Living Up to Your Potential

Potential is like milk. If you drink it and pour

it out in time, it can be provision. But if

you let it sit how many want to drink it

after it's been sitting out for a month. It does

a body good if you drink it in time, but

if you let it get past that date that was

put on the jug. That's why some of us are

miserable because of unlived potential that's been sitting in the job,

sitting on the shelf. I'm afraid to fail, so I

won't try. And now my potential has become poisonous, and

I'm miserable because I'm not living my potential. See the

secret is, I don't really want to reach my potential.

If I ever reach my potential, that means it's my funeral.

So I don't want to.

Reach my potential. What do I want to do? I

want to do what Paul did. He said forgetting what

is behind me. This is Philippians three, and straining toward

what's ahead. I gotta forget about the past. My potential

is not back there, and straining toward what's ahead, I

gotta persevere. My potential won't come to pass if I

play with it. I can't strike three times. I gotta

strain towards something. I press toward the mark for the

price of the high calling of God. And he said,

so let me show you something. I gotta show you this,

he said, He said Philippians three, verse fifteen. This is cool.

He said. All of us, then, who are mature, should

take such a view of things. What such a view

of things? A view of things that knows that you

have not arrived yet. A view of things that knows

that what's behind you can't hold you, and what's ahead

of you is greater than what's against you. God help

me preach this message for three people who feel like

it's all a God, but it's not enough. But it's

all I got, But it's not enough, he said. All

of us who are mature should take such a view.

And if on some point you think differently, that's till

God will make clear to you. In other words, if

you think you've reached your full potential, if you think

you've arrived, God will let sweep you to make sure

you don't strut around in circles helping somebody. I'm helping somebody.

I'm helping somebody. What's your name? What's your name? I'm

helping you. But this one confused me. He said, only

let us live up to what we have already attained.

What live up? That means I'm not there? Attained That

means I've arrived. Potential has potential. Keep preaching. Wayne All

told me building houses is not your thing. He was

kind of right, because my hands have never built a house.

But I grabbed my microphone in twenty ten and I

told the whole church about Love Week, and I said,

we're all gonna surf. You know. I got to visit

five different Habitat for Humanity sites where we were building houses,

and it hit me, if I use what i'm God,

God will be what I am not. How based out

I thought, your neighbors say, working, working, working, working, work

your wind, don't work your give work, your potential a

party to its purpose. I wish this was a rowdy crowd.

I wish this was a rowdy crowd. I wish y'all

knew how to respond with the word of God. His storyline, potential,

potential has potential. How did a microphone build a house?

It's the power of potential. How did a stick park

the Red Sea? It's the power of potential. How did

a mustard seed become the Kingdom of God? How did

a baby become the savior of the world. It's the

power of potential. Only let us live up to what

we've already attained. It's funny because the English translators didn't

know how to translate what Paul said. What he said

is let us live toward, toward, toward. I don't want

to reach my potential. I want to run after it.

My potential is what gives me the possibility of progress.

If I was there, I wouldn't have anything to run for.

That's what makes me get up in the morning. The

possibility that I could be a better man today than

I was yesterday, the possibility that I can fulfill. You

know why I got up to preach. You know why

I got up to preach. I preached the sermon on

Saturday night. Some of my staff set play it back.

It was good, I said, I think I could preach

it better. I want to reach it. I want to

reach I know I could quit, but I got some

mair O slipt h. Don't play with me. This is

the kind of prisson that'll mess you up. This is

the kind of priation that'll stir up your tim This

is the kind of preacher that'll lie a fire. Somebody

sounds like you're not potential, not your place, it's not potential,

not your gift.

Plata I said, I says, I say, it's.

In you, a sinu, a sendu, a sin you. It's

in you, a sinus, in us in you. It's in you,

as in Us, in us in you. It's in us

Inus in you. It's in you, as in UIs in you.

It's in us in you, as senuis in you. It's

in you. It's in you. It's in you.

Potential, initiatith, potential. Now now I know God was speaking

to me before I came out. He's doing something. Before

I came out, I kept thinking, initiative, initiative.

There's a guy here at the church. You might meet

him if you stay around a little whall. He is

the campus pastor of our university City campus. And his

name is Larry Brye, Larry Bryce from Minnesota. I met

him in Shelby, North Carolina. I asked him to come

help me start the church, and he was up had

our revival and he turned over to me and he

was on stage here Valentine, and he said, thank you,

Pastor for seeing my potential. I never told him this

till this moment, but I want to tell him right now.

I didn't see potential in you. I don't have that power.

I don't see potential in you. You can't see potential.

None of us know. If they couldn't see it in

the Beatles, and if it took Holly a full twelve

months to get her act together and be interested in me,

what I saw was patterns I saw. I saw patterns

of initiative. I saw that when the pastor of the

church that we were serving at said he wanted something,

before he could get it out of his mouth, what

he wanted built, Larry Bride was at loads with this

pickup truck. I saw when a room needed painting, Larry

Bride was out in the lobby and instead of drinking

coffee over there just talking about the Good Lord, he

was recruiting volunteers to paint a classroom. I said, I

could use a guy like Bride. Jesus saw Peter Fishing said,

I see potential. The way you throw that net is

the way you're gonna preach my word. And the way

you throw that net is the way you're gonna come up.

I see potential. God, look to David, said, I see potential.

The way you tend those sheep is the way you're

gonna be king over my people. I see potential. Potential

is revealed through patters. And how will you know your

full potential if you don't give yourself to the process?

Point number four and I'm closing with this. Process reveals potential.

Write it down. Process reveals potential. You will never know

what the relationship could have been if you do not

embrace the process. It is in the process of trying

that potential to continue is released. It is in the

process of getting down to the bottom that you find

out how to make it to the top. Process reveals potential.

That's why God chose elif Shaw. He was plowing in

the field faithfully, he was involved in the process. God

picks people who aren't afraid of process. God uses people

who don't run when the ground is hard. God uses

people who plow in obscurity. God raises up people who

have their hands sturdy, their sleeves rolled out, and embrace

the process. And you will never know your potential if

you keep resisting the process. By which God is trying

to reveal it. You never know what your mic can do.

You never know what your marriage could be. You never

know what you could be as a dad. If you

just keep stay stuck in the fact you didn't have one.

Your past is not your potential, nor is it the

best predictor of it. The limit to your potential is

your purpose and your perseverance. Your purpose can't do what

he didn't assign you to do, and your perseverance and

he told him you should have you should have struck

five or six times. My oldest son loves to argue.

And you couldn't see that as a problem. I see

it as potential because I feel like if we can

get it applied to the right purpose. I don't have

time to preach this whole sermon, but something you've been

calling a problem is actually your potential in a different dimension.

That he might make ten million dollars as a lawyer

by the time he's twenty five and tied to me personally.

Stephen Purdy incorporated ministries of Jesus Christ. It's not a

real thing, and he was he was kind of arguing

with me. He said, this is the most epic text

in the Bible. But why not? He said, why not

nine ers? Ten times? Why not fifteen or sixteen? Because

the prophet was angry because here's a man named Elisha

who one day, just going about the process of his life,

a mantle falls on him. You can stay with me,

l j. I'm closing. And when the mantle falls on him,

his potential, his potential is revealed with a glimpse. It's

just a glimpse. He did not fully realize his potential

until fourteen years later that he was standing at the

Jordan with the man that hit his shoulders while he

was plowing. Because process reveals potential. God will give you

a glimpse of the arrow and then he will call

you to strike the ground. Process reveals potential. So why

not nine times? Elija just asked a good question. Why

not fifteen? I mean, if we're just striking the ground.

But I had an answer because I'm not going to

be out argued about the Bible by my eleven year old.

Not a chance. There is no potential for that to happen.

Tell somebody say you got potential. You got potential. I

know you got potential, because if you didn't, God would

have killed you by now, we'd be at your funeral

if you didn't have potential. And what you do with

it is up to you. You let it said, it'll

be poisonous. You should have then you would have why

five or six times? Here's my theory. It's just a theory,

but it's absolutely true. Man of God was angry. You

know why he said five or six times. Remember when

he told him to shoot out the window. It said that,

he said, take the arrow singular? What was the verse?

Was it seventeen? The verse seventeen? Give it to me

on the monitor. Here, everybody shot potential, You mumbled, whispered potential.

I wanted you to shout potential. Shot potential. For my

shout potential. Shout potential, potential, power of potential. You let

it sit, it'll become poisonous. You'll start projecting onto other

people the potential that you didn't fulfill. But if you

release in the process, it will become your provision. So

here's what the Man of God said. He said, open

the east window, shoot the Lord's arrow of victory. You

will completely destroy the Aramians. You will completely destroy you oppressed.

Start the mark you will. You're gonna do it all

verse eight. Then he said take the arrows plural. For

some reason, when I used to visualize this story in

my mind, I had the king with one arrow striking

it over and over again. But now I realize all

the prophet wanted him to do was use every arrow

that was available. Why six arrows? You only did half

of what you could have done. The only type of

person I've ever found that God can only use in

a limited measure is one who's half hearted. I've met

addicted people that God used. I've met, I've met discouraged

people that God used. I've met mean people that God used.

Elisha was mean. One time he was walking back from

healing the waters of Jericho. He had thrown some salt

in the water, just like the Church needs to heal

the toxic waters of our nation. Elisha took the salt.

We are the salt of the earth. He threw the

salt in the water. The waters became pure. It remains

pure to this day, the Bible says. And the next

thing he did, he's walking along and some boys come

out of the woods and they start calling him baldy.

It's in your Bible. Read it. Tewod Kings, chapter two

verse nineteen through twenty five. They said, go on up baldy,

going up baldy, And the Bible says he called down

curses in the name of the Lord. When he called

down curses, bears came out of the woods and killed

forty two boys. You didn't learn that in Sunday school.

It wasn't on your flannel graph because we don't know

what to do with that. The same words that had

the potential to heal had to bettential to kill. If

your potential does not find its purpose, I'm telling you

the pain of stopping shore, the shame of stopping shore,

is worse than the pain of falling short. Why don't

you press, Why don't you run, Why don't you go?

Why don't you strive? Every arrow, every arrow, stand to

your feet. I'm closing every arrow. I'm using every arrow.

I'm using every arrow. I'm not leaving any arrows on

the ground. I'm not leaving anything. Hey, thank you for watching.

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