Unlocking God-Given Potential | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Hey guys, it's Runnin' Hope Unfiltered, real, raw, and relevant. Don't turn it off. I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Oh, Hope ain't on there again." No, she's not. For those of you who wonder, I don't know if I can remember if I told you last week or not, Hope is being a caretaker right now. Just pray. Everybody has to do it. You know, everybody hits that season where you finally got your kids to become adults and then your parents are becoming kids again a little bit. But her father has had a series of strokes. And you know, with us going back and forth and, you know, 3 weeks out of the month living 2,000 miles away, it's hard to be a primary caretaker. And some of the people that would give the quality of care we desire, there's just no openings anywhere. So she's literally, we're having to stay on two different coasts and her almost being a nurse because her father's health is really failing. And so just pray. It takes a special grace. It takes a special grace. I talked to her last night. I could tell she's just beat. And so you wanna know how you can pray for us? We pray for people all the time. Here's how you can pray for us. Just pray for the grace place to have the proper openings and proper placement and be able to get her mother and father the care that they need in this season of life. We've committed to do that, but it's just finding that place to be able to do that. And until then, we're the ones that basically sustain that in the limbo. So that's where she's at. I can't tell you, because I know it's not the same when she's not here. Listen, it don't bother me. It don't offend me. She's the life of the party. She says I'm actually an extroverted introvert. I don't even know if I know what that means. I haven't Googled it. I think a lot of people, you know, if they see me preach, they're like, "Man, he must kind of be the life of the party." That is not what I am. I let Hope Carpenter be the life of the party. And I basically gravitate to whatever group she's talking to and follow her lead. She is a social butterfly, always has been. And enjoys it. We kid, we have these big birthday parties at the church campuses for Hope on both campuses. I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women showing up for her birthday party. And I'd looked at Hope one time, I said, "You know what my worst day ever would be?" And she said, "What?" I said, "To go and there'd be like 800 men at a birthday party." I said, "That would be my worst day ever." We're just so different in that regard. So it is different. We have so much fun together. We pick back and forth. And that's the nature. I want you to know something. This podcast wasn't designed, nor do I intend to turn it into a teaching tool. I hope there's some information in it, but we wanted it to be information/entertainment and then another slash kind of insight into what life is like outside of the ministry we operate in. And because we are really just jeans and a t-shirt, real people, and our problems are very similar to yours, our challenges are very similar to yours, and we go through a lot of the same things other people go through, just like with her parents right now. And that was the design of the podcast and to shoot from the hip and to be totally unscripted. So that's where the real, raw, and relevant comes in. But in her absence, you know, I am— I go back to what I am. I am a teacher. I'm a teacher. I can't help it. If somebody tells me a problem, I'm in my head before they finish, I'm trying to solve it. My kids, sometimes they're like, "Dad, we just want you to listen." It's so hard for me just to listen. Why? I want to fix it. I want to fix it. And I'm a problem solver in my head. And so when I get to you, I don't want to turn it into this, but in her absence, maybe if you'll stick around and listen to me, I can help you with some things and maybe, give you some information that can help you in whatever you do. I just want to give you 7 quick principles that I follow about spotting potential. Spotting potential. Let me tell you something about potential. Potential is meaningless if it remains potential. If you die with potential, you've wasted parts of your life. I want to live up to all of my relational potential. I want to live up to all of my godly potential. When I was in sports, I wanted to live up to all my athletic potential. I didn't always meet in school my academic potential, but I'm a person now, whatever God has given me, I want to try to maximize my potential. And I truly, I turned 58 this year, I wanna be better. I want to be better at what I do. Is there something I'm missing? Is there an untapped place in me? And when I know I'm not reaching my potential, I'm frustrated with myself. God is the God of potential. We call God omniscient and we call God omnipresent and we call God omnipotent. Omniscient, omniscience, all-knowing, and then omnipresent, everywhere at one time, but then also omnipotent, omnipotential, all potential. God is omnipotent. All potential lies in God. Potential is unrecognized power. Potential is unrealized reality. These are my definitions. Potential is, pardon me, unrealized reality. It's there. But it does you no good until you're in an environment which allows you to execute it. I'm preaching through the Book of Ruth, and I was talking about Ruth being a beggar all the way until she got into the part of the field, the Bible says, belonging to Boaz. And I told the people, I said, there's one thing about the potential and what's inside of you. Usually there are certain atmospheres that activate it. And so I will tell you one thing about potential. Usually it is not reached in the wrong atmosphere. 20-something years ago, I gave this illustration one Sunday about an orange tree. And people come up to me all over America in airports and stuff and tell me they remember that and they've never forgot it. But I talked about, you know, the power of an environment when it comes to reaching your potential. If you take an orange tree and put it in Wisconsin, it will be a houseplant. And you may get oranges yay big, that it will never reach its potential. But if I take it and put it in California, and I had some in my backyard, and if I took it and put it in Florida, you give it 20, 30 years, you have an orange grove because the atmosphere has activated the life which is in it and provided space for it to be all that it can be. And some of you have great potential, but you're in the wrong atmosphere. Some of you are not around people that attract greatness out of you. Some of you are not around people that will call you higher. Some of you don't have a standard that people uphold around you. And so you just kind of, you know, sashay through life and just as long as you get it done. But you go home and look in the mirror and realize there's so much more that you could be doing and you can be doing it so much better than you're doing it. And that's not really my, I didn't wanna do a teaching on potential. I wanna do about how to spot it. But first of all, know that God is the God of potential. And the Bible says that we come in his presence to obtain mercy and find grace. And we've been given a measure of grace. What is your measure of grace? What is your measure of potential? What is your measure? You've got to find your measure. You don't need to find anybody else's measure. You've got to find your measure. Don't ever compare yourselves. The Bible says when you compare yourselves amongst yourselves, it is not wise. Why? Because I might be doing better than you, fallen far beneath my potential. So if I compare myself, I may be saying, as long as I'm a step ahead of you, I'm where I need to be. But I may be a step ahead of you but far beneath what God has put in me. So the only thing I do is I try to judge Ron Carpenter against his own potential. I don't look at how many people's in anybody else's church. I don't look at how many folks they got saved. I don't look at that and I don't count that. Why? Because do I come in every morning and do everything I can to maximize all the godly potential that is in me and try to also be a person that sets an atmosphere where everybody wants to do their best, everybody wants to rise and do it passionately? When you spot potential, number 1, you've got to learn about the treasure in the field. Potential doesn't always show up looking like potential. And one of the things that has probably amazed me over my time in life is totally missing it because I judged the COVID and didn't read the book. I don't care how much we say we don't do this, I think we're all guilty of it. I remember one time, y'all have probably seen, we've had her probably a dozen times over the years, Janice Jostrand. Okay, let me give you a perfect example. And this is not something I'm proud of, but I own it. It's not right. I own this mistake. About 2000, '99 and 2000, redemptions just started exploding. And I do mean exploding. I mean unexplained blessing breaking out everywhere. That was almost too much to manage. And Hope was having a women's conference. And of course the building's packed. And she said, "I got this lady coming that I went to a conference and I heard her and she invited." I said, "Okay." I didn't know her, Janice Shoestrand. And when Janice Shoestrand walked in and we were a wild church, we were wild. I mean, we were hucking, bucking, chair throwing, baby tossing, slapping you with a sandal wild. Running laps wild. And we were wild every Sunday. We weren't wild at conferences. We had a wild culture, very intense. And Janice Shoestrand walked in with her ultra, ultra conservative dress down to her ankles. Mind me, my old holiness roots. I mean to tell you, no makeup at all, hair pulled back in a bun, sat there and she, one hand on another, Dr. Janice Shoestrand, highly educated. Highly cultured, highly poised. And I thought, I looked at her and I said this, I said, "Hope has made a huge mistake." I said, "We gonna kill this woman." I did. And it was about 30 minutes after that, she was up there with her hair going round and round and playing the piano with her forearms. And I sat back there like, if God forgive me, If I ever didn't spot potential and recognize you in somebody, it was in this moment right here. So one thing I want to tell you about spotting potential in others is God hides it. God hides treasures in a field. And God will take a great thing, listen to me well now, these are rules that I live by, and he will hide it behind a very common thing. Greatness never shows up looking like greatness. In fact, a lot of times, most of the greatness you experience, you never saw it coming. Never saw it coming. And so I have now learned to not be fooled by first impressions and reading book by their cover, because it never shows up looking like it was supposed to show up. Do you know what they are praying at a Wailing Wall right now in Israel. You know why? Because they have missed the Messiah. You know why they missed the Messiah? Because he didn't show up looking like a Messiah. In their mind, this is going to be a king. This is royal robes. This is pomp and pageantry. This is the one that's going to overthrow Rome, going to give us back our country, going to give us back our people, going to rally the people of Israel into a nation among nations again. And Jesus showed up in an unwed, pregnant teen girl teenager in a no-name place called Bethlehem, in a no-name manger or a barn with a bunch of animals. And they missed him. Why? Because they could not receive the way he showed up. He didn't show up— he showed up looking like common, but there was a treasure behind the common. And so one thing I would tell you to do when you're spotting potential in a husband, in a mate, in somebody you want to hire, in a business partner, in ministry, in a position, whenever you're spotting Take some time to dig deeper because greatness never shows up looking like greatness, and God hides greatness behind common. And then you've got to find the treasure that is in the field. What is the field? Dirt. What is the treasure? It's the treasure. And God always hides a great thing behind a not so great thing. And then he'll give you a shovel to remove the stuff that ain't so great so that you can unearth the thing that is great. I love, love, love finding God-potential people in uncommon places. Commonplaces. So number one, it don't always show up looking like potential. Amen. I want to talk to you about our sponsor right quick, and we've got a great one that's just been rolling with us, and we're rolling with them, and I want to thank them personally for everything they do. They have been a great, great sponsor and help us to do what we do. And, and you know what, in the kingdom you need to pay bills, and they help us pay these bills. But you know what, you can be annoyed with misleading healthy meals, and are you tired of locking in for another New Year's trend? Well, Green Chef cuts through the noise as the trusted authority in clean eating, delivering only real farm-sourced ingredients. Trust every bite with over 40 clean, customizable weekly recipes designed to give you peace of mind. Take control of your health without the stress. Let Green Chef do the research, the meal planning, the grocery shopping, and enjoy low-prep, low-stress mealtime lifestyle. We love Green Chef, personally, we do. We eat it a lot and our refrigerator's stocked with it. And I'm gonna tell you honestly, I think if you'll ever just go forth and try it, you'll like it. So I should have done this a long time ago. Head to greenchef.com/50, Run and Hope, and use code 50. Listen now, Run and Hope, to get 50% off your first month. That's half off. Then 20% off for the next 2 months with free shipping. That's code 50. Ron and Hope at greenchef.com/50. Ron and Hope. We love Green Chef. Thank you guys for your sponsorship. Pardon me. And to everybody who hasn't tried it yet, go try that because you do two things. Number one, it's healthy food. Number two, it helps you with your meal planning a lot better and live a healthier life. And number three, you help us pay the bills to be able to bring you things like we're doing right now. So it doesn't always show up looking like blessings. Okay. Number 2, real potential, especially in the kingdom, usually has a heavenly and an earthly confirmation. Okay. What in the world does that mean? If you're in ministry and you want to spot potential, everybody that comes to me and says, I'm called. Okay. That's not a done deal for me. That's 50% of the deal. And I really can't be the judge of that. Who can know the heart, God said? Who can know it? Actually, the Bible said the heart is deceitful among all things. Who can know it? So somebody just showing up and saying, I am called to you, I am called to this, I am called to function as, you know, you're open to be deceived. You don't know because that's something that happens between them and God. My calling did not happen amongst a lot of people. It happened between me and God. But there has to be an earthly confirmation after there's a heavenly confirmation. Remember, John the Baptist looked at Jesus, who up until that point had spent 30 years working for his dad in a carpenter shop. But John the Baptist looked at him and said, "Behold the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world." Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a long way from building benches with your dad. Okay? But it was recognized in the earth. Then what happened? When he took him to baptize him, the heavens opened up and a voice came saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." What did you have? You had earthly confirmation and you had heavenly confirmation. So just because somebody says they're called, it needs to be recognized in the earth just like it's recognized in heaven. When I went before an examining committee when I was with the Pentecostal Holiness Church with my dad in my youngest days, I got licensed and ordained by them. I went and sat before an examining committee to examine me to see if they thought I was called. And I did not get licensed, and I did not get ordained, and I did not get any credentialing until there were people on Earth that had agreed with what I said happened heavenly. I went to them and said, "I believe the call of God is on my life." I entered Bible school. In my third year, I came and said, "I want to be licensed and ordained by your organization." And those men drilled me. If I remember right, it was half a day, like from 8:30 to like lunch. Drilled me, drilled me about marriage, drilled me about my marriage, my money, my personal life. What were they doing? They were trying to find out, do we see the earthly fruit to match what he claims has happened in his life spiritually? So when you feel like you've spotted potential, there has to be heavenly confirmation and earthly confirmation on spotting potential. Potential. Another thing is you need to understand is watch for faithfulness. There are a lot of people that I have experienced in my 36 years of ministry that are real loud, but not real faithful. And then there are some other people that are real faithful that may not be real loud. And there was a time where the loud may have got my attention, but after years of being seasoned and betrayed by the loudness, now I watch for track records of faithfulness. When you're spotting potential, potential will reveal itself to you in increments, and you will get snapshots. While somebody is doing a common thing, you'll get a snapshot of a great thing. Okay? Jesus, this family goes to the temple to pray. They leave. Jesus is lost. He's 12 years old. That time he's just a boy. Jesus. Mama is Joseph and Mary. They, "Where is He?" They go back to find Him. They find Him in the temple. The Bible says confounding the scribes and the scholars at 12 years old. And when they ask Him, "Where have You been?" He said, "Did you not know I would be in My Father's house?" His ministry has not revealed. He hadn't cast out a devil. He hadn't healed the sick. Just a snapshot. Just in a place of prayer and a snapshot of greatness. Snapshots of greatness are revealed in common mundane activities. I can see if there's anything great in you by how well you do the things that aren't so great and aren't exciting. I love to preach, guys. I hope you can tell I do. I love to teach. I love to preach. I love it with a passion. And it's a passion that has never died. I am invigorated to preach the Word of God and I can't wait for Sunday to get here. I know a lot of pastors get my age and they're trying to get as many guest speakers as they can 'cause they get tired. I understand that. I feel tired too. But I love to preach, but I don't love everything else I do. And I've always said that real life is doing a lot of things you don't really care to do to get to do something that you love. And I do a whole lot of meetings and a whole lot of planning and a whole lot of strategizing and a whole lot of HR and a whole lot of legal stuff and a whole lot of IRS compliance and a whole lot of accounting and a whole lot of profit and loss statements and a whole lot of balance sheets. And I don't enjoy hardly any of it. Why? So I can preach. So I can preach. But if you watch what I do during the week, I hope that the people around me would say, "He does that with the same level of faithfulness and diligence as when he opens the Bible and says, 'Turn to Ruth chapter 3' on Sunday." So snapshots of the great are seen in everyday events. Let me give you one more. Function is taught, heart is imparted. When you spot potential, you can teach them to do what it is you'd have them to do. You can teach them to do what it is you do. So you don't look for function really, you look for heart. Because heart is not something that can be taught, it has to be caught. It's something that you catch. Let me see how I want to say this. How do you catch the heart of someone, Pastor? Heart is caught through service. The act of serving. When Elisha served Elijah, Elijah's mantle fell on Elisha. What qualified Elisha to get a double portion of Elijah's spirit? Go read it. The Bible says he poured water on his hands. He served him. And when it came time for something to be imparted or caught, what qualified him to catch the gift of the previous generation? His diligence to serve. When you serve somebody, when you serve others, what they have falls on you. What they have is imparted to you. So you watch a track record of faithfulness and find snapshots of potential within the faithfulness. And then you understand once you have spotted potential, Judge the heart of that potential because that's something you can't teach them. It's hard to teach kindness. It's hard to teach love. It's hard to teach genuineness and authenticity. It's hard, very hard to sit down in a classroom setting and take notes on genuine. Those are matters of the heart that are usually caught by being around someone who is that way, or it's imparted over time as somebody's life has affected someone else's. And so I've learned over time, if I can get somebody who has already caught the right heart, most of the time function, unless it's just a very dynamic gift or skill set, function can be taught. Do you love the Lord? Do you love us? Do you love the culture and the atmosphere of what we do? Do you love the mission that we're on of trying to forward the kingdom of God? Do you love the people? Those things, and if you love those things, then we can teach you this role. But do you have the heart to run with us like we run? So remember, read this book from Dr. Murdock a long time ago. What you fail to recognize potential, you fail to celebrate. And what you fail to celebrate eventually exits your life. Let me say it again. What you fail to recognize, you fail to celebrate. What you fail to celebrate, not immediately, but will eventually exit your life. So if you've got a great wife, but you don't recognize it and you fail to celebrate her as a great wife, maybe not immediately, but eventually she could exit your life. If you've got a great leader in your life and you never celebrate their leadership or the value that they bring to you or the impact that they're having, you never celebrate that, then eventually they could move on to a place where they feel more celebrated instead of just tolerated. So one of the things you've got to do is the law of recognition. If you are a leader, if you are a person that is looking for other people to accompany and walk with you in life in any function, you've got to be able not to just look what is, but spot the potential of what is to come. And if you have potential around you already and you never recognize it, it usually doesn't stay around. It moves on to a place where it's celebrated. I hope this has helped you. I said I was going to give you 7, I only gave you 4. But these are some of the things that I live by. This isn't a teaching. This is what I do. When we bring people on to run with us, this is a process that I go through in my heart and in my mind and I take somebody through. Why? Because if you're leading anything, you better be able to spot not just what's in front of you, but what can be. Amen. Guys, go check out Hope Carpenter's Inner Circle on her website. I know that she would promote that if she was here, and she's doing a great job and would love you to check it out and be a part of it. And she puts a lot into it and gives a lot to it. And I've got several things. If you want all my archives of teaching, that is subscription-based. It costs us a lot of money to digitally remaster all these messages all the way back from the cassette tape days and put them in a digital format for you. So it's subscription-based, but my Ron Carpenter AI, which is a great discipleship tool, just download the Ron Carpenter AI app for absolutely free and use it all you want to. It's on us. It's something that we do for you, that you have access to grow in your faith and get some of your questions answered. We'd love for you to have it both. Thank you for joining with me. Hopefully this has helped you. Maybe you took a little bit of note. And as soon as we can get Hope back in the saddle and laugh a little bit again, I'm going to do that. But until next time, It's Ron and Hope Carpenter, unfiltered, real, raw, and relevant. We love you guys, and we'll see you real soon.