HELL IS NOT IN CHARGE OF YOUR DESTINY
Esther 9:20-25
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Inside a supercenter, a woman saw a grandfather and his poorly behaved 3 year old grandson. "Easy, William," said the grandfather calmly. "We won't be long."
2. In the cookie aisle, the woman heard a shrill, "I want cookies! Gimme cookies!"
3. "It's OK, William, just a couple more minutes, and we’ll be out of here. Just hang on; you're doing great," said the grandfather.
4. At the checkout, the child screamed, "Candy! I want Candy!"
5. "William, William, relax. Don't get upset. We'll be home in five minutes."
6. The woman was impressed. "You're amazing," she told the grandfather. "You kept your composure no matter how loud he got. William is very lucky to have you for a grandfather."
7. "Thanks," replied the grandfather. "But I am William. The little twerp is Kevin." [RD, July 2013, p. 17; Miguel Campiglia].
B. THESIS
1. How often do we, like this grandfather, find ourselves in trying situations that test our Christianity to the limits.
2. We’re going to look at how Hell attempts to overthrow God’s people, why it’s not in charge of our destiny, and how you can take charge back, if yours is out of whack.
3. The title of this message is “Hell is NOT in Charge of your Destiny.”
I. SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE HELL IS
A. TRUE STORY OF BAD EVENTS(internet story)
1. I've had a terrible last few weeks. My car broke down, and it'll cost $1,800 to fix it. I'm enrolled in grad school without a scholarship; so I’m overwhelmed.
2. I tried to ride a bike to school, but the chain got stuck and it began to pour down rain and soaked me.
3. My dad doesn't work--just plays solitaire--and so my family is in constant need of money.
4. The fast-food place where I work decided not to schedule me this week. I did $250 worth of work for a lady and she never paid me, just disappeared.
5. I had to mail a package today and the only FedEx store in town shut down due to massive storms. This is driving me crazy!
6. HUMOR. Johnny’s father: “Let me see your report card.” “I don’t have it.” Johnny’s father: Why not?
Johnny: “My friend just borrowed it. He wants to scare his parents.” (Tyler H., Blacklick, Ohio).
B. MORE SERIOUS PROBLEMS
1. You've lost your job. Bills pile up; there are painful decisions.
2. You lose your spouse or child.
3. You have a husband that goes out to bars, drinking.
4. You have cancer, gone through a divorce, are lonely or depressed.
5. Your child has gotten pregnant or committed a crime.
6. You feel like God has quit helping you and that the devil has taken over and is trying to wipe you out!
7. HELL IS NOT IN CHARGE OF YOUR DESTINY!
C. AN ATTEMPT BY HELL TO TAKE CHARGE
1. 20 Mordecai…sent letters to all the Jews…21 to…celebrate …22 the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. 24 For Haman…the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 25 But when the plot came to the king’s attention, he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Esther 9:20-25.
2. You all know the story, how this evil guy Haman decided to he would wipe out the Jewish race. He got together with his family and friends to cast a “lot.”
3. It was like a séance; he was asking evil spiritual forces to help him pick the right time to annihilate them. Instead, God made him choose the last month of the year.
4. Meanwhile, God installed a Jewish Queen of great beauty on the throne – Esther. She exposed Haman’s plot to the King, who let the Jewish people annihilate their enemies first. Haman and his evil sons were hanged on the gallows he’d built for Mordecai!
5. The point is, Hell thought it could overthrow the destiny of the people of God; but God reversed it and used it to promote God’s people.
6. You see, HELL THOUGHT IT WAS IN CHARGE OF OUR DESTINY! BUT IT’S NOT: GOD IS!!!!!
II. HELL IS NOT IN CHARGE OF YOUR DESTINY BECAUSE…
A. YOU’RE GOD’S PROPERTY, NOT SATAN’S.
1. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
2. You don’t belong to the devil; you belong to God! The devil has to trespass on God's property to mess with you.
3. God is jealous over what is His. He guards and fights for what is His own. Say; “I’m God’s Property!”
B. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE
1. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jer. 29:11.
2. God doesn’t like it when His plans get messed up. He always finds another way to complete them. Example: the Potter that marred the clay pot he was working on.
3. “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again into another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” Jer. 18:4.
4. Even if your life has been messed up, God's not finished with you yet! He has developed a NEW plan for your life, taking you from where you are today, and moving you forward to a great future.
C. YOU’RE A WINNER, NOT A LOSER
You WILL eventually triumph!
1. “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” 1 Jn. 4:4.
2. In Adam you were born a loser, but in Christ you were born a winner! God isn’t a loser, so you can’t be a loser. You’re not an accident; You’re not a mistake. Before time began, you were a part of God’s plan. You were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
3. When you were born again, you were born in God’s image, created in His likeness and born of His Spirit. You’re a child of the Most High God; you’re a King’s kid, Royal Blood now flows in your veins! You’re not average!
4. You’re an Overcomer! The term "overcomer" doesn’t mean someone who wins every battle. In fact, this term was used of those who went from one defeat to another to another. But they kept on fighting until eventually they won the war!
5. ILLUSTRATION
a. Pro Wrestling is staged. Before the wrestlers ever go out, it’s been predetermined who will win.
b. The contenders go through the battle for entertainment purposes but the point of the battle is not to decide who will win but to give the crowd a show.
c. The winner of the match does not battle for victory but from victory. He battles knowing that he's already won.
d. Those who come to Jesus Christ have already won. God allows us to go through our Christian walk, not to win the victory but to show off to the world, that He that’s in us is greater than he that’s in the world! [Tony Evans Bk. Of Illus., p. 337.]
D. BC THE WORD IS WORKING IN YOU
1. “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” Isa. 55:11.
2. The Word of God is the most powerful thing in the universe, because by it Jesus made the universe, Heb. 1:2-3. God's Word is an active force; creating, animating, sustaining, and propelling all things according to God's will.
3. The Apostle Paul once said, “For who is able to resist His will?” Rom. 9:19. Good point!
4. It doesn’t matter how bad hell fights you, “If God be for you, who can be against you?” No weapon formed against you shall prosper! No power in heaven or Earth can derail God’s plans.
5. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom. 8:35, 37-39.
6. Don’t build your future around your past. Everything you’ve been going through - the battles, the afflictions, the tests, the setbacks, the strange trials, and abnormal hindrances that you’ve experienced -- is the enemy trying to keep you from your destiny.
7. Satan’s greatest fear is your tomorrow. Satan doesn’t want you to become who God said you would become. GOOD NEWS: The devil may hinder you but he can’t stop you!
III. HOW YOU CAN TAKE CHARGE BACK
A. GET RIGHT WITH GOD
1. REPENT. Often we suffer because God is chastening us for some sin or disobedience. For victory, the first thing is to eliminate any problem or break in relationship between us and God.
2. PERFORM FULL OBEDIENCE. Sometimes it’s not a sin that’s the problem, but not fully obeying God, and God won’t bless until you do. Like a parent who is waiting for a child to pick up their clothes off the floor before they can move on to another subject.
3. HUMOR.
a. A middle aged woman was driving through a school zone when a policeman pulled her over for speeding.
b. As he was giving her the ticket, she said, "How come I always get a ticket and everyone else gets a warning? Is it my face?"
c. "No, ma'am," explained the officer, "it's your foot."
B. INTERCEDE, FAST & PRAY
1. James said, “You have not, because you ask not” (4:2). That’s pretty simple. At times, God wants us to ask, then seek, then knock. How bad do you want it?
2. We need to seek the Lord with increasing intensity until we touch God and know that He’s heard us.
3. Many great people in Scripture received answers from God because of fasting and prayer. Try it.
C. SPIRITUAL WARFARE AGAINST THE ENEMY
1. Paul talked at length in Eph. 6 and elsewhere about “wrestling with principalities and powers” in prayer.
2. We can bind and loose (Mt. 16:19; 18:18); we can cast out the enemy in the Name of Jesus (Mk. 16:17); we can plead the Blood of Christ(Rev. 12:11); we can ask God to loose His warring angels against the enemy (Mt.26:53).
3. Don’t take it off the devil any longer; let God’s holy indignation rise up in you to rebuke and take authority over the devil and send him packing!
D. STAND ON THE WORD & CLAIM YOUR BLESSINGS
1. “Through these He has given us His very great and precious Promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature” 2 Pet. 1:4.
2. It was by believing and laying hold of God’s Promises that Abraham received his promised son Isaac, Rom. 4:21.
3. God has promised to you better days (Ps. 30:5), deliverance (Ps. 34:19-20), bodily healing (Isa. 53:4-5), comfort in sorrow (Isa. 43:2) your physical needs to be met (Phip. 4:19; Mt. 6:25,30), an eternal home (John 14:1-3), and sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9).
4. That's why we sing (occasionally) the great old hymn, "Standing on the Promises." We need to claim what is ours; when we do that by faith, we will receive what is promised. Standing, praying, believing, receiving, & expecting to receive it!
5. “35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” Heb. 10:35-36.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. In 2003, a well-known minister and his wife were in New York. They checked out of their hotel and went to the airport to catch a flight to Dallas.
2. Once at the airport, it was shut down due to a power grid failure across the eastern seaboard. The minister finally got another hotel room, but with no power, food, or hot water. Just candles, hot air, and the sweaty bed.
3. He looked out his window and saw a Marriott hotel a block away completely lit up, with music, laughter, food and drink flowing. All the rest of the city was dark.
4. He walked over, watched some satellite TV, and asked the assistant manager, "Why is the rest of the city dark and yet you’re lit up like a Christmas tree? How can this be?"
5. The manager said, "It's very simple. When we built this hotel, we built it with a large gas generator in the basement. We've got power on the inside that's not determined by circumstances on the outside. Even if there's nothing happening out there, there's plenty happening in here."
6. When you accepted Jesus Christ, He came into the inside. So what's happening on the outside shouldn't determine whether or not you've got a lighthouse on the inside. What's happening outside shouldn't determine your joy.
7. God has given you a generator of life and liberty in your soul through your relationship with Jesus Christ. We don't have to live our lives as derived from life's circumstances. [Tony Evans Bk. of Illus., # 113].
B. THE CALL
1. Undoubtedly there are some here who may feel like you've messed up God's plan for your life. Are you ready to accept his NEW PLAN for your life?
2. You have a Destiny! Claim it! You've been bought with a price; "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!" You're a winner!
3. 4 Things to Take Charge Back:
a. Get right with God
b. Fast and pray
c. Spiritual warfare
d. Claim the Promises.
4. If you're a Christian, you have a Generator inside -- the Holy Spirit/the Life of Christ. Have you been turning it on lately?
5. Let's get refilled with the Holy Spirit and in the world won’t impact us as much.
6. Prayer for salvation.
[A few thoughts were adopted from Bobby Hogan’s “Your Destiny Is Greater Than Your Disaster”]
