There's another man in the Bible, quite a famous man really and this man was actually a coward, quite fearful. In fact when someone else thought his wife was very attractive and thought they might like his wife, he lied and said it was his sister and the man took his wife to be with him. That man's a coward and yet God calls him the father of faith. So we look at people and we see fearful cowards who have failed. We look around and we see all kinds of problems in people, but when God looks He sees a room full of mighty men of valour, valiant men. He sees you potentially as a valiant man. If God was to speak to you, God knows all our faults, he knows all our weaknesses, all our shortcomings, but when God speaks to you He speaks to what you could be, you mighty man of valour.
What about Peter? Peter was a vacillator, he was proud and he was boisterous and then when a woman came and challenged him he fell over and he ran away from Jesus and betrayed - just ran away altogether, but Jesus in His first speaking to him He says your name is Simon but I'm calling you Rock. See, God saw a mighty man of valour. He saw a man who would lay his life down one day for the faith. God doesn't see you like people see you. God sees what you could be and He sees a room full of mighty men and women of valour. The key is we must connect with God. In one of the Psalms it said through our God we shall do valiantly, God in your life is what makes the difference. It's the place you give God in your life and the one thing that was common with all of those men is they found a place of faith and rest and trust in God and they outworked what God had for them and God says that's a valiant man and wrote it down for us to hear, that valiant men are not without faults. Valiant men have learnt to trust God and live out their life according to the purpose that God has for them.
We've got lots of valiant people here and of course the greatest and the most valiant person of all that you read about in the Bible is Jesus Christ Himself. Let me just read you one verse, then we'll just close up. In John, Chapter 17, read about a valiant man. You may not have thought of Jesus this way, but when Jesus left heaven and came to the earth, left aside all His authority, all His power, left aside all His ability naturally, He lived by faith, depending on the Holy Spirit. In John 17, Verses 3 and 4, He said this is eternal life, that they may know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You've sent. So eternal life is a relationship. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You gave Me to do.
So Jesus, at the end of His life, said I have finished the work that You gave Me to do, then He laid His life down. I was thinking about some of the things that He did that made Him a valiant man. The first thing is He had a call in His life that He chose to fulfil. He remained true to the call right through to even giving His life up to die. The second thing I noticed is that He lived His life out of kingdom values. He remained true to the values of the kingdom of God. He never compromised to please people. A third thing I noticed about Jesus was He refused to conform to what other people expected of Him. He followed and was very true to Himself and to what the Holy Ghost spoke into His heart. He was a valiant man.
People have got lots of ideas about Jesus, but He was a valiant man. He refused to quit or to retaliate when people opposed Him, abused Him and spoke evil of Him. He managed to keep His nature under control, under management. A valiant man can manage their emotions. In the face of pain and death He went to prayer and in His place of prayer He poured out His emotions, not ashamed to show what He really felt but then he yielded to the will of God in spite of fear and concern about what was about to happen to Him. That's a valiant man. Then when He was on the cross suffering and dying He found grace in His heart to forgive people who had abused Him and were still abusing Him. That's a valiant man. And when He was on the cross and someone next to Him was in need, even though He was suffering and even though His own needs were overwhelming He helped that man and ushered that man into eternity. He showed compassion on someone. That's a valiant man.