It is Christmas time and is also a season of gifts. And the best gift we can give to Christ is to utilize the potentials God has installed in us. So today we will be talking about the potentials that lie within us. God created everything with potentials in them and He never makes anything useless. As He has put potentials within us, we are all rated 10 no matter how different we are from each other. But most of us often focus on what we cannot do and don’t feel useful because of that. We even compare ourselves with others and focus on what others can do while we cannot. However, it doesn’t mean that we are less than others. Though it’s true that we make mistakes at times, we are still full of potential. When we look at Moses, Joseph and King David in the Bible, we know that they made mistakes, but they were still full of potential and changed the world around them when they allowed God to work through them. So I am going to show you today that everyone has his/her usefulness and everyone is full of potential from God when we do what we can.

One good example I would like to use is Mother Theresa. She was called by God at the age of 18, and she responded and gave her life to the Lord for ministry. Her first assignment was working in a girls’ school in India, and then as time went by, she worked among the poorest of the poor. She was a simple lady. She wasn’t like other successful people, but she was able to change the world by using a great amount of love. She said that it is not about the big things you can do, but about how much big love you put in what you do. She came to the world quietly, served quietly and also died quietly. All she did were simple acts but with a great amount of love. Right before her death in 1997, Princess Diana died as well and everyone was mourning for Princess Diana, and oversaw Mother Theresa’s death. Though she is not famous like Princess Diana, she utilized all the potential God gave her and she changed the world. There are centers to minister to the poor in 123 countries because of her work. Simple acts of love can change the world already; you don’t need special talents or skills to do that.

Everyone has potentials to change the world in simple ways. I always wonder what potentials are within you, this whole congregation, and me. God wants to release all our potentials so we can change the world.  First of all, what kind of potentials do we have? The scripture said that we were created in God’s image. It was written, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number…” (Genesis 1:27-28). God blessed us to be fruitful in what God is doing, which is….

1. The potential to CREATE.

First we need to recognize that we cannot compare ourselves with others on what we can do or cannot do. And we all have the potential to create in our own ways. The scripture said, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Hebrew 11:3). God created the world by speaking the world into existence. He also spoke life into His creation and gave the ability of creating to us as we were made according to His image. Although we obviously take a lot more time and effort than speaking to create something, we do have the potential to create and are meant to carry on the ability to create. Thomas Edison is a classic example of this with his inventions. But we don’t need to be an inventor like Edison to carry on this potential. Instead, we all can reproduce and be fruitful by using…

2. The potential to CONVERT things from a lower state to a higher state.

In fact, every creation is meant to convert things from a lower state to a higher state. The green plants can convert toxic carbon dioxide to oxygen through photosynthesis, so that we have oxygen to breath. The process of ocean water being evaporated and then de-salinated into the sky as clouds is another example. The saline water is converted from a lower undrinkable state to a higher drinkable state after the natural de-salination, and the water then falls back as rain to the ground as our drinking water supply. God created the nature to be able to convert bad things into good things and provided for us. As we understand how God creates things with this conversion design, we can start to think what we can do to convert bad things into good things in our world. However, we need to note that while the plants, the animals and the nature were designed to convert bad things to good things by default, we humans are the only group that have the freedom of choice to carry out this conversion or not. We were given free choice to carry on the ability to convert good things to bad things. And sadly, we were also given a free choice to convert things from a higher state to a lower state while plants and animals weren’t given such choice. So if we don’t choose wisely, we will make things worse in the world instead. As mentioned before, we were created in God’s image. So He gives us wisdom and insight to be people of redemption when we choose to convert things from a lower state to a higher state. So when bad things happen, do you choose to bring blame or healing to the people around you?

Alfred Nobel developed dynamite and made a lot of money from this invention. One day his brother died and the press made a mistake and thought it was Alfred’s death. So there was a mistake of printing an obituary of Alfred Nobel the other day.  The newspaper printed that “Alfred Nobel who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before died yesterday.” He was shocked by what he was known for at that time. So he decided to put all his earnings from dynamite to build a foundation which is now called The Nobel Peace Prize, in order to honor the people who bring peace instead of killing. Afterwards, as we know, Alfred Nobel is well known for this constructive foundation instead of the destructive dynamite. We need to be the people who bring peace as well. The Bible said that, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) Every day we are in a crossroad facing new challenges. However, did we choose to bring life and blessings to others? If we choose to give life to others, we get to live. If we choose to just stay alive in the expenses of others, we are also going to lose life and become dead already. Can you bring the problems around you to a higher state? You might find it difficult when you are in the midst of the problems. So here are 4 steps to help you in solving your problems and bringing them to a higher state.

·     4 Steps to Problem Solving.

1) Get on the solution side of the equation and off the persecution side as quickly as you can.

This first step is very important. The longer you stay on the persecution side, which is the problem side, the more Satan can infiltrate your mind and make you bitter and downcast. Once you get to the solution side, you actually can be more resourceful and creative and it saves your heart. Then you will be less critical and not involved in slandering or gossiping. You cannot let the circumstances demolish you. And meanwhile you also need to:

2) Guard your heart.

You can have a sour heart easily no matter whether you are a Christian or not. I do get a sour heart sometimes too, but God reminds me to guard my heart from time to time. When I was working on rebuilding the Bible College in Oregon, one night I was getting bitter and angry at the predecessor of the school because of how bad a shape it was in. But I also self counseled and told myself that blaming him was not going to help me or the college, and this bitterness would only disqualify me from doing what God was going to do through me. So I got on the solution side of the equation right away and focused on what I could do for the school, and I chose not to stay bitter or blame the predecessor. It’s the bitterness and sourness that put us as a victim of the circumstances, and we definitely can avoid being a victim when we guard our hearts and get on the solution side as quickly as we can. When you are bitter, you will only produce bitter outcomes and it’s never a solution. Next, while you are solving your problems, be careful to:

3) Be a reformer but not a rebel.

A reformer is someone who sees bad things and would like a reformation, and he will be happy after things have been reformed to good. But a rebel will not be happy even after things have turned from bad to good. They will just keep rebelling and complaining. Rebels will always think that things are wrong and not seeing the higher state of a situation even after a conversion has happened. A man came to my office and asked me to pray for him and his wife because his wife was having an emotional affair with her coworker. The wife had not accepted Christ at that point. So we had been praying together on that. As time went by, he got impatient as his wife didn’t come to Christ or change after a short while. So the husband started getting mad and thought that we were not doing enough. And I kept encouraging him to just keep on praying. Later on, after a long while, the wife really came to accept Christ. She realized that she valued her marriage, so she repented and wanted to do everything she could to make the marriage work again. But the husband was already bitter and was still unhappy after things had reformed to the way for which he had prayed. He wasn’t postured to what he prayed for and at the end gave up the marriage. They ended up getting a divorce even after the wife had changed. So when we don’t guard our heart, we can easily become a rebel instead of a reformer before things get converted to a higher state.

I also agree though that some problems can never be solved. So how can we get on the solution side when there is none? For this kind of unsolvable problems, we can only outgrow them!

4) Some problems can never be solved, but they can be outgrown!

You can only outgrow these problems when you cannot change any of them. Do you realize that as you grow older, you don’t get bothered by the things that used to bother you when you were younger? We need to continue growing in Christ so we can continually outgrow these unsolvable problems. Besides, when we see things at a higher state, miracles come. Otherwise, innovation would stop and you will be disqualified for doing what God planned to do through you. God can redeem anything from a lower state to a higher state when we see things in the higher state. In Molokai, there was a hotel which was used for a lot of immoral acts. That hotel was at its lower state. And we the church bought that site out, renovated it and converted it into an off-site camp ground called Molokai Oceanside Retreat, so that we could send youths there for retreat. Then the recession hit later on and we couldn’t fly the youths to the camp so the site became useless. We spent a lot of money buying this site and it was not easy to sell properties during the recession, too. But we kept having faith in God that this site was meant for something good. Later on, in the middle of the recession, some people came to us and asked about how much we would sell it for! So we ended up selling the property for 4 times more than its original price! Meanwhile, it was also the time I took over the Bible College at Oregon and it needed funding. So the money we got from selling the camp ground ended up being beneficial to the college, which now is nourishing over 200 students! The camp ground that was originally full of immorality got converted to a higher state that helps developing students to change the world! And this can happen only when we keep our faith in God and utilize the potentials He gave us to create and to convert things from a lower state to a higher state.

A little sacrifice can change the world and we just need to put our hands and hearts together into actions. We might be simple people but if you are willing to do what you can, God will convert things from a lower state to a higher state through you and you will be fruitful. Let’s start utilizing the potentials God has put in us from today on and change the world. Amen.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the 2 potentials God has given us?

2. What are the steps to solve problems?

3. What do you do if a problem can never be solved?

4. How do we become a reformer instead of a rebel?

5. What do you do when you catch yourself having a bitter/sour heart?