Faith is Risky Business
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Today I am going to read a series of stories from God’s word. There is a pattern for each of these stories. I believe that these stories all say something about what it means to be a child of God - a follower of Christ - a man or woman who desires to be in the will of God.
Let’s jump right in and start in Genesis 12. Just before in chapter 11, we read about the generations before Abram. They had amassed great wealth and security where they were living...
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
Out next story is in Exodus 3. Moses was living outside of Egypt with his father in law Jethro. He was married, had a family and was living outside the community of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt.
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
This was the start of what resulted in the Nation of Israel escaping the grasp of the Egyptian army as they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground just before the water returned and destroyed the entire army.
Our next story is from Joshua 6. The nation of Israel has entered the promise land after 40 years in the desert. They come to the first fortified city of Jericho. This is the first test of the promise that God would give the land to them...
1 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
If you were to keep reading, you would read about God doing exactly as He said after God’s people did what he asked of them.
Let’s turn now to 1 Samuel 17:
4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
From here, we hear about how David ended up in camp and then before King Saul. When before the King, David says this:
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
If you are not familiar with the story, David kills Goliath with a sling and a few stones. A very unlikely and unexpected outcome.
Turn to Nehemiah 2. Nehemiah was living the in the king’s household as a cupbearer. Life was much better for him than many of his fellow Israelites. He gets the message that Jerusalem is in ruins and is in distress about it...
1 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?”
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”
6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.
Nehemiah led the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem despite great opposition and doubt about the project.
Last story…Matthew 14. Jesus had just taught and then fed 5000 people.
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
All of these stories have a similar pattern. These aren’t the only ones in God’s word. Ester, Daniel, Noah, Gideon, Stephen…and many others. We sometimes read these stories and say something to the effect…”good for them. I’m glad that wasn’t me. I could never do such great things.”
I am saying to you this morning that mindset is a lie from the enemy. He may not call us to slay a giant Philistine or walk on water, but he has called each of us to follow Him in faith where ever He leads. When he has led me in my life, when He has led in the lives of others, I have heard a similar testimony of how it took place. Here is what I’ve observed by these stories we’ve read and what I’ve seen in the testimony of others as they’ve done amazing things as they followed the Lord.
Things always start out of a relationship with God.
It is very difficult to hear someone’s voice if we are not in relationship with the one speaking.
When I was in the Navy and out to sea on the sub, my wife got to send me 6 total family grams. They were short messages that were no more than 50 words and they couldn’t have bad news or cryptic language. It worked out to be roughly 1 message a week in the form of a sweetly worded paragraph. Do you think I got a full picture of what my wife was feeling or all that she wanted to tell me? No.
It is not possible to have a full relationship if it is only based on a once a week interaction.
What God asks doesn’t always make logical sense, but it does make Biblical sense.
God will never ask you to do something contrary to His word, but He might ask you to do something that sounds crazy. If you are in relationship with Him, it will often be very clear that it is Him speaking.
Even though it is clear, you may still have doubts…like Moses.
Even though you are certain it is God speaking, you may hear other well meaning believers call you out like David’s brothers did.
You may even still have a bit of fear…like Nehemiah, but You have to stay confident in your call and what God is asking of you.
The result will be a greater focus on God and who He is.
Many times people make bold decisions and do things in the name of the Lord, but are only doing so to draw attention to themselves. This is when you know the focus is in the wrong place. Sometimes the attention is placed on the individual, but their words and actions place credit and glory on God. David became king, but he was a man after God’s heart. Peter led the church, but he preached Jesus and him crucified. His purpose was in leading others to Christ, not himself.
I want to be a man who is listening for God’s voice and direction. I hope you want that for your life as well.
I want Crossroads to be a church that is listening for God’s voice and direction. It takes all of us being in relationship with him first and then with one another. I hope God asks us to do something that looks a little crazy from a logic perspective. Even more, I hope that we’ll be a church that will answer the call to where ever He is leading.
There are people all around us who have not heard the name Jesus except as a curse. There are kids in school who know nothing about what Jesus did.
I think God wants to use us to reach them…the question is how. When he tells us, will we be willing to step out of the boat onto the water? Will we ignore the storm and winds of doubt and criticism and keep our eyes on Jesus?
The first step is to be in relationship. In Esther 4, she is faced with a decision to go and speak out to the king about his right hand man. Esther knew that if she went before the king without being summoned, she could be killed. Here is how she went into that meeting:
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”