Risk is Right: Part I

I am preaching through the book, "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper and the most intriguing chapter to date came in chapter five titled, "Risk is Right: Better to Lose Your Life than to Waste it." I thought I would give some posts on this thought. Some of this post are direct quotes from Piper from his book.

When you hear that someone has taken a risk, what do you think of? How would you define this?
Risk can involve all kinds of things. Risk can be someone doing something where they might lose something. It can be to lose something small, like a little time, or it can be something big, like your life.

The face is that it can really involve all kinds of things, it can be losing your reputation, friends, respect, money, time, etc.

The other part of risk is that sometimes it involves others. It could involve not just the stuff I mentioned before with just yourself, but you could also be endangering the resources and lives of others as well.

But really, risk is doing anything where you don't know the outcome.

So, the question then comes, should you ever take a risk? Think of this. Think of all the things that could be lost, and what could be at stake for others as well. Is taking a risk and losing your life the same as wasting your life?

Again, this is a tough subject. Just as knowing when to take stand and when to flee is difficult, the same can be said in understanding when it is good to take a risk and when it is completely wrong to do so.

Sometimes when you play it safe, you could be endangering yourself, or others, so risk is sometimes necessary to accomplish much.

Have you ever wondered why then there is this thing called risk? Why is it here? Why is there such a thing? Well, there is risk because there is also ignorance. Think of this, would there be anything called risk if you knew the future? No. Gambling is a risk because you don’t know what cards you will get, or what cards others will get. You don’t know which horse is going to win, which team will win, if they will cover the point spread, etc.

So, can God ever take risks? No. He knows all things past, present and future. He never takes risks. This is a great comfort. Knowing that our God never takes a risk and isn't even able to do so. For God to be able to take a risk, he would have to not know the future of every decision that he makes.


But, we do not. We live in ignorance. We don’t know when we will die and God doesn’t tell us the future, but tells us that the best way that we should live is living knowing we live in ignorance.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15

We don’t know if our heart will stop tonight, we don’t know if the building over us will collapse on us, we don’t know if someone will come in and shoot us because we love Jesus. James tells us that we should live in a way of never assuming we are safe from peril or distress.

Because of James’ thoughts we have to realize that we are never safe. We never have security of safety…ever. So, you may live in a safe neighborhood, nice house, great family, great schools, low crime rate, homeschool, private school, or best public school in the nation…and your heart can stop. You could die, just like that.

Let’s take a look at some examples that we see in the Scriptures of people taking some risks, meaning, making decisions where they had no clue the outcome.

Look to 2 Samuel 10.

In 2 Samuel 10 the king of the Ammonites has died and David sends out some of his own people to help console the new king who was the son of the dead king. The son got some bad advice from his counselors as they made him think that David was actually sending these men to spy out the land and to not console. As the men entered the city, they were taken, they were put to shame and sent back to David. David then sent his army with his commander Joab.

As they came upon the city Joab and his army was surrounded and looked as though they should probably give in to the battle and surrender. But Joab says something very interesting.

“Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”
2 Samuel 10:12

Joab, although surrounded and about to die, does not give in. He is given no special revelation by God, but instead of surrendering, he decides to fight and allow God to do what is good in His sight.

Look to Esther:

Queen Esther is another example of courageous risk in the service of love and for the glory of God. There was a Jewish man named Mordecai who lived in the fifth century before Christ during the Jews’ exile. He had a younger orphaned cousin named Esther whom he had adopted as a daughter. She grew up to be beautiful and eventually was taken by Persia’s King Ahasuerus to be his queen. Haman, one of Ahasuerus’s chief princes, hated Mordecai and all the Jewish refugees and persuaded the king to decree that they be exterminated. The king did not realize that his own queen was a Jew.

Mordecai sent word to Esther to go before the king and plead the case of her people. But Esther knew there was a royal law that anyone who approached the king without being called would be put to death, unless he lifted his golden scepter. She also knew that her people’s lives were at stake. Esther sent her response to Mordecai with these words:

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women 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.”
Esther 4:15–16

“If I perish, I perish.” What does that mean? It means that Esther did not know what the outcome of her act would be. She had no special revelation from God. She made her decision on the basis of wisdom and love for her people and trust in God. She had to risk or run. She did not know how it would turn out. So she made her decision and handed the results over to God. “If I perish, I perish.” And this was right.

Shadrach Meshach and Abednego

The scene is Babylon and Israel is in exile here. King Nebuchadnezzar is king and he had a dream and ends up setting up a gold statue of himself and tells all that when the trumpets blow that all of those in Babylon are to bow before it. If they do not, they will be put into the furnace and die for their disrespect of the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego decided that they were going to take a risk. The outcome was surely death, but the risk of not bowing was worth it for the name of God. Here was their response to the king:

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Daniel 3:16–18

Do they not say the same thing as Esther? If we perish, we perish. Or what about what Joab states: May the Lord do what is good to him. The point is? God is great and he will work out his purposes because he takes no risk, he knows all and everything in the end will point to his glory.

We will continue this post next week. But think of this:

The most dangerous place that you can be is outside the will of God.