In these last days, courage is perhaps the number one-character trait we need. In truth, our courage as Christians comes from the indwelling spirit of Christ, not some ‘mojo’ or ‘gumption,’ we conjure up from our ego. If death has been conquered, what do we have to fear?…nothing. My question to you is, ‘what is stopping you from fulfilling God’s calling on your life?’ Join Carl now as he divulges how to tap into courage which in turn, brings confidence…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, we’re beginning a new series of probably three or four parts of Courage and Confidence. You know, John Wayne said, Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. The question is, friend, are you going to saddle up anyway? Because there’s a lot of people out there using fear as an excuse, and God’s not pleased with that, friend. If we shrink back in fear and not in faith, God’s going to be upset with that. Now, that may be a tough word, friend, but it’s biblical. Because we need to be courageous, we need to go forth and complete the things that God has for us in this lifetime. I’m teaching here live in session, about Courage and Confidence, and I would ask you, I would urge you, friend, to listen closely, that you would conquer the giant in your life and move on into what God has for you. Let’s join me now. You know, we think of ourselves as a whipped pussycat, but inside the reflection is the lion, amen? That’s where we need to be. We need to have the image of Christ inside of us, because as we find out in this session, the courage that we rely upon comes from knowing our identity in Christ Jesus, amen? So, are you courageous? How do you define courage? Where does courage come from? Or is it hubris instead, self-confidence, arrogance? Some people are like that. But we’re talking about gumption.
We’re talking about confidence. We’re talking about chutzpah, as they say. That’s courage that comes from God, amen? Should it be based in our ability and skill? It’s good to learn skills in life. It’s good to have abilities. Some people are more talented than others. However, that’s going to run out at some point. We’re going to investigate what are Satan’s two most prominent strategies to get us out of courage and into something else. What is preventing you from taking the next step in your walk of faith and fulfilling what God has for you? How can we increase our courage? These are the questions I came to when I was in prayer, amen? And we’re going to investigate it. I like some of the quotes that came up. Mark Twain said, courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of it. Important point. Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage. Sometimes we know what is right. We know that we should do a certain thing, okay? And it’s a sin of omission not to do what we know is right, what our conscience is telling us. Mignon McLaughlin, whoever that is, said, courage can’t see around corners but goes around them anyway. In line with what Joyce Meyer said, feel the fear but do it anyway, right? Everybody feels fear to an extent. We all have fear issues. We can feel that emotion or even that spirit momentarily, but it’s not an excuse for apathy. It’s not an excuse to be in stagnation, amen? We’ll find that out from the word as well. Winston Churchill said, courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. It’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.
And there’s a time to talk and there’s a time to be quiet, amen? And everybody who’s married knows that there’s an art to that, amen? Okay. So our attitude should be one of courage. Proverbs 28:1 says, “the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” Why are the wicked running when no one’s pursuing them? Probably because they’re guilty and a guilty conscience causes paranoia and there’s a tendency to be looking over our shoulders because we know we’ve done something wrong. Is that the ‘po-po’ coming? I mean, what’s that knock on the door? The wicked have their reasons to be paranoid, but we don’t live like that, right Christy? We don’t live like that, Noel and Brett. We don’t live like that because we’re the righteousness of God. We have right standing with God. We Christians should be the boldest on earth. How many can attest to that? Wow, those Christians, they’re so bold, aren’t they? Are you kidding me? Some of the Christians are the most timid people you could ever meet, all right? Just an observation So the definition of being bold is to appear fearless in the face of danger. Although one may appear fearless, that doesn’t mean you’re not feeling the emotion, right? Did John Wayne ever get fearful? Did Clint Eastwood ever get fearful? Yeah, I would suggest they did, but the movies don’t purvey that, right? Everybody feels this emotion, friend, but again, it’s not an excuse to stop doing what God has told us to do. In Numbers 13, the famous incident at Kadesh Barnea, when God said, go in and take the promised land of Canaan.Go in.
I know there’s giants in there, possibly 10, 15, 20 feet high. They were real giants in the land. We believe that, but that still wasn’t an excuse not to go in. Joshua and Caleb were of another spirit. They did not succumb to the spirit of fear. They saw that their God was powerful. They saw that the giants were small in the sight of their God, amen? And my question to you tonight is, what is the giant stopping you from going into your promised land? Is there one thing? Perhaps it’s a besetting sin. Perhaps it’s some sort of obstacle in your life that’s always plagued you, and it’s that one thing. If I could slay it, oh man, life would be good, and I believe God’s going to empower you, friend, to overcome that giant and cut its head off in Jesus’ name. No more plaguing by this thing that’s chasing us down, that besetting weight that tries to attack us, and we’re always fighting it. No, once and for all, we’re going to decapitate that sucker. It’s never coming back. Wow, pastor, you’re using strong language tonight. Maybe it’s better to cut off the enemy’s head than keep boxing him every week, right? So what is it about cats? Have you been on YouTube? Have you seen these cats? These house cats will fight alligators, okay? This guy comes out.
He comes to get the sausages, right? This guy smacks him on the head. He goes back in the water. He comes back again. He hits him again on the head. He comes back a third time. He does it again. These cats, I’m making a point here, cats don’t back down. It’s in their nature. Here’s one chasing a fox. Now, a fox could tear a cat apart, but this little feline doesn’t know he’s like five pounds, okay? Inside him, he’s like 50 pounds and ready to tear some stuff up, and this little puss-puss is behind the glass, of course, so he’s safe, but from one cat to another, you know, it’s a kudos to the animal kingdom where the lion is king, amen? The lion is the king of the jungle. Cats are fearless, friend, and that’s a theme we’re going to discuss tonight, the attributes of a lion. Check out this. A lion roar is 140 decibels. That’s as loud as a rock concert, enough to be heard five miles away, but Satan should know when we’re coming. We’re the ones who are going to roar. Why? Because the lion of the tribe of Judah lives on the inside of us, amen? I’ll say it again. The lion of the tribe of Judah lives on the inside of us. Therefore, that boldness is going to come from being in residue with Christ, in situ with Christ, bonded to Christ, seated in heavenly places, infused to his character, and that boldness comes from that, not, oh, I’m the dude, I’ve got all these skills, I’m this height, I’m this weight, I’m good-looking, I’m not good-looking, whatever you’re relying on, kids, to be bold.
You work out three times a week, you work out once a year, whatever it is, okay? We don’t look to our own strength, amen? That’s where our boldness comes from, not real boldness. When a lion roars, it’s enough to raise a cloud of dust and can cause heart attacks in nearby animals. The name of Jesus stops Satan in his tracks, amen? Causing a heart attack in your enemy. James 4, 7 says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he, who’s he, Satan, will flee from you. That word flee is to run away in terror, in the Greek, not, oh, okay, I won’t bother you anymore, I’ll just come back next week. No, a running away in terror. Why? Because of you? No, he’s not scared of you. He’s scared of the name that is above every name, which is? Right, and when we use that name, there’s power in the name, right? So the lion of the tribe of Judah lives within you. It’s time to roar, friends. There’s boldness when you know who you are in Christ Jesus. There’s boldness when you’re full of the dunamis power of God, Acts 1:8. There’s boldness on the streets when you minister, because you know that angels are around you and you believe in their protection. Well, that just sounds a little bit cocky. Well, if it does sound a little bit cocky, I’m not going to apologize, because it’s the truth, amen? It’s the truth. There are two lions in scripture. There’s the lion of the tribe of Judah, who has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals, a reference to Revelation, okay? He’s authentic. This is the real deal. The lion of the tribe of Judah. We have the pretender pirate.
He has no teeth. This guy has teeth. I know he does, okay? Just take my word for it. This guy, he’s the pretender. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.” Satan cannot devour anybody at random. He has to have legal ground to devour you, okay? You understand that? Some people are paranoid that the devil is just going to attack them and beat them up. No. You have to be in a work of the flesh or giving something over to him, whether it’s fear, whether it’s even ignorance, whether it’s discouragement.
Whatever you’re walking around with, it could be a legal access point for the enemy to work in your life. That is why having fellowship with the Father is extremely important on a daily basis, amen? Fellow-shipping with the Father. The new King James says he’s like a roaring lion. He isn’t a roaring lion. He’s like, okay? The King James says as. Satan is a toothless pussycat to those who know who they are in Christ, okay? Now, to someone who doesn’t know who they are in Christ, he could pose some problems, because knowledge is everything in the kingdom of God, friend. And I didn’t bring it tonight, but I was going to bring a handout, and on that handout it’s called Your Bountiful Inheritance. It’s on our website. You can download it. If you give me your email address at the end of this session, I’ll send it to you, an attachment, a PDF, but it’s two pages, and it has about 35 things that distinguish you of what Christ won for you on the cross and who you are in him, okay? Very, very important that you have that in your possession, because in every one of those line items, there’s a defense for when Satan comes knocking and said, hey, your sin three days ago, dude, God still remembers that sin. Ah, he remembers our sin no more as the east from the west, amen? It’s in the sea of forgetfulness, right? We have to have knowledge. We have to have knowledge to rebuttal, to rebuke, amen? Hosea 4:6 says, “my people perish for a lack of knowledge”, amen? Knowledge is important.
It didn’t say they perished for a lack of praise and worship or a lack of giving or whatever, right? Whenever we go to battle, the knowledge of the enemy and his stratagems are essential for victory, and the New Testament explains how to get victory over our adversary, amen? Who’s our adversary? The Baptists. No, no, no, no, no, no. The Anglican. No, no, no, no. Satan, the adversary, right? Satan means accuser. He’s an accuser, okay? If he has legal ground where you’ve opened the door to sin, then he can accuse you, but once you’ve confessed your sin, 1 John 1:9, and you’re restored to righteousness, you can tell him to, or whatever else you want to tell him in the name of Jesus, and he can leave you, amen? Amen? Okay, so along the lion theme, we have Benaiah, the son of, who wants to pronounce that? Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man who had done many deeds.
Now, the Bible speaks of courage in many places. We have King David and his mighty men who slew the hybrid beings, the Nephilim, the fallen ones, half angel, half man. Won’t get into it, but this is the offspring of the giants in the land, and they were mighty men who were slaying these giants, but check this guy out, Benaiah. He slew a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. How many knows there’s not much traction on a snowy day in a pit? He’s got his spear, he took out the lion, amen? Then we have Samson, who had incredible strength, another typology of Christ. His strength was in his anointing. It was in his Nazarite vow, okay? It was not in his natural strength. I believe Samson, man, was like a 95-pound guy. He may not have been that big, but the strength was in the anointing of God, and that’s what made it even more amazing, is that Samson was just chasing after, what, 200 foxes and lit them on fire and whatever other exploits he did. Friend, let’s pick it up tomorrow with part two of Courage and Confidence.
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