“YOUR DESTINY IS WITHIN REACH”
INTRODUCTION:
Everything about your relationship with God is about “REACHING YOUR DESTINY!” God had a “DESTINY” planned out for your before you were born! God has a “DESTINY” for this church as well!
“YOUR DESTINY” was never to end up in a devil’s hell. God didn’t create hell for his creation! He created hell for His enemy! You were not created to be His Enemy! No father fathers a son to be his enemy! He fathers a son to carry on his legacy to have fellowship with his son. AS MUCH SA A SON WANTS HIS FATHER’S PRIDE A FATHER WANTS TO BE PROUD OF HIS SON!
“YOU WERE CREATED FOR NO LESS!”
“YOUR DESTINY” is not just about getting by or existing! I don’t want my children to just get by or exist! I want them living their lives to the fullest! I want the greatest success for them! I want for them more than they want it for themselves! Every parents feels that way! God feels that way even more so than we do!
“ YOU WEREN’T CREATED FOR MEDIOCRITY!”
Folk, you have a “DESTINY” God has specifically designed & created for you! You might think that it’ll never happen, but I’ve got some news for you!
Your “DESTINY” is well within your reach! You have been “DESTINED” for greatness & great things in the Kingdom of God here on this earth at this time!
Your “DESTINY” has never been out of your reach but you might not have known how to reach your “DESTINY!”
Philippians 3:12-14
“Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of for me. 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. I press on toward to goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
On Palm Sunday Jesus entered in the city that day knowing well that “HIS DESTINY” was well within His reach that within a week’s time He would be facing His destiny. Some would have thought that day was His destiny. The disciples surely must have thought that for the last three years of ministry this was the culmination of all that time, preaching, teaching, and healing but Jesus knew different!
“HIS DESTINY” was waiting later in the week!
“HIS DESTINY” was the beginning of “OUR DESTINY!”
People have a myriad of reasons as to why they have not reached their destiny yet. But there is really only one reason this morning that keeps us from reaching our destiny and going on to the next level in God! Our “PAST” is what keeps us from going any farther in God.
Jesus could have let His past keep Him from going on any farther. He could have said that He had become so attached to His disciples that He just couldn’t leave them now. Look how much had been accomplished and now look at what was happening on PALM SUNDAY! But He didn’t let the past hold him back!
Folk, we cannot let the “PAST” hold us back from the “FUTURE” of what God wants for us as individuals & as a Church! We have to press on. Jesus knew what the “FUTURE” held & He still pressed on! He knew that all these people where were praising Him, would, within a week, be calling for His death! But He pressed on!
Folk, we always have to have a mind set to “PRESS ON!” We have to “FORGET THE PAST” that holds us back for the “BLESSINGS & PURPOSE” of which we are called & designed for!
I know that the success of this church lies within our grasp, within our reach! But holding onto the “PAST” will never let us attain what God has for us!
“PAST FAILURES, DISAPPOINTMENTS, HEARTACHES, SORROWS, MISTAKES, PEOPLE, HURTS & PAINS!”
Folk, every single one of these I just mentioned are within my past reach! They are close enough to my present that I could turn around & reach out & touch them this very moment! But that’s counter-productive for my “PRESENT & FUTURE!”
Let’s define the “PAST!” It’s simple, that which has happened, past tense, what happened yesterday, 5 minutes ago, 5 months ago, 5 years ago. Not the present but the past.
Why does our past limit us so much? I’ve had some tell me,“That’s not the way we’ve done it before!” That’s limitations of the “PAST” haunting the “PRESENT & FUTURE!”
Others are “PAST LIMITED” because there is so much pain, heartache, trauma, dysfunction, unknown, mistakes, guilt, I could go on & on. Suffice it to say some bad things having built up over the years that we can’t seem to let go of or forget.
We end up letting these things, these emotions & feelings control us, developing a mind-set of “BONDAGE” where we constantly are now reliving our “PAST” , reliving the “HURT & PAIN”, the “HEARTACHE” because we have become used to living there we are used to it & think that is the only way to survive that you’ll just have to live with it! NONSENSE! You don’t have to live with anything that stifles your future!
We become “TRAPPED” in our “PAST” & it “AFFECTS & CONTROLS” our “FUTURE!” Folk, that is “BONDAGE!” & as long as you’re tied up or bound then your “FUTURE” is tied up & bound as well!
In order to reach your God Given Destiny you’ve got to begin to “REACH” beyond your “PAST” & “STRETCH” into your “FUTURE!”
I Corinthians 9:24
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it.”
You can’t run a race holding onto the “PAST!” A race is all about what lays ahead, the “FUTURE!” You can’t successfully run a race holding onto the “PAST!” Runners have to “STRETCH & REACH!” & not only “OUTWARDLY” but “INWARDLY!”
Every runner hits a proverbial wall they have to get through to win a race! Folk, it’s the same spiritually! There is a wall that we have to break through but to do it we have to “STRETCH & REACH!” We have to “STRETCH INWARDLY & REACH OUTWARDLY!”
Let’s define “REACH” - to extend or stretch!
You have to stretch beyond your past! If you are going to attain your God given “DESTINY” you have to “REACH” out of the “PAST” & “EXTEND/STRETCH” to the “FUTURE!”
PAUL SAID,
“I PRESS ON TO TAKE A HOLD....STRAIN TOWARD WHAT IS A HEAD.”
The Body is comfortable to stay right where it is. Stretching is not easy nor is is comfortable! It doesn’t respond well at first but ultimately the body begins to respond in a new way because of the stretching, the body begins to take on a new shape & a new feel & even has an effect on the mind & attitude of the host as well.
Stretching involves coming out of the comfort zone & extending beyond that to new heights & places in God!!
In order to get to your “DESTINY” one has to put some work into it! Your “DESTINY” just doesn’t arrive by itself.
Jesus had to go to the city knowing full well of what was waiting there for Him. Do you think that was easy for even Him? Of course not! It wasn’t easy even for Him! Nobody in their right mind would want to face what He knew He was going to face but HE also knew that was His “DESTINY!” His “DESTINY” was not chosen by Him, but was chosen for Him! Your true “DESTINY” is not chosen by you but is chosen “FOR YOU” by God Himself!
In order to get to “YOUR DESTINY” you’re going to have to put some work into it! That means you’re going to have to have a part in your “DESTINY!”
Matthew 11:12 tells us
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
We have to penetrate or take by force our “DESTINY” in the Kingdom of God! We have to have an exuberance, an excitement, a determination to reach our “DESTINY” as God would have us to!
That means it doesn’t come easy it comes by struggle, it comes by application, it comes by force against nature, the nature of man and the enemy of our souls!
In order to reach your “DESTINY” in God you are going to have to use some force in your life, go against the grain, swim against the tide. You have to work at what God wants for you! You have to work to reach your “DESTINY” God has set up for you! You have to be a part of your “DESTINY!”
The very last thing the enemy wants you or this church to do is to reach that “GOD-GIVEN DESTINY!” As hard as “YOU FIGHT” for your “DESTINY” the enemy fight just as hard to keep you & this church from that “GOD-GIVEN DESTINY!” But he will fail for God is greater that him!
He knows what happens when you & this church reach that “GOD-GIVEN DESTINY!”
Take back what the enemy stole from you & keep him from stealing anymore from you! Forget about your “PAST” learn from it but don’t stay there! Don’t let the enemy hold you in “BONDAGE” of the “PAST!” Stop the enemy from holding you from your “GOD-GIVEN DESTINY!”
YOUR DESTINY IS WITHIN YOUR REACH - OUR DESTINY, THIS CHURCH’S DESTINY, IS WITHIN OUR REACH!!!
