The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.“Chase the Lion” is all about answering the question “What if the life you really want and the future God wants for you are hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure … your greatest fear?” God wants to use those challenges in your life, and he doesn’t want you to back down from them.
Now, today, we are going to talk about seizing opportunities. We all love Starbucks. Starbucks is literally a worldwide phenomenon. It is synonymous with coffee and coffeehouses. It seems like there is a Starbucks on every street corner, every mall and every hospital in America. Pretty soon there are going to be Starbucks in Starbucks. But it didn’t start out that way.
When Howard Schultz purchased Starbucks on August 15, 1987 it was a small chain of coffeehouses in Seattle. Nothing more. Nothing less. Howard Schultz said his big, audacious goal was to open a store in Portland, Oregon. A few decades later, there are 15,000 stores in 44 countries with approximately 35 million customer visits every week! And for what it’s worth, Starbucks opens 5 new stores every day 365 days a year.
But Howard Schultz almost passed up the opportunity because it seemed too big. Schultz said it felt like a case of the salmon swallowing the whale. In other words, it seemed like a 500 pound lion. The asking price was $4 million. Schultz describes it this way in his autobiography, Pour Your Heart Into It:
“This is my moment, I thought. If I don’t seize the opportunity, if I don’t step out of my comfort zone and risk it all, if I let too much time tick on, my moment will pass. I knew that if I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, I would replay it in my mind for my whole life, wondering: What if?”On June 26, 1992—less than five years after Howard Schultz seized the opportunity—Starbucks’ stock went public. It was the second most active stock traded on the NASDAQ and by the closing bell, its market capitalization stood at $273 million. Not bad for a $4 million investment. Schultz saw an opportunity and he seized it.
So, today, we’re going to talk about how to seize opportunities in your life. Benaiah, the guy in the Old Testament that we are looking at, seized the opportunities that were put in front of him.
“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, 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. These are some of the deeds that made Benaiah almost as famous as the Three. He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him commander of his bodyguard.” 2 Samuel 23:20-23 (NLT)The biggest dangers, the scariest moments, the most challenging times, the biggest lions, become the doors of opportunity for Benaiah.
There’s this verse, tucked away in Colossians 4 that maybe you have missed. Colossians 4:5: “Make the most of every opportunity.” This Scripture doesn’t specify how many or how few opportunities. It doesn’t quantify how small or how large the opportunity. We simply need to make the most of every opportunity. The word translated opportunity in Colossians 4:5 is the Greek word kairos. It refers to a serendipitous window of opportunity.
During the holidays, a lot of times you will see signs in advertisements that says “for a limited time only.” You could post that across so many of the opportunities that God places in our lives, “for a limited time only.” So, you have the seize moment, take advantage of the opportunities while they present themselves.
Seeing and seizing opportunities is an underappreciated dimension of spiritual maturity. We are surrounded by God-ordained opportunities—opportunities to love, opportunities to laugh, opportunities to give, opportunities to learn, opportunities to serve. Seeing and seizing those opportunities is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ and be filled with the Spirit.
So, how do you seize opportunities by the mane? How do you take advantage of the opportunities that come along in life? And, listen, before we go any further, it’s important to understand that I’m talking about the opportunities that God gives you to make a difference in the world, not just any old opportunity.
Well, you do three things. First, be alert. You’ve got to be alert to the opportunities that arise in your life. A lot of the opportunities that come along in life, we don’t seize them because we don’t see them. We get so tied up in our own worlds and in the things that we have to do, that we miss the things that God wants us to do in life. So, we have to change our focus. I love the Message translation of Colossians 3:2:
“Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.”
What causes us to miss opportunities so often is that we can’t see past what we have to get done right now. It’s the tyranny of the urgent. The urgent stuff in our lives keeps us from being able to do anything else. There’s all this stuff that has to get done, so we miss out on what needs to be done. So, you have to go through life with eyes open to see what is happening around you that has kingdom significance. See other people through the eyes of Jesus.
Look at Ephesians 5:16-17: “Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.” You see, the Bible teaches us that God is always at work around you. God is always working all of history to bring about his purpose and his plan. And you’ve got to be ready when your moment arrives. You’ve got to be on the lookout for where God is at work. To do that, you have to give consideration to what God is doing in your life. You can’t be thoughtless. But let me tell you a little secret from the life of Benaiah. Most of the life-changing, world-changing moments in your life don’t look that way in the beginning.
They usually appear in one of two ways. Either, they are a mustard seed. They’re tiny, just a little dream that you may have. A casual conversation with someone where God stirs something in your heart. Several years ago, I went on a mission trip to Mexico doing Vacation Bible School during the summer. While I was there, the missionary told me that each year, hundreds of people die in the city during the winter because of exposure or because they build little charcoal fires to keep warm and die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Their lives could literally be saved by a blanket. Just a little conversation. But it stirred something in me. And when I got back home, I talked to our church about it. That first year at Christmas we delivered 150 blankets to Mexico. Three years later, we delivered 1,400 blankets to Mexico. You’ve got to be alert to see those opportunities.
Then, the other way God’s opportunities come into our lives is disguised as 500 pound lions. They present themselves as huge problems, challenges, difficulties. I’m guessing that when Benaiah saw that lion on a snowy day, he wasn’t thinking, “This is my opportunity to rise through the ranks and become commander of Israel’s army.” You take on each of the challenges, each of the opportunities God gives to you, and he gives you greater ones.
So, how do you be alert to see those opportunities. You have to be in prayer mode. Look at Colossians 4:1: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” The word watchful is a throwback to the Old Testament watchmen whose job it was to sit on the city wall, scan the horizon, and keep watch. They were the first ones to see an attacking army or traveling traders. People who live in prayer mode are watchmen. They see further than others see. They see things before others see them. And they see things other people don’t see. Look at Psalm 5:3: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” When you live life in prayer mode, you expect God to respond, you expect God to do something. And as a result, you are more attuned to what God is doing. Think of it this way, if you are thinking about buying a new car. And you shop around, and you find one car in particular that you really like and you start to think about buying that car. All of a sudden, what happens? Everywhere you go, you start seeing that car. You are attuned to seeing that car. That’s what prayer does in our spiritual lives. As we pray for God to give us opportunities, it creates an awareness in us of those opportunities in life. So, you have to be alert, and prayer is how you do that.
Second, be available. A lot of times we miss opportunities that God gives us to make a difference because we are not available, because we have too much going on. We see the opportunity, we know what we are supposed to do, and we say, “Hey, God that’s great, but I just don’t have time right now. Can you call on me when it’s more convenient?” But the more convenient time never arrives.
Listen, I’m pretty sure that Jesus had the most important job that anyone has ever had ever in the history of the world. I mean, he came to save humanity from their sins. And yet, he was always available to do what the Father wanted him to do. The last week of his life, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and there was this blind guy who wanted Jesus to heal him. And the guy is calling out to Jesus and making a commotion. And the disciples tell the guy to be quiet. Jesus doesn't have time to mess with him. The story is found in Luke 18:40-41: “Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’” Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die on a cross for the sins of the world. But for a moment, all of human history is put on hold, because there’s a blind guy who needs a touch from Jesus.
So, here’s what you do. Say, “God, I’m ready to be used by you. And God, I’ve got my schedule, and I’ve got the things that I want to do, and I need to do, but God, at any time today, if you’ve got something you want me to do, feel free to interrupt my schedule at any time. I’m available.” You see, here’s another thing about opportunities. God’s opportunities most often appear as interruptions. Look at Jesus’ life. Most of his miracles, most of his healings, came as a result of an interruption. Healing the blind man, healing the lame man, healing the woman with the hemorrhaging disorder, bringing Jairus’ daughter back to life, they were all interruptions.
Take a look at Benaiah’s life. I’m pretty sure that none of the three stories listed there, the two mighty Moabites, the big Egyptian with the spear, and the lion on a snowy day, I’m pretty sure none of those were on his schedule for the day. They were interruptions.
I don’t think that God takes delight in interrupting our lives. I think it’s that most of the time we don’t leave any space for God, so he has to interrupt our lives. But you’ve got to be ready and available when he does interrupt. Respond like Isaiah did, Isaiah 6:8: "Here am I, Lord, send me." Many of us would respond, “Here am I, Lord, I’m too busy.” People who seize opportunities are people who are ready at a moment’s notice. God wants to use you in amazing and incredible ways. God wants you to make a difference. And God has some opportunities for you that are more amazing than you can imagine, but you have to be available.
Third, to seize opportunity by the mane, take action. When the moment comes, when opportunity arises, don’t just talk about it, don’t stand around and wait, do something. It’s not enough just to be alert. It’s not enough just to be available You’ve got to take action. Take action when the moment arrives. Get into gear and act. Look at Ecclesiastes 11:4: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” If we had waited for perfect conditions to get married, to have kids, to start a church, we never would have done any of those things.
Benaiah seems like the kind of guy who takes action. I mean, chasing a lion into a pit on a snowy day and then jumping in the pit with the lion, not the most logical thing in the world to do. Some people would say, it wasn’t prudent. And maybe there was a voice in the back of Benaiah’s head that said, “Wouldn’t be prudent.” But the Bible doesn’t describe Benaiah as prudent. It says he was valiant. Benaiah could have done what was prudent and run away and maybe he would have survived. But lion chasers aren’t the most prudent people on the planet. They aren’t focused on avoiding problems. They want to chase them down and overcome them. They seize God-sized opportunities by the mane and wrestle them to the ground.
Look, there are times when you should be prudent, do the logical thing, do the responsible thing. But at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, and they put you in the ground, what would you rather it say on your tombstone, “a prudent person” or “a valiant warrior”?
Take action. James 4:17 says, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Once you know what you ought to do, do it. The moment you know what God wants you to do is the moment God wants you to start doing something.
The English word opportunity comes from the Latin phrase ob portu. In the days before modern harbors, ships had to wait till flood tide to make it into port. The Latin phrase “ob portu” referred to that moment in time when the tide would turn. The captain and crew would wait for that one moment, and they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare uses this idea in the following lines from Julius Caesar. He says,
Are you going to take the opportunities that are placed before you in life, or are you going to miss them and be bound in shallows all your life, waiting on another opportunity to come.“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries
On such a full sea we are now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
Spiritual maturity is all about seeing and seizing opportunities. And that is how our spiritual journey begins. It begins by seizing the greatest opportunity we’ll ever be offered—the opportunity to spend eternity with God. John 1:12 says, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” All we have to do to seize the opportunity is to receive Christ.
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