The Right Amount of Confidence

Introduction

I want you to think with me this morning on the subject of confidence. Confidence. I want you to think about times in your life when you failed at something. And times when you just gave up. Did confidence play a role in that? No, confidence is a funny thing. It’s kind of like salt. Not enough or too much can mess things up. But when the right amount is applied. The Bible has something to say about confidence. And this morning I’d like for us to talk about the right amount of confidence. We probably all can remember times in our lives because we’re complex people. There are certain areas and arenas of life where maybe we’ve had too much confidence while at the same time having a complete lack of confidence in another area.

Human nature being what it is, we can often see these faults in the traits of others better than we can ourselves. We all know somebody who’s underconfident, don’t we? Somebody who has absolutely no confidence in their abilities and skills. And maybe if you’re close to that person, much of your interaction with them is trying to build them up, to tell them they’re better than what they think they are, that they can do it, to not give up. Sadly, we all know people who are too confident. And maybe our job subtly and sweetly is to try to humble that person. And as kindly as we can to let them know that their confidence isn’t really founded on reality. And that affects different arenas of life, doesn’t it?

You ever know somebody who’s overconfident in their appearance and their looks? They think they’re much better looking than what they really are. Those kind of people make us pretty people frustrated. Confident. Hebrews chapter 3 and in verse 6 tells us that as Christians, we need to have confidence. But this morning I want us to see that it needs to be the right amount of confidence. That we are set up for failure if we have too little or too much. We must have the right amount, and it must be founded upon reality. Let’s begin in Hebrews chapter 3. Actually, back up to verse 5. Hebrews 3, verse 5, and Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of things which would be spoken afterward.

But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house we are. Let’s pause there. That’s a statement of confidence, isn’t it? Dependent, but yet confident. Whose house we are? Continue our reading. Whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. We are a part, as Greg talked to us this morning at 9 o’clock hour. We are part of the household, the family of God. Of Christ’s family. If, the Hebrew writer said, if we can hold on to our confidence. My goal this morning is to give you some confidence as a Christian. To help equip you as you leave this building and go back out into a world that cares little for Christ and the things of God.

1. The Danger of Overconfidence

The confidence, just the right amount, that you can do this. That you can be the house of Christ, the family of God, and that you can succeed. Well, let’s talk about the extremes before we talk about the right amount. There’s obviously the danger of overconfidence. Again, we don’t need a whole lot of illustrations here. We all know people who have fallen flat on their face because they were way overconfident. And that overconfidence was their downfall. We have biblical examples. Not long ago in a lesson, we talked about Peter. We won’t turn over there, but you remember the illustration, the story that we shared, one of the saddest stories of Peter’s life is Peter so boldly saying, when Jesus said, All of you will be offended by me this night, you will scatter.

Peter said, Well, maybe they will, but I will never. And Jesus said, Not only will you do it, you’ll do it tonight, and you’ll do it three times. And Peter says, Absolutely not. I’ll die.

And where did that overconfidence get him? So Peter is a perfect illustration, a negative illustration of how personal overconfidence can be our downfall. Don’t ever think it’s not me. It can never happen to me. This holier than thou look down my spiritual nose at those who are struggling with temptation and sin are Satan’s perfect opening in the door to put his foot in to kick that door down and to bring me spiritually down. Look with me in the book of 1 Corinthians. We have the example of the Corinthian church. And a different type of overconfidence than Peter’s, but yet an overconfidence that was their failing. In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, the Apostle Paul is talking on the subject of meats that had been sacrificed to idols.

And Paul’s conclusion, his inspired conclusion would be if you’re not involved in the worship ceremony, though it has somehow been tangentially associated with idol worship, that doesn’t corrupt that meat. And you can go ahead and eat it. We know that.

But be careful. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1, he says, now concerning the things offered to idols. We know that we all have knowledge. In other words, he’s saying, we accommodatively, not everybody knew that, or it wouldn’t have been a discussion, but we of this certain group, we know the truth on this matter. We have the knowledge. But he issues this warning at the end of verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 8 knowledge puffs up. And love edifies. There was a form of overconfidence. Knowledge puffs up. Being right about something, Paul is arguing, is not the end all be all. How we use that right knowledge changes everything. Skip down to still in chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians. Look at verse 10 now. Or does he say it altogether for our sakes?

That’s quoting, excuse me, verse 10 of chapter 8. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? Be careful, the inspired writer says. Don’t let your understanding, your confidence, here is a confidence unlike Peter’s. Here’s a confidence that’s actually based upon fact. Peter was dead wrong when he was confidently saying, it’ll never happen to me. The Corinthians were right in their confidence. But he was saying still, your confidence can get you into trouble. We have a third example in the book of Revelation, chapter 3. We have the story of the church at Laodicea. And among the negative things that he says about this congregation was that they were guilty of having an unfounded confidence.

Revelation 3, verse 17, because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Here’s a congregation of people whose mirror was doing them absolutely no good. They thought they were this. In fact, imagine if you were traveling and you met somebody from the church at Laodicea prior to the writing of this letter, and you just casually ask the question, how are things at Laodicea? What would they have said? Versus what our Lord says. And so there’s a great danger in overconfidence. Personal overconfidence, congregational overconfidence, and overconfidence even when we’re right in those facts. And understand this. Turn over to James chapter 2. Understand that overconfidence takes many forms.

Sometimes we have this idea of this guy bloviating and thinking he’s much prettier than he really is, and that’s what overconfidence is. That’s just one form of overconfidence. Overconfidence can take many different forms. Subtle sometimes, but still very dangerous. Sometimes overconfidence can be based upon our unfounded, dangerous overconfidence can be founded not upon our own status, but because of the status with whom we associate.

And if he didn’t, we’d run him out of town and get somebody in here that taught the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Now don’t misunderstand me. Those are admirable qualities in both a preacher and a congregation. But if we think that we occupy a pew in a building where the truth is taught and practiced, that somehow we’re insulated and isolated from the dangers of this world. Or that just by those very actions alone that we’re guaranteed a punch ticket into heaven, that is dangerous overconfidence. James chapter 2, we’re familiar with, beginning in verse 14, this section was not written to people trying to convince them that they need to be baptized for the remission of their sins. This was written to people who had already done that.

Who were going to church every Sunday at the right place, and they had a good preacher who was preaching the truth to those Christians who maybe had the tendency to think that because they had found the right seat in the right church building that they didn’t have to do anything else, to this he writes. James 2, verse 14, what does it profit, my brethren? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him? Do you see the overconfidence? We found the truth. We have arrived. Set here. As if the pew in the church building is a seat in a train that’s taking a one way trip with no stops to heaven. He’s saying, you’ve got faith. But if that faith is just sitting there, it’s accomplishing nothing.

2. The Danger of Underconfidence

Well, there’s a danger, tremendous danger of overconfidence, but there’s also a danger of underconfidence, just as dangerous. And maybe more prevalent and more common is this idea of underconfidence. We need to understand that confidence, the right amount of confidence, is the key to our hope. You remember what we read in the beginning in Hebrews 3, verse 6, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Anybody that’s been in a Bible class enough times could give you the formulaic definition of hope, could you not? Desire plus expectation. How many of us maybe silently have a whole lot of desire. Very little plus. And on certain days, absolutely no expectation. Maybe we’re going through the motions.

But if really pressed, to be honest, just looking in the mirror, nobody else, even in the house, say, I’m not going to make it. There’s no hope there. There’s no expectation. And understand that without that hope, the very next step, and it’s not a leap, it is a baby step to just throwing our hands up in frustration and quitting.

Your experience may have been like mine where I grew up. Mom had two sets of dishes. Your mom had two sets of dishes. You had everyday dishes. That’s the one you fixed the bologna sandwich on when you needed something to eat. And then we had, we weren’t fancy enough to have china, but we had what mom called company dishes. Company dishes only got touched when you had the preacher over during the meeting.

Or mom’s side of the family, dad’s side of the family got the everyday dishes. But when we’d have the preacher over in the meeting, mom get the tablecloth out. She probably had another color for it. I call it beige tablecloth. And the company dishes were set out just right. We even had cloth napkins. And dishes I’d never seen before made their appearance. Gravy somehow materialized in a boat. And the jelly wasn’t served in the Welch’s jar. It was put in a nice little crystal looking dish with this little bitty spoon. Me and my two brothers would get the same speech every time. Number one, you be on your best behavior. Don’t you embarrass us? Number two, mom would look at her spread there on the table, and she would say, and if you spill anything on my tablecloth, you’ll be excused from the table, and you’ll have no supper.

To which I would usually raise my hand and say, I’ll be in my room. Because I knew I had no expectation of passing that test. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was when. I was doomed because there was absolutely no confidence. I might as well just leave now. Maybe there’s a leftover bologna sandwich in the room, and I won’t starve. I quit. And if we’re honest with ourselves, there are times at least in our spiritual ebb and flow where that’s us. God wants me to be holy as He is holy, love as Christ has loved, to do this, to do that. Oh, I see other people in the pews that are nailing that, but I might as well just quit. Confidence, the right amount, is the key to our hope.

And Hebrews 3, verse 6 also tells us this, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope. Hope is the key to joy. Confidence is the key to hope. Hope is the key to joy. And I’m going to tell you, confidence, hope, and joy, this triumphant are absolutely essential in our Christian walk. Because if you don’t have the confidence, any confidence, you’re going to give up and quit. And if you don’t have the joy, then it’s going to become so boring and tedious. How many times has the excuse been offered, maybe not in spiritual matters, but in secular matters, whether it be a hobby or a job or whatever, why’d you quit? It just wasn’t fun anymore. What enjoyed it.

Now we would never admit that about our spiritual life, our Christian wall to anybody but ourselves. But if we lose joy, we’re going to quit. If we have no hope. Maybe we’ve already quit. Without the right amount of confidence, we lose our incentive to try. To keep on. When we fall, dusting ourselves off and picking ourselves back up. Look over in the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. Hits on all of these things. Remember the connection that we’re trying to make here between confidence in its right amount, confidence, hope, joy, and keeping on.

In verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living what? Living hope. That desire plus that expectation. Skip down to verse 6, talking about the trials of life. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you’ve been grieved by various trials. In this you now what? Rejoice. Hope. Joy. Now skip down to verse 13. Now that we have those things, we have the hope that leads to joy. Verse 13 says, Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

3. Just Confidence, Rooted in God

Since you’ve got the hope that results in the joy, then he says, we would say today, roll up your sleeves and let’s get to it. But if we don’t have any confidence, we don’t have that hope. We don’t have that joy. And we’re certainly not going to gird up the loins of our mind and get to work. Well, what does God want? He doesn’t want us to be overconfident, arrogant like Peter or the Corinthians or the Laodiceans. And he doesn’t want us to be so defeated and so down in the dumps that we have no hope, no joy, and no work. What does God want? He doesn’t want the danger of overconfidence.

Just confidence. Just confidence. Whose house we are if we hold fast to our confidence. Steadfast to the end. God wants you to be confident. God wants you to know that this can and will be done. And understand this. Look in the Roman letter, Romans chapter 5, beginning. We’ll look at two verses in the book of Romans. Start in Romans chapter 5 and in verse 10. We must start here. Our confidence begins in God. As we sung this morning, he is our mighty fortress. I can be confident because I’m in that fortress. There is no confidence. No confidence. Not under confidence, overconfidence. There is no confidence aside from God and the help that he affords. But our confidence is rooted in him. Romans chapter 5. Look at this in verse 10.

After saying how much God had demonstrated his love and while we were sinners, he died for us. Look what he says in verse 10. For if when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his lie. Do you see the confidence in that? If God would send his only begotten Son to die for you while you were a rebellious sinner. How much does God want to see you saved now that you’re his child? Some confidence in him. And Paul sums this up. Turn over to chapter 8, verse 31. After going through a whole chapter of things that God has done and is doing for us.

Romans 8, verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? There’s our confidence. When I was in the third grade, my best subject was, we didn’t call it PE then. It was play period. Who am I kidding? That was K through 12, my best subject. But in the third grade, I used to love play period because certain days, when the teacher felt generous, it was just kind of like free time. Sometimes we had to exercise run laps, jumping jacks, all those things. But sometimes we could just play. And in North Alabama, that meant football. And so we’d get the football and we’d choose up teams. I was in the third grade, and at that time there was an eighth grader who was the teacher’s aide.

His name was Terry. And you do the math, third grade, eighth grade. And Terry would play football with us. And we’d choose up teams. We flip a coin to say who went first. Guess who got picked first every time? Terry. And if you were lucky enough to be the captain and it fell on heads, and you picked Terry, the rest of the time you’d say, I don’t care. I’ll pick blind the rest of the time. You can have everybody else. Because we knew that as soon as the coin toss was won, the game was over. Because if Terry was on your side, you were going to win. You have everybody else. I’ll take the math team and Terry, and we’ll beat you at football. That’s a crude illustration, but that’s what Paul is saying.

4. God Wants Us to Be Engaged

Oh, their forces, their spiritual forces arrayed against us. That’s why we can’t be overconfident. But if God is for you, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. Confidence. Confidence rooted first and foremost in God. But, look over in 2 Peter now. We looked at 1 Peter. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1. Though our confidence is finally and fully rooted in God, that does not mean that God expects us to just sit there and let Him do all the work. God wants us to be engaged. And so He tells us this in 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 8. After listing off of those spiritual virtues, he says in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 8, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his own sin. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

Conclusion

And he said, You can do it. Why? Because a mighty fortress is our God. And because we’ve been equipped with a spiritual arsenal, if we’ll make application in our lives, we, every single one of us can do it. Confidence with some caution. Because there are spiritual forces arrayed against us. The world is attractive. You’ll become discouraged. Somebody else will let you down. And so confidence with caution, not too much, not too little. But knowing that if God is for us, and if we’re diligent, we can make our calling an election sure. Strap on the armor of God. Go out into that world where you are outnumbered and outgunned. And know that you’ve got this. Because God is with you. And you’re being diligent. You’re praying every day.

You’re spending time in the Word of God. You’re drawing the encouragement from your brethren. You’re working at this spiritual exercise of growing deeper, broader, wider, and taller. And know that you can do it.

Or more correctly, that God is doing it through you. Confidence. Jesus Christ, whose house we are, if we hold fast to our confidence, steadfast to the end. Rejoice in the hope that you have. Be steadfast and rest in your mighty fortress, your God. You’re not a child of God this morning. Why not begin that journey, knowing that it can be accomplished? Not alone, but with others and with most importantly, God, and most importantly, the blood of Christ that will cleanse you of your sin. Why not be baptized for remission of your sins this morning? Why not begin this confident journey on your way to heaven? If we can help you in any spiritual way, let it be known as we stand and sing.