Confidence Over Condemnation | Rekindle - Pastor Mike Bryant

😔 Ever feel like you're constantly messing up?

😔 Like no matter how much you pray, read your Bible, or go to church, you still feel guilty… distant… or spiritually dry?

You're not alone.

In this powerful message, Pastor Mike Bryant reminds us of the good news of the Gospel: Jesus didn't come to condemn you—He came to restore you.

After Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus didn't shame him.
He simply asked:

❤️ "Do you love Me?"

There's a huge difference between:
❌ Condemnation—which pushes us away from God through shame and hopelessness.

✅ Conviction—which lovingly pulls us closer to Jesus and leads us to repentance and freedom.

If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or spiritually numb, this message is for you.

Because Christianity isn't about pretending you're perfect.
It's about bringing your brokenness to Jesus and letting His grace change you.

At Fierce Church, we're Helping You Walk with Jesus Step-By-Step because The Best U is in Community.

👇 Have you ever struggled to tell the difference between conviction and condemnation? We'd love to hear your story in the comments.

#Gospel #Grace #Christianity #Jesus #Shame #ChristianEncouragement #SpiritualDryness #FierceChurch

Transcript

Welcome And Why Condemnation Matters

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Good morning, Fierce Church. How are you this morning? Wow, it is so good to be with you. Baptism Sunday is like one of my favorite Sundays. So what a blessing to be with you on this special day. But I'll tell you, we love Fierce Church up at Grace Community. We are so big fans of yours and uh just so thankful that we get to partner with you and the other faithful churches preaching the gospel in this community and just being lights for Jesus. So thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your, you know, just just how you evidence and show Jesus. Thank you for sharing your pastor with us. And I just want to say great move giving your pastor a break. I tell you, the the weight of ministry can really uh can tear at a pastor's soul. So to give him a sabbatical like that, the ability to step away, refresh, and and not be a leader of everything, but just be a follower only. Oh, it's so healthy and so helpful for his soul. So thank you for doing that. Um, I am thrilled to be able to be part of just what God is doing uh here over this uh this summer and want to bring you a message from God's word entitled Rekindle Confidence over condemnation. Anybody struggle with con condemnation in their lives? You experience that, you hear those voices inside, it assails your heart. Man, uh that is something I found is very common to many. In fact, I was reading online accounts. Uh, one woman said that uh she was sharing how a conflict with another Christian led her to being rejected and expelled from her friend group. Um, despite her efforts to reconcile, she was condemned for losing her temper, and the experience left her feeling like a failure and questioning her spiritual standing. Maybe you felt that way as well. A man described himself feeling spiritually cut off from God after repeated failures to overcome a particular sin. I think we've all struggled with sin, right? And he believed that he had, quote, grieved the Holy Spirit too much and feared that he was beyond redemption, even describing himself as a quote, vessel for destruction. Or another individual recounted how after a financial mistake, he felt overwhelmed by shame and self-condemnation, believing he was unlovable and a fraud, even though no one had directly accused him. And maybe you felt that. If you felt a condemnation, you felt that guilt or that shame overcome you, those voices hit you. Can you just show us this morning? Let us know that we're not alone. If you felt that condemnation, you man, this is something that we've all experienced, I think, over and over and over again. Maybe it was a mistake you made, maybe you went too far or said too much, or you're overwhelmed by your shortcomings and failures. Maybe it's a significant criticism from someone or a group of people, and it's been so hard or it's hit so deep that it's living now up in your head, and you hear their voices displacing the very voice of God in your life as well. Um, maybe it's just uh Revelation 12, you know, Revelation 12 says Satan is the accuser of the brethren, right? And you just get the accusations of say Satan just hurled at you over and over and over. Well, I'm telling you today that the gospel encourages us to rekindle confidence over condemnation, right? Um, and uh, and if we don't find this, if you are struggling with condemnation, how many of us have known the person who has uh experienced that ongoing, doesn't find hope, doesn't find the strength, and their faith begins to become dwin uh dim and their the fire begins to dwindle within and uh it really kills the fires of faith. But friends, today the gospel is going to instruct us how to find confidence over condemnation. Anyone up for that?

What Condemnation Sounds Like

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Well, if you're up for that, why don't you uh write this point down if you're taking notes? Number one, condemnation kills the fires of faith. That's what the Bible says. Uh the Bible teaches that, but we got to know first what is condemnation. Let me read this uh definition for you. Condemnation is the sentence of guilt and the subjection to punishment to atone for such guilt. It elicits an abiding, oppressive feeling of guilt, shame, and unworthiness that focuses on one's identity, declaring you are bad rather than acknowledging a specific wrong action. Condemnation actually leads to fear and hiding and a sense of separation from God and from others because it denies the possibility of grace and it implies that forgiveness is unattainable. Man, if you hear those words, maybe you're just feeling that today, going like, wow, pastor's exp he's just saying exactly how I would live my life. I feel like it's coming at me all the time and all over the place. Condemnation is real and it can kill the fires of faith. In fact, I want to show some descriptors real quick. What does condemnation look like? Uh first, condemnation comes from the enemy. This is not something that's coming from Jesus. This is not coming from heaven, this is not coming from the Father who loves you. It's coming from the enemy. It is usually general and vague. It emphasizes your past, wanting you to live in your past and ruminate on your past so you can never move forward in life. It heaps upon you accusations about your identity. It's destructive and hopeless and leads you to slavery, oppression, and isolation, and it leads you away from God. Man, I hate condemnation, but oh, how I feel it so often. Lord, save us from that. How can we have the freedom from that? Maybe you've sinned too much, or your mistakes are too great, or you are here today and you feel unlovable, or you feel unacceptable, or you feel unforgivable as well. I mean, could you imagine what condemnation would have done to one of our heroes of

Peter’s Failure And Jesus’ Restoration

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the faith? What it would have done to the apostle Peter. Remember the Apostle Peter seemed like such a strong apostle, strong disciple. He was learning so well. And then what happened in John chapter 18? Peter denied Jesus three times. This guy who had known him, who had walked with him, who'd done ministry with him, who had been restored from his sinfulness to Jesus. And then all of a sudden he's given the opportunity to be a bold witness and to stand for Jesus. And he shrinks back and he denies. He's like, I don't know the man. I'm not who you think I am. I don't know Jesus. A rooster crows, Jesus looks at him and he knows, Oh, I've just denied my Savior. After Jesus rises again victoriously, comes to his disciples, could you imagine if Jesus pulled Peter aside and it was like, Peter, you disgust me. Peter, how could you do that? Like all I've given to you, all I've poured into you, and this is how you treat me, you're worthless. I don't want you around anymore. Get out of my face. Is that what happens in John 21? Did you read your Bible like I did? I love the book. I love the end of John. Why? Because Jesus asked Peter three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Because he denied him three times, right? And each time Peter's like, Oh, yes, Lord, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And the whole reason Jesus is saying, Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? is not so that Jesus can believe it and he can prove it to Jesus. No, Jesus already knows it. And Jesus is like, Peter, you need to believe it. You need to believe that you love me. And so every single time, don't sit in your so sit in your failure, rather go tend my sheep, care for my sheep, lead my flock. Yes. Condemnation can kill the fire of faith if we don't rekindle confidence, if we don't find hope and

Receive The Gospel Again

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strength. So how do we find that confidence? I'm gonna spend the rest of our time this morning talking about that. The first way to find confidence and to rekindle that over condemnation is this confidence comes as you receive the gospel. Confidence comes as you receive the gospel. What is the gospel? Anyone, any, anyone? Let me give it to you in one word. I'll make it easy. One word, the gospel. Jesus. Right? If if anybody's like, what's the gospel about? Just be like, Jesus, right? It might be the Sunday school answer, but it's right. Right? So Jesus is the gospel. Or you can say his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. That's 1 Corinthians 15. His life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. The fact that Jesus or God the Father saw sinful humanity. He saw us in our broken estate. He saw that we were condemned already because of Adam's sin all the way back in the garden that we inherited from our great, great, great, great, great, great-grandfather, but also because of our sin as well. And we live in this state of judgment. We lived in this state of condemnation. We live in this state alienated from God, as the scriptures tell us. And yet God saw us in that estate and he said, I don't want that to be the case of the people that I love. And so he sent Jesus. And you know what Jesus did? Jesus came to this world and he lived the life that you and I could never live in ourselves. He lived perfectly according to the commands of God. He obeyed the Father in every way. He fulfilled the righteous requirements of God because he is glorious, he is holy, he is perfect, and that standard needed to be fulfilled. And you and I keep trying to do it, but we can never attain to it. That's why Jesus came. He lived a sinless, perfect life, fulfilling the obedient commands of God. And then he gave his death on the cross as substitution for you and me. It was Jesus in my place. That's the gospel as well. Jesus in my place. And so Jesus went to the cross and he took the punishment that you and I deserved. Because we couldn't meet the standard, Jesus is like, I'll take that punishment. I'll take it on myself so that those who would trust in me would be able to go free. They wouldn't have to die the way I will have to die. And you can live beside so his sinless life, his substitutionary death, his physical burial in the ground. That is important to the gospel. Why? Because Jesus didn't swoon on the cross. He wasn't just sort of dead. I'm almost dead. No, he was fully dead in the grave, gone, right? And then on the third day, he rose victorious. He rose victorious, purchasing salvation for you and for me, vindicating everything he said and triumphing over Satan and triumphing over the kingdom of darkness. And he provides that all for us. And the blessings that flow from the gospel. Now I get Jesus' sinless life. That all that righteousness that Jesus accomplished is credited to me by faith in Jesus. It's something that I don't, I could never achieve it. You could never achieve it. But when we trust in Jesus, God's like, well, fine, I'm giving you all of his righteousness. It's like your account was like negative infinity, and all of a sudden Jesus came in, and now your account is like bumper crop, and you're like full and flowing over with the righteousness of God. Fully complete, fully saved, fully justified in Christ. That's the beauty of the gospel, friends. And when you receive that, that changes your standing before God. That begins to fill you with a confidence that you could never find in yourself or find from some self-help manual. No, no, no. This is the power of God through the word of God through the Son of God. The confidence comes when you receive the gospel. Now, some of you are like, Pastor Mike, well, I've received the gospel and I'm still experiencing condemnation, right? How many of you are like that? You're like that with me. I'm a follower of Jesus, and why do I still have these condemning thoughts? I received the gospel. You know what we need to do in the midst of that? Condemnation when it comes? Receive the gospel again. Receive it. Keep receiving the gospel. That does not mean you get saved again and you lose your salvation. You get saved again. No, no, that's totally unbiblical. That's not what the scriptures teach. What the Bible teaches and what it's telling you in receiving the gospel again, it is reappropriating the truths of the gospel, going back to the gospel and going, yes, I feel like a failure. Yes, I feel unloved. Yes, I feel like I don't measure up, but the scriptures and the gospel tell me differently. And it's receiving the goodness of God, Jesus, his life and his death, and his resurrection and his justification. So the next time Satan's like shoving your sin and the sin of your past in your face, you just go, that's under the blood. That's under the blood. Jesus nailed it to the cross. He died in the grave and it's forgiven. And I got the resurrection to prove it. I don't need to listen to that anymore. That's in my past. Confidence comes as you receive that gospel every single day, every single moment. Some of you may need to receive the gospel because you're working too hard, right? Some of you are on this side where you're working too hard, like this person. They said, I feel spiritually drained. I feel condemned and full of guilt. Listen up, church member, church worker, somebody who's been serving so faithfully, somebody who has been seeking Jesus so hard, somebody who's been telling others about the faith and trying to put on all the ministry, and you're weary from it. I said, I was a church worker, always on fire with God. I love the Bible and doing ministries, but these past months, I was so busy with a lot of things in my work, event by event, businesses and other things. I now feel a gap in death spiritually. I'm now lazy reading my Bible. I don't feel like having devotions, and my prayers became shorter. I'm ashamed of dealing with this guilt every single day. When I find time, I mostly spend it watching a movie or browsing in social media. This is my own my way of unwinding from busy life instead of doing Christian stuff. I don't know how to turn back. I need some encouragement and prayers, please. They have the Martha syndrome going on in their life. Remember Martha and Mary? Mary is the one sitting at Jesus, enjoying his presence, going, like, man, we don't get this often. I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna listen and be with this guy. Martha's in the kitchen going, Jesus is so awesome. I'm gonna make him a cake. And she's working so hard, she's doing all those things. She comes on, she's like, Mary's sitting on her butt, just doing nothing. Jesus, tell her to get to work. And Jesus' like, hey, hey, hey, Mary. You're worried about so many things, and one thing is most important. It's me. It's being with me. I'm here. I mean, this is a guy who like fed 5,000 just by like on loaves and fish. Right? He's like, I think I can bake a cake for myself. Right? Know what I'm talking about? But some of you are feeling that spiritual drain or that condemnation that comes because you're like, man, I'm not a good enough Christian right now. And you know what we do in the midst of that condemnation? We just work harder. Some of you work harder and harder and harder, and you're like, well, I gotta be better and I gotta do more. And I no. What you need to do is go back and receive the gospel. Because it's not about my works, it's not about how much I've accomplished. I do works, yes, and I follow in obedience and the things of God, but I do that as an overflow of receiving the goodness of the gospel. What Jesus has done, it's already done. The work is already completed. So as I work, I can work lighter. And as that condemnation comes, I can push it away by going, man, Jesus is enough. Right? Yeah. Confidence comes as you receive the gospel. Here's the second point.

Renew Your Mind With Truth

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Confidence comes as you renew your mind in truth. As you renew your mind in truth. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Right? How many of you have that kind of condemning conscience, right? Maybe you're like this person. One writer describes feeling guilty regardless of their actions. Oh man, what a what a death sentence, right? Guilty no matter what you do. They said, if I don't read the Bible, I feel guilty. If I do read the Bible, I have intrusive thoughts and feel like a hypocrite. If I take communion, I'm, quote, drinking judgment on myself. But if I don't, I have no faith. Like it's one of those, you're darned if you do, and you're darned if you don't, kind of condemnations that's just like all over you, right? Maybe some of you have felt that and you experience those things living up in your mind. Well, let me take you over to 1 John chapter 3. I love this passage, and this is one to like bookmark in your Bible, because this is so important when we're dealing with the matters of the heart, and when our heart begins to condemn us. John is uh John is speaking here. Uh the apostle John says this in verse uh um verse 19. He says, By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commands and do what he pl uh do what pleases him. What does that tell us, friends? It tells us that confidence comes as you renew your mind in the truth. And what do you need to renew? The first thing you need to do is to submit yourself to God's greatness. Did you hear that? You have to submit your heart to God's greatness, right? Because those condemning voices come in, and sometimes they're not from, you know, your neighbor next door or the person at church or uh they're from Satan himself. Sometimes they're just from your own heart. Sometimes they're coming directly from your own heart, attacking you and assailing you. Your own mind is warring against you, and you're like, how do I win that battle? First thing is just go, God, you're greater. And that means that my opinion is just my opinion. But God who knows all, who sees all, who is over all, God is greater than my heart, than my thoughts, than my mind, and he is the one whose opinion truly matters because when he speaks, it's true. It is right. And and we don't have to question that. And so, friends, when your mind and your heart is just like condemning you and assailing you with that condemnation, you got to come to God and go, Jesus, I know you are greater. I need to hear what you say about me. And renew your mind and the truth and submit to God as greater. His opinion matters even more than yours, even more than anyone else's that has spoken to you. Find out what God says about you. Then name the lie, insert the truth. Do you hear that? Name the lie and insert the truth, right? As soon as that word comes in, as soon as that condemning thought comes to you, you gotta name it. Just say it what it is, right? Um that uh you are telling me I'm unlovable, or you're telling me that I'm unforgivable. You're telling me that I will never measure up whatever those condemning thoughts are. I'm too far gone. Name the lie and insert the truth. Now, for me, like when it comes to truth and who I am, I go to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 is all about like who you are in Christ and what God has done and the blessing that he has done for you. Listen to these truths about you from God's word, Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 says that he chose you in Christ, right? He chose you. No, he didn't throw you out. No, no, he said, I want you for me, right? He chose you. And how did he do it? In love. In love, he chose you because he loves you, right? And he adopted you to himself. You may not have been his child by physical birth, but you are his child by faith. And he adopted you and brought you into his family. You're not a second-class citizen, you're a child of God, a prince or a princess in the king's court. He has redeemed you through his blood, given you salvation. You've obtained an inheritance from him. That means that you are filthy, rich, and wealthy because of Jesus, right? That means that everything, the riches of eternity, the riches of heaven, belong to you and me because we are heirs of the king, right? We're part of his family. So that means when God's got some stuff, he's like, My stuff is your stuff. That's a blessing, right? Man, I have an inheritance in eternity, right? It says also, I've been predestined, right? Predestined. That God was thinking about this all the way from creation past. He's like, man, this is gonna be awesome. I can't wait to be with them, right? It's not based on you, friends. It's a plan that's been working and God has been working. Oh, thank you, Jesus, for such a great salvation. Then he says, sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. Some of you feel like maybe I lost my salvation, right? Maybe I maybe I sinned too much. Maybe God just doesn't like me anymore. Maybe the heavens are against me. I'm sure Job probably felt that a little bit, right? When he lost everything and felt like the hand of God was against me. Maybe you felt that as well. Man, you go back to here, he sealed me. He sealed me, and that's a protective guarantee. He gave me the Holy Spirit and He sealed me in him. It's like putting the stamp that that would seal the tomb and say, you are not getting out, just like they did to Jesus' tomb. This is a seal of life upon you, saying, You are alive in my family, and you have my stamp, right? How good is that? Or you even go over to Romans uh chapter eight. Anybody uh anybody been in Romans chapter eight? What a powerful, uh, powerful lesson you get from there. How it says this for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, no nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor. Anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That means nothing is going to take away God's love from his children. He's not going to take that from you. One day he loved you, the next day he doesn't. One day no. Nothing. Nothing. All God's people said? Nothing. In fact, why don't you turn to your neighbor here? They need you to be the body of Christ, even the mouthpiece of Jesus. Just turn to your neighbor right now and just say, nothing. Nothing. Nothing can separate you, friends. And so that is the power of renewing your mind in the truth, submitting to God's greatness and naming the lie, inserting the truth, and also retraining your consciousness important.

Retraining A Guilty Conscience

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Back in August, we took our daughter uh to college. We drove our daughter. Uh she was uh in college in Jackson, Tennessee, and so we began the long trip. And I won't I'll spare you the details. Needless to say, it is me, my wife, and my daughter with this packed SUV. And we were in construction zone following a truck. I felt like a lane opened up, so I took it, and of course I took it. I took it, I took it like a man. And that wasn't a good thing. Because it was like that, and we were off, we were off-roading. And I was half on the road and half off the road, and I'm trying to get back on the road and trying to get back on the road, and fear is gripping my heart because I think there's a semi that's gonna roll up on us. And so I try and get it back up, it gets up for a second and rolls right off the road. I'm yelling to my to my wife and my daughter, we're gonna roll. And my wife's going, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! And all I could say was, Jesus, help! We roll, and the SUV rolls three times down an incline or a bank embankment, oh, and jumps over a ravine onto the other side, hits a tree. And all three of us walked out. We had bumps and we had bruises. And I'll tell you, friends. I was just a rat. Because I was the driver. Because I almost killed my wife and my daughter. I mean one foot this way, one foot that way, the car rolling back into the ravine. It would have been done. And Jesus, man, if it wasn't for Jesus. But I'll tell you, friends, that's not something you get over right away. Maybe some of you were carrying something like that. Something that has haunted you, that it stays with you. You're like something you regret so deeply in your past. And I had to retrain my conscience. I'm somebody who knows how to do this, and it doesn't come easy even then, right? Because it's it's a process, and you need Jesus to heal your heart. But I'll tell you, friends, you know what, you know what some of the things that were helpful? Delineating condemnation versus truth. The condemnation said I was a poor driver. And I think everybody around here who saw that would be like, uh, yeah, you kind of qualify. Right? You know what I'm talking about? Like, poor driver, right? Was it a poor driver? Or was it a mistake? A poor decision. That changed everything for me. In fact, my wife and my daughter, I I'm so thankful for them because immediately after it, like we got back to the hotel that night, we're all still reeling, and they were like, You are a very good driver. You are a very good driver, and they want to tell me the truth, and I appreciate that, but I've got all this evidence to say I'm not, right? But you gotta believe and retrain the conscience because my conscience is saying I'm a bad driver, and it's not a bad driver. That's general and vague. Rather, I made a poor decision. I made a mistake. And does anybody make mistakes in this place? Yeah, we do, right? But those are momentary, and God deals with those momentary things. I also have to deal with that guilt that I felt. I almost killed my wife and my daughter. Now I could spend my days dwelling upon that reality, or I could receive the forgiveness of God for my stupid decision there. I could receive the forgiveness of my wife and my daughter, and I could either dwell on, I almost killed my wife and my daughter, or I could dwell on the reality that God in his mercy saved us. And I'm choosing that. I'm choosing confidence over condemnation, right? Or maybe I could tell you how I felt inexcusable, that what I did was wrong, that I had a bad attitude that morning, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or I could dwell on the truth that I am forgiven and I have the opportunity to grow and do differently. Let me tell you, friends, now when I drive, the number one priority is get there safe. Right? I've grown. I'm growing, right? I'm getting to be a better driver, right? I might have been a good driver before, I'm even better now, right? My wife and daughter would like to say that too. Confidence comes as you renew your mind and the truth. So, brother or sister in Jesus, loved one of God, renew your mind. Receive the gospel. And lastly, here, respond to conviction.

Conviction Versus Condemnation

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Respond to conviction. Friends, conviction is so much different than condemnation, right? Condemnation destroys, conviction brings life. In first John chapter 3, if we go on there in verse 23, it says this and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Friends, the Holy Spirit brings conviction, not condemnation. Let's go back to that uh that descriptors so you can see this in truth. Remember, condemnation comes from the enemy, but conviction comes from God. This is from the Spirit of God within the heart of the believer, or to bring it even to the unbeliever to bring them to that knowledge of sin so they can trust in a great Savior. Conviction comes from God. It is specific and focused, not general and vague. It is about a moment and it's about the action rather than generally condemning you with this, this, this sense of who you are. Not I was, I am prideful. It's rather I was prideful. When I said that, the way I acted there, I evidenced pride. That's where conviction shows up. It emphasizes your future. It says, yes, that was your past, but the gospel says you can have a new beginning and a fresh start, a new creation in Christ. It addresses actions and attitudes, behavior and beliefs. It is redemptive and restorative, and it leads to freedom and forgiveness and fellowship, and it leads you toward God. That is God's loving hand and his loving desire to bring the erring child back to himself. And that's what conviction is all about. That's what it does. You know what it looks like? It looks like this. It looks like this picture right here. You see that? We've all known that condemning, shaming voice, right? And that condemning finger. Some of us have even wagged that little finger around, but conviction comes and it's appealing. It's presenting and it's wooing and asking you to come out of the darkness, to come out of what is killing your soul and into the light. Confidence comes as you respond to conviction, even like we were told in this passage. So, friends, what are some of those ways you can respond to conviction? Number one, a great way to do it is to exercise faith. Exercise faith. Some of you are like, Well, I never have enough faith, and I don't have faith for that, and I can't have enough faith. Friends, size does not matter when it comes to faith. Remember, Jesus said if you have faith of a mustard seed, you could tell this mountain to be thrown into the ocean. It's not the size of your faith, but rather the size of the one that you're putting your faith in. Right? If you are putting your faith into Jesus, man, the King of creation himself, the one with the power for all things, all things are possible. Nothing is impossible with Jesus. Responding to the conviction, maybe to love, to bless another, to get outside of yourself and your desires and your dreams, and to start considering the dreams and desires of others. To live as a blessing to the people that come into your life, to live like Jesus lived. Not to be served, but to serve and to give your life for others. What a blessing that is as we love. Or maybe even the the next level love is returning blessing for evil. Oh, you don't want me to do that to my sister. You don't want me to do that to my my fellow student. They were so cruel, they were so mean. They they they do it all the yeah. The Spirit's convicting you, saying, Hey, I'm a God of love and I want to fill you with a love so you can love them. Friends, when you step into that, that feeds the confidence in your heart. Yes, they may assail you and they may attack, but you are going on the offensive with love and responding to that conviction, or maybe just as the scriptures were talking, obeying the things that God says, obeying his word and following his ways. You may not always agree with it, you may not always like it, but I'll tell you, friends, when you choose to obey by faith the things of God, you have this blessed thing called assurance of salvation. Assurance of salvation is not eternal security. Eternal security says, once saved, always saved. And that's a work that God did. He sealed you with his spirit. You're not losing your salvation. But assurance of salvation is those times when we doubt it, we question it, we wonder. We're like, am I still one of his? And do I really still have faith? I wonder if he still loves me and if I'm still accepted in heaven. But when we obey, when we trust him and we follow him, all of a sudden confidence begins to grow. Why? Because you look back and you see that fruitfulness and you see the evidence of that fruitfulness, and that leads to a greater confidence, so that when that comp a condemnation comes, you have this heap of fruit that you're like, yeah, but what about all this? Right? And so when you respond to the Spirit prompting you to go and to speak to that person, when you receive the Spirit's conviction and you humble yourself before him and say, Yes, Lord, I was in sin. Please forgive me. And once again, thank you for Jesus, thank you for the gospel. Man, that's that's a blessing that builds the confidence within you over the condemnation.

Baptism Story And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Confidence comes as you receive the gospel, renew your mind in truth, and respond to conviction. I preached this message to our church uh months ago, and um we were doing a baptism service that Sunday, too. I mean, I don't know what the deal is, but you know, Jesus' plan is that baptism happens. So you can see a physical example of what he does in our lives. We had a six-year-old girl who wanted to get baptized. Usually when they're six, I'm like, I don't know if that's too young, you know. And so we kind of talk with them. This girl totally knew, she knew the gospel. She got it. And I was like, okay, she's ready. And that little six-year-old got into the waters of baptism. One of the questions we asked is, is why do you want to be baptized today? And that little girl said, she said, I want to be clean. God was working in her life so much that she had felt her sin. She had sensed her sin and known her sin. And she wanted a cleansing from that. But this little girl also had a history and a past I won't share with you all of it, but she had experienced some deep wounding from some sin that was done on her, and she felt dirty. And she said, I want to be clean. And those words resounded in the entire congregation. And so when she went down under the water and came back up, the whole church just roared just like you did. Just like, Yeah, praise the Lord! Yay, Jesus, way to go, Lydia. She got off the stage and it was after service. I was talking with her and her mom, and her mom just goes, How do you feel now? She looked up at her mom with this giant smile and she said, I feel clean. Yeah. That's what Jesus wants to do for you. When condemnation comes into your life and assails your heart and your mind, run to Jesus. Turn to a friend who might be able to tell you again those truths of the gospel and you're standing in him. And respond to the conviction. Respond to the conviction. See the difference because can condemnation is going to kill the fire of your faith if you let it dwell and live rent-free in your mind. So turn to Jesus and rekindle confidence by turning to him and his gospel. Can I pray

Prayer And Closing Announcements

SPEAKER_01 35:48

over you today? Let's just take a moment with you. Would you bow your head? Gracious Father, thank you today for the work that you are doing here through your precious word and the word of the gospel. There are so many of us here who have who wrestle with this. Man, I would say that probably every single person who is here has wrestled with this reality from time to time and has experienced the accusations of the evil one or the voice of condemnation from people that we thought loved us or cared for us and turned their backs on us. Oh, how we need you, Jesus, today. Help us to remember and to look to the gospel. Let us search the scriptures and highlight those portions that remind us who we are in Jesus, who we are in you and what you have done for us. And let us find our confidence in you and what you have done and what you say and not and be able to not embrace those other voices that want to tear us down. Satan wants nothing more than for us to say, it's too much, I'm too far gone, and just to give up. But you, Lord, you are the finisher and the perfecter of our faith. And so today we look to you and ask for your work in our hearts. You are able, you are victorious, you are powerful, you are mighty, you gave us your righteousness, you gave us heaven, you gave us eternity, you gave us yourself so we can live in that confidence because Jesus is greater, Jesus is stronger, Jesus is a lover, and Jesus is our friend and our savior and our Lord. We love you today, Jesus, and we celebrate you. Can you say amen to that? Amen. Let's stand up and let's just sing of that gospel transformation in our lives.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.