Courage in Culture: Remember Who Your True Boss Is

by David Chadwick Always remember who your true boss is! It’s the next principle I want to give you to have courage in culture! In a world that wants you to compromise your convictions, at the end of the day, remember that your life is yielded to Christ and Christ alone. And one day you will be held accountable for your life to him and him alone. It is important to know what you believe before facing a situation where you must stand. You must know the truth and be able to speak it in love. Expect resistance and pray for your enemies. Know that there is no age limit to stand courageously and approach every situation between your feet as a mission field. Then, remember God is your boss! “God is my true boss!” is a whisper you should speak to yourself all day long. “I am answerable to him alone.” Your desire must be to please him at all costs. No matter what your earthly boss may tell you to do, if it contradicts what your heavenly boss says, you must choose to obey God, not man. Look at Daniel. Notice how he was willing to stand up against the most powerful man in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. He was able to do this because he knew that his true boss in heaven was the one to whom he was most accountable. That conviction allowed him to be faithful to God no matter what. Note too that even when he was thrown into the lion’s den, God was with him. Protecting and overseeing him. He will do the same for you as well. If standing for truth costs you your job, so be it! If you get canceled by cancel culture, celebrate it! The pupil is not above the teacher (Matthew 10:24). If it happened to Jesus, and we are his followers, we should expect it to happen to us from time to time. Jesus said it would. And always remember this great truth: When you stand for truth, your reward in heaven from your true Boss will be great!

Courage in Culture: Your Mission Field is Between Your Feet

by David Chadwick The definition of courage is “the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” You must decide to be a person of courage long before you face a difficult situation. You must know the truth and know how to speak the truth in love. When speaking the truth, you need to expect resistance. It is the sign that you are taking new ground for the Kingdom of light. As the resistance comes, pray for your enemies who may persecute you in the process. God calls everyone, no matter what age they are, to walk in courage. What else must you do to have courage in culture? Know that your mission field is between your feet. Wherever you are. Trusting God has you there at that moment for his purposes. If God is sovereign over all (and he is!), he has a call upon your life. A purpose and a plan, even in the midst of chaos, to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11—a promise given to the Jews while they were living in the Babylonain culture!). He strategically puts people in different places to accomplish his will. With Daniel, for example, God put him in Babylon as a teen and kept him there all his life. Yet he remained faithful to serve God at all stages and in each place where he was put. His love for God was never defined by how old he was. He was always faithful and, amazingly, was continually lifted up to places of honor as he walked in humility (James 4:10). This truth should give parents tremendous hope that your children and teens can resist the temptations of this world and stand for Jesus. And still be honored for doing so! No matter where you find yourself, your mission field is right where you are positioned. If you’re seven years old, you have a mission. If you’re 45 years old, you have a mission. If you’re 84 years old, you have a mission! You can accomplish God’s will wherever you may be in the culture where you live, no matter how Babylonian your culture might be. If God wants you in a different job, or place, he will put you in a different job. Until that point, be salt and light each and every day, wherever he has placed your two feet. For that place is your mission field!

Courage in Culture: No Age Limit

by David Chadwick Last week we began to look at a series of ways to stand courageously in culture. I believe we are in uncertain times where we must be actively preparing for hard situations long before we face them. As we continue to explore how to have courage in culture, I want to remind you today that there is NO age limit to courage! Anyone who has the Holy Spirit residing inside of him or her has the same power that rose Jesus from the grave (Romans 8:11). There is not a biggie size Holy Spirit for adults and a junior size for children. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and empowers you to be a witness for Jesus (Acts 1:8). The book of Daniel begins when he is a young teen and ends when he is about 95 years old. Throughout his entire life, Daniel remains faithful to God. There are habits of courage he developed as a young boy that were strengthened and cultivated over the course of his life. By the time he was of ripe old age, he continued to stand. And if you look at Daniel’s entire life, he influenced the four greater emperors/kings of that day (Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar 2, Darius and Cyrus). From 13 or so to 95 or so, Daniel remained faithful to his God. And two great Babylonian kings and two more powerful Persian kings all exalted him into positions of power and influence. Courage is never defined by someone’s age or stage of life. Courage is only defined by the truth of God’s Word. It’s the absence of fear and the presence of faith, which sets people free. Whether you are nine or 99 years old, you can walk in courage! Wherever God has placed you in life, be faithful! Love God and choose to live for him every single day. And then watch as God is faithful to complete the work he began in you (Philippians 1:6). Observe that when you are humble to your Lord, he will exalt you (James 4:10). Raises, promotions, and influence can happen for the faithful follower of Jesus—even in a cancel culture that hates truth and people who stand for it.