Herbert W Armstrong

   There was a great deal of heroism, a great deal of courage displayed by a number of people as we took two men and placed them in orbit around this earth. And brought them back again. And of course that's the 2nd time for a shuttle, but nevertheless one's heart is inspired when you see those two men coming down to Earth again knowing they've been in outer space and with all of the technology and all of the man hours and woman hours for that matter because as I noticed the time when they relayed, I saw this on the news last night, I guess it was when they relayed to the astronauts that they would be coming down, was a young woman. I believe about 30 years of age, the paper identified her as this morning recently with a PhD out of Stanford who herself is an aspiring astronaut or astronauts I guess or whatever you'd call them, and she relayed the information to them that they'd done such a good job that they were bringing them back early and many, many acts of courage and selfless sacrifice that people endured.

   I think some of the most courageous acts of all history have not been in terms of peace but have been under the dubious auspices of warfare. Many courageous acts. And if you look in your Bible, many many of us have done so in times of depression and discouragement, and we've looked at the exploits of Israel and Judah and the Old Testament, and we've seen the inspiring things which they were able to do. Inspired by and empowered by God, things which they would not have been able to do if they were any other nation. And apart from the supernatural intervention of God, they would not have been able to do.

   The acts of David and his team of military commanders are inspiring and encourage us. In fact, we read those sometimes and think of our spiritual battles that we have, and they encourage us to continue on. Recently, perhaps the one nation that apart from any other has captured the imagination of the world has been that of Israel once again. Although they call themselves Israel, we know they are merely one nation and in fact, not all of the Jews by any means on this earth, but some of the Jews have banded together and called themselves Israel and have occupied part of the historical land of Palestine once again.

   And they have been responsible for some of the most courageous deeds in warfare in the last 30 or 40 years. If you've read of the War of Independence in '47, the Six Day War in '67. The daring commando raid in Entebbe. In the movie and novel which followed it. In fact, all of those acts have seemingly come right out of Hollywood. And in fact, that's exactly what's happened. Art has followed life and Hollywood has quickly seen a dollar or $2 in some of those actions and followed with a film and or a book.

   And it's an interesting scenario. In fact, it's right out of the Old Testament. The Israelis, small, not as large, not as powerful, diminutive, in fact, over against the Arabs like the biblical David and the Arabs, huge populous occupying much greater land size, many more people and occupying perhaps or having the greatest trump card. In warfare today. The trump card of oil. And they're the Goliath. And you know it's an interesting story and one that was replayed this last June. And I'd like to talk about the story that occurred last June. In fact, it occurred on our Pentecost June 7th, on a Sunday. Because there's a number of analogies which I'd like to draw to that and draw to your attention today as we consider a subject which all of us need to in terms of our Christian warfare, our Christian lives, that being the subject of courage.

   Menachem Begin began to organize what he called Operation Babylon in October of 1980. He chose, or was he asked the military to choose two dozen crack pilots handpicked. He chose a commanding officer that had flown against the Arabs in the wars of '67, '70 and '73. For this mission, for this operation which he called Operation Babylon. Months were spent training by these 2 dozen pilots, long hours crisscrossing the monotonous desert landscape, and any of you who have even flown as a passenger will know that surely that must be difficult terrain to fly over to navigate over because it's just monotonous. It's mile after mile after mile of the same geographical terrain.

   And they spent that crisscrossing the Jordan and Saudi Arabian deserts. They were building their endurance, but they were also probing the radar defenses of Jordan and Saudi to see if they would pick them up. And so for months they trained, they schooled themselves in what is called tight formation flying with their F-16s and F-15s, they flew in tight clusters so that when or if they were picked up on their mission by radar, they would come over as just one large blip, rather like a commercial airliner comes across on radar, rather than individual specs, which are the ominous signed to a radar operator that here are warplanes approaching.

   And so they schooled and they trained and they practiced. They even practiced bombing runs in the Naabb. Bombing concrete bunkers. In April, they tried to go, but they were prevented because of the political situation in Israel. Menachem Begin was fighting for his life and he couldn't do it. In fact, some of his opponents told him not to do it. He had to tell them about it, however secret he was keeping it, and he said, no, you can't do that with the political situation being what it would be.

   On May 10th they tried to launch Operation Babylon, but again, they were unable to. Finally, on our Pentecost, June 7th, Operation Babylon was a go. The two previous target dates were now history. And Menachem Begin made what was politically a courageous decision. Of course, the military people, the pilots also had to have courage, but Menachem Begin made one because in the shifting, you might say, sands of Israeli politics. Menachem Begin was gambling and working with or gambling with his political life. He could lose very desperately.

   Many of the Israelis, unless you may not know it, are not warlike. They are not hawks as the ordinary civilian in the street. They do not want the type of raids that Israelis carry out from time to time, and Begin was on the hot seat, but he went ahead and scheduled the attack on June 7th anyway. 14 planes took off late Sunday afternoon June 7th. 8 F-16s carrying a total of 16 tons of TNT. And 6 F-15s capable of speeds of over 900 MPH flying cover. They were the hottest and the latest aircraft which American technology could furnish, and ironically, Israel had taken delivery only months before of these planes.

   Well, it was a 90 minute flight to Baghdad and it was extremely tense, as published reports later said. Just before the mission entered Iraqi airspace, they had to go over Jordan. They had to go over Saudi Arabia, and then just before they entered the Iraqi airspace, the voice of an Arab air traffic controller crackled over the radio, and he demanded to know who they were, he said, "Please identify yourselves."

   Now some stories differ at this point. One story says that one Israeli pilot replied in fluent Arabic and said that we're just a Jordanian training mission and we're returning home after a successful training mission. Another story says that an Israeli pilot replied in English, which of course is the international language of air traffic control and commercial airlines. And he identified himself as a commercial jet. And of course the routine that they were flying and the pattern they were flying, he knew that on the radar screen they would show up as one blip.

   Whatever the story, it worked because the air traffic controllers signed off and the mission continued at 5:30 p.m. Middle Eastern time, the Israelis launched their surprise attack on the nuclear reactor just outside of Baghdad. This morning in the newspaper, if you read the Los Angeles Times along about page 16 or page 18, that attack has finally by the United Nations been condemned roundly as an act of war.

   A Frenchman who was sitting at a cafe just miles away from the reactor off duty thankfully, and the Israelis had planned that most of the French technicians would be off duty on this Sunday. Their intelligence sources had identified that this was a time when most of the people would not be at the reactor, said that the precision bombing was just incredible. The entire reactor was completely destroyed. It was flattened. In fact, the video which the jets took showed that the reactor core was completely destroyed and crumbled into the cooling. What they call a cooling pond below.

   As I read that story and as I thought about it. And as I saw the movie Raid on Entebbe, and as I heard about the war in '67. In fact, I'd just gone over to college in England at that particular time and devoured some of the books that came out about it. I have to think about an element which is central to human character which those people have in a physical way, which we are supposed to have in a spiritual way. The hallmark of that particular mission from start to finish, whether we're talking about Menachem Begin or those pilots or the people who helped them, is courage.

   And whether we're talking about your life. With your marriage, whether we're talking about your life with your children. Your life with your employer or perhaps your employees, your life and your battle with a problem you may have. It may be a bottle with alcohol in it, and you can't conquer that. It may be the difficulty obeying and following one of God's teachings. It may be keeping the Sabbath. It may be paying tithes. It may be a lot of things. The battlefield that we fight in our minds is going to be won or is going to be lost to a large degree depending upon the courage that we have.

   I'd like for you to take a look at I Samuel chapter 17. I mentioned David and Goliath. I Samuel chapter 17 and verse 21 (I Samuel 17:21). This is the story of David and Goliath, and we won't read through the entire story, I presume most of you are quite familiar, even the children with this particular story. But I want you to notice David's attitude here. A courageous attitude, a positive attitude, a man who, as far as he was concerned, God was going to fight his battles for him.

   I Samuel chapter 17 and verse 21, breaking into the middle of the story, the Israelites and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army, and before this, Goliath had come out at the beginning of the chapter I Samuel chapter 17, and taunted the Israelites. And in verse 22, David left his carriage. He had gone up to visit his brothers who were in the army, in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and he ran to the army and he came and saluted his brothers.

   In verse 23, as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion. The Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name out of the armies of the Philistine and spoke according to these same words, the words he spoke, in fact, we might go back and see what he had said before and that he was continually saying to the armies of Israel back in verse 8 of chapter 17. Goliath stood and cried to the armies of Israel and said, "Why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am I, am I not a Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and to kill me, then fine, we'll be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, and we shall be, you shall be our servants and serve us."

   And the Philistines said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." And so, David came down and he heard Goliath say that. And David heard them in verse 23, and we skipped down to verse 26. David spoke to the man that stood by him and said, "Well, what's going to be done to the man who's going to be able to kill this philistine? Surely there must be some fantastic prize. Nobody's volunteered yet. And takes away the reproach from Israel. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He represents an obstacle. He represents someone who does not believe in God. He does not on our side. We're going to win. God's on our side, and who is he? That was David's attitude down in verse 32.

   David said to Saul, again skipping over a major part of the story. "Well, look, let no man's heart fail because of Goliath. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." If you can't find anybody, I'll go and do it. And skipping on down then to verse 45. On the battlefield. The Philistine had already spoken to David, Goliath and taunted him. And David answered Goliath on the battlefield in verse 45, and he said, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. You haven't defied me, not my brothers, not Saul. You've made a big mistake though in defying God. This day will the Eternal deliver you into my hand, and I will smite you and take your head from you. I'm gonna decapitate you, and I'll give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air, to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and all this assembly will know that the Lord says not with sword or with spear. For the battle is the Eternals, and he will give you into our hands."

   Was the only reason that David was a man after God's own heart. We read that in the New Testament in the book of Acts, we won't turn there now. But was the only reason he was a man after God's own heart that he was a repentant person, that when he sinned, he deeply repentant and repented and came to God in tears and an anguish and said, I'm sorry. Was that the only reason that God said that David is a man after my own heart, or could it have been that there's other characteristics about David? Perhaps this one about courage.

   Well, I think so. I think the courage that David had was symptomatic or emblematic, you might say, of that very courage of God Himself. And when David spoke and said, "Look, you haven't defied me, you haven't defied Saul, you haven't even defied all of Israel. I'm not necessarily angry with you because of that, or do I know that God will give us the battle because of that, but unfortunately you're going against God." That's the courage that David was able to have.

   Now there are examples of courage, as we mentioned with the Colombia in our contemporary world. There are examples in the field of warfare, but I think you know that anyone familiar with the makeup of our society knows that that is unfortunately a vanishing characteristic. Even carnal courage, even the to stand on your own 2 feet and be a man or a woman apart from God, apart from what the Bible says, apart from the Church of God. It's vanishing.

   If you're familiar with the makeup of the leadership elite in America today, you'll know that courage is not in the United States Senate or in the Congress or necessarily in the White House, although we're probably seeing more courage displayed there than we have for many, many years. Arnold Toynbee, a famous historian, has said that the number of civilizations which started on the road to decay when leaders lost their courage is almost 100%. In other words, when the leadership loses courage, you know that that civilization from a historical vantage point, from his vantage point as a historian, that's it. The nation has maybe a decade, maybe 20, 30, 50 years, maybe a century, but that civilization is going to perish, and he has footnoted that time and time again throughout the history of mankind.

   He said, quote, "That when those leaders lack the courage to summon from the people the necessary response to the challenges of life, and when those leaders gave them instead hollow slogans, escapist illusions, shortcut tricks, and verbal vagaries to spin a pseudo environment to cover up the ugly scars of the real world, that society is in real trouble." And I don't think we need to waste any time talking about our society today and the fact that it is in real trouble because our leadership is not showing us any courage.

   And you know when we talk about courage, courage is very important because what good is it to have perhaps wisdom. Unless you're courageous enough to use wisdom. What good is it to know the truth? Unless you're courageous enough to act upon the truth. What good is it to do all 58 old lesson of the Correspondence Course lesson, to finish the new one, to do everything that the Y.E.S. has for you young people, to take notes in Sabbath services for 25 years and put them in the old suitcase under the bed somewhere. Unless you put them into practice, unless you have the courage to act on that truth, what good is it to be wise unless you have the courage to act wisely? What good is it to have faith? Unless you have the ability and sometimes the courage to express that faith.

   We had a president a number of years ago. In 1963 he was assassinated, who wrote a book entitled Profiles of Courage, which I have with me today. It cost a number of years ago 75 cents, it says on the outside. I don't think you'll find many books costing 75 cents. I haven't bought any comic books lately, but I would imagine they cost in the realm of 75 cents now. But he wrote a book entitled, as I said, Profiles in Courage. I'd like to read you briefly what he said about the leadership of America then 20 years ago.

   "Does it mean," John F. Kennedy said, "that the Senate today can no longer boast of men of courage? Walter Lippmann, many of you will remember him and his writings after nearly half a century of careful observation, rendered in his recent book a harsh judgment both on the politician and the electorate." And you listen to this and you wonder whether or not this isn't our nation today. In fact, then you may be wonder whether or not it might not be you in your Christian life.

   "With exceptions so rare, they are regarded as miracles of nature. Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding, threatening elements in their constituencies. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good. But whether it is popular, not whether it will work well and prove itself, but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately." Is there any of that in your life? Is that the way you react? Is that the way you deal with life, truth, Christianity?

   Another page, Kennedy said, and he quoted Dante, famous for his work on the Dante's Inferno many, many years ago. "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." They can't take a stand on any side. They just kind of coast through life. They really can't get involved about anything, but just kind of meander down the middle of the road, hoping that somehow they're never going to land in the ditch. Is that your life?

   We talked about in the sermonette that being in Pasadena is not the be all and the end all, and maybe that's something that some of us confuse with true Christianity. The people that we know. Is it who you know or what you know? Well, that's a famous question as well and a political one.

   There's a sociologist called Philip Reif, and I'd like to read what he said recently. He said that a new character ideal is beginning to dominate Western civilization. And this has happened within the church as well. Today's ideal type, Reif says, is anti-heroic. In other words, don't do anything that's too heroic because you might get in trouble. Today's ideal type is anti-heroic, shrewd, carefully counting his satisfactions and dissatisfactions and weighing life by the quality of whether I'm happy or unhappy. How many times have you heard that as the criteria? Are you happy or are you, are you unhappy? Well, if you're unhappy, that may be a good thing in terms of Christianity, not necessarily a bad.

   And I'm not saying that God wants us to be unhappy all the time. But as this man says, that's the new ideal, the new character ideal in America, studying unprofitable commitments as the sins which need to be avoided. The highest science is self-concern. Devotion and self-sacrifice are constraining ideals that must be rejected. Are those part of your life? Are those values, or have those values rubbed off on you and how you view life and Christianity and the world tomorrow, and how you're going to make it into the world tomorrow.

   In Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5, if you turn over there. We read and of course the book of Acts is filled with acts of heroism and acts of courage by the apostles, the membership, the church in general. But in Acts chapter 5, we'll just take one of the examples here and read about the daily confrontations which the church in its early years, our church, because we happen to be the logical and proven extension of the New Testament church, and nobody else can claim that. The Catholics may claim it, but they cannot prove it. We can, because we can point to the Bible and the New Testament and say we do exactly what these people do or did, and we will continue to.

   We read in Acts chapter 5 and verse 17. After Peter and John had worked miracles in Jerusalem, Acts chapter 5 and verse 17 (Acts 5:17), the high priests rose up and all that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. They laid their hands in the apostles and put them in the common prison. The angel of the Lord by night, opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, "Go right back and began to preach and witness once again in the temple and tell the people all the words of this life," which we continue to do. Mr. Armstrong on radio and TV, as we heard in the announcements today through the Plain Truth, one of the largest circulation magazines in this world today.

   And so they heard that they entered the temple again and began to teach. And in the morning, the high priest came and called the council together and all the children of Israel in verse 21, and he sent to the prison to have them brought. The officers came verse 22, and they found them not in the prison. And he returned he said, "Well, the prison truly we found shut with all safety, but they're not there, they're gone." Verse 24. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and all the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them where unto this would grow. We've got a problem here and we're dealing with something which is maybe bigger than we are, that they said within themselves.

   And in verse 25, somebody came and said, "The men who you put in prison are standing in the temple teaching the people." You can't stop them. They just kind of evaporate through the walls. They get through the bars of the jail and they go right back and do what you told them not to do. Then went the captain, verse 26 with the officers and brought them without violence because they feared the people. They came and set them before the council and asked them in verse 28, "Didn't we tell you not to do this? And behold, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man, Jesus Christ, this man's blood upon us." And Peter and the other apostles answered, "We have a problem with that because you see, we have to obey God rather than men."

   The early New Testament church found that it was dangerous to be a Christian because imprisonment, imprisonment was very likely. And sometimes death, which we found later in the book of Acts. It might have been easy for Peter to follow the advice in Acts chapter 5 when in Rome do as the Romans. Don't rock the boat. Don't create a stir. Don't create any problems. Try to do it in as innocuous way as you possibly can. Be a nonconformist.

   I was reading an article which many of you might want to read. It has to do with persecution, problems, and a story of courage. It's in the November 1981 Reader's Digest, this issue. It's condensed, it's the condensed book, this issue of Reader's Digest, it is entitled Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. And if you want to read a courageous story of a man who was imprisoned in 1977 without any reason, not given any explanation as to why he was rounded up other than the fact possibly that he happened to be Semitic, that is a Jew. His name was Jacobo Timmerman. He was the editor in chief of the largest newspaper in Argentina, La Opinion, and he was thrown into jail without any reason.

   And that's happening in this world, all over this world. It's not happening maybe in America very often, but it is happening all over this world, and it might be good to broaden your horizons a little bit and realize that not only are human beings being subjected to that, but we do have people, God's people, children begotten children of God in some of those countries, and they are subjected to those totalitarian regimes.

   And so we read of Acts chapter 5 and Peter being thrown into prison. That's not just some ancient history book for some people today. Now it is for us because we're going to go out tonight and have something to eat, watch TV, see a movie, enjoy ourselves, and we don't fear the police knocking on our door because we're not living circa Acts chapter 5 or 6 or 18 or 20. But some people in this world are today. And it might do us good to realize that.

   Because when you read the book of Acts, and we won't read too many other places here for lack of time, the men of God, were men of great courage. They faced obstacles and problems and dilemmas and difficulties by the number and had to rely on God. They rejected the safety of conformity to the masses. They rejected following the crowd. They rejected just kind of going along, floating through life because that wasn't their mission. They knew that they had something else to do and that that would involve being different and sometimes saying and saying things and doing things that other people would just not agree with that may even get them into trouble.

   Now we don't have that problem in America today, as I said, but you might take a look at your life in other areas because there are many areas to look at when you look at courage and say, am I a courageous person or not, whether you're young, a teenager, in the Imperial Corolirs, whether you're baptized or unbaptized, whether you've been baptized for 20 years or 2 years because courage is going to be either displayed or it's going to be noticeably absent in your life. Do you just follow along and conform with whatever happens to be said, you know, it says in the Bible that we're to prove all things, that we are to look into the Bible, that we are to prove our way of life. Do you just follow other people? Friends of yours, people who like to do things a particular way.

   I was reading an article to the Principal of the Living class the other day. And the author was decrying the fact that we happen to be a funny society in all societies that he knows of historically that have inhabited this earth, because our, one of our ways of seeking status or seeking the approbation of others is to have the initials of someone else embroidered on the rear end of our pants. And that somehow gives us the approbation of men. That's status to have not even your own initials on your own rear end of your jeans, somebody else's.

   But why somebody else's? What is that name? You've never met whoever it is, Jordache, if they're a person or not. Have you ever met them? Do they believe in God? What do they stand for? Do they want you to do this or do the other? I realized I don't think Jordache is a person. Probably maybe it is. I don't know. I think it's just a company. I would imagine it's some man's name, but he's not, they're not some superstar like Gloria Vanderbilt or Diane von Furstenberg. Who is Diane von Furstenberg? Sounds like a dish you'd order in an Italian restaurant or something. What difference does it make if you, why don't we have our own initials?

   And it was an interesting point. Is that, and I'm not against those jeans. I have some jeans I think that have somebody's initials on the back, or maybe they don't, they have stitching or something, and I'm not saying that's unchristian, that that's a sin, and that you'll roast in the lake of fire if you wear somebody's initials. But why? Do you ever ask the question why? Or do you just blindly go along because, well, everybody's doing it. Then you're not gonna have a great deal of courage and that may not be of and by itself a huge issue. But there will be huge issues for you. They may not have arisen in your life yet, but there will be a time when an issue demands you to stand and to have courage and to say this is what I believe and I really don't care what 10, 15, 50 people say that happen to be my close friends.

   As the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, "If 55 million people say or do a stupid thing, it's still a stupid thing." And he used that figure because that was the population of Great Britain at the time.

   I read a little story the other day, and I think it says it very well. Some years ago, a telephone operator in a small New England town received a daily call from a man who asked her for the time. This was before the time when you dialed, what is it, 853-1212, and you know the time at the tone is, you know, beep and all the rest of it. I always wonder who is that lady and, you know, uh, did she go insane doing that or where is she today, you know, but anyway. Uh, that was before we had the recordings, and this man would call the operator every day and ask her for the exact time.

   So weeks went by. And finally the operator said, "Well, do you mind asking me why you call me every day and you want exactly the correct time?" And the man said, "Sure, I have to get the exact time because I'm the man responsible for blowing the town whistle every day at noon." And you know if you've ever lived in a small town or seen them in the movies or something, I presume back in rural America still we have those little whistles that blow and all the factory workers know that they can take their lunch break then.

   And she said, "Well, you know, that's mighty odd because every day exactly at noon I set my clock by your whistle." Now that's a dilemma. Who's following who? Who's right? And where do you stand?

   Over in Jeremiah chapter 12. Sometimes we become discouraged and it seems like God has given us too many problems, too many trials, and he's asking of us that we display too much courage, and we feel like we need to be encouraged, and I want to talk about that in a minute or two. But sometimes we feel a little bit like Jeremiah. How many more problems do I have to overcome? How many more difficulties do I have to endure? Now what do I have to do? You know what what's going to happen when I go home tonight? You know, last night the faucet was broken and water was spraying all over the house. What's going to happen tonight? My kid going to break their leg or, you know, what's today going to bring? What's next week going to bring? What more will God ask of me?

   And in Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah felt every bit that way. In fact, he felt a little bit more that way than you or I ever feel. Jeremiah chapter 12 and verse 1 (Jeremiah 12:1). "I know you're righteous God," Jeremiah says, "when I pray to you and plead with you, yet let me, let me talk about things that are happening here. Let me talk about your judgments. It seems like I just don't agree with your judgments all the time. Why is it that the wicked prosper?"

   Now this is a question which people have asked time immemorial in the Bible. David asked that throughout the Psalms time after time after time. Why is it that the bad guys, the hoodlums, the mobsters, the mafia men, they drive the big Cadillacs, and I'm driving a 1957 Pinto that's rusted and beat up and the gas tank's falling off and it's wired together. But I pay my tithes and I pray, and all they do is shoot people down and extort money and the rest of it, why?

   Well, sometimes you get a little a little bit discouraged and you ask that question, and it's not a wrong question to ask. Now Jeremiah, if you read the entire story here, you'll see he was in a bad attitude. Now it's not a wrong question to ask God. It's not wrong to ask God to help you, to encourage you, and to maybe help you to prosper. But he said, "Why is the way of the wicked prospering? Why are all they happy that deal very treacherously, or at least they seem to be happy?"

   Skipping on down to verse 3. "You, O Lord, know me. You've seen me, you've tried my heart towards you. I've overcome. I've gone through battles and problems and the rest of it. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter, and let's see if they can't get theirs once and for all. How long shall the land mourn? And the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. The beasts are consumed in the birds because they've said, he shall not see our last end. When are you going to intervene? In my life or in society in general?"

   And it's a good question to ask, one which maybe you've asked this week or last week or just maybe last month, or maybe you've asked it this morning in prayer. Notice God's answer to Jeremiah. He doesn't say "Jeremiah, they're there. I'll take care of everything. I'll bless you. I'll take care of your problems. I'll smooth them over for you and everything will be all right."

   God answers Jeremiah in verse 5, and he says, "Jeremiah, if you've run with the footmen and they've wearied you, how are you gonna be able to contend with the horses? And if in the land of peace wherein you trust, you're getting tired and discouraged and despondent, what are you gonna do in the swallowing of Jordan? When the times get tough."

   And it's a good question to ask. God doesn't always respond to us and say there, there, everything's going to be all right. Sometimes he says, you'd better take this problem and deal with it and muster somehow the courage and ask me for the help you need to stand and overcome it because this isn't the worst problem you're ever going to have. You're going to have even more difficult ones, and so you'd better conquer this one.

   From time to time we have to be dealt with like this. You deal with your children that way. You need to tell them, in fact, you as a parent, probably tell them if that's the worst thing that ever happened to you in all your life, you're going to be awfully lucky. Well, that's exactly what God said to Jeremiah, and what he says to you and I sometimes when we say, "Well, God, I don't think I can take it anymore." He says, "Well, you better take it."

   Now you've got an option. You can, after being baptized and committing your way to me, you can just give up. And take your chances in this world and just be anybody else, just like anybody else, and when the trials and difficulties and the time of trouble comes, fine, you'll be out there fending for yourself. And so go get your, uh, you know, your bushes of wheat and your guns and your uh whatever it is and shoot them off when they come to get you, uh, as some people I think in the church have decided they'll do, or you can obey me and trust me. And overcome this trouble and this trial and get ready for the next one because more are on the way.

   Mr. Armstrong's recently been going through the book of Philippians and Bible study. He's had two Bible studies about the book and we'll finish it when he comes back from his trip apparently. I'd like to take a look at a few of the scriptures in Philippians, a few of what we would call the memory scriptures of Philippians, if you like. Maybe some of you, some of you have memorized these, and if you haven't, it might be a good little Bible study for you this week to memorize a couple of these verses we'll take a look at in Philippians because they have a lot to say about courage. They have a lot to say about encouragement, a lot to say about your Christian life.

   Philippians chapter 2, first of all, in verse 4. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 4 (Philippians 2:4), and we'll just skip into the middle of a thought here that Paul was talking about. He says, "Don't always be concerned. Don't look every man on his own things, interests, or concerns, but look on and be concerned about and pray about every man also about the things of other people."

   One of the hints that I've tried to give people from time to time is they pray and they might get guilty about having the gimmes when they're praying to God, and they say, well, you know, every time I pray it just seems like I'm just saying give me this and give me that and give me a little bit of that too. And I just get maybe a little concerned that God's thinking I'm praying selfishly. I say, well, what you should do is you should pray for other people. And they should pray for you.

   And wouldn't that be a good way of having your problems prayed about. If that person prayed for you and you prayed for them. And in essence, you know, in this church today, it's large enough, you know that somewhere, someplace in this church is a person just like you. They might be uh middle aged about say, oh maybe I better not say, well, middle aged, let's put it very high so we don't want to offend anybody, about say 58 years old. Uh, might have a couple of children grown now. Maybe your mate has died or is not in the church. And have the same type of job as you, you have and go through and be going through right now the exact same problem as you.

   They don't live maybe in Pasadena, California, they live maybe in Pittsburgh or Miami or Sydney, Australia. But there is a person very similar to you who probably is going through the same thing you're going through up here and maybe with your job, maybe with your kids, maybe with your wife or husband or whatever it may be.

   In fact, there's a scripture we might just flip over there. I didn't intend to read. I Peter. Chapter 5, I Peter chapter 5. "Steadfast in the faith, be courageous in fighting Satan. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in or around the world." So the same problems you've got are being shared by your brethren.

   And so if you're worried a little bit sometimes about being concerned about your own things all the time, say, "God, I know that there's somebody very much like me. And I'd like to pray for them today, and I'll tell you, I know their problems because they're mine, and I'll pray for them very specifically." And you'll probably be right in your prayer or very close to being right. And if we do that, maybe we'll be thinking about the things of others.

   But in verse 5 now, Philippians chapter 2, the verse (Philippians 2:5), I wanted to come to. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ." Now, what was the mind of Jesus Christ? We pause and think about that a minute. Christ was a human being with incredible, tremendous courage. He didn't just have the resolve and grim determination, which usually characterizes our definition of courage. Usually we think of courage, and we think of a bulldog, resolute determination. I'm gonna set my jaw and I'm gonna do it. No matter what, nothing is going to stop me. I will do it. That's courage. Under pressure. I'll overcome, build character. Well, that's a type of courage. He had that. He had a stubborn refusal to wilt under pressure to give in to temptations, but his courage had another ingredient. It had another ingredient.

   He had the capability of inspiring others to have the same courage. You know, it's one thing to be a courageous person, to be a strong person, to be able to withstand either pain or spiritual problems or whatever it may be, and to be resolute with your will. But it's quite another to go beyond that and to share it and to give it to another person. And to reach out to somebody who happens to be weak and wavering and about ready to fall spiritually speaking, and to reach out and say, listen, let me try to inspire you. Let me try to help you. Let me try to encourage, give you some of my courage.

   You read here in verse 6. Who Jesus Christ, being in the form of God before he became a human, did not think it robbery to be equal with God. That is, as Phillips says, it's not a translation but a paraphrase, he didn't cling to his prerogative prerogatives to be God's equal. He didn't say, I'm not giving up what I've got, I'm God. Who needs to go down and gamble as a human being and then maybe I'll never be able to come back and be God. He didn't say that. He didn't do that. He gave it up. He didn't cling to all of the status, all of the wealth, all of the power, everything that he had, he gave it up and made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

   And put yourself in God's position. What kind of courage would it take, having viewed the history of mankind for several thousands of years, 4000 years, give or take a couple of years or so, some 4000 years you've viewed mankind and the weaknesses and foibles and problems and difficulties that man has, and you say, I'm gonna go be one of them. What for? You know, why go through that kind of misery and that kind of pain and that kind of anguish and be that weak and that insignificant and that shallow viewed from the perspective of God. But he didn't. He took upon him the form of a servant as what was made in the likeness of men.

   Is the mind of Christ in you in this way? Can you not only have courage, but can you encourage, embolden other people and say, that's all right, you've got a trial. Let me help you. I'll pray for you. Let me think this thing through with you. Let me reason it through with you. Let me help you overcome this. What can I do to help you? Listen, I went through something like that, probably not as difficult as that, but let me share my experiences with you. Instead of saying, either saying or looking, boy, you know, I just can't understand why you can't overcome that. How can you be so weak?

   Are you quick to criticize and condemn other people? Maybe not with what you say, but what you show them on the expression on your face who are having great difficulty in overcoming a problem which may be no problem at all to you. I was telling I think another class or I forget exactly what group it was, but I was telling some group of people somewhere at some time in the recent past. You know, one man's meat is another man's poison. What for you, as I was telling, I was with the students, I was saying, you know, for you, mathematics may be incredibly easy. A breeze, no problem. You just breeze through that class and you waltz into the dorm and here's this guy laboring over his books. It's 2 a.m. and he's been there for 6 or 7 hours and you make some kind of wisecrack about how slow he is. That's not encouraging. You may have no problem at all, but it can be one of the biggest hurdles, the biggest problems in that person's life.

   Do you provoke others to anger? Now I know that says that only about parents in Ephesians. "Parents don't provoke your children to anger," but you can do it to other people just as easily as you can to your children. By the way you deal with them and by what you say to them as they're trying to go through something, overcome something. And you kind of, well, I boy, I don't know. You have some tactless, condescending approach.

   Do you give other people time to change, your wife, your husband, your children? I've dealt with several people here recently that they just couldn't give their children or their wife or their husband time to change continually on their back, continually nagging, continually recriminating and bringing the old wound up and laying it open one more time. And pretty soon a person says, nuts to it. I don't need it anymore. I've tried and tried and tried, but I can't please you. Nothing's good enough for you because you see, you're so great. And no one can quite measure up to the standard which you feel you have achieved. That's not courage. That's not the mind of Christ. And it takes a pretty big person to have that kind of courage.

   Another scripture I want to call to your attention along the area of courage in Philippians is verse 12 of the same chapter. "Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling."

   Is a courageous person a fearful person? We know that there is a right type of godly fear, and I know most of you probably have heard sermons about that, but there's a right type of fear even in courage. Because you really can't have the right type of courage unless you have the right type of fear. Fear to fail God. Fear to give up what you started when you were baptized.

   I was thinking about this and remembering years ago when I first read Moby Dick. And in Moby Dick, I went back and looked it up. One of the ship's officers said, "I will have no man in my boat who is not afraid of a whale. I will have no man in my boat who is not afraid of a whale." And then the author of Moby Dick, Melville, goes on to comment, let me quote, because this is true spiritually as well, and exactly what Paul is talking about.

   "By this, he seemed to mean not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril." Old English, I know, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. "An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward."

   Do you have fear? You should. If you're a courageous person, you have the right kind of fear. Fear not to achieve that great salvation which is laid before all of us, not that we quake in our boots on a daily basis and become so terribly despondent and fearful that we really can't operate as a balanced Christian, as Christ showed us, but there is the right kind of fear, fear of failing, which will prompt us to courage.

   In Philippians chapter 3. Another famous scripture in Philippians. Philippians chapter 3. And verse 8 (Philippians 3:8). Again, breaking into the middle of the thought here, Paul chronicling some of the things that he had been before God called him and what he had given up when he came into God's church.

   "Yeah, doubtless," verse 8 of chapter 3 of Philippians, "I count everything but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of everything, and to count them but dung that I may win Christ."

   There are many analogies and parallels that Paul could have used, but he said, everything that I've given up is just a pile of dung, and amounts to no more than that, that I might win Christ. Is everything in life by comparison, nothing to you in terms of winning Christ? Well, that's the bottom line of Christianity.

   Do you have the courage to make some of the necessary changes in your life? Some of the fundamental areas of your life. I don't know exactly what they are. Maybe it's your marriage. Do you have the courage to clean up your marriage, to admit that you've got problems within your marriage, and to come to God and then perhaps to a minister, to Mr. Hagbold or Mr. May and say, "I need to be counsel. About my marriage, or we need to be counseled about our marriage because we have some profound problems."

   And I'll tell you, you will not be alone. I'm not trying to inspire an altar call. I think Mr. Haybold and Mr. May have enough counseling to do, but if you have a difficulty, you'd better seek help because we do have problem marriages within the church and within Pasadena. I know that because I've counseled a bunch of them, and I know that because some of you are humans too.

   Do you have the courage to face up to the fact that you do, that you are not the kind of husband or wife that you should be? And begin to put that situation right. What about that drinking problem you think nobody knows about? Are you going to face it? Are you going to hope it's just going to kind of evaporate away? You'd better face it. Because God Almighty knows about it. And that's also one of the huge problems in the church today. On a nationwide basis, people just do not contain themselves in the area of alcohol, and there is entirely too much drunkenness in the Church of God.

   Read it in the Bible. Read where it says that no drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God. And you've heard what Mr. Armstrong has said about alcohol, but yet, you know, we sometimes think, no, just a 6 pack, that's OK after work. Oh no, it isn't. A 6 pack is not OK after work. That's too much. That's over imbibing of alcohol, a 6 pack after work. "Well, I'm not an alcoholic." Well, maybe you're not, but that's too much alcohol to drink in one sitting, and it's just entirely too much of that.

   Do you have the courage to admit it, the courage to overcome it, to face it, and to say to God, look, I need help in this area, and possibly to say to a minister, I need counseling on this problem. All sorts of areas, brethren, and fundamental areas of your Christian life. Going to Sabbath services, paying your tithes, all sorts of areas that you've got to say, am I running from them, kind of cruising down the middle of the street somewhere, or I'm going to face them and say, OK, I'm going to make a stand. I'm going to have to deal with this situation.

   "I haven't paid my tithes now for a year or two. Well, let's see. Where is my heart? My treasure's not in the church. How can I somehow think that I'm going to make?" I'm kidding myself. That's right. You are kidding yourself. Now we don't need, by the way, Mr. Armstrong has sent a memo out to all ministers saying please include tithing in your sermons. The church is prospering. God's done that. God doesn't need your tithe. But you need to give it back to him because he it belongs to him. And you're going to have serious difficulties in your Christian life and in the future overcoming any other problems if you can't somehow get rid of the greed and the inability to give God what is rightfully his.

   There are other areas you think about them. Where do you need to exercise some courage and confront something and say, OK, I'm going to work on it. And that's the main thing. Make a stand. Nobody's saying you're going to conquer it overnight. That's the point. Just make a stand and begin to work on it and begin to show God, yes, I will work on this problem. It may take me a month, may take me a couple of months, may take me a long time to get it in hand, but I'm going to work on it.

   Finally over in Philippians chapter 4. Do we realize that the courage we need and that we will continue to need as time goes on, firstly, can only come from God. It's not your courage. It's not courage with somehow you drum up because you're a strong person, because your mom and dad always taught you never to cry and never to whimper, and even when you went to the dentist, you know, just to be a strong person. No, that's not where the courage spiritually comes from.

   Philippians chapter 4 verse 13 (Philippians 4:13). "I can do all things through God, through Jesus Christ, which strengthens me." That's the only way that you will be able to have that courage. And if you haven't been able to have that kind of a courage, that also happens to be where you need to go, to begin to cultivate it and to begin to have that kind of courage in your life.

   It is interesting also back in the beginning of Philippians. Not only does it come from God, back in chapter one, if you take a look at chapter one, not only does it have to come from God, this courage we've talked about today, but it will, it is a promise. It will come from God. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 (Philippians 1:6). God says, "Being confident now of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

   He's not about to give up. If he started, he's not gonna give up on you. Now, if you give up on yourself, that's another thing, but he's not giving up on you. And I think that's a tremendously inspiring scripture to know and to know that we know that God will not give up on us. And he has the courage to stand fast, to encourage us when we need that type of courage in our lives.

   Turn back to Joshua. Finally, in conclusion, Joshua chapter one, famous chapter when we talk about courage. Joshua chapter 1. And again the exploits, whether they be of the Israelis, the army, the bombing of the nuclear reactor, the radon Entebbe, some of those recent things, whether they be some of the things which you need to overcome in your life, whatever they may be in your life, these exploits are recounted here in Joshua in a physical way but also in a spiritual way.

   Chapter one of Joshua in verse 1 (Joshua 1:1-5). "Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Eternal, it came to pass, the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Non, Moses' servant or minister, saying, Moses is dead, take the children of Israel over Jordan, and so on. Verse 5, there shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you, nor forsake you. Be strong and of a good courage."

   Verse 6, chapter 1 of Joshua (Joshua 1:6). "For unto this people shall you divide and inheritance the land which I swore to your fathers to give them." And in a very real way, we are standing in a New Testament parallel to Joshua chapter 1 on the shores of the River Jordan, on the wrong side of the River Jordan, in man's world, looking over across Jordan at the world tomorrow. And just as we're ready to go in and have been ready to go in and just as we're journeying up to the Jordan River, that's the time when God says in prophecy there's going to be a falling away. That's when people are going to somehow say I can't take it anymore.

   Just a little bit further, just cross the Jordan, just a little bit further and you can make it. And people begin to drop by the wayside as they've done, as Mr. Armstrong said recently, basically since '73 or '74 in great numbers and will continue to do so because it has been prophesized. We know that that will happen.

   Just as that's happened, he says, "Only be you strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. You shall meditate therein day and night. And you may observe to do according to all that's written therein, for then if you do that, you shall make your way prosperous, and you will have good success. Haven't I commanded you, be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Eternal your God is with you wherever you go."