Sermon Journal Notes: Courage
Listen to GOD
Often in life people have a knack for telling people what they think you can or can’t do…there’s so many opinions and ideas that may or may not coincide with GOD’s direction in our lives, when I was a child I remember asking GOD if I could be an Angel, if HE would use me to share he gospel to others around the world…..in between that time I also said I wanted to be a child psychologist, pediatrician and anthropologist ….but my teachers said I was too talkative, below average in reading and math, they said I was not college material and that I would do best working at McDonalds …for the most part, the message I received was “looser” “failure” ‘no body”……it took me years to push past those labels…. opportunities missed that should have been taken, things done that should not have been done, things and relationships affected greatly by the words spoken over me. I believe that’s why god reminds us in his word there’s life and death in the tongue did you know when we listen to people we always wound up on the wrong path….in our autobiographical study Maya Angelou, I came across an interview she did about a book she wrote “Letter to my daughter” where she said "Sometimes we become bound by other people's thoughts because we are not sure about ourselves"…Gods word reminds us we as HIS sons & daughters will know HIS voice, and no other voice.. Romans 8:14 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” when we call ourselves sons and daughters it’s because we’ve committed to following God will and not our own….this in essence will give us the strength and courage to follow GOD because we want to honor God. Lets look at our text…in Deuteronomy 31 we see Moses now 120 years old acknowledging God’s directive; he will not be going to the promise land, he’s led the people as far as he’s to lead them and it’s time for Joshua to lead…our text tells us in verse 3 that the Lord will go ahead of them, will destroy nations before them and confirms that they will possess the land…according to GOD word and while Moses continues telling Joshua all that GOD has told him he reminds him to be strong and courageous …..let’s put a pin in that for a minute because I want to say something here…..a few things have jumped out at me, when GOD calls us to do something HE doesn’t expect us to be qualified; HE qualifies us….this doesn’t come through education, although there a place for that, he doesn’t do it by our relationships but again that doesn’t supersede the plans of GOD and of course there’s a place for that…remember when HE first called Moses? In Exodus 3 GOD tells Moses that HE’s heard the plight of the people and is sending Moses to set the people of GOD free, GOD told him “I’m sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites out of Egypt.” He goes on to say “ I will be with you” and we know through our study of the Word HE was indeed with Moses, the miracles and signs performed may have been copied by the magicians; to a point but never to the fullness, to the power of GOD’s miraculous hand…GOD qualified HIM and went with him….now we see GOD is calling Joshua to lead, Moses doesn’t complain, he doesn’t fill the time with what he thought should have happened he wasn’t ealous and angry…it was GOD’s word…he listened and that’s that…you know what we listen to GOD we may not hear the things we want to hear, we may not feel like things are going the way we thought they should have gone, but I want us to remember here today GOD is faithful, there’s never a time GOD will tell us to do something and HE’s not there to go with us…when we listen to GOD we’re pushing past our fears, apprehensions, our own flesh and we trust HIM….leaning not on our own thoughts but in all our ways honoring GOD…honoring HIS word..
Now as we go on with out text we can see Moses, told Joshua to “ Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance…in other words, Moses didn’t spend time trying so hard to be the author of impartation, he took GOD’s words as encouragement…..you know many people are looking to be encouraged, lifted up…some feel so discouraged in their lives that often they look to others for guidance. Now with social medea many use this platform as their platform to receive positive affirmations and encouragement…I’m a member of a homeschool group of over 30 thousand members all around the world…. And more often than not; the posts are request for advice, encouragement and prayers….there’s a real need out here people and unfortunately not everyone giving advice is giving good advice …as I mentioned earlier I was one of those who didn’t get good advice and how that advice could have destroyed me..Proverbs 12:26 tells us “ The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray.” Which we know is the enemy’s plans right to lead us astray as he kills steals and destroys, I heard someone say “ what the enemy cannot take from you…he will convince you to sacrifice (diminish, devalue) so when a so called friend advises a wife to do what she wants to do, if her husband doesn’t like it then too bad, hes not the boss of her….she can tell him to hit the road and all sorts of heady stuff…but GOD tells us to honor our husbands, to honor each other…Romans 12:10 “ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” And Ephesians 5:22-24 “ Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” And we know that isn’t the end of it because husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church” and what happens when people make flippiant comments and give fleshly advise ….if we listen we’ll be the ones walking contrary to GOD’s will just quickly as a reference
Going against the grain, doing the thing others don’t think we should do requires courage is defined as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”
