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Have you ever thought about the fact that courage is a choice? Well, I'm Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel, and today I want to talk about that very thing. Courage is a choice. And in order to demonstrate that, I want to show a contrast in the book of Isaiah between two peoples, one who didn't do what God wanted them to do and the other who actually did. But in both situations, it was essentially the same instruction. He needed somebody to pass along for him, only Isaiah was willing to do that. And so let's look at those two passages. that contrast each other so well when we talk about courage. In Isaiah chapter 50 in verse 2, the Lord says this, When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? Well, here he's asking a people, a people who have sinned and then a people who have been punished and are about to receive further punishment. When I called, why wasn't there anyone there? Why was there no one to issue the warning that God wanted him to issue, except for one man? And that was Isaiah. And we read about that in Isaiah chapter 6. In Isaiah chapter 6, starting in verse 8, we have this, we have this passage. I heard a voice saying, the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, send me. Well, this was Pretty bold of Isaiah, and he's gonna find out the type of commitment He had just made when he said here am I send me Because the message that Isaiah was going to be given That he was going to have to pass along to the people was not going to be something that was going to make him popular And so this is what God said after Isaiah said here am I send me God said this go and tell The people be ever hearing, but never understanding, be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand what their hearts and turn and be healed. Now this is a little strange, isn't it? Doesn't God want Isaiah to bring a message to people, a message of warning. so that they'll repent. And yet here he is giving a message to Isaiah that he said is going to result in the people's eyes and ears essentially being calloused, their heart being calloused. They're not going to accept it. But the point of all this is that God is giving them a chance. And so that when the punishment comes, the people are going to be. without excuse. And even though God knows in advance that not many people are going to heed the warning, Isaiah still has the responsibility of giving the warning. God goes on to say this after, after God said this initial part, Isaiah said, how long? Oh Lord, any answered until the city's lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields's ruined and ravaged until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. Well, think about that. I say has gotta preach this unpopular message until the Israelites are carried off into captivity. And again, I want to say this is not a message that's going to make him popular. And as we read of Isaiah's life and the things that happened after he brings this message and the series of messages that God wants him to bring, we find that Isaiah suffered tremendously for this. And so we realize that it took great courage for Isaiah not only to accept the call, to accept the challenge, but then to fulfill his word in taking up that challenge. The part we read in Isaiah chapter 50 when God said, When I called, why was there no one? We see that most people won't even issue a warning. And so here we have the contrast between courage and cowardice. And we learn from this, among other places within scripture, that courage is a choice. And you and I are going to have to make the choice of courage. We're cowardice numerous times in our life, which will we choose? And one of the things I want to really encourage you today is to start thinking about that because the times we live in are a little bit difficult, aren't they? There are some things that are, are going to be hard for people to go through. And while we might be able to perceive that some of these things are going to happen, not because we have some sort of message from God, from outside of the scriptures. But because he's given us a mind and we can see some of the things that are going to become problems in the future you're going to have to decide whether or not you have the courage to, to heed, or to give those warnings to, to people. Because most of the people that you give the warnings to are not going to heed it. And most of the people that you give warnings to are going to be mad at you for giving the warning. And so giving a warning is going to take courage. Well, what kind of things are we talking about? Well, look at the sin that we have in our society today. Sexual sin is is just exploded. It's become so perverse and so vile that, that people are sinning in ways that, that, that you wouldn't have even thought would have been possible a few years ago, but now they're making up sexual sins. Some of the perversion is now leaking down to our children. It's even being taught in some of our schools. I live in a small community, and we're very fortunate here. We have teachers and administrators who take a stand to make sure that such perversion is not brought into the school, but this is not the case in most schools. Will you have the courage to take a stand and say, not in my school, not with my children? You look at the, at the sin of abortion that has, has become such a problem in America. And so prevalent in America that we don't even hardly think about it anymore. Since Roe vs. Wade was was decided back in 1973, over 50 million babies have died. They hardly even keep count of how many abortions are done anymore because now people can buy poisons for their children, terminate pregnancies in the privacy of their own home. We, we are casual. with death when it comes to abortion. Do you have the courage to say this is wrong? I preached for about 30 years. And one of the things that always amazed me, especially when I would go to other congregations and preach, and, and sometimes I would talk about this very sin, I would have people come up to me and they would say, we never hear that. We never hear people talking about this type of a sin. Why not? I think part of the reason is because it takes courage. Because it's a message that's not always popular. And I think sometimes people are afraid that they'll be perceived as being hateful if they talk about certain sins. Whether we're talking about sin of a sexual nature, we're talking about the sin of abortion, or so many other types of sin. And we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but consider this. Do you want to aid and abet someone on the way to hell? Do you want to make their path to hell easier because you never bring up the fact that sin is sin? Do you support them in their sin and call that support love? You see, it takes courage sometimes just to take a stand. And a lot of times people will, will venture their opinion on the other side very freely, but we're afraid to say anything. You're going to have to choose in advance whether or not you're going to have the courage to take stands. Because there are certain things that God's Word has spoken on, and we have to take stand for that. It's not just some of the things that might happen in the society. We live in today. Although I think we need to be alert to some of the things that are going on right now, and we need to start thinking about them, even, and even talking and heat giving warnings, even if people think that we're some kind of a nut for doing so, but it's the sins that are so clearly defined within scripture that concern me the most when it comes to our silence. People just don't want to say anything. Either they don't want to hurt people's feelings, or they don't want to take the the criticism for issuing the warning. Courage is a choice, but so too is cowardice. What's that old saying? A courageous man or a brave man dies but once, but a coward dies a thousand deaths. Isn't that true? When I was a kid we moved around a lot. I lived in Denver and then Seattle and then Houston and Denver and then Casper, Wyoming in a very short period of time. We moved for I guess about the fifth time at least from city to city when I was, when I was 15 years old. And sometimes within those cities, we moved several times within, within those cities, or at least a time within those cities, and it was always the same thing. When you're a kid growing up, you, you kind of got to establish the pecking order when you get to the, to the new school, and when you get to the new bus stop, and when you get to the new playground. And, and for a long time, it just terrified me. to go to a new place because I knew there was always going to be somebody that was going to test you, somebody that was going to attempt to bully you, and for a number of years I allowed people to bully me, and, and I can tell you there's nothing worse than having somebody bully you in such a way and you don't even take a stand. Once I finally determined that this is going to stop, that I, that not, not because I'm going to try and gain revenge, or I'm going to try and hurt somebody, but just because nobody has the right to bully another person, things changed for me. I can remember in my younger years, some guy kicking me in the seat of the pants at a bus stop, and me just kind of timidly walking away. I remember another situation when I was out just minding my own business. I was gathering aluminum cans to take them in and, and return them for money. And some guy pulled up in a car, several guys pulled up in a car, several guys that were a lot bigger than me pulled up in a car. And one of them asked me if I lived around there and I turned to show him where I lived and he hit me. so hard that my nose just crumbled. And as the as the wound went through the, through the days after that, as the blood dissipated, I ended up with two huge black eyes and a swollen nose. I determined at that point that wasn't going to happen again. And again, not because I was not willing to turn the other cheek, but because there are some things that we, we just have to have the courage to take a stand on. And once I made that determination, people understood that I wasn't going to be bullied anymore. And it changed a lot of my life after that. And again, I want to say, I tried never to be aggressive. I tried never to, to, to pursue people and try and pick a fight. But after that point where I had taken enough beatings, I finally mustered enough courage just to take a stand. And once I started getting into the habit of taking stands, it became easier and easier, so much so where I got to the point where I wouldn't have dreamed of doing anything else. We have to have courage, but I want to say again, courage is a choice. and especially a choice when it comes to innocent people. We see a lot of lies being told even in God's name in our modern times. Lies that are harming our children. Lies that are harming the innocent. Lies about sin not being sin. Do you think that just maybe God is effectively looking at us in our lives when we have such situations? And is asking the, effectively asking the question, whom shall I send and who will go? And how many times do we just duck our head? and walk away in shame. If we do, we might hear someday from God. When I called, why was there no one? We do need to be cautious. We do need to learn to overlook an offense when it's something that's, that's personal. But we also need to learn to take stands. We need to learn to have enough love for our fellow man that when we see them engaged in dangerous behavior that we issue a warning. They might not heed it, but they might. I'll say this, most people will not heed a warning, but some people will. And so you might have an opportunity, you might play a part in bringing the truth of God's Word to somebody, to where they can come into contact with God's grace, and it saves their soul. But a sin that that you don't know is the sins awfully hard to repent of, isn't it? And we've come to the point in our modern day times in our modern day religion, where it seems like the only sin is to say that there is a sin. We've gotta stop doing that, and it's gonna take courage sometimes even at the place. that you worship at, you're going to have to go to your leaders and you're going to have to encourage them to take a stand, or you're going to have to leave and go somewhere that stands for the truth. That'll take courage, especially if you have family. that are, that are part of that congregation. But you need to make absolutely certain that you're willing to take God's stands for him. I, one of the things I really admire about about some people is their ability to do just that. There are some people who just seem to know what to say and how to say it. They seem to know the difference between a necessary stand and a time when it's not necessary to stand. They don't, they don't seem to go out of their way to try and cause conflict or, or controversy, but neither will they shy away from, from those very things if, if it's needed. And the reason that they don't is because they have enough love for, for other people to, to be able to warn them about certain things that, that will happen. They have enough courage to warn them about sin. In Isaiah's time, the people had become so vile that they were actually sacrificing their babies. In the fire and so part of Isaiah's message as well as part of the other prophets message during this time Was to warn the Israelites there will come a time when you are so surrounded by enemies And you're under siege and you are so hungry that there will be some people that even turn, even resort to cannibalism and will eat their babies. Well, that's kind of offensive, is it not? And yet that's exactly what happened. And we might think that's, that's so far fetched that something like that could happen, but people that would burn their children in a fire today are not that far from eating other children tomorrow. People who will sacrifice their integrity for peace today are not that far from really big problems tomorrow, and therefore, really big punishments from God tomorrow. We need the courage to take a stand. I've been announcing football games for, for over a quarter of a century now. And one of the things that we do every time whenever I announce the ball game is right after the national anthem, I'll just have a word of prayer and not, we don't make a big deal of it. We always just say, if anybody would, would like to participate, we're going to have a prayer now since I'm not affiliated with the school in any way, since I'm not a paid employee, I can do that. But there are some who think that it's wrong. Kind of has made some of our administrators a little bit nervous through the years. They think maybe we're pushing our luck a little bit. I even had one superintendent from another school after we had said, said the prayer. He said, how do you get away with that? It's if we were robbing a bank or something. And he said, I know I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong. I just want to know how you're able to do that. And I just looked at him and said. The Constitution? We still have a freedom of speech. There is never anything within our Constitution or any sorts of amendments that have been passed since the Constitution has been written that forbid prayer being said in public, but there's a lot of people who think you can't do that. And sometimes you just need to have the courage to do it, and people will appreciate that. And, and while a prayer at a ball game may not be the biggest thing in the world, it is kind of nice, it is kind of comforting to begin a ball game asking God to watch over the kids that are about to play. And to watch over the crowd that they might have a good attitude. There's a lot of such things in our lives where we can bring a Christian influence. into the situation. But so often we're just afraid of being shouted down. We're afraid of being criticized. That, that we just don't do it. Let me ask you this question. When God asks you the question, who will go? Whom shall I send? Are you going to answer, here am I, send me? Or are you just going to timidly stand in the background? and not say anything. Now God is not going to speak to you directly. You're not going to hear voices in your head. I'm not talking about that. But within scripture, we're given certain responsibilities. And part of that responsibility is to look after those who are in peril. That's going to mean from time to time having the courage to tell people, this is wrong according to God's word. This is what you and I need to be doing according to God's word. If we'll have the courage to do that, if we will choose to take those stands, and if we'll choose in advance, I think we're going to see a difference in this world. You're certainly going to see a difference in your life. You're certainly going to have a different confidence and you're also going to, to, to have an absence of guilt because instead of failing to take necessary stands, you're going to be willing to do that. And I cannot tell you from experience how valuable that is to not be overloaded with guilt simply because we were too cowardly to say a word. Courage is a choice. What choice will you make? Well, that's the lesson for today. I hope it gives you something to think about. If you liked it, please hit that like button. It'll help it get out to more people or share it. Subscribe to the channel if you would. I think we've got 99 subscribers. It's a fairly new channel and so we're that close to a hundred and and so I appreciate those of you who do subscribe and and certainly appreciate those of you who comment and and who like it because again it really does help to get the message out to more people and if you believe this is a message please that does need to get out to more people, then please help out the channel by doing those things. But, until next time, I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to serve Him, and as you choose to have the courage that's needed to take the stands that God expects you to take. God bless you.