How To Be Confident In Your Calling

I know your confidence has been shaken lately. That's why

you need some people. Would you tell the person next

to you, I need people like you.

In my life. I really do. I really do.

Let us not give up meeting together as some are

in the habit of doing. I need people in my

life because I really believe. If I hadn't grown up

at Monk's Corner of United Methodist Church and it Jackie

didn't tell me, God has a special plan for your

life when I first got.

Saved, I might have gone right back to the way

I was living.

The temptation that is being countered by the author of

Hebrews is the temptation to turn back. That no sooner

do you get started in the pursuit of a promise

from God than you lose your confidence and turn back.

You lose your confidence because certain people don't like it.

Certain people don't understand it. Certain people aren't going the

same way as you. Certain people don't support or endorse

your decision to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

That's why you need certain other people, certain other people.

You can't do this alone.

I like to say, back in the early days, when

I first started preaching, you have to follow Christ for yourself.

But you cannot follow Christ by yourself.

So I need a new community.

I need a new community, somebody to look me in

the eyes from time to time and say, I think

you still got it.

I think you ought to press on.

If you don't have those people in your life, there

is no hope for you holding on to your confidence.

Because everybody in their head has a little confidence committee.

They sit around that table, and you have the committee

member called past experience.

And boy, he'll speak up.

Real quick when you decide to do something for God.

You tried that once, how'd that go?

He'll show you the treadmill that you bought, it's now

a coat rack. And then there's past experience.

And let's see who else sits at the table. You

got past experience.

And maybe you got the committee member of self loathing

and doubt and.

All these people.

If you don't have one time, the prophet Elisha needed

to teach his protege faith because they were surrounded by enemies.

And that's all that the protege could see. That's all

he could see what was against him. I took away

his confidence.

He cried out, Oh my Lord, what shall we do?

Now sometimes that's that's the only prayer you can pray.

And Elisha gave him a different context. When he prayed,

open his eyes Lord, that he may see, and when

he blinked and opened his eyes again, nothing had really.

Changed except his vision.

Opened his eyes the second time, he saw that what

was surrounding them was surrounded by the armies of the

Living God. You know, I believe God wants to bring

people in your life who can surround what's surrounding you

until you see the protection, the provision, and the promise

of God coming to pass.

In your life. I'll be honest. There are certain people

I look.

For when I preach because they boost my confidence. Certain

people I look away from real quick, tell you a

little secret. The rights of this Valentine campus is really spiritual.

They will shout you down, only to be matched by

this intersection and the people in the back as well

as the left side of the room.

Look, give me a wide shot. Can you show the

other campuses how we built this room.

We built this Valentine campus where.

You can't sneak in, you can't fall asleep. Somebody will

see you. We wanted you to know when you come to.

Church you're surrounded because you might come to church in trouble.

And weak and tempt it and test it.

And try, but somebody shall I'm surrounded.

Come on, tell.

Seven people you're surrounded. Even if you want to go back,

I won't let you. Even if you want to fall short,

I'm not about to.

Let you quit.

You've come too far by faith. We're gonna lean on

him together we go forward.

Surrounded, got a community even within our staff.

It shocked me.

On Wednesday, I've been teaching our staff and one of

the subjects I brought.

Up was confidence.

And in between sessions, we were singing one of my

favorite new songs that's going to be recorded for the

new album, and we sang it today in church.

Many of you be watching on TV and you won't

get to hear it yet. But the song says, I

believe I'll see you do it again. I believe I'll

see you do it again.

And we were singing it and the staff was singing it,

and there's a line in that song that says, this

is my confidence.

You never failed me yet, this is my confidence.

And the spear of the Lord spoke to me and said,

go up on stage right now. And I was supposed

to introduce Holly for her session, and the Lord told

me she won't mind.

She can wait and give an alter call for your staff.

And I said, Lord, you mean I got staff that

aren't saved. He said, well, yeah, probably that too, but that's.

Not the kind of alter call I mean. I'm skidded.

And he said, I want you to call for people

who are having a crisis in confidence.

So when I did it, I said, I want you

to come forward.

If you're having a crisis in confidence, I want you

to come to the stage.

I thought three people would come.

I turned around, and all of a sudden, they didn't

come to the stage.

They started coming on the stage.

They misunderstood my instruction, and it wasn't three of them.

It was more people that came to the stage than

stayed in the seats. And the next thing I know,

I was surrounded by these staff members and I went

through everything in my head. I was like, did they

hear what I said? Because I didn't say if you

struggle a little bit with your confidence, you know, because

if you give an aulter call broad enough you can

get the whole room to come.

I'm saying, if you felt defeated. Come.

You know, you could just stretch it out if you're

here today. But I didn't say, if you, you know,

weren't outfit today and you're.

Not feeling so good about it anymore.

You need to feel kind of fat, come on to

the stage and pray over your outfit. I said, a

crisis and confidence, and over half my staff came and

I prayed with him for about twenty minutes, and I said,

we are going to leave some chains on the stage today.

But probably the best thing I did for him was

turn around and give them some context that there are

times where the pressure to preach becomes so great, and

my doubt in my own ability to lead the church

becomes so strong. There have been times where I have

fantasized about just walking out on independence and hoping maybe

truck will come.

I know.

I seem confident up here, and maybe I shouldn't tell

you this. Some of y'all are going to pray for me,

write me a prescription or something like that. I'm not

saying I walk around feeling that all the time. I'm

not saying I'm suicidal.

I was just.

Trying to get them to see that their lack of

confidence does not have.

To be the death of their calling. And the devil's

got some of you.

Right now.

You are at that Hebrew's ten crossroads of confidence, trying

to decide whether to stay and raise your children or not.

Trying to decide.

Whether continuing to pursue Christian values is even possible, or

should you just give into the addiction and go back

the other way, trying to decide. I called my staff

on the stage, and I even shared that about my

own life, because I have seen too many callings abandoned

at the crossroads of confidence.

And if you just would.

Have pressed on a little more, you would have seen

the breakthrough. The author said, in just a little while,

he who is.

Coming, he who is coming, will come and not delay.

When the devil.

Really puts the pressure on, that's a sign that you

are in proximity to the promise that you've been pressing forward.

Great on the stage and I felt my confidence coming.

Back, and it just hit me.

If that was my staff, and they are paid to

be Christians. What's going on in the congregation, what's going

on out there? What is the devil telling you? If

he's telling the preacher, you know, you probably preach your

best sermons by now, and they all heard everything you

got to say. You know, you built that Valentine building

too big, Never gonna fill.

That one up. If that's what he's saying to me,

I can't imagine. I mean, I'm the man of God.

I can't imagine what he's telling you. I can't imagine

the mistakes that he's bringing up. I can't imagine the

dumb decisions that he replays in your mind. Just that

five minute clip that runs randomly every time you go

to step out.

I can't imagine.

And so he mentions, he says, you need a clear conscience,

and only the blood of Jesus can do that.

And you have the blood of Jesus, So be confident.

When you come before God, come befo him with confidence.

And you need a community. Guys, there's something to everybody

who came to church. Oh God, I know you're struggling

a little bit. I know I guess some things.

But you're around the right people right now, and we're

going to do this together. But it's going to take consistency.

Don't give up meeting together. Encourage one another all the more.

As you see the day approaching, you see his biceps.

They didn't get like that one time in the gym.

The first time he.

Went to pick up the forties, they were real heavy

and he was brunding on himself. Now he just picks

up the eighties in the nineties because he picked up

the fifties and the sixties. Confidence comes from consistency. Well,

I guess you're not confident. You only let me preach

to you once every three months. You only open your

Bible on special occasions, like, I guess you're not confident,

how could you be? Confidence comes through consistency. They were

interviewing Serena after she won her what was it, her

and thirty second Grand Slam title, tied the record. They said,

how do you deal with the pressure of this big

moment and rise to the occasion as you have so

many times?

And I laughed at her response. It was instant classic.

She said, well, I've played a lot of tennis. I

thought that was so great. How do you deal with

the big moments? Well, I've played a lot of tennis.

You see somebody who has a lot of confidence, they

tell you how they got it.

They prayed a lot of prayers, you know.

How softly Serena speaks after.

She wins, I played a lot of tennis. You see

somebody who asked tremendous peace in their heart. They forgave

a lot of people.

You see somebody who knows how to persevere through dry

seasons and hard times.

They read a lot of Bible verses.

And so he sets confidence within the context of a

clear conscience, within the context of a strong community, within

the context of a commitment to consistency.

And now he says, let me get to my preaching part.

How'd you like that set up? This won't take long.

So do not throw away your confidence.

It will be richly rewarded. Don't do it. Don't throw

away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded.

And you need to persevere so that when you have

done the will of God, you will.

Receive what he has probmise.

Now, it's interesting to me that in order to get

them to press forward, he tells them to look back.

In verse thirty two, the writer says, if you want

to go forward, here's what you need to do, remember

those earlier days. This fascinates me because I've always been

told that the way to gain confidence is to not

look back. You know, you can't think about the past,

can't think about what happened.

You just got to leave it behind.

Well, in this particular instance, the author advocates a type

of memory management that will actually build your confidence. Remember

those earlier days after you had received the light, when

you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.

He says, You've been through much worse than this, and

you made it.

Do you know what I know. I don't know what

you've been I don't know what it looked like. I

don't know how horrible it was. You could tell your story,

I could tell my story.

I know one thing about you. You made it. You're

still here. I know that about you. I don't even

have to know your name.

I just know by the fact, by the virtue of

the fact that you showed.

Up, that you made it.

And so sometimes it's just as simple as remembering that

you made it.

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