Courage – 2

Courage – 2

Subject – Lion Chasers

By Rick Welborne

2 Samuel 23:20-23 (NLT2)
²⁰  There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it.
²¹  Once, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it.
²²  Deeds like these made Benaiah as famous as the Three mightiest warriors.
²³  He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him captain of his bodyguard.

1 Peter 5:8-9 (NLT2)
⁸  Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
⁹  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

--In his book “If Only” Dr. Neal Roese makes a distinction between two types of regret. Regrets of action and regrets of inaction.

--A regret if action is “wishing you hadn’t done something.” Theologically we call this the sin of commission. A regret of inaction is “wishing you had done something.” The sin of omission.

--I have noticed thru the years that the church is fixated on sins of commission. We have our lists of don’ts. Think about it as holiness by subtraction. Holiness definitely involves subtraction.

--But I think God is more concerned with sins of omission…those things we could or should have done. It’s holiness by multiplication. Goodness is not the absence of badness. 

--You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Those who simply run away from sin are only half Christians. We are not just called to run away from evil but our calling is to chase lions. 

1. No Guts, No Glory.

--When we don’t have the guts to step out in faith and chase lions, God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him. 

--Is anyone else besides me tired of reactive Christianity that is more known for what it’s against than what it’s for. We have become too passive and too defensive. 

--Lion chasers are proactive. They know that just playing it safe is risky. Lion chasers are always on the lookout for God-ordained opportunities. Doing something instead of just talking about it.

--Maybe we have measured spiritual maturity the wrong way. Just maybe following Christ is not supposed to be safe as we have been led to believe. Maybe God wants us being dangerous enough to chase lions.

Matthew 10:16 (NKJV) ¹⁶  "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

--Maybe Christ was more dangerous and uncivilized than our Sunday School flannel graphs made Him out to be. Maybe God wants to raise up courageous lion chasers.

Matthew 11:12 (NKJV)
¹²  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

--There have been many lion chasers and we tend to applaud them from the sidelines. We are inspired by people who face their fears (lions) and chase their dreams. 

--What we fail to see is that these lion chasers are ordinary people like us. They put their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. They were probably scared to death when they bought their plane ticket.

--I am sure that weighing the pros and cons caused some ulcers along the way and I am sure they felt they were the ones cornered by the lion in a snowy pit.

--I wish I could tell you that every lion chaser ends up with a lion skin on his wall but that is simply not the case. Some have run for office and lost. Some have returned home asking what happened.

--What sets lion chasers apart isn’t the outcome. It’s the courage to chase God sized dreams. Lion chasers don’t let their fears or doubts keep them from doing what God has called them to do.

2. Successful Lion Chasers

--Mark Batterson has a simple definition of success. He says do the best you can with what you have where you are. In essence, making the most of every opportunity.

Batterson – Spiritual maturity is seeing and seizing God ordained opportunities. Think of every opportunity as God’s gift to you. What you do with those opportunities is your gift to God. I’m absolutely convinced that our greatest regrets in life will be missed opportunities. 

--At the end of the day, success equals stewardship and stewardship equals success. Our view of stewardship is too narrow. Yes, it is important what we do with our time, talent, and treasure.

--But what about being good stewards of our dreams and imaginations? Stewardship is all inclusive. We have to be good stewards of every second and every ounce of energy. It’s opportunity stewardship. 

--When you face a lion (and you will) you either run away like a scaredy-cat or you can grab life by the mane. Lion chasers grab life by the mane. David:

1 Samuel 17:33-35 (NIV)
³³  Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
³⁴  But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,
³⁵  I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 

--Benaniah went on to have a brilliant military career. In fact, he climbed all the way up the chain of command to become commander in chief of Israel’s army.

--It started by what many would consider him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Benaniah was faced with a choice that would determine his destiny. Fight or flight?

3. Our Snowy Pit.

--I doubt if any of you have to worry about running into a lion and ending up in a snowy pit staring death in the face. Lion encounters are not at the top of our worry list. 

--I don’t pretend to know what is going on in every life represented here today but I am very convinced that all of us have had to face a few lions in our lives. Maybe you are facing one now. 

--I don’t know the depth of you pit or how cold your heart is right now. I don’t know the fear you are facing knowing that this situation feels like life or death. 

--What I do know and transparency demands that I share with you that we all (all) have our pits and we all have to face lions. It could be habits, relationships, or your world crumbling before us.

--I know I am not only talking to culturally different people, some from the north or south or another country, but also, people who some are optimistic by nature and some pessimistic by nature.

--What I do know is that there is a God Who was with Benaniah in the pit and He will be with you in your pit if you will only acknowledge Him. 

--Whatever your personality type, however deep your pit is, however fierce your lion is, you serve a God Who is all powerful who can deliver you from the paw of the lion.

1 Peter 5:8 (NLT2) ⁸  Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 

--Read this verse very carefully…The devil prowls around like (like) a roaring lion. But what is he compared to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

--Don’t misunderstand me, the devil is strong and vicious but not compared to God. To the infinite God, all finites are the same. God is all powerful! God can deliver us.

Psalm 40:1-4 (NCV)
¹  I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me and heard my cry.
²  He lifted me out of the pit of destruction, out of the sticky mud. He stood me on a rock and made my feet steady.
³  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the LORD.
⁴  Happy is the person who trusts the LORD, who doesn’t turn to those who are proud or to those who worship false gods. 

--Listen, lion chasers, God is not finished with you yet. Wait patiently for Him. Verse one where it says He turned to me (inclined His ear to me) means God bent down low to hear our request. Deathbed.

--He lifted me out of the pit of destruction. Pretty good description of being in a pit with a lion on a snowy day. He set me on a rock…Who would that Rock be…Jesus! Steady feet. Another miracle.

--He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the LORD.

--Happy is the person who trusts the LORD. Come on, let’s chase some lions!