As a family we watched great movies as the girls grew up. To name a few, Barbie [not the greatest for me], Minions, Megamind, Star Wars, the Marvel movies, and the Incredibles. One scene in the Incredibles, we still joke about. It’s the scene where the family is at dinner. Dad was in his office and completely disconnected from the family. The kids were at the table and started fighting as the mom tried to get them to stop. The arguing around the table quickly got out of hand. In the middle of the chaos, the mom shouts out to her husband and says, “Bob, it’s time to engage Bob. Do something!”
And that is what I want to talk about today. Spiritually speaking, I want to shout out to you today and say, “Engage, it’s time to engage. Do something!” And I want to explain what that looks like.
We are in a series called Rise Up and Stand Firm. It’s about courage. In this teaching series, we are preparing you to walk into the new year. We want you to make choices to rise up and stand firm. King David put it like this.
6 Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. NIV Psalms 20:6-8
If you are King, what do you look to for strength and security? Your army. Your warhorses. The bigger the army, the safer you are – right? The more warhorses you have – the safer you are – right? David says no. Not at all. David is telling us to never look to the obvious things, the things of this world to give us strength and security. You look to God and God alone. It’s only from your relationship in God, that you will find courage to rise up and stand firm.
Real quickly, I want to point out that King David, in Psalms, doesn’t reference this just one time. Read Psalms 33 and 147. David, a couple of times, reminds us that our strength should never come from the things of this world. In Psalms 147 it says, the Lord delights in those who put their hope in His unfailing love.
Now, let’s be honest. It’s hard to live life and have courage, isn’t? Why? Life comes against us and steals our courage. In the last two weeks, Sam and I have shared with you some of the things that steal our courage. First, religion. Religion is toxic because it always puts the focus on you and what you do, your effort, and how you perform. Relationship with God is different. Relationship always puts the focus on God and what He did. That’s why Jesus taught in Matthew 6:6, get alone with God and as you shift your focus off of you and onto God, you will begin to experience His grace.
Paul put it like this.
2b You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? NLT Galatians 3:2-3
If you avoid running to God with courage because you believe you aren’t doing enough, you are living in religion. Why? Because you believe, God’s love is based on your human effort, what you do, how you perform. And because it is based on your performance, you will always conclude, you aren’t doing enough to earn God’s love and you will stay away from God. Please hear me, religion is evil. It will destroy you. It will always leave you feeling tired and guilty for not doing enough while at the same time you miss out on the Holy Spirit’s power in you.
Sam last week shared another reason we can lose courage. We lose courage if we don’t fully understand our identity. To help us understand that, Sam shared an awesome quote.
“The vast majority of us go to our graves without knowing who we are. We unconsciously live someone else’s life, or at least someone else’s expectations for us. This does violence to ourselves, our relationship with God, and ultimately others.” Page 66 Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Have you ever thought about that? Not connecting with God and knowing who we are, our identity, does violence to ourselves. It damages us because we allow others and the world to define us and they determine how we live.
Remember he shared scripture that talked about our ‘old self’ and our ‘new self’? His questions for us were, who are you? Are you standing in your ‘old self’ or are you standing in your, ‘new self’? The world pushes against you and tries to keep you from living out your ‘new self’. And as long as we continue to live in our ‘old self’ we will never have courage to stand in our ‘new self’.
He shared the three ways that the world uses to push against us. People, possessions, and performance. Then he shared how to walk in your ‘new self’, your God given identity.
Today, I want you to think about the Incredibles when the mom shouts out to her husband. “Engage, it’s time to engage, to do something!” I believe one of the reasons people don’t walk in courage is, they don’t think they can make a difference, so they don’t engage, and when the don’t engage, nothing happens, and because nothing happens we conclude, ‘See, I can’t make a difference.’
At the burning bush, Moses was invited to be a leader for God. What does he do? Moses gives five excuses as to why he can’t.
The angel shows up and told Gideon and says, “Hey mighty warrior.” What does Gideon say? I’m no great warrior, I come from the weakest clan and in that clan, my family is the weakest.
Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God is like someone giving his servants money and says, I’m leaving and will be back. When he gets back, he holds them accountable to what they have done. One of the servants is so scared, he does nothing. What happens to the one who produces nothing? He’s fired.
What is common in these stories and so many other Bible stories? They didn’t have courage. They didn’t think they could make a difference, so they didn’t want to engage. They wanted to push back on God and check out and go back to their life.
Now think about how different Peter’s response is to Jesus. Jesus’ invitation to Peter was straight up nuts. Peter, get out of the boat. And Peter with pure passion for Jesus, gets out of the boat and walks on water.
I want to slow down and ask you a very big question. Let’s take a few seconds to pause and prepare for the question. Ready? Let me ask you. What do you do when God shows up, and He whispers into your heart, “This is what I want you to do”?
In Psalms David wrote about that moment when God speaks.
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.” NLT Psalms 27:8
Is this you? God says, come and spend time with me. Yes Lord, I will rearrange my life to pursue You. Or do you ignore His voice in your heart, that feeling like God is pulling you into a relationship.
God says, your husband needs your love, go love him. Yes God. Or, I don’t think I can make a difference, I’m not going to engage. God’s says, your wife needs your love, go love her. Yes Lord. Or, I don’t think I can make a difference; I’m not going to engage.
Gods says, I need you to love your enemy. Yes God. Or, I don’t think I can make a difference, I’m not going to engage.
I believe one of the reasons people don’t walk in courage is, they don’t think they can make a difference, so they don’t engage, and when the don’t engage, nothing happens, and because nothing happens we conclude, ‘See, I can’t make a difference.’
Why did Sam and I start this series on courage and talk about running to God and knowing our identity? Because when you are in a relationship with God, when you know who you are, you will be like Peter. You will say, ‘Yes, Lord, I’m coming.’ But if not, you might be like Moses and come up with excuses. Might be like Gideon and talk about how unimportant you are. Might be like the scared servant and live in so much fear, you do nothing only to get fired.
What do you do when God shows up, and He whispers into your heart, “This is what I want you to do”?
I want to share three things about courage.
First, courage is contagious.
You already know this. If someone around you has courage, you feel courage. If you are around a group of people who have courage, you have courage. Courage is contagious.
Do you know why you love the movies you love? Chances are the movie you love is about a person who was weak, rejected, and unnoticed. And in the movie, they had the courage to dig deep and overcome every obstacle. Why do you walk out of that movie theater happy and inspired? Because you want to live that life. You feel weak, rejected, and unnoticed. You want courage to overcome every obstacle.
Courage is contagious. Parents, I want you to think about this. If you call yourself a disciple of Christ and you go to church, I want you to process this. Your kids view of Christianity, their understanding of who God is and how you bring God into your life, will come from your courage. It will not primarily come from programs and events, children’s ministries, youth group, mission trips and all the other good things. And all those things I just mentioned are good things. Their view of being a disciple of Christ, will primarily come from your courage. Listen, all those years with you, those littles eyes and those little ears observing how you love God, how you engage life with or without courage.
This is probably one of the most devastating things I seen in modern Christianity. Christian parents will never get out of the boat and walk on water, however, at the same time, the parents look to programs and events to teach their kids to be willing to get out of the boat and walk on water. And as the years pass, the children grow up and never get out of the boat and walk on water. Who do the parents blame? The church, the leaders, the programs and events.
You might think, Ken, that’s pretty strong. I don’t think you are right about that. Let’s turn to what Christian pollsters are discovering.
Christian pollster George Barna documented that 61% of today’s twenty-somethings, who had been churched at one point during their teen years, are now spiritually disengaged. They do not attend church, read their Bible, or pray.
The article continues. “Today’s church has created peer dependency,” said Adam McManus [Spokesperson for National Center for Family-Integrated Churches]. “The inherent result of youth groups is that teenagers in the church are focused on their peers, not their parents or their pastors. It’s a foreign sociology that leads to immaturity, a greater likelihood of sexual activity, drug experimentation, and a rejection of the authority of the Word of God. The result is that the youth stumble, they can’t see beyond their noses, and spiritual adolescence is prolonged well into adulthood. It’s crippling the body of Christ. That’s why it’s time to return to the Biblical paradigm and throw out the youth group structure entirely.” [Source: Church Executive Website under ‘Christian Teens’]
Are we against programs, events, children’s ministry, youth ministry and mission trips. No. If you think that, you have missed what I am saying. Please hear me. Courage is contagious. Your kids view of Christianity, their understanding of who God is and how you bring God into your life, will come from your courage.
What do your kids see?
What did I see growing up? I watched my parents unapologetically engage church and people.
What do you do when God shows up, and He whispers into your heart, “This is what I want you to do”?
Secondly, having courage doesn’t mean you don’t feel fear. It means, you will have the same fear as everyone else but you live like God can be trusted.
If you feel fear, that feeling like what you face is too big, you are defeated, nothing you do will make a difference, yes, we all feel that. That isn’t unique to you. If you think living with courage is easier for others around you than for you, you are wrong. There is no special group of people who are magically protected from fear.
If you are in school and feel the fear of homework, grades and insecurities, everyone around you does too. If you are single and feel the fear of jobs, the future, what you are supposed to do, everyone around you does too. If you are married with young kids, you are probably too tired to feel fear – lol. As you walk through the life stages and you feel the fear of life, everyone around you does too. If you have health issues, financial issues, relationship issues and feel fear in those moments, everyone around you with those issues feel that fear too.
Courage doesn’t mean you don’t fear. It means, you will have the same fear as everyone else but you will live like God can be trusted. When Jesus was walking on the water, all the disciples, including Peter, were terrified. Only one disciple said, ‘If it’s you Lord, tell me to come to you.’
What do you do when God shows up, and He whispers into your heart, “This is what I want you to do”?
Thirdly, courage grows when you take one step into fear.
Fear screams at you every day and every night. It tells you, ‘Everything is going to go bad.’ It leaves you feeling torn up inside. You realize that you have no ability, no strength, no power to overcome the challenge in front of you. In that moment you have a choice to make. You can allow fear, that sense that you are too weak, to control you. Or, you can take one step into fear. How? Ask God to save you, to rescue you.
As I walk with many Christians, I remind them, you need God today just as much, if not more, than the first day you met Him. As we walk daily with God, we continue to need Him to save us and rescue us. That includes you. That’s for today. That’s for when you face fear. You need God to save you so ask Him to save you.
David wrote;
Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you. TLB Psalms 27:14
When you do that, you are telling fear, ‘You won’t define me, my trust in God defines me. He will rescue me. He will save me.’
Remember, courage is contagious. Courage doesn’t mean you don’t feel fear. It means, you will have the same fear as everyone else but you live like God can be trusted. Courage grows when you take one step into fear. So what do you do when God shows up, and He whispers into your heart, “This is what I want you to do”?
I want to close with the words I started with today. “Engage, it’s time to engage. Do something!”