254: Drew Lawrence - Exhortation: Risk

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to good Chris Elfian talks. I’m Levi. And I’m Chris, and I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one Talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week. With the short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you’re about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now let’s talk more about. This week’s Talk This week’s talk is an excitation by Brother Drew Lawrence that was given at the San Diego Ecclesia. He’s a member there in January of 2021. So it this is one kind of going back to we we we post a lot of these kind of COVID coronavirus pandemic era talks which he does kind of mention at the beginning and I think his it is a worthwhile consideration for the context of his topic.

3. 1:17

   So as you know from the title the title is Risk. But he does a really interesting job kind of talking about how really at the end of the day love is a risk and how we have to take risks in our life technically we and and he has a bunch of beautiful lines at the end of the exhort before you know what kind of sets the table throughout the beginning very well. And then I feel that the the last five minutes are is really when he kind of pounds the point that that love is a risk, that vulnerability is a risk and that, you know, technically, while we, we don’t think of being risky as also being spiritual, we do.

4. 2:03

   We are advised to, you know, to open up to each other and to love each other, which really is the ultimate risk. So this is a really, really beautiful excitation and I was really happy to to finally get to it. This is actually a suggestion from when it happened from, you know, over 2 1/2 years ago and it’s been on our list for a while. And I’m actually wanting to thank Sister Jamie who was our. I got to thank her twice because she was the guest host for a couple weeks in July, which gives us a gives us a break as we are usually traveling or busy in the summer. We’ve done this if you’ve listened to the show for a while, we we usually have a guest host in July. Jamie’s also one of our volunteers now who does the social media posting and she volunteered to go through and listen to a bunch of the suggestions that we’ve had, some of the ones that have piled up for a while and kind of download the talk for us and make it even easier for us to post it. So really me sharing Drew’s talk is a credit to to Jamie’s work and and and my laziness essentially to finally get to it.

5. 3:08

   But I know, I know Drew quite well and I’m very thankful to have to to share this talk and to have listened to it and to now share it with you. This is a great exertation. That’s something I’ll be thinking about through this week. So please do continue to send suggestions. We’re even more organized than we used to be and we will, we will get to all of them.

6. 3:29

   We we thank you all for listening. And here is Risk by brother Drew Lawrence. Hey, good morning, everyone. It’s it’s great to be here I guess on the 1st Sunday of 2021. And I bet you’re all glad that 2020 is finally over. It’s 2021. And of course all the problems of 2020 are gone.

7. 3:52

   Now that hindsight is officially 2020. Covid’s gone. Everything’s back to normal. Clearly joking. But it did kind of feel like that would be the case. You know, this next year will come. All the problems of the past year will be gone. Clearly. Clearly not the case. But it is. It is the start of a new year. And perhaps at the time to pause and reflect on the past year and to look forward to the new year, You know, it’s common practice for many people to do resolutions around this time of year.

8. 4:28

   So yeah, so we can we can look to that this new year. So it does just feel like yesterday that I wrote an expectation on the need to slow down. And that was what feels like literally a moment ago. And and it kind of feels like nothing has changed. And to be honest, society around us feels like we’re almost in the exact same place we were in. And that was in May.

9. 4:59

   So, you know, uncertainty, abounding cases, surging lockdowns, lots of political turmoil, We’re kind of in the same place. But today I want to take a different approach. And this morning I want to, I want to discuss the idea of risk. It’s something I’ve been thinking about. And when I say that maybe your your red flags are going to go up and you’ll be triggered as to what I may be thinking or talking about, you know, he’s going to talk about COVID and the risks about and his views on that.

10. 5:35

    Well, sorry to disappoint. I’m not, and I want to be explicitly clear that I’m not and I want to. Fully assure you that my words this morning are not about that. But I don’t deny, however, that there’s a strong likelihood that that’s where my thoughts stemmed. I’m sure it’s inspired by by not thinking about risk and what is risk, what it means, where it comes from, all those things.

11. 6:02

    And I do think that society has been moving in a direction where we think we can move, remove all risk from our lives and I think that’s been detrimental. I think we are shielded from many of the harsh realities of the world of of life just by the nature of us modernizing over the years.

12. 6:25

    And I think that’s kind of led us to a place where I think there could be some problems. And I think maybe the biggest reason I’ve been thinking about risk is I’ve been, I’ve been looking at, you know, some concepts around. Happiness. What? What makes people happy? I’m always interested in different people’s views on that.

13. 6:48

    So I’ve read some books from, you know, some very successful people who are not spiritual at all. I’m trying to see what their thoughts are and and the quickest side. And it’s kind of funny how how much they are filled with spiritual concepts without the spirituality. Some of them even go as far as saying they pray, but they’re atheists, but.

14. 7:12

    But that’s an aside. So I was thinking about memories. You know what? What are some of my best memories? And you know what makes me happy? Those kind of questions, you know, especially as you look back over the last year, you know, what were the best moments? You know what’s and and what brought the most meaning, I guess.

15. 7:35

    And undoubtedly I could conclude that experiences were much more valuable than things. I think we would know that. But another thing I noticed, at least for me, was that all of these important memories involve some sort of risk. And let me share one with you. This was from, you know, a few years ago, but a good friend of mine who loves, loves hiking and doing. He wants to do all the state high points, So basically the highest point in each state.

16. 8:04

    You know, just climb to it, check it off a list. So he was flying down to to. To do the high points in Nevada, in California and invited me to go along and so. So I was excited. Our plan was to climb Nevada’s first, which is called Boundary Peak and it’s just above 13,000 feet. So it’s probably the highest I’d ever climbed at the time. So with this hike, it’s more one of the more difficult ones to get to because this list is just the highest point. It’s not like there’s accessible roads to all of them. It’s just kind of.

17. 8:38

    Like a list that people go to. So like even the trail was not an official trail. I don’t believe it’s just kind of people who are doing this that tend to go there. So as we kind of explored you know, maps and trail reports and what we could get from it, we researched you know basically the road like how are we going to get close enough to where we can hike this in a reasonable amount of time.

18. 9:04

    And one thing that we noticed was it it highly recommended, you know, high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle to get there. Some reports said you could get there in other other cars through like sure, we’ll figure it out. And since my friend was coming down from from Canada, I was like yeah, I’ll drive, we’ll figure it out.

19. 9:27

    So around the same time I was looking for a new car and I bought, you know, a four wheel drive Audi wagon. And if I’m truly honest with myself, I kind of bought it for the trip thinking I’ve got 4 wheel drive, I’ll be able to get up there. So off we went and as we get into Nevada and off kind of the main mainish Rd.

20. 9:48

    I mean you’re in the middle of nowhere up this old mining Rd. leading up to the mountains didn’t start too bad. And the road keeps getting narrower, narrower. The potholes keep getting larger and larger to the point where you’re driving and. Straddling over them, just trying to find a place to, to get across.

21. 10:07

    We’re not going to fall in and get stuck in parts. You know, the brush is just so tight. It’s just scraping along the side of the car. And at this point we had mentally committed, partially because we couldn’t turn around, but also because, you know, that’s why we’re here. We came down to do this, so there’s no way we’re going to try and turn back.

22. 10:30

    So eventually we got to the spot where we we were close enough. Where we could park, it was at a mine where there was kind of an open area, but it would add, you know, a couple 1000 feet of climbing. So we decided, you know, it’s only like 2 more miles if I remember correctly.

23. 10:46

    And we’re like, let’s push on. It wasn’t that bad to this point, but once we started up this next stretch it, it just got insane for for our car and we had to straddle. The road, basically the center of the road just from you know where cars had come before, it was too high for, for our vehicle. Like it would just hit the bottom and then there’s big rocks and we would get hung up.

24. 11:13

    So we’re driving on the center of the road and like the edge of a Cliff, basically trying to get up this thing and it’s all shale. So we couldn’t stop. We had to just keep going and amazingly, we made, we made it, you know, we camped there, we hiked the peak the next day and it was a amazing spot with. Wild horses and deer and and this the whole time I I was, you know, quite anxious because not only do you have to get there, but you have to get out.

25. 11:44

    So my mind’s on that, especially because, you know, it’s my car. And trying to figure that out, you know, on the way down, it was kind of the same story. You know, we did end up blowing out a tire in one one spot where we had to. To go right to the edge. And we kind of slid down a rock and it popped the tire, but we made it out.

26. 12:04

    You know, we had a spare we and it and it worked out. But you know, why do I tell you this? I think for me, that’s a really good memory that I cherish. And it’s something that, you know, perhaps I wouldn’t normally do, and perhaps it’s just because I was with friends on an adventure. Perhaps it’s just how memory works. Maybe we just don’t ignore the mundane and just remember the unique.

27. 12:33

    But it’s always like that for me, and almost always I don’t want to go do these things when it finally comes down to it and I calculate all the risks and all the problems. Another brief story was just recently, you know, we got a storm come through, you know, the mountains were getting snow.

28. 12:52

    Kelly and I are watching. Watching the weather and we saw it supposed to snow pretty good up in the mountains. And we were discussing if we should take the kids up there. You know, we had a place to stay by ourselves, but the fireplace is out, you know, there’s no insulation at at this place.

29. 13:09

    There’s tons of variables outside of our control. It’s pretty remote. We don’t know if it’s like the plow of the road going up to it. If we get a ton of snow, we could be stuck for a while, and if we lost power, we could lose any source of heat. And who knows, you know, if we would get stuck but. And we didn’t even tell the kids our plans until about an hour before we left because we were just contemplating, should we go, Should we not, You know, but we did. We ended up going and and it was a really special time. And it’s again one of those memories that was really well worth it.

30. 13:46

    And we did get a ton of snow. We did. I did have to shovel us out, but but it was great. And I guess I realize most of my cherished memories and and thinking of those and and many others involve some sort of risk. And most of the time there are things I know deep down that I wanted to do.

31. 14:08

    But the realistic side of me, when it really comes down to it doesn’t want to do it. You know, I always find that when I go hiking or or wherever, you know, I wake up in the morning and I almost don’t go. And like, I don’t want to go. But what pushes me through is knowing I’m always thankful I did. Maybe you’re a bit like that as well. So this theme seemed big when I’m looking back at at memories. And so I wanted to look a little bit into, you know, the Bible and risk, Like risk, at least for me, if I say that in the context of the Bible is.

32. 14:52

    I’m not sure why. Maybe you’re a bit the same. But when I hear that, you know, you hear a little voice inside saying, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, we’re Christians. We’re godly people. We don’t take risks. That’s unwise and foolish. Maybe that’s just me. Maybe you’re the total opposite. But that was my initial gut reaction. And maybe it’s just the word risk because it kind of brings up a connotation we aren’t used to. But I actually like it.

33. 15:22

    But risk is everywhere in the Bible, as as you’re probably thinking about Abraham. He risked everything when he left everything he knew. He risked his son’s life by being being willing to sacrifice him. We have the story of Esther, you know. She knew the law. And for anyone who approached the king without being summoned would be put to death unless he lifted a scepter. And and we could read through that but but we all know the story.

34. 15:55

    And in in Esther’s response to more decay. I in verse 15, you know, she says go gather all the Jews to be found in Sousa and hold it fast on my behalf and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. So those are such strong words to me, you know, like if I perish, I perish.

35. 16:23

    She’s taking a a massive risk and we see this in in so many story. I mean basically every story. You know, we see Shadrack Mishak in a bed and ago, You know, Nebuchadnezzar sets up his image and he commands them when the trumpet sounds that everyone bowed down but they refused in a similar sentiment. You know, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, they say in Daniel 3:15, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us and from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

36. 17:03

    But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up no powerful words. We have the example of Rahab. She took a huge risk in hiding those men. We we have all the stories in David’s life, especially, I think of, you know, David and Goliath.

37. 17:29

    We read in Samuel 1731 that David said when he’s kind of justifying it, the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of of the Philistine. And that’s when Saul said to David, go and may the Lord be with you.

38. 17:49

    We, we see Paul’s basically Paul’s whole life, you know, we know when he lists off his resume, if you will, in 2nd Corinthians 11, you know, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less 1/3 times I’ve been beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I’ve been shipwrecked. And then the list goes on and on. You know he took.

39. 18:16

    Massive risks all the time. In a similar sentiment I think we see from Paul in Acts 2024, I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only I may accomplish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. We see risk when Peter stepped out of the boat, when Jesus calls him.

40. 18:46

    We see risk in everything, you know, Old Testament, New Testament, almost literally every story. So how do we think about risk? You know, can we avoid risk? Should we avoid risk? You know, for a while I worked at the City of Poway on this project that was, you know, doing risk management. You know they had to do it for their. Insurance that they had.

41. 19:16

    So it was reading through, you know, binders, a policy and trying to figure things out and have basically a policy on everything, you know. And the one that sticks out to me was basically with sidewalk, sidewalk like tolerances. You know, they wanted to have at least a policy where they’re marking every sidewalk crack that’s, you know, above a certain threshold and getting rid of every risk.

42. 19:43

    And it just seemed like an impossible task to me and probably is. It’s probably for insurance purposes. But anyway, can can we avoid all risk and and should we try? Well, we can try, but I think life is risk. Life is filled with risk, even if we don’t realize it. You know, every decision we make, we assess the risk. Consciously or unconsciously and then we make a decision based on that assessment.

43. 20:18

    But, but to me there is risk in doing nothing and perhaps it’s the riskiest of all and perhaps we’ve become numb to those the risks in everyday life. You know, sometimes it’s that

44. 20:37

    like, which was the case of Pilot. You know, he was merciful until it became risky. I mean and maybe we’re the same, you know, we we feel maybe we feel loving or we feel like we’re a loving person, but if we’re not showing that or if it becomes risky, maybe it breaks down. Another one that I want to look at is the parable of the talents.

45. 21:03

    Matthew 2514. For it is just like a man about about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them, to the one who gave 5 talents to another two and another one and each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey. And we know the story. The one who got 5 earned 5 more.

46. 21:26

    The one who got 2 earned 2 more. And the one who received 11 talent was rebuked because he just returned back what was given. You know they didn’t take the risk and not even the safest risk of just putting it in the bank and getting it back with some interest And and we read in in Matthew 5 this morning basically all of these involve a lot of risk. You know the idea whoever forces you to go one mile go with him to give to him who asks you and do not turn away him who wants to borrow from you.

47. 22:01

    You know, all these high level things that Jesus brings up, there’s risk in almost all of them. And of course, I hope you know now that the risk I’m talking about is not in referencing the desire for adventure or for fame or notoriety, or to be noticed or to earn God’s goodwill. You know, the stories above for me were more of probably the desire for adventure. That’s not what I’m talking about now, but I do think that that idea of risk is so intricate to life and basically hardwired into who we are and and what drives us. And it’s not to experience self-reliance. In fact, I think it’s the opposite. The biggest risk is to let go of control and realize how little control we have.

48. 22:59

    You know, I talked about everyday lives. You know, we see the risks around us. We have a bunch right now. And how can we choose God, God’s ways? You know, God uses people who are willing to get out of their comfort zone, uses people who are willing to take those risks. So I guess I asked the question, you know, what risks are you facing?

49. 23:23

    And those could be simple things. I think you know, sometimes odd things and taking risks as you know, part of living by faith it maybe is faith. It’s and I would argue that most things that are worthwhile involve that risk. And obviously God doesn’t promise short term success. It’s not like you take a risk.

50. 23:48

    Everything is going to be great. You know, you could look at John the Baptist if you want to check that one. Things don’t always turn out great in the short term, but it’s not the short term that matters. We like to think wait until we have everything planned out to take the leap. You know, for us having having kids that was a discussion we were having.

51. 24:11

    You know should we try and wait until we get to a point where we’ve got a good job good insurance, all of that and and we kind of went the way of you know, we don’t know when that will be we and just kind of let it happen and everything was taken care of. But at the time we didn’t have an insurance. I wouldn’t say my job was stable. So I think there was a risk there. You know So what is your risk?

52. 24:43

    I think leadership is taking a risk you’re going to upset people. We could step away from that to avoid that risk. Maybe it’s the the risk to take on a role that you you see a need and and you think that it will really help. You know, maybe it’s a risk to expose your talents and use them.

53. 25:08

    Maybe it’s a risk to stand up for the little guy, someone who’s downtrodden. Maybe it’s the risk to your reputation to do what’s right, you know. Maybe it’s a risk to be vulnerable. Perhaps it’s even the risk to feel. Maybe our hearts have become hardened. You know, one thing I think about a lot is to to be depressed, as often said, not to be about feeling sad, but rather about not feeling anything. And by no means do I imply there that you can just fix it, you know, just feel.

54. 25:43

    But I think it is something that we can prevent ourselves from doing. Maybe it’s to take, take the risk to ignore the things that don’t matter, you know, risk putting God in control, risk letting your light shine before others. And I I think a lot of times it’s especially, you know, in our current paradigm, maybe it’s, you know, to risk telling someone you appreciate them, risk being honest with someone, risk calling someone things like that. But perhaps the biggest risk of all and maybe it’s just me, you know, is love.

55. 26:25

    And I think it’s a weird one because it I feel it’s kind of what we need and want right now. And a lot of times it’s ridiculously simple. But it’s oddly hard, you know, just to know you matter, that someone cares about you. Those things you know relationships are often difficult and and by loving by telling someone you love them that can be oddly difficult and you’re definitely opening up yourself to some pain and and just to be open and and to tell those who we care about and to express those things.

56. 27:09

    You know, and it’s hard to talk about love without talking about Jesus. You can’t really separate them. And I want to look at a few examples of of risk kind of around Jesus. And too, specifically in Luke 517, we see the paralytic who, you know, I think we know the story, who was let down from the roof to be healed by Jesus.

57. 27:38

    And that’s a massive risk and a lot of levels from his friends, from him, from a practical standpoint, you know, you’re taking someone’s roof off. But he took a massive risk. And. And the other story I want to look at there was, you know, the women with the issue of blood and Luke 8. And I’ll, I’ll read this one starting in verse 43. And a woman who had suffered A chronic flow of blood for 12 years and could not be healed by anyone came up behind him and touched the fringes of of his cloak. And immediately her bleeding stopped. And Jesus said, who was the one who touched me? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, Master, the people in crowd are crowding and pressing in on you. But Jesus said someone did not, or someone did touch me, or I was aware that power had left me. Now when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before him, and admitted in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her daughter that her faith has made you, well, go in peace.

58. 28:56

    She took a big risk. She risked coming to Jesus, and she was desperate. And maybe that’s why she took the risk. In fact, I think it was why she took the risk. Just like many who approached Jesus, the paralytic, basically anyone who approached Jesus, you know, they were desperate. They did seemingly foolish things, embarrassing things, and they climb trees.

59. 29:22

    If you look at Zach, he is it’s those who know they need help. Those who are desperate, who come to Jesus and who are willing to risk everything. Those who are at the very ends of themselves and desperate to humble themselves at the feet of Jesus. And they are the ones who find what they are looking for. So I mentioned the Bible doesn’t use the word, the word risk very much.

60. 29:52

    But I think we see the concept there and it sure talks a ton about fear and control. And it’s important to understand that what our level of control is and it’s very little and humble ourselves and trust God. Yeah, we see tons of verses that talk about fear. Not with Joshua. Haven’t heard this was Tim? No, it was Joshua and Joshua 19.

61. 30:27

    Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. So it’s kind of this fear, not take that risk. Get rid of control. Trust that God is in control of the situation. Obviously not reckless risk.

62. 30:48

    You know, mine was probably a bit reckless. It’s not the quest for adventure. And another important side note is that it’s not those epic risks or moments in life that I I’m talking about. You should strive for. Where I think your faith gets stronger is more in the day-to-day. You know, it’s actually this week we’re told what great love looks like and it’s a risk, you know, greater love have no man than this, but to lay down his life for his friends.

63. 31:24

    You know, Jesus exemplified this to the very end. He risked everything for us and fully trusted in God’s plan. So maybe this year, maybe this week, you know, take a look inside and and see what those risks are for you.

64. 31:42

    You know, I think, I think we’ve come accustomed to to, to not taking those risks to not being vulnerable and and and you know, whatever it is that’s that deep, that’s deep down in you.

65. 32:06

    There are tons of things we can do in our current paradigm, and I think especially in our current paradigm, we need to take those risks. But most of all, I think we need to take the risk to throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus. You know, humbled loving. Since we have no other way, we are desperate. This is Jesus.

66. 32:32

    This is love. And yes, it’s a risk. So take it. Thank you for listening to the good Christadelphian Talks Podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review, an Apple podcast, or whichever service you are using to help more people find the show when they search for it. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone who you think might enjoy it as well. For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit our show page at anchor dot FM slash gct or check the Show notes section of your podcast player.

67. 33:20

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68. 33:45

    Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week.