Risking it all (part 3)

We have been talking about risks over the past few post and we have been looking at it from the view of Luke 8:43-48 which is the woman with the issue of blood.  We looked at an illustration of a pumpkin in a jug in the first post which you can read here.  We looked at in the last post the various fears we have which keep us from risking it all and you can read those here.

Today I want to share another illustration with you – one you might of heard before but one that is effective and showing how why we fail to take risks sometimes.

Elephants are pretty powerful creatures. They weigh in at as much as 24,000 pounds, and stand as high as thirteen feet tall. Their trunks are agile enough to pick up a single blade of grass, and strong enough to rip branches off of a tree.

Despite their enormous power, elephants can be chained. It doesn’t seem to make sense – what chain is strong enough to hold an elephant who could easily pull it apart? The answer is a small one: a small chain fastened to a metal collar around the elephant’s foot is attached to a wooden peg nailed into the ground. This holds the elephant so strongly that it doesn’t ever struggle to break free. How does this happen?

Chaining an elephant isn’t as simple as just putting a chain around its leg – an adult elephant would snap that chain without even noticing the effort.  The way to chain an elephant is to start when it’s a baby. You don’t even need a chain – a strong rope will do. The baby elephant will struggle, but eventually it will realize that it can’t break the rope, and even worse, continuing to struggle creates a painful burn on its leg. The baby elephant learns not to struggle – it accepts that the limit imposed by the rope or chain and it becomes is permanent, and there is no use struggling against it the elephant thinks.

The elephant grows up, and becomes the most powerful land mammal on the face of the earth. Here is the thing – elephants are chained to something that they could easily break but the elephants will not ever try to pull away – they simply believe they cannot do it.

The elephant is like pumpkin in the jug – bound by limits that needs to be broken. We are like the elephant and the pumpkin – we need to break free and live in the freedom and maturity that comes when we go above the limits of what we think, to reach what and who God says we are. Too often we just believe what we have been told to us by someone else or we have given up.  That is why it is so important to reach beyond that to be who and what God says we are!  How does this happen? It happens when we become positive risk takers who live in faith and not live in the fear.  It happens when we listen to God’s voice of truth  and not to the voices of those around us. To me, these are the only way the jug break and elephant knows it’s true power – is when the limits are pushed and positive faith risks are taken that we break free and know the true power of God in our lives.

We will talk about some practical things that the woman who touched the hem of the garment did next time but for now let me ask you this:

What is one risk you have not taken because you are chained like the elephant that you need to start pushing for right now?

Risking it all (part 1)

Over the next several post we are going to look at risking it all.

A farmer was walking through his pumpkin patch early in the growing season, and while walking near the road that ran by his farm, he found a one-gallon glass jug. He stood looking at the jug for a few moments, and then, for no particularly good reason, he picked up the jug, laid it near a plant and then he poked a small pumpkin into the jug without damaging the vine and then wondered on his way.

Later when the pumpkins were full grown and were being picked and stacked, he came across the jug again, this time completely filled with the pumpkin he’d poked inside. The pumpkin had filled the jug completely, and had stopped growing; it was the size and shape of the jug. It did not break the jug but just grew to the limits that glass provided. The other pumpkins around it had grown to be full and mature but this one pumpkin was the size and shape of the jug and it was stunted.

Now, what we need to understand is in life there are many people who are like the pumpkin in the jug; they only grow to a certain point or in other words they are stunted because they are living their lives in a jug that holds them back. They have allowed themselves to be held to certain limits because of the jug they are living in. They have never grown to their full potential or full maturity.

For us in life – in order to grow to our full potential and to really be mature we will need to take some risks to get out beyond the boundaries of the jug of life. When you do this you will grow to full maturity and reach your full potential. You might think – I am too old for this or too young for this or too set in my ways – but read carefully over these posts because I think God has something in store for you.

We are going to talk about what those boundaries are that keep us in the jug and stunted. We are going to talk about what keeps us from being all God intends us to be. God does not put us in a jug but God wants us out of the jug to grow fully and to maturity. God does not want us to be stunted! Sadly we put ourselves in the jug or allow others to put us there and it is not what God has intended.

In these posts we will look at a woman in the Bible who got tired of living in her jug of life. She got tired of the limits that she had on her. She wanted and desired to be all God intended her to be and she knew she could not be that living in the jug. She got sick and tired of being sick and tired and so then she was willing to do whatever it took to break out of the jug and to have the full life that she knew God intended for her.

Luke 8:43 -48: ⁴³ And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, ⁴⁴came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.⁴⁵ And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” ⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

This is a story of a woman who got out of the jug by taking a risk of faith. You see every one of us is like this woman. We are all sick and in of healing from the master in some areas of our lives. All of us in one way or another are trapped in a jug and not growing to our full potential. What we need to do is take a risk of faith like this woman did here. We need to take this risk and become all God intends for us to be.

What are Risks? According to Webster – they are the possibility of loss or injury. There are negative risks. These are times that the possibility of loss overshadows any of the benefits that come from taking the chance.  There are also positive risks. These are times that the possibility of loss is overshadowed by the benefits that come from taking the chance.

What are the risks that the woman in the story took? She was ceremonially unclean and could not practice her faith and she would make everyone she touched unclean and they would have to be purified.

• She risked making crowd unclean – she was unclean because of here issue of blood and touching others even in passing would make them unclean.
• She risked making Jesus unclean – touching even the hem or fringe of Jesus’s garment would have made Jesus unclean.
• She risked telling Jesus it was her that touched him and sharing how she was healed– Now the crowd would know that she was unclean and admitting to Jesus that she made him and them unclean.
• She risked the crowd turning on her – The crowd could have easily turned on her because of making them unclean and they now know that if they touched her they would have to go and be purified.
• She risked the possibility of getting healed – this is the one risk that would make it worth it all.

She had four negatives and one positive – but that one positive overshadowed the four negative.  She had a lot to lose but she had more to gain by taking the risk.  She risked it all to be all that God intended her to be.  Something for you to think about which we will discuss in the next post – why do so many avoid taking risks when there are such great rewards?  Let us not live our lives in the jug!

What is the greatest risks that you have taken in you life?