"Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think according to the power that works within you." (Ephesians 3:20)
Introduction
The theme for this workshop is “Youth Exploring Their Potential Through Prayer, Faith and Singing The Praise”. Each night, we will attempt to share a Word from God that will help you to get some meaning from the theme, to understand the meaning of each word or phrase in the theme, and lastly help you to affirm your relationship with our Lord, our Savior, Jesus the Christ.
The forces of evil seek to temp you and distract you with the pleasures that the world has to offer. Satan’s sole purpose is to rob you of the gift of eternal life that our Father in heaven has given us through His Son, Jesus. Satan wants to steal your joy. Satan wants to do everything in his power to keep you from reaching your full potential in life.
To illustrate, we will review the details of two experiments that were done by a team of marine biologists. The first test involved studying the life and behavior and a great white shark.
Body
Has anyone seen the movie “Jaws” or any of its sequels? Well, it was that type of shark that wreaked so much havoc in the lives of the people in those movies. That huge, ferocious shark was a great white shark. I believe Jaws weighed over 5000 pounds and was over 30 feet long. Is that just in the movies? Hmmm.
In their research, the marine biologists reported that great whites, in their natural habitat, have the potential of reaching 3500 pounds and 20 feet in length (now, that’s the biggest one they’ve seen).
Now, here is the interesting thing they discovered during their study. They discovered what happened when a great white shark was raised from a baby in a small aquarium. What they discovered was mind -blowing. Are you wondering what they discovered?
They discovered that even though a great white shark has the God-given capacity to grow up to 20 ft in length and weigh up to 3500 lbs. - when confined to a small aquarium, it would only reach 12 to 15 inches in length and only weigh 15-20 lbs. They discovered even though it would have reached full chronological maturity (as far as age is concerned), it would be well short of reaching its full potential otherwise.
The second experiment the marine biologists conducted was with a pike. Pikes are long, eel-spaded fish with long blunt noses. They get to be about 4.5 feet long and weigh around 50 pounds. Whenever it was feeding time the marine biologists would dump a large bucket of the minnows in the tank where the pike was. Minnows are pikes favorite meal, you know. The pike would swim rapidly around the tanks gobbling every minnow in sight. And in a very short period of time, the pike would have devoured every minnow in the tank.
Here’s what they did to the pike. This time at feeding time, they decided to lower a glass cylinder into the tank, so that the pike would be inside of the cylinder. Because it was clear glass the pike could not tell that there was any change in his environment. The next thing the marine biologists did was to pour another large bucket of minnows into the tank. Immediately the pike began to scurry and scramble aggressively trying to devour his dinner, his favorite meal, minnows. Unfortunately, his hunger would go unfulfilled. With every lunge, with every attack, the pike would continually bump his nose into the glass wall of the cylinder.
Surprising, after a very short time, the pike stopped lunging. The pike stopped trying to attack the minnows in any shape, form, or fashion. The pike just stood motionless expect for the movement of his fins to keep him afloat. Once the marine biologists saw this, they removed the glass cylinder. Consequently, the minnows were swimming all around the pike, right in front of him. He could have started his dinner at any moment, but he didn’t. He just stood there. The pike had given up to the point where he literally staved to death.
So, what do those illustrations have to do with exploring your potential? I’m glad you asked. First of all, to solve any problem you experience in life, you have to know what causes the problem.
Secondly, you must recognize that many of you have the same things limiting your potential as the shark and the pike had limiting them.
In school, if you make straight A’s then it can be said that you have conquered or overcome the problems that you faced in your studies, right? Well, allow me to give you three A’s that will help you reach your potential in this life.
In order to reach your potential and be all you can be, you have to be AWAKENED. You have to be AWAKENED to your identity. The prodigal son serves as an excellent example. After he had squandered away everything his father gave him and was broke, busted and disgusted, living and eating with pigs, the Bible says “...he came to himself...” and he said “my father has people that work for him that have more than enough, so what am I doing in a pig pen? I’m going to go to my Father and ask for forgiveness and ask him to make me a servant.”
Young peeps, if you know who you are (a Child of the Most High God) then you ought to know that your potential is MOST HIGH!
The second A is AWARE. You have to be AWARE of the possibilities. The shark was limited because it conformed to his confinement - check this out...
Some of you think that you can’t do this or that because you’re too little, too big, too short, too tall, too dark, too light, not strong enough, not smart enough, not good enough, or simply because you don’t deserve it. The bible says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"
Others may think that because of your status in life, your situation at home, or your surroundings in the hood, that there is nothing you can do about it. And so, even though you have the God-given potential to be whatever you want to be, you choose to conform to the confinement of your mind. And subsequently, you turn to selling drugs, stealing, or whatever other hustle you can come up with to make a little chump change. But the Bible says, God will not ever put more on you than you can bear! Trials come to make you strong. All things work together for good for those who love God and those called according to His purpose. And because of these things, you have the power to free your mind, you have the power to renew your mind, you have the power to break through the limitations imposed upon you and reach your full potential.
The third, and final A is ALIVE. You have to be ALIVE to your responsibilities. You know you have responsibilities. That’s why you’re here tonight. You have responsibilities to yourselves, responsibilities to your parents, responsibilities to your friends, responsibilities to your brothers/sisters, responsibilities to your communities, responsibilities to society, but most impotantly, you have responsibilities to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Consider the pike, it had a responsibility to nourish his body, but out of frustration died from hopelessness. It became a prisoner of poor perception. Does that make sense?
You see, the pike literally beat his head against the wall doing everything he knew how to solve his problem of hunger. After it had tried everything it knew how to do, it gave up hope. It’s perception of what is real had been lost and when the opportunity to fulfill its need came, the pike didn’t realize it.
Hunger is a powerful feeling. But, all hunger isn’t physical you know. You can be emotionally hungry. You probably have some friends that will do just about anything for a little attention. Well, that’s because they are starving for LOVE, starving for someone to show them some genuine concern. They are emotionally hungry. You can also be spiritually hungry. You probably have some friends that will lie, cheat, steal, or anything else in order to feel good. The Spirit of God is not in them. They are starving spiritually.
Don’t you find it interesting that hunger (regardless of its form - physical, spiritual, or emotional) will make you weak if it continues too long.
Conclusion
So, maybe you’re like the pike. You have done everything you know how to do in order to solve a problem that you are faced with. You have found out that no matter how hard you try, nothing seems to work. Now, you’re ready to give up hope. Don’t ever give up hope young people! When you give up hope, you are no longer ALIVE! You are too weak to handle your responsibilities. When you’re ready to give up hope, it’s time to have a little talk with Jesus!
The bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” and it also says that “suffering may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning…”
All I’m trying to tell you is that you can explore (seek and you will find) your potential by reading and meditating on God’s Word daily. The more you do this the more you will understand the scripture chosen for this message. "Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think according to the power that works within you." (Ephesians 3:20)
