If this fundamental quality is not sinlessness or service, what is it? The fundamental quality is courage.

The way God looks at life and defines what is important is totally different from the way we humans look at life and define what is important. It takes real courage to look at and to define life the way God does.

1. I am going to illustrate the courage God wants us to develop.
   1. I want to challenge every Christian here in the deepest part of his or her being to open his or her eyes and see this courage.
      1. I want to shake everyone of us out of the complacency of trusting in our system, in our way of doing things.
      2. I want to disturb each of us on the deepest level of our consciousness.
      3. I want to make all of us think with such honesty that we cannot get this off our minds.
   2. The end result is that I want each of us to trust our Savior as we have never even considered trusting him before.
      1. I want us to trust our Savior so much that the focus of our faith moves away from confronting other people.
      2. I want us to trust our Savior so much that we move closer and closer to God's courage.
   3. Then I want to emphasize one point.

2. To illustrate this courage, I use four well known persons in the Bible.
   1. The first person I want to use as an illustration is Abraham.
      1. If you are a Bible student, you are quite familiar with this truth: in both the Old and New Testaments, Abraham illustrates the greatest faith in God that a human ever had.
         1. If we consider the person of the greatest faith in every generation, his or her faith could not surpass Abraham's faith.
         2. That simply is not possible!
         3. If we want to show a person God's definition of faith, we would use Abraham.
      2. Abraham's faith is truly incredible!
         1. I do not have to consider his faith much to realize I do not come anywhere near that depth of faith.
         2. When I look at Abraham's faith, I see just how small my faith is.
      3. Even though that is absolutely true, Abraham is an unusual person to be the "forever" illustration of faith.
         1. Why? Because Abraham had so many imperfections.
         2. What imperfections?
            1. Twice (Genesis 12:10-20; Genesis 20) Abraham said that Sarah [his wife and half sister] was his sister.
               1. Both times he let another man take "his sister" with the intention of marrying her!
               2. Both times he did not say a word!
            2. Once he asked God to let his head servant serve as his heir because he feared he and Sarah could never have children (Genesis 15:1-4).
            3. Later, he made Hagar, mother of his first son, and the son [Ishmael] leave his family and camp--totally unacceptable in his day!
      4. If the church today were going to advance someone to be a great example of faith, we would not have the courage to use a man like Abraham for our example!
         1. Why?
         2. From our point of view, he made too many mistakes to be an example of faith!
   2. The second person I want to use is David, king of Israel.
      1. If you are a Bible student, you are familiar with this truth: David is known in both the Old and New Testaments as "the man after God's own heart."
         1. If we want to understand how a heart that belongs to God acts, David is our illustration.
         2. I seriously doubt that any of us here this morning has a heart that belongs to God as did David's.
         3. I seriously doubt that there are many people in the entire world who have hearts that belong to God as did David's.
      2. Even though it is absolutely true that David's heart belonged to God in an exceptional way, David is an unusual person to use as a "forever" example of a person whose heart belonged to God.
         1. Why? Because David had too many faults, too many failures.
         2. What faults and failures?
            1. 2 Samuel 11 tells us that David committed adultery with Bathsheba.
            2. The same chapter tells us how David had her husband killed in order to cover up what he did.
            3. 2 Samuel 18 tells us how he grieved so deeply at the death of his rebellious son that he shamed the people who in their loyalty saved David's life.
            4. 2 Samuel 24 tells of David's arrogance in conducting a census of Israel which God regarded to be an act of faithlessness.
      3. If the church today was going to present to the world an example of a person whose heart belonged to God, we would not have the courage to use a person like David.
         1. Why?
         2. From our point of view, he made too may mistakes to be an example of devotion to God.
   3. The third person I would like to use as an example is Peter, Jesus' apostle to the Jewish people and the man who preached the first gospel sermon.
      1. If you are a Bible student, you know Peter's faith in Jesus and Jesus' resurrection was profound!
         1. God Himself gave Peter the understanding that Jesus was the Christ--before even any of the rest of the apostles understood on his depth (Matthew 16:13-20).
         2. On the first Pentecost after Jesus' death and resurrection, Peter knew what happened to Jesus, knew that Jesus was resurrected, and was not ashamed to tell a crowd in Jerusalem about what he knew.
         3. If you want to help someone understand the courage of faith, I doubt you could do better than Peter.
      2. Even though it is absolutely true that Peter knew with all his being that Jesus was the Christ and was raised from the dead, Peter is an unusual man to serve as a "forever" example of commitment to Jesus.
         1. Why? Because he made too many mistakes after he knew Jesus' true identity.
         2. What mistakes?
            1. After Jesus confirmed that God revealed Jesus' identity to Peter, Peter became such a source of temptation to Jesus that he called Peter Satan (Matthew 16:21-23).
            2. Peter had such arrogant confidence in himself, he contradicted Jesus when Jesus said he would deny him that night (Matthew 26:33-35).
            3. Then three times that night before Jesus' enemies he denied even knowing Jesus--in the very city he would soon preach about Jesus! (Matthew 27:69-75)
      3. If the church today was to present to the world a standard who knew the truth of Jesus' identity and the truth of Jesus' resurrection, we would not have the courage to select a person like Peter.
         1. Why?
         2. From our point of view, he made too many mistakes to be an example of conviction.
   4. The fourth person I want to use as an example is Paul, Jesus' apostle to people who were not Jews, and the author of many New Testament letters.
      1. If you are a Bible student, you know Paul's example of conversion to Christ is one of the most profound examples in the New Testament.
         1. The man literally turned his life around 180 degrees!
         2. Paul is a classic example of what God wants in repentance!
         3. He likely spread the news of Jesus' resurrection to more people in the first century than any other person.
      2. Even though it is absolutely true that Paul is an incredible example of conversion to Christ, he is an unusual man to use as a "forever" example to the world as an example of conversion.
         1. Why? Because he was much too violent a person prior to conversion.
         2. What violence? Allow me to read just two statements that Paul made about himself.
            Acts 26:10,11 And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
            1 Timothy 1:12-16 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
      3. If the church today was going to present to the world an example of conversion, we would not have the courage to pick a person like Paul.
         1. Why?
         2. From our point of view, he was much too violent before he became a Christian.

3. In Abraham, David, Peter, and Paul this is strikingly evident to me: God does not do things the way we do them.
   1. If we are going to have the courage to explode for Jesus Christ, to have an incredible impact for Jesus on our community, we must find the courage to see people the way God sees them.
      1. Evil is grinding us up like hamburger.
         1. It is cutting our lives to pieces as it grinds us up.
         2. Then it molds us in evil's mold as evil desires, not in God's image.
      2. We must stop helping evil make hamburger out of our lives.
   2. We need the courage to do three things.
      1. All of us need the courage to turn to God in the realization that all we are capable of doing is making a mess out of life.
      2. The congregation needs the discover the courage to allow those who use faith to resist evil to help and encourage others with similar struggles.
      3. All of us need the courage to share our stories about our struggles and STOP PRETENDING LIKE WE HAVE NO STRUGGLES!

When we as people in need of God start helping people in need of God as they struggle, God can and will use us--just like He used Abraham, David, Peter, and Paul.