How To Have Courage

I hate camping

I focus on what could go wrong — the negative — Keeps me from enjoying it

I also don’t like roller coasters — same problem — all the negatives

COURAGE

We all want to be courageous — There are things that are easy for some to have courage in — some that are hard for us too — WE NEED COURAGE IN OUR WALK OF FAITH — FAITH TAKES COURAGE BY DEFINITION

COURAGE IS AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE

JOSHUA & CALEB

The children of Israel, God’s chosen people, had been miraculously delivered from Egyptian slavery. God had performed acts and signs and wonders that would just blow our doors off: parting the Red Sea, feeding them from heaven, all of this amazing stuff. The children of Israel were standing on the brink of closing the most amazing and stunning real estate deal in the history of the world -- The Promised Land. Right before the title was exchanged, right before they moved in, God did something unique. There were about a million of them there. God called a quick time out and told Moses to pick twelve leaders.

God told him to pick one leader from each of the twelve tribes of Israel and have them do a secret recognizance mission to check out the Promise Land. So that’s what Moses did.

Moses, being a stand-up guy, a man of courage, obeyed God and told the twelve leaders

from the twelve tribes to go out and do a secret recognizance mission on the land.

They were out for forty days. After forty days, they returned. Don’t you know the children of Israel were so happy? Don’t you know they were so excited? I’m sure the band was playing. They were really fired up. As the spies began to give a report to Moses and the congregation of the Israelites, things started happening. The wheels started coming off of the deal because ten of the twelve spies became what I call vision vandals. They became people who just dashed the whole deal.

Numbers 13:27 NLT

27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.

I’m sure the people were going, “Wow, look at the size of that pomegranate!

Look at the cantaloupe! Look at the watermelon! It’s unbelievable! This land is awesome!”

BUT… THEY HAVE A BIG BUT — TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR THEY HAVE A BIG BUT…

Numbers 13:28 NLT

28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!

YES GOD CALLED US HERE. YES GOD SAID IT WAS OURS. YES IT’S PERFECT IN EVERY WAY. YES GOD DELIVERED US OUT OF EGYPT AND HAS PROVEN HE’S AMAZING AND FOR US OVER AND OVER AGAIN.... BUT...

They were facing a collapse of courage right?

How do you face that pressure? Imagine you know what the right thing to do is but everyone around you says “don’t do it”? You’ve never been there right?

You know the right decision. But everyone around you says don’t do it. How do you have courage. 10 of the 12 have this view. That it’s the wrong thing to do.

This is somewhat our culture today is it not? This collapse of whats right and whats wrong. And this pressure to cave to give in and give up. And when the masses are yelling against what you know is right it’s hard to stand. But that is what Caleb starts to do here.

Numbers 13:30 NLT

30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

Come on — REMEMBER WHAT GOD DID IN EGYPT!? WE GO THIS!

COURAGE IS A LONELY THING

If you are going to have a courageous life — You are going to be alone sometimes

Have you ever been at work and everyone agrees that something needs to be brought up to management? Then you go to stand up and no one joins you?

I remember a church I was at and there was a big decision being made. And behind closed doors our team was in agreement about how we thought the decision was a bad idea — The meeting started and I thought everyone would have my back — and I was the only one willing to talk

It’s lonely sometimes and that’s some of the pressure we feel to NOT be courageous

Numbers 13:31–32 NLT

31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.

NEGATIVITY IS INFECTIOUS

I love a good pity party — a good negative sesh

PIRANHA PEOPLE — They’ve been hurt — Want you to hurt too — And we all have the pressure to be this way we want someone to feel how we feel it helps for a moment — But we never heal and they end up hurt as well.

Numbers 14:1–4 NLT

1 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. 3 “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

Now not only do we have a massive pity party we have hurting people who have now hurt people

They succeeded in getting people to turn negative but see how it hurt them? Their view of God has changed — View of what God did for them has changed — And potentially they are now to going to make a terrible life changing decision just from someones negative words. — NOT ENTER PROMISED LAND BECAUSE OF THE MAJORITIES LACK OF COURAGE AND NEGATIVITY

CAN YOU IMAGINE YOUR LIFE FOR A MOMENT — And imagine never making a courageous decision. Where would your life be. Almost every worth while decision takes courage —

Getting married — taking the new job — having a child — Giving your life to Jesus — Showing up this morning — tithing regularly — Breaking bad habits — Starting great habits — IMAGINE GIVING IN AND NEVER MAKING ANY COURAGEOUS DECISIONS — Where would your life be?

BECAUSE OF THIS LACK OF COURAGE — They spend 40 years in the wilderness. — I remember thinking “why would God do this? why not just give them another chance? — God needed to teach them to rely on him

GOD WILL GROW YOU THROUGH VICTORY OR DEFEAT AND SOMETIMES WE GET TO CHOOSE. Israel got to choose — But they still needed to grow —

GOD’S WAY IS ALWAYS THE FASTEST AND BEST WAY

SO FAST FORWARD 40 YEARS

Joshua 1:6–7 NLT

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.

FOCUS ON THIS: OBEY ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS

Don’t just know them… Obey them

I LOVE FISHING

I have a couple books on fishing. Imagine me reading them — taking a year off fishing and just reading fishing books — Someone asks a year from now how the fishing has been — I SAY “WELL I’VE BEEN READING” — They would say.... “yeah… but you have to fish… all that knowledge is useless if you do nothing with it.”

A lot of us treat God’s word that way. We read it. Memorize it. But we never put it into practice.

GOD IS TELLING JOSHUA AND CALEB TO NOT JUST KNOW GOD IS WITH THEM — HE’S TELLING THEM TO HAVE COURAGE

Courage is knowing God is with you — and acting on it

No matter who you are. What you’ve done. You need to know that if you have given your life to Jesus that God is with you. He loves you. he cares for you. He is with you always. And since you know that — HAVE COURAGE

PETER

DAVID

THESE WERE STRONG COURAGEOUS MEN — NOT PERFECT — COURAGEOUS!

PEOPLE OFTEN SAY CHRISTIANITY IS FOR THE WEAK — CHRISTIANITY TAKES COURAGE

WE NEED:

SPIRITUAL COURAGE

MORAL COURAGE

RELATIONAL COURAGE