[Frank Dunkle] But it's also easy to look back. As I said, I had a very full and exciting summer as many of you did. I'd like to look a little bit further back to start the message today. It was about 215 years ago. Being a history teacher, I don't do math, so that's why I'm saying about 215 years ago the United States Army Corps of Discovery set out on an incredible mission, one of the most daring, one of the most productive in human history.

Now, Corps of Discovery might sound a little unusual. Most of us remember it as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And they were sent out to explore lands west of what was then the United States. And I'll say "west of" because at the time the group was commissioned, the Louisiana Purchase was not yet done. So it actually began as the greatest trespass mission in U.S. history.

But before they actually entered that area, that purchase was done, so they were exploring, seeing what was out there, set out to find, to write a record of what animals, what plants they might discover. And one of their greatest goals was to find what we now call the fabled Northwest Passage, trying to find a mostly water route to get from the eastern United States out to the Pacific Ocean.

When President Thomas Jefferson set about forming this mission, he asked his personal aid, Meriwether Lewis, to lead it. And Colonel Lewis insisted then on getting his friend and someone he'd served with in the Army before, William Clark, to service as co-captain of the expedition. And I say co-captain, actually, they agreed that they would be equal in every respect. Even though the army insisted that Lewis was in charge, none of the men under their command realized that. They were equals.

They formed a partnership such as has seldom existed, selfless and very trusting. This Corps of Discovery traveled approximately 8,000 miles across untamed wilderness. No mechanized transportation existed for them, no electronic communication. Not only was the terrain unmapped, most of it had never been seen by white men before.

In spite of the dangers and challenges, they lost only one man and that was not because of an accident or ill planning. One man developed appendicitis along the way and, unfortunately, he died. As part of their thorough recording of their discoveries, they've created elaborate journals. The Lewis and Clark Journals have been published and republished and read by millions of people.

Now, I have read those but also brought a... Stephen Ambrose has written a very colorful and informative account, some of you might have seen this. I brought this up as a prop, I'm not going to read it today. But I would say, it is a good read, and I'm happy to lend out any of my books. I keep it on the shelf in my office if you're interested. But he took his title from something that President Jefferson wrote, Undaunted Courage.

That came from something that President Jefferson wrote about Meriwether Lewis after his unfortunate early death. He died as a fairly young man. President Jefferson wrote and described him as having, "Courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and a perseverance of purpose which nothing but a impossibility could divert its direction." “Courage undaunted.” That seems like a special and notable thing to have said about a person. A matter of fact, I love to have someone say that about me someday, so don't bother saying it now just to flatter me. I want to live up to it first.

But as I embark on a message where I want to talk about courage, I should confess that the apostle Paul didn't include courage when he described the fruit of the Spirit. It's not mentioned in the Ten Commandments. It's not in the Beatitudes that Christ listed on the Sermon on the Mount. We could ask, is courage a necessary trait then for a Christian?

Well, I might say on the contrary that I think it would come naturally to Christians, and I want to talk about that. And even though it's not listed in those places that I mentioned, the Bible is not silent on the subject. We find the most memorable descriptions of courage in the place where Joshua was about to take over leadership of the nation of Israel from Moses.

If you like to turn to Joshua 1, I want to read just one of several places. There are a number of places where Moses told Joshua, the elders of Israel told Joshua, indeed God Himself told Joshua that he needed to be “strong and of good courage.” Be strong and of good courage.

The one I'm reading in Joshua 1:7 is a time when God was speaking to Joshua. And he told Joshua, "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; don't turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may go and prosper… or that you may prosper wherever you go."

The reason I chose this particular passage to read and not some of the others is that others mentioned having courage to face the enemy, to conquer the Promised Land, to do great feats. This one mentions having courage to obey God. That indicates to us that courage is not only something for warriors. Courage isn't for just facing violent dangers, not even for facing unknown and exploring unknown territories. I believe courage is something that we as Christians can have, something we should have. And I would go further to say that, I believe you do have and perhaps in spite of not realizing it.

So I want a courage… I should have known, once the camera's on I get my words messed up.  I want to consider today, what is courage, what it can do for us, how do we have that courage? So, first of all, let's talk about definitions. I didn't bring it here but I think some of you have heard me before mention my 20-pound dictionary. My 20-pound Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary which, as it turns out, actually belongs to Sue and only weighs five and a half pounds. But it does have a lot of definitions in it.

It defines courage as, "A quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, pain or other things with firmness and without fear." The dictionary lists as one of its synonyms bravery. And I like that because it lets me make a reference to something the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians 16:13, if you're quick with your fingers you can catch up with me. Otherwise, I'll go ahead and read it because it's rather brief. 1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul tells the people of Corinth to, "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong."

I like the fact that here, Paul, using the synonym for courage, says, "be brave” and also “be strong." Those two tend to go together. Remember that command to Joshua was, "Be strong and of a good courage." But this isn't talking necessarily about physical strength any more than I think it's about physical courage. People can have frail bodies and yet have great moral strength, emotional or spiritual strength. A matter of fact, I've known a good many people and I will mention even my grandparents who I think at times when their bodies were at their weakest were at their greatest or… spiritual strength.

In comparison, physical courage is a quality of being able to face physical pain or danger. But moral courage, moral courage can be described as the ability to face emotional or mental pain, to face anguish, even humiliation, to uphold one's inner values. This fits well with a phrase that's common in our English language. We sometimes say of a person that “he has the courage of his convictions,” he or she. As a matter of fact, the 20-pound dictionary included that reference to courage of convictions with its definition of courage. It says, "To have the courage of one's convictions is to act in accordance with one's beliefs even or even especially in spite of criticism."

Sticking with your beliefs in spite of criticism, in spite of embarrassment, humiliation, whatever. I think it's fitting to mention that the word courage comes from the French word cœur which means heart. I was looking to see if Miss Hendrickson was here. I don't see her, she could back me up on that, or if I'm wrong I don't have to worry about being contradicted. But I'm pretty sure my six years of French tells me I can remember that one word, cœur for heart. It reminds us that courage is a quality of our spirit and of our heart, more than just our intellect.

Now, as with many things, it might be easier to think of and imagine courage and understand it more from example than definition. The example of Lewis and Clark was one that came to mind to me especially at this time because during the summer I ended up taking a couple of trips. Like the Lewis and Clark Expedition, this summer the Dunkle family headed west. We crossed the Rocky Mountains, went over the continental divide, eventually reached the Pacific Ocean.

Now, we didn't go for lofty goals such as discovering new lands and claiming them for the United States. We went out to go to camp. Well, that was one of the things. We got to serve at Camp Hye Sierra, which...  Who is it? Somebody mentioned it to me. I can finally got to check that one off. I've been wanting to go there for about 20 years.

And then we had the privilege of participating in an A.B.C. sampler with the San Francisco Bay Area congregation. Mr. Myers joined us out there, and both of them were completely delightful. I'll put a plug in for those of you that haven't been to Hye Sierra, the numbers were down a little bit this summer but it's a tremendous camp, and I hope to get out there again sometime.

But this journey, unlike Lewis and Clark, we weren't traveling with the bare essentials. We made it in the comfort of an air-conditioned Subaru. We traveled over paved and graded highways. But as we wound on our way through those mountain passes, as we went across the bleak desert, and I looked at my dashboard and I saw the temperature outside going above 100 degrees a number of times, I looked around and I thought, "Boy, what happens if we break down here?"

A matter of fact, it's interesting. In southern Utah you'll see exits off the highway that say, it'll give a name and say, "No services." I say, "No service? There's not even anything. It's just an exit that goes to brown dirt." I thought, "What would it be like to do this for Lewis and Clark?" They went out there without mechanized transport, no air conditioning, no maps or G.P.S., no Flying J, no Love's. I thought I'd get more reaction on that. I did discover that the people out there rough it a bit because Flying J and Love's don't have slushy machines for some reason that far west.

It's worth thinking about what Lewis and Clark were expecting. You know, their goal, they were sent to travel up the Missouri River. They paddled their way up. There were portages and such, but they figured they were going to get to the headwaters and then take a portage, drag their boats over a hill, maybe a high-plains meadow and then find the headwaters of the Columbia River, put their boats in and coast downhill, downstream all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Imagine their surprise when they left the waters behind, they climbed up a ridge and they saw the Rocky Mountains. Not a peaceful descent down to the ocean but mile after mile of... Actually, one member of their team wrote in his diary or his journal and described them as, "The most terrible mountains I have ever beheld." They could have said, "Okay, we're going back home." A matter of fact, it's kind of a surprise that they didn't. They could have reported back to President Jefferson, "We made a discovery. There is no Northwest Passage."

Instead, they summoned the courage to carry on into unknown territory. They abandoned those boats. Well, I shouldn't say abandoned. They hid them planning to pick them up when they did come back which they fully expected to do, but they left the boats behind and went about finding horses. They gave up being river travelers and transformed themselves into mountaineers, and they carried on. They had the courage to carry on.

They encountered Indian tribes many of which had never met white men, and to their credit, avoided conflict. Sometimes it's harder to not start a fight or get involved in one than it is to fight. They can't report, could not report the same for when they encountered grizzly bears. I'll leave it to you if you want to look it up. It's somewhat humorous description. They'd never seen a bear like that, and I think it was the first two or three rifle shots just made the bear mad. So sometimes violence did ensue.

I'll mention another thing that brought this to mind. It was a couple weeks, has it been a couple of weeks already? I was with Aaron Booth and some of the newer ministerial, younger ministers, did a trip in the boundary waters of northern Minnesota. It was quite a trip. We went out to scout the terrain with the idea that we're going to develop a program for young adults that will be a counterpart for the very successful challenger program.

So, those of you that like canoeing, be looking for applications, we'll start accepting those this winter. But there's something about that. You get in in that park and you're in the wilderness. I actually read that they actually asked the airlines to route their planes around it, so you don't even look up and see aircraft in the air. And you're isolated. You see the beauty of God's creation but you also are exposed to wind, rain, mosquitoes, lots and lots of mosquitoes, and you're relying on yourself and the few tools and supplies that you can carry with you.

You know, we were out in the wilderness for a few days. The Corps of Discovery was cut off from civilization for more than a year. They had to summon the courage to provide for themselves, to find a way, to not lose sight of their goals. They carried on, carried on with courage undaunted.

Now, I will mention that I could find a bottle of water if I look. That was pretty good in no looking. You can find a lot of Christian parallels and moral lessons I think in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And I encourage you, if you haven't read about it, think about it because you're talented and educated in God's way. You could do that.

It struck me that if I'm going to focus on courage I should also look for some examples in the Bible, and I'm going to do that. Going to the Word of God, I sorted through my mind thinking, "Oh, there's this example, there's this example. Oh, there's so many. I could take up the whole sermon time today and we could come back next week and I could take up all the sermon time and Mr. Myers wouldn't let me do that."

So, I thought I could focus it down to the example of one man, King David. He's an example of courage undaunted. I'd like to look at some examples in his life. The most famous we find in 1 Samuel 17. If you'd like to turn there. Now you won't be surprised probably to realize that this is one of the most famous and well-known stories in all of the Bible, the story of David facing Goliath.

So, I won't read all of it but I'll remind you that it was the time when the Israelites had united under King Saul and they had an enemy nation, the Philistines. And at this particular time, the armies of the two nations drew up across from each other on either side of a valley. But rather than fight, the Philistines sent out a champion, Goliath, a giant of a man, not metaphorically, literally a giant, nine feet tall, wearing armor heavier than most men could lift and a spear that he could chuck but most people would have to drag.

He challenged the Israelites. "We don't have to have army against army. Send out someone that we can fight. If you beat me, we'll be your servants. But if I defeat you," and I'm sure Goliath probably chuckled about that, confident that he would, "Then you'll be our servants." None of the Israelites wanted to fight a nine-foot-tall warrior. They hung back, they were scared. And it went on that way for day after day until, what we believe David was probably a teenager, he showed up bringing supplies for his older brothers who were soldiers in the army.

He learned what was going on and started saying, "Hey, who in the world is this guy to defy God and His armies?" Word got around and David was brought to King Saul. And we'll pick up in verse 32, as Saul questioned David, and David told him this. This is 1 Samuel 17:32, "David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail because of him; [that is Goliath] your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.'"

It's funny. I thought, if you put that in modern vernacular, you can imagine a teenager telling the king, "Don't have a heart attack, dude. I'll go fight him." Now, I'm sure what David said was much more respectful and honoring the king but he basically said, "No. Nobody has to lose heart because of this." But David knew that he didn't have the means to defeat Goliath.

He didn't have the courage, looking at his own strength or ability. He knew very well he was going to draw on a higher power, and we'll look ahead, beginning in verse 45, to what David would say after Goliath taunted him. Goliath saw a youth come out. It says Goliath disdained him. And he was probably looking down his nose anyways because he was nine feet tall but he was upset. "You send out a boy? You come after me with sticks?" And he told David, "I'm going to kill you and feed you to the beasts and the birds."

David answered this way in verse 45, David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Eternal will deliver you into my hand, I'll strike you and take your head from you. This day I'll give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly will know that the Eternal does not save with a sword and spear."

God doesn't need a sword and spear. You could neither do we. “‘The battle is the Lord’s, He'll give you into our hands.’ And so it was when the Philistine arose and came to draw near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.” And I wanted to read all the way through that last verse. Make the note that David didn't just talk the talk but when it came time to fight, he ran towards the Philistine. He didn't hunker down in a defensive position. He had no doubt what was going to happen.

David had the courage of his convictions. He knew that God was with him and he boldly faced danger, risked death and he worked a legendary heroic deed. Wouldn't you like to have that type of courage? You can have it, and I would even propose that you do have it. We would be mistaken though if we considered only David's steadfastness in battle to show his courage.

There is another well-known story moving ahead a few chapters to chapter 24 in Samuel. As I said, these stories have been repeated many times so I'm not proposing to tell you something that you don't know, but they are terrific examples.

Now, we'll be picking up later on but this is a time when David had been anointed king by the prophet Samuel. So he knew that God had chosen him to rule but there was a little bit of an obstacle because Saul had also been anointed king and he was still on the throne. And Saul developed a bit of a jealousy of David and decided that he needed to get rid of David.

He didn't want that rival, and so he had tried to kill David, and David was on the run hiding from Saul. Men who were sort of on the outskirts of society had gathered around David and he had a fighting company that was living in the wilderness. If you've seen Robin Hood, think of Robin Hood and his merry men, only this isn't a fiction. This was real, and they worked some interesting exploits and great deeds.

And then one day it seemed that God delivered Saul right into David's hands. David and his men knew the army were nearby looking for them so they hid back in the recesses of a deep cave. And it just so happened, it turned out that that cave is one that Saul chose to make into a restroom. So, Saul goes in there alone, that's what men tend to do when they go to the facilities, and he put himself in a rather vulnerable position. I like the Old King James says, "Saul went in and covered his feet," sort of a way of saying he undid his belt, dropped his trousers. He's not thinking he's in any danger, but, of course, David and his men are nearby.

David and his men say, "Look, here he is. God is answering your prayers. Go ahead and kill him." David didn't give in to peer pressure. David realized, "Now wait a minute. The same God that said I would be king is the God that anointed Saul as king. God put him in that position. Who am I to think I would take him out? I need to leave it for God to take care of that." And David not only had those thoughts but he demonstrated the courage of his convictions. I want to pick up in verse 4 of chapter 24.

The men of David said to him, "This is the day which the Lord said to you, 'Behold, I'll deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as seems good to you.'" David arose secretly, and I imagine you hear this, pulls out his sword, and he cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And his men must have been a little puzzled because I'm sure when they saw that sword come out they were thinking, "It's not a corner of a rope. He's going to cut off Saul's head." But David felt bad about even taking a little bit of that cloth.

In verse 5, "Now it happened afterwards that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. He said to his men, 'The Lord forbid I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Eternal.' So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. Saul got up from the cave and went on his way."

Now, I'm not going to continue in the story but we know that afterwards, David would follow Saul out there and reveal what he'd done, and Saul, seeing how vulnerable he was and how much David resisted the urge to kill him, it touched Saul. It softened him and he let David go. But what I want to focus on is not the action that David took, you know, facing danger. But in this case, I'd say, his willingness to not act was a great act of courage.

We know peer pressure is a very powerful force. None of us want our friends or our companions to think that we're not with it, you know, that we're not cool. It's not fun to stand out from everyone else. There are a lot of times in our life that showing restraint takes a lot of courage. How do you summon courage at a time like that? Because you can do it.

Before I talk about the how though and what generates that courage, I want to look at yet one more example from David's life. This is another well-known example but I think of it as one that doesn't always bring to mind the word courage. It's in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 11 and 12 are where we're going to go. And, again, I'll summarize the story. This is the story of David's sin with Bathsheba, his sin and a subsequent repentance.

As we know, David was king. He was well-established in his rule at this time and there was a war going on but David stayed back. And one particular evening it seems he couldn't sleep, he was up on his… walking the grounds or the wall of his house and he was able to look down at some of the others and he saw Bathsheba bathing. Apparently, she was a very attractive woman and David gave in to desire. He used his power to have her brought to him and we know the sin of adultery occurred.

David tried to hide his sin. Eventually, it resulted even in having Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, killed in battle, and David married her because she had become pregnant, I left that detail out, to cover up his sin. And he did. Apparently, David saved face that the whole nation wouldn't necessarily know what had happened. But at the end of chapter 11, we read those fateful words. "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” God sent a prophet, Nathan the prophet, to confront David, and this is one of those many examples that I could have drawn on.

You want to talk about courage, I'd say both moral and physical. Nathan might have thought, "Hey, I could end up like Uriah if I go and talk to David about this," but he did what God wanted him to do.

And, when he was confronted with his sin, David confessed. He repented. 2 Samuel 12:13, "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said to David, 'The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you've given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.'"

Now, if we read only this account, we could put different interpretations on it. You could say, you could put it this way, David said, "I've sinned against God, you know. No big deal." I don't think it was like that at all. A matter of fact, I want to read another verse from chapter 12 but it's in Psalm 51 which we know because in the introduction it says this was what David wrote in his repentance after the sin. We see a description of how David really felt and it carries the heart and the emotion.

And it's worth mentioning, this happened… you know, Nathan went to David after the child was born. So David was living with the sin for I would say at least nine months, maybe about a year. I wonder sometimes if it began to eat on him or what exactly it was. We don't know but we know when he came to repentance, he went to God, and he writes some of what he had to say. Psalm 51:1, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is always before You."

I want to drop you on to verse 12. There he writes, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit." Actually, I wanted to start reading in verse 10, so let me back up and read that as well. Because he asked God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me."

I often mention that when we talk about the punishment of sin and repentance because, as I said, David had been in the sin for at least nine months and still God hadn't removed His Holy Spirit. I find that encouraging. That's not something I suggest that we test to see how long we can go before God removes His Spirit. Rather, I want to focus on the fact that David was remorseful. He felt it deeply and he went to God. How many of you have read this and thought, "I've felt this way”? I think I have and David expresses it very well.

You know, I felt that way and I have to say more than once. And it's the more than once that makes me think of courage. I suspect this wasn't the first time in his life David had sinned and repented. He was rather skilled at expressing this. And yet, even if he was coming back to God after a very horrible sin, perhaps several, David didn't hesitate to go to God when the time came and to ask for God's forgiveness.

Surely, David, after these sins, realized he didn't deserve God's Holy Spirit, but he knew he needed it. And I think that's something for us to remember. We don't deserve the gift of God's Spirit. We certainly don't deserve or earn His forgiveness but we need it. We can't continue without it. And knowing that, David, you could say, had the audacity, but I would say he had the courage to go to God and plead for forgiveness.

And then, the scripture I wanted to read back in 2 Samuel 12, 2 Samuel 12:16, David asked for even more. It says, "David therefore pleaded with God for the child, David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground." It turned out that God didn't honor that particular request. He did let the child die. But David had the courage to say, “I'm going to go ask. I've got nothing to lose.” And please don't think that in the way I'm phrasing this I mean to imply that David shouldn't have gone to God. Not at all. He should have. He needed to and so should we.

What I'm saying is that it takes moral courage to do that, I believe. And, you know, I know how I feel when I've sinned and I have to go and ask God for forgiveness. And I know that there's no other way, but it's easy to start in your mind justifying. "Well, maybe my sin wasn't that bad." You know, I start wanting to avoid going to God. "I know what I did and He knows what I did. I don't want to go talk to Him about this."

Do you ever do that? Do you ever hesitate? Do you ever have the temptation to make justifications? Do you think, "How can I ask God to forgive me for this again?" But we know. We know God wants us to come to Him in repentance and He promises to forgive. Let's remember what it says in 1 John 1:9. 1 John 1:9, my fingers are more nimble today than usual, if you're not there I'll read it to you.

It says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" if we confess, God is faithful and just. He will forgive us “and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I think we can take that as a promise, it's a guarantee. God says, "This is how I operate." We can take it as a promise and we can know that David did. But still, it can take moral courage to go to God and claim that promise rather than make up justifications, rather than avoid God. It takes courage to ask for that free, unmerited pardon.

I like that phrase. I don't know if Mr. Armstrong coined it, but it's been with me for a lot of years. David had that kind of courage. You and I can have that kind of courage. As I said, I believe, more than you might realize, you do have that kind of courage. But the question is, "Well, how? Do I? Where does it come from? How do I generate courage?" I believe there's a formula, and I'm not going to take credit for this. It would be plagiarizing except I'm going to give credit to Dr. Don Ward is the first one I heard describe it this way many years ago.

He likes to say that courage is a product of conviction and commitment. Courage comes from conviction and commitment. He likes to call those “The three C’s" and if you're a student of history it's not the Civilian Conservation Corps. A lot of you aren't students of history, I can tell. At least not Great Depression history. But think of it this way, when a person is truly convicted of what is right and committed to stick with it, that conviction and commitment will generate courage. When a person has those things, he can courageously face and defeat challenges. That person can exercise the courage of his convictions. And that brings back another question, what do I mean by conviction?

When I say conviction, I'm thinking of that feeling, that knowing that you have to do something, that something is right and you can't get out of it. Or in some cases the knowing that you have to not do something.

I've heard it described sometimes as a weight that is put on your mind and on your heart. And it's not one that comes from nowhere. If you'll join me in John 16, John 16 beginning in verse 8, this is the passage in the Bible I like to go to fairly often. It's the last night in His earthly ministry that Christ spent with His disciples. Then the following day He would be tortured and crucified and killed, so He had a lot of things He wanted to tell the disciples that night, and some of which He said, "You're not going to understand this but later you will." And He spent some time telling them about the Holy Spirit.

So, actually, it's in the latter part of verse 7, he said, "It's to your advantage that I go away; if I don't go away, the Helper will not come to you;” that was that Greek word Paraclete, means Comforter, Helper, "but if I depart, I will send it to you." And I'm using the pronoun "it" which is the proper for the grammar. "And when it has come, it will convict the world" the Holy Spirit will convict the world "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment."

True spiritual conviction comes from the Holy Spirit working in a person's mind, working with the spirit in man that's there, giving an understanding, I would say a knowing, a conviction of what's right and wrong, conviction of “sin, righteousness, and judgment." But before I go further, I should explain that there is something else needed.

We see later in this chapter in verse 13, the Spirit doesn't just make you suddenly know something. It's not like plugging in a flash drive and downloading information. Christ said in verse 13, "When it, the Spirit of truth, has come, it will guide you into all truth; it won't speak on its own, but whatever it hears, it will speak; and tell you all things.” It's a way of saying the Holy Spirit makes it possible to understand God's Word. It says it will guide you into all truth.

I'll make a reference a page later in John 17:17. John 17:17 is where in His prayer to the Father, Christ said, "Your word is truth." The Word of God is truth. And the Holy Spirit guides us into understanding and gives us that conviction. And that's where I said, the Spirit doesn't make us just know things but it can give us the ability to understand it.

And so we could say, with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit works and the two are the convicting agents. Paul wrote something similar to Titus. I'm going to turn to Titus 1:9. Titus 1:9, Paul was writing about some of the traits an elder should have. And one of them was, an elder should be “holding fast the faithful word" that's the Word of God, "as he's been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine," sound doctrine is based on that Word, "they may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."

So, again, God's Word can convict us. And I don't mean conviction like the judge says you're guilty and convict you to so many years in prison. I mean that conviction where it's in your heart and mind and you say, "This is what's right. This is what I have to do." Conviction is something that goes beyond knowledge. We can know the Word of God but it's the saying, "I've got to do something about it." The apostle Paul is a good example of spiritual conviction.

You know, Paul knew God's Word. He was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet Gamaliel. He was a scholar, but after Christ knocked him down on the road to Damascus and gave him His Spirit, Paul became convicted of a number of things. And one of the things he was convicted of was that he had a job to do, that he had to go and preach the gospel. And it was something he couldn't ignore.

A matter of fact, let's turn to Acts 18, Acts 18 beginning in verse 5. Acts 18:5, this is on one of Paul's journeys, it says, "When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is Christ." Paul was compelled. It's like, "I have to do this." The Spirit convicted him that he had to carry on this mission.

A matter of fact, he says it even more plainly over in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 9:16. Again, my fingers are nimble so I'm ahead of you. 1 Corinthians 9:16, Paul said, “For if I…” say that again, "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” That was a conviction. Paul said, "I have to do this." He was compelled by the Spirit. I won't turn there but you might make note of Acts 4:20.

Act 4:20, Peter and John said something similar. When they were brought in by the authorities for proclaiming the truth about who Jesus Christ was and the gospel message, they had him in jail. They beat them and they commanded him, "Don't you preach any more in the name of this Man." And you know what they answered? They said, "We cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. We can't help it. We have to do it." Peter felt that way, John, Paul. And I should mention, they and the other disciples do have a number of examples of great courage. They acted on that courage.

Now, most of us are not called to go out and preach. You know, you don't have to go to Mars Hill and explain about the unknown God that they worship not knowing of. But we all should be and feel convicted by God's Spirit and God's Word. It comes in different ways. For many of us, it starts with the Sabbath. People, when they first come to an understanding, they start looking in here and they say, "Huh, the seventh day is the Sabbath. I'm supposed to keep it holy.” And a lot of people say, "I feel like I don't just know it, I have to do it."

I've heard people, prominently my father-in-law, when he describes his calling into the Church, you know, he was called first before his wife and he says at one point he went to her and said, "Wanda, I have to do this. I have to start keeping the Sabbath." And she admits that she thought he had lost his mind. Later, God convicted her and she began keeping the Sabbath.

Many of you felt that way, you know, that weight on your heart and mind. Do you still feel it? Do you still feel like woe is me if I don't do this? As I said, being convicted by God's Word and His Spirit leaves us to doing right actions, to having right thoughts, but I could say that's the beginning. It also takes a commitment. Commitment means remaining true to the cause, following through. In many cases, deep and total commitment means a person is willing to put everything on the line to stick with to what he or she has committed.

Let me bring to mind another famous example in the Bible, that's the story of Ruth. I'm going to read one passage from there. It's in Ruth 1 beginning in verse 16, one of my favorite passages in all the Bible. But I'll just remind you of the background story. The story of Ruth mentions a man from Israel who during a famine took his wife and his two sons and went to Moab where they could survive, and they were there for some years. Both the sons married Moabite women. And then the man, Elimelech, he died, leaving his wife a widow. And in time, both of his sons died.

The story doesn't tell us why but at one point, now, the widow Naomi is left there with these two daughters-in-law, and she determines, she learns, "Hey, God has ended the famine in Israel. I'm going to go back home." And at first, the two daughters-in-law decided to go with her but she says, "Wait a minute." I'm not sure she said it like that but she said, "Look, I'm not going to have more sons that you can marry. You two go back home. Go to your parents' house. You can remarry, have happy lives.

One of them named Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and went back. Ruth was different because I would say, at some point during the story that I breezed through, Ruth became convicted. She realized that this God of Israel that these people worship isn't just some local superstition. This God of Israel, it's the God, the only God. She realized that this mode of worship was the true religion. She became convicted and she made a commitment. And she's approaching a certain point when Naomi advises here to go back home.

It's in chapter 1 verse 16, Ruth answers her, "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, [the true God] my God. Where you die, I'll die, and there I'll be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me."

If you remember the Apollo space program back in the late '60s and '70s when United States sent men to the moon, each one of those space missions had built in what they called a "point of no return." It was a point somewhere along the way where once they passed that point there was not enough fuel to abort the mission and return. It was go to the moon or nothing, you're going to the moon. Okay, Ruth passed her point of no return right here.

Naomi said, "You can go back." Ruth said, "No. I am convicted and committed. Where you go, I will go. The true God is my God." I believe we have passed our point of no return. I won't turn there but in Luke 9:62, Luke 9:62, Jesus said, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Brethren, you and I have put our hand to the plow. We don't need to look back. I will turn to Matthew 24:45, another statement of commitment. Matthew 24, beginning in verse 45, this is the sermon on the… not the sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Prophecy. I get my names confused.

Matthew 24:45, Jesus said, "Who then is a faithful and a wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his house, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing." It's that "finding so doing," that's what commitment leads to. I'm sticking with it. You know, because in some ways I could say it's easy in that flush and excitement when we're first called, when you're first convicted of the truth, to say, "Okay, I'm with it." But sticking with it, that's commitment, to endure, to stay committed. We sometimes call that being faithful.

We most often talk about faith is that deep-seated belief, trust, a belief that you'll take action on. But being faithful means staying committed to what you believe, enduring to the end, honoring that commitment. You could say upon baptism, we commit to God's way. We commit to doing His work, to passing it on to others, but we've got to stay committed. And we must remain committed to the end, holdfast the truth, and as I said, as we have opportunity, put it in trust to others, that's the subject for another message.

To fulfill those obligations, it's funny, turns out it needs a lot of that third C which is courage. I like the formula of conviction plus commitment produces courage but it circles around where you need to have courage to stay committed and renew that conviction. And as I said, I think if we're convicted by God's Spirit and His Word, we are fully committed, it will produce in us the courage that we need. We're not likely to face any giants that want to kill us the way David did, but it seems that we regularly face giant problems, obstacles to living God's way and developing His character.

If you have a neighbor or a coworker that might make your life miserable if you work in a home office, I hope not a coworker. Do you have a character flaw threatening to ruin your life, you need to confront some giant flaw in your makeup, but you feel like you lack courage? Well, we need to be like David. When he confronted Goliath he realized it's not shield or spear that's going to do this, but I'm going to confront this problem in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. And the conviction that God is with us and the commitment to serve Him should stir up that courage we need to face our giant problems.

You and I will probably never have a friend or just to kill a rival when he's vulnerable. I hope not. But we might have people in our lives who influence us towards doing what's wrong, if you have some sinful temptation that just keeps popping up it's hard to resist. Do you have peer pressure, trying to fit you in with the values of society around you? Do you struggle to hold back from setting your feet on the path that would lead to destruction.

When David was urged to take Saul's life, he had the courage of his conviction that he should not kill Saul, even though his men urged him to do it. We likewise need to refrain from doing things that we know are wrong, from giving in to temptation. We need to... Let me say that again. We need to have the courage of our convictions to know that God's way is the only way.

And on those occasions that we do fail, when we fall into sin, when you sin, do you feel too guilty to go to God in prayer? Do you start making excuses to justify what you did? Do you fear that God won't be willing to forgive yet again? David had the courage to go to God and ask for forgiveness, to tell God, "Please, don't take Your Spirit from me." He even asked God to restore joy. Restore the joy of our salvation. And David didn't do these things because David was so good or so capable. David was able to have that courage because God is so good and God is so capable. When we're convicted by the Word of God and by His Holy Spirit, we can commit ourselves fully to Him, live His way of life, and the conviction and commitment will produce in us the courage that we need.

Life is often compared to a journey. And considering the challenges and the unknowns we face, we could call it an expedition. And there's where we could look to the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a role model in a sense. For that expedition to be successful, it relied on teamwork, relied on trust among its members, and it relied on a number of other characters like intelligence and resourcefulness. But, very prominently, it relied on courage, on courage undaunted.

Our journey through life to God's Kingdom relies on many factors, and we need trust. We need to cooperate with others. We need resourcefulness and intelligence. But we most definitely need courage. Courage is a matter of the heart and of the Spirit, and I want to encourage us. I didn't realize the play on words there. We can take heart, stir up God's Spirit and let your courage be undaunted.