August 10, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Is Faithful"

Jeremiah 1:17; 2 Corinthians 5:1-11

The Courage to Walk in Faith

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Fay Angus wrote, If there are two words that should be said in the same breath and said regularly to ventilate our hope, that should be flamed together, branded as a signature of our faith, they are the words "faith" and "courage." It takes courage to believe, and in order to have that courage, we must believe (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
2. Context – We all struggle with this relationship between courage and faith. We wait for one, not realizing that we need the other one too. Or we don’t want either, because we don’t like where faith and courage might lead us. But we’ve got to figure out how to have the courage to walk in faith if we’re going make a difference in the world. Let’s look at our Scripture passages to find out how to do that.

1. Scripture Passage

1. (NEW SLIDE) Jeremiah 1:17 (from the New Living) – "Get up and get dressed. Go out, and tell them whatever I tell you to say. Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them."
2. (NEW SLIDE) 2 Corinthians 5:1-11 (from the New Living) - For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. [2] We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. [3] For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. (NEW SLIDE) [4] Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. [5] God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. [6] So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. (NEW SLIDE) [7] That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. [8] Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. [9] So our aim is to please him always, whether we are here in this body or away from this body. [10] For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies. (NEW SLIDE) [11] It is because we know this solemn fear of the Lord that we work so hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.

1. True Courage and True Faith

1. There are five elements we can glean from these two passages to help us have the courage to walk in faith. (NEW SLIDE) First, we have to recognize and acknowledge that we have a mandate from God, and then DO SOMETHING about that mandate. Look at what God said to Jeremiah: "Get up and get dressed. Go out, and tell them whatever I tell you to say. Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them." In other words, God is telling Jeremiah, "You say what I tell you to when I tell you to do it. It’s in your best interests. If you don’t, you will be humiliated." Pride and fear were about the only two things that could have kept Jeremiah from sharing the message that God gave him. But God also promised to protect Jeremiah, and told Jeremiah to ditch his pride. And that’s the same message God is giving us today: "overcome your fear because I am with you, and stop worrying about looking foolish and do and say what I tell you to." There are many things we don’t do because we’re afraid of looking foolish, such as sharing our faith, coming forward to the altars, getting involved in something we’re not an expert in. We all have a lot of pride, and if we don’t choose to put it in its place God will have to break it. So if we truly, passionately desire to have the courage to walk in faith so that we can be pleasing to God, we’ve got to choose to move forward in spite of our fear and leave our pride behind by the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. (NEW SLIDE) Second, we’ve got to allow God to plant an eternal perspective in our hearts. Look at the first five verses of 2 Corinthians 5: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. [2] We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. [3] For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. [4] Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. [5] God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. Notice the phrases Paul uses to show his eternal perspective – earthly tent taken down, we die and leave these bodies, home is in heaven, an eternal body God made and not man, growing weary of our bodies, longing for heavenly bodies, slip into our new bodies, dying bodies, as a guarantee God’s given His Holy Spirit. There is no doubt Paul knows where he is going and there is no doubt about his desire to get there. He keeps this eternal perspective constantly in front of him so it impacts everything he does. So how do we keep an eternal perspective? Verses six and seven - So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. [7] That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. We have to keep the knowledge of what eternal reality, as defined by God through Jesus Christ, is in the forefront of our minds constantly. And we also have to live by believing and not by seeing. The NIV calls it walking by faith and not by sight. The QuickVerse Bible Dictionary has some interesting things to say about faith: "Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Its primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust… Knowledge is an essential element in all faith." So we live by trusting that what God says about who He is and about how we’re supposed to live is true, even when it doesn’t make sense to us. That in essence is what an eternal perspective is all about. We trust and believe and have faith in God, and we keep the truth about our eternal home in the front of our minds.
3. You know, I’ve thought a lot about why some people just seem to struggle with their Christianity for most of their lives. We have some relatives who know the truth, but just never seem to let it impact their lives. Every time some kind of spiritual progress is made or some kind of desire to know God more comes to light, it’s like a flash in the pan. It doesn’t last. I used to think that, even though I like them a lot and love them as family, their lack of faith was because they were a bunch of spiritual flakes. And as someone who has lived a whole lot of his life as a spiritual flake, I felt fairly qualified to make a judgment like that. But then I thought about what changed in my life to get me where I am today. I believe it was a change in perspective – not that I don’t spend way too much time with a here-and-now perspective, which I do. What God changed in my heart was a realization that, as long as I lived my whole life with that here-and-now perspective, I would continue to be of no heavenly good and would only continue to do extremely stupid stuff and hurt really nice people. God told me at the time it was now or never. I’m glad I chose now, because He is gradually changing me and reminding me to keep that perspective of eternity in front of me more and more. And that’s what we all need to do. Keep the eternal perspective in the front of our minds constantly by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. (NEW SLIDE) Third, if we want to have the courage to walk in faith, we’ve got to keep our eyes on the goal. Verses eight and nine - Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. [9] So our aim is to please him always, whether we are here in this body or away from this body. What is the goal? To please God always. Not some of the time. Not most of the time. The goal is to please Him always. There is a saying that we can’t hit something unless we aim at it. That doesn’t mean we’ll hit it all the time. But we have to keep that goal of pleasing our God all the time right in front of us. This ties right in with the mandate God has given us to move forward in spite of fear and pride. That goal of pleasing Him will help us to keep moving forward to overcome our fear and our pride. That goal of pleasing Him will help us keep an eternal perspective so we don’t become spiritual flakes. The goal we’ve got to have and constantly keep in front of us if we’re going to have the courage to walk in faith is to please God wherever we are and whenever He calls.
5. (NEW SLIDE) Fourth, we’ve got to recognize and acknowledge that there are consequences to our obedience and disobedience. Verse ten - For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies. Know what part of that scares me? "We will each receive whatever we deserve." I know about all the stupid and sinful stuff I’ve done, and when I look at the balance sheet, it don’t look too good. Yes, I know I’ll make it to heaven because I’ve been saved by faith through grace (as it says in Ephesians 2:8-10), but I also know that my reward in heaven is dependent on what I do because of that grace and faith. But I’m not going to worry about it too much, because I am also convinced that, the more I walk with courage in faith, the better the balance sheet will look. The more I move forward to overcome my fear and pride, the better the balance sheet will look. The more I keep an eternal perspective, the better the balance sheet will look. The more I keep my eyes on the goal, the better the consequences I face will be. We’ve got to have enough courage to see things through God’s eyes if we’re going to walk in faith in a way that is pleasing to Him. Yes, we have to be aware that there are both good and bad consequences, but let’s allow them to help us keep walking in faith. It’s a choice, and we’ve got to make it so that the Holy Spirit will be enabled to help us.
6. (NEW SLIDE) Fifth, we have to keep a pure motivation in our hearts if we’re going to have the courage to walk in faith. Verse eleven - It is because we know this solemn fear of the Lord that we work so hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. When we have a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ, both He and God are our Friends, but I think we’ve slipped a little in the wrong direction there. We tend to act like God is our buddy and not our Friend. A buddy is someone who you like and hang out with and who you don’t really have to know on a personal level. A buddy is someone you have fun with but don’t necessarily have a lot of respect for. We’ve traded God the Father for God the buddy, so we don’t respect Him for the awesome Almighty, All-powerful Eternal Being He is. We act like we believe He is someone to have fun with, who will never call us to account for our sins and who will never want us to change. That is the picture many liberal theologians are trying to paint of God – all love, all fun, no discipline. I’m here to tell you that is simply not true. God is holy love. There should be no debate at all about gay clergy, about abortion, about whether or not the Bible is accurate and true. Those are not negotiable. Paul writes, "It is because we know this solemn fear of the Lord." What solemn fear of the Lord? The fear of Who God is as Eternal Judge and of the eternal consequences He will be giving to those who disobey Him. God loves everybody equally, but He is also holy and cannot stand sin, so He is driven to punish those who sin. But He also graciously provided the sacrifice for our sins, His Son Jesus Christ. But we have to live by trusting and believing and obeying Him if we want to have eternal life. That’s our motivation. That’s why we’ve got to be driven to move forward in obedience, to keep an eternal perspective, to keep our eyes on the goal, to keep in mind the consequences, to bring others to Him. An awesome respect for the awesome God and Lord of the universe should be our ultimate motivation.
7. I know it’s hard to have courage. I know it’s equally hard to walk in faith. There are too many times in my life when I haven’t done either very well. But I also know that this is a crucial piece of the Christian faith that we are too often missing out on. Are we going to choose to allow God to give us the courage to walk in faith? Or will we go on living like we have been?
8. Illustration - Al Braca worked as a corporate bond trader. His office was on the 105th floor of Tower One in the World Trade Center. A week after the tower was hit and collapsed, Al's body was found in the rubble. According to his wife, Jeannie, Al hated his job; he couldn't stand the environment. It was a world completely out of sync with his Christian values. But he wouldn't quit. He was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness.… The Bracas learned that Al had indeed been ministering to people during the attack. Reports trickled in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent e-mails to a loved one saying that "a man" was leading people in prayer. A few referred to Al by name. When Al realized that they were trapped in the building and would not be able to escape, he shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Al Braca lived his faith in an extreme way under extreme circumstances. That’s how I want to live my whole life, and I pray that’s how you want to live your whole life as well. As the famous missionary (NEW SLIDE) Hudson Taylor said, "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith" (as cited on SermonCentral.com). I want to risk big things for God because I love Him and because I know it’s what He is calling me to do. Will you join me? Will you covenant with God to walk courageously in faith no matter what?

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Will you covenant with God this morning to walk courageously in faith no matter what? Will you covenant with Him that when you slip up and fall, you will get right back up and move forward with Him? Will you covenant with Him to overcome your fear and pride by the power of the Holy Spirit? Will you covenant with Him to keep an eternal perspective in the front of your heart and mind? Will you covenant with God to keep the eyes of your heart on the goal of always pleasing Him? Will you covenant with Him to keep the consequences of unbelief and disobedience not only for yourself but for others in the front of your heart and mind? Will you covenant with God to have an awesome and healthy respect for Who He is as Lord of the universe?
2. If you’re willing to make this covenant with God this morning, please raise your hand as a sign that you are making this covenant. Or, if you’d rather, come forward and pray at the altars. But please do not make this covenant lightly, because God will hold us to it, and if we follow through by the power of the Holy Spirit, it will transform our hearts and minds and our lives. So if you are making this covenant with God this morning, please either raise your hand or come up to the altars and pray.
3. Let’s take this one step further. Because God made covenants with groups of people who had faith in Him, I believe it’s appropriate for our congregation to make this covenant with Him as a community of believers. If you are willing to commit this church to this covenant of obedience with God, please stand. But don’t stand just because people around you are standing, because this will take serious commitment and a willingness to allow God to transform you. But if you are serious about committing this church to this covenant of obediently walking in faith courageously, please stand now. Let’s pray.