We dedicate this time to you, dear Lord. We ask that you would help us to hear what you would have us to hear, not only with our ears, but with our hearts that we would move from this place more dedicated to knowing You, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

One of the greatest tragedies in life, dear friends, is the tragedy of lost potential. We have all known people through our lives, whether they be performers or athletes or friends or neighbors, who at one point in their life showed so much possibility, who showed so many capabilities, so much promise but, because they got going in the wrong direction or kind of got sidetracked in their lives with one thing or another, they never lived out to their full potential.

A week ago I went out to Boston to do a funeral for a young man, twenty-nine years old, who was found dead in his condominium. He was the son of our director of music out there with whom I worked for over fifteen years; our kids knew this young man, kind of grew up with him. He had everything going for him. He was a tremendously friendly kid. He built relationships with people easily. He was kind. He was a sweet young man. After he died, in two days there were fourteen hundred eleven hits on his Facebook page to say goodbye to him. He was a tremendous musician. He played trombone. He went to Hartt School of Music and learned how to play that trombone beautifully. He was in the Hartford, Connecticut Symphony and played with all of these people. He could play any instrument — trumpet, clarinet; he learned piano pretty much by ear. When we played hand bells — his name was Sean — Sean could play, I swear, almost all eight parts by himself. Half the time people didn't show up and he'd run back and forth from those tables — ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. He was a quick study. He was so gifted. But he had a problem. It was diabetes, and he couldn't deal with it. He couldn't get his arms around it. His mom would say that he just kind of would avoid it. He lived in denial about it, and so he didn't take all those tests that you need constantly to be taking, checking your blood sugars. Diabetes is not a part-time disease; you need to stay on it. He had juvenile diabetes, and it ended up getting him.

You know, sometimes we're just not able to do it. One of the things you learn after being in the ministry is that some people just can't do it. You can be judgmental about it, or you can stand on the side and make comments about it, but it doesn't change anything. Sometimes the truth is, we just can't do it. Maybe it's depression, maybe it's an addiction, maybe it's a disease, but we just can't deal with it. He wasn't able to deal with it. So there was so much potential lost. I think that that's why we were so broken-hearted, as he had so much going for him.

In no area of life is loss potential more widespread or more evident than in the Christian life. When you come to Christ there is so much potential; there is so much potential. You receive the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that when you come to Christ, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is passed away, and the new has come. When you come to know Jesus, the sky is the limit. You young girls here, the sky is the limit for you in Jesus Christ. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, "All things are yours." Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, things present, things to come, all yours. We are thoroughbreds. We can be all that we can be. Believe me. I was in the army and that's not the organization that will make you be all that you can be. So the apostle Paul prays, as I pray for you at Good Shepherd, that you will begin to live to more of your potential.

As God's chosen people, Paul says we have the potential to know God intimately. Paul prays for the Ephesians that they will rise to new heights. He says, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better." He prays — and this is my prayer for you — you would know God better. This knowing God is the possibility of real deep full knowledge as opposed to just knowing about God or superficial acquaintance. One of the greatest heartaches of a pastor is that many people keep God out here and they never really get to know Him, especially Lutherans. A lot of our people will just be baptized and confirmed, and they think they've reached the limit; you know, "I got my Lutheran medal and I'm done."

There's so much more. You can get to know God. There are different levels of knowing people. If I talked about Barack Obama, you may know who he is, but you don't really know him. The next level would be knowing facts about people and getting to know what they like or dislike, you get to know them better. Then you can get to know somebody so well that you begin to anticipate them, you anticipate what they're going to say and what they're going to do. I've known Linda since I was sixteen. We know one another pretty well. No, capital "K" — we Know, maybe too much. And then you can know someone so well that you begin to be like him or her, you begin to experience the person so deeply that you begin to take on his or her qualities and begin to be like him or her in every way. You can know God as your best friend. You can know Him, know Him even better than I know Linda. Did you know that God wants to know you? The atheist says there is no God; the agnostic says you can't know anything about Him. But we know that God has made Himself known. God is not closed. He doesn't have a wall up. He's not private. He's not evasive. He doesn't avoid you. He wants to know you. He's come to know you. He's revealed Himself in nature. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth His handiwork." He's revealed Himself in the Scriptures. He tells us what He's like in the Bible, what He thinks; this is like His autobiography. It's a love letter from God to you. He's come to you. He wants you to know Him through the Word. The greatest revelation of God is when He came in the flesh in the form of Jesus. You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. He came and He walked this earth. He put on skin you can get to know Him. He wants to know you! He's not like Shiva, the Hindu god, of whom they're afraid, distant, away. He's not like Allah, capricious, you don't know what he is going to do.

God has revealed Himself. He has come to you. He want to know you; He wants you do know Him. He's come to you through His Holy Spirit. This knowledge comes through the Holy Spirit. "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you." The Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth. He'll bring to your remembrance all the things that He wants you to know. You've got the Holy Spirit so that you can know the things of God. You've got the software, the hardware, whatever you want to say, so that you can know God. There are a lot of people who don't have the Holy Spirit; they can't ever know God. Look at First Corinthians 2:14 — "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." But we can, for when we believe we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This deeper knowledge of God — of His love, of His grace, of His power, of His faithfulness — is of greater value than anything in this world. Knowing You, Jesus, there is no greater thing, amen. It's the greatest thing in all the world. What is more, Paul says, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." What's better than knowing God and His Son, Jesus? When you're alone, what's better than knowing God and that He is with you always? When you're afraid and you don't think you're going to make it, what's better than knowing that God is our refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble? What's better than knowing God? The gentleman over here, who served in Vietnam with me, was telling me this morning he was a little north of Long Bin where I served a little while; I went down south to the Mekong Delta. Let me tell you something, people of God, to know God in the jungle of Vietnam was the greatest gift that my mother ever gave to me. What's better than knowing God when you get cancer? What's better than knowing God when you're on the last days of your life? What's better than knowing that "I have prepared a place for you. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you." What's better than knowing God?

What's the greatest gift that you can ever give to your children? To know the Chicago Cubs? No! The greatest gift that you can give to your children is that they would know God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The greatest gift that I could give to my granddaughter Abigail, who's with me today, is the gift of Jesus. Because you know what? I'm not always going to be here, and neither will her parents. Whenever they go, whenever they leave high school, God will always go with them. When they take the only car you have and start driving, when they go out on their first date, what's greater than giving them to Jesus?

This knowledge of God, of course, is eternal life. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Absolutely, it's eternal life. It's the greatest thing in all the world. You can know God. Jeremiah writes that the Lord says, " 'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the LORD." In Jeremiah nine He says, "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me." Knowing You, Jesus, there is no greater thing.

As God's chosen people, we have the potential to know the hope to which He has called us. "I pray ... that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints ..." Paul is praying for these Christians in Ephesus as I pray for this congregation, Good Shepherd, that you might this year come to know God better. Secondly, he prays that they might come to know "the hope to which He has called you," the glorious inheritance of all the saints. Christian hope is not wishful thinking that we think of when we speak of hope today. It's not like, "Boy, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow," or when you say to people, "I hope things will work out for you." It's not that kind of hope. It's not Annie singing, "The sun'll come out tomorrow;" it may not, it may rain. No, this hope is much stronger than that. That's just a wish; that's just a dream.

The hope for which Paul prays is the certain confidence that we have in Christ Jesus, who died and rose again, that the best is yet to come. I tell you what, people of God, I'm going to win. Watching the Bears last night, I'm not sure they'll win. But I know that in Jesus Christ I'm going to win and that you, in Jesus Christ, are going to win. I know where I'm going, you know where you're going to go, too. You're going to be with the Lord forevermore! You're going to win. I don't care what you're going through today, I don't care if you've lost your job, I don't care if you've been stricken with an illness, I don't care if you've been through divorce, I don't care. Whatever you're going through today, you're going to win. The best is yet to come. That's our living hope. Look, "Because I live, you also will live." We call it the full assurance of hope, the living hope, the hope played up for you. Do you know what the symbol for hope is in the Christian church? It's the anchor, because it rests on the truths of God, it rests on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's our living hope. It can never be taken away from us. Sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to make it. Sometimes I wonder if we're going to make it here together at Good Shepherd. But then I have hope. My hope rests in Jesus when He says, "I am with you always." Fear not, little flock, I am with you. He is able to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think — that's my hope. When things get tough, He says this to me: "I will not give you too much to bear, but in the time of testing I will provide a way out that you may be able to stand up under it" — that's my hope!

When I sat there, when I spoke to Sean's family, his parents all sat in the front row, and we cried. But we didn't cry as if we had no hope, because we know that Jesus died and rose again, and if He died and rose again, He will take us also to be with Him, so that for Sean it's not "goodbye," it's only "so long for now." Do you know the name Mel Blanc? Mel Blanc's the guy who came out on Looney Tunes and his voice said this: "Ibbity-ibbity-ibbity-ibbity-that's all folks!" That's Mel Blanc. If you go to his gravestone today, you'll see the marker for Mel Blanc and that's the phrase on it: "That's all folks!" Not for the Christian! We have a living hope. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened up that you might know the hope to which He's called you. The Middle Eastern folks, they thought your heart was the center of your emotion and your desires and your longings, that your deepest longings are in your heart. That's true. We say that, too; you know, "whatever you set your heart on." We'll talk to people and ask, "Where's your heart on this?" Listen to this Scripture: "I pray ... that the eyes of your heart may be opened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you."

As God's chosen people, we have the potential to know God's incomparably great power. "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may ... his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." Paul is praying that we might know the power, the power of Jesus. "I pray that you'll know Him better. I pray that you'll know the hope to which He's called you. I pray that you'll know the power, the incomparably great power to those who believe." Isn't that a wonderful phrase? Paul is talking here about divine dynamic eternal energy — strength available to us. Divine dynamic eternal energy, strength, that's available to the Christian.

Do you ever get tired? Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel? I've always dreamed of running to Alaska and pumping gas; then they stopped that so it's self-serve now, so I can't ever do that any more. Do you ever feel like you're never going to be able to change? Do you get discouraged with yourself? Do you get frustrated that you make the same mistakes over and over again? Here's a word for you: you can have a third gear, a fourth gear, a power that no one else in this world has except a Christian. This power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. "That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms ..." Wow! I can know the same power that blew Jesus out of the grave? I'd like that. I could use a little of that. This power is greater than any force on this earth or beyond the earth, "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." Wow.

I think that we lack power in America. I think people need power. They need energy and strength to get by. We're going through some tough days. I pray that you will know the incomparably great power that comes to those who believe. We need the power because the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. We need the power because there's an enemy who's always trying to knock us down. I need the power; how about you? Any moms here who need power and strength to raise kids? Would there be a mother up here who needs strength to raise two teenage daughters? Yeah, even though they're just lovely girls.

Good Shepherd has as much potential as God in you. What do you think of that? We're in trouble. We're down. Over the last five years, we've spend a million four hundred thousand dollars of our reserve funds; now they're gone. We've got to pay the bills; we're not like the government. People are wondering, will Good Shepherd make it? Here's my answer to that: Good Shepherd has all the potential that it needs in God who is in us. Amen? The only reason why the power is not unleashed, the only reason why the hope is not alive, the only reason why our consciousness of God is not greater, is because we haven't opened ourselves up to it. I believe that Good Shepherd is going to be the story in the Northern Illinois District. I've been all over preaching in my life. This is not a new story for the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. I was at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Glenview the other day, preaching; it was six people and a barking dog. This is not the only congregation that's having problems. Throughout our church body they're having problems. But God can turn it around. This can be a story for other churches to encourage them. If they put me on the road after we turn this sucker around, we'll go around and talk about it. I'd be glad to scream about it. Can we do it? A better question: Can God do it? And the answer to that is, yes! It's time, people of God.

We realize God's potential in us as we place ourselves where He promises to be. As we come to worship: in the fall we're going to preach a series of sermons, "God's Answers to Anxiety." It's a number of sermons. I believe that we live in an anxious country and people are very afraid. I want to address it. "When I Feel Like Quitting." "When I Feel My Resources Are Running Low." "When I'm Overwhelmed with the Issues Before Me." "God's Answers to Anxiety" — I hope you'll be there. Bible study: you've got a sheet which talks about all the Bible studies here at Good Shepherd. I want to try to get you into thinking about "Faith-Weaving Wednesday" — that's what we're going to call our Wednesday nights. Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday and Wednesday. We're going to get out of the box now. We're going to do more than just Sunday morning. I know for Lutherans this is a biggie, but I'm going to invite you to go beyond mass and go to Wednesday evening Bible studies.

• There's the Alpha class. That is not just for people who are just learning about Jesus; it's for people who need to be renewed in Jesus. If you don't know this Nicky Gumbel, he's a wonderful teacher who can teach about the basics of the faith in a fresh way. I invite you to come. Afterwards there is small group study and talking about it, which is really great.
  
  
• Financial Peace University, if you need help with that.
  
  
• Pastor Balzer has volunteered and is excited, I think; I think he's excited to teach about our different faiths in the world. What's the difference how world faiths compare to Christianity?
  
  
• Marriage Course. We can handle twelve — are we filled yet? We're getting there. So get over there and talk to Todd and Crystal.
  
  
• Divorce Care.
  
  
• Faith-Weaver Friends is a kids' program.

There are other things on other nights. I've made a commitment to pray with people on Tuesday night at six. I invite you to come. A half hour is Bible study, a half hour is prayer.

Kids of the Kingdom. We still need teachers. Would you help with that? We want to teach our kids about God. We want them to know our God. We need more teachers to teach our little ones.

Then there are other Bible studies. And then, of course, prayer, fellowship with God's people.

God doesn't just choose to come. He comes where He promises to be. He works through certain channels. If we don't put ourselves in that place, He can't work in us, we can't know Him better, we can't know the hope to which He's called us, we don't get the power.

May God bless us this year. Jesus loves you. Maybe you haven't lived to your full potential. There's not a person here who has — that's what sin is. But He always gives you another chance. I don't care if you're eighty, you can still know Him better, you can still grow. It's never too late. That's the great thing about my Lord. I'm rounding third at sixty-two, but I can still learn more. Let's pray.

Dearest Lord Jesus, we thank You for the potential You've given us through Your Holy Spirit in this place. Lord, we ask for a revival. We ask that You would renew this place and lift it up that it truly might be a beacon in the greater Elgin area for You. Lord, it's all possible through You. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.