Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives you perspective to see God is moving in
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Philippians, Chapter three, Verse one. I'll give you my title
Speaker 2: before I read my text. Today we're in a series
Speaker 2: called Triggered, taking back your Mind in the Age of Anxiety,
Speaker 2: and I will keep preaching until you are totally sane,
Speaker 2: until you are no longer hiding Dorito's under.
Speaker 1: Your bed because of.
Speaker 2: Stress, eating and cussing people out in your car while
Speaker 2: you're listening to Elevation Worship at the same time, you
Speaker 2: don't even pause the music. So the series is going
Speaker 2: to go a little bit longer, and this text is
Speaker 2: going to help us today. The apostle paulis in his
Speaker 2: own way, upset and triggered for good reason about something
Speaker 2: that is going on to affect the blak And so
Speaker 2: the title I want to use. I need you to
Speaker 2: announce this title to the person sitting next to you,
Speaker 2: and you don't have to talk to him another time
Speaker 2: after this, it would be the last time that you
Speaker 2: have to talk to him. But tell him this, say,
Speaker 2: I hate to admit it, but I lost my confidence.
Speaker 1: Hey man, Philippians, Chapter three, verse one.
Speaker 2: Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It
Speaker 2: is no trouble for me to write the same things
Speaker 2: to you again, And it is a safeguard for you.
Speaker 2: Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of
Speaker 2: the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision,
Speaker 2: We who serve God by his spirit, who boast in
Speaker 2: Christ Jesus, and who put no.
Speaker 1: New, zero, new new confidence in the flesh.
Speaker 2: Though I myself have reason for such confidence, if anyone else,
Speaker 2: if someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence
Speaker 2: in the flesh.
Speaker 1: I have more.
Speaker 2: We're gonna stop right there and talk a little, and
Speaker 2: then we'll work through the rest of the passage.
Speaker 1: But tell you something real quick.
Speaker 2: That seminary professor taught me about preaching when I was
Speaker 2: preaching from the Old Testament Book of First Samuel, and
Speaker 2: there were a lot of names and places that I
Speaker 2: didn't know how to pronounce because they were based on
Speaker 2: Hebrew words. And I took all of them up to
Speaker 2: him to ask him to help me pronounce them correctly,
Speaker 2: because I was preaching in a few days and I
Speaker 2: wanted to make sure I said all the words right.
Speaker 2: And he said he well, first of all, he laughed
Speaker 2: at my list of words, and he said, it's not
Speaker 2: important that you say it right. It only matters that
Speaker 2: you say it with confidence. He said, don't worry about
Speaker 2: mispronouncing the words. Nobody will know that difference if you
Speaker 2: say it with confidence. Kind of seems to be the
Speaker 2: thing these days. It's kind of like, you know, we're
Speaker 2: all it's kind of like we all found a Bible verse,
Speaker 2: fake it till you make it, only it's not.
Speaker 1: In the Bible.
Speaker 2: That's how I was taught to get girls, you know,
Speaker 2: Harold Staley. He said, it is really doesn't matter. You
Speaker 2: could your car doesn't have to.
Speaker 1: Be fast or nice.
Speaker 2: He said, You're not especially good looking or tall, he said,
Speaker 2: but I'm gonna tell you, if you just walk up
Speaker 2: to a girl with confidence, you'd be surprised how much
Speaker 2: better looking confidence can make you.
Speaker 1: But then that's only.
Speaker 2: Kind of true, because there's a fine line between confident
Speaker 2: and creepy.
Speaker 1: Am I right about it?
Speaker 2: And I'm kind of trying to figure that out as
Speaker 2: a parent, Like how much confidence do I really want
Speaker 2: my kids to have? Because you kind of like them
Speaker 2: being confident when they're younger, it's cute. And then in
Speaker 2: their teenage years when they are so confident that they
Speaker 2: no longer believe that you have any knowledge about anything,
Speaker 2: it's an issue.
Speaker 1: It's like, can we find a.
Speaker 2: Middle ground on this this confidence thing? Can you be
Speaker 2: like confident enough to be socially not awkward, but then
Speaker 2: be humble enough to listen to me when I'm telling
Speaker 2: you what's best for you? Is there is there like
Speaker 2: a is there an in between? Is there a middle
Speaker 2: ground on this confidence thing? Like is there somewhere between
Speaker 2: you being intimidated and scared to death and feeling the
Speaker 2: need to apologize for your existence on planet Earth? And
Speaker 2: like Connor McGregor on the other end of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: Is there anywhere? But here's what's happening now.
Speaker 2: It's like, we we have confidence without competence.
Speaker 1: Can I preach a.
Speaker 2: Little bit today before I send you to join any group?
Speaker 2: It's like we are okay, we are we are approaching
Speaker 2: it like they were approaching it in Philip is three,
Speaker 2: where Paul says, you need to watch out for the dogs.
Speaker 2: And I know you're wondering who are these dogs? It's
Speaker 2: in verse two. Who is Paul calling a dog? Who
Speaker 2: are these dogs? And who let them out?
Speaker 1: We need to know.
Speaker 2: And you would assume that these are people who are
Speaker 2: tempting the church at Philippi, the church that Paul founded
Speaker 2: and fathered in the gospel. Maybe they are luring them
Speaker 2: with sin. Maybe he's talking about drug dealers or liberals,
Speaker 2: you know, all the things that threaten the Christian worldview.
Speaker 2: But really what he's talking about here is religious people.
Speaker 2: They're trying to get the newly converted gentiles who weren't
Speaker 2: Jewish to be circumcised with no anesthesia, because that was
Speaker 2: the outward sign of the covenant with the Jewish people
Speaker 2: before Christ.
Speaker 1: But Christ came along and changed that.
Speaker 2: And Paul knows that it's not what you can show
Speaker 2: on the outside, but it's what happens in your heart
Speaker 2: that proves the authenticity of your relationship with God and
Speaker 2: validates your relationship with Him by faith. Everybody say, by faith,
Speaker 2: not flesh. It is impossible for you to please God
Speaker 2: with your flesh, with your effort it is impossible for
Speaker 2: you to impress God with your Bible reading streak. I'm
Speaker 2: sorry he didn't call the angels over today because you
Speaker 2: read a psalm.
Speaker 1: Wow, check this out. She went a whole week.
Speaker 2: Without telling anybody off. Didn't impress God a bit. On
Speaker 2: the other hand, we can please God by faith. And
Speaker 2: so Paul is talking about the dogs. Wooooooo, woo wooooooooo.
Speaker 1: How long are you going to do it?
Speaker 2: Well, no, but he's triggered. He says, what they're doing
Speaker 2: is evil. They're evildoers. They're mutilating the flesh. They're making
Speaker 2: it worse. They're telling you all these rules and regulations
Speaker 2: that will make you acceptable.
Speaker 1: To God, and it's making it worse.
Speaker 2: Because it is teaching you to put confidence in the
Speaker 2: wrong thing.
Speaker 1: And it is a perversion of the Gospel.
Speaker 2: To think that there are things that we can do outwardly,
Speaker 2: or behaviors that we can quit, or habits that we
Speaker 2: can enforce. And sometimes our consistency can become the enemy
Speaker 2: of our humility because we stop doing stuff and start
Speaker 2: doing stuff, and then immediately we start to create categories
Speaker 2: for people who have not yet arrived at the place
Speaker 2: of consistency that we're at and now, God help us,
Speaker 2: because we're raising a generations that don't have to train
Speaker 2: for their trophies. So it's as if we think that
Speaker 2: confidence is our birthright. We have developed a sick, twisted version.
Speaker 1: Of confidence that knows nothing in the biblical context.
Speaker 2: We have put our confidence in confidence, But confidence that
Speaker 2: has developed outside of the process that produces true confidence
Speaker 2: is false confidence. And you know, I'm just thinking about
Speaker 2: it now a little differently than age sixteen, when I
Speaker 2: first gave my life to Christ and was very confident,
Speaker 2: very confident in my ability to live for Jesus, very
Speaker 2: confident in my ability to stay away from certain temptations. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's so easy to be confident when you've never lived
Speaker 2: through a crisis. It's so easy to preach faith when
Speaker 2: you never watched your dad take his die and gasping
Speaker 2: breath from als, and watched his body completely shut down,
Speaker 2: and prayed every prayer that you knew to pray over him,
Speaker 2: and quoted every scripture that you learned and wrote about
Speaker 2: in a book about sunstand still.
Speaker 1: And then things happen to shake your confidence.
Speaker 2: Paul is talking here about people who have lost their
Speaker 2: confidence in the Gospel. Or they are on the verge
Speaker 2: of losing their confidence in the gospel and putting their
Speaker 2: confidence in their performance, and that's dangerous.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to wonder do we need more confidence.
Speaker 2: It's just a question because lately I've been thinking that
Speaker 2: the dangers of overconfidence are just as great as the
Speaker 2: dangers of under confidence, that really.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not about the amount of confidence that we
Speaker 1: have at all.
Speaker 2: I wrote a little note to my son when he
Speaker 2: turned thirteen, and it wasn't really about him. It was
Speaker 2: about me remembering that age. And one thing I was
Speaker 2: trying to tell him in the note is that everybody,
Speaker 2: in some way is faking it. I just thought I
Speaker 2: would show him that there is no Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 2: just a little short dude behind a curtain, pulling levers
Speaker 2: and posting stuff with filters and captions that are perfectly crafted.
Speaker 2: And they spend an hour and a half to write
Speaker 2: that caption to make themselves sound witty, and they're really
Speaker 2: not that witty off the cuff, And if you compare
Speaker 2: your off the cuff to their manufactured caption, you're going
Speaker 2: to always feel like there's something missing and lacking in you.
Speaker 2: But so hard because it's like, we're living in a
Speaker 2: culture that projects confidence at all costs, and the cost
Speaker 2: of false confidence.
Speaker 1: Is ignorance. The cost of false confidence is ignorance.
Speaker 2: And trust me, some of the people who are the
Speaker 2: most confident are also the most ignorant. Some of the
Speaker 2: wisest people that I've ever talked to in my life
Speaker 2: didn't have a lot of answers.
Speaker 1: They asked a lot of questions. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But it's tough because we're teaching this to our kids,
Speaker 2: right Just just be confident, you know, be confident. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to find the balance because I do want to
Speaker 2: raise confident kids and I want to be a confident Christian.
Speaker 1: But I'm trying to find I'm trying to find the balance,
Speaker 1: you know. Like our kids are out playing sports, just
Speaker 1: like many of your kids.
Speaker 2: Someone said to me a few weeks ago, stop talking
Speaker 2: about your kids so much in your sermons. We don't
Speaker 2: come to hear about your family. We come to hear
Speaker 2: the word of God. And I'm like, well, I got
Speaker 2: another solution. Just quit coming and you won't have to
Speaker 2: hear me talk about anything.
Speaker 1: That'll be fine, work well for both of us. Let's
Speaker 1: just agree to.
Speaker 2: We don't share the same interests, but that's my life
Speaker 2: right now, is raising these kids. So it's just like
Speaker 2: it's just what I mean. I'm always out at some
Speaker 2: baseball field or football game or.
Speaker 1: Something like that.
Speaker 2: And now even Abby is playing seven year old softball
Speaker 2: and she says she likes it, but I don't know
Speaker 2: if she really likes softball or dugout cheers, because honestly, no,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make a plea here, and if anybody's watching
Speaker 2: this online that has any kind of authority in girls
Speaker 2: seven year old softball, I'm begging you, in the name
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ, whose gospel I preach, could we possibly
Speaker 2: ban dugout cheering for seven year old softball? And I
Speaker 2: know it's cute and it's delightful, but I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to protect these girls because I'm listening to them in
Speaker 2: the dugout and not only is it bad for my hearing,
Speaker 2: not only is it and it's rough on their voices,
Speaker 2: but what they're saying in these cheers is not true.
Speaker 1: I heard hat Abby the other day.
Speaker 2: She was doing a cheer my name is Abby, and
Speaker 2: you know what I got, and the whole team said,
Speaker 2: what do you got, Abby said, I got a team
Speaker 2: that is hotter than hot. See right there, we just
Speaker 2: st the realm of reality because I've been watching all
Speaker 2: three innings of this and y'all are not hotter than hot.
Speaker 2: Y'all are not even lukewarm. Baby girl, you're frozen in
Speaker 2: the center. You need to be in the microwave. About
Speaker 2: three more. Then she said, grand slams and homers too.
Speaker 2: I'm like, how about a base hit? Can we start
Speaker 2: with a base hit? Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: It's danger is to have too much confidence in.
Speaker 2: The wrong place, in the wrong place. But the Bible
Speaker 2: says to be confident. You know, in this I will
Speaker 2: be confident. Doesn't the Bible say that?
Speaker 1: Yes? But the question is in what? Will you be
Speaker 1: confident in what?
Speaker 2: And sometimes we want to have a confident belief without
Speaker 2: the behaviors that build confidence in our lives, you know,
Speaker 2: Because to have real confidence, you gotta have consistency, don't you.
Speaker 2: I mean to have confidence, you gotta have competence. Competence
Speaker 2: is built through consistency. You gotta If you're gonna have
Speaker 2: real confidence, you gotta have character. Amen, Amen, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm gonna spend the rest of my life preaching
Speaker 2: what I think is true, whether anybody says amen to
Speaker 2: it or not, I'm.
Speaker 1: Committing to that. These these little gray hairs.
Speaker 2: That keep popping up or trying to tell me, you
Speaker 2: don't have time to get up there in that pulpit
Speaker 2: and just hype people anymore, because while we're hyping people
Speaker 2: in one sense to believe God, we are actually making
Speaker 2: the problem worse because when their circumstance is not reflecting
Speaker 2: their confession, their faith collapses beneath the weight of unmat expectations.
Speaker 2: And so the Lord was really speaking to me, you know,
Speaker 2: because I go back and forth of feeling really confident
Speaker 2: sometimes and then sometimes I feel I can't find my
Speaker 2: confidence anywhere, and so then I think, well, I had
Speaker 2: too much confidence.
Speaker 1: I need to be more humble. And then sometimes I think,
Speaker 1: well I don't have enough confidence.
Speaker 2: I need to just bump myself in a mirror mirror
Speaker 2: a few times and get out there and put myself
Speaker 2: back in the game.
Speaker 1: Coach, get out there. And I'm back and forth. And
Speaker 1: God spoke to me this week.
Speaker 2: He said, it's not how much confidence you have, is
Speaker 2: where you put it that counts.
Speaker 1: Paul said, I have no confidence in the flesh.
Speaker 2: All of these people who are telling you you need
Speaker 2: to be circumcised and that's how you prove that you
Speaker 2: have a relationship with God. Or you know, this temptation
Speaker 2: that we all have to fake it until we break,
Speaker 2: that's what really happens. You know, you fake it and
Speaker 2: you never make it because no matter how much you
Speaker 2: work to develop your confidence in your flesh, it will
Speaker 2: always fail you.
Speaker 1: It will always fail you.
Speaker 2: And all of this behavioral modification that I know is
Speaker 2: necessary for us to make improvements in our lives. And
Speaker 2: maybe it's important for us to have confidence if we're
Speaker 2: going to stand on stage and give a presentation or
Speaker 2: go into a meeting that we don't feel qualified for.
Speaker 2: I understand that, But my question is, have have you
Speaker 2: put that confidence in the right place? And the other
Speaker 2: day I noticed Holly didn't have her wedding ring on.
Speaker 2: Wasn't anything sketchy. We were just at the house. She
Speaker 2: wasn't going out without her wedding ring on. In fact,
Speaker 2: I got that cover too. I made her put a
Speaker 2: tattoo on her ring finger. So even if she wanted
Speaker 2: to take it off, it says h and s and
Speaker 2: so if she wants to leave me. The dude is
Speaker 2: already going to be narrowed down. His name better start
Speaker 2: with S or she'll have to turn it into an eight.
Speaker 1: But she is mine.
Speaker 2: But I said, where's your ring? She said, oh, I
Speaker 2: put it over here. So I watched him dishes and
Speaker 2: I asked her a question. I didn't have to say much.
Speaker 2: I said, is that a good place to put it?
Speaker 2: Because listen, she lost it once, and when she lost it,
Speaker 2: we had insurance she got a better one. So now
Speaker 2: I'm starting to wonder, are you trying to ask somebody
Speaker 2: next to you is that a good place to put it?
Speaker 2: Because you keep putting your confidence in people, and you
Speaker 2: keep putting your confidence in your performance, and you keep
Speaker 2: putting your confidence in your ability to be disciplined and all,
Speaker 2: I'm a exercise and now I'm gonna stay on my
Speaker 2: diet this time, and I'm gonna pray for fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: every day. You know, I hear people say sometimes I
Speaker 2: gave up on God because some people in the church
Speaker 2: let me down. But let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2: You're a relationship with God is so precious. Why would
Speaker 2: you put your confidence in God in how people.
Speaker 1: Treat you, people will always let you down. People will
Speaker 1: always fall short.
Speaker 2: Even if they have good intentions, they have limited ability.
Speaker 1: Do you really want to put it in people?
Speaker 2: Haven't you spend enough time trusting in people who.
Speaker 1: Eats your needs?
Speaker 2: I feel like preaching? Ask them again, is that a
Speaker 2: good place to put it? Do you really want to
Speaker 2: put confidence in your flesh, your effort, your ability to
Speaker 2: keep the law? Now, Paul said, if you want to
Speaker 2: play the game of who has more reasons to be
Speaker 2: confident on the basis of lifestyle or legality, He says,
Speaker 2: if you want to play the game whose circumcision is better,
Speaker 2: let's play watch this.
Speaker 1: He starts reading off his resume, and what a weird
Speaker 1: game this is. Watch this? You know people try to
Speaker 1: top everything.
Speaker 2: Paul's like, my circumcision is better than your circumcision.
Speaker 1: Because watch verse five.
Speaker 2: I was circumcised on the eighth day when you're supposed
Speaker 2: to be a lot of the Judaizers the dog who
Speaker 2: they were circumcised after the fact, Paul said, I was
Speaker 2: circumcised when I was supposed to be circumcised, because I.
Speaker 1: Was born the way he was supposed to be born
Speaker 1: into the race.
Speaker 2: That God said that he would use to bless all
Speaker 2: the nations of the earth through So I was circumcised
Speaker 2: before all y'all on the eighth day.
Speaker 1: I don't remember it. I'm glad I got that out
Speaker 1: of the way early in life. I was of the
Speaker 1: people of Israel, so I have connections. I was not
Speaker 1: only of the.
Speaker 2: People of Israel. I was of the tribe of Benjamin.
Speaker 2: That was the tribe that the kings came out of,
Speaker 2: the tribe of Benjamin. So he's like, I'm already one
Speaker 2: of God's favorite people because I'm an Israelite, and then
Speaker 2: I'm the favorite tribe within the favorite people. Come on,
Speaker 2: you want to talk about flesh. My flesh is impressive.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: And I was not only of the tribe of Benjamin.
Speaker 2: It was not only a matter of birth. I wasn't
Speaker 2: only born into fortunate circumstances. But I was a Hebrew
Speaker 2: of Hebrews.
Speaker 1: Wow, I was.
Speaker 2: I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was competent. Watch this,
Speaker 2: I was connected. I was competent in regard to the
Speaker 2: law of Pharisee. That's the strictest order of religious law
Speaker 2: for the Jewish people. So he says I was on
Speaker 2: a scholarship. I was a prize pupil of Gamaliel. He
Speaker 2: doesn't mention that in Philippians three. He mentions it elsewhere
Speaker 2: that he sat underneath the tutelage of one of the
Speaker 2: greatest teachers of his dad.
Speaker 1: This is like you interned under Elon Musk. Paul said,
Speaker 1: let's talk. You want to talk to me, You dogs
Speaker 1: that think you're so much better than other people.
Speaker 2: He said, I had all of that. I was so
Speaker 2: good at it that I was promoted to the highest level.
Speaker 2: I was so zealous. Verse six, polase I was persecuting
Speaker 2: the church as for righteousness based on the law faultless.
Speaker 2: So stop, make sure we got this. He's connected. He's competent.
Speaker 2: And his character, he says, according to human law and
Speaker 2: what you can measure and what you can see and
Speaker 2: what you can judge faultless. Connect it competent and his
Speaker 2: character is faultless. And he build his confidence to a
Speaker 2: certain level. But then something happened to Paul.
Speaker 1: Paul saw a contrast, and sometimes.
Speaker 2: What we need when we get a little too full
Speaker 2: of ourselves, come on. Happens to all of us. Quiet people,
Speaker 2: loud people, flashy people, low key people. It can happen
Speaker 2: to every one of us that we start to trust
Speaker 2: in our flesh. And about the time you think you
Speaker 2: get it figured out, you know how we do. We
Speaker 2: get our categories exactly right. Okay, here's the kind of
Speaker 2: people that are going to heaven, and here's the kind
Speaker 2: of people that are going to hell. And the way
Speaker 2: I know is there are certain things that people who
Speaker 2: are going to heaven do and don't do, and certain
Speaker 2: people who are going to hell. Here's what they do
Speaker 2: and they don't do. The only problem that I'm finding
Speaker 2: with this is a lot of our confidence that we
Speaker 2: put in our judgments, and our assessment is based on
Speaker 2: our external observations of people, and we can never really
Speaker 2: know anyone's heart. And now here's a case in point.
Speaker 2: And I told this story the wrong way last night,
Speaker 2: so if you were here last night, I messed it up.
Speaker 2: But here's how it actually happened. This is why I
Speaker 2: put no confidence in the flesh, because I can't even
Speaker 2: tell my own stories right while I'm preaching about confidence.
Speaker 1: That's how much I need the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: But I was watching a sermon with my father in
Speaker 2: law when I was first starting in ministry, and he
Speaker 2: was telling me how the person preaching the sermon was
Speaker 2: cocky and arrogant. He said, look at him. You can
Speaker 2: tell he's strutting around that stage. He's wearing a five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars suit. Look at him. He's cocky and he's arrogant.
Speaker 2: Even his tie is loud. He's cocky and he's arrogant.
Speaker 2: He's so cocky and he's arrogant. Of course, I asked
Speaker 2: my father in law, have you met him? No, but
Speaker 2: you can tell he's cocky and he's arrogant. Do you
Speaker 2: know anybody who's met him?
Speaker 1: No, but I don't have to.
Speaker 2: You can tell he's cocky and he's arrogant. And I said,
Speaker 2: just kind of innocently, well, who's somebody that you think
Speaker 2: is not cocky and arrogant? That would be better to
Speaker 2: model my ministry after. Because he was in ministry. I
Speaker 2: wanted to hear his wisdom. And he named the name
Speaker 2: of somebody that I knew. It was a man who
Speaker 2: had the Greek New Testament memorized. No, not the not
Speaker 2: the Little Philippians four thirteen, in the.
Speaker 1: Whole New Testament. He would show up. I took the
Speaker 1: class with him. One time.
Speaker 2: He would say the Bible verse without looking at the Bible.
Speaker 2: But he wouldn't say it in our translation. He would
Speaker 2: be translating it in his mind from Greek. He never
Speaker 2: looked at the Bible to teach us the Bible. And
Speaker 2: my father in law said, that guy, that's a.
Speaker 1: Man of God.
Speaker 2: That's a humble man of God. That's a man of
Speaker 2: God who knows what matters and what doesn't. That's a
Speaker 2: man of God who has understated. That's a man of God.
Speaker 2: And twelve months later, the man of God who knew
Speaker 2: the Bible in Greek had left his wife for a
Speaker 2: woman in Russia. He had been taking mission trips to Russia.
Speaker 2: Mission trip to Russia, but one mission he went for
Speaker 2: and he never came back. And the man that was
Speaker 2: cocky and arrogant is still serving God today and his
Speaker 2: kids are in ministry too.
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: Let's stop being so quick to categorize people based on
Speaker 2: what we see with our eyes or where they are
Speaker 2: in certain behaviors in their lives. Judge nothing before the
Speaker 2: appointed time. You don't even know what battles they're fighting,
Speaker 2: and you don't know how far they've come. And you
Speaker 2: don't know what has taken them, just to keep running
Speaker 2: the race. And they might be limping, but they might
Speaker 2: make it to the finish line because they lived.
Speaker 1: I don't know anymore. I put no confidence in the flesh.
Speaker 1: I don't have categories. They're not as clear anymore.
Speaker 2: For who's a godly person and who's not, and.
Speaker 1: Who God has favored and who God hasn't.
Speaker 2: Because some of the people that I thought were walking
Speaker 2: in the favor of God were faking it.
Speaker 1: But I know it till they fell apart.
Speaker 2: Past writing to Damascus one day a Hebrew of Hebrews,
Speaker 2: a Pharisee of Pharisees, in regards to the law righteousness,
Speaker 2: connected and competent, connected and competent, And all of a
Speaker 2: sudden he was blinded by a light on his way
Speaker 2: to imprison Christians in Damascus and bring them back to
Speaker 2: Jerusalem to be sentenced. And something happened to him that
Speaker 2: will happen to all of us in one way or another.
Speaker 2: If it hasn't happened to you yet, send me a
Speaker 2: text message when it does. God in his mercy and
Speaker 2: God in his wisdom, knew that if I allow Paul
Speaker 2: to remain confident in his flesh.
Speaker 1: He will not fulfill my purpose for his life. He
Speaker 1: will live the rest of his life.
Speaker 2: Putting his confidence in himself and his competence and his character,
Speaker 2: and so all of a sudden you can read it.
Speaker 2: In Acts, chapter nine, a blinding light throws Paul from
Speaker 2: his horse.
Speaker 1: He is thrown to the ground on the way to exercise.
Speaker 2: His gift with authoritative letters from the Jewish Ruling Council.
Speaker 1: He falls off of.
Speaker 2: His horse, and a voice from heaven asks him, Saul,
Speaker 2: who do you think you are? And Saul said back,
Speaker 2: I don't know who are you? And the voice said
Speaker 2: I am Jesus. And Paul spent three days blind and
Speaker 2: someone had to lead him by the hand. You know,
Speaker 2: that's when life gets really interesting. When you're used to
Speaker 2: leading others, when you're used to knowing what to do,
Speaker 2: when you're used to making it happen, when you're used
Speaker 2: to smiling and getting through it. But then every once
Speaker 2: in a while, something will come along in your life
Speaker 2: and you'll say, I didn't take a class on this,
Speaker 2: I didn't read a book about this. Nobody told me
Speaker 2: it would feel like this. I wasn't prepared for this, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't know it would be like this, and Paul said,
Speaker 1: I lost my confidence. I lost my confidence and I
Speaker 1: had to start all over.
Speaker 2: And I had to I had to give up all
Speaker 2: my connections because everybody hated me that I used to
Speaker 2: serve with. And I had to start all over because
Speaker 2: I didn't know how to preach Jesus because I just
Speaker 2: met him, and I had to humble myself, and I
Speaker 2: had to reevaluate my character because I had been comparing
Speaker 2: myself to others.
Speaker 1: You know how we do. Holly preached this brilliant message
Speaker 1: to the ladies a couple weeks ago, and.
Speaker 2: Everything about it was good. But I just want to
Speaker 2: correct one thing she said. She said, we need to
Speaker 2: stop comparing ourselves to others. And I think she's wrong
Speaker 2: about that. I think we need to come compare ourself
Speaker 2: to others every chance we get, until we are so
Speaker 2: sick of comparing ourself to others. You know, because if
Speaker 2: you compare yourself to others long enough, you will come
Speaker 2: to the place eventually. If you're not there yet, you'll
Speaker 2: get there. Just keep doing it, keep comparing yourself to others.
Speaker 2: Just keep right on doing it, and do it. Do
Speaker 2: it to make yourself feel better.
Speaker 1: Do it.
Speaker 2: When you see somebody whose kids are on drugs, you
Speaker 2: just silently tell yourself, my kids would never do that.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, go ahead and go ahead and do that.
Speaker 2: Just go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and do it. When you see somebody
Speaker 1: who's not married, I'll tell.
Speaker 2: You if they go ahead and compare yourself to them,
Speaker 2: because you know you're better than them. That's why you're married,
Speaker 2: they're not. Just go ahead, compare yourselff.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it too.
Speaker 2: The other way to go ahead and compare yourself to
Speaker 2: people that are better than you all the time, just
Speaker 2: all the time. Look at everybody sucking in on the ground,
Speaker 2: and then compare yourself bloated after a whole day of
Speaker 2: running your kids around, and then compare yourself who didn't
Speaker 2: have time to eat healthy because you actually care about
Speaker 2: other people and that's why you had to go through McDonald's.
Speaker 1: But compare yourself to them. You won't even know that.
Speaker 2: They're selfish and that's why their body looks like that
Speaker 2: because they.
Speaker 1: They never have time for anybody else and all their
Speaker 1: things going. Here's what I want you to do.
Speaker 2: I want you to completely compare out of context for
Speaker 2: as long as you can, and don't ask the question.
Speaker 2: You know, like, they're real successful on their job, but
Speaker 2: I wonder are they happy? Don't ask that question, because
Speaker 2: if you can compare across all the categories, you might
Speaker 2: see that their success is costing them their fulfillment.
Speaker 1: But don't do that.
Speaker 2: Just compare, Just completely take it all out of context
Speaker 2: and compare what people show you to what you can see,
Speaker 2: and don't take time to wonder what's really going on,
Speaker 2: and don't take time to stop and think about how
Speaker 2: they're so gifted and they're so wonderful.
Speaker 1: Just compare yourself to them.
Speaker 2: Until you feel so terrible that the only place left
Speaker 2: for you to go, the only thing left for you
Speaker 2: to conclude, the only thing left for you to do,
Speaker 2: is to fall down off your horse and.
Speaker 1: Say, God, I'm sick of myself.
Speaker 3: I'm sick of false standards, I'm sick of worldly measurements,
Speaker 3: I'm tired of my flesh, I'm tired of keeping up,
Speaker 3: I'm tired of falling short, I'm tired of looking around.
Speaker 2: And in that moment, you will come to the point
Speaker 2: that Paul came to in verse seven, where he said,
Speaker 2: I compared myself to everyone else so long, and it
Speaker 2: finally brought me to a point, not because I hit
Speaker 2: the bottom, but because I was on top. And then
Speaker 2: something happened in my life. I compared myself to Jesus.
Speaker 2: And when I compared myself to him, I didn't have
Speaker 2: anything left to brag about. When I compared myself to him,
Speaker 2: I wasn't such a good person after all. When I
Speaker 2: compared myself to him, I lost my confidence in me.
Speaker 2: I lost my confidence and how nice I am, and
Speaker 2: how sweet I am, and how light I am, and
Speaker 2: how educated I am. When I compared myself to the
Speaker 2: fullness of wisdom that was revealed in Jesus Christ, I
Speaker 2: didn't bring up my IQ anymore, and I didn't show
Speaker 2: them my sat scourse. When I compared myself to him.
Speaker 2: My posture changed. When I compared myself to him, I
Speaker 2: quit trying to be first place in a race that
Speaker 2: I realized I couldn't win. When I compared myself to him,
Speaker 2: I fell off my horse and I was led by
Speaker 2: the hand. And Paul says in verse seven, Now whatever
Speaker 2: were gains to me, I consider loss.
Speaker 1: I lost my confidence. But watch this I gained Christ
Speaker 1: speak this message today in the hopes that someone.
Speaker 2: Who has lost your confidence in yourself would realize that
Speaker 2: this is a necessary step for you to receive the
Speaker 2: righteousness that comes by faith.
Speaker 1: And that's what Paul says here.
Speaker 2: He says, I lost my connections, I lost my sense
Speaker 2: of competence.
Speaker 1: I found out I wasn't so good at everything.
Speaker 2: You know how life is, man, Just about the time
Speaker 2: you master a set of skills, the whole game changes.
Speaker 2: By the time I figure out how to get my
Speaker 2: kids to you know, sh then they are teenagers and
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get them to talk to me. You know,
Speaker 2: the whole the whole opposite changes. So it's designed that way.
Speaker 2: It is designed that way. I wonder if God is
Speaker 2: trying to strip you of your confidence today so that
Speaker 2: you can gain something greater. I lost my confidence to
Speaker 2: preach to people and tell them, you know, if you
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 1: God's going to do that.
Speaker 2: I don't make those kinds of promises anymore because now
Speaker 2: I have a different kind of confidences. It's a kind
Speaker 2: of confidence that doesn't come from circumcision and changing your behavior,
Speaker 2: getting it right, knowing all the answers.
Speaker 1: It's it's an inward confidence.
Speaker 2: I wonder if that's the real contract here, is that
Speaker 2: we are trying to project confidence and God is trying
Speaker 2: to impart it. I wonder if we're so busy trying
Speaker 2: to be confident and seem confident that we have isolated
Speaker 2: ourselves so we stay in places where no one really
Speaker 2: knows us and no one can really touch us, because
Speaker 2: we have gotten so good at looking confident, but on
Speaker 2: the inside, we have lost a sense of ourselves, and
Speaker 2: we have lost touch with our humanity as we project
Speaker 2: into the world, pretend images of who we wish we
Speaker 2: were and who we think we should be. But Paul said,
Speaker 2: I lost all that. I lost all that, and you
Speaker 2: know what, I'm glad I lost it. I'm glad I
Speaker 2: got knocked off my horse. Glad I got my heart broken,
Speaker 2: Glad I got my plans disrupted. I'm glad I found
Speaker 2: out that the world wasn't flat. I'm glad I found
Speaker 2: out that it didn't revolve around me. I'm glad that
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do, because if I'd have
Speaker 2: kept trusting in my flesh, I would have spent the
Speaker 2: rest of my life measureing myself against an irrelevant standard.
Speaker 2: But something wonderful happened when I lost my confidence.
Speaker 1: I gained Christ.
Speaker 2: And what is more versay, I consider everything a loss
Speaker 2: because of the surpassing word of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord,
Speaker 2: for whose sake I have lost all things. I'm letting
Speaker 2: it go. I'm not trying to get back on my horse.
Speaker 2: I don't even want to ride in that direction anymore.
Speaker 2: I've been down that road, and I'm ready for something better.
Speaker 2: I consider them garbage that I may gain.
Speaker 1: Christ.
Speaker 2: Take the whole world, Take my skills, take my knowledge,
Speaker 2: take my insight, take my appearances, take my youth.
Speaker 1: But give me Jesus.
Speaker 2: I want to be found in Him, not having a
Speaker 2: righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
Speaker 2: that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that
Speaker 2: comes from God on the bay basis of faith.
Speaker 1: Stand up.
Speaker 2: It's not about how much confidence you have, it's about
Speaker 2: on what basis you've built it. And the answer to
Speaker 2: our anxiety isn't just more confidence, it's more Christ, he
Speaker 2: says Verse ten. I used to know a lot of
Speaker 2: things about the law. I used to know a lot
Speaker 2: of things about life. But now look what happens after
Speaker 2: you lose your confidence and your arrogance and your prejudice
Speaker 2: and your presuppositions. He said, now that I've lost my confidence,
Speaker 2: I want to know Christ. I don't want to know
Speaker 2: about him. I don't want to know what I think
Speaker 2: I know about him. I want to know Christ. Yes,
Speaker 2: to know the power. Watch this of his resurrection. So
Speaker 2: after you have lost your confidence, you can expect a resurrection.
Speaker 2: I told my friend what I was going to preach
Speaker 2: to you today. I said, I'm going to preach on
Speaker 2: I lost my confidence. And he texted me after I
Speaker 2: preached it the first message, and he said, did you
Speaker 2: get it back?
Speaker 1: And I said no. I told the people to let
Speaker 1: it die.
Speaker 2: To let that confidence that we put in what we
Speaker 2: can see and then what we can know, and then
Speaker 2: what we can feel, let it die.
Speaker 1: Let it be nailed to the cross.
Speaker 2: You know, God will allow certain circumstances in your life,
Speaker 2: and he will use those circumstances to crucify your false confidence.
Speaker 1: And if we don't understand this.
Speaker 2: We will try to pray our confidence back down off
Speaker 2: the cross, and we'll try to get it back, and
Speaker 2: we'll go back into those same modes. But only after
Speaker 2: it dies can it be resurrected as faith. I lost
Speaker 2: my confidence, and I'm glad I did, because while I
Speaker 2: was confident.
Speaker 1: In me, I could not have faith in him.
Speaker 2: And I wonder if today God brought you here not
Speaker 2: to give you back your confidence, you know, so you
Speaker 2: can get the girl.
Speaker 1: And win the bid. I wonder if God brought you
Speaker 1: here to give you something better.
Speaker 2: Then, now that we have buried your need to prove
Speaker 2: that you're better than everybody, helps because you realize that
Speaker 2: all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. Are you
Speaker 2: ready now for a resurrect of faith? That's what had
Speaker 2: to happen to the disciples. They were so confident in
Speaker 2: Jesus as an earthly king. When he went to the cross,
Speaker 2: it killed their confidence because they couldn't understand how he
Speaker 2: could set.
Speaker 1: Up a kingdom and die on a cross.
Speaker 2: But he had to crucify their confidence in order to
Speaker 2: give life to their faith.
Speaker 1: The same thing is happening in your life right now.
Speaker 2: You're getting older, or you got rejected, or something's happening.
Speaker 1: In your body and it's not working like it used to.
Speaker 2: God is trying to give you something greater than confidence
Speaker 2: in your flesh. I've seen what my flesh can do,
Speaker 2: and I put no confidence in it anymore. I've seen
Speaker 2: what my effort can accomplish. I don't want to preach
Speaker 2: based on my opinions anymore. I'm ready now for the
Speaker 2: righteousness that comes on the basis of faith.
Speaker 1: Will you lift your hands in God's presence, Father, I
Speaker 1: thank you for the word that you sent forth from
Speaker 1: this pulpit today. While I understand God that.
Speaker 2: There's a deep need in all of our hearts to
Speaker 2: feel assured that everything is going to be all right,
Speaker 2: I understand that also there are times that are necessary
Speaker 2: for us that we have to question everything, and sometimes
Speaker 2: we have to be shaken to our core in order
Speaker 2: to find a foundation that is worth building on. And
Speaker 2: I just believe today that you didn't give me this
Speaker 2: word so that I could preach it for myself. I
Speaker 2: believe that there is a brother or a sister who
Speaker 2: has lost their confidence because their circumstances have changed, or
Speaker 2: they've come to a place where something that used to
Speaker 2: work for them doesn't work anymore, or they have not
Speaker 2: been affirmed in certain ways. And I believe that you
Speaker 2: sent me here to tell them today, let it go
Speaker 2: and receive something better. And so as their hands are
Speaker 2: lifted to you and their hearts are open to you, God.
Speaker 1: Would you.
Speaker 2: In each and every heart in this place fill our
Speaker 2: perspectives with faith, take away our confidence and our flesh. God,
Speaker 2: Even if we can do it in our own strength,
Speaker 2: we can't sustain it in our own strength. We need you.
Speaker 1: We need you. You are our righteousness, and you are
Speaker 1: the only confidence that we have. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can look the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.