfied with where you are.
C. SAME COOKE
------------------------
Sam Cooke was the son of a preacher. The following song was recorded in the early sixties. It was sung at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. It was a powerful motivator for me- I hope it is for you:
MY CHANGE IS GONNA COME.
I was born by the river in a little tent
And just like that river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will
It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die
Cos I don’t know what’s out there beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will
BRIDGE:
And then I go to see my brother
And I ask him to help me please
And he just winds up knockin’ me
Back down on my knees
There were times when I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will
REPEAT VERSE 2
CONCLUSION
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Sam Cooke all believed that thrie change was gonna come – how about you?
Friend, God is saying you’ve dwelt long enough on that mountain.
It’s time to go to a new level.
It’s time to get a fresh vision.
Go beyond the barriers of the past.
Tear down those strongholds in your mind.
But Remember, you’ve got to change your thinking. No matter what anybody, in or outside your family, has or hasn’t done, don’t let that impose limitations on you.
Make up your mind that you are going to be the one to set the new standard…
Be the one to affect generations to come. ***
