WHERE’S YOUR CONFIDENCE?
1) Why do we lack confidence?
• We listen to the devil. You know how he is. Whispering away to get us to doubt. He’s been doing it from the beginning with Eve. Whispering to her, getting her to question God. Unfortunately it worked. He does the same with us. Satan wants us to lose our confidence in God. He wants us to lose confidence in God’s love for us. He wants us to lose confidence in what we are through Christ. He wants us to lose confidence in our ability in Christ. If he can get us to lose our confidence then he’s accomplished what he has set out to do. When we listen we are rendered ineffective and unproductive. Without confidence we are no threat to Satan.
• We listen to the wrong people. Some of us had to grow up hearing a parent or someone else tell us repeatedly how bad we were or stupid we were and that we’ll never amount to anything. Sooner or later we start believing and acting as if they were right. We grow up without any confidence. We see life as a whole in the same light. We automatically believe the worst about everything. We run into other pessimistic people and we feed into what they tell us. We can get so run down by what others say. In order to have confidence we need to believe in what Jesus has said we are instead of continuing to believe what other people say we are. Listening to those who say we can’t will make it harder to believe we can.
• We’re afraid. We are faced with challenges and opportunities and because we’re afraid we don’t even try. We’ve given ourselves the self-fulfilling prophecy that we will fail if we try. Sometimes our fear stems from the fact that we have already tried and it didn’t go so well. The reality is that you only fail when you refuse to try again. Being afraid will keep us stuck; it will immobilize us. Because we’re afraid we lack confidence and because we’re afraid we lose out on so much.
2) We put confidence in the wrong things.
• We put confidence in others. Jer. 17:5-8. We can become overconfident in other people’s abilities. We look to them instead of God to meet all our needs. We have the expectation that my happiness is in another person. We have unrealistic expectations. Perhaps someone has shown that they are capable in something and because of it we place him in a higher position then he should be. Then, when someone can’t deliver according to our unrealistic expectations we become disappointed. When we look to people to do what only God can we are placing our confidence in the wrong place. People can let us down. Job found that out. The people who should’ve been friends to Job let him down. We have confidence that someone will always be there for us. We have confidence that someone is completely trustworthy. But unfortunately you hear all too often about the betrayal of a friend or loved one. Infidelity, backstabbing, deception. However it comes, people who we’ve trusted can let us down. Prov. 11:13, “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” There are trustworthy people out there. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any confidence in people. Paul talked about having confidence in others but it wasn’t a blind or absolute confidence. He didn’t look to others as the source of his confidence. We make a mistake when our confidence is placed in people rather than God.
• We put confidence in things. Psalm 20:6-8, “Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.” If we put our confidence in the things we may have at out disposal like technology, medicine or money we are placing our confidence in things that are not as secure as we think. When we place our confidence in things we are placing our confidence in unstable things; unsure things. Technology doesn’t have all the answers. Medicine is not what cures. Money doesn’t solve our problems. These things can’t provide security. Having confidence in the Lord is what allows us to rise up and stand firm-all the time and every time.
• We put confidence in works. Phil. 3:1-7. Paul was telling the Philippian church to look out for the ones who would be putting confidence in a religious observance as a source of security before God. Paul then recounts how he once had such false confidence. He follows that by saying what he considered profitable was now rubbish compared to knowing Christ. Warren Wiersbe, "Like most ‘religious’ people today, Paul had enough morality to keep him out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven! It was not bad things that kept Paul away from Jesus; it was good things! He had to lose his ‘religion’ to find salvation.” We can place confidence in our religious behavior thinking it renders us holy. We can look to mere religious observances to secure our standing with Christ. The Pharisees made that mistake. In John 8 they argued with Jesus that their position as a descendant of Abraham made them good with God. Jesus had to give them a reality check that they were not as secure as they thought they were. He showed them that they placed their confidence in the wrong things. We put confidence in ourselves. Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee had confidence in his religious observances. He thought himself to be someone he wasn’t. His pride caused him to think he was the justified one but he wasn’t. When we put confidence in what we do to be right in God’s eyes we make a huge mistake.
3) We need to put our confidence in God.
• For salvation. Heb. 10:19-23. Since we have salvation through Christ we can approach the throne of God in confidence. We are confident that we have access to Jesus and can have a relationship with him. We no longer need to have a guilty conscience because we have had our sins forgiven.
• For help. Psalm 121:1-2, “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” When I’m in trouble who do I count on? The Lord; he is my helper.
• For guidance. Prov. 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Instead of being confident in my own understanding, my confidence is in God’s understanding.
• For power. Eph. 3:20-21, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” We can have the confidence that God can do greater things than my mind can comprehend.
• For blessings. 1st John 5:13-15, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” We have confidence that God hears our prayers and answers our prayers in accordance with his will.
• For the future. 2nd Cor. 5:1-10. Because of Christ we can be confident of the promise of our heavenly dwelling. We have something to look forward to.
4) Why do we need confidence?
• To overcome. We need confidence to overcome temptation and sin. Heb. 4:14-16. Do we have this confidence? Do we believe 1st Cor. 10:13 that says that God will provide a way out of every temptation? Do we believe James 4:7 that says resist the devil and he will flee? If we have such confidence then the devil can’t get to us. I like how one Minister put it, “confidence is a weapon”. We need confidence to overcome life’s hardships. 2nd Cor. 1:8-11. Paul relied on God to deliver him from life’s perilous situations. 1st John 5:3-5. If we are a Christian then we are an overcomer. (Song)
• To share our faith. Peter and John had been thrown into prison for preaching Christ. The next day Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, stood before the Sanhedrin and preached. And this is the response the Sanhedrin had. Acts 4:13. Peter and John were considered unequipped to do such things. But their confidence was in Christ, not their own abilities. We may be unschooled, ordinary people but we can still have confidence in sharing our faith because of who has gifted us to do so. “They had been with Jesus”. This is how such confidence was possible. They had seen Jesus’ confidence in carrying out God’s purpose. They had received Jesus’ declaration of how they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do great things. It was because of Jesus that Peter and John could do what they did. Having confidence in the power and provision of the Holy Spirit allows us to passionately and boldly share our faith.
• To use our gifts. 1st Tim. 4:12-14. We can have a lack of confidence due to various things about ourselves. Paul knew that Timothy had a lack of confidence due to his age. But Paul also knew that it didn’t matter-Timothy was gifted and Paul wanted to encourage him to not let anything stop him from using his gifts. We need to be encouraged to use our gifts too. You know how it is when we start something new. We typically don’t start out with a lot of confidence. However, as we go along the jitters wear off and we gain confidence. Spiritually speaking it can be the same way. The more we do something, like share our faith, the more confidence we build. And our confidence doesn’t rest in doing it perfectly; it rests in God’s promise of shaping me and molding me into the image of Jesus. If we are going to be successful in using our gifts we need to be confident in who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ and what we can do in Christ. We need to have godly confidence so that we will be effective and productive for the cause of Christ.
