This week, Tony and I were having some internal conversations about our organization, trying to determine what adjustments need to be made so we can be as successful as possible. God gave me a vision for Freedom Church, and in order to see that vision accomplished, there are some things that must happen. We need to stay connected to the true vine, doing everything we can to stay close to and honor God. We've got to be honest about where we are as an organization and about what things are keeping us from reaching our potential. This requires us to be incredibly self-aware, but also it requires that we are willing to address any issue, no matter how we feel about it.

I could list out a bunch of other things, but let me just emphasize what I just said a little more. It doesn't matter how we feel about something. It doesn't matter if we think we're operating in unity. If we aren't, we aren't. It doesn't matter how we feel we are doing when it comes to our discipleship process. If people aren't being discipled, they aren't being discipled.

This is really hard for a lot of people because we live in a culture that tells you how you feel matters more than anything. How do you feel matters more than what was actually said. What you feel is more important than what was actually meant. What you feel is even more important than the truth. This is what the culture teaches you.

This is why as a church we have to work really hard that when we give people truth, we do it with enough grace. Too much truth and not enough grace can be too harsh for people. It will break relationship. Too much grace and not enough truth will cause people to compromise. So we try to mix enough truth with enough grace so that change is the result.

But in reality, and this is harsh, how you feel about something really doesn't matter when compared to what is true. The Bible doesn't say you shall know how you feel and it will set you free. The Bible says in John 8:32
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Do you want the truth? Are you sure?
Because if you really want the truth, that means the truth is going to force you to come face-to-face with some things that are potentially not just difficult to overcome, but nearly impossible. That truth is going to make you decide whether or not you respond with how you feel, or you respond with action to correct whatever the truth is revealing is broken. The truth is going to force you to shift some of your thought processes, even once you learned from your family. The truth is going to make you decide whether or not you change.

What does it mean to you that the truth will set you free?
First, what truth? Whose truth? Your own? The way you think it should be done? Your own solution? Too many of us here have tried that and we know it doesn't work. God’s truth is the only truth.

Second, what does freedom mean to you?
Is it freedom from some habitual sin? Your past? Anxiety? Insecurity? Or is freedom just a respite for a moment.

Third, when it says "set you free," what exactly is that process?
Is it something I get to pick willi nilly? Or is there a specific method? And will it hurt, and if so, how bad?

The most aggressive turbulence in your life can be found in the space between you wanting to be free and the process by which you become free.

And what's crazy is this is the stuff that keeps us from reaching our potential. We want to be everything God created us to be. We want to hear the words "well done, good and faithful servant," but sometimes we fail to realize what it's going to require of us in order to reach our potential. We look at someone at the top of their craft, like an Olympic gymnast or a league MVP, and we marvel, and are even maybe a little jealous of that success, yet we never see the struggle of what it took for them to reach that pinnacle. We look right over the discipline of their flesh and pain of the process right into the success that discipline and process brought them,
and while we long for the success, we groan at the process.

What I am trying to help you understand is that there are some adjustments we need to make if we are going to reach our potential. There are some things about you, things about me, things about all of us that hinder us from reaching potential because of roadblocks along that path. And we can easily just point our finger and blame the devil for everything, but many times, it is our own issues, our own choices, that keep us from achieving what God has planned for us.

I want to share with you today some adjustments you're going to need to make within yourself that are going to help you reach the potential for which God created you.

1. Self awareness
Let me explain what I mean with a question:
What’s a stumbling block that’s kept you from reaching potential, yet you are unaware of it? Yeah - that’s a really dumb question, huh? Of course you don’t know.

How do you fix this? This is one of the main reasons you have godly people in your life.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

You don’t know what you don’t know. We all have these things called blind spots, and those blind spots require third parties to help us see them.

God knew you would have these, so he built this system where you would need to be surrounded by his family so they could help you. This family is the church family. A big problem in this system, though, is that the family got fleshly and started rendering judgment instead of bearing burdens.

God told us to respond like Galatians 6:1-3
1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Yet what the church has done for so long is more akin to the Prodigal Son’s older brother, who, rather than running with the father to embrace the lost son, judged and condemned him for his wickedness.

So if I ask you today to allow the body of Christ around you to help identify blindspots in you, you might hesitate because historically, the church has been more justice than mercy.

So how do you allow the body to help you with self awareness without the risk of another round of judgement?
Short answer: There’s no guarantee, and there is still a risk. The Prodigal’s brother was a wrong, too, and sometimes, a well-meaning Christian is going to say or do something that hurts you. That doesn’t mean it is ok. But just like love, there’s a risk.

Another short answer: You need someone with the 5: Know you/God, love you/God, Has your best interest in mind. Trust somebody, not everybody.

Yet there is another way you can increase your self awareness:

I mentioned the Prodigal Son.
One of the most impactful moments in that entire story was the moment of realization. This was his moment of self awareness, but how did he see it?

Luke 15:14-18
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 17 When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!” 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you…”

What happened in his mind to make him come to his senses?
He looked around and it didn’t look like his father’s house.
He was starving, and that didn’t happen at his father’s house.
He felt alone and he never felt that at his father’s house.
He knew his sin because he was separated from his father’s house.

Self awareness requires introspection where, rather than blaming our woes on the world around us, we get serious about taking responsibility for the wrongs inside us, realizing that we are the ones who have separated us from our father.

Are you self aware? Do you know the things you’re doing wrong or not doing well? Are you doing anything to address them? Or are you excusing them? “That’s just who I am, or how I was taught, or I’m just the results of the past.”

If someone you trusted told you some issues in your life, would you get angry or get busy fixing the problems?

Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Self awareness is asking not what offends me, but what is offending in me.
Make the adjustment of being better at being self aware.

2. Self-correction
Correction is the thing everybody hates, but everybody needs. We want correction like we want to get punched in the face, and correction often feels just like getting punched in the face.

In 2012 I was being interviewed by Pastor Chuck and Diana at New Covenant in Longview for the youth pastor position. They both drove over from Longview to Marshall to meet with me and Monique. At one point, Diana asked, "If one of the teenagers wants to read Harry Potter, are you going to tell them not to?" I said, “No.” She was surprised, and asked me, “Why not?” I told her. “If I establish myself as their spiritual policeman, but never teach them how to rely on the Holy Spirit to tell them what they should or should not do, then they will only ever see me as the law, and never learn how to correct themselves.” Pastor Chuck smiled real big and said, “That’s a good answer.” It was good lol.

I want you to understand that correction is a process with God, and it is when you refuse to accept correction that they become the stumbling blocks that keep you from reaching your potential.

So what does that process look like?

1. God wants you following his Word because the word keeps you from needing correction.
Obedient people don't need correction.
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

2. Along with the Word, God wants believers helping believers stay on the path.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

3. God knows our thoughts are where disobedience begins, so he admonishes us to renew our minds. Thoughts dictate what you believe, beliefs dictate what you do.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Remember, that is done through his word, through worship, prayer, engaging with godly people, etc.)

4. When we begin to stray, God brings people and situations to correct us.
Jonah got the fish and his belly in Jonah 1. David got the prophet and his parable in 2 Samuel 11. Both were designed to help them become aware of their sin and to correct it.

5. God gave us a way to be forgiven of our sin through his son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness.

6. If we refuse to repent and be corrected, God will often send situations that correct us. God would rather you go into Heaven missing a limb, then bust hell wide-open with all of them. He is more than happy to let you hit rock bottom if it means saving your soul. David wrote Psalm 51 in response to his sin with Bathsheba, and it talks about the despair of his soul, his blood guilt, his brokenness before God. Psalm 51 gives us "a broken heart and contrite spirit you have yet to deny."
Also Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

7. And even if we refuse to be corrected, even at rock-bottom, God will let you have the life you've chosen.
Romans 1:28-29
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness

Let me ask you now:
Is there anything in your life right now that is keeping you from God’s best? A sin? A thought pattern? Pride? Your past? Are you willing to be corrected?

Much like self awareness, self correction is necessary to reach your potential in Christ.

3. Self-actualization
I'm sure you've heard the first two, but you may not have heard of this last one. And don't make the mistake of believing that just because each of these have started with the word self that it means you can only do this by yourself. On the contrary, the only way you are able to accomplish these is through the work of the Holy Spirit and God's people in your life. “Preacher said I don’t need no one er nuthin a’tall.” WRONG.

Self actualization is a term used in psychology essentially revolves around the idea of you becoming everything you are capable of becoming, and to fully realize your potential.

I always think about Peter’s progression with something like this. We talk about him a lot here simply because we can so easily relate with this rough around the edges, foot in mouth man. We can easily see ourselves in the constant up and downs over the course of the three years of Jesus’ ministry. We can see ourselves in this failure, and we want to see ourselves in him as he boldly stood and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Jerusalem. We want all these things, and believe it or not, Peter wanted them to, but the issue was not his want, it was what it was going to take to get him there.

How willing are you to walk the road God has for you knowing there will be moments where your greatest fears will be challenged? Knowing there will be situations where you will be forced to abandon what you think makes you safe and embrace the fear of the unknown? Knowing that it might cost you everything while you gain the Kingdom?

See, we all want that, but it takes adjustments to make that happen.

This week I read three things that made Peter a good disciple and three things that made him a bad disciple. What made him bad: He was impulsive, he was disloyal, he was a doubter. What made him good: He was bold, he was a born leader, he was quick to repent.

Just as a fun little exercise, what are three things that make you a good disciple and three things that make you a bad one?

Instead, let me give you three quick adjustments that can help you be a good disciple.

1. Deny your flesh.
Anything that is going to keep you from reaching your potential in Christ is going to be found smack dab in the middle of your flesh.
Romans 7:18
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

So what do you do? Crucify the flesh. Renew the mind.
Galatians 5:24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

2. Shift your motivation.
When you focus on the things of the world, you get temporal, fickle things, but if you focus on the things of the Kingdom, you get eternal, stable things. You are not going to always be happy, but you can always be fulfilled. You are not always going to be safe, but you can always be secure. That's the difference between focusing on the world and focusing on the Kingdom.
Matthew 7 - building on sand or the rock

So what do you do? Seek the Kingdom
Matthew 6:33
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

3. Embrace the process.
You’re saved the moment you say yes to Jesus, but sanctification is the process that takes time, effort, energy, humility, and a host of other things.
Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

You aren’t the finished product yet. But often, we let our failures dictate our future. You are going to succeed in this and you were going to fail in this. You're going to have good days and bad days. You are going to be righteous in some moments and wicked in others. The goal is not to focus on your brokenness, but to focus on his grace, mercy, his love for you, his desire that you embrace all that he is.

This is going to force you to change how you think about some things, how you do some things, how you respond. You're gonna have to let go of some things and embrace some other things. All of this is the process by which God is working destruction out of you and his salvation into you so that you can become everything he created you to be.

There's so much more I could say about this today, but here's what I want you to walk away with:

You need to be self-aware.
You need to know your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know where you are winning and where you are losing. The reason you do this is so you can do more of the things where you're succeeding, and correct the things where you aren't. Self-awareness requires humility, it requires you to submit to people around you to help you become who God created you to be.

You need to self correct.
If you don't know the word, you don't know what you're doing right or wrong. You have to be willing to see and hear when God is correcting you.
Be willing to correct yourself before God has to correct you with circumstances. Self correction is needed to keep you on the right path, but correction is also proof that God loves you, so embrace it, don't reject it.

You need to self-actualize.
The first thing is you need to understand that through God, you do have the ability to become everything he created you to be. You do have value. You do have worth. You do have a calling. God is not through with you yet. But to become what he created you to be, you're gonna have to deny your flesh, you're gonna have to shift your focus, and you're gonna have to embrace this process knowing that it's going to have good moments and bad ones, easy ones and excruciating ones. You've got to be willing.

So how do you respond today?
Maybe you look at your life and you realize there are some very clear things that are keeping you from God's best for you. You need to give them to the Lord. Maybe that's laying them on the altar, repenting, maybe you need to give your life to Jesus to begin with because you’ve only been giving him a portion of you.

Maybe you need to take a moment and ask God to forgive you for not believing that you are worth the investment, that God would even do something good with you in the first place.

Maybe you simply need to stop doubting and analyzing, and you just need to step into what God has for you.

Whatever it is, we will pray and give you a chance to respond.
Let's pray

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?