Courage | Part 5 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Aug 13, 2018 · 64 min watch · 3 min read

Courage | Part 5

Big Idea

Courageous personal commitment — the kind that costs something — is the condition of the heart that unleashes God's plan in and through you.

Drawing from Nehemiah's example and Jesus' words in John 12, the sermon argues that a life aligned with God's purposes requires more than good intentions or a solid plan — it demands a personal commitment that involves real sacrifice. Just as Nehemiah surveyed the broken walls, rallied God's people by modeling commitment himself, and asked them specifically to join the work, followers of Jesus are called to a 'death to self' that mirrors Christ's own courageous surrender to the Father's mission. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is choosing to act faithfully in spite of it.

Key points

1
1Courage is a condition of the heart, not of circumstances — if you're not scared, it's not courage.
2
2Personal commitment is a pledge or promise — a dedication to a course of action that will require sacrifice — and it is the fifth condition of the heart needed for courageous living.
3
3Nehemiah modeled personal commitment himself before asking others to join the work, then made a specific ask — the same pattern of courageous leadership God still uses today.
4
4Every person named in Nehemiah 3 is an ordinary individual who made a personal commitment to build a section of the wall, leaving a legacy of faithfulness remembered for 2,500 years.
5
5Jesus himself wrestled with the cost of His mission yet chose to press forward — 'this is the very reason I came' — and He calls His followers to the same death-to-self surrender.
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6Financial sacrifice is one of the most direct ways God challenges us to 'die to self' because in our culture, self-preservation is so deeply tied to money.
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7The beauty on the other side of courageous commitment is not a building — it is people, legacy, and participation in God's eternal purposes.

Application

The pastor frames the takeaway around one clarifying question: What did God build you to do? Just as Nehemiah's wall-builders had to move from good intentions to picking up a shovel, and just as Jesus pressed through fear to fulfill His mission, every follower of Jesus is invited to make a concrete, courageous, death-to-self commitment. In the immediate context that means prayerfully pledging toward the building campaign — looking honestly at your finances and finding what you can sacrifice. But the principle reaches every area of life: stop waiting for the fear to go away before you act. The ordinary people of Nehemiah 3 left a legacy of faithfulness remembered for 2,500 years simply because they showed up and did their part. You have the same opportunity — and the same God cheering you on.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So where we're at is we're in Nehemiah chapter two. He's already talked to the king. We talked about that the last couple weeks, put his life on the line”
From the transcript
“We're gonna see here starting verse 11. But one thing I just wanna add is as we look at this, it's is you're gonna see a consistent theme throughout scripture”
From the transcript
“Verse 13. After dark, I went out through the Valley gate past the Jackal's Well and over to the Dung Gate. That sounds beautiful”
From the transcript
“Verse 18. Then I told them about the gracious hand God had been God had been on me. But I just how the gracious hand of God had been on me”
From the transcript
“Well, sounded really easy, didn't it? He finally went and told them. But then verse nineteen and twenty happened. But when Senballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of their plan”
From the transcript
“And that's what I love about Nehemiah chapter three. Because remember last week I ended with I said, hey, there's something beautiful on the other side of courage”
From the transcript
“I just want to read I can't read not read the whole chapter. I just want read two verses out of chapter three. It says this, next to them, because it's just lining up where people work on different stuff”
From the transcript
“And and in in chapter 12 of John, he was predicting his death which the disciples were a bit confused on because they thought God came to just always give us the stuff that makes us happy”
From the transcript
“And look what he says in verse 24. He says, I tell you the truth. Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone”

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Before Nehemiah said a single word to the people of Jerusalem, he did something quietly courageous: he went out alone at night and looked honestly at the rubble. No fanfare, no announcement, just a man and a broken wall and the weight of what God had placed on his heart. There is something deeply human about that image. Most of us know what it feels like to sense a call and then sit with it for a while before we act — turning it over, counting the cost, wondering if we are really the right person. Nehemiah did not skip that step. He surveyed the damage first. He let the reality of the need sink in before he asked anyone else to carry it with him. That kind of honest, unhurried looking takes courage in its own right. It is easy to stay at a comfortable distance from the hard things God is asking us to engage. It is harder to ride around the rubble at midnight and let it break your heart the way it breaks His. If you are sensing a nudge toward something that costs you something, today's invitation is simple: do not look away. Let yourself see it clearly. God does not call us to act on a feeling we have never examined — He calls us to look honestly, then move faithfully.

For reflection

Is there a need, a calling, or a broken place in your life or community that you have been keeping at arm's length? What might it look like to survey it honestly this week?

Pray

Pray for the courage to look honestly at what God has placed on your heart, without rushing past the weight of it.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message looked at what it actually takes to move from good intentions to real commitment — and how ordinary people, from Nehemiah's wall-builders to Jesus Himself, show us what that looks like.

Discussion questions

1
In Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah surveyed the broken walls quietly before he said a word to anyone, and then he modeled commitment himself before he made a specific ask of the people. What do you think made that sequence — 'I'll go first' before 'will you join me?' — so important to how the work actually got started?
2
Nehemiah 3 lists the names of ordinary men and women, most of them unknown to history apart from this single moment — they showed up and built their section of the wall. What does it say about God that He preserved those names for 2,500 years?
3
In John 12, Jesus says, 'Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels' — and then, just verses later, He says, 'This is the very reason I came.' What do you think Jesus means by connecting His own death to that image of a seed?
4
The message made the case that courage is not the absence of fear — it's choosing to act faithfully in spite of it. How does Jesus' own wrestling with the cost of His mission in John 12 shape the way we understand what it means to follow Him courageously?
5
The message kept returning to one question: What did God build you to do? What gets in the way — for people in general — of moving from knowing the answer to that question and actually picking up the shovel?
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The pastor challenged us to think about what it looks like, in every area of life, to stop waiting for the fear to go away before we act. What might it look like, practically, for a community like ours to encourage one another toward that kind of courageous commitment?

Pray together

Courage to move from good intentions to faithful commitment — whatever that looks like for each person in the room

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Go deeper

Continue the series

Courage

Week 5 · 6 messages

Where these passages are preached

Nehemiah 2 Nehemiah 3 John 12

Explore related topics

Courage and Fear God's Purpose Legacy of Faithfulness Personal Commitment Sacrifice and Surrender

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