Creekside Church, Sunday, July 11, 2021
You Can Be Courageous
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:45 AM
Sermon Notes for Sunday, July 11, 2021
HOW TO START A REVOLUTION
You Can Be Courageous
ACTS 20:7-21:26
DO YOU WISH YOU WERE MORE COURAGEOUS?
SIX DIFFERENT KINDS OF COURAGE.
1. PHYSICAL COURAGE: This is bravery at the risk of physical discomfort, injury, pain or even death. It’s a firefighter running into a burning building, a woman climbing the face of a mountain or a parent swimming frantically out to rescue their child caught in the undertow at the lake. Sometimes there are things more important than physical pain.
2. SOCIAL COURAGE: This courage involves not conforming to the expectations of others. It’s about being willing to show your true self even if it means risking social disapproval or punishment. It’s the push back against peer pressure to conform when you really don’t want to.
3. INTELLECTUAL COURAGE: This is the courage to be open about the possibility and to engage in thinking about previously held ideas or teachings from your family or your culture. It is the person who was raised with a certain belief system who honestly wrestles with that teaching to see if it is indeed true and accurate.
4. MORAL COURAGE: This is about doing the morally right thing even at the risk of inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or security or social status. It is the courage to stand up for what is morally right in spite of the opposition and in standing up to be willing to pay the cost for doing so.
5. EMOTIONAL COURAGE: This is the courage to feel what you are going through. Some of us shut off, curtail, box up our feelings rather than having the courage to experience them. We may think to do so is to be weak or we fear where our emotions might take us. Emotional courage allows one to feel sadness when hurt or to feel full joy when delighted. It isn’t about being out of control emotionally. It is about feeling the fullness of what you are going through.
6. SPIRITUAL COURAGE: Spiritual courage is about facing our mortality and our vulnerability. It means asking the deepest of life questions such as who am I, why we are here, what is my life for, is there a God and so on and then courageously living out your faith.
Acts 20:13-21:14
Paul has been warned repeatedly not to go to Jerusalem.
I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
Acts 20:22b-23
Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:4b
. . . a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’
Acts 21:10b-11
When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
Acts 20:12
13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
Acts 21:13-14
THREE ACTIONS FOR BECOMING MORE COURAGEOUS
1. GROW MY LOVE
Perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18
Many times my lack of courage is the result of a lack of love for others.
Love has the power to lessen personal fear.
2. PRACTICE GOD’S PRESENCE
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6
“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
Acts 20:22-23
When it comes to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives we need to believe it and behave it. Believe it and behave it.
3. DEVELOP DEEP CONVICTIONS
Everyone has opinions and preferences, but a person with conviction does not form his ideas based on selfish desires or for selfish gain. Convictions are part of a person’s identity.
WHERE DO YOU NEED TO BE COURAGEOUS?
HOW TO START A REVOLUTION
You Can Be Courageous
ACTS 20:7-21:26
DO YOU WISH YOU WERE MORE COURAGEOUS?
SIX DIFFERENT KINDS OF COURAGE.
1. PHYSICAL COURAGE: This is bravery at the risk of physical discomfort, injury, pain or even death. It’s a firefighter running into a burning building, a woman climbing the face of a mountain or a parent swimming frantically out to rescue their child caught in the undertow at the lake. Sometimes there are things more important than physical pain.
2. SOCIAL COURAGE: This courage involves not conforming to the expectations of others. It’s about being willing to show your true self even if it means risking social disapproval or punishment. It’s the push back against peer pressure to conform when you really don’t want to.
3. INTELLECTUAL COURAGE: This is the courage to be open about the possibility and to engage in thinking about previously held ideas or teachings from your family or your culture. It is the person who was raised with a certain belief system who honestly wrestles with that teaching to see if it is indeed true and accurate.
4. MORAL COURAGE: This is about doing the morally right thing even at the risk of inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or security or social status. It is the courage to stand up for what is morally right in spite of the opposition and in standing up to be willing to pay the cost for doing so.
5. EMOTIONAL COURAGE: This is the courage to feel what you are going through. Some of us shut off, curtail, box up our feelings rather than having the courage to experience them. We may think to do so is to be weak or we fear where our emotions might take us. Emotional courage allows one to feel sadness when hurt or to feel full joy when delighted. It isn’t about being out of control emotionally. It is about feeling the fullness of what you are going through.
6. SPIRITUAL COURAGE: Spiritual courage is about facing our mortality and our vulnerability. It means asking the deepest of life questions such as who am I, why we are here, what is my life for, is there a God and so on and then courageously living out your faith.
Acts 20:13-21:14
Paul has been warned repeatedly not to go to Jerusalem.
I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
Acts 20:22b-23
Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:4b
. . . a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’
Acts 21:10b-11
When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
Acts 20:12
13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
Acts 21:13-14
THREE ACTIONS FOR BECOMING MORE COURAGEOUS
1. GROW MY LOVE
Perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18
Many times my lack of courage is the result of a lack of love for others.
Love has the power to lessen personal fear.
2. PRACTICE GOD’S PRESENCE
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6
“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
Acts 20:22-23
When it comes to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives we need to believe it and behave it. Believe it and behave it.
3. DEVELOP DEEP CONVICTIONS
Everyone has opinions and preferences, but a person with conviction does not form his ideas based on selfish desires or for selfish gain. Convictions are part of a person’s identity.
WHERE DO YOU NEED TO BE COURAGEOUS?