Growing in Confidence

Good morning church family!

It is always good to be together, worshiping the Lord together, and sitting under his word together

If you are guest, my name is Stefan and I'm the pastor of preaching here at Harvest

Let’s take out our Bibles and turn to the book of Psalms

We are in the third week of our “Summer in the Psalms” series

And I keep coming back to the fact that the book of Psalms is important for us as God's people because through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the various authors of the psalms speak of realities that we understand very well

Human experiences that we all feel from time to time

And the solution to those human experiences is to put our hope in God

The psalms show us that who God is, and placing our hope in that truth, completely changes the way that we look at the various things that we encounter and endure in this life

And something that we all know very well is the constant pursuit of confidence

This life is full of things that caused me to worry and fear and lose confidence

And we are constantly seeking out something that will serve as a firm foundation for us as we navigate life

[Hook] The problem that we run into, however, is that we all too often place our confidence in the wrong things

We place our confidence in relationships, how someone views us or what someone thinks about us or if someone loves us, that is what will give me confidence

We place our confidence in our possessions or in our wealth, thinking that if I have the right house and the right car and the right amount of money in the bank account then I can have confidence

We place our confidence in our future plans, We set goals and we plan out our lives thinking that if we can achieve those goals then our life will look the way that we think it should look and that gives us confidence now as we pursue those things

And while those things are not bad things, those things were never meant to be the source of our confidence

And in Psalm 16 we find the true source of our confidence

So we are going to call this morning’s sermon “Growing in confidence” because Psalm 16 is going to help us to see where our confidence come from

And if we will hear these words and if we will embrace their truth, we will be a people who will live completely different from the world

Because we won't be placing our confidence in things that can't deliver

We will be placing our confidence in the One who always delivers - And that is God himself.

So let’s give these words our full attention

Psalm 16 “A Miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

These are God’s word for us - May we have ears to hear them and hearts to obey them

Big Idea: My confidence grows when the Lord is my delight. [7:00] [-33]

My confidence does not grow because I got a raise

My confidence does not grow because I finally met the person who I think I'm going to marry

My confidence does not grow because I have a full proof plan for the next 10 years of my life

The reality is that when we place our confidence in other things, what we are really doing is we are finding our delight in those things

We are seeing those things as worthy of my whole life being spent in the pursuit of them

But you and I were made to delight in the Lord, to spend our whole life in the pursuit of enjoying him

And when we find our delight in him, it will change everything about how we live

Confidence doesn’t come from getting the life youn dreamed of

Confidence comes from living the life you were made for

And we were made to delight in the Lord, and our confidence will grow when the Lord is our delight

[Bridge] What changes when my delight is in God, not things in this world?

How does delighting in the Lord actually reshape my life in way that gives me confidence as I live?

We are going to say “Delighting in the Lord reshapes…”

And then we will see three things about us that will change when we delight in God… and these three things will result in a renewed confidence in this life…

Delighting in the Lord reshapes…

How I love (1-4) [10:00][-30]

Have you ever noticed how quickly your relationships change when your priorities change?

You pick up a new hobby and now you have new friends

You walk away from addiction, and you lose a lot of friends…

That is because we naturally give our affection to the people who enable what we treasure

And we naturally avoid people who get in the way

The point is this: Who we love is often linked to what we treasure.

And in v. 1-4, David helps us to see what we should love most and how that impacts the way we relate to those around us

Look first at v. 1-2

Psalm 16:1–2 “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord”

Now it isn't as obvious in English, but in these statements, David uses three different terms for God

Whenever you see in your English translation the word “God” in the Old Testament, that is the Hebrew word "El” or “Elohim”, which is the general term for God

Whenever you see the word "LORD” in all caps, That is the Hebrew word for the personal name of God, YHWH

Whenever you see the word "Lord"”with a capital L and lorwer case “-ord”, That is the Hebrew word “Adonai” which means “master.”

So we could translate this verse so that we can hear the various terms for God and how it impacts the way that we understand what David is saying

“Preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge. I say to YHWH, ‘You are my master’”

When we read it the way it sounds in Hebrew, we can see there is a specificity to this cry

It isn’t a generic plea to the idea about God

It is a plea that is directed to YHWH as master

And his plea is to “Preserve” him

The word there is a word for guarding or protecting

So we put it all together and David is saying, “Lord, guard me for in you alone is safety.”

Now, safety from what?

Well, look at the rest of v. 2

“I have not good apart from you”

God is the source of true goodness

Apart from him, anything that I might consider good is not actually good because it is detached from the giver of good.

David is essentially saying, “Protect me from seeking goodness in anything that is apart from you, for you are master over my life and my confidence comes from resting in you.”

To go delight in anything else is to expose ourselves to harm, not goodness.

Church family, we have to admit to ourselves how easily we can be drawn away from the Lord because we love other things more than we love him.

Look at the people you most admire.

Look at the voices you listen to.

Look at the things that consume your attention.

Those things reveal what you delight in

And if those things are leading you to look for goodness somewhere else, it means you are delighting in something other than God himself.

David’s plea in v. 1-2 should be our plea as well

“Lord, guard me against pursuing the wrong things. Help me to take refuge in you, my master.”

And when we do this, it will then have a direct impact on how we view others as well.

Look at v. 3-4

Psalm 16:3–4 “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”

David is helping us to see the direct connection between our human relationships in light of our relationship to God

When I am delighting in the wrong things, it will be evident in the people that I surround myself with

But when I am delighting myself in the Lord, it will also be evident in my relationships

"The saints" refers to those who are set apart for God's purposes

To be a saint does not mean that you are a super Christian or Uber spiritual

It means you see your life as being devoted to the Lord

And David is saying, "I delight to be with those who are devoted to you because I am devoted to you.”

But look a the contrast

Psalm 16:4 “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”

To delight in anything else will only lead to sorrow

Now, you might say, “Stefan, I might be delighting in my work or money or other things… but I am not running after other gods…

And I am certainly not pouring out blood offerings

Well… a god is anything that I make into the highest pursuit of my life

Whatever I devote myself to, that thing is functionally your god

And when you sacrifice things in order to get that highest pursuit… that is your offering to that god.

Sure, you might not be worshiping Dagon, or Baal, or Artemis… but we pour out offerings to fame, success, sex, comfort, and all kinds of other things all the time

And when werun after those things, we will align with others who do and we will do what they

But when we are delighting in the Lord, it changes how we love

Rather than loving the false gods of our culture, we love the the Lord

And we will surround ourselves with people who also love the Lord.

And there is confidence that comes in this

When I am loving things that take me away from the Lord, there is no confidence because those things are temporary and were never meant to satisfy us

They are fragile and fleeting and ever-changing.

But when i am delighting in the Lord, I have the safety of knowing that I am where I should be, doing what I was made to do

So even if my life doesn’t look the way that the world says, I know that it looks the way God intended… which is the most confident life I could live.

So that is the first thing that delighting in the Lord reshapes

Second, Delighting in the Lord reshapes…

How I live (5-8) [21:00][-19]

In my own life, and in observing the lives of others, I find that quite possibly the most common reason we struggle with confidence in our lives is because we first struggle with contentment.

What we have never satisfies the yearnings of our hearts and so we are constantly trying to get more or get something new, thinking that perhaps that will finally fill the void.

The constant feeling that maybe a different car or a different job or a new relationship will finally be the ticket to the life that I have been dreaming of

But it never seems to work

In fact, the more we run after things, the more insecure we become because the thing I thought I needed didn’t actual fix what I was feeling.

But while discontentment brings insecurity, contentment brings confidence.

So how can we find the contentment in life that leads to confidence

David is going to show us three truths that should leads us to find contentment

Confident Contentment:

God is enough for me (5-6)

God’s provision is not that he gives us everything we want - It is that he gives us everything we need for the life he has purposed for us.

Psalm 16:5–6 “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”

David uses the language of land, inheritance, and property.

In the ancient world, your inheritance was your future.

Your security.

Your wealth.

Your identity.

Yet David says: “The Lord is my portion."

Notice what he does not say.

He does not say: “The Lord gave me the portion I wanted.”

He says: “The Lord himself is my portion.”

David's confidence is not rooted in the circumstances God assigned to him.

His confidence is rooted in the God who assigned them.

Most of us spend our lives thinking: “If my lot changed, I could be content."

David says: “Because the Lord is my lot, I am content."

There is no end to the things that you could pursue to try to increase the provision in your life

But then you be living a life of constantly chasing more…

So, let me ask you a difficult question:

What if the life you are living right now is all it will ever be?

No promotion.

No bigger house.

No improvement in your health or your relationships

No new season that finally fixes everything.

What would it look like to live that life in a way that says, “God is enough for me - Let me use this life to enjoy him”?

Well, presently, that is the life you have - So live it as if God is enough for you

Because he is enough

Our confidence in this life is not in the idea that this life will get better

Our confidence in this life is rooted in the fact that no matter how bad this life gets, God will always be enough for us.

The next truth that leads us in confident contentment is the truth that…

God guides me (7)

Psalm 16:7 “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.”

To bless the Lord is to celebrate the beauty of God

David is saying, “I celebrate the beautiful truth that my counselor is the Lord”

One of the reasons we struggle with confidence is because we constantly wonder:

"Am I making the right decisions?"

"What if I make a mistake?"

“Am I following the right steps to build the life I want?”

David's confidence is not that he always knows what to do.

His confidence is that the Lord is his counselor.

The world offers endless advice.

New strategies.

New philosophies.

New formulas for success.

But David says: “My counselor is the Lord."

He guides me in how I should live

His Spirit leads me as I walk

I often hear people ask, “How can I know God’s will for my life?”

And that is really the question of: What if I get it wrong?

If you are seeking to delight in the Lord in your daily life, he will guide you through your life to be in his will.

You want to know the surest way to miss the will of God in your life?…

Delight in other things.

Because his will for your life is to delight in him

The question of being in the will of God for your life is not the question of the big life decisions that you were going to make

It is the question of the daily delight of your life

And when our delight is in the Lord, and he guides us through his perfectly wise council, we can be content with where he has us and confident in where he is leading us.

God is with me (8)

Psalm 16:8 “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

This verse highlights the presence of God as a help to us when we fix our eyes on him

To be “always before me” is to say, “God is constantly filling my vision, shaping my desires, directing my motives.”

And he is with me

This isn’t generic spirituality of “God is everywhere” - This is the biblical truth that God is with us as his people.

He will never leave, so you’re never alone

He will never be distant, so you are never facing anything alone

So no matter what you face in this life, you can be confident that he is near

What is threatening your confidence today?

In the choices you are making and in the things you are pursuing, what insecurities and fears are rushing in?

Listen to the words of Psalm 16

God is enough for you

God guides you

God is with you

And those three truths will change how we live.

When we believe these truths, there is nothing we cannot face - We will have confidence because we will have contentment in the Lord.

In fact, that is the point of the most misunderstood and misquoted passage in all of the Bible…

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

A lot of times, we quote that like, “I can accomplish anything”

I can do all things through a verse taken out of context

Here is what Paul actually said…

Philippians 4:11–13 “I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

I can be content in any circumstance… because of the strength that Christ supplies.

Because delighting in the Lord reshapes how I live

Living with confident contentment.

And finally, Delighting in the Lord reshapes…

How I hope (9-11)[30:00][-10]

When we place our hope in things in this world, especially the circumstances of our life, eventually those things will be crushed by our own headstone.

Wealth, success, relationships, promotions… eventually they all get snuffed out the day we die.

And then they are meaningless.

And the hope we placed in them will be shown to have been futile.

Yet, David has the only hope that is able to survive death and is the source of true confidence.

Look at v. 9-10

Psalm 16:9 “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.”

He is using the present tense, meaning this is an on-going reality for him.

But we have to make sure that we don't misunderstand what he is saying

He is not saying, "because my delight is in the Lord, life is just peachy.”

"Nothing is wrong, everything is working out the way I want it to , I'm just out here living my be”s”t life

If you read in 1-2 Samuel as well as 1 Chronicles, there are not very many periods in David's life where things are going great

Instead, He is able to say all of these things in spite of whatever may be going on around him

It is not that life is going great… Look at the reason for his confidence and hope

Psalm 16:10 “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”

Sheol is the place of the dead…

Because you will not abandon me in death… I rejoice and am secure in this life.

If your hope is tied to circumstances in this world, there is no hope when death comes.

But when your hope is tied to your security and preservation, even in death, your hope is unmoved in this life.

Now, it is a fair question to ask, “How can I know this is true? How can I have that confidence?”

Because if you think about it, David died.

But he was confident of something that would come after death that would mean his death wasn’t the end

Now, in Acts2 & Acts 13, Peter and Paul show us that the reason this confidence is sure is not because of David or because of us, but because of Christ

They explain that these verses are ultiamtely fulfilled in him

Jesus is the one who perfectly delighted in God

He lived the perfect life that we could never live.

He died the death that we deserved to die.

And then, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.

God did not abandon His Holy One to the grave.

Death could not hold Him.

The tomb could not keep Him.

The grave could not defeat Him.

And that resurrection is God's declaration that every promise He has made is true.

But here is the part that should fill us with hope:

The resurrection is not merely proof that Jesus conquered death.

It is proof that everyone who belongs to Jesus will conquer death as well.

Because by faith, we are joined to him

His righteousness becomes ours.

His death counts for us.

And His resurrection guarantees our future.

Church family, the reason God will not abandon you in death is because He did not abandon Christ in death.

And because of our union with Christ, everything we had became his (Our sin, our shame, our guilt…)

So that everything he has can become ours (His life and his love)

[If there is time - Romans 8]

And so our hope is not in this life, but in the confidence that even death won’t separate us from God

And when we delight in the Lord in this life through Jesus Christ, he will be our delight forever

Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

I want you to think for a moment… If someone asked you, “What is heaven?”

What would you say?

Perhaps you would say it is a place of joy with no pain, no sorrow, no suffering

And those things are all true… But my question for you is, “Why is that the case?”

Why is it a place of joy and no pain and no sorrow and no suffering?

Because it is the place where our delight will be in the Lord fully, and forever

It will be the place where we live as were meant to live - True life, full of joy, because we get the very one in whom is all our delight.

[CONCLUSION]

Every person in this room is delighting in something.

Something is capturing your affections.

Something is shaping how you live.

Something is determining where you place your hope.

And that has a direct impact on your confidence in this life.

Psalm 16 calls us to stop looking for confidence in things that cannot bear the weight of life and instead delight in the Lord.

He reshapes how you love, how you live, and how you hope.

And our confidence will grow as we delight in him.

Amen.