Lee Strobel: The Rewards of Spiritual Risk Taking

[Music] [Music] [Music] well many years ago my dad was part of a golf club in Chicago and one of the guys who was part of that Club was kind of a character he was always trying to figure out schemes to make a lot of money to make a million dollars and so he would approach all the other golfers to try to get them to invest in his various ideas and and so one day again as many years ago he comes up to my dad and he says hey I got this great opportunity for you I'm launching this new kind of restaurant and I can get you in on the ground floor you know you can get a franchise for just nine hundred and fifty dollars and so in perhaps the most memorable words ever spoken in the Strobel household my dad came home that day laughing and saying I can't believe he wants to start a hamburger stand he thinks he can make all this money selling hamburgers really cheaply I mean I can't believe this and so in a few days later my dad went back to this guy whose name was Ray Kroc and told them he did not want to take the risk of investing in this new fast-food restaurant called McDonald's and so sure enough McDonald's goes on to make billions of dollars and 13 of my dad's friends who took the risk to invest in it in those early days became multimillionaires but not my dad and I'm not bitter I'm not bitter but he actually was able to laugh about this but boy it took a long time it took many years before he laughed about this but you know those guys who took a risk and invested in this dream that Ray Kroc had it paid off big time for them well life is all about taking risks you know doctor's talk about risk factors and business executives ponder risk assessments and MBA students look at upside and downside risks and like my dad we probably all had a time in our life where we shrank back from taking a risk and we lived to regret it so what prompts people like Ray Kroc or people like us to take a risk you know whether you're gonna start a business or whether you're gonna buy a house or whether you're gonna move to a different part of the country or change careers or whatever usually people take risks because it's the only way to grow I mean it's ironic but it's true playing it safe can actually be the riskiest way to live you know my mom was a competitive golfer montt won many golf tournaments in her career and she found the biggest mistake she could make in a golf tournament was when she jumped off to a big lead on the first round and then she tried to protect the lead by playing it safe and inevitably she would lose her edge she would forfeit her momentum and she would wind up in danger of losing the tournament you see we have to keep moving to keep getting ahead the famous humorist Will Rogers said even if you're on the right track you're gonna get run over if you just sit there now risk takers share some common characteristics they envision the potential gains and rewards they could courageously seize opportunities that come before them they exploit chances to grow and to expand their horizon now sure they count the cost they consider the potential losses but they're willing to overlook the downside if the end result is going to be worth it the test pilot Chuck Yeager said you don't concentrate on the risks you concentrate on the results well when we take a risk what we're doing is we're stretching beyond our limits to reach for a goal and inevitably that involves overcoming some sort of fear could be a fear of the unknown could be a fear of physical harm could be a fear of humiliation fear of failure even a fear of success and inevitably when we take risks it involves some sort of adventure you know when I was in college I had a friend who had a Kawasaki motorcycle and it was built for going on the road off the road and he would lend it to me to go to campus many times so I'd ride this motorcycle toward campus and when I was riding along on a residential street and I'm going 25 or 30 miles an hour it was safe but it was really boring I mean hey I'm a head wind whipping through my hair but my heart didn't quiver but when I go zipping off the road and I'd be on these narrow dirt trails and I'd be dodging boulders and I'd be going through grass and I'd be going up these steep inclines and so whether it was whether it was a bit of a risk involved that's when things really got exciting and the same can be said for living a life of faith it's when we overcome our fears and take spiritual risks that we really begin to experience the adventure of Christianity Jesus put it this way in Matthew 16 verse 25 if you try to hang on to your life you will lose it but if you give up your life for my sake you will save it he was saying that those who risk their whole life for him are gonna find it but those who hang on to their life in other words those who shrink back from the risk they will be the losers because risk and faith are intertwined as we stretch our faith as we increasingly follow Christ even when his wisdom collides head-on with our culture we're taking calculated risks based on the conviction that God can be trusted I mean when we follow for instance God's teachings on honesty despite our fears that will pay a price as a result when we ask God to open doors for us to share our faith despite our fear that we might be embarrassed when we follow the nudges of the Holy Spirit in our life despite our hesitations those are spiritual risks that we can take and those are the times when we leave the boring residential streets for the thrill of the unmarked trail well through the years I've noticed that to prayers in particular are among the riskiest prayers that people can pray and I mean risky from our perspective from the way we look at things they seem like they're very risky prayers for us the first prayer is for those that are just checking out Christianity they're not sure where they stand spiritually kind of checking out Christianity first one is for them the second prayer is for those who are followers of Jesus Christ both prayers are just 17 words in length but both prayers have the potential to change everything if we take the risk so here are the two prayers let's start with the first one let's start with the the risky prayer for those that are spiritually curious who just kind of checking out Christianity you know one of the original gurus of Generation X was a writer by the name of Douglas Coupland and he wrote a best-selling book called life after God and in this book he tracks a young man through a troubled era of his life he's remorseful over the mistakes that he has made his marriage has stagnated he's ensnared in a meaningless job instead of having deep friendships he has only what he calls halfway relationships he's worried that he doesn't feel life like he used to feel life but after 358 pages of describing this aimlessness in this frustration this is the ultimate conclusion of the book quo he says now here is my secret I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again so I pray you are in a quiet room as you read these words my secret is that I need God that I am sick it can no longer make it alone I need God to help me give because I no longer seem capable of giving to help me be kind as I no longer seem capable of kindness to bring me love as I seem beyond being able to love do you have a secret like that character in coop Flynn's book maybe the circumstances of your life are causing you to conclude that just maybe you need God to breathe hope and to bring life into your world or maybe you need them to knock the crust off a heart that's hardened by cynicism and self-interest or maybe you need them because you're not even quite sure why you just sense there's this gnawing reality that you're missing something in life that there's got to be more to life than three meals a day and going to work and coming home and going to bed every night there's got to be more and you feel like you're missing the the core of what life is really about so maybe this has prompted you to begin to check out Christianity maybe you've come to a few services here at woodlands church maybe you've perused a Christian book or two maybe you looked at a couple of Christian websites maybe you have a lot of questions that are swirling around in your head maybe you'd really like to get to the truth but you're not quite sure how to get there and frankly you're a little worried about what you might find you know that old saying pops into your mind be careful what you ask for because you might get it or maybe you know a lot about the idea of God the concept of God the doctrines of God maybe you get that but what you've really lacked is a personal relationship with God maybe you went to church as a kid and maybe even went through some religious classes and they seemed to have numbed you to God more than sensitized you to God now you might say to someone if they asked you I'm a religious person but that soul-satisfying faith has always seemed to elude you well this prayer is for you 17 words that can start a revolution in your soul you ready here is the prayer God Oh you're open my eyes to who you really are and then I'll open my life to you God open my eyes to who you really are and then I'll open my life to you now from your perspective that prayer may seem fraught with risk because if you sincerely pray it you're suddenly catapulted from a mere observer to a serious seeker after truth is serious seeker after God and you might have some fears that come along with that you may feel a risk because you're afraid if you end up following Jesus you're gonna end up stuffed into some sort of moral straightjacket that's gonna bind you and suffocate you and it's gonna choke you off from your freedoms at a time in your life when you want less regulation and fewer rules in your life or maybe you feel a risk that if you come to faith in Christ he's gonna turn you into something weird some sort of proselytizer on a street corner with a bullhorn or something or maybe you feel like you're gonna forfeit all your fun for faith or maybe you see a risk in your self-image if you're forced to admit some things about yourself that you rather not talk about you'd rather focus on the positive things that you've done rather than dredging up sins and mistakes that you've made well I prayed a prayer like this on the afternoon of January the 20th 1980 and God opened up a journey for me a journey of research a journey of study a journey of relationships that ultimately resulted in me encountering him in a personal way a year and nine months later and resulted in me receiving him as my forgiver and my leader and what I learned at that point was that the revolution that ended up taking place in my soul in all candor a lot of the risks that I felt were associated with that they never materialized the risks that had held me back from a faith never really materialized for instance instead of suffocated through some moral straightjacket instead of feeling like I was being choked off from the fun and life because of these rules and regulations of God what I found is that my experience backs up what the Apostle John says in first John 5 verse 3 where he says God's commands are not burdensome I found liberation I found freedom I found security when I follow the teachings of God they made sense they benefited me I found that God's wisdom works in everyday life just like the rules that I established for my children lovingly to help them get down the right path in life in a similar way God's commands are not burdensome there's a very best way to live and instead of God squeezing me into a mold and stripping away my uniqueness and turning me into something I wasn't I found out he wants to maximize the person who he intended me to be that Who I am today is a better reflection of God's intention for my life than my years as a carousing and a profane and a heavy drinking atheist you see God is not in the business of forcing you to become something that you're not he created you and so here's what God wants to do listen to this he wants to take your personality and your temperament and your talents and your experiences and he wants to give you new character and new attitudes and new abilities and the power of the Holy Spirit so that you could reach the fullest possible potential in your life and you know I saw a risk in repentance as I came to faith in Christ I saw a risk in admitting the truth about myself repentance is a word that that really combines two words change and mind repentance means were confessing that were spiritual rebels we're confessing that we've ignored God's commands in our life we're confessing the truth which is that we've wondered morally in our lives and then literally changing our minds turning around with the help of God walking down his path now in the Bible repentance is not optional it's mandatory in fact the very first words that Jesus spoke in his public ministry recorded in the first chapter of Mark verse 15 were these Jesus said the time has come the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe the good news now I didn't relish the idea of admitting that I'd done anything wrong I just saw a big risk to my ego and to my self-image if I were to face the possibility that I was a moral failure I didn't want to dwell on my bad motives I didn't want to dwell on my half-truths and on my twisted desires or the times when I averted my eyes from people in need or cut ethical corners or curse God or wish the worst on somebody else I mean I had become a behave and expert on rationalizing my behavior and covering up my tracks and I wasn't alone today our culture tells us hey we're all basically good people and guess what we're evolving into better and better and better people which is a claim that is belied every night when we turn in turn on the evening news every night as we watch the news of what's going on around the world it puts the lie to this claim that we're all essentially good people and we're all just getting a little better over time I mean like it or not when we strip away our self-serving bias we're left with the reality that all of us have fallen short of God's commands we've all fallen short of God's standards for our lives in addition the Bible says the good deeds that we do do are filthy rags in other words compared to the holiness of God our good deeds are stained by self-interest and mixed motives and when we refuse to take the personal risk of admitting our failings and turning away from our wrongdoing when we keep all of this bottled in side it eats away at our soul like rust corrodes an old car King David put it this way in psalm 32 when i kept silent about mice in my bones wasted away through the groaning all day long for day and night your hand god was heavy on me my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer you know it may seem like a risk to our self-image when we admit our own sinful nature but that's nothing compared to the rewards we receive when we candidly confess our wrongs and receive forgiveness and cleansing by God the King David followed up those words by saying this he said then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin you cleansed me you will you gave me a new path to walk you washed me clean in place of a proud and a ego-oriented self-esteem our healthy new image is based on the Bible's amazing declaration in Romans 5 verse 8 where it says God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners in other words at the moment you were committing the most vile crime the most vile sin the most vile thought you've ever had in your life in the midst of that Christ died for us his forgiveness is available his cleansing is available this is the outrageous depth of God's love for us that our self-image should be based on the fact that we are made in God's image and that his love for us is so overwhelming so outrageous that even at the deepest depth of our sin God who loves us Christ died for us so we could be reconciled with him I remember a number of years ago seeing a comic-strip and in this comic surf there was a character and he was praying and his prayer was God if you're up there give me a sign and then he startled within the next panel this giant gaudy neon sign comes plunging to earth right in front of him and it's flashing I'm up here I'm up here I'm up here see the point is as you seek God as you're looking for these answers God is not gonna hide from you he's not playing hide and seek when you seek Him you can do it with confidence in fact the very fact that you are able to seek Him means he's already started to do something in your heart your seeking is actually a response to the subtle tugging of the Holy Spirit in your life so you can trust God is going to help you in this journey so seek sincerely keep an open mind as you explore the Bible talk to Christians about their faith visit the services here at woodlands church spend time in nature experiencing how God expresses himself through his creativity in nature determined to seek God for a period of time and continually evaluate your process your progress along the way so that when you get to the right point you can reach a conclusion but I encourage you to seek wholeheartedly make this a priority in your life devote time to it devote energy to it Hebrews 11 verse 6 says God rewards those who earnestly seek Him and Jeremiah 29 verse 13 says you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me how with all of your heart so that's the first risky prayer for those who are wanting to pursue the truth about God the second risky prayer is for those of us who are followers of Christ this is a prayer that will stretch you beyond your comfort zone that will open up new horizons in your faith and will inaugurate a fresh era of adventure and expectancy in your spiritual life again it's just 17 words but it's 17 it's a 17 word prayer God loves to answer and here's the prayer God Here I am fully submitted to you use me as you have never used me before God Here I am fully submitted to you use me as you have never used me before you know I remember when I was a little kid and I went to the community swimming pool for the first time and I saw the high dive and it looks like people are having fun jumping off the high dive diving off the high dive so I thought I want to try that so I went over the high dive and I went up that tall ladder you know have you done this and you get up there and you feel like you're on top of the world when you're standing up there and then there's this narrow sandpapery like board that you walk down and you look a lot over the edge and it's you're a lot higher than you thought you were gonna be right you look down and you remember those old cartoons then Roadrunner cartoons where he would look down into the canyon and it was like a million miles down that's what it seems like when you're standing up there and and your heart kind of goes into your throat and and and and you you know you may know in your mind okay I've seen other people jump off they didn't die I've got friends who've done this they've lived through it there's very little risk that I'm gonna get hurt doing this but it's awfully scary so what did I do I started to walk backwards until I grabbed the railing and the minute I grabbed the railing you know what my heartbeat went down and my breathing returned to normal and friends here's the truth there are a lot of Christians who feel like their spiritual life is boring and it's bland and it's predictable and it's routine and the reason is they're clutching a railing like that they're clutching the railing they're wondering why doesn't my heart beat fast anymore for spiritual stuff and the simple explanation is no risk no adventure no risk no adventure and what this prayer does is it invites God to walk with you back down to the end of that I dive well you feel a bit of the risk and where life has an edge to it and when your toes curl over the edge and the height causes you to catch your breath that's when you cling closer to God that's when the adrenaline starts pumping and that's when God can really use you to make a splash in this world this prayer is like telling God god I want to I want to dive into your work use me as you've never used me before to make a difference in the world just just one life at a time use me to bring your message of hope to someone who's mired in despair use me to influence a teenager for you use me to solve someone's problem use me to soothe someone's pain use me to be an answer to someone's prayers use me to feed someone who's hungry use me to explain the gospel to someone who's spiritually confused use me to nurture children in the children's ministry here at the church use me to encourage someone who's desperate use me to ease someone's loneliness use me to raise a godly family use me to be a godly spouse to my husband to my wife use me to deepen someone's faith use me to shear somebody on to encourage somebody use me to help a broken person see that they're valuable in the eyes of God use me to touch a life in your name this prayer is saying to God I'm Thailand tired of hanging onto the railing I'm tired of being a railing clutch ER I'm tired of paddling around in the shallow end of life I want to plunge into your deep waters God I want you to use me as your eyes as your ears as your hands as your feet in a world that is increasingly desperate for you what would happen if you prayed a prayer like that what do you think doesn't have to be a huge risk can be a small step that God would honor the Bible says this in 1st Peter 4 verses 10 and 11 says each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms if anyone speaks they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God if anyone serves they should do so with the strength God provides so that in all things god may be praised through jesus christ to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever amen friends if you pray a prayer like this here I am God fully submitted to you use me as you never use me before I'm telling you if you do that there will be action there will be action in your life and it is quite possible at some place along the way you're gonna be scared and you're gonna face a risk and you're gonna think obstacles are insurmountable and it's going to be the greatest experience of your life now if you're like me you pray a prayer like that and you hear a voice in your head you know what the voice says who do you think you are come on you think the God of the universe is gonna use someone like you to make a difference come on seriously and that voice says you know you're no Bible scholar you're no Billy Graham you're no Mother Teresa someone with your background and your experiences and the sin that you've had in your life God can't use you and you hear a voice like that and that's the voice that causes us to go back and grab the railing and I want to tell you don't listen to that voice don't listen to that voice when I hear that voice in my life you know what I do I think of people down through history average everyday folks who God has used in extraordinary ways to make a difference I think for instance to the story of a 15 year old high school freshman who was shoved into the spotlight years ago and hers whose knees were knocking with fear and whose hands were were huddled with perspiration out of anxiety and fear but who God use in an extraordinary way just because she made herself available the story involves John sung John sung from China brilliant genius literally a genius who came over to the United States in the early part of the 20th century to study science and was brilliant in chemistry and in physics and newspapers wrote articles about his brilliance he won scholarships he was voted Phi Beta Kappa and at a young age he was awarded his PhD from Ohio State University but despite his brilliance despite his academic achievements John Seung was very troubled spiritually he had grown up in a Christian home and yet he never quite found a relationship with God and so he tried going on kind of a meandering spiritual journey he tried all kinds of things he tried chanting Buddhist scripture but he still felt empty he toyed with Taoism but God still seemed distant he fell into a depression he wrote at one point like he said it's like my soul is wandering in a wilderness just wandering confused and I suspect that is when he prayed a prayer similar to the one I mentioned earlier God opened my eyes to who you really are and then I'll open my life to you well one day John sung in the spiritual state of confusion was on the campus at the university and there was an announcement made that a brilliant Christian scholar was going to come and he was going to give a lecture a seminar on his faith and finally John's son thought to himself finally here is an intellectual equal here is someone whose mind I can I admire here's someone whose intellect I could respect here's someone whose credibility because of his incisive mind and academic credentials is someone who I can really learn from and maybe grow from maybe this person he said could teach me something meaningful about God and so John Seung went to the lecture hall that night for the for the speech that this great Christian intellect was gonna give and he got early there he got there early he got a great seat he's all set in anticipation to hear this speech and then an announcement is made this great scholar couldn't make it he's not going to be there and John son's heart sunk and he got up to leave but as he was getting up to leave the organizers of the event walked over to the side to a 15 year old high school freshman and asked her would you substitute and give a talk on faith and I have no doubt that as she walked timidly to that platform year old high school freshman her knees knocking her palms perspiring I bet you she prayed a prayer that said God use me as you've never used me before but what can a teenager tell a towering intellect like John son what could this young Christian say that would be significant to someone like John son who had already studied all the great religions of the world well what she chose to do that evening was very simple she merely talked about with sincerity and with a child like honesty she merely talked about the revolutionary difference Jesus Christ had made in her young life with a purity born of her innocence and with the love inspired by God she spoke of the very thing that John sung was hungry for the truth is he didn't know that mean another intellectual to speak to his mind he needed an authentic Christian who would speak to his heart and in a remarkable miracle as this innocent young woman began to speak God did something in the heart of John's son and he turned into a committed and a growing Christian who gave His life to ministry he ended up moving back to the Far East he ended up going back to China where he was responsible personally for reviving hundreds of churches Christian churches in China and ultimately being a link in the chain of hundreds of thousands of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ all because God chose to use a young teenager whose name has been lost to history friends how might God use you to make a difference if you made yourself fully available to him if you said to him use me God I'm ready use me as you've never used me before how might he use you I'll give you a three word answer to that question I don't know I don't know but you know what you don't know either as you sit here you have no idea what horizons God might open up what opportunities he might present your way what how he might use you as a link in a chain to accomplish his purposes in this world as you sit here you do not know but there's one way to find out and that way is to pray this prayer God Here I am fully submitted to you use me as you've never used me before and he will pry your fingers off the railing and he will walk with you to the end of the high dive and when you jump off guess what he's gonna catch you and he's gonna take you to great adventure in your life don't you want that isn't that what the spiritual life ought to be about let me pray for all of us father we pray first for those that are seeking truth seeking answers about you father we pray you would use the book you would use this church use whatever means to help them come to that place where they recognize that you were real that the Bible is true that there is hope and redemption and eternal life and great adventure only through your son Jesus Christ and we pray for those of us who are your followers that we might be willing to be used like by you in ways like you've never used this before help us to let go of the railing help us to jump into the safest place in the world even though it seems risky to us it's the safest place in the world and that is squarely in your will for our life we thank you you love us so much you don't want to just leave us to stagnate spiritually you want us to experience the adventure of following you may we all take you up on that offer we pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said amen god bless you

Channel: Woodlands Church with Kerry Shook

Views: 28,476

Keywords: woodlands, church, kerry, shook, chris, christian, god, faith, bible, tbn, daystar, joel, osteen, rick, warren, jesus, hope, ministries, pastor

Id: DkVVuKYCWFc

Length: 37min 25sec (2245 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2018