Courage is in short supply these days. Here’s my definition of courage, “Doing the right thing in the face of opposition.” Why do I think that courage is in short supply? I see a lot of people just going along with the flow and doing the wrong thing. It takes courage to go against the flow and do the right things in life. The opposite of courage is simply going with the flow, doing what everybody around you is doing. The opposite of courage is cowardice, being so afraid of what other people think that you simply take a poll and follow the majority.
Today I am going to talk about the topic “Become A Man Of Courage.” Of course, this also applies to women, but today I’m going to focus on the men. Next Sunday, I’ll have a message for the women. NIV 1 Corinthians 16:13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Men, God is commanding you to be a man of courage, to be strong. God isn’t interested in any wimps following Him, in fact, the Bible tells us that there will be no cowardly people in heaven (Revelation 21:8 if you want to look it up).
There is a relationship between being courageous and strong. The phrase “Be strong and courageous” occurs ten times in the Bible. Men of courage don’t just sit around watching television, men of courage are following their commander, Jesus Christ. Men of courage are making things happen for the Kingdom of God. So, how can you become a man of courage?
Today, I am beginning a new series of messages called “Lessons From The Nativity Story.” In this series, we are going to look at how God used some ordinary people to transform the history of the world. Today, we’re going to focus on the person of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the earthly father of Jesus Christ. God chose a strong and courageous man to be the earthly father of His Son and I believe we can learn a lot from Joseph that will help each of us become men of courage.
From studying the history of the time we learn that Mary was probably in her teens when she was betrothed to Joseph. Joseph on the other hand was probably well established in his trade and in his thirties or older. The betrothal usually occurred a year before the finalization of the marriage and of course there was to be no intimacy before that time was over. Our story begins in NIV Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph had found a nice girl to marry, the families were agreeable and they were engaged, but before the marriage happened, Mary was found to be pregnant. Now the Bible tells us that this was through the Holy Spirit and an angel had told Mary, but Joseph didn’t know what was going on. Talk about some adversity, his fiancee was pregnant and Joseph knew that he didn’t have anything to do with it. How should he respond? How would you respond?
To hear more about this topic, listen to my December 3, 2006 message entitled Become A Man Of Courage