“Fulfill Your God-Given Destiny”  

Part 2

·        Ever get that nagging feeling something missing in your life? 

• Every person has a God-given purpose for life… do you know your unique assignment He has for you?
• #1 purpose is a personal relationship with Christ… after that His purpose is to grow us spiritually
• When we’re saved and growing more Christ-like… living a life of significance, purpose, meaning, joy…

Jeremiah 29:11 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.

·        Last week we looked at seven keys to unlocking your spiritual potential…

Seven Keys… (2Tim 2:1-26)

Be Strong in Christ, Be Single-minded in your devotion, Be Strict in your diligence, Be Secure in your identification, Be Sound in your faith, Be Sanctified in your walk & Be Servant-serving others

·        This morning we will build on last week’s sermon and begin to bring it closer to home…

o   What’s my purpose for life?... why do I exist, what’s the meaning of life…

o   How can I slow my world down? … Feelings of being on a perpetual treadmill…

o   Why am I struggling in my walk with Christ?... experiencing Hot & Cold, like a yoyo

o   Why does it seem problems keep mounting?... sinking deeper… God is speaking

o   Why am I stressed to the max lacking inner peace?... overwhelming situations

o   How do I fulfill my God-given destiny?... change your life, over the next two weeks

Proverbs 4:20-23 ²⁰ My son, pay attention (prick up your ears) to what I say; listen closely (“nata” yield, heed, extend toward) to my words (from root word “amar”- commands). ²¹ Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; ²² for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. ²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

·        Pay attention, listen carefully to God’s Word, keeping them in your heart… life & health

·        As a prison guard on their post, in diligence observe, watch, guard your heart

·        “Wellspring of life” – everything you do… all your actions come from within… the heart

1.  Your “Heart” Dictates Your Life…

·        Center of your motivations, desires, words, feelings, actions

·        Heart can be deceived, hardened, opened/closed, willing or stubborn, meek, renewed, sinful/unbelieving, blind, corrupt/wicked, enlightened, glad, honest, pure, indifferent, worldly, troubled, wayward… our hearts are exposed by our words & deeds

·        Question… Am I passionately in love with Christ?  Growing hotter or colder?

·        To fulfill my God-given destiny I must examine my heart…

“Heart Drain” Transfer loving God from the Heart to the Head (knowledge)

·        Maybe one time you were on-fire for Jesus… now a smoldering ember… what happened?  In your mind you still love the Lord, still know the Lord, still are faithful in many areas to the Lord… your HOT love for him has migrated from the heart to head

·        You heart dictates, drives, energizes your life, that’s why Jesus said…

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

·        What you treasure is a barometer of your heart condition…

·        Your heart will always follow that you value most in life… career, money, power, etc

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 ¹² May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. ¹³ May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Matthew 24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold

·        Sin produces this spiritual “Heart Drain”… loveless, cold, indifference, blindness

·        What does heart drain look like… if I could draw a picture…

·        If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck… here’s the main tenets

2.  “Heart Drain” Results in…

è Pre-occupation with the world  (obsession, fixation, passion, addiction…)

“World” is the organized system against God headed by Satan

1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole (“holos”- every bit, completely, altogether) world is under the control (power) of the evil one.

·        The devil and his world system is attempting to destroy you, family, relationships… God

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of (for) the Father is not in him.

·        God calls it carnality, worldly, more concern for temporal things than for eternal things

·        The world competes for the love of Christians… we cannot both love the world and the Father at the same time.

·        World offers – their own system of goals and values, cravings, lusts and temptations, desires, sins, philosophy, agenda’s, laws, perspectives, self-centeredness, culture

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

·        Like a teeter totter… more love for God less for the world… more for world less for God

·        If we want to stop the heart drain and live our God-given destiny we must “cut loose”

·        We begin to heart shift toward the world and away from the things of God

·        Then we begin to acquire habits that are displeasing to the Lord…

è Habits feeding the sinful nature

Proverbs 5:21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.

·        “Man’s ways” – man’s habits… we are creatures of habit… go to the same restaurant, order the same meal… God sees it all close up (exam)… no cover-up, hiding, all exposed

·        Habits can be good or bad… benefit yourself & others or hurtful

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

·        Many of you choose a good habit of coming to church this morning… (20% absentee)

·        So we can have good habits…  and we all know about bad habits feeds the sinful flesh

HABITS are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century… (NY Times reporter Janet Rae-Dupree)

Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

·        Bad habits are hard to break… ask any drug user or the alcoholic sitting on skid row

·        Classic behavioral psychology suggests that when pleasure accompanies behavior, the behavior is likely to repeat. Bad habits usually have some form of pleasurable payoff, which reinforces the continued behavior.

·        Heart drain draws us toward the world and also into questionable habits that war against the soul for a believer and confuses my God-given identity and destiny

·        Remember God has a perfect will, plan, blueprint, game plan, destiny for your life…

·        We can know it and then to walk in it accomplishing great things for Him

“Habits”- A continual, often unconscious inclination to do a certain activity, acquired through frequent repetition… acquired pattern of behavior you do over and over

You can take off the "H" and you still have "abit."

You can take off the "Ha" and you still have "bit."

You can take off the "Hab" and you still have "it."

Maybe this is why it is so hard to get rid of a bad habit.

·        Our heart drives/motivates us to form habits… eating, chewing fingernails, smoking…

·        It’s estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain can only consciously process 40… Habits are often those programs running in the background of our minds… running on auto-pilot… BUT they make you who you are… The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change. 

·        We see people making New Year resolutions which are often broken quickly… I’m going to exercise 20 minutes every day on Jan 1^st  but by Jan 5^th you give up and quit

·        2009 top 10 are:  10) get organized, 9) help others, 8) learn something new, 7) get out of debt, 6) quit drinking, 5) enjoy life more, 4) quit smoking, 3) tame the bulge, 2) Get physically fit, 1) Spend more time w/ family & friends… often made year after year…

·        It takes 3 weeks/ 21 days to form a new habit… do something 21 times to stick

·        Good habits take time and discipline, Like cultivating a furrow in your mind… often enough it becomes second nature… Unfortunately good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones. 

“A habit is something you can do without thinking - which is why most of us have so many of them”  Frank A. Clark

“Every small stroke of virtue or vice leaves its mark." Renowned psychologist William James

We become what we do

Bad habits come from bad choices

A right “heart” and/brings right “habits” that Fulfills “God’s Purpose”

Job 34:21 "His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step.

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Guard your heart and your habits and begin to truly live for Christ

Action Steps…

è Understand God Sees everything (Ps 139:1-4)

è Determine to make a Heart Change (Rev 2:4-5)

è Begin Replacing bad Habits with Good (Col 3:1-10)

·        You may be saying, my life is hopelessly messed up in the world and with many bad habits… oh how I want to change… I can’t, I don’t know how… come back next week

·        You can’t do it but Jesus in you can… The Lord is looking for sold-out hearts for Him

2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…

·        We’ll be going more into habits and the law of replacing the bad with the good next week