"Be Strong and Courageous"

“Good morning everyone! I’m glad to see that you set your clocks forward this morning! Of course with technology, many if not most of our smart devices auto adjust for “daylight savings time”, right?

Well, much to my chagrin, the coffee maker doesn’t auto adjust, and so as I walked into the kitchen at five something this morning expecting to find my pot of coffee already brewed and waiting for me, I stood there and stared at an empty pot with my empty cup in my hand! I felt almost like a kid who had traveled cross country with his family to visit Disneyland, only to arrive at the park gaits and find out that the park is closed for renovations!!”

Thank all of the men who were able to make it yesterday to the “Men’s breakfast”! We had an awesome time of just sharing with one another about the great things that the Lord has done and is doing in our lives and then praying over our body!! (PROVERBS 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”)

OPEN IN PRAYER!!

Would you please open your Bibles with me this morning and turn to the book of Luke 21:8-19. As you are doing this, let me go ahead and ask you to stand with your Bible in hand, as we read our declaration together this morning.

“This is my Bible. I believe that this book and every word found within it are truly the living, breathing Words of almighty God! I know and believe that when I speak the words written in this book over my life and over my family, that I am literally bringing the authority and power of heaven into the midst of our lives and into whatever situation may be taking place. I believe that Jesus the Christ, is the Son of the living God and that He is the living, breathing Word of God! The Word of God is life, it is love, and it is power! This book was written with me in mind! Thank you God for your Word! Amen!”

Now, as you remain standing, we are going to do our cooperative reading of God’s perfect Word together. I will start with verse 8 and then you will all read together the next verse and we shall repeat this until we read through verse 19 in our scripture reading this morning. Got it?

Does everyone have Luke 21:8-19 in their Bibles? Then let’s begin with our reading. I will be reading from the ESV and we’ll also have the passages on the screen in the same version, if you would prefer to read along exactly as I am reading.

Luke 21:8–19 ESV

8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

“The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand forever!” Amen!!!!!!

You may be seated.

The passage that we just read from, is part of the mirror passage to what we find in Mark 13 and also in Matthew 24-25, in what we call Jesus’ “Olivet Discourse”.

And in this passage, as well as those in the other gospels, we see our Lord answering His disciples about what His people should be looking for, with regard to His return and the end of the age.

Now something that I want to point out, before we look at Jesus’ answer that we just read, is what and where the disciples minds were at, at this time.

At the beginning of chapter 21, we read of a very familiar passage that many, if not most of us, have heard of before.

The passage is the account of the “widow’s mite” and in this account, we find Yeshua and His disciples sitting in the court of women, across from the treasury and watching the people placing their offerings into the treasury of the temple.

Now, other than maybe the “temple tax” being payed by the men, these would have most likely been “free- will offerings that the people were putting in.

And notice who Jesus stops to point out to the disciples!

The poor widow and her two small copper coins.

Jesus stresses that everyone else was putting in freely of the surplus, the abundance, the excess of what they had left over. (A.K.A. they were giving to God an offering after they had taken everything else and from what was left over!)

However, the poor widow was giving, literally, all that she had to the Lord. Her heart was to trust the Lord God with it ALL!

And it was this very thing, that drew the Lord’s attention and produced His response with the disciples!

Now watch what the disciples say, the very next thing!

When you take Luke’s account and also Mark’s account together, you get a fairly clear understanding about the disciples and where their minds and their hearts where.

Luke 21:5 says, “Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls.”

And in Mark 13:1, right after Jesus just told His disciples about the true beauty of the widow’s giving, we read the following, “As Jesus was leaving the Temple that day, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at these magnificent buildings! Look at the impressive stones in the walls.”

Do you see what they were saying and where their hearts were?

Jesus had just declared that the money was not important, but that the heart of the person giving the money was what mattered and what was important.

And the very next thing we read about, is the disciples elaborating about the wealth and beauty of the temple buildings which all flowed from the money going into the temple!

And of course Jesus makes it known to them quickly, that every bit of what they were “oohing and aahing” over was going to be torn down to the ground and destroyed!

Nothing of what they called beautiful and important mattered spiritually and these ornate decorations wouldn’t help or protect them in the long run.

In the passage that we just read, Jesus warns the disciples by saying, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ The time is at hand! Do not go after them!”

Or as the KJV puts it, Jesus warned them not to be “deceived” by these false teachers and witnesses.

The Greek word for “deceived”is the word, “planaō”, and it means to wander about, to stray from the truth.

The root of this word has the meaning that one can be caused to wander off of the path.

Remember the path that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:13-14?

He said that narrow and hard path is the path of truth that we must stay on!

So, in the passage we read together this morning in Luke 21, Jesus warns His disciples and us, that things would get bad before He returns and that deception would become prevalent.

And then He says, in verse 19, “By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

So, like a math equation, let’s put the pieces of the problem together and derive our answer.

Jesus was trying to show the disciples that despite how bad things were going to get, they must stay focused on the truth and not become deceived and wander from the path that He was calling them to.

Staying on the path and enduring leads to true eternal life.

He saw that His disciples, or at least some of them, already had their minds focused on this world and the things of this world and that if they didn’t turn and change, they would never endure till the end.

And so Jesus used terms like “endure”, “be alert”, “be ready”, “stay awake” and “have strength”, as He was teaching the disciples.

These things sound very much like militant terms being used when preparing a soldier for a battle.

And for this very reason, Jesus had warned the disciples earlier in Luke’s gospel, that they should be ready to count the cost before ever entering into this battle.

He was telling them (and us), that in and of our natural selves, we would never be able to finish the battle! We would have to become devoid of ourselves and become completely dependent upon Him and His Father!

Because when we lose ourselves and become dependent upon God, then and only then will we become strong and be able to endure till the end of the battle!

Our weakness and inability in our natural selves, when placed into the hands of almighty God, becomes perfect strength.

Just as Paul tells us of what the Lord said to him in dealing with his “thorn in his flesh” scenario in II Corinthians 12:9-10,

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

That is what Jesus was stressing to the disciples as He warned them of the battle that was coming.

You must keep your eyes and your heart’s desire off of the things of this world and keep them on Him alone.

As Jesus said about what we truly treasure in this life in Matthew 6:21, where He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

For if your treasure is found in heaven and in being with the Christ, then you will not become deceived by the god of this world and led astray from the truth which can cause you to stray and not finish the battle for God and His kingdom!

Let me assure you, as I have said many times before, that we are all completely entrenched in a raging battle right now! And this spiritual battle is ramping up in its intensity, not slowing down, or diminishing!

Having said that, I want to give you the same instructions from the Lord God right now, that He gave to His soldiers thousands of years ago.

Because God never changes and His will for us never changes. Listen to the instructions that God gave to Moses and to Joshua and to the nation of Israel all the way back, starting in Deuteronomy and going forward.

Deuteronomy 31:6-7,

Deuteronomy 31:6–7 ESV

6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” 7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it.

Deuteronomy 31:23,

Deuteronomy 31:23 ESV

23 And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”

Joshua 1:6-7, 9,

Joshua 1:6–7 ESV

6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9 ESV

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

You will find the Lord saying this numerous times to His people as he leads them forward into the promised land and against the hostile enemies awaiting them!

King David gave his son, Solomon, the exact same instructions when Solomon was getting ready to take over being the next king of Israel.

In I Chronicles 22 David said, “Be strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed!”

When the Lord God says to you, “be strong and courageous”, He’s saying it because He’s the one who is going to be backing you up!

Do you remember the account in II Chronicles 32, where Sennacherib, the king from Assyria was attacking Judah?

And he sends his messengers to the people of Judah and tells them, “Surely you must realize what I and the other kings of Assyria before me have done to all the people of the earth! Were any of the gods of those nations able to rescue their people from my power? Which of their gods was able to rescue its people from the destructive power of my predecessors? What makes you think your God can rescue you from me? Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you! Don’t let him fool you like this! I say it again—no god of any nation or kingdom has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!”

Do you see what Sennacherib was doing? He was planting lies and seeds of fear and uncertainty into the hearts of the people, so that they would trust in him, a man, instead of in the one true God of heaven!

Now listen to what Hezekiah, king of Judah said to the people in 2 Chronicles 32:7-8,

2 Chronicles 32:7–8 ESV

7 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Let me read that last verse to you again, from the NLT, “Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men. We have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!”

Time and time again, we see God being the one who goes before His people and fights the battles for them.

Deuteronomy 1:30,

Deuteronomy 1:30 ESV

30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

Deuteronomy 31:8,

Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT

8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Regardless of what you and I see in the natural, no matter how big, or insurmountable the odds may seem, God has said that He will go before us and fight for us and He will never fail us or abandon us!

And I believe that the reason that many, many Christians don’t see and realize this truth, is because they have become deceived and blinded by the lies and all of the confusion of the enemy!

Look at what Sennacherib was trying to do with the people of the nation of Judah. He was spewing off lies about the Lord God and trying to discredit Him in the hearts and minds of the people!

He told the people that all of the other nations and their gods had fallen before him and the God of Judah would be no different.

He sent messengers who were speaking in Hebrew to shout to the people on the walls of the city and send terror into their hearts, as they openly mocked the Lord God!

Do you not know and understand that that is exactly what the devil does to you and I?

He comes to us and speaks plainly, in our own way of understanding, lies about the reality of who and what God is to us!

He plants thoughts of uncertainty and doubts into our hearts and the moment that we begin to meditate on those thoughts, versus the realities of the words of God, we become weak and ineffective!

Isn’t that exactly how the devil came to Eve in the garden and produced the first sin, where he planted doubt into her heart by asking, “ Has God really said...”?

You see, the devil is really good at spewing off lies, as Jesus said about him, “It’s his native language”.

And so, when the devil speaks, all that comes out of his mouth are lies. Even when he takes pieces of the TRUTH, he distorts and warps them into a tapestry of lies and deception!

That is what the enemy is doing with this nation and within the body of Christ right now. He is keeping our eyes and our ears filled with distractions and misdirections so that we will not see the bigger picture and his agenda that he is trying to put into place!

Do you understand how misdirection works?

When someone used misdirection, they are guiding your attention away from a reality and onto a diversion, so that they can accomplish what they want and ultimately deceive you.

For example, I have always loved to watch people who are good at slight of hand tricks with coins and cards and the such!

I’m amazed at how they can deceive me right before my very eyes!

And the way they accomplish this, is making you believe that you are seeing something, and getting your mind off of the reality of what they are doing and then when the time is right, they can easily bedazzle you with their tricks!

For instance, if the person says to you, “Don’t look at my left hand”, what are you going to do, 9 out of 10 times? Right…you’re most likely going to look at their left hand.

Well, instead of trying to get you and I to NOT LOOK at his/her left hand, they will use a more direct type of misdirection and simply say, “Look at my right hand” and guess what we will do?

Yep, we will instinctively look at their right hand and thus our attention is now on the right hand and the left hand is free to begin the deception!

And if they ask you to think about something, or recall something, some small detail, it is amazing how our other perceptual senses are diminished when our minds are focused on something else.

(MENTION ABOUT WHAT ICON IS ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER OF THEIR SMARTPHONES AND THEN HAVE THEM ASK CHECK. NOW HAVE THEM PUT THE PHONE AWAY AND THEN ASK THEM, “WHAT WAS TIME TIME ONYOR PHONE WHEN YOU OPENED IT UP TO LOOK AT THE ICON?

** If time is there, use the gray elephant in Denmark example**

This is what the devil is doing to many of us right now, he is misdirecting our thoughts and our attention.

And while we are thinking about whatever it is that he is placing before us, or whatever it is that he is speaking to us through someone, then he is able to shift and move things into his favor!

All of the stuff that is constantly coming out about offenses in the news right now is absolutely ludicrous!

The Coca-Cola racial statement.

Removing the name “Mr” from the Mr. Potato Head, because it is offensive to a certain group and they want to make this toy gender neutral!

Removing the Dr Seuss books because they were deemed bigot filled books!

Removing certain older Loony Tunes cartoons, because now, after 60-70 years, they are offensive to people!

Removing personal pronouns and replacing them with “gender neutral” pronouns, because the original English language and its correct masculine/feminine pronouns are offensive to a certain group!

Does anyone see how this nation is being directed into a place of conformity.

These certain groups spew off their rhetoric about whatever it is they want to us to become focused on and then after a short time, that quiets down and out comes another one.

And as long as these things go unchecked and without much debate (and as long as the secular mainstream media is on board with it) then they can keep moving forward.

And eventually, there will come the offense to the full teaching of this book, The Holy Bible and they will push for legislation to ban the teaching of the Word of God, because it will be deemed hate filled bigotry to certain groups!

Think about it....Dr Seuss is called bad reading for the young people and yet filth like “50 Shades of Gray” comes out and our nation calls it a great work of literature!

A song like “Stand By Your Man” is called chauvinistic and anti-feminine and yet a song like WAP from last year, becomes the nations number one song by women and men across this country!

Jesus warned us in Matthew 18 that offenses would come, but great sorrow awaits those through whom the offenses come!

The simple truth is that there are just way too many diversions and distractions that keep people’s minds preoccupied from doing what we are called to be and to be!

And in the face of the enemy and the god of this world, you are going to have to stand for the TRUTH of the Word of God and “Be strong and courageous” for your faith and your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ!!

Jesus told us that in this world, we have would have tribulation, but to take heart, because He has already overcome this world!

“Be strong and courageous”!

In the Hebrew this phrase is “Rak Chazak Amats! (Explain why you thought of this and of the need for such a war cry today!)