Dharius Daniels - I Texted You

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God—someone say, «That’s us"—may be thoroughly equipped, not partially, but thoroughly, completely equipped for every good work. I want to use for a topic for today’s teaching three words my wife said to me some time ago when I asked her a question she had already answered. Here it is: I texted you!

Family, as we prepare to proverbially paddle in the pool of this passage, I want to remind some and inform others that you and I have a date with something we cannot afford to stand up. This date I’m referring to, family, is a date with destiny. Somebody say, «Destiny!» When I use the word «destiny,» I’m referring to God’s desired destination for you—His preferred future, His intended use of you, but also His usage of you at your maximum level of potential. I’m referring to the season where there is synchronicity between your wisdom, your experience, your character, and your gifts. I’m talking about your sweet spot season. I’m talking about peak performance season. I’m talking about when you have the ability to mine your pain from your past and pull out coals that were dark and messy, turning those coals into diamonds that you’re able to use in your present. I’m talking about that season where you’ve made some mistakes, learned some hard lessons, but now you have the wisdom to apply in your present and to transfer and transmit to others. I’m talking about destiny. I’m talking about that thing that was chosen for you before you were you. I’m talking about what He discussed with Jeremiah, a biblical character in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah chapter 1, when He introduces him to his assignment. He says to this young prophet, «Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.» In other words, He says, «You were born on purpose. You are not some cosmic coincidence. You’re not an ironic accident. Your parents may not have planned you; they may have been surprised by your arrival, but I wasn’t.» He says, «Before I formed you, not only did I know you, but I ordained you and set you apart as a prophet.» He says, «So when you accept your assignment, Jeremiah, you are simply choosing what I have chosen for you.» Did you hear me? Destiny! And it is so important, so catalytic, so consequential that we cannot afford not to get there or to arrive too late. There is only one vehicle that can get you there on time, and it’s the vehicle of volition—our choices. At some point, we have to make the decision that I will choose for myself what God has chosen for me. If He chose freedom for me, I choose freedom; if He chose peace, I choose peace; if He chooses joy, I choose joy; if He chooses progress, I choose progress. I will choose for myself what He has chosen for me, and I will reject from my life what He has rejected from me—negativity and pessimism. Come on, family, talk back to me today!

Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19, records God saying to Israel through Moses, «This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.» He says, «You are in a season where your choices don’t just affect you; your choices have generational implications.» He says, «I’ve set before you two options, but I need you to choose what I’ve chosen for you. Please choose life.» If I had time, I would park right there and get into why He gives you a choice. Why, if He didn’t want Adam and Eve to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, didn’t He take it out of the garden? Because choice reveals priority. You don’t have to prioritize when you only have one option; when you have options, you must choose. Your choice becomes an expression of your revelation of my value. So, God says, when you have the option not to choose Me and you do choose Me, it shows you value Me. When you choose Me, you’re worshiping Me. You’re saying that I have a place of preeminence; you want Me more than anything else. Our choices are important; they are catalytic, they are destiny determinants, they are consequential. It has been said that we make our choices and then our choices make us. Because they are so consequential, because they are catalytic, it is essential that we do everything within our power, tapping into all our resources, to ensure we make the best choices possible. This series is teaching us how to do that because it teaches us to listen. The quality of my choices is based not on the level of my education, but on the quality of my ear. If you can listen, you can win. Did you hear what I just said? It is important to listen, and in this series, we’re talking about someone we need to listen to. Because with some choices, we need to listen to someone who has insights that we don’t possess, who has foresight that we lack, who has a degree in a dimension of expertise and intellect that supersedes our own.