BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

CHRIST EVERJOYOUS ASSEMBLY

Sunday 21^st October, 2012

Speaker:         Deacon Olayinka Moses

Topic:             BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Texts:              Jeremiah 1:4, 11 & 12, Genesis 1:26; 15:5

OVERVIEW

It is a pleasure to continue on the series I started a fortnight ago on the 7 Habits of Highly effective people which is culled from Stephen R. Covey book. Today I will attempt to x-ray the second of these habits and relate it to our spiritual race towards eternity.

INTRODUCTION

Beginning with the end in mind perhaps explains the fact that all life’s issues begins with a carefully thought through plan of what the final outcome will be. The implication here is that all things are created twice – the first which is the mental creation and then the physical or second creation. A perfect example of this is the process of building a house which begins with a thought that is translated into an architectural plan and then the real physical structure. Even God our creator began with a thought and mental image of man before the physical creation was accomplished (Genesis 1:26).

APPLICATION

The most fundamental application of this Habit is to begin each day with an image or picture of what the end of your life would be. Since heaven is our goal as Christians it will only be appropriate to apply this Habit with eternity in mind. Hence, all issues of our lives will be based on the final destination we hope to reach-which Heaven. The choices we make, how we relate with others and above all our personal commitment to kingdom matters.

The best way Covey tried to depict everybody’s end from their beginning is to make the people imagine being at their own funeral where people would be asked to speak about what they have done right and all errors they made while on earth. This search for fulfillment at the end our life journey will perhaps spur us to do good to all men and seek that ultimate goal of making heaven at all cost.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The sum of this habit is for you to use your active imagination to have a mental frame of what you want physically in life. You will agree with me also that spiritual things follow the same order. More often God call on men to visualize their dreams and if they want to see it come to pass. God in the bid to get Abraham to understand this principle visualization asked him to imagine the number of his offspring by attempting to count the stars of the sky (Genesis 15:5). The moral there is that until Abraham was able to conceptualize his children, he would never have them.