Fathers Day 2026: Raising Men of Courage | Ps Miles Paludan

Well, a big happy Father's Day to all

our Elevation locations. Today, Father's

Day, we are raising men of courage. I

also want to welcome all the ladies in

the house, the moms and every man, every

person. Today, this message is not just

for the men. It's actually for all of

us. In Judges 6:12,

Judges 6:12

the angel of the Lord appeared to him.

Now, this is Gideon that the Bible's

talking about. The angel of the Lord

appeared to Gideon and he said these

words, "The Lord is with you,

mighty man of valor." So, the word

mighty man of valor, mighty means brave,

valor means courage. So, this angel of

the Lord comes to Gideon who's hiding.

He's scaredy-cat. He's in a little wine

press. He's threshing wheat. And he says

these words, "The Lord is with you.

Be brave and courageous." Now, I get it.

I'm no angel of the Lord. [laughter]

Far from it. But I do believe I have a

word from the Lord. And the word of the

Lord is for all of elevation. Every

person in this place, male, female, that

the Lord is with you and that you are

called to be brave and courageous in

your faith.

That you are brave and courageous. I

believe this is a word from the Lord.

It's a holy word. It's a powerful word.

It's a word that's going to change our

hearts, change our church. It's kind of

a word that's been pressing on me for

months because I'm feeling the weight of

this word. I'm feeling that God is

saying to me, Miles, come on. The Lord

is with you. Be brave and courageous in

what you do. And I believe what God is

stirring in my heart, he wants to stir

in your heart. That you ought to be

brave and courageous for the Lord. From

canes to Gold Coast, from Hills to Perth

to Mandra to Penri and Melbourne, the

Lord is with you. Be brave. Be

courageous in your faith. You You're

created by God. You're created for God

to bring glory and honor to live for him

on fire, sold out, passionate, not

shrinking back, not hiding, but to be

men and women of courage, men and women

of faith that we can wholeheartedly

serve our Lord and give him everything

we've got that we can reach the dreams

and the purposes and the and the destiny

that God has for us. We're to be brave

and courageous in our faith. Now, what

was the reaction when I said, "You are

brave and courageous." How did you feel

when you heard those words? Were you

like, "Hey,

hey, finally, Pastor Miles recognizes

me." [laughter]

Or were you like most of us, and me

included, you're like, "Hey, he must be

speaking to someone else. I I actually

don't feel brave and courageous.

I don't act brave and courageous. In

fact, I'm in struggle street. I'm I'm

just in survival. I I'm just hanging on.

I I I I got all these emotions going

through today with Father's Day. I'm I'm

just being triggered. I'm not in a great

place. I'm I'm I'm struggling to get

through this day.

The truth is God sees your potential.

You're created in his image. And you may

be going through issues. I have empathy

and I care and I [snorts] value what

you're going through. But I'm also here

to remind you, don't stay there. I want

to challenge you. You are a brave and

courageous person of God. God is with

you. And [clears throat]

Gideon, he replies the same way that

maybe you have replied to today. He

says, "How how can I rescue Israel?"

Here's what he says. My clan is the

weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh.

Manasseh is one of the 12 tribes of

Israel. So I'm in the weakest clan and I

am the least in my entire family. I may

be the baby. I may be the forgotten. I

may be the ostracized, the rejected. I'm

in the weakest tribe and I'm in the

weakest person in my family. Uh so often

as believers, as we're leading our

homes, uh fathers can feel inadequate.

Husbands can feel like they don't have

the answers.

Moms can feel like I'm just overwhelmed.

It's all too much.

Sons and daughters can feel they don't

measure up. But I'm here to tell you

what the Lord says. The Lord is with

you. And he's calling you to be brave

and courageous in your faith. When when

I [snorts] was a a builder,

I moved from working as a builder at 35

and took on a job working as a pastor.

and I had to trade the nail belt uh in

for a Bible. And I just felt so

inadequate. I felt so insecure.

The story goes the church I was part of

was growing so significantly they just

needed anybody. I think it was just

anybody who can breathe or speak. And so

I got the job as a pastor. I had no

training,

no education,

no experience. And they threw me into

this role of a pastor. Three days in,

there's a phone call in the office.

Someone's died. We need someone to do

the funeral. They're like, "Miles will

do it." I had never done a funeral in my

life. I didn't even own a suit. I had to

go to the shop to buy a suit. I didn't

even know what to wear. Talk about

inadequate. And in many times, I've

looked at my work as a pastor and I felt

that way. And here's what I've learned.

God calls us to be brave and courageous

because our strength is actually not in

ourselves.

Our strength

is in our God. 2 Corinthians 12:9. But

2 Corinthians 12:9

he said to me, "My grace is sufficient

for you. My power is made perfect in

weakness.

Therefore, I must boast all the more

gladly about my weakness

so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Uh Paul is talking in this verse how

he's cried out to his God to heal him.

Three times he cried out that he would

take this thorn in his flesh. But God

refused to because God wanted Paul to

see that he was the source, that he was

the strength, that he was where the

power laid. And Paul, he's living proof

that a holy living, a courageous faith

is built not on our strength, but on

God's strength. And when we're weak,

that makes us more dependable upon him.

So if you don't feel super brave, if you

don't feel super courageous today,

that's okay. We draw our strength and

our courage from our God. Here's the

truth. When God looks at you, he sees

the potential in you. He sees that go he

has created you in his image. He doesn't

see you the way you see yourself. He

doesn't see you the way others see you.

He sees you the way he created you. See,

God doesn't wait for people to become

strong before he calls them. He calls

them and then gives them the strength

they need. And we're called to be brave

and courageous in our faith to lead our

families. And because when we recognize

our limitations, it causes us to depend

more on God. Will you depend on him?

Will you be brave and courageous by

depending on God more than you ever

have? I want to call you out today. I

want to challenge you. I want you to

look into your future and see that you

can be brave and courageous in

everything you do. In your workplace,

you can be brave and courageous. In your

family, you can be brave and courageous

in your marriage with your friends. You

can be brave and courageous. You see,

God wants to work through you while he's

working in you.

That is a powerful truth that helped me

over the years. God is working in me,

while he's working through me. The same

as you. God's working in you

while he's working through you. Th this

is a gamecher. It changes everything.

Because so often we think, I'll wait

till I get my act together. I'll wait

till everything's in order. I'll wait

till my marriage is perfect or my kids

are like angels praying and singing and

doing washing up and cooking. I'll wait.

I'll wait. I'll wait. But God is saying,

don't wait. God is saying what he said

to Gideon. I'm with you. Be brave and

courageous today. Take a step of

leadership in your family. Take a step

of leadership amongst your friends and

take a step of leadership in your

workplace that God is with you and you

can be brave and courageous. He He wants

to do a work through you. He wants to

build you and he wants to use you while

he's working on you. You see, God

doesn't wait until we've arrived

before he uses us.

He shapes you when he sends you. He

strengthens you as he directs you. And

when the angel of the Lord appeared to

Gideon and called him to be brave and

courageous, there actually wasn't

anything brave and courageous about

Gideon at the time. The context of the

story is it's 1,200 BC. It's about 20

years after the children of Israel had

entered the promised land and they had

already forgotten their God. They were

doing evil in the sight of their Lord

and they were being oppressed by the

Midianites. This was a a band of

warriors that would raid and pillage and

take women and children and grain and

food and steal everything. They're

living in fear, that they're hiding in

caves, that they're stressed out,

they're struggling to survive. Now,

Israel wasn't just under attack

from the Midionites. Israel had actually

settled for less than God had for them.

They they compromised. They drifted.

They turned away from their God. They'd

slowly replaced the worship of God with

worship of everything else. And and

that's what the enemy wants to do in

your life today. He wants you to drift.

He wants to make you be full of fear and

hide and retreat. And [snorts] this is

where we find Gideon. He's in a wine

press. Now, wine press is a concrete

structure in the ground where they would

press grapes and produce wine. Well, he

was threshing wheat. So, he was doing

something in a place that he shouldn't

be doing it. You should thresh wheat on

the top of a hill where the wind can

take the chaff and separate the grain.

So he's working even harder in this wine

press doing this work of threshing

wheat. And if we're honest today, we can

find ourselves hiding,

not living up to our calling.

We can kind of sell out for our comfort

over our calling. We can be more of a

coward

than be courageous. We can be

disobedient

to the Lord over obedient where we can

choose control over surrender. And fear

keeps us hiding. Fear limits us from

operating in faith. But God has not

given us a spirit of fear. 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:7

1:7, but of power, love, and

self-discipline.

And men today, I I want to speak

directly to you. God never called you to

hide in the wine press.

God never called you to do a job that

you're supposed to be doing, leading

your family spiritually by hiding out in

the garage or in the pub or in the

office or behind a screen. And I'm here

to call not just the men. I'm here to

call the women. I'm here to call the

children. I'm here to call the young

adults that you would step out of hiding

that God is with you. That you would be

brave and courageous with your faith.

That you would live for him. That God

wants to work through you while he's

working in you.

Don't disqualify yourself. Don't say, "I

haven't been following the Lord long

enough or I'm not good enough or I don't

know enough." No, no, no. today. God

calling you out that you would be brave

and courageous in your face. So, how did

Gideon do this? How did he transfer from

this hiding scaredy cat just in the wine

press running least insecurities, fears,

what a mess. How did he transform

into a man of God that rescued a nation?

Firstly, he pulled down idols. And

that's what we have to do. We have to

pull down idols. Those areas in our life

that have elevated above our God. Judges

Judges 6:25

6:25. Pull down your father's altar to

Bal and cut down the ashropoles standing

beside it. Uh before Gideon ever fought

the enemies, before he ever took victory

over Midionites, God told him to deal

with the idols in his home

personally.

For us, it's the idols in our heart, in

our life. It's difficult for us to

imagine that Israel would trade God

Yahweh, the King of Kings, the God that

rescued them for 430 years of slavery,

who parted the Red Sea, who provided

mana, fire by night, cloud by day, the

miraculous move of God. Uh their clothes

never wore out. They entered the It's

It's almost infathomable to think that

just one generation later, they would

forget their God and they would end up

making idols out of wood, stone, and

iron. Yet, to be honest, today

we can worship idols. There's a big idol

that sometimes I have to fight and pull

down. It's the [snorts] idol made of

glass,

aluminum, and plastic. It's called my

phone.

Anything that we put before God can be

an idol. It could be a hobby, work,

people, even church and the ministry.

Anything that leads us away from a

dependence on God, anything that takes

our heart away from worshiping and

loving our God as an idol. So Gideon, he

took 10 of his servants and did as the

Lord commanded, but he did it at night.

He's kind of sneaky uh because he was

afraid of the other members. He may have

been afraid, but he still did it. This

is what I love about Gideon. It might

not have been perfect, you know, he

might not have had the daylight and did

it in a perfect way, but he did what the

angel commanded him to do. And he was

afraid of his other members of the

father's household and the people of the

town. So, like Gideon, we're called to

tear down idols. We're called to stand

for righteousness, to trust our God.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, I want to talk to

you directly for a moment. Some of you

have left idols in your life. There's

wrong habits. There's unhealthy

relationships.

There's work that's consuming you. It's

time to pull them down.

It's time to remove those idols that are

preventing us from serving our Lord

wholeheartedly.

Before God used Gideon to change a

nation, he changed Gideon's home.

Revival always begins in the home. It's

time to empty that bottle if it's

overwhelming you. If you if you're going

to it too much, it's time to turn off

the screen. It's time to share a secret

with someone you trust.

It's time to end the affair.

Stop watching porn. Stop hiding your

emotions. Stop numbing your pain and

licking your wounds and start praying.

Start seeking the Lord. Start worshiping

him. Start loving. Start building

relationships with your wife and your

kids and those in church. Start serving.

It's time to spend time with your

family. Make them a priority. It's time

to seek the Lord, to build intimacy with

him, to find yourself in the secret

place every day, to face your fears, to

open up to someone else, to engage in

conversation. It's time to build the

church, to be in church every week, to

give financially, to serve faithfully.

It's time to tell the devil, "Not today.

I'm pulling down idols that are robbing

me. I'm pulling down idols that are

dictating and controlling me. I'm

pulling down those failures and those

fears that have held me back. that I'm

addressing those issues in my life with

the spirit of God, with the power of God

to tell the devil enough's enough. It

starts with pulling down idols in your

life, in your home. The second

area we see Gideon do is we have to

fight.

We have to fight.

Judges 6:35. Then the spirit of the Lord

Judges 6:35

clothed Gideon with what? with power.

This is actually an amazing story that

Gideon started with 32,000 in the army.

God reduced that army to 300

and defeated an enemy of 132,000.

Why? Because the power of the Lord was

what did the work. God's power is

greater than your problems, your

addictions, your fears. God's power is

greater than your insecurities. That

your hurt. That your God's power is

greater. Think about it. The God of the

universe who raised his son from the

dead, defeated the grave, overcame sin.

We are victorious through Christ. We

don't operate out of a defeated mindset.

We don't operate out of discouragement.

We operate out of our God who saved us

and rescued us and has given us victory.

But it was the power that came after the

idols were pulled down. God wants to

empower you. He wants the spirit of the

Lord to be upon you. And when we're

obedient, I know this is a challenge. I

know this is a tough message, but a

challenge is what brings change. A

challenge is what brings revival. It

challenges what changes our heart. And

the Bible is a love story from the Lord

to his people full of challenges. You

see, real men fight not with fists, but

with love. They fight not with anger,

not with pride, but they fight in

prayer. Real men fight temptation. Uh

they fight for purity. They fight for

intimacy. They fight for their

marriages. They fight for their

children. Uh, real men fight for the

kingdom of God. Real men realize we're

part of something bigger. That we're

created to worship our God, to honor

him, to fight for him. And we are in a

war. We are in a war for people's

eternity. We wrestle not against flesh

and blood, not against people or

politics or we wrestle against

principalities and powers of darkness.

And God is calling not just the men of

elevation, but everyone of elevation

that we would fight the good fight, that

we would fight for people's souls, for

people's eternity, because the balance

of the spoils of war could not be

greater. We're talking in heaven and

hell. This is the consequences of the

fight we fight for our children, for our

marriages, for our grandchildren. This

is a fight worth fighting for eternity.

And we have the power of God. The same

power that raised Christ from the dead

lives in us. There is this power that

God wants to cloak you with so that you

can stand firm and you can fight. Fight

like your life depends upon it because

it does. Pray over your children. Speak

life over your marriages. Take

initiative. Fight the battle that

matters. Fight with faith. Fight with

courage, a fight with love, fight with

humility, fight with authenticity,

fight with everything

within you because that's who we are.

That's who we're called to be. The Lord

is with you. You are brave and

courageous to fight the good fight, the

fight for the kingdom of God. We belong

to the body of Christ. We belong to the

body of believers. We are in church

together to build each other up, to

create a safe place where you can come

just as you are. But we love you too

much to leave you where you are. We want

to build you up. We want to take you on.

We want to help you grow, help you

change, help you to be brave and

courageous.

We serve our communities. We help those

in our workplace. We take care of the

vulnerable. We help those who are

homeless, who need food and clothing and

shelter. We're exiles. We're in this

world to make it better. We're in this

world to be brave and courageous

for the Lord. Judges 7:19, it was after

Judges 7:19

midnight,

after the changing of the guard

when Gideon and the hundred men with him

reached the edge of the Midionite camp

and suddenly they blew the ram's horns.

They blow broke their clay jars.

Then all three groups blew their horns

and broke their jars and they held the

blazing torches in their left hand and

the horns in their right hand. And they

all shouted, "A sword for the Lord and

for Gideon."

Each man stood at his position around

the camp and watched as all the

Midianites

rushed around in panic, shouting as they

ran to escape. And when the 300 Israel's

blew their ram's horn, the Lord caused

the warriors in the camp to fight

against each other with their swords.

300 men defeated

132,000

in the army of the Midionites because of

the power of the Lord. I believe there

is a pouring. There is a releasing. I I

believe that there is this power of God

that is being released and is being made

available. That the power of God comes

to change us. And the power of God comes

so that we can change others through his

spirit. When the angel

first found Gideon, he wasn't acting

like a mighty warrior.

And so often as I'm a father and a

husband, I'm like, I'm not acting brave

and courageous.

Sometimes I'm I'm a bit weak. I can

actually be the one that goes after the

peace. I can be a bit of a peacemaker.

Let's just dial it down. Uh le let's

just drop the tone. Come on, everyone. I

I can be sort of trying to just keep

everyone happy and and and keep the

peace in the household. And I there's

times I've just pulled back from being

the man of God

that he wants me to be. I'm not meaning

to be rude and obnoxious,

but we did need to be brave and

courageous in our faith. And maybe for

some of you moms, you've just haven't

been strong with the Lord the way you

could have. You haven't encouraged

yourself daily in his word. Maybe some

young adults out there. Can I speak to

you that you've been drifting? You've

been distracted.

The world has just filling and consuming

you. And God's calling you out today

because he's with you. and he's calling

you to be brave

and courageous

in your faith. Would you answer the call

today like Gideon did?

There will be peoples for generations

eternity that will be influenced by the

decision you make today. Will you

respond to the word of the Lord that he

is with you, that he's calling you to be

brave and courageous for him? sold out,

on fire, passionate. Is it going to be

easy? No chance. Is everyone just going

to agree? Absolutely not. I Is is going

to walk into work and everyone just

drifts and parts and throws money at you

and promote? No. This will be the

greatest fight of your life. Why?

because it starts in us when we pull

down those idols and then we fight for

what matters most. For every person in

this room, you may feel weak today, but

God says you are mighty. You may be

anxious and in fear, but God says you

are brave. You may feel inadequate, but

God sees your potential.

You You may feel afraid, but God says I

am with you. So together church

all of elevation

let's take the word of the Lord to heart

le let's know that God is with us and

that we are called to be brave and

courageous in our faith. We want to

build a church

that's built on his word. We want to

build a church where we're maturing in

our faith. We want to build a church

where we're growing and becoming more

like him. I know the challenge is high

today. I know this is a tough message,

but that's the gospel.

The message of the gospel is you're to

lose your life so you can find it. And

with everyone across our locations today

with eyes closed and heads bowed, I want

to challenge you boldly.

I want to challenge you as brave and

courageous as I can be. Do you know

Christ?

Is he your personal Lord and Savior? And

the gospel is Jesus came to this earth.

He lived a perfect life. He died and

rose again. So you could be saved. So

you could know God is with you. So you

could know that you can be courageous.

That you can be brave. That he died. He

paid the price cuz he was brave and

courageous. That he obeyed the father's

call for his life to sacrifice his life

to rescue you. And that's why you're

here today. Maybe someone brought you a

friend or maybe it's a father's day

outing. I don't know how you ended up,

but I want to challenge you. The word of

the Lord is coming to you personally.

And he's saying these words. Would you

surrender your life to me? [music] Would

you become a Christian? Would you make

Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? This

is a big ask. It's a free gospel, but it

will cost you everything. [music] It's

deciding to make Jesus the Lord of your

life in every area. And that's what you

were born to do. To be a man and a woman

of courage, of bravery in your faith.

Eyes closed and heads bowed. That's why

you're here. I want to challenge you to

respond by raising your hand on the

count of three. [music] I'm so excited

for this moment. I believe people are

going to respond by the word of the

Lord, by the power of God. One, two,

three. Raise your hand. That's you. I

I'm I'm surrendering my life to Jesus

[music] Christ. I I want him to be my

Lord and my Savior. I I want to be a man

or a woman of bravery. I want to be a

man and a woman of courage. I want to

serve the Lord all the days of my life.

I want to fulfill the calling, the

destiny that's on my life. Raise your

hand all across. Just keep it up high.

Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Keep

them up. Keep I I want these big hands.

I I don't want these ones. Let's go.

Let's go. He hung on the cross for us.

Gave his life. We can raise our hands

across all our locations, across all the

auditorium from the front of the back,

left and right. Raise your hand. Raise

your hand. Raise your hand. Raise your

hand. Let's pray. Father, I thank you

for every person with their hands

raised. They're surrendering their life

to Jesus Christ that they've heard the

call of the Lord today and they're

responding. Would you change them by

your spirit? Transform them by your

power. Forgive them. Make them born

again that they are a new creation in

Christ. Church, can we pray all together

a bold prayer? Hey, let's go bold. Let's

go loud. Everyone say this at the top of

your voice. Let's all say it together.

Jesus, come on, let's say it loud.

Jesus, I'm a sinner.

I need a savior.

[snorts] Save me today.

be my Lord and help me to know that you

are with me and that I am brave and

courageous

in Jesus' name. Everybody said, "Come

on, let's celebrate the power and the

amazing

strength of our God to rescue [music]

and to save.