Characteristics of Godly Courage

Thanks to Chris and Catherine. Really appreciate that. Kind of set the bar high for us married couples, doesn't it? We have to get up here and try to match that. That was really beautiful. Really appreciate that. It takes a lot of work to make that happen as well. So really appreciate them putting that together and performing that for us.

I don't know if you've heard the story about the professor who gave an assignment to his class. They were to turn in a five-page paper, and in this particular writing class he gave them the theme. And the theme for this particular paper, five-page paper, was courage.

And so he told them, mapped it all out, told them it had to be five pages. And so each student had to give the very best example of courage that either he or she had ever witnessed. And so one student boldly turned in five blank pages.

Got an A on the paper. That's courage when you do something like that. And I suppose it was courageous for the teacher to give them an A as well. But after I heard that story, it got me thinking a little bit. What exactly is courage? Because it's an amazing word that keeps showing up over and over and over again throughout the Bible.

I'm sure we remember the words that were spoken to Joshua, be strong and of good courage. And Christ said that to the disciples over and over again. I thought it might be helpful to look at that word today, look at some of the characteristics of godly courage. Godly courage. A lot of philosophers, a lot of deep thinkers have said different things about courage over the years. I ran across a quote from Winston Churchill.

He said, Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. I thought that was an interesting definition. Dr. Robert Anthony said, Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway. Sometimes those are the situations that we face. How about this one? Carl Barth said, Courage is fear that set its prayers. It's a little bit different way to think about it, isn't it? If you were to look up different synonyms for that, it means being brave. It means being someone that has the nerve to go forward despite situations that may be very, very difficult.

Maybe we could go back and look at one of the examples here all the way back in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6. Let's begin there this morning and notice the words that were given here. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6. Here Moses is doing the talking here and listening to what God has to say to him. And it's interesting what he tells the people. Verse 6, Deuteronomy 31, he says, Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear, nor be afraid of them. They're going into a land that's occupied.

This is occupied territory they're going into. He says, Don't be afraid for the Lord your God. He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. He's not going to give up on them. And so we see very clearly the instruction is to go forward. It doesn't matter what the odds are. It doesn't matter what it looks like. It doesn't matter what our opinion is. When God gives us a responsibility and a job, he says, Be courageous. Go forward. I am with you.

And so if you had to think of an example in the Bible of a courageousness that God's people displayed, who comes to your mind? I have a tendency to kind of think in order sometimes. You go back to this time. Go back to the time of Moses.

Did Moses display tremendous courageousness? Boy, over and over and over again he sure did. Oh, and he stood before Pharaoh. That would have taken some guts to do that, wouldn't it? Especially when those magicians were replicating some of the miracles. That would have been startling, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it have been startling to utilize God's power?

If you perform a miracle and they come back with something else, maybe you say, whoa, I don't know about this anymore. And yet he went forward. Of course, think of the example of David and the giant, right? Goliath. It didn't matter what the odds. David stood up against it. He knew that God was with him. Often think of the story of Abigail. Abigail, she saved Nabal's household. She stood in the gap.

She stood up when normally, at that time especially, a woman was seen and not heard. It's a remarkable story. How about Esther? Queen Esther stood up to Haman, went before the king when she could have easily been killed for doing that. And so story after story in the Bible, we see people of God courageously stand up against the odds.

And as I thought about that, should it really be any different for us? We face some difficult things in our lives. It seems like sometimes it's every day something comes up. There's another challenge that we have to deal with. As I thought about that, trying to pinpoint where does that begin? Where did it begin for Moses? Where did it begin for David?

Where did it begin for these individuals? How were they able to muster the courage to stand up against the odds? Where does courage begin? As I thought about that a little bit, Psalm 27 came to mind. If you want to turn over there, Psalm 27, verse 14. I think this is where it has to begin for us. If we're going to have that characteristic of courage in our life, courage has to start here in Psalm 27, 14, and where it points to.

Notice what it says here. It says, Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. You see, that points to the direction that courage starts on the inside, doesn't it? It starts at the heart. It starts in our thinking. It starts in our being. That's where it has to begin. We've got to have the conviction within us to do what God's called us to do, don't we?

We have to do what God's called us to do and respond to that inner voice. And that voice better be God's voice. He says, Wait on the Lord. Be strong. Be ready to prevail. Oftentimes, we might be worried, and we might be afraid to stand up, to face the enemy, to face a difficult situation. But here, if God's at the heart of things, if Jesus Christ is in us, living His life through us, can we have the courage to face difficult situations? He says, He shall strengthen your heart. Because on my own, I'm not strong enough. I can't do it. I can't face that. The words aren't going to come to me of what to say. I'm not going to be able to stand up against evil.

I can't do that on my own. But if I'm looking to God, and that word for wait is an interesting one. It doesn't mean just hang around and hope something happens. That's not what that word means. That word has an intent of expecting God. An expectation, a hope that God will act within us and give us that courage.

So in a sense, He's saying, have an expectation that God will strengthen your heart. That's what it says. He's going to strengthen. It doesn't say, well, He might. Well, if you're really good, He might help you out a little bit. No, in the New King James it says, He shall strengthen your heart. Do we have that confidence that God's going to do what He says He's going to do? When you face a difficult situation, we look to God.

We have an expectation and a hope that He will strengthen us and help us to overcome. It says, He will because where's our hope? Where's our strength? Where's our expectation? Not in my abilities. It's in God. It's from the inside. And God gives that powerful promise that brings courage.

So when we face a difficult situation, and sometimes that courage may be something that's expected just when we face a difficult situation like a health problem, and it's going to take courage to face that issue. It can take all kinds of forms in our life, but God promises that He will give us that strength, that we can tackle the difficulty, that we can face the challenges that would come in whatever form that they would come.

And so God's going to help us to do that. He says, I'm never going to leave you. I'm never going to forsake you. And so the doubt comes from a totally different area. In fact, I heard the story of a fellow who was bragging that he cut off the tail of a lion with a pocket knife. He's like, wow, that's pretty courageous. That's pretty brave.

How'd you do that? Why didn't you just cut off the lion's head, they asked him? And he said, well, somebody had already done that. Maybe not so courageous after all, right? But I think the interesting part is God's going to help us to cut off the head of those that would bring us down in a metaphorical way that we can overcome. God's not going to leave us. In fact, if we turn just a little bit farther in the Psalms, look at Psalm 89.

Psalm 89, 21. This one puts it just a little bit differently, pointing us to the fact of where that strength comes from. How in the world can we deal with the challenges of life and come out on top? Well, it's starting on the inside. Psalm 89, verse 21, he says, "...with whom my hand shall be established." Here, God is referring to David, that David is doing these amazing things. Well, what was David's strength?

Where was his power found? Was it in his own self? Or was it because he relied on God? He said to David, "...with whom my hand shall be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him." That God was going to protect him. God was going to sustain him. He said, "...my strength is always with him." Always with him. God was always there, always the power behind the accomplishments of David.

In fact, some of those translations even say that. "...My power will make him strong. He shall be established by my power." And so I think that points us in the right direction. We can't be any different than David. When we face the challenges, it's got to be God within us that gives us that strength. We've got to rely on him. If we don't rely on God, we're going to be in trouble. Remember the way the Apostle John put it?

He said that, "...he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." So when it comes to facing sin, where is our strength? Where is our courage? Well, it's got to come within us. And it's not just, you know, drag yourself up by your bootstraps and let's go. That's not the within we're talking about. It's Christ within us, isn't it? It's Christ within us who is greater than the challenges that are out there in the world, and Satan who's out there in the world, and the one who wants to turn us into a yellow belly, right? That wants us to be the weak.

He doesn't want us to overcome. It's going to challenge us. So we've got to realize that's where it's got to start. It's got to start from within, that we're relying on Christ in us to overcome, because He is greater than anything out there in the world that would bring us down. All right, that brings us to a second aspect. When you think about having the bravery to face life, to face difficult situations, one of the things that's interesting, you rehearse all those different stories we mentioned, whether it was Moses or David or Esther, any of those situations, one of the things that becomes obvious in all of those situations is that they took the challenge.

Courage takes the challenge. It doesn't run away. It doesn't turn its back. It doesn't stand there in silence. With God within us, we can take a stand, can't we? We can take a stand against that Goliath sin that confronts us. We can take a stand against the evil that's out there. We can take a stand against sin in our own life. We don't have to bow down to it.

So courage takes the challenge. So are we ready to speak up for what we believe? When that situation presents itself, are we ready to talk about the hope that lies within us? And we can do it in a way that brings honor to God and doesn't offend people at the same time? I think so. So if somebody comes up with a dumb idea, are we just going to not say anything about it?

We're just going to go along with the crowd? Imagine this, I often hear about some of the ratings on some of the programs on TV, and it's like, that is a really dumb program. Yeah, but 40 million people watched it this week. Yeah, but still dumb. Don't change the fact it's dumb just because there's 40 million people watching it.

If it's a dumb idea, it's a dumb idea. And so I think we've got to stand up when it comes to that. If it's sin, it's sin, and we have to stand up against that in our life. There's a great passage over in Ephesians 3, verse 11. Let's notice this in the New Testament. Here's the apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus. And it points to the fact that when we have Christ in us, when we have God's Holy Spirit, we are able to stand up. And not just the fact that we are able, but that we have to.

We must stand up against evil in our life. We must grow in grace and knowledge. We have to take the challenge, in other words. Ephesians 3, verse 11. Notice what Paul points to here. We're kind of jumping into the middle of a thought. But it's a powerful thought. Ephesians 3, 11, it says, "...according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." The eternal purpose of God is He's building a family.

He's creating a spiritual family. We're looking forward to being spirit beings in the Kingdom of God. And so He says that eternal purpose is accomplished through Christ. And so we have Christ in us. And because of that, notice verse 12. He says, "...in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him." And we're pointing inside that spirit within us, God's Holy Spirit. It's through that we have boldness, that we can have access to confidence.

We open the door of our hearts, and it might be cobwebs, it might be empty when it comes to standing up and being strong against sin in our lives. But here, He says, you look in, we have access not to an empty closet, but we have access to confidence in faith. We have access to boldness, different synonyms for courage. It's through Him, though. It's through Christ. Therefore, He says in verse 13, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. And so there are all kinds of situations that can be challenging. Here was the fact that Paul is suffering different things, probably writing this one of the prison epistles. He's in prison because of his confidence in God, because he stood up and preached the gospel. And so he's in prison because of speaking the truth.

Would that be a downer for the congregation? Would that be a downer for God's people? Would that maybe shake your confidence? Well, he's saying, no, that shouldn't shake your confidence, because I've suffered tribulation. We'll all suffer that. Look at who's in you. Can we overcome this? Can we have the right perspective? When there's something that is good and right and honest, Paul wasn't going to hesitate for a second to stand up for the truth. Well, it got him in trouble with the world. But it didn't change the fact he had to do it. He was called to preach the gospel. And so as God calls us his people, how much do we stand up for him?

If we had to put a percentage on it. Is that 100% of the time? I can't imagine Paul doing anything less than that. Well, what about us? When we stand up, do we face the odds? Sometimes it's different situations that we have to face. Maybe it's our job. Maybe it's losing our job if we keep the Sabbath. Do we have to stand up against that? Do we have to stand for what's right? It doesn't mean we have to do it in a way that's offensive to people, but can we stand up for what's right and do it in the right way? Or do we fudge on it? You know, the time has changed now. Now we're on standard time, and now the Sabbath is a little earlier, but I'm only here an extra half hour. I don't really want to talk to the boss about that. Maybe I can just kind of sneak out. We can make all kinds of excuses about those kinds of things. But do we have the courage to stand up for what's right? How do you know what God would do? You go to your boss and you say, I keep the Sabbath, the sun sets earlier now, and I need the time off. I'm going to take the time off. I need to have that off. How do we know what the reaction would be? He could be Goliath and make fun of us and yell at us and do all those kinds of things. Yeah, it could happen. Well, what are we going to do if that's the case? Hopefully it's stand up against what God would have us to do. We've got to do the right thing no matter what, don't we? We've got to do the right thing. How do we know that the fellow might say, Oh, really? Okay, you can have that off. So what's the deal with the Sabbath thing anyway? Then you have an opportunity to talk about the hope that lies with it. How do you know what would happen if we don't stand up and take the challenge? All kinds of things could happen. So it's an amazing thing. I know recently there was a movie that came out. It was 300, was the name of it. You may be familiar with it. It was a real bloody, gory movie. But there was an interesting theme in it. It was about the king of Sparta. Leonidas was his name. And he's going to face this unbelievably monstrous Persian army. And it's a factual thing. It really happened in history. So they're portraying this in this movie. So these Grecians are going to face the Persian army. And I think it was about 500 B.C., somewhere in that timeframe. The problem was that the Spartans only had about 300 fighting men.

And the Persians were going to come with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of troops and ships and all kinds of things just to wipe out Sparta. Now, before this happened, the Persians sent an envoy. Then it sent a messenger to Leonidas. And this envoy was warning Leonidas. He said, listen, we have so many troops that's going to come against you. You need to surrender. He said, just our archers alone, with just our archers, once they start to fire, when they shoot those arrows, they will darken the sun. That's how many we have.

Well, what would you say to that?

You know what Leonidas quoted as saying?

Supposedly he said, so much the better, we'll fight them in the shade.

That's courage. Maybe stupidity a little bit. But when you believe in something, do you stand up for it? He made it stand. Yeah, he died. Okay, but 300 against thousands upon thousands. But I think it makes the point, are we willing to stand up? Because the time might come that we have to stand up to death. You know, does the Bible talk about martyrs? Those that stand up in faith? Absolutely. For martyrs, for our faith, that's a good way to go, isn't it? It talks about martyrs as we get to the end time. Are we willing to stand up and face whatever it may be that comes at us?

Interesting passage over in John 16, verse 32. Let's notice John 16, 32. In this particular passage, it talks about what times would be like. And of course, here, Christ is specifically talking about the time of the crucifixion. But I think it's also applicable even today.

You know, what will we do when we're really faced with the challenge of a lifetime? What are we going to do? If we haven't been putting courage into practice leading up to that point, it's just not going to be there.

It's something that we've got to put into practice right now. Here, we'll notice what Christ was saying here. John 16, 32. This is the NIV version. It says, the time is coming and has come. Christ is speaking. When you will be scattered, each to His own home, you'll leave me all alone.

That was Christ's perspective, though. Yet I'm not alone, for my Father is with me. I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Christ set the ultimate example, in other words. He faced the odds, and He was willing to take the challenge. And so He says, because of this, you're going to have trouble, you're going to have difficulties.

If you try to live a Christian life, you're going to have to face difficulties. You're going to have to face, maybe, Sabbath difficulties. You may have to face being single in your life. If you are single and you want to be married, are you willing to take the challenge and be courageous and wait on God for a mate? Are you going to say, well, I guess God's going to provide me a non-believer for a mate?

Is that God's way? Or do we have the faith and the courage to take heart, as Christ says? Or some versions say, be of good cheer. Or that word literally is, be courageous. I've overcome, Christ said. If I'm in you, you can overcome. You can face the difficulties in your life, and you can have my perspective. Remember what Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Not me. Paul said, not I, but Christ in me.

So that I can have Christ's perspective. If I'm going to lose my job over the Sabbath, do I have the courageousness to know beyond the shadow of a doubt? God's going to provide something else. It will work out if I'm married. Can I have the courageousness to deal with our difficulties and solve those issues that we as husbands and wives have? Or do we say, forget it, let's just break up, let's get divorced. It's not worth it. Or does God provide us the courage to face and ultimately solve those things? We've grown up in the church. We understand the truth of God. We're not baptized. We have the courage to take the challenge.

That I must be baptized. When you look at Acts 2.38, look at Acts 2. It's an amazing passage. We're thinking about being baptized. Well, does God really want me to be baptized? I'm wondering, is that really what I should do? What does Peter say in that very first sermon with the New Testament church?

He said, you wonder if you should be baptized? He said, repent and be baptized. Take the challenge. Don't hang around and wait and wait and wait and wonder, and you're waiting for the light bulb to go on. You understand the truth. God's calling you. He's working with you. He wants you to be a part of his family.

Now, it's up to you. He's not going to force you. He's not going to force you to keep the Sabbath. But we can fudge on things and we can justify things. The same thing with whatever area it is with our life. God wants us a part of his family. He wants us to take heart and be courageous, look to Christ. He wants us to be that ambassador in the world.

And we have to realize, who gives us that strength? Who helps us to take that challenge? God stands with us. God is with us. We're never alone. That's what Christ said. We're never alone.

James 1, verse 12. This is one of those passages, I think, that can help us to take that challenge, to face it. Because there's going to be those challenges in our life. James 1, verse 12. I think this is one of those courageous passages. James 1, 12, it says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. Sometimes the temptations seem to be not that big a deal. But then we hedge on that temptation, and sure enough, here comes another one.

But if we don't hedge, if we endure it, if we face it, it says, For when he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. A couple of interesting things going on there. He says, God has a blessing for those who endure, for those that take the challenge. When we're faced with temptation, when we're faced with those challenges, when we turn to God, when we look to Him, He says, Then we're approved.

We beat that challenge. We meet it. We make it head on. And through Christ, we win. We become approved. We can overcome. And He says, For those, He says, There's a crown of life awaiting you. It's interesting how He ties that in to love. Isn't that an interesting connection there? God has a blessing for those who courageously endure temptation, overcome. And He says, You'll receive the crown of life that He's promised to those who love Him. If we don't stand up, is that a reflection of how much we love God?

How much we trust God? Can God work out that situation if it's a Sabbath issue? Can God work that out or not? Is God strong enough to do that or not? Do I love God enough to trust Him to bring me through this challenge in my health? Or not? See, I think God wants us to have that kind of courage. God wants us to have that kind of faith. God has a blessing in store for us.

When we rely on Him and we don't rely on our own strength, because through God, courage does take that challenge. You are daring to live by righteousness. We're daring to live by the character of Christ. That's how we can overcome.

There's a third thing that happens, I think, when we stand up and we strive to be a courageous Christian. And that's the fact that courage goes viral.

Although the techies understand what I mean by that. Courage goes viral. In other words, it spreads. If you get a dopey little video and you put it on YouTube and you're doing something weird like you're skateboarding down the sidewalk and then you try to jump up onto the railing and you start going and you fall and you break your arm, everybody loves that. You'll get a million people to come and look at your dopey video. So it goes from one or two of your friends watching it to a million people watching some stupid thing. That's going viral. It's kind of like a virus and it catches on and it grows and it spreads and it goes everywhere. And so you talk about, hey, have you seen that video? Yep, I saw that one. And then they pass it on to everybody.

Courage is supposed to be like that. Not a dopey YouTube video. Sorry, I made the wrong connection there. Not a dopey YouTube video. But courageousness is supposed to spread through God's people. Like a wildfire, in a sense. When one person is courageous. When you hear the story about how someone did something that stood up against a challenge in their life. Doesn't that inspire you? Doesn't that encourage you? Doesn't it give you the idea that, boy, if they can do that, if they could rely on God, if they could trust in Him and they came through that, I could do that too. And I think it does work like that. In fact, when it starts to grow and when it really starts to spread, is there anything that can stop it? When we live by Christ, can that force be stopped? I don't think it can. I don't think it can. Look to the book of Acts for a moment. There are some great examples throughout the book of Acts. Because here's God's church just beginning in the New Testament. And they face challenge after challenge. Whether it was from the high priest, whether it was from the Romans, whether it was from just other people that were denying Christ. Detractors. It seemed like every step of the way there was some other challenge, some other distraction, some other person that wanted to bring them down and discredit them. So they constantly had to be in this attitude of standing up for what was right. And so here in Acts 15, notice verse 30. Acts 15. Verse 30 is where we'll begin. And it's kind of interesting, this situation that they confront here in Acts 15. And verse 30, of course, there was this big conference. They had to decide whether or not it's okay to be not circumcised or that they had to be circumcised. So they were dealing with this important issue. And they finally come to an conclusion, you don't have to be a Jew first to be a Christian. It's kind of what it comes down to when you really get to it. You don't have to be a Jew first to be a Christian. Right? That's not what it takes. So right after that, they go off. And so the word is going to be spread of what the ultimate decision was. And so in Acts 15. Verse 30, you can follow along. I wrote down the version that's recorded in the message. And it goes like this starting in verse 30.

Now as I read through this, it's kind of an interesting scenario when you see what's going on here. What happened? Could have been a real downer. Are you kidding me? You don't have to be circumcised? That's ridiculous. Of course you have to be circumcised. It could have been a divisive issue in the church, couldn't it?

But here were two men, Judas and Silas, who were courageous enough to face the people, face the congregation, and explain the truth. Could they do that on their own? Or was it through God's Holy Spirit that they could be encouragers? That they could explain what had happened and what had gone on, so that there would be this sense that this is right and this is good and we need to be together.

And it says, with many words. I wonder what those words were. What were those courageous words that they spoke? What were those words of hope that they spoke? We're not told all the different words that could have been said here. And yet it brought people together. It brought them together. It got them all on the same page. And what happened? It says there were embraces all around. Embraces all around. They were strengthened. They stayed there. They were greetings. This was a good thing that had happened. And so this courageousness not only started at the conference in Jerusalem, but spread as they brought that word out and it brought God's people together. And I think that's an amazing lesson for us. Because just one act of courage. One story where someone stood up for God's way. You could probably recite some stories where you heard of a friend or another member in God's church did what was right. And it's a great story. And it's more than a story. It really happened and it encourages us. And hopefully gives us then that motivation that we could do the same thing. It says we flip a couple pages. Go over to chapter 27.

Look at chapter 27, verse 24.

Chapter 27, verse 24. Here we are near the end of the book of Acts.

Here Paul being carted off to Rome. He's going to have to stand before Caesar. What's he going to say? What's he going to do? Is he going to wimp out? Is he going to stand for the truth? How's he going to handle that? Well, notice Paul's perspective, verse 24. He says, don't be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. So he understands this is of God. God's telling him, you're going to go before Caesar. And notice what it says, and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. He's going to get there on a ship. I wonder if he knew what he was talking about at first. Verse 25, he says, therefore take heart men. Now Paul's doing the talking here, because they ran into terrible trouble. That ship was going to be sunk. And yet Paul harkened back to what God told them. He says, I believe, Paul says, that God will be just as it was told me. It didn't mean that the ship was going to make it there in one piece. It was never told that. He probably didn't realize exactly how it was all going to play off. But somehow he knew that God was going to follow through, that God had granted those men, that they weren't all going to die in a terrible disaster, that they were going to make it. So what was Paul's reaction to that? God told him, it's going to be okay. Take courage. Paul could have said, well, look out here. This is a terrible storm. This is a hurricane out here. We're all going to die.

Because it sure looked that way. It looked that way. But Paul remembered where his strength came from. And it went viral. It didn't just stop with what God had said. Paul took it to heart, and he spread that to these men. These men knew there was something different about Paul. He wasn't your common, everyday criminal, like the rest of them were. This was a different person. This was a man that had God's Spirit. And so he encouraged them and inspired them. And so it's an interesting circumstance here as he's being carted off to Rome, and the ship is going down. And so I think it points to something that's pretty amazing here. Would it be fair to say that courage is produced by following God?

I think so. Godly courage, absolutely. Godly courage is the product of a person submitting themselves to God. See, God immediately came to Paul's mind. God promised this. God encouraged Paul. You know, when God is near and dear to us, when we have a close relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, does He provide for us? Does He care for us? And what did David say? Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I'm going to go hungry and thirsty, and I might starve to death. No, I won't have any needs. He'll cover my needs. I shall not want. He's going to be there for me. And He might not do it in the way that we expect. It might be something totally different than what we expected. But nonetheless, courage is going to be the product when we're following God. Put it a different way.

Can we grow in Godly courage and not follow God?

I think it's impossible to follow God and not grow in courage.

I said it a little bit differently. It's impossible to follow God and remain weak.

Is that a fair statement?

Does God expect us to grow in courage? I think He does. I think it said it a different way. If our courage isn't growing, can we really say we're doing what God would want us to do?

If we're not growing in that aspect, if we're not taking on sin, if we're not growing in grace and knowledge, if we're not standing for God's way courageously in our life, is it really fair to say that we're really doing what God's called us to do? Are we really obeying? We're really fully putting God's way into practice. And that takes nerve. That takes a daring. That takes a bravery to confront sin in our lives. Starting with us. Starting with ourselves.

Because ultimately God's called us to something that we can't do it on our own. It's not possible to do it on our own.

And I think that leads us to another aspect of courage. And that's the fact that courage takes us beyond our own limitations. Because as physical human beings, are we limited?

Absolutely. If we had to count on our own talents and our own abilities, what spiritual thing would be accomplished?

Nothing, really. Right?

Didn't they say I can do nothing? You know, without God? Nothing spiritual can be accomplished without God. So courage, godly courage, takes us beyond our own limitations.

I was reading an article the other day. It was an article about a man named George Smith. Maybe you've never heard of him. He was a guy that nobody could say wasn't courageous. I mean, this guy was a man of courage. George Smith was a jet test pilot back in the 50s, when jets were really just coming online. So he was one of those that was trying to break the sound barrier.

He was in that first batch of these courageous pilots that would test out all these various aircraft. And he was the one that was known as... he'd face anything. He would do anything! Then a certain circumstance came up. He was testing a jet one day, a big prototype. They were trying to break the sound barrier, and something went wrong. The engines caught on fire. Everything started going wrong. Had to bail out, going 800 miles an hour.

I can't even imagine what 800 miles an hour is. Yet alone having to bail out, going 800 miles an hour. Well, he lived, but about everything was broken. And just had a terrible, terrible time. He survived. It was in a nursing home for a long, long time. And it started to affect him that there was no way he was ever going to fly again.

So during this recuperation, this long period of time, he became pretty good friends with the people that worked at the hospital and the rehab center and all those kinds of things. And he'd talk about it. I'm never getting in a plane again. I'm never going to do that. Well, as he began to recuperate and get better, heal up, he basically came along pretty well. And so he could eventually get back in that cockpit again. But he said, nope, not going to run into that problem again. But you know George Smith did fly again? And he attributes it to a nurse at the hospital. Because as he was healing, you know what this nurse said to him? Something very interesting. Here's what she said. She said, courage is knowing the worst. And discovering that in God's world, the very worst can't really hurt you. Isn't that interesting? Courage is knowing the worst. And discovering that in God's world, the worst can't really hurt you. Isn't that what we all have to come to? I mean, imagine the worst case scenario for your life. What if it was death? We were put to death for our belief. Well, it would be a pretty tough scenario leading up to that. But once you're gone, what's next? The resurrection. It really can't hurt you. It really can't hurt you. So whatever the scenario, it can't. It can't hurt you. And I think courage, Godly courage, helps us to realize that. And maybe, can we be as strong to say there can't be growth without courage? Can we get away with saying that? Think about that. Can there be growth without courage? John Maxwell said, if we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone. We're always going to be out of the cockpit relying on someone else's strength. We're relying on God's strength. Because courage, I believe, gives us that incentive, gives us that motivation to grow and take on the deepest problems that we have. And that problem of sin, that's really the problem, isn't it? If you're still here in the book of Acts, go over to chapter 23, verse 11.

Chapter 23, verse 11. Here's another scenario during the early church with the apostle Paul. And just before that scenario that we talked about with the shipwreck that was imminent, here is Paul. He's in prison. And notice what's recorded here in verse 11 of Acts 23. It says, the following night the Lord stood near Paul. Here he's a prisoner. What would that have felt like? The Lord stood near Paul and said, Take courage as you testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. Here's Paul, the one who wrote most of the New Testament. He'd say, well, boy, I'm going to be a prisoner. I'm going to be stuck in Rome in prison. I'm going to be under house arrest. How in the world is that going to preach the gospel? Well, there are four letters, four books of your Bible that were written from Rome while Paul was in prison. It wouldn't have happened unless he had the courage to face that situation and realize that even in that situation, God could use it in a powerful way to ultimately preach the gospel. And so he took a hold of that opportunity. And we have to do that. We have to seize the opportunity that God puts in our path. And it may look like a terrible opportunity, a difficult situation. And yet, can God turn that around for good? Does God stretch us and allow us opportunities that normally it's way beyond what we could do? Beyond our limitations, just physically speaking, we can't do it on our own. Doesn't he stretch us? Doesn't he want more out of us? Didn't he want Job, who was perfect and upright in his ways at the beginning of the book of Job? And didn't he stretch him? He was even bragging about Job in a way to Satan. Hey, have you seen my servant Job? He's upright in all his ways. Boy, I'd like God to say that about me. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And yet, God wanted more. He wanted him to even have a bigger, better, more righteous perspective. And so God stretches all of us, I think, beyond the limitations of what we could accomplish on our own. There was a man that put it, I think, in a remarkable way. His name was Charles Dubois. And he said this. Just think about it. This is an amazing statement. He said, the important thing is this. To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. Isn't that an amazing statement? You think about that. Where are we now? And what could we be? How much better a Christian could I be? Am I willing to sacrifice what I am and become more of a spiritual creation in Christ? To become more godly in my thinking? To take on the mind of Christ? You see, that's what God's called us to do. He's called us to sacrifice who we are right now for what we can become. We can become a spiritual creation. We don't have to be stuck in the physical. And so sometimes that means we've got to change our perspective. We've got to be ready to move beyond our limitations. As God presents those opportunities, are we ready to walk forward? To move forward? And sometimes it seems like, whoa, it's not really clear about this. I've been praying about this. And it's not exactly turning out the way that I prayed. Anybody ever been in that situation before? I'll raise my hand to that one. That's not exactly what I was praying for. And perhaps you've heard that poem, the poem by Inyat Khan, and it goes like this. I asked for wisdom. You imagine praying for wisdom. Did God give you wisdom? Well, in the poem it says, God gave me problems to solve. He wrote, I asked for blessings. God gave me opportunities. I asked for strength. God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for courage. And God gave me danger to overcome.

Now here's the interesting part. He said, I received nothing I prayed for. I received everything I needed. I think that's the amazing part of the insight of God. God knows what we need. And that doesn't mean we get what we want. Because God has something more in mind for us, something better in mind. The things that we need are so shallow when it comes to our way of thinking. And God has so much more in mind for us. God wants to take us to another level, doesn't He? And that's what godly courage does. It takes us to a higher level. It takes us to a deeper spiritual level, doesn't it? How about Ephesians 3, verse 19? Ephesians 3, verse 9, talk about that higher level here that God's called us to, to move beyond our limitations. Ephesians 3, 19 certainly speaks to that. Here Paul is summarizing some amazing truths. And as he writes to Ephesus, he writes to us, and he says some remarkable things. In verse 19 of Ephesians 3, he tells us, how can we comprehend these awesome things that are around us? He says, to know the love of Christ, that alone, it says, passes knowledge. If you're not called of God, if God hasn't opened your mind, you don't have a clue. You don't have a clue what the mind of Christ is like, the love of Christ, what that is. And he says that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Of course, that's God's plan in a nutshell, isn't it? That we would be filled with the fullness of God, that we would be members of His family, we would be spirit beings in the household of God. That's what God's plan is. Is that going to move us beyond our physical limitations? Absolutely. Is that going to take us to a higher level? It has to. Should we be living that now, looking forward to our ultimate change? No doubt. No doubt. And so verse 20, he summarizes here, "...now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think..." Because I can't do it on my own, it's not possible. He can do it even that much more, exceedingly, abundantly more. "...according to the power that works in us, Christ in us." Verse 21, to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus, "...to all generations, forever and ever." Amen. You see, he points to the fact that courage allows us to serve God to the best of our ability and reach beyond just our physical potential, but to reach out and grab ahold of that spiritual potential that God's given us through this awesome calling that we have. And so with that in mind, let's get going. Let's remember what God's given us. It's already in us. God's given us His Spirit. Let's take the challenge. Let's utilize God's Spirit and make courage viral. Let's realize God's going to do some awesome things. And we can step out in faith. We can be courageous and determined to allow God to take us beyond our own limitations so we can take the gospel to the world, so we can go forth in truth and love, and so we can have that extra motivation to grow and to walk courageously in faith. Let's be courageous.