What it takes to realize your potential!
Pastor Joe Fuiten, November
23, 2003
In June of 2002, Microsoft Executive Steve Ballmer announced the new values of Microsoft. He noted Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' original vision of "a PC on every desktop and in every home," which evolved four years ago into "empowering people through great software." Ballmer said Microsoft’s latest mission was enabling "people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential." He wanted the company to emphasize that their job was not to make great software or computers but to center on the customer and help them achieve their full potential.
That is a great mission and I commend them for it. I think the right software is quite helpful in a great many areas including spiritual areas. I use software in my spiritual life virtually every day. I wrote this sermon using Microsoft software as well as other programs.
If I may, I would like to add my perspective to the task of people reaching their full potential.
Scripture Reading
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (NIV)
1. We used to be sinners. Now we are forgiven by his grace.
Your picture is not likely to be on the wall of the post office. It is, however, on the wall of heaven. In a way, that’s good. Your picture will soon be replaced by your actual self. You will be with God forever for one very good reason, according to verse 7. You will be in heaven as living proof of the “incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” If you make it to heaven, it will be proof of the mercy of God. God is looking for those kinds of trophies.
A preacher was making his rounds to his parishioners on a bicycle, when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawnmower. "How much do you want for the mower?" asked the preacher. "I'm just trying to make enough money to buy a bicycle," said the little boy. After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked, "Will you take my bike in trade for it?" The boy said, "You got a deal." The preacher took the mower and tried to crank it. He pulled on the string a few times with no response from the mower. The preacher called the little boy over and said, "I can't get this mower to start." The little boy said, "That's 'cause you have to cuss at it to get it started." The preacher said, "I'm a minister, and I can't cuss. It's been so long since I've been saved that I don't know if I even remember how to cuss." The little boy looked at him happily and said, "Just keep pulling on that string. It'll come back to ya!"
You and I are saved today because of the sheer goodness of God. It is a pure gift, and nothing else. You didn’t earn it! You can’t work for it! It’s for nothing! It’s a gift that you accept by faith. How many have accepted God’s gift?
2. God’s Salvation is for nothing, but your life is for something!
We are created by God to do good works. These good works are already known to God even though they are not yet known to us. In fact, under our picture in heaven is a to do list. God already has the good deeds listed under our name. When it says they were prepared in advance for us to do, it means God has had list long before we were even born. Don’t you wish you had that list so you could just get up every day and get right on it, getting all your good deeds done before lunch so you could have the rest of the day off?
You do NOT want to know what is on that list. It would totally freak you out. You would be so overwhelmed you would collapse with anxiety. There is no way, sitting here today, that you have ability to do what God has laid out for you to do.
I read about a famous rabbi that was crying in dread during his last minutes on earth. "Why do you weep?" asked his disciples, who rightfully considered their master one of the most righteous individuals who ever lived. He answered them, "If God will ask me: Yacov, why weren't you like Moses? I'll have a ready answer - Lord, you didn't give me the potential you gave to Moses. If the Almighty will ask me: Yacov, why weren't you like Solomon? I will also have a ready answer - Lord, you neither gave me the gifts nor did you place me in a position similar to Solomon. But the Master of the Universe will not ask me these questions. He will ask: Yacov, why weren't you like Yacov? Why didn't you fulfill the task that only Yacov could have fulfilled? It is of this question that I am in dread - and if I will be asked it, I shall have no proper response!"
Here are a few quick thoughts on how get your list done and reach your full potential.
First, don’t worry at all about how far other people are on their lists. When you say, I would have more stuff done on my list if I had the ability that he had. He got all the brains and all the talent and look at me. I got nothin’. No wonder he has so many things on his list already done! He has a lot more to work with.
God did not ask me to do the things that are on your list and he didn’t ask you to do the things that are on my list. He has a separate and unique list for each person.
Second, your ability to do your
list is not dependent on a perfect life.
Paul goes to great lengths to explain that our arrival in heaven is the
sheer mercy of God. It presumes that we
are sinners and have not always acted as we should. Sometimes I hear people wish they had given
their lives to Christ earlier because they wasted so much of their life and
added so many sorrows they otherwise would have avoided. I understand that sentiment and it is
correct. But the fact is, you got saved because the Holy Spirit drew you to
God. He called you. Your life of sin is the same as everyone
else. We were all sinners. Paul said it in verse 3: “All of us also lived among them at one
time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires
and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
It is not just a matter of overcoming sin. It is also a matter of overcoming the evil that is done to us. So third, my ability to get my list done does not depend on not having bad things happen to me. A lot of people play the victim. I could really have been somebody and done great things except for my father, or mother, or society. Except for where I was born, or who I was born to, I could have done something great.
In fact, maybe the opposite it
true. It could be that the list of good
that you will do is related to the evil that you have suffered. Joseph found that out. Sold by his brothers into slavery in
The Apostle Paul said much the same thing in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.”
From this we learn the fourth thing. Learn all you can from every mistake and every evil thing that happens to you. Grow closer to Jesus through it all.
It is not
just overcoming evil. Fifth, we
must also grow from the good that happens.
Some people seem to have one success and thereafter they flounder. Your life and capacity for good is meant to
grow like compound interest. Jesus said
the
Whenever you do something good, your “full potential” just got bigger. Potential is not static. It is dynamic. At this very moment we are either increasing it or diminishing it. That is why God seldom, if ever, shows a person the full purpose of their life. He has purposes for good which are far beyond your capacity to even imagine. You cannot imagine them because they grow with you. As long as you are alive there is more for you do to. There is an expanding universe of good that God has created in advance for you to do. He created it in advance, yet it expands as you go through it.
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