<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Gatra Suhari

Opportunity Cost

You know, it is so good to see familiar faces.

I told some of you earlier, because you made me nervous.

There's a lot of new faces, which are exciting.

As had been mentioned just now, I remember some of your faces from having been here or have been hanging out with you in early years of my ministry.

And some of you might also remember that I might have snatched 1 of your best from here.

Sorry, that's my wife, Linda, in the front.

We just happened to met at 1 of your restoration series, or met before, but really talked it up then.

But nonetheless, we are so grateful to be here.

It's always a joy and it's always a treat to be with you guys today.

Today I want to talk about 1 of my favorite stories in scriptures.

And I want to invite you to stand with me now as we read together the reading of God's Word.

This is reading from Luke chapter 5 verses 1 to 11.

On 1 occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus that is, and he saw 2 boats by the lake.

But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

Getting into 1 of the boats which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

And of course, Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.

They signaled to their partners on the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both the boats so they begin, so that they begin to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus's knees saying, Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

So also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

As many of you probably might have guessed.

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

We are so grateful Lord like the song reminds us you came to heal To save and to forgive you bled and died for all of us We are grateful In the next few moments Lord as we continue to spend our time in your word, we ask for your spirit to guide us into what you would want us to learn today.

May we leave this place having known that you have truly been with us.

Our lives consist of a series of moments.

Many of them may seem insignificant or forgettable, but when they're strung Together, they tell tremendous stories of triumph and failure, of laughter and tears, of great blessing and great loss.

But then our lives are also punctuated by days.

Days that mark us, days that shape us, days that define and transform us.

Like the day when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior and decided to be baptized.

There was the day when I decided to follow him, notice the distinction there, and to really take God seriously, and followed him to become a minister.

There was the day when I asked my wife Linda to marry me.

These are the days that shaped us and molded me, excuse me, and shaped me and changed the course of my life.

And when we look through the pages of history, we see days that change everything.

Like when Martin Luther got up and nailed the 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

Or when the 56 men gathered and signed a Declaration of Independence.

Or the day when Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus.

These are moments, days that altered our history.

And I love it when we read scripture, we bump into stories, passages that are characterized with 1 day or 1 moment, 1 occasion, and then great stories begin.

Like 1 day Moses was watching the flock of the priest of Midian, his father-in-law, when God appeared to him in a burning bush.

Or when 1 day Peter met Jesus at the end of a long and disappointing day of fishing, Jesus got into 1 of his boat and told him to go fish again in deep water, as we're about to find out again.

Or 1 day when Zacchaeus met Jesus on the street when he personally invited himself over to his house.

1 moment that transforms our lives and even alters the trajectory of our history.

It's amazing how God shows up and shows off despite ourselves, despite our action or inaction.

Even for some of us who might be thinking, you know, I'm not that, I'm not quite up there, or I'm not quite there, I'm not quite spiritual or religious, but God still shows up around us, in us, and through us.

And all of us, I would be willing to argue that all of us can point to days in our lives that were pivotal, that were transformative, days that transformed us and defined our lives.

In the year 2008, 4 college students, broke college students, somebody say amen?

Okay, just kidding, That's a mild laughter there.

But these 4 students gathered and they thought, you know, let's put our resources together and change the eyewear industry.

Sure enough, by the beginning of 2010, they founded something together called Warby Parker.

To offer fashionable frames at a fraction of the price and to do it online.

Some of us might still remember that 2007, around that time, is when Facebook just started, I think.

So there's not very much online shopping per se.

If we can kind of, the people that probably were born recently, they're like, no, everything is online.

Right, if you can kind of imagine, to go back when time there's a lot of online shopping, this is where they was.

And they offered that and some of their friends thought they were crazy.

They were neck-deep in loans, they didn't have much money, but they just couldn't get over the fact that how much it is to buy a pair of glasses in retail and they wanted to do something different.

Fast forward a decade, which is when the study was done, or now decades later, Warby Parker is almost a billion dollar business.

I checked in 2023, I think their revenue was $680 something million.

But it's almost, it's quite significant to note after so many years.

Adam Grant writes about Warby Parker in his book entitled Originals.

Because 1 day, he himself was offered the opportunity to invest, but unfortunately he declined.

And reflecting back to this moment, he said in his book, and I quote, it was the worst financial decision I had ever made.

You see, in the world of economics, there are 2 kinds of cost.

Now an actual cost is an expenditure, something that actually you spend.

Shows up in your balance sheet as a liability, and it's relatively easy to account for.

While an opportunity cost is a hidden cost, it's far more difficult to account.

It's the loss of the potential gain often because of indecision or inaction.

When Adam Grant chose not to invest in Warby Parker, it did not cost him a single penny in terms of actual cost.

No file, but it cost him millions and millions of dollars in terms of opportunity cost.

Because nothing ventured and nothing gained.

We can do nothing wrong but still do nothing right.

Back to Menu

Opportunity Cost

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Plenary

The One Thing Jesus Can’t Give You

55m

Surety in the Last Days

1h 11m

Fresh Manna by Sean Reed

At the Door

50m

Is There Not A Cause?

42m

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

2. Discipline

1h

Show Me Your Glory

1h 13m

“Hold Fast”

52m

Power of the Everlasting Gospel

An Unwanted Guest: Jesus at the Door

1h 25m

The True Medical Missionary

56m

Speak it in Love

49m

Reprioritizing in the Last Days

If Not Now, When?

1h 7m

Confidence in Crisis

Confidence in Crisis - Part 7: Covid-19 in a Post-Truth World

51m

Sound Doctrine