Preached May 13, 2013

1.   Confidence must have a permanent source

Confidence must have a permanent source if it is always going to be available. Self-confidence soon runs out, but there is a source of confidence that will never run dry. Gideon found that source and defeated the Medianites with 300 selected men; Joshua discovered it and caused the walls of Jericho to crumble! Saul of Tarsus found it and escaped death and incarceration; Peter tapped into it and made the cripples walk!

In the face of great odds these men realised they could tap into that eternal source of confidence and overcome their opponents. There is an unlimited source of confidence available to all who will believe in Jesus Christ!

The question is: can one always be confident? The answer is: Yes!

Most people gain confidence from achievement, wealth, position or the favour of man. You can gauge their source of confidence by what they say:

‘Success breeds success!’ or ‘Only associate with positive people!’ or ‘I am a winner!’ or ‘I am a positive faith person!’ or ‘Don’t spend time with losers!’ these slogans give them away.

Most people lack confidence because they have not achieved much in life and are not wealthy, do not have an important position and do not know influential people.

Most people resort to self-motivational seminars to boost their confidence. They listen to egoistical salesmen that hype them up with slogans and sales pitches such as ‘you cannot afford not to buy my books and CD’s!’ and hear how that course will ‘transform your life and make you super successful!’

Pyramid sales companies as well as many church growth schemes based on pyramid systems, use multi-level selling techniques to boost their sales and promote their products. Ignorant people are deceived and told that they will be just as rich as the guy at the top of the pyramid within 6 months and drive the same smart car, but what they are not told is that the pyramid widens out at the bottom and soon the bottom falls out and people are hurt and lose their investment.

In difficult financial times people cannot find loans at banks so they resort to loan sharks that demand high interest or they log on to multi-level selling schemes. They end up losing all they have.

Get rich quick schemes always have a catch. Sometimes Christians run these companies and tell ill-informed believers: ‘first pray about getting involved in this scheme. If the Lord tells you to get involved then get involved, but if the Lord does not tell you, do not get involved.’ It sounds so spiritual, but of course the people who are desperate will ‘hear’ the Lord telling them to get involved.

People are drawn by the seeming confidence of the presenter of the course or the director of the scheme and because they lack confidence they latch onto the confidence of the one they follow. People who promote these deceptive products and courses normally tell everyone how they take their families to Disneyland and other expensive holidays and they are very outspoken about their financial success. But when the plug is pulled on these schemes the confidence level drops to betrayal and many people are hurt and often end up bankrupt.

I Timothy 6:9, 10

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced