Session 5: Courage (The 5 C’s Of Biblical Manhood)

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Well, okay, I think we are going live for all our Facebook friends and for our YouTube friends that are out there. I just want to begin by reminding you that if you want to keep up with what we're doing with our broadcasts, if you're watching this from our YouTube channel, you can go to subscribe and subscribe to the channel there. If you're watching it from our Facebook page and you haven't liked the page yet, I want to encourage you to like it. And by doing that, you will become a follower and I think you get notifications when we're ready to do live broadcasts. So in a moment, I'm sure I'll start seeing some of you with some comments.

And I want to encourage you also that if these little devotionals are really helping you guys, we'd really like to hear from you. Please feel free to either email me at vince.ottm, that stands for on target ministries, vince.ottm.co, justco.com. You can email me there or you can again comment on our thread on our Facebook page or YouTube or on this feed, this live feed. Also, if you've missed some of the previous live stream versions of the series we're going through now, you can go to the Facebook page or YouTube and you'll see a whole series set there that you can click on and you can catch up. For the last four weeks, this is the fifth week now, we've been in a series unpacking the five C's of biblical manhood.

Today, we're going to be talking about the fifth and final one. And then on Friday, we'll start a new series, but we've been going through the five C's and they are godly compassion, conviction, commitment, confidence and courage. Today, we're ending the series by talking about becoming a man or woman of godly courage. I think when I first started out, I encouraged all you ladies that may be watching that even though this is kind of like a male friendly teaching, the principles obviously apply to you ladies as well. These five C's of biblical manhood is probably going to become one of the next one or two books that I write if I can ever get kick started and get going on it.

I've been encouraged to do it, but give me this format for communication and I'm great, but I'm not a great, I don't like writing. It's just kind of boring to me, but I've got to kick myself and do that. So let's get into this guys and talk about what it means to have godly courage. I think we also laid out the idea that you must go through these in the proper order. You have to be a man of godly compassion and loving God and loving others before you can become a man of godly conviction.

And then when you become a man of godly conviction, it's much easier to become a man of godly commitment. And we unpacked all of these earlier. Again, you can go watch them. And then compassion, conviction, commitment, and then that is where you can move into confidence. I am confident that my God is sufficient and he can take care of everything for me.

So that is something that's very important. And then out of that, I can ultimately become a man of godly courage and ultimately be the man God intended. I see there's some people checking in. Welcome Steve, Ron Horton. I haven't talked to Ron in a long time and love you guys and we're excited to have you join us.

Anyway, we'll move on. So godly courage, courage is overcoming fear really. It's also being resolved to a particular thing. And here at Mark Twain says this, courage is resistance to fear. Mastery of fear, listen, not the absence of fear.

John Wayne says it this way, courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. In the midst of the fear, you're willing to go forward. Now, throughout the Bible, there are so many instances that talk about courage. Let me just read a few of them to you. Abraham in leaving his fatherland in Genesis, in offering up Isaac also, Gideon and destroying the altar of Baal.

Ezra in understanding the perilous journey from Babylon to Palestine without a guard. Ezra, that's found in Ezra 822. The three Hebrews who refused to bow down to the image of Nebuchadnezzar, remember? And they just refused to bow down. Daniel, in persisting in prayer, regardless of the edict against prayer, he persisted anyway.

Peter and John and refusing to obey men rather than God, the apostles under persecution. And then on and on and on throughout the Bible, we see all this evidence of godly courage. In Philippians 3, 13 and 14, which has really become my life verse, Paul is another example. Paul says, look, I haven't arrived, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, forgetting all of those things, I press on. He had resolved, I'm going to press on, even though the situation may be a little scary, it doesn't matter.

I'm pressing on toward the goal, the mark, the target. And I think I mentioned earlier, that's where our ministry name came from, on target ministries. Pressing on toward the mark for the upward call of Christ. He had such incredible ability to see God's purpose for his life that nothing could get in his way. He had godly courage.

Look what he says in Philippians 1.20. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but listen, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For Paul, it didn't make any difference whether I lived or died. I think I said this in the preview to this episode, in the last episode. But in America, we have moved, in my view, from the land, from the home of the free and the brave, to a land filled with slaves and cowards.

Dear ones, please hear me, we are ideological slaves, most of us, and practical cowards. It's hard to find anybody, anywhere that will die for anything. But when it comes to my Lord Jesus, oh my gosh, that's what Jesus is saying. He wants us to be so intimate, really related with him, that nothing else in life matters. That we know that he's got our back, and ultimately we're going to be with him for eternity.

Well, in order to have that kind of courage, what does that mean? It means you're going to have to overcome moral schizophrenia. You're going to have to overcome truth learned on Sunday that you can't apply on Monday. You're going to have to be able to go forth boldly, no matter what the consequences may be. Well, what are you saying, Vince?

If I do this or I do that, what if the consequences is that I might lose my job if I don't stand up for certain righteous things? Well, that has to be a consequence that you're willing to live with. Are you willing to have that kind of courage to lay everything on the line and not give in to fear? Here's an interesting story I found a while back about Nikita Khrushchev, the old ruler in Russia. During his years as Premier of the Soviet Union, he denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin.

Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. You were one of Stalin's colleagues, he shouted. Why didn't you stop them? Khrushchev roared, who said that? An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle.

Then Khrushchev replied quietly, now you know why. Wow, he wasn't willing to pay the price. He wasn't willing to stand up, and it was the fear that drove him to silence. It was the fear that allowed him to compromise and not pursue something that was better. So, if I'm a man of godly courage, I am willing to understand that God has my back.

I'm willing to stand for righteousness. I'm willing to do and say the right things and move forward. But I'm also a man that is willing to be open and humble and willing to be accountable and to have others impact my life. I'm willing to submit and have a teachable spirit. In Galatians 6, 1-3, it says this, brothers, if someone who's caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.

But watch yourself or you may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. I like that verse because it encourages us to carry each other's burdens. But listen guys, I can't carry your burdens if I don't know what they are. So, this is also an encouragement to us to be united with other like-minded brothers or sisters, okay?

That will help us have the kind of courage in our life that we need to have as we move forward. And I'm going to close with some ideas about that here in just a moment. Hebrews 10, 24 says this, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Another aspect of godly courage is that we encourage one another. Listen, it's a lot easier to have courage when I've got other people around me that are spurring me on, that are holding me accountable.

But in order to do this guys, we have to be able to submit to what my pastor calls bloodstained allies in our life. That are people that have been in the battle, that are bloodstained, that are like-minded, that are our allies, that are going to stick to us closer than a brother. We need to commit to people like this in our life. I've got a quote that I use a lot and I tell people, you know, most of my quotes are not very good, okay? But this particular one I really like and it says this, it takes a relational environment in order for truth to become transformational.

Now, let me unpack that. We don't have a truth problem, guys. We've got the best truth since Jesus walked planet earth in this thing we call the Bible, that we should really be in every single day. We've got God's truth, okay? We don't have an excuse, but it begs the question, why is something this powerful not transforming my life?

Well, I believe it's because we're not willing to live out that truth in the context of a healthy relational environment. I think that when we take the truth, we share it with others, we talk about it and encourage each other. That's when we begin to actually grow. So if I'm going to be a man of Godly courage, it's kind of counterintuitive. We kind of get this macho kind of idea of what courage means to be a man, an island, stand alone.

I don't need anybody else and Jesus would say it's just the opposite. It's when you're humble and when you're willing to submit, that's a man or woman of Godly courage. One who's willing to go forward and say, guys, I did this or I did that and I'm not sure it was the right thing to do. What do you think? Help me pray through this.

Help me understand what the next course of action could be. So I want to encourage you, because we kind of bring this to a close here in a few minutes, to if you're not already in a group of guys or in a group of women to help do what we're talking about, to help hold you accountable and help encourage you to move forward, make a commitment. Remember, not a decision, a commitment to get into one. So how does this work, this accountability work when it comes to, watch this, when it comes to all five of these seas, and watch how we treat others. So if I'm submitting myself to a group of guys and in the area of Godly compassion, they can help me make sure that I'm being obedient, staying close to God, reading the Word.

They can also observe how I'm treating other people for Godly conviction. As we study God's Word together, we can move easily from healthy convictions as we study together and we read together. And we can move from that into Godly commitments. And my group can ask the tough questions needed to determine, am I following through with my commitments? How am I progressing with the sin in my life?

Is it, am I dealing with bondage? Am I dealing with sin? In my commitments, my group can help me and hold me accountable. Godly and confidence, it can help me understand where my confidence needs to come from. Reminding me that I need to keep in front of God.

So the more I get with my guys, the more they encourage me. Vince, remember that your confidence should not be in you. Your confidence should be in God. Let me encourage you to think that way, to move closer to God. And then ultimately, when it comes to Godly courage, they will stand in the gap with me.

They will encourage me through life's tough stuff. They'll be there for me, no matter what happens. We had a small group years ago, and there was a guy in our small group that we had to kind of dig it out of him, but he was having a very, very serious problem. And he didn't want to admit it first, and we encouraged him to come on. You know, we're there for you.

We're your brothers. And he finally admitted what it was. And you know, we walked that man through a tough thing in his life for probably an entire year. And he would probably be the first one to admit that if it weren't for that band of brothers, he probably, he may have even taken his own life. It was that serious.

That's why we need each other. We really need each other. This is what courage is all about. So I want to really, really make sure that you're getting, if you get nothing out of all of the stuff that we've been talking about, you need to get this. You need to understand Proverbs 27-17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

I know I can't do it alone. I know I need mentoring. Sometimes I need mentoring. Sometimes I need, you know, a kick in the butt. I mean, look, there's a difference between mentoring and coaching, by the way.

I heard this many years ago, and I thought it was pretty cool. Mentoring. Mentoring watch. Mentoring is putting stuff in. It's putting stuff in, and sometimes many of us, we need that.

We need people in our lives that can deposit stuff in us and to help us to grow. Coaching, on the other hand, is pulling stuff out. Coaching means it's already in there, but I need to encourage you to get out and start practicing it. Get out and start using it. Maybe get it out and start teaching it.

Maybe get out and start writing it, Dakioli, whatever. A lot of times I need coaching. I need mentoring, too, but it's all important for us to know the difference when we're dealing in groups. I don't know if you've ever heard this illustration, but the largest living organism on planet Earth, or one of the largest, is a giant redwood tree. It's called a sequoia.

They are so enormous. I mean, I don't know if you've probably seen pictures of them. They live in the Pacific Northwest, and one picture of one of these trees, actually an old picture from the 50s, is that there's a tunnel carved into the tree that a car can actually drive through. They're that big. Well, I don't know if you knew this, but if you could somehow transplant one giant redwood tree, if there were a helicopter big enough and there isn't, to be able to go uprooted and pluck it out of its natural habitat, you could take that tree and plant it any place on planet Earth.

I don't care where you try to plant it. I don't care how strong the soil system might be. If you transplanted that one single tree anywhere with the strongest soil system, the slightest wind would blow it over. Why? The reason is because underneath the surface of the ground, that giant redwood tree in its natural habitat, its very shallow root structure, root structure is very, very small, is connected with other giant redwood trees.

They literally hold each other up. And guys, gals, listen to me. The winds of the world are blowing more fiercely today than they ever have in all of our history. You try to go it alone and you will be blown over. You need to get connected.

And finally, godly courage and godly confidence means I maintain confidence in all situations. I have a positive can-do attitude. I resist fear. I understand this there, but I resist fear. My focus is on the goal.

My focus is on the vision God has for me. My focus is not on the obstacles that are in my way. If your focus are on the obstacles, you're giving in to fear. If your focus is on the goals God's calling you toward, that's called faith. You need to have faith, not fear.

Am I submitted to my accountability and willing to learn is another thing that you really have to ask yourself. So on a scale of 1 to 10, how are you doing? Some discussion questions around this topic. Is my level of confidence driven by my own sense of sufficiency? Or have I come to terms that it is God who goes ahead of me?

True peace comes when I recognize how little I bring to the table. And that's where courage comes in because I can go forward knowing that God has my back. I have that confidence and I can go boldly forward in courage, not in fear, recognizing that. Do I submit to accountable relationships and understand I can't go it alone? That's the big one.

That's the big takeaway from this session, guys. Are you willing to do that? I'm going to tell you something. If you're not willing to do this, it's going to be very, very difficult. You can go into a cocoon, go into a little hole, study the Bible, and I recommend you do that and get as much out of it as you can.

But in real life, if you're not processing that truth in a relational environment, it's going to be difficult. And am I willing to not compromise my principles, listen, even in the face of great consequences? And that's a real big test, everyone. Am I willing to not compromise knowing that something very serious could happen to me? Because at the end of the day, let me tell you something.

God rewards people who have godly compassion, conviction, commitment, confidence, and courage. So I hope these teachings have blessed you guys. I'm going to be thinking and praying about what to talk next regarding the next several weeks that we're doing this on Friday morning at 10 o'clock. We'll be back doing this live again. And I look forward to talking to you then.

But before we go, let me pray for you and wish you the very, very best today. Thank you, Lord, for all of those who are watching right now and taking in this message. And for those who will watch later that are in the sound of my voice, I pray for each and every one. Lord, I pray these messages are going out to literally tens of thousands of people. And I know in the sound of my voice right now, there will be some that really don't know you very well or at all.

I pray, Lord, that maybe today would be the day that they would give their heart to you. They would simply, from a little boy or a little girl's heart, just utter the words, Lord, I don't know who you are really, but I am tired of going at this alone. I want to invite you into my life. I want you to be my Lord and my Savior. I want to begin my journey with you today, Lord, because my way is not working.

And I believe that you are real. And I'm asking you, Lord, to come into my life right now and help me. And if that's your prayer, just a simple little prayer, a heartfelt prayer. I just pray that get yourself a Bible, get involved with people that will help you to grow and learn. Get involved in a good local church and move on with Jesus.

Your life will never, never be the same. And for everyone else, Lord, I pray that you would help them make the right choices in the days ahead. That as they process being a man or woman of godly compassion, conviction, commitment, confidence and courage. Lord, wherever they may have scored low on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 in all those areas, help them, Lord, with a plan to move that needle ahead and to get, and to get, and to move on in their relationship with you. I pray that you would visit each and every one with a fresh sense of your presence and purpose in their life.

And Lord, we look forward with great anticipation and excitement of what you're going to do as we continue to grow in you. And we love you, Lord, and we pray all of this in the precious name of your son, Jesus, and all God's kids said, amen. Love you all, and we'll see you on Friday.