Thanks for joining us this week on cultivating growth. Jeremy and I are going to be discussing the topic of growing in our confidence. A lot is to be said for the fact that we are to be humble and meek, and yet God also calls us to be a people who are confident. Confident in Him, confident in the promises that He's made us.

And confident in the salvation that we can have through him. And so we're going to talk about some of those things this week. So with that, let's get to it. 

Well, John, this week, as we kind of talk about the idea of growing in our confidence, you alluded to a couple of things just in your opening. You know, certainly confidence is a word we know it's a word that we, we often use. But I think sometimes as a Christian, when we begin to think about, you know, a term like that, and then growing in it, or adding confidence, you know, because of the way we generally use it in our culture, we almost seem, you know, To think that maybe that's not something that I need to be doing that.

You know, I don't want to be overconfident. I don't want to have too much confidence. That's prideful. That's braggadocious. I don't want to be that type of person. As you made mentioned, we're called upon to be humble. We're called upon to be meek, but  being confident or having confidence is something that God actually talks quite a bit about.

You know, if you just, you know, kind of look it up. Just the word in scripture. It shows up quite a few times in the New Testament And it talks directly about how it is that God is looking for his people to have confidence now We need to have confidence in the right things. There is a couple of places that you know, there is a Confidence contrast in between having confidence in the world and ultimately having confidence in God.

And so there's several things that we can talk about, you know, when it comes to having confidence. But I guess the best place really to start is ultimately a big part of our faith.  Is having confidence in what God has said is the actual truth, and that takes a level of confidence to believe that it does.

It takes confidence, not in me, but in God. And I think that's where this discussion really begins to hit home is I don't have any confidence. In myself, in terms of the ability I have to save myself, the ability that I have to, to overcome sin. But my, my confidence is in God, and even as someone who teaches and preaches, the, the encouragement that I would give those who might listen is don't have confidence in what I say.

But have confidence in what God says. Now, if I'm doing my job, those two are going to be one in the same, but make sure that our confidence is appropriately placed and not misguided. And I think that's where a lot of times, unfortunately, many in the world have gone off track because they begin placing their confidence in man, not in God.

And so when your confidence is placed in another man, then whatever that individual has to say, you're going to follow and you're going to believe and you're going to just dive head first into, and that's where people get themselves in trouble because no matter what. man has done to study, to think, no matter how smart someone may be, their words are simply not God's.

And God is the creator. God is the all knowing, the all powerful. And so it's our responsibility to make sure that our confidence is appropriately placed and not misguided. Yeah. And you know, listen, again, We understand what the idea of confidence is. It is being completely sure of something, and the Bible teaches us that we can be completely sure when God says, or when God promises, or when God warns, when God speaks.

We can be completely sure of that. And to your point, when man does those things, It's man, and there is a big difference between man and God. And a lot of times we do put our confidence in man, we put our confidence in self, and now we have misguided or misplaced confidence. You can't be completely sure in those things, but you can be completely sure in God.

There's a really interesting conversation, I think, you know, happens in 2 Peter chapter 3. Even though the word confidence isn't used in that passage, it really, Kind of speaks to where we are, you know, kind of here at the beginning as Peter is writing, you know, to those brethren and reminding them of this main point.

When, you know, he's talking specifically about Christ's second coming, what will then happen to the earth. And he makes mention that, you know, there's a promise that God has made that Christ is going to return. But yet to Peter's readers, and maybe even to us, when there are times in which people are questioning that. 

There's no need to, to waver in your mind because God said that it's going to happen. And Peter makes the point that, listen, you can have confidence that Christ is going to return. Simply because God said that he was going to return.  And now you have this incredible passage given to us. And in a lot of ways, it's really built on you can be confident that this thing is gonna happen, specifically Christ's return again, simply because God said it.

And now you can still, you can absolutely take that same principle and apply it across the board, that we can have confidence in, fill in the blank, Per, because God said so. And that's the level of confidence in God that we need to have. Yeah, I had another example that's I think very similar to what you were describing.

In second Timothy chapter four, as Paul is nearing the end of his life and he he's coming to the end of his race, he, he writes to Timothy and says, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. And finally there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness. There's this confidence that Paul has now, listen, I'm, I'm nearing the end of my life.

I know that. But I also know that I have fought the good fight.  And I'm finishing this race strong. And because of that, I have a great deal of confidence in the salvation that awaits me. That's not Paul being prideful in himself. That's not Paul being confident in himself. That's Paul being confident in God's ability and willingness to fulfill the promise that he's made to Paul.

And God has told us that if we live a righteous life, one like Paul describes, where we finish the race and keep the faith, then there's a crown of righteousness that awaits us and we can be confident in that. We don't have to shy away from that. In fact, we should speak boldly about that because that demonstrates the level of confidence that we have in God.

And I think a lot of people struggle with that. Not, not just on this point. Indirectly, but they struggle with that specific point that you just made that yeah We have this incredible example that we have of Paul very confident in his own Salvation right you had so much So he's speaking about it while he still lives that there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness And you made the point and rightly so he does that Because it's what God has promised and he believes that so completely That he trusts God enough to you know to say that way And a lot of times when we think about those kinds of things We struggle for, I think, for various reasons, but we struggle in thinking that, you know, I don't know if if that's something that I can say, or, you know, I don't have a whole lot of confidence in, you know, the, you know, where I am in my relationship with God.

Well, whenever we say that, It's never a God problem. It's always a me problem. And so when we're talking, as we are here, about how to grow in our confidence, first we've got to acknowledge that it's not a God problem, it's a me problem. And we've got to build our faith. I mean that, is ultimately what's going to have an impact on our confidence is building our faith to an understanding that we can be completely sure of something that God has said.

And we can stake everything upon that. It's what Paul does and ultimately what we need to do. I think that really highlights an important aspect of our salvation that's connected to this confidence that we're supposed to have. There, there are. There are far too many people, you know, going through life who are just wrecked with anxiety. 

Worried about, you know, am I, am I good enough? Am I doing enough? And, you know, can I, am I going to, is there going to be a place for me in heaven? And they're just wrecked with anxiety because of that. That's not the life God wants us to live as Christians. He wants us to live confidently. Knowing that He is a fulfiller of His promises, and knowing that He has extended to us the opportunity for salvation, and we can have confidence in that salvation.

And so, you know, when I, I'm sure you've seen and talked to people who are in this same boat, I, I feel for them, but at the same time, I want to just kind of grab hold of them and say, Listen, If you truly believe what God has told you, if you truly believe the promises that God has made to you, you're not to live a life of anxiety and worry.

You're to live a life of confidence and boldness and freedom and excitement and joy. Those are Those are the adjectives that we see over and over in scripture to describe a person following Christ. And we can be all of those things and do all of those things because we're confident in God's promise to us to take us home with him one day in heaven.

That that's the life that we want to live in, but it takes a, it takes a shift in our mindset to really embrace that confidence in the salvation that's being offered to us and put aside some of that. some of that worry and concern that's connected really to the world and to the uncertainty that lies within it and really embrace the confidence and the surety that we can have in God.

Yeah. I mean, listen, building upon that exact same point, one step further, second Corinthians chapter five and verse seven is a passage that lots of people can quote because we use it in a lot of different. You know, situations we walk by faith and not by sight. That's a passage. Whether they know exactly where it is, there's lots of people that know that that's in the Bible.

Right. You know, one of those verses we'll throw out. And we do so and apply it in a huge amount of ways. of situations and circumstances, and rightly so. I think there is a principle there. But in the context of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is talking specifically about the point that, you know, that we're just talking about, of having confidence in our salvation, having confidence that we can be with God one day.

So much so, in that Surrounding context of second Corinthians five and verse seven. He uses the word confident multiple times So you have in verse five where he says that God has prepared us for this very thing He's given the spirit as a guarantee and then he says in verse six We are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body We are absent from the Lord and then you have verse seven We walk by faith and not by sight and then the end of that conversation verse eight We are Confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

And so  you have that juxtaposition of being confident, walking by faith, being confident in God, or placing your confidence somewhere else that's walking by sight. And so you have this, you know, ultimately this decision that you're going to make. Are you going to walk in confident faith? Are you going to Put that confidence, you know, somewhere else, and you're walking without faith, really.

Yeah, and if you do put that confidence anywhere else, then it's really just folly at the end of the day, because anything physical is going to let us down. You know, there was another story that came to mind when you were reading that in Joshua chapter 1. When Joshua is kind of making that transition as Moses has died and Joshua now is going to be the leader of the Israelite people and he's going to be the one that God charges to take the people into the promised land. 

And you can only imagine as you read that story, what Joshua was going through, what the people of Israel were going through. I mean, Moses was their leader. He was the one that brought them out of Egypt. He was the one that had led them through the wilderness. He was the one that had that intimate relationship with God and now he's gone.

And what are we going to do now? And Joshua chapter one  is essentially God just over and over and over again, telling Joshua to be strong. Be courageous, I'm with you. And the reason that Joshua can be strong and be courageous in that moment is because of the end of that phrase, because God is with him.

And that's what he says over and over again to Joshua. He was instilling in Joshua confidence. Not in Joshua's ability to lead, not in who Joshua was and his greatness, but instilling confidence in him because God was going to be with him. And that's where Joshua's confidence could be placed. And so you take that and you translate that to our lives as New Testament Christians today, the same is true.

We too can be strong and courageous. We can do that because we know that God is with us. And if God's with us, then who can be against us? Right? That's, that's the whole thing. We know that God can overcome anything and he is the one that's all powerful. And if he's with us, then we can be strong and courageous in the same way that Joshua was.

Yeah. Well, listen, we've talked about a bunch of areas and we're, we're In where we can be confident in what God has said, being confident in our salvation being confident in, you know, our place in our relationship with God. One other area I want to throw out, and then maybe we'll spend a minute talking about, you know, some ways that we can grow in that, is you take past, you take a look at passages like in Hebrews chapter 4 and in Hebrews chapter 10,  and the confidence in prayer.

That when we go to God, He's going to be there to listen. And so you have those incredible passages that use another word that sometimes we don't love. Boldness, right? And both in Hebrews 4 and in Hebrews 10, that because of what Jesus has done, we can approach the throne of God. We can enter the holy of holies, and we can do so with boldness, with confidence, because of what Christ has done for us.

And so, even when it comes to our prayers, we Confidence is a huge part of that because we have to be confident. Number one, that God is there and he's listening when I pray, but, but even more so, we've got to be confident that he can do something about it.  And so confidence, even with our prayers, play a big role in the, you know, in the life that we live.

That's so true. And again, that. Is it in stark contrast to anything we could do with man? You know, I could, I can go and I can talk to people and I can make requests of people and, you know, maybe they'll help me, maybe they won't, maybe they can help me, maybe they can't. There's only a certain amount of confidence that could be placed in, in humans, but with God, all things are possible.

And he loves us so much that he wants to have that type of a relationship with us, where we communicate with him often. He wants to be active and helpful in our life. And so, yes, we, we are talking to the creator of the world, the one who knows no limits. And so, yes, we shouldn't always be confident when we approach his throne to speak to him, because we know that one, he wants to hear from us.

Two, he wants to help us. And three, he's more than able to do anything. And so we know that we can approach him confidently. He has our best interest in mind. And so I think that's something that probably all of us can grow in. We can all get better at that as we talk to God with appropriate boldness and confidence.

Certainly not arrogantly, but we talk to him with confidence. That's the way he wants us to speak to him because we know who we're talking to. Well, let's talk just for a minute on maybe some practical ways that we can grow in our confidence. One of the ways that kind of came to my mind, and we've talked a little bit about it already, is that if we're looking to cultivate our growth when it comes to our confidence, and in the Lord.

We've got to be willing to kind of push aside the stigma that comes with that word confidence or boldness. We've got to be, we've got to then be willing to say in this area, I need to be confident in this area. I need to be bold and I've got to be able to differentiate. Between the confidence and boldness that we commonly are staying away from and to recognize that there are areas in which I can be confident.

There are areas in which I can be bold and so we've got to be able to separate that and then approach, you know, with confidence. Being confident. And that's one, the one thing that I see from Paul in second Timothy is that he is, you know, he's in a tough spot, but man, he is radiating confidence and what Christ has done for him.

And certainly we've got to be we've almost got to give ourselves permission, allow ourselves to get to that point, to be confident, to be bold, but yet to be confident and bold in the arena that we need to be confident and bold in. And I think we do that by asking ourselves a simple question. Why am I confident?

And if our answer starts with, because I, then our confidence is misplaced. But if our answer starts because God, then we're on the right track. And so I think that's a very practical way that we can approach this. Ask ourselves that question. Why am I confident in this? And if, and if the answer is because God, then we're, we're, we're on the right track and our confidence is placed in the right place.

Yep. All right. Well, let's close with the passage Ephesians chapter three, verses 11 and 12. Although I realized that this is kind of in the middle of a sentence. It really kind of conveys the point that we've been making for the last few minutes, and so it says in Ephesians three in verse 11, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. 

Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate it. If you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're listening.  And rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus as widely and effectively as possible Thanks again for joining us this week and we'll talk to you again next week