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Open your Bibles to Psalms, Chapter 8. Psalms 8
Without regard as to your age or stage of life, no matter the color of your skin or the size of your bank account, despite your youth or lack of experience, I am here to tell you today that if you are a child of the King you have a life without limits.
Now I am not saying that you can do anything you want to without qualification. But what I am saying is that you can do anything God wants you to without limitation.
The One True and Living God, Creator of the world and Sovereign Lord of the universe is your Father and He has made you in His Own image and in His Own likeness and has given you dominion over all the works of His hands.
Throughout history people from all walks of life have embraced a truth beyond the limitations of their natural life and, spurred by faith, covered by grace, they have gone on to accomplish what others saw as impossible.
One such person in our modern history was a black woman born in 1820 as a slave who was owned by a white plantation farmer. She worked as a field hand, a woodcutter, a cook and house maid. When she was 24 years old she was allowed to marry a free black man named John Tubman. However, five years later it was determined that she would be sold to another plantation and would thus be separated from her husband, her children and her family.
Not desiring to live her life within the confines of her natural limitations, in 1849 she took a chance and ran alone into the darkness, finally making it all the way to Philadelphia and freedom. Once safe she could not get the plight of her family and her people off her conscious. But how could she make a difference in their lives? After all, she was black, she was a woman, a runaway slave, and she had no means with which to support herself let alone any way to free others. Pre-civil war in the US had its limitations.
She decided to take her mother’s first name, Harriet, so as not to be so readily known, and leave the safety of her new found freedom in a bold attempt to provide that same freedom to others who were still enslaved.
Just because she had arrived did not mean that she could stop!
A year later, in 1850, Harriet Tubman left her Philadelphia home and traveled back across the battle lines to lead her sister and two children to freedom. This would be the first of 19 increasingly dangerous forays into Maryland in which, during the next decade, she conducted more than 300 fugitive slaves along the ‘Underground Railroad’ and on safely into Canada. Her extraordinary courage, ingenuity, persistence and iron discipline made her the most famous conductor of fugitives in that period, and earned her the title of “Moses of her people.” Rewards offered by slaveholders for her capture eventually totaled $40,000.00.
From 1862 to 1865 she continued to work as a laundress, a scout, a spy, and a nurse, serving the cause of the Union Forces in South Carolina. She became known to everyone as “General Tubman”. After the civil war she settled in Auburn, New York and began taking in orphans and the elderly. It looked to many like she had done enough … but not to her …
You see, just because she had arrived, did not mean she should stop!
Some 30 years after her service in the Union Forces, the US Congress passed a private bill providing $20.00 per month as a federal pension for her Civil War exploits. Harriet Tubman died on March 10, 1913 at age 93. However, her works and her legacy continue to outlive her earthly struggles. This was a woman who did not allow her limitations to limit her.
Harriet’s life epitomizes the fact that we have but one life and our one life is limited only by the limits we place upon ourselves.
Without regard as to your age or stage of life, no matter the color of your skin or the size of your bank account, despite your youth or lack of experience, I am here to tell you today that if you are a child of the King you have a life without limits.
The One True and Living God, Creator of the world and Sovereign Lord of the universe is your Father and He has made you in His Own image and in His Own likeness and has given you dominion over all the works of His hands.
Just because you may have arrived, does not mean you can afford to stop!
Have you found Psalms 8 yet? If not, then turn to the middle of your Bible and go left just a little … you’ll find it – let’s read the whole chapter.
Psalms 8 KJV
1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 ¶ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
If you have ever wondered why you were born or what your purpose is in this life, let this Psalm of David be your answer.
You were created to have dominion!
Dominion is the right and the power to govern and control.
You are not meant to be limited by the circumstances of your life …
You are not destined to be out of control, but rather in control …
Life may deal the cards but you decide how the game is played … and it will be played according to God’s rules and God’s rules say – you win!
How can you actually take the limits off your life … how can you get above your current situation or past circumstances … how can you get in control? Well, I’m glad you asked!
Turn with me to the place in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul writes about this very thing and let’s see what he has to say about it … Paul quoting Psalms 8 says:
Hebrews 2
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus …
The simple answer to living the limitless life God affords is to keep your eyes focused on Jesus instead of on those things which want to limit you.
Without regard as to who you are, storms of life will come. However, you have a Savior in the midst of every storm.
Even in the days when all seems well and you may actually be walking on water, you still need to keep your eyes focused on Jesus, the limitless one. Remember Peter’s experience?
Matthew 14
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
When Peter got his eyes off Jesus and onto the storm, he began to sink. Peter’s faith was never in the fact that he could walk on water but rather in the fact that he could always go to Jesus. If it was really Jesus, Peter knew he could get there – but – it required keeping focused on Him and not on the current storm.
It was the same with the man in Mark 9 who had the son possessed with a demon … he also needed to focus on the cure, not the curse. For him, Jesus was the cure! If he just believed, the possibilities would be unlimited.
Mark 9
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
How about you? Are you having a difficult time believing that you are not limited by your age, stage or situation of life? Are you more focused on your gender, your color, or your past than you are on Jesus?
Just because it’s a difficult time does not mean it’s over … and … Just because you have arrived, (and are already walking on water), does not mean that you can afford to stop (keeping your eyes on Jesus).
Instead of telling God how big your problem is or how limited your situation is, tell your problem or your situation how big and how unlimited your God is.
Keep your eyes on Jesus and keep the possibilities limitless! One life – No Limit!
