Chase the Lion

right . Mark Batterson is the senior pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC . He has recently written a book called Chase the Lion , in which he challenges Christians to get over the fear of failure and to take steps of faith to accomplish some great things for God's kingdom and for God's purposes .

The scripture verse he uses as a basis for this comes from the book of 2 Samuel , chapter 23 and verse

20 . This portion of scripture is talking about David's army , his mighty men that are in this battle with King Saul . It says there was also Benaiah , son of Jehoiada , a valiant warrior from Kebzil . 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 .

You have to picture this whole scene that it's talking about here .

The snow is falling , it's cold , it's miserable . Benaiah and this lion cross each other's path and Benaiah gives chase to the lion . The lion doesn't chase him , he's chasing it and somehow the lion falls into a pit and Benaiah goes in there after it and kills the lion . That could have weighed as much as 500 pounds .

He should not have been able to do that , but he did . That took a lot of guts , that took a lot of courage to say I'm going to go in there and I'm going to defeat this thing . There are some scholars who believe that the lion had been a problem . It had been killing people , it had been raiding some of their camps . It had been doing things .

Benaiah was wanting to get rid of it and when he did , he became a local hero , which gave to him a special place in David's army . In all of our lives there's a time where we get to a place that's really scary for us .

We don't know what the answers are , we don't know what to do , we don't know how to move forward , but it's really a fork in the road . If we go one way , it's safe , it's

easy and will be okay . If they go the other way , there may be a risk involved , but the rewards could be really great . Really great for your testimony , really great for your ability to share what God is doing in your life . But it's risky . It's a risky way to go . What I do know is that we will never accomplish anything great if we don't take a risk .

If the best results were always the easiest results , everybody would have the best results , but we don't . Often our lives require that we take risks , that we step out , do something that may not make a lot of sense , but in the end it produces something special , often something incredible .

Christians are often nervous about this risk and reward concept , but the Bible is full of them . In the Old Testament it's Abraham putting Isaac on the altar . It's Moses saying to Pharaoh let my people go . It's Rahab harboring the Jewish spies . It's David taking off Saul's armor . It's Esther walking into the king's court uninvited .

And in the New Testament it's the wise men following the star . It's Andrew dropping his fishing nets . It's Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree . It's Peter getting out of the boat . God rewarded them and through their obedience to his plan and his purpose for their lives , they literally changed the world simply

because they were willing to take a risk . Mark Batterson in the book gives us this what he calls the lion chaser's manifesto . It goes like this Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death . Run to the roar . Set God-sized goals , pursue God-given passions . Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention .

Stop pointing out problems . Become part of the solution . Stop repeating the past and start creating the future . Face your fears , fight for your dreams , grab opportunity by the mane and don't let go . Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life . Burn sinful bridges . Blaze new trails . Don't let go .

Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life . Burn sinful bridges . Blaze new trails . Live for the applause of nail-scarred hands . Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God . Dare to fail , dare to be different . Quit holding out , quit holding back and quit running away . Chase the lion .

I encourage all of you to look at the dreams and the plans that God has placed into your heart and your life , the opportunities

that are before you . Don't disregard an opportunity or plan simply because it might look hard and scary Sometimes . That's the way to the biggest reward for you and for his kingdom . God's placed abilities and plans beyond your wildest dreams inside of you . Never , never , let yourself think that you aren't worthy to accomplish something .

Great for God , he does have a plan for you . Have a great day , my friends , and we'll talk . Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday , right here on , starting Right with Danny Mac .