Tyler Prothro: They've done really, really well. So I hope not to mess this up. There you go. Today, I wanted to, think about the quality that every Christian, needs regardless of age or experience or, just the quality is courage. That's the story.
There we go. So the quality of this is courage. When most people think of courage, they picture a soldier on a battlefield or a firefighter running into a fire or something like that. But while these are all good examples of courage, the courage God calls his people to display is often found in just faithfulness. Faithfulness.
It takes courage to stand for the truth when others disagree. It takes courage to obey God when obedience is unpopular. It takes courage to admit when we're wrong. It takes courage to share our faith with someone who may reject us. It takes courage to trust God when the future is uncertain.
One of the greatest misunderstandings about courage is the idea that courageous people aren't afraid, but courage is not the absence of fear. There's a a quote from a movie star called Cowboy, John Wayne. Can you hear me now better? Yeah. But he says that courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyways and getting it done.
Courage is choosing to trust God and obey him despite any fear or anything that we're going through. So this morning, we'll look at four biblical truths about courage. Courage begins with God's presence. Courage chooses faith over fear, courage leads to obedience, and courage comes from eternal hope. So courage begins with God's presence.
So in Joshua chapter one, Moses, the leader of Israel has now died. So for forty years, he led God's people through the wilderness and through everything that they've been through, and now Joshua is expected to take his place. Imagine the pressure that Joshua felt after coming up. It's kind of the pressure of coming up here and speaking after John or Heath. But, no, the pressure that Joshua felt taking over a whole group of people and to lead them into the promised land that God has been promising these people.
So he was facing a new responsibility, a lot of powerful enemies, and just the uncertain future that many of us go through as well. And what does God tell him? In Joshua one verse nine? He says, be strong and courageous for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua one through nine, it says, after the death of Moses, a servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aid, Moses my servant is dead.
Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land that I'm about to give to them to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot and as I promised Moses, your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the Great River, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country, to the Mediterranean Sea in the West. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law of of the law always on your lips.
Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid.
Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. So he says, be strong and courageous three times in this one passage. God doesn't tell him that there's no battles. He doesn't say anywhere in this passage that I'm gonna make the path easy. He there's no setbacks.
Instead, he reminds him of something even greater, that he'll be with us in verse five. We'd be lying to each other if we said that any of our lives were absent of battles or setbacks. We'd be it's god's presence that brings on the courage. I couldn't tell you how many times I prayed for god to take away circumstances circumstances or or to to take take away away the the setbacks setbacks or help help this be an easy thing to do. But I feel like I've completely missed it over time, and it's not necessarily take these things away.
It's God be with me through this battle. Gotta be with me through the setbacks, through this diagnosis of health or financial struggles or a broken relationship. It's give me or give us the courage to walk through this life as we go. The Christian's courage is not based on circumstances. It's based on the presence of God in us within our lives.
Where in your life do you need courage today, or what burden are you carrying that you can bring that courage and have God with you? The God who is with Joshua is still faithful and with every one of us today. So courage chooses faith over fear. We all know this story of David and Goliath, but he chose faith over fear. Israel's facing the Philistines.
Every day, Goliath comes out, he mocks Israel, he mocks our God and God's people. For forty days, he does it. King Saul and soldiers, everybody's terrified. Everyone sees a giant. Then comes David.
He hears the mocks and challenges responds differently. Why do we think that is? It's because David sees the situation through his faith. I'd like to think it's as small as a mustard seed like Heath was talking about last week. It doesn't have to be huge but it's the faith that he looks at it through.
In verse 45, David it says, David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. So David didn't see Goliath any different. He saw he just knew that our God was bigger than his giant. So fear asks, what if I fail? But faith asks, what can God do?
Fear focuses on obstacles, and faith focuses on God. Fear says that giant is too big. Faith says our God is bigger. Many of us face giants every day, temptations, doubt, anxiety, peer pressure, family struggles, health, but courage doesn't pretend that those things aren't real. Courage in your faith helps you walk through those with God being present and knowing that God is bigger.
I have joined if you if you all know me, I work at Enterprise. I joined the ERT team a while back, and this is a one of the things that we do when they talk about courage. It reminds me of all the guys that I've been able to train with. These are just a few pictures of what we do out at TEKS, and it's these big pressure fires that they just kind of send you in there and you're expected to capture these fires, close the valve, and you're expected to go in there when everybody else is running away. So I hold a lot of these guys with courage, but it's the training and it's knowing that you've got the people behind you and the equipment to do that job.
I don't think it's too much to say that if I trust a piece of equipment, I can't trust God with anything in my life. Courage means remembering that God is greater than any obstacle that we face. When fear speaks loudly, faith and courage in your faith can speak much louder. Courage leads to obedience. So in Matthew chapter 14, the disciples are on a boat during a storm.
Winds are winds are strong, waves are crashing, things are things are getting a little I always say a little western, but that sounds so but things are getting a little western. Jesus comes and appears walking on water. Peter says, Peter says to him, Lord, if that's really you, tell me to come to you. And what does Jesus say? He says, come, he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus. So Jesus said, come, and Peter immediately acted because of his faith and because he saw Jesus. Peter had to leave the safety of the boat. He had to trust that Jesus he had to trust Jesus completely with his faith. And how many of us would have done the same?
I don't know that I could tell you that I'd step out of the boat. But through the faith, faith calls us to act and obey. Faith that never acts is not biblical faith. This truth is emphasized throughout scripture. James two seventeen says, in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is what church?
It's dead. So as members of Christ Church, we should understand that biblical faith responds in obedient action. Our faith should respond. Noah built the ark, Abraham left home, Joshua marched around Jericho, Peter stepped out of the boat, all because faith should act and obey. Many of us knows what God wants us to do.
The challenge is having the courage to do it. The greatest moments of spiritual growth often begin with a single step of your obedience and your faith. So what step of obedience is God calling you to do today? Courage comes from eternal hope. The apostles displayed extraordinary courage after Jesus' death and resurrection.
Right? In in Acts chapter four, they're they're threatened for preaching his message. Authorities tell them to stop. They're threatened with their lives, and they face persecution and opposition. But I want you all to notice what they prayed for because it wasn't safety and it wasn't comfort.
Acts chapter four verse 29, now the lord consider their now, lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Why were they so courageous? Because they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. They knew that he was they knew that death was defeated, and they knew that the hope was secure through this. Romans eight thirty one is more than conquerors.
What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? So we possess we possess something that the world can offer us and that's the eternal hope that we should have in our faith. We know this life is not all there is. We know Christ is victorious and heaven awaits the faith faithful.
But knowledge and hope produces courage. The more we focus on eternity and what Jesus has done and what God has done and that God is with us, the less power earthly fears have on us. When we remember where we are going, we gain strength for where we are today. Eternal hope fuels your present courage. So as we leave here today, remember these four truths.
First, courage begins with God's presence. Second, courage chooses faith over fear. Third, courage leads to obedience. And fourth, courage comes from eternal hope. Paul reminds us in second Timothy one verse seven, for the spirit of God gave us for the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self discipline.
So he calls us to trust him. He calls us to obey him, and he calls us to courageously stand up and act for him. So maybe there's an area in your life where fear has been holding you back. Maybe you need the courage to obey the gospel. Maybe you need the courage to repent.
Maybe you need the courage for prayers from your congregation or maybe you need the courage just to return to Jesus and know that he's with you and that he's bigger and that he can take on any situation that you're going through. So with that being said, let's all stand and sit.