A Radical Faith: Part 2

tweaker we talked about You know having a radical face and what that means and I'm kind of going to expand upon what Jesus taught about that to his disciples and a lot of versus I'm going to use today. We'll come from kind of like Luke chapter 9 about verse 23 through 10:37, and we're not going to get to cover every verse in there. But there are a lot of really rich stories in that part. And if you get a chance to read that part of the Book of Luke, I would encourage you to do so cuz we seeing these verses that Jesus is Calling his disciples to live out their faith in as he's doing that he's explaining a lot of the cost that are associated with that and lots of challenges that they might face. But you'll see throughout that kind of the Common Thread that's running throughout. The whole thing is that Jesus is challenging his disciples to trust him. To trust him when they live out their radical faith. Like I said, one of the first things is we know that Jesus called his followers to a radical faith. Luke chapter 9 verse 23 says then he said to them all whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. You know, we have to be willing to crucify our agenda and are well so that we can take up Jesus's agenda. Jesus's will and Jesus's cross daily to follow him as someone whose heart is completely his That's something we have to be willing to do but you know choosing to live that sort of life that's willing to do whatever it is that God asks us to do that's not a life. That's without some cost there. Yeah, there's often a hefty price tag. When you're talking about eternal rewards that can come from the things that God leads us to do. It only makes sense that there can sometimes be Hefty price tags on this side of Eternity for that. Luke chapter 9 verse 24 says for whoever wants to save his life or save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will save it.

You know despite the High Cost of Living this sort of radical faith that Jesus is talking about we know that the reward is always worth it And for those who have the courage to stand up for their faith in to do the right thing and to stand up for the gospel and to never be ashamed of it. It says that Christ will not be ashamed of them when that day comes. Buffalo's who are ashamed of the gospel and who are willing to compromise what the gospel says in order to fit in a little better. Jesus gives the following warning in Luke 9:26. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the father and the Holy Angels. That's where those verses that when I read it I think pouf. I don't want that to be me when I get to the end of my life. I don't want Jesus to be ashamed of me because I didn't have the courage to stand up for him because I didn't have the courage to stand up for what I believed in.

We must challenge ourselves to not be ashamed of the Gospel message the true gospel message. The second thing we see from that series of scriptures is that Jesus taught his followers that the secret to having a great faith was the quality of the object of their faith. You know when you say you're a Christian, what does that really mean that you believe in?

You know, that's why we believe that it's so important to respect scripture like we do and to give a high view of scripture in to see it as our Authority. Jesus was speaking to a group of people who lived in a time where there were lots of other false idols and false gods that were out there. You know, God's Made of Stone and wood and metal. You know. That was what their faith was in. But we believe in the Living God, right? We put our faith in Jesus Christ who came and died on the cross for us.

And you know your faith is only a value when it is in something worth having that faith in it, and we have to place that faith in Jesus. And you know one of the other stories that's in that passage of scripture I talked about is the story of the Transfiguration.

You know when the disciples see Jesus transformed before them and they see him in his glorious State as it says in Luke 9:35. A voice came from the cloud saying this is my son whom I have chosen listen to him. and sometimes I think it would be great if more of us could have Seen the Transfiguration and seen that we're supposed to listen to Jesus cuz sometimes I think we forget that but you know God's message to the disciples was that you can always trust what Jesus says. It's truth. You can trust it. You don't have to deny it and if we believe in the truth of scripture, that's what gives us the strength and the courage to live out. This Radical Face. Jesus is talking about

You know in Matthew 13, we find another Parable that talks about having faith the size of a mustard seed. If you don't know, what a mustard seed is extremely tiny little seed but it grows quite large when planted and know what the story is trying to tell us is that only takes a little bit of Faith to make a big difference. And that's what we have to remember here. Because if you have a big God life's obstacles look small. And if you have a big view of God it helps you to keep that perspective when you face those things and if we want to take Godly faith-filled risk. They're a part of practicing that radical faith in the more radicals or Godly faith-filled risk that we are willing to take the more our capacity to trust God and to believe what he says grows. More opportunities we take to exercise our faith the more our faith grows. Yeah, I shared the quote from aw Tozer that said the most important thing about me is what I believe about God. You know, I love that quote cuz I think there is so much truth in that that that really is the most important thing about me. Yes, I exercise my faith and as my view of God grows bigger and bigger the challenges I face in life seem smaller and smaller. And this will lead us hopefully to a place where we can live out our life in a way that we're willing to take those radical Steps of Faith that we have to take sometimes. Because we trust God that much. Cuz you know, I think it's important for us to ask us the questions, you know, when was the last time that? You took the type of faith-filled risk for God that to be quite honest if God didn't show up you were in trouble.

You know often for those of us who are Christians in America, we don't face a lot of risk like that. We don't have a lot of situations where we have to step out with such great faith knowing that if God doesn't show up and come through we're in trouble. But you know, there are still opportunities that God gives us to live out our faith and radical ways like that opportunities. He puts in front of us where we have to depend entirely on God for the outcome.

The third thing Jesus shows us that passages, you know, he outlines the cost of being a faithful disciple. Luke chapter 9 verse 58 Jesus replied foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place. Play is head. Translation of that is you don't really understand what it truly means to follow me what it can really cost you to follow me. Yeah, he's trying to explain the cost of them. But he knows that they don't totally get what it could mean.

And you know, it's all I've had my Ministry career. I've met fellow leaders Pastor Christian workers of all sorts and even missionaries who emphatically claim that they are willing to do whatever God asked them to do. But yes, they have set very strict parameters on when and where and how that's going to happen.

Whenever I bump into that I always think. That's great that you say you're willing to do whatever God wants you to do.

but if you have such strict parameters Who's Will are you really trying to carry out? Are you really open to wherever God is leading you whatever God is leading you to? It's a tough place for any of us to get to but we have to be willing to do whatever he asked no matter the price tag. Because we will never experience the supernatural power of God and find the center of his will until they let go of people and stuff is our security at the center of our lives. We have to understand that people and stuff is not what makes lifesecure. It's not what makes life comfortable. No one else, but God can occupy the center of our lives. We're taught a lot of different things but our society and we are definitely not taught that God is what offers this security. We have to realize that anything else that we try to put there will eventually fail us. No matter what it is. Settle it with the Radical Face means that there are times when we are going to take faith-filled risk where we have no other safety-net other than God for the situation. If we take a stand for what we believe in can we trust the God has our back in those situations?

U.s. I thought about that. I thought I've had a few examples of that throughout my life. I shared a couple of them with you. You want the first ones came this one always sticks out the most of my mind when I was working for a company that drives little brown trucks. I won't say their name, but I work for them all throughout my undergrad college experience. I'd told a lot of different positions with them and I was a supervisor when I left there. Well, when we move down to Kentucky to go to Seminary I started working for them again, but they don't transfer anyone. So I had to start all over at the bottom again and Work my way back up through I got back to where I was working in a management position again. But one day I got called into the manager's Office of the building and you want me to fire someone. Okay, I'd fire plenty of people over the years UPS has a high turnover. Oops. I said their name, but they have a very high turnover rate and When did the first time that I fired someone so I said okay, you know we got to talk about who and why I would fire them. I said, okay, but if I'm going to let her go I said this girl made the same exact mistake last week. I need to let her go. He said no, you won't touch her. I said I'm not going to fire this lady for that and not fire her when they did the exact same thing. I said actually the girl the week before his mistake was bigger than hers. So, how do I do that? To which I won't tell you some of the discussion that happened after that. Basically, I was told I needed to think about that decision because if I didn't fire her that it would be me. That would go. Okay, I'll think about that. Night thought about it. Can do it my mind didn't change. So I went back into his office next day. He said why I trust you've come to your senses and I said, yes, I have I'm not going to fire. Here's my two weeks notice. And walked out of their went down Tyson said so went down to my area where I manage. And that was a Wednesday. He came down about an hour into the shift and he said I don't need your two weeks notice. You're done Friday.

Okay, you know I didn't have another job lined up. I was in seminary. I have wife and kids and I'm thinking okay Lord. How's this going to work out? I honestly didn't know. When I left there, but what I do know is over the next two days. I got more chances to witness to the people who worked in my area than I've ever had in the previous time before. Cuz they heard what happened. They knew why I was having to leave and I thought well, it's not like they're going to fire me right so I can be a pretty open and what I share with my people so I did for the next couple days and wouldn't you know it by Monday? I didn't have one job I had to say when I first started training to be a bus driver and then I also got a job at the Seminary cleaning with their housekeeping staff. So I had two jobs. but you know the good part of that story is that

we can all guess the reasons I don't think I have to go into details of why he didn't want me to fire that particular girl. He would come visit her a lot throughout the shifts most nights and let's say the good way to say it is she had another career where she worked at a club in town? Twitchy frequent it often too. So we all have our guesses of what was going on there. But a couple years later, I was in Lexington. I forget what I was even in town for. When a girl walks up to me and says hey I wanted to thank you for changing my life and I'm like, I didn't even recognize her. She looks so different. It ended up being the girl that he told me I couldn't fire. She said and the weeks after I left it made her remember the face that she wants have. So she quit her job at that club. And she eventually quit her job at UPS to go back to school and she now had finished her degree and she was working in another job. And she said it changed my life and stand that you took. I thought I was going to fire you.

But it changed her life because I took a stand and you know, it's you never know sometimes when you take that step of Faith how it impacts other people. But you know, I did it because God just really laid it on me that it was the right thing to do. that I didn't know how it was going to end up there all worked out for the better and you know a few years ago when things came to the end of my time at the Wabash Church. You know we felt it was our time to leave. And we told the church, and unfortunately, they didn't respond well to that and we ended up leaving sooner than we wanted to leave. You know, I wondered why that happened cuz that sentence on a crazy course for a couple of years probably the most hurtful painful time. My family has ever been through. but you know this I look back at that if all that stuff hadn't happened if I hadn't have had to take the job at Thunderbird that I did and work there for a couple of years and If we hadn't went through all of that if we hadn't taken that step of faith that God was telling us it was time to leave. We never would have ended up here. And it's last week cuz I shared the story of Esther, you know, one of those for such a time as this type of thing. And I still believe that God has us here for this time for a reason. But never would have happened if we wouldn't have went through some painful stuff that came from taking a step of Faith. But you know, I told both of these stories. Just tell you and remind you that you know when you step out in faith God's Got Your Back. It may not be easy. It most likely won't always be fun, but God will take care of you. You may not like the way that he chooses to take care of you cuz it might be a lot Messier in a lot more difficult than you wanted to be. But God will take care of you. He will provide for you. He will help you to see you through that time. And you know, I think that's something that we should find encouraging as a church is we've taken a giant step of faith is a church. You know, we took the boat to leave which is a huge thing. But we did it as a step of faith knowing that's what God wanted us to do. And we have to trust that God's going to honor that we have to trust that. There's going to be other faith-filled risk that we get asked to take in the coming months and years after this. But God will provide he will make a way for all those things and we have to trust that that every time he puts those Steps of Faith in front of us. He's going to provide. Feel like I said last week, you know, nehemiah's prayer and Desperation was answered because it was part of an ongoing conversation between he and God this wasn't the first time that Nehemiah had ever prayed to God when he sent up that little please help me God prayer before he talked to the king. Noni am I in God have been talking for a long time? They've been having an ongoing conversation? And that's why you know Nehemiah new God's voice when God told him what to do when God was leading him. Because of the ongoing relationship because of that ongoing conversation. So we have to remember that a big part of living out of radical phase is a healthy prayer life a radical face starts with a healthy prayer life. I would even say Did you have to have that relationship?

The first thing is the Jesus demonstrated that radical faith is caught more than taught.

You know one example I gave of that was. the story of the young lady who

from the example I set of taking my step. She was reminded of her faith and is actually I have said I talked to some other people there was quite a few of the ladies who worked there who made changes in their life after that. Jesus tells us the same thing and Luke chapter 10 23 and 24 says then he turned to his disciples and said privately blessed are the eyes who see what you see for. I tell you that many prophets and Kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it and hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Young Jesus is making the reason clear here. He says. You know what they'd seen. Was based on the fact that they had stepped out in faith and trust in Christ. And this is coming after he had sent out the 72 in a lot of them went out and they came back and they said Jesus in a were able to do all these things in your name. Why is that? Why can we tell the demons to get out of people and they get out? Why can we heal people? Why can we do all these things?

And Jesus tells them it's because you were willing to take that step of Faith you went when I asked you to go and that is what allows you to see these things and to hear these things into do these things. You know, but where is they learned that? They learned that from being with Jesus hadn't thing. Over there years spent following him. They had seen these things happen on a regular basis and your Jesus didn't necessarily have to teach them these things. They caught that face by seeing what they saw. And you know what, they were experiencing with the power of the kingdom of God made it evidence in their lives. And that's why they were able to live out this radical faith in to see all these things happen in Jesus name because they trusted him because they took that step of faith. Cuz the only way your developer radical faith is to pray and to actually step out.

You know, we can pray all we want for a radical face. But there comes a point. Where you have to step out where you have to actually take the step that you feel God putting in front of you. You have to actually do that thing and God will show us what it looks like to take a step of faith and he's going to show us how he wants us to do it, but it can only occur if you actually take that step. You know, we can talk a long time about different things that we need to do or should be done. But there comes a point where you have to take the actual step. Yeah, I once heard a friend Sharon analogy saying, you know, it kind of compares to the idea of learning how to swim by looking at pictures or watching videos. You know, you can do that for a little while. You can look at the pictures watch the videos of okay, this is how you do the backstroke. This is how you do the freestyle. But you know, it's all Theory right until you actually touch the water until you actually get in until you actually jump in the water all this stuff. You've learned since the theory. You don't know if it works. You don't know if you can actually swim by what you've learned an important part of learning to swim as you have to actually get in the water. It's no different with faith. You know, we talked about it every Sunday at church. We read about it in our Bibles. But until we actually put it into practice. It's only Theory. Until we actually exercise that faith. We don't know what it really means. Until we actually put ourselves out there and physically put ourselves on the line for what we say. We believe in it's just Theory, you know until we get to that point where we pray. Okay, God I know what you want me to do, but you do realize I could get fired for this, right? Or you do realize that this is a really strong moral stand and it may not make me very popular with this person or that group or whatever, you know until we're willing to put ourselves on the line. It's just area. But I have to ask, you know, when we find ourselves no situations to believe God enough to trust that. It's just a job. God can help you find another job. God can provide in another way or yeah, you might catch from black for this. But you know, we have to be reminded of what did Jesus endure on the cross for us? That's what it truly means when it says to daily take up your cross to follow me if we're going to live that Radical Face. There's going to be a hefty price tag sometimes but we have to be willing to take those steps. Especially in the world that we live in now that you know, we talked about how there's so many other competing theories and religions and other things out there if we aren't willing to actively live out our faith. we can expect to have much of an impact in the world around us and that's what Jesus is challenging to in this because ultimately, you know, it's our fear of rejection are fear of You know just not getting along with everyone else, you know our lack of confidence that keeps us from taking that step of faith. We let so many other things stop us. But we have to actually exercise our faith. I'm just challenging all of us that I don't know where it is. The God's challenging you but my guess is that we all have areas in our life for God is challenging us to step out in faith. My challenge to you is to actually step out jump in the water get wet and trust that God's going to provide. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for the blessings that you give us. Lord I pray that you will help us to not be content to just live a comfortable Christian Life. The Lord that you would challenge each and every one of us to actually step out in Faith Lord to be willing to take those faith-filled risk that you put in front of this Lord knowing and trusting. That you will be there for us that you will provide for us Lord that you will support us and every way that you can. and Lord, I pray that you will just help all of us to Find the courage to do that Lord by digging deeper into your word by spending more time and prayer. Lord knowing that the only way we can have the courage and the strength to do these things is when we are firmly rooted in you and Lord we pray the song your most. Holy name. Amen.