Today is about courage. How do we live a life of courage? This is a challenge because if we don’t figure this out, we will live a life in fear. I want to start by saying I don’t feel like I have courage all the time. I don’t. As a father, a leader, a pastor, I think I am supposed to say I am filled with courage. I’m supposed to say that I live with clarity and I am very confident every day. Maybe I am not doing life right, but life just isn’t like that for me. I’ll give you an example of what I am talking about.
In raising my three girls, I was ready for the baby stage. My older brothers had several kids before mine were born. I knew what was coming. I was ready for the Instagram moments. But I wasn’t 100% ready for girls to grow older and deal with the decisions we had to make. Decisions about balancing Church, school, grades, sports, friends and life. As a parent, no one gives you a book with a perfect parent formula. Just when you think you overcame one problem, another one pops up. And you don’t really ever know if you made the right decision. It is common to feel like you are losing. You just don’t feel courage all the time as a parent, you feel like saying, “Maybe we made the right decision, we think, we don’t know.”
As a pastor, I tend to have more questions than answers about leading a church. My dad was a pastor and I was raised in the church. Later, in my 20’s, I experienced God’s grace in a pretty powerful way. Then in my 30’s I was given a chance to build a church for people to experience God’s grace. Sounds easy doesn’t?
It’s everything but easy. In fact, it’s confusing to me. Based on my experience with Christ and reading the bible, the clear mission of Christ to reach people who don’t know about God’s grace is so simple and so clear. But in our North American culture, as surprising as it may sound, building a church for the lost is odd. We all know we are supposed to reach people far from God but to actually do that is odd. As a pastor, you just don’t feel courage all the time, you feel like saying, “Maybe we made the right decision, we think, we don’t know.” have to say, here at MRC it has been wonderful. Over the years of seeing people come to experience Christ and new spiritual freedom is so redemptive. Planting MRC Gettysburg has been fun. But at the same time, it has been a challenge to create a church that has a culture that focuses on the lost.
Today, we want to talk about courage. More specifically, how do you get courage? Because chances are, if you are like me, you don’t really walk with courage every day. Last week Sam brought up living bold and free. How many people really live bold and free?
The Philistines drew up their troops for battle…. 2 Saul and the Israelites came together, camped at Oak Valley, and spread out their troops in battle readiness for the Philistines. 3 The Philistines were on one hill, the Israelites on the opposing hill, with the valley between them.
4 A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor – 126 pounds of it! 6 He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. 7 His spear was like a fence rail – the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.
8 Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, “Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. 9 If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. 10 I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!”
11 When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope…
24 The Israelites, to a man, fell back the moment they saw the giant – totally frightened. 25 The talk among the troops was, “Have you ever seen anything like this, this man openly and defiantly challenging Israel? The man who kills the giant will have it made. The king will give him a huge reward, offer his daughter as a bride, and give his entire family a free ride.”
David, who was talking to the men standing around him, asked, “What’s in it for the man who kills that Philistine and gets rid of this ugly blot on Israel’s honor? Who does he think he is, anyway, this uncircumcised Philistine, taunting the armies of God-Alive?”…
32 “Master,” said David, “don’t give up hope. I’m ready to go and fight this Philistine.”
33 Saul answered David, “You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced — and he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born.”
34 David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. 36 Lion or bear, it made no difference – I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. 37 GOD, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
Saul said, “Go. And GOD help you!” MSG 1 Samuel 17:1-11,24-25, 32-37
Let’s walk through this story.
4 A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open.
Think about that for second. That’s terrifying. Facing a ten-foot warrior. Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet tall. Goliath is another three feet taller. Terrifying. The reality of life is; we all have giants in front of us. And, they seem at least 10 feet tall. They are so big, so overwhelming, we feel like we have no chance to overcome them.
So, let’s talk about this. What is your giant? What is it in your life that stands in front of you and terrifies you? What seems so overwhelming it makes you feel intimidated? What is it that is stealing your joy and courage?
Maybe in elementary, middle or high school, it’s trying something new. What stops you? Maybe you are afraid to fail.
Maybe you graduated and you starting a new job or starting to date. What scares you? Chances are, you don’t know what you want to do with your life or you are afraid of making the wrong decision.
Maybe you are older, a parent with older kids, do you feel like you live with courage or like you are just trying to make it to dinner? Why is that? What has taken your courage from you?
Maybe the kids are gone. What scares you? Retirement, health, insurance?
Everyone at every stage of life, has what seems to be a giant in front of them and it tries to steal joy and courage. This is important to understand. That sense of fear faces everyone. You don’t out grow it. In never gets easier. You either learn how to face and overcome fear or chances are, you will live in fear.
Let’s keep reading to see how they respond to the giant.
11 When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope.
What happens? The giant terrifies them, and they lose all hope. If having a giant in front of you isn’t bad enough, it can feel so overwhelming, you lose all hope. All passion and joy and courage is drained out of body, down into your feet and into the ground.
The giant in front of you; is it terrifying to you? Has it lead you to lose hope? Has it drained your body and soul of courage? Has it evaporated your energy to live?
I want to ask the younger generation this question: do you feel like you lost hope in life? Do you feel like giving up? Do you feel like nothing matters? Are you wrestling with fear, loneliness, depression or anger? Many people, like King Saul, feel that. Please stick with me today because we talk about how to overcome those negative emotions.
Let’s keep reading and listen to what David says.
25 “Who does he think he is, anyway, this uncircumcised Philistine, taunting the armies of God-Alive?”
There is a giant. The giant is terrifying. Everyone retreats in fear. Do you see what David asked? David wanted to know, who is taunting God? David understood something that the King and the solders didn’t see. David understood that this moment was spiritual. Goliath was real. Goliath was flesh and bone. Goliath was ten feet tall. Goliath was terrifying. And David understood that something spiritual was going on.
I want to ask you this about your giant. Have you ever thought to yourself, there is a giant in front me, I’m scared, and maybe something spiritual is going on? The thing in front of me is stealing my joy and courage, maybe this isn’t just practical, maybe it’s spiritual.
Please hear me. If you are going to live life, you will face giants. That means things that feel overwhelming to you. Maybe they are so bad, you feel terrified to even face them, so you retreat in fear. I would challenge you to think about this. Maybe what you are facing is something spiritual. It seems real. It seems practical. It seems tangible. But maybe it has spiritual implications.
Let’s keep reading.
34 David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. 36 Lion or bear, it made no difference – I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. 37 GOD, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
We don’t raise kids like this today do we? We have 10 insurance forms and a juice box for our kids. David killed lions. They didn’t even have Clorox wipes.
David was ready. He was prepared. In the past, he faced lions and bears and that past experienced prepared him to face the giant. And David knew that God was with him before and God would continue to be with him.
I love the David and Goliath story. It is an epic battle of the little guy taking on the giant and winning. It’s the kind of story we want to see in the movie. We can be inspired by it. However, in our lives, we see the giants in front of us and we feel fear and feel defeated.
We tell our kids to try new things but we as adults can feel like we are in survival mode. What do we do to have courage? The first thing I would challenge you to think about is this; maybe the giant in front of you that is stealing all your joy and courage is spiritual. I know. It’s practical. It’s something you are dealing with and it’s real. But maybe it has spiritual implications. Maybe this is where we need to have faith that God will help us to overcome our fear.
I believe, as real as our giants are, they have spiritual implications. We need faith. We need courage. How? The answer is spiritual transformation.
God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us! TLB 2 Corinthians 5:21
That means when we believe in God, God took all of your sin, shame, guilt, fear and poured it into Jesus the day he died. And, at the exact same moment, God took the goodness and righteousness out of Jesus and poured that into you. It literally means that you are ‘in Christ.’
Maybe every day you live, you need to start with that verse. Every day, hit the reset button of your life. All of my sin, shame, guilt and fear has been washed away. God has filled me with righteousness. So today, I can face and overcome the giant in front of me. I am living ‘in Christ.’ Imagine living every day knowing that God was with you. Knowing that God is with you, wouldn’t that give you joy? Wouldn’t that shoot courage into your soul?
Daniel said this when he encountered an angel.
He said, ‘Don’t be afraid, friend. Peace. Everything is going to be all right. Take courage. Be strong.’ “Even as he spoke, courage surged up within me. I said, ‘Go ahead, let my master speak. You’ve given me courage.'” MSG Daniel 10:19
I believe that the giants that make us feel fear are real. I also believe, they are spiritual. The only way to face them and overcome them is spiritual transformation. Knowing who you are in Christ. That means, knowing that everything about you that is sin, shame, guilt and fear has been poured out onto Jesus. And you have been filled with the goodness and righteousness of Jesus.
What would you do today if you knew God was with you? Would you have courage? Would you view life differently? Would you go to school differently? Would you treat others differently? Would that change how you view life?
Remember I told you that I don’t have courage? The truth is, every time I walk through 2 Corinthians 5:21 I have more courage. I am reminded that God is with me.