Sermon Central
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Your Potential
Contributed by Wayne Searls on Jul 27, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: To help the hearer realize that God can change his/ her life in spite of the failures of their past.
YOUR POTENTIAL
TEXT: Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
PROPOSITION: To help the hearer realize that God can change his/ her life in spite of the failures of their past.
INTRODUCTION: THE GREAT PITCHER
A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat: “I’m the greatest hitter in the world,” he announced.
Then, he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed.
“Strike One!” he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said again, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”
He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down he swung again and missed. “Strike Two!” he cried.
The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”
Again he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. “Strike
Three!”
“Wow!” he exclaimed. “I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”
I. YOUR LIFE HAS POTENTIAL BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU JUST AS YOU ARE v.1
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Application: You may be like the little boy in our story. He kept swinging even though he kept missing. God isn’t so concerned that you have kept missing – He is only interested in the fact that you kept swinging.
Apostle Paul in his struggle over some of his failures as a follower of Christ wrote these words of hope:
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Application: God doesn’t save us because we are doing everything right – He saves us because He loves us.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
II. YOUR LIFE HAS POTENTIAL BECAUSE GOD ALREADY KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS TO HELP YOU BECOME v.2
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Application: Just like the little boy in our story, we must maintain the proper perspective. Undaunted when he realized he wasn’t the best hitter in the world, he latched on to a new possibility, “I’m the best pitcher in the world.”
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; …
Psalm 139:14,16,17
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. … 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
III. YOUR GREATEST POTENTIAL WILL ONLY BE REALIZED BY COMMITTING YOUR LIFE COMPLETELY TO GOD v.3
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
A. You Must Commit Your Past To Him And Seek Forgiveness For Your Sin
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
B. You Must Commit Your Present To Him And Daily Live His Salvation
But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" … that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
