<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Muskegon SDA Church

Godly Living

Jason Sliger

Called to Be Saints

Called to be Seekers

Called to be Courageous

Father in heaven, we thank you that we can come into your presence this morning, knowing that you will speak to us from your word.

Father, we ask for the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit to rest upon this place and take your word and apply it in our lives where it needs to be.

Father we want to be more like you and We pray that you would help us as we seek to live godly lives.

1 of my favorite characters in the Bible is Peter.

Oftentimes Peter is used as a bit of a whipping post, but he was a very interesting character as many of you already know.

And as I think of Peter in my mind, I oftentimes visualize him as a big, strong, burly man who wasn't really afraid of much.

After all, he was a fisherman who spent his livelihood, his life, fishing on the lakes surrounding the area where he lived, oftentimes caught in storms in the middle of the night.

And that's the mental image that I get of Peter in my mind.

But as I survey the Bible, just prior to Peter's conversion, we actually find that there were areas in Peter's life where he was a weak man.

And as burly and confident as Peter appeared to be many times, as I've mentioned, when alone he was a weak man.

We find him in Matthew Chapter 26, just in passing here.

In the stillness of the evening as Jesus and the disciples had gathered together on the Mount of Olives, Jesus is telling Peter about this soon crucifixion that's going to take place.

He's telling all of the disciples about it.

And Peter says in verse 35, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.

Very courageous statement that Peter makes.

Luke says of Peter, Peter says to Jesus, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and into death.

He was a very courageous man, and I believe that Peter meant those words.

He loved the truths that Jesus presented.

He believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and as much as it hurt Peter's heart to think about Jesus being crucified on the cross, I believe that he meant those very words that he spoke.

However, as we continue looking at the story that you are well familiar with, we find that just a few hours later, as Jesus is being hauled off to Caiaphas's palace for his first trial, The Bible tells us that Peter followed Jesus a far way off, ashamed at his Lord being drug away as a common criminal.

As we continue looking at the story, Peter, as you know, not only does he deny his Lord 3 times, but Ellen White makes an interesting statement.

John and Peter were really the only 2 that followed Jesus as he went from place to place.

And she tells us that John, and the Bible tells us this, that John went into the courtroom with Jesus as he stood before Caiaphas.

However, Peter, as you know, he was on the outside with the promiscuous crowd trying to blend in as 1 who did not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.

It's very interesting to me that as we look at Peter's courageous statements, when he was all of a sudden in a situation where he stood alone, Peter became a very weak man.

We can tend to be very courageous when we are with those who think the same way we do.

But The question is how do we react when everyone else around us is thinking 1 way and we're kind of the island in that thought.

How do we react in those kinds of circumstances?

Where do we find the courage to stand up against the pressures of the time?

I believe what Peter needed and what he eventually got when he was finally converted in the book of Acts.

And what we need today is courage to stand for what's right.

Not just any old courage, but moral courage to stand for the truth.

Not the courage of the soldier on the battlefield as courageous as that is.

Not the courage of the athlete who presses himself to achieve some athletic goal as noble as that may be.

But this is a courage that stands against the pressures of the time that we are living in today, the proverbial salmon that is swimming against the current.

To illustrate this, I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Kings 22.

Moral courage is 1 of those things that is hard to define.

1 Kings 22, And as you are turning there, we find here recorded a story about an Old Testament prophet that we do not read very much about.

Because the Bible actually doesn't say a whole lot about this prophet.

We find him mentioned here in 1 Kings 22, and that's pretty much it.

He's not 1 of the famous prophets of the Old Testament like Elijah and Moses and so on, but he was a very courageous man that I believe we can learn something from in our time together this morning.

He was from the city of Samaria, most likely of the tribe of Ephraim.

His name was Micaiah, which means who is like God.

He came at a time in the atmosphere of God, around God's people in the kingdom, a time of cold, dark wickedness.

The king at the time, perhaps the most famous of the wicked kings was King Ahab, that Micaiah was eventually going to address himself to.

The showdown at Mount Carmel had already taken place.

Ahab had revealed where his loyalties laid, and now Micaiah is going to be summoned to stand before this wicked King and declare the word of the Lord.

Scripture tells us in 1 Kings 22 and beginning in verse 1 that Israel had been in a time of peace.

In fact, 3 years of peace had gone by and Ahab was not a man of peace.

And so he decided that he was going to start a battle.

And the city that he decided to attack was the city of Ramoth Gilead.

For various reasons, Ahab decided that this was going to be in his crosshairs, but he did not want to go at this battle on his own.

He wanted to bring somebody along with him, somebody who was a skilled general in fighting.

He was also a king as well, and he was a relation of Ahab through marriage.

The Bible tells us this in verse 4 as Ahab addresses Jehoshaphat.

The Bible says, And he, Ahab, said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead?

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.

Now you might find it interesting that Jehoshaphat was actually a pretty good guy.

And here we find him making an alliance with the most wicked king, perhaps, of that time, wicked king Ahab.

Now, as soon as these words come out of his mouth, it's interesting what he says next in verse 5.

It's almost like he realizes that perhaps he made a mistake.

The Bible says this in verse 5, "'And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, "'Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today.'" I don't know about you, but as I read that story, I think to myself, it probably would have been better if he said that first.

Like, let's see what the Lord has to say about this battle first, and then I'll let you know whether or not I'll commit my resources to back this up.

But it's interesting, you know, sometimes this happens to us as God's people.

We commit ourselves to something and then later on we realize, whoops, maybe we should have asked the Lord first if that was okay for us to do.

And it's always good for us to seek the Lord's will in our lives before we commit ourselves as we mentioned in our last study together when we looked at Matthew 6 and verse 33 about seeking God's kingdom first.

So Jehoshaphat asks, let's inquire of the Lord and see what his will is.

So in response to his request, Ahab calls together 400 prophets to ask them what they should do.

Notice what the Bible says in verse 6, it says, and the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said unto them, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?

And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." 400 prophets all unanimously tell King Ahab, go, the Lord will give you the city as you go into battle.

Now I don't know about you, if I were Jehoshaphat, I might be tempted to say, well, maybe we should go ahead and do this.

But as I mentioned, Jehoshaphat was a spiritual man and he was a man of discernment and he knew his man.

And it's interesting what he says in the very next verse to Ahab.

In verse 7 it says, And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the?

Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him?

What is Jehoshaphat basically saying about those 400 prophets?

He's basically saying they're not prophets of the Lord.

These are prophets that Ahab has specifically chosen to come into the religious circle.

Back to Menu

Series

Godly Living

Called to be Courageous

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Hebrews 11- Faith

16 The Faith of Gideon

40m

Lessons from the Life of Daniel

Lessons from the Life of Daniel - Part 3

36m

The Parables

The Unjust Steward

38m

Morning Devotional

The Faithfulness of God

23m

Hebrews 11- Faith

15 The Faith of Rahab

34m

The Living One

47m

Mocking the Remnant

37m

Lessons from the Life of Daniel

Lessons from the Life of Daniel - Part 1

47m

Looking Unto Jesus

50m

These Things We Know

God Still Speaks Part 1

59m

Words of Wisdom for Workhorses

46m

Christianity - X = Nothing

47m

Sound Doctrine