Made a little lower than God: Discovering your potential

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be acceptable in

your sight O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

So here’s the deal, we have come from God and we are returning to God

We are all children of the most high God.

The only difference is some know it and some don’t!

Some at the centre of their being

know who they are

and they rise up on eagles’ wings and they dream great dreams

and they turn their dreams into reality.

So how do you begin to dream great dreams

I mean the awakened dreams?

You connect with the source of Life

you connect with God.

And you discover that the source of life is a love

that won’t let you go.

And when you discover that love

it resonates in your heart

and you know it as the sense of home.

And then you open your heart to that love

and you surrender to it

and then the dreams come.

And the possibilities begin to emerge in your mind.

So you have a dream beginning to grow within

and you wonder is this from God?

Ask yourself the question, “Will it help people who are hurting?”

and if the answer is yes

then you know it’s from God.

But you have to connect with the source of life

and the Source of Life is God.

And when that happens

and you know who you are

and you know you are loved and held and will be,

you begin to discover the potential within in

and something happens

your life begins to overflow with beauty and generosity

and grace and mercy

and so the dreams come.

And you begin to realize you have a purpose

and your dreams are possible for you.

Now it’s my contention that if you never have the sense in your life of the

wholly other

something, some power great than you,

if you never have a God awareness

if we are trapped within our little minds

that really comprehend very little

and we are trapped into believing we are what we do

and have,

and what people say about us we may die

living in the shallows of life.

And when what you do and have and your reputation

collapse around your ears

despair can result

and then depression

and then what’s the point of living anymore.

How do I overcome an addiction to mediocrity

and the disillusionment and depression and despair

that follows?

Believe in a Power greater than yourself.

Believe that you were created a little lower than God

believe in the untapped potential within

ignored by the greater percentage of the world’s population.

Secondly connect with that source of Power.

And how do you know if you have connected?

Love, grace, joy, peace, patience, generosity, hope, faith, will flow from you.

I believe that such generosity of spirit, and unconditional love, and generosity of money

and goodness, is the sure sign

that a person is connected with God

and the sure sign, if you like to use that term

that someone is a born-again Christian.

And it seems to only happen when our core is changed

and the negative self-image we grew up with,

most of us,

is changed to a positive core

through surrendering to and believing, that you are the beloved child of God.

So you connect to the source of all life

and as the love of God flows into you

the dreams and possibilities arise

and in generosity of heart and mind, as Jesus said,

a stream of life-giving life flows from you.

And ideas and possibilities fill your mind and you believe,

I can do this

or God would not have put it into my mind.

Remember, you were created just a little lower than God.

The interesting thing is that in

the process of putting your God given dream into action

you could become very wealthy

but because that was not your goal

your wealth will not become your god,

you will bless others through it.

If you remember, this was the promise to Abraham

I will bless you with great wealth so that

you will be a blessing to generations to come.

Here’s the thing, you are at your best, I am at my best when I am giving,

when grace and generosity are the way we live.

It’s all through the Bible beginning in Genesis

the overflow of creation

this world that constantly reproduces itself in overflow!

Blessed to be a blessing.

Selfishness and stinginess are always the signs of the absence of love and the

denial of God and negative self-image, a negative core.

Now as it is with us as individuals

so it is with this congregation.

The great picture of the temple in Ezekiel is just this

a river of life that flows from the temple

and the more it flows the deeper it gets.

It reproduces itself;

and of course, wherever it flows

it produces healing and life.

Congregations that know they are created to be an outflow of God’s love

to each other and to the communities that God has set them in

thrive as they produce healing and life.

Congregations that have a shortage mentality die.

Congregations that have an abundance mentality live

because they are connected to the source

even our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So I hope when connected to the source and you have a God given dream

you will believe in the one who gave it you

and make a difference.

And when you have a dream about the difference a congregation such as yourselves can make

you will believe it.

And you will overcome all the negatives you have been told and nothing will be impossible for you.

Question: What could you do, if you didn’t think you could fail?

During the great depression in America, George Dantzig was a mathematics student at the University of California at Berkeley. It was a week before graduation... he writes: all of us who were graduating were anticipating joining the unemployment line, for jobs were scarce. The rumor was, however, that the person who got the highest marks in class would be given a job as an assistant teacher.

"Now," he continued, "I was desperate. I did not want to stand in a soup line. I worked and worked and studied and prepared for the final exam. In fact, I studied so hard that when I went to take the test, I was late. I ran to the desk, picked up the paper and looked at it. It had eight problems. I solved all eight. Then I noticed there were two more that were written on the black-board. I tried the first and I couldn't get that one, so I switched to the other. I couldn't solve that one either. I went back to the first. The bell rang. I said to the professor, `There are a couple of problems I didn't get finished. May I have a little more time?' He said, `Sure, George. You have until Friday, at four o'clock, no later. Put it on my desk when you're done.'

"He writes: I went home and I worked on one of the problems. Couldn't solve it. Went to the other one. Couldn't solve it. Four days and nights I worked. Finally by the Friday I had solved one then the other. I put the paper on my professor's desk at four o'clock Friday.  Some weeks later, on Sunday morning, about seven o'clock, there was a loud pounding on my door. I woke up, opened the door. There was my professor.

"He said, `George! You made mathematics history.' I shook my head and said, `What do you mean?'

He said, `George, I was thinking as I came over here. You came to class late for the test, didn't you?'

Eight problems were on the test paper that you picked up off my desk. You solved them all correctly. The two problems I had written on the board were not a part of the test! George, when I handed out the test, I said, to the class, for the rest of your life, if you want to have a little fun with mathematics, keep playing with these two famous unsolved problems.

Then I put those two problems on the blackboard. Even Einstein, couldn't solve them. George! You solved both of them.! And I'm here to tell you, you've got a job, starting next week as my assistant professor!"'

George Dantzig writes, if I hadn't been late for that class,

and if I had heard the professor say that these two problems remain unsolved, that even Einstein couldn't solve them, then do you think I would have believed that I could solve them?

I wouldn't even have tried to solve them!"

Now here's the message! You have more potential to create, communicate and relate than you have been told. You have been mentally programmed to believe in the impossible! Maybe that was true before, but not anymore!

You know who you are. You are created a little lower than God.

You will no longer choose a life of mediocrity

you will go out and live

with your one life

that God given dream

and God will bless you and you will be a blessing.

Now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

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