 I'm going to continue the series of talks that we started. They deal mainly with ministry, with work called towels and titles. And today's talk is going to be titled, When potential is greater than your position. It will not only apply to the ministry, it will also apply to people who work outside of the church and who have certain positions that they feel are below their potential. We will take a reading from Book of Acts chapter 6. It's the same verses that I've been reading for the last three Sundays. Verse 2 of chapter 6. I want to remind you that the notes for this message are on the YouVersion Bible app. They will stay there only for one week, and after that they get put into podcasts and YouTube and our website where people can download PDF file sermon notes. Acts chapter 6 and verse 2. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about the importance of being full of Him. The week before that we talked about the importance of that ministry and work is more spiritual, that we need to develop structures and systems and that we need to also learn to delegate and be faithful in small things. Seek out from among you seven good men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit wisdom and whom we can appoint over this business. Verse 4. But that we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Verse 5. And the saying, please the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And if we skip to verse 8 it says, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders among the people. And if you skip through the whole chapter 7, it's pretty much a PDF of Stephen's sermon, which is the longest sermon in the book of Acts. Like Peter's sermons, they were like bulletin points, just few. Few verses quickly to the point. Stephen, this guy had a sermon. I mean, he preached for so long. It was 60 verses, the whole chapter of 7, the longest sermon in a book of Acts. What I want to present this morning in few moments that I have with us is that Stephen's potential, Stephen's anointing, Stephen's grace, Stephen's gift was so big. The Bible says he was full of the Holy Spirit. He was full of faith. He was full of power. He had miracle signs and wonders on his belt and the guy could preach. That's an apostle to me. That's an archbishop right there. That's a guy, Catholic church, voting for the Pope. This guy got some stuff under it. This guy has a resume. But I want you to see where the church appoints him to serve over kitchen. If I would be Stephen, and I do crusades worldwide, and I can run my mouth really good, and I have faith and I'm full of the Holy Spirit, the church puts me in the ministry to serve over kids ministry or over, you know, maybe particularly over food or over oysters. And with that kind of anointing I would say, excuse me, do you know who I am? Did you see my YouTube channel? Do you know how many subscribers I have on my podcast? Do you know how many followers I have on my Facebook? Did you see the latest miracle that God used to do? Do you know where I've been to school? For Bible college? I would accuse the church of not having discernment of preachers. Because, you know, there's gift of discernment of spirits. Discernment of man of God. But see, the church wasn't concerned. Make sure that the position matched his potential. They were just careful. Make sure his gift wasn't bigger than his character. If you're taking notes, write this down. It's okay if your potential is bigger than your position. It's okay if the job you're doing outside of the church right now is smaller than you. It's okay. What's not okay is if your character is smaller than your gift, your skill, your education, and your position. God is not sweating in heaven because your potential is bigger than your title. God is making sure that your gift, your skill, your population, your popularity, your anointing is not bigger than your character. Why is that very important to God? God is not there in heaven making sure your potential matches your position. That is not his number one concern. His concern is with our character. If you're taking notes, I want you to draw this down. Our value does not come from our visibility. One of the reasons why sometimes the Lord puts us in places that are smaller than our anointing is to teach us that your value is not connected to how visible you are. Your value is not connected to how people see you, how many people know you, and how many people report to you. As a human, as a Christian, your value is connected to what God says about you. Not what men see in you. Let me say that again. Your value is not determined to what men see in you. It's what God says about you. We must understand. Man will always see later what God says earlier. God will say you're the king. It will take man 13 years to say, uh-huh, yes, you are the king. God will say this is the son of God and it's a baby. It will take man 30 years later to say this is the son of God. God will always will say about you what will take man decades to see in you. And sometimes God will allow positions in society and certain lack of visibility so that you anchor your identity not in what men see in you, in what God says about you. Before God will, before men, see men appoint us, God anoints us. And God always anoints us first, but it takes time for men to appoint us. And never blame people for not appoint you, for not appointing you, because God has anointed you. It will take time. And that time is specifically strategically positioned so God can flash out wrong identities that will be based on what men see in you. Because when you have to live for 10 years relying on what God said about you, everything men says afterwards don't move you. They can say you're crazy. You say I heard worse from better people. They can say they said about Paul, you're God because he shook off the snake and didn't die. It didn't move him, why? Because Paul already knew what God said about him for years before this incident. God will allow a season where your position is way smaller than your anointing so that you don't depend on men's compliments or criticisms to make you valuable. If my heart says I'm not valuable because I'm not visible, so therefore I'm going to climb out of the chest and stick myself on his last forehead. My heart's dry for visibility will kill my body. Many people are obsessed today with visibility. A lot of times they come out of their calling, out of the pace God put them in, and they actually die spiritually trying to be visible. If God puts you as a forehead, shine as a forehead. But if God hid you behind a chest as a heart, don't strive to be visible for the sake of visibility. Your value is not determined by your visibility. Your value is determined by the position God placed you in right now and by the presence of God and by the people you surrounded by and by the principles you live by. Now my friend is where your value is depended on. Bible calls the church the body. And the body, there are organs in our body right now, in your body and in mine that are so valuable. In fact, they are way more valuable than the organs people see. And it will be foolish to say that just because those organs are valuable, they have to be visible. Not everything that is visible draws its identity, draws its value from the stage, the popularity, being known and being visible. We live in a generation today whereas maybe 10 years ago everybody sought to be prosperous. Today everybody seeks to be popular. If you're popular, you become rich. If you're popular, your life can change. And we have this drive in our generation for popularity. Popularity is influence and that influence is responsibility. God grants us, God gives us that. But to live your life seeking popularity instead of seeking purpose is equivalent to taking your heart out of your chest and sticking on your forehead. You know people who do that. You look at them and you're like, man, you don't belong there. You look at them and you're like, this is disgusting. It's like you're trying to do something. You're trying to be somebody. You're trying to copy these people on TV. You're trying to be somebody. That's not even you. You don't even look good on that thing. Stick yourself back in your chest and keep pumping blood, keep being an organ that is valuable even though you're not visible. And God put Stephen in an invisible place in the church but he was still valuable. Another thing that I want to point out and I already kind of mentioned is that your title doesn't determine your identity. What determines our identity is our relationship with God. Can somebody say amen? God trusts those he tests. A lot of times God will test us by putting us in a position that is smaller than our potential, our anointing, the calling of God upon our life, the dream God has given us. And God will do that to test us. It speaks in Psalm 105 verse 17. It says the following, He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with feathers. He was laid in irons until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. I want you to see this. The rejection, abuse, and offense Joseph experienced was not just that he was surrounded by jealous and bad people. The scripture says that God's word tested Joseph while his feet were being hurt, while he was being rejected, while he was being falsely accused. All of this stuff, it wasn't just bad people. It was actually God testing him so he can trust him. God loves everyone the same, but he trusts people differently. In my family, my father and my mother, they love all of five siblings in my family the same. But they never trusted all five siblings the same. Now, I was always accused being the oldest, that I was born with a silver spoon, gold spoon, a diamond spoon. I was accused of everything that you can think of. From my siblings. It was not easy being the oldest, but one thing that I did was really well is the fact that I knew that if I wanted to have certain pleasures and certain things given to me by my parents, it's not about appealing to their love. I had to earn their trust. While my other siblings did different things, I tried to earn their trust. My dad and my mom, they trusted me, even as a little kid. I tried to clean their car, clean the house all the time. Milk the cow, feed the pigs. That was BC days before coming to the United States. I did all of this stuff, cleaning the house so good. I remember one time my mom came back home and she had like little pennies in her pocket. She pulled all of that and gave it to me. She says, wow, the house smells so good, because I knew the way to her heart. You know, it's to serving, it's through helping. And through that, I earned the trust. At the age of 20, you know, my dad, he trusted me and he helped me to get along. He cosigned for me, which is not a good thing to do. Parents usually don't cosign and shouldn't cosign, even for their kids. And the reason why my dad did is because he trusted me. I paid things off to him. And then he trusted me with another thing, trusted me with another thing. And I seen my parents' relationship with me, there was more trust. And my other siblings, their great siblings, but at the age that I was in, the way there was a problem with trust and they accused them, they said, well, Vlad got this and that. The reason they got loved less, it's that they trusted me more. It wasn't better, I just simply earned the trust. You have to understand, God treats all of us the same in the reference to his love. But God will trust each person in this room differently. And he cannot trust you if he doesn't test you. And sometimes what he tests you with is he puts you in a position, Stephen, that is smaller than your potential. Joseph, sometimes he tests you, he lets people be jealous of you and do some things that are hurtful and God is looking, will you fight back or will you trust him? Sometimes God will put a crazy woman who wants to have sex with you and God will test to see can he trust you with promotion because he's testing you with purity. God will put David in the palace. But you have to understand is that David has an anointing to be a king. There's only one problem with that. Is his destiny the place is not vacant. There's somebody sitting there to be a king. And God is testing David. Will David get offended that his family is not seeing the great anointing on his life and they're sending him back to the sheep a position smaller than his potential? Or will David be in that position and say, well, send some bigger than this position. Let's do some bigger things. Let's kill lions. Let's kill bears. Let's develop a testimony. Let's create history with God. See, before David killed Goliath, he killed lions. A lot of people want God to trust them with the Goliath, but God will test you with the lion. Before God will trust you with the publicity, he will test you privately where a lion and a bear, insecurity, pornography, maybe jealousy, maybe certain hurts from the past will come attacking you and there you are complaining you have a great destiny. Nobody believes in me. Nobody sees in that. They stuck me with this crazy sheep. You know, there's more to life. Everybody's not discerning that. God is testing you. He wants to trust you, but he is testing you. Don't fail the test. See this about David. He goes finally to the palace. He kills the Goliath and you would think that David now will be trusted to be a politician. You know that the first job David had in the palace, it was not a king, it was a musician. You have to have enough courage to work as a musician in the place you're anointed to be a king. Many people would never play music in the place they're called to reign. Before David became a king, he served a king. He was tested. Before David led, he played music. I wrote this down. David shepherded sheep before leading a nation. David killed lions privately before facing giants publicly. David started as a musician in the palace before God called him to be a king. David drove out demons before he drove out philistines. David was a armor bearer before he was a king. All while, he was anointed to be a king. Why? Because God loves you the same. He trusts us different. And that trust is based, my friend, and how you pass the test. God's love won't change for you, but his trust would be different. If you're anointing is bigger than your title, bigger than your position, bigger than what men see you, don't be frustrated with men. Anchor yourself in God. Be faithful, be fruitful. Men will see different. Men will appoint you. Jesus says, if you're special, and you sit on the back, he said, men will bring you to the front. But if you run right away to the front, and you're not that special, men will put you back. He said, you'll be embarrassed. It's okay if you're bigger than your position. What's not okay is if your character is smaller than your anointing. The second thing that I want to point out from this story is position does not restrict anointing. Ego and laziness does. Position, so I want you to see Stephen gets put in a position that is way smaller than his anointing. The guy could do crusades worldwide. The guy could speak and preach and teach Bible seminaries. So well thought of. Stephen's sermons are way better than even probably Apostle Peter's and Apostle Peter, if you're listening, I'm sorry, it didn't mean to hurt your feelings. But Stephen's sermon was like legit. And Peter's sermons were very quick and very short. Stephen was the guy. Yet, he was put in a smaller position. But I want you to see that Stephen didn't get offended at the Peter, at John and James. They say, guys, that's not fair. I can preach better than you. I can heal better than you. I'm full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. I'm better than you and you're dumping me into something you guys don't want to do so you can spend more time with God. You should invite me into the big league. I should be with the big boys. Not put over there over the kitchen. You go take care of widows yourself. Give me the big stuff. Stephen doesn't get offended. Nor does he let his position in the church say, okay, well, since they're letting me only hand out food in the kitchen, that's all I'm going to do. I'm just going to be faithful with the food and the anointing I have to heal the sick, the power of God I have to cast out devils, the dreams and visions and prophetic gifts and utterances that I have, other things that I have that they're not letting me do here. Well, so what? I'm just going to put them on the back seat and wait until somebody will see that and give me a place. Stephen said this, in church I will do my best to make sure every widow is taken care of. And when I leave the church I will cast out demons like it's nobody's business. I don't need a platform. I'm going to go to the park. Peter doesn't need to invite me to speak at the apostolic church. I just need to heal three blind people in the park and I have a crowd. I don't need the platform. I just need a camera, a microphone and a Facebook account. I don't need that. He doesn't. I don't need him to help me build my anointing. He's not restricting it by putting me into a smaller position. What's restricting me is two things. Ego, I'm offended. They didn't see it in me. And secondly is I'm lazy. Instead of developing other skills and instead of developing other graces instead of learning how to play guitar since they're not hiring a king in the palace instead of learning how to translate dreams and developing that gift because Pharaoh is not hiring a prime minister. What these people do is they develop other gifts on the side because they're not lazy and then they sneak into their calling even though they never changed their position. Don't be a rock. Be like water. Rocks need open doors. They're stiff and they're too big. Water doesn't need an open door. Water needs a crack. Water is fluid. Calm but forceful. And many people, they're like a rock. They're so special in their own eyes. They're so important that if you don't give them a place if you don't promote them if you don't confirm and you don't encourage their gift I don't think I can do it. If you don't push them, motivate them spoon feed them. Hold their hand and constantly tell them nice words. No, I won't succeed. I'll never do anything outside of my position why nobody's encouraging me. Nobody believes me. My mama didn't tell me I was special. My daddy didn't tell me I was special so my position is restricting my influence. Don't get offended that it's not your mama it's not your position. It's your ego and it's your lazy. You have a lot of time and instead of benching instead of benching on Netflix and instead of watching all the latest movies if you would develop some other skills and develop some other things and exercise your anointing outside of your position, God will use you no less just because your position at your work or in the ministry now doesn't match your potential. Come on somebody. Anointing doesn't need a title to operate it needs a problem to fix we shouldn't seek a stage to shine on we should seek an opportunity to serve some people are always looking for a spotlight to shine on them scripture says you are the light that means you have to shine you don't need somebody to give you a light give them a light you don't need a stage you just need an opportunity as a person you need to find a need and fill it find a hurt and heal it find a problem and solve it God does not need a stage God's anointing didn't wait until David gets a crown we can't do anything God's anointing says David don't need a crown David needs a lion David don't need people to say oh my gosh David is such a man of God David needs a bear David needs a Goliath David needs cancer David needs arthritis he needs a problem to solve and if you are good at solving problems God will promote you God will open you doors for you can somebody say amen please understand the anointing upon your life if people hate you if people hate you and they really want to stop you and you really feel like there is a spirit demonic spirit operating through a pastor is holding you back cutting you out all the time if you truly anointed no demon can stop you because you are like water did you see these things cannot be stopped by our nooks they cannot be stopped by nothing if you are like water you don't need a crack you don't need somebody to roll a red carpet for you somebody to constantly pep talk to you you just need a crack you just need a small opportunity where you can help somebody where you can help somebody and next time it happens you will come out into a new season into the new room into the new level you will come out to a new position why because you are flexible you are fluid and because you bring benefit and help to other people don't be stiff don't be too solid don't be too ego driven don't think too much of yourself be humble in your mind and God will exalt you at your due time somebody give God some praise right now somebody who is fluid in the spirit give God some praise right now somebody who knows you are going to a new season in your life give God some praise right now will not let us succeed outside of our position will not let you succeed as a slave because you've been called to be a president Joseph ego will not let you succeed as a musician because you are too anointed to be a king ego will never let you go back to the sheep just because you got anointed to be a king ego will never pick up a towel just because you have a title that you are a son of God see in order to succeed in a calling you have to swallow your ego Jesus simply picked up a towel he had the title as a son of God but in that moment it didn't matter people whom God will use are people whose egos are small and hunger is big and a lot of times the only thing that we have that's big is our ego our passion is small our prayer life is small our desire to learn is small our desire to improve our skills our race is small and the only thing that's big is inflated version of ourselves it's like a balloon we're walking it's so touchy God forbid somebody touches us the wrong way that's when you know you're inflated not anointed inflated Stephen wasn't inflated he was easily said yes you guys need me to serve I can't stop serving within my gift and I don't need Peter to sign off on that if Peter is okay with me going on the streets I'll preach on the streets if you have an anointing to preach if you have an anointing to heal the sick if you have a ministry inside of you if you really have that you don't need somebody what you need is you need to stop thinking of yourself too highly and being offended that people don't see it and find opportunities where you can serve and playing music for Saul will lead to becoming his armor bearer becoming a general becoming a fugitive and then becoming a king of a one tribe becoming a king of all the tribes God's calling will take you to the throne but God will take you through a process God will take me through the process where he will kill insecurity where he will kill my little petty little self-esteem petty little self-importance he will put that down and the only thing that will be important is God what he said about me and how he sees me can somebody say amen don't leave the church just because you're famous on the streets there's a temptation that happens is this is the moment the ministry gets big outside we want to rub it into the people on the inside say well you didn't believe in me look what God did I'm leaving starting my own international LCC or my own international ministry Steven never did that the only reason why Steven left is because of him I see a lot of people who sometimes they get limited they feel like they're limited in the church especially those of you coming from other churches you come and you're like man in the other church I was an apostle in the other church I was this and I was that and please understand in order to prove that you were that serve reference letters are good your videos on YouTube that you prophesied in the other church are amazing everybody of people they don't know you therefore they don't trust you you can give the right prophecy people won't hear it you will say they won't hear it because they don't know you why they don't know you because you just came in learn to serve get to know the church let the church get to know you so that your voice will be heard not just spoken what you say is true it's just nobody will hear it nobody will care because they don't know you because they don't see your faithfulness how popular how anointed you were and how great you are in the marketplace you have to understand you can't just come in and shove your title you have to come in pick up a towel and serve serve in any way show your heart first not your skills and lastly so think first thing we mention is that your position is smaller than your potential don't worry about that make sure that your character is not smaller than your gift the second thing that we mention that a position in your work and position in the church doesn't limit you it's your lack of desire to grow and you're thinking too highly of yourself that's what's going to limit you but the third thing that I want to share with you and it's going to pretty much slightly contradict what I just mentioned in point one the reason why is because I have to mention this and we have to see we have to correct our motives is that serving is not a stepping stone serving is not a stepping stone Steven we know we're in here we see now maybe he did but we don't see it where he got promoted into a better position in the church because his ministry outside of the church was successful you don't see here was Steven like the church saw his sermon and you took one viral like outside of the church like dude he's going to be part of our preaching team you don't see Steven after a few healings Peter's like oh dude man we're going to send you to other cities as well man you're good the only thing that we saw here is that he didn't get promoted to a better ministry he got promoted to a better place he went to God's glory you can't beat that kind of promotion guys like you did so good the church doesn't see it I'm seeing it you coming home sunshine you coming home now it's true if you are faithful many times man will see it man will appoint you God will open doors he'll promote you he will exalt those who walk in humility but it's important that we don't see this thing that we are doing for God as a temporary stepping stone until King Saul dies until Pharaoh gets the revelation on the guy because then what we do is that we use the serving to build our ministry instead of God using us to build this kingdom plus the bible presents the church as the body how many of you know you don't promote your heart to become eyes because it pumps blood really good you don't give your heart after 5 years you've been pumping blood so good I'm gonna make you a nose I'm gonna promote you into being ears so everybody can see you I'm gonna promote you to be eyebrow so you can be on every single photo nobody does that with their heart sometimes the Lord doesn't promote us into visibility because that is really our sweet spot where we are being effective and where we are serving him and we shouldn't compare the function and the visibility of the heart with eyebrows and eyes because eyes cannot do without heart and heart cannot do without eyes we all have our functions where God will reward us not based on what people thought of us not based on where we got invited to speak not based on where our books landed and New York Times not based on how many people followed us on social media or how many people listened to us God will promote us and how effective the heart was beating how effective the lungs were receiving air how effective were eyes seeing how effective were ears hearing and so you have to understand you and I will stand before God and we will give an account not how we measured in the eyes of man God I'm all for promotion I believe that God will exalt us but our motives have to be pure God will purify our motives by sometimes lingering our promotion so he can get all of the faults from our motives out so our motives is not I'm using the church to build me to God using me to build this kingdom my name will die but his name will live we live for the fame of his name we don't live for the fame of our name we don't use the church as a platform to get a ministry going we use our ministry as a platform to get God's kingdom spread there is only one name that heals the sick there is only one name that drives out demons there is only one name that restores broken marriages there is only one name the hell is afraid of it is not the name hungry generation it is not the name Vlad it is the name of Jesus Christ the son of the living God the name that heals the sick the name that islands will trust in somebody shout that name somebody shout that name somebody shout that name hallelujah we don't promote a heart to become a mouth because it pumps blood good don't fall into pressure don't live insecure be comfortable in your calling don't compare and compete run your race I am going to read the last verse and then we are going to go into testimonies John chapter 17 verse 4 it says the following Jesus said this I have glorified you on earth I have finished the work that you have me to do I love this about Jesus he didn't live on this earth even glorifying his name he was God his motive was I glorified you on earth and I did what you asked me you positioned me in a particular place I did it I didn't go far at physical building didn't build a building didn't travel very far and didn't live very long but he says I did these two things I glorified you and I did what you called me to do he didn't say what people said about me because people thought he was crazy at the end of your life your success will depend on these two things Lord I glorified you everything I did was for your glory not for my fame and Lord I did what you called me to do