Last week I directed you backward, two weeks ago I mean, I directed you backward to Old Testament risk takers, like Joab who took up the cause of God and not knowing how the battle would fall out, he said,

may the Lord do it seems good to him.

And to Esther, remember, who risked her life for the people of God and not knowing whether the king would lift his golden scepter, she said,

If I perish, I perish.

And to Shadrach, Meshach and Abedigo, who didn't know whether God would spare them from the furnace,

but they said to Nebuchadnezzar whether he will or doesn't.

That doesn't matter.

We will not bow down to your golden image. to Paul who seemed to live one 24 hour period of

risk right after another and said I don't count my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and complete the ministry I've been given by the Lord to bear witness to the grace of God in the gospel.

And the lesson two weeks ago was very simple. It is right to risk for the cause of God.

All of life is uncertain and therefore all of life is risk in obedience to Jesus Christ and it's right that it should be so.

Last week, I directed your attention no longer backward to the risk takers of the Bible,

but forward to the risks of your own life and showed you four areas where the Bible is calling

you to take risks.

One, risks in relationships for the cause of integrity and authenticity and righteousness. Two, risks in your money for the sake of the gospel.

Three risks in your personal witness for the truth and beauty of Jesus Christ.

And four, risks in ministry ventures because everybody is attached more or less closely or

should be to some ministry that may be costly.

The text last week was Luke 2116 and it said you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends and some of you they will put to death. And we focused on the little word, some. Some of you they will put to death. Not all of you, some of you.

And he doesn't tell you which group you're in.

The sum or the not sum, the living or the killed. And so the same point came through.

Life is uncertain, this side of the grave.

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