This morning, we’re

continuing our message series entitled “Reclaimed” which is all about

becoming who you were created to be. 

This series begins our focus on the work of the Holy Spirit and His

ministry, the third core value of New Hope.

We learned last week

about redemption, the very first step in any reclamation process.  Before I can restore a car back to its

original condition or repurpose an old wire spool into a stylish coffee table

or tear apart a barn to reuse it’s wood, I first must have possession of that

item.  If I do not already own the item,

I must redeem it.

God has redeemed us

at the cost of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  He assigned our value and worth and paid the

full price for us.  He assigned us that

value not as a finished and completely restored person, but exactly as we

are.  Jesus wants it all; our good and

our bad, our failures and our victories, our sin and our shame, our highs and

our lows.  He says that we are totally

worth the cost!

The next step in the

process of being reclaimed is one of the most uncomfortable for us.  Before we get to the good stuff and begin to

walk in our full potential that we were created for, an assessment must take

place.

Paul wrote about

himself and Apollos (both leaders in the church):

1 Corinthians 3:9

For we are

co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

In the process of

buying a building before closing on the sale, an inspection takes place.  Banks usually require it, but it’s wise for

anyone making such a significant investment to have one done as well.  It’s easy for someone to purchase a building,

slap some new paint on the walls and throw new flooring down and make it look

incredible.  However, there could be

significant issues lurking behind-the-scenes.

Problems accessing

water, septic backing up, foundations failing, water coming into basements,

water lines leaking, roofs failing; these are all repairs that would come at a

huge cost!  Inspectors come in and review

the building to look for and to report any issues with it.

Someone looking to

reclaim a car will do a similar thing. 

They will inspect the car and make an inventory of things that will need

repaired or replaced.  Then, they’ll

begin their work.

This is another

paradox in the Kingdom of God.  How it

impacts us and how we respond to this process is all about our

perspective.  Here’s the trigger of this

paradox: God begins to reveal to us who He created us to be and the purposes

that He designed us to accomplish.

On one hand, it is

so amazing and exciting to think that we could even obtain or achieve what He

reveals to us!  It’s awe-inspiring that

He sees that potential in our lives.  It stirs

up a zeal and passion within us and a desire to reach that potential.  It causes us to want to change to become

better and to do greater things.

On the other hand,

we can easily begin to see just how far we are from that potential and begin to

reflect on the ways that we wasted our lives in the past.  We can become discouraged and feel like we’re

just not measuring up to God’s standard for us and feel overwhelmed as if

though we could never even reach it.

God’s purpose for

this revelation is to encourage and inspire us; to cause us to love Him even

more and trust Him even greater. 

However, our enemy can use this same revelation of God to discourage us

and to cause us to feel like giving up and walking away from our

potential.  Please, please, please, go

with God on this one!

Thankfully, God

rarely ever reveals to us the whole of our potential.  To do so would probably overwhelm us.  Just like any other reclamation process, God

takes our transformation in steps working on a few things at a time.  We call this process sanctification; becoming

who God created us to be as He reclaims us. 

For us to reach our

full potential, the Holy Spirit acts in a way that we all desperately need, but

few of us want experience known as conviction. 

Jesus,