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Okay, in your life Baptist Church, please look at Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 26. Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 26, which reads, For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. The title for the sermon this evening is, Confidence without the Arrogance. Confidence without the Arrogance. Now, three weeks ago, before you went into lockdown, I preached a sermon called, Overcoming Insecurity. And the purpose of that sermon was, for those that do suffer insecurities, that you would identify those weaknesses and overcome them, and become a more confident person. And so this is kind of like part two. You know, it's important for us to be confident as God's people, as God's children, who are saved, they have the Bible, they have the Holy Spirit of God, indwelling the believer. We should be people that are confident, okay? And we want to, you know, we want to overcome insecurities. You will always have some level of insecurity in your life, but if you remain insecure, you will not become confident. You need confidence in order to become productive and efficient for the Lord God. But there is another extreme, when we think about confidence, and we would often term that arrogance, okay? So arrogance is one extreme, you don't want to be there. Insecure is another extreme, you don't want to be there. You want to be seen or known as a confident person right down the middle, okay? So as I said, the title of the sermon this evening is confidence without the arrogance. Now, when we think about the word confidence, confidence, okay? Confidence basically means stability, being stable, being strong, right? Being unmovable. When you look at that problem there, once again, Problem Chapter 3, Verse number 26, the second part of it says, And shall keep thy foot from being taken. So if you're walking down a pathway and your foot is not being taken, it means you're not slipping, you're not falling down, right? You're remaining strong, you're remaining unmovable on your journey. But if you were to slip or you were to fall, then that would be your foot being taken. But what did it say there at the beginning, at Verse number 26, it says, This is so important as a Christian, that we understand confidence from a godly perspective, rather than confidence from a worldly perspective. Now, when you read your Bible, you're not going to come across the word arrogance in the Bible, okay? Maybe arrogance sometimes can be associated with pride, someone that is lofty and lifted up, that is definite, okay? But quite often, confidence, when you read your Bible, you kind of have to understand the context that it's in. Sometimes confidence can be, in the Bible, a very positive thing. Sometimes confidence can be looked at as a very negative thing. And of course, when confidence is seen as a negative aspect, that has more to do with arrogance. That's more to do with being lifted up in oneself. Whereas godly confidence comes from the Lord, as it said in Verse number 26, For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. So as Christians, we want to be confident. We don't want to be people that are being tossed to and fro. We want to be unmovable, we want to be strong and firm, but not in oneself. We want to be strong and firm in the Lord, who is our confidence. And so godly confidence is viewing the Lord as our confidence and worldly confidence. So as we typically think of it like being arrogant, for example, is more inward focused. It's more man focused, confidence in self. I just looked up some dictionary definitions for us. Confidence means fully trusting and assured. You know, I'm confident in my salvation. Why? Because I'm fully trusting on the finished work of Jesus Christ. If my salvation was based on my own performance, my own good deeds, well, I would have no confidence. You know, my foot would be taken, I would fall, because I'm not a perfect person. I make mistakes plenty of times. Fully trusting and assured, okay? We talk about the assurance of salvation, knowing that there's nothing we can do to lose it, again, because our confidence is in Christ. And the definition of arrogance that I looked up was a display or more like a show, a display or a show of self-importance or overbearing pride, okay? Display of self-importance and overbearing pride. So these things can sometimes look similar, but they have different outcomes. You know, someone that is confident versus someone that is arrogant, they can look similar in the sense that both people are very sure about themselves, very strong, very firm, but the consequence of the output of that attitude and behavior is vastly different. So probably the best display of confidence that I think we can look at in comparison to arrogance is when we look at the story of David and Goliath. So please go to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Please turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. We won't be going back to Proverbs chapter 3. So you can go to 1 Samuel chapter 17, please. Let's have a look at the very famous story of David and Goliath, and let's just compare the differences between the two. It says in 1 Samuel 17 verse number 32, And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him, that's because of Goliath, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. So we know Goliath was a giant, a mighty warrior, okay? Very strong, very powerful, and the armies of Israel were afraid of fighting Goliath. Here comes young David along, right? Full of confidence, and he says, you know what? I'll go and fight the Philistine. I'll go fight Goliath. You can see that David definitely has confidence in his abilities. So the first point that I have for you brethren tonight is confidence, and we'll look at this soon, confidence is gained through experience. Confidence is gained through experience. What are we talking about? Why is David so confident that he can overcome Goliath? Well, let's keep going. Verse number 33, And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. You see, the reason why David had so much confidence that he could take on Goliath is because he already had experience fighting against an enemy, right? He is a shepherd, he is he tended after the sheep, and he's had times where the lion and the bear would go after his sheep. Well, he, right, instead of running away, instead of being fearful, instead of being afraid to take on a challenge, he went, you know, David is a faithful shepherd, went and took on that lion, took on that bear, and by that process of just simply being a shepherd, he gained experience. And so he takes on the lion, takes on the bear, now he can take on Goliath. He's learnt from the experiences in the past. This is why he's confident. He's gained confidence through experience. And this is important, especially for a lot of young people. You know, I feel sorry for our generation, the younger generations, you know, as they're known as the Millennials, okay, because, you know, they have, many of them have the mentality that, you know, life needs to be easy and everything just needs to come to me easily. I don't need to work hard. I don't want to work hard. I don't want any challenges. I don't want any difficulties. I don't want any kind of, you know, challenges in my life. But if you don't face the challenges that God allows you to go through, you'll never gain confidence. You'll always remain an insecure, fearful person. You know, God allows us to go through difficulties, challenges. Yes, you know, as a shepherd, God will send the lion or the bear to test us, okay, that we may gain the experience, that we can overcome the foes, we can overcome the challenges, so we can do greater and better things. You know, as I said, you know, in the current generation of young people, they do not want the challenge, okay? They don't want the difficulty, right? They land a job and it's just too hard. Rather than understanding that every job has a learning curve, every job requires, you know, some challenge and, you know, you're going to make mistakes and you're going to feel like a loser sometimes. But if you don't face the challenge and when you do and you spend time and you overcome it, then the next time you do it, it's going to be easier and easier. And as you go through that experience, as you go through those difficulties, you have greater confidence to take on a bigger challenge in the future. You know, I know, and again, you know, I don't like talking about myself, but I, you know, I have, you know, these are my personal experiences. I just remember being in the workplace, being offered positions and thinking to myself, there's no way I can do that job. I've not been trained to do that. I've not done the higher education necessary to do that. I've not done that before. But, you know, I say, well, you know what, Lord? You've opened this door for me. I'm going to go there. Please help me find a solution. Help me find a way to do well in this job. And I've taken on that job. I've done well. And I've been, wow, you know, well, I didn't realize I could do that. Thank you, Lord, for the help that you've been to get me to this position. And then when a higher position or more challenging position comes up, I'm like, well, Lord, I don't think I can do that one either. But it's open up. You know what, Lord? I'm going to take that step as well. I'm going to take on that challenge. And what does that do? It builds experience. The point where one day you are able to take on the Goliaths in your life. Okay? So we should not run away from experience. We should not run away from hardships. This is what God puts in our life to mature us and to give us greater confidence. Let's keep going there. Verse number 36, 1 Samuel 17, verse number 6. Here's one of them, seeing he have defied the armies of the living God. Now, the passage that we've started with, we talk about confidence. We need to understand that David had his confidence in the right area. It sounds like right now he's saying, man, you know, I was able to take these down. I have the strength. I know I can defeat Goliath. But really, you'll soon see that his strength, his confidence comes from God. Just as we read there in Proverbs 3 26, which said, for the Lord shall be thy confidence. Well, the Lord was the confidence of David as well. Because if you read verse number 37, he says, David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. So notice, after David says, I defeated the lion, the bear, and even this Philistine I'm going to defeat, what does he say? He says, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. You see, his confidence was in the Lord God. He knew he did well. He knew he could take on the enemies. He knew he could take on challenges greater than himself because the Lord was with him. This is what we ought to be, brethren, confident knowing the Lord is with us, confident knowing we're doing the works that God has given us, confident knowing the Lord is going to help us through the challenges and he's going to help us gain the experience we need so we can do greater things for him, greater works for the Lord God. Let's drop down a little bit in the story to verse number 45, 1 Samuel 17, verse number 45. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the hosts of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Once again, this is him taking on Goliath, speaking to Goliath. He says, it's the Lord that's going to give me the victory. It's the Lord that's going to defeat you. And it's the Lord that's going to give me the ability to win this great victory. You see, David's confidence was in the Lord God. And, you know, he's a great example of what I want to speak about. Well, the kind of person that I want to be is this young David, right? The kind of person I want you to be, brethren, is like this young David. Confidence, gain experiences, you know, overcoming challenges in your life, in the spiritual battles, right? Not running away from every difficulty, every responsibility. No, taking them head on, knowing that the Lord God is with you, seeking the Lord's help, okay, and being greater and better for your own benefit and for the benefit of others. But confidence is gained through experience. The second character, of course, in this story is Goliath. And I want you to notice Goliath's confidence, or as we would say, his arrogance. So if we just look at 1 Samuel 17, look at verse number 42, we see the words of Goliath to David. Now actually, before we read this passage, let me just quickly say, what is arrogance? So if confidence is gained by experience, you know, what is arrogance? The arrogant person would not have gained experience, okay, and he'll be like, yeah, I can take on Goliath. Yeah, okay, you know, David, right? I mean, he's done, this guy, the arrogant person's done nothing in his life. He's got no proven track record. You know, he's run away from challenges in the past. He's never wanted to get his hands dirty. He's never wanted to take risks in his life, right? But he's like, yeah, I can take on Goliath, right? Yeah, easy. Yeah, David beat the Goliath, but I could beat him too. The arrogant person has not used the experiences in his life to gain the confidence. He just has an overinflated view of himself. Okay, and thinks, yeah, you know, everything, he can just accomplish everything from his own pride. Okay, not because he's looking upon the Lord for victory. Goliath was this way, even though Goliath was a man of war from his youth up. Okay, but he's very arrogant and I want you to notice there in verse number 42. What does Goliath say to David, verse number 42? And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him. So he looks down on David, right? Why does he look down on David? For he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance. So David is a young man, okay? Ruddy and a fair countenance. So, you know, he doesn't look like a seasoned soldier. You know, his skin's a little bit smooth, you know what I mean? But, you know, his confidence is in the Lord, okay? That's the difference with David, right? Look what he says in verse number 43. And the Philistine said unto David, am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. So he's all talk, the Philistine, all right? Goliath's all talk. You come at me and I'll feed you to the animals. I'll feed you to the wild animals, right? That's all talk. You know, Goliath could not even put a single strike on David. Goliath did not even come close to David, right? David took him out with that single stone that we know about in the famous story. But that is arrogance, looking down on others. And in fact, that gets me to my second point. My second point tonight, brethren, is that confidence seeks to edify others. Whereas arrogance looks down or tears down others, okay? We don't want to be people in our confidence that look at other people and try to tear them down. No, the confident person will seek to edify someone else, okay? That is one of the key differences between being confident and arrogant. Now, if you can please turn to, just because you're in 2 Samuel, just go to 2 Kings, not too far there. Go to 2 Kings, chapter 10, 2 Kings, chapter 10, and verse number 15. And we're looking at another famous story here regarding Jehu, who eventually became the king of Israel. And I just want to show you how Jehu is a man full of confidence. But he's also seeking to make other people confident. He's trying to be a help and to edify other people. It's not about, hey, I'm so confident. Look at me. I'm so amazing, right? You know, love me and bestow, you know, your eyes upon me. And no, it's not about pride. He's seeking to edify, lift other people up. In 2 Kings, chapter 10, verse number 15, it says, You know what Jehu is saying? He says, I'm behind you. I'm with you, right? I'm here to help you. I'm here to encourage you. I'm here to support you. And so we have Jehu here, who comes and takes out a wicked kingly dynasty. And then eventually he is the one that gets set up to be the king of Israel. But he starts off well. He starts off with a love and a zeal for the Lord. Hey, his confidence is contagious, right? He takes Jehonadab and encourages him in the Lord, right? That's what a confident person does. A confident person is about making other people confident, lifting up other people. Can you please go to Psalm 15, verse number 5. Psalm 15, verse number 5. And then you can just stay in the Psalms. We've got a lot of Psalms to get through for the rest of the sermon. So go to Psalm 15, verse number 5. I'll read that soon. But as I said, confidence seeks to edify others. You know, when we get a little bit lifted, and I'm not trying to say proud exactly, but we gain maybe knowledge. We gain experience. We do well in our lives, right? You can really take one of two directions in your life when you succeed and you do well. You either want to help other people succeed and do well, or you want to gloat about your success and tear other people down, okay? You want to keep people lower than you because you like being seen as someone higher, someone greater. You know, your heart as someone that is confident, with godly confidence, should be to lift other people up, okay? Now if you look at Psalm 15, verse 5, it says, He that putteth not out his money to usury. So this is talking about someone that does not charge interest when he lends out money. Nor taketh reward against the innocents. So this is someone that does not take advantage of innocent people. He that doeth these things, okay, doesn't take advantage of other people, does not charge interest on money that they loan. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. What is confidence? Again, it's about never being moved, right? Being steadfast, being sure, being secure. This is speaking about someone that is confident. You see, the confident person does not lend money for interest sake. He does not take advantage, right? You know, if someone approaches me financially and I can help them financially, then, you know, I ought to be someone that fulfills that, you know, and if it's a loan rather than a gift, if it's a loan, trust that they're going to pay it back within a considerable amount of time and not charge them interest, right? When you charge someone interest, you do it because you're trying to take advantage of that person, yes. When you buy a house and you take out a mortgage and the banks charge you interest, they are taking advantage of you, okay? That's how they make profit, right? They take advantage of you. Some people look at innocent people without awareness, as it's said there in that Psalm, and they'll take reward against the innocent. Well, we ought not to be that way. If we find someone lacking a bit of, you know, information unclear, we should not seek, well, how can I take advantage of this person, right? How can I overcharge this person? Maybe they'll trust me and I can overcharge them, something like that, right? No, we should not be that person. The confident person does not seek to take down and destroy or take advantage of other people, but the arrogant person does. The arrogant person loves, like I said, to keep people under their feet, to be seen as someone superior, someone greater. The confident person does not do that. He does not take advantage of other people. Now, if you can, I'll get you to turn, actually, now you can say in the Psalms, no, you know what, go to Proverbs, because you're not too far. Go to Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23, verse number 23. Proverbs 23, verse number 23. Again, I'm going to use an example of my life, and if you get sick of me using my examples, Brevin, I'm sorry, but it's the only life I've lived, right? Like, I'd rather tell you examples of my life, and I'm sure I've already used some of these examples in previous sermons. I'd rather use examples of my life, because I know they're true. I can tell you when it took place, and whereas when you tell stories of other people, you don't always know if they're true, or maybe you're remembering the story wrong. So I'd rather tell you a story of my own personal life, and where confidence comes in, and where it comes to building up other people. Proverbs 23, 23, please. Proverbs 23, 23. We can apply this in many different areas, okay? Proverbs 23, 23 reads, Buy the truth and sell it not. Also, wisdom and instruction and understanding. So, Brevin, if you have truth, or you have wisdom, you have instruction, you have understanding, okay? You've gained information, okay? And you're doing well with that information, right? You should not seek to sell that information. You should not seek to sell wisdom, instruction, you know, or truth, okay? Now, do everything you can to attain it for yourself. Buy it if you have to, but don't sell it to other people. You know, when it comes to church, I try my very best to give you as much knowledge and wisdom that I've gained from the Bible. I'm not trying to hold anything back, right? I'm not like trying to preach some watered-down sermon, all right? And then be like, but if you want the real deep truths of the Bible, well, you've got to come to the Pastor Sepulveda Bible College and pay your $10,000 for a semester, and then I'll really teach you the deeper, greater things of the Bible. I don't ever want to operate that way, right? If I have knowledge, I want to pass it on. Why? Because I want to make other people wiser. You know, if God has, you know, given me some level of wisdom, some level of understanding of the Bible, then I just want to give it out freely. Because if it's helped me, I know it's going to help other people. You know, I was the same in the workplace. You know, I would be working with people and I'd have people come up to me and say, Kevin, don't, you know, reveal all your secrets, right? Don't like, like, you know, you're succeeding well in the job, and they'd see me go and help other people. They'd see me go and try to, you know, train other people to be more effective, to be more productive, right? I'm going around trying to make everyone's lives a lot easier, right? Because I'm finding things where, hey, you can actually work this way, and I can work this way, and we can get the job done a lot quicker, okay? Or we can do this and it can save the company, you know, this much money. I'd be operating like that, brethren. And it's not because I gained bonuses. It's just because I was thankful for the work that God has given me. And I'm going to do the best I can to just be a faithful servant, you know, a faithful minister in the workplace, and, you know, just out of gratitude toward the Lord God, you know, just do the best I can. And I would just constantly, right, try to improve my department or improve the people around me, you know, and I would gain nothing out of it, okay? And people would say to me, look, don't do it. Because I found that there were two types of people in the workplace, people that were insecure about their job, and so they felt like, well, if everybody knows how to do my job, then I'm not special anymore. So they would, you know, they would just not talk to anybody, not train anybody, not communicate very well, because they don't want anybody knowing what they're doing because their job is just that important. Whereas for me, I'm like, hey, you can all be effective, you can all be productive, right? You can all improve in your productivity. And what I found, brethren, there was when I did that, sometimes I basically got myself out of my job in the sense that it's like, well, now that you've improved productivity, you're not needed there anymore. That's what some people are afraid of. You're not needed there anymore. That's why they keep it all secret, okay? But then it's like, hey, but you don't need it here anymore, how about you take on this promotion? How about you take on this higher responsibility? And I thought, hey, this is wonderful. This is great, right? If all I do is just help people, you know, somehow God is the one that, you know, blesses you, somehow God's going to make sure that you're rewarded if you just labor hard and do your best, right? And that's where the confidence came in, right? You have the confidence of training other people, you know, not hiding the truths of what you've learned, let other people grow and develop and do well, and then the Lord can take you and put you in another position that would be even better for your continual growth and your continual experience. And so we should not be people that hide information, knowledge, or training, or the truth, right? We know something. We have some knowledge. We should pass it on. Now, there is something that I'm going to mention toward the end of this sermon, because, you know, we live in the information age, don't we? We have the internet. There's a lot of information. Some people come across an article, some people come across videos, and they think, wow, this is really helpful. And as it were, confidence. We've got confidence pass on that information to other people thinking that it's going to be a help to them. But it doesn't always work out that way. We'll talk about what that is in a minute, okay? So let's go to Proverbs 14. Let's go to Proverbs 14, please. Verse number 16. Proverbs 14, verse number 16. The third point that I have for you this evening, brethren, is that confidence helps you learn from your mistakes. Confidence helps you learn from your mistakes. Confidence isn't that you never make a mistake, okay? But the confident person is willing to acknowledge, yep, I messed up. Yep, I made a mistake. I need to learn from that mistake that I made. That's what a confident person does. An insecure person would say, would try to hide, you know, that they ever made a mistake. It's hard for them. And the arrogant person thinks they never make mistakes, okay? This is why we need to be confident. Well, look at Proverbs 14, verse 16. And here we'll have a verse where confidence is in a negative context, okay? Because that's more to do with arrogance. But it says in Proverbs 14, verse 16, A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. You see, fools can be confident, okay? But the wise man, he fears and departeth from evil. So if you're wise and if you're confident in the godly sense, brethren, when you make mistakes, when you come across and you've done, you know, we've all made mistakes, haven't we? We've all done wrong things. You know, every time you sin, let me just remind you, every time you sin, you've made a mistake. The confident person goes, you know what? I'm going to make mistakes for the rest of my life, okay? But here's what I got to do. When I make a mistake, I need to acknowledge that mistake. If I've sinned against the Lord, I need to acknowledge that sin, confess it to the Lord. You know what, if I've offended a brother or sister in the Lord, I need to acknowledge that and I need to go and apologize for doing them wrong. The confident person say, you know what? Yes, you know, if I've done wrong, I've done wrong, I admit to it, and I'm going to learn from that mistake, okay? So confidence helps you learn from your mistakes, whereas arrogance, the opposite, you don't, the arrogant person never acknowledges the mistakes. So they don't learn from the mistakes. They make the same mistakes over and over again. I'm going to read to you from Psalm 37, verse number 23. Psalm 37, 23, which says, the steps of a good man are ordained by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. So the steps of a good man are ordained by who? By the Lord. The Lord is the one that leads us to walk in the right ways. It says in verse number 24, though he fall, hold on. So the good man falls, yes. The good man falls. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. You see, I don't care how mature you are in Christ, how much knowledge and experience and wisdom you believe you have, you know, we're all going to fall. All of us, we all make mistakes, okay? But the confident person is not utterly cast down. The confident person goes, I know that I'm going to fall. This is why I need God. This is why I need his instruction. This is why I need God to ordain my steps. And when you're able to do that, and you have the confidence to acknowledge that you're wrong, you know, that you make mistakes, then the Lord is the one that upholdeth him with his hand. Once again, our confidence is in the Lord, right? We just need to remember not to think so highly of ourselves, right? I sometimes hear of churches that are going bad or pastors that make mistakes. And I pay attention because I want to be like, well, instead of tearing this person down, you know, if it's not, you know, something that disqualifies a man or whatever, and I just want to go, hey, you know what, that's a mistake, and I want to make sure I don't make that same mistake in my own ministry. I want to make sure I don't make that mistake in my life, okay? You know, it's good to learn from your mistakes. Hey, it's good to learn from the mistakes of others. But again, the arrogant person thinks he makes no mistakes, okay? He's always right, you know? And again, that person is just going to live just a life of misery. He's going to fall and fall time and time again until he's able to overcome his arrogance. So the third point for tonight, brethren, is that confidence helps you learn from your mistakes, okay? We don't want to be insecure trying to hide our mistakes. We don't want to be arrogant thinking that we never make mistakes. We're going to be confident, no, I make mistakes. I'm a human being. This is why I need my Lord. And when I make mistakes, I need to get back up and learn from that and try not to make the same mistake again in the future. Can you please go to Proverbs 4, verse number 25? Proverbs 4 and verse number 25. Proverbs 4 and verse number 25, which reads, These are great instructions from the book of Psalms there. But I wanted to read that passage because the fourth point that I have for you tonight is that confidence overcomes unpopular decisions, okay? Confidence overcomes. Maybe I could rephrase that another way. Confidence helps you make unpopular decisions, okay? Confidence helps you overcome or make unpopular decisions. What do I mean by that? Well, if you look at that passage once again, you know, your eyes need to look right on, right? Don't eyelids look straight before thee. This is similar to when you're racing horses. You may notice that when horses race and they often have these blinders on the side of the horse's eyes, okay? And by putting that on the side there, it helps the horse pay attention to the race, okay? Helps the horse pay attention to look straight on and continue running hard, you know, instead of being distracted by the peripheral vision, okay? Horses may get distracted about the horse that's next to her or, you know, whatever else might be going on. No, but if you put the blinders on, helps the horse be focused, okay? And, you know, we have God's word and, you know, the confident person is able to find what is right and do what is right. And quite often when you do what is right, it's going to be unpopular in the world, okay? There are many things in my life that is unpopular to this world. You know, just being a single income earner for the family is unpopular. Just homeschooling your children is unpopular. You're going to get criticized by the world. You'll be criticized by your family. Just being against vaccinations is going to make you unpopular in this world. You know, just quitting, you know, a job and going into the God's ministry, being a pastor or something is going to make you unpopular in this world, all right? I mean, there are so many things that I've done in my life that is just unpopular, okay? But here's the thing, when you know it's right, it doesn't matter what anyone else has to say, you know what it's right, that confidence will help you keep that straight path and not be distracted by the opinions or whatever else is popular in the world. It says in verse number 26, ponder the path of thy feet and let thy ways be established. Again, that idea of confidence, being steadfast, being sure, being unmovable, finding what path it is, look, brethren, if it's right, you continue down that path, it doesn't matter what other people have to say. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. You know, it's very easy to give in to pressures and, you know, peer pressure. And, you know, we often talk about peer pressure with children, right, where children might be instructed by their parents to do something or other, and then they're amongst friends and the friends kind of, you know, are an influence to cause that child to disobey their parents and they'll feel that pressure. And children suffer with this the most. But again, it's the experience that they need, right, they need to overcome that peer pressure so when they become adults, they don't give in to the peer pressure once again. There's a lot of peer pressure or social pressures right now to take the vaccine, to get vaccinated, right. There's a lot of pressures like this that's coming from the world. But, you know, when you are able to overcome that and you just know what is right, you just take the right steps, you're not going to be bothered by the opinions of the world. You know, there are people in my family in Chile, South America, that have said nasty things about my wife and I homeschooling our children, right. And in 2017, we were able to go to Chile and meet so many of our families. And, you know, they thought, the people in Chile, my family, my extended family, they thought that my kids would be socially, you know, socially awkward. They thought my kids would be, you know, would lack intelligence, okay, because they got screwed by their mother, okay. But then we went to Chile in 2017 and all I heard was praises about my kids, right. Again, I'm not trying to boast, it's what happened, right. We hear praises and people were surprised at how, you know, socially active my kids were. They were surprised at how well behaved they were and they got along with their cousins and second cousins and, you know, even if they struggled with the language, they still did the best they could to, you know, get around and socialize and you know what, and it doesn't matter. You know, at the end of the day, if you know what you're doing is right, okay, you need that confidence to say, you know, it doesn't matter what pressures, doesn't matter what other people have to say, okay. Don't get into arguments, don't get distracted, right. If people don't want to do things the way you do it, don't argue with them. Just say, hey, that's your decision, that's your family, they're your kids, you decide what you want to do, but with my kids, this is what I'm going to do, okay. And don't let yourself be distracted, right. Ponder the path of thy feet and let thy ways be established. Another thing that's important for preachers, you want to get preaching the Bible or become a pastor one day, one of the instructions in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 says, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. You see where to preach things, whether they are in season or out of season, it doesn't matter, right. We should not be ashamed to preach against the homosexuals, the LBGT, the sodomites, whatever you want to call them. We should not be ashamed or afraid to preach on these things, right. Confidence comes, no, I know what is right, right. And so we're going to preach what is right, no matter what pressures come from society. So it is good to be confident, so long as our confidence is in the Lord. Another very famous psalm in Psalm 118 verse 8, it says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, okay. And this actually comes, it takes me to my final point, my fifth point that I have tonight. But you know, quite often we will consider the voices of man, the opinions of man, and we may feel a bit shaken if we don't feel like we're lining up with what other people are doing. Once again, if you know what is right, you just put your foot down, you walk forward, you walk in the paths of righteousness, you walk in the paths of God, and that's going to help you in your confidence, okay. But as I said, it is better to put your trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. This leads us to our fifth and final point. The fifth and final point tonight is confidence comes by knowing the Bible. Confidence comes by knowing the Bible, okay. The reason I say this, and I've said this many, many times in different sermons, this is the only thing that I know 100% that it's true, okay. There are many things that contain truth, okay. Your, the internet contains a lot of truth. Even your TV, even your media contains a lot of truth, your, you know, mainstream media, there's a lot of truth in that, okay. There's a lot of truth on the internet, there's a lot of truth in schools and in textbooks, but there's a lot of lies as well, okay. And I'm seeing this more and more in my life, I'm sort of becoming aware of this, just how much lies there are, and how many lies we've swollen as a people, right. But confidence truly comes by knowing the Bible, because I know that whatever God commands, whatever God says is right, I just have the confidence, well, that's what God says. You know, God is above human beings, He is the creator, God is the one that's created the laws of the universe, God is the one that can tell us all about sin, and, you know, God is the one that can reveal the afterlife to us, God is the one that has provided salvation, God is the one that's given me forgiveness of sins. And so, if our confidence comes in knowing what God says in His word, then you're gonna be unshakable, you're going to be unmovable. You know, God has given us this book, it doesn't take that long to read through, really. If you give it the effort, you know, 15 minutes a day, you'll read through this Bible in one year, okay. You read it one hour a day, and you're gonna read this four times in a year, okay. God's word is amazing, and it's here to help us live our life in this world, even in a COVID restricted world, okay. We have God's instructions, God's directions of how to live our lives. You know, our confidence comes from knowing what this says, all right. And we live in a period of a lot of, again, it's the information age, they'll say, but there's a lot of misinformation everywhere, everywhere, okay. Now, just some of the passages that I read to you, Psalm 119 verse 105, which reads, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, okay. Thy word, that's the Bible, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so we wanna be confident and secure in the paths that we walk. Well, we need God's light, it's a very dark world that we live in, this is the lamp, this is the lamp that shines us, the solid path that we are to walk and remain confident in, in Psalm 119 verse 165. Great peace have they which love thy law, again, where is God's laws? Right here, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them, nothing shall offend them, okay. Because if you know God's word and someone has a different opinion, you're not gonna get offended by someone else's opinion. If you know what God's word says, you're gonna follow what God says, and you know it's 100% truth. There's confidence in God's word. You know, another Psalm I'll quickly read to you, Psalm 16 verse eight, which says, I have set the Lord always before me, He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. How do we become closer to the Lord? How do we become more aware of God's presence? How do we know more about our Lord God? How is it that we can set the Lord always before me? Once again, it's by knowing God's word, by knowing your Bible. The closer you are to God will equate to how much you know God's word. The less you know God's word, the further away God will seem to be. The less you'll know about the true God of the Bible, the more you know His word, the greater understanding you will have of the Lord God, and you'll be in closer proximity to the Lord because of His word. So confidence comes by knowing the Bible. You know, if there's a doctrine that you learn in God's word, right, the doctrine of salvation, by grace through faith, not of works. There's confidence in knowing that, right? So when someone comes preaching some false gospel, you can identify that and say, hey, that's rubbish. I'm not going to be moved by such nonsense. Hey, get that false prophet out of this church. Why? Because we have confidence in doctrine, okay? That's just one basic doctrine. There are so many doctrines in the Bible. Listen, once you see it in the Bible, once you've studied God's word, listen, preaching is great, but if you hear a good sermon, you learn a good doctrine, you need to go back and cement that for yourself. You need to go to God's word and put confidence, not in a preacher, not confidence in some words or some arguments you heard from a man, but confidence back in the word of God. That will strengthen you, brethren. It will keep you stable and established. Sometimes I have come across Christians that from the outward have appeared to be very knowledgeable. They believe the right doctrines. They seem to believe the right things, and I would say they're more right than wrong, but the reason they're so right is not because their confidence came from God's word. Their confidence came by just trusting a preacher, okay? And what happens, they just parrot the preacher. They repeat the preacher. And when you sort of question where did you get that from, where do you learn that from God's word, well, it's there somewhere. It's more about having learned what the preacher had to say rather than having the confidence in the Lord God. Well, those same individuals that I've come across that are like that, they never remain confident. Eventually, they go through some difficulty, they go through some hardship, and they fall away. Okay, why? Because, again, their confidence, their knowledge and understanding of the world and society did not come from God's word directly. It came from trusting man. Nothing wrong with that man that they listen to, but again, once you learn some great truth, you want to make sure that you go back to God's word and submit what you have learned. It'll keep you stable and confident as a Christian. You know, growing up as a Christian, knowing the Bible, knowing doctrines, you know, I can spot false prophets a mile away. I mean, it's not even hard, but then you see other Christians that just seem to have such difficulty identifying a false prophet, all right? It's like they'll see a sermon on YouTube by a guy that's not even saved, and they'll think, wow, what a great sermon, okay? Or they'll hear some doctrine, and they think, wow, what great preaching. Look at this doctrine, and it's a false doctrine, okay? Why? Because they have not become confident in God's word. Their confidence has come from man. But as I said to you, confidence is my final point. Confidence comes by knowing the Bible. Now, let me bring it to 2021, the internet age, the information age, where we have information everywhere. We have misinformation everywhere. And, you know, I want us, especially at New Life Baptist Church and Blessed Art Baptist Church as well, down in Sydney, you know, I want to make sure that as Christians, that we're careful about the information we pass along. What's wonderful about the Bible, we can just read God's word and communicate that, right? Buy the truth and sell it not. It's easy for me as a preacher to just preach God's word to you because I know it's true. I know it's confident, 100% confident that I know it's true. Even if it's something that I'm not comfortable with, even if it's something that I feel might upset some people, I have the confidence of sharing it because it's coming from God's word, okay? Now, some people have that same level of confidence in their videos, right? In their articles that they share from the internet, right? They find something that is aligned with their personal beliefs about a topic, covert or whatever, and they'll quickly share that information without fact checking it, okay? And I know, I'm not saying that, you know, because on Facebook, for example, you've got your fact checkers, right? And you're passing on information that's contrary to, you know, the, what the mass media, what the, you know, mainstream media wants you to hear and they'll flag that as, you know, a false report, a misinformation, and you got these fact checkers on Facebook. That's not what I'm talking about, okay? But what I'm saying is even if you're passing on true information, okay? You've seen a video, you've seen an article, and you think, wow, this is really good. You want to pass it on. What I would strongly encourage you to do, Brevin, before you pass it on to anybody is do your own investigation, do your own research, okay? You go and fact check something before you pass it on. You see, the reason I'm saying this is because we live in, as I said, in the internet age, lots of videos and a lot of things I agree with, okay? I am anti-vax. Let me just, in case anyone wants to say something, I'm anti-vax, okay? But then I'll see videos that are anti-vax with information that get passed on and I know that information is incorrect, okay? Why? Because I've done my own research, okay? If I watch a video, I quickly try to break down the information and see whether it is true. And if I find something in that video that is not true, you know what? I'm not going to pass it on. I don't care how much aligned it is with my position. I don't care how much aligned it is with what I believe and strongly believe. I am not going to pass it on intentionally. I might have passed on things unintentionally, but I'm not going to pass it on intentionally because I'm not trying to confuse or defile the minds of others. There is so much misinformation, brethren, okay? You know, I've already kind of preached about this, you know, that left-right paradigm kind of thing and we get tricked into thinking what side are we on and I'm going to make sure I fight for my side. You know what? You fight for the truth. You preach the truth of God's word, okay? And when you find a video, an article, you do some research before you go and just share it with your, especially your brethren that you're supposed to love and care for because the last thing you want to do is cause someone to believe something that is not true, okay? I can't tell you how many things have been passed on to me, okay? And they're just not true, okay? And the people that have passed on is like, this is serious, this is the truth, okay? Six months on, the same people have changed the tune because they realized it wasn't true, but they don't acknowledge it, right? It's sort of like, we live, I don't know, it's strange because as Christians, we've got God's word, all right? We should be people that study God's word, right? Our confidence is in the Bible. We research, we compare spiritual with spiritual, right? Before we stand up and preach a doctrine, we want to make sure that we, you know, we've crossed every box that we've, you know, we're solid on what we believe. But then we don't take the same approach. We have what's found on the internet. We just share it abundantly. And there's so much nonsense prevalent, okay? Is there so much nonsense on mainstream media? Yes, there is. Lots of misinformation. Is there lots of information on subjects and topics that I'm in support of? There is as well, okay? I mean, I can't even count how many doctors, you know, videos of doctors that I've watched, you know, claiming this or that. I've gone back to check that information and it's not true, okay? We live in a very deceptive world, very deceptive. You know, if I was making a decision about the vaccination, the COVID vax, okay? If I was making a decision on the information that's out there, I would not know where to stand. I'm just telling you the truth, okay? There's information that is, you know, that the vaccination is bad for you, okay? And there's information that the vaccinations are good for you, okay? So at the end of the day, what information are you going to go with? Well, how about neither? How about I go to God's word and then I look at whether these vaccinations are compatible with what God has instructed us from God's word, okay? Then I make my decisions on the vaccinations based on God's word rather than the reporting that has a lot of misinformation, okay? And, you know, I'm saying this because I'm kind of getting sick and tired of videos, articles. And look, I'm not talking about even people in my church. I'm talking about lots of people. You know, I don't know how many friends, people that I don't even know necessarily face to face. That's on my Facebook. Every day I'm getting videos and articles and this and that about, you know, COVID, about the vaccinations, about the lockdowns. And some of that stuff I've really looked at and go, man, that's not even true. You know, I'm tired from responding to some of these things. I just, I receive them. I don't even look at them, okay? Because I know how much misinformation there is. But it surprises me. People that recognize this misinformation in mainstream media, but then they'll just go and parrot information from alternative media sources without having checked themselves if that information is correct, okay? Just because something lines up with your beliefs doesn't mean it's true, okay? This is what's always true. No, always true. So I would rather spend my time looking at God's word and saying, Lord, what is your instruction for me as a Christian in this day and age that I'm living in, okay? Help me have confidence in your word, which I know I can trust this 100%, rather than go into exterior sources. I'm not saying never listen to these things. It's good to listen to it. It's good to get information. But when you receive information, your job is to process, to filter that information, to do your own due diligence before you go and broadcast it to a wider audience, okay? Unfortunately, social media makes it so easy, right? You just press share, and there it goes. Share it to all your friends. You know, let me quickly liken this to some, you know, in high school, you know, it was easy to tell which teachers knew their stuff, right? I remember my math teacher, she knew her stuff, right? She taught, yeah, she taught her curriculum, but if I asked the question, Miss, right, question, question, question, she was on the, you know, she was on the ball, she was ready to answer. It doesn't matter what question it was, she was ready because she knew her stuff. My science teacher was the same. You know, you ask any question, he knew his stuff, he would answer it. You know, I remember my computing teacher, not on the ball at all, right? This computer teacher was just someone teaching out of the textbook, did not know this stuff. You'd ask a question, no knowledge, no information. It's like, this is just by the textbook, and you knew which teachers were just parroting information, you know, just getting through a curriculum, whereas other teachers would research, would, you know, study, do further study, to be ready and a help to support other people. That's what confidence breeds, right? That confidence to help other people. And sometimes, you know, I'm forwarded some message, I'm forwarded some article, some video, I ask a question about the video, I don't know. It's like, well, then why'd you send it to me? Why'd you send, why are you sending information about things you don't know? Okay, have you checked? No. Why are you sending it? Oh, because it supports what we believe. Well, who cares? Okay, we need to make sure that we're people that buy the truth and sell it not. We ought to be people of the truth. That requires research, that requires studying, instead of being, you know, this, someone that repeats misinformation, regardless of what side we're on. Now, I'm gonna quickly end on one passage. Can you please turn to Psalm 27? Psalm 27, which reads, Psalm 27, verse one. Psalm 27, verse one reads, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Hey, they weren't confident. They stumbled and fell. Though in hostry and in camp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me. In this will I be confident. What was the Psalmist confident in? At the end of verse number one, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Okay, confidence comes from the Lord. All right, brethren. So let me just quickly summarize those five points that I had for you tonight. Point number one was confidence is gained through experience. Number two, confidence seeks to edify others. Point number three, confidence helps you learn from your mistakes. Point number four is confidence helps you overcome unpopular decisions. Is that how I wanted to word it? No, I didn't want to. Confidence helps you make unpopular decisions, okay? And number five, confidence comes by knowing the Bible. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Lord, I just want to thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for the confidence that we can find in your Bible. And Lord, I pray that we would seek your word first. Lord, we live in these unstable times and a lot of misinformation, but Lord, I know that your Bible will always be true. Lord, there's nothing that will change your word. Lord, no matter what happens in this earth, what you promise that will take place will take place. What you tell us that is wrong will always be wrong. What you tell us to be righteous and true will always be righteous and true. And Lord, I thank you that we have a great God that we can have confidence in. Lord, I pray that every Christian will grow and overcome their insecurities. And Lord, if there's anyone that struggles with arrogance, Lord, I pray that person will dial it back and stop looking at themselves above their station or higher than what they should be, Lord, and that our confidence will only rest upon you. We thank you so much for being a God of our confidence. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, thank you, brethren.