A Formula For Courage

Where do you turn to for courage? Where do you go to strengthen yourself for everything you must face? For more messages from Charles Stanley.

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

I want to begin my message today by an incident that happened in my life many years ago.
And it turned out to be a message that absolutely has influenced me, impacted me, encouraged me, helped me.
And I certainly hope this message will do the same for you.
I was going to preach my first sermon that evening and my mother knew that I was a little uptight about it.
And so I walked into my bedroom and there she was with an open bible.
And so she and I began to talk and she of course, told me she was gonna be praying for me.
And then she said, I wanna give you a verse of scripture that God has given me to tell you.
And so she showed me Joshua 19.
And so when I read that, I thought to myself, well, Lord, what are you saying to me?
Have I not commanded you be strong and of a good courage.
They’re not, neither be thou is made but the Lord thy God is with the, with the serve thou go.
So I remember tucking that in my pocket because she’d written it on a little piece of paper.
And uh on my way to the church, which was about a block or so from my house.
When I came to the corner uh where the church is located, I pulled out that little slip and read it again.
I asked the Lord to please let me memorize that verse. Have not.
I commanded you to be strong and of a good courage, fear not need to be thou dismayed for the Lord that God is with the, with the.
So you go. And so I look back over the years and I can tell you this, that verse of scripture has been like an anchor in my life many times.
I have faced many difficulties, 60 years in the ministry.
And yet that verse is just as true today as it was when she gave it to me then, so I ask you, do you have an anchor verse in your life?
Is there, is there something in your life in the bible that you keep going back to when you find yourself in difficult and trouble?
Well, let me ask you this as a parent.
Have you ever sat down with your Children and said to them?
I wanna give you a passage of scripture or a verse of scripture that uh when you get in trouble or when you see trouble coming or when you’re tempted, when you tried, when things look tough that you can always go back to this particular passage of scripture.
I do believe that my mother sent me on the right path.
She anchored me to the truth of the word of God.
Never realizing how many difficulties and hardships and problems I would face as a pastor.
But I can tell you for 60 years, that verse of scripture, Joshua 19 has been like an anchor to my soul.
Times when I didn’t know what to do. Next.
Times when I felt persecution times when I felt so uneasy about things Joshua 19 was like an anchor to my soul.
Now, I think about parents today. Do you know what your Children are facing?
Whether they’re in the first grade or the 12th grade or in college?
They’re facing things that you and I never faced.
Have you taken the time to sit down with them and say, I want to give you a passage of scripture.
I wanna share with you something that God has done in my life.
I wanna help you to understand how to work through the difficulties and hardships you face as a teenager, as a college student and then into adulthood.
Have you been so busy as a parent? Thinking?
Well, my son or my daughter, they go to church, they hear the gospel.
They don’t need to be preached to by me. I’m not talking about preaching to them.
I’m talking about being a father or being a mother. It doesn’t make any difference which one?
And I know, in many homes, there is no father.
But you see, my mother could have said that the same thing she could have said.
Well, after all, I’ve never even finished high school. And here he is.
I go to, uh, preach the gospel and he’ll be in college. And my mother didn’t think about all that.
She thought about one thing I was gonna preach my first sermon.
She knew that I was a little frightened and she had one goal, helped me to realize that God would be with me as I preach that message.
When I walked away that night, I walked away knowing in my heart that I had done my best that I wasn’t afraid that God had given me unusual courage.
And so I think today, do you take the time or will you take the time?
Especially in these days when you parents have more time with your Children, you don’t have any excuse in the world but not taking time with your Children, whether it’s giving them one verse or giving them some experience that you’ve had.
And I wanna say this more important than the experiences you’ve had is the word of God that has spoken to your heart that’s traveled with you through difficulty, hardship and pain.
So I want to emphasize that to you because it’s like an anchor to your Children.
Don’t send your Children into a storm without giving them an anchor from the word of the living God.
But I think this passage of scripture is so important. I wanna begin reading.
God spoke to him and said to Joshua, no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
Can you imagine what that meant to Him? Just as I’ve been with Moses, I will be with you.
I will not fail you nor forsake.
You listen, be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous because he knew that he was gonna be facing difficult times and you and I can say the same thing to our Children.
Be strong and very courageous, 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 and to the left so that you may have success wherever you go.
Now, people know what success is today.
And I’m sure that Joshua understood what it would mean for him.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it.
Think about it, pray over it, read it again and again and again, meditate upon it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, then you will make your way prosperous, then you’ll have success.
Look at that promise. When you sink the word of God into your heart, when it becomes a way of living with you, what does He say?
Make your way prosperous and then you’ll have success.
You can go to school after school, after school with degree, after degree, after degree.
That will not match the impact of those words, then you’ll make your way prosperous, then you will have success.
And then He comes up with this life changing verse.
Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord, your God is with you.
Wherever you go, that verse of scripture has anchored me, it will anchor you, it will anchor your Children.
I plead with you in Jesus name.
Do not send your Children into this warring wicked violent society without anchoring them to a verse or a chapter or whatever it might be in the word of God.
So I think about all of this and then think about how God used that verse of scripture in my life with my mom in future days.
And so I wanna title this message a formula for courage.
Now they’re all kind of books written to encourage, I’m sure.
But this one verse of scripture is more powerful than all the other things you’re gonna read.
I think, I think it’s that important because look, it’s sort of short so that you can memorize it.
Have I not commanded you to be strong and of a good courage, fear not need to be.
That is made for the Lord thy God is with the, with the that goes, that’s it.
That’s straight from God. So when I look at all of these verses and see what God did in the lives of His people, um I come to um I, I come to an incident that happened in my own life and you’ll recall with uh Joshua that soon after these things took place.
God called him to take down the walls of Jericho.
Now, remember he had all the heritage of Moses, but now Moses is dead.
It’s just, it’s just Joshua and his tribes and almighty God.
And so God has told him that he wanted to give them Jericho.
And so what did he do? He said now, here’s the formula.
Trust me, you’re gonna march your troops around the walls of Jericho six times.
Once a day. On the seventh day, you’re gonna march around seven times, you’re going to blow those trumpets and then you’re gonna run like man, that doesn’t say that.
But what it says is those walls are coming down.
You don’t have to fight to get in on the walls are coming down. And so what happened?
That’s exactly what happened. God began his ministry in the life of Joshua with an awesome miracle.
You say, well, no, God doesn’t operate that way today.
And so tell me something more realistic or I will there was a time in our church when we were downtown and we were buying up property behind that church in that one block.
We owned all the property for a couple of blocks or so around.
And then on this one, this man, his name is Mr Cuba, fine gentleman.
Uh He wouldn’t sell his property. I went to him twice asked him if he would sell.
And I told him, I said, I said, Cuba, you’re a fine man.
And we, we just wanna do God’s work. No, not gonna sell.
So one day, I don’t know how long it was after that.
But uh we had a normal prayer meeting on Tuesday morning.
And so we were all praying down on our knees.
And for some reason, I, I stood up a little bit and I looked out the window and you could see Mr Cuba’s property and I thought, Lord, we’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing’s happening.
And I’ve led these people to pray to leave. You’re gonna answer our prayers. Lord, what’s going on?
I knelt back down and God said to me, what did God tell Joshua to do?
I thought, well, Lord, they don’t think I’m just out of my mind. He said, no march.
So we got to pray. And I said to these fellows that 12 men, I said, we’re gonna do what God told Joshua to do.
We’re gonna march around these walls, this particular block, this particular area.
We’re gonna march around it until God tells us he’s gonna sell.
Well, I could see them sort of sneaker in each other.
I said, ok, but we’re gonna march whether you like it or not.
And we’re gonna march and pray and we’re not going to speak a single word.
We’re gonna march in silence. All 12 of us, heat and coal, whatever it might be until God tells me that’s enough.
And so we waited until the next time we came to pray and instead of praying a long time, we prayed a few minutes and then we start marching, we walk all around that block.
And every once in a while, somebody would say to us, and I told them, don’t tell anybody what’s going on, walk around the block and people would say, what are y’all doing?
We just nod and I remember a few times it was very, very cold.
I’m sure they were getting a little restless.
And so I said, well, Lord, uh we, we’ve done what you told us to do.
I got a telephone call. It was Mr Cuba.
Mr Cuber said, Doctor Sammy, are you all still interested in this piece of property?
I said, well, maybe what you got in mind.
He gave us a price that was very fair. And I said, yes, we’ll take it.
I’m telling you that story to simply say this. He’s still in the miraculous business.
God is still working in our behalf and he’ll work in your behalf, but listen carefully.
You just can’t come out of nowhere and not even reading the word of God very often.
And God did that in your life.
You need to establish a habit in your life and that habit needs to be reading the word of God.
That habit needs to be praying and talking to God about your needs or whatever the situation is.
Whenever there’s a need in your family, what’s the first response? What do you want to call somebody?
No, the first response ought to be to your family. Let’s talk to God about this. Let’s see.
His will about, let’s get on our knees, cut the TV off and let’s just talk to God about what He knows our family needs.
You know what you’ll do. You will establish in your Children, this awesome habit of coming to God talking to him, listening to him and, and what you’re doing is you’re teaching them to trust God.
Can you tell me a fine a lesson to learn than to trust the Lord God to believe He will meet all of our needs.
And that’s exactly what will happen.
So listen to this verse, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not to your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him.
He will direct your path and then when he directs your path, do exactly what he says.
You’ll be amazed at what God is doing.
So when I think about that and think about what’s going on here in Joshua’s life because you see, when you get into the world of God, here’s what’s gonna happen.
You’re gonna feel courageous and bold, you’re gonna, you’re gonna feel freer about coming to God in prayer and asking God what you need to ask Him.
And so you say, well, why do I hesitate? Well, you hesitate because uh you don’t have the courage.
The best way to build courage is to read the word of God.
See what he says, do, do what he says and stand back and watch him work because one of the enemies of courage is criticism, fear of what people are gonna say.
They and I’m sure some of those men thought the same thing and likewise the fear of failure or suppose it doesn’t work well, you know what?
Everybody makes mistakes at time, but that doesn’t give you an excuse for not trusting God for the next thing I want you to do.
So when I look at this, I think what are my enemies?
Fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of discouragement.
But you know what, that’s the devil’s way of keeping you off your knees out of your prayer time, out of the word of God, out of fear.
Suppose this, suppose that, suppose the other.
But on the other hand, suppose He does exactly what you ask him to do.
And here I am years later giving testimony of what he did in that an instant.
And I can tell you many other instances of God answering prayer in the most miraculous way.
And one of those would be, I’ll make it brief when the Lord said to me one night, uh uh when I’ve been praying all week long and feeling that God was 1000 miles away and he came down to the night before Easter and it was 11 o’clock.
And I had no sermon you said, well, you have preached in those sermons.
You could grab when, listen, when God shuts you down there. No.
And after I prayed and prayed all week long and nothing happened. No sermon.
And it’s 11 30 on Saturday night. And I’m asking God, what are you saying to me?
And it’s like the Lord said to me, you must never ask for money on television.
You must always trust me and let me decide how far and wide this ministry is going.
Well, I thought, ok, Lord and I wrestle that not long. I’ve been wrestling all week.
I said, ok, God, I’m gonna leave it in your hands.
You decide how far and wide this ministry goes. But I’m gonna trust you.
And I’m never gonna ask for anything on the air.
Well, how has God answered that prayer and that simple act of obedience by placing this ministry all over the world?
Nobody can take credit. God has supplied every need. God has supplied every sermon.
God has supplied all the ministry and all the, I think about all the staff members, everything that God has supplied.
Where would we be if I have said? Yeah. Mm. Mm. It can’t grow unless we ask.
But watch this. You see, sometimes God has to get us in a corner and he had me in a corner.
It was the night before Easter Sunday and I had no sermon and 11 o’clock was coming tomorrow morning.
And what was I gonna do? Well, when I said, yes, I knew what would happen.
The next morning, I stood up to preach and God as my witness, I had no sermon prepared.
I just had to lay him all aside.
It flowed from me like I’ve been studying all week long on that particular passage.
Don’t ever, don’t, don’t ever underestimate what God is willing to do in your life if you’ll trust Him is simply trust Him.
So when I think about that, I think about somebody who says, well, they’re gonna be disappointments in your life.
So what when I think about this passage, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him.
He’ll direct your path. He’ll show you where to go what to do.
And so listen to this, our intimacy with God determines the impact of our life and ministry.
Listen, listen to that our intimacy with Him.
That’s the time, that’s the time we spend praying, the time we spend reading the word of God pouring out our heart, telling Him how we are feeling, telling Him about our hearts, confessing our sins, acknowledging, we need him desperately.
And so what our intimacy with Him determines the impact of our ministry. What’s that intimacy?
Being quiet, being alone, reading His word, memorizing the scripture, sharing it with other people, giving testimony of what God is doing in your life.
And the second one of those principles, and that’s simply this God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
And I can give you instance, after instance of exactly how God has answered that he acts on our behalf.
Think about this. He acted in behalf of Joshua when it came to Jericho. And what did he do?
He leveled the walls and gave them victory.
You may not have that kind of a situation in your life.
But one thing you can rest assure God knows where you are. He knows what you need.
And He’s more than willing to meet that need.
If you’re willing to give him time, let him cleanse your heart, give you clear direction for your life.
And you heard me say this often, one of those principles that’s so important is fight your battles on your knees, not with other people, whatever the situation may be, fight your battles on your knees.
That is when something comes up. It may be a need in your life.
It may be a need in your children’s life or a husband or wife.
It may be some difficulty you have financially. Where do you go first? Fight your battles on your knees.
That means your primary recourse is prayer.
Being alone with God in the word of God, asking for direction and guidance and help.
What will he do exactly what he says? He’ll do.
So watch this fight your balance on your knees, not with the devil, not with other people. That is you.
You go to to God about every single thing you face in life and let him settle it.
And sometimes you’re gonna be grossly mistreated.
Sometimes you will not understand why God allows certain things to happen. But that’s ok.
If you and I go to Him, we fight our battles on our knees.
That is sometimes we may hurt and what we may hurt badly. We may be disappointed.
But one thing for certain God will not disappoint us.
We may be disappointed about something, but our heavenly father is always there.
And we have to remember, we fight our battles on our knees, not with other people.
He’s never come up short. And I can think about these many, many, many years.
I’ve been a Christian God has never shown to be short.
Sometimes that battle on your knees may take a while.
It may be that God keeps us on our knees.
In order to teach us something and other, we might learn how He operates and other, we might learn how consistent He is, how willing He is and what it is that He wants to teach us.
There have been times when I have to, I’ve had to learn a few lessons.
It took me a while. But I can tell you this, God never comes up short, never.
He will be true to himself and true to His word.
And I look at these passages and Joshua and all that God did in his life.
And one of these principles in the word of God that I think everybody needs to consider very seriously.
You reap what you sow more than you sow later than you.
So this is why listen carefully when you are spending time with your family, your Children, you are sowing wonderful seeds.
You will, so listen, you will.
So whatever, but you’re gonna reap what you sow more than you so later than you.
So do your Children have any particular principle that they would repeat to one of their friends that their mother or dad taught them?
Think about all the things you’ve given your Children, all the things you’ve told them.
Do they have any biblical principles by which to turn to when they’re going through a difficult time when they’re not at home?
When they’re not where they can talk to you, you reap what you saw more than you saw later than you saw.
And that’s gonna be true so often in their lives.
Do they have anything that they can go back to and say, well, my dad used to say, my mother taught me this, give them an anchor, enrich their lives, anchor their feet and their minds and their eyes on the word of God.
So that when they’re out there all by themselves and they face difficulties that you’re not, did not even have to face.
They’ll know where to turn and they’ll know that their life can be enriched by what God is saying.
And I want to remind you of this adversity is God’s bridge to a deeper relationship with Him.
So listen carefully, you should teach your Children this principle that going through difficulties and hardship and pain and all the rest oftentimes it is like a bridge to a whole treasure of God’s rich truth by which your Children will survive this society.
God is so awesome. He’s so loving and so kind.
And as you heard me say, often times, disappointments are inevitable, but discouragement is a choice.
Disappointments are inevitable in this society, but discouragement is a choice.
So how would you respond to all of this?
Would you trust Him no matter what would you turn your attention, your minds and hearts to your family.
And remember you are the one who’s responsible to teach your Children those verses of scripture that become an anchor in their life because they’re gonna face storms, storms, you and I’ve never faced before.
They’re gonna face them. You can anchor them with these awesome unchanging dependable principles from the word of the living God.
And I look at Joshua, what he learned from all the years.
He watched Moses listened to him and then stepped out on his own with the same God working in his life that worked in Moses life and your Children can look back one day and thank God, thank you for my dad.
Thank you for my mom who enriched me, deepen me, solidified me, anchored me to the truth of the word of God that has helped me through this storm that I’m going through.
That’s my prayer. And father how grateful we are for this one event in the life of these servants of yours, we pray now that the Holy Spirit will impress upon every dad, every mom, how very, very important it is to enrich, to lock in these truths, to all those parents and all those Children who will be watching today.
And that’s my earnest plea. Dear Lord in Jesus name. Amen.