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 2)

The last post we started looking at taking risks  through the lens of the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48).  We will continue today looking at fear and why we do not take risks.

Why do we not take risks? – The first reason that people do not take risks has to do with “the Fear Factors.” What are these fear factors?

1. The Fear of Loss – but there is the old saying “nothing ventured nothing gained”.

1. Loss of reputation

2. Loss of Friends/Family

3. Loss of Money

Here is the thing – are we really going to fear losing things that are not ours – they all belong to God. Our reputation belongs to God, Our family and friends belong to God, and our money belongs to God. When we understand that, it should make it easier to know that we need not fear.

2. The Fear of Failure – Risking and not making it is the fear. There is no such thing as failing – it is all opportunities to grow. The greatest lessons in life come through failing.

· A winner first knows what losing is like – Malcolm Forbes

Just because you do not succeed does not mean that you failed. The only time we fail is when we quit. You do not measure a man or woman by what they do but by what makes them quit. All too often people quit just before God comes in and shows His power and His answer. Let me just say – if you never taste defeat you really do not understand how sweet success really is – especially God’s success! Never fear failing!

3. The Fear of Humiliation – The definition of humiliation is interesting – it is to reduce to a lower position in one’s own eyes or others’. Whose eyes is it important to be in – that is the real question?

1. What will others say? – Is this really something we should be asking ourselves?

2. What will I think of myself? – Again, is this a right question to ask?

3. Here is the Right question – What will God say? It is all about being faithful to Him!

Fear is a healthy thing if it is put into it proper place. Fear is there to protect us, but we are wrong and off base when we allow it to run and rule us. This woman that touched the hem of Jesus garment did not allow fear of loss, failure, or humiliations keep her from taking the risk of faith that she took. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear – (Mark Twain) and I see that this woman most likely had fear but she allowed faith to rule her life and not the fear. Do you allow fear or faith to rule your life?

The second reason we do not take risks has to do with”the Comfort Zone.”

We all desire to be comfortable. I lived in an apartment that the heat unit was called the comfort zone. You would put the dial on the comfort zone and walk away. It was the area on the dial that made the room or apartment comfortable so that you would not want to leave it. We all desire comfort but sometimes being uncomfortable brings about positive change. The Bible nowhere promises us that we are going to be comfortable in this life. I do not know of anytime that someone died from being uncomfortable – it will not kill you but will most likely build character in you. This life is not about our comfort but it is about Christ. All too often we just do not risk because we do not want to get out of that comfort zone.

We stop challenging ourselves. When we are comfortable we are not challenged. There are times at home when we need to not to be challenged but we need to rest. There are also times that we need to be challenged. You really do not know yourself until you have been challenged. You need to be stretched out. A challenge brings about growth. Challenges show us who we really are and even more than that challenges show us what we really believe. You can tell me all about your faith in Christ but what happens when the challenge comes – do you seek Christ or do you blame Him? The challenge really shows what you believe.

Again, going back to the woman who touched the hem of Jesus garment, she had to step out of her comfort zone to get healed. She had to put herself in a position that was uncomfortable and she did and it was well worth it because she found the healing she was looking for. She had to challenge herself to go and do something that I am sure she did not want to do. She had to push herself to get through the crowd just to touch that fringe of the robe of Jesus. It paid off for her and the same is true for all of us – if we are willing to be uncomfortable and challenge ourselves – we are putting ourselves in a position where Christ can do even more amazing things in and through us!

The third reason we do not take risks is “the Can’t Syndrome.”

You have told yourself you can’t do it – You in your mind tell yourself that there is no way that you could take the risk and you will not do. Or you tell yourself that you are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, strong enough or whatever and you don’t! If you do not believe you can – you won’t. What we are doing when we say these kinds of things is – limiting what God can do through us. We make ourselves unavailable to Him for use.

Someone else has told you that you can’t do it – Maybe you did not tell yourself that you can’t but someone else told you that you would not be able to do it. The sad part is that you believed without ever trying and seeing. You never took the risk of trying – you just gave up and believed them. I am here to tell not that you can but you will never know until you do you best to do it!

The women who touched the hem of the garment pushed past all the excuses she made and others gave her to touch the garment. She did push past and got her goal.

What is something that you fear?

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?