Mailing Address: PO Box 797 Molalla, OR 97038 Phone: 503-829-5101 Fax: 503-829-9502 Pastor Dale Satrum Navigating Life Endure With Courage (Part 7) Intro: Josh. 1:9 I command you - Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (NLT) God commands us to be courageous. Courage is a choice NOT an emotion. We choose to do the courageous thing despite how we feel / despite fear. God knows that to navigate life successfully, it is impossible without courage. Courage is our last essential ingredient for Navigating life. I want to share with you why it is such an important part of the journey. I. Life Requires Courage To Grow Personally A. It takes courage to admit your faults I John 1:9 But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. (NLT) James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed. (NLT) 1. I believe there are three levels where we need to be able admit our faults. We must be able to admit faults to ourselves / to God, / and to others. It takes courage to do all three. 2. Admitting our faults to ourselves moves us out of denial. Admitting our faults to God moves us back into fellowship with God. Admitting our faults to others, acknowledges our need for accountability. 3. The truth about personal growth is that we can t change if we live in denial of our flaws this is the rationale / if we re out of fellowship with God this is the power / if we are isolated from other people this is the environment of change. All of these require courage! 4. The people who cannot admit their faults are the greatest cowards. WHY? Because to admit your faults makes you vulnerable. It exposes you. Cowards live in the darkness, trying to hide their faults. Courageous people expose their faults in order to change them. Page 1
B. It takes courage to battle your flesh Gal. 5:17 The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other (CEV) Who can t identify with this? 1. Everyone of us can identify with the struggle between our fleshly appetites and the Spirit of God working in us. We feel the battle. We feel the pull. We sense the conflict that rages in us at times. 2. Illustrate: Driving home / someone pulls out right in front of me / lock up all four tires / stuff flies everywhere / instant road rage! 3. It takes courage to tell your flesh NO when it is the loudest thing screaming in your ears! It takes courage to do what the Spirit of God wants you to do when everything in your flesh is telling you to do the opposite. 4. It takes courage to respond to your wife in a loving way after she was disrespectful to you. It takes courage to respond to your husband with respect after he said something unloving. Cowards do what s easy and just live by the impulses of the flesh. Courageous people follow the Spirit. C. It takes courage to work on change Phil. 2:12-13 continue to work out your salvation for it is God who works in you (NIV) 1. God expects us to cooperate with His work in us. He is wanting to change us / transform us / and this is a lifetime process. Working out our salvation / working out our relationship with God so that it impacts every area of my life requires courage. 2. WHY? Because to work out my salvation in real life requires change. I have to embrace change. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to leave what you re familiar with to embrace something new. 3. Cowards want to embrace Jesus and yet not embrace the radical changes He wants to bring to their lives. They keep control on major areas of their lives. They keep their relationship with God regulated to the safe areas. 4. Courageous people allow God to do whatever He wants with whatever area of their lives. They are willing to cooperate with God allowing Him work wherever. This requires courage because it is giving up control. Yet, this is the only way our lives really change. God wants to grow you personally. He wants to transform you into the image of His Son. Yet, this process requires courage on your part. II. Life Requires Courage To Overcome Trials A. It takes courage to face adversity and not quit Page 2
John 16:33 Here on this earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, I have overcome the world. (NLT) Jesus assures us that adversity / trials and sorrows are part of this life. II Cor. 11:24-28 (The Apostle Paul s adversity list Read) 1. Sometimes the circumstances of this life can cause us to want to quit. Life has thrown you yet another sucker punch that has sent you to the canvas. No matter how hard you have tried, there s just something else thrown at you. 2. Now you start wondering why try? No matter how hard I try it just seems to get worse. My circumstances are not improving. What s the point? 3. Maybe you feel this way in your marriage / in your finances trying to trust God / at your job giving it your best / in your ministry hitting roadblocks / maybe there s been physical adversity - sickness / 4. Sometimes we can just feel so beat up by the circumstances of life that we re just ready to quit. Lord, it s just too much effort to keep trying / to keep doing the right thing / to keep trusting You. I can t do it anymore! 5. I believe that God allows life to take us to the end of ourselves. To the end of our natural resources / to the end of our human wisdom / to the end of our endurance. 6. WHY? So He can show up in our lives and show us that strength and courage comes from Him. Unless we re desperate enough, we just keep looking to ourselves. Adversity takes us to the end of what we can control and puts us in a position to depend on God in ways we never have. Courage is learning to face adversity in this life vertically. I can t tell you how many times I ve wanted to quit! (explain) Yet, God has always lifted my head once again. B. It takes courage to face disappointment and not quit (endurance Heb. 10 / James 5:11) II Cor. 4:1 we do not lose heart ) II Cor. 4:8-9 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don t give up and quit We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. (NLT) Any of you feel like this today? (pressed / crushed / broken / perplexed / knocked down?) 1. Ongoing adversity can lead us down the emotional road of disappointment and discouragement. This life can be so disappointing that once that disappointment wraps itself around your soul, it s tough to keep going. 2. What happens to us emotionally is that continual ongoing negative circumstances eventually rob us of all hope. When we lose our hope, we lose our courage and when we lose courage, we quit. 3. One of my favorite Old Testament stories that illustrates this is in I Kings 18-19. Here s a story of a man who displayed incredible courage only to end in complete despair. (explain) Page 3
4. We are all going to face tremendous disappointments in this life disappointments that we are not going to understand. It s only as we take those disappointments to God that we give Him the opportunity to heal us and give us hope again. God is big enough to handle our emotions. 5. Are you discouraged / disappointed / angry / even at God for what He has allowed? Feel a bit like Elijah? Tell God about it even complain to Him about it. That s part of the courage you need right now. The courage to be honest before God about how hurt you are. He can handle it. And, this is the process of how He will heal begin to heal you. III. Life Requires Courage To Serve God s Purposes A. It takes courage to face your inadequacies 1. One of the issues I see over and over in most people is that they allow their inadequacies keep them from being used by God. They see their weaknesses and conclude this disqualifies them for doing much for God. II Cor. 12:8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness. (NLT) 2. Now, we don t know for sure what Paul wanted removed. We do know that he considered it a weakness / something that he felt hindered him in some way. Could have been some physical weakness. 3. God informed Paul that He was less concerned with Paul s weaknesses and much more focused on how His power would be displayed through Paul s weakness. 4. It takes courage to realize that our inadequacies are the very things that God uses. They don t disqualify us they qualify us! It takes courage to see we don t have what it takes and yet move out and serve the Lord anyway! 5. Some of you are paralyzed by your fear and not serving God in any way because you believe you don t have what it takes. And I want you to know you re right! You don t! BUT, that s OK. Serve God anyway! 6. Courage is serving God s purposes despite our weaknesses / fears / inadequacies / and believing that God will make up the difference. This is the deal the Lord and I have worked out. (Explain) I ll go wherever He wants, as long as He gives me whatever I need. If we are going to serve God s purposes B. It takes courage to face your spiritual enemy I Peter 5:8-9 Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith (NLT) 1. Every battle requires courage from those involved. (Veterans Day) The Page 4
spiritual battle that we are involved in is no different. We have a spiritual enemy who wants to destroy us and we have a responsibility to resist his advances. 2. It takes courage to get up every day preparing for battle. 3. It takes courage to believe God s truth rather than listening to his lies 4. It takes courage to resist temptation rather then giving in to it 5. It takes courage to live counter-culturally rather than living like everyone else in a culture that our enemy controls 6. Some of the highest awards the military can give are to soldiers who demonstrate tremendous courage under fire. I can t help but believe there will be an award ceremony in heaven for the very same thing. Believers who demonstrated amazing courage under fire. 7. I guarantee you, that if you start serving God s purposes, you will come under fire! Some of you feel that way today. Keep being courageous! If we serve God s purposes C. It takes courage to live by faith Heb. 11:6 So you see, it is impossible to please God without faith.. (NLT) 1. To live by faith it requires us to embrace the unknown, the unfamiliar and to follow the Lord into it. This, requires courage because we re on a journey into areas where we ve never been before. 2. To live by faith is embracing the spirit of a Pioneer rather than the comfort of a Settler. Living by faith means that we leave the comforts behind in order to embrace the destination of another land. 3. Faith does not stay in the safety of the familiar. Faith purposely takes risks in order to follow where God is leading. This is the type of church we are. Started new preschool Committed to 400 food boxes this year Leased another 5000 sq. ft. for youth building Hired a children s ministry director Built a parking lot 4. It takes courage to do all these things because they are acts of faith! We ve trusted God with these things because we believe He is leading us in these directions. 5. It is impossible to serve God s purposes without faith and courage. Sometimes God will ask us to do things that don t make much sense to our limited understanding. At that moment, we have a choice let my fear and doubt dictate my choices; OR, trust God and courageously move ahead. Where is God asking you to choose courage today? Where have you been allowing your fear, doubt, your discouragement, to make your choices instead of trusting God and living Page 5
courageously? I realize this isn t easy, but to try to navigate life without courage is even worse. A life controlled by fear is a horrible existence. Therefore, be strong and courageous! For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go! Page 6