“A MAP TO YOUR PURPOSE.”
Everyone has a tremendous gift, and God has an amazing plan for your life. What is your potential? Every person in the body of Christ has tremendous potential. God has an amazing plan for us once we get plugged in.
How to reach your individual personal potential.
Ephesians 4:1
ILLUS.: Michael Angelo attempted to complete 44 statues in his lifetime. He only completed 14 of them. There were 30 statues that were never fully finished. Some of those statues have a torso finished, with a arm sticking out.
Many people never finish what God has started in their life.
ILLUS.: Miles Monroe: “The richest place in the world is not the oil fields in the middle east, it is not the Gates or Bezos family fortune. But the richest place is the graveyard.” Why? Because that is where the most treasure is buried, there is so much potential that ends up unrealized, unused, unlived. More books are never written, more dreams never realized, because people never tapped into the God-ordained potential that was placed on the inside of them.
ILLUS.: Realize that your brain is about 3 lbs, more or less
(some have way less) -Your brain can store 100 Terabits of information. 15,000 decisions/sec are made by your brain.
When you eat your lunch today, your brain will tell your body 15,000 things to do, so that your food doesn’t kill you.
Your brain is incredible.
Turn and tell somebody. Did you know your brain is incredible?
- Your sense of touch can detect something 1/1000 of an inch high.
- Our smell can smell 10,000 odors. Our body produces every chemical known to man for our body to heal itself. Our body is a mass of incredible potential. It is amazing what God has put in us.
The average person sells themselves too short. The average person does not believe half as much as God does.
Commandment: Love your neighbor, as your yourself.
You will never help someone else until you learn to love yourself.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO REACH YOUR POTENTIAL?
Answer: It pleases God when we accomplish His purposes. It pleases God when we dream.
It pleases God when we dream extraordinary things. It pleases God when we get a greater vision for ministry. It pleases God when we expand our horizons and see what God has for us.
God says, “You are carrying a treasure. Don’t make small what God wants to make big.”
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
-Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever get to the place that you quit trying.
-Don’t ever stop.
-Dream for more. Seek for more. Expect more. Look for more.
-Don’t ever get satisfied.
-Don’t get lazy. If you are a child of God, don’t ever get satisfied.
-If you get satisfied, you will never know your potential.
Whatever is possible, is required –I Corinthians 9:24
God wants people to win the race. God likes winners…….He likes it when His people run to win. You may lose once in a while, and God will pick you up, but you don’t have to live like a loser. You can talk, and believe that you are a winner.
Matthew 25:14-30 (Story of the talents)
The story isn’t how many talents you have, but more importantly what you do with the talents that you have been given. The servant didn’t get in trouble because he only had one talent, but he got in trouble because he wouldn’t maximize the potential of the one talent. He took it and hid it.
WHAT GRIEVES THE HEART OF GOD:
When you compare yourself to someone else and say I don’t really have anything to offer God. I am no good to God!
- You do not compare yourself to other people, it will kill your potential.
Don’t compare yourself to someone else. Just be the best that God has called you to be?
So, how do you reach the potential God has placed inside of you?
1. THINGS TO REMEMBER:
- BE YOURSELF -ACCEPT THE WAY GOD MADE YOU.
You will never reach your potential trying to be someone else. As long as you are scanning people around you, and compare yourself-you will never measure up. It demises your self-worth. It destroys your sense of purpose.
ILLUS.: Craig Keener
II Tim. 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Oliver Holmes: “Man’s mind once it is stretched by a new idea, never regains its’ original dimensions.”
Once you get a new idea, it stretches your mind, and you can never go back to your original ideas because you have been stretched in that area.”
Your mind is like a parachute-It’s no good unless you open it!
SO many people get closed to change and it kills their potential. They stop growing, they stop reading, they stop looking. If you stop, you will stagnant. “We tried it once and it failed, but you might win.”
The only way to stop being below average is to keep growing.
I want you to realize who is on the inside of you, and what your God is in you! I am created to win the race, not lose.
ILLUS.: You may be in a rough season right now, don’t settle for being in last place. Don’t settle for anything less than God’s promotion.
-Remember the Bible says you are the head, and not the tail!
-Too many accept deadness, dryness, and status quo.
-When you settle, you get negative, and when you get negative, you get narrow.
LIFE IS CHANGING-AND IF WE DON’T CHANGE WITH IT
LIFE WILL LEAVE YOU BEHIND.
LIFE ISN’T FAIR-IT ISN’T ABOUT BEING FAIR.
You will make mistakes if you are growing, but you won’t grow if you don’t make mistakes.
- ACCEPT THE PRESSURE OF THE MOMENT OR THE PRESSURE OF THE POSITION.
If you want to reach your potential. Accept the moment.
ILLUS.: Accept your studies, accept your job. I get to go to work. I get to study. I get to work hard.
There are some books that I hate to read, but I do it anyway to keep growing. If you don’t read, then you can’t lead.
- DON’T EXPECT THE EXPERTS TO ALWAYS BE RIGHT. An expert is someone who will know tomorrow why things predicted today didn’t happen. Don’t follow the experts.
ILLUS.: Beethoven was told by his music conductor that he couldn’t compose music. How many have ever heard of his music conductor? How many have heard of Beethoven?
ALBERT EINSTEIN: His name is synonymous with intelligence yet it wasn’t always that way for Albert Einstein. As a child he didn’t start speaking until he was four, he started reading at age 7, and he was thought to be mentally handicapped.
He went on to win a Nobel Prize and altered the world’s approach to physics. I guess he was just thinking of the right thing to say for those first four years…
Theodore Geisel (Seuss) Dr. Seuss- This much-loved children’s author had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers. His books that weren’t good enough for these publishers, Dr. Seuss went on to sell more than 600 million copies worldwide. Recently the WOKE culture removed several books citing cultural inconsistencies. They sold so many books that they issued more printings.
ELVIS PRESLEY- “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” These are the words that greeted Elvis Presley after his first performance at the Grand Ole Opry, he was promptly fired after his first concert. He got rid of those keys.
Elvis Presley went on to become the world’s biggest star with a legacy that endures. Elvis Presley holds the world’s record for the most Gold Albums at 101, the record for the most platinum record at 57. His only Grammy was gospel records even though he was called the King of Rock/Roll.
Willian Hung of American Idol was told: “You have no talent”. He has sold over 200,000 copies of his stupid CD.
ILLUS.: When I was younger, I felt the leading to be an architect, but God birthed in me the calling of a pastor. It was undeniable. Everybody told me why I couldn’t do it. You can’t talk correctly, you’re not smart enough.
(I sat in an office my senior year of a well-known Minister, he looked at me, and said, “You don’t have no family who is pastors, your daddy isn’t a pastor, you don’t have any influential people you are related to. You will never make it in the ministry) (Year # 4) (Oct. 26, 1978. January 20, 1980)
Why do you ask? I was saved in 1978, I was filled with the Holy Ghost in 1980-As far as I can remember you weren’t there. But my daddy in heaven was. Your words don‘t mean anything to me.
*Don’t listen to all the experts.
- EXPECT GREAT THINGS. ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.
(The better the attitude the higher your altitude)
Expect to win, expect to come out on top.
Expect Great things-Well, if I win the lottery, I’ll probably lose my ticket. I bet you are a joy to be around. You are a joy to be married to.
There is no future in retirement. It is a medical fact that if you fully retire and stop doing things that everything in your body slows down. Your heart rate, your mind, but if you keep busy, you will stay stronger. That is why you need to stay busy for the Lord. I’m trying to keep you alive.
ILLUS.: Well, I don’t know what to do. Come by the church, Pastor Gunnar and I will give you a list of things to do. You can die later. -Reach your potential.
- DEVOTE YOURSELF TO SOMETHING THAT YOU DO WELL.
You need to realize what you do well and play your strengths.
Don’t play your weaknesses. Find out what you are good at.
-Find your weaknesses and fill them with things that can take their place.
-As you do that…you will find your niche.
-God will bless you and take you to your potential
- DON’T TAKE SHORT-CUTS. BE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE FOR EXCELLENCE.
-When someone succeeds quickly, something was left out.
-It doesn’t work that way.
-If you go to the gym, and 1 year ago and saw a guy that looked like ZIPPER, then 1 year later, they are all blown up, with steroids-it isn’t real.
ILLUS.: Rosie Rush, she came on the scene in the Boston Marathon. 26.2 miles. Non-stop. Never raced before. She shows up, and runs the Boston Marathon, and wins. Sets records for the Boston Marathon and the women’s side as well.
The questions started flying. Who is she, how did she do this?
Her legs were kind of loose, had cellulite, they didn’t look like the legs of a runner. (they weren’t sleek, with muscle tone)
They began to question her. They found out that Rosie jumped in the last ½ mile and ran as wild as she could possibly could. You can take short cuts and win.
Zech. 4:10 “Don’t under-value the day of small things.“
If you build a base correctly, when the building goes up, the winds of success will not easily topple it because it has a good foundation.
2. SOME THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
Be grateful, be mature.
(If you are never disciplined, then you will not reach your potential)
I COR. 9:27 “I DISCIPLINE MY BODY.”
Your daily agenda is vitally important to God’s success in your life. Spiritual disciplines, health disciplines, emotional disciplines, family disciplines. It takes discipline to be good.
What do you mean? Most people lose discipline.
-It takes discipline to keep doing it over and over again.
-People look at people and say, wow look at how they succeeded.
They had it easy. No they disciplined themselves.
- If you don’t pay a price, then you will pay the price.
-Young People: Pay now, play later. If you play now, you get to work later.
-Some drop out of school, some decide: I don’t want to work overtime. I don’t want to get up early and work. I want to have some fun. God will take care of me.
-At 50 years of age you’ll wish you didn’t play. When all your friends get out of school; when your friends pay their house off at 48 because they worked overtime, and you played.
-Somebody wanted TO relax, chill out, not work hard.
(Heh, I’m young I want to smoke some weed, and sleep around. Have fun. It is tough to start making a 30-year house payment at 52. Do the math.)
*Bible says: “Serve your creator in the days of your youth.”
That’s why you need to work hard when your young. When your eyes are good, and your health is strong. Ask some of couples in their 60’s. It is hard to work 14 hour days when you are 64.
- CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY.
(You want friends who will speak to the issues of your life) Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens Iron.” When you get around somebody that is sharp it affects you.
-Stupid people?
-Who are you hanging around that is doing it better than you?
-Most people hang around others with less, so they feel better about their ego.
-Some people always know so much, but never accomplish anything.
Iron sharpens iron, stupid calls to stupid, critical, and offended calls to critical and offended.
I am amazed at how people group together. Offended will find someone else who is offended.
-It happens every time. Leaders find leaders. Whiners will pick up with whiners. Who are you hanging out with?
That is a picture of your future.
- DRAW INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS THAT HAVE GONE HIGHER THAN.
Proverbs 13:20 “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”
-PODCASTS, books, seminars. Go to someone who is successful in an area that you are weak and say: I want to meet you for 1 hour a week. I will buy your lunch or supper. Teach me.
-What will happen is…if they see the passion in your eyes….they will say “I’ll do it for free.” -They can’t fix a lack of desire.
ILLUS.: Students- What do you want to be when you grow up? A millionaire. What?
-What books are you reading? Well, I don’t like to read. Go buy the book on ON KINDLE.
-How many would like to go see a surgeon who hasn’t read a book in 25 years, and is using equipment from the 1980’s?
-Why do we do it in Life?
- DESPISE NOT THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS.
II Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Have a mission and you will go somewhere. If you don’t have a dream-you will not go anywhere.
-If someone has to carry you all the time, they will drop you sooner or later.
AS GOD MOVES-WE WILL ADAPT TO HIS PLAN.
ILLUS.: Harvard business school. Ted Levitt: “The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious.”
You see it before everyone else sees it.
-1970-100 largest companies in America. Only 15 have survived.
ILLUS.: SEARS OWNED THE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS.
THEY CANCELLED IT. THEY SAID, NO ONE ORDERS FROM HOME ANYMORE. (6 months later AMAZON was born)
-4000 new words creep into the scientific language each year.
WHAT AM I SAYING:
God has put potential in everyone in this room. God wants to stretch you.
We are stretching as a Church. We want you to find your niche.
3. THINGS TO BELIEVE
- The best in yourself
- View yourself through His lens.
- Believe in the best for every situation.
- Don’t settle where it seems comfortable
(Imagine if David would have settled for running forever, or if Moses had settled for tending to the herd.)
- Believe the best in others
- Speak to peoples true identity
-They might be annoying, frustrating, irritated, behind, delayed, know it, perfect
*You’re going to go to your 20-year High School reunion, and see the people who were the best looking-they didn’t age so well. They partied and look like they are 55 instead of 38.
ILLUS.: Tim Deerwester