Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
March 1, 2015 - W1509

This is day 6^th in our 40 days of promise.  Would you stand with me in allegiance to the Word of God as we read the scripture for day 6?  “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 

Many of our servants diligently labor for the Lord, and they do not do it for an applause, or for accolades.  I would like you to know that even though people may not be beating a cymbal for your service, know that it is not done in vain for the Lord. 

Let’s pray that God will give us the courage to stand steadfast, and to trust and handle the things He brings our way.  Pray that God will give us the courage in this building campaign to give, and in the midst of this to forgive. Pray that we will be willing to take risks for the Kingdom of God.  Pray that we will use our gifts wherever He want us to.  Pray that when we sometimes fail in attempting great things for Christ, that we will not let those failures, those mistakes, or hurdles disqualify us, and that we will refuse to drop out.  Pray that we will run in such a way that we will win.

Today we are going to talk about a greater courage.  Courage is not just for super heroes like Spider Man, the Avengers, or Chansum – that kind of courage is a rarity.  We call it heroism.  This is because people who have displayed this type of courage have raced into burning buildings to put out fires at the peril of their own lives, or have intervened when someone was being robbed.

In everyday life, there is a greater courage that God has for every one of us.  A greater courage to do what is right, when the wrong thing seems much easier to do.  A greater courage to admit your wrong doing.  A greater courage to seek the truth about something you just heard.  It takes a greater courage to face your own weaknesses instead of ignoring them.  It takes a greater courage to stay with a commitment you made to God – for better or for worse.

Today, I want to tell you two stories.  One is about a king, and the other story is about a leper.  Both of them were heroes, and faced a greater courage – to face life– to face themselves – and to face their own frailty.  It takes a greater courage to do that.

Dying to yourself requires a humility that we are not use to.  Mother Teresa once said that it is   impossible to learn how to humble yourself, unless you are willing to be humiliated.

The first story is about King David who was a hero.  Monuments were built to him, and songs, such as “Saul killed his thousands, and David killed his ten-thousand enemies” were sung about him.   One night David was on the deck of his palace when he saw a neighbor lady taking a bath on her roof top. So he called his servant to fetch this woman, and an affair ensued.  Everything seemed fine, until she became pregnant with his child.  David tried to cover this up by bringing back her husband for a week to be with her.  However David’s plan was foiled, when Bathsheba’s her husband did not go home to be with her. Instead, he slept on the house porch out of respect for his men who were still in battle.  Therefore, David used plan B, and sent Uriah out in the heat of battle to die.   David covered up his affair by doing this.  Everything seemed fine again, until Nathan the prophet presented the truth to David of his sin.  Truth forces you to take responsibility for your life, for your perspective, and for your choice.  David was not called the man of perfection.  He was called the man after God’s heart.  This meant, when God spoke to him, his heart was supple, easily correctible.  It did not mean that he was not sinning.  When the truth confronted David, he understood that his heart needed to be corrected, and he repented.

In talking about David’s sin, the Bible says, “I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.  Against you only have I sinned and done what was evil in your sight.”  Psalms 51:4

One of our problems is that we are not easily correctible people.

God looks for people to use, whose hearts are correctible from sin.  This is called repentance, and this is what He relishes.  He does not keep track of the number of times you have gone astray – He keeps track of how many times you have come home.

I love it when we come home to church and God says, “Welcome home.”  This is why I had a sign put up in the back of the church.  Upon entering the church from this area, the first thing that people see is the words saying, “Welcome Home”.

The American Indians used to say that there is a triangle in every heart.  God embedded a triangle with very sharp edges in your heart.  Every time we sin, the triangle turns, cutting the edges of our hearts.  The pain is so excruciating, that we stop to change, allowing our hearts to heal.  God designed our hearts to do this.

Some people want to sin, because it gives them power, a control over God, and over people.  They keep on sinning, and endure this pain.  They blame others for their pain as their triangle turns many, many times.  One day, their triangle freely spins and they do not even notice it.  This is because their heart has, according to the Bible, become a hardened heart.  Their heart has become non-correctible.   David was not like that.  He stopped and realized the truth when it was presented to him.   This required a greater courage. 

The greater courage is putting faith into action.  Someone once said to me that it is always easier to preach the cross than to carry it. Well, years ago, my wife Anna and I were having a major problem.  This caused a chasm between us in our own home.  Well, one day my brother came to visit, and I talked to him about my dilemma.  He then shared that when this happens to him and his wife, he takes hold of her hand and they go down on their knees and pray against the enemy.  He went on to say, this is because the enemy is causing the problems, and not another human being or your wife.

That night after going to bed, the Lord spoke to me and urged me for 45 minutes to take hold of Anna’s hand and go to battle in prayer. I finally obeyed Him and we prayed up a storm.  All of a sudden, the fire alarm went off.  After I disarmed it, I heard Anna laughing and asked her what was so funny?  She said that she believed that the devil got so scared that he ran out of the house so fast that he smoked all the way!

God uses a greater courage in each our lives to re-arrange our futures, to redeem churches, to build churches.  This is a greater courage that we all need to arise to.

One day while I was out with my wife, and while waiting for the valet, a hotel staffer came up to me and asked me if I was Wayne Cordeiro.  He stated that he wanted to share something with me, and brought out his I-phone.  He showed me giving this same message years earlier on how my wife and I prayed against the enemy on television.    He then proceeded to share his story on how this message had changed his relationship with his estranged wife.

One day he was at home watching football, and the remote control was on the table.  Suddenly the channel turned and he saw me preaching this message.  As he watched the message, he called his wife to watch this same message.  Well, God did something in their hearts.  From that day on, they have been coming to church.  It was a small moment of great courage that God used to rebuild this man’s marriage.

The second story is about a hero named Naaman who, like King David had won many battles.  The problem began with a leprous spot on his arm, and then spread to the rest of his skin.  This alienated his wife and family from him.  Therefore, he traveled to Elisha’s house to ask him to pray for him; however, Elisha sent out his assistant pastor who told him to dip seven times in the Jordan River to be healed.

“But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy’.  So he turned and went off in a rage.”   2 Kings 5:11

Did you ever turn in a rage when God asked you to do something simple?

Often it takes a greater courage to do something simple than to do something tough.

After Naaman went off in a rage, his servant asked him, “Master, what if he had asked you to do something big?”  Naaman replied that he could do that.  The servant replied that Elisha was only asking him to do something small – to dip 7 times.

When I was in Bible College, and saved for 8 months as a new Christian, I went down to the prayer room and found some pornographic material that one of the other students had been hiding. I was very upset, because I came to Bible college thinking that this would be a place where I would never be tempted by this kind of stuff again.  So I went back upstairs and confronted my fellow student who in turn backlashed at me and said, “So you come here to judge people.  So you come here to tell us how good you are and get me kicked out of school.”  Suddenly I became the bad guy and my reputation became like I was policing everyone.  After this went on for a while, I got fed up, packed my bags and walked to the bus station – done with Bible College and Christian stuff.

A fellow college student sees me walking to the bus stop and asks, “Where are you going?”  Like Naaman, I was in a rage and told her I was leaving because of all that had happened. She then asked, “Did God call you to come to this place, and did God call you to come here only if people agreed with you, liked you, or thought well of you?  Maybe this is a test to see if you really want to obey God, or are there conditions on your obedience?”

So I went back to my dorm and unpacked.  I am probably in ministry because it takes a greater courage to do the simple things.  A greater courage is what God is asking us to rise to.

So if you have gone through 6 closed doors, maybe there is only 1 more to go through to get to your miracle.

Some of us require 7 dips in the Jordan, because there is something inside of us that we need to address.

God has provided a miracle for every crisis that you have gone through.  Do not let the enemy take that miracle from you.  Do not let the enemy think that your enemy is the other person.

The Bible says that Satan is defeated – but Satan does not want you to think that he is defeated.

When I was in high school, I worked in a forest using a chain saw to cut off tree limbs as preparation for the mill. One day a saw a big rattle snake slithering around in the crater that held a tree that I was working on.  So I jumped out as fast as I could, while my boss jumped in with a shovel and cut off its head with one blow.  He then buries the head, but I could still see the snake’s body slithering around.  He then told me to jump back in and continue my work, but I refused.  He then nudged me back into the crater, and we continued to work.   It was like the Lord had said, “I took care of the enemy when I cut off his head at Calvary.  He no longer can control you, unless you let him.”

It takes a greater courage to be the people that God wants us to be, and to go through the challenges before us.   We are those people who say yes to a greater courage.

Questions:

•          What does a greater courage mean to you and its application to your life for this season?
•          Reflect on any obstacles that may impede your greater courage.
•          How can we apply a greater courage to our church ohana?