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Risky Business
Selected Scripture
Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, once said, "Unless there is an
element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith."
There are two words that catch me up when I read that quote. I like
thinking about my walk with God as an exploit. Exploit is a much more
interesting word than, say, lifestyle or way of life. A lifestyle is
what you live in a subdivision, getting here and there in a minivan.
It's about as interesting as watching grits cook. But an exploit --
well, you need to be wearing a pit helmet and hiking boots to go on an
exploit. Exploits involve imagination, engender excitement and require
risk.
Which is the other word I like in Taylor's quote. Risk. I like thinking
about how my exploits for God require an element of risk. Like there's
some danger involved. Something more than just showing up for church on
Sunday and spending the rest of the week trying to be good. Putting an
element of risk in our exploits for God is the cure for common
Christianity.
The word risk doesn't show up in the Bible very much. In fact, in
Strong’s Exhaustive concordance, it doesn't show up at all. But did you
ever notice that God hardly ever commands us to do something safe?
Moses: throw down your rod. Rod becomes a snake. What does God tell
Moses to do? Pick it up. Now, go tell the most powerful man in the world
that I said, "Let my people go."
Joseph: Your fiancée, Mary, is pregnant. I know you've been thinking
about divorcing her quietly and I can appreciate that, what with the
scandal of it all and the impact it will have on your business and
everything. But you aren't going to divorce her. You're going to marry
her. And you're going to raise the child as your own. You get to be
foster father to the Son of God.
The Apostles: I want you fellows to go into all the world and preach the
gospel, baptizing them into the name of the Father, The Son, and the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and I
will be with you always, to the very end of the age. And you'll need for
me to be with you because everywhere you go they are going to persecute
you. You’ll be thrown in jail and some of you will even be executed.
Paul: Paul I want you to defend this Jesus who you once persecuted. You
will be shipwrecked, stoned, beaten, and jailed but I need you to do
this.
Jesus: God said, "Go down there and die on a cross."
To us: Take up your cross daily and follow me. How safe does that sound?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a wonderful thinker, who was killed in a Nazi
death camp for his beliefs. He said once that, "When Jesus calls a man
he bids him come and die." Folks, there isn't anything God asks us to do
that is safe. Faith always requires risk.
Now just in case you are wondering why I asked you to come down here and
sit upfront, What does all of this have to do with the fact that
tomorrow you start your first week of School to face all those new faces
and that demanding schedule and all that homework, just remember that I
am a preacher and it might take a while to get there but eventually we
will get to the point.
I want you to think about it; where’s the one place you most need your
faith to make it?
Not at home, hopefully not here at church, that pretty much leaves one
place. In school.
The next nine months are going to put your faith to a major test. And
you thought algebra was going to be tough. It's nothing compared to the
test of faith you are about to experience.
If you don't infuse your faith with the courage to risk great things for
God, you're going to be one bored and boring Christian for the next nine
months. And you'll likely be an easy target for the enemy. So when we
talk about developing a faith that's willing to take great risks for
God, we're talking about something that is immediately relevant to the
beginning of school.
But we all possess one thing that keeps us from taking the risk of
faith? Do you know what it is?
Just one word: Fear.
Tonight I want to look at the three main kinds of fear that paralyze
Christians and Christian churches, and then we will go off to the park
for our cook out.
1. Fear of failure
Numbers 13:26 – 33 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the
congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at
Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and
showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the
land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its
fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the
cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants
of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The
Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And
the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” But Caleb
quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and
occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had
gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for
they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel
a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land,
through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its
inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.
And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the
Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we
seemed to them.”
You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight
of the shore. The Israelites stood on the boundary of what God had
called the Promised Land. God was going to give them a place to call
home. A place where they could build their own houses, cultivate their
own crops, raise their families and enjoy a relationship with Him. But
fear of failure kept them from crossing that boundary and claiming that
promise. "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes," they said. "We
can't do it. We'll fail."
Fear of failure can kill individual performance. How many books are
never written because would-be authors with something to say are afraid
to face rejection?
The most popular religious author of our time Max Lucado was turned down
fifteen times before someone agreed to publish is first book. Now he’s
so popular President Bush invited him to the White House to consult with
and pray with him on spiritual matters. I wonder if those fifteen
editors still have jobs.
How many athletes never take the field because they are afraid of
getting cut from the team? Did you know that Michael Jordan was cut from
his eighth grade basketball team?
How many companies are never started? How many inventions never
patented? How many social reforms never initiated? How many souls never
won because someone was afraid to risk failure?
In her book, God But I'm Bored, Eileen Guder wrote, "You can live on
bland food so as to avoid an ulcer; drink no tea or coffee or other
stimulants, in the name of health; go to bed early and stay away from
night life; avoid all controversial subjects so as never to give
offense; mind your own business and avoid involvement in other people's
problems; spend money only on necessities and save all you can. You can
still break your neck in the bathtub, and it will serve you right."
Fear of failure can destroy individual performance.
Christians that are afraid to fail have forgotten something about the
character of God; we serve a forgiving God. Failure does not intimidate
him.
If Paul is right in Romans 5 when he writes that Christ died on a cross
for us when we were sinners how much more will he forgive us now that we
are his children, his church, and his bride?
Guys I don’t want you to get to the end of another school year -- or the
end of your life -- and look back with regret on the things you didn't
even attempt because you were afraid to fail.
Try out for the team. Go for that part in the play. Aim for all A's. Run
for office.
Invite your friends to church. Take a stand for Christ. Pray in public.
Say no when everyone else is saying yes, or yes when everyone else is
saying no. Make this school year an exploit for God.
2. Fear of criticism.
Do you remember the story about David and his brothers?
David was incensed that no one was taking up the challenge of Goliath.
So he volunteered to go. That's when his brothers began to criticize
him. Why you're just a boy. You just came to see a fight. Go back and
tend the sheep."
Remember Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the wall? The enemies stood
around and insulted the work and the workmen. Nehemiah just kept on
building.
They laughed a Noah. They complained to Moses. They made fun of Elijah.
They threatened Peter and John. They killed Jesus. We are always going
to have critics.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man
who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds
could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotion, and spends himself in a worthy cause;
who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and
who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know
neither victory nor defeat."
This school year don't let people who stand around the outskirts of your
life frighten you with their criticisms. You see not only s God
forgiving but in Joshua 1:1 - 9 we see that He is also encouraging.
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to
Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now
therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the
land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that
the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I
promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the
great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the
Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No
man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as
I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake
you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to
inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be
strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law
that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right
hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according
to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded
you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be
dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
God is always with us, not only encouraging us to take a stand but
giving us the power to take that stand. You are not alone.
3. Fear of success.
Matthew 25, we read the parable of the talents. Remember that one? There
was the five talent man, the two talent man and the one talent man. The
first two doubled their investment. The third man hid his. Why?
Well, he says he was afraid. The master who gave him the money called
him something else. He called him a wicked and lazy servant. Lazy. I
think that man was afraid of success. Afraid of the responsibility it
would bring.
Some of you have the ability to run for class president, but you are
afraid that it would bring extra criticism. Some of you want to go out
for the football, basketball or baseball team but you are afraid of the
practices. It’s not that you are afraid that you will fail as much as
you are afraid that you will succeed.
Don't be afraid of success. Don't be afraid to set high goals and give
everything you've got to reach them. You serve a forgiving God, you
serve an encouraging God, and you serve a demanding God.
God wants you to give your best and most to everything you try. Whatever
you do, do it all in the name of the Lord. He wants you to shine like
stars in the universe. He wants you to be a city set on a hill that
cannot be hidden. He wants your light to shine in the darkness. He wants
you to be conformed to the image of his cross-bearing son.
God wants you to be a success.
I wanted to close tonight with a look at a great risk taking character
in scripture.
Matthew 14:28. The disciples are going across the lake. It's late at
night. Jesus comes walking by them -- walking on the water. They see him
and think he's a ghost and cry out in fear. He says, "Take courage! It
is I. Do not be afraid."
Then in VS. 28 Peter does something crazy. He says, "Lord, if it is you,
tell me to come to you on the water.”
Have you ever wondered what the other apostles thinking? "Peter, you're
nuts! What, did you miss your medication again?" They're thinking it's
the same old Peter they've always known, impetuous, thoughtless, and
foolish.
But I believe that Jesus thinking? "That's my boy."
Lord if it's you, tell me, and command me to come to you on the water.
Lord, command me to get out of the boat. Command me to do something
risky, to live my life for you like it's an adventure.
And what happened next? Peter gets out of the boat, places his feet on
the waves and then goes under.
Did that make him a failure? I don't think so. I think in that moment,
if you'd asked Jesus, "Who are you most proud of, Peter, or the other
eleven who stayed in the boat?" He'd just smile and say something like,
"Well Peter means rock. And he did sink like one didn't he?
To me the most important part of the story is that Peter is the only one
who had the faith to try something bold, something risky. For him,
discipleship is an exploit, an adventure. Sometimes, you just gotta get
out of the boat.
That’s what I want to encourage you to do this year. I want you to make
your faith risky, adventurous, I want you to get out of the boat.
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