Releasing Your Potential

I want to bring a message today entitled Releasing Your Potential.

Releasing Your Potential.

Now, the moment you heard the word potential, there was probably some sort of a reaction that went off inside of you.

It was either positive or negative.

Because it's kind of a two-edged sword, this word potential.

When you hear the word potential, you either are encouraged and think, this is about what's possible.

This is going to be good.

Or it reminds you of some failure of yours to live up to your potential.

Maybe some coach or some teacher or some authority figure scolded you about not living up to your potential.

I don't know about you, but uh when that happens, it's it's really not encouraging, is it?

So you have one of the two reactions.

I had already prepared this message and I was flipping through the channels and a commercial, an insurance commercial, came on.

For that company, you know, that talks about a certain number of minutes you can save a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, and the person says that, and everyone around them says, Well, everybody knows that, and then the person now feels obligated to respond with something that perhaps not everybody does know.

And so the the this particular one said, Well, did you know that Pinocchio was not a very good motivational speaker?

And then the clip changes, and here's Pinocchio, this Pinocchio character speaking to a room of people.

All of you here today are full of great potential.

And he points to a person on the front row, and you're full of potential, and his nose starts to grow.

And you're full of potential.

He grows a little more, and then there's that awkward kind of, oh, oh.

That's the funny thing about potential.

It it I love the commercial, and I I laughed when I saw it the first time, but here's the reality: I'm not here today to talk about potential that you have based upon skill sets that you've developed or education that you have or any of the efforts of your own humanity might produce.

What I want to talk to you about is the divine potential that is in you by the hand of a creator God.

I want to talk to you about the potential that is within you to be a part of the purposes and plan and kingdom of God in the earth.

That's what I want to talk about.

When I talk about releasing your potential, I'm talking about releasing you to participate in what God is all about in the earth.

And I'm gonna read a scripture here in a moment, Jeremiah 1, verses 4 through 8.

Jeremiah 1:4–8

You can go ahead and turn to it if you want, but I'm gonna give you a definition of the word potential.

This is just a basic, simple definition.

Potential is a latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed.

That's potential.

A latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed.

The issue is choice, decisions.

See, throughout the room today, the differences between us is not our levels of potential, it's the quality of our choices that we've made in life and our life experience.

And so as we look at this scripture today, I think there are some things we're going to see out of it that will basically come down to three choices that we can make.

Three choices we can make that will release that divine potential that I was describing.

Look in Jeremiah 1, verses 4 through 8.

Jeremiah 1:4–8

Now, I have my Bible, you see this.

I've had my Bible here, but I also have my iPad here, and I'm going to read these scriptures from my iPad, and there's only one reason for that.

The font is larger.

You know, Pastor Robert and I are the same, same age.

We're actually a day apart at our days of our birth.

He looks younger only because I chose to have my hair professionally frosted by God.

So, Jeremiah 1, verses 4 through 8.

Jeremiah 1:4–8

Here's what the scripture says.

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.

But the Lord said to me, Do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.

I love this scripture.

This scripture was one of the very first verses, uh, passages in the Bible that the Lord quickened to my heart as a young man.

I was seventeen years old, and this was a passage that the Lord gave to me when I agreed and embraced and said yes to him about a calling on my life to preach and to teach and to pastor and care for the people of God.

I was 17 when I made that decision, and this was a passage that the Lord gave me.

It's been a life passage for me.

This is more or less a life message for me as well.

I long for people to understand that God in his creator's mind's eye looked and saw you before he even began the process of forming you.

Before you were even beginning to form in your mother's womb, the Bible says God already knew you.

That is a significant truth.

Whatever your position on when life begins and all of that, my position is what the Bible states is that even before I was being formed in my mother's womb, God knew me.

And he knew me, he saw something in his creator's mind's eye, and he saw something and he began to make me according to what he saw.

His making of me was with purpose.

It was with intention.

And it's so with all of you as well.

So if you will grab on to that truth this morning and then listen as I share with you these three choices, I believe that resident divine intention and potential from God that is in you by his hand can be released.

Here's the first.

You have to make a choice to embrace purpose.

You have to embrace it.

You can't just casually acknowledge it.

You can't just say, oh, I'm sure there's a purpose out there somewhere for me.

I'm sure one of these days we will understand it better by and by.

You can't just do that.

That decision will not release potential.

The decision that will release potential is to embrace purpose.

That word, I chose it intentionally.

It is not the picture of waving at someone and saying, howdy.

It is the grabbing a hold of someone and pulling them close and hanging on.

So when I say embrace purpose, that's what I mean.

That we choose because God did something important.

He made you on purpose, with purpose, for a purpose.

Listen to this scripture, Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14.

Psalms 139:13

The psalmist says, For you formed my inward parts.

You covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, speaking of how we've been brought in by grace, reconciled, and restored to what God had in mind.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are his workmanship.

Some versions say we are his handiwork.

Others say we are his masterpiece.

Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God did something intentional.

And he made you with purpose in mind.

You are not just the collection of a group of genetic codes and biological chemistry.

God is involved in your existence.

So we must choose to embrace this purpose.

The phrase that goes with this out of Jeremiah is, I formed you.

You see, purpose is revealed by his design.

When I was 17, I mentioned to you earlier, I was considering, I was a senior in high school and I was considering my career paths.

I had two possible choices that I was going to pursue.

I was looking at a career in broadcasting.

I had participated and worked in radio a little bit in town.

My home church had a mock radio station that when we had youth activities and so forth, we did it in-house.

And I mean, it wasn't going out over the airwaves or anything, but I was one of the DJs for there.

Someone told me I had a face for radio, so I thought maybe that's good.

You know.

The other I was considering was law enforcement.

And you say, wow, man, that seems pretty diverse.

But I had this deep abiding respect for those who are willing to put their own lives on the line to protect and serve.

But I told you I was 17 when I felt a sense of calling from God.

I was sitting in a church service in my hometown.

Now I'm from Shreeport, Louisiana.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm from Shreeport, which, and I'll give you a little background on me, my heritage.

I am Scottish, Louisiana, redneck.

With some Cherokee Indian thrown in just to make things a little hostile.

You know, so that's that's my that's my mix.

That's that's where I came from.

Uh but I'm I was attending a church service.

I was 17 uh at a church service in my hometown, and I'm embarrassed to tell you, I can't tell you what the guy was talking about.

I don't remember anything about what he was talking about.

Like some of you today will go out and say that exact same thing.

I don't know what he was talking about.

But I had an encounter with God, and I became aware that there was something he wanted me to do, and I had a decision to make, and so I made a choice to say yes to his purpose for my life.

And people will think, well, Bill, that's awesome.

I mean, you had a plan for your life, but you discarded it and embraced God's plan.

Good for you.

And yes, that is true.

However, let me tell you what I've done for the past 33 years.

On a weekly basis, I have communicated with people every week.

Sometimes through media, sometimes on the platform, sometimes with podcasts and webcasts.

I have communicated the truths of God every week for 33 years.

I have also, as a shepherd and a pastor, protected and served the people of God.

Do you see what I did there?

There was already something in me about how I was made that was revealing God's purpose.

God simply put me in a different context.

But the things I was already drawn toward, God has used.

He has used them, and he set me in the context of his purpose and his kingdom.

Some of you in the room today are doctors, your lawyers, your mechanics, your teachers.

Whatever you do, you have a drawing and a bent toward those things.

They are revealing God's design to you, and he wants to give you a kingdom context for what it is you were made to do.

If you will embrace purpose.

We really do have to believe it.

Because purpose is fulfilling, it's satisfying.

Now, I have two children, a son and a daughter.

My daughter is our oldest, but when our daughter was three years old, uh, our first child, we were, I was sitting on the floor, we were playing, and she was giggling and laughing.

I would tickle her and she would laugh, and her laugh was so infectious that I just couldn't stop.

But she grew weary of the tickling, and out of my three-year-old's mouth, this is what she said.

Daddy, this is not my purpose.

She wasn't old enough to quite know what her purpose was, but she knew this was not it.

Because it was not satisfying or fulfilling.

There is nothing more fulfilling than to know that you're doing what you were made by God to do.

There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you have chosen to believe and embrace the purposes of God, and you believe that he sees something in you that you may not yet see yourself.

The second choice you need to make is to focus your passion.

You have to focus your passion.

And the phrase that goes with this is the phrase, I sanctified you.

And by the way, the scripture says in Jeremiah that he did this before you were born.

Now, the word passion needs to be defined.

Pastor Robert spoke about this a couple of weeks ago.

Passion literally just means a strong desire.

It is often translated in the New Testament as the word lust.

But the word itself is not really negative or positive, it just means a strong desire.

In James 4, 5, you can write that little reference down and go to it later if you want.

But it says that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit yearns for us jealously.

The original King James says he lusteth for us with envy.

What he's saying is the Holy Spirit has a strong desire that fuels his pursuit of us that we not settle for anything short of what God intended when he made us.

It is a strong desire.

The reason it's important for us to focus our passion is that passion fuels pursuit.

Whatever we are passionate about, we pursue.

Have you ever noticed how many excuses we can offer for things we don't want to do, but how creative we can get?

To find a way to do things we want to do, whether they're good or not.

It's like, well, honey, sure, I'll be happy to go with you to the grocery store.

We just swing by Cabela's on the way.

Swing by, that's a 15-mile circle, knucklehead.

We're not doing that.

But see, we get creative, we find with yes, but I think traffic flow would allow us to.

In fact, you could just drop me off there.

Circle back and pick me up when you're done.

Because we pursue what we are passionate about, therefore we must focus it.

Paul said this in Philippians 3.12 not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

He had an encounter on that Damascus road.

It changed him forever when he became aware that God had purpose for him.

And Paul said, for the rest of my days, here he was close to the end of his life.

He said, I'm not arrived, I'm not done yet.

I'm still passionately pursuing to lay hold of that thing that he saw when he held on to me.

That's awesome.

We have to focus our passion.

And vision is one of the ways we do that.

The scripture says, where there is no vision, people perish.

The New King James says, where there is no prophetic revelation, people cast off restraint.

Now we're not very prone to like restraints.

We don't always think those are good things.

But we lived in northwest Arkansas for five years, and to get to where we lived, you had to cross over some pretty steep mountain ranges with some pretty deep valleys and canyons.

And you know what they did?

It was so kind of them.

They put guardrails on those overpasses.

Why?

Because they wanted to rob me of my freedom to crash violently into a canyon.

They wanted to restrain me.

Hey, I'm gonna tell you.

Having those guardrails in place didn't make me feel bad.

They made me feel safer.

They were boundaries that helped me stay on track for where I was going.

And that's what vision does.

When we focus our passion, it keeps us moving in the direction that is important.

And it's part of the release of potential.

But not just vision, devotion is important.

How many of you have been in church long enough to hear someone tell you you should have a devotional each day?

Or as Pastor Robert says, a quiet time.

You should have a quiet time.

Now, I grew up in church and I heard it all my life.

The quiet time was the cure-all answer for everything.

And I people would say, you need to have quiet time.

Have you had your quiet time?

You seem a little argumentative today.

Have you had your quiet time yet?

You need a quiet time.

You need a quiet time.

Hey, have you had your quiet time?

And I would say things like, Why don't you have a quiet time?

Like right now.

Just practice what you preach, for goodness sake.

But the reason I responded that way is because my time had become a checklist of things to do.

Read that, read that, read that, pray for them, pray for them, pray for that, pray for that.

Amen.

Go to work.

But when I became aware that instead of using this word devotion, if I substituted the word relationship and this idea of relational awareness, what I discovered is if I would be still until I could know that he's God, and my awareness could increase that he's with me.

Now I want to tell you, I'm I'm I'm obviously a very talented and gifted and wonderfully marvelous individual.

With this unique skill set.

I have the ability, it seems, to have entire conversations with my wife and to even agree to list of things that she may want to have done and have no memory of it later at all.

It's a gift.

Usually the way this gift displays itself is I'm watching a sporting event or something on television, and my wife enters the room and she begins the conversation.

Apparently, I answer her.

Apparently, she lists out the things.

Apparently, I agree to these things, and then she goes away, and I have no recollection whatsoever, which has led to many a discussion in our home.

See, the issue was not whether she was present, it was my awareness of her presence.

God said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

He says, I'm with you, but our awareness of his presence is the issue.

And so what helps us focus our passion is when we take the time on a regular basis to make ourselves aware that He is here with us.

The more aware of His presence we become, the more focused our passion will be.

Here's the third thing.

The third choice that we have to make.

It's very, very important.

We have to choose to receive power.

The word that goes with this is I ordained you.

I ordained you.

He said, I formed you.

That's embracing purpose.

In essence, God said, I saw something and made you accordingly.

He said, I sanctified you.

I like that word.

Do you like that word?

Sanctified Scott.

I like it better when Sean Connery says it.

Sanctified.

I told you I was Scottish, right?

All God's children should be sanctified.

And then he said, I ordained you.

But here's what the word ordained means: to enable, to empower, and to authorize.

Sometimes in church we think, well, that's when they call someone down front.

They lay hands on them and set them into a particular ministry, and we call that ordination.

But God said, I saw something, I made you accordingly, I set you apart.

Basically, what he said is, I ruined you to being satisfied, do anything else, because to be sanctified means you're put apart for a specific purpose.

So I've ruined you, but I've also Promised, I will empower you to fulfill it.

We just have to admit our need.

Now, I have a bunch of tools at my house.

I have power tools.

I like power tools.

I not only own them, I use them.

I know how to use them.

I like them.

They have different purpose and they have all kinds of things that they can be used for.

They were made for a specific purpose.

They can be used for other things, paperweights and all that stuff.

But they need power from outside of themselves to fulfill their created purpose.

And every time I mention this, somebody will inevitably say to me, Well, Bill, what about a handsaw?

Well, do you try this when you get home?

Take a handsaw, put it on a two by four, go away for a while, come back in an hour and see if it cut the board for you.

No, you have to be the power for a handsaw.

Well, you know, things are so advanced now, you just program something.

Yes, but someone programmed it.

Well, you know, it's batteries.

I mean, it's just, it runs on batteries.

Well, yeah, but they have to be recharged eventually.

Well, no, no, no, they're solar.

Well, they get their power from the sun.

Do you understand?

This is a principle.

You and I are the same.

When God says, this is what I see when I look at you, our response will be much like Jeremiah's, Lord, God, that's too big.

I can't do that.

I don't know that I'm capable of that.

And God says, exactly.

Because I made you to partner with me.

You can't fulfill it apart from me.

I want you to understand that God is not looking to hire staff for his kingdom.

He's looking for partners in the kingdom with him.

God is not looking for people to hire on, he's looking for people who will buy in.

The purposes of God in the earth, regardless of the season of life that you are in, regardless of your experience, whatever it's been good or it's been bad, whatever your socioeconomic status is, it doesn't matter.

This potential resides inside of you by the hand of God.

And if you will choose to embrace purpose, focus your passion, and receive his power, you will release potential.

If you're in this room right now, and all across at all the campuses, if you're hearing these words and you know that God is really speaking something to you right now about this idea of potential and being a partner with God and seeing what you do and how you live make a difference in the earth, I want to ask you to do something for me right now.

I want to ask you just to raise your hand and put it right back down.

All over this place.

I want to pray for you.

Father, may each of us today have an awareness that you are with us.

And in this awareness that you are with us, Father, help us to believe that you see things we may not yet see.

Lord, help us to know that you, when you speak to us, speak to our potential.

We choose today to embrace your purpose as the best fit for our lives.

We choose today to regularly make ourselves aware that you are with us and we want to passionately focus our love towards you and let that passion fuel our pursuit.

But Lord, we admit we need your power.

We can't do this without you.

Thank you for your promise to enable, empower, and authorize us to participate with you in your kingdom.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.