Holding on to Your Confidence — David Wilkerson

Holding on to Your Confidence — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771 or calling 214 -963 -8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends.

The Confidence and Patience of Faith

Start reading at verse 35, Hebrews 10, 35. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence. I'm reading from King James, which has great recompensive reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by, what? Faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back under perdition or destruction, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Look at verse 6 of chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse 6. But without faith it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Do you believe that? He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I'm just going to have you go back to verse 33. No, verse 32. Verse 32 of chapter 10. 10 -32. But call to remembrance the former days, in which after you were illuminated, after you saw the light, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used.

For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in yourself that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance. So cast that away there for your confidence.

Are you hearing all right? We had problems with the hearing. Is it coming through all right? All right. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for the power of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, I ask you to anoint me now.

I pray not to this people. I pray to you, O Lord, right now. I pray that you come down and overrule and cast out of our midst every evil spirit, every lying spirit, everything of Satan. I ask you, Lord, to bind and cast down and cast out so that our hearts can hear.

Lord, we don't want to hear just with ears. We want to hear with our hearts and the inner man. Holy Spirit, come upon me now with unction from heaven. Lord Jesus, we want to be encouraged by your spirit and your word tonight.

We want something, Lord, to sink our hearts into and our spiritual teeth that will keep us not just this week but until Jesus comes. Lord, we love your word and we thank you. Set us free to preach it.

Set us free to hear it and to live it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, the verses I've just read to you address the son of the most harassed, tried, and suffering Christians to have ever lived on this earth.

In fact, I read to you some of the harassment they've gone through. These dear saints have been walking in the fear of God. They were repentant. They were expecting the coming of the Lord. And Christ was their high priest.

And the Scripture said they had been walking in full assurance of faith. They were not backslidden. They were not cold-hearted. They were not living in sin. They were living a victorious life. They were walking, the Scripture said, steadfast in the Lord.

They were holding fast to the profession of their faith without wavering. There was a strong, unwavering faith in these people. They trusted in God, who is faithful, that promised. In fact, that was their testimony.

God is faithful. He's promised. They encouraged one another. They went around encouraging one another. They took to heart the warnings of the apostles and the prophets. They knew that those who sinned willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, and if they fell away from the faith, they'd be devoured by the adversary.

These people knew that very well. And right from the start, these beloved Hebrew Christians had come under terrible persecution. In fact, there are very few that have been persecuted as much in the Scripture as these that we're referring to right now, to which the Hebrew writer is addressing in this text that I gave to you.

They were objects of ridicule, the writer says. They had borne reproach for the sake of Christ. They suffered all kinds of afflictions. All of their Christian friends were being afflicted just like them.

And not only were they being persecuted and castigated and mocked and ridiculed, their property was being confiscated. They were losing their houses and their lands and their properties. And they were having to move in with other Christian friends.

They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. I don't know if you and I have that kind of faith yet, that we could live in a society like in some communist countries, and they come in and just confiscate your properties.

Well, they're doing that with drug addicts right now. God help us if it ever happens to Christians. Now, they should do that with drug pushers. I am convinced of that. But do we have that kind of faith?

These Hebrew Christians had that kind of faith. And not only was their property being confiscated, their pastor was in jail. In fact, the writer says, you didn't condemn me for being in prison. He said very clearly that you had compassion of me in my bonds.

I was in prison, the writer says, and you had compassion. All this was going on, and you didn't say, well, what kind of faith is that, that our teacher, our pastor, is in jail? What kind of testimony to the community that our pastor is in jail?

What kind of testimony to the world, what kind of faith is this, that causes our properties to be confiscated? We're the mocking, laughing stock of the whole world. What's going on here? All of these terrible hardships fell upon them right after they were illuminated.

He said very clearly, I'll read it to you again, call to remembrance. After you illuminated, you went into a great fight of affliction. That flies right into the face of the prosperity preaching today.

You see, we have a gospel today that says, well, Christians ought to really, if they have a certain quality or quantity of faith, breeze right through it. That there should be no pain, there should be always victory at all times.

You should never have any suffering. We are totally above all of these things. We need not suffer. You know, there are some people that I look at and I wonder if they have ever suffered. Everything seems to go so well with them.

They look happy all the time. I look at them, I say, don't they have any problems? Have you seen people like that? You look at yourself, well, wait a minute, I'm fasting, I'm praying, I love the Lord, and all I'm getting are afflictions.

I have trouble upon trouble upon trouble. Look at them. I know they're not walking any closer than I am, but look what, they're always happy. The bills are always paid. They drive a nice car, they live in a nice home.

And I heard one Christian, he said, it makes me so mad when I see my brother over there and he lives like a king and I'm serving God and I can't even pay my bills. You say, well, what's wrong with me?

Why is it that I have to endure difficulty since I came into the light? When I was lukewarm and cold, I had it better than this. When I was in the Catholic Church just sitting there worshiping something I didn't know anything about, I didn't have to go through all of this trial.

Now I saw the light. I come to Jesus and give him all my heart and the glory of the Lord fills me and I get in trouble. After you were illuminated, you fought not a fight, a great fight of affliction.

Now, do you have a different kind of Bible than I do? Look at it. Hebrews 10, take a good look at it. Don't go any further with me until you stop. Right now, get into Hebrews 10 verse 32. After you were illuminated, after you...

In other words, you opened up your whole life. You said, Lord, I've been living in apostasy. I've been living away from you. You came to Times Square Church, or wherever you got fired up and God said, that's enough.

You gave him everything. You said, no more fooling around, Lord. Everything is yours. And you gave it to him. And brother, everything in hell is dumped on you. The answer to all of that is after you saw the light.

After all of this... You see, Satan attacks you according to the measure of light that you embrace. Those people who are never under attack, they're not walking in the light. Listen to me now. They're no threat to the kingdom of the devil.

You are a threat to the devil and all of his kingdom when you start embracing the light. You say, Jesus, I want everything you are and all that you have, Lord. I'm all yours. No hidden place in me. And when the devil sees you opening up your heart to the light, he sees you going to church with your Bible and he sees the hunger.

He actually sees the thirst in you by your actions. I'll tell you, once the light goes on in your heart, you attract every demon in hell. I mean, the light goes on and it attracts just like bees to honey.

The light gets the attention of the devil and everything he has. And then comes the great fight of afflictions. That's what produces soldiers. Hallelujah. When the enemy comes in like a flood and all things seem to be coming apart and prayers seem to be hindered, heaven seems to be brass, afflictions on every side, then your heart will come along and there will be a whispering spirit come to you from the enemy and it will say something like this, you lack faith.

If you had more faith, if you were closer to Jesus, if you weren't so evil, if you weren't so worthless, you wouldn't be going through this. You'd be happy like everybody else. You'd be always on top.

You'd always have an abundance. You'd hear perfectly from God. You don't hear anything anymore. Everything you hear goes crazy. I'll tell you what, that's not so according to the Scripture. The Bible says, the Hebrews, see, they had genuine faith.

In fact, they were called holy brethren. He's addressing holy brethren. They had such faith that they took joyfully the spawning of their goods and yet they're in the fight of their life. I don't know how the prosperity gospel can't deal with that.

I don't think anything in the Bible could be clearer than that. This minister in this pulpit does not despise prosperity preachers as individuals. It's the gospel that we can't endure. That gospel that would say to Christians, once you see the light and walk in the fullness of Jesus, you don't have to go through pain.

Oh, no. That's when the test comes. And if you're going through the test, that means the devil's trying to douse the light. He's trying to blow the light. Get the lights out. Send everything against them.

Get the lights out. Too much light. If you're under attack, you can be sure that it's because you're seeing the light. Your eyes are being opened. Satan's main objective is to get the light and shipwreck your faith.

It can be a result of sin many, many times, but I'm beginning to see more and more Christians who are going on, walking in holiness, walking in the fear of the Lord, and under tremendous pressures in their life.

Not because of sin, but because of the hunger of their heart. The writer, though, of Hebrews detects a weariness creeping in. They have endured for so long, and he sees an impatience, an impatience creeping in to the house of God, and he comes to these people and he says, You have need of patience, verse 36, that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

Waiting for God's Timing

Now, listen to me, please. The most effective weapon the devil has against God's people is to make them weary in their well-doing, and bring upon them a spirit of impatience. To make us impatient. Oh, I'll tell you what, I'm about to touch a nerve.

I'm about to touch a nerve in all of us. You see, the devil will goad you. He'll try to push you into a spirit and make you impatient with the slow pace of God's work in your life, or things that you prayed about that don't seem to be coming to pass, almost as though God's forgotten.

And it works like this. We pray to the Lord, Lord. You know I trust you. I've been faithful up to now. I never doubt your willingness or your ability to help me. But Lord, when? When? God, when? Take.

How many prayers do I have to, how many tears do I have to shed? Lord, you know I'm trying to walk in holy. You know my heart. When? Now, don't tell me you haven't been talking like that. Don't you lie to the Holy Ghost.

You see, apparently the patience of these holy brethren weren't down, and the fight was so hard, that most of all it was dragging on, seeming with no end in sight. And this is what the devil tries to do.

He tries to make us impatient with God. In fact, the devil, if you really want to know the truth, the devil will come to you and say, God's not there. He doesn't care. He's not here. I had a sister this past week meet me behind stage, and she said, Brother Wilks, you've got to pray for me.

And she really loved the Lord. She's into the Word of God. But she said, I am being lied to. There's a lying spirit that won't let go. It's got a hold of me, saying that this whole gospel thing's a lie, the whole thing about the cross.

And I'll tell you, I don't care how close you walk with God, there'll come a time the devil will dump that on you. He'll try to come and say it's all a fable. There's nothing to it. It's all a lie. It's a pack of lies.

Your prayers are not ever going to be answered. Everything, it's just a dream. It doesn't work. And she was living under that. A terrible attack. She couldn't shake it. Even reading the Word, we prayed with asking God to deliver.

It is a satanic attack on the mind. Trying to ship back our faith and our confidence in the Lord Jesus. He's the accuser. He'll say to you, you'll never get a job. You're going to lose your home. You're going to pray and trust that it's all going to be in vain, because it's all a joke.

Give up. You don't have the right formula. You don't know how to figure it out. Your faith is worthless. You're going to go through it, and all at the end, you're going to be humiliated. And after all of this religious stuff the devil says, and all this that you've gone through, it's not going to work.

What a thing to say to a people. You know, here comes the writer to the Hebrews, and he says to a people, and I got to thinking about that this afternoon. If I had been there, when this letter was delivered, I'd say, who does he think he is?

You have need of patience. You have need of patience. Well, wait a minute, I just lost my home. I've been the laughing stock. I held on. I took joy from the spotting of my goods. I have lived faithfully to the Lord, and then you come and tell me I need patience?

You see, the writer sensed that it was wearing thin. They were wearing out. Their confidence was being shaken. He would have never said, don't cast away your confidence, unless he knew that these holy brethren, these who had held out so long, prayed so hard, were beginning to be shaken.

There was a wavering, and I know they hated, they despised it, but a thought from the devil had gripped their heart, no doubt. We're going down. We're sinking. Oh, God, where is he? Why does it go on and on and on?

Some of you sit here now, you don't understand what drags on. Well, once again, here I go. Same old thing. And I think if I'd have been there, I'd have said, me? Need patience? No, I need God to answer prayer.

I lost everything. Man, I'm living with Christian friends. I'm doing it with great confidence. You see, Godly patience is a willingness to wait for God's Holy Ghost timing. I believe there's a Holy Ghost timing.

I wrote an article once about the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. Just before the Lord answers, the most embarrassing moment of my life came because of my impatience. I lost confidence. It was my 50th birthday.

And nobody, I thought, man, 50 years old, somebody on my staff ought to remember it. It was getting close. And nobody said a word. My wife didn't say a word. And I started pouting. And I'd go around the house, 50 years old, got a staff.

I'm treating everybody well and nobody even thinking about my birthday. And I put on a pout. My wife said, honey, I'll buy you something. I said, that's not it. I said, my staff, they're not a thing. It's nothing.

And tomorrow's my birthday, 50 years old. I'm going to tell you how long ago that was. The day comes, my birthday, and, boy, I tell you, I felt nobody cares. And I was grouchy that day. About 1 o 'clock or so, my wife calls me from the warehouse.

We were in Texas at the time. Said, honey, we have an emergency at the warehouse. You've got to come up quick. And I jump in the car from the house and run over. And the door opens, and there was 100 or so people.

All the staff had banners. They'd been working on it for a month. A surprise birthday party, my 50th birthday party. I wanted to crawl in the hole because everybody knew I'd been pouting. And they knew this was coming.

That's the way we are with the Lord. The Lord's been pouting something all along, and here we are pouting. And are you going to be sorry when you walk in and he's got it all laid out? And he that shall come will come and will not carry.

Now, that's not just his second coming. This means he who's promised to come and meet you on schedule, he'll be there. He won't be late. There's no such thing as God being late. There's no such thing in the Bible.

You know, my son, Gary, Pastor Gary, and his wife, Kelly, left yesterday for London. They called this afternoon. They're in London. And a few months ago, my little grandson, Ashley, 5 years old, heard that they're going to London.

He came in the living room and announced to his parents, You can go, but I'm not going. I will not leave my friends. I'm putting you on notice. Ashley Wilkerson stays in New York. Dad said, We'll see.

You're going to London. And he came back a little bit later and he said, I don't think it's God's will for us to go to London. He said, I don't think we prayed through on this. God wouldn't take me from all my friends.

And Kelly said, his mother said, Ashley, have you prayed about it? He said, No. She said, Go to your room and pray. And he came back about 20 minutes later with his head down. And he's kind of a little pout on him.

And she said, Did you pray? She said, Yes. And Kelly said, What did the Lord tell you? He said, Lord, tell me I didn't need to know if it was his will. I was supposed to go with Daddy anywhere he goes.

I didn't need to know. And I'll tell you something. There's a message in that. Sometimes we don't need to know some of the things we're trying to dig around. When God said, Why don't you answer? God said, Why don't you just trust me?

Why don't you just go where your father goes? Why don't you just believe he's leading you? Hallelujah. I talked to him on the phone today. I said, How do you like London? He said, I'm here. You see, there's no such thing as God being late.

Jesus Is Never Late

Mary and Martha thought he was late when Lazarus died. They said, Lord, if you'd only been here, my brother would not have died. Lord, you're too late. You missed the deadline. Can you imagine the hurt Jesus must have endured from his very best friends?

In essence, Jesus turned to him and said, No, I'm not late. I'm the resurrection. The answer's me. I'm here. I am not late. You know, the household of Jairus thought he was late. Jesus was on his way, and on the way, the child died.

And the household of Jairus came and said, Thy daughter is dead. Don't trouble the Master any further. In other words, he's too late. He missed the deadline. It's all over. It's hopeless. Jesus, can you imagine?

On both these instances, there's nothing but despair all around them. All faith has been shipwrecked. There's no confidence left in any of the people. Mary and Martha had no confidence at all. They didn't even understand him being the resurrection of the life.

They had cast away all their confidence and still Jesus in his love. He was going to glorify the Father. I want to tell you something, something we forget. All it takes is one word from Jesus. One word.

And every one of our problems can be solved. One word. That's all he has to do. He doesn't have to call down a thousand angels. He speaks the word. Rise, Lazarus, and he rises. Rise to the daughter of Jairus, and she is alive.

One word is all it takes. We seem to forget that. That God can change our situation with one word. Strength. Finances. All he has to do is say the word, and it's done. We seem to forget that our heavenly Father just has to speak the word.

Too late. There's no such thing. No. You see, confidence has been shattered on all sides, and yet Jesus reaches out in his love. Hallelujah. Why has the Lord not answered you yet? That prayer you've been praying about.

That thing that you've been asking God to do on behalf of your family. And why suffering now or again? And why does it look so hopeless? All I know, that in such a crisis, God's people will either grow in confidence, or they'll draw back and cast it all away.

You're going to take the crisis that you're in. You're going to take it now, and you're either going to grow through it, or you're going to just cast it away and go down and down the ladder of despair, and draw back, the scripture says, to destruction.

You're going to keep drawing back, and the Lord says, when you draw back, my heart gets no pleasure in you. There's no pleasure. When you don't understand what's happening. When you don't understand, you can't figure it out.

And it seems like you have lost all hope. That's the time to just cast all your care upon Him. That's the time not to try to figure it out. Don't stay up half the night trying to figure it out. The worst thing you can do is try to figure it out.

Ask the Lord to just give you peace of mind and cast all your care upon Him, and go to bed. Look at verse 38 and 39, Hebrews 10 again. Now I will just live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

But we're not of them that draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Hallelujah. Now let me tell you what I believe the Lord is after. Give me your good ear. I believe the Lord is determined to strip us of all confidence in man, and all confidence in ourselves and our flesh.

Confidence in God Rather Than in Man

See, we put such confidence in people. How many times I've heard someone say, I'll tell you what, if he just put a word in for me. If I just had a contact. If I could just sell my house. If this brother would just pay what he owes me.

You see, we spend a whole lot of time telling God how we can answer our prayer. We've got it all figured out. If this happens, and this happens, and this happens, everything's going to be fine. No, it won't.

That doesn't solve it. Because it's always a heart problem. It's deeper than that. You see, the scriptures say it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Trust you not in a friend puts you not confidence in a guide.

Therefore, this is Micah 7, 5 and 7. Therefore, I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. I'll tell you what, God's going to let you flounder until you quit looking for a contact.

He's going to let you flounder until you quit looking to man, to left or right, to some person or someone who's going to figure all this out. If only I could get a break. If only somebody put a word in for me.

No, you're not going to trust in man and ever hear or accomplish in your life what God wants to accomplish by looking to any man. We look to pastors. We look to counselors. We look to guides. We look everywhere.

But to have total confidence and dependence on Jesus alone. I'll tell you what, the Lord in his love will let us flounder. He'll keep testing us until we come to a place that we love people in Christ.

We're part of the body. You can reach out in love. And God does use people. He uses context. But you've got to let him do it. You have to let him do it his time and his way without any manipulation. If you're manipulating, you're trying to make it work.

Especially if you're looking for a sweetheart. I don't know how many young ladies have come up and said, Would you please pray? Pastor, I need a husband. I'm a young man. I need a wife. And I get to thinking, all these men that are praying for wives and all these single women praying for husbands.

You can do it. We're not in the mating business here. And I'll tell you what, you can get in big trouble trying to put people together without God's will. You can mess up their lives forever. I'm not going to do that.

Well, better not say I won't do it anymore. I've done it too much. I'm going to try not to ever do that again. You see, we get in real trouble because we are so dependent. And the hardest thing is to break that dependency on other people.

No, we've got to get our eyes completely and totally on our confidence and dependence on Him alone. Now, God must wait until we lose confidence in all of our dreams, all of our schemes, and all of our ships coming in.

How many millions of people in America are waiting for the lottery to hit? You know that nobody has won the lottery yet and endured it. It's messed up all of their lives. There's going to be the answer to everything.

Now, no relatives are going to talk to them because everybody's jealous of it. And everybody's hounding them. They've got to go out and live in secret somewhere. And their whole lives are messed up. In fact, they have a counseling session now, a special counseling session for lottery winners.

This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two.

God's Provision Through Ordinary Means

It's the deal with the problems of winning the lottery. Please just play them that stupid thing. You know, every lottery ticket you bought, when you stand before Him, He's going to lay it out. He said, so you had confidence in me?

You trusted me? Is that why you bought those things? Now, I'm not going to say any more. Years ago, as a young pastor, in fact, this is over 30 years ago, the first time I came to New York City. The Lord had called me to come, and I couldn't come without settling some accounts, and I owed $1 ,000.

I'd gotten involved in one of those projects I had dreamed up to help the poor. It wasn't God's. It was mine. That's why I wound up in debt. If you do it God's way, you shouldn't wind up in debt. And I wound up owing $1 ,000, which today would be like $10 ,000 or $15 ,000 because that's 32 years ago.

And I had no way of paying that money. Not when I was getting, I think, $60 a week. I couldn't possibly pay that money. And it was due, and I couldn't move to New York. And I said, Lord, there's only one way.

An angel. I'm going to walk down Main Street, and I started naming the streets. I said, Lord, I want you to... I read all the scriptures about angels, and I said, Lord, you did it. It's all through the New Testament.

Angels, angels. You let them out of prison. I'm in a prison. I'll wind up in jail if you don't give me $1 ,000. I got in my car, and I parked it down in Main Street, and I got out. And every man that came down there, I wanted the Lord to make him appear as a man.

Because I'd seen in the scripture some kind of... Is it a theophany, or what do you call it? I don't know what you call an angel. Angel unaware. I started walking those streets for hours. Praying, Oh, God, where's the angel?

Where's the angel? And every guy that walked by, I actually expected him to reach in his pocket and say, Brother, God told me to give you this envelope, and I'd open it up. There'd be $10, $100 bills in it.

I walked and prayed and cried. I asked you to win drug addicts to the Lord if I can't even pay a $1 ,000 debt. Now, don't laugh at me. Some of you have been looking for angels for so long. We don't look for ships.

We got an angel coming in. No angel. The deadline came. I had to go to the bank. And I prayed, Oh, Lord, what am I going to do? You didn't send an angel. Lord, I drove it. The bank was about 15 miles from the little town where I was pastoring.

What a dreaded moment. I thought, Lord, really, Lord, you failed me. No angel. What am I going to do now? And I just walked in the bank, and I must have looked like I was dying. I don't know, but God put compassion on that banker's heart.

He said, Pastor, could you pay $50 a month until it's paid off? I said, Sure. I walked out a free man, $50 a month. And it was an overdue note. And I paid it off in a very short time. But there was no angel.

See, God had a plan. All he had to do was speak the word and move on the heart of the banker, and my problem was solved. And I wanted to get off easier, you see. No, the Lord wanted me to pay back the debt.

It was an honest debt, and I needed to pay it. Don't look for an angel if you're trying to get out of your bills that you have honestly incurred. God's not going to bail you out if you can do it on $50 a month.

Well, that story was anticlimactic. God said they're waiting for the angel. He never came. I'll tell you what did come was the answer. God's way. Hallelujah. You see, every time God's answered me, it's been kind of easy, natural.

When it's all over, I said, Lord, I don't know how you did it. There was nothing supernatural about most of the answers I get. It's just that you wake up one day and look back, Lord, you did it. I don't know how you did it, but you did it.

I remember John Sherrill who wrote The Cross and Switchblade with me, and he wrote God Smuggler, and They Speak With Tongues, and a number of books. And he wrote one about his problem with alcoholism.

He went to England to write a book, and he would go down supposedly to his little office in England, and instead he was going to the pub every day and drinking. He'd come home, and his wife would say, show me what you wrote today.

He said, well, it's down in the office. He hadn't been writing in, he'd been drinking. He became an alcoholic. And he prayed and prayed and prayed, and he couldn't seem to get that. He wanted God to just come down and break it.

And if you read his book, you'll find out that he woke up one day realizing, hey, I haven't had a drink for a week. And he couldn't even remember how it happened or the day it happened. He looked back, he said, I don't want it anymore.

And suddenly he looked back, I don't know how God did it, but it's gone. He didn't know until a week later that the answer had already come, and the Lord was there, and it was not some big blasting thing.

We're looking for spaceships when the Lord just wants us to have confidence in Him. Now, let's move on quickly, please. We've got to come to a place where there's no confidence in our own selves, in our own flesh.

No Confidence in the Flesh

So often I've made the mistake we all make by saying, she needs more self-confidence, or he's got a poor self-image. That poor soul lacks confidence in herself or himself. I've said that so many times, and so what we do, we go about trying to be clever.

We look for charisma. We try to flatter people into trying to build up their ego, and almost every other book that you read in the Christian bookstore now is how to build up the ego and how to build up the self-image.

And it has the stench of flesh all over it. Paul the Apostle said, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh.

In fact, Paul the Apostle acknowledges that I'm not a clever preacher. I'm not clever. I'm not clever at anything. And Paul makes it very clear if you read what he's saying. In fact, they said of his preaching that it was contemptible and his presence was base.