How to Squander Opportunity

Stewardship | Pledges | Opportunities

Often the best way to find success is to admit our failures, because without admitting failure, we could never learn from our past mistakes. The Bible is full of examples of people’s failures and mistakes. These examples show us many things. They show us God’s unending forgiveness and grace. They show us the deepest extent of God’s restoration in a broken, lost, and sinful world. But they also show us an example of something that—all too often—we see in ourselves. And that’s what I want to focus on over the next few weeks.

If you are a part of this church, then hopefully you are aware that this is pledge time. The council is prayerfully considering how to best use the resources God has entrusted to us to do the work of the mission of his church. Part of that process is asking all of our members to prayerfully consider what God is calling each one of us to share in tithing to the church. To help us in that, the messages over the next few weeks are going to focus on the Biblical topic of stewardship. But in particular, I am going to pull out a few examples in the Bible of people who failed to live according to the kind of stewardship for which God is calling. The idea here is not that we hope to promote bad stewardship. Rather, we hope to point out some of our own common mistakes and flaws, so that we can learn from our own failures, and become better followers of Jesus in the way we use and share our blessings.

Today let’s talk about opportunities. Here is a story from the Bible in which the entire nation of Israel is given the opportunity of coming out from wandering in the dessert after 400 years of slavery.

Numbers 13:26–33 NIV

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Proceed to the Route

GPS | Israel as the promised land

I’ve become a little too dependent on the GPS in my phone. When I lived in Grand Rapids 20 years ago there were no smart phones. Cars did not come with GPS screens built in. To get around Grand Rapids 20 years ago, I either needed to know exactly where I was going, or I needed to know how to look it up on a map—like an actual paper map that unfolded to the size of a dining room table and was impossible to ever fold back up again. But not anymore. Now just about everybody has a phone that will look up addresses and give turn-by-turn directions on the screen to guide us to our destinations. It is a remarkable change in the 20 years that I have been away from Grand Rapids.

GPS as we know it may be a newer technology of this recent generation. But turn-by-turn navigation is nothing new. In fact, this early form of GPS is exactly how God guided the people of Israel through the wilderness and right up to the boarders of the promised land of Canaan. God charted the route for them. All they had to do was take hold of the opportunity to follow. So, what went wrong here? Why did the people not continue on into Canaan as God had commanded and Moses instructed? Why did they pass up this opportunity? Why did they not proceed on the route God had given them?

It’s not like people of Israel didn’t have a plan. It’s not like they didn’t know the vision for what God wanted them to become. It’s not like they all sat by the boarder of Canaan and asked themselves what should happen next. The previous months in the wilderness and at Mount Sinai should have made those things perfectly clear. Over and over God reminded them through Moses that the promise made to Abraham and his descendants was being kept. Over and over God reminded Israel of his vision for how they should live once they receive the land that God was about to give to them—that he promised to give to them.

Opportunities that slip away – squandered | perfect day, job, college

So, what happened? They certainly did not miss the opportunity to enter the promised land because they were ignorant or unaware. They could walk away from Canaan and say, “oh, we didn’t know that was even an option for us to go that way.” Nope. The people failed to proceed on the route, not because they missed the opportunity, but because they squandered the opportunity. They had it—and they knew they had it—and they let it slip away.

Do you know what that is like? To clearly see an opportunity right in front of you with all the resources and potential to take advantage of it, but then let it slip right on past. A squandered opportunity. Maybe these opportunities came up in all sorts of little ways. A perfect sunny warm day with some free time on my hands—a perfect day for the beach or a hike. And I choose to sit and binge watch Netflix instead. An opportunity squandered. Maybe it’s something huge. A job offer or a college acceptance letter to something that looks awesome, but for whatever reason, you pass it up.

Here’s the thing. There are opportunities placed in front of us all the time—every single day. Sometimes we take hold of those opportunities. Sometimes we take a pass. Sometimes opportunities are provided by God as a in order to use his blessings in the way he intends for us. Sometimes opportunities are squandered by distractions that keep us from using his blessings the way that he wants. So, how are we supposed to know? How are we supposed to be the good stewards God wants us to be and use the resources he has given to us with the opportunities he places in front of us. It’s easy for us to sit here and read the story of Israel from the Bible and make judgements, because we have the benefit of knowing how the story ends. But it’s not quite so easy when we face all these choices every day in our own lives and wonder how we can best follow God through the use of what he has given to us. How do you know?

Make a U-Turn

Maybe it would be helpful here to take a closer look at how Israel failed to proceed on the route of God’s opportunity. Maybe noticing a few details of that story will give us some insight to see how it is we sometimes squander opportunity in our own lives. Israel gets right to the edge of God’s promised land, and they make a U-turn. They are following the GPS route God has for them right up to this moment, and then they stop and turn around. Take a closer look at that.

Israel’s U-turn moment | scouts’ report

The instructions from Moses for the scouts exploring the land were pretty clear. We didn’t read that part. It comes at the beginning of Numbers 13. And the report comes back that way. They report about the land, the cities, the people, and the agriculture. They confirm everything is true about God’s promise of a land flowing with milk and honey—a colloquial term that means it is a land that is very fertile and good for producing crops and other resources.

But then something happens in this passage. The scouts go beyond their mandate. They were only supposed to give a report on the land. They were never asked to give an opinion or an interpretation of God’s command whether or not to go into the land. As far as they were concerned, that was supposed to be a given. Of course, we’re going into the land…why wouldn’t we go into the land?

Then comes the U-turn.

As the scouts are giving their report on the cities and the people of Canaan, apparently the news was stirring a bit of a commotion. It is enough of a commotion that Caleb—one of the scouts—has to quiet down the whole crowd and get back to reminding everyone of their route. But ten of the other scouts think otherwise; they do not want to go into the promised land. And so, these ten scouts sabotage the journey for the entire nation of Israel by making up stories, by exaggerating the details and lying in order to intentionally incite fear in the people.

Nephilim exaggeration

Instead of telling the truth about Canaan as a land flowing with milk and honey, they instead say it is a land that devours the people who live there. And they also report that the people there are not only strong, they are giants. The Nephilim were supposed to be mythical heroes of ages ago. This comes from Genesis six, right before Noah and the flood. No one knows for sure who the Nephilim were. Genesis vaguely describes them by saying some of the sons of God (speculated to perhaps be among the angels) came to earth and had offspring with the daughters of men. These demigod-like offspring were known as the Nephilim. The Genesis account does not go into specifics about their nature or if these beings ever really actually existed or are given as a literary metaphor to display the sinful depravity that had swallowed the entire creation, which prompted God to bring about the flood. It doesn’t matter. Because either way, the Nephilim did not survive the flood and could not have possibly continued to exist.

But the ten scouts grab onto these stories of mythical legends of the past for one reason. They are bound and determined to make up any story they have to in order to scare the people away from Canaan. They troll the internet with Alex Jones-style conspiracy theories meant to drive a wedge of division into public opinion. They engage in a public relations smear campaign in order to make a U-turn. They don’t just miss the opportunity; they squander the opportunity.

Fear | paralyzing – loss, failure, hurt, go wrong

Why? Fear. Of all the commands that are repeated in the Bible, this one is right up at the top. Yes, God tells us over and over again to love—to love God and to love others. But it is also sobering to realize that the command to not be afraid shows up in the Bible in some variation roughly 145 times. Fear is an opportunity-buster. Fear is what caused the entire nation of Israel to squander the richness of God’s blessing for an entire generation—40 years—by making a U-Turn away from the promised land.

The GPS was set. The route was locked. The destination was right over the horizon. And then fear took over. Maybe the roads are icy up ahead; what if we slide off into the ditch? We better turn back. The report comes in, the sky doesn’t look as blue as we once thought; what if a bad storm comes up? We better turn back.

Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of getting hurt, fear of what might go wrong. The list here could go on-and-on. Moving into Canaan wasn’t going to be the walk in the park they thought it was. This might actually be hard and take some work. This is not going to be all fun and games. Sometimes the opportunities God places upon our route are going to take some effort, and maybe it doesn’t always look like that much fun.

Roller coasters

Fear can be paralyzing. Fear leaves us at a dead stop right in our tracks. Fear places imaginary roadblocks in front of us. I remember the first time my parents took the family to Cedar Point. It was the 1970s; so, the Gemini was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the park. Yes, I know that these days the Gemini is this puny little ride in the corner of the park—I think it’s still there. But back then, to an eight-year-old boy who was just barely tall enough to get in, this was huge…and scary. I backed out. I didn’t want to go. I was too afraid. But I think it was my older sister who finally convinced me to get on the ride. So, I got on and rode the roller coaster. And it was amazing. It was awesome. I was an eight-year-old boy who was so glad I did not give in to my fears; I was so glad I did not squander that opportunity.

Rearview Mirror

Fear is not the only thing that sometimes prompts us to make U-turns. Sometimes a view of the past can do that as well. Sometimes as we drive along the route of life we find ourselves gazing in the rearview mirror more than we are scanning the horizon in front of us. Sometimes we long so much to go back to what we left behind us, that we fail to pay attention to what is coming up in front of us. We can squander opportunity that way too.

The Israelites struggled with this while they wandered in the desert. More than once the people complained to Moses and suggested that the entire assembly should just turn around and go back to Egypt. It seems odd to us to think that this group of slaves who had just been given freedom from their slavery would actually want to go back to that. But it was the only life they had ever known.

Stuck on familiarity of all we have ever known

Maybe sometimes we do that too. Sometimes we get stuck because our desires are focused on the only things we have ever known. We long for a past that has slipped away because it feels more comfortable. It feels more familiar. You see, new opportunities are just that—NEW. And sometimes the thing that holds us back is that we prefer to stay with what is familiar, with what we have already known. And so, I keep going back to the same restaurants and ordering the same entrees. I never try anything new. I keep visiting the same vacation spots. I keep watching the same reruns. And I squander opportunities because I don’t want anything new to interrupt my predictable routine; I would rather stick to what I already know.

Alright, I admit that there is a healthy place in our lives for a certain amount of fear and a certain amount of familiar routine. Of course, we should not live in ways that recklessly throw all caution to the wind. And it is healthy to keep some familiar routines in place. All I am pointing out here is what happened to Israel when those things became so entrenched that it short-circuited the opportunities that God was bringing right in front of them.

Merge Area Ahead

So, where do we go with this? If this story from Numbers 13 shows us an example of what it looks like to squander opportunity, then what does it look like to live differently and make the most of every opportunity? In order to proceed along the route God was provided without making any unnecessary U-turns, we need to recognize that there are some merge areas along the way. Onramps are those places along the freeway where traffic merges in. Some drivers recognize this and are courteous and make a space. Some drivers are not paying attention. And some drivers are just rude and intentionally don’t make room for others.

God is someone who makes room for others. Jesus came to open an invitation for others to merge into God’s plan of salvation. Jesus established the church as a fellowship of people who would continually seek out and make room for others. The church is all about merging. Any opportunity we have which comes from God will include some necessary merge areas. Let’s close this up by looking at two of those merge areas.

Merge people together through the Holy Spirit

When God first called Abraham in the Old Testament and first made a covenant promise with Abraham, God said that he would bless Abraham and that all nations would be blessed through Abraham. God blesses us so that we can turn and be a blessing to others. This is an intentional merging of our blessings with others. When I consider how it is I have been blessed by God, and when I consider all the potential opportunities that God has placed in front of me about how I can use those blessings for him, the first thing I need to do is to stop thinking about this as just about me. It is not that I have been blessed, but that we have been blessed. It is not that I have opportunities, but that we have opportunities. God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t call just me, the Holy Spirit calls us.

Let me put it another way. We share a responsibility here together. I have been blessed by God, and I have a responsibility to use that blessing along with all of you and all of your blessings here together. The opportunities that God places in front of us as a church as not opportunities that I have to manage and handle all by myself. We do this together. Whatever it is that God has in store for the way we use his blessings here is something that merges us together. This shouldn’t be a surprise—and I don’t think it is. After all, Jesus prayed specifically in John 17 for the church that we would live in unity as one.

And so, the opportunities we have ahead of us to use our blessings for God are always going to be opportunities that open new onramps for others to merge in. that’s the first example of merging.

Merge people into trusting God

The second is this. Making the most of every opportunity from God means merging my will with God’s will. I squander opportunity when I fail to trust God. When I fail to trust God, then I refuse to submit to his will. Isn’t this really the result of Israel’s failure to enter the promised land? It was a failure to merge with God’s will because it was a failure to fully and completely trust God.

Fear chipped away at their trust in God to provide for his people. A longing for the familiarity of a distant past chipped away at their trust in God to provide for them in the opportunities of a new tomorrow.

When it comes to using our blessings so that we do not squander opportunities, it begins with trusting God. Only when we trust in God can we let go of our own will and our own fear, and merge into God’s will. But, trust alone still needs one more thing: obedience. Trust is empty unless it is acted upon. We can say we trust God. But, those words don’t mean anything unless we obey God.

Now – drive, press ahead, merge onramps, trust take shape in relentless obedience

Let’s be honest. We are richly blessed people. There are so many opportunities right here in this place and in this community to engage with mission of God’s church. Don’t turn away from that opportunity. Don’t squander what God has given to us. God has opened the way for every single one of us. His grace has made a way for all people to accept that invitation and come to him. God has removed every roadblock between himself and this world. Now is the time to put it into drive. Now is the time to press ahead. Now is the time to merge together and make new onramps for others to merge in as well. Now is the time for our trust in God to take shape in relentless obedience.