Being sold out for Christ is being willing to take risks, being willing to leave everything. Seeing no value in titles or salaries, you have to be willing to follow Jesus anywhere.

Are you be prepared to risk it all? No back up plan?

That was the challenge from Dr. Jim Shaddix in Chapel on Tuesday, February 16, 2010, preaching from Ezra 8:21-23.

²¹ There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. ²² I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” ²³ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

When Jesus talked about counting the cost in Luke, He was is not talking about having a back up plan. He was talking about counting the cost to your family. This is what Ezra was dealing with. He had told the king about his God and was ashamed to ask for support. He did not want anybody to see that his success could have come from anyone other God.

Watch the chapel video here (Quicktime)

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Dr. Jim Shaddix is pastor of Riverside Baptist in Denver.  Dr. Shaddix doesn’t know it but he looks a lot like our buddy Bart Azzarelli, doesn’t he?

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SEBTS Chapel by Boe