Heroes – “What Courage Does” 

Our new series, “Heroes,” starts with a poll: In one word, how would you answer the question “What does the world need right now?” While answers might vary, it’s likely that nobody would answer “me.” It turns out, though, that the answer to that question might actually be that God wants me to become the “hero” that he’s called me to be by overcoming my fears and anxiety to live a life of courage.

1.  Heroes Are Often Found in Hiding (Judges 6:11-12)

• The book of Judges is a book of “heroes” – men and women who were called and empowered by God, despite their (sometimes glaring) flaws and weaknesses, to save the nation of Israel from its enemies in the time after they settled in the Promised Land and before they had kings to lead them.
• The 12 “heroes” in Judges were of three basic types: those who were good and followed God closely, those who were “okay,” and those who were pretty messed up. Our first hero was in the “okay” group – a farmer named Gideon – and the first thing we learn about him was that he was hiding.
• The Israelites were living in fear under the oppression of their enemy the Midianites. Gideon, like his fellow Jews, was struggling just to survive under that oppression when “the angel of the LORD” appeared to him and called him a “mighty hero” – about the last thing Gideon probably felt like.
• It turns out that the path to usefulness – the path to the full life of purpose that God has called us to – almost always goes through struggle.  That’s because in our times of struggle is when we discover what we’re not, but also what we were meant to be. There, hiding in the “basement,” in the pit of his struggles, Gideon met God and heard what he was calling him to be: a “mighty hero.”

2. No Fear, No Heroes (Judges 6:13-17; 1 John 4:18a^NIV) some text
   • In a heroic story, we’d love to go straight to the ending, where the hero becomes what he’s been called to be, wins the battle, and gets the victory parade. But that’s not how it works; the story almost always has to go through a period of fear. That was certainly true with Gideon’s hero story: he was initially terrified at the prospect of being Israel’s hero. But God’s answer was simple: “I am with you.”
   • Courage – our ability to overcome fear to do what we’re called to do – is like a muscle. It can grow and become prominent in our lives, but it only does so amid our struggles, as we face our fears. “Fear is the soil in which our courage grows.”
   • But what does that look like? How do we live our lives courageously, overcoming our anxieties and fears to be what we’re called to be? Interestingly, it happens because of love – specifically, courage happens when my “love for” becomes bigger and stronger than my “fear of.”
   • Human love, though, is fragile; my “loves” can change and weaken, allowing fear to sneak back in and my courage to wane. But “perfect love drives out fear,” as John wrote – and that perfect love comes only from God through Jesus Christ. The loving presence of God in our lives is the ultimate antidote to our fear, and the ultimate source of our courage – even in the middle of our worst struggles.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE

These passages may provide additional insights related to the subject of this week’s message. All verses are NLT unless otherwise noted.

Joshua 1:9; Psalms 23:4; Isaiah 41:9-10; John 14:27; Philippians 4:12-13; 2 Timothy 1:7

Video of the Week: Courage Comes From God by the Daily Devo

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

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1. What do you think of when you hear the word “hero”?  Describe your image of what a hero is.

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2. Do you – or could you – consider yourself to be a hero?  Why or why not? 

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3. In your own words, how would you describe the relationship between our struggles and living a “full life of purpose”?

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4. Read Judges 6:13-14 again. Gideon’s first reaction when given a chance to vent to God in his struggle is to broadcast his fear (i.e., to whine…). When God responds, what do you think he means when he tells Gideon to “go with the strength you have”?

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5. If “fear is the soil in which courage grows,” then how should we respond (i.e., what should we think and do – and not do) when fear and anxiety rise up in us?

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6. Few of us will have a direct encounter with “the angel of the LORD.” How then can we be (consistently) assured that God is “with us” and that his loving presence is strong enough to “drive out our fears”?  

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