Grace Fellowship    5/17/09    “To Inspire With Courage”        Colossians 2:1-5

Let’s begin today with a look at national news.  

On second thought, let’s not.

I have a better idea: Let’s look together into God’s word.  Turn with me to Colossians 2 and read with me verses 1 through 5.

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.  

We talked last week about the struggle of Paul, the Greek word being the root of our English word “agony.”  The Christian life is not supposed to be an easy, trouble-free, spiritual walk in the park.  It is a wrestling against spiritual enemies, a fighting to stand fast in our faith.  The Christian life is a life of perseverance, and self-discipline, and growing into spiritual maturity.  And it is often a struggle to be encouraged in a very discouraging world.

Some encouragement has come our way lately from a very unlikely source: the Miss USA Pageant.  The shock effect over Miss California’s opinion about same-sex marriage has been rather nice.  I listened to her interview on Focus on the Family, and I want you to understand that I’m not even sure Carrie Prejean is a genuine Christian.  I have serious doubts about that based upon the little bit that I know about her, specifically her obvious willingness to participate in what is referred to as the “swim suit competition.”  

Be that as it may, it is still encouraging to see someone take a very unpopular stand for what is right.  Her response to the final question in the pageant cost her the crown, but I have trouble remembering the name of the winner.  That is encouraging.  But that encouragement for the rest of us has come at a high price for Carrie Prejean.  

In the text we just read, Paul talks about his struggle, his agony, if you will, for the Colossians, for the believers in Laodicea, and for all believers presumably out among the Gentiles, who had never seen him in person.  He says here that he struggles for the encouragement of their hearts.

Discouragement can be deadly.  It was a very discouraged man who murdered four fellow soldiers in Iraq this week.  His actions in the midst of his discouragement has negatively affected an entire nation and cause the morale of the Army to suffer.  

Because of bad management practices, General Motors plans to close thousands of dealerships nationwide which will produce more unemployment for our nation.  How many families will face financial disaster because of that?  Who knows what tragedies might result?  And there are lots and lots of things in the news which we could mention that are greatly discouraging.  These things breed hopelessness, despair, sadness, and depression.

Paul says he struggles for the encouragement of the hearts of his fellow believers.  Encouragement affects the heart.  In fact, the English word “courage” comes from the Latin “cor” which means “heart”. 1  Courage is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.”  Courage is the condition of a healthy heart and it is Paul’s great desire as he struggles to see that his fellow Christians are encouraged.

I want to look at a couple of other passages with you in regard to a man who apparently needed much encouragement.  Turn way back in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 1.  It is the end of the wilderness wanderings.  Because he is anticipating his own death, Moses recounts the last forty years of Israel’s history:

3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, 4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’ (Skip to verse 19)

 

19 “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

Now at the risk of sounding like Robert Shuler or Joel Osteen, what Moses said to the people at Kadesh-Barnea was some very positive thinking!  But the positive thinking was based upon a very positive promise from God: “I will give you this land!”  Moses was encouraging the people to obey the Lord: “Here we are!  The land is ours for the taking!  God will fight for us!  This is a done deal!  Let’s go!”  But there was a discouraging word heard among the people:

26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’

Now be careful when you read this.  This is not an example of the power of negative thinking.  This murmuring in Israel should not be explained away with some kind of psycho-babble.  This is an example of faithlessness.  It is calling God a liar.  This is an example of rebellion against the commandment of God.  But look at the effect of their murmuring in their tents: Our brothers have made our hearts melt.  That is the definition of discouragement: It melts the heart.  Discouragement causes heart-failure.  But here comes some encouragement in v. 29:

29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Moses does his best to turn the hearts of the people toward God and His promises and His recent faithfulness to them.  He says, “Remember!“ He encourages them to believe what God has said and done for them.  However, Moses continues recounting what happened 40 years earlier . . .

32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, 33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

34 “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ 37 Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

Then the people suddenly had a change of heart since they were about to head back out into the terrifying wilderness, so they said, “No, no, no, no, no!  We WILL go!  We’ll go and fight!  Really, we will!”  And so, against the Lord’s command to stay put, they went up against the Amorites and the Amorites chased them like bees and beat the snot out of them.  (It’s in the Hebrew.  Trust me.  ☺ )

Notice how bad news affects the people.  Their hearts melted.  They were dis-couraged.  Their courage was taken away from them.  Then, after God rebukes them for their rebellious attitude, notice how their ill-advised, baseless, “positive thinking” affects them: they get smashed by the opposing team.   Encouragement is more than “Rah, rah, rah!  You can do it!  Go get ‘em, Tiger!”  True encouragement, in order for it to actually inspire others with real courage to do what they ought, must be based in truth!  Anything else is manipulation and deception.  That being said, God commands Moses to encourage Joshua: 

38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter [the Promised Land]. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

That is real encouragement because it is based upon the truth of the promise of God and the faithfulness of God!  What Moses says to Joshua, as we shall see, is wishful thinking.  Moses is not a biblical model of a motivational speaker.  He is a prophet.  God tells Moses to encourage Joshua because God is going to cause Joshua to cause Israel to inherit the Promised Land.  That is genuine, real encouragement.  Turn now to chapter 3.

Deuteronomy 3:27-29.  Here, God is speaking to Moses regarding the days ahead:

27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him,

WHY??

. . . for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.'

This is the second time God has instructed Moses to encourage Joshua.  God tells Moses to do so back in chapter 1, then again here in chapter 3.  Now turn to chapter 31.

1 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. 4 And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Here Moses speaks to the entire nation and charges them with the responsibility to trust God to go with them against their enemies.  Joshua will lead you, the Lord your God goes with you, so be strong and courageous!  Do not fear or dread them.

7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

By now they may be thinking, “OK!  We get it!  We’re encouraged already!  We heard you the first time.“  Why do Joshua and the people of Israel need all this affirmation and encouragement?  Because of the past 40 years of their history!  And because their enemy is real.  If the enemy isn’t a real threat, then there is no cause for discouragement.

The people of Israel know what they are like.  They know the tendencies of their own hearts.  They understand their own lack of resolve, their own weakness of spirit.  They also understand the danger of looking at their circumstances rather than trusting in God and His promises.  They have learned by mistake their own proneness to wander from God.  Thus the need to be constantly, repeatedly, publicly encouraged.  Moses has spent 31 chapters encouraging them to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.  Now the great encourager of Israel is about to die.  So he says to them all, “Press on!”  But notice v. 23:

And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”  

God Himself encourages Joshua!  No greater words of encouragement could ever be spoken to anyone than these five words from God to Joshua: “I will be with you.“  God Himself promises Joshua that He will be with him.  Now turn to the book of Joshua, chapter 1.

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and 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. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

What reason does Joshua have to be encouraged?  Well, for starters, God said He would be with him.  Joshua could not be in a better position than where he is: doing exactly what God has ordained that he do, which is to lead Israel into the land of Canaan.  Based upon the sure promise, and the perpetual presence of an omnipotent God, Joshua has every reason to be encouraged and to perform the daunting task God has placed before him.

But, you say, “I need some encouragement.  Moses isn’t here and our pastor has a reputation for being morbid and oppressive.  We’re doomed.  I’m depressed.”  Well, I can’t do anything about Moses, and I’m working on being less oppressive.  But in the meantime, until I get better at being encouraging, look at 1 Samuel 30.  We are going to break right in to the middle of a story here about David.  But I want you to take notice of one brief statement:

1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire 2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. 3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

The King James Version says here that “David encouraged himself in the Lord.”  David had no external source of encouragement.  His own men wanted to kill him.  But in Psalm 42:5, we see David’s method of self-encouragement when he says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.”

When external encouragement is in short supply, and discouragement is way up there on the Richter Scale, HOPE IN GOD!  The believer in the Lord Jesus always has an endless supply of genuine hope and true encouragement IN GOD HIMSELF!  If Moses nor I can do it for you, if your parents are less than encouraging, if your spouse is actually the CAUSE of your discouragement, or even if you are a discouragement to YOURSELF! . . .

. . . Remember that we always have the sure promises of God.  We can always turn to the absolutely reliable word of God, and in that book we find
- that we have a faithful High Priest who intercedes for us to God FOREVER!
- that we have the perpetual presence of the Holy Spirit within us,
- that we have a Savior who has granted us His own perfect righteousness and our Heavenly Father sees us as though we lived the sinless life of Jesus!
- that we have eternal life,
- that we have everything we need for life and godliness here and now,
- that the Lord Jesus is still preparing a place for us in Heaven so we can be with Him forever in glory,
- that we are among those whom God foreknew, and predestined to be like the Lord Jesus, that He called us to Himself, and justified us through the work of His Son upon the cross.  And He even speaks as though the work is already complete and we are already glorified in His presence!
- that we will be given new bodies that cannot die, that cannot be defiled with any kind of sickness or disease or sadness or discouragement ever again, for eternity.
- that we are part of God’s own family that will never die.
- that God has promised every one of His children that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us!

It is by thinking on these things that we are encouraged in heart.  That is why Paul tells us,

4 Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

That is how we encourage ourselves and strengthen our own hearts in the Lord.  That is how Paul sought to encourage the hearts of the Colossians, by telling them to look to Christ!  There is no greater source of strength for the heart than meditation upon the truth of the work of the Lord Jesus on our behalf.  

Let me read some encouraging words from John Newton.  This is entitled “The Christian Soldier.”

“The Lord has chosen, called, and armed us for the fight; and shall we wish to be excused?  Shall we not rather rejoice that we have the honor to appear in such a cause, under such a Captain, such a banner, and in such company?  A complete suit of armor is provided, weapons not to be resisted, and precious balm to heal us if haply we receive a wound, and precious ointment to revive us when we are in danger of fainting.  Further, we are assured of the victory beforehand; and O what a crown is prepared for every conqueror, which Jesus, the righteous Judge, the gracious Savior, shall place upon every faithful head with His own hand!  Then let us not be weary and faint, for in due season we shall reap.  The time is short, yet a little while, and the struggle of indwelling sin, and the contradiction of surrounding sinners, shall be known no more.”

“May the prospect of this blessed hope set before us revive our fainting spirits, and make us willing to endure hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.  Here we must often sow in tears, but there we shall reap in joy, and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes forever.” ²

Encourage the hearts of others.  Encourage your own hearts.  Be encouraged in your Lord Jesus Christ.
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1. "courage." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 16 May. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary1.classic.reference.com/browse/courage>.
2. From The Christian’s Present for All Seasons: Devotional Thoughts of Eminent Divines from Joseph Hall to William Jay, Solid Ground Christian Books, 2008, pp. 458-9.  ISBN 978-1-59925-187-5