Achieving God's Purposes Means Taking Faith-Filled Risks. This Alway Involves Change
Notes
Transcript
Introduction - Carabiner and Risk (Rappelling) What’s so risky about it? The uncertainty - if the equipment fails then there will be a sudden stop at the bottom of the fall.
What does that have to do with faith? When repelling we put our faith in the equipment and the fact that it will support us and not break. There by saving us from the sudden stop at the bottom of a long fall.
We have the same issue here in the Church. At some point we have to take a chance and do something. Why is that a risk. Well, for the same reason as rappelling. Uncertainty. We are uncertain of the outcome. We are uncertain of where the money will come from and what we have to do, but mostly because doing something new is scary. That is where faith comes into play. We have to look beyond what we can see and believe that God is at work. Our equipment must be faith when we do new things for God, when we stretch ourselves farther than we could possible go without God’s power. And the verse for this core value points to increasing our faith muscles.
Today’s verse for this core value is Hebrews 11:6 which says:
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Who here wants to please God? Do you have faith. Without faith we can’t really believe in God. We can feel His presence in our lives, we can see His attributes in everything around us but we can’t see Him or touch Him. When we believe with faith we can seek Him and know that He will reward us. He will full fill all the promises that He has made. So let’s talk about a man that took a faith-filled risk.
The long version of this story is contained in the book of Genesis in chapter 12 and ends with his death in chapter 50. But I am going to tell you the concise version - the version contained in the book of Hebrews chapter 11.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
By faith Abraham left his home and family and went on a walk about without a road map and without specific instructions. The words the Lord used are in
Genesis 12:1 (NASB95)
1 “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
Sounds like a walk about to me and when you read the story in Genesis you will see that it was a walk about. It was a walk about because Abraham never received the inheritance that he was looking for.
Hebrews 11:9 says: “9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;” He kept looking for that city that he was promised. That land to call his own. He kept the faith and kept looking for something he wasn’t even going to find.
Hebrews 11:10 Says “10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” He was looking for a place that is outside of this world. He was looking for his eternal home and eternal rest in the presence of the Lord. He took a faith-filled risk and made a change. Did it pay off? He never received the inheritance that he was promised but he still received eternal rest in the presence of the Lord. And he became the father of the Hebrew nation and was in the line of the King of Kings - our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
But what does that have to do with us taking faith-filled risks and change? Well how many of you have left your home and gone on a journey not knowing the destination? I’ve moved a lot in my life and some of those moves involved risk and change because I didn’t know exactly where my journey would end. If any of you have taken a faith-filled risk and changed your life drastically you know what it is like to risk it all. But if you haven’t then you might want to stretch yourself a bit and find out.
But I digress. As the core value says Achieving God’s Purposes Means Taking Faith-Filled Risks. Once in a while we, the church, need to take a chance and do something great to achieve God’s purposes. But what exactly am I talking about?
First let’s review what the Webster dictionary says faith is: Faith is a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. In other words we believe in Him not because we see Him, but because we can feel Him. His Spirit testifies with our Spirit that we are Children of God.
And then the Bible says faith is: Hebrews 11:1
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
This is telling us that we know we will receive the things we hope for and are convinced that the things we do not yet have will be ours. But these things aren’t things of this world. Because the things we hope for should be things of a heavenly nature. We should be hoping for the things of glory. Our faith lies not in the things that we see around us but in the one who created all the things around us. And that faith leads us to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do. We don’t want to do those things because quite often they carry with them a certain degree of Risk: which is the possibility of loss or injury or exposure to hazard or danger. But what kind of danger could there be in starting a ministry in the church? It’s not necessarily a risk of danger but one of failure. Nobody wants to fail! But what is better? Trying something great for the Kingdom of God and failing or doing nothing at all. If we do it in faith then we have to believe that God can use whatever we do for His glory. His word will not return void.
I’m going to illustrate this idea with a Japanese proverb:
Proverb: Koketsu ni hairazuba koji o ezu.
Translation: If you don’t enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.
Meaning: No Risk; No Reward
Example: If you don’t try, you won’t succeed.
The American way of saying this is Nothing ventured; Nothing gained.
Why the Japanese would want to catch a Tiger’s cub has escaped me - but I understand the point. There is a great deal of risk to one’s person by entering a tiger’s cave. Once you do enter the Tiger’s cave what will happen when you come out. Whether you caught the Tiger or not doesn’t necessarily matter. The experience will change you forever.... Risking something great changes a person on the inside. That is one reason why a faith-filled risk will involve change.
On the other hand, change may produce the risk. Changing something in your life may produce the risk because you don’t know what the outcome of the change will be. The future is uncertain, the uncertainty produces fear which produces the need for faith. If we make the change knowing that God will bring about an acceptable result we can move forward with the change even though we are apprehensive about it.
These same results can come about with the church. Sometimes the church needs to change, not just the physical building but with the way things work or with the way we do business. When these changes come about we can allow them to destroy the church or we can grow stronger because of them.
One change that has been in the works is a rewrite of the constitution. For the last few months the Elder board has been amending the constitution. There is quite a bit of change with how the governance of the church will work. There will be more collaboration between the team leaders… (explain) And more opportunity for the women of the church to provide leadership.
Another process that will bring about change has been started by he Governing Board. They have taken a faith-filled risk by moving forward with the PEAK Profile. I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I spoke about the lights and other changes that we have been discussing. I mentioned the survey part of the Profile and requested that everyone of you be willing to complete the survey so we will have a lot of information to use for making decisions.
So that you know a little more about when we ask you to fill out the surveys in a couple weeks here is a video about the PEAK Profile...
The PEAK Profile process could bring about a great deal of change, change that may require more faith-filled risk then some of you are willing to take. But if we work together for God’s glory and honor we can do great things. I keep hearing that the glory days of this church were back when Rev. Wells was here. Maybe it was, but those days are behind us and we can’t keep trying to do business the way it was done back then. We have to change, we have to change to meet the demands of this post-modern, post-christian, post-covid world that we live and minister in. So let’s all flex our faith muscles and get ready for a wild ride. The future is uncertain so let’s take some risks and see what God will do in us and through us.
This brings our time with the Four Fold Gospel and our seven core values to an end. These are the things that make members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance special. So remember:
Jesus is our Savior
Jesus is our Sanctifier
Jesus is our Healer
Jesus is our Coming King
Lost People matter to God. He wants them found.
Prayer is the primary work of God’s people
Everything we have belongs to God. We are His stewards.
Knowing and obeying God’s word is fundamental to all true success.
Completing the Great Commission will require the mobilization of every fully devoted disciple.
Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish nothing.
Achieving God’s purposes means taking faith-filled risks. This always involves change.
We are the North Waverly Chapel - We are Alliance.
Pray!!