Graduate Sunday
Courage isn’t something you are born with or born without but something cultivated in crucible moments.
James 1:2-4 (NIV) 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Spiritual Courage is a learned behavior. Spiritual Courage isn’t connected to your personality, your enneagram # or limited by your past failures! Spiritual Courage is literally connected to your willingness to face and hang in crucible moments.
Spiritual Courage is cultivated through eye discipline. Eye discipline is the training of your eyes to see the spiritual beyond the physical.
Numbers 13:26-33 (NIV) 26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
“We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
God leverages obstacles to train our spiritual eyes to capture His scope.
Satan leverages obstacles to minimize our size and say nope!
God’s promises are more purposeful than a blessing for us, they are to build us. God has just as much of a purpose in the fight for the promise as He does in the gift of the promise.
Cultivating spiritual courage comprises leaning into the hard and eye discipline.
Joshua 1:1-6 (NIV) 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
Deuteronomy 34:10-12 (NIV) 10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. 12 For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Comparison robs you of joy & courage.
Spiritual courage isn’t for show, it’s for movement. Our movement with God moves mountains.
Movement Activates a Partnership with God
Joshua 1:3 “3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses
Courageous movement unleashes powerful grace.
Spiritual courage isn’t for show, it’s for movement.
Movement Activates a Partnership with God
Movement Accesses the Power of God
Joshua 1:4,5a 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. “5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.
Spiritual courage isn’t for show, it’s for movement.
Movement Activates a Partnership with God
Movement Accesses the Power of God
Movement Actualizes the Presence of God
Joshua 1:5b “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you”
Spiritual courage isn’t for show, it’s for movement.
Movement Activates a Partnership with God
Movement Accesses the Power of God
Movement Actualizes the Presence of God
Movement Accomplishes the Purposes of God
Joshua 1:6 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
Set yourself apart to…
Lean into hard. God will leverage every hard in your life for your good and His glory.
Train your eyes to see God’s limitlessness not your limitations. Spiritual battles aren’t won by seeing yourself differently but by seeing God differently.