out of trouble from the others around them – they don’t want to be tripped up right at the start. Then there is a time when you get into a rhythm and you pace yourself. But guess what happens right at the end of the race!!! Once again, there is another burst of energy. You do not want to cross that finishing line with enough energy left in you to run a lot further!
So are you willing to push yourself to the very limit for the sake of Christ? Are you willing to risk all for Him? Are you willing to trust Him in ALL THINGS?
ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE A RISK?

One of the things that I have noticed myself doing as I have got older, is to become less willing to take a risk……… just in case I fail. It gets harder to stay young when you get old!
And yet scripture is full of mighty men and women of God who were risk takers. They trusted God!
2 SAMUEL 10:1-12
Context: King David sent an envoy to another king out of concern but this other king thought it was a trap and so humiliated the envoy by cutting off the beards of all the men in the group and then hired some mercenaries to fight against the Israelites.
And so now Joab, the Israelite commander found himself surrounded by the armies of the Arameans and the Ammonites, so he split his army in two and said this:
2 SAMUEL 10:11-12 And he said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come to help you. 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."
JOAB TRUSTED GOD. He knew that God was in control and that regardless of the result, this was God’s will for him. Joab didn’t know what the outcome of the battle was going to be, except that the result was God’s will.
Queen Esther was another person who took a risk for the purposes of God. The story goes like this:
Context: Here is a woman who was God’s plan to save the Jewish nation, she just didn’t know this at the time!. The king was tricked by one of his advisers, Haman, to send out a decree that meant all of the Jews would be killed. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, asked her to go before the king and plead for the people. But Esther knew that if she approached the king without being asked, she could be executed. But she also knew that her people were at risk too. And so this was her reply:
ESTHER 4:16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."

Esther didn’t have some divine revelation from God to do this. She didn’t know what the outcome was going to be but ESTHER TRUSTED GOD. She knew that God was in control and that regardless of the result, this was God’s will for her.

Another example from the OT is found in DANIEL 3.
Context: Nebuchadnezzar was king and he built a golden statue of himself and commanded everyone to bow down to it when the trumpet blows. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego couldn’t / wouldn’t do that – they would only bow down to God. And so they get thrown into a furnace.
DANIEL 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning