Taking Risks - Part 2

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, October 18th. Today's lesson wraps up the series on reaching your full potential with the story of courage from Matthew Chapter 14. I'm Charles Stanley.

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast. And remember, we said that your potential means the possibilities that are within you, the power that is within you to make reality, what is maybe in your imagination or what you dreamed about or what you planned in your life. And so when you think about what your potential is, the truth is none of us know. You don't know what your potential is. That is, you don't understand what your potential is to what you can become in life, what you can achieve in life. And so in order to find that out, we have to take risk in life. And sometimes if a person is uncomfortable doing that, they hesitate.

Let me just say this. You'll never become the person God wants you to be. Never achieve the things in life God wants you to achieve until you're willing to take risk. So what is a risk? It's the possibility of suffering, harm, danger or loss. Is it ever a part of it?

Yes, it is. But it's primarily the possibility of it. You see, so many people are willing to just be what they are, sit where they sit, do no more because they're not willing to take the risk. For example, some parents are not willing to take the risk of their children's disfavor and so they won't correct them.

They won't discipline them. Or I'm afraid, you know, I don't want them to stop loving me. I'm afraid they'll think I don't love them. Listen, if you and I grow and become who we ought to be and listen, if we become the kind of friends we ought to be, we become that. Listen, we have the kind of relationships we ought to have, we're going to have to take risk. If you have a genuine friend, if that friend really and truly loves you, they'll take the risk of bringing something to your mind and heart that needs to be corrected. Listen, with the risk that you may turn them off, with the risk that they don't want to be your friend anymore. They say, you know, forget this.

It's the kind of friendship I want. We all take risk. And if you live in Atlanta or if you live in any big city or you live in a small town, you get on the expressway, start your car, you have a risk in mind right then because there's a risk today flying. There's a risk driving. There are risks everywhere you turn. We take risk and we never think about it. But then God calls us to take one and we begin to hesitate and we think, well, now let's see now, Lord, what have you promised? Well, let's think about something for a moment. When I think about taking a risk, I think about a lot of risk that I've taken and ask myself sometimes, what was I thinking?

I look back and see what God did. But I can tell you this. He's never failed me.

You know why? Because that's not his nature. He's not going to fail you to do what he calls you to do the way he calls you to do it. But let's ask this question. What can I be absolutely assured of when I take a risk with God? What can I be absolutely assured of? No question about it.

There are three things you need to get them down. Listen to this. Number one, watch this. This will surprise you. You can be assured of being challenged. You can be assured of moments of fear. You could be assured of moments of doubt. You can be assured of hesitation at times. Absolutely.

Because we're human. You can be assured that if you begin to take risk in your life, you're going to have those moments when there are moments of fear, moments of doubt, moments of feeling incapable, inadequate. You're going to have those.

That's number one. The second thing you can be absolutely assured of is this. God's presence with you. He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

No, never forsake you. It is impossible for a child of God, listen, to live a single second without the presence of God. I didn't say whether we were aware of it or not, but at the presence of God. So that wherever He calls you, He's going to be there. Whatever He calls you to do, He'll be there to help you to do it. That is, you can be assured of His presence. And that's what saved the apostle Peter as the disciple there walking in the water. He looked at Jesus. He had his presence and he knew that it was Jesus. And therefore, even though he cried out, Lord, save me, I don't think he doubted that the Lord had saved him. He was just telling him, I'm going down.

Help me. Jesus pulled him out. How many times has He pulled you out?

You know what? You can't even count them. He's pulled every single one of us out of sinking. We've all at times faulted at some point probably in our faith because of fear or whatever it might be. And He's pulled us out every single time. So the second thing you can be assured of is His presence. The third thing you can be assured of is this. The enabling power of the Holy Spirit to enable you to achieve or be victorious in whatever the challenge is. Every single time you have that awesome promise. The promise of the challenge, yes. The promise of His presence, yes. The promise of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, yes. And when you have the power of the Holy Spirit enabling you, strengthening you, undergirding you, then what do we have to fear? It isn't that we don't have it.

It's just the fact that we forget it. Because we begin to look at the opposition, look at all the possibilities of things that could happen. And you know, you can sit in your chair, have a nervous breakdown thinking about all the things that could happen to you. Or you can sit there and praise God because you know that your focus is upon Him and He's not going to let you down.

He's not going to fail you no matter what happens. So you can be assured of those three things. Now what's that? That God's going to call me to some challenge in my life that's going to test me. It's going to challenge my abilities and talents and skills and my gifts. And it may be something that I don't particularly want to do. Go somewhere I don't particularly want to go. Have to face something I don't want to face.

Is that possible? Absolutely. What's the other promise? What's the other thing that's inevitable? His presence. What's inevitable?

Power of the Holy Spirit to enable you to achieve, to accomplish no matter what it might be. So when you think about the risk, here's what I want you to remember. It isn't that you're risking God. It's the feeling we have.

Because the truth we know is this. Anything God tells you to do is not a risk. You say, well, but suppose He calls me to do something that cost me my life. Did I blow it? No. Did God fail me?

No. He knew before He called you that He was going to take your life in that particular situation. You know what?

You obeyed Him. You get rewarded. What's the risk? The risk is maybe me not having my way.

The risk is the risk of danger, harm, loss. Every single time a child of God obeys God, we get blessed and we get rewarded. All of our blessings and rewards coming in this life, I certainly hope not. Because we've got rewards coming on the other life, the life that comes after this. We're going to be resurrected one of these days into a brand new life, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And one of these days we'll be rewarded for being obedient to Him. Risk-taking is a part of the Christian life.

Safety first, secure, everything just, in other words, the comfort zones where many people want to live. They never become the person God wants them to be. Oftentimes because they were unwilling to take a risk with the living God, to become what He desired, to achieve what He desires in your life. Now we said, when you think about this idea of taking a risk, what can you be assured of? And we said there are three things you can be assured of. The challenge, His presence, and His power to enable you to do it.

Well, there's something else I want you to notice, and that's this. Playing it safe is not God's way. Secondly, playing it safe and denying God His rightful place in your life and your positions is disobedience to God. You say, but you know what? I'm just afraid and God understands my fear. He understands your fear. But you know what? He wants to jerk you out of that. And you know why He does?

Because He sees your potential. So let's think about this for a moment. We said, here are the things that you can be absolutely assured of. Now, what can we anticipate? That's three things I can be assured of. But what can I anticipate? You need to jot these down.

Now listen to this. What can you expect? What can you anticipate if you want to take a risk? Number one, He may call you to go somewhere you've never been. He may call you to go somewhere you've never been. You have to take a risk. He may call you to do something you have never done. Take a risk. He may call you to give something you have never given. Take a risk. He may call you to surrender something you have never surrendered. You've held on to it all these years.

You've got to take a risk. Now I'm going to stop there for a second. Listen to this. Isn't it interesting how the mind works? This is one of those very subtle satanic attacks.

Now imagine this. Here's God who calls you to surrender your life, which He's called all of us to. He's called all of us to surrender our life to Him. That means just turn over to Him completely and let Him be in control. Now who is this that's in control? This is this unconditional loving Father who loves you and me enough to give Jesus Christ to down the cross for our sins to do what?

Make it possible for us to be forgiven, have a personal relationship with the Father, and have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us to enable us to do whatever He calls us to do. So that's who it is who's calling us to full surrender. What is a full surrender? It's yielding total control of our life to Him. Now anybody would think, if you think rationally for a moment, isn't it the wisest thing you could possibly do to turn the full control of your life over to a sovereign God who is in absolute control, loves you unconditionally, has the best for you? Isn't that the wisest thing to do? Amen?

Right. Then why don't we do it? Why don't we do it? I'll tell you why. Because this old fallen nature of ours is very fearful of giving up full control of ourselves to anybody, including God.

We just don't like the idea of giving up full control. And here's the reason. Here's what Satan does. This is strictly from the devil.

Watch this. He says, if you give up, you give up full control of your life to God, do you know what He may do to you? That is exactly what we think. And every single one of us has thought it. And if I ask you to raise your hand if you've ever thought it, some of you would have to lie and I don't want you to commit sin sitting right here. Because you wouldn't want to raise your hand. All of us have thought it.

Because that's one of His, He loves to fling that flaming missile at us. Now wait a minute. Do you realize what may happen if you turn your whole life over to Him? No, we don't know what's going to happen. Are you willing to risk that? Full surrender, total surrender to God whom you cannot see?

Wait a minute. This is that sovereign, absolute in control God who loves us unconditionally, only planned the best for us, has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill His will for our life no matter what it may be, only has the best in mind for us. Yes.

Yes, I'm willing to give full surrender of my life to Him no matter what. Satan will do his best to keep you from doing it. So what are we saying? What can you anticipate? You can anticipate going where you've never been, doing what you've never done. Listen, giving what you've never given, surrendering what you've never surrendered, watch this, loving whom you've never loved.

Why? Because you got hurt and you're afraid to take the risk of loving once again. And so you know what happens?

You go through life alone, complaining to God, moaning and groaning because you're afraid to take the risk of loving somebody and maybe getting rejected once again. You can anticipate Him requiring you to forgive somebody you've never forgiven. Somehow in your mind you just can't forgive Him. You can defend yourself and defend yourself.

You know what? To reach your potential you're going to have to take the risk of forgiving. You're going to have to take the risk of, listen, becoming something you've never been. At this point in your life you look in the mirror or whatever it might be and you think, well, I'm not what I want to be. I'm not accomplished what I want to accomplish.

Then take the risk. Are you willing for God to change something deep down inside of you, something that needs to be changed? Listen, instead of fear He wants you to have a joy and a confidence and a happiness in your life. Are you willing to give up some of this other stuff in your life that you think through your life and think, well, what about this and what about that and what does God want to change in my life? Are you willing to take the risk and let Him change it?

Do you ask God for direction so you can consider whether you want to do it or not or do you ask Him for direction for your life because you're committed to being obedient to Him? What can you anticipate? You can anticipate all of these things. You can anticipate Him, listen, calling you to trust Him for something you've never been able to trust Him for. And what is the end result?

Blessing on top of blessing on top of blessing. If you're going to live a Christian life you're going to have to take a risk. So somebody says, well, but suppose I don't. Suppose I'm one of those persons and, you know, I read the Scripture and I understand what it says, but I'm not willing to take any risk. I'm not willing to take the kind of risk that you're talking about. You say, well, what can I anticipate? That is, what's the end result of that?

So let me talk about that a moment. Number one, you'll never become the person God wants you to be. You'll never be able to achieve the things in light that God has equipped you to achieve.

That won't be a part of your life. You'll never discover who this God is that you say you serve. If you're not willing to take any risk, you'll never discover who He is like Peter did, for example. What happens is you limit your usefulness for God. If you're not willing to take a risk then God can only use you to a very, very small degree. You're not willing to do that. You are willing to live a life of rationalized disobedience. You rationalize it away. Well, I know that God may want some people to do so and so, but not me.

You know I'm an exception. That's what you do. You rationalize disobedience.

And when you look at Peter, you think, well, certainly Peter did not do that. Why? Because he didn't let his life be governed by that. When you refuse to take risk, here's what happens. You're governed by fear.

Fear of failure, fear of criticism. You don't want to live that kind of life. That's not the kind of life you want to live. If you're not willing to take risk, you're going to suffer loss of reward here, reward in heaven, loss of blessing here. And we could go on and on and on of what it's going to cost you in this life, not just in the life to come, but in this life.

What does it cost you? If you can't forgive, if you're not willing to risk loving somebody, not willing to risk trusting God, not willing to risk stepping out while you've never stepped before, you say, but I. And here's what happens. You think about yourself in light of your strengths and your gifts and your talents and your abilities. And you know what you do sometimes?

You just extract God from the whole equation. He's not asking you to do that. He's saying, trust Me for who I am. Take the risk of trusting Me. I love you unconditionally.

I want the best for you. Trust Me. You want to give all that up out of fear?

I certainly hope not. And you see, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, what you've said is, maybe you didn't realize you were saying it, I'm not interested in the potential that God has for me. I'm not interested in the potential of becoming the person God wants me to become. And what you're also saying is, deep down inside, I'm afraid of what will happen if I surrender my life to a holy God. I'm afraid of what He may take out of my life, only the things that shouldn't be there.

I'm afraid of what He may call me to do, what's absolutely best. And you see, if you'll think about it, it is foolish. It is foolish. It is fool-hearted to live your life taking risk after risk after risk after risk that you take with the world, having extracted God out of your life. You say, I believe in God. Believe in God, but well, I'm not into this Jesus bit.

Well, you know what? Then you're not into God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by Me. You want to reach your potential in life? Got to take a risk. You want to take the risk? Then you open the door for the very best that God can provide for you. You're not willing to take the risk? You shut down your potential, the rewards and the blessings that God has in store for you. And if you're wise, you'll take the risk no matter what. Thank you for listening to part two of Taking Risks. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.