Greg Laurie - Christ's Call to Courage
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Welcome to "Harvest with Greg Laurie". This TV show is all about helping you get to know God better because God loves you, and God has a plan for you, and God wants to transform your life, and he's told us everything you need to know about him and life, in general, in this book, the Bible, the user's manual of life. So we're gonna be talking about what the Bible says and what God wants to do in your life. Again, welcome, and God bless you.
So just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. We all survived a modern pandemic in our lifetime, one of the most devastating of all time. We were just catching our breath, and now it seems as though the world is on fire. We have this conflict in Ukraine. I read, just the other day, psychologists have now coined a new phrase called "doomsday anxiety". What is "doomsday anxiety"? They say, quote, "It's a fear or worry about the end of the world or life as we know it. Symptoms include chronic nightmares and underlying feeling of fear, an obsession with the news or 'doom scrolling' through online media". Have you ever done that? Doom scrolling, you're just flipping through your newsfeed, bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news, and it's affecting people. So what are we doing? How are we acknowledging this? Some people are just partying away. Spring break, man. "Party like it's 1999," as Prince told us. We shouldn't party like it's 1999. We should pray like it's 2022, 'cause these are real problems.
So why do I bring this up? Because this can bring discouragement, this can bring fear, this can bring anxiety, and you might be surprised to know you're not the first Christian to ever feel this way. Even the great apostle Paul got down at times. So, in this message, we're gonna see what Jesus said and what Jesus did to revive Paul. And so the story starts in Acts 23, starting in verse 10: "There arose a loud outcry. And the scribes of the Pharisees' party arose and protested, saying, 'We find no evil against this man,'" speaking of Paul, "'but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.' Now there arose a great dissension, and the commander, fearing that Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring them into the barracks". Verse 11, "But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul, as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you must also bear witness in Rome.'"
We'll start there... stop there, rather. So here's Paul in prison again. Paul's middle name could've been "Trouble". There was never a dull day in the life of this man. Everywhere he went, there was either a riot or a revival, but, of course, he and the others turn their world upside down. But here he is now in this Roman dungeon, and he was probably feeling discouraged, and I think that's because of what Jesus said to him in particular. So if you're discouraged and you're frightened about your future right now then hopefully these words of Jesus will bring comfort to you as well. Look at verse 11. It says, "The following night the Lord stood by him". Maybe Paul had second-guessed this decision. I mean, he's in shackles in jail. Maybe he thought, "Oh, man, I should listen to Agabus. I mean, is this really a good thing? Is this where God wants me to be"?
So Jesus himself shows up. He doesn't even dispatch an angel. Jesus says, "Hey, I'm here right beside you". Everything changes when you become more aware of the fact that, wherever you go, Jesus is there with you. Years ago, I was a kid living in New Jersey, and I had a little cowboy thing going, a little cowboy hat and some little guns you know, cap guns and... so I'm walking down the street firing my little cap guns and these guys like hoodlums, is what I would call them, came up, "Hey what are you doing"? They took my guns from me and pushed me on the ground. So I went home, cried, and then I found my brother who is a lot bigger than me. I said, "Will you go back with me so we can get my guns back"? And so I go walking down the street and I see these guys shooting my little cap gun, my brother standing with me, he walks over, I think he pushed one of them to the ground, took the guns back, and I was so happy, but here's my point. I had a lot more courage when my big brother was with me.
So here's the point that I'm making to you. Wherever you go, you'll have a lot more courage when you know Jesus Christ is with you, standing by your side. But then Jesus says, "Be of good cheer". What an interesting thing to say. You know, when someone is feeling down, it's not always the best thing to say, "Be of good cheer," or "Hey, you know, smile," or "Be happy," you know? You even sing to them. "Hey"... "Gray skies are gonna clear up. Put on a happy face". And they wanna smack you. And they say to you, "Hey, keep my wife's name out of your mouth," you know? Wrong story. Okay, too soon? Don't slap people. Just don't. Not a good idea. But it doesn't make you happier when someone tells you to be happy. In fact, when you're down and someone says, "Cheer up," it makes you even a little bit more miserable. But, actually, Jesus was not saying, "Cheer up," to Paul.
If you translate this word more accurately, it would be "Hey, Paul, have courage". Big difference from just cheering up to having courage. Well, what is courage? Courage is bravery, fortitude, courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, or the threat of death. And I don't think it necessarily comes naturally to a lot of people because we're all afraid at times, so we try to muster courage up. But, to one person to find courage this way, quote, "Courage is fear that has said its prayers". I like that. Mark Twain said, "Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear".
So you might be afraid, but you master your fear, and it turns into courage. Those that serve us every day in law enforcement have courage. When they put that uniform on and strap on that Sam Brown and they go out there, representing us, defending us, that takes courage. Those that serve us in our military have that same courage to be willing to put everything on the line for us. I think of Private First Class Ross McGinnis. I read about him in the newspaper. He was perched in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee when a grenade whizzed past him into the truck carrying four of his fellow soldiers. In a split second, McGinnis did the unthinkable. He shouted a warning to the other soldiers and threw himself on the grenade. He absorbed its full impact and tragically died, but all four of those men survived. That was an act of amazing courage, and it happens every day, but there's different kinds of courage.
There's moral courage as well, the courage to stand up for what is true in a world that is filled with lies. For instance, it took courage for young Stephen to speak and to preach the gospel to those who were about to put him to death. It took courage for Daniel to pray when, suddenly, it was against the law to call on God. It took courage for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to not bow before that golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar, and we need that courage today to stand up.
Now, listen, if you stand up for what is true, you might get canceled or worse, but we need more people to have that courage today. It takes courage to honor the vows you made to your husband or wife to be "for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part". Those are the vows I use. People write their own vows now, and some of 'em get a little odd, really, but if you make that vow, "I'm gonna be with you for the rest of my life," that takes courage to honor those vows, but it also takes courage to remain sexually pure, when you're a single person, to avoid that temptation to capitulate to the others, the pressure of others and so forth. But where do we get this courage? Well, now we're gonna find out because God wants to give you that courage as well.
This particular phrase of Jesus, "Have courage," is used multiple times. He repeated this phrase in three different sets of circumstances. Number one, he said it to a man who was a paraplegic in Matthew 9. This man was carried to Jesus and laid before him, and Jesus looked at him and said, "Be of good courage. Your sins are forgiven". The guy probably thought, "Well, that's nice my sins are forgiven, but I was kind of wanting to get up and walk again". And then they start debating, the religious leaders, "Who can forgive sins with God alone"? Jesus says, "I hear what you're saying. Just so you know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, I say to this man, 'Rise up and walk.'" And then he looked to that paraplegic, and he said, "Have courage. Your sins are forgiven," and the man got up and walked again.
So his forgiveness brought courage, and sometimes we are crippled by our own sin. We've done something wrong, we've said something wrong, and we're paralyzed by it. We feel we can never recover from it, and the devil is there, exploiting the opportunity, "the accuser of the brethren," as he's called in Scripture, saying, "You're not worthy to talk to God. You shouldn't read your Bible. You shouldn't pray. You shouldn't go to church. You're a failure". And we have to not listen to that voice. The Bible says, "Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you". Listen, you might be disabled by your sin right now, but you've been forgiven by God and restored, so get up and walk. Get up and walk forward. Don't live in the past. Jesus put himself between that man and his sin.
The second time Jesus uses this phrase, "Be of good courage," is with a woman who was struggling to reach him when there was a large crowd surrounding him. And she had a medical problem. She had spent all of her money on doctors. None of it had worked. And she reasoned in her mind, "If I can touch the edge of his robe, I will be healed," and so she reaches through and touches it, and "boom," she's healed, right in that spot. Jesus stops and says, "Who touched me"? It's like, "Everyone touched you, Jesus. What do you mean who touched you"? He says, "I perceive that power has gone out of me".
So the crowd parts. There's that woman, "Hey". But Jesus didn't wanna rebuke her. He wanted to commend her. And then I love his words to her. He says, "Be of good courage, daughter. Your faith has made you well". So forgiveness brings courage, and power gives courage. Jesus gave her this power. "I perceive power has gone out of me," and the word used there for "power" is the same word used in Acts 1:8, when it says, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be witnesses for me in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth," the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why it's a good thing when you get up in the morning to say, "Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit," 'cause that will give you the courage you need.
And we're promised in Acts 2:39, this promise of the Spirit's power is now "to you, your children, all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call". Listen to this: God will give you what you need when you need it. You might know of someone who is suffering right now, and you think to yourself, "Man, if a doctor told me I had cancer", or "If I found out that a loved one had died", or "If some other thing happened to me like that, I don't think I could handle it". Listen to this: God will give you what you need when you need it, not necessarily before but never after. He will give you what you need. That courage comes from him, and it will come to you as well, but you must say, "Lord, fill me with your Spirit. I need this courage".
The third use of this phrase is something Jesus said to the disciples on the storm-tossed Galilee. They're out there, and a big storm comes, and they start freaking out, and they think they're gonna die. And here comes Jesus walking to them on the water, and they think it's a ghost, the Bible says, which is kind of humorous to me. "It's a ghost". And it turns out it wasn't Casper. It was Christ coming to them in their hour of crisis, and what does Jesus say? He says, "Be of good courage". He put himself between them and the thing that frightened them.
A while ago, I was walking with my granddaughter, Allie, and there's just some guy that has a dog off the leash, and this was a pretty aggressive dog, and he came at us, barking, showing his teeth, and immediately, I stepped in front of her and push her behind me, and I said to this guy, in a very loving, Christian way, "Put that dog on a leash right now". And so he did, and everything was okay, but Allie was very scared, and then afterwards, she said, "Papa, thank you for saving my life". "Wow, I don't think I saved your life, but you're welcome". I just instinctively did what any normal parent would do or grandparent. I put myself in the way of danger, if you will, but that's what Jesus is saying to us that he puts himself in that place.
You don't have to be afraid. So his forgiveness gives courage, his power gives courage, and, finally, his presence gives courage. You see, God reminded Paul that he was not alone. Verse 11, again, says, "The Lord stood by him". Even though the local Christians did not help him, the Lord had come to visit him. Later, in his last epistle, Paul wrote, "Everyone has abandoned me". Have you ever felt that way as though everyone has abandoned you? You feel as though your family has abandoned you, your friends have abandoned you, even your dog has abandoned you. Your cat, even though you have one, was never with you. Cats abandon you the moment they come into your home. They disappear for two weeks. No explanation. "Where have you been? What're you doing"? But I digress. But maybe you feel as though the Lord has abandoned you.
Listen to this: It's not true. God will never abandon us, and I'll tell you why. Because, when Jesus hung on the cross, you remember, he gave seven significant statements, and one of those statements was "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me"? That is the moment that most scholars believe that the sin of the world was placed upon Jesus, and he was bearing it in our place. So, in a sense, the Father turned his face away from Christ. But, listen, Jesus was forsaken so you might be forgiven. Jesus faced the brunt of that sin for you and became a substitute for every sin you and I have ever committed, and because of that, I will never be forsaken. I will never be abandoned by God. Jesus himself said, "I will never leave you or forsake you". So he's saying this to Paul, "I am with you".
You know, sometimes we lose things. I lose things all the time. It's ridiculous. I have this little thing called an AirTag. You know what that is? Made by Apple. So I put it in my wallet. I misplaced my wallet. "Where is it"? So I go to find my... whatever, whatever you put it in, find my wallet, and it beeps. It's, like, one foot from me, under my backpack. "Oh, brother," okay, so you feel like an idiot. But God has tech, if you will, that's far more sophisticated than that. He knows where you are at all times. The psalmist said, "If I go to the depths of hell, you're there. If I go to the heights of heaven, you're there. Where can I flee from your presence"? The fact is, you should never want to flee from God's presence. You should rejoice that his presence is always with you, that he is there with you as well.
And so the Lord comes to Paul, and he gives him the comfort he needs. Here's the thing: Paul did not know what was goin' on outside. As it turns out, there were 40 men who had taken an oath to not eat or drink until they killed Paul. You know, sometimes ignorance is bliss. You know, I don't know what plots the devil has hatched that might involve me or you. All I know is "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world," right? I'm glad I don't know everything that everyone has ever said about me, that doesn't agree with me, or has some issue or whatever it might be. I don't know all these things. The Lord does. Paul didn't know, but God gives us information when we need the information. You know, the military has a term "on a need-to-know basis". So maybe it's above your paygrade, so to speak. You don't know all the intricacies of a particular battle plan, for instance, but they will tell who needs to know, and God gives us what we need to know on a need-to-know basis But here's another thing that I love about this: God still had a future for Paul. It wasn't over.
Again, verse 11, "Be of good cheer, Paul. As you've testified for me in Jerusalem, you must also bear witness at Rome". So the Lord said, "I know where you are, and I have plans for you, and I have a future for you". Now, let's be honest: What was that future? Well, he went to Rome. He appeared before Caesar and, ultimately, was beheaded, according to church tradition. Not a very bright future. How does that work out? I think sometimes we think everything's gonna work out perfectly, and we'll tie a nice little bow on it, and we'll say, "And they lived happily ever after," but the reality is life doesn't work that way, does it?
Here's my objective: My objective is to be faithful to what God has called me to do. My life has been given to me by God. Your life has been given to you by God. My objective, your objective, our objective is to find the will of God and walk in it and be faithful because, one day, when I stand before Jesus, he will not say, "Well done, good and successful servant". He will say, "Well done, good and", what? "Faithful servant". I suggest to you, there are some things that we would call a "success" today that may be looked back on later as a failure. I also suggest to you, there are some things you might think as a failure today that will be looked upon as a success later. You know, we don't know till a little time passes, but we need to focus on what God has set before us, and we should not put a period where God has put a comma.
There was a future for Paul, and there is a future for you. One of my favorite verses, I quoted so often, I'm slightly obsessed with it, is Jeremiah 29:11, where the Lord says, "'I know the thoughts that I think toward you,' says the Lord, 'thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.'" I like that verse so much that, when I gave my son Christopher a watch for his 21st birthday that I'd owned, I inscribed that or had it inscribed on the back of the watch. You probably know that my son tragically went to be with the Lord 14 years ago. We just celebrated what would've been his 47th birthday. And they gave me a little plastic bag after he died, and in it was his wallet, his keys, and his watch. And I took that watch out, and I held it in my hand, and I flipped it over, and I saw that inscription, "'I know the thoughts that I think toward you,' says the Lord, 'thoughts of peace, not of evil, give you a future and a hope,'" and I thought, "Where's the future for him? Where's the future for me"?
And then I just had to remind myself that it's not all about our life on earth. Our ultimate future is in heaven. That's where it all comes together, you see? The Christian is in a win-win situation because "To live is Christ," Paul says, "and to die is gain". So that's the ultimate future, but I just want you to know God has a plan for you and your future as well, so be courageous. Let's review: Paul realized he was not alone. Number two, God knew where Paul was, and he was there with him. Number three, God had a future for Paul, and God has a future for you, and he has a future for me, so don't be filled with fear, worry, and anxiety. Be of good courage. Be of good cheer. God is with you, promising you a certain future.