Radical Courage

Radical Courage is the first sermon in the Radical Discipleship series.

Why radical? In planning for this series of sermons, there was one sermon called radical hospitality and one called radical evangelism and we figured out that everything is radical when you follow Jesus: in fact, Jesus said you have to deny yourself and take up your cross. We connect ourselves with crosses today but in the days of Jesus, the Roman empire kept people in line with crosses. People didn’t talk about this. It’s extreme and intense; likewise, it’s these when we follow Jesus. 

Today we will talk about radical courage: most know what courage is: we want more than we have and we want to give each other more courage. I want to look at this more closely: my question to you today: what or who are you avoiding? Is that too deep of a question? Some avoid everything! We all avoid things…but how do we begin this analysis? This is a key way to begin this analysis; in fact, we should be asking this question all the time. 

Read the entire sermon: here

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hello, my name is Eric. I am one of the pastors at the Village Church. The following podcast is a ministry of the Village Church. We hope that it inspires you, that it drives you closer to Jesus and it opens your eyes to the possibilities of living in the kingdom and joy.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Thanks Jesus. Thank you for this community. Thank you for, uh, the way that you have blessed us and engaged with us and cared for us. Thank you for the rain. Thank you for the beautiful weather. Um, Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and raising from the dead and giving us hope. Holy Spirit, as we wrestle with the scripture and as we look to be more like you, as we look to be,

Speaker 1: 1:06

Um,

Speaker 2: 1:06

Followers of Jesus, we ask that you Spirit would give us courage to believe what's true, to push aside what is false, to look for what is good and right and just, um, and to walk in that we ask that in your holy name Jesus. Amen. So, um, some people I heard, I just heard over here saying, oh, Eric, I thought Eric was on sabbatical. Yes, for the first three months, all I'm doing is speaking so I won't see you. I won't talk to you. Leave me alone. All I'll be doing is talking to you. No, I, but I am pulling back from a lot of my other duties just so I can spend time speaking. Um, and we are from January 1st to Palm Sunday doing a sermon series called Radical Discipleship. And you might say, why radical? Um, and I would say why radical too? Because when we were laying out this sermon series, there was one sermon and it was called Radical Hospitality. I titled it and I really wanted to talk about radical hospitality. And the next sermon was gonna be evangelism. And we started looking at the text and we're like, wow, this is radical evangelism. Wow, this is intense, I guess. And then Pastor Michael's like, well, I guess everything has to be radical, everything has to be extreme. But I guess if you're a follower of Jesus or you're trying to look at what it looks like to follow Jesus, I would suggest to you that it is rather radical. In fact, Jesus when talking about following him, said, you have to deny yourself and take up your cross. Now to us 2000 years later, there are symbols of crosses all over the place and and we kind of connect ourselves to them. But in the first century, the cross was a very despicable thing that good Roman people didn't talk about. And they were good Jewish people. Didn't talk about good Greek people, didn't talk about you don't talk about the cross. It's despicable. And it is the way the Roman empire kept people in line. I was just reading a book called The Air We Breathe and they were talking about a particular slave who killed his master. And in punishment for that, they crucified 400 of the slaves for this one slave's action, right? And there's some debate about if that's good or not, but they decided that was the thing that they should do. So the cross, when when Jesus says take up your cross, he's taking something very extreme and very um, intense and saying, this is what it looks like to follow me. So being a disciple of Jesus is radical. It is extreme, it is intense. And so today we're gonna talk about radical courage. Now, most of you know what the word courage means. Maybe most of us would like to have more courage than we do, right? And we try to encourage one another, give each other courage. But today I kind of wanna like look at radical courage and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus who has courage. But to do that, I need to ask you a question. And that question is what are you avoiding or who are you avoiding? What are you avoiding or who are you avoiding? Now I know as soon as I ask you that question, some of you are like, I'm not avoiding anything. Everyone else is avoiding things, right? That's some of you. For others of you who are like, whoa, that's too deep of a question. I don't think I can answer that question. I don't wanna talk about that. I'd like to avoid that question altogether. For others of you, you're like, everything, I avoid everything. That's what I do. I'm an avoider, right? We all avoid things, but maybe you're not like, sure just how you begin this analysis, because I would argue to you that to be a radical disciple, to be somebody who follows Jesus, what and who are you avoiding is a key question. It's a good analysis of what's going on in your life all the time. You should be asking what and who am I avoiding? So I thought I'd give you some categories to help you think through what you're avoiding. And I'm gonna try to poke you a little bit now. So first category is you, um, and they're involved in all of these other categories and there are many and more categories of avoidance. But we'll start with you. So what are you avoiding? Are you avoiding being healthy? Are you avoiding eating well? Are you avoiding exercise? Maybe you're like, I've got that down, but I'm avoiding my emotions. I like to stuff them down in my stomach and pretend that they don't exist, right? So you, you just keep doing that. I don't want to feel things, I don't want to experience them. I'm avoiding that. Or for some of you, it might not so much be the emotions, but just the thoughts that you have. You're like, I'm just gonna shut it down. I'm going numb. I don't want to hear anything. Right? What is it about you and your personal life that you are avoiding dealing with engaging in? How about your family? What are you avoiding there? Some of you are teenagers and you have lots of secrets that your parents don't know about and you are avoiding talking to them and trying to make sure you don't have to talk to them about it. Are you avoiding your parents? Or maybe there's stuff going on in your home that you don't like as a kid, but you don't know how to talk to your parents. Or you're sure if you talk to your parents about it, it's only gonna get messy and they're gonna explain to you why things are the way they are and not really listen to you. So you're just going to avoid that conversation altogether cuz it's no going nowhere. Or maybe you are a parent of young kids and you are in the process of character development and behavior modification and you just really don't want to be in that part of your life because that part of your life means that you have to be at the grocery store teaching your children how to keep their hands to themselves. Or you have to teach them how to have boundaries and how to respect adults. And what that means is when you're developing character for young children and developing and behavior modification, that means you're going to be doing that in public and, and people can judge you and you would rather not have the judgey eyes on your screening child or the one who's pulling the cereal off the shelves. You don't want that, right? So you're just avoiding, we'll maintain, we'll just try to make sure my son or daughter never does go to the grocery store or anybody else's house or anything like that until we're sure they're okay, right? Or maybe there's some things with your spouse that you've been avoiding. You know, you need to sit down and talk to them about things that they've said or decisions that need to be made or you're just missing each other all the time. But you feel like if you get go down that rabbit hole, you may never come out, right? So what in your family are you avoiding? What about your work? What are you avoiding at work? Maybe there's some ethical questions that you're just like, eh, that's not good, but I'm not gonna say anything cuz I don't want to get fired. I don't want to be the person who's speaking up and now everybody, I'm making things miserable for everybody. Or maybe God is saying, you need to quit your job. You need to resign, you need a different job. And you're like, no, but I kinda like this because it pays well and it's easy and God's like, no, this is not a good place for you. Maybe you're avoiding quitting your job. Maybe there's somebody at your job that you just don't really like, but God's like, hey, you need to be their friend. And you're like, eh, if I'm their friend, that means I have to do something with them outside of work and I don't really wanna do that because I have other things to do and they're gonna take that time. How about church? What are you avoiding at church? Are you avoiding in this guy? Are you avoiding tithing because it'll be too financially difficult for you? Are you avoiding actually getting involved asking what the next step is finding someone to uh, connect to? Or how about are you avoiding somebody in this church where God's like that person needs a friend and you're like, good, I'll pray that they get a friend and he's like, like, no, it's you. And you're like, oh, right, maybe you're avoiding somebody here. How about your neighborhood? Some of you are college students, so you get a neighborhood every semester, multiple neighborhoods. In fact you go to class and at class you have neighbors. They sit at your desk as they sit near you, they're your neighbors, right? Are you avoiding having conversations with your new neighbors that you get every semester? Because if you make friends, you're awkward, it'll be embarrassing or maybe they won't like you. Or how about just all of us, our neighborhoods where we live? Are you avoiding getting to know your neighbors? Because you really don't wanna know what's happening in your neighborhood because that would obligate you to stuff. I could go on and on because we all live a life of avoidance, right? Be, and the reason we live a life of avoidance is that we have done things, we've taken risks, we've gone and engaged and it hasn't worked that well. And it's actually kind of adverse, right? And, and we are um, averse. Avoidant. We do not like to have any kind of disruption if we're gonna do something good in life, if we're gonna work hard or we're gonna try to bless people or we're gonna do the thing we're supposed to do, quote unquote. We don't want it to feel weird in any way. We want it to feel really good, right? That's what we want to experience. But here's the thing. Calling and purpose always comes with adversity. A couple of weeks ago we were chatting, and I told you in first Peter too, Peter tells the early church that we are a royal priesthood and maybe we don't connect to that. So here's a real easy way to think about this instead of thinking about royal priesthood. So if you're a follower of Jesus, Peter says you're a royal priesthood. What you are is a really important pastor. That's what you are, that your calling in life and your purpose in life is to be a really important pastor. And that's gonna come with some adversity. Because you know what a really important pastor does? They bind up wounds and they point people towards Jesus. What you and I are called to do is bind up wounds and point people to Jesus. All of us. Not just Pastor Eric, right? Not just Pastor Eric, also Pastor Phillip, right? And Pastor treats you and Pastor Chris and Pastor Keith, like I could go out. All of you hold that title. If you're a follower of Jesus and you are called to bind up wounds and point people to Jesus, that's who you are. And yet that means that you're gonna have to get messy with your kids. That means you're gonna have to get kind of messy with your children. That means you're gonna have to step into the things that you are avoiding in life and really engage because that's what you're called to. And when you do that, I promise you, you will find something beautiful. You will find the peace of Christ waiting for you in the midst of that. Paul talks a little bit about this in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10. When he is talking to the early church in Ephesus, he says something, I think it's just super important, important for us to understand. And that is when he starts this, he says, for we are God's handwork. That means every single one of you is the tinkering of God. You bear his image and you bear it in a very beautiful specific way. And the reason that I would honor and care for you and love you is because you have a unique and beautiful bearing of the image of God. You teach me about God in a way that I cannot find God, right? Because he's made you in a certain way. But this is also why we as followers of Jesus look out at the world and say, Donah we life is important because all life bears God's image, right? This is why we're called to the orphan and the widow. This is why we fight for the unborn because we are all God's handiwork. But what's beautiful about this passage is it's an instruction on how to be a really important pastor. Cause he says that we're created in Christ Jesus to do good works with God prepared in advance for us to do. Here's what this means, and this is really exciting, is that Jesus is working in everyone's life. All of you, everyone, every place that you go. So at your work, every single person has Jesus working in their life. Here at the village, every single one of you has Jesus working. So what you and I are called to is to join Jesus In that work, the work that God has prepared for us to do in Christ Jesus is to join Jesus's work in Anna's life, to join Jesus' work, right? And Elliot's life, we are called to do that. And when we do that, Jesus appears and life or is transformed. It happens. Healing happens. But it's messy, right? And it has adversity built into it and it's uncomfortable for us to deal with. Now, long time ago in the Old Testament, you'll find this story in Exodus. There are the people of God, Israel, and they're in captivity in Egypt, right? And God calls Moses to come and get the Israelites out of Egypt. And so he calls them out of Egypt and it's a big ordeal. You can read it in Exodus. And they wander around in the desert and they're headed towards the land that they are promised. It was promised to Abraham as promised to their ancestors. And that's where they're headed. And so they get there, they get to the land and they're right on the edge of it. And they send in some spies, right? They send in some spies and the spies find some really interesting things. Really big fruit, lots and lots of milk. In fact, coffee was not something that was, that anyone had, it was just, there were lots of milk stores everywhere. Everybody was drinking hot milk. That's what they had. And they put honey in it cuz it says it was flying with milk and honey, right? This is what it was. It was beautiful. Only problem was that there were people there too. So the spies all come back along with two characters, Joshua and Caleb. And they tell Moses and the people lots and lots of milk, lots and lots of honey. Lo the land is really fertile. But guess what? There are a lot of people there. Oh. So people start getting a little uncomfortable. And then this guy named Caleb stands up and he quiets all the people. And he says this to everyone, we should go up and take possession of the land for, we can certainly do it. What I find so fascinating about this is he does not say God has given us the land, so we should go take it. He doesn't say God's gonna walk alongside us, so we should go take it. No. He says we should go up and take possession of land for we can certainly do it. That is courage. When an entire group of people and all the other spies and everybody else, except for Joshua saying we shouldn't do it. He's like, no, no, no. We should go up and do it. We can do this guys, why can Caleb say that? Why can Caleb stand up and say that while all the other spies say this? And I suspect you are very familiar if you read the rest of the narrative, these are the things that they say as reasons why they should not go into the promised land. We can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are. The land we explored, devours, those who live in it. And the people we saw, there are great inci. We see my grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them. Do any of these senses sound familiar to you? When you think about the things that you are avoiding and the things that God might be inva inviting you to face or offer that you just don't want to do? Well, they, they're familiar to me. These are the sentences that I hear. I'm not attacking anybody, but I look at my problems and I'm like, they're, they're overwhelming. There's no way they, they are bigger than me. Not only that, I begin, when I begin to think more about my problems and the things that I don't really wanna do in life or the things that God might be asking me to do, I think, man, if I even step into that conversation with that person, I will be devoured by it. It will consume me and take me over. And then the third statement is all about the self-image of the, of the spies and the people. We seemed like grasshoppers and the people looked at us like we were grasshoppers. We're just tiny and they're really big. This is how the enemy will attack you. You over and over again. This is how your brain will rehearse. Why you shouldn't do the things that God is inviting you to do. Why you shouldn't act as a really important pastor in the lives of the people around you. Right? He will give you reasons very similar to these to not act, but to avoid. So why is it that we end up like the Israelites who decided they were not going to go into the promised land and they passed on? And why are we not like Caleb? And how do we become like Caleb? What do we need to do to have a radical courage to be able to stand up and say, we can certainly do this. I can certainly have the conversation. I can train my five-year-old to keep his hands to himself. I can do this right? Well, we need radical courage like Caleb and God tells us a numbers 14, why Caleb had this numbers 1424 says, because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly. I will bring him into the land he went to and his descendants will inherit it. Two things that Caleb had that everyone else didn't. He had a different spirit and he followed God wholeheartedly. Well that seems great. So is this saying then that Caleb never felt any anxiety that Caleb never, when he thought about going into the promised land, he wasn't like yippy, this is great. Right? No, I suspect, and I'm reading into line a little bit here, but I suspect that Caleb was human and the Caleb experienced just as much as an anxiety and fear and hurt all the same sentences. So then how is it that Caleb had courage and the other spies didn't? What was it? What does it look like to have a different spirit and to be wholeheartedly following God? Well, a while ago there was this famous pastor named Pastor Eric who spoke on Joshua, and he defined it this way that Caleb had a confidence in God that was greater than his fear. Right? Let me expand that out a little bit. What I think here is, is that Caleb had a confidence in God's reality over his own understanding of reality, right? God had promised him to land. That's the reality. Just because he felt like that wasn't the reality or that he was fe feeling like maybe I should go with the other 12. Because he had a confidence that when God says something is going to happen or something is given to you, then you take hold of it and it trumps your own experience of life, right? But here's how you and I, the rule that you and I live life by, and that is my immediate experience right now is what is true, not what God said is true. Because I'm pretty sure if what God said is true, I'm just gonna die. Right? That's how I feel. And yet Caleb was able to say, we can surely do this because he had a confidence that what God promised was what was real. Now how do we get there? Well, I think one, and this again is a little speculation, but I think Caleb did something that you and I probably have a hard time doing, and that is making friends with our negative emotions. This is what I mean by this. All of us have an adverse feeling. That's why we are avoiding something. If I need to talk to my wife about something that's going to get kind of, we're gonna have a conversation about this and it's gonna be uncomfortable for me, I have a feeling about it like I have some anxiety or I need to deal with something with my kids, or I've gotta have a hard conversation with you guys. Or I have to go engage my neighborhood. I can go on and on things that I would rather avoid. Like I don't feel great about doing it. I have an adverse feeling, I have a choice. Can I be friends with that or not? Because here's the thing, if I cannot be friends with it, then I cannot experience anything good. I can't have any good experience, have a any genuine emotional experience if I'm unwilling to be friends with my negative ones. So here is, I think what Caleb did, Caleb was able to say, okay, I have this adverse feeling, I have this negative experience. How you doing? I'm gonna name you. You know Mr. Ugly, that's what you are and you're my buddy. Now I have to move past that, right? I have to step through it. So how do I do that? How do I become friends with this negative emotion like Caleb? Well, I actually think Joshua tells us how to do that. Actually, God tells Joshua how to do it because I think Joshua was actually more scared than me about life. Um, and the opening passage of Joshua kind of gives us a clue that he was kind of afraid of life and afraid of the challenge that was in front of him because you kind of picked this up in the conversation between God and Joshua. So as you heard, red Moses has died. The whole generation that said, we aren't going in is gone except for Caleb and his family. And so now Joshua, the aid of Moses is going to lead Israel into the promised land that he's been given. And God begins to have a conversation with him. And we pick it up in verse six. And he says, be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land. I swore to their ancestors to give them. First thing is that God tells Joshua, I have given you something. It is key for you to understand as a follower of Jesus, that you have been given stuff. Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel of John that he gives you a peace, not like the world gives you. You may not be feeling it inside, but Jesus says, I give you a peace. He says, be strong and courageous, for I give you a peace, not like the world gives, right? A peace that comes from the king of the universe, the creator of all things right here, Joshua has a solid promise you, I'm going to give you the land and you will lead be strong, courageous. And then he begins to work out how he can do that in everyday life. He says, be strong and very courageous. Have a radical courage. And how do you do that? Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. It is really simple. One of the ways that you deal with your negative experiences, the one of the ways that you find the courage of Caleb is to obey real simple. Do not turn right or left. Because when you begin to turn right or left, the anxiety mounts right? So what's being said here is real simple. Follow Jesus. Don't take your eyes off Jesus, don't look right, don't look left, don't cover your neighbor's wife. Do not have another God before God, right? Do not steal these, these things are, this is the, the medication for anxiety is for you to obey. And I'll show you why, why this is important. He says, then you'll be successful whenever you do. Now, he's not saying that if you obey, everything will always go well for you, but you will have success. And when you have success in life, it helps stabilize you, right? You will find that obedience has a benefit, then it goes on. All right? Second thing, keep this book of a law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Second thing, constant study and conversation about Jesus. This, this, this is where the radical disciple comes in because a lot of us think, oh, I'm a follower of Jesus and I will talk about Jesus on Sundays and I'll talk about Jesus in my meetings that I go to. If I go to a Bible study or I'll talk about Jesus. If I go to a Christian school, I'll talk about Jesus when I am prescribed to talk about Jesus. But what God is telling Joshua as, no, no, no, no, you want to deal with the anxiety, you want to deal with the fear of doing what I've asked you to do, then everything has to be about me. Everything your entire life has to be about me. You have to obey and be about me. And then you'll be prosperous and successful. You will see change. Now, the reason that this is a practice, it's not something you get perfect. But then what happens here is that God tells Joshua something very funny. He says, I command you, I keep telling you, but now I'm commanding you to be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord. Your God will be with you wherever you go. Most of us have a hard time believing that when we walk into the conversations, we need to speak the words that we're supposed to engage in the things that God's going to invite us into or just face hardship and adversity, that God will be with us wherever we go. In fact, we're always asking the question, where is God? What is he doing right? He seems absent from my life. What God is telling Joshua is, Hey guys, If you will obey and if you will have my words on your lips and you will meditate, you will see me everywhere. You will be able to identify me. This is a very easy diagnostic in your life. When you are asking where is God and you cannot see him, you first need to go back and say, am I being obedient? And am I really focused on Jesus or am I focused on me

Speaker 3: 28:10

Right

Speaker 2: 28:13

Now? How do we get radical courage like Caleb, number one, we just part of becoming friends with your negative emotions is being willing to attach yourself to Jesus. Because when you attach yourself to Jesus, what he will tell you is, yes, this is feels intolerable to go do this thing that's really hard for you. Maybe it's, you know, gotta go to work and say, I resign. But right. I am gonna be with you. And that is enough,

Speaker 3: 28:46

Right? Hi,

Speaker 2: 28:47

It's okay to feel these feelings. They're normal. I'm here with you. Now The second thing that I wanna talk to you about is embracing the signs and not the symptoms. Because this is a thing that you and I do all the time. So last week we talked about I I, on Christmas, I said, Hey, a lot of times we spend our time looking at the symptoms and not the signs and the birth of Jesus is a sign, right? But signs are things that push us forward. Our tendency and the reason that we think things are really difficult and we don't want to experience that adverse, those adverse feelings, is because we're constantly looking at all the symptoms in life, right? We're looking at, well this, you know, this bad thing is happening in my life and this, you know, my husband frowned this way when I said that. So he's thinking these things. And so, and you go on and on and you have, looking at all the symptoms that tell you everything is bad. We, I look like a grasshopper to those people. I'm little. They're too big. And we don't look at the signs. Now here, here's why the church tries to disciple you in this, right? The worldwide church, the village does. Why do you think we spend all this time celebrating Christmas? Because it is a amazing sign. It is a sign of God being with us. Why is the cross so important? Because it is a sign of God dying for us. Why is the tomb so important? The empty tomb? Because it means that there is hope of a resurrection and all things being made new. This is why we rehearse the signs. We do not rehearse the symptoms, right? Because the signs are the thing that move us forward. Tell us there's hope. But we do that here in this community. Why do you think every year we have a thank you service? Because we want to remember that God entered in and did something impossible in our community. And that was give us$300,000 for this building. It is a sign of God's love for us. A sign in which we want to rehearse to remember that God is part of us Not to face the symptoms. In Joshua, they did this. Joshua cost the Jordan with the Israelites. They took 12 stones, they piled them up and the text says, and they're here till today when the author is writing, the stones are still there. They left up the gates of Jericho when they marched around so that every time they walked by Jericho, they could say, that's where God intervened. Right? They left the pile of stones on Aiken when they killed him, right? So you could walk by and say, this is what happens to you when you disobey, right? They had signs of God's intervention in their life and they rehearsed those signs every time they went by, right? Which kind of leads us and to embracing the sign is that I think the more you're willing to obey and the more you're willing to meditate, God will show up. And when he shows up, You will see him. It will happen more and more miraculously. And then you can tell people about it. This is one of my favorite ones is in Matthew 14, Jesus has fed a bunch of people. He dismisses his disciples out onto the, the lake they take off, he dismisses the people. He goes and prays. And then because he is Jesus, he is like, huh, I think I'll walk on the water and go visit my people in the boat, in the storm. And so they think they're seeing a ghost. And so they're freaked out. And Jesus says to them, take courage. It is, I don't be afraid. And I love this phrase because I think in every moment when you need to face something difficult, this is what Jesus keeps saying to you, take courage. It's me. I'm here. You're gonna be all right. Even though it seems like you're gonna die in this moment. Don't be afraid.

Speaker 4: 32:44

Right?

Speaker 2: 32:47

So we have to embrace the signs. We have to look for them. Let me give you an example of just a real simple one so you can see one in your life. And what I mean, because they show up even in the ordinary, right? So all of you, and many of you who know me, know I like board games, right? I have hundreds of board games. I have hundred I've, I've promised God I won't have more than a hundred. So I keep getting rid of them. So some of you have a lot of my games because I'm giving them away cuz I can't stop buying them. Um, we might need to talk about that afterwards. But in the mail came this game, which you can see I haven't opened, um, it's called Plunder of Pirate's Life. It looks like a really interesting game. It came and I don't know who gave it to me, it just came in the mail. Well, this is actually a sign of God that I'm loved, right? And this is the invitation, actually. This is a real simple idea, but this is the invitation for how you interpret signs. They're not Jesus always walking on water. They're just ordinary moments of God saying, Hey, you're loved. Don't be afraid. People see you,

Speaker 4: 34:05

Right?

Speaker 2: 34:07

And you hold onto that and you rehearse it and you tell people, not that somebody at your church or somebody who knows you sent you a game, but Jesus sent you a game, right? He showed up. It's a sign. The other thing that's kind of connected to all of this is that remembering and rehearsing the stories, one of the things that happened, and as I've just been talking about, is in Joshua, there are all of these, as we talked about, altars, right? There's the, the gate of Jericho. There's the stones for crossing the Jordan River. But what the Israelites did is they remembered and they rehearsed these stories to one another. But you and I are also called to remember and rehearse our story of how we encountered God and how he showed up in Hebrews, which I didn't put on the screen here. But Hebrews chapter two, verse one says this, we must pay the most careful attention, therefore to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away for since we, since the message spoken through the angels was binding in every violation and disobedience received is just punishment. How shall we escape it if we ignore our so great a salvation? This salvation in which was first announced to the Lord by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who hurt him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Now, there's a lot here to, to dissect. There's just a few things I want you to catch here. Number one is that we must pay careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard. So what we won't drift away and what is it that we are trying to hear? Well, we're supposed to hear the gospel, the story of Jesus. But it's not just that. It's your story of your encounter with Jesus and your understanding of these things. You want to be able to step into people's lives and be a really important pastor, what you're called to be, to invite people into relationship with God and to bind up their wounds. Tell you how you get there. You simply tell everyone your story of salvation. Everyone here I should know. Everyone should know your story into the kingdom. Because when you tell me your story and I tell you my story of how God delivered me into the kingdom of God, I won't drift away from the miraculous act of the gospel. I won't drip away from being a very, very important pastor. I won't drift away. I won't be a person who lives a life of avoidance. I will actually have radical courage like Caleb. I will be a man that says, we can surely do this because listen to how God delivered Bob. Right? Listen here, do you know what he's done? Right? This is how we become people of radical courage. We become people who embrace the signs are okay and good to be friends with our adversity and are willing to tell our stories of salvation over and over and over again. So my invitation to you as your pastor, this is gonna be risky, is I would love if you would make it your goal this year or even in the next month, to tell everyone in this church your story of salvation, just plop down next to them and say, Hey, I wanna tell you how I came to Christ. For some of you it will be like me. I became a Christian when I was three years old, and by the time I was five years old, I was laying hands on people and praying for them and trying to lead them to Jesus. For others of you, it is a long and twisty road. And God got you by the back of the neck and shook you really hard, and now you're in the kingdom of God, right? It's different for all of us where some of us lightning had to strike us and for some of us, God just sort of slowly nudged us there. But it's a story of salvation and it's a story of the power of the gospel transforming us. And it creates people who can say, we can surely do this. So go back to that question of what you're avoiding. I suspect you thought of something. I invite you to be courageous and step into it this year. Be a people of courage. All right, well, I have about six minutes. I think if you have a question or the Holy Spirit said, laid something on your heart and you need to, uh, Talk about it, or you're wondering why the handout of the, uh, signup sheet never got passed around or, you know, whatever.<laugh>, if you're new with us, come up here and sign this. If you need to volunteer, it's right there. Sorry about that. Yeah, that's all right. Any thoughts, questions?

Speaker 5: 38:58

If you raise your hand, I'll

Speaker 3: 38:59

Bring microphone over to you. Okay. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 39:03

Aaron.

Speaker 5: 39:09

Um, so there were, um, I guess during the, yeah, I was just thinking about how we have to be, um, courageous and there's times where I've, um, I guess I'm just having conversations with people and, uh, I bring up God, but it's, I don't know, I guess I feel sort of disappointed in myself at times because I feel like I'm not bringing up God to the intensity that I, I I should, I feel like sometimes I do avoid, um, just bringing him into the conversation at all. But I guess I, I like to use like analogies or using, um, I guess the narrative world to explain like the objective world. And I guess when that a part where it said, um,

Speaker 3: 40:12

What was it? Um,

Speaker 5: 40:15

We are god's hand work. I, I think may maybe, maybe it's not like so bad. Maybe I have like a, a unique way of bringing God into conversation and maybe it's not like so bad that I just sort of use other things to explain, um, guide like the yeah. Like again, the the objective world to explain the na narrative world. I, I, yeah, I guess I wonder if, uh, cause my bias self says no, I'm not avoiding it<laugh> because I'm, you know, in my mind I'm perfect or whatever. Like I'm trying my best. Mm-hmm. But I wonder if, uh, yeah, just sort of jumping around God with people who may or not be ready for may or may not be ready for that conversation is I guess, yeah. Okay.

Speaker 3: 41:13

<laugh>.

Speaker 2: 41:15

Um, yeah, no, I think what I, I hear at least what I hear you saying is, um, that maybe God has created a certain way in order to, so the way you talk about God is the way that you're designed and that, yeah, I would say yes. And I would say jump fully into that and ask God to show up in those moments and be yourself and don't worry about it. You know, take hold of who you are cuz he traded you to be the guy who uses the narrative world to describe the objective world and all that. That's cool. Anybody else? Thoughts, questions?

Speaker 6: 41:57

I really appreciate all of it. Thank you very much. Um, lots to chew on taking the land, taking the thing we've been avoiding. I loved what you said about how all calling and purpose has adversity and it reminded me of, um, somebody, another famous pastor said, uh, I will kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages. So maybe when I'm getting focused on the waves and the wind and I'm thinking I must be off course, maybe I'm on course.

Speaker 2: 42:40

I like that. Thank you. Uh, anybody else? Thoughts? Questions?

Speaker 7: 42:56

You said that, um, in, when, when you're making friends with, um, your negative feelings or thoughts mm-hmm.<affirmative>, um, that that is the way to the good ones. Yeah. Can you elaborate on that please?

Speaker 2: 43:16

I, I simply think, and I believe that if you avoid your negative exper your negative feelings, you don't have the capacity to actually feel true good feelings that will benefit you. And so you will hunt after false ones or imitation ones or ways of distracting yourself. You won't actually have rich true experiences because if you, because Jesus is always through adversity. I mean, that's why he says pick up like your cross and follow me. You want a true deep friendship with God, you're going to have to walk through adversity because God's on mission. He's going somewhere. Yeah. Any other thoughts, questions, Dave?

Speaker 8: 44:10

It's something that, uh, I guess stood out to me and, and also challenged me as this idea, um, of meditating and, and studying, you know, and, and day and night. And when we do that, we start to see Jesus everywhere and, and kind of be in tune with his invitations. And, um, I think that, I don't know, you know, some people probably identify just being so busy and especially, and then you come home and you have little children and you know, it seems very hard sometimes to really like, you know, create space to meditate and be, um, but we, you know, started to try to do that. And, and it reminded me of, uh, a month or so ago, I think when you spoke on Romans, but this idea of like being at the boil, boiling point with the Holy Spirit. Um, and so just creating space to meditate and this idea of, of just to dwell and quiet and, and, um, yeah, I don't know. Just very encouraged to do that. And, and the more that we do that to, I think be able to be in tune and see where Jesus is working and see his invitations. Um, so that, I don't know, I just kinda stood out and challenged and also encouraged me to yeah. To keep doing that. Um, cuz I wanna see Jesus everywhere, you know? Like, like he said, I'll be with you everywhere you go. I want, I want to see that and I wanna experience that. Um, yeah. And so I think there's a, a call to, to create space to be able to do that. So it's encouraged that.

Speaker 2: 45:31

Oh, thanks. I I, I think the other thing too, just as not being a parent anymore with little ones is to realize that one of the primary where places Jesus shows up is with the little ones, right? That is where he's going show up first and so place to Any other thoughts?

Speaker 5: 46:02

Yeah. So we're talking about courage and I guess, um, yeah, there's the, the idea of taking up on something that is very difficult and that God will be there on our side, like yeah, tick up your cross. And a lot of, I guess people that I talk to, it's just a metaphor or like, um, an yeah. An idea, but I guess, yeah, I like to make like Venn diagrams like I was saying with, um, the narrative and the objective world and the spiritual world and whatnot, and just try to connect everything. And I guess in one place where we can see that, um, be real is like if someone has an extreme like phobia of let's just say needles, the way you get over it is to voluntarily face the needle and slowly be exposed to that and eventually someone becomes unafraid of the needle, or I guess in this case the cross or following Jesus. And I guess, yeah, that's, I I guess I I I like making those connections where it's like the, the real world and sure. Not, not that, that this is not real, obviously. Sure. Like I, I have faith that

Speaker 2: 47:30

Carrying your cross will work like the needle. Yeah. No, I, I, I think that's what community is all about, is exposure therapy,<laugh>. Right? And that we find courage when we're together and we see God work and we encourage one another and we get some exposure to picking up our cross. So yeah. I like that. All right. Probably have time for one last question and then we need to our statement. Anything else? All right. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this community. Thank you for the opportunity to follow and, uh, serve you together. I just pray that as we care for one another and as we attempt to follow you and imitate you, um, that you would give us courage to do that and give us hope and ask that in your holy name, Jesus. Amen.