The Groundwork for Risk

One of the most unlikely heroes in the Bible was a man named Gideon.  He became Israel’s fifth judge.  Judges basically were empowered by God to deliver Israel from oppression and lead them back to God.  Before becoming a judge Gideon was an ordinary guy (actually he referred to himself as the least in his clan and in his family), but God had a great adventure for him.  This adventure took risk.

Gideon first risked by tearing down the altar to an idol right in his hometown and then he led the Israelite army against the invading Midianite army.  What made this amazing is that God whittled the Israelite army down from 30,000 to 300 men who then defeated a mighty enemy.

In order to take this kind of risk, Gideon needed to have absolute trust in God.  You see, risk is impossible without trust.

Trust is the key to risk.  We can step out of our comfort zone when our trust is in God.  Let’s break this down a bit.  You see, we can risk, when we like Gideon have our trust grounded in:

God’s Mission

Gideon could step out into God’s adventure because he was confident in God’s mission.  Now he got confident when God spoke to Him His mission and He saw it was God through the three tests.  Gideon needed to trust that this was God and what He was saying was what He wanted.

We can take risks for God when we know what He wants from us.  Now we may not know specifically (that will come over time and through prayer) but we do know generally His mission for us as followers.  Here is God’s mission for us where we can risk for Him:

Matthew 22:37-39  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

This is referred to as the great commandment of Jesus.  It will actually be our mission for risk this next year.  The mission is simple, to step out into God’s great adventure in our loving relationships with Him and others.  We will be talking about this over the next few weeks.

God may give us specifics to this but we have this generally and we can trust that God wants us at the very least to do this.

In order to risk we also need our trust grounded in:

God’s Faithfulness

Gideon witnessed God’s faithfulness and risked.  He saw God be faithful with the army and in His protection God protected Him.

As we trust in God’s faithfulness in our lives, we will find it easier to risk with Him.  God’s faithfulness is proven and we only will see it as we step out. 

Finally, we will be able to step out of our comfort zone and risk for God when our trust is grounded in:

God’s Power

We have an all-powerful God and when we see and know His power, we can be confident in taking risks for Him.

I am not an overly brave guy.  I would even say in many things I am cautious.  But do you know what?  God has been challenging me that as I follow Him, He wants me to risk.  He wants me to step out of my comfort zone into the adventure He has for me.  I believe He has given this challenge both for myself and for us as a church family.

This kind of risk is not possible unless we trust.  We need to have our trust grounded in God’s mission, faithfulness and power.