“Living With Courage” | Sunday AM | Ashley Moss

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 11 AM Worship, Date 

Speaker: Ashley Moss

Message Title: "Living With Courage" 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

We are going to continue our series of walking in the spirit. And this morning I'm going to be focusing on living with courage. I want to open with the scripture of Joshua 1 and 9 that says, Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. We're going to go back to that scripture here in a few minutes. But before I begin, I wanted to clearly define what courage is. So that way when I'm saying it, we have a good definition. When I was working on the lesson this week, I was switching bravery and courage quite a bit. And so I wanted to make sure it was correct. And it's not, so I'm glad I checked. Because bravery, a brave person, that tends to be a personality trait that you're born with. You're just a naturally brave person. Courage is actually a choice to be courageous, to take out, I'm what we'll talk about the different areas of courage, but to take the step of courage is a choice. You don't have to be brave to also be courageous. A good example of this is in my boys. While they all love adventure, some of them are more naturally brave than other ones a couple of years ago. And I bet if you looked at my kids, you would probably try to guess which one is the most brave. You're probably not correct on it. Patrick actually tends to be a little bit, doesn't he seem a little bit more qu no, I don't want to say quiet. He doesn't seem like a big risk taker, but he has always been. Since he is little, he has always done things that have made us go like, oh, I'm worried that he doesn't feel cautious. Like he shouldn't be climbing that, that doesn't feel safe. And a couple of years ago, we went to the Smoky Mountains and we did a little, I don't want to call it a hike. It was a walk, but it was up a mountain. So to sound cool, I'll say it was a hike. But you know, when you're like walking up a mountain, you've got the mountain on one side and the edge of the mountain on the other side of the trail. Most people like me who are cautious, we see that and go, stay on the side of the mountain. People who are naturally brave see it and say, I can go as far as the edge. So the whole walk up, I'm going, hey boys, stay on the edge. Stay or stay close to the mountain, stay close to the mountain. And at one point I'm taking pictures and I turn around and look, and Patrick is leaning over the edge because there's this leaf that looks interesting to him. And so, me not being brave, I'll start off in case you didn't guess that. I was like, Patrick, move back. And he was like, I was fine. I felt fine. Brave people just feel fine. They don't have the same fear that we have. But that is not the same as courage. So if you're sitting here this morning going, I would never lean over the edge of the mountain, good news. You don't have to have that instinct to also be courageous. You can see that um when you read children's books. I promise I am gonna get to the Bible here. But I read a lot of children's books, and it's usually the most unlikely person that's gonna be the hero of the story. They always have that character that you go, that's the person that's gonna be the brave hero, right? They're the big, strong, the smartest, the loudest, they're that person. But that's usually not the hero. The hero is someone who's unlikely. They're very, they have a lot of hesitations, they have a lot of reservations, but then they grow into stepping into courage and they actually end up saving the day. And I recently read a book to my children, I want to read a quote out of there to you. It's called Brave as a Lion. And the story is about a mouse village. It's a little village of mice who always live in fear of cats. Naturally, that's where they would be, that's their big scare. And they get word one day that there is a cat coming and he's coming to destroy it. It actually says in the kids' book that he's coming to eat them. So it's a little, it's a little extreme. And the mice are in panic and they're running, and it says, run, every mouse for themselves. We're done. Like we don't even have a plan anymore. It's out the window, save yourself. And one mouse named Mr. Mouse, he's the narrator of the story, he said, I was even more scared than they were. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew something had to be done. And it's from that moment that he decided to be courageous. And spoiler alert, he forms an army and they save the day, and the mice are fine. But books like that are there because they're trying to tell children you don't have to feel innately brave to be courageous. It's okay if it goes against your personality. So I want to tell you that this morning and encourage you, you can be like Mr. Mouse, and you can step into courage, and you can even be more scared than everybody else, but you can know that something has to be done. We're not focusing on being the hero of the story as Christians. That's not the point of this today. But we do have to step into courage to do what God calls us to do. And um I want to cover a few different areas this morning, actually, five different areas, and they'll be on your handout as we go through. Different areas of courage we need to step into. And while there are more areas than this, these five are applicable to everybody, so I wanted to focus on those. But I will start out before we even get into the Bible here. I want to encourage you that He is calling you to be courageous, but He didn't call you and then walk away. He is with you, His Spirit empowers us and equips us. So as we go through this, just know that we have the ability to be courageous because he is equipping us along the way. The first step of, or the first area of courage is gonna be the courage to step into the unknown. And this goes back to our original story here. We're gonna go back to Joshua for a few minutes. But oftentimes we like to know where we're going and we like to know the plan and what's gonna happen. If you if you're like me when you plan vacation or you go on vacation, some of the best parts of vacation is actually planning it. I am like researching where we're gonna stop, where we're gonna eat, what cool things are we gonna see? I could not imagine if Tyler said we're gonna go on vacation, and I said, Where? And he goes, I don't know. Just pack. For what? I don't know. You'll see. Get in the car, where are we going to? We'll see. Like, what's the GPS? What's the time arrival? We don't know. I couldn't even imagine that. Somebody out there right now is probably going, that would be the adventure of a lifetime. But for us regular people, that would be a nightmare. But that is often how our walk with God is. It's not that he doesn't know, he does know, but he's not gonna show us the whole picture all at once. For a couple of reasons. One, if he did show us the whole picture, some of us might go, no, thank you. That's I don't want to do that. And also, he's trying to get you to build your trust in him. Joshua, from our original scripture, Joshua 1 and 9, he was not the original one called to lead the people into the promised land. It was Moses. Moses was the one who got them out of Egypt. He was the one who led them to the wilderness. But because of consequences, Moses was not the one who got to lead them in. It was actually Joshua. But that wasn't told in the beginning of the story. However, Joshua did assist Moses along the way. He probably didn't realize this, but he was assisting Moses because God was training him. Pair him with a good leader, a strong leader, and he can learn how to lead. He got to have some training practice ahead of time. He even had tests along the way. And we know that when the 12 spies got to go into the promised land, he was one of the 12 that got to go see it, and he came back with a good report, even though ten of the other spies said, We can't do this, it's not gonna happen. Joshua and Caleb were courageous, and they said that the land was good and that they could occupy it. And that's not the area of courage I want to focus on, because that'll come a little bit later. But multiple times we see Joshua's story, he is stepping in to the unknown. In Joshua 1, it starts off with his commissioning and his challenge to become the leader. And I'm gonna go ahead and read Joshua 1, 5 through 9. I want you to pay attention how many times the word courageous is used in this passage. It starts off by saying, Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate it on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. God tells him, He's told three times in that passage, his challenge is be strong and courageous. But he didn't just say, Be strong and courageous and leave him. He starts off, it is said in the beginning, just as I was with Moses, so I shall be with you. And then he ends it by saying, Do not be frightened, do not be worried, I am with you. He sandwiches in right there, right? I'm with you, be courageous, I'm with you. So Joshua could step into every area courageously, even if he didn't know where it was taking him, because he was confident that God was with him. He knew the first step was going to be leading them into the promised land, but he didn't know the battles he was gonna face, the people he was gonna encounter. He didn't know the journey, but he knew every time God called him to take the step, he could do that. Because he acted courageously, the Israelites were able to inhabit the land that they were promised. So, how does that apply to us? How can we courageously step into the unknown? The first thing to do is take the first step. When we step out courageously, often it's one step at a time, but that step leads us to the next and leads us to the next, and eventually we get where we need to go. Sometimes that very first step is the hardest step to take. Because maybe we don't have an example, we don't know that God is gonna get us through because we haven't done that yet. But when we take that first step and we realize it's secure, then we can take the next step. It's kind of like those little again, I've I'm gonna sound so not brave. I'm not a brave person at all. Those like little rope bridges, right? They have one at the zoo and it's minimal, okay? My kids love to run across it. But again, my brave children ran without looking. There was no sign that said that was a bridge you can run across. There was nobody in front of them. They just saw a bridge and ran. And I was like, but I don't think you're supposed to do that. And it was fine. But when I look at a rope bridge, I'm like, I'm gonna step and take a little back, right? I'm gonna make sure it's gonna hold a little bit of weight, and then each step you gain some confidence going through. It's the same way with our walk with God. Just take the first step, trust him, and then the next step gets easier because now we have our own testimony, our own encouragement that he's gonna get us through that. The next thing to do is to stay grounded in God's word. If you go back to Joshua 1 and 8, it says the book of law shall not depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night. Joshua could be confident that God was with him because he knew the word of God. He knew that his strength wasn't coming from him, he was relying on the strength of God, and that helps as well. We don't have to be the strongest ones. God is gonna take us through that. If we want to build courage, we have to ask ourselves, what does the word of God say? If he's promised that he'll be with us, we can trust it. If he calls us to be courageous, we can do that. And then to take a step into the unknown is just to remember who is with you. Joshua knew God was with him, and we too can step into areas, new areas one step at a time because we know he's with us. And the great thing is it's not new for God. He's also already gone before us. So that way it's already prepared. On the driveover this morning, we were listening to a song that said, I'm fighting a battle that you've already won. He's already gone before, he already knows the end. If he's calling you to it, then he's gonna bring you through it. We just have to put our trust in him and courageously take that step. We don't want to miss out on what God is calling us to do because we're fearful. The second area of courage is the courage to speak up. Sometimes when you're in an area of opposition or being confronted by something, it feels easier just to stay silent. Like if I just stay quiet about it, they won't know what I actually think and I don't have to address this. But we have to have courage to speak up. We have to have courage to know when we're supposed to share the gospel, when we're supposed to encourage, when we're supposed to reach out to somebody, and that takes courage. The person in the Bible that's a good example of this is Peter. We do see Peter's story and in the gospel. I look to see, and it is in all four gospels, unfortunately, that Peter's failure where he denies Christ is covered four different times. You know, sometimes those stories are only once, and maybe, you know, he's probably hoping someone just reads through it. It's there four times clearly. He denied Christ. However, at the end of the, when the rooster crows and he realized what he did, he is repent, he repents and he is remorseful, and God does restore him. And we do see in Acts 2 that he gets to preach the message boldly on the day of Pentecost. But that's not the act of courage that I want to talk about, because preaching Acts 238 to a crowd that is receptive and excited, and they're there in the upper room, and this new thing is happening probably wasn't what took the most courage. But in Acts 4, he has to go before the leaders who condemned Christ. And he then uses the courage that he didn't have when he denied Christ. And he says, Acts 4, verses 11 through 13, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated common men. They were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Peter wasn't speaking rudely here. He wasn't being, as we say in our house, he wasn't being ugly. He was speaking directly, though, and he was sharing the truth. Standing in front of the leaders who condemned Christ, knowing what could happen to him, he still was bold enough to share the gospel to them, and he shared the truth. He didn't soften his argument, he didn't say, Well, this audience seems scary. Let me just water it down a little bit. He spoke courageously and he spoke up when it was he was supposed to. And the reason he could do this is because the verses preceding this in Acts 4 and 8 says, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to him, He could speak boldly because he was filled with the Spirit. He was equipped with the Spirit. God led him to that moment. He knew he wasn't alone and he could speak courageously. So how can we courageously speak up? The first thing is we can rely on God, not our own words. When he's asking us to speak, he's not asking us to come up with some witty creative saying. Do you know on like the internet when you're watching reels, you feel like everyone's trying to come up with this witty new way of saying something to like hook you in and draw you in? You don't have to do that. We don't have to come up with a creative title or a creative message. We just have to speak the word of God. If we're filled with his spirit and what we're saying lines up with the word, it can't be wrong. The second thing we need to do is we need to focus on pleasing God when we speak, not people. Peter's message wasn't watered down. He wasn't trying to gain a following based on popularity. He was simply speaking the message God gave to him. The same message he preached in the upper room to the crowds is the same message he was preaching to these leaders as well. He wasn't worried about what their perception was being, he was worried about being obedient and he and speaking courageously. And then you need to let your relationship with God give you confidence to speak. In verse 13, they're not impressed by who they are, because they thought they were uneducated common men, but they were astonished because they recognized they had been with Jesus. Based off the message they were preaching, Peter and John, they knew that these people knew who Jesus was. They knew they could see that they had been with him. Our relationship, if we're close to God and we're spending time with God and we're reading his word and we're praying and we're speaking to him and allowing him to speak to us, then our relationship with God will give us confidence, confidence to speak when it's time. We'll know what to say. If you don't know what to say, just turn to the word and start there. Being a courageous speaker doesn't mean you're the loudest person in the room. Often the loudest person in the room is covering up that they don't know what they're saying, right? The volume covers the words. You don't have to be the loudest. You don't have to yell it, you don't have to argue. It is speech that's presented in love. It's truth wrapped in love. The again, going back to what Peter said, he wasn't being ugly. What he was saying was from his heart and it was from God. So he was saying it in a place where he needed to be. We can all find times where we need to speak up courageously. It doesn't mean you have to be a preacher or a public speaker. We all encounter people, whether it's outside of your home or inside of our homes. We can speak courageously when we need to. The third area is we need to have courage to stand, even if it's alone. I'm not gonna go through this whole story here. We all know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I want to say Abendigo, so I'm gonna say it wrong. Um, I'll say the three Hebrew boys to cover the error of that. If you don't know the story, it is in the book of Daniel, chapter three. But a quick synopsis is Nebuchadnezzar and his people built a giant statue, music was gonna sound, and they were all supposed to bow when it happened. These three Hebrew boys said, We're not gonna do that. They didn't care what the consequence was gonna be. And so they were told, if you don't bow, you're getting thrown into the fiery furnace. And of course, the music sounds, and they do not bow. And so when they have to go before the king, and the king is like, Do you not know? I'm gonna throw you in the fiery furnace. It says in Daniel 3, 17 and 18, he says, This be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. They didn't know that he would deliver them out of the fiery furnace. It did say that he's able to, and that he would deliver them out of their hand, whether that was bringing them through the fiery furnace or through death, he they would be delivered out of the king's hand. But no matter what, they were going to serve God, and they were not going to bow. They were in a large crowd. So them not bowing was obvious. Everybody bowed, and you've got three people standing. This wasn't done privately in their house, like, hey guys, let's not go today. And when everybody bows, we'll stay standing in our kitchen. Nobody will see it, but God will know our hearts. This was a public act of standing that they did. And they still did not, they, without knowing what the outcome or the consequence was going to be, they knew they could courageously stand because they knew God would deliver them. If you have not heard this story, he does deliver them. They get put in the fiery furnace, they're taken out of the fiery furnace alive. They do not die. But again, they did that as a huge act of faith, not knowing. So that should encourage us to stand. And how do we do that? We have to know our convictions before the time even comes. They did not have like a little meetup, right? They didn't say we're gonna build the statue, and everyone bows, and they're like, hey, are you gonna bow? I don't know if I'm gonna bow. What about do you think we should bow? Is this a good time to stand? They knew before the day arrived who their God was, what they would do in opposition, and they knew they couldn't bow. We have to know our convictions before we run into opposition. Because when we face fear, we'll talk about this in a little bit, your judgment gets a little cloudy. So you need at that moment to then now you're pulling from instinct. I know God, I know He can deliver me, and I'm not gonna bow. What are your non-negotiables? You need to decide that for yourself personally. You need to decide that if you have a family, that's an important conversation. This is not a parenting sermon, but man, if you're living with kids at home, they should know your non-negotiables on living for God, and you have to stand with that. You have to know that standing is going to be public. I just mentioned that. They didn't stand privately. When you take a stand, it's gonna be done publicly. You cannot stay take a stand privately in your home, and then when you go out, try to blend into the world, it doesn't work. That's not actually taking a stand. Just know that sometimes you're gonna stand, sometimes it's gonna be alone. It might feel isolating, but let's go back to that very first scripture. He said, Do not be frightened or dismayed. I am with you. So even if you stand alone, you know that God is with you, so you're not actually truly alone. And then we have to trust God with the outcome. The three Hebrew boys put their complete trust in God. Whatever he did, they knew it was best. We don't have to know the outcome, we don't have to know the end. This goes back to step one. You may be stepping into things you don't know where it's gonna take you, but we're trusting God with the outcome in that situation. It takes courage to stand, but just know when we take a stand, us standing is not so that people look at us and go, Wow, I'm so glad you stood today. That's not it. When we stand, we're pointing people to Christ. They see Jesus through us when we take a stand, they know what we believe and they know um where to look. And it's not gonna be to me or you, it's gonna be to Christ. We can give other people confidence as well. When we stand, maybe somebody will join you because they'll say, Well, that's great that they stood, I can stand too, and I can do the same. The fourth area is the courage to face fear. Having courage is not the absence of fear. Was looking at some military websites when I was looking up the word courage, thinking of people who go into war and battle and the mental prep they have to do for that. And there are quite a few quotes that was saying, courage is just delaying fear five seconds longer. It's just not letting fear control you, not letting fear take over your mind. It doesn't mean that fear isn't there, it just means that you are able to quiet it long enough to choose faith over fear. And the person in the Bible I want to look to for that one is Stephen. The story of Stephen is in Acts 6 and 7. And he boldly proclaimed Christ, knowing that it was also going to bring opposition. We know that Stephen was martyred at the end of his story. I do have time this morning, so I want to read part of that story to you. I'm going to read just a few scriptures in Acts 6 and a few in 7. But it said, And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Flipping over to chapter 7. At this point in chapter 6, he gets taken to trial and they're discussing it. They bring in false witnesses. And in chapter 7, when it's his turn to speak, he's giving them the summary of what's happened in the Old Testament. All the time God sent messengers, and all the times that they ignored or rejected those messengers. And he says, You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You have received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. I just would like to know what that looked like. And that's a funny image to me. They ground their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he cries out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Courageously facing fear doesn't mean there won't be opposition. He still had to face opposition. He had false witnesses brought against him. He was falsely accused. He was taken before a high religious court, and he still kept true to what he preached, regardless of how uncertain the situation felt. He was able to act in the face of fear because in verse 55, he says he looked to God and he kept his focus on him. When they were stoning him, he's looking to God, not worried about what the people in front of him were doing. He kept his eyes on Jesus. Fear will tell us to retreat, it'll tell us to shrink back, it'll tell us to choose a different route. But courage will remind us that God is greater than whatever we face. How do we face fear? We're not being threatened of being stoned today, thankfully. But we have other areas of fear that can take over in our lives and stop us from living with courage. But we can be like Stephen and keep our eyes focused on him. Anytime, our eyes should always be on him. But the moment we're presented with the most fear, turn your eyes to Jesus. When we turn our eyes to him, it causes us to pause before we react. Because Stephen's focus was on God, he was able to pray at the end, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. That's a pretty big prayer. Because when people just make me regular mad, they're not throwing rocks at me. I don't know that I go, God, don't hold this against them, right? Like that's a great example before us to pause. Look at him, and he's gonna lead you to do the right thing and to say the right thing. He was able to pray a prayer of forgiveness over his persecutors. Um, we don't know what happens to them right after that, all of the persecutors. It doesn't give us a list, but I would like to think that somebody heard that prayer and maybe it caused them to change their way. To act courageously when facing fear means fill your mind with God's truths. Fear is going to cloud your thoughts, and that's what we were talking about a few minutes ago. If you know the word of God and you know the truth of God, when fear comes, we should be able to pull from a well of truth that God has already given us, because we're not turning to the Word of God only when we're in fear. We're in the Word of God all the time. There's a great example of this. I was listening to a parenting podcast. I do read a lot of parenting books and listen to a lot, just trying to do what I can as a mom. But the great example was talking about teaching your kids to be capable and to not live with fear. And the example was um they had encountered a dad who was walking through, I'm I'm assuming it was like a shopping center, with his little daughter, and they came up to the escalator and she said, Oh no, daddy, I'm too afraid to go on the escalator. Let's take the elevator. And he took her hand, he said, That's okay that you're afraid, we're gonna go ahead and take the escalator. And so she still went up the escalator. Oftentimes in parenting, sometimes you're like, I'm gonna choose the easy thing, I don't wanna fight this, let's go to the elevator. But by him saying, It's okay that you're afraid, we're still gonna do the thing you're afraid of, is telling her, you can do things that you're afraid of. And building that, he's holding her hand the whole time, building that the next time they come up to an escalator. She knows that she's able to take the escalator, and she might always have a little bit of a fear. Um, a silly story. My shoelace got caught in escalator when I was a very little girl. So I always in the back of my head, too, I don't enjoy escalators. But I still take them, I know it's not going to kill me. But you have to get your mind conditioned to that. You have to do things that you're afraid of because then when you encounter fear, your mind can pull back from a time that God kept you, and you know that you're gonna be okay and you can face that fear again. We don't have to choose the easy route just because we're afraid. We can choose the route God calls us to do because we have the truth, God's truth in us, to fight the fear that clouds our minds. Um, another way to act courageously in the face of fear is to simply choose to be obedient. Even when the situation brings fear. Stephen knew he had to speak what he was given to speak. He was choosing to be obedient, even knowing that the consequence of this wasn't gonna end well for him. He still spoke. Even when they were grinding their teeth at him, he still called out to the Lord in front of them. And I imagine that didn't make them any less mad. But we need to do the same. When God calls us to something, we have to be obedient, even if it's fearful. And all of these tie back to the very first one. Just take the step, even in the moments of fear. The greatest victories we will often win are gonna be when we choose obedience, when we choose to be obedient to what he's calling us to do instead of retreating back in fear. And then the fifth one here is the courage to wait. Waiting on God's timing takes courage. Waiting is hard. I said this Wednesday night in our Women in the Word. I don't like to wait. I don't when they say it's just a few more minutes, those few minutes can crawl for me. I don't, and if you watch kids, you can see how hard waiting is. Like the month of December for a child is you would think it's a year long. Every day, it's how many more days till Christmas? If you're planning for anything, I don't, I always joke with my kids, I don't want to tell them anything too far in advance because I don't want to hear about it for the next six months of my life. How many more days? Get in the car and drive to Austin. We did that this weekend. How many more minutes? Finally, I'm putting the GPS to where they can just see it up on my phone so I can stop answering the question. You can see the clock, you'll be fine. But adults have a hard time waiting. Watch adults in a grocery store line that's too long. There are mumblings, there are people who can tell you how to fix the system. Well, if they would just do this, this would go so much faster. Or they get on their phone, they have to scroll because the waiting's too hard. If you sit at a red light when you're in a rush, man, that wait for that red light to turn green, and then get with somebody who hates traffic and sit in traffic with them. You get an ear full of how much waiting is so hard. I don't think in general humans really enjoy waiting, but it has a purpose. David was told as a young man that he would be king, but in reality, he had to wait a long time from the time he was anointed until he was actually king. I was looking up a timeline and there it says anywhere between a decade and 15 years before he was the king of Judah, and then it still took seven years after that before he was the promised king of all of Israel. He had a long time. However, while he waited, he didn't just sit, he didn't grumble or complain. He continued to shepherd, he even serves in the king's court, he becomes a commander in the military, and eventually he even, while he's waiting, becomes a fugitive running from the king as he wanted to kill him. David had a long waiting period. I cannot imagine being told I'm gonna do something and go, okay, wait 20 years. That's a long time, right? And yet he did it. He didn't take shortcuts, he didn't try to overthrow the king, he just waited. He had opportunities. There's a story in 1 Samuel 24 where David's in a cave, and I'm not gonna go into all the details of the story, but King Saul does come into that cave, and at that minute, David could have killed him, but he didn't. He does cut off a piece of his robe just to show Saul, like, hey, I didn't kill you. But he didn't kill him. And he could have, human nature could have been like, I could speed this along, but he instead waited. He knew it wasn't his time to be on the throne, and he knew God would tell him when it was. Waiting doesn't mean not doing anything. David served, he grew, he trusted God. So how can we courageously wait? We can be faithful in the area God has us in today. If he has you in a spot, but he's promised you somewhere else later, you don't just throw everything down and sit and wait. Serve faithfully where you are, and he will train you. Those experiences of waiting, they're growing us, they're shaping us. David was a young man when he was anointed to be king. Could he have been a successful king as a teenager? Maybe I have teenagers and I can't imagine that. But if God was telling him to be a king at 15, he could have done it, I'm sure. But God instead was using that time to shape him and to grow him and to make him into the person he needed to be. Don't underestimate the importance of a training portion of your life. Don't force open doors that God hasn't opened. Ask yourself, am I doing this out of faith or am I doing this out of impatience? Am I trying to help God out? He will open the door when he's ready, and his way will always be better than ours. Instead of forcing the door open or rushing God's timing, keep on working. A great example of this in the Bible is Abraham and Sarah. They were promised a child. They got tired of waiting. They helped God out. And I don't have time to share that whole story this morning, but it didn't go well. When we help God out, it usually doesn't go well. So just patiently wait. And then in the meantime, we keep seeking God in the waiting. Ask him during the waiting, what are you teaching me? How can I draw closer to you? Maybe he's waiting for that prayer from you. Maybe he's waiting for you to say, okay, grow me into this spot, develop me into this area. What do you want me to do? If we stay close to him, we won't fall away during the waiting period. Waiting can just be a test of endurance. And how will you wait? That's what you need to ask yourself if you're in a season of waiting. How am I going to wait? Courageous waiting means that we're believing God's promises even when we can't yet see their fulfillment. In the Bible, I read that first one that says, be strong and courageous. But in the Bible, I um I don't think I listed them on your handout, so I apologize. Be strong and courageous is actually a phrase mentioned multiple times in the Bible to different people, not just in the story we read from. But in Deuteronomy 31 and 6, Moses tells the people, be strong and courageous, do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord our our God who goes with you, he will not leave you or forsake you. And then in 1 Chronicles 28 and 20, David says to Solomon, Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, for the Lord, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. It's said multiple times in the Bible, be strong and courageous. And every time that phrase comes up, they are reminded again, they don't have to worry because God is with them. Before you step out and courage, you have to know that every act of courage will cost you something in order to be courageous. It may cost you your comfort, it may cost you your reputation, it may cost friendships, it may cost convenience, and it may even require sacrifice from you. But don't forget, when Noah courageously built the ark, he was mocked. He lost people. That ark was not full of people, it wasn't full of his friends. Esther was courageous when she risked her life to save her people. If they found out who she was at the wrong time, she could have died. The followers of Jesus in the New Testament, we see multiple times they courageously left everything behind to follow Jesus because following him was worth more than what they already had. Courage will cost you something. However, a lack of courage will cost you something too. Not being courageous means missed opportunities to obey God. And if you're obeying God, he's going to take you to a place you could have never imagined. That's better than your plan. But if we're not courageously stepping out, we can miss that opportunity. We can miss the opportunity to be an influence of Christ for Christ. Who are you supposed to be influencing? I know influence, influencers is like a hot word in the social media world. I am not that person, but in in reality, we are all influencing somebody every day. And if we're not courageously speaking up, who are we not influencing? We could experience regret. You see that area get that area you didn't step into that needed to be done. God will put somebody there, and you're gonna go, oh, I regret that. I should have reached out to that person, I should have served in that area. We could have a stunted walk with God. If he's continually calling you to go do something, he's continually calling you to grow. And every time you say, No, I'm too afraid, your walk with God can't grow past where it is. It could cost you a growing relationship with God. Others may never hear the gospel because we chose to stay silent. So this morning I want you to ask yourself, what cost is worth it to you? Courage might be hard, but not having courage is hard also. We used to say that in a mom's group a long time ago when we were raising little kids. We would say, and it's applicable now with big kids too, that parenting moment is hard. Choosing to do this with my kid is hard, but choosing not to is also hard. It's also gonna produce something I don't want. We have to sometimes just choose your heart. And it's the same thing with this choose, are you gonna have courage or are you not going to? Each way requires a sacrifice from you, and each way is hard. You can all stand with me this morning. And as we stand and we close, I just want to remind you that courage doesn't take a huge, giant step. He's not asking you this morning to step from here to that back door. He's asking you to be courageous enough just to take a small step of faith. And this week I want to encourage you to choose courage, not because you feel brave, but because you know the one that goes with you.