Biblical Courage (part 2) - [Psalm 27:14]

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Sexual Ethics And The Gospel (part 3) - [1 Corinthians 7:1-6]

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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your Son, Jesus Christ, our
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Great High Priest, our Savior, our God, and through whom we have life and the ability to live life abundantly.
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We thank you for your good gift to us. Lead us and guide us, we pray. Amen. All right, so we'll, actually, let's do this.
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Take a moment to just read through the psalm, just the first few verses, or maybe even just the first verse.
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I'm not going to read it aloud, so just read it in your Bibles. Just the first verse, and as you read it, think about who or what this psalmist, or this, which is
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David, is thinking about. What are all the things that are on his mind as he writes this first verse?
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We will come back and look at this verse again in a couple of minutes, but before we get into Psalm 27, just to frame our thoughts on biblical courage, we saw last week worldly courage from biblical courage.
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So to wake us up, who still have eyes that sleep in our eyes, does anyone remember what were some of the characteristics of the worldly courage?
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Excellent, trusting in your own strength than in the Lord's. What else? Sometimes doing something courageously may be actually foolish.
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It may not necessarily be the right thing to do. Sometimes we call it bravado, and the consequences are dangerous.
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Excellent. And also, the purpose for which we are courageous, from the world's perspective, what would be some of the motivation for courage?
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I guess worldly courage. Bruce? Just parental protection of children if they're in danger.
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That's excellent. Parental protection. In fact, I think that's one thing we didn't cover last time.
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We looked at how, from a selfish perspective, or from a worldly good perspective, people can be courageous.
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And some of these things are actually good. Like, a parental courage is something that we admire, even among unbelievers.
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And one of the things that I wanted to mention, which I didn't, was even in the world, you see examples of admirable deeds.
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Plenty of admirable deeds that we can actually look and say, that's admirable. Those are not necessarily meritorious in God's eyes, but those are still admirable.
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Why does the world act in admirable ways? Sometimes. Excellent. Because we are still image bearers.
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Every single person here, whether saved or unsaved, is made in the image of God. We all have that capacity to reflect
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God in certain ways. Like what you just mentioned, you know, parental courage. Those are things that are still vestiges that are in all human creatures.
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But because of the fall, it has now become effaced. So now we start looking to doing things which are not necessarily
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God -honoring. And so this tendency to love what is ungodly is what dominates the unbeliever's mind.
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But that does not mean that the unbeliever cannot act in admirable ways, especially here in courage.
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Very good. So in contrast to worldly courage, we have biblical courage. And what characterizes biblical courage?
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Trust in God's sovereignty. Karen? Honoring Christ. Honoring Christ. So the source of your courage is in God.
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And the motive or the purpose is also God himself. We want to lift up Christ, our
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God, in all that we do, especially in courage. And we looked at two examples.
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One was David and the other was Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. So we saw David in Goliath. I did check the picture of the
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Valley of Elah. So at least the one in National Geographic, it does look like a plain, practically.
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There's just a couple of hills and at a distance. Whereas I think if you look at Gethsemane, well, maybe
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I'll ask the Israel visitors. How does it look like when you're standing on Gethsemane and looking to Jerusalem?
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Does it look like a plain or does it look somewhat different? And if you saw
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Fred's hand, it goes like that. It's kind of sharp. If you're walking down, you go really down and then you come really back up.
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Whereas Elah is more gentle, the way in which it undulates.
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And David's battle with Goliath was extraordinary, impossible by human terms.
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Little young guy who comes against this giant and destroys him.
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And we saw that David didn't trust in his own strength. Although he could have come to Goliath and said,
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I've killed the lion, I've killed the bear, and I'm going to kill you. Instead, he said, you know, I trust in the
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Lord of the God of Israel, who is this day going to deliver me to you.
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So it was in God he trusted and God who delivered him. And then in Jesus Christ, we see again, one of the things that we really cannot even comprehend.
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Even here, after the fact, we can look at David and Goliath and say, yes, I understand it.
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But when we look at Jesus Christ facing the event in a few hours from now, he is going to now bear the sins of the entire humanity.
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He is going to face the wrath of God upon him for those sins. He is going to be separated from God himself as a consequence of all these.
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And here he is looking at that and then he comes to get some money and he prays, asking
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God if that cup could pass, that it will. And one of the things we want to remember, it's like, we have a lot of children here, so don't get grossed out.
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But when we think of sin, we sometimes, it's kind of sanitized in our minds when we think of Jesus Christ.
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The way you want to picture what Jesus is about to face is like swimming in a current, a flood of human excrement.
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These are the sins that all of humanity ever will produce. And Christ has to jump into it, come successfully to the other side, and only when he comes up, see the one he loves most, kill him.
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That's the enormity of the sacrifice that Christ is going to do.
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And he stands there, and I think especially when you look at the first prayer when
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Jesus prays, he says, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
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And you see from the human sense the struggle that Christ goes through as he prays and asks
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God for strength. And one of the things that we looked at, Courage, was you do not rely on your own strength, but in God's strength.
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So he comes to God in the time of a supreme test. And then the second prayer, you see, he comes back and says, yet not my will, but thy will be done, knowing that if God were to place him there, he will enable him to accomplish what needs to be done.
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And I think, you know, that's the image that we want to have as we get into Psalm 27. Christ makes the supreme sacrifice and in the moment of the supreme test relies completely on God.
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He falls on his face. It's not that we as Christians are just going to go marching through every single trial, just humming a nice tune.
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There are going to be times when you're going to fall on our face, but the demonstration of Christian courage is to be able to stand and hold on to God in the midst of those trials and then walk through those trials where God has placed us.
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So we're going to see one such trial in the life of David in Psalm 27. We don't exactly know what specific events framed
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Psalm 27. It could have been when David was running from Saul and he goes to Abiathar, the high priest.
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He gets the sword and the food, the sword of Goliath and the food, bread that is consecrated.
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And then Doeg, the Edomite, sees him. And now David and his men leave. And when
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Saul comes back chasing, Doeg says, you know, these priests actually help David and all the priests except one get killed.
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And David is now being chased by Saul. And this is probably one of those circumstances in which
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David is writing this. So there are five things I want us to look for in Psalm 27.
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The first one, courage comes from trust. Courage comes from trust. In fact, last week, if you were here, you'll probably be thinking, was that about trust or about courage?
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And it is actually both. Courage is just the outward manifestation of an inward trust that you have in God.
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All the courage is inward as well as we'll see today. So the problem is when you come to a circumstance, when you start to quake, when your heart starts to melt, when your knees start to shake, are you going to fear
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God or are you going to fear man and the circumstances in which you are in? So let's read the first verse again.
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The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall
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I fear? The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life.
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The Lord is the fortress. He is my refuge. He is the one for whom
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I seek protection for my life. And then again, of whom shall I be afraid?
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So there is God on the one perspective and the enemy, whoever it is, on the other.
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And David, even as he starts, says, where is my eyes going to be fixed?
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Is my eyes going to be fixed on my adversary or is it going to be fixed on my God? My adversary, he says,
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I have no cause to fear because God is my light, my salvation, my stronghold.
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God is not the one who gives light. God is not the one who will provide salvation.
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But God himself is this believer's light and salvation and his stronghold.
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Now, when you go through trial, one of the biggest troubles we often face is,
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I think, a lack of knowledge. Just for Christians, ignorance. We sometimes do not know who our enemy is.
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We just have a vague sense of uneasiness. Everything is just going wrong. I don't know what my problem is. I just know that I'm in trouble.
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Sometimes we do not know who our God is. Who is it that we need to trust in? And then sometimes we do not know what our responsibility is.
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What must I do in this trial? Sometimes we just stand back and we are so confused. Give me a few thoughts.
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What are some of the things that come to your mind when you think of a lack of knowledge, a lack of ignorance on the part of believers as we go through trials when our courage is tested?
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Excellent. So one of the things we need to remember about God is he is sovereign. He ordained it.
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And therefore, we do not need to be thinking that this is an accident, something that we have to figure out ourselves.
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Yes. What else should we remember? Excellent. God is with us.
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He is Emmanuel. So we are not alone when we face these trials. God is an ever -present help.
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Yes. Excellent.
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There is a purpose in trials, even though, like we read in 1 Peter, at this very moment when we go through it, it doesn't feel good.
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We know that there is a goal. There is an objective. And he will make us more like Christ than the objective is a good one.
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Excellent. Excellent.
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Yes. So every single trial, his grace is sufficient for us. He never gives us a little bit less and says, you know, you need to kind of come up with the rest yourself.
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Anytime he places us in a circumstance, that is the exact circumstance where God knows that he will carry us through.
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And what we need to do is trust him. Can you elaborate?
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Excellent. So, so far we've been looking at the God side of things. You know, what are the things about God we need to know, we need to remember as we go through these trials in order to be bold.
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The other side is about the enemy. So our, Pam was saying our trials are not necessarily against flesh and blood.
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We need to recognize where the battle happens. It is not necessarily these human adversaries that we need to be fighting against.
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Sure. We need to remain aware of nations and persons.
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Excellent. I mentioned three things. One was your enemy, know your God, and know your responsibility.
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Chuck just laid out what your responsibility should be. When you need to know that your response to trial has to be
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God honoring. And one of the aspects of that is that there are people watching. And as a
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Christian, you need to remember how do you honor God in the midst of believers and unbelievers in whom you are in the midst of trials.
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Any other thoughts on your knowledge? Excellent point.
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We'll cover that more later. But just to point out what Peggy said, sometimes courage is not just acting, but refraining to act.
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If you remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, they finish, they come down. The gods are here to arrest
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Jesus. Judas does his betrayal. And Peter takes the sword and cuts it off. And what does
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Jesus tell Peter? Did you not know that if I called my father, he would have sent 12 legions of angels and pretty much wiped out everything?
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It's not that Jesus couldn't handle the situation, but he chooses to do what honors God. And his act is actually one of getting arrested rather than destroying.
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Excellent point. And once again, to recognize what our responsibility is. It is not just wiping out the people or the enemy before us.
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And we will see more of that later. All right. So let's keep moving. And I had another example.
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What we'll do is we'll pick a few other biblical examples just to broaden our understanding of courage. The verse
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I have, you don't have to turn here, is Mark 15, 43. Here Jesus has died on the cross.
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Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
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You'd think, respected member of the council, I'm kind of one of the leaders in Israel. What kind of courage do
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I need? I just go ask for the body and I get it. What was the circumstance that Joseph had to face? Here was the council that had crucified
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Christ. They had come together and agreed to kill Jesus. Joseph is one of those members.
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Obviously, he wasn't there during that night when it was secretly convened. He now has to realize who
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God is. He needs to realize who the enemy is, people that he was actually a part of until now.
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He now has to stand up against them and probably face their wrath. Then he needs to know what his responsibility is, as he now has to act in a certain way, and he needed courage and received that from God.
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That's first. Courage comes by trusting God. Do you fear God or do you fear your circumstances? The second one, how does courage display under attack, when it is under siege?
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One of the aspects of a believer is that we are confident of victory, in one sense, in these trials.
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Let's read verses 2 and 3. Actually, can someone read verses 2 and 3, please? Bruce? I just want to point out something.
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Hebrew, poetry, Psalms, they have parallelism. In verse 1 and 2, you had two verses, two stanzas that strengthen each other, and the same is true here.
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But just in terms of the specific adversity that he's talking about, he talks about evildoers who are going to assail him, individuals that come against him.
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He calls them his adversaries and his foes, enemies that are charging against him.
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And then he takes it one step up in verse 3. He says an entire army is now rallied against him, and practically, if the context of Psalm 27 is this
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Saul chasing, it is Saul and his armies that are against him. And he uses two languages here.
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One is encamped against him, and the second is war arise against him.
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So on the one hand, you have the whole field covered with the soldiers that are about to attack you, and you're just waiting, anticipating, unsure when this whole flood is going to come down and crush you.
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And on the other hand, you are in the midst and heat of battle. You are actually fighting, and you are in danger of your life.
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People debate which one is actually worse. Sometimes it's better to be in the battle and fighting than just waiting and waiting for all these huge enemies just to come down upon you because you don't know when it is going to happen.
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And both of those are trials. One is physical, the other one is mental. But David says something.
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In verse 2, he says, it is they who stumble and fall. And then in the end of verse 3, he says, yet I will be confident.
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What do you think was going through David's mind when he says this? Why is it that he was so sure that he was going to win, victory was his?
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Victory. Very good. So ultimately, it was in God's strength that he relied on.
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Were you saying something?
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He saw it before in history. God has demonstrated his power before, so he could see that God was able to help him.
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Yes? I want to draw something out here.
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So when you think of some of David's psalms, he actually, well, for example, this particular psalm he may have written after his trial.
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So he's gone through the trial, and he's writing it. But it doesn't mean that in the midst of his trial, he had no less confidence.
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He knew that God would actually save him through those times. And one of the things that we need to be very careful for when you go through trials is some of the
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Old Testament assurances that people like David have and some of the
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New Testament assurances that we have. Now, David here is in the midst of a battle. He has
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Saul pursuing him, and he is confident that his enemies will fall. He is confident that he will not lose this war.
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You're going through a financial trouble, or you're going through a broken marriage. Can you say the same thing that David says?
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Yes or no? Why or why not? We cannot.
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Okay. Does anyone think we can? I don't think we can, but I think
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David can. I love this judge.
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Very true.
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In the next section, we're going to look at that more closely. You know, what kind of victory do we have? Let's first distinguish what it is not.
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So, in the Old Testament, especially in David's life, here is God's promise. Think about it. Abraham, right?
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God tells Abraham, he's 75 years old, you're going to have a son. There was really absolutely no way Abraham could die, or Sarah could die, because he promised to Sarah too, until the son was born, even if he was 1 ,000 years old.
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There was just something unshakable in what God says. And here in David's life,
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Bruce just pointed out, God had anointed David as the next king. It doesn't matter what actually happens.
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There is a fulfillment of what God has specifically spoken to David that will happen. And some of the other things too, when you look at Old Testament, you're looking at national
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Israel. There is a national redemption in war and in bringing back
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God's kingdom that is a part of God's hand in history. Whereas, like Pam, you were talking about, in Christianity today, in Christendom today, you actually have a different purpose, a different agenda that God has in the lives of his church.
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And we need to be conscious of that when we look at some of these prayers. And here in David's case, absolutely, he was certain.
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Now, so what do we do about ourselves when we go through trials like David did? None of us have armies out there, you know, waiting to besiege us.
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Not yet. We don't have any enemies, I hope, with guns and swords trying to eat up our flesh.
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But what are some of the external adversities that we face today that we are challenged, just as David was?
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I can think of finances. I mean, the economy is going down, lots of people losing jobs, hard to find jobs.
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You can think of health. We have many in our own congregation who are sick, seriously sick, families and relatives who are sick.
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You can think of relationships that are broken. All these things just happen, like this war, like these armies that are besieging us.
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You know that the company is having layoffs. You don't know when it's going to happen. And then one day it is there. You're right in the midst of that turbulence.
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How are we to have the same kind of confidence that David had with the difference between the
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Old Testament and the New? What kind of confidence, what kind of courage is the believer to exhibit?
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Very true.
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You know, God had chosen Israel as a light and he was lifting it up so everybody else could see it as a unique nation.
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And for us, the way in which he lifts up the church is drastically different. And you just have to read the
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Fox's book of martyrs. Could God have chosen to save every single one of those martyrs?
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Absolutely. I forget who it is. Is it Polycarp or Tertullian or someone who said the blood of the, oh, maybe it was
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Clement. He said the blood of the saints, of the martyrs is the seed of the church or something along those lines.
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Here are Christians, strong Christians. You'd think, Lord, if they lived another 10 years, they could have written so much, had the church.
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Polycarp was, well, he was old. He was 85 and he just goes and dies willingly. I've never denied my
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Lord. I will not deny him today. You think you have the power over my life, but the Lord is the one who governs me, take my life and I go to a better place.
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So, and through that, what would seem like an extinguishing as a loss, a failure, God actually does a mighty thing through the early church.
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Very good point. So there is a distinction between the physical miraculous redemption that God brings in some of the
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Old Testament cases versus what happens in the church today. Because there is a broader scheme, a broader purpose.
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So, but let's look at it individually. So how do we respond when those things happen to us?
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What should our outlet be? Can we have the same confidence that David has in verses two and three?
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Yes. Yes. Can someone add a little more to that?
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God promises victory in Christ. And in these temporal physical circumstances that we go through, how do we, how do we respond?
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I mean, how do we trust in God in order to live courageously? Yes. Very true.
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The Holy Spirit. So let me maybe just tie everything up so that we can look at how this directly applies.
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So tomorrow, if I have one of these circumstances, how do I look at it? The first thing to remember is that these external circumstances are not necessarily the measure of our success or defeat.
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We don't look, like in David's case, if that enemy did catch up, if that enemy did thrust a sword into his heart, his defeat would have been assured.
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Because he was ordained to be the next king of Israel and that would not have happened. And here,
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God does not promise us financial security. You will be in plenty and prosperity all the days of your life.
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You will have no health issues. All your family will be, you know, saved and act more godly than you.
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Those are not things that God promises the believer. So a Christian is not going to say, like David, David said,
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God has anointed me and this is what God has promised. We don't go back to God and say, this is what
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God has promised and therefore if something happens, I'm in a defeat. But having said that, set the perspective right, it is not also, so let's say a financial circumstance that is tumultuous happens in your life.
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Do you think that you will get to the point where you really can't feed yourself or support your family or have no means to care for yourself?
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Will God let you down to the point where you cannot really live? Will God?
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Will not God? Exactly. Sometimes I think we can get over spiritual to the point where we just don't actually pray for physical affliction the way we should.
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God shall provide all my needs according to his riches and glory and part of that is spiritual.
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And yet you know that God will never let you down. He will not let you die of hunger, if you will, you know, just because you do not.
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Yes. Sometimes we don't. Yes. Thank you.
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Because when I said the last statement, I was like, that didn't come out right. Because many a time when
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I am the measure of my own needs versus wants, I can be deceived into thinking, you know, this is what
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I need. But of course, when I say plenty and prosperity, everybody knows that's not right. But if I lose my two cars to one, suddenly that made to me seem like a super catastrophe.
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And, you know, the Lord has a lot of things to teach us. So we need to be cautious about thinking what it is that we need.
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But God will indeed provide for all our needs. You know, when relations break up and a spouse leaves, humanly it seems impossible.
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But God will indeed provide for us during those times. Let's keep moving. Actually, maybe just one more thing here before we move on.
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Or maybe not. Let's move to the next section. So when we look at the focus of courage, we started out by saying, you know, is it
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God or your trial? Here we looked at when you're under attack, when you're under siege, you can be confident of victory because of God's strength.
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Now, let's look at verses four through six. And that shows that our focus of courage is in God.
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The Christian's mindset has to be all about God rather than about ourselves.
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So if someone can read verses four to six aloud. So the beginning part of this verse, verse four, one thing, there is a single -minded focus in the life of the believer.
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And that is to take joy, to take pleasure in God himself. That is our overwhelming passion.
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The burning desire of our life should be God himself. And then in verse five, he talks about God's protection.
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No matter what the enemy assails, God is the one who will protect. It is under his wings, under his tabernacle.
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And then in verse six, he once again talks about victory. My head will be lifted up.
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I'm going to offer sacrifices back in the temple where I rejoice in God's presence.
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And I'm going to be singing and making melody. I'm going to have a great time. That's what David is saying in the midst of his trial.
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And once again, we've covered this before. So what kind of victory or defeat for the believer today are we thinking of?
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Is our focus single -mindedly God's presence, his dwelling with him?
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If that is the focus of our life, then when we think of victory, we're not necessarily thinking of the temporal things that come and go.
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Because we will have them come up, we will have them come down. But my victory is not predicated by all those events.
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Yes, my God will protect me from all the trials that come. He will indeed give me victory in the ultimate sense over those circumstances.
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But I can be a victor in every single circumstance that comes in my life. Whether from a temporal sense, it seems like I'm failing.
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Or from a temporal sense, it looks like I am succeeding. Because my focus, my desire is in God himself.
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It is not in all these other things that the world can keep as its ultimate goal.
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And once again, when you think of victory, sometimes we forget that the victory that we are looking for is in God's eyes.
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It's not necessarily even in the eyes of the world around us or in my own eyes. When I go through a circumstance, like Chuck was saying, if I'm going to respond with patience to a trial that should cause anybody else to explode, then in the eyes of my
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Father, I have already demonstrated the victory in Christ that he was looking for.
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That was his purpose. He brings trials in to conform me into Christ's image, and he has already achieved that purpose.
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And in God's eyes, he is pleased even if in the world's sense I was crushed and seemingly defeated in the eyes of the world.
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And you, when your eyes are like God's eyes, you will see your circumstances just the same way as God does.
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And that inner courage that you have is no longer just a future hope of, yes, my
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God will redeem me. But in the midst of the trial, you know that you have already won. You have demonstrated that power that God has given you to excel in those circumstances which you know on your own you could not have succeeded.
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And the key to that is, again, verse 4, when you look at your circumstance, the adversity that seems to bring you down, are you having your purposes in mind or are you looking at God's purposes?
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And when you look at God's purposes, it becomes a lot easier. Not that it is easy, but it becomes easier for us to look at it with boldness and courage.
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Let's move on to verses 7 through 11. And now we're going to look at a different aspect of the trial.
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And this is actually, I think, the real trial and the temptation for all believers today. And how do you overcome fear?
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If someone can read verses 7 through 11, please. Dear O Lord, when my heart says to you, your face,
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Lord, do I not find your face? Teach me your way,
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O Lord, and lead me on the level path. So here, the psalmist actually shows his inner struggle that he goes through in the midst of the trial.
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When you look at the outward circumstance, you know, it's actually not that hard because you know what God has promised and ultimately
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God will deliver. And here comes the questions of faith that you struggle with in the midst of your trial.
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Is your mind, let me put it this way. If your physical body is broken in whatever calamity that befalls you, but if your inner will is strong, trusting in the
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Lord, you know that you can actually go through those trials a lot easier because you are confident in God.
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What happens when your mental structure is broken? When your heart is ripped apart?
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When your faith is shattered and you are no longer able to trust in God? And let me push it even further.
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What happens if you were the cause of those reasons for lacking faith? You just did something calamitous to bring whatever is upon you upon yourself.
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And you know that God could justly punish you for all that has gone through.
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And especially if you look at verse 9, hide not your face from me.
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You should remember Psalm 32, Psalm 51. You know, those times in David's life when he did things and he was, you know, have
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I grieved the Holy Spirit so much that he is now going to depart from me and I'm not going to be able to, he is now,
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I'm not going to enjoy my God anymore as I could. And so the inner trials that I want us to think about here are one of the mind when, you know, like you get severely depressed.
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Is a Christian who is depressed for his own sinful reason or anything else to respond in a courageous way differently than the world?
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And if so, why? What is it that undergirds a Christian whose mind is just as weak? What about the
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Christian whose emotions are just all over the place? He is not able to focus his mind like in the earlier part of Psalm 27.
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One thing I've asked of the Lord, then that will I seek after. You are now just in a turbulent world.
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You're not able to actually let your emotions follow after what is desirable.
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And when your faith doesn't seem to be strong, when you feel like you are struggling with sin, you've fallen and you just don't have the courage to pick up.
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What are some of the things that undergird? What are some of the things that give strength to the believer when those type of inner struggles happen for us?
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Bruce. Excellent.
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That's a very important one. And yes. Excellent. And maybe
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I'll just use this because we are out of time to wrap that up. Because when you go through that depression or a trial that is just exposing the weakness of your mental framework, one thing you come back to the word is, as a believer,
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God has promised never to leave me or forsake me. He is the one who has called me and he will never let me go.
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Like I say, I go to glory and then I get glorified. So I can always trust in the promise of God.
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It is the word of God that has to undergird me through those times. Because Becky mentioned earlier, there are two things for a believer that are two sides.
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One is the objective word of God that is true, that doesn't change. Even when I don't feel like believing it, even when
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I feel like I'm the one exception to the rule, there is one thing that doesn't change and that's God's word. And it is God's word, in this particular case, his purpose for my life, that I need to go back to in those times when
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I start to doubt, when I start to walk away or start to disbelieve. I need to come back to it.
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And it is the spirit of God that is within me that will never let me go to the point beyond redemption. When I am inside a black hole,
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I cannot see anything but black walls all around me. I do not even know where I need to go. But if the Bible says, take this step daily, as a
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Christian, I can take that step daily. I may not see where that step was leading to. It may look like I'm just walking in an abyss into another abyss.
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But when God tells me something and he gives me the strength, he does give me the strength and the grace to follow him if I would take that step that I need to.
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And he will lead me through. And when you come outside, then your emotions will all explode into a joy like David does.
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Because you can look back and see what God did when you knew you couldn't do it. You knew your mind, your emotions, and even your faith didn't seem to have it, or have what it takes to get out of there.
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But that is what courage is. Because you may not see these things when you're in the midst of the trial. But those around you who look at you can say,
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I know what that person is going through. But he is doing something that is supernatural. That courage is not something that the world can generate.
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Because it is God who is demonstrating his power in a way that you cannot otherwise exhibit.
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So that's four. And just to wrap up number five. Remember God's sovereignty.
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Our hope is in God and our courage is completely and fully in God alone. Verses 12 -14,
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I'll just read that. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.
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I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
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And then verse 14 he concludes. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage.
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Wait for the Lord. And one of the things as we just close this topic on courage is, courage is a state of heart and a state of mind.
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It is what is it that we believe about God that gives us confidence and boldness in ourselves to be able to act or not act in those circumstances in which we are placed in.
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And the source of all this should always be God and God alone. Here David says, let your heart take courage.
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And the primary focus here has been on God. And one of the words that you will see in the
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New Testament over and over again is encourage. Actually, Paul, when he was going to Rome in Acts 28, all these
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Christians come to the Forum of Apheas and Three Taverns to meet. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.
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He saw the other Christians who saw what Paul was doing, who came alongside as he was going to prison.
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And Paul took courage from the other believers. And we are to encourage one another in our walk with the
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Lord. And that is one of the key purposes of the church, that when one person is weak, the other person who is strong comes alongside and helps us through those times.
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But again, our strength is not in other believers, but our strength is in God. And we come alongside to help one another along as we live a bold life.
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We live boldly in the life that God has placed us. You know, today we live in a gray world. We live in a world where my enemies, my responsibilities may not seem to be that clear.
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But when you remember God's word, that God is the focus, that God's agenda is the main purpose of our lives, it becomes a lot easier to think through those problems and then live a life that is confident and bold when it may otherwise seem hopeless.
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The last time when we looked at humility, I said, you know, that comes from trust in God. When you trust in God, when you know how big
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God is and how small we are, we are able to be humble. And same with courage, it also comes from trust in God.
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When you trust in God and you see how big God is and how small all your other trials are in relationship to God, then you can act.
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You can decisively do things or decisively refrain from doing things that will bring honor to God and demonstrate that courage that God expects of all of us in our circumstances.
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Any final comments before we close or thoughts, questions? All right.
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So let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you,
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Lord, for your son, Jesus Christ, and for the courage that he demonstrated in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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We thank you for the perseverance that he had as he followed through on one of the most incomprehensible acts in all of history as he walked to the cross and died, and as you raised him up from the dead.
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Lord, we pray that as we walk in our lives, even this coming week, that we will be able to boldly take up our cross daily and follow you, knowing that where you have gone before, the path of trial and the path of glory is the same path that you have ordained and chosen for each of us.
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Lord, we know that there is no person here who is placed in his circumstance that was placed accidentally, and no one else can take that place for them.
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And we pray, Lord, that your spirit and your word would guide, strengthen, and cause victory in the lives of each of your dear ones here this morning.