I Have Confidence in God

Well, guys, if you are new to his hands or maybe it's your first Sunday in a while, great timing.

We are on the very last Sunday of a series we've been in for like six months.

So that's awesome.

But don't worry, I'll catch you up really fast, I promise.

We've been in a series called Getting to Know God.

And the focus has been we want to know God better.

We want to get to know him.

And again, if you haven't been here, it's not too late.

Getting to know God is a lifelong endeavor.

It's something we should we should make our purpose in life.

Like Jesus said once, what good is it to gain the world if you lose your soul?

What good is it to have everything?

What good is it to be successful in your career, to have money, to have uh to have friends, to have everything this world can offer?

Everything in this world passes away.

What good is it to have all of that, but but to lose your soul?

There is nothing more important than knowing God.

And you can know him because he's alive and he desires to be known.

Really, the story of the Bible is in many ways the story of a God who desperately wants to know the people he created, and many of those people run from him.

Uh they push him away, and he never stops pursuing us.

He never stops working to help us know him.

He knows us.

But he never stops working so that we can know him.

So we want to get to know God better.

And what we've been doing to get to know him is we've studied the story of a man in the Bible named Abraham.

And he's one of the first major characters of the Bible.

We've spent who knows how many weeks on this.

I think we started this the first week of February.

We've gone all the way from Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Today we're in Genesis 25.

We've basically gone through every single verse, just covered all of it except for a few short sections that the story goes away from Abraham and has nothing to do with him.

So we've skipped those, but you've you've covered a lot of scripture, a lot of ground if you've been here for this.

And we've seen Abraham go from someone who believes in God, which is great.

It's great to believe, it's great to have faith, of course.

But by the time we get to the end of his story, where we're at today, he doesn't just believe in God, he knows him.

He's familiar with God, he knows his character, he knows his nature, and it completely changes the way that he looks at life.

The way that he approaches really difficult situations, and we'll see an example of that today in a way that's subtle, but not really if you know the story.

And so I'm gonna start by reading uh Genesis chapter 24.

Genesis 24 · chapter mention

It says, Abraham was now a very old man.

He's been an old man this entire time, uh, by the way, but now he's a very old man, okay?

And the Lord has blessed him in every way.

One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, take an oath, and I'm gonna explain this, so just bear with me.

Uh, take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh.

Um, aren't you glad that certain customs have changed over the centuries?

Like now we just, hey, let's shake on it.

But like back in the day, they're like, no, no, no.

Anyone can shake hands, like right here, like right under there.

That's what they did.

So I'm glad that's different.

Um says, Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women.

So uh Abraham is not being racist.

He lives as a foreigner in a land of people that do not believe what he believes, and they do not worship the God that he worships.

They worship these false pagan gods and it's craziness.

And he's got a son, Isaac, and he loves his son, and it's time for his son to find a wife, and in their culture, that's like kind of an arranged thing always.

And so he's like, You've got to go back to where I'm from.

I want my son to marry someone that shares my faith.

And so uh his servant says, Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, find a life, a wife for my son Isaac.

And the servant asks, but what if I can't find a young woman who's willing to travel so far from home?

That's a pretty big endeavor.

Go somewhere, find a woman, you gotta come back with me.

I promise.

It's not weird.

That's a strange thing to ask someone to do.

And he says, Should I should I take uh Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?

No, Abraham said.

Be careful never to take my son there.

For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants.

He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son.

If she's unwilling to come back with you, then you're free from this oath of mine.

But under no circumstance are you to take my son there.

So the servant took an oath by putting his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham.

He swore to follow Abraham's instructions.

And then he loaded ten of Abraham's camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he travelled to distant Aram Naharam.

I probably mispronounced that.

There he went to the town where Abraham's brother Nahor had settled.

He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town.

It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.

O Lord, God of my master Abraham, he prayed, please give me success today.

Show unfailing love to my master Abraham.

See, I'm standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water.

This is my request.

I'll ask one of them, please give me a drink from your jug.

And if she says, Yes, have a drink, and I will also water your camels.

Let her be the one you've selected as Isaac's wife.

This is how I will know that you've shun unfailing love to my master.

And before he had finished praying, he saw a young woman named Rebecca coming out with her water, uh her water jug on her shoulder.

She was the daughter of Bethuel, who is the son of Abraham's brother Nahor and his wife Milka.

Rebecca was a very beautiful and woman, and she was old enough to be married, but she was still a virgin.

She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up again.

Running over to her, the servant said, Please give me a drink of water for your jug.

Yes, my lord, she answered, have a drink.

And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink.

And when she had given him a drink, she said, I'll draw water for your camels too, until they've had enough to drink.

So she quickly emptied her jug into the water trough, and ran back to the well to draw water for all of his camels.

The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord had given him success in his mission.

And then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracements bracelets for her wrist, also a custom of their day.

And so he has success.

And then we get back in Genesis chapter 25.

Genesis 25 · chapter mention

Abraham lived for 175 years.

And we talked about this, uh, the Old Testament records people living much longer than they do now.

And uh, if you're ever interested in that, there's some cool stuff you can look up.

I'm not going to get into all of that right now for time, um, but we had a cool conversation about that a while ago and how it's actually not as crazy as it might seem.

It says he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life.

He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death.

His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Makkalah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite.

This was the field that Abraham had purchased from the Hittites and where he had buried his wife Sarah.

And after Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who settled near Bil Laharoi in the Negev.

Okay, so that's Abraham's life.

And at the very end, he has one request.

He says, All right, my son needs a wife.

He tells his servant, Go find this woman, go find this wife that God has set aside for my son.

And the servant has reservations, as you can imagine.

That's a big task.

I mean, he's traveling so many miles, distant land, and he's just supposed to go and bring back a woman.

I mean, that is.

My wife sends me to the grocery store.

I get nervous because I mess that up all the time.

Like, like all the time.

One time my wife sent me to the grocery store and she asked me to get banana rings, which I don't, I didn't know what those were.

Does anyone know what a banana ring is?

Like it's does anyone not know what a banana ring is?

Okay, good.

So I'm not the only one.

I was looking at this list, I thought she was pranking me.

I was like, banana rings?

And I searched for, not joking, 30, 40 minutes.

And it's like banana peppers cut into rings.

So that happened, right?

I was unsuccessful.

I couldn't bring back banana rings successfully.

This guy's got to bring back a wife.

This is a big task.

And he's nervous.

And you would understand why he's nervous, but Abraham is not nervous at all.

Abraham says, Look, I'm God's got this.

I'm not worried about it.

You know what?

If they reject you, fine, come back, but I'm not even worried about it.

God will send an angel ahead of you, and you are going to come back with the woman that is meant for my son.

Abraham has so much faith.

He has so much confidence in God.

Because he's lived a life and he has seen God.

God be there for him, be faithful to him in his ups and his downs.

And so at the beginning of his life, at the beginning of the story that we began to look through, Abraham was often much more like his servant.

Hey, hey, God, but what if this?

But what if that?

There were so many times where God asked Abraham to do things, or God let Abraham know things he was going to do, and Abraham's like, I don't know about that, God.

What about this?

What about that?

What if this?

What if that?

But now at the end of his life, having gotten to know God, Abraham's like, it's fine.

I'm not worried about it all.

God is good.

God is going to provide.

He has confidence in God.

And it's amazing how much confidence matters in life.

Like confidence matters a ton.

I'm not talking about arrogance and being cocky.

But there's a version of confidence.

It's like quiet confidence.

If you can live with real confidence, confidence especially in God, it changes everything for your life.

Stress, fear, worry, anxiety, confidence in God, true confidence in God.

That can be the solution to all that.

But it's hard to have confidence, right?

We're trained at a young age to be let down, to be disappointed.

So all of us as people, we grew up with tremendous confidence.

And sometimes life hits us and confidence goes down.

Like, imagine this.

Pretty much all of us from the time we were babies completely trusted our parents and had full confidence in them and thought they were really smart.

Like all of our kids, like especially when they're really young, they think we're geniuses.

We are the solution to everything.

They just go to us.

Dad will know.

Dad is so smart.

And half the time my oldest son looks at me, I know what he's thinking, and it's not that.

It is not.

I I don't want to know what it is, but I can see in his eyes it is not.

Man, Dad, you are so smart.

You are wise.

I want to come and learn from your wisdom.

Nope, that's not the look I get.

Like kids, little kids will let their parents throw them in the air.

And they just completely expect to be caught.

That doesn't last very long.

It's funny, raising our kids, uh, there have been so many moments in life where we've seen their expectations uh severely shattered and like in a negative way, where something doesn't live up to the hype, and they get disappointed, and their confidence in all kinds of things in life goes down.

So, for example, we found this video of my daughter Lily.

I want to set this up for a second.

Now, uh, those of you who go here, you know I have a deal with my kids.

If I ever show a picture of them or a video, I have to pay them.

Um it's$20 for a picture, it's$50 for a video.

Guys, I'm not the one that sets these prices.

Inflation affects everything, okay?

It's not me, it's the world we live in.

And you get it, right?

They're kids, they have lives, they have friends, and so if I'm gonna show something in front of all these people and the thousands of the people look watching from home, like it better, I gotta make it worth their while, right?

They can't just be my material, but yet they give me so much material.

So it's important.

We have a deal.

But but my daughter, she's in Chicago for the whole month of July.

And we've never written this in contractual form, but I'm putting in a new clause that says, if you are out of state, no money.

So the video I'm about to show is is from my daughter when she was about four years old.

And the setup for this is that she has spent the entire day at her grandparents swimming in their pool, having the time of her life, being fed who knows how much chocolate.

Like grandparent nutrition is not a thing.

You know, in fact, she our Megan's mom has tried to convince us that our kids have eaten well because of how many popsicles they've had.

And we've been like, those are popsicles.

She's like, yes, but they're made with real fruit.

That's not the same thing as fruit, but whatever.

And so she's had a tremendously awesome day, but for whatever reason, in this video, she she is thinking about Chuck E.

Cheese.

A restaurant that, as you'll see, she has never been to, and this is a very big problem.

I don't know why she's thinking about Chuck E.

Cheese.

Um and she may have seen a commercial.

I have no idea where this came from, but we decided to pull out the phone because sometimes kids are behaving so crazy, you have to record it to show them later.

You have to.

Parents, do that, use that.

You have to.

They'll appreciate it one day.

And so this is this is Lily expressing deep remorse for her for not having been able to experience the wonder of Chuck E.

Cheese.

Okay?

Take a look at this and we'll come back.

We can't go to Chuck Eese.

Why can't we go to Chuck E.

Cheese?

I've been waiting all these years tomorrow.

You've been waiting all these years?

How many years have you been waiting?

A hundred years.

Well, yeah.

We can go to Chucky Cheese someday, we just can't go to Chuck.

Have you went to Chuck E.

Cheeses before?

I have.

I have been to Chuck E.

Cheese.

It's really fun, and I can't have anyone.

I've been not having anyone today.

Oh.

Yeah.

I don't know what you're clapping for.

Um what you ought to be clapping for is my my wife was like not doing it, right?

If like we don't, fits don't work.

Like drama doesn't work.

But man, her heart broken because she's never been to Chuck E.

Cheese's.

And a short time after this, we took her to Chuck E.

Cheese's.

And if you work at Chuck E.

Cheese, by the way, I'm not knocking it.

If you own Chuck E Cheese, thank you for your contribution to America.

Um, business is hard.

But if you if you went to Chuck E.

Cheese expecting Disney World, I'm just saying.

Like she walks in and she it in her mind, Chuck E.

Cheese, I mean, she you saw her how desperately she had to go to Chuck E.

Cheese.

When we took her to Chuck E.

Cheese, the letdown was real.

You know.

Instant disappointment.

And now, as a human being, less confidence in her hopes and dreams.

That's how life works.

It's true as how it's how life works.

There are so many things in life that let us down, and and and it teaches us, it conditions us to have less confidence, just to be more cynical, to whatever it might be.

I mean, I remember growing up, my first job was at an American institution.

Even our institutions fail us.

Right?

The the government.

There was a time when people remember people trusted the government, apparently.

This was like before the 1960s.

People were like, oh, the government, they would not lie to us about stuff.

And then that all went away, and now we don't even like, yeah, of course.

Like we don't believe anything or shouldn't, right?

So institutions can fail us.

I worked at one of the, I would say one of the five pillars of American culture for many years.

I worked at Blockbuster Video as a guy.

I actually got fired from a blockbuster video.

That's hard to do, by the way.

That's a low bar.

But that like those of you, let me explain, okay, to those of us who are young, there used to be a time when if you wanted to watch a movie, you would physically drive to a store, you would go and hope that they had a copy of it, hope that they had a copy of it, and then you would get it, you would pay it, you would take it home, you would forget that you had it, and then you would go and you would pay late fees, and it was a blast.

And I worked there.

I worked there.

And there was a period of time, if those of us who were back in the day were be honest, in your wallet, the most important, most often used things you had in your wallet were like your driver's license, maybe a debit card, and your blockbuster card.

Right?

Your block that laminated piece of paper, that thing was important.

The uniform, I mean the the uniform for Blockbuster.

You guys remember the Blockbuster uniform?

I do, because I wore it.

Right?

Blue shirt with a yellow collar, yellow bands, khaki pants.

It was like the military, first responders, nurses, blockbuster video.

Those were the uniforms that that's those are the people we look to for hope.

But like, no, when I worked at Blockbuster, it was on top of the world.

I worked there in like 2000.

And in 2004, they had 9,000 locations.

Today there is one left.

There's actually a Blockbuster left in Oregon.

One.

All right?

So if you want to go get a movie, like feel free.

Blockbuster was so set.

Like in my mind, you want job security?

I work at Blockbuster Video.

These are never going away.

Netflix came out, and actually, Netflix wanted Blockbuster to buy them, and Blockbuster was like, pfft, please.

Didn't work out.

But there was a time when that was, I mean, that was an institution and it crumbles.

Like, how do you have confidence?

Like a Blockbuster can't make it, guys.

How can any of us?

You know?

There's so many things in life that in our minds are steady and they're forever.

And I know I'm being silly, I know I'm joking, but in all seriousness, there are things in life that we believe are unshakable.

And they're not.

So how do you have confidence in life?

Or there are situations where, like my my daughter, things that you have built up in your mind and you think it's gonna be incredible and amazing, and it's just not.

You know, things like marriage, and you know, it's I'm just joking.

I'm just joking.

Um, no, no, hold on.

Oh, guys, marriage is great, but raise your hand if your marriage was different than what you expected.

Come on.

Some of you have not been married long enough to have the confidence to raise your hand.

I'll I'll raise both.

It's different, it's not worse.

It's just not different.

That's why fairy tales always end with happily ever after, like pfft.

They always end on the wedding day.

It's not happily ever after.

You show them five years later, it's different.

No, things let us down, things disappoint us, or things are just different.

And so, how do you live with confidence?

Listen to what scripture says.

Jeremiah chapter 17.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

This is what the Lord says.

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

What it's saying is, cursed is the person who puts their hope and their confidence in the things of this world.

That that can include, guys, everything from your job, your earthly relationships, your own intelligence, your own abilities, your own talents, the country that you live in, the institutions that we're part of, the company that you work for.

Cursed is the person who puts their trust and puts all their confidence in the things of this world.

It says that person will be like a bush in the wastelands, and they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives, but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when the heat comes, its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought, and it never fails to bear fruit.

If you put your confidence in the things of this world, good luck.

And you're free to do that, by the way.

Many people have, and man, it's a rough road.

But it says, blessed is the person who puts their confidence in God.

And I think it's really important.

It says in God, not in our idea of God.

Sometimes, and this is an unfortunate, some of us, maybe the thing that's disappointed you most at some point in life, maybe it's been church.

I mean, honestly, I had that happen.

I felt like I was supposed to work at a church from the time I was about 18, and I spent my college years interning at a church, and I got incredibly let down by that experience.

It's like the veneer kind of wore off, and what I thought church was was different.

I saw people in leadership behave in ways that really disappointed me and it broke my heart, so much so that I actually walked away from the whole desire to work at a church for a while.

Um, in fact, a friend of mine, I was living in Kansas City, he called me up, and he was someone I had confided it in, uh, confided in that I wanted to work at a church and I felt called to ministry.

And he called me up and he's like, What are you doing?

I was working in a marketing company, and he said, What about church?

I was like, ah man, I don't want to.

You know, like fool me once kind of thing, right?

Fool me once, fool me twice.

And he's like, Justin, just because you were at a place where things went wrong doesn't mean that what God has called you to do is is off.

And he actually made me call his hands, his hands was just starting up.

Um, and he said, They're looking for a youth pastor, and I lived here in high school, and so he said, I want you to call this church.

And I was, and I really at first was like, man, I'm not interested.

And he said, No, you have to call him.

And so, if not for that friend making me call this church, I wouldn't be here.

And the reason I wasn't even interested was because I had been let down by church.

Now, looking back, a lot of that, to be honest, was my own immaturity, and a lot of it though had to do with the fact that I I had replaced God in many ways with church and with pastors, and people will always let you down, and whole groups of people will let you down.

I promise if you go here long enough, I will let you down.

I promise you.

Like I'm I'm good at that.

Ask my family.

Um it happens all the time.

It does.

I'm serious.

I'm not just making it happens, but our confidence is supposed to be in God, not our idea of God, even.

Sometimes we're given an idea of God where, you know, man, if you follow God, He loves you, and everything will go well for you, and you won't have any problems, and it's just all great.

And God does love us and He does bless us.

But if you read the Bible, no one, if you someone handed you a Bible and you read it, you just man, you burned through it, read every page, shut it, you would not go.

Well, you know what?

When you love God, life is easy.

Like you would never think that after reading the Bible.

And yet many people are sold that and they get really disappointed and they feel like God has let them down, and it's like, no, it wasn't God, it was your idea of God.

Because God's love for us is not proven by his constant removal of our trials.

God's love for us, it's proven by the fact that he is with us in the trials.

He doesn't abandon us, he doesn't leave us, he strengthens us, he gives us what we need to get through every trial.

And so our confidence is meant to be in God.

Not the things of this world, but in God and God alone.

And we see people, by the way, in the Bible who live this way, and they're they're all pretty awesome, to be honest with you.

Like there's a prophet named Elijah, famous story where he's testing these prophets of a false god called Baal.

And he basically sets up like a challenge.

I mean, in today's world, this would have been like a reality TV show.

And it's it's the prophets of Baal versus him, and there's a lot of them, and they set up this altar, and they're like, hey, let's see which God shows up.

Which let's see which God miraculously lights this altar on fire.

And the prophets of Baal spend the entire day and they're chanting and they're doing their stuff and they're trying to like conjure up their God doing something, nothing happens.

And and Elijah has look, there is a Appropriate trash talk.

Okay?

Elijah trash talks a little bit in this story.

He says, Maybe your God's asleep.

Maybe he's using the bathroom.

Elijah says that.

It's pretty awesome.

And that is why I feel like trash talk in sports is fine.

I feel like God was fine when Elijah did that.

And so I might do a little bit of that from time to time.

And there's a biblical precedent for it.

Solid.

Alright.

Well, then Elijah says, I'll tell you what, let's make it harder.

Because I believe so much in God.

Why don't you guys pour water, cover the altar in water, just drench it.

And so they all do that, and he prays, and the altar lights.

He was so confident in God, not himself, in God.

David is a great story.

You know, David fights Goliath, classic story, even if you haven't ever been to church, like you know that story, David versus Goliath, you know how it goes.

But it's interesting if we read in 1 Samuel chapter 17, uh, Goliath is offended that David is fighting.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

Goliath is this monster of a man, and he's he's killed many warriors, and David is basically a kid.

In 1 Samuel 17, it says, Goliath says to David, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Come here, he said, I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

And David said to the Philistine, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied.

This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down, and I will cut off your head.

This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel, and all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands.

Now, I mean, you got to admit, that's pretty awesome.

Like, I'm not sanctifying violence or anything like that, but I mean, come on.

That is confident.

That's confidence.

And it's not confidence in him, it's confidence in God.

Jesus had both self-confidence and God confidence.

For him, it was the same thing.

There's this day where he's teaching in the temple, and he goes in, and the temple is just a mess.

The temple is full of people that are using faith to make a profit and like really take people's.

It'd almost be like if what if you came to church today and you had to pay for parking?

Um, and you know, you go to check your kids in, and it's like, are you a His Hands Plus member?

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Um, please get to the back of the line.

You know, if we had a membership like that, and if everything was just nickel and dime, like that kind of stuff.

That was happening in the temple.

People were going to worship God and they're being ripped off.

And Jesus will not have it.

So he flips over the tables and he runs all the people out who are doing that, and the leaders get really upset.

And it says, the Jewish leaders demanded, what are you doing?

If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.

All right, Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up.

What they exclaimed, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you can rebuild it in three days.

But when Jesus said this temple, he meant his own body.

And after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the scriptures and what Jesus had said.

Jesus says, Oh, this is confidence.

You want to see a miracle?

Kill me.

You'll see a miracle.

That's confidence.

Very few people, in my experience, live with confidence in God.

And I'll be the first to admit there have been many seasons in my life where if I was being honest with myself, my confidence was in the things of this world.

I've had times where my confidence was in my own ideas.

There have been so many things I thought would work.

Like if I have a good idea and it works, just know it's rare.

If we've ever had a relationship where you've seen me have an idea and it went well, and you're like, Justin, great.

I am not, there's a whole bunch of ideas that I was just as confident in that failed miserably, crashed and burned.

There have been seasons in this church where my confidence was in my plan.

And it's taken me a long time, and I still fail at this, but hopefully it's better.

It's taken me a long time to get to the point where Abraham was here, and maybe I'm not even there yet, but where I say, you know what, guys, I'm not worried about it.

I'm not stressed about it.

Abraham's servant, he's stressed out of his mind.

What if this happens?

What about that?

What if it doesn't go well?

And he's like, stop, stop.

God's got this.

God has it.

God is good.

God knows what he's doing.

And notice that for Abraham, this isn't just some blind faith.

This is rooted in a few things.

And we'll wrap up.

This is rooted in familiarity.

Abraham has spent years getting to know God.

He's familiar with God.

There is a confidence that comes with familiarity, with just staying in it for a long time.

In fact, a quick life example of this, um, really excited today because uh my son's basketball team, they're all here together and they're hanging out in the student center, and a lot of their parents are here, so I'm trying really hard not to suck today.

Um, so you know, no pressure.

But uh, we have this awesome group of boys.

In fact, they just had a game at 8 o'clock this morning.

They won, they went 5-0 this weekend.

Let's hear it.

Come on, let's go, let's go.

That's right.

They're really awesome.

I think my son has a broken hand, but he played through it, so we're good.

We're gonna see.

We're gonna go to get an X-ray tomorrow.

It'll be fine.

But it's funny, at the very beginning of our season, because our first year is a program, and they're they've been amazing.

They're ranked in the state of Georgia, it's been really, really special.

But the very first uh weekend, well I guess the weekend before we had our first tournament, I had this team that reached out to us, and it's not a very high-level team, but they're like, hey, you guys want to scrimmage before your first tournament?

And I said no because I was afraid.

Because I did not have a lot of confidence yet in, I hadn't seen us play anybody, and practice had been kind of ugly because we'd never played together before, and I was like, maybe let's not.

I didn't want to go into our first tournament with our kids like down because they had gotten rolled by some team that's been around for a while.

I was confident in their talent, but I was I was nervous.

There was a period of time where I was like, I don't think that'll go well, and what do what do I do if we lose, and how do I get that back?

Look, if a coach, I'm just saying, if a coach called me today and said, Do you want to scrimmage?

I'd be like, Do you want to scrimmage?

Not in a cocky way, but but I'm confident in my players, and I'm confident in our team, and I'm confident in our coaches, but it's a confidence that's been built with familiarity.

We've we've played 40 something games now in practice and hours and hours and time, and we've been in situations where where we're down and we we win, and we've we've I've the familiarity that I have with them has produced confidence.

If you if you want confidence in God, you have to be familiar with God.

You have to you have to follow him, you have to do what he says, you have to know him.

And that's the challenge.

How do I know God?

Well, you believe in him, you you read his word, you go to church, you surround yourself with people who know God, you listen to them, you include God in every decision that you make.

You pray, you you listen, you set time aside to listen to God, and over time, I'm telling you, over time, and this may take years, it may take decades, but it's worth it.

You will become familiar with God.

And when you're familiar with God and you know him because you've seen him be there for you in times where no one else was, and you've seen him do things that no one else could do.

There is a confidence you will have in your life, and there is nothing like it.

There is nothing like it.

Whatever confidence you have in yourself pales to compare to the confidence you can have in God.

But you have to have familiarity with God.

You have to seek to know him.

Because he doesn't hide himself from us, but he does, he does want a relationship, not a religion.

He wants a relationship.

He wants us to seek him and know him.

Familiarity takes time, so stay with it, stay in it.

Never quit.

Never quit God.

Don't quit.

Madison talked about that a few months ago.

He had a great message where he said, Never quit God.

He'll never quit you, but never quit him.

Because that familiarity, that time, that will give you confidence.

The confidence in God, it comes from knowing what he said that he would do.

It comes from remembering what he's done.

Listen to what David wrote in Psalm 103.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

May I never forget the good things that he does for me.

You might think I would never forget the good things that God has done.

I have many times.

So many times in my life.

God's done something, he's blessed me, and then months later I'm nervous about a similar situation.

Like I forgot what he did.

Oh, yeah.

There's that God guy.

He's faithful.

Another author in the Psalms, not David, but he wrote, I think of the good old days.

He's at a low point here.

Long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs.

I search my soul and ponder the difference now.

Has the Lord rejected me forever?

Will he never again be kind to me?

Is his unfailing love gone forever?

Has his promises permanently failed?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he slammed the door on his compassion?

And I said, This is my fate.

The Most High has turned his hand against me.

But then I recall all you have done, O Lord.

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

What turns this man's perspective around is to remember what God has done.

Sometimes we are slaves to what has happened most recently.

And you could have had an amazing day.

But if something happens at the end, you're like, it was a terrible day.

You know, that happens with us a lot.

Like, how was your day?

Awful.

What happened?

One bad thing.

You know?

And anybody had a bad day.

You didn't have a bad day and a bad moment.

But we're slaves to what's most recent sometimes.

And I'm like that too.

Way too often.

But if we stop and we make it like the psalmist, we go, I want to remember what God has done.

What if you began every day this week?

Before you did anything else, before you got to the to-do list, and I know life is busy.

Give yourself five minutes.

Don't even make it crazy.

Five minutes.

Stop.

Write some things down that God has done in your life.

Even if it's just one thing, even if all you can think of is one thing that He did that was a gift to you, focus on that.

God, I know you did this for me.

And you might find some of us, we may not be able to make it five minutes.

You might have to extend the time, or you might have to put a pen in it to be continued because you go, wow, God did this and he did that.

We sing a song here from time to time.

You know, you'll do it again.

I've seen you move mountains, God.

I've seen you show up, I've seen you be faithful, and you'll do it again.

Confidence in God comes from time and familiarity.

It also comes from just remembering what he's done for you and what he's done for others.

You might be in a place in life, maybe some of us are younger or younger in your faith, and you maybe you haven't felt like you've seen God do something in your life yet.

Maybe you're still waiting for that.

And I understand that.

Well, the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons.

It means that he doesn't favor people over others.

Like he's not impressed by people.

You know, we meet people all the time and they're impressed.

We're like, whoa, you have accomplished things.

God will never meet someone and go, oh gosh, wow.

Can I have your autograph?

Like it's not gonna happen.

It's actually kind of a sobering thought because one day we're all gonna stand in front of God one day, and all he sees is the heart.

Like you don't come in with a resume, he's like, wow, you are a very impressive person.

You know?

That's just your heart, it's just who you are.

But he doesn't, he's not gonna bless other people and not bless you.

That's not who he is.

And I believe that if we seek him and we set our hearts and our minds on him and we say, Lord, I want to live with confidence in you.

Show me what you've done for me.

You might see things in your life completely.

God may remind you of something that he did for you years ago, and you never even realized it was him that did it.

You thought it was you.

I can see things that God put in my life so many years ago, just little relationships, people that I met randomly, that I had no idea at the time this person would play a significant role in my life or in the life of someone that I love.

No clue.

And it was God setting things up years in advance.

Remember what he's done for you.

Remember what he's done for other people, the people around you.

Put faith in that.

It'll give you confidence in him.

We're gonna wrap up by taking Lord's Supper.

And if you're new, um you may have missed this, and don't feel bad if you didn't, because look, you're not gonna mess anything up if you want to get up right now and grab this.

But when you walked in, we have these little cups, and they're outside in the main lobby, but also at our back four columns.

You can go grab one if you want.

Again, you're not messing anything up if you want to do that right now.

But if you don't have one with you, you can also do it next time.

But uh this is sometimes called communion, sometimes called Lord's Supper.

It depends on how what kind of church you go to, I guess.

Um, it's something that Jesus' followers have done for thousands of years, really since Jesus.

And it comes from this meal that Jesus had with his disciples right before he got arrested.

He took some bread and he broke it, and he said it represented his body, and then he took some wine and he passed it around, he said it represented his blood.

And it's something that the earliest followers of Jesus would do every time they met together, they would they would take this meal and remember what Jesus did for us and everything we've been talking about.

Like, guys, you wanna you wanna commemorate something God has done for you?

If you ever said, hey, I don't think you've ever done anything for me, God, and he might look at you and say, Well, I did die for you.

Just saying.

Like, I did give my life for you.

I did leave heaven to come to earth to be mocked, to be doubted, to be ridiculed, to be tortured, to be killed.

Like that's gotta count for something.

I said that our confidence in God grows when we commemorate what he's done.

That's why we do this every week.

We commemorate the most important thing that he's ever done for us.

He died for us, he gave his life for us, because he loves us, because he loves you, he loves you, he loves your family, he loves your kids, he loves you.

And there's nothing he wouldn't do for you because what else could he have done?

And I don't know about you, I I I can have confidence in this.

I can have confidence in a God who doesn't demand to be worshipped, but provides the sacrifice himself.

I can have confidence in a God like that.

So, with that said, we're gonna take the bread, we're gonna pray for it.

And if you wouldn't mind, pray with me.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this bread and what it represents.

This is the body of your Son.

This is Jesus.

And Lord Jesus, you are wonderful and you are you are amazing.

There's no one like you.

There never has been anyone like you, there never will be anyone like you, and you gave up your life for me and for all of us.

That's how much you love us, that's how much you care.

Lord, I am confident in you.

I believe in you.

And I fall short so often, God, but I just pray in this moment for me and for everybody else that if I have any confidence, Lord, if any of my confidence has migrated from you to myself, to the people around me, to my plans, to my abilities, whatever it might be, Lord, just help me see that.

Help me correct that, help me put 100% of my confidence in who you are.

I pray that in your name, Jesus.

Thank you for what you've done for us, Lord.

Thank you for being a God worthy of our confidence, for you certainly are.

Let's take the bread.

Now, the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this juice, what it represents.

This is your blood, shed for us, given for us, poured out as an offering to cleanse us from our sin, to forgive us completely for everything we've ever done wrong, ever will do wrong, to remind us that our relationship with you is not about what we've done, it's about what you've done for us.

Thank you for that, Lord.

Help us be confident in you.

Because even though you've already done this, you would do it again.

You would do it again, over and over again for each of us because you love us so much.

Help us put our confidence in your love, in your goodness, in your faithfulness, just like Abraham did.

Let's drink the juice.