Joshua 1:6 (NIV) 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

“Courage is resistance to

fear, mastery of fear, not

absence of fear.” Mark

Twain

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

The brave man is not he who does not feel

afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Nelson Mandella

“Courage is not simply one of

the virtues, but the form of

every virtue at the testing

point.” C. S. Lewis

Courage isn’t the absence of

fear, courage is the fear bathed

in trust in the Lord.

Joshua 1:7 (NIV) 7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

Joshua 1:8 (NIV) 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Joshua 1:9 (NIV) 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

We need to Know the Word

so we can Live the Word.

Knowing the Word of God is

the sinew of courage.

Hebrews 12:4 (NIV) 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Hebrews 12:5 (NIV) 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

Hebrews 12:6 (NIV) 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Hebrews 12:7 (NIV) 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?

Koinonia is a Christian farm community founded in 1942 by Clarence & Florence Jordan and Martin & Mabel England. Home of the Cotton Patch Gospel, birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners, Prison Jail Project, Fuller Center for Housing and other ministries. Still growing pecans and peanuts, welcoming visitors, and living the "demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God."

For us to have spiritual

courage, we have to know

what is close to God’s heart. We

know that by knowing God’s

Word.

The second essential

element of courage is: We

have to walk with God in the

way God is leading.

Joshua 1:5 (NIV) 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Joshua 1:9 (NIV) 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The courage to do it comes from

the knowledge that when you

step out in obedience the

Lord is with you ever step of the

way.

Two essentials of courage:

 Know the WordKnow the Lord

Joshua 24:8 (NIV) 8 “ ‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.

Joshua 24:11 (NIV) 11 “ ‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.

Joshua 24:13 (NIV) 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

Joshua 24:14 (NIV) 14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15 (NIV) 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Who will you serve now with

the days you have left to live

in the peace you have fought for?

Joshua 24:24 (NIV) 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.”

In order to go where God leads

us must trust Him by faith,

and follow Him by choice.

Joshua 24:15 (NIV) ...as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”