Divine Courage 1983

On New Year's Eve, our daughter, Kristen, went to a gathering of people who graduated from Pet Tech about seven years ago. I believe 12 of us were there. And every year, these young people get together and spend a little time.

And often, it's quite a bash. But this year, she was telling us that there was a kind of a quiet spirit over the whole group. And as they shared their lives with each other and brought each other up to date on what was happening, there seemed to be a closeness that developed.

And it appeared that the dominant theme of the evening was, I sure hope 83 is better than 82. And that seemed to come up during the gathering we had here on New Year's Eve for many people. 82 is a tough year.

And for others, it was a wonderful year. But let's start out with the ones for whom it was a tough year. And as we look back over 82, or 81, or 80, or 79, some of these tough things, difficult things that have happened to us were beyond our control.

If the plant you're working for up and leaves and goes to Mississippi, or if a loved one dies, or if your house was broken into, or if somebody close got sick, these are things which we really don't have to have regrets about because we didn't have any control over their occurring. But the things back there in 82 and years before that, that cause us problems even now, are those things over which we had some control. Along the road we traveled, at certain points, a door would be opened by the hand of God himself, a door of opportunity.

And God would not only open the door, but cause us to see on the other side through that door wonderful things, a new way to deal with a problem, the possibility of a prayer life that's much richer than we now have, the eliminating of an attitude from our lives, some wonderful and new change that we could make. And the Lord says, go in and take it, it's yours. Many times, as we stood before that open door, and we think about that, and long to go through, we would weigh the cost.

To go through that door, I have to let go of this, I have to get rid of this attitude, I have to make this change in my life, and that change, and many times after taking it over, we would simply move on. Sometimes after we travel a mile or two, we decide, I think I'll go back and go through the door, only to discover that when we get there, the door of opportunity is now shut. It's important for us to remember that whenever God opens a door of opportunity for us with his hand, it remains open only for a period of time, and then that door goes shut.

And if we don't go through it when it's open, we're out of the door. Example. Toward the end of his ministry, Jesus stands on the brow of a hill looking down over the city of Jerusalem, and weeps for Jerusalem, and speaks to it and says, Jerusalem, if you had only known the things that belong to your peace, but now they're hid from your eyes, for the days are coming when you're going to be compassed by armies, and they're going to build a trench around you, and they're going to lay you even where the ground is not going to be one stone left upon another, you and your children within you, because you didn't know the time of your visitation.

The door was open and you didn't go through. Another example. The people of Israel are camped on the very borders of the promised land.

The God of Israel opens the door and shows it to them and says, there it is. It's yours. And they look through that door across the Jordan River, and they see a land flowing with milk and honey, beautiful land.

But there are also giants in there, walled cities, armies, and they grow fearful. And as they stand before that open door, hesitating, wrestling with their own fear, time ticks by. Now, remember, this is the same God who had brought these same people across the sea out of Egypt, fed them with manna from heaven, water out of the rock, guided them with a pillar of fire at night, a cloud in the daytime, giving them the law from Sinai, blessed them and blessed them and blessed them.

But now as they stand on the very edge of the purpose of this journey, and God says, go in through the door which I've opened for you, they hesitate. And when they finally make up their minds to go through, it's too late. The door is closed.

And the people of Israel wander around the wilderness for 40 years while that generation dies off. And the little ones that they worried about being massacred in this invasion grow up. 40 years pass, God opens the door again and says, there it is.

It's yours. Go in and take it. Reading from Joshua chapter 1, verse 1. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land which I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I promised to Moses, from the wilderness of this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. All the land of the Hittites to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you.

Be strong and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to the fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage, be not frightened, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Again and again in that passage God says, be strong, be courageous, be of good courage. And this time they go in and they take the land.

Now what's the difference between the first time he opens the door and second? I mean, have the Israelites become stronger? No. Have the giants shrunk in size? Have the walled cities fallen apart? No. The only difference is that the first time they stood before the open door and shrank with fear.

And the second time they stood before the open door and waxed strong in courage, courage from God himself, and it was that courage that took them through. Whenever God opens a door, to go through the door involves risk, change, disruption, something that requires on our part some kind of courage. And if we don't exercise the courage and live in that courage, we don't walk through.

Now as we stand at the beginning of 1983 and look down through into this year, not really able to see what's going to happen, the most significant and wonderful thing is not that we're beginning really another calendar year, but that for us at this specific time and in this specific place, the same God who opened the door for the Israelites opens a door for us. We're not here by accident. Just the combination of people that God wanted is here.

And he has something particular, specific for us today. And it's important for us to see that the door that he opens for us now is a door that will be open for a season, the length of which only God knows. But this door that's open to us will bring us into three very specific blessings.

If we walk through, first of all, it's a door that brings us in to a relationship with God, an experience of his presence far more real and consistent than any practicing of the presence of God we have ever known up to now. Secondly, walking through this door will bring us into a unity with each other in love, far more real, genuine, lasting, true than any kind of unity we have ever known. And third, going through this door will bring us into a place of fruitfulness, effectiveness in serving God.

Much more powerful and abundant than we have ever experienced up to now. But to go through this door takes courage. First, walking through this door will bring us into a life lived in the presence of God.

Reading from Hebrews 4, 14. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may have received mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us then with confidence, boldness, courage, draw near to the throne of grace. Our relationship with God is lived in one of three places in the layout of the temple.

First there is the outer court, then you go from the outer court into the holy place, where the lampstand and the showbread are. Then there is this thick veil. Behind the thick veil is the holy of holies, where the spirit of God hovers over the mercy seat, where the presence of God dwells among his people Israel.

For many of us, we have been spending most of our lives in the outer court, which means that we have been religious. We go through the routines of religion, we do the proper things, and we are religious. But we have no living, burning sense of the presence of God in our daily life.

Then perhaps we have moments when we move up from the courtyard into the holy place, and we get some glimmer of light, some sense of God, some thirst for him, and we apprehend a word here and there that whets our appetite. But we are still outside the presence of God in our actual daily living. But now God says to us, I have opened the veil.

I said to my son, you cut through that thing, I want you to come into my presence. The door is open. I want you to live and dwell in my presence 24 hours a day.

Now many of us feel that that's what we've always wanted. If only I could really walk with God and talk with God the way the prophets did and the way Jesus did. And we're waiting for an angel to come and take us by the hand and do it for us.

Or a great vision or to hear bells ring. Now even if the angel comes or a vision or bells ring or whatever, it's still going to be necessary for us to go through the door. It doesn't happen for us.

There are things that we have to take initiative in. This is one of them. We go into our prayer room, get up in the morning, go into a room, shut the door, and how often we cry out, Lord, I need you today.

I have to have your presence. Draw near to me. I don't know what I'm going to do if you don't.

That's a good prayer. But many times, if we'll only be quiet enough, we'll hear God saying, I'm already here. I've already come to you.

Now I want you to draw near to me. The door is open. I want you to practice my presence.

And to do that, to live in the presence of God all the time, requires on our part, courage. Because to live in the presence of God all the time means that I can't drag those attitudes around with me. And I can't fool around with these habits that drain me of my vision.

And I can't forever be wasting time. I have to have this on my heart. Am I willing to do it? Secondly, the door that God opens for us is a door that will take us into a unity with each other.

Absolutely gorgeous. Beyond anything we've ever, ever imagined. From John 13, 34, we sing it all the time.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And jumping back into 1 John 4, 7, Belovedly, let us love one another.

For love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love.

We've all dreamed about the ideal church. You know, if I could only find people that I feel compatible with, people that I could truly join myself to, then how wonderful it would be. And I could function in a New Testament church.

And the Lord says, well, what about these people? And we say, oh, wait a minute, Lord. You don't really mean these people here. When a person gets married, they don't marry the first man that comes along, the first woman that comes along.

They wait for the right one. Okay? But even after they've met the right one, the biggest part is to make a commitment. You got the right one now? Are you willing to go through the door and commit yourself to this person for the rest of your life? To accept this person the way he or she is? To stick with them? Now, it may be that God will call us to other places as the years pass.

And some of us may be in the Soviet Union. And some of us may be in Mexico or Canada or who knows where. But for now, this is where we are.

And if we're going to find unity, this is where we start. You know, and unity, the unity of love is a matter of walking through a door, committing myself to these people. I'm going to stick with them.

I'm going to accept them, honor them, love them, serve them, work with them. They belong to me and I belong to them. And I leave my independence and I join myself with my will.

I commit myself to them. Ah, but to do that and to really do it and to practice it day after day and week after week takes courage. Finally, the Lord opens for us today a door into a fruitfulness beyond anything we've ever imagined.

Tremendous fruitfulness. Peter was a fisherman and he'd been fishing all his life, but he never saw a catch like this before. Luke 5, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, Jesus asked him to put out a little from the land.

And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your net for a catch. And Simon answered, master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will let down the nets.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish. And as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink.

Peter never saw anything like that before. It was the sign of the beginning of a totally new life, a ministry beyond anything he ever dreamed of. And he went out and he lowered his net into the sea of this world and drew people into the kingdom.

The woman at the well, the woman at the well knew a lot of men. She'd been married five times and was living with number six. And she had a very great gift for attracting men.

But this woman had no idea that she would be used by God to draw men to the Messiah. From John chapter four, verse 27, just then his disciples came and they marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, what do you wish or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into the city and said to the people, come see a man who told me all I ever did. Is not this the Christ? And they came to Jesus.

The door that is being opened for us at this time involves truth. I'm talking about being able to draw people to Jesus, not by the ones and the twos, but by the dozens, perhaps by the hundreds. I'm not saying getting them into this building.

I'm saying getting them into the kingdom. And this is being offered to us now. The door is open.

Go in and take it. But again, to do that requires courage. But if we're, because we know that if we're going to go out and mingle with the multitudes of this world and really identify with them and be one with them and open our mouths and say what's on our hearts and manifest the love of God, it is going to require an exposure of our lives in a way we have been unwilling so far to do.

It's going to involve risk and it's going to take courage. So where do we get the courage to go through this door? God spoke to Joshua and he said to Joshua, be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua knew that when he crossed the Jordan River, it's going to be trouble. They're going to be battles. They're going to be difficulties.

People are going to, his own people are going to get mad at him. He's going to be in the squeeze a thousand times, but it won't matter because Joshua now has come to that place where he has the courage of God. Divine courage is nothing other than to have your heart inwardly at rest in God.

If the heart is inwardly at rest in God, storms can rage around us. All kinds of things can go wrong and we can keep right on going. For many of us, it's the other way around.

Outwardly, we're lethargic. We're dull. We're half asleep most of the time, but inwardly we're restless.

We're at war. We're going 15 directions at once. We're afraid and angry and in conflict and bitter.

Our hearts never settle down. The courage of God is to put that in reverse and to let the heart come to rest. If the heart comes to rest in God, settles in God, then come what may, things can go wrong.

We can act decisively and keep moving. Our Lord, from the time of his baptism and his temptation, lived in a battleground. The whole life that he lived was a battle from that point on.

And every time things got hairy in terms of his relationship with his father, being at rest with his father, he knew what to do. He got a part and drew strength. Before he faced the cross, he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and he gets this thing settled with his father.

Sweats blood, but he gets it settled. And when it's settled, he gets up from his knees and says, all right, here they are. The mock comes and takes him and he conquers Satan, death, hell, and sin.

Now he wants to give us that rest today. And he says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me.

And you say, well, I've heard that all my life. I know it by heart. You know, I come, I come, I come.

Fifteen times and nothing ever happened. But you haven't got there. You haven't got there until you begin to experience rest.

And the answer is you've got to keep coming. Don't quit. If you quit, you're not serious.

You keep coming and keep coming to him any way you can find to come until your heart begins to find that rest he promises. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. This is injustice, evangelistic appeal, man.

This is for everybody, believer and seeker. Believers in Jesus, whose hearts are all messed up with anxiety and fear and vanity and bitterness and resentment, can't have the courage of God to go through that door, nor can the seekers, until our hearts come to center on him. And so today, as he opens that door and invites us to come in, into union with God, into union with each other and into a life of fruitfulness.

Come, he says, I'll give you the courage if you'll come to me. May God help us to respond to that in whatever way is meaningful to us. But if we're going to walk through the door and seize the opportunity and make the most of it while it's open, it's going to take courage.

So he says to each of us now, each according to her place or his place, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. And in that rest, you will take courage.

And by that courage, you'll walk through the door. Let's pray. Lord God, the doors that we've passed by in our lives, the doors that we've ignored, the doors we've hesitated and stood before for so long in conflict with ourselves, we put them all behind and we trust them to your mercy and grace.

But now, as we stand at the beginning of this year and as we stand before the door you've opened for us now, we beseech you, Lord God, to so deal with each of us here that we'll give up our trifling with holy things and are hesitating with things that are of eternal significance and enable us to begin to move. We pray, Lord, as the door is open upon us that you would help us to respond to your command to be strong and of good courage. We pray that your spirit would help us as we hear the call of Jesus to draw near, to respond until we begin to find that rest and to not be at peace in anything we do until we find that rest.

Help us, Lord God, to begin to move and to act this day. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.