Confidence (2 Thessalonians 3:4-5 Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

27:18

Let's stand and sing. There'll never be a shame, this poor mankind.

28:02

And the Lord heard me, and saved me from my bitter end.

28:13

The Son of God surrounds His saints.

28:19

He'll deliver their madness with me.

28:34

Come, exalt His name together.

28:41

Glorify the Lord with me.

28:48

Come, exalt His name forever.

28:56

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

29:03

All the blessings He will hide to you.

29:10

Oh, fear the Lord when He saves.

29:17

He'll give you everything. Magnify the

29:27

Lord with me. Come, exalt

29:33

His name forever. Glorify the

29:41

Lord with me. Come, exalt

29:46

His name forever. It says in Psalm 34, let us bless the

29:56

Lord every day and night. Without end, let's lift our voices to Him.

30:04

Let's sing that together. Let us bless the Lord every day and night.

30:12

Never -ending praise. May our voices rise.

30:19

Let us bless the Lord. May our voices rise.

30:35

The Lord. May our voices rise.

30:47

Magnify the Lord with me. Come, exalt

30:55

His name together. Glorify the

31:03

Lord with me. Come, exalt

31:08

His name forever. The Bible is an amazing way for God to reveal to us

31:23

His grand story of our redemption. It's amazing how the Bible characters throughout the

31:30

Bible all point to Christ and His redemption. All the while, we know that Christ is better, is perfect in every way.

31:42

This next song, Christ the True and Better, is that the way that we can focus in on exactly those characters and how it represents

31:50

Christ. Let's sing together to our great God, Christ the True and Better. Christ the

32:08

True and Better, Son of God and Son of Man, Who went empty in the garden, never yielded, never sinned.

32:27

He who makes the many righteous, brings us back to life again.

32:37

Dying, He reversed the curse, then rising, crushed the serpent's pen.

32:56

Christ the True and Better, Isaac, humble son of sacrifice,

33:06

Who would climb the fearful mount, there to offer up His life.

33:15

Laid within the palm of the altar, Father's joy and only

33:24

Son, Their salvation was provided, oh, what full and boundless love.

33:34

Amen, beginning to end,

33:44

Christ the story, His the glory, Hallelujah, Amen.

34:02

Christ the True and Better, Moses, called to lead

34:09

His people home. Oh, God's great glory to be known.

34:21

With His arms stretched wide to heaven, see the waters parted in two.

34:31

See the valleys torn forever, cleansed with blood we pass now through.

34:39

Amen, Amen, from beginning to end,

34:49

Christ the story, His the glory. Christ the

35:04

True and Better, David, lonely shepherd, mighty king.

35:12

He the champion in the war, oh, death is now thy sting.

35:21

In our place He bled and conquered, crown Him Lord of Majesty.

35:30

His shall be known forever, we shall e 'er

35:36

His people be. Amen, Amen, from beginning to end,

35:48

Christ the story, His the glory. Hallelujah, from the beginning,

35:55

Amen. Amen, Amen, from beginning to end,

36:06

Christ the story, His the glory. Hallelujah, Amen.

36:15

Christ the story, His the glory. Hallelujah, Amen.

36:24

His glory is magnificent.

36:30

Let's continue to sing. Two great things

36:38

He has done. So loved to the world that He gave us

36:46

His Son. And in His life, He contends only for sin.

36:55

And all hear

37:07

His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. That through Jesus the

37:21

Son, and give Him the glory. Great things

37:27

He has done. Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood.

37:37

To every believer, the promise, who truly believes.

37:50

That moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.

37:57

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear

38:02

His voice. Praise the Lord, the people rejoice.

38:10

Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the

38:16

Son. And give Him the glory. Great things

38:22

He has done. Let's sing that chorus again. Praise the

38:27

Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice.

38:34

Praise the Lord. Oh, come to the

38:44

Father, through Jesus the Son. And give things

38:54

He has done. You may be seated.

39:08

Let's pray. Father, your word says, we are not like so many peddlers of the word of God.

39:18

But as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

39:27

Lord, I pray that you would give me confidence in the pulpit today. That I would know that I am commissioned by you.

39:37

And so the words that I bring are taught by your spirit, expounding your scripture, commissioned by you to bring them.

39:46

Lord, I pray for those that hear, that you would give them confidence in their walk with you.

39:53

For every listener today to be built up in their most holy faith. Lord, you know that every person in this room and listening online is going through trials.

40:06

And it can be discouraging in this world, and the enemy would seek to discourage us. But we pray that your word would fortify us this morning, establish our steps, and more than that,

40:17

Lord, give us confidence to walk in faith. Do this by your word, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

40:26

Many of you have heard of the Kendrick brothers, Alex and Steven, who produced a number of movies.

40:32

And God has used these Christian movies to bring the gospel throughout

40:38

America. Many of these movies have been blockbuster hits. Maybe you've heard of some of them.

40:43

Anybody here heard of Fireproof? That was an awesome movie. The Overcomer, that was about a cross -country runner and how

40:51

God worked in her life. How about War Room? War Room was about prayer and the importance of fighting spiritual battles in the war room of the prayer closet.

41:04

Facing the Giants, great sports movie. Courageous.

41:11

Courageous was the one about the cops, but it was really about their family lives and how fathers need to step up in the home.

41:18

And then most recently, Show Me the Father. Show Me the Father was a documentary which will just blow your mind.

41:25

If you haven't seen it yet, some of the twists in the plot. Spoiler alert, I'm going to share one of those today.

41:31

You've had your chance to watch the movie. Steven Kendrick was interviewed in a magazine.

41:38

It was FamilyLife .com. And he shares about his adoption of a little girl from China.

41:46

In his own words, he says, After having four wonderful children, my wife

41:53

Jill and I were very grateful to God for the blessing each one of them had become to us.

41:59

But as we opened our hearts before the Lord and prayed about His will for our family, we could sense that God still had much more in store for us if we would be willing to trust

42:09

Him. We couldn't shake that feeling that there were simply empty chairs around the table.

42:17

As Jill and I talked about this, she started talking about adoption. Personally, I had supported the idea of adoption in a general sense.

42:26

I know God calls all of us to care for the widows and the orphans, but when it came to our own family,

42:32

I wasn't so sure. I had heard stories about adoptions not always going well, and I didn't want to mess up the good thing

42:39

God had already entrusted to us. A few months later, Jill and I were sitting on an airplane, flying to New York to approve the final master of the movie,

42:51

Courageous. I was reading in John 10 about the Lord being our good shepherd.

42:56

I started thinking about my role as a father, being a shepherd to my children, and then

43:01

I got to verse 16. I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

43:09

I must bring them also, so there will be one flock, one shepherd. In that moment,

43:15

God spoke to my heart very clearly. I know that this passage is about the

43:21

Gentiles being included in the gospel, but God used it right then to show me his heart as a shepherd over my little flock.

43:29

I took a deep breath, and I turned to Jill, and I said, I think

43:34

God wants us to be open to adoption. As usual, she was already there, just waiting quietly for the

43:43

Lord to say the same thing to her husband. I picked up my pen, mark this, and wrote adoption next to John 10, 16, and I dated it.

43:58

Well, it turned out, as the story unfolds, that Stephen and Jill received packets in the mail from the adoption agency being offered to adopt certain children from China.

44:09

In the first case, Stephen just didn't feel peace in his heart. And he thought, listen, if it's not a definite yes, then it needs to be a no.

44:19

So he said no. He got a second packet in the mail weeks later. Again, had to say no.

44:26

This happened four times. Now, turning down an adoption offer four times was difficult for him, and he began to feel bad about it.

44:36

He said, that is not always so easy. If we are not careful, the fear of man can kick in.

44:46

What will other people think of me if I keep turning away these cute little orphans that keep being sent to my door?

44:52

I thought, didn't we say God wanted us to adopt? I told Jill that we should not worry about what others think and keep trusting the

45:03

Lord. When they saw the fifth little girl offered to them, it was like recognizing her.

45:13

This confidence in the Lord welled up inside of them, and the result of what ensued is simply amazing.

45:23

They adopted a little girl from China, a little girl who had a heart condition. Her mother had abandoned her because she was going to die.

45:31

So she abandoned her at a hospital. She couldn't afford the heart surgery, but somehow the surgery was given a few months after she was born, in 2011, in June.

45:42

And this girl survived, and Stephen and Jill Kendrick adopted her. Stephen writes,

45:52

Afterward, I thumbed through my Bible, looking for John 10 .16. When I opened to the page, there was the word adoption next to that verse, and there was the date next to it,

46:07

February 14, 2011, the day she was born in China, the same day that God had told him on the airplane,

46:19

I want you to adopt. Moreover, he says, I was overwhelmed in awe of the

46:25

Lord. God had caused him to write in his Bible, adoption, on the very day dated in his

46:32

Bible when this girl was being born in China. A few months later, in June of 2011,

46:41

Stephen writes, We later discovered that on a certain day in June 2011, my wife and I were prompted together to kneel and pray for whatever child was to be ours.

46:53

It turned out that that was the day she had her life -saving surgery. A third astonishing miracle.

47:03

The Lord led us to name her Mia. We chose that name because in Greek, Mia means one, from Ephesians 4 -5.

47:12

When we arrived in China to get Mia, we discovered that her mother had given her the

47:19

Chinese name that means one. What are the chances? As we hold our new daughter and we see

47:26

Mia blooming in our family, we can clearly trace God's handiwork through our adoption journey. It's vividly clear that he's been saying,

47:35

I'm in this. After all, he describes himself in Psalm 68, 5 and 6, as father to the fatherless, defender of widows.

47:46

This is God whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.

47:53

How is it that the same man who made the movie Courageous and Fireproof and Show Me the

48:01

Father, and all these movies that are speeding the gospel across America, how is it that God also chose him to give this miracle through?

48:17

Better question, or better stated, what pleases the Lord to bless? What is it about a

48:26

Stephen Kendrick that pleases the Lord to bless? In a word, from our text today, the answer to that is confidence.

48:40

Notice that in the story we just read, Stephen had to get rid of his fear of man.

48:47

His fear of man would be a hindrance to the fear of God, and trusting the power of God to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what he ever hoped or thought or imagined.

48:56

The main idea this morning is that confidence is an underrated aspect of the

49:02

Christian life, but it yields oversized results. Confidence.

49:09

Anybody here struggle to have confidence in your Christian life? Anybody here struggle with the fear of man?

49:17

I notice nobody raised your hand, which means you all have a fear of man, because you're worried what somebody would think if you raised your hand.

49:25

No, just kidding. The fear of man keeps us from having confidence in the

49:30

Lord. What pleases the Lord to bless? He is blessed by faith. Faith pleases him, and he rewards those who walk in faith.

49:41

We'll learn that the definition of faith is confidence, assurance of things hoped for. Turn with me to 2

49:46

Thessalonians 3. Today it's just verses 4 and 5. We want to learn about confidence, what it is, in terms of its object.

50:03

But the pressing question for all of us, because we all struggle to have the confidence that the

50:08

Lord would have us walk in, is how do you get confidence? Where does it come from? How does it grow? Wouldn't you like to know that from God's Word today?

50:17

Let's read 2 Thessalonians 3, 4, and 5. And we have confidence in the

50:28

Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.

50:35

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

50:44

The first thing I would like us to see this morning in the text is that confidence is not to be placed in yourself.

50:55

Paul does not here say, have confidence in yourself. Paul doesn't even say,

51:02

I have confidence in you. What does he say in verse 3, verse 4? We have confidence in the

51:11

Lord about you. The object of our confidence must be the omnipotent creator of heaven and earth, the maker of all things.

51:25

Confidence must be in the Lord, not in ourselves. He's pleased to bless confidence, but what is it?

51:32

Turn with me to Hebrews 11, verse 1. It says in Hebrews 11, verse 1,

51:57

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

52:06

For by it the people of old received their commendation. That means God's approval. God was pleased to see confidence in the people of God.

52:16

Faith itself is defined as the assurance of things hoped for, the certainty or the conviction of things not seen.

52:27

Faith is in invisible things, namely promises.

52:33

The words that God has spoken, every word that he has spoken is true and trustworthy. Let God be true and every man a liar.

52:41

God has spoken and faith is taking him at his word. And this faith that we're called to have is actually described as assurance and conviction, namely confidence.

52:57

It's more than just a hope or a good will desiring some good outcome.

53:05

It is an assurance of things hoped for and a conviction of things not seen. So back now to 2

53:11

Thessalonians chapter 3. The first big point is that faith is not to be placed in yourself.

53:20

Confidence does not come from your natural abilities. If you look out at the world in which we live, there are plenty of confident people.

53:29

Presidents, politicians, athletes especially, thump their chest and display their confidence and their abilities.

53:39

But confidence here is not to be placed in you but in the Lord. The Lord is the one who will grant the strength to do what he has promised to do.

53:50

Our culture is diametrically opposed to confidence in the

53:55

Christian life. It's okay in our culture to have a hope or some opinion that you hold loosely.

54:06

But the minute that you say you have certain knowledge and you're confident in the things that you affirm, you are labeled arrogant or bigoted or intolerant in some way, shape, or form.

54:22

But the very nature of faith is confidence in the Lord. And if everything that he has said is true, our confidence should be absolute in the word of God.

54:33

One pastor even chimed in to the postmodern stew and said that the greatest threat to Christianity isn't secularity, it is certainty.

54:44

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Certainty is the definition of genuine faith.

54:52

There needs to be a conviction, a confidence in the very words that God has said.

54:58

Consider a few verses relating to our position in receiving the word of God.

55:05

We are confident enough, arrogant in the eyes of the world, to think that we know things with certainty,

55:13

Hebrews 11 .1. We have sanctified understanding, 1

55:18

Thessalonians 5 .23. After all, we are in Christ, repeated again and again in Ephesians.

55:27

We have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2 .16. We understand what the will of the

55:34

Lord is, Ephesians 5 .17. Therefore, we are able to speak to the world from an elevated vantage point as people who have seen

55:44

Isaiah 6 .1, what others have not. We are able to make judgments, 1

55:52

Corinthians 6 .3, that non -Christians won't understand, 1

55:57

Corinthians 2 .15. We know things, and we're not afraid to say so with clarity,

56:04

Psalm 107, verse 2. We know when life begins, Psalm 139.

56:11

We know how many genders there are, Genesis 1 .27. We know to whom sexual intimacy is given,

56:22

Genesis 2 .24. We know when taxation becomes theft, 2

56:29

Thessalonians 3 .10. We know how many races there are, Acts 17 .26.

56:36

We know whether church lockdowns are acceptable or not, Revelation 13.

56:43

And we know a thousand other things that have the world perplexed. We have ethical knowledge.

56:52

Therefore, we answer political questions and all kinds of questions in a pagan culture.

56:57

And we realize that we have the responsibility to share that knowledge with others,

57:03

Luke 12 .48. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

57:14

The world, the flesh, and the devil conspire to steal your confidence.

57:24

If your confidence wavers, if your confidence in the

57:29

Word of God falls on shaky ground, you are no threat to the kingdom of darkness.

57:36

But with confidence in the Word of God, when your confidence is in the

57:41

Lord, not in yourself, when you take His Word as a sword and you hold it tight, holding it fast in a crooked and depraved generation, that confidence is the greatest threat to the enemy.

57:55

Confidence is an underrated aspect of the Christian life, but it achieves outsized results.

58:07

The decision for Stephen and Jill Kendrick to adopt a little baby from China required bold confidence.

58:17

To wait on the Lord for His timing, for the one that He has chosen to be their daughter, this girl named

58:24

Mia, required confidence under pressure. The trials that you and I face on a daily basis require confidence in the

58:35

Lord. Confidence is diametrically opposite to the fear of man.

58:45

When you fear man, you back away from the things that God will call you to do.

58:52

So, the big point of the sermon today, the big idea that we need to address, and that all of us need to hear, is where this confidence comes from.

59:03

How do we grow in confidence? Let's look back at 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 4.

59:11

It's given to us in the text. Paul expresses his confidence in the

59:16

Lord about the Thessalonians, and he grounds it in something marking them, a responsibility that they have.

59:25

He says that you are doing, and will do, the things that we command.

59:35

In a word, obedience. As the

59:40

Christian obeys the commands of God, the law of God, the prohibitions, the straight and narrow path laid out for us to walk upon, as we obey what the

59:52

Lord has said, our confidence begins to grow. But disobedience shakes our conviction, and we begin to doubt.

01:00:04

Obedience is the path to confidence. Paul himself exhibited amazing confidence.

01:00:10

Can you imagine going from town to town into hostile cities that don't like you, they don't want to hear what you have to say, and being confident that everywhere you go, a church will be born?

01:00:23

That was Paul. He would go into Thessalonica and leave a church behind.

01:00:29

Where did that kind of confidence come from? It came from the Lord. It came from steps of obedience, including active obedience to difficult commands.

01:00:41

If you look at verse 1, it says, Brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored.

01:00:50

Paul was interested in the Great Commission. Go, therefore, and make disciples. And to go into Thessalonica or Berea or Corinth required obedience to that command.

01:01:03

And the same thing holds true for us. When we step out in faith, like Peter stepping out of the boat, we realize that God establishes our steps, and we begin to develop a track record of trust.

01:01:20

The previous verse said to us, But the Lord is faithful. This is how we know that those weapons formed against us shall not prosper.

01:01:31

Isaiah 54, verse 17. Because every time someone raises a hand against us or a word to refute us, the

01:01:40

Lord in the past has proven faithful. No weapon formed against you shall prosper because the

01:01:47

Lord is faithful. This path of obedience is a step -by -step learning process.

01:01:57

When the Wilts and the Wians planted a church in Mount Laurel, and they looked for land, the place on which we are sitting and standing right now was like a marsh.

01:02:13

There were trees covering this, but it was wet. And they purchased this land in faith, believing that God would raise up a church.

01:02:22

And they brought in dirt fill to raise up the ground and make it dry, and they built a building, and we sit here because of their step of faith.

01:02:33

I've seen the same track record in my own life. I've been in ministry for 22 years.

01:02:40

And every step that I've taken, the first being called into ministry to become a youth pastor in Florida, required leaving my economics degree and my business ambitions behind to become a youth pastor at a church, but I found it was the greatest joy of my life when

01:02:57

I made that decision. Each step of faith in the Christian life is met by the

01:03:04

Lord with a blessing of his favor. This is not prosperity gospel.

01:03:09

This means that when you take steps of obedience, God will surely be found faithful to meet you there.

01:03:17

Consider the judges. Gideon was a fearful man in the wine press, and God came to him and said,

01:03:28

Go in this your strength. I am sending you. Well, to go in the strength of the

01:03:34

Lord was surprising to him because he had no strength. He was hiding in the wine press.

01:03:40

But when he stepped in faith, the very next thing he did, the next morning and overnight, was cut down the idols to bail that his father had built.

01:03:53

Can you imagine the anger that he would have faced from his own father? But when the people of the town came to kill him, it was his father that backed him and saved his life.

01:04:07

That first step of obedience resulted in a next step of obedience because when the Midianites advanced, the people looked to Gideon because he had displayed courage in cutting down the idols to bail.

01:04:23

And so the Midianites were camped out in the field, and here's Gideon with the people of Israel standing against them.

01:04:32

God did not want the glory to go to man, and so he winnowed down the fighting force to 300 mighty men who had drunk a certain way from the river.

01:04:44

Remember this story? And the 300 advanced against the enemy, but even still, that night before,

01:04:51

Gideon did not have confidence. And so the Lord sent him with Purah, his servant, to go listen in to the chatter in the camp of the

01:05:02

Midianites. And that night they had had dreams and visions, and saw in the night

01:05:08

Gideon and his army crushing them. And he overheard their fearful complaining.

01:05:16

And with that, a surge of faith came upon Gideon. He led a hundred troops, split them up, and by the strength of the

01:05:24

Lord, the victory was won. The confidence that Gideon displayed in that battle came from steps of obedience, earlier steps, earlier challenges in which he trusted the

01:05:42

Lord. Consider Samson. I heard a teacher recently say,

01:05:49

Samson probably did not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. How many here pictured

01:05:54

Samson as looking like this muscle -bound, just huge dude with all the strength in the world?

01:06:03

Well, when he was with his girlfriend, the Philistines were bribing her to tell them the secret of his strength.

01:06:17

If it was his muscles, if the strength was in himself, they wouldn't have to ask her the secret.

01:06:23

They would say, well, he's just Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's why he can carry a city gate. But the truth is, he probably looked like you back there.

01:06:33

Looked like me. Spindly arms, a regular guy. And yet the

01:06:39

Bible tells us, when the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, he had the strength to carry a city gate up a hill or to tie 300 foxes' tails together.

01:06:52

You know, when I used to read that story as a young teenager, I struggled with that one. I thought, how did he catch 300 foxes and tie their tails together and put torches in the tails and send them into the fields?

01:07:09

That sounded cartoonish to me. And my faith in the word of God was shaken by that.

01:07:17

But then somebody reminded me that Genesis 1 -1 is the biggest miracle in the

01:07:23

Bible. If God spoke the world into existence by a word, there's no difficulty for God to supernaturally use a man to tie fox tails together or for a fish to swallow

01:07:38

Jonah. Or any miracle that you read about in the Old Testament or the

01:07:43

New Testament, the same God that spoke the world into existence can empower men and women like us to do his pleasure, his will.

01:07:53

It's not a difficulty after all. But from this story, the story of Gideon and Samson, you see steps of faith, one obedience leading to greater victories.

01:08:04

Now, Samson also had more than his fair share of disobedience. And that brings us back to the text.

01:08:11

2 Thessalonians 3. Paul is confident that they are doing and will do the things that he commanded.

01:08:23

The key to growing is obedience to commands. In the small thing that you're called to do, that obedience will lead to greater things.

01:08:33

To him whom little is given, little will be expected. To him whom much is given, much will be expected.

01:08:40

And if you're faithful in the small things, you'll be entrusted with greater things.

01:08:47

So the key to growing in confidence is to do the things that are commanded.

01:08:55

Lastly, let's look at verse 5. In verse 5, we see the word may, which indicates that this is a sort of benediction.

01:09:08

It's kind of a prayer. Paul is not so much instructing them as blessing them, empowering them by the speaking and hearing of this blessing.

01:09:21

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

01:09:30

Here we see the potential of confidence. In the first place, we saw the object of confidence.

01:09:38

It needs to be in the Lord, not in ourselves, right? And then we saw where does this growth come from?

01:09:45

By doing and continuing to do what he commands. By obeying is the second thing.

01:09:50

The third thing here is the potential. Paul wants to open their eyes to the ocean of God's love, the steadfastness of Christ, and in that, that they would be confident as he is in them.

01:10:07

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

01:10:16

D .L. Moody was a great evangelist. He traveled the world preaching the gospel.

01:10:22

He founded the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. But he was not a trained orator.

01:10:29

He was not gifted in and of himself. He was plain in speech, and many were surprised by the power of God that was in his life and his ministry.

01:10:43

One time, after many years of preaching, when he had achieved kind of this worldwide fame, when millions of people had already come to Christ through his preaching, someone asked him,

01:10:53

Dr. Moody, why has God used you this way? Moody answered like this.

01:11:02

The world has yet to see what God would do with one man whose heart is totally committed to him.

01:11:12

I endeavored to be that man. The secret of Samson's strength was not his hair, but obedience to God, and the power was in the

01:11:25

Lord. The secret of Moody's strength was not his own abilities.

01:11:31

It was being so captivated by the love of God and the steadfastness of Jesus Christ that he devoted himself entirely to the preaching of the gospel.

01:11:46

Here was a man who, by his own words, said, the world has yet to see what

01:11:51

God would do with one man who was entirely devoted to him. I endeavored to be that man.

01:11:57

Moody made a decision at a point in his life that his life is wholly given to Christ.

01:12:06

Well, how can a decision like that come about? How do you get to that place of surrender, of being wholly given to Christ?

01:12:14

No matter where he sends you, it comes in our text from the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.

01:12:28

The love of God. Mercy Me has a song called The Love of God.

01:12:34

I'd encourage you to listen to it when you get home or on the way home. The lyrics are so rich.

01:12:41

Could we with ink the ocean fill And were the skies of parchment made

01:12:48

Were every stock on earth a quill And every man a scribe by trade

01:12:54

To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry

01:13:00

Nor could the scroll contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky

01:13:06

It's hard to catch all of that in the poem. What he said was, if all of the ocean were made with ink, filled with ink, and all of the sky, the vast expanse of the universe, were a parchment, if every stick, every stock on earth was a quill and every man in the universe was a scribe, if each one took that stock and dipped it in the ocean to write the love of God, it would drain the ocean dry.

01:13:45

The love of God is infinite. And here's how we know the infinite love of God.

01:13:54

This is love, that the Father gave His Son to die for you.

01:14:01

Christian, you want to be confident? Meditate on this thought, that the Father has loved you so much that He gave

01:14:10

His one and only Son for you. Meditate on this, that if He has given you

01:14:15

His own Son, how will He not also with Him give you all things, everything you need for life and godliness?

01:14:23

This is our Father. This is the Father who loved

01:14:29

His beloved Son, Jesus, the one and only, the Messiah, who had been with Him from all eternity, and yet sent

01:14:37

Him into the world to die as a sacrificial lamb. The Father who was willing to see

01:14:44

His own Son pierced through, hands and feet and side, bleeding out

01:14:50

His lifeblood. The Father who turned His face away from His own

01:14:56

Son in order that you and I could be forgiven.

01:15:02

That we would be granted eternal life through that cleansing blood. This is the love of the

01:15:08

Father for you. Christian, you are loved more deeply than you know.

01:15:16

You couldn't write the depth of His love in the universe. It couldn't contain the books that would be written.

01:15:24

This is the love of God for you. And as you meditate on that infinite love, confidence grows.

01:15:34

I'm confident to come into the pulpit not because I'm a natural speaker. I'm not. I remember in high school, anybody in high school have a speech class?

01:15:42

I tried to stand up as a senior in high school and couldn't speak words.

01:15:48

My eyes watered. I was embarrassed. I barely struggled through a 10 -minute speech.

01:15:58

But to stand in the pulpit, knowing that my God loves me, no matter if I twist my words, forget my examples, mess up my illustrations, offend somebody by something

01:16:10

I say, I thank God for this congregation that loves the Word of God. I know this, that as long as I preach this book,

01:16:19

He is with me. And I am loved. So what can man do to me?

01:16:26

And so He removes the fear of man. And by step after step of obedience, confidence grows.

01:16:33

The first thing to meditate upon, to walk into that ocean of His love, the potential of confidence that can grow in you, is the love of God.

01:16:42

And the second thing in our text is what? The steadfastness of Christ. Meditate on His love, the love of the

01:16:51

Father, and on the steadfastness of Christ, meaning the example that Christ set for us.

01:16:58

Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, was sent on a mission. And that mission was far more challenging and impossible than anything you or I will ever be called to do.

01:17:15

He was called to go to the rugged cross on Mount Calvary and die the sinner's death, bearing unspeakable physical torture in His body.

01:17:29

But more than that, the wrath of Almighty God, His own Father, in His flesh.

01:17:36

Bearing the sin of the world on His shoulders. And you know what the Bible tells us? As He approached

01:17:41

Jerusalem, He set His face like flint, rock solid, eyes locked on the prize.

01:17:49

When Peter, His beloved friend, tried to talk Him out of it, He said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan.

01:17:58

He was steadfast to the mission He was called to do. And that is our example.

01:18:05

The confidence of the Son of God. Now nobody here will live up to that example.

01:18:11

But that's the ideal, the full example of what it looks like to walk in confidence. Jesus set that for us.

01:18:20

We can be like David. Turn with me to Psalm 18, last scripture for this morning.

01:18:28

In Psalm 18, we're just going to read verses 28 to 38. And the big idea here, what

01:18:39

I want to communicate, is that we vastly underestimate the depth and the breadth and the height of God's love.

01:18:50

And the example of Christ. And what

01:18:55

God can do with that man who is wholly devoted to Him. David is a close example.

01:19:03

When his heart was right, a man after God's own heart. We know he strayed with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah.

01:19:10

But the general disposition of his heart was a track record of obedience. And look where that brought him when he escaped the sword of Saul.

01:19:20

Psalm 18, 28 to 38. Let these words stir your confidence.

01:19:30

For it is you who light my lamp. The Lord, my

01:19:35

God, lightens my darkness. For by you, I can run against a troop.

01:19:42

And by my God, I can leap over a wall. This God, His way is perfect.

01:19:49

The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

01:19:58

For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our

01:20:03

God? The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.

01:20:15

He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

01:20:23

You have given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand supported me and your gentleness made me great.

01:20:32

You gave a wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and overtook them and did not turn back till they were consumed.

01:20:44

I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet.

01:20:55

This is the confidence of a man who has walked with God. The steps of obedience from the shepherd boy playing the harp and serving

01:21:07

Saul, killing the lion and the bear, killing the giant, fleeing for his life.

01:21:15

In each step of obedience, growing in confidence so that now in Psalm 18, being established as king, he is able to say of his

01:21:23

God, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me in the new covenant equivalent.

01:21:31

Christian, in closing, great and precious promises have been given unto us.

01:21:40

The confidence available to us is limitless. When placed in the

01:21:47

Lord, the object of our confidence must be the Lord, not ourselves. But as we take steps of obedience, continuing on the straight and narrow path and venturing for the sake of the gospel, like Stephen and Jill, Kendrick, taking that step of faith to adopt this little girl from China and trusting the

01:22:15

Lord in that process all along the way. As we take these steps, the

01:22:21

Lord proves himself faithful and our confidence grows. And there is no end to how big that confidence can be.

01:22:29

Confidence, remember, is faith. It can grow and it can grow and none of us has arrived there.

01:22:38

David never arrived at a perfect faith. But what

01:22:45

D .L. Moody said was correct. The world has yet to see what God can do with one man whose heart is totally devoted to Him.

01:22:53

Let's pray this morning for confidence. I'm sure many of us here would admit we lack confidence.

01:23:03

But this confidence is your inheritance. So let's ask the

01:23:09

Lord for it. It doesn't come from us. It comes from Him. Let's pray.

01:23:16

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning. We thank You for Paul's example to us.

01:23:28

Father, He prayed, may the Lord direct Your heart to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.

01:23:35

We pray that over ourselves this morning. Lord, remind us of the love of the

01:23:42

Father. Show us the steadfastness of Christ.

01:23:50

I pray for those who are here this morning and they're being called to step out in faith. Whether it be to adopt a child or to help in the children's ministry or to go out and evangelize friends, family.

01:24:10

Whatever the call upon their life, I pray that You would strengthen them, Lord. This morning, give them confidence.

01:24:19

I pray for those who have a fear of man that You would deliver Your people,

01:24:26

Your children from the fear of man. Give us confidence not in ourselves but in the

01:24:34

Lord Jesus Christ. Establish our steps,

01:24:42

Lord. We pray that You would increase our faith.

01:24:50

We believe, Lord, but increase our faith. We pray for our church that we would be confident in the calling that is upon us.

01:25:04

We know You can do greater things than what we ask, think, or imagine.

01:25:12

We pray that You would give us the faith to do what You've called us to do.

01:25:24

Give us confidence in ministry. Give us confidence in our families.

01:25:30

We pray for fathers to step up and lead devotions and prayers in their home.

01:25:39

We pray for mothers to lead their children and care for them.

01:25:48

We pray for those who are facing death that they would be confident and not afraid.

01:26:01

Oh, death, where is your sting? We pray for those who are sick that they would be made well.

01:26:09

God, You are able to heal the sick. We pray for those who are doubting, beginning to lose their faith, wondering if this word is actually true.

01:26:32

Grant them confidence, Lord, for Your word is truth.

01:26:41

God, we pray that You would do a great work in me right now as a preacher for coming weeks, and for every person who is gathered here in Your name, that You would make us confident to do

01:26:57

Your will. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand. Let's sing. Christ alone, my hope is found.

01:27:30

He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground.

01:27:41

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears are still, when choice.

01:27:57

I come here in the hope of Christ.

01:28:06

I'm scared, but this way, then bursting forth victorious day.

01:28:33

Up from the grave He rose again. And as He stood before me,

01:28:42

His curse I crossed, His pitfall He reduced.

01:29:22

Jesus cleansed my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man could ever pluck me from His hand.

01:29:37

Till He returns, He calls me home. Here in the power of Christ, I'll stand.