RISK - Get Out of Your Safe Zone

Christian welcomes Turning Point. We cued the dish and leaving your comfort zone and stiffing out of five is a risk that every believer must talk about how Jeremiah offers answers from the Old Testament story of Caleb's day shifts message risk get out of the safe zone this weekend.

We returned to our discussion of moving forward, discovering God's presence and purpose in our tomorrow.

We've already examined what it means to have a dream and a vision and to consult your creator through prayer today were going to talk about taking risks, which just another way to describe faith, living outside your safe zone. It's next on the weekend edition right here on this station. Most of us think of risk as a negative situation.

We should avoid but risk is a part of life. As part of faith that every risk is worth taking. But if you're too overwhelmed by fear correctly assess the situation. You missed many opportunities for growth and plaintiff 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, not if you want to cease tomorrow and accomplish the dreams that God places in your heart that God has given me the years I was 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 and can embody his spirit 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 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 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 and bring back enough intelligence to Moses as he planned the coming invasion of the land God had promised 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 have run and the descendents of Annick 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 Annick sightings lawyers 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 party mission had taken 40 days and nobody knew if they had survived or perished in, day after day sentries at Israel's parameters watched for them. Another 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 Powell master. Many coaches make the same state week after week 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 to. 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. By master.

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_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 Danielle daddy near 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 predictive trust in God and came back with a negative report they discouraged, they disheartened the people of Israel, those men made three terrible mistakes and we can make these mistakes ourselves if we are not careful they fell into three traps and you and I have to avoid these at all because first of all, they maximized the opposition or how we love to do this. God wants you to go forward he has adventures, challenges and victories and meaningful tasks for you as you look at the bridge to your future are you looking at the ropes on how you look at the holes in Numbers 1310 spies magnified every threat they looked at. They look 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 Annick, who came from the giants in like grasshoppers in our own site so we were in their sight 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 is 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 not be better for us to return to Egypt 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 accompanied them with cloud and fire as law given food and drink in the wilderness promised to make them a great nation in a 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 a place of avoiding risks and playing it safe. All three of 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 has planned 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 about a man who 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 remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.

Second, not only did the men who brought the report, but all the people who listen to the report.

They were sentenced as well listen in 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 the land which I swore I would make you dwell in, 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 command master question today.

What is your Canaan.

What does God want you to tackle what is he want you to process what is he want 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 leave Israel into the promised land. They were as young in spirit as four years before Joshua succeeded Moses led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the land of Canaan as we read the book of Joshua we find conquest 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 body. I was four years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Katie's body 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 up session 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 the 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 and 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.

Caleb set on 85, but I should be fully as I have the same energy. The same includes he is saying 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. Caleb had that same joyful eagerness is available to you and to me for me to say this 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 start 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 so risktakers stay exuberant about their lives over to Baystate excited about their futures. Watch Caleb watch what Caleb told Joshua now therefore sit dismounted, of which the Lord spoken that day for you in that day, Holly and Kim were there and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I will be able to drive them out as the Lord said that I don't forget what is going on here, but Caleb is just walked up to his leader and asked for the toughest assignment in the settling of the land where read that I felt like shouting yes at age 85. Caleb was ready to claim the hill country to tame the land provide a lasting inheritance for his children were something here. I don't want you to miss early in this message I told you about heaven and that it was the ancestral home of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now it was inhabited by an evil tribal huge lawyers known as the descendents of Annick the sign of these lawyers had terrified the tenant faithful spies like grasshoppers compared to the enemy. This portion of territory was still not taken by Israel. It was on possessed unclaimed and the Giants and scared everybody away everybody except Caleb said, in effect, unlock that country as my inheritance and am ready to take care of those daunting super villains. Let me no matter your age or your circumstance, no matter what hill you need to climb back kind of enthusiasm is what turns you forward. Someone has said, if you can get excited about the future. The past won't matter much. Even when the world is coming apart at the seams.

When global panics and pandemics are the order of the day when our economy is uncertain in our faith is under assault.

Even then, especially, then you need to look ahead to the next step that God has for you.

Caleb uses gray hair to beg off the heavy lifting.

He asked for a worthy challenge, because he had the wisdom to know that with a powerful quest comes a powerful reward. In other words, knock down a giant and you become a giant yourself.

He still had a vision for the future.

And because of that to accomplish the greatest victory of his life when he was 85 years old. Risktakers stay exuberant about their lives. Baystate excited about their futures and Baystate enthusiastic about their assignment. As you can see, Caleb was enthusiastic about his assignment Joshua and the Israelites had not yet succeeded in driving the evil occupants out of the large sections of the promised land.

The business was unfinished but Joshua 15 verse 14 says drove out the three sons of Annick Shasha came in and tell my children of Annick Caleb did exactly what he was told and he did it immediately is one of those success stories whose secret isn't so secret he just did it in the strength of the Lord.

That's enthusiasm the word enthusiasm made up of the Greek words for in an God and schism. It was coined to describe the seal of the early Christians when we have the God of all energy within us versus surge of power.

That's like an atomic reaction in our hearts.

The apostle Paul said it this way. I strenuously contend with all the energy of Christ so powerfully works in me. Risktakers stay exuberant about their lives. Baystate excited about their futures.

Baystate enthusiastic about the assignment and Baystate energized about their God that brings us back to the consummation of our story. Only the entry of God within us can keep us barreling forward into the remainder of God's will for our lives.

As I said, the story of Caleb's life is told in just 30 verses in the Bible, but six times in those 30 verses we are given the secret to his risk filled risk taking life. However things before you. I want you to see these is really stark is really overwhelmingly clear and very powerful.

Just 30 verses and in those verses. Six times we are told Caleb's secret and let me tell you something when you find Caleb secret you will find the secret for your life therapies versus my servant Caleb has a different spirit in him and he has followed me fully. They have not wholly followed me, except Caleb the son of Jeff unit came in sight and Joshua son of nun, for they have holy followed the Lord. Deuteronomy 1 Caleb the son of Jeff unit shall see him and his children.

I am giving the land on which he walked because he holy followed the Lord Joshua 14 I holy followed the Lord my God so Moses swore on that day, saying, surely land, when your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever because you have holy followed the Lord my God, and Joshua 1414 helper and therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jeff unit because I to this day because he holy followed the Lord God of Israel for my voice. The key phrases in these verses you not listening. Caleb holy followed holy, followed holy followed his Lord. By the time he was 85.

Most of his generation had given up hope and died but Caleb still had a bright fire burning in his heart he still wanted to risk his life on the greatest possible task that God could give him some reflect on what it means to incorporate risk into our walk with God. I want to tell you a story about the church I served the Shadow Mountain Community Church here in El Cajon, California. By 1990, I have been the pastor there for about 10 years after almost 8 years of struggling. We were finally ready to move into our new worship center and we know we experienced dramatic growth, and try to prepare for it.

One of the things on our minds was finances. We were concerned that are given to worldwide missions would suffer if we didn't do something special.

We wanted to increase that number, but we did know how to go about it. So we had a business meeting to talk about it. I'll never forget it. During the meeting, someone suggested that we allocate 5% of our general budget commissions and someone else stood up and said we give 10% of our income to God, we ask people to tie why should not the church tied their income to missions that seem like a big risk. Our new building payments are growing ministry were struggling to meet a financial obligation. How would we ever survive if we took 10% of our already not enough money and that's when I heard myself get up and say what you think God would do for us. If we gave 20% of our budget commissions going forward long time ago. Today I still remember how quiet it.that moment in that meeting and it seemed like it stayed quiet for a long time and then a man by the name of Ralph Radford one of the Caleb's of our church stood up and he encouraged us to take that challenge. He predicted that God would bless us if we did, and someone also reminded us that missions is the closest thing to the heart of God in the Bible, God has sent his own son into this world as the first missionary we made the decision that kind of risk decision decision not to keep from failing to actually go forward and when I been talking about that decision in this message and we carried out that day that we have been doing it now for over 30 years.

Today, shadow Mountain currently supports 198 missionary families with ministries in 41 countries and over 50 different languages. We helped underwrite three pregnancy care centers. The downtown rescue Mission servicemen center at our Spanish, Arabic and Iranian congregation are missionary budget this year will exceed for the first time for million dollars over the years since we took that risk back in the early 90s we have given over $50 million to evangelize the world.

None of that is said to boast I tell you that so you can think how great this church is or how great it's pastor is no it's Thanksgiving. It's gratitude but it's also a lesson for us.

We made a decision to take a risk and not just to try and God honored that decision in the magnificent way. One risk is God asking you to take as you go forward. I will tell you flat out you can't go forward without risk what God has done for us. He will do for you as well for you is not earthly comfort but divine courage. Courage in the face of opposition courage in the face of cultural change, courage when confronted with the unknown courage in the midst of a pandemic. God will never choose safety for us if it will cost significance. God created us to count and not to be counted. This is your time to move forward. This is my time to move forward out of the safe zone into the faith. So an going forward. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point, weekend edition with Dr. Jeremiah to hear this Turning Point programs get more information about this ministry. Simply download the free 2.5 all have the smart device or visit our website at Jeremiah dawdle/radio that Jeremiah G/radio. You can also view Turning Point television afraid HL-7 to Sunday mornings that I and on I CCTV Sundays at 6:30 AM Friday one, we invite you to join us again next weekend is Dr. David Jeremiah. She is another powerful message God's word here on Turning Point we can find string teaching