Acts 4:29–31 NASB95

29 “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Preaching/Teaching With Confidence

Confidence - full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing:

belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance:

I am going to say some things that are going to be somewhat controversial. That if you don’t receive them in the full spirit and context of what I am saying them within, they might even come across as irreverent or profane.

but, I am going to say them, because they need to be said by me…and they need to be heard by you.

There are those that are very careful not to give any compliment to the preacher…they want to be very careful to give all credit to the Lord for the word that was preached. they want to be very careful not give any acclaim to the minister, but to ensue that they bypass the man to ensure that God gets all of the credit and the honor. and understand that I am in agreement with them, that all of the credit is unto the Lord.

However, they would go overboard in withholding any sort of praise or acclaim…they would think nothing of giving compliment to a chef for providing a meal, or a pilot for flying a plane…though it is God that created the ingredients that comprised the recipe, and it was God that created the physics that allow an airplane to take flight.

What I have found, is that most of these hyper-sensitive critics, have never preached a sermon, and have never had to stare down the dark demons that await a preacher when he steps down from the pulpit.

This would be the same as goin to a restaurant and deciding that the only thing that matters is the liquid inside the cup, while the cup itself is of no consequence. While I would agree that the liquid in the cup is what gives refreshing and quenches the thirst…at least for me…the cup matters. If there is dried food around the lip of the cup…old lipstick stains around the edge…I don’t want any part of what is in the cup.

The fear of these critics is that the preacher will become arrogant, self-centered and puffed up. Without a doubt, these are dangers that can overtake a man in any endeavor he would undertake.

However, can I tell you that of equal danger and likely of greater occurence is the man that steps into the pulpit and delivers and unconvincing message, with no passion, no relevance and no persuasion, because that man is insecure and unsure of himself.

In between this place of arrogance and insecurity is a place of confidence.

Eight pillars of preaching/teaching with confidence

A confidence that has foundation in these 8 pillars of confidence that I will share with you tonight. Without these pillars in place, confidence is misplaced…and therefore, and confidence is indeed self-centered and will end up in arrogance.

A. Confidence in my qualification.

These are me issues. These are the hidden matters that nobody else but me will know. I can pretend that these things are right, but it will affect my confidence and my effectiveness to deliver the word of God, if these are not tended to.

1. Confidence that I am in right standing with God

Sin destroys confidence

Not a pre-requisite that I am perfect, but a pre-requisite that I am living an overcoming lifestyle.

I must be repentant and living a life that is submitted unto God. I can not be living in submission to sin!

2. Confidence that I have right motives

Is my motive to gain the applause of people or the approval of God? (We gain God’s approval when we are faithful to his Word and his calling)

Is my motive to condemn people and openly chastise them for shortcomings that I am aware of…or to confront sin with the intention of moving people to redemption? (Do I love the people…do I care for the sheep)

Jonah preached, but inwardly he was praying that God would destroy them all.

Is my goal to be clever or clear?

In todays world, it can be a temptation to deliver things in such a way that we can envision our sayings being used as captions on social media.

3. Confidence that I have been chosen to stand before the people

Don’t allow ambition or preeminence to create doors that aren’t there.

3 John 9 KJV 1900

9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

The best way to be confident that its a God opportunity is to allow God to create the opportunity.

I can be confident that God chose me to stand before the people, when I know that God chose me to stand before the people.

B. Confidence in my preparation

4. Confidence that I have spent time in prayer

Have I spent time praying for the people that I am to preach to?

Have I spent time praying over the passages and points that I will preach about?

Have I spent time praying over my mind and my lips to be given to the Word of the Lord?

5. Confidence that I have spent time in study and examination of the scripture

Have I ensured that I am accurately interpreting the Word?

Have I read the passage and the context surrounding the passage?

Have I studied commentaries and other resources to gain a full understanding of the passage?

Have I moved beyond just a grammatical-historical understanding of scripture and found ways to apply the truth those that I will be preaching to?

6. Confidence in the one clear point that I have been tasked to deliver

Could I summarize the thought or the sermon in one sentence that would clearly communicate what the Word is speaking?

That one point should be supported by sub-points. But having sub-points that lead to that one point, means you have too many points.

Think of the one point as the address that you plug into a gps…that is your desired destination. The sub-points are the roads and streets that you will travel to get there. Adding in streets and roads that won’t ultimately lead to where you are going is confusing and generally, a waste of time.

C. Confidence in my communication

7. Confidence that I am striving to grow in my effectiveness as a communicator

In baseball, confidence as a hitter comes from spending time in the batting cage....watching tapes of the pitcher that Im facing....Watching other great hitter and molding my swing to be more effective.

Have I found other preachers or teachers that I can learn from their method of communication?

If I am called to be a preacher, am I student of preaching? When I listen to great preaching, I am not just listening for motivation, or even information, but for instruction. — I want to get in the mind of that preacher. I want to try to get into their thoughts and see how they were looking at the scripture when they built the sermon. (Matt Tuttle, Aaron Bounds)

I want to learn how men that are great story tellers use that gifting to build rapport with their audience (Scott Graham, Doug White, Jerry Staten)

I wan tot learn how men that are great communicators use their voice fluctuations, and word dynamics to command the attention of their audience (TD Jakes, Anthony Mangun, Mike Williams, Wayne Huntley)

8. Confidence that my thoughts are well-prepared

If you are a word for Word notes preacher, (as I am). i want my notes to be organized. I want them to have a good flow. I want there to be different usage of font size and font colors to draw emphasis and ensure that there is a strong flow in my delivery

For me, a well prepared sermon that is neatly arranged and soundly structured…that has between 2,000 and 2,500 words gives me great confidence. Anywhere under 2,000 and I am worried that I don’t have enough to say. Anywhere over that, I am am worried that I have too much to say.

If you are an outline preacher, make sure that your outline is well constructed that that your points are strong.

If you are the preacher that jots a few notes down on a napkin…God bless you and may the force be with you!

if your confidence rests upon these eight pillars, your confidence will not be self-centered.

You will not wrestle with pride or arrogance. When someone says that is great, you will know that it is because you spent time in the presence of the Lord…that you dug deep into the scripture to bring for the rich truths of the Word of God!

Arrogance and self-centeredness in ministry comes to those that have come to believe that they can live any way that they want and God will still use them.

They don’t spend time in prayer…thy don’t spend time in study…their motives are in the wrong place…they put a great emphasis on being clever and less of a focus on being clear. They do not love the people…but they love the preeminence.

so…Please…for the Love of a good and righteous God…don’t withhold telling a preacher when you feel they have been effective…you are not going to tip that man into a cesspool of pride and arrogance by letting know that they were effective.

I promise the voices that man/woman will hear telling him that the failed and was ineffective are ten times the voices that will tell him they appreciate his labor in the Word.