Why you need courage

Well, amen.

Let's give Jesus a clap offering this morning.

Amen.

I don't know about you, but it has been cold these last few days, and uh uh people having snow all over the country and all over the state, even.

But us, well, we had a little bit, if you call just a little bit on your windshield, snow.

But uh, I don't know about you, but it's a new year.

How many of you have already made new year resolutions?

Raise your hand.

Three of us.

Amen.

Well, that's great.

That's great.

Today starts our what?

Praying and fasting.

We've done this the last couple of years, and God has so blessed it at the very beginning of the year.

And uh one of my things that y'all know I always do, because it's one of my, I am a sugar addict.

Anybody else a sugar addict that's willing to?

Okay, all right.

So for 21 days, I will do my best to do without sugar until my wife, after about a week, says, Eat some sugar.

Or she'll grab a donut and cram it in my mouth.

Because I get so irritable sometimes.

Angry.

Yeah, well, I call it irritable.

It sounds better.

But uh anyway, anyway, uh, it's gonna be a great year.

I want you to turn with me this morning to Joshua chapter one.

God's got some great plans this year.

He always does.

And God gave me some new truths about Joshua.

I've preached this chapter several times over 40 years of ministry, but this time, looking at it in a new understanding and new perception, I had never seen the four principles that I'm gonna give to you this morning out of this chapter.

And they're powerful.

Three different times in Joshua chapter one, the scene is Moses is dead.

And now it's time for the young man Joshua.

By the way, what we don't realize, he's not that young of a man.

Joshua here's about 80 years old.

Young man.

So for you young whippersnappers, uh, he and Caleb are about ready to take the promised land and both 80 years old.

But he had been a faithful servant, and he had been a faithful follower of Moses while Moses had been leading him, teaching him, so that he would be able to take over and lead the people into the promised land.

Because you remember the story, Moses lost his school, hit the rock, instead of speaking to the rock, and it cost him the promised land.

He says, You're gonna go up on Mount Nebo and you're gonna look over, but you're not going in.

So it does matter with our actions.

Can I get an amen?

It does matter.

So, with that said, now the people are sad, the people are upset, the people don't know what to do.

They had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience.

Great story there.

When God delivers you, he expects you to obey.

Can I get an amen?

When he delivers you, he expects you to obey.

But they didn't.

So for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness.

So now that we're coming to the end of that story.

And we see in Joshua chapter 1, he says, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, All right, Joshua, my servant is dead.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

God says, Hey, he's dead.

Now therefore, arise, go over the Jordan, thou and all thy people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel, and every place that your soul of your foot shall tread upon, he says, that thy let me, yep, that the earth, let me come on, have I've given to you as I said unto Moses, every place your foot steps will be yours, is what he's saying.

And from the wilderness to Lebanon and all the rivers Euphrates and all the land of the Hittites.

And then he goes on and he says, Look, drop down to verse 6.

Well, verse 5 says, As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee.

And then he says, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

I want you right here, church, to say this with me.

Repeat that last statement.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

Come on.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

That is powerful.

Put a star bite, underline it, circle it.

God promises the nation Israel, I've commanded you to go over the Jordan, and I will not fail you or forsake you.

Now, folks, it doesn't get any better than that.

And that is exactly what God is telling us in this new year that He's not gonna fail us and He's not gonna forsake us, He's not gonna give up on us, He's not gonna give out on us.

He's gonna stay the course with us.

Amen?

So it's very important that you understand that.

And then he goes on, verse 6, three different times between verses 6 and verse 9, he says, Be strong and have a good courage, for unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto thy fathers to give them.

Only, here he goes again, be strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written in the law of Moses.

In other words, hey, church, listen to God, be obedient to God, and I can promise you great success.

That's exactly what he's saying.

And he goes on and tells them that.

He says, Hey, don't depart from the law of Moses, my servant commanded thee.

Turn not from it to the right nor to the left, that thou mayest what?

Prosper.

Underline the word prosper.

Whether thou goest.

He just gave you a formula for success.

He says, if you will not turn to the right or turn to the left from the word of God, if you will obey the word of God, you will be successful.

Now, folks, it doesn't get any clearer than that.

And then he goes on and he says, I will not fail you nor forsake you if you stay my course.

And then look what he says.

I love verse 8.

After he says, Be strong.

The book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written therein.

Then shall I make the way prosperous, then shall you have good success.

Here it is again, and of good courage.

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.

The Greek word there means discouraged or defeated.

For the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.

Wow.

Wow.

The question this morning is this.

What a great question it is.

Why do you and I need courage?

Four things God taught me.

Four things God taught me out of this passage.

Why did God say to Joshua, hey, be strong and of good courage?

For four good reasons.

Get ready.

Reason number one, for Joshua's sake.

Or you could put under that, why do you and I need courage?

Why does Danny love it?

Pastor Danny, Pastor Rick, Pastor Dave, all of you, why do we need courage?

We need courage for our sake.

For our sake.

God had a lot invested in Joshua.

You don't realize that.

The future of an entire nation rested on his shoulders, folks.

Do you understand the heaviness of that?

Well, let me give you a little heaviness.

Do you realize the success of this church rests on all of our shoulders?

Do you understand that?

Oh, now wait a minute.

God can do anything he wants to, and he can do it right anytime he wants to, and he does it right every time he wants to.

That's right, but he's chosen to use you.

So the success of this church in 22 depends on the leadership of this church, and it depends on the covenant members of this church.

God has invested a lot in you.

Hello.

God has fearfully and wonderfully made you.

Can I get an amen?

So we see there's a lot riding on us.

We need courage.

He invested a lot in Joshua.

The future of the entire nation rested on his shoulders.

And since God has invested in us, hey, we've got to realize that we are an important part of this church.

It can't be done by just the pastors.

It has to be done by all of us.

We're all one together.

You may have been raised in a family like I was that, you know, kind of a divided family.

My dad worked all the time.

He was a fireman on 24 off 24, didn't work then.

My mother worked, and then she got uh caught up in alcohol and became an alcoholic.

So I was kind of on my own.

And some of you uh may have come from a family that, you know, you didn't have any worth, or you felt, you, you felt all alone like I did.

But I'm here to tell you when you join God's family, can I get an amen?

You are no longer worthless, you no longer hey, do not have a purpose.

You've got a purpose, you've got a belonging, you got a family, you got a place, you got a ministry, you got a position, and God is expecting you to come through.

He's not expecting you to go sit on the sideline.

This is one place no one sits on the sideline.

Can I get an amen?

Everybody has a place.

Everybody.

Everybody.

In fact, I love what he said.

If you do it my way, and I got to thinking about that.

Jeremia 29, 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you.

Can I say something this morning?

God knows the thoughts that he has toward you.

Do you realize he's thinking about you?

Say this with me.

God's thinking about me.

Come on, God's thinking about me.

If you don't think you matter, why is he thinking about you?

Hello, amen.

You matter.

You matter to an awesome God.

He loves you.

He created you.

Did you know he knew you even before you were formed in the womb?

Oh, you're special.

You're fearfully and you're wonderfully made.

Psalms 139, verse 14.

Psalms 139:14

Hey, folks, you're special.

Because he's got a plan, he's got a purpose for you.

And he says right there, and I love this, he says, the thoughts of peace.

He says, My thoughts to you are not evil.

They're thoughts of peace and success.

He's thinking about you being successful.

Can I get an amen?

Jeremiah 29, 11 says he's thinking about, hey, you being successful.

He's got a hope for you, he's got a plan for you.

All you've got to do, hey, is have the courage and the strength to fulfill it.

Can I get an amen?

And here's Joshua.

Been following Moses for a long time, 40 plus years.

Now he's dead.

All the responsibility comes upon him.

No wonder he had to be encouraged three different times.

You've been called.

Hey, once you get called of God, you get saved.

You've got a purpose, you've got a mission, God's got a plan for you.

And I'm going to tell you something.

You cannot do it without strength and courage.

You say, why?

Because I've got to.

Oh, thank you.

That's good.

Hey, let me tell you why.

Let me tell you why.

Because what God's got planned for you, you're going to have to have a lot of strength and a lot of courage.

Because he doesn't want you to do little things, he wants you to do great and mighty things.

That's what he wants.

He wants you to do the impossible.

Hey, if you can do it, it's not of God.

Hello.

If the flesh can do it, how much hey, credit does God get?

God's got a lot invested in you.

He didn't save you because, hey, he just wanted to save you and check it off and say, well, bless God, you're going to heaven.

You're not going to hell.

No, there's so much to the Christian life, folks, than just not going to hell.

Now that's pretty good.

I'll check that box off first.

Amen.

But there's a lot more to it.

That's why you have to be strong and courageous.

Number two, why do you have to be strong and courageous?

Not just because of yourself.

But notice what it says.

Verse 9.

For the Lord's sake.

You got to be strong and courageous for the Lord's sake.

Do not be afraid.

Look at verse 9.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

See?

Do you understand what's on?

This is where I really God got my attention.

Adam.

Laughing at me, making my bloopers.

As we were doing our 21 days of fasting and prayer recording.

I did.

And what was bad, I did it twice in a row.

That's uncommon for me after doing this for 30 years.

Usually I can go right there.

We had a good laugh.

But now watch this.

Let me tell you what I understood.

That I never thought about before.

Why do we have to have courage for the Lord's sake?

I mean, why do we have to have courage for the Lord's sake?

I mean, He's the Lord.

He's God.

I don't know.

I I'm not sure I understand this, Father.

God's reputation was on the line.

Now I know what you're saying.

Now wait a minute.

I thought the same thing.

Now, wait a minute, Lord.

Let me tell you what else he showed me that I think you will understand.

God's reputation was on the line.

See, the nations in Canaan, where he's about to cross over and take over and move into, they had heard how God had delivered the Israelites out of slavery.

They had heard how God had drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea.

They had heard how God had fed those 40, uh, hey, for 40 years, those two and a half to three million people in the wilderness with manna from heaven, which I don't understand why they got to grapping about that.

That was cinnamon rolls.

That's good stuff, folks.

Amen.

And started feeding them uh with with quail, white meat.

I meant for 40, they had heard how God had done that.

They had heard, oh my, hey, so how God had brought down the food from heaven.

So had Joshua failed to conquer the promised land, it would have brought reproach to God's name and made his people a laughing stock of the country.

Think about that.

God's, hey, name, God's person was at stake.

He had no choice but to be strong and courageous.

Now, here's what I got to thinking about.

Every ministry God has called me to.

And there's about seven.

If I had not been strong and courageous to fulfill what God had told me to do, his reputation was at stake because I'm standing up making a hey, proclamation that God's called me to do this, and this is God's ministry, not my ministry.

So guess what?

Hey, that means that I cannot sit back and not do what God's called me because his name is at stake as much as mine.

Think on that.

That'll make you think twice about the calling God's given to you.

Now, what does that tell me?

Here's what that tells me.

Are you ready for this?

That in 2022, that building this church and building this ministry over the next 10 to 20 years, God, not only are we at stake, we need courage for ourselves.

We need courage and be strong because we're representing God.

This is God's church, not our church.

Can I get an amen?

And if you think it's your church, I've got news for you.

And if it is your church, and if it's my church, it'll fall.

But if it be of God, as Galio said, it will not fall.

But if it be of man, it will fall.

Wow.

Whew, preacher.

That's a lot of responsibility.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, the Lord has a bigger stake in this church than anyone else.

Think about that.

See, God's plan is to take a, in fact, let me tell you what I saw here.

See, God's plan for Joshua.

His plan, I wrote this down, plan was to bring forth, what was his ultimate plan?

Think about this.

This is awesome.

His ultimate plan was to bring forth the Messiah.

Amen.

Jesus was coming, but bringing forth the Messiah depended on, guess who?

Joshua and the nation Israel's success.

If they had not succeeded, there would have been no Messiah.

There would have been no lineage.

Think about that.

His desire was to take a bunch of slaves and turn them into a great nation on earth, one that served the true and living God, and Joshua had a big part in it.

Now listen to me.

Ooh, boy.

I'm about to have a running spell.

Woo! You and I have a big part in what God wants to do here.

A big part.

In fact, God's plan is to take, hey, like Joshua took a bunch of slaves, God wants to take a bunch of sinners and turn them into a great church who loves God and loves people.

Can we give God a clap offering?

To build the church depends on us.

God needs you.

God needs me.

We've got to be strong and courageous.

For our sake, for God's sake, number three, for the sake of others.

People are watching you.

They want to know if you the situation with courage or buckle before it in fear.

Every time there's a major, can I say something?

People don't get real, they don't really get real excited about victories.

Unless they understand what it costs to get the victory.

And you know what it costs to get a victory?

Courage and strength.

You don't win championships without courage and strength.

You don't build anything for you that own your own business.

You have built your business because of strength and courage.

You don't have winners that quit.

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Never, never.

You say, well it was given to me.

Well it didn't last long.

Most people didn't hear it a lot lose it real quick.

Because they don't understand what it took to get it.

Takes hard work takes strength takes courage time.

So we realize that for the sake of others people are watching.

Hey the righteous are to be bold as lions Proverbs 281 God's not given us a spirit of fear but of power and a love and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1 7.

Folks listen people have to see us hey not in the victory lights but in the lights that are dim when we push through, walk through, fight through whatever it takes to come through the difficulties, the trying times, the most difficult times and still stand with our head and shoulders high saying if God be for us, who can be against us?

And even when it looks like we're going down, we're not going down.

Or if we go down we get right back up.

The righteous fall seven times but they get right back up.

You don't stop, you don't quit.

So we see we do it for the sake of others.

The battle's not just about us.

Now we'll listen what God gave me here.

It's about those God has planned to bless through you.

Do you know God has planned to bless people through you?

You know the Bible says as we have opportunity do good unto your brother, especially those of the household of faith Galatians 6 10 and I got to thinking about that.

I said, ooh that fits.

See you and I may not have money or fame but we have influence.

You have influence over your children.

It's one of the things that God has so convicted me about all my ministry.

Now he's convicted me strongly about ministering to my grandkids.

I have eight now and to pour my life and influence them in the ways and the things of God it's so important.

Billy Sunday made this statement on his dying bed one of the greatest evangelists ever lived he was he got saved at the um in Chicago at the food bank that's it Pacific Garden Missions.

And he was a baseball player real good boy played Pro Bowl.

And he got into evangelism and went all over the world preaching 1000s millions of people to Christ crusades everywhere.

On his dying bed he looked up his sweet wife and said honey I've won the world but I've lost my family that's not right folks.

Preachers that's not right so what I saw here was such an unbelievable we have influence we have influence the attitudes that you and I display and the decisions you and I make will influence our children and our grandchildren and you say yes I know I'm afraid I'm afraid but let me remind you what David said and I love this when we do experience that fear and we will the psalmist declared this he said whenever I am afraid I will trust in you wow so why do we need courage and strength for our own sake for the Lord's sake for the sake of others and then the last thing why do we need courage and strength?

Number four for your enemy's sake uh oh your enemy's sake what are you talking about preacher?

Watch this this is good for your enemy's sake David wrote you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies woo Psalms 235 God will not only fight for you he will vindicate you in the eyes of your critics it's good to have critics and competitors I thought to myself why is it good to have critics and competitors sometimes a foe or a critic or a competitor will press you into victory where a friend cannot they'll make you back up.

They'll make you think through they'll make you look ahead and say okay I'm in a battle here I'm in a competition here I'm in a situation here.

How am I going to walk through this?

God give me wisdom.

God give me direction God give me strength give me hey hey wisdom to overcome this battle we see that throughout the whole Old Testament with David you had never heard of David without Goliath.

Oh he was just a little shepherd boy.

Actually he was a little shepherd boy when he was taken by God and placed to take on the greatest champion that had never lost a battle for years the greatest warrior ever named Goliath.

Just a little shepherd boy the king decided once he was going to let David fight him I'm going to give you my armor you remember Saul was ten feet tall.

He's a big man literally David was 5'8 that armor's going to fit very well David said I can't fight with this isn't it amazing Saul told him you can't do it and then when he told him you hey after David convinced him David looked at him he said let me tell you something king I've heard you say I'm too little I'm frecklefaced I can't do this I can't I can't he said well let me just tell you what I can do I was tending my father's sheep and a bear came out and I killed the bear and the lion came out and I killed the lion with my bare hands now you ought to ask yourself how did the little shepherd boy kill the lion with his bare hands I know the answer he shot him first with the sling.

He killed the bear with the sling there's no doubt you say what do you mean sling slingshot he was the fastest sling in the West what do you think he did 12 hours a day rabbit poop poop poop now y'all laughing at me and y'all think I'm crazy.

If you'd read your Bible it'd help my preaching do you realize sharp shooters you're going to get that as a blipper one sharp shooters guess what we didn't have A.R.

15s in David's time but we did have slings a sling was like a sharp shooter in the Old Testament.

And David was the best of the best he had wide earth beat he's the best of the best and so when that line came out boom boom now I know what you're saying now wait a minute you you're stretching the scriptures the Bible says he went over there and took his hand with the lion's mouth and broke his neck yeah after he knocked him out with the sling just a thought and I got to thinking are you ready for this who would have known about Moses if there had not been no Pharaoh oppressing God's people and what would have been known about Esther without Haman's evil plot against the Jews so ladies and gentlemen CCW some of our biggest opponents I'm not going to call them enemies I'm going to call them opponents will be giants that we don't even know yet some of your biggest opponents in your young life teenagers are going to be some Goliaths around the corner that you don't even know yet but because you are walking with God and you're you've got strength and courage and an awesome real God listen to me those giants will fall every time if he's your strength and he's your courage because if God be for you nay in all things we're more than conquerors.

Romans 831 Romans 837 are you with me church greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

Amen so what's your dream is there an enemy there will be that stands between you and your dream's fulfillment but dare hey dare to confront that enemy and that enemy will become the instrument that God uses to press you and squeeze you and form you into the destiny that God wants for you and your life because he's got a plan and he's got a purpose let me tell you about a young man