GOD HAS CONFIDENCE IN YOU!
By: Ron Crandall
• This morning I want to present to you that God has Confidence in you. Each of us at one time or another have felt insignificant and the enemy plays on our fears and weakness….
• Yet God has already written in the word that he has confidence in you….
• As we look at the now word of God I want to share with you what I believe is the most significant now word there is….
Matt 1:21-23
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
(KJV)
Paul said “God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.”
• We see this in the account of Job….
• Many of us like to stay as far away from the book of Job as we can yet there is a place that you can be in God that brings you to the point of knowing that it’s not you that is the deliver, but God.
• But you do have to know who you are in God and willing to not settle for second best…. I am a son!
Who I used to be is not relevant to who I am today!
If you are washed by the blood of Jesus then according to Romans
Rom 8:1-2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
(NKJ)
I was an alcoholic
I was an abuser
I was a liar
I was I was I was
But what are you today?
Turn with me now to Neh 1:11
11 "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king’s cupbearer.
There is something defining about the children of Isreal all thru out
Scripture, when they totally blew it, and totally transgressed against God and his Law, they always knew if they if they if they would return to the Lord that he would be their God.
Phil 2:9-14
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
(KJV)
• THE RETURN PROMISED AND REMEMBERED:
8 "Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,
9 ’but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’
• REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE:
10 "Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.
There comes times when the mountians seem to high the obstacles to many for you to go through…
But I present to you this morning that there is a level of warfare that produces silence….
You don’t say anything to anybody because sooner or later you come to an understanding that God is in complete control through your silence…
Individuals with problems in their lives, and talk about them all the time have not graduated to the next level of warfare….
There is a level of warfare, where you stop talking about your problems and recognize that those in whom you are talking to can’t fix anyways.
It does not mean that we have arrived but that we are finally coming to the understanding that God is my source of strength.
Not my Pastor, Not the Board of Elders, Not the Teachers in our church or other leaders. God is using them to minister and challenge me, they are His vessels for ministry and should not be confused with my source of dependence.
But all the time the enemy is working at eroding your confidence in God, and always tempting you to put it in man.
Men will always fail you… but can you forgive them? And put your eyes on Jesus and your hand in his.
Eph 3:12
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
(KJV)
Heb 10:35
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
(KJV)
Heb 10:35
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
(NIV)
Heb 10:35-36
35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
(NAS)
The Apostle Paul tells us that we are not to loose confidence,
The King James Version says Boldness, the Greek interpretation would be do not cast away or throw away your confidence….
You need confidence…
It is not enough to have confidence in God…
If you don’t have confidence in yourself!
The Apostle Paul does not say in Philippians God can do all things….
He says I can do… all things through Christ… and Paul was potent until he died!
Phil 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.
(KJV)
Even when he was dying the Apostle Paul was still writing …
On death row getting ready to have his life terminated…
He didn’t even ask for an attorney…
However he did write to Timothy and said bring me some more paper He is still talking….
I may be getting ready to go, but I am going to preach my way out…
Because he knew he was significant to God!
And you have to understand that God has put something in you that has caused Him to have confidence in you!
In the account of Job
Job 1:7-12
7 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"
9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
10 "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 "But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
12 So the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
(NKJ)
• The devil is going to and fro and seeking whom he may devour… You really need to understand the first part of that verse he goes about as, it does not say he is a roaring lion. But he puts on the façade that he is a lion. Call him for what he is a Fake.
• And he never stops going to God and saying you have people protected …
• But God Had confidence in Job and he says to Satan have you considered my servant Job!
Job is bad; he has the seal of good housekeeping upon him
If you want to mess with someone …
Mess with Job…
For I have confidence in him…
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF WHO WE ARE NOW:
11 "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king’s cupbearer.
1 Sam 30:3-6
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
(KJV)
1 Sam 30:8-10
8 And David inquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
9 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
(KJV)
David didn’t rely on his own strength, ability or skill. He didn’t claim to be a mighty warrior or a great tactician. He just claimed to serve a mighty God! His strength came from knowing who God is.. and his confidence what not in himself but God … yet God had Confidence in David
Prov 12:25
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.
(NKJ)
Jesus is just one word but when spoken by faith
in his name there is power to heal the sick
Deliver those in bondage, and to set the captive free
Phil 2:16
16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.
(NAS)
Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(NKJ)
James 1:21-26
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.
(NKJ)
Today is your day to realize that God believes in you!
You may not, but our heavenly Father has confidence that you can run this race and that you can finish the course that is laid out before you.
If he did not he wouldn’t have sent his only son for you… He desires to have a relationship with you.
The choice can only be made by you.
Invitation:
