Touré Roberts - What's Stopping You?

The title of today’s message is «What’s Stopping You?» What’s stopping you? It serves as both a rhetorical question and a real question. It’s rhetorical much like Romans 8, which states that if God is for you, who can be against you? Amen, that’s a rhetorical question; it answers itself. If God is for me, who can be against me? The obvious answer is no one or nothing. So, when I ask, «What’s stopping you?» it is indeed a rhetorical question, but it’s also a real question. It’s real because certain things do stop us, and we’re going to deal with that. They don’t have to stop us, but they do, and we will address it.

First of all, I want to discuss this passage of Scripture and lay out a disclaimer right away: you cannot apply this promise to every path. I’m going to take my time today, so just stay with me. Many times, there are scriptures we have learned that are not working for us. The reason they’re not effective in our lives is not that they don’t work; it’s because we don’t understand how to apply them. I’ll say it again: if you were raised in church or around church, or if you knew someone who went to church, you’ve heard this passage before: «I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.» But does your life affirm this statement?

Let’s just be honest: do you always feel like you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you? What I want us to understand is what the writer is saying by recognizing what he is not saying. He says, first of all, «I can do all things through Christ who empowers me.» That means my ability to do all things has to be qualified because Christ can only anoint what I have been predestined to do. Jesus is called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, meaning He exists based on a predetermined plan. So when I invite Jesus into my victory, He is not endorsing my victory in a path that is not ordained.

I’ll keep saying this until we get it. Many times, we think we can take a promise and apply it to anything. If it says, «I can do all things, ” then we believe we can do anything, right? But there is a qualification; that qualification is „I can do all things through Christ who empowers me.“ He can only empower me according to His predestined plan for me. Do you follow what I’m saying? I can’t do my own thing and expect His power to validate it. The promise is true; oh God, I feel Heaven. The promise is indeed true: you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

The term „strengthens“ comes from a powerful word, composed of two elements: one means „in,“ and the other, „dunamis, ” is where we get the word „dynamite.“ So, He has infused us with the dynamite to overcome any obstacle that stands in our way—on the path that God has preordained for us. You are ordained to win, and what I want to address today from a broader perspective is the idea of what it truly means to win in life.

I am convinced that, for many of us, our perspective on winning in life is often jaded because winning is frequently determined by external pressures. This means you could be winning but not realize it because culture will create a definition of what winning means, leading you to invest in that definition without recognizing that you are already winning. We’re going to discuss this today because, as I prayed for you, asking God what He is saying to His people, I reflected on this time of year with its awards season. It’s a beautiful thing when culture and society give out awards. Recently, we had the NAACP Awards, the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Grammys this week, and the Oscars next weekend.

Amid all this, a person who is not nominated or someone who is nominated but does not win could be led to believe that they’re not winning. They might think that the winners are only those seen as „winning.“ But what if that passage is really about winning? What if winning for me is different from winning for you? What if „I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me“ is about understanding that God, in His brilliance and wisdom, has an ordained path for me, and if I walk on it, I can’t lose?

So, I’m trying to win in this direction because someone told me my victory is over there. Society dictated that my win is over there, the magazine pointed me to that direction, and Instagram influenced my perception of success. This dynamic becomes problematic.