Text: Numbers 13:25-33, 14:26-38; Joshua 14:7-12
Topic: Having courage when everyone around us tells us to be sensible

• I want to talk about courage, and I'm going to be speaking about it more and more, because I see it throughout Scripture a lot.
• I may be the one guy that keeps telling you to believe in the power that's in you, the Holy Spirit.
• We live in a time when people, even in the church, don't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and what he can do.
• Sometimes we look at the Scriptures and think, Well, yeah, that was back then. But it's not about back then. It's about always.
• There was a fearlessness in the people of the Bible—a confidence that my God will come through.
• We grew up with these stories, but some of us lost our courage somewhere along the line, to the point where we come to service and are scared and fearful.
• We've got to be bold, courageous people.

• What were your favorite stories from Sunday school? Daniel in the lions' den. David and Goliath. Jonah. Esther. Noah. The parting of the Red Sea. Jesus. Stephen.
  • Illustration: Chan shares how he always loved David and Goliath—the story of the scrawny little guy with rocks in his pocket slaying a giant. Chan also looks briefly at a number of biblical stories that feature courageous people: Daniel, Moses, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Joseph, Elijah, etc.
• These are the stories about courage that we grew up with, and they produced in us a faith that believed God could do anything through us.
  • Illustration: Chan shares about his faith in high school.
• But through the years people calm us down, and we start to lose that courage.
• But that's not how we want to live!
• It's rare for someone to put an arm around you and remind you of how powerful you are, how powerful your God is who dwells inside of you, and what you can do.
• We become more and more cowardly, and we call it being responsible: I'm just being a good steward of my life, because God wouldn't want me throwing it all away.
  • Illustration: As Chan got more educated, he realized how much he didn't know and started feeling that God couldn't do anything great through him.
• Is that how we want to live? It doesn't make sense.
  • Illustration: Chan tells a story about a man with great strength and many kids. He uses the story to show that the world's strongest man doesn't have scrawny kids.
• We're children of the most powerful being in existence, and it looks weird when we're scared.
• Followers of Yahweh are marked by this power and confidence that my God will come through.
• When's the last time you did something insane in the eyes of everyone else, but you had the confidence of knowing that was what God was calling you to do?

• Illustration: Tertullian said: "This is the testimony of the apostles, and in particular of the representative administrating Spirit. A Christian is fearless."
  • Illustration: A.W. Tozer: "We've imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord, and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost."
• We need to learn from the story of Caleb and Joshua in Numbers 13.
• When the 12 spies come back after surveying the land, 2 of them, Joshua and Caleb, say: "We can do this thing. Let's go!" But the other 10 said, "Man, did you see how big those people were?"
• The words of the spies basically encourage the people to be "responsible"—safe—and all the people follow their advice, ignoring Caleb and Joshua.
• God was not pleased, because he is never been pleased with cowardice—he's never pleased with people who don't believe he can come through and that he can do anything.

• Do you resemble Joshua and Caleb, or do you resemble everyone else who is looking at the problems in life?
• Are you looking at God's calling for your life, or are you listening to those voices telling you that you can't do anything great?
• I've heard those voices my whole life—voices that tell me I can't change the world, that there will always be poor people, that L.A. can't be saved.
• It isn't long before I get scared, before the negativity gets in my head.
• We have our dreams from the Lord and things he's called us to do and say, but people mellow us out and say, "You can't do that. You don't need to go to those extremes." It's like a Christian form of Prozac!
• But Scripture is always about being courageous, being insane, believing when no one else believes, praying that our boldness will get even greater.
• In Joshua 14:7-12, which is 45 years later, everyone else is dead, but Caleb and Joshua are still alive, just like God said.
• Like Caleb, don't you want to be the 85-year-old who believes even more than you did when you were 40?
• I believe I'm supposed to live by faith, and I believe the older I get I should take bigger steps of faith.

• I want you to believe again that God's a great God.
• Some of you have heard specifically from the Lord—you know of things you were created for, but because no one else does it that way, you've backed off.
• Caleb and Joshua must have looked like fools for believing, but I'm telling you right now that whatever steps of faith God's calling you to take, I promise you that 45 years from now you won't regret it.