Now, excuse me, but I don't expect to be inspired when I eat at McDonald's. I mean, fed, but not inspired. There was a time when there was a little inspiration with my burger and fries. It was a striking poster on the wall. It showed two mountain climbers near the peak of this Alpine mountain, straining to reach the top. But it was the inscription that impressed me most. "Conquest without risk is a triumph without glory." Oh! That's pretty good.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft,and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Conquest Without Risk."
That doesn't just apply to reaching the top of a mountain. In fact, it pretty much describes everything worth doing in life. No risk, no meaningful conquest - a triumph without glory. Low risk - low return. High risk - high return. It's a principle that defines spiritual greatness or spiritual mediocrity.
In Numbers 13, the conquest was not a mountain; it was the taking of the Promised Land that God had promised. Of course, it was currently inhabited by fierce people who, of course, didn't plan to hand it over. And whether or not they would ever experience all God had for them depended on whether or not they would trust Him enough to take some really big risks. Now whether or not you experience all God has for you may depend on that same thing.
Twelve scouts had explored the land of Canaan, and they reported back on the fabulous beauty and bounty they found there. But ten of those scouts chose to focus on the risks, two on the Lord who had promised them this land. It boiled down to an exchange like this, recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in Numbers 13, beginning with verse 30.
"Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land for we certainly can do it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are.' And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, 'The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people there are of great size...we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.'"
You probably know the result. The people followed the lead of the ten scouts who said, "The risks are too great." And they never saw the Promised Land. They chose what was safe, and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They could have had wonderful. Instead, they lived and died in the wilderness. Many of God's children over the years have made that same tragic miscalculation at their crossroads. And they have lived that same sad result.
Right now your Lord may be asking you to follow Him into something risky. To obey Him is going to mean taking a financial risk, or a geographical risk, a social risk, doing something that's way beyond your comfort zone. In fact, serious obedience usually involves risk. But the great danger is not in obeying God's "risky" leading; it's in not obeying because you won't risk it. You'll miss the top of the mountain. You'll miss the best God has for you. You'll miss the promised land.
Almost always, God's will means going out of your comfort zone. If you're addicted to your comfort zone, you're almost sure to miss God's best.
Maybe you're all settled in at your little base camp at the bottom of the mountain. You're safe, but you'll never see the view from the top if you stay where you've always been. You can dare to risk if you know your security is never in your situation - it's in your Savior, and He's everywhere you go. Like the old hymn says, "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go" - even if He's leading you where it just doesn't look very safe.
The conquest, the triumph, the glory of living for Christ is for those who are willing to risk.