Built To Last - Week 3 - Ti'eshia Moore - May 10, 2026

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the City Place Church Podcast.

Please join me in a moment of prayer before we get started.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the person listening to this prayer.

I ask that you would help open their mind and their heart, and that you would speak directly to them through today's message.

In the name of your son, my brother, Jesus Christ, I pray.

Amen.

Come on, it's Sisterhood Sunday.

And we know that sisters come in a lot of packages and forms and ages and stages, and we are just here to say this morning that regardless of what phase of life you're in, we see you.

We are so excited to be God's girls this morning.

And just as a bonus, we'll give, give a little love and attention to our men, too.

We're so thankful.

Did y'all get roses as you walked in this morning? On behalf of the man cave, they were telling all of the women, like, "We see you," and we're so grateful that we have a church that both honors our men and our women at every age and stage of life.

Thank you, gentlemen, for doing all that you do.

And ladies, it's not done.

We're just getting started, okay? Despite what Pastor was trying to do, distract you this morning with the Cabbage Patch and all kinds of other things, we are here to lock in and to celebrate all that God is doing.

And so I hope, I hope, it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to, uh, to be with you on this side.

Um, but I hope that you won't leave me hanging.

I, I believe my girls will represent, but I believe, fellas, that you will, too.

Am I wrong? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I'm-- I meant, am I right? That's what I should have said.

Am I right? I'm never wrong Ladies are never wrong, so I need to rephrase, I need to rephrase that.

I just wanna make sure you won't leave me hanging, that you won't be a quiet church this morning, because I know that's not who you are.

And so I know that if something hits you, if God is saying something good, you will talk back in the best kinda way.

All right, good.

So over the course of a couple of weeks, we've been, uh, in the, uh, in this passage, in this series really about going from, uh, a, a...

Going into cautious, right? And, and having this peace of our life and understanding what it looks like to break free of that into courageous.

And for the last few weeks, uh, I'll, I'll be joining in line with exactly what we've been talking about.

We've been parked all over scripture, but I've really loved the time that we've spent in the Book of Joshua.

And go with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Joshua 1:9.

Joshua 1:9

I know that you've come prepared this morning.

Say, "Yes."

Yes.

Say, "Yes, I have come prepared."

You know, I like when I'm here and all the time, Mama likes real pages that turn and make real sounds like this.

I like Bibles because they are undistracted.

I like Bibles because stuff jumps out of the page.

Call me old school if you want to, but that's okay.

This is the way that God continues to speak.

That's right, I hear them pages.

I hear them pages.

I like them pages.

Go ahead and move them pages.

We're in Joshua 1:9, and if you're new school, uh, I don't know what, what generation new school is anymore.

Joshua 1:9

Every time I see something online, they're like, "Well, if you were born past this, you're unc."

And I'm like, "What? I'm, I'm a who? I'm a female.

I'm not an uncle to anybody.

What are you talking about?" So I don't know what's considered young, but it doesn't matter.

If you're young and you don't have old school pages, we've got you covered too.

In Joshua 1:9, we jumped into this verse a few weeks ago, and, and the Lord was speaking to Joshua at a very critical moment, and today we're gonna unpack it.

Joshua 1:9

The verse goes like this: "Have I not commanded you: Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

And Pastor gave us a, an encouragement that we can't just read scripture as a nameless, faceless thing.

Scripture is not intended for somebody, it's intended for you.

Right.

It's not a book of history.

It's a book of God still speaking all these years later.

And so he gave us the challenge to say, "Hey, how about if you and I put your name in the verse and personalize it?" And so just to make sure that we're still in the same building and you're still ready to talk back to me, we're gonna do it this morning.

So why don't we try this slide.

You're gonna have a little line right before we say, "Have I not commanded you," and you're gonna put your name in here.

And you're not gonna do it real cute and quiet.

You're gonna disturb your neighbor, and you're gonna say your name, and then we're gonna repeat the rest of the verse all together.

We're gonna read it as one family.

Are you ready? One, two, three.

Amanda.

Have I not commanded you: Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid- Nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go Now, I love this verse that we've been reading, and I love that we've personalized it.

I love that the God of all creation decides to see about you and me.

I love that he decides to say, "This is not just a verse for Joshua," although Joshua needed this commandment.

It's a verse exactly for you in exactly the moment that you need to read it.

And when we put our name in it with conviction, we have to ask ourselves, "Where are the places in my life where the Lord is actually asking me to be strong and courageous? Where are the places in my life where I need to not have fear or be dismayed? Where are the places in my life where God is speaking that he goes with me wherever I am?" This is what it looks like to move from cautious to courageous.

You know, if you come to my house, at the side of my television are two baskets, and inside of the baskets are a plethora of blankets.

And I love my living room space.

You know, I, I, I always tell people I dress for comfort and I prepare for comfort everywhere I go.

In fact, I was intending on looking cute this morning, but then I thought about it and I said, "Babe, I don't know if I wanna be uncomfortable in them high wedges."

I don't know.

Anything could happen as you're trying to walk up steps, and I really don't want that kind of Mother's Day celebration, if you know what I mean.

And so I said, "No, I'm gonna wear tennis shoes and I'm gonna wear jeans because it's time to dress for comfort."

And I wanna be cute and I wanna do all the things, but comfort trumps the cuteness.

Okay, gentlemen, just, just play along.

You don't, you don't have to worry about wedges and high heels and whether something is too tight in, in weird places.

But I wanna unpack this idea of comfort this morning, because the truth of the matter is, just like my living room, when I wrap myself around a blanket on a Sunday afternoon, if you happen to be in my living room at said time, after Sunday, when I'm already put on my pajama pants.

You know what I'm saying? And you happen to be over visiting, what happens, Sean? 'Cause Sean's been there a time or two.

It's nap time.

It's nap time.

And it really doesn't matter if you are in my house or not.

If you are there, I will say good night in the name of Jesus and take my blanket, and I will either fall asleep with you in my living room, or I will excuse myself to go take a Sunday nap, because that's what Sundays are made for.

But you know, you and I have sort of a spiritual problem, and it's almost as though some pieces of our life every day is like a Sunday afternoon.

We wrap blankets around ourselves, and we obsess over comfort.

Mm.

That's good.

All right now.

Come on.

All right.

That's good.

When I'm, when I'm, when I'm, when I'm in the grocery store, I'm here for comfort.

Right.

When I'm in my job, I'm here for comfort.

When I'm engaging in something that God has called me to do, I'm here for comfort, and if it's uncomfortable- Mm I have issues.

Sometimes I have issues with you, watch, and sometimes I have issues with God, who has made me uncomfortable.

All right.

Yeah.

Come on.

It's an obsession that we've taken with this idea of comfort, and so this morning as we talk about moving from our cautiousness to courageousness, we have to get un-in-love with comfort.

All right.

Yeah.

Come on.

We have to understand that the first thing that needs to happen as we make this transition is that when God agitates us, he is agitating us out of comfort.

Yeah.

That's good.

He's saying, "Take your blanket and your Sunday nap self and your sneakers and your pajama pants and stop presuming that because I've made it difficult, I'm not in it."

That's good.

All right now.

Come on now.

He's moving us from cautious to courageous, but it begins with agitating comfort.

That's good.

Yeah.

We ask ourselves questions like, and give ourselves fantasies that believe that our life, if it, if it's a good life, and if God's a good god, and if our good God is really in our lives looking after us just so, that the words like cozy and easy and good and comfortable should all be in the equation.

But what happens when we serve a God who still loves us, who's still trying to move us into courageousness, said, says, "In order for you to move to courageous, I need you to be un-in-love with comfort first"? Yeah.

So good.

So good.

I asked AI- to give me an understanding of what comfort looks like in pictures, and it gave me three.

This is what it showed me.

It showed me a picture of 9/11 of firefighters moving up into a building even though people were moving down in a building.

It showed me a picture of the Greensboro sit-ins- Where men and women joined a counter even though they were not intended or allowed to be there.

People behind them gave them personal threats and the fear of, of escalation and law enforcement were behind them, but they sat down.

It gave me the picture, 1989 in Tiananmen Square, which is now incredibly famous but being a little bit fuzzy from our memory, when one unnamed, unknown gentleman stood in front of a line of tankers as Beijing was under military lockdown, and the people did not know what to do.

It gave me pictures of political defiance and resistance and personal bravery.

In none of these pictures, when now we think about courage and we think, "Wow, that's courageous," not one of these pictures represents a moment in time where any one of these people were cozy or comfortable.

Yeah.

None of these pictures represents everything that somebody like you and I would call a good day.

Yeah.

None of these pictures do not represent something or someone under pressure.

All right.

They don't represent healthy or strong or perfect, but they do represent courage.

Yeah.

That's good.

The problem that I have as we've been talking about comfort and courageous and, and even all of the steps in between, is that sometimes if we do not adequately understand what courage looks like biblically, we will miss the mark of what God is actually speaking to Joshua in the verse that we just read.

And so over the past few weeks, we've been saying this, and courage looks like cautious, cautiousness that goes to consistency and then turns consistency into commitment, commitment into courage.

And each one of those steps is a connection back to God, and it all starts with us being willing to be uncomfortable.

That's good.

But I wonder in a journey like this, if we look at this and we say, "Well, I'm, I'm gonna become more committed.

Pastor, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be here more often.

I'm going to faithfully give.

I'm going to begin serving.

I'm going to lean into God.

I'm going to read my Bible, and I'm doing that," I wonder if we take steps given our own devices in our own journey if we're doing it courageously or cautiously.

Let me unpack this by telling you a story.

I, a, a few years ago, a few 15, 20, whatever, I don't know.

I was in a small group, and it was called Run For God We were in Wilson, North Carolina, and my husband can attest to this.

I joined this small group, and they said, "Girls, we're gonna get together once a week.

We're going to read a small devotional, and then we're gonna begin to walk."

And I was like, "Great.

I'm in.

Can't wait."

I get to the first Bible study, and the leader of the Bible study says at the end of the Bible study, which was, like, a few short weeks, a semester, she said, "We're gonna run a 5K together."

I said, "Oh, are we? I'm here to walk."

I was cautious as I approached this Bible study, you know what I'm saying? But I turned up faithfully every, every week, and I was committed, so my cautiousness went to commitment.

You see what I'm saying? And so then the next step in the journey was that I was going and I was committed, and then she said, "This week, we're gonna begin to jog."

And I said, "Oh, are we? 'Cause I came to walk."

You see, I came to be cautious with this thing.

I didn't promise to go run no 5Ks, and I wasn't trying to get my heart rate elevated.

I was just here to walk.

And so we start jogging, and all of a sudden, I'm, I'm doing this jog, and I realize that I can make it a little while before needing to go back to my walk.

And so it gets closer to the end of the Bible study.

And I'm here to confess to you and now to the small group leader that led me all those years ago.

We get to the Saturday of the 5K, and you guys, just the week before, the leader says, "We're going to practice, and we're gonna ensure...

I'm gonna show you that everyone here can do this 5K."

And so I start jogging with the girls next to me, and lo and behold, I made it through the practice run.

But in my mind, I'm not a runner, and I didn't know.

I'd never run a 5K.

Some of y'all be running all kinds of places, 20 miles.

I don't know why.

Somebody's chasing you? What's wrong? I, I don't know why.

And so I was like, "I'm not...

I-- She is not I.

I am not she," okay? I, I, I...

But I made it.

And when it came time for the Saturday of the 5K that we had all signed up for, I found a yard sale to go to instead.

I'm not playing.

And then I told the group, "I'm sorry, I have a prior commitment."

And I never ran the 5K.

My husband turned to me and he said, "Boo, you did what? You told those people you had a commitment."

I did have a commitment.

I was, I was on mission, finding a deal at my neighbor's house for two quarters for that book that I really wanted.

Now leave me be.

As I think about that, I think about exactly this path, because oftentimes this is what the steps look like in order for us to become courageous humans.

But what we believe, what courage is not, is one giant leap- From fear to bravery.

That's good.

In our minds, we like to think about the Greensboro sit-ins and the, and the f- and the New York firefighters and the Tenement Square, and the people who do great things, and they speak their mind, and they're on TV, and you find them on Instagram, and they're doing something, and they are so brave because they've made one giant leap forward, and that's not you.

But let me tell you what biblical courage actually looks like.

It's making the steps towards God faithfully, committed, consistent, and getting every day more and more courageous.

That is what courage actually looks like.

In fact, today what I would like to do is give you four steps of biblical courage, because if we're not careful, we would idolize the people that do things that we would tell ourselves, like the 5K, "I can't do that."

In fact, when it's the time for me to make the decision for something bold and great before God, I don't do that.

But that's not what the Bible teaches us.

The Bible gives us a blueprint, and we find it in Joshua over biblical courage, and this is the definition.

Biblical courage empowers us to act obediently, trust deeply, and live boldly for Christ, circle that part, despite fear, difficulty, or danger.

That's good.

The Bible actually references courage somewhere between 20 and 30 times, depending upon which version you're reading.

It is not asking us to rise up in our personal bravery.

We're gonna unpack that.

That's good.

It does give us, however, the four blueprints of courage that the Lord is asking.

So when we read Joshua, and when we put our name in Joshua, and we say, "Be strong and courageous.

Know that I'm with you wherever you go," God's not asking for the same kind of personal mustering of courage and strength that you and I have the ability to say, "I can't do that."

That's good.

Read with me in Joshua 1, uh, verse one through two.

Let's get started, because in Joshua 9, we find the commandment, but in the entire chapter of Joshua 1 is where we get the blueprint.

So at the top we go.

It says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, uh, Moses' aide, 'Moses my servant is dead.'"

Park right there.

I wanna unpack something for you 'cause this verse is so small.

It's so innocent.

Of course Moses is dead.

We knew that from the chapter before.

We knew that from the book prior.

The end of Deuteronomy, N- Moses has died and the people have mourned for 30 days.

So here we are.

This is 30 days later.

Okay, Captain Obvious.

I think we know Moses is dead, so why is God asking, and not even asking, just making a statement, "Moses, the servant of the Lord, he's dead"? Why is he saying that? It's been 30 days.

There has been 30 days of mourning, and in the Middle East, the mourning is not a joke.

Why is he saying that? Because Joshua, Moses' aide, has only ever in his whole life, 40 years more or less, only ever been a slave or wandered in the desert.

That's good.

He has never personally encountered God as Moses did with the burning bush.

He has never heard from God for himself.

It says that sometimes Moses would be in the, in the tent, and Joshua would, would be there hovering, saying, "Okay, I'm gonna do it, too.

Good for you."

He has never seen God face to face.

He has never had an instruction of courage.

And so God is essentially saying this, and if you miss it in verse one, you just miss it.

He's saying, "Joshua, I need you to honor the past of Moses.

I'm not asking you to say nevermind, moving on, that's not important.

No, no, the past is important, but it's time to shift."

Yeah.

That's good.

"I need you to honor the past of what I've done.

I need you to honor Moses.

I need you to honor the God that I've been historically.

But I need you now to know that something is shifting.

Do you sense it?" Moses is dead, and the first point that we give ourselves in this four-point blueprint is we need to move on.

You know, sometimes moving on is easier said than done because you and I walk through some stuff.

And so often as a pastor, I get the opportunity to meet you and hear your stories and your testimonies and, and this summer I'll be looking forward to hearing so much more from my sisters during testimonies and tea.

But so often in our testimonies, we spend 72,000 hours talking about all the things that have been done, and 2.5

seconds talking about the goodness of God and how He has shifted.

All right.

That's good.

Your testimony is supposed to be an acknowledgement of what has happened- That's good but then a clear marking and the ability to move on.

You see, for us as humans, a lot of times we wanna say, "But let me give you context of why I lost my job, and let me tell you about the supervisor who did XYZ, and let me give you justification of why I walked away from God, and let me give you the real reason so you understand the depth of what I was walking through so you can sit in my pain, and then I'll tell you about the goodness of God."

Mm-hmm.

But that's not what, but the Bible says in verse one, it says, "Joshua, Moses is gone.

Sense the shift.

Move on.

I need you to know that even though you've never seen or understood the way that I work, today is a new day."

Yes, Lord.

Turn to your neighbor and say, "Keep it moving."

Keep it moving.

You gotta sense the shift.

I wanna show you something here because some of the shift is not just, it's not for the people God is not saying this to the people.

He's saying this to Joshua.

"Joshua, Moses is dead."

He didn't say, "People, Moses is gone."

No, he said, "Joshua, Moses is dead."

Why is he saying this? Look in Exodus 24.

I'm going down now.

Exodus 24:13.

Exodus 24:13

And what happens here, I want you to focus your eyes on something.

This is so good.

I'm gonna...

I'm about to blow your mind in 2.5

seconds.

Here we go.

Then Moses set out with Joshua, what? His aide.

Y'all slow, but you're worth waiting on.

Then Moses set out with Joshua- His aide his aide.

Okay, his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God.

Moses went on the mountain.

Joshua was there.

Keep reading.

Next verse, Exodus 33:11.

Exodus 33:11

Then the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend.

He spoke to Moses.

Then Moses would return to the camp, but his- Young aide but his young aide, Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent.

This is where Joshua was doing his best homework.

See, he was like, "No, no, no, no, no, no.

If God is here, I'm just paying attention."

His young aide, Joshua his young aide.

Go to the next slide.

Later on in the verse of Joshua, later on, much later, not the beginning, not Joshua, Moses is dead.

Later on in Joshua, after these things, Joshua, son of Nun, same Joshua, the- Servant I'm sorry, the- Servant the servant of the Lord.

All of a sudden, 24 chapters down, Joshua 1, Joshua is the servant of Moses.

Joshua 24, 24 chapters later, he is no longer Moses' aide.

He is no longer just the little boy on the outside of the tent.

He is no longer the behind, wet-behind-the-ears 40-year-old going, "Okay, I'm ready to lead now."

The Bible says 24 chapters later, "Joshua, you are my servant."

He shifted.

That's good.

That's good.

You gotta keep it moving.

You have to sense the shift.

The second piece in the blueprint that we see in the Book of Joshua is that it's important that we believe rightly.

That might not be the right terminology, and all the English teachers can correct me later, but you know what? That's how it came to me.

We gotta believe rightly in our mind, and biblical courage, I submit to you, is not personal bravery.

It's God-centered strength.

Oh, right now.

Let me say it again.

Biblical courage is not personal bravery.

It's God-centered strength.

It's saying, actually, as Paul says, "I'm not strong.

When I'm weak, I'm actually the strongest."

In God's math, when we are the weakest, He becomes the greatest.

That's right.

Yeah, come on.

It has nothing to do with you.

It has nothing to do with how strong.

Some of us will say, "I can't do that.

I can't run the 5K because I can't do that."

And you're right.

Some of you will come to church and you say, "I can't preach like that.

I can't pray like that.

I can't come to the altar like that.

I can't confess like that."

You're right.

You can't.

And this is where God says, "When you meet me in your weakness, that's when I do my best work."

Yeah.

Biblical courage is God-centered.

It has nothing to do with how strong you are.

That's good.

It has nothing to do with it.

That's good.

But so often we have one problem.

Yep.

We...

Can I borrow you, Brian? Come up here for a minute.

We have a problem because we have a real enemy.

Stand right here with me.

We have an enemy who tries to tell us, "You're not strong enough," and we start believing him.

We start believing him because he knows how to get inside of our heads, and then when he gets inside of our heads, we start to say, "No, it's not God-centered strength.

It's back on me.

And he's right.

I can't do it."

And we lose our courage.

The Bible tells us that there's certain words...

I gave you some...

I knew you wouldn't mind me pushing some things on you.

The Bible tells us, the Bible tells us we're free.

The Bible gives us a name of being healed.

Yeah.

The Bible tells us that we've got joy.

Yeah.

The Bible tells us unequivocally that when we call upon the name of the Lord, that we're saved.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna keep doing all of this or doing all...

The Bible tells us that we're pure.

Yeah.

It tells us we are courageous when we give our reliance upon the Lord.

It tells us all these things, and then we've got an enemy- Yeah that tries to do one small little thing.

He tries to put one little small thing in front of the word courage to mess us up.

And instead of using the word courage, because he knows that he can't actually speak against any of these things that the Bible actually tells us.

He has no ability to take any of these things away from you.

You are he- uh, healed.

You are pure.

You are saved.

You do have joy.

You are courageous.

You are these things.

You don't need to earn it.

You're right now- And the B- and the enemy comes in and says, "The only thing that I can do is put a little old prefix in front of the word courage."

And he puts dis- Yeah in front of the word courage.

Discouraged is nothing but courage gone wrong.

Yeah.

Hijacked by the enemy.

Courage hijacked with a prefix.

Discouraged.

And when we're discouraged, the enemy uses this tool to say, "You are none of those things because I'm gonna put a little dis in front of your courage."

And so the ability...

I'm gonna choke myself with this thing.

The ability...

Get down in the name of Jesus.

The only thing that he tries to do with this one little word- Is for you to believe that all the other words don't matter, to take your courage away by putting dis in front of the courage.

Amen.

And I submit to you today that your courage is not gone.

Stop looking for it.

All right now.

Come on now.

What I want you to do instead is remove the prefix because the enemy has no power over you.

Yeah.

You remove the prefix.

The courage was always there.

The root is always there.

He has no ability to put a prefix on the words God has spoken.

You can keep all them words.

Go for it.

I'm gonna take a picture with you after, so don't take them off 'cause it's gonna be great.

Instagram, here we come.

In Joshua 1:3, we see this exact thing where God says, "Believe rightly.

Joshua 1:3

Stop believing all of the nonsense."

It's right there, same chapter, beginning to go down the verses.

It says, "I will give you every place," that's a promise, "that you set your foot as I promised Moses."

He's speaking to Joshua.

Now I'm talking to you.

Believe it, son.

Believe it.

This is not just for Moses, it's also for you.

Believe it, son.

I'm gonna give you all this stuff.

Verse five, "Nobody's gonna be able to stand against you."

That's a promise.

Yes.

He's giving him a badge.

He's giving him a sticker saying, "This is now yours.

Believe it, son."

And then he says, "And I'm gonna be with you."

That's a promise.

Amen.

And then he says, "I'm never gonna leave you, and I'm never gonna forsake you."

That's a promise.

Stick it on your chest.

Yep.

He's telling Joshua, "Be strong.

I'm here."

And my question to you is, do I believe it? Come on.

Do I believe it and do I believe Him? Yeah.

That's good.

It is not about us.

Biblical courage is an ongoing practice.

It's not just a single demonstration.

It's every day telling the Lord, "These are the stickers that I hear.

These are the things that are in my heart.

I agree with your word."

And it doesn't just happen one time.

Please stop asking God why He didn't respond one time that you prayed for one thing.

All right now.

All right.

Okay.

Do you think when Daniel was dropped down into the lions' den that he prayed one time? Come on now.

Come on now.

Y'all might not know the story, but Daniel got dropped down overnight.

Do you think that one prayer saved him all night long? In the face of hungry lions, do you think he said, "Lord, save me.

Let's see what happens"? No, no, no.

That was an every second kind of, of, of alignment to God.

That was an every moment to go, "God, I just thank you.

I'm gonna sit right here, I'm gonna look at these lions, and I'm gonna praise you.

I'm gonna thank you again.

I'm not going to sleep tonight."

And sometimes we pray one time and then get upset with God because He didn't show up It's an ongoing practice.

Biblical courage, watch, because if we don't get this, we don't understand why we didn't jump from fear to courage.

It's because it's steps, and the steps are us saying every day, "I don't believe it yet, but I believe it a little more today than I did yesterday, and so today I still declare it, and I'll declare it until I believe it, and I'll believe it because I know it's true."

It's an ongoing practice.

The third thing is we have to face the impossible.

We already talked about this because Joshua had not ever received the promise directly of the Promised Land.

He, if you remember, was one of the ones, one of the 12 that went out to spy the Promised Land, but in his whole life, he had only ever been a slave or been wandering in the desert.

He had never-- The Promised Land was like a total impossible place that maybe one day, if the group were good enough, God would actually fulfill.

But God had been saying, "I am intending," watch, "to bring you to the Promised Land for 40 years," and Joshua was still waiting.

Do you think that when the, the children left Egypt and God said, "I'm gonna bring you out to a promised land," and then they went to a desert instead, that that built their faith? Do you think that when God gives you a promise, but it takes a little longer than you wanted, that that means that God has not shown up? We have to face impossible circumstances.

I get it.

Oftentimes, when we get bad news and we get things and we know what God has said, and we know that He's good, and we know we have a promise, but there's something that happens to discourage us, discourage us, we bury our head, and then it begins to question, "I don't know."

What don't you know? Don't you know if God can? If He will? If He will for you? What piece don't you know? Unpack that for me.

We have to face impossibilities, and sometimes those impossibilities are within us.

I like to say sometimes we have to stand up, show up, and shut up.

And if I could be so bold, let me add one little thing that's not in your notes, but you should write down.

Your feelings are not facts.

Your feelings are not facts In 2 Corinthians it says, "We demolish arg- arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

This verse tells us that every thought is not already God's thoughts.

They're not already obedient to God.

Some of them we need to pull down because they are not of God, and we reject them.

Yeah.

Amen.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Fourth and final principle, we have to demonstrate biblical courage by acting boldly.

Act boldly.

Joshua didn't get the opportunity to just think in his heart how good God was.

That is not what he asked.

In verse eight, uh, beginning in verse seven, but in verse eight, God says, he instructs him, "Keep the book of the Law on your lips and meditate on it day and night," that's action, "so that you may be careful for everything that's written in it.

And then, and only then," you almost have to circle these words in your Bible because they hinge upon you doing the first thing in order for you to get the second thing, "then you will be prosperous and successful.

Have I not commanded you?" I didn't say it already? There's nothing worse, mamas.

Hello? Yeah.

Than repeating yourself.

Yeah.

I'll keep moving.

"Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous?" Didn't I already say it? Didn't I already tell you? Be strong.

There's two things that as we think about action, I wanna just give ourselves this, this one little piece.

Courage is sometimes waiting.

Now, I don't mean the wait, wait like we think about wait.

I don't mean wait.

Let me check my phone instead while I'm waiting on God.

I don't, I don't mean that kinda wait.

There is waiting that is passive, and there is waiting that is active.

And when sometimes, just like Joshua had to wait for 40 years before he actually got to see the promise, just like Moses had to patiently wait through the wilderness season, sometimes courage is waiting well.

Stop trying to outrun God by fabricating something, and He hasn't asked you to take action.

Illegitimate children are a nightmare.

Hello, Ishmael.

Things where we try to put our hand on it and outpace God because He's not working fast enough for us is not courage.

Sometimes courage is waiting well, and if we're gonna build a life to last, it will require courageous devotion Sometimes courage is waiting and sometimes courage is action.

Somebody say action.

Action.

Say action.

Action.

Action.

I like to think about courage like a verb more than a noun.

Courage is where God commands and acts and completes.

Courage is taking steps when we don't see all of the pieces.

Courage is when God says, "Do the thing," and He doesn't have to explain to you every detail before you say yes.

Courage is you waking up just to be consistent because that's what courageous people do.

Courage is understanding that you might not have all of the grandeur of exactly what you prayed for, but God is good and He knows exactly what you need anyway.

And if He doesn't answer the prayer like you wanted, He is still perfect.

Courage is saying, "I don't know what's gonna come, but I do know this: there is nothing that's gonna move me from my God."

Courage is choosing to actively understand and know what the heart of God is, even above what my eyes see at this moment.

Courage is deciding to say, "No, I will not believe my feelings today.

God is bigger than that."

Courage is deciding to say, "I am sorry," even when you don't feel like you are the one that is wrong.

Courage.

Courage is an action.

It's a verb.

It's movement.

It's showing God that I didn't just hear you and I'm gonna think about it.

I heard you and I'm going to move on it because I trust you.

It's an action.

And so as we wrap up our time today, I submit to you that when we think about courage as the moments of time that we almost idolize on social media and in the news, that seems like only amazing people do those things.

But God calls you and I, ordinary men, to turn this world upside down.

And He said, "This is not for just the people that you see newspaper clippings on.

I'm asking you to be courageous.

I'm asking you to lead your family well.

I'm asking you to lean into that diagnosis and understand that I'm still God.

I'm asking you to understand that I will always be with you."

So one more time, and this time with your whole chest, I'm gonna ask you to repeat Joshua 1:9, but I want you to repeat it this time by understanding what the Lord is really asking you.

Joshua 1:9

When you put your name in here, and saying, "Have I not commanded you?" This is the Lord speaking.

Did I not already say it? "Be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid nor dismayed," and this is the Lord speaking to you, "for I am with you wherever you go."

Are you ready to say it? Are you ready to say it like blowing it off? The roof.

The roof off the place with your name because it's your God, and it's your courage this morning that He is asking you to rise up.

Are you ready? One, two, three Let me pray for you.

God, we desire to be people that don't just understand a form, a fashion.

We wanna be courageous.

We're not idolizing it.

We can be it.

We can be it because You were first a courageous God.

You've given us the blueprint of courage, and we understand that courage is a step-by-step process.

We understand that there will be some action on our part and some belief on our part.

We thank You, Lord, and this morning cling to the idea that You are a good God, that You are good at Your job, and You are good to us.

And therefore, we will be people that demonstrate not just a form of courage, but biblical courage, the kind that brings You glory, the kind where You are lifted up.

So use us today, God.

And where the enemy has attempted to speak discouragement today, God, we cancel the plans and the attacks of the enemy.

We remove the prefix from our courage in the name of Jesus.

There is no name greater than Yours.

We love You, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Thanks for tuning in.

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