Borrowed Confidence

a Tuesday or listening to this on the treadmill. A lot of people tell me that they listen to a sermon that I preach while they run or something like that. So that's good. You do my cardio, I build your faith. This is a great arrangement. But seriously, though, y'all go get some rest. It's my turn to work now. How many are excited for the word of God? Thank you Jesus. Okay, I couldn't stop thinking about last week's message, get to

the good part. I got home and I felt like I didn't even get to give you the best part of my sermon. So the Lord said, Part two, Part two. Let's get to the good part. V seed it. Relax enjoy this time. This is the time that God gave you not to worry about stuff that you can't do anything about right now. Anyway, whoever's texting you can text you back. Leave them on red in the name of the Lord, and listen to this word. In Philippians, Chapter one, verse six, actually, let me do this. Let me stare

step you through three verses. That'll be good. Can I have a minute to set up my Let's do Somealm twenty seven. First, this is what David said. This is what David said, verse thirteen. I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Put it in the chat. I remain confident. Okay. Now Paul said something similar in Philippians. I'll read you that too. This is the verse that

I ended on last week. He said in Philippians one, verse six, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of a global pandemic. No, of course, he said that God has a plan even beyond our human surprises, right until the day of Christ. Jesus till us over basically, okay, he said, being confident of this.

And then if you move down to verse fourteen, he's describing his prison sentence, and he said, because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord, and they're all the more to proclaim the Gospel without fear. So I just noticed a kind of a similarity the word confident, But then I noticed a little distinction. David said, I will remain confident in this. Paul said, being confident in this. Then Paul also says,

there are some who are becoming confident. And I want to teach on the principle today of borrowed confidence, borrowed confidence, and I want you to pray for us because our family is experiencing something very difficult. My oldest son is now the same size as me, and he's in my closet all the time. We have beef, and I hate to work it out like this on a worldwide global ministry platform, nonprofit five oh one C three organization, but

for the purposes of group therapy, pray for me. I'm not mad at him because he comes in my closet and steals my clothes. That doesn't make me mad because it would be stupid to be mad about that, because that's actually cheaper than me having to buy him his own. So that's just, you know, to me, that's just good stewardship. He's in my closet today, I could tell he's got my own what are those called? I don't even know what those are. I know they're mine, they used to

be mine. They were mine at one time, the Turbo greens, Yet he wore. I'm not mad at him because he wears my stuff. I'm mad because he makes it look better than I do. He'll just rock something in the back of my closet that I have had back there, haven't had the confidence to put on in in years. You know, somebody gave me this. I remember somebody gave me this jacket one time, and I wouldn't wear it.

I would put it on every Saturday night before I came to preach, and then I take it back off and put something else on because it was just to something. And he walked out wearing it, just looking like like just looking amazing at it. So I'm not mad that you borrow my stuff. I'm mad that you make it look better than I do. For the record, it's kind of cool though, to see him in there trying on the old man's shoes. It makes me think, if he wants to wear my stuff, I must have some kind

of swag. And I told him when all this nonsense started, I said, you can borrow my shoes, but you can't steal my swag because I have a very particular kind of swag. It's dad swag. I got dad slag. And you know, I'm just trying to get you thinking about how there's different kinds of confidence and confidence while being a word that we all know is important to get a date. If can't be cute, be confident. That's what one guy told me. He really did. Harold Staley told

me that. He said, you're not especially good looking, just be confident. He said, it'll put like three points on your scale, just to be confident. But there's different kinds of confidence. And of course, as you get into the Book of Philippians, the letter that I was reading from where Paul is writing this church of Christians who have apparently lost their confidence I mentioned last week, go back and watch it that if he's saying that he is confident in what God is doing it suggests that maybe

they're not anymore. And there's a bunch of reasons for them. There's fighting in the church. Yodia and Synekey aren't getting along, so he's like begging them to stop fighting. And not only that, I mean there's all kinds of there's all kinds of reasons for the Philippian Church not to be confident, the least of which is not that their leader is in prison. Right, But he's giving them just like this

impartation of faith that is so powerful. He's like, let me read you a little bit more of the pastors so you can get a sense. He goes verse three, I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you, look at somebody next to you and say, you make me happy. He says, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this that He will begin a good brik in you will carry it on to completion until the day

of Christ Jesus. So there's a sequence here that I want to talk about. But there's also a substance. Let me talk about the substance of it. He's talking about a kind of confidence. Watch this that is not cosmetic, the kind of swag that whether you have a Nike swoosh on your shoes or whether you know, like I know, we teach all kinds of things about confidence these days. Culturally. Body confidence. That's a good thing. I think that's great. Come on, man, I'm not sitting here in the gym

just so I can have a healthy cardio. I want to look good too, all right, So I want to look good. I'm not lying to you. But at the same time, body confidence, or what's another one that we teach, Oh, confidence in your career, Like I'm really good at this. I'm good at this, man, I've been doing all my life. Well. The thing about the last year is that everything that can be shaken is being shaken, and a lot of us found what we were good at stripped away, and

all we were left with is who we are. So when we're forced to deal with our core kind of like Paula's, he's just in prison. He's lost his pulpit, his church building is empty. He can't go on tour anything like that. All the things that apostles do, he can't do it. And he's still confident. Being confident, it's a state of mind for him. It doesn't even seem to be something that he's getting from the outside, because all he's got with him in prison that can come

visit him is a paphroditis. A paphroditis. A paphroditis is kind of sickly, And the occasion of writing Philippians is that he is sending a paphroditis back to the Philippians. He's like, he's good, he's going through a lie. He's kind of nervous. I'm gonna send him back. So now watch this. I told you. I wanted to preach you about borrowed confidence. The Philippians that the church that was started while Paul was in jail, that church has supported him.

When he left Macedonia went to Thessalonica, they were the only church that sponsored him. And he's writing back to them, being confident of this, that he will begin a good work and you'll be faithful to complete it to the day of Christ. They sent him a gift, they loaned him a person. He borrowed a paphroditis for the season that he needed him and sent him back and he said, I'm still confident. Make this confession by faith if you can.

I'm still confident. And the principle I want us to come around today is that where your confidence comes from determines when it runs out. So while body confidence is awesome, newsflash, your body goes through different versions states. If my confidence is in my body, then I better never get forty. If my confidence is in my career, then my employer has the ability to strip me of my faith. And I know this sounds weird to say, but if your confidence is in your pastor what if I what if

I mess up? God is still with you. I don't want to mess up. But the fact is, listen, if I drop that in this pulpit right now, I know that's kind of Morbidefully, they call an ambulance and try to fix me. But by next Sunday God would send you somebody else to preach his word. He loves you that much. It's weird to imagine that. I mean, and that's true of everything in your life. So if you're confidence. As the letter progresses, Paul gets heavier. He starts out,

I thank God for you. Every time I think about you, I thank God for you. You're on my prayer list. You make me happy. The Philippians were that church for Paul. When he saw them on his phone come up on the context of contact screen, he wanted to hit him back. He liked to hear from him, unlike the other churches, like the Corinthian Church. You know, the Corinthian Church. They were a different situation. So when the Corinthians came on

his phone, he knew that was probably drama. It's probably drama. They had incest in the church. They were getting drunk off the communion wine. With the Philippian Church, He's like, y'all make me happy, man, We have this partnership. Y'all have been with me for a minute. Yeah, he knew the power of partnership. Yeah. And when I preached last week, I said that we all have a dark part, a dark part of our personality, a dark part of our behavioral patterns. Well, where did that come from? We all

have a dark part. But if you get through the dark part and get to the good part. So Paul refuses to leave the Philippians in the dark. He wants to let them know that God is still working in his life and God is still working in their life, and God hasn't stopped being God, and God hasn't stopped being good, and God hasn't forgotten your name or your address.

And God sees everything that's going down in your life and everything that's going up in your life, like your blood pressure is going up, your bank account's going God sees all of that. And my confidence is not tied to either one of those that are going up or because we all hit seasons where it gets dark. I don't know how to do this. I don't think I can do this. I can't do this. I hit it every time before, I preach every time, and I just know, I just know this is the dark part. Here it

comes okay. I don't feel saved. I don't feel sanctified. I don't feel filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't feel intelligent. I don't feel like I have a triple digit IQ. I don't feel any of that. What are these words? Oh? This is that part And I've learned something that I want to share with you today. I've been excited to share it. Some of us can't get through the dark part because we don't have the right partners. You will never get through the dark part if you

have partners that drag you down more. Okay, so pretend you're a fifteen year old for a minute, like my son Elijah, or like many of the YouTube by the way, Elevation Youth on YouTube. Go subscribe right now so we can help you get through the dark part. How many of you your teenage years were kind of a dark part of your life, right, So imagine you're there again. You're going back in that now when you're young, you have a commodity that can help you have more confidence. Ignorance,

just ignorance, the blessing of dumb. When they were showing a video for fifteen years of ministry the other day, they had early videos of me preaching, and somebody said, you were so bold back then. I'm like, I was so dumb back then. And you know what ignorance look like confidence from a distance. A lot of the times that God can do the most through somebody is when they know the least. But let me mess around and live for a little while, and I build a file

of everything that can go wrong. Things I didn't know I was supposed to be scared of when I was seventeen. Things I didn't know I was supposed to be scared of the first two years of church. So the benefits of ignorance is that it gives you this kind of confidence. Paul is not writing about that kind of confidence. So he knows how much it costs to serve Christ. He knows how uncertain it is. He knows how hard it can be sometimes when you feel completely abandoned by the

people you help. No other churches, no other partners, nobody's gonna stand with me. He knows all of that, but he's confident, like David in song twenty seven, I will remain confident. That's not a feeling, that's a decision. Do you know the difference the feeling of confidence in the decision. The feeling can be stripped so quick, but the decision can be made any moment excellent. I will remain confident, being confident, becoming confident if we build the right kind

of confidence. Paul calls this the righteousness that comes by faith. It's not the confidence in the flesh. It's not anything that you can buy. It's not anything that you can achieve. It's not anything that a human committee has to give to you. It's none of those things. I guess you could say it's a kind of confidence that comes from above, so it never runs out. If you go back over to Psalm twenty seven, and I want to marry these

two scriptures because they're interesting. They're interesting together. You'll notice that David must have been fighting something in Psalm twenty seven that threatened his sense of stability. I don't want to leave this in the text so long that you think this is a history lesson. There are so many people I'm talking to these days that life has taken on some new dimensions for them, and they no longer feel competent for the challenges of this season. And they

have experienced some things. I'm not talking about you, I'm te wut somebody No. That made them bitter, Wow, that made them apprehensive, that made them timid about believing God. They prayed for somebody, they died, They love somebody, that person took advantage of their love. All these things that happen. And if your confidence comes from that place, then it runs out when that ends. So when David starts on twenty seven, I love the whole song. The Lord is

my Light and my salvation. Whom shall I hear? The Lord is strongul in my life? Whom shall I be afraid. He gets all the way to verse thirteen, and he says, I will remain confident in this. Now, everybody say this. Go to First Samuel seventeen. I got to show you something. This is amazing. Everybody say this is amazing. In the chat say this is amazing. I'll show you what I'm talking about. So David shows up. Remember that any given day,

God is doing more in your life than you. You can imagine he's delivering cheese and bread, and A said, yeah, but he's really going down to meet Golias and kill him so the nation can move on. Just like God is doing great things in your life. And David didn't know what he was going to do, because probably if he had known what he was going to do, he might have second guessed whether he would go or not. So ignorance is sometimes to your advantage in trusting God.

All right, so let's go to I know you know this story pretty well, but I want to show you something in First Samuel chapter seventeen, where did I start? You all on the screen, go all the way to the first one. Oh, this is it, this is it. He goes down to the battle lines, take it down for a minute. Let me set this up. He goes down to the battle lions, he hears Goliath intimidating God's people and it freaks him out because how can y'all, how can y'all be passive about something that God promised

to give you victory over? Remember these are the experience, and three of them are his own brothers. And I want to show you a difference between Paul and David, and see which one you feel more like right now? In your life, Paul had some partners who believed in him enough to support him in his hard time, his dark time. WA's what happened to David when he went

down to help his brothers. When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, asking who is this giant that defies the armies of the living God, he burned with anger at him and asked, why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness. This is the person that David came to feed. The person he came to feed

is fighting him. Have you ever felt that way? If they're sitting next to you right now, we can just have an unspoken tacit agreement that that way I feel you. I feel you. It's hard to raise your hand on something like that when they are right next to you or in the other room. You're scared them. I hear. No, this is crazy, because Paul is saying life, your partnership in the Gospel that encourages me. Man. Have you ever had just somebody step up and believe in you when

you didn't believe in yourself? Have you ever had somebody just see something in you that had gotten buried and they don't even realize they're doing it. They just say something in passing and you're like really, and your chest sticks out and you walk a little bit different for the rest of the day just because they saw something in you. I think Paul felt that way about the Philippians. I think when he went back he said, I remember when we started, I didn't have authority in this province.

I didn't have the resources you helped me with that. I didn't have a big brand or a big ministry. You believed in me like that. There is nothing like people who believe in you when there is nothing to see to prove what they believed. And if God gives you somebody like that, do not let them go. Don't let him go cheat. Hold on to those day ones who had nothing to gain from loving you, people who gave you a shot, people who gave you a chance, people who said, come on and do this. That's awesome.

I'll always honor Pastor Mickey because he said God had his hand on my life when I was sixteen. I'll always honor him, Always honor him. Need people like that when you get in one of these passages where you're like, I never did this before. I never been a mom before. I've never been through a divorce before. I haven't been unemployed in my adult life before. I've never been to college before. I never tried to quit smoke him before. I never tried to get my drinking under control before.

I don't know how to do this. And God will send you a partner, somebody who sees potential in you that your pain has blocked from your own visibility. That's why I called you over the other day when we were in the middle of the project, because I was I was dealing with uncertainty. Is this the right thing? I was so in the middle of it. I needed

you to come over because you've been there with me since. Well, let's be honest, since we were doing the dumbest stuff that two teenagers can do, since riding around in your jeep. I needed that first day faith. And when you saw what I was creating, you said, this is it. He was so excited. You know what I'm talking about it, He said, this is it. This is what we were doing, this is what you were doing. He helped me connect it dots of what God was doing because I couldn't

in the moment, because I was in the dark. So I needed that first dafe like Paul had from the Philippians that he mentioned. He's like, oh, man, I don't know what God's going to do, but I'm going to choose what I remember, right, And instead of calling up all the people to mind who didn't support him, he remembered the church that did. In that not hard to do, he thought. I was going to say, isn't that great? No,

in't that difficult. A lot of what we call believing is really just remembering, right, he said, every time I remember you, I get joy in this prison cell. Or like the prophet Jeremiah said in Lamentations three twenty one, this recall to my mind, this, I recall to my mind what the calamity, the ruins, the desolation, the betrayal, the feelings of forsagan No, no, no, this I recall

to my mind. Therefore I have hope it's because of the Lord's mercies that we're now consumed, because there's compassion still not there new every morning. Great is their faithfulness. This say this, this, this, this, this, this, this I recall to mine. So so imagine right now, imagine right now, like a million things are going through your mind, right like should I should I be mad about this? Should you up said about that? Should be worried about that?

Should I hear about that? Shoul i' ever forget about that? That That? That that that? And then that one God thought comes through when it comes, when it comes by in your mind, it comes by fast right and moves along. Here comes down, Here comes hatred, Here comes in they, Here comes comparison, Here comes jealousey, here comes all of that, and then here comes that one thought, that contentment, this crader, this gratter, this this right here this somebody say this. Soavid.

David is actually in the opposite situation that Paul is in. Paul is preaching to people who support him, but they can only do so much for him because he's in prison, and he's saying, I am confident for you in what you can't even believe about you right now, because we've never been through this before. So he's saying, borrow my confidence. Did you know you can do that? I don't know what your philosophies are on borrowing money. This fine. I

don't care us. We all think different things. Oh you're Dave Ramsey. You don't borrow, or you do or whatever. I don't care. Rich dad, poor dad, Dave Ramsey. I'm not a money man. I'm a preacher, all right. So I'm not talking about borrowing money, talking about a different currency called confidence and what you believe about what you can be, and what you believe about what you have inside of you, and what you believe about what God called you to do, and what you believe about what

you're going through. That's what I'm talking about the currency of confidence. So when you're young, you start borrowing confidence from the wrong places. You borrow confidence from sexual attractiveness. Ooh, did you hear the decibel levels sink down beneath the floor. It's like, oh my god, he's preaching like it's twenty

twenty one. It's like people really run around to different sexual partners, partner after partner after partner after partner after partner, and rather than ever being in a real relationship, the good part where you have to love somebody for who they are, not what they look like. You take this feeling of oh, I have somebody, and you borrow the confidence of having somebody. But when you borrow confidence from the wrong places, the interest rate is ridiculous. That hit

me right there. I'm talking about when you get in a relationship where you have to compromise your values to get your needs met, y'all, that's worse than the check cash in place. It's an interest rate. And let me tell you another thing. While I got you fired up about all the people that you kept going to because you wanted them to validate you. But they cant because they're not gone. They didn't make you, they don't know you like that, and they have they're all these securities.

So leave them alone and get it from God. Hey, you keep trying to borrow confidence from people who have insufficient funds. They can't do it. They can't. They want to, they just can't. They're flesh and bone and blood and dirt and snot and spit and human and stuff like you. So that's why Paul wouldn't go into self pity. Nobody nobody pre for me. He's like, no, I got a partner. I got a partner. I've got a partner. I got a partner. I got a partner. I got a partner.

I got a partner. Say it right now, I've got a partner. Wow. Wow, Wow. God gave me some people that were with me at first. God gave me some people who have been where I've never been before. You know, when you go through something challenging, you can read a book. You are not the first one in history who went through that. You know how many times I borrow Tom Layman's knowledge, confidence, wisdom, Lisa every nine thirties that y'all would be at he would text me before the eleven thirties.

I would be back there in the back trying to rewrite my message because I would think that was horrible, that's awful. He would text me my pastor pretch it just like that again. At eleven thirty, I'd be like, huh, that was good. How many times Carrie is a little melody and a songwriting session right, and it it'd be like and stuffing. He goes, Oh, that's good, and you're like, it is, that's why you need partners. Are you always the needy one? Or can somebody else hold a little

bit of your faith for a while? Are you always a Paphroditis or can you be Paul sometimes too good? I hope more than Elijah borrows my my boosts. We're gonna get on that Instagram page with this sermon. I can feel it, all right, God, I think that guy does. We're gonna be on the that's all right. But if he borrows my shoes, I hope more than he borrows what's in my closet. I hope God will help me get to a point kind of where Paul was in

my life where it's like becoming confident. That's great. To borrow confidence, you have to sometimes, But then there's being confident. It's where this is what God has called me to do, This is how God made me to do it, This is what He's given me to get the job done. This I keep hearing that this, this, this all the clothes in the world, all the money in the world. I know that sounds I know that sounds really like abstract and spiritual. But I promise you all of that

cannot compare with one word from this. From this, you forgot about David Pastor. No, no, no, I didn't because the people that should have been his partners, the people that should have been his comrades, the people that should have believed in him. Isn't that awful when the people who should should have said you got something? Man? Keep going, Hey, I know that's all right. You don't fit in, but that's for a reason. You're too big for that small place.

Just keep growing, you dont have to fit in. That's all right. Right now, David, the future King of Israel, comes down to Britain, bread to his brothers, and his brother go back to the verse. Now I'm really ready for it, burned with anger and said why have you come down here? And now I'm gonna tell you something. David didn't exactly know that yet. He thought he came to feed his brothers. He really came to fight for his nation. So his confidence is not in what he's doing.

His confidence is something different. I will remain confident in this. That's what he said in some twenty seven. Now look at this incident it's not necessarily connected, but maybe this

is where he started becoming confident. Becoming confident, becoming confident, building that confidence, building the skill to walk into a room and have enough confidence that you don't need to be the center of attention, building enough confidence to have people who criticized the way you choose to live your life and just keep on being true to what God has put in your heart. And yeah, I'm gonna adjust

and change, but that's a process. And this event in his life is really indicative of the integrity of what God was creating in David. Because when Eliab said you left this few sheep in the wilderness, he's the meaning, David, you see it. You're a shepherd, You're not a soldier. You're too young for this, you're too small for this, you're too little for this. You have bad motives, all the things that people may say. Okay, he's saying all of that, and he accuses him and belittles him. He says,

you're done. They're keeping a few sheep. You don't belong here. I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle. And David is a little bit confused, frustrated for sure, Now what have I done? Can't I even speak? And then he turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before, watch this. His confidence didn't come from his big brother,

so his big brother can't take it away. There needs to be a part in you that knows I appreciate everybody and everything that God sends me. But if they walk away, he won't. If they fall short, he won't. If this brook dries up, there will be a bird in the sky an hour from now. And David is young, but he's confident. It's not about the shoes, it's not about the swag. It's not about the beliefs of other people.

When will you stop borrowing other people's bad beliefs? One that Alive didn't believe in David Alive didn't believe in himself. I don't have to carry things that others believe. I don't have to carry I don't have to carry things that culture beliefs. I don't have to feel how culture feels about things. I don't have to pay the interest rate on a broken world system of thought. I don't have to pay a generational tax on what happened in my great breath. I can break it in my bloodline

if I can believe it in my spirit. Y'all, calm down. You're pushing me. But God says some of you are built to break it. You're built to break it. What they said is not your limitation. Don't let their limitation become your insecurity. Because they can't see it doesn't mean you can't see it. Just because they can't believe it doesn't mean you can't believe it. And you're like, you sound kind of cocky up here right now, Pastor. I

thought we were supposed to be humblest Christians. Imagine what he took for Jesus, for the choicet before him, to endure the cross, despising his shame, with everybody telling him, come down and prove that you're God, called the angels, call your father, and he stayed up there, confident on that cross. Paul said, I learned from the Master. I want to be in the fellowship of his sufferings, to participate in his resurrection power. It's a partnership. It's a partnership.

And David said, I don't need to be partners with the lib I'm partners with God, partners with God. I have the name of the Lord. And things start getting really weird after that, because Saul, who is the king that God is replacing, here's that David wants to go fight Goliath. And he calls him over in verse thirty three and said, you're not able to go out against this philistin, this philistine, this philistine. What's the philistine's name? Goliath?

This philistine, this philistine. You're only a young man. He's been a warrior from his youth. His inexperience was his greatest benefit. Everybody else knew too much. David was dumb enough to defeat the enemy that they were running from. So stop saying, oh, I can't do this, I don't know enough. I gotta show you something. David said to Saul verse thirty four. Your servant has been keeping his

father's sheep. He starts reading his resume to the insecure king, and isn't it funny David put the same thing on his resume that his brother used to insult him, The things that the things that you used to disqualify you. God's like, that's exactly what it is. That's exactly what what is you that crazy. I've been keeping sheep, didn't you hear? My brother and watched the slutch this. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it and struck

it and rescued the sheep from his mouth. And when it turned on me, I seized it by it here, instruck it and chill confident your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised philistine will be

like one of them because I got a partner. So what do you do when your big brother doesn't believe in you, and neither does your leader when you go to when you go to get help and encouragement and love and support, because some of you are there, Man, you're like, I don't have anybody my life, Paul, I don't have the Philippins. I'm not a pustle this, Chris Paster, Steven, I don't have Holley on the front row. Shes to encourage Angel and she loves you, and she does and

that's great. But since David couldn't get it from Eliah, and he couldn't get it from Saul, he borrowed it from a bear. He said, no, wait, a minute. I never did this before, but one time, somebody say, one time, one time I was out doing my job and there was an attack that came against what I was responsible for. And no, it wasn't some big giant, some philistine army. No. I never been on this level before. No, I've never been in this season before. No, I never dealt with

this challenge before. I never passed her through a pandemic before. But one time, one time, I'm talking about first statement. One time, one time, come on, bring it all the way back. I know you never did this before, but you did that. You did that, put it in the chat. I did that. I did that. I did that. I held on to God when I had no job, held on to God when I had This is for somebody.

This is for somebody who's up under a thread of intimidation right now for something that You've never traveled this way before. But you did that. And the most annoying thing I read in a long time is verse thirty six. This will be like one of them, this this this, this. God has given you a this for every them, every enemy, every insecurity, every question. God has given you a this. Now, if you start getting distracted by them, what they're doing,

where their life is, they're progressing, what they've accomplished. Your power is not in them, it's in this and your confidence. Your confidence will follow your focus. Your confidence will follow your focus, so you will start believing the fear report, like the spies who kept the whole nation from going into the Promised Land because they had a good land, but they had a bad report. This it's an amazing thing to realize the power of your this. I never

did this before. I begged my kids one day. They were all fighting and I was mad. I was like, y'all stop. I never did this before as a dad. Mercy, Mercy, mercy. I'm a real good dad, I promise. But let's just have murments of weakness. Now you've been saying that to God, Lily this before. This is new to me. I never been on monster dot com. Do they still have that website. I've never been doing a resume. I've never been on LinkedIn looking for a job. I'm fifty two. I never

did this before. I never had to impart wisdom to somebody else. I don't feel very wise myself. David said, this will be like one of them. But the key to all of this will be where does your confidence come from? Because if it comes from a paphroditis, he gets sick. If it comes from alive, he has his own issues. If it comes from Saul, do you remember what Saul did to try to help David? He said, here,

take my armor. David's like I could, But you've been wearing it for forty days and it's not really working for you. So why do you keep wearing what's not even working for the people that you're copying. Why do we keep doing what the world's doing. Why do we keep why do we keep participating in the same stuff? David said, I can't wear your armor. I got my own swag. Now, in David's case, his swag was a sling. It was what he killed the bear with. It was

what he killed the lion with. So, when you're standing in front of something you've never seen before, never seen this age, never seen this stage, never seen these challenges, never seen this environment, never seen this uncertainty, never seen this instability. Borrow it from what's already in your bag. There is a this for every that. There is a this for everything, And all you need to believe is to remember I call you to remembrance today of what God gave you, who He's been to you, what he

did for you. I declare prophetically over your life, whatever Goliath you're standing in front of, because we all have one, this philistine will be like one of them. You see those dead lions behind you, You see those dead bears behind you, You see those seasons you survived and you didn't feel like you had enough, but God stretched it out. I don't have it right now, God said, you can borrow mine. You can come up in my closet. Why would you wear Saul's armor when you have the shield

of faith? Why would you wear Saul's armor when you have the shoes of the Gospel. Why would you wear Saul's armor when you have the sword of the spirit. David said, why would I borrow the armor of somebody whose faith is smaller than mine. You have your own slave, you have your own personality, you have your own gift. Some of the most confident people are the most quiet people. Because I know what I have, I'll have to broadcast it.

I don't have to compare mind to yours. This the power of this for every insecurity in your life, God has given you a this wow. So when it comes to your faith, remain confident. Before you can remain confident, you got to be confident. And before you can be confident, you got to become confident. Paul said, I think you feel very confident right now. I don't think you see how it's going to work out. So just remember certainty is knowing how. Confidence is knowing who. I am confident

of this give me Philippians one six. I think it'll hit different now. Confident of this, this this Paul knows the Philippian Church has limited faith. God knows you have limited resource. God knows you have limited experience. He didn't say I'm confident about you. He said I'm confident in this. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion to the day of Christ. This I will remain confident in this. So I can't think ten years ahead right now. I can't even think ten minutes ahead.

I got to reach back to the last bear. I killed, the last challenge. I overcame the last way. God. May and stay confident in this because you might be like Moses standing there at a burning bush, asking God, what do I do if they don't believe me? Exodus. For one, what do I do if they they they don't believe me. Remember God has given you a this for every day. For whoever doesn't like you, or whoever doesn't support you, they may not believe you. But watch what God did

with Moses. Next verse the Lord said, what's in your hand? And Moses said, a staff. So like David has a slaying, Moses has a staff. You have something to just put it in the chat right now? I have this, all right? And Moses is like, I have a shepherd's instrument. I have something that's very common and very ordinary and very How can confidence come from a shepherd's staff? He doesn't know what this staff is capable of, yet neither do you. He doesn't know that it's going to split waters, neither

do you. He doesn't know that it's going to produce water from rocks, hydration from impossibilities, and neither do you. But in his hand was a staff, and the Lord said verse three, throw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. He's running from the thing that God is going to use. But that's not the point. The point is this verse four, the Lord said, reach

out your hand, take it by the tail. So Moses reached out to cold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. Now you have it in your hand, and watch what the Lord says. Verse five. This this you mean my staff? Yeah, this, you mean the symbol of my mistake. I wouldn't even be a shepherd if I hadn't killed the Egyptian. God said, yeah, this, this, this is so that they may believe this. God gave you a this, this moment. Give us this day our

daily bread. Give us this day, this this, this, this, this, yeah, this this, this is the day the Lord is made. I will remain confident in this. No, I can't do what you can do. I don't have to, but I can do this. No, I can't do next Wednesday's work in my head, but I can do this. I can do this. Wow, Father, we release our staff. We release the thing that was good for us in one season, but it needs to become something else in this season.

I thank you, Lord that you showed me while I was studying the power of this, not them, not that, but this all across the world right now. I believe in your ability to interpret this word, and it will be custom made for the exact situation that each person is hearing it. They will hear this message when they need to hear it. They will receive it when they're ready to take it in. Our confidence has been shaken. The entire world has been rocking and reeling nearly for

a year now. What we used to absolutely assume now we can hardly predict. We thank you for that, because in a lot of cases, our confidence was coming from a bad bank that was charging us too much interest. So we're coming back to you today. We confess that sometimes we've trusted in the wrong things. I have. I trusted in my own wisdom. I didn't ask you. I trusted in my hustle. I didn't know I could rest

and be strong. Sometimes, Lord, I assumed that when something left my hand had left my life, but it didn't. You were just changing it. We thank you for this, and when the next thing comes, we thank you for that too. We're looking back over slain lions, dead bears, and we're walking right past Eliah, and we're shaking off Saul's armor today, and we've got our sling, we've got

our swag. It comes from coming in the name of the Lord, particularly Lord, for those who don't have a partner Right now, I want to stand in the gop and believe with them. You know my faith fails. You know that so well, Lord, But in this moment, you've given me great faith to this message. So from the overflow of your word that you put inside of me, the ingrafted word that produces faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. So as we step into this word,

we borrow confidence. We borrow confidence not in what we see, but in what you say, not in what we've experienced, but in what you predestined. We're coming into this moment, in this season, with uncertainty, but we're coming in with confidence. I stand with every brother and every sister who has been wondering can I do this? And I agree with Heaven that what you've put in their hand is more than enough. Be it a slang, be it a staff, be it five loaves into fish. I will remain confident

that I will see the goodness of the Lord. Help them see it, God, help them see it to walk right past every other thing and to see the power of this. We believe you for breakthroughs because this word was preached we believe you that people who have been unable to sleep are going to find rest in your presence this week. I thank you, Lord, that there is nothing that the enemy can put in front of us that is greater than what you put inside of us. I believe that, I believe that, I believe that I

decided to believe that I choose to believe it. And this philisty will be like one of them, and this battle will be like one of those past victories. And God, we're not reaching into tomorrow to borrow worry. We're reaching into our past tomorrow. Fan And now we touch heaven, and we agree that whatever we do in your name, it shall be established, it shall be. We come into

covenant with your work. We come into covenant with your son Jesus, and we declare yes, and a man, your promise is true in Jesus, Nay, lift up a great shout of praise, you sci a killer, you bear slayer, you lion killer. Thank you Lord. Just catching my breath after preaching, I like to always just come on and tell you, thank you, thank you for being a part of this ministry. Paul talked about the partnership in the gospel that's the way I feel about you. There are

thousands around the globe. We may never meet face to face, but that doesn't mean God didn't connect us. And I want you to remember you're not alone. Sometimes you'll feel lonely. Sometimes you won't find anybody who has the answers that you need. But not only is God with you, but as your church family, we're standing with you, and Holly and I are believing for you that God's going to

continue to build your faith, increase your confidence. And if you're in one of those seasons where you don't have a lot of faith right now, that it can get better. Borrow mind. We believe good things concerning you. He who began a good work, he will be faithful. We love you. Thank you to all of you who give faithfully. It touches my heart so much to know that you believe in this ministry, that you believe in Jesus, that you believe in His word. I'll see you next time. Pray for you.