RISK - Get Out of Your Safe Zone 1

Christian, you can't move forward was standing in place, leaving your comfort zone and stereo and five is a risk that every believer must have toiled to report Dr. David Jeremiah exposes question so vividly illustrated in the Old Testament story of Tyler who didn't find safe but had full confidence in God is today's message risk get out of his sex. Thank you for joining us. We are studying what it means to go forward discovering God's presence and purpose in our tomorrows. So far we have talked about the importance of dreaming and praying and choosing and focusing today were going to talk about risking just be upfront with you risk is just another name for faith risk is about getting out of your safe zone and living in the faith zone that will be our discussion for today and tomorrow and you know that so important for all of us, especially right now were a little bit frightened were little bit nervous. We've been through a time in our lives like nothing we've ever experienced before in our whole history, perhaps in the history of our nation were taken baby steps to walk back into normality and were a little bit worried about taking a risk. Not talking about taking foolish risks. But I'm saying if you want to walk with God. God's path doesn't lead through the safe zone you have to walk with him in the faith zone talk about that today and tomorrow. Well let's get started talking about getting out of our safe so this is about risk jihad said that her husband Steve were celebrating our anniversary beautiful beach resort in St. Lucia. One morning they decided to lock the resorts wellness trail 1 mile path with stations for exercises like pull-ups, a balance beam and even an elevated rope bridge station. They did the activity then they came to the rope bridge. Steve crossed it easily. But Jean, she hesitated, all I could see she said were big gaping holes on the sides large enough to fit my entire leg with one slip of the foot.

Fear overcame her and she backed off and walked away frustrated and disappointed in herself. The next day she and Steve took a trip on a 24 foot sailboat. It was Jean's first time sailing and she was thrilled and exhilarated, even when the boat was in choppy waters.

Experienced sailors were in charge, but Jean knew this adventure was far more dangerous than the rope bridge. She backed away from the day before. So the following morning, Jean and Steve took the laws trail again and this time she said I didn't say anything. I just walk up the ladder and I went for a stop to look at it. Wonder how I was been accomplished. I just pause for a second on the platform, grabbed the rope and started putting 1 foot in front of another. Before you. I was across feeling very victorious about myself. Most of us almost think of risk as a negative situation. We should avoid but risk is a part of life and it's a big part of faith.

Not every risk is worth taking.

But if you're too overwhelmed by fear correctly assess the situation. You missed many opportunities for growth.

Have you been playing it safe to say if forward is the direction you want to go.

Be prepared to take some faith-based risks being a follower of Christ in today's world is not safe and it is intended to be of the people in Scripture took great risks. Moses wasn't playing it safe when he returned to Egypt to confront Pharaoh.

Gideon wasn't playing it safe when he dismissed almost all of his army. David wasn't playing it safe when he strode up the Goliath Shadrach me shack and Abednego work playing it safe when they refuse to bow down to the image Nebuchadnezzar had erected in the Babylonian claim. Esther wasn't playing it safe when she put her life on the line to save her people telling Mordechai if I perish, I perish in the Peter wasn't playing it safe even when he got out of the boat to walk across the water to Jesus. What I'm saying is you can play it safe. Not if you want to cease tomorrow and accomplish the dreams that God places in your heart work God has given me the years, be honest, left to myself. I probably would've aired too often on the side of safety and security, but there's a man in the Bible who inspires me to keep stepping out and taking risks with wholehearted confidence in the Lord. I'm convinced you will be able to go forward, unafraid to take risks. If you can embody his spirit. That man is Caleb knowing many people don't know a lot about Caleb because he's in the Bible, and only 30 versus tremendous versus they are and they convey a lot about this man in this message I want to show you how this Old Testament hero left a legacy of courage for you. A powerful example of risk-taking future grabbing grace in the book of numbers Moses sent 12 men Joshua Caleb and 10 others. As an advanced party to reconnoiter the promised land.

These men left the safety of their encampment for the Jordan River slipped into Canaan and their mission was to make notes of the land observed the enemy studied the fortifications estimate the population bring back enough intelligence to aid Moses as he planned the coming invasion of the land God had promised to the Israelites. The Bible tells the story this way. Numbers 1321 and 22 so they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of sin, and they went up to the south and came to help run and the descendents of Amick were there sitting have run had been the ancestral home of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But now it was inhabited by an evil tribe of huge warriors known as the descendents of Amick cited his warriors terrified the spies, and they quickly harvested some pomegranates and figures from the orchards of Canaan and told them log back in an enormous cluster of grapes carrying it on a pole between them. Imagine the excitement when the spies returned to Katie's bar near their mission had taken 40 days and nobody knew if they had survived or perished. Day after day sentries at Israel's parameters watched for them and now they're back all of them safe and sound, but as you know they were not united. Most of them wanted to live in the safe so so let's take them and some other stories along the way and let's talk about how to live in the safe zone in professional football NFL coaches studied the smallest statistic to find every possible advantage. But according to authors John Tierney and research psychologist Roy bow master.

Many coaches make the same mistake week after week. It happens on fourth down and short situations when their team only needs a yard or two to keep possession of the ball nine times out of 10, instead of the riskier decision to try to win by going for another score. The coach settles for trying not to lose any sense the kick. And they put the ball to the other team now statistics show that trying for the goal and the wind is actually the better way. So why do coaches punch on fourth down. Well Tierney and vinyl mustard. Included is a factor involved. They call it the power of bad. Simply put, our brains are wired to give more importance to negative aspects than positive ones. So that events influence our decision-making more than positive one.

That means that no matter how much we want to succeed, avoiding bad can easily become our primary goal back to the coach he knows if he chooses the risky play and he fails and the other team goes on the score of fans and the press will be unforgiving sportscasters will denounce him as reckless and they will use phrases like loss of momentum and the Turning Point in the game. If the team loses by a narrow margin that failed fourth down attempt will be blamed for the loss and it will be replayed endlessly. Afterwards that image of potential failure is hard to overcome so the coach plays it safe.

The fear of failure has lost many many games have you ever heard of these names Shambala Chef lot quality Gabrielle daddy, a mere secular knobby until I haven't heard of them before, have you not because these are the names of the 10 spies who risk their lives in an espionage mission, only to lose their heart and forget to trust in God and they came back with a negative report they discouraged.

They did this and heartened the people of Israel, those men made three terrible mistakes and we can make these mistakes ourselves if we are not careful. They fell in the three traps and you and I have to avoid these at all because first of all, they maximized the opposition or how we'd love to do this. God wants you to go forward he has adventures, challenges and victories in meaningful tasks for you as you look at the register your future are you looking at the ropes are you looking at the holes in Numbers 1310 spies magnified every threat they looked at. They looked at the bridge God had designed for the future and they saw only the holes the Bible says the man who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we have been gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, the land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people whom we saw in it were men of great stature. There were giants of the descendents of adequate came from the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own site so we were in their sight. Notice all the holes the 10 unbelieving spies stated on this with a set number one we are not able to go against these people.

Number two, they are stronger than we are. Number three the land of ours its inhabitants number for the manner of great stature. Number five, the mentor giants number six. They are from Amick, the land of giants. Number seven. We are like grasshoppers in our eyes and we are like grasshoppers in their eyes. If you propose to move forward in life. Especially if you aspire to leadership going to have to learn what it means to take risks, to live by faith, even history's most celebrated leaders had to learn this lesson. There is risk in going forward.

There is no traction without friction at the beginning of the Civil War. No military career look brighter than Gen. George B.

McClellan's son called him the Napoleon of the American Republic. Lincoln made him commander of the Army of the Potomac and he later promoted him to be the first general in chief of the Union army. McClellan cut a stunning figure on horseback. He looked like he'd been selected by Central casting for the role but he also regularly overestimated the size of the enemy, magnifying the threat and the more daunting the enemy grew in his mind, the less confidence he showed in the field.

He saw the whole holes instead of ropes although he consistently organized and prepared rarely got around to fighting when he did his objective seem to be avoiding a loss not winning the battle.

Lincoln finally wrote McClellan and said to him, if you don't want to use the Army. I would like to borrow it for a while remind you the 10 spies. More importantly, now is a good time to ask yourself if it reminds you of what will you whenever we compare ourselves to the opposition. Instead of comparing the opposition to God. We can get into the state of fear if that's apparent in your life. The first step forward is to recognize it. One of the things we do when we refuse to risk what we try to keep from losing instead of trying to win as we maximize the opposition number two we minimize the opportunities while the 10 spies maximize the opposition. They also minimized the incredible opportunity that God had given them. They only had a dim perception of what God had in store for them. They believe in their hearts that God was setting for destruction and their unbelief was contagious. You can read it for yourself in Numbers chapter 14 so all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night and all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, if all we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness.

Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims wouldn't not be better for us to return to Egypt to see their perception of God would be laughable if it weren't so tragic after all. The Lord had done for them, delivered them from slavery. Part of the wide waters of the Red Sea. He'd accompanied them with cloud and fire given him his law given food and drink in the wilderness promise to make them a great nation in the land flowing with milk and honey and all I could do was quickly forget. More importantly, how can we when we forget all the blessings God has provided for us in the past were apt to minimize his ability to guide us in the future we may even dread the future and where we think God is leading us and so what exactly were the devil wants us he puts us in the place of avoiding risks and playing it safe. All we have little faith. What I'm telling you is this.

Don't minimize the opportunities God has for you in the future. Don't put all your effort into avoiding loss or turn your face away from the future, God's plan for you instead go forward with confidence and courage and do the task.

God has set for you, don't maximize the opposition don't minimize the opportunities because if you do, you will jeopardize the objective in their unbelief.

Men and women, the Israelites discarded the precious powerful future that God had for them there active defiant unbelief incurred a terrible penalty. First of all, the punishment for bringing back an evil report to the people of God was meted out into severe sentences first 10 men who gave the evil report were killed immediately by a plague Numbers 14 now the man whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land. Those very men who brought the evil report about the land they died by the plague before the Lord, but Joshua son of nun and Caleb the son of just unit remain the life of the men who went to spy out the land. Second, not only did the man who brought the report, but all the people who listen to the report. They were sentenced as well listen. The numbers 1429 and 30.

The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in the wilderness, all of you who were numbered according to your entire number, from 20 years old and above, except for Caleb the son of Jeff unit and Joshua the son of nun, you shall by no means after the land which I swore I would make you dwell in all very sad.

The blessing of God was just waiting to be poured upon his people, and it was forfeited by their unwillingness to risk obedience to his commands. Mascara question today. What is your opinion, what does God want you to tackle what is he wants you to process what is he wants you to accomplish for him. Unbelief forfeiture opportunities and jeopardizes your objective so let's keep seizing the moments God provides for us with childlike wonder if God said it, I believe it and that settles it in a minute do it how to live life in the safe so so let's talk now about how to risk life in the faith. So that brings us back to Caleb and Joshua represent the minority opinion among the spies. Caleb had pleaded with the people, he said, let us go up. Let us take possession.

We are well able to overcome it.

Imagine Caleb's frustration when the whole nation shouted down his words, God heard as the decades passed one by one the older Israelites passed away and their bodies dotted the desert. Even the agent Moses ascended Mount Pisgah and died Joshua and Caleb were the sole survivors of their generation when the day came to lead Israel into the promised land. They were as young in spirit as four years before Joshua succeeded Moses. He led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the land of Canaan as we read the book of Joshua we find conquests after conquest and allotment after allotment and then we open our Bibles to Joshua chapter 14 and who should we meet again, but my favorite man. Caleb made a trip to see his old friend and fellow spy Joshua and this is what he said to him you know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me. Katie's party I was four years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Katie's bar near to spy out the land and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren, who went up with me. The heart of the people they made them to melt. But I followed the Lord my God so Moses swore on that day, saying, surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever because you have wholly followed the Lord by God friends with the passing of years. Caleb's faith had grown mind was sharp. His spirit was strong. His enthusiasm was like a child's promise of God will still be obsession of his heart.

I believe there are four reasons for this, and they help us understand what is involved in living a life of risk if you don't get anything else out what I'm saying to get these four things because these are the key to your living a life out of the safe zone. First of all, risktakers stay exuberant about their lives. The first reason has to do with Caleb's exuberance. He told Joshua the Lord is kept me alive. These 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness and now listen this here I am the state 85 years old and I am a strong this day as I was on the day that Moses sent me. In other words, Caleb set on 85, but I should be fully because I have the same energy the same enthusiasm the same exuberance about life that I had 45 years ago.

Psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison wrote these words.

Exuberance carries us places we would not otherwise go across the savanna to the moon into the imagination by its pleasures. Exuberance lures us from our commonplaces and quieter moods and after the victory. The harvest, the discovery of a new idea or an unfamiliar place. It gives ascended reason to venture forth all over again. That's a description of Caleb my friends and I hope it's inscription if you it is very hard to go forward without the kind of joyful zest for life and Caleb had that same joyful eagerness is available to you and to me for me to say yes it is, you can't lose the wonder of the worshipful promise filled life. Christ died to give you. You can ask God for joy.

You can choose to be exuberant in life based on his promises.

It's not a matter of conjuring up emotions. It's a matter of saying Lord with your help, I'm going to be like Joshua, to be like Caleb not like the other 10 came back from Canaan will have more about risk tomorrow.

The good things that happen when we are willing to step out of the majority and minority, for God and we see that story so graphically illustrated for us in the life of Caleb. So tomorrow we will finish our discussion of risk. Thank you so much for listening. See ledger for more information on the Jeremiah's current thinking series, visit our website. We also find three ways to help you stay connected and monthly magazine Turning Points and daily email. Sign up today Jeremiah.old/writing Jeremiah.old/when you do your copy of the discovering God's presence tomorrow the gift of any amount you can also purchase the Jeremiah study Bible. The English standard version. The new international version can James version are available in a variety Jeremiah.old/writing Gary who join us tomorrow as we continue the series to Turning Point. Jeremiah