How To Have REAL Confidence | Pastor Steven Furtick

it's dangerous to have too much confidence in the wrong place in the wrong place but the Bible says be confident you know in this I will be confident doesn't the Bible say that yes but the question is in what will you be confident in what and sometimes we want to have a confident belief without the behaviors that build confidence in our lives you know because to have real confidence you got to have consistency don't you I mean to have confidence you got to have competence competence is built through consistency you got a if you're gonna have real confidence you got to have character amen amen you know what i'ma spend the rest of my life preaching what I think is true whether anybody says amen to it or not I'm committing to that these little gray hairs that keep popping up are trying to tell me you don't have time to get up there in that pulpit and just hype people anymore because while we're hyping people in one sense to believe God we are actually making the problem worse because when their circumstance is not reflecting their confession their faith collapses beneath the weight of unmet expectations and so the Lord was really speaking to me you know because I go back and forth of feeling really confident sometimes and then sometimes I feel I can't find my confidence anywhere and so then I think well I had too much confidence I need to be more humble and then sometimes I think well I don't have enough confidence I need to chest bump myself in a mirror a few times and get out there and put myself back in the game coach get out there and I'm back and forth and God spoke to me this week he said it's not how much confidence you have it's where you put it that counts Paul said I have no confidence in the flesh all of these people who are telling you you need to be circumcised and that's how you prove that you have a relationship with God or you know this temptation that we all have to fake it until we break that's what really happens you know you fake it and you never make it because no matter how much you work to develop your confidence in your flesh it will always fail you it will always fail you and all of this behavioral modification that I know is necessary for us to make improvements in our lives and maybe it's important for us to have confidence if we're gonna stand onstage and give a presentation or go into a meeting that we don't feel qualified for I understand that but my question is have you put that confidence in the right place and the other day I noticed Holly didn't have her wedding ring on wasn't anything sketchy we were just at the house she wasn't going out without her wedding ring on in fact I got that covered too I made her put a tattoo on her ring finger so even if she wanted to take it off it says H and S and so if she wants to leave me the dude is already gonna be narrowed down his name better start with S or she'll have to turn it into an 8 but she is mine but I said where's your ring she said oh I put it over here washing dishes and I asked her question I didn't have to say much I said is that a good place to put it cuz listen she lost it once and when she lost it we had insurance and she got a better one so now I'm starting to wonder are you trying ask somebody next to you is that a good place to put it because you keep putting your confidence in people and you keep putting your confidence in your performance and you keep putting your confidence in your ability to be disciplined and oh I'ma exercise and I'ma stay on my diet this time and I'm gonna pray for 15 minutes every day you know I hear people say sometimes I gave up on God because some people in the church let me down but let me ask you a question your relationship with God is so precious why would you put your confidence in God in how people treat you people will always let you down people will always fall short even if they have good intentions they have limited ability do you really want to put it in people haven't you spent en ough time trusting in people to meet your needs I feel like preaching ask them again is that a good place to put it do you really want to put confidence in your flesh your effort your ability to keep the law now Paul said if you want to play the game of who has more reasons to be confident on the basis of lifestyle or legality he says if you want to play the game whose circumcision is better let's play watch this he starts reading off his resume and what a weird game this is watch this you know people try to top everything Paul's like my circumcision is better than your circumcision because watch verse five I was circumcised on the eighth day when you're supposed to be a lot of the Judaizers the dog they were circumcised after the fact Paul said I was circumcised when I'm supposed to be circumcised because I was born the way you're supposed to be born into the race that God said that he would use to bless all the nations of the earth through so I was circumcised before all y'all on the eighth day I don't remember it I'm glad I got that out of the way early in life I was of the people of Israel so I have connections I was not only of the people of Israel I was of the tribe of Benjamin that was the tribe that the Kings came out of the tribe of Benjamin so he's like I'm already one of God's favorite people because I'm an Israelite and then I'm the favorite tribe within the favorite people come on you want to talk about flesh my flesh is impressive mm-hmm and I was not only of the tribe of Benjamin it was not only a matter of birth I wasn't only born into fortunate circumstances but I was a hebrew of hebrews wow i was i was a hebrew of hebrews I was competent watch this I was connected I was competent in regard to the law a pharisee that's the strictest order of religious law for the Jewish people so he says I was on a scholarship I was a prized pupil of Gamaliel he doesn't mention that in Philippians 3 he mentions that elsewhere that he sat underneath the tutelage of one of the greatest teachers of his day this is like you interned under Elon Musk Paul said let's talk you want to talk to me you dogs that think you're so much better than other people he said I had all of that I was so good at it that I was promoted to the highest level I was so zealous verse six please I was persecuting the church as for righteousness based on the law faultless so stop make sure we got this he's connected he's competent and his character he says according to human law and what you can measure and what you can see and what you can judge faultless connected competent and his character is faultless and he built his confidence to a certain level but then something happened to Paul Paul saw a contrast and sometimes what we need when we get a little too full of ourselves come on it happens to all of us quiet people loud people flashy people low-key people it can happen to every one of us that we start to trust in our flesh and about the time you think you get it figured out you know how we do we get our categories exactly right okay here's the kind of people that are going to heaven and here's the kind of people that are going to hell and the way I know is there are certain things that people who are going to heaven do and don't do and certain people who are going to hell here's what they do and they don't do the only problem that I'm finding with this is a lot of our confidence that we put in our judgments and our assessment is based on our external observations of people and we can never really know anyone's heart and here's what I'm trying to say let's stop being so quick to categorize people based on what we see with our eyes or where they are in certain behaviors in their lives judge nothing before the appointed time you don't even know what battles they're fighting and you don't know how far they've come and you don't know what it's taken them just to keep running the race and they might be limping but they might make it to the finish line because they limped I don't know anymore I put no confidence in the flesh I don't have categories they're not as clear anymore for who's a godly person and who's not and who God is favored and who God hasn't because some of the people that I thought were walking in the favor of God were faking it but I didn't know it until they fell apart Paul's riding to Damascus one day a hebrew of hebrews a pharisee of pharisees in regards to the law righteousness connected and competent connected and competent and all of a sudden he was blinded by a light on his way to imprison Christians in Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem to be sentenced and something happened to him that will happen to all of us in one way or another if it hasn't happened to you yet send me a text message when it does God in His mercy and God in His wisdom knew that if I allow Paul to remain confident in his flesh he will not fulfill my purpose for his life he will live the rest of his life putting his confidence in himself and his competence and his character and so all of a sudden you can read it in Acts chapter 9 a blinding light throws Paul from his horse he is thrown to the ground on the way to exercise his gift with authoritative letters from the Jewish ruling council he falls off of his horse and a voice from heaven asks him Saul Saul who do you think you are and Saul said back I don't know who are you and the voice said I am Jesus and Paul spent three days blind and someone had to lead him by the hand you know that's when life gets really interesting when you're used to leading others when you're used to knowing what to do when you're used to making it happen when you're used to smiling and getting through it but then every once in a while something will come along in your life and you'll say I didn't take a class on this I didn't read a book about this nobody told me it would feel like this I wasn't prepared for this I didn't know it would be like this and Paul said I lost my confidence I lost my confidence and I had to start all over and I had to I had to give up all my connections cuz everybody hated me that I used to serve with and I had to start all over because I didn't know how to preach Jesus cuz I just met him and I had to humble myself and I had to re-evaluate my character because I had been comparing myself to others you know how we do if you compare yourself to others long enough you will come to the place eventually if you're not there yet you'll get there just keep doing it keep comparing yourself to others just keep right on doing it and do it do it to make yourself feel better do it when you see somebody whose kids are on drugs you just silently tell yourself my kids would never do that go ahead go ahead and go ahead and do that just go ahead and do it just go ahead and do it when you see somebody who's not married I'll tell you if they did that they have to go ahead and compare yourself to them because you know you're better than them that's why you're married and they're not just go ahead and compare yourself go ahead and do it go ahead and do it to the other way too go ahead and compare yourself to people that are better than you all the time just all the time look at everybody suck it in on the gram and then compare yourself bloated after a whole day of running your kids around and then compare yourself who didn't have time to eat healthy because you actually care about other people and that's why you had to go through McDonalds but compare yourself to them you won't even know that they're selfish and that's why their body looks like that because they never they never have time for anybody else and all here's what I want you to do I want you to completely compare out-of-context for as long as you can and don't ask the question you know like they're real successful on their job but I wonder are they happy don't ask that question because if you could compare across all the categories you might see that their success is costing them their fulfillment but don't do that just compare just completely take it all out of context and compare what people show you to what you can see and don't take time to wonder what's really going on and don't take time to stop and think about how they're so gifted and they're so just compare yourself to them until you feel so terrible that the only place left for you to go the only thing left for you to conclude the only thing left for you to do is to fall down off your horse and say God I'm sick of myself I'm sick of false standards I'm sick of worldly measurements I'm tired of my flesh I'm tired of keeping up I'm tired of falling short I'm tired of looking around and in that moment you will come to the point that Paul came to in verse 7 where he said I compared myself to everyone else so long and it finally brought me to a point not because I hit the bottom but because I was on top and then something happened in my life I compared myself to Jesus and when I compared myself to him I didn't have anything left to brag about when I compared myself to him I wasn't such a good person after all when I compared myself to him I lost my confidence in me I lost my confidence at how nice I am and how sweet I am and how polite I am and how educated I am when I compared myself to the fullness of wisdom that was revealed in Jesus Christ I didn't bring up my IQ anymore and I didn't show him my SAT scores when I compared myself to him my posture changed when I compared myself to him I quit trying to be first place in a race that I realized I couldn't win when I compared myself to him I fell off my horse and I was led by the hand and Paul says in verse 7 now whatever were gains to me I consider loss I lost my confidence but watch this I gained Christ hey thank you for watching make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or livestream and share this video with a friend and don't forget you can join me live every Sunday thanks again for watching

Channel: Official Steven Furtick

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Id: GY_betMemdA

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 25 2019