Keep Your Confidence
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Level of confidence is something that has been a struggle for me in my life.
There is always a way you faith can get shaken isn’t it?
There is a way that the enemy can try to find a foothold in your life to stop what God is doing in us.
I remember I used to sing in the music festival growing up. A song that was most often sung in the musical theatre class was “I have confidence” sung by Julie Andrews in the sound of music.
Part of the lyrics:
I have confidence in sunshine
I have confidence in rain
I have confidence that spring will come again
Besides, which you see
I have confidence in me
It’s a sung tht tries to boost your confidence in yourself. It tries to amp you up! Get fired up to tackle the things that you have to face.
It is trying to help us be brave for what lies ahead. Don’t give up and have courage!
Do you ever remember being told to “be brave”, “take courage”, be a “big boy/girl”.
Hearing this may not help most kids too much. But what helps is when Dad says “I will be nearby, only in the next room, and I will always be there for you”.
We need a sturdy source of confidence.
In the book of Hebrews the writer does not suggest any sketchy courage or confidence. The whole book is based on the supremacy of Christ.
He is the surest foundation.
Christ is better than anything people have clutched or depended on. He is a solid foundation.
Do not give up no matter what you are facing.
JESUS IS BETTER!!!!
No matter how deep the hole, Jesus is deeper.
Take a look at look at Hebrews:
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
When you are facing frightening situations fix your eyes on your source of strength.
Children look to parents.
Players look to coaches.
Citizens look to leaders in times of crisis.
Looking inside ourselves will not do.
This morning there are three things we need to think about when we are faced with fear, failure or frustration.
Consider
Compare
Perspective
Consider
Consider
Hebrews 10-13 talks about the word confidence.
This word appears a number of times in Heb. 10-13. The whole message behind this is that confidence is found in Christ.
The word “Take courage” is given to us in scripture a number of times, this is not given as a superficial or emotional imitation. It is not advice given to get you to stare in the mirror telling yourself things to get you hyped up.
Or workout music to pump you up!
It must be based in a confidence that is well-constructed!
The original audience of Heb. 10-13 for this letter went into battle confident and self assured but things got scary.
Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
The race started with courage and determination. There was plenty of abuse, there was suffering. Some went to prison, lost property, but they held on because they knew they had better and lasting possessions.
There was loss but things can be taken, what can’t be taken are riches found in Christ.
What was being said here:
We can be beaten, killed, tortured but what can’t be taken is our eternal life. Christ is superior!
This was what it was like in the early days when their faith was new and they were bold and resilient.
Remember what it was like when you started on this road with Christ?
Now as time passed and there is age and you are growing tired the battle was wearing them down. The writer of Hebrews urges them:
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
What is being asked here is what has changed?
Is Christ less sufficient?
Is God less good?
God is still there for us!
You may walk away from your faith but it will never walk away from you!
Courage falters when we move away from Jesus to something or someone else.
We start to wonder if Jesus is better.
When I went to college there were a lot of things I re-examined and it caused me to question things in my life. I was told He was better my entire life and then I was out on my own. I saw that things looked pretty interesting and caused confusion in my life. It caused me to doubt what I believed was truth. My confidence waned in the things I was sure about.
Friends I had to learn if this walk was really something I wanted and not something I did because my parents said I should.
Confidence in Christ gives us the courage to endure and not give up.
Do not throw away your confidence!
Grab it with both hands and do not let it go!
Do not let your focus get shifted to circumstances rather than Christ.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The phrase “lose heart” is also translated as “discouraged” or more literally “so that you will not lose courage”.
The Christians in this book were losing courage because life hadn’t turned out the way they had hoped.
When you put your confidence in your circumstances and then things don’t go as planned your confidence gets shaken.
When you find out that what you have put your hope and confidence in has disappointed you remember - Jesus is better!
Hebrews says your confidence is shaken and your courage is slipping consider Jesus!
What does it mean to consider?
It means that you would assume it means: To contemplate or to think about.
Spend time thinking about what Jesus did for you on the cross!
How he endured suffering for you!
When we consider Jesus we have a tendency to consider our circumstances.
We think about what we are going through currently.
We let our thoughts think about the challenges and difficulties.
We focus on what isn’t fair.
We fixate on our frustration and obsess over the obstacles.
Bypass all that and intentionally consider:
What Jesus endured on the cross!
By bypassing all the obstacles and thinking about what Jesus endured on the cross it gives confidence that we too can endure.
The word consider also means Compare.
Compare
Compare
Throughout the book of Hebrews Jesus is compared to different people and thing to make the point that Jesus is always better!
Intentionally comparing Jesus can restore our confidence and hope!
Compare Jesus to:
your addiction
debt
illness
past failures
future fears
Then consider is Jesus better?
Another way to do this is to look at what your are going through and then compare it to what He went through for you.
When you are discouraged and losing heart consider what Jesus did.
Visualize the whole process from his agony in the garden to knowing he would be crucified for us, to the trial, the long walk up the hill carrying a wooden cross on his shoulders and the final hours of pain He suffered on our behald.
Put yourself in the story and realize what He did FOR YOU!
illustration:
Joe Lee ran a 150 mile ultramarathon through the Sahara Desert.
His wife, Allison, died of cancer a year and a half prior and his run was to raise money for the cancer society.
After the first day of brutal conditions a number of runners had been airlifted out.
Joe reached the 80 mile mark and because of the heart the soles of his shoes blew out.
He had very little protection as he was running through the Sahara.
His feet became blistered and every step was excruciatingly painful.
When he finished the race four days later, he was asked how he was able to endure such pain and exhaustion.
He said I thought about Allison a lot. This is nothing compared what she went through”.
Perspective
Perspective
Don’t throw away your confidenec by confusing your confidence in yourself with confidence in Christ.
We are taught to believe in ourselves and that we can be anything we want to be.
“Believe it and acheive it”.
The sky’s the limit for your potential.
That amps things up. Hypes us up!
What is that really based on? Eventually self confidence gets exposed.
If your confidence is in yourself, eventually that confidence will be tested and found wanting. Something is missing.
When you fail it is hard to get that failure out of your mind the next time you try.
If your confidence is in ourselves, we may start the race strong but after a few falls on the track our failures start to take a toll.
Hebrews repeatedly tells us that courage does not come from a confidence in ourselves or our words.
Our confidence is not in what we have done but what HAS been done on our account!
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
There was a time where we could not enter the most holy place. There was a curtain that marked the boundary in the temple and no one but the high priest could cross it, the body of Jesus, broken for us, GIVES US ENTRY!!!!!!
We can go in boldly tp be washed by the high priest, Jesus himself. We can have the full assurance that faith brings.
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
The idea of entering the holiest part of the temple was mind boggling. With Jesus as the high priest, Jesus is there to cleanse us. Jesus gives us new strength - how could be fear? How could we have confidence? He made a way for us!
Conclusion:
The command “Take heart” is in scripture for those who are losing heart.
Heb. 11 mentions Gideon in the OT who learned to take heart. Judges 6 is where you will find the story. Israel is constantly under the thumb of some other nation, in this instance it is the Midianites. They have driven the Israelites into the hills and caves. The people cry out to God as they do in many other times in Judges. God sends a “judge” a deliverer.
The angel comes to Gideon and tells him he will be that judge this time. Gideon is laying low like everyone else and is quite content with that.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
Think about it. Gideon is hiding out but God sees him as a mighty warrior. Not really what we would call him.
Gideon tells the angel all the reasons he is not up to the task.
Just like Moses did.
Just like we do.
Gideon has no courage, no confidence, that he is the weakest of the family. Then he says send someone else.
Have you ever been there, done that?
Well you may think here comes the pep talk.
You expect God to say Listen here I believe in you! You can do it!
Or that God will act like a coach and give a half time pep talk.
God doesn’t.
He just says five little words:
Take a look at verse 16:
“I will be with you!”
That should be enough!
Gideon takes with him 300 men and some very poor weapons and he destroys a vast Midianite army.
Sometimes people teach this story as Gideon was a clever military man. But he is not. It is all about the power of God and Gideon finding his confidence in that rather than himself.
We have to be delivered from all that and learn to have courage based on confidence in God.
So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
God needs to strip away the illusion and show us where the power is coming from - and where we can’t afford to rely upon it to come from.
It is not about us it is all about Him.
We need to stop making it about our ability and focus on God’s ability and how He uses us!
We need to seize God’s charge to Joshua to be strong and courageous because we go in the name of the Lord!
The life, power and vitality come from the hand of God.
Take time to look in God’s word for times in the Bible where we are told to take heart.
Remember John 16 where Jesus prepaes the disciples for his departure.
Jesus knows their limitations. He knows there is nothing that the guys can do to change the world or even the neighborhood if left to their own devices.
Not to mention the troubles, the hardships, the intense persecution they will face. The odds were against them, humanly speaking and that was about 30 zillion to 1.
Jesus is not worried about any of that. He is the calmest one in the room. He looks at the sea of anxious faces and says:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
But TAKE HEART!!!!I have OVERCOME THE WORLD!
Let that sink in! Jesus is better than the world.
I know there is a lot that this world throws at us. You have worries, doubts, lapses of confidence.
But instead of telling the Jesus about your worries, talk back to those worries for a change. Interrupt them. Be downright rude to those worries and tell them about JESUS!
Tell them he is better - better than they are, better than the world itself. Worries never last, but Jesus is forever!
Jesus is better. Put your confidence in Him. Take heart. Do not give up!
