LOCAL CHURCH MINISTRY
CLASS 2
MIN
201 - INSTRUCTOR: LEN BALLENGER
UNDERSTANDING POTENTIAL IN LEADERSHIP
INTRO: [Matthew 5:13-16]
- Every person has leadership potential
o Everybody wants to lead something. Human beings like to be in charge.
o Leadership teaching is always practical for everyday life.
- You are called to be salt and light
- We all have dreams and ambitions.
o You may have accomplished some of yours, but no matter what, you still have dreams and goals waiting to be filled.
o These dreams and goals are buried in something called “your potential!”
- Are leaders born or are they made?
o There are people that seem to be born with an abundance of leadership gifts and qualities – but some of the best leaders turn out to be people the world would discard as even qualifying for leadership.
o With some work, these type of people often turn out to be some of the strongest leaders.
- God did not give up on you.
o He may put someone in your life that He wants you not to give up on!
o When people come along that we don’t want to mess with – the “thorns in our flesh” – is when God wants you to remember how merciful He was to you, how long He put up with you, and all the things He worked through with you.
o What God does for us, we can also do – must also do – for someone else…
- Understand this principle from heaven: “I have great potential!”
o The development of personal potential is each individual’s number one job.
o We all have undeveloped potential.
o Unless we take a chance and step out and work with God and let God work with us to develop our potential, we will never see it manifest.
- We as a church may do a lot of good things in the city and around the world… but how much more can we do? There’s always more undeveloped potential!
o But if you don’t have any confidence in God or yourself – no matter what God wants to do through you – He cannot do it if you don’t get in agreement with Him.
o When we don’t have confidence in God’s ability to work in and through our life, we take it in our own hands and we come into agreement with the devil.
I. Between the Dream and the Manifestation [Ecclesiastes 5:3]
A. What comes between Potential, Development, and Manifestation?
1. Time
2. Determination
3. Hard Work
B. Potential defined: “Existing in possibility, but not in actuality…” “Powerful, but not in use…” “Possible, but not positively…”
1. Potential cannot manifest without form: It must have something to pour itself into. Something that causes it to take shape and become useful.
2. Potential needs a plan… it needs a purpose…
3. You have to have a plan, a strategy, and pray over that plan!
C. Your potential must be developed!
1. Development defined: Unfolded, laid open, disclosed, or brought into full exhibition.
D. The “Right Now” syndrome!
1. Few people are willing to invest anything now for a later return.
2. The undeveloped, wasted potential in our world is pathetic. Think about it…
E. Dreams and visions that God gives you are “possibilities” but they’re not “positivelys.” THE KEY IS IN YOUR DESIRE
1. With God, nothing is impossible! But, we’re on a journey…
2. God starts with a “seed” called desire.
3. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and robs people of their desire. He keeps the large majority of the human race from ever doing much of anything.
F. Fulfillment: I want to be a totally fulfilled human being.
G. The key to potential development: Keep at it… Refuse to quit… Never give up…
1. If you’re ever going to develop your potential, one thing you have to make your mind up about: “I will not quit!”
2. The devil will try to tell you nothing is ever going to change
3. God’s word promises us that He is changing us from glory to glory to glory… And I may be in between “glories” right now, but you hang around devil… cause I’m coming into another one.
II. Running the Race to Win! [1 Corinthians 9:24-25]
A.
There’s
a gold mind hidden in every life – but you have to dig to find it
B.
We have
to be determined and we have to be willing to work hard and we have to refuse
to quit and we have to believe that we have potential and we have to refuse to
be anything less than all that we can be.
C.
[Hebrews
12:1] Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares
us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…
1.
… the
cloud of witnesses: Saints who laid the foundation for our
potential
2.
Lay
aside every weight… and run the race with endurance… If
you’re going to run your race, you have to strip for the contest.
3.
Paul was
drawing a parallel that was well understood.
Athletes conditioned their bodies and they stripped away all unnecessary
clothing before a race, so when they ran there was nothing hindering them.
4.
You must
stay determined to stay focused.
The world we live in today is crammed full of distractions and
entanglements.
D.
I am stripping
off everything that hinders me – because this is what I am called to do!
E.
[1
Corinthians 9:27] But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection,
lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
1.
Society
has passed down to us through wrong thinking that everything is supposed to be
“easy.”
2.
Self-discipline
is the most important feature in any life.
F.
A person
will never develop into a leader if they cannot manage their temperament.
1.
Anger: A person who doesn’t rule their temper will
never develop into a leader. [Proverbs 16:32, Ecclesiastes 7:9, James 1:19-20]
2.
A person
who will not restrain their temper will not fulfill their potential.
G.
A person
who wants to develop their potential must have patience! [James 1: 4] But let patience have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect [fully developed AMP] and
complete, lacking nothing.
1.
We
cannot come to the fulfillment of our potential unless we let God develop
patience in us…
2.
Why do
we have to be patient? [Hebrews 10:36]
Conclusion: [Matthew 25:1-10]