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13th January 2019 This week’s sermon: Romans 8: 28-‐39: A cross shaped life: The ABC of God confidence
Romans 8 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who jusEfies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
In Romans 8:31 we hear the phrase “If God is for us, who can be against us?” But if that is the case why are so many of us lacking in confidence? Why are so many ChrisEans failing to take the freedom that God has given us and walk in confidence? If we live a life shaped on the cross then our lives ought to be lived out with supreme God-‐confidence.
When I was a teenager a local cricket team had an open trial. Now I wasn’t keen on going but my friends persuaded me to go along, and – shall we say it politely – I didn’t have a good day. But worse of all the coach made a withering remark about me in front of the whole trial of about 50 boys, most of whom went to the same school as me. My confidence with cricket bat and ball disappeared immediately. A few weeks later about 6-‐8 of my friends were knocking at my door trying to get me to play that night as they couldn’t get 11 people together to make a team. They were begging me. They were telling me I couldn’t let my friends down and that I had to play. Do you know what I did? I said no. My confidence was so far gone, so shot, that I was willing to take the contempt of my friends rather than to try play the game.
What Is Confidence? Confidence is not reality. It’s what you think about reality. What something is and how you feel about are very different things. Confidence is ulEmately our apEtude to engage with the world. A confident person is able to rise to new challenges, take control of difficult situaEons, act on opportuniEes, and accept responsibility and criEcism if things go wrong. I’m not suggesEng that everyone has to become an extrovert. You can be a confident introvert. And I’m certainly cognizant that for many of us with low confidence it is deep-‐seated and long-‐held. What I am talking about is being a person who eagerly embraces the world rather than allowing the world to dictate terms to you.
Hebrews 10:35 says “Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded”. A lack of confidence is debilitaEng. People with low confidence tend to see the world as a hosEle place and themselves as a vicEm. As a result, they are reluctant to express and assert themselves, miss out on experiences and opportuniEes, and feel powerless to change things. The life that God wants us to have is so oben held back by our lack of confidence.
God Confidence But as ChrisEans we have absolutely no excuse. If we lack confidence, really what we are lacking in is faith. In Romans 8:39 we hear that, “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” but do we really live like we know that? Instead of walking in God-‐confidence with this as the underpinning of our life, we end up basing our confidence (or lack of) on external things. But for ChrisEans it absolutely shouldn’t be this way. There is a fantasEc story in the bible about King Hezekiah, who was a king in ancient Israel. It’s told in 3 separate places, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. Israel is under siege and the King of Assyria sent a huge army of 185k soldiers to Jerusalem and they called for King Hezekiah. The field commander said to the Kings’ representaEves, “On what are you basing this confidence of yours? On whom are you depending that you rebel against me? Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord. Make peace with me or choose death.” On hearing the proclamaEon Hezekiah went to the temple and prayed to God to deliver them and that night thousands of Assyrian soldiers died and they broke camp and withdrew.
A Confidence Based On A Solid FoundaHon A non-‐believer would look at that situaEon and their confidence would crumble. But Hezekiah’s confidence was not based on external things, it was based upon a knowledge that God was real, that God was with him, and that God was for him. It was God-‐confidence and it was based on something rock solid. In Maihew 7:24-‐25 Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into pracEce is like a wise person who built their house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundaEon on the rock.”
AcHon From Confidence Some years ago there was an entrepreneur who was deep in debt and could see no way out. They were sat on a park bench contemplaEng if anything could save the company from bankruptcy. A man sat down and said “I can see that something
Prayer focus for this week:
is troubling you.” Aber listening to the woes the man said, “I believe I can help you.” He wrote out a cheque and said “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that Eme.” The entrepreneur saw that the cheque was for $500,000 and was signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! They decided to put the uncashed cheque in their safe in the hope that it might give them the strength to work out a way to save their business. With renewed opEmism, beier deals were negoEated and terms of payment were extended. Several big sales were closed and within a few months they were out of debt and making money once again.
Exactly one year later, they returned to the park with the uncashed cheque. At the agreed-‐upon Eme, the man appeared. But just as the entrepreneur was about to hand back the cheque and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the man. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you” she said, “He’s always running away from us and making up stories about being John D. Rockefeller.” All year long that entrepreneur had been wheeling and dealing convinced that they had half a million dollars behind them. It wasn’t the money that had turned their life around. It was the confidence that they had gained from a rock solid foundaEon that had given the result. Your foundaEon is God’s love, and the knowledge that he is with you, and that he is for you. And if you need evidence, look at the cross. Because of what happened on the cross you can live with freedom and walk with confidence today. You can live a transformed life if you want it. And you can claim privileges of being a ChrisEan right now.
The ABC Of God-‐Confidence In Everyday Life In your day to day life remember three things A-‐B-‐C: A -‐ Acceptance – Accept what you can do and stop worrying about what you can’t do. If God wanted you to do those other things then you’d have the skills for it or the apEtude to learn them. B -‐ Belief – You are loved. You must know, that you know, that you know, that you know! You should never, ever, ever have to say to God, “Do you love me?” Any trouble that you might be in right now has nothing to do with God’s love for you. C -‐ Contentment – If you’re trying to impress everyone then you are going to be miserable. I’m up here but I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just enjoying talking about God. I hope that it’s good enough but if it’s not you’ll have to take it up with God because I can’t go beyond it.
The ABC Of God-‐Confidence In A Difficult SituaHon So in your daily life, A-‐B-‐C – Acceptance, Belief and Contentment. But what if you are faced with a situaEon where you become faint-‐hearted? Well, first of all, if you’re waiEng for the feeling of fear to go away then you’re going to be waiEng a long Eme. Courage is taking acEon when you feel afraid. Doing what you know you should do rather than what the flesh is telling you to do. When facing a situaEon that needs confidence there is another A-‐B-‐C to follow: A -‐ Angle – How are you looking at this? Is it really important? Will this really affect you in the way you think it will? Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” B – Bible – How does the situaEon fit with God’s word? If the situaEon or the way you are considering dealing with it is aligned with God’s word then don’t stress out. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” C – Consequences – Are the consequences of failure really as big as you think they are? Proverbs 28:26 says “The person that trusts in their own heart is a fool!” We talk ourselves into thinking we cannot fail and most of the Eme it doesn’t maier if you try something and happen to be wrong.
Look At The Cross And Be Confident Jeremiah 17:7 says “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and whose confidence is in him.” Every Eme you look at the cross you should be confident: nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Paul made it clear: no one can successfully oppose us because God is on our side. No one can successfully make a charge against us because God is judge and jury. And no one can condemn us because Jesus is sat at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. If no one can oppose us, no one can charge us, and no one can condemn us, then we should have an innate, deeply held sense of confidence that nothing and no one can take away. Are you a ChrisEan that is alive or are you just breathing? Are you seizing the rights that have been won for you on the cross by our saviour or do you go to church on Sunday and then spend the other 6.5 days of the week just like everyone else? Real confidence is only open to believers. It’s a privilege of cross-‐shaped living. It’s a genuine, deep seated knowledge that you can walk with your head held high knowing that whatever happens to you, God is on your side. Amen.
A Prayer For God Confidence Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-‐European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He wasn’t a ChrisEan but he perfectly encapsulates how we should feel about God-‐confidence in this poem:
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the s7lling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the pa7ence to win my freedom. Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.