The Courage to Face Difficult Tasks – Dr. Charles Stanley

[Music] so we have a choice of facing the difficult as we face in life in one of two ways we can do it courageously or we can do it fearfully and God doesn't want his people living fearfully he says I have not given you the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind God wants us to be triumphant he wants us to be courageous and bold whatever we face in life and he's made promises to make it possible for us to face anything and everything and still be standing when the battle is over next on InTouch dr. Charles Stanley begins his series courage for the Christian life today's message courage for the difficult tasks what do you fear most in life ill health some financial loss loss of a loved one what do you fear most is it death or maybe failure in some particular area of your life we probably all have areas that we have to deal with probably have to find ourselves talking to God about them several times many times sometimes whatever it might be maybe every day but what are you afraid of what really haunt you well if you have courage you can handle anything to haunt you and that's what I want to talk about in this message because this is a very difficult trying time in the life of our nation many people fear many different things and oftentimes they have right cause but God wants you and me to live with courage not fear so I want you to turn if you will to Joshua chapter one and as I think back over the years all the situations circumstances challenges that I've been through in life this is the passage of Scripture I always go back to somehow I end up in this first chapter of Joshua and since my mother first gave it to me before I preached my first sermon it has always been there for me and no matter what the situation of circumstance I find awesome courage strength resilience encouragement out of this chapter and I want to share with you so if you'll turn to that for just a moment listen to what happens here beginning in this first verse now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of nun saying Moses my servant is dead now therefore rise across this Jordan you and all those people to the land which I'm going to give to them the sons of Israel every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon even as far as the Great River the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites and as far as the Great Sea tour the setting of the Sun will be your territory that was his promise no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses I will be with you I will not fail you or forsake you be strong and courageous but you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right of to the left so that you may have success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it but then you'll make your way prosperous then you'll have success and then he says this havenõt commanded you be strong and courageous do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go now your first response might be well I'm not in that kind of a situation I do have areas of my life in which I feel weak or sometimes fear but I'm not in that kind of a situation so what does that have to do with me listen carefully the principles in this passage of Scripture will take you through anything and everything no matter what now if I were 25 years of age you may have a lot of reasons to doubt me but I give you enough evidence that I can tell you it is true every single time no matter what you face in life because many people just they're just fearful of defeat and fearful of failure fearful of many things so I must look at this passage as a message that God is giving us in this 21st century because the truth applies to all of us whatever we're going through the truth applies so when I think about this passage and think about what's happening let me give you a couple of definitions that might be helpful first of all let's define what fear is all about fear is that uneasy feeling and all of us have felt it it's a dreadful feeling an internal alarm that goes off inside of us in some fashion when we're facing imminent danger feel threatened feel helpless to a border to change it so all of us have felt that at some time of the other then of course there's another word I want us to define and it may be good to define this one right now what is the opposite of fear and that's courage the quality of mind or spirit enabling us to meet danger face opposition all the challenges of life with fearlessness calmness and firmness so we have a choice of facing the difficulties we face in life in one or two ways we can do it courageously or we can do it fearfully and God doesn't want his people living fearfully he says I have not given you the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind God wants us to be triumphant he wants us to be courageous and bold whatever we face in life and he's made promises to make it possible for us to face anything and everything and still be standing when the battle is over so with that in mind let's look at what Joshua was facing Joshua now has the awesome challenge of taking this bunch of murmuring rebellious unbelieving fretful you name it two million of them into this new land that God had promised them that was it a big challenge it was a big challenge it's it would appear to be an impossible challenge because they were moving into a land across the Jordan where the enemy there were seven cities there they were very well-armed many of the cities had walls around them there were many giants there and besides that they had chariots and so he has the challenge really of leading these people into that land now naturally he would have been a little bit afraid because he knew have they operated they were with you today and tomorrow they won't dystonia to death and so for him to have that responsibility God needed to say something doing and here's what he said to him and he said it so beautifully in this first chapter of Joshua because here we find the basis of our courage our courage isn't something we just think up we have a basis for our courage as a believer and that basis is our relationship to God through his son the Lord Jesus Christ and when we face difficult tasks we need we need courage and some of you probably facing very difficult tasks and situations in your life has nothing to do with chariots and crossing over a sea or anything like that what I want you to see is this the principles of Scripture applied to us whether it's a 21st century or the second century made its no difference what and I want you to see what God is saying here because what he's saying to Joshua we have the right to claim these same promises not in the same circumstances but the promise and the challenge is there and we have the right to claim that promise and so when I think about that I want us to begin looking in in the fourth verse from the wilderness and this Lebanon even as far as the great river the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the Sun will be your territory and so naturally Joshua would have thought about that and think no way cannot leave this crowd to do that but listen to what God said to him because God's listen the truth here is as applicable for you and me as it was for him listen know what he said in verse 5 he said Joshua no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life that is successfully just as I have been with Moses I will be with you I will not fail you or forsake you now if anybody ever needed to hear Joshua need to hear that last part I'll be with you I'll not fail you I'm not going to forsake you but here's what I want you to see the same promise he made the judge was the same promise he's made to all of us What did he say I'll not fail you I'm not gonna forsake you now he says here's what I want you to remember Joshua be strong not therefore be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers together be strong and courageous you them if you look around you might be afraid be strong and courageous watch this in difficult times dangerous times we don't look around we look where up we look up Amen that's pretty weak we look up amen amen we don't look around he said be strong and courageous now look in verse seven that you will because note notice how he said it only be strong and very courageous God is making a point he knows the challenge he says be strong and very courageous to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you he didn't say be strong and courageous and here's my blueprint for victory he isn't he he didn't say here's the war plan he says be careful to do all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you have success wherever you go someone says I'm not into that successful are you in the failure you're not in the failure you want to you want to succeed as a parent you want to succeed in the school you want to succeed on your job you want to succeed financially you want to succeed in every way of life he says be strong courageous and very careful to do according to all that I have said through the book of Deuteronomy the law of God the law of Moses now in order to do that he says here's what you must do listen carefully here's the key the he is keeping focused on the truth which is a Word of God and I notice how he says be strong and very courageous be careful do according all that's written in the law he says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth I'm asking a question it's real simple how many days go by in any given week that you don't open the Word of God days go by you're busy you got things to do but you're the bridge you have to know don't have to but even when I'm not preaching I'm opening the Word of God listen to what he says this book of the law which would be the Bible to us shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it if you'll do that he says and you'll have success somebody says well now what's this meditation business let me just say this to you it is the simple key to accomplishing anything and everything God sets before you you say that's too simple what does God want to make it complicated no but notice what he said he said I want you to meditate on a day and night what's this in essence is what he seen a little brief skimming of it's not going to cut it I want you to meditate on a day and night and your devotions in the morning and read the Word of God a few minutes or whatever it might be before you go to bed at night but he said meditate on it the key he is meditating on a day and night so I want to give you five essentials of meditation first of all it involves reading the Word of God secondly believing what you read in the Word of God and thirdly absorbing it which means I got to think about it absorbing it means that I think about it it means that I apply it to my life and it becomes a part of my way of thinking and my way of living so we apply we absorb it we we understand it we apply it to our life and we obey it he said you must be careful to meditate upon it day and night in essence here's what he's saying you want to have success meditate upon the word of God day and night that doesn't mean you have to give God four hours in the morning at 4:00 at night and they caused it somewhere trying to find no that's not what it means meditation is just what we said it's reading it it's thinking about it I'm sorry no words in fifteen minutes God can do a big work in your life by meditation upon the word of God there's not anybody in here who's so busy they can't give God ten minutes of 15 minutes where the open Word of God every day who in here is so busy they can't do that that's right nobody is you say well that was the Joshua why did God put in the Bible it listen it isn't just a message to Joshua it listen it is a principle that applies to everybody you know it doesn't mean that you're doing the same thing that doesn't mean that you'll accomplish as much as as Joshua or none of us who do that but listen it's watch this it's your world your world may be this big your world may be that big but the issue is the same that if I meditate upon God's Word watch this here's what you're saying I'm acknowledging God that I'm not smart enough to live this life myself I need your help I don't I don't have enough strength I'm not have enough smarts I'm acknowledging that I need you that I honor you and I'm acknowledging you as my god you have the right to tell me what to do and how to do it and Lord I'm committing myself to be obedient to you and so meditation is the key it's the key to everything he'd said to him before then he says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth you can't you can't skip it day and night so that you may be careful according to do all that is written in it then you make your way prosperous then you'll have success and look at this last verse he says have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not tremble or dismayed for the Lord Jehovah Yahweh Elohim the Lord your God is with you where ever you go now let me ask you a question how do you beat that how can you beat that promise thank you back with clear instruction he said he said here's my law that what I want you to do I want you to meditate didn't I listen he didn't say I want you to memorize this I memorize that no he says I want you to read it meditate upon it day and night I want you to I want you to get it on the inside of you I want you to absorb it so that you are thinking you're watching watch this you're thinking Joshua like I think and what happened you know why I got it was so particular about that I'll tell you one of the reasons couple of reasons number one he knew what Joshua was going to face and he knew what the challenge was going to be and he knew how Deb would rush into his mind so here's Joshua the command and God says all right I want you to take Jericho it's a walled city they're fully armed and you all have pitchforks and and pocketknives and so forth and that's that's the way it is and so what God says to him here's what I want you to do I want you to assemble the army and I want you to march around the wall one day and Joshua probably said and do what God said don't do anything just go back to your tents second day third day fourth day fifth day six days seventh day I want you to march around seven times and probably a judgment said then what and God just we used one word watch and what happens they did it the walls fell down they conquered Jericho big success well think about this how many blessings do we miss because we think we've got to figure it out Joshua would never have come up with that strategy never supposed Joshua said there's no way we're gonna attack Jericho without climbing the walls and killing him God said be careful to do according to all that I've told you and what I want you to do is something that sounds very ridiculous all you do is line them up and March what what what battle was ever successful for just lining up people marching watch this we we have to be wise enough that's why it takes current watch this it often takes just pure gut courage to be obedient to God because it doesn't make sense sometimes and so people who are courageous enough bold enough and people who are willing to trust God and that's why he says meditate on the Word of God day and night because it's meditation on the word that we said absorbant you know what we have so--but it absorbs us and so we had courage strength and we're willing to trust God be fearless in bowl' no matter what God requires of us so living in the days in which you and I live I think that is very very important now I want to give you a statement I want you to write down God will never give us a schedule so full that there's no time for him write it down God will never give us a schedule that's so full that is that we don't have any time for him so therefore we have no excuse for lack of meditation from the Word of God and I'll say again to make it clear there's no menu sit down and memorize the verse every night no you just simply read a pastor description if you're not used to doing that I'll give you a good start start with the book of Psalm just read the first song then tomorrow read the next song and when you get through the Psalms they'll take you awhile in fact several months before you get to the Psalms start with the Proverbs you can read one proverb for every day takes you just one month but you won't be able to do that because it's so full of rich rich rich rich stuff from God you don't want to read a whole chapter you know what if you just listen to this message take it to heart God will change your life God is ready to give you the best the question is are you ready to trust in void I want to give you a challenge you're ready listening say Amen read the first nine verses for the next week until next Sunday twice a day now how many of you don't have time to do that that's right you say well I don't need to read it now I don't need to read every day yes you do every day and every night something will happen to you I promise you it will you'll want to give a testimony next Sunday morning have I not commanded you to be strong very courageous to face anything and everything and be sufficient for all things because of him if you're not saved look what you're missing and I pray that you'll be honest enough to confess your sinfulness and your pride that you think you can live your life and be a success and do what you gotta want you to do without asking him you may be successful now as the world but a total failure dollars of God God's best is a free offer of salvation the price being paid by Jesus of the cross when he shed his blood at Calvary and I trust you be wise enough to ask him to forgive you of your sins or into your life to him and tell him you want his best amen father how grateful we are you impact so much in so little such an awesome challenge such an awesome opportunity we thank you for it now I pray Lord every man every woman here oh gee Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus put it in their heart this morning to read these first nine verses twice a day but one week Lord God if they go to bed at night Lord and they haven't done it wake them up if they start out in the morning and they ignore it remind them of it you said be careful to do according to all that is written in it and so we want to say thank you this morning for Moses and for Joshua and thank you God for giving us this awesome passage of Scripture that we can live by faced anything and everything live by every day every night in Jesus name Amen if you've been blessed by today's program please visit us at intouch.org G

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 1,075,350

Rating: 4.8298025 out of 5

Keywords: Charles F. Stanley Dr. Charles Stanley Dr. Stanley In Touch InTouch God Jesus Holy Spirit Christian, Charles Stanley, Courage, sermon, preaching, trials

Id: X23qMn35YAU

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2017