Everyday Courage • Part 1 with Andy Stanley

Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast, weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus.

Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more.

And now, this week's message.

So I want to welcome all of our friends from all over the country, all over the world that join us week after week.

It's amazing, all of our Atlanta area churches.

And I want to say especially welcome to our friends in Peace Tree City, uh, Fayetteville, Chath Hills, and Noonan.

If you have friends that live on the south side of the city, there are four amazing churches on the south side of the city that join us almost every week.

And we'd love for them to be able to join us and join you in worship.

And so let them know about these amazing churches down there and uh the extraordinary leadership they have on the south side.

It really is wonderful.

So today now we're beginning a brand new series, a four-part series entitled Everyday Courage.

And to begin with, to kind of get us all on the same page, I want you to think back for a moment and think about what is the most what is the most courageous thing you've ever done?

And let me define it, let me kind of narrow the focus for just a minute.

What is the most courageous thing you've ever done?

Not cave diving and rock climbing and scuba diving and you know, bungee jumping and all that sort of stuff, okay?

What is what is the decision that you made, the decision you that you made that you wrestled with for quite some time, and because you knew that decision could change or would change the direction of your life.

The decision perhaps that you tried to talk yourself out of, maybe other people tried to talk you out of, but you just knew this is what you needed to do, and you didn't know how it was gonna work out.

There was no guaranteed outcome, there was no way to know if there would be a bow.

You just knew you needed to do it.

What is the bravest thing you ever did, maybe relationally, uh professionally, um academically, or in some other arena of your life, and you're glad you did it.

In fact, it when you think back on that decision, it kind of scares you to think about what would have happened if you had not had made that specific decision.

Now, while you're thinking, I'll tell you, Sandra, what Sandra would tell you was the bravest thing that I ever did, and that was to ask her to marry me.

And um, if she were telling this story, she would say, I know it was the most courageous thing Andy ever did because he was pale.

Um she says this, I've heard her tell this story so many times.

I thought Andy was going to pass out.

Apparently, I look so frightened when I asked her to marry me.

She said, and I quote, this is her response when I ask her, you don't have to do this, you know.

That is not an exaggeration.

It wasn't it was not a romantic moment.

I was on my knees and I asked her to marry me, and she looked at me and she said, not yes, not no, you don't have to do this, you know.

Anyway, but it scares me to think about where I would.

I know, this is terrible.

I don't know why you listen to anything I have to say.

But anyway, it scares me to think about where I would be or wouldn't be if I hadn't asked her to marry me and if she had not said yes.

Now here's something we've all observed, and this is where we're gonna go for the next few weeks, because this is relevant to all of us, regardless if you're a person of faith or not, or of a different faith tradition.

Something we've all observed, something we have certainly all read about and studied in school, and perhaps this is something you've experienced personally, that a single act of courage, a single act of courage, is often the catalyst for extraordinary.

That a single act of courage, that one decision, and we know this again on the, you know, historically on the epic scale, but a single act of courage is often the catalyst for something extraordinary.

Now, when we think about the stories we read in school and studied in history, um historically this rarely happens in a vacuum.

You know, the table is kind of set, uh, circumstances are all in place, there's tension, there's fear, there's all kinds of stuff, and then somebody acts, and somebody goes first.

And when they go first, it sets off a string of events, it set things, it sets things in motion that really, in many cases, changes history and changes the lives of tens of thousands of people for generations.

Um, you know, one in near and dear to me because of what I do in the year 1517, October the 31st, Martin Luther nailing his 95 objections to church practice on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, that really set off the Protestant Reformation.

He had no idea.

He was just, you know, just one of many who were doing what he did, but he was finally fed up and said, somebody's got to step up and do something.

The men who had the courage to sign, not just agree with, to put their names on this to sign the Declaration of Independence and then to distribute that and publish that, and in some ways they signed their own death warrant.

A Rosa Parks just decided on that afternoon.

She just refused to leave her seat.

She just didn't care.

She was just an ordinary person.

She had no idea what hung in the balance of that one single act of courage.

And again, the stories go on and on and on, and you have your favorites, and they're part of the stories you read, the novels you read, the movies you love.

And the problem is, while it's tempting, while it's tempting, it's a mistake to discount these epic narratives as exceptions to the rule.

They're not exceptions to the rule.

They simply illustrate a rule that is actually a principle that works in the background of each and every one of our lives.

These were just ordinary people.

They didn't know how their single act of courage would play out.

We know their stories.

We know their stories.

They didn't.

We know their stories after the fact, they didn't.

And they wouldn't have had a story to know apart from that single act of courage.

A decision, a single decision in many cases, a single decision that set something in motion that played out over generations.

And here's the thing I want you to hear today.

The same principle that plays out on an epic scale has the potential to play out in our less than epic lives, with our less than epic challenges and our less than epic temptations and our less than epic opportunities.

Many of us, in fact, this is how you know this is true, many of us have actually benefited personally because someone whose name will never be known outside a very small circle of people did the courageous thing that impacted you, impacted me.

Maybe it was your parents who decided not to split up when they had every reason to split up, and they didn't, and they raised you in a home that it would that stayed whole because of a courageous decision to do the hard thing and to stay together.

Maybe it was your mother's epic, courageous decision to have you when pressured by people not to, when circumstances, when circumstances said this is the unwise thing to do, this is the unhealthy thing to do, and she decided to bring you into this world anyway.

Maybe it was your grandparents who stepped up and took you out of a home or took you in and raised you because circumstances surrounding you otherwise would not have been the best.

Maybe it was a boss or a coach's courage to give you a second chance that you knew then and you know now that you didn't deserve, and it changed the trajectory of your life.

So this isn't just history, this isn't just the famous people.

This this operates in the background or potentially operates in the background of our lives every single day.

And the thing is, and that goes without saying, but if we knew how the story would end, right?

If we knew that a single decision would be the tipping point for something extraordinary, if we knew, we wouldn't hesitate.

But we don't know.

If if we knew that the end of the story would be worth the struggle during the story, it's easy.

But we don't know.

And courage, the thing that makes courage courage, courage always entails risk, right?

It always demands sacrifice, there's always a season of endurance, and there's no promise, there's no bow.

But the opposite is true as well.

The opposite has worked out to some extent in all of our lives.

So we should know better.

A lack of courage, a lack of courage, a failure of nerve, a failure to act can set things in motion for generations as well, right?

Perhaps you can't imagine, perhaps you can imagine how much better off you would be and your life would have been if your father or your mother had had the courage to stay, had had the courage to ask for help, to have had the courage to confront their husband or their wife in order to help to get them to get the help that they needed, to maybe address an addiction or to leave a toxic relationship.

Perhaps you can imagine if you'd had the courage to say no to that invitation that you knew you should have said no to, but you just didn't have this courage to do it.

The courage to walk away from something, the courage to walk away from somebody, courage to simply do the right thing, and in the moment you knew the thing to do, and you just didn't do it.

And you look at where that led.

And maybe you're still facing the consequences of that simple decision, maybe in a different season, a previous season of life.

So the point is, this is a really big deal, even though we aren't really big deals.

And it's a really big deal because we don't know what or who hangs in the balance of our decision to act, that hangs in the balance of a single act of courage that perhaps has the catalyst for something extraordinary, both for us, our families, or something even broader.

Now, if you're not a person of faith, um, everything I've just said, you probably agree with, and it may have brought some things to mind.

It may have brought some regrets to mind, it may have brought your family of origin to mind, it may have made you more grateful for your parents, or yeah, I wish my parents had had more courage, or my father had stepped up, or mom had stepped up.

So maybe you can agree with, and you know, maybe you can identify with everything that came so far.

Um but um if you're not a person of faith, everything I say from this point forward you might find curious, but maybe you don't feel like it applies to you.

But the reason I'm glad you're here, the reason I'm glad you're watching, if you are considering, if you are considering becoming a Jesus follower, even though you already have some metric or some grid through which you make decisions and how you determine what's too much risk and what's adequate risk and what's an okay level of risk.

I mean, you've kind of worked that out in your world.

But if you've if you are considering becoming a Jesus follower, if you're at all curious, I hope you'll pay attention to what follows, because this is part of what it means to follow Jesus.

For Jesus followers, this whole dynamic I've laid out, for this whole dynamic and this tension I've laid out, there is an additional facet to all of this.

And evidence of the fact that there is a different facet to all of this is the fact that there are that catalytic events of courage and courageous events are scattered throughout the history of both Judaism and Christianity.

Going all the way back to the Old Testament, if you grew up in church, you know the story of Abraham, who left the security of home and family to go to who knows where because he felt like that's what God prompted him to do.

Or you're familiar with the story of Old Testament Joseph, who forgave, this is amazing, who had the courage to forgive and then rescue rather than execute his brothers who sold him into slavery because he felt like God was with him.

Or the epic story of Moses who returns to Egypt after leaving Egypt as a fugitive for murdering one of Pharaoh's soldiers, who decides because God prompted him to go back to Egypt and not just go back to Egypt to face down the most powerful person in the world.

Or the story of Joshua, Joshua, who led a nation across the Jordan River into hostile territory with no guarantee except that God told him to do it.

Or, of course, the story of David that most of us grew up hearing over and over and over, who as a kid saw what was happening as Israel faced the Philistine armies across the Valley of Eli, who saw it differently than everyone else and felt prompted by God to march down into the valley and confront a literal giant.

Or the story of New Testament Joseph, the one we all know and talk about at Christmas, risking so much to take Mary as his wife.

Then again, a sidebar if an angel appears and gives you specific instructions, that certainly helps.

Anyway, so we had that advantage.

Or, of course, Jesus, who left the safety of Galilee and went to Jerusalem and walked into the lion's den, who walked into a situation where he knew it would not go well for him.

And he went anyway because this was God's will for him.

Or the Apostle Paul, who, in a similar way, after years of traveling around the Mediterranean basin and planting all kinds of churches, decides that God wants him to go back to Jerusalem.

And all along the way, it's so fascinating in the book of Acts, all along the way he is warned don't go, don't go, don't go.

Things are not going to go well for you.

But he knew it's what God wanted him to do.

Here's what I want you to hear if you're a Jesus follower or considering it.

The dynamic that sets these expressions of courage apart, the dynamic that connects their stories together, the thing those stories all have in common, the dynamic that connects our stories and their our stories and their stories to each other is simply this.

There's a differentiator.

And the differentiator is a different understanding of what it means to win.

For them, for that group, and for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, the win is not the outcome.

The win is the decision to act, to obey, to say yes.

A yes that often defies common sense.

A yes that often defies conventional wisdom.

A yes that causes bystanders to wonder what's wrong with you because there's nothing in it for you.

Regardless of the potential of the outcome.

Because as Jesus' followers, we know better than to take responsibility for outcomes.

Outcomes are not our responsibility.

Our responsibility is the only thing we can control, which is our response to our king.

So we say yes, and then we go to bed with a clear conscience and accept the outcomes as coming from the hands of our heavenly Father.

We win when we follow.

We win when we obey.

That is the win.

It's not the outcome of our expression of courage, it's our decision to act because that's God's will for us, knowing that outcomes are in God's hands.

This is why.

This is why there's something that Jesus said that perhaps has disturbed you.

Um, because every once in a while, when you read something that Jesus says, you want to go, okay, wait a minute.

Do you know my story?

I mean, do you know what's going on in my family?

Do you know what's going on in my life?

I mean, that's easy for you to say 2,000 years ago, but I'm not so sure you would say that to me personally if you knew what was going on in my life.

And this is one of those statements.

This is a statement that is an imperative.

Jesus says, this is what you're to do, if you're gonna follow me.

But there's something in us, if we don't understand the context, where this seems so insensitive.

Because how can you just, how can you say that without taking my circumstances into consideration?

And this is what he says.

This is what he had the audacity to say.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, to which we say, do you know what's on my schedule tomorrow?

Do you know what I have to do tomorrow?

Do you know what I'm not sure is going to be there for me tomorrow?

How can you just say, therefore, don't worry about tomorrow?

But here's the amazing thing.

Jesus knew what he was doing.

This imperative was directed to a very specific audience.

And the term therefore tips us off to that being the case.

Do not worry, do not worry is actually an application of what came before.

And what came before is this.

But seek first, make a priority, wrap your life around, wrap your priorities around, wrap your heart and mind around, but seek first my father's kingdom, my father's kingdom agenda, and seek first his understanding of justice and righteousness on earth.

The promise, do not worry, the command, do not worry, was directed to men and women who had predecided to embrace and prioritize the kingdom agenda of Jesus.

Those who had already said yes to the invitation to follow me, trust me, with outcomes.

This was an invitation, this was a promise to those who did not evaluate their decisions based on the future, based on what would transpire tomorrow.

The point being, yes is the win.

Yes is the win.

Your single act of courage, your stepping into the gap, your moving in spite of the consequences, in spite of what might transpire.

That is the win if you are a follower of Jesus.

Your yes that sets things in motion with implications for the future.

Something, something you may not even live or see to appreciate.

Now, this is a really big deal to me for a couple of reasons.

And it's one of the reasons I wanted to spend several weeks talking about it, not just kind of drop this bomb and then move on to something else.

Um, one reason this is such a big deal to me, and one reason I have so much confidence bringing this to you, even though it's a little bit open-ended and could easily be misunderstood.

One of the big reasons is I have seen this play out in the lives of so many Jesus followers throughout the years that I've been paying attention, and throughout the years I've had the opportunity to hear hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stories.

These were people who felt that internal nudge and they were confident this is what God had for them, even though there was nothing in it for them.

That internal nudge to leave something, that internal nudge to commit to something, an internal nudge to start something, or that internal nudge that's so difficult that we're gonna talk about in a couple of weeks, to confess something, or to ask for help, to seek help for something, that internal nudge when everybody kept their mouth shut to speak up and to say something, or interrupt something, or confront something, or confront somebody, or refuse something that everybody said, How can you say no to that?

Story after story after story.

Average people who were nudged out of their comfort zone, who always paid a price for stepping up and stepping in.

But you know what their story is?

Their story is a story of peace.

Because they said yes, they acted, and then they went to bed with a clear conscience, knowing that the future was in the hands of their Heavenly Father, and they had predecided that they would accept the outcome and accept the consequences because the win wasn't measured by tomorrow.

The win was determined by their decision to say yes.

They won because they obeyed, they followed, they sought first the kingdom agenda of their king, and they left the outcome up to the one.

Only one who controls outcomes.

But I think the primary driver for me in my life personally, behind this whole principle, that has that has been so instrumental in some of the biggest decisions that I've made and that Sandra and I have made together is what I saw played out when I was young in my family, that played out in a very dramatic way within the context of our little lives compared to what else was going on in the world.

I was in the eighth grade, and I've told this story before, and I've written about it, so I'm not going to give you the details today.

But I what when I was in the eighth grade, I watched my dad, who was a pastor, risk his reputation and risk his job and risk his career over a decision to do what he felt like God told him to do, and there was not going to be a bow.

I mean, all of the predicted outcomes were all bad.

In fact, during the chaos of that couple of years, my dad, this is hard to believe, was physically assaulted by a deacon in the church on a Wednesday night during a business meeting when he was standing on the platform.

And this guy walked up.

I was sitting in a pew.

A guy walks up and he was giving an announcement and he used profanity.

And this is like, you know, and when I was in the eighth, this is so long ago, we don't even do that now, at least not on purpose.

And my dad walks up to this guy and said, We're not going to use that kind of language.

And my this guy turns around and hits my dad in the jaw, and I'm sitting in church.

And what I learned then, what I discovered then, is that there are some things worth risking for.

There are some things worth sacrificing for.

There are moments in time when you just have to do what you know you need to do and you can't control outcomes, and you just say, God, outcomes are in your hands.

I just have to do what I know you want me to do.

And it was during that season of his life and the life of our family that he began to say to me, which became sort of his the theme in his life, he would say, Andy, you obey God and you leave all the consequences to him.

You obey God, and that was his way of saying, that's the win.

You obey God and you leave all the consequences to him.

And seeing that played out in real time in such a dramatic way, of course it left, of course it left an impression on me.

The other thing was many years later, I was with him in a very, very contentious interview.

He was being interviewed by some media, and there was a person who really did not like him who was also part of the the interview.

They were interviewing two different gentlemen.

And it was when my dad was had been nominated to be the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the election was either the next day or the day after that.

And a reporter, I remember her name, Channel 8 in Dallas, Texas.

And I was sitting there and sort of against the wall watching all this.

And she said to my dad, she said, Dr.

Stanley, do you think you'll win tomorrow or you know, day after tomorrow, whatever it was?

Do you think you'll win?

And with perfect peace, he says, If I win, I win.

If I lose, I win.

Because my responsibility is to obey God and leave outcomes to him.

It's that simple.

And then you live with peace of mind.

And you accept the outcomes as coming from the hands of your Father in heaven.

So here's what I know because our audience is so large, and there's so many of you watching from so many places in the world.

Somebody here or there, you feel like I'm talking directly to you because of what's going on in your life.

You feel like I'm talking to you because of, because one of these has your name on it.

One of these is when I said and I said it, you thought, oh, how did he know?

Of course I didn't know.

This is just, this is just common to man.

This is just the human experience.

This is the differentiator that you have been invited to as a follower of Jesus.

There's something or someone that you need to walk away from, and you know.

There's something you need to go ahead and just commit to and make it public.

There's something you need to start, there's something you need to confess, and you are scared to death to confess it, but you know you need to.

And what causes you to be afraid is you don't know what the outcome's gonna be, but you know it's not gonna be good.

Welcome to the invitation.

Follow Jesus.

You need help, but you're afraid to ask for help because of your ego and your pride, and what is your wife or husband gonna think, and what are your kids gonna think, and what if the people at work find out, but you know you need to do it.

This is your opportunity to step into a non-epic event where you become the hero in your story because you said yes.

Or maybe it's something you need to say, something you need to interrupt, someone or something you need to confront, or something you need to begin saying no to.

But when you think about the potential consequences, when you think about the outcome, it's terrifying.

You think about the hurt you're gonna cause when other people find out, or when you turn around and do something different than you've been doing, when you think about the confusion you're gonna cause, the loss of influence, the loss of income, the loss of opportunity, the loss of reputation.

So you hesitate.

Of course you do, because of fear.

And I get that.

And the truth is it may be worse than you imagine.

And if that's you, I want you to spend some time with this question.

Some time between today and part two of this series with this question.

For you.

What is the win?

What's the win?

Is the win for you safety?

Security?

Status quo?

Pretending?

Maintaining a reputation that doesn't even reflect who you really are?

Is that the win?

Are those things the boss of you?

Are those things the Lord of you?

Is that what you to get kind of religious on you?

Is that what you worship?

Because if you know what you need to do and you don't do it, and there's something keeping you from doing what you know you need to do, do you realize that is the boss of you?

That has become your Lord?

There's something you worship other than simply doing what God in heaven, who sent his son to pay for your sins, is prompting you to do?

Is that really what you want to submit to in this season of your life or for the rest of your life?

When you're looking back, I mean, you know how you know how this works.

This isn't new.

When you're looking back on today, when you're looking back on this season, when you're looking back on this opportunity to do what you know you need to do, when you're looking back, what do you want to look back on?

What story do you want to tell?

What story do you want to tell your children someday, even if you don't have children yet?

What story do you want your children to tell about you?

What's the win?

Preservation?

Or is the win knowing that you are in the center of God's will for you, which by the way, is the safest place you can ever be.

Because God takes full responsibility for the life that is fully devoted to Him.

A single act of courage is often the catalyst for extraordinary.

Everyday courage, everyday courage, everyday courage, the courage that you need in your non-epic life that's only going to influence a handful of people if we're all honest.

Everyday courage is what makes ordinary or creates the potential for ordinary to become extraordinary.

And if you know, if you know, then you should press go.

If you know, if you're confident, and if what's holding you back is your fear of the outcome, your fear of the future, the way you imagine this playing out.

If you are a follower of Jesus and you know what you need to do, then you are on the precipice of making a decision that has the potential to do far more than you could ever imagine, and to bring about more change than you anticipate, if you're willing to make the decision and decide the when isn't what happens, the when is the fact that I said yes, that I chose to follow with no guaranteed outcome.

Just the assurance that God is with me.

If you go back and you read all of the stories throughout Jewish history and Christian history, what you discover is a group of men and women who have gotten us to where we are today as the church.

And their story is a story of courage in spite of adversity, with the confidence that God was with them.

And the same God who was with them is the same God who will walk with you.

But the first decision is this decision.

What's the win?

What's the win?

What's the win?

And if you are a Jesus follower, the win is yes.

The win is yes.

The win is to step up and to obey and then go to bed tonight with a clear conscience.

Because you have placed your entire life and future in the hands of your faithful heavenly Father.

What's the win?

And we will pick it up right there next time in part two of every day.

Courage.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father.

This lands with each of us in some way.

For some of us, it brings back memories who we're so grateful for.

It makes us grateful for our parents.

It makes us grateful for a boss.

It makes us grateful for somebody who took a chance.

For others of us, it's just so challenging because we know, we know, we know, we know.

But when we think about the other side of yes, the other side of follow, it's terrifying.

So, Father, wherever this lands with us, would you please give us your eyes to see it the way you see it?

And that we would see beyond tomorrow, and we wouldn't let our anticipation of tomorrow to be the Lord of us, when in fact we've been invited to follow the one who controls, who knows tomorrow.

Thank you for the men and women who were courageous before us, who impacted our lives.

We don't even know their names, we don't even know their stories.

And would you give us the wisdom to know what to do with what we've just heard?

And then the courage to pack up our fear and to move forward.

Father, for the person who's listening or watching and they're not a person of faith, this sounds interesting, but I don't know.

Would you even speak to them, regardless of whether they become a person of faith or not?

If there's something they're struggling with or wrestling with, give them the courage to confess, to move, to move out, to move on, to start, to stop, to refuse, whatever it is.

But I pray that we live our lives in such a way that bring honor to you, that safety and security would not be the boss of us, the Lord of us.

The status quo wouldn't be the Lord of us, that fear wouldn't be the Lord of us, but that Jesus, our Lord, would be the Lord of our decisions.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.