A Time for Courage

Introduction

*** TURN THE HOURGLASS OVER ***

The week before last, I unveiled the theme for the year, and preached unto you a message titled ‘A Time for Consideration’. In that message I’d asked you just to begin the year in consideration of three things:

Consider Time (Itself)

I wanted us to ponder on the truths associated with the Concept of Time:

It’s Limited

It’s Fleeting

It’s Priceless

It’s Irreplaceable

We’re Called to Redeem It

Redeem (def) ‘Rescue from Loss’

Consider THIS Time

Much like Esther’s in that it’s a Time of:

Uncertainty

Perilous

Opportunity

Self-Denial

Action

Consider the Cause

A People Under Judgment

An Enemy on the Loose

Only a Few Will Stand

Today I want to speak on a topic that was certainly needed in Esther’s day, and equally so in ours. I want to speak to you on “A Time for Courage”

We are living in a day & age in our country - now more than ever - where Christians need to be Courageous.

To begin, I would like first to have an Explanation of Courage

I. An Explanation of Courage

Stress that courage is something that we exhibit in various aspects of our Christian Walk

Action or Continuance in the Face of Fear

Courage is not the absence of fear. (Ill.) Marshall Matt Dillon told Opie Taylor in a Gunsmoke just the other day “Any man that doesn’t have fear is a fool”

Fear will make your cautious.

Fear will make you think through your decisions.

Fear will help you measure your actions.

This is why we’re admonished time and again to Fear the LORD!

Proverbs 14:26–27 “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: And his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To depart from the snares of death.”

See that - ‘to depart from the snares of death’.

So if we Fear the LORD, it will:

Make us Cautious in our Walk

It will make us Think Through our Decisions - so as not to offend the LORD

It will help us measure our actions - to do what’s Godly instead of Ungodly

Btw, continuing against the LORD in spite of that fear is not courage, it’s foolish.

But with courage, we’re not speaking about the Fear of God, but rather the Fear of man

Even though we may fear man, courage is acting or continuing on IN SPITE of that fear.

Courage will Do What’s Hard, in Spite of Difficulty

(Rocky Illustration) Many have seen the original Rocky movie, but if you haven’t let me refresh: Rocky was a nobody. He was fighting nobody’s in these little dives. His record was mediocre at best - yet he was given a shot to fight the best fighter in the world. He admitted that he was scared, yet in a later movie he told his son ‘It’s not how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward’.

Courage doesn’t stop - Courage keeps moving forward in spite of the pressure to quit.

Courage will Do what’s Hard in Spite of Difficulty

Courage will Go Right, when Others Go Wrong

(Fight against the mob mentality)

Consider for a moment where we are in this world. We have wickedness running rampant and mob mentality. “Go along to get along”

Even in the Christian realm. You have mob mentality concerning several things, but one in particular is doctrine.

Let me say this: I’m a Baptist because the Bible made me that way. Generally speaking, IFB Faith is the most Bible-conforming denomination that I have seen. However, there are some doctrines that IFB preachers / churches hold that I don’t believe is Bible based. And many, instead of having the courage to be different, they conform to the masses.

Courage will Go Right, when Others Go Wrong

Courage will Speak the Truth, Regardless of Repercussions

(In a world where wrong is right, and you are castigated for ‘mis-gendering’ people)

I will say this: I do not care what your ‘preferred pronouns are, I will NOT knowingly refer to a male as a ‘she / her’ or a female as a ‘he / him’ and I will NOT refer to a singular person as a ‘they’.

And if someone wants to point their finger at me and try to shame me for ‘misgendering’ someone, that’s fine. I’d rather them point their finger in judgment for speaking truth than God point His finger at me in Judgment for speaking lies!

Courage often Stands in the Minority

Courage Swims Upstream

Courage speaks Truth in a world of Lies

Christians - it’s Time for Courage!

Explanation of Courage, next we’ll see some Exhortations and Examples of Courage

II. Exhortations and Examples of Courage

God made a point to give us a chapter of examples in Heb. 11, then said this: Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

So what I’d like to do is give you aspects of our Christian Walk in which we must demonstrate courage, and then give you some examples in Scripture of God’s people demonstrating that same type courage.

David - The Courage for Self-Examination (2Sam. 12:1-14)

It would have been easy to use David as an example of Courage in relation to slaying the Giant Goliath, but I think this one is far more profound - and far more needed.

By the time we get to 2Sam 12; David is king, and he has taken his neighbor’s wife and committed adultery with her, got her pregnant, and to cover it up had he husband killed.

In 2Sam 12 the preacher comes for a visit. He gives an illustration unto David to help him see his sin.

(Read 2Sam. 12:5-7a) Now at this point, David had two options: He could either take a good hard look in the mirror and admit where he truly was, OR he could go with the image in his mind of who he THOUGHT he was.

(Ill.) My son has been taking me to work out recently. We went from one machine to the other, but then we got to where we went over to the dumbells. Along that wall is a big mirror. You know what struck me? The image in the mirror was far different than the one I had in my mind at the other machines. It didn’t look near as good or strong as the one in my mind - and I didn’t particularly want to look in it!

Church it takes courage to look at yourself in truth as opposed to what we imagine ourselves to be. BUT we can’t fix what we don’t acknowledge is broken.

So let me ask you: Where are you laking in your Christian Walk? Is it Witnessing? Faithfulness to Church? Reading your Bible? Holiness in Mind & Walk? Are you constantly condemning instead of edifying? Do you have Courage to honestly look in the mirror?

David had Courage for Self-Examination - Do You?

Esther - The Courage to Stand (Est. 4:10-16)

Esther exhibited great courage to stand in the inner court. It wasn’t lawful for her to go in without invitation, and would have been put to death had the king not extended the sceptre.

So it took Esther great courage to stand - but she wasn’t standing for herself, she was standing for a people under judgment!

Church, let me ask you this: Do you have the courage to stand for people who are under judgment?

Are you willing to risk rejection, humiliation? Are you willing to be stand up & be counted for the LORD?

We read in Isaiah the LORD looking for someone to stand: Isaiah 6:8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”

Esther had Courage to Stand - Do You?

Stephen - The Courage to Speak (Act. 6-7)

If you want to see Courage in action, look no further than Stephen. He was caught & dragged before a counsel of wicked men that Jesus regularly rebuked. Was lied against (Act. 6:13) and was given an opportunity to speak.

In Act. 7 we see what he said.

Now the easy thing for Stephen to do would have been to save his own neck. He was accused of Blasphemy which is punishable by death. But instead he gave these educated heathens an history lesson then said: Acts 7:51–53 “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”

Stephen spoke truth. It was unpopular. It was going to cost him - but he spoke the truth anyway.

Church, do you have the courage to speak unpopular truth? Will you speak truth though it may cost you?

Stephen had the Courage to Speak

Daniel - The Courage to Give Supplication Publicly (Dan. 6:1-10)

Most know the story about Daniel & the Lion’s Den. But think about the courage it took.

(Ill.) Have any of you seen a lion up close? They are massive, terrifying creatures!

Daniel knew that he was going to face consequence if he prayed publically - yet he did so anyway!

Let me ask you Christian - do you have the courage to pray publically? Many don’t, as they don’t want to risk the embarrassment of saying something wrong or having a loss of words or whatever… put yourself in Daniel’s shoes: If you won’t pray publically for fear of embarrassment, you’d certainly not pray if the consequence was bedding down with lions!

You see, you’ll never do big things for God if you’re not willing to do the small things for God.

Daniel had the Courage to give Supplication Publicly - Do you?

The Levites - The Courage to Separate (Ex. 32:25-28)

The Levites were separated from the rest of the COI on multiple occasions, but I think this one is a good example thereof.

Remember: Being on the ‘LORD’s side’ and standing with Moses wasn’t the popular thing to do at the time. There was so much unrest and rebellion among the COI that they’d pressured Aaron to make the golden calf a threw a big party. But when time came to choose a side, they chose the side of the LORD and separated themselves from the heathen & heathen ways.

In a day & age when the church is mimicking the world, God needs people to have the courage to be separate unto Him!

The popular ‘preachers’ of this day are wearing their designer jeans and fancy sneakers in the pulpit. They are accompanied by the ‘Christianized’ music of the world bee-bopping & rocking-out with the long haired, tattooed up, tight pants ‘worship’ group.

That’s the way the world is going - and we need to have Courage to separate ourselves from it! We don’t need to be buying into it and incorporating it in our Christian walk

(Ill.) Think about it - how do you think God would have reacted had the COI said “How about we just break off a portion of the calf and worship it, and we’ll worship the God of Heaven as well”?

God FORBID! We must have the courage to stay SEPARATE FROM THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD!

The Levites had the Courage to Separate - Do You?

Joshua - The Courage to Wield the Sword (Jos. 1:1-9)

Who can forget Joshua and all the exhortations for courage from the LORD?

Verses 1-4 is God telling Joshua to take the land, then we read (Jos. 5-9)

There were enemies that needed defeated

There was land that needed to be restored unto God’s people

And it took Joshua wielding a sword to do so!

We must have the Courage of Joshua, because:

There are enemies that need defeated

There’s a land that needs to be restored unto God’s people

And it will take us wielding a sword to do so! Ephesians 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

We must be wielding the sword, church! It must be in our conversation and in our everyday life! The Bible tells us: Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

But the Word of God will have NO EFFECT unless it’s brought out of it’s sheath! Unless we wield it!

Joshua had the Courage to wield the Sword - Do You?

Jesus - The Courage to Sacrifice (Luk. 22:39-42)

Last but first is our ultimate example - Jesus! Jesus undoubtedly as we know must be the greatest example of Sacrifice we could have.

One might think that we’d be referring to the Sacrifice of His precious Blood - which was great - or His Power, or His Pride, however, I want to speak on another aspect of Sacrifice that was greater than all, and it’s found in:

Luke 22:39–42 “And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

Jesus Sacrificed His Will. What He wanted for what the Father wanted.

Jesus’ greatest Sacrifice led to all the others. Let me ask you this:

Do you have the courage to Sacrifice your will for the Will of God for your life?

Do you have the courage to Sacrifice your wants, desires, hopes, dreams for God’s?

Some will say ‘That’s too great a Sacrifice preacher!’ - Listen, it’s not near as great a Sacrifice that Jesus made for you! Paul said: Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Jesus had the Courage to Sacrifice - Do You?

Explanation of Courage, Exhortations and Examples of Courage, lastly we’ll speak for a moment on ‘The Effects of Courage’

III. The Effects of Courage

Courage Makes a Difference

Going back to our examples, we see how courage makes a difference - in a man’s life & those around them:

David Repented

Esther Rescued a People

Stephen Moved the LORD

Daniel Stopped the Mouth of Lions & Glorified the LORD

The Levites Served the LORD

Joshua Supplied a People with Milk & Honey

Jesus Brought Salvation

Courage makes a Difference

Courage is Necessary to the Christian Walk

If you desire to serve the LORD, you cannot do so selfishly. You can’t be worried about your how man sees you, but only in how God sees you. You cannot walk like Christ without Courage.

When Christians walk courageous, it changes the world.

Mark Twain said:

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain

What I’m speaking of today is moral courage - Godly courage. It is rarely exhibited in the world today. But the most important question is - will it be exhibited in your life?

Courage is not optional - it’s Necessary to the Christian Walk

Conclusion

John Kennedy said:

The stories of past courage . . . can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

John F. Kennedy

I’ve conveyed to you many instances of courage today. I also spoke of having the courage of self-examination. Will you have the courage to examine your heart today & take the necessary steps to make a difference for the cause of Christ?