How Do I Take Risks Without Being Unwise?
00:00:00.000 | Well, how do we balance bold risk with wise safety?
00:00:07.400 | We don't want to be foolishly daring nor overly cautious in our love to others.
00:00:12.360 | It's a dilemma faced by an anonymous young woman.
00:00:14.960 | "Dear Pastor John, I'm struggling to find balance with serving others.
00:00:18.080 | However, sometimes when I approach my husband about certain ideas to help others, he, and
00:00:22.760 | historically others, like my pastors and parents, have told me it might be unwise.
00:00:28.200 | Why is possibly risking your safety, financial comfort, and ease always considered unwise?
00:00:34.000 | For example, I met a lady and her two children.
00:00:36.160 | They are in a really tough temporary situation pertaining to housing and money.
00:00:40.080 | My first instinct is to invite them into our home free of charge for as long as they might
00:00:44.160 | need.
00:00:45.160 | However, my husband said he wants to pray about it and needs to know more about who
00:00:48.720 | she is and her background before we trust her in our home.
00:00:53.080 | This is where I struggle.
00:00:54.540 | What is there to pray about?
00:00:56.040 | Why should I hesitate when I see someone in need, even if I don't really know them?
00:01:00.360 | When does wisdom or safety undermine God-centered trust in our risk-taking?"
00:01:04.880 | Pastor John, what would you say?
00:01:06.920 | I have struggled with this question a lot over the years, maybe partly because of where
00:01:12.720 | I live, partly because of trying to understand texts in the Bible.
00:01:16.620 | And I don't want to give the impression that the Bible disregards a father's calling to
00:01:23.680 | protect his family, 1 Timothy 5, 8, or a disciple's obedience in fleeing from persecution, Matthew
00:01:32.320 | 10, 23.
00:01:33.320 | But I am going to argue that the overwhelming thrust of the New Testament is that the disciples
00:01:40.560 | of Jesus incline from the heart toward meeting needs at the risk of loss more regularly—at
00:01:48.920 | least we ought to—more regularly than we incline toward staying safe and comfortable
00:01:55.880 | by neglecting risky helpfulness.
00:01:59.240 | Or to put it another way, I don't want to prescribe precisely when love calls for self-protection
00:02:07.240 | and when love calls for self-risk, but the burden of the New Testament is to infuse the
00:02:15.520 | faith and love that leans toward self-risk rather than toward self-protection.
00:02:24.200 | And I suspect the double reason for that is that on the one hand, we are by nature selfish,
00:02:32.760 | and we need—I need, anyway—far more help to break free from that, that selfishness,
00:02:40.680 | than I need help with living in sync with it.
00:02:44.580 | And on the other hand, the second of the double reason for why the New Testament leans this
00:02:50.200 | way is that the glory of God shines much more brightly in the counter-cultural, counter-intuitive
00:02:59.400 | risk-taking of God's people for the sake of love than it does—than it shines in self-protection,
00:03:07.400 | which pretty much looks just like the way the unbelieving world would act.
00:03:12.440 | Why would they be impressed and give God glory for us acting just like them?
00:03:17.320 | So the way I would answer the question, "When does wisdom, safety undermine God-centered
00:03:26.200 | trust in our risk-taking?" is with these six tests.
00:03:30.480 | Number one, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered risk-taking when it doesn't
00:03:37.360 | reckon with and rejoice in the staggering reward for being plundered for love's sake.
00:03:45.400 | Hebrews 10:34.
00:03:47.600 | You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your
00:03:53.840 | property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
00:04:00.800 | Test number two, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered trust in risk-taking
00:04:07.400 | when there is no serious admiration for Paul's response to those who begged him not to risk
00:04:14.800 | his life in going up to Jerusalem in Acts 21.
00:04:17.680 | "What are you doing?"
00:04:19.240 | Paul said.
00:04:20.240 | "What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?
00:04:22.800 | For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the
00:04:28.800 | Lord Jesus."
00:04:30.660 | Number three, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered trust in risk-taking when it
00:04:38.800 | doesn't take seriously Jesus and Paul's call for disciples to be willingly taken advantage
00:04:45.320 | of rather than going to law to defend ourselves.
00:04:50.120 | Matthew 5, 40-42.
00:04:52.760 | And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
00:04:59.400 | And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
00:05:02.580 | Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
00:05:06.240 | Or 1 Corinthians 6, 7.
00:05:08.100 | To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.
00:05:12.540 | Why not rather suffer wrong?
00:05:16.740 | Why not rather be defrauded?
00:05:20.700 | Number four, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered trust in risk-taking when it
00:05:27.860 | doesn't reckon seriously with the fact that the glory of God shines out to unbelievers
00:05:34.980 | through Christian behaviors that say, "Our hope is not in this world but in God and in
00:05:41.940 | heaven."
00:05:42.940 | 1 Peter 3, 15.
00:05:44.300 | Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is
00:05:52.100 | in you.
00:05:53.100 | Now, why would anybody do that?
00:05:54.620 | Why would anybody ask me for a reason for the hope that is in me?
00:05:59.700 | And the answer surely is because our actions seem to indicate that our hope is not in the
00:06:06.380 | safety and comfort that they live for.
00:06:09.080 | So they're puzzled and they want to know, "What makes you tick?"
00:06:11.660 | Because I wouldn't have responded like that.
00:06:14.140 | And this helps make sense of Jesus' command, "Let your light shine before others that they
00:06:19.340 | can see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
00:06:24.500 | And then number five, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered trust in risk-taking
00:06:31.340 | when it is rooted in the confidence that all possible assailants against us are in God's
00:06:40.420 | hands and cannot harm us beyond His sovereign will.
00:06:44.860 | I remembered in thinking about this of John Bunyan, who I spoke about some years ago and
00:06:51.260 | remember reading his book, "Counsels for Sufferers."
00:06:55.660 | He spent 12 years of his life in prison when he could have gotten out by agreeing not to
00:07:02.380 | preach and gotten out and taken care of his wife and four kids, one of whom was blind.
00:07:06.820 | And he comments on Daniel 5:23, which is this, "And you, Belshazzar, have not humbled your
00:07:15.340 | heart, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven and the God in whose hand
00:07:24.260 | is your breath and whose are all your ways.
00:07:29.580 | You have not honored."
00:07:30.700 | And here's Bunyan's comment, "Wherefore, as we should," and so again, "we should not be
00:07:37.940 | afraid of men."
00:07:39.220 | We should be afraid of them because they will hurt us, but we should not be afraid of them
00:07:45.300 | as if they were let loose to do us anything they will.
00:07:50.660 | God's bridle is upon them.
00:07:53.340 | God's hook is in their nose.
00:07:56.020 | Yea, and God has determined the bounds of their rage.
00:08:01.900 | Number six, finally, choosing temporal safety undermines God-centered trust in risk-taking
00:08:10.180 | when it is not enjoying deep freedom from the love of money and things rooted in the
00:08:18.780 | promises of God to take care of us, just like Hebrews 13, 5 makes so clear.
00:08:24.740 | "Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he
00:08:29.500 | has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.'"
00:08:34.420 | So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to
00:08:41.780 | me?"
00:08:42.780 | Now that list of six tests for how to undermine risk-taking trust could go on and on, but
00:08:50.020 | let me just end with this.
00:08:52.620 | Don't miss the joy.
00:08:54.460 | I think I'd be saying this to her husband.
00:08:56.620 | Don't miss the joy, the deep, amazing joy that comes from overcoming fear and taking
00:09:03.980 | the risks of love.
00:09:05.580 | It is short-sighted to think that the comfort and security of not taking a risk is more
00:09:13.540 | satisfying to the soul than the joy of trusting God in the risky path of love, for what you
00:09:21.980 | can't see, can't foresee what's going to happen.
00:09:25.660 | At the front end of such love, the flesh is screaming, "No, no, no, too risky, too risky,"
00:09:33.300 | and the spirit is whispering, "There is great Christ-exalting joy in this to be had."
00:09:41.380 | So I'm just suggesting don't miss the whisper for the screaming, and don't miss the joy.
00:09:48.980 | Boy, that is a relevant word for me to hear.
00:09:51.580 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:09:52.580 | Well, whether you listen in the car, at the gym, doing chores, thanks for inviting us
00:09:56.260 | into your busy day.
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00:10:03.420 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us, go online to
00:10:06.700 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:07.700 | Well, Jesus came to bring violence, to bring a sword.
00:10:15.300 | He said so.
00:10:16.380 | So what does that mean for us today?
00:10:17.940 | The question comes from a listener in Egypt.
00:10:20.300 | It's up next time on Monday.
00:10:21.540 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:22.940 | Have a wonderful weekend.
00:10:23.940 | We'll see you then.
00:10:24.300 | [END]
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