Monday, September 10, 2018

DESTINY - September 9, 2018

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: here


INTRODUCTIONDestiny is spoken over us by many sources.

From our earliest days of life, we are filled with thoughts about our Destiny. It starts with our parents speaking things over our lives… you look like your mom/dad… you act like your older sibling… we notice a child who can throw a ball – “wow, she’s gonna be an athlete!” …we notice a child who can’t even run straight – “well, I hope he’s good at school.” Destiny is spoken over our lives at the earliest of days.

Myself, I was told that I would be a scientist… specifically a biologist/zoologist… or something along those lines. You see from an early age, I could name every animal at the zoo without a need for the plaques on the cages or aquariums… I memorized the names from Audubon books (I was reading before I even went to school)… I was an avid watcher of Peter Beard’s nature shows (and even recorded them on our VCR)… and my favorite thing to do was to go through my GREEN LUNCHBOX looking thing that was filled with flashcards about every animal under the sun… even my name is Adam – the namer of the animals… LATIN WORDS… I was destined to work with animals… and my family/ friends knew it and spoke it over my life..

My generation, destiny crept its way into every corner of our childhood:Star Wars clip

TENSION
Destiny is spoken over us from the earliest days of our lives. And sometimes it’s NOT what we want to hear… sometimes the Destiny spoken over our lives sounds like this:
·      You’re gonna turn out just like your father or mother
·      If you don’t shape up, you’re gonna end up in prison some day
·      I hope your kids are just as rebellious as you are

Or worse, we begin to speak our destiny over our own lives:
·      Well, my grandfather was an alcoholic… my parents were… it’s in my blood
·      No one in my family has every made very much money, so I guess I’m just destined to be poor.
·      I’ve never been super smart, so I’m destined to get C’s.
·      Depression runs in my family…

Here’s the problem with every aspect of the Destiny that has been spoken over our lives.
·      Darth Vader
·      Our Parents
·      Our Friends
·      Our Teachers
·      Ourselves
None of those voices are the one that really matters… The Voice of Our Creator is the only one that matters when it comes to our Destiny… Tie it back to Putty’s message…

Let’s pray and then we’ll unpack this idea together.
PRAYER


WORD
We’ve been looking at this idea that the Gospel is way better news than we ever thought possible. We’ve been “mining” out the GOLD through looking at how each part of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit) has something to teach us. That not only is our God three in one, but that the Good News he reveals to us is a 3in1 gospel… that there are endless nuances to His news because He is endless!
Original CHART/SHIELD

So far, we’ve unpacked the Relationship Story – servants to sons
AND the Identity Story – sinners to saints
TODAY, we want to focus in on our DESTINY STORY.

The Voice of Our Creator is the only one that matters when it comes to our Destiny.
·      The Father is the one who calls us sons.
·      The Father is the one who calls us holy.
·      The Father is the one who calls us into our True Destiny!

His Gospel changes our future…His gospel changes our purpose… His gospel changes our destiny story

Where you come from (identity) and what family you belong to (relationship) shift what you are not only capable of, but what you are destined for!

Colossians 1:13-20
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Before we can understand our Destiny, we have to come to grips with our position in this world! We have been given an upgrade friends! We’ve been redeemed… We’ve been forgiven… we been delivered… YEAH… but it’s not just what we’ve been transferred from (some of us get stuck here)…
We now have been positioned/transferred into God’s Kingdom! We are citizens of heaven. We are seated in Heavenly Places. We are in the family. Jesus did it! Wow.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
And Jesus is amazing friends! He has power and authority… He represents the Father… He is a part of us The Church… He is our big brother… and we are now co-heirs with Him… so good to know that our identity is Sealed in Him… HE LIVES IN US who believe.
·      The voice of our creator tells us WE ARE FREE!
·      The voice of our creator tells us JESUS’ AUTHORITY WAS ENOUGH!
·      And it’s only from this place that we can move into our Destiny Story.
·      OUR DESTINY is about the Kingdom of God: Tell Story of me/teacher/preacher.



DESTINY STORY
Now, here’s where many of us start to get confused… And I think it happens in one or two different ways depending on your mentality:
1)    We accept our relationship with the Father and that the Son lives inside of us, BUT then we think the Holy Spirit’s role is just to “get us through” until Jesus’ return.
Or we work it out in this way:
2)    We say yes to Papa God, we say yes to the Son, BUT then we go and create our own way of doing things OR our own calling and try and tell Holy Spirit to go with us on the journey.
Either way, the approach is wrong. We weren’t called into a relationship with the Father… we weren’t called into a new identity just, so we could… get through OR to do what we want to do… Rather we were CRUCIFIED and RISEN again for a purpose… Destiny.

And, The Voice of Our Creator is the only one that matters when it comes to our Destiny.

Let me illustrate this way, we tend to think that WE are the focus of our Destiny. The problem with that is that it just doesn’t work that way. SELF will never lead us into the fulness of our Destiny in Jesus. Imagine a soldier in an army trying to give himself orders instead of listening to his/her commanding officer. There would be 100’s or 1,000’s of opinions on how they would prepare for battle… 100’s or 1,000’s of opinions of how they would get to the battle… tons of opinions on how they would supply the battle… tons on how they would attack…. How they would win.
The Voice of Our Creator is the only one that matters when it comes to our Destiny.

It’s a journey of moving out of Self-Focus and into a Focus on what the Father is doing. Jesus understood that His Destiny was doing the Father’s will. He understood that if He was a Son… and if God really lived in Him… then, His Destiny was to fulfill the Father’s purposes on the earth. Let’s finish the Colossians passage we tackled earlier:
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Jesus understood that walking in partnership with the Holy Spirit led to His destiny. He understood that it was not about His performance for God. He understood that being rooted in the Love of the Father… and rooted in how the Father sees Him… led to His partnership with Holy Spirit….

And that is REALLY GOOD NEWS for you and me… because we have the Love of the Father… we have a new identity as righteous Sons… we have been made new! Which means that Holy Spirit thinks we are great place to dwell!

And that is REALLY GOOD NEWS for us! It means that we no longer have to perform for God… it means that we get to hear His Voice for ourselves… It means that we get to move from Self-Focus to His Focus… it means we move from Performance to Partner.



WHAT ABOUT US?
At the heart of this final verse in Colossians 1 is our DESTINY STORY. In Jesus’ story is our story. In Jesus’ destiny is our destiny. Let’s read that verse again:
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

The Father was happy to live in Jesus… all of the Father… all of His Spirit… Holy Spirit LOVED to live inside of Jesus… He enjoyed it! AND more than that, Holy Spirit LOVED to work through Jesus!
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This is where the GOSPEL cycle is important to move us into our Kingdom Focus and change the world with Jesus.
1)    First we BELONG, then we BE… Finally, we DO!
2)    Show Satan’s Cyle Graph (slide)

3)    Shift to the Gospel Cycle Graph (slide)


4)    we move from Self-Focus to His Focus… we move from Performance to Partner.
5)    We are partners in the Kingdom of God… not observers… not cheerleaders
6)    We are an intimate part of what Jesus was trying to accomplish
7)    Now, many of us would say “it’s Jesus. That was His destiny.”

Let me give you a couple of verses that will help to clarify things.
·      Colossians 1:27b says…the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
So, the fullness of God is pleased to live in Jesus… and the fullness of Jesus is pleased to live in YOU… so your Destiny is His Destiny! Still unsure? Try this one.

2 Corinthians 5: “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Isn’t that amazing!
·      We are new, resurrected, reconciled to God… We are like Jesus on the earth.
·      We have been entrusted with the ministry of Jesus!
·      We are holy ambassadors reconciling the world unto God!

Do you understand what this means?!
·      It means that it doesn’t matter what our parents said about us… our teachers… our friends… our classmates.
·      It means that it doesn’t matter where we come from… rich/poor… nationality… color of our skin… gender… town… upbringing.
·      It means that it doesn’t matter what mistakes we’ve made.
·      It means that it doesn’t matter what we are good at…or bad at.
·      It means that it doesn’t matter our education… our job… our profession… our skills
·      It means that what matters is that Jesus’ destiny is our destiny!
·      In our family… in our jobs… in our cities à The kingdom is near you now!

The Voice of Our Creator is the only one that matters when it comes to our Destiny.
·      And He’s calling us into the ministry of Jesus
·      To love like He loved
·      To heal like He healed
·      To preach like He preached
·      To RECONCILE the world back to the Father through the GOOD NEWS of the gospel of God

The enemy has been whispering his destinies over you your entire lives… EXPOUND

The enemy has been doing this over every person in our city.

This is our time to begin to take our city back.
·      We are armed with more that we realize.
·      We have access to every part of the love of the Father
·      We have access to understanding every part of Jesus & share it with those who are lost who they really are.
·      We have access to all power and authority through the Holy Spirit.

You see there is not only a personal destiny understood through the gospel.
There is a Corporate Destiny for us to transform our Cities through the power of the gospel… AND it’s time to re-up for the Kingdom friends J
·      To be brave because we are LOVED
·      To be brave because we are HOLY
·      To be brave because we are POWEFUL in the Kingdom
·      HOLY SPIRIT is with us friends… Let’s go change the world!

ACTION
·      It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3
·      Pray for ONE every week
·      Invite TWO to church every week
·      Encourage THREE people every week
·      Some said also easy as PIE (Pray, Invite, Encourage) lol


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