If You're Scared, Don't Go to Church

I've been a Kentucky Wildcats fan my entire life. I grew up in Kentucky, and anybody who knows me knows how much I love Kentucky basketball and football. Let me also say that I am beyond impressed with Coach Will Stein. I love his aggression, and at the time of writing this, we're number nine in the country with a real possibility of making the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff. Y'all, that's a miracle.

But there's a statement from Coach Will Stein that has been bothering me. Back in September, he was recorded quoting a rap song from Ice Cube: "If you're scared, go to church."

I understand Stein is using this to fire up a football team. The problem is that the statement has taken on a life of its own. It's become a slogan, appeared on T-shirts and signs, and been adopted as a rallying cry.

Here's my issue. The implication is that church is where cowards go. That somehow the church is a place for people who aren't tough enough to face the world. And I believe that completely misunderstands what the church is and what it actually means to follow Jesus Christ.

Listen, I'm not a pastor who gets easily offended or can't handle a little football talk. But if we're going to talk about courage, then let's talk about what real courage looks like.

Real courage is revealed when something is on the line. And sometimes what's on the line is far greater than a two-point conversion. It's standing for what is right when doing so costs you something. It's obeying God when obedience means losing something you desperately want to keep. It's following Christ when your reputation, relationships, comfort, security, or even your life are at risk.

For the past several weeks, I've been preaching a series called Take Courage. And one truth has become abundantly clear. Courage isn't the absence of fear. Courage is trusting God enough to obey Him even when you're afraid.

So, let me turn that football slogan around.

At least not because you think following Jesus is the easy way out. Because if you understand what Jesus actually calls His followers to do, you'll discover that Christianity demands a willingness to risk everything.

Following Jesus Has Never Been for the Faint of Heart

Jesus never promised His followers an easy life. He never recruited disciples by promising comfort, popularity, or security. In fact, He told them the exact opposite.

We have heard those words so often that I wonder if we've forgotten how radical they really are.

In the first century, a cross wasn't a piece of jewelry or a decoration hanging on someone's wall. It was an instrument of execution. When Jesus told His disciples to take up their cross, He was calling them to a life of surrender that could cost them everything.

Think about that. Jesus was calling men to follow Him knowing they would lose their families, their livelihoods, their freedom, and their lives.

Peter and John were threatened and beaten for preaching the gospel. Stephen was stoned to death because he refused to remain silent. Paul endured imprisonment, beatings, and persecution. Countless Christians throughout history have faced the same reality.

And they didn't endure those things because they were fearless. They endured them because they believed Jesus Christ was worth more than anything this world could take from them.

Y'all, there's nothing cowardly about that.

The Christian life isn't a call to hide from hardship. It's a call to remain faithful in the middle of it. It's refusing to compromise biblical truth when the culture demands it. It's standing for righteousness when doing so makes you unpopular. It's leading your family in faith when the world is pulling them in another direction. It's obeying God when every instinct in your body is telling you to take the easier road.

And sometimes it's being willing to lose everything rather than deny the One who gave His life for you.

That's courage. And that's the kind of courage the church ought to be producing.

The Church Is Not a Place to Hide

Here's what bothers me most about the statement. It treats the church as though it's where people go when they don't have the courage to face the world. But the church was never intended to be a place where Christians retreat from the responsibility of following Jesus.

In fact, the church is where believers are called to prepare for the cost of following Him.

I've spent years in ministry, including time serving alongside believers in parts of the world where following Jesus carried very real consequences. I've known Christians who understood that their faith could cost them relationships, opportunities, freedom, and security. They weren't following Jesus because it made life easier. They followed Him because they believed He was worth the cost.

And courage isn't limited to Christians facing persecution overseas. I've seen it in ordinary people sitting in church pews.

I've seen courage in people who receive devastating medical news and continue trusting God. I've seen it in parents who are desperately praying for their children. I've seen it in people fighting to save their marriages, battling addiction, grieving someone they love, and trying to remain faithful when life seems to be falling apart.

Some of those people walk into church on Sunday morning carrying burdens nobody else knows about. Some are afraid. Some are exhausted. Some are barely holding on. But they refuse to walk away from their faith.

I don't consider those people weak. I've watched some of them demonstrate more courage than most of us will ever understand.

The church isn't supposed to teach us how to avoid the battles of life. It's supposed to equip us to stand faithfully in the middle of them.

Courage Means Obeying When You're Afraid

Sometimes obedience is going to cost you.

It may cost you friendships because you refuse to compromise your convictions. It may cost you opportunities because you refuse to be dishonest. It may cost you popularity because you stand for biblical truth. It may mean leaving behind the security of everything you've known because God has called you to something greater.

Y'all, following Jesus isn't a promise that you'll never suffer. It's a commitment to remain faithful even when you do.

And if we're going to be serious about following Christ, we need to stop treating comfort as though it's the goal of the Christian life.

The Church Must Produce Courageous Christians

Hebrews 10:24–25 tells believers not to neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another and stir one another up to love and good works.

Think about why that matters. We don't gather simply to enjoy a service, hear some music, and go home feeling better about ourselves. We gather to worship the living God, hear His Word, confront sin, strengthen one another, and prepare to live faithfully in a world that often opposes what we believe.

The church should be a place where men are challenged to lead their families in godliness. Where young people are taught to stand on biblical truth rather than surrender to cultural pressure. Where believers learn that obedience matters more than popularity, faithfulness matters more than comfort, and following Jesus is worth whatever it costs.

And we ought to be honest about that cost.

Jesus never hid it from His disciples. He told them to count the cost (Luke 14:28). He told them the world would hate them (John 15:18–20). He told them they would face trouble (John 16:33).

But He also promised that He would never abandon them.

The church isn't a gathering of people who have nothing to fear. It's a gathering of people who have decided that Jesus Christ is worth following regardless of what they might lose.

Real Courage Begins With Christ

And this is where everything comes together.

The greatest example of courage isn't found on a football field, a battlefield, or even in the lives of the great heroes of Scripture. It's found in Jesus Christ.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knew what awaited Him. He knew the suffering, humiliation, and agony of the cross. Yet He prayed, "Not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).

Jesus didn't turn away from the cross. He willingly went to it in obedience to the Father.

And through His death and resurrection, He defeated sin and death, enemies we could never defeat ourselves.

That's why Christian courage isn't ultimately about how strong we are. It's about the One in whom we've placed our trust.

We don't have to manufacture confidence in ourselves. We don't have to pretend the cost isn't real. We can acknowledge our weakness while trusting in the strength of our Savior.

That doesn't mean Christians never experience fear. It means fear doesn't have to rule our lives.

Jesus Christ is worth the cost of obedience because He is the Savior who gave everything to redeem us.