Courageous – Paul – Clint Ware
June 24, 2012 by theblog
Filed under Audio, The Connection
A man of courage
Philippians 3:2-11
Big Idea: Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
What is Courage?
Courage is grace under pressure.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
One man with courage is a majority.
courage - mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
www.merriam-webster.com
Who inspires you to be courageous?
Paul – a man of courage
since I became a Christian I have…
received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one five times,
beaten with rods three times
stoned once
shipwrecked once
spent a night and a day in the open sea
danger from rivers and bandits
danger from my own countrymen and from Gentiles
danger in the city and the country
danger at sea and from false brothers
And yet he continued to tell others about Jesus!
courage - mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
www.merriam-webster.com
WHY?
Where did this courage come from?
II Corinthians 5:11-15
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men…
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
συνέχω: sunechó (soon-ekh’-o) -compels, controls, grips, holds…in custody, afflicts
Philippians 3:2-9
2 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
From where did Paul’s courage come?
Knowing
Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
Knowing that everything he had ever hoped in was rubbish
Courage to do what is right comes from knowing Christ
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