0:00:00 - 0:00:27 Why do you do less or worse than you otherwise could as near as I can tell. There are three reasons. The first is that you don't know what you should do. This is the least sufficient reason because you do know what you should do. Every person does. Every single person sees beyond who they presently are 0:00:26 - 0:00:55 into the next step of who they could be. You're surrounded constantly by possible changes you could make to draw closer to the potential of who you could become the primary channel for you. Seeing these things is your own conscience. But life has a way of teaching you as well. And so whether by conscience 0:00:54 - 0:01:21 or consequences, you are given constant invitations to, to come up higher than you are to become better than you are. There is one narrow exception to this. But because so few people are in that situation, there's no point in speaking about that generally at this time. The second, uh reason that you 0:01:21 - 0:01:51 would not improve in the ways that you could is because you don't believe that you can do it. This is also an insufficient reason because while arguments can be made and should be made and have been made about your capability to improve in those ways that you know about the strongest argument that can 0:01:50 - 0:02:17 be made. The one that refutes all others is a living example of someone who is doing what you believe that you perhaps should be doing. So even if you don't think you could, the moment a person comes across your path who is doing it, you are robbed of that excuse. Because at the end of the day, all people 0:02:17 - 0:02:42 have choices. And when you see something done by someone, you can no longer say that it's impossible. One of the greatest blessings of the ministry of Jesus Christ is that he was a living example of everything that humankind can become. While in this life, this is the real meaning of his title, son of 0:02:42 - 0:03:09 man, son of is a title that means much more in the ancient languages than it does in modern English. It includes a notion of being an heir or the fulfillment of a fullness of potential. And so to be the son of man and the word man, there is the same as Adam is to be the living demonstration of the potential 0:03:08 - 0:03:40 that Adam had from which he fell. It is the potential of humankind to be the Son of God is to be the son of man and vice versa. To be a child of God is to inherit all that the Lord has, which can only happen if you become all that the Lord is. So the Lord lived and died a long time ago. And we have a 0:03:40 - 0:04:09 wonderfully valuable record of his life in various sources. However, you will be hard pressed to uh to claim that you've made full use of that up to the point where you could say something like I live imperfect alignment with everything. I uh I understand the Lord to be according to these records that 0:04:09 - 0:04:35 have been written about him from his life. However, it is possible to say this and, and to actually be familiar enough with those records to for it to mean something and to be correct enough in your interpretation of them. But you don't even have to rely upon that because these things are the same as 0:04:35 - 0:05:01 saying I am living without sin because I have repented of my sins. And I only do what the Lord, what I, what I believe the Lord would do in my place and you have living examples of people who do that. And so you don't have this excuse, you can do it. Now, the Lord has told you you can do it. He has said 0:05:01 - 0:05:21 in the scriptures that he does not give commandments that we don't have the ability to obey. He has said that he does not allow temptation, that's beyond our ability to deny. He has also shown that this is possible through his own life where he was subject to all temptation but yielded to none of it 0:05:21 - 0:05:46 . But you don't even have to have that much faith because a much more close example and easier to believe example has been given to you, which is that of living people who can say the same things. Now, what's the third reason? This is one that might benefit some from some additional attention and it's 0:05:46 - 0:06:11 one that might surprise you. The third reason that you might not take advantage of opportunities for improvement is that you don't understand their potential. This is a surprise. I don't think that you'd go to any church expecting to hear a sermon about value, expecting to hear someone try to help you 0:06:11 - 0:06:45 shift. What do you value and by how much and yet this is precisely what is needed today now to focus this and keep the remainder of this hopefully short, to see the potential in every moment, to see the potential in every decision, no matter how small, what a great blessing this is. And yet I think that 0:06:45 - 0:07:17 most people would see it as a burden instead of a blessing. Why? Because these things are synonymous with seeing the awareness of potential um both in things that you want right now and in things that you don't want right now. In other words, vision or valuation or awareness or whatever you wanna call 0:07:17 - 0:07:46 , it cannot be partial. You see if, if it's an all or nothing affair, you can't see more of the paths to what you want without seeing more of the paths to what you don't want. And when those paths reveal to you that the things that you don't want are things that you should and vice versa. If your rock 0:07:45 - 0:08:10 is not Jesus Christ, and if you have less than perfect trust in him to transform those things into blessing rather than burden, then you're really gonna struggle with that and you will turn away and then turning away from what you don't want. You will also turn away from what you want. And that's the 0:08:10 - 0:08:35 problem. One reason you don't see the potential in every little moment is because you're already struggling with anxiety at what you do. See why because you don't trust God, you don't trust God. We are finite beings. We have an infinite spirit, but finite bodies. And so we're constrained God is not finite 0:08:35 - 0:09:05 . He is infinite. He is beyond the limits of this world. And the only hope we have for overcoming what would otherwise crush us is to turn to him and to build our house upon his foundation. The issue there is that you can't build part of your house on his foundation, it's all or nothing. And we really 0:09:04 - 0:09:29 like that part that won't fit as long as we won't let go of those things, whatever they might be, whether they be aspects of what we consider to be our self identity, whether they be people that we really like whether they be things that we really like whatever it is that does not fully accord with God 0:09:28 - 0:10:02 as he is. Has to go. Now, the good news is that anything given up? At least that's the way it's, it's uh described anything sacrificed for God. The value of that is never lost. Because while God asked for sacrifice, it doesn't really mean what people think, which is loss, it means exchange always, always 0:10:01 - 0:10:36 for something better. So if you want to see the value or the potential value in every moment, you have to see the potential value in every moment. And if you're the kind of person that likes to unplug and just lapse into a, a uh uh a state of stupor where you're, you're disconnected from this idea that 0:10:35 - 0:11:03 every little thing has tremendous potential and you need to do that for your own comfort or well being, well, you're not ready yet for the Lord to show you the value of every moment. And until you see the value of every moment, nearly every good thing that he has will be off limits to you because the 0:11:03 - 0:11:33 path to what God is and has is littered with little things. They're little in our perception of value, but they're tremendously great in His. And that difference makes all the difference, not just in the world but in the world to come. And so if you find yourself doing less than you could or being less 0:11:33 - 0:12:01 than you could from your own estimation. No one else's from your own conscience, your own view of the consequences of the world that cascade like waves upon you. Then perhaps your problem is that you do not see the potential in every moment. And at its root, the real problem is that you do not trust 0:12:01 - 0:12:02 God.