July 6, 2003

Taking Risks
The Soul of a Man Series Part 8
Speaker: Sabastian Huynh

Luke 5: 27-31
²⁷After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. ²⁹Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” ³¹Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Our Challenges:

Taking Risk with our Relationships
Taking Risk with our Possessions
Taking Risk with our Time and Finances

How Do We Take Risks?

• BY USING OUR EXISTING RESOURCES:

²⁹Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

• BY REACHING CROSS-CULTURALLY:

  ²⁹Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house (family & friends), and a large crowd of tax collectors (peers) and others (sinners) were eating with them. ³⁰But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law (Religious Leaders) who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

• EXPECT MISUNDERSTANDING

  ²⁹Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

• USE TEACHABLE MOMENTS TO GAIN SUPPORT:

  ³¹Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

What Motivates us to take Risk?

• UNCONDITIONAL LOVE & FORGIVENESS
  
  “How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely? No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our character can come to light to turn God away from us, since He know us utterly before we knew him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”
  -A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

How Do We Take Risks?

• UNCONDITIONAL LOVE & FORGIVENESS

  ²⁷After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

To Take Risk, We Have To:

²⁷After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

2003 Message Archives