Alright, let's read in Hebrews, Chapter 12, so we're going to speak today on destiny hurdles. I could have talked blocked destiny, or challenges in destiny. I thought destiny hurdles, and you'll see why. Just have a look at this verse here; Therefore since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily ensnare us, and let us run with patience or endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, the desire, the dream, the destiny set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let's pick up the thought there, let us run the race, or run the race with endurance that is set before us, keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord. So your life and my life is likened to a race, a long distance race. For some it may be shorter than others, people like Bill it's been over 90 years, but the real race only began about 65 when he got saved. But there was a race through his life, and there's a race for all of us. All of us, we saw last week that God, before we were actually conceived in the womb, already had a destiny, a plan for our lives. We shared with you many scriptures that are very clear, before you arrived, and no matter how or why or what the circumstances of you getting here, God already had a destiny planned for you. It was worked out, and we saw - we're going to go to this verse again in Ephesians 3:20, that God has things for us to do. So our life then is like a marathon race. Here's the thing about the marathon race - only you can run your race.
I wish I could run your race for you, but I cannot. You have to run the race that God has set before you. This is your life, and you only have one of it. This is your destiny. This is your life that you're running right now, and as you place value on your life, and value on the time that you have, you'll start to consider more carefully, I wonder why I'm here, and what I'm really called to do with my life? No one wants to die with an empty life, or a life that's been unfulfilled in some kind of way, so it's like a marathon race. Now the thing is that in that marathon, I kind of was thinking about a hurdle race, and I was thinking have you ever seen racers running a hurdle race? There it is, you've got this big track. Usually it's a long race, quite a long distance they've got to run, but as they run around it, every now and then you'll come across a hurdle, and this hurdle has been set up and here's the thing. If you don't jump the hurdle, you won't complete your race, so it's quite a funny thing to watch. They're running there and suddenly AAGH! and they're straight up and over the top, then they run, run, run - AAGH! up over the other one and you watch and it's quite hilarious to watch it.
I was thinking about it, and I was thinking well, what happens if you don't clear the hurdle? You go kadoompah! flat on your face, and so I began thinking about our life, and our destiny being like a race which has got hurdles on the way. So rather than look at all the blocks to our destiny, I want us just to consider the hurdles you must jump if you're going to run your course, and the goal of running your course is that you run and finish it well. Saul in the Old Testament came to the end of his life and he said, I have played the fool. He realised that he'd made serious mistakes and gone right off course. Paul, at the end of his race in 2 Timothy said, I have run my course or I've finished my race, I fought my fight, and now there's a crown made up for me. So you notice that Paul had an eternal perspective. He was thinking not just of the things that happen in this life, but he was thinking things happen in this life have a bearing on eternity, and so running your race well, fighting your fight to win, is crucial for your destiny to be fulfilled.
I can't run your race, and I can't fight your fights. It's your race to run. These are your fights to fight. All we can do is help, so I want to identify today some of the destiny hurdles, some of the things that will present themselves. I started to look around, and started to research, and I thought what I'll do is, I'll write down what I have observed over many years of ministry, that I have seen people who started well fall, because they failed to jump these specific hurdles. I hope it'll be helpful for you. It'll be quite practical, and so let's go into Ephesians 3 and Verse 10. I want to just pick up a little bit about Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 10 and I want to just go back there into the whole connection between your desires and your destiny, because this is an area of great confusion.