An Unbalanced Wheel Drives Fine Until You Reach Speed

Sermon outline

To bring balance to the teaching on vision and dreams: a destiny is not secured by ambition alone but by living as royalty every day, through responsibility, diligence, godly associations, integrity, patience with God's timing and a guarded heart.

1. The blessed man, planted by the river

   The blessed man does not take counsel from the ungodly, however long he has known them or however closely related, because advice may be right without being godly. He meditates on the Word habitually until it is like breathing, so he is like a tree by streams of water that bears fruit in season and comes to maturity. He is not blown about by every wind of doctrine, saying God told him one thing today and another tomorrow. Christ must have preeminence.

   Illustration: A couple told him they were simply trying to be better each day than the day before. He told them it sounds right, and even the world teaches it, but asked whether it was built on the rock or on the sand.

   “It may be right, but the question is, is it godly?”

   • Matthew 7:24-27
   • Psalm 1:1-3
   • Ephesians 4:14
   • James 1:8

2. Refuse to be ordinary: the law of responsibility

   If you cannot tell a believer from an unbeliever, that believer is ordinary. Greatness comes from taking full responsibility for your life instead of blaming the timing, the team or the manager. To be ordinary is to live by chance, at the mercy of the economy and the politics of the day. Because of Calvary we sit in heavenly places beside Jesus, so we are royalty, and that should show in how we dress for an interview, how we speak about our business and how we speak about our spouse.

   Illustration: Are you an eagle, or an Indian myna? For an eagle to soar it must be spiritually active.

   “If you want to see a future that is not ordinary, you must embrace a life that is not ordinary.”

   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Job 8:7
   • Matthew 22:37-40

3. The law of diligence

   Ambition gets you started, but diligence reaches the goal. Diligence means fighting with your mind until being uncomfortable is normal, because a gift that puts you before great men will make you feel inadequate. It is hard work combined with high-quality delivery and following through on what you said you would do. Even Jesus worked under a "must" mandate. Prepare now for the future you want to see, beginning at home, and honour your parents, because dishonouring them aborts your destiny.

   “Diligence is the restorer of dignity. It is the divider between the ruler and the servant.”

   • Proverbs 18:16
   • Psalm 23:5
   • James 1:22
   • John 9:4
   • Proverbs 12:24
   • Ephesians 6:2-3

4. The danger of wrong association

   The most brilliant and cultured people have had their destinies wrecked by one Judas, one careless friend. A praying, Bible-reading believer who keeps corrupt friends suffers an erosion of Christian values, and marriages, families and church members' destinies have been lost to the voices of others. Show him your last ten dialled numbers and he will tell you who you are.

   Illustration: Rot in the corner of a wall looks insignificant while it is small, but leave it long enough and mould, termites and water get in until you cannot tell the rot from the good. The auntie on the corner who always has a story is that rot.

   “The people you hang around will determine the course of your life.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:33
   • Proverbs 13:20

5. The curse of ill-gotten gains

   Your vision is not about getting rich; seek first the kingdom. If you are on God's assignment, He provides, and you are not a toiler paying the bill on your own. Bribery, theft, deception and even workplace gossip end in horror. David did not chase the throne; he loved God, and God sent Samuel to anoint him.

   Illustration: Paying a few hundred or few thousand rand into a debt while the interest keeps climbing: are you on God's assignment, or still trying to pay the bill yourself?

   “I'm a king's kid. Is this the way royalty behaves?”

   • Matthew 6:33
   • Genesis 22:8
   • Jeremiah 17:11
   • 1 Samuel 16:1-13

6. Refuse downtime and idleness

   Every season, including the waiting, must be productive in trusting, praising, worshipping and the Word, even when God's economy says sow, forgive and pray for your enemies. Idleness decays the life like a cavity that ends in a root canal and an implant. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might: no plan A, B or C, only plan G. He is blunt about gap years, sleeping till three in the afternoon, living together before marriage and fathering a child and walking away, which breaks a generation.

   Illustration: A gap year of 365 days can become five years because we got comfortable in idleness. Youth, before marriage and children, is the time when all your energy can go into your calling.

   “No plan A, plan B, plan C. Plan God.”

   • Matthew 5:38-44
   • Ecclesiastes 10:18
   • Ecclesiastes 9:10
   • 1 Corinthians 7:9

7. The secret of timing

   Greatness is not an event but a process: a baby becomes a child and a child becomes a son, and authority comes with sonship. Gifted people fail when they want authority without the childhood preparation, and you cannot be the boss without first being the employee, or a discipler without being a disciple. Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord. Do not hurry, because hurry ends in horror, and God can do in one second what would take ten years.

   Illustration: His father taught him young that God does not bless a copycat or a duplicate; God blesses an original.

   “Greatness is not an event; it's a process of development.”

   • 2 Chronicles 27:6

8. Protect your legacy, destiny, posterity and eternity

   Legacy is what you leave the next generation, destiny is the outcome God predestined, posterity is the generations to come and eternity is where you go. Guard your life from sexual sin and wrong marriages, because God can forgive, but you still live with the consequences. Keep your heart with all diligence, and ask whether each choice, a tattoo, a cigarette, a double brandy on a Friday night, brings the royalty of Christ.

   “As royalty, you will flourish and you will thrive.”

   • Matthew 22:37-40
   • Proverbs 4:23
   • Jeremiah 29:11

In this message