Men's Rally - Stay In The Fight : Courage

>> Thank you guys so much for being here on a beautiful Thursday night. Man! [ Cheers and Applause ] I sometimes look at some ridiculous lists. I'm just that kind of guy. I've always loved animals, and recently, I checked the endangered species list. I do that now and then. Of course, there's the white rhino, and there's the snail darter, and there's the amour leopard, and some sort of a spoon bill was on it. But there was one animal that was on it this time that really freaked me out. The courageous man. [ Laughter ] The courageous man. I think as we look at our culture today, we can see that we've had a collective courage cramp. Have we not? I mean, not you guys, but I'm talking about others in our culture. Courage is on the endangered character species list. It's sort of crumbling as you look at our culture. Character is crumbling, and character is interesting, and we're going to talk a little bit tonight about courage, but character is a choice. We have to choose, for example, courage. I don't just create courage in a vacuum. I choose that courage comes from God.

Also, when I think about courage, courage is developed, and I don't like this, but it's developed during crunch time. It's developed during a crisis situation. It's not developed when things are happening, and you can just skip down the primrose path and chill and all that. That's not where you develop it. You develop it, and it happens to you when you're taking those hard yards. And then also, courage is really amped up, and my courage quotient, and your courage quotient is increased when we're in community. When we're around courageous guys. And that's what's so great about this gathering. That's what's so great about men's ministry. That's what's so great about so many men at Fellowship Church. We understand that, and we feed off that. And I feed off of your courage, and prayerfully, you feed off of my courage. Courage, courage. We have this courage cramp as we look at our culture, and courage can be crumbling in certain situations. So today, just very quickly tonight, I should say, I want to talk about how to increase courage. How do we increase it? I mean, how do we do that? Well, first of all, we have to understand it's a God thing. The definition of courage is the God-given ability to stand for the truth no matter what the opposition or outcome. Is that a powerful definition or what? I love that.

The God-given strength to stand for the truth no matter the opposition or the outcome. Now, a lot of us think, oh, Ed, wait a minute. I'm not a courageous guy. I mean, courage. That's for some Navy SEAL or some incredible professional athlete or somebody that I read about. He lands a plane. It seems like the plane's going to crash, and he lands a plane and swims out of the icy river and say, I mean, I can't do that. That's not me. Well, I'm saying to you, it takes courage just to live life. I'm talking about it takes courage to live on the wreckage planes of reality, like I say. We have to have spiritual courage, spiritual courage. Have you ever thought about the fact that it takes courage to become a follower of Christ? People laugh at a Christian sometimes. They're like, oh, man, Christians. They're people that need a crush. They're light ways. Well, you know, I understand why people say that, and I kind of identify with them. But I want to say, and I don't really usually say that or this, I want to say, well, we have more courage than you do. At least we'll tell the truth about our condition before a holy God. So to become a Christian, I've got to have the courage to say, God, I am a sinner.

I messed up. I'm fallen. I'm fallible. That takes courage. And it takes courage to open the lid of your life and allow Jesus Christ to come in. And then, once he comes in, he works from the inside out. The Holy Spirit does to give us that God. I think about when David took on Goliath, he's talking about courage a little. Hebrew, hillbilly, took on this nine foot, nine inch tall, 438 pound giant. That's some serious spiritual courage. Not only do we need spiritual courage though, we need some moral courage, don't we? Some ethical courage. It's just not easy to live a pure and holy life. It takes courage to resist the greener grass syndrome. It takes courage every time you go online or start scrolling. Am I going to go the way of the world or am I going to do and think on what is best? Those moral decisions, those moral decisions we make at work, those moral decisions we make in the classroom, moral courage, it takes courage to do that. And then I think about the relational courage that we need. I just touched on that a second ago. Who are your friends? I mean, how do you spell relational relief? And ask myself that question because the more courageous my relationships and friends, again, it gives me an infusion of that, and that is what I want to challenge you to do. Courage. Those are just three quick areas, and sometimes we don't think about it, but it takes courage to become a Christian and courage to walk in Christ's footsteps. We have to remember, Jesus was a man's man. I love to say he was not some pale, frail, decaf, sipping, blue-eyed white boy.

No, no, no, no. He was a man's man. He lived and he walked and he talked and advertised courage perfectly, courage, courage to voluntarily allow people to nail him to a Roman cross, courage, courage to take the brunt of your sin and mine as God transferred all of that to the shoulders of his son, courage. And then rising from the grave, I mean, the death of death, I mean, he's talking about courage, unbelievable. Well, when I think about courage, I think, though, obviously about Jesus and he's the key to courage, but I really think about the children of Israel back in the Old Testament. Let me go back for a second because courage is really unpacked during two real estate deals, just two real estate deals. The first real estate deal was when, and you probably remember this, if you don't, just listen to this, God's people, millions of them, were in Egyptian slavery and miraculously they were freed from slavery in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 13, and it unpacks this. And they took an 11-day journey, but it ended up being 40 years, and I mean, that's a road trip from hell, right? So they break out, Moses leads them, parts of the Red Sea, and they get to the brink of the Promised Land. The deal is in the title company. I mean, they're like, high-fiving, man, we got this, God's given us this Promised Land, 300,000 square miles, man, we're hitting on all cylinders, everything is hunky-dory, and then God calls a quick timeout, he goes, hey, guys, this land, the Promised Land, you know, it is yours. I want you to claim the land, but he said, do a secret reconnaissance mission, and just check out what the situation is, so they picked 12 leaders, 12 leaders of the 12 tribes, and these guys cruise out, and they look around, and then they come back, and everybody's thinking, oh, this is it, I mean, this is fire, well, 10 of the 12 spies went completely and totally negative. Can you believe that? God had already told them the land is yours, God already said, man, this is your tract,

and it's going to be tremendous, just take it, just possess it, I'll give you the strength and the power, I'll give you the courage, no matter what the outcome or opposition, I will do it, 10 of the 12 spies said, no, no, no, it's just the people are too big, and the Bible says in the book of Numbers 13, the people said, we're the size of grasshoppers compared to them, here's my grasshopper invitation, have you ever gone grasshopper before? I hate to admit it, but I have, well, two of the 12 spies, Joshua and Caleb, they were Yes, we need all of this. But look at the promised land. But those negative people, the Bible says they spread a negative report throughout the entire nation. Are you ready for that? And these people, the scriptures tell us, wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron. I'm not talking about this kind of stone, no. They wanted to stone them, kill them. And then they were like, I wish we were back in Egypt under the whipping chain. Why did we do that? And the Bible tells us that Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron, those are courageous dudes, they were like devastated. So because of their disbelief, because the deal blew up in the title company, they, I'm talking about the children of Israel, had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And God allowed these vision vandals, do you know any vision vandals? You're at the office, you come up with an idea, they extinguish it, you know? Or people say, how much is that going to cost? Or they might go, man, we've never done that before. I can't vision vandals. And negativity is a very infectious disease. So here's what God said about negativity. God just waited and said, all right, you're going to go negative? I'll wait until all of you die out in the wilderness. And once you're dead, I'm going to take my boys Joshua and Caleb and they will lead a new generation into the promised land. And that's what happened, real estate deal two. The first one blew up, okay? Second one, you got Joshua and Caleb, they're standing, I mean, on the edge of the precipice of this incredible deal. And here's what God says, three times. If you have your Bibles, you can check this out. If not, just check us out on the site screens. The Bible says, in Joshua 1 verse 6, I mean, what would God say to this? What would God direct these people to do? I mean, this is a shocker, right? He said, in Joshua 1 verse 6, be what say with me strong and courageous. You what the word strong means in Hebrew? I about freaked when I read this. It means to be a man. How strong is that? It means to be a man. So this message in one sentence, be a man, be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land. I swore to their forefathers to give them. We should be strong and

courageous just like Joshua and Caleb because of the promises of God. That's what God was saying. I've given you so many promises. And you realize, guys, as you read the Scriptures, because back during this time, there was only five books in the Bible. Now we have 66 books. They're over 3,000 promises in Scripture. Get out of town. So God says, lean in on my promises. And if you think about his promise, he made the promise to Abraham 400 years earlier. And he said, Abe, one day there's going to be a land flowing with milk and honey. And that's what was taking place. So be strong and courageous because of the promises of God. And then in verse 7, he says, be strong and courageous again. In fact, he says, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may be successful wherever you go. So we should be strong and courageous just because the promises of God, but also because of the power of God's Word. Guys, I can't tell you how important it is to read this owner's manual. I can't tell you how important it is to hide Scripture in your heart. We have so many different ways for you to get this word in your life. One of the ones is we have an entire devotional on our app and you can read it or you can even listen to it. And it's phenomenal. I use it all the time. And once we begin to get the word in our lives, we begin to walk it out and live it out. And we discover the purpose that unique purpose that God was 300,000 square miles, and this is kind of a doggy downer. Do you know the Israelites only conquered 30,000 of the 300,000 square miles of the promised lamb? Think about that. I don't want that to be me. I don't want that to be you. Think about the tract of land that God has for you. That God has for you, my friend, for your marriage, for your family, for your career. Think about it. It's awesome. In fact, if we could see it, we'd be like, "What? What? God? That tract? You want me to claim that much so don't fall short with 30,000. That's what I'm saying." So, be strong and courageous because of the promises of God. And we should claim those, correct? 3,000. Also, we should be strong and very courageous because the power of his word. You know, this is the only offensive weapon in spiritual warfare. It's called the sword of the Spirit. But there's another one, be strong and courageous. Joshua says, "Be strong and courageous because of the presence of God's Spirit." Joshua, chapter 1, verse 9, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." You might be going, "Well, oh, dude, man, bro, these guys

obviously didn't have any fear. I mean, obviously they weren't frightened of anything. You're dead wrong and so am I. I thought the same thing. But as I studied this, I thought, "God's telling them be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous." Because they were dealing with fear. I'm fearful all the time. You are too. And we have to do it afraid. We take that step afraid. The great news is God is with you. He's with me. I sometimes have prayed this prayer and this is kind of a dumb prayer and I'll just admit it. I've prayed this prayer. It's a dumb prayer. Lord, I'll say, be with me. He's with me. So we don't have to pray that prayer. We don't have any idea how close God is to us. Have you ever heard of Troy Echman before? I'm going to name drop. I can do that now that I'm 65. I don't care. I'm not name dropping. I'm just telling you the truth. One day Troy and I were going out for sushi. I'll never forget this. It was during the height of the cowboys run back in the 1800s when they were really good. So anyway, Troy and I were in his SUV and so we were on my car through boulevard in Irving at an intersection and he had his windows rolled down and I could hear and see the bros in other cars listening to talk radio. It was hilarious. They were talking about the cowboys. I could kind of hear it and I was thinking, man, I wonder what Troy's thinking about this, you know, and I go, Troy, what do you think about all of these pundits, all of these bros, you know, commenting about the cowboys and you should have thrown the past this way or you should have just, you know, taken the sack. I mean, what do you, what do you, what do you think about that? He goes, whatever anybody ever says about the cowboys, I've thought about it over a thousand times. Drop a mic. If those bros had known that Troy Aikman was right there next to them, I mean, these windows were blacked out. They would have lost their mind. He was right there. The Lord Jesus is right there. In fact, the Holy Spirit is in our lives. He's with us and he'll give us the power. He'll give us his presence. He'll give us his purpose and man, what a word. I need to hear that word, courage, courage. So we need courage. We need spiritual courage. We need moral courage. We need relational courage. Who are you hanging out with? Who are you rubbing shoulders with? There's a guy in the Bible named Daniel and we'd say, oh man, what a man of God. He was so awesome. He was so amazing. He had so much courage and he did. We were Daniel faced up the lions in the lion's den and people. Well, yeah, the presence of God, but they forget. His best friends were three faithful firemen,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And I guarantee you, they infused him with courage. How do you spell relational relief? Something else I would ask you to consider. Think about the tract of land. I just touched on it a second ago that God has for you. I'm gonna challenge you to tackle that land tenaciously. It takes courage to love your wife like Christ loved the church. It does. It takes courage to say no to some things at work because you know leaning into your family and to the local church is where it's at. It takes courage, guys, to lead your family to church. And I'll say it again, the only thing, the carpenter from Nazareth ever built was the church. The church. So I thank you for your commitment. I thank you for your involvement. I thank you for your courage to come to church. But just think about that tract of land that God has for you. Don't claim 30,000 square miles. Come on, 300,000. Understand, also, that courage is not optional equipment. It's standard equipment. And it comes from God. And when we walk in courage, we are reflecting our courageous savior. So, where are you in this courage quotient thing? Where are you in facing your fear?

Where are you? I played P with football. I wasn't that great, but I played. And when I joined the team, the Brookwood Forest Bulldogs, I was a running back. I mean, I was like the biggest guy on the team, but I didn't want to get hit. I was just like, ah, afraid, you know? And so my father said, Ed, you have got to lower your shoulder and run with tenacity. You have got to just run three people. I still wouldn't do it. But one day in my backyard, the neighborhood bully was on the other team, Keith Ellis, you know, big guy. And man, I said to myself, I am gonna go for it. So I turned and I ran, boom! I floored Keith Ellis and scored a touchdown in my backyard. (audience applauds) That's a courage. (laughs) So, who is your Keith Ellis? What is your Keith Ellis? Who do you need to stare down and take a step and lower your shoulder and, boom! Because God will give you the horsepower guys to do it. Be courageous. Would you bow your heads with me for a moment? Father, thank you so much for this great, great group of men.

Thank you for the courage that you have infused upon life after life after life. And hey, if you're here and you've never ever asked the Lord Jesus to take control of your life, you can make that decision right now. Just pray with me. I would love to include you in this prayer. Just simply say this. Lord, right now, I have the courage to admit to you. Just say that I am not perfect, that I'm a sinner. And I believe, God, that Jesus died on the cross through my sins. And I believe that you arranged the sins of the world to fall upon the shoulders of Jesus. I turn from my sins, Lord, and open the lid of my life to you and ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life. I give you everything, tax, title, and license. The moment you said that, that is the greatest decision you'll ever make. And you'll discover this amazing tract of land, this amazing life that Jesus has for you as he develops character, as you choose character, as you face difficulties, and as he builds character in your life. And as you connect, Others of us here, God, are facing maybe an issue in a relationship, maybe with the girlfriend, or maybe you're married, and you have 2.3 kids or whatever. You know what? I want to pray and ask the Lord to just reveal Himself to you

in a powerful way right now, and to just give you the ability to see the next courageous step that you, my friend, need to take. You've taken the step and received Christ, but what are the other steps? It could be courage-- I don't know-- with a wayward son or daughter. It could be courage in your work, not to compromise anymore, but to go, you know what? I'm going to stand no matter what the cost. It could be the courage maybe to say no to some good things and yes to the best things to say, you know, we are going to revolve our lives around the local church. Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, move and touch and comfort and convict and help us, God, with courage. Lord, I thank You that You're called the Lion of Judah, and no longer should we ever try to defang You, because You are strength and truth and courage. And we've voiced this prayer in the name of Jesus, our living Lord, amen. Come on, can we put our hands together for the Word of God?