There are some people and some things in your life that want to keep you from being everything you were created to be. I know you were born for greatness because that is what the Word of God tells me. You have been born by the will of our Father and he laid out a plan that would see you step into greatness as you were transformed by Jesus and filled with God's power through the Holy Spirit. You are known as an overcomer. That is what we call one who is more than a conqueror. Listen carefully to the Word:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:28-30)
You have been called to greatness. Here are the facts as the Word of God gives them to us:
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
Allow that to sit in your thoughts for just a moment. Really examine it. If God is for us, does it really matter who is against us? If God has blessed us, does it really matter who has cursed us? If God has planned good things for us, does it matter who has planned evil?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)
All good gifts are from above. Every good thing that is in your life has been given by the Father. There should be no lack in your life. If there is it would be from you not trusting Dad enough to ask him. The Word tells us that we do not have because we do not ask. When we do ask, we often do so with selfish motivation, forgetting that our priorities are God first then others. Gifts should be flowing through us as we intercede for other people. We should be a fountain of blessing for others. In blessing others we in turn are blessed. We are a mighty source of blessing for everyone we come into contact with. Don't forget that.
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33)
This is the point I want to make this morning. There are people in your life who will never allow you to step into greatness. No matter what God does in you and through you they will always deny that greatness. They will speak smallness into your life. They will laugh at your dreams and the visions God gives to you. They will always have a list of reasons why you cannot achieve the things God has given you to do. They will always remind you of your past sins and mistakes. But I want you to listen to me right now: they are not allowed to do this. They do it in rebellion to God. No one is permitted to bring any charges against you. God has justified you. He has called you. He is equipping you. He is on your side because you are on his. Are you getting this:
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)
No one of any significance is condemning you. Maybe in your mind they are significant but to God they are nothing. They are especially nothing if they are coming against his plans and his designs. With Jesus interceding for you why do you need to worry about those who would hold you back from your greatness? Jesus understands exactly what you are going through. He was also limited by those who would not give him the authority to do great things in their lives, especially when he visited his home town:
“Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. (Matthew 13: 54-57)
Perhaps this is what you are facing right now from those people who are the most familiar with you. Truthfully, there is nothing you can do about them. You are not responsible for their thoughts, heart or actions. However, you are responsible for your own. This same passage says that Jesus did not do many miracles in his home town because of their lack of faith. Sometimes it is the people who claim to love us the most who want to keep us down. It is sometimes these people who try to rob us of our greatness because they are not willing to allow God to be bigger than their own prejudices, ideas and opinions. It hurts, but we have to turn away from such people and realize that Jesus is all we need; it is Jesus who we serve and answer to; it is Jesus who called us to greatness.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Romans 8:35)
So here we get to the important realization. We can no longer be dependent on the opinion of man, even if they are the dearest people we love. You are not small, insignificant and incapable of greatness. We need to close our ears to the ones the enemy tries to use to keep us low and realize this truth:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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. (Romans 8:37-39)
It is by this love that we step into greatness, that the enemy is defeated, that the walls come tumbling down, that the dry bones become flesh, that great acts of faith pour out of us, that miracles are done, that Jesus is preached, that signs and wonders follow, that even death itself is defeated, that we become more than conquerors of these things that would hold us back.
You my friend are called to greatness and it is time to shut out those voices that cannot, will not see the truth about you. You are a new creation; the old is gone and the new has come. What you were before no longer matters. What matters is today and your obedience in this day to the one who loved you enough to give his all to you. He stands with you in this day. He stands with you to encourage you and to empower you to do all things in his name. Today, you will be the most significant thing that happens in someones life because of the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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