Borrowed Confidence | Pastor Steven Furtick Sermon Notes

You never want to miss a Sunday at
Elevation, because you never know

what God is going to do. He’s just amazing. I
think you picked a good Sunday to join us too,

or if you’re watching this on a Tuesday
or listening to this on the treadmill…

A lot of people tell me they listen to a sermon
I preached while they run or something like that.

So that’s good. You do my cardio; I build
your faith. This is a great arrangement.

Seriously, though. Y’all go get some rest. It’s my

turn to work now. How many are excited
for the Word of God? Thank you, Jesus.

Okay. I couldn’t stop thinking about last
week’s message, Get to the Good Part.

I got home, and I felt like I didn’t even
get to give you the best part of my sermon,

so the Lord said, “Part two.”

Let’s get to the good part. Be seated. Relax.
Enjoy this time. This is the time that God gave

you not to worry about stuff you can’t do
anything about right now anyway. Whoever is

texting you can text you back. Leave them on red
in the name of the Lord and listen to this word.

In Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6… Actually,
let me do this. Let me stair-step you through

three verses. That’ll be good. Let’s do Psalm
27 first. This is what David said. Verse 13: “I

remain confident of this: I will see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Paul said something similar in Philippians.
I’ll read you that too. This is the verse I

ended on last week. He said in Philippians
1:6: “…being confident of this, that he

who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of [a global pandemic].”

No. Of course he said that God has a
plan even beyond our human surprises.

“…until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Until it’s over, basically.

He said, “Being confident of this…”
Then, if you move down to verse 14,

he’s describing his prison sentence, and he said,
“Because of my chains, most of the brothers and

sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare
all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.”

I just noticed kind of a
similarity: the word confident.

Then I noticed a little distinction. David
said, “I will remain confident in this.”

Paul said, “Being confident in this…” Then
Paul also says there are some who are becoming

confident. I want to teach on the
principle today of Borrowed Confidence.

I want you to pray for us, because our family
is experiencing something very difficult.

My oldest son is now the same size as
me, and he’s in my closet all the time.

We have beef, and I hate to work it out like
this on a worldwide global ministry platform,

nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.

But for the purposes of group therapy, pray for
me. I’m not mad at him because he comes in my

closet and steals my clothes. That doesn’t make
me mad. It would be stupid to be mad about that.

That’s actually cheaper than me having to buy
him his own. To me, that’s just good stewardship.

He was in my closet today. I can tell. He
has my… What are those called? I don’t even

know what those are. I know they’re mine. They
used to be mine. They were mine at one time.

The Turbo Greens. Yeah.

I’m not mad at him because he wears my stuff. I’m
mad because he makes it look better than I do.

He’ll just rock something in
the back of my closet that I

have had back there and haven’t had
the confidence to put on in years.

I remember somebody gave me this jacket one time,
and I wouldn’t wear it. I would put it on every

Saturday night before I came to preach, and then
I’d take it back off and put something else on,

because it was just too something. He walked
out wearing it just looking amazing in it.

So, I’m not mad that you borrow my stuff; I’m
mad that you make it look better than I do,

for the record. It’s kind of cool, though,
to see him in there trying on the old man’s

shoes. It makes me think if he wants to wear
my stuff, I must have some kind of swag.

I told him when all this nonsense started, “You
can borrow my shoes, but you can’t steal my swag.”

I have a very particular kind of
swag. It’s dad swag. I have dad swag.

I’m just trying to get you thinking about
how there are different kinds of confidence.

Confidence, while being a word we
all know is important to get a date…

“If you can’t be cute, be confident.”
That’s what one guy told me.

He really did. He said, “You’re not
especially good-looking. Just be confident.”

He said, “It’ll put like three points
on your scale just to be confident.”

But there are different kinds of confidence. Of
course, as you get into the book of Philippians,

the letter I was reading from, where Paul
is writing this church of Christians who

have apparently lost their confidence…

I mentioned last week that if he’s saying
he is confident in what God is doing,

it suggests that maybe they’re not anymore. There
are a bunch of reasons for that. There’s fighting

in the church. Euodia and Syntyche aren’t getting
along, so he’s begging them to stop fighting.

Not only that. There are all kinds
of reasons for the Philippian church

not to be confident, not the least of
which is that their leader is in prison.

He’s giving them… It’s like this impartation
of faith that is so powerful. Let me read you

a little bit more of the passage
so you can get a sense. Verse 3:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all
my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now, being confident of this,

that he who began a good work in you will carry it
on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

There’s a sequence here I want to talk about, but
there’s also a substance. Let me talk about the

substance of it. He’s talking about a
kind of confidence that is not cosmetic,

the kind of swag that whether you have a
Nike swoosh on your shoes or whether you…

I know we teach all kinds of things
about confidence these days culturally.

Body confidence. That’s a good
thing. I think that’s great.

Come on, man. I’m not sitting here in the gym
just so I can have a healthy cardio. I want

to look good too. I’m not lying to you.
But at the same time, body confidence or

confidence in your career… “I’m really good
at this. I’ve been doing this all my life.”

Well, the thing about the last year is that
everything that can be shaken is being shaken.

A lot of us found what we were good at stripped
away, and all we were left with was who we are.

When we’re forced to deal with our core… Kind of
like Paul is. He’s just in prison. He has lost

his pulpit. His church building is empty.
He can’t go on tour or anything like that.

All of the things apostles do, he can’t do it,
and he’s still confident. “Being confident…” It’s

a state of mind for him. It doesn’t even seem
to be something he’s getting from the outside,

because all he has with him in prison
that can come visit him is Epaphroditus.

Epaphroditus is kind of sickly.

The occasion of writing Philippians is that he
is sending Epaphroditus back to the Philippians.

He’s like, “He’s good. He’s going through a lot.
He’s kind of nervous. I’m going to send him back.”

Now watch this. I told you I wanted
to preach about borrowed confidence.

The Philippians, the church that was started while
Paul was in jail… That church has supported him.

When he left Macedonia and went to Thessalonica,
they were the only church that sponsored him.

He’s writing back to them. “…being confident
of this, that he who began a good work in you

will be faithful to complete it to the
day of Christ.” They sent him a gift.

They loaned him a person. He borrowed
Epaphroditus for the season that he needed him

and sent him back, and he
said, “I’m still confident.”

Make this confession by faith if
you can: “I’m still confident.”

The principle I want us to come around today is

that where your confidence comes
from determines when it runs out.

While body confidence is awesome, news flash:
your body goes through different versions, states.

If my confidence is in my body,
then I’d better never get 40.

If my confidence is in my career, then my
employer has the ability to strip me of my faith.

I know this sounds weird to say, but
if your confidence is in your pastor…

What if I mess up? God is still with you.

I don’t want to mess up, but the fact is
if I dropped dead in this pulpit right now…

I know that’s kind of morbid. Hopefully
they’d call an ambulance and try to fix me,

but by next Sunday, God would send you somebody
else to preach his Word. He loves you that much.

It’s weird to imagine that, but, I mean…
That’s true of everything in your life.

As the letter progresses, Paul gets heavier.
He starts out, “I thank God for you. Every

time I think about you, I thank God for
you. You’re on my prayer list. You make me

happy.” The Philippians were that church
for Paul. When he saw them on his phone

come up on the contact screen, he wanted to hit
them back. He liked to hear from them…unlike

the other churches, like the Corinthian
church. They were a different situation.

When the Corinthians came on
his phone, he knew that was

probably drama. They had incest in the church.
They were getting drunk off the Communion wine.

But the Philippian church… He’s like, “Y’all
make me happy. We have this partnership.

Y’all have been with me for a minute.”
He knew the power of partnership.

When I preached last week, I said we all have
a dark part…a dark part of our personality,

a dark part of our behavioral patterns.
“Whoa. Where did that come from?”

We all have a dark part, but if you get through
the dark part, you get to the good part.

Paul refuses to leave the Philippians
in the dark. He wants to let them know

God is still working in his life and God is still
working in their life and God hasn’t stopped being

God. God hasn’t stopped being good, and God
hasn’t forgotten your name or your address.

God sees everything that’s going down in your life
and everything that’s going up in your life. Like,

your blood pressure is going up. Your bank
account is going… God sees all of that.

My confidence is not tied to either
one of those that are going up or down.

We all hit seasons where it gets dark.

“I don’t know how to do this. I don’t
think I can do this. I can’t do this.”

I hit it every time before I preach. Every
time. I just know, “This is the dark part.

Here it comes. Okay. I don’t feel saved.
I don’t feel sanctified. I don’t feel

filled with the Holy Spirit. I don’t feel
intelligent. I don’t feel like I have a

triple-digit IQ. I don’t feel any of that.
What are these words? Oh, this is that part.”

I’ve learned something I want to share with
you today. I’ve been excited to share it.

Some of us can’t get through the dark part
because we don’t have the right partners.

You will never get through the dark part if
you have partners who drag you down more.

Pretend you’re a 15-year-old for a minute, like my
son Elijah or like many of the youth… By the way,

Elevation YTH on YouTube. Go subscribe right now
so we can help you get through the dark part.

How many of you, your teenage
years were kind of a dark part of

your life? So, imagine you’re there
again. You’re going back in that.

Now, when you’re young, you have a commodity that
can help you have more confidence: ignorance.

Just ignorance, the blessing of dumb.

When they were showing a video for 15 years
of ministry the other day, they had early

videos of me preaching, and somebody said, “You
were so bold back then.” I’m like, “I was so

dumb back then.” You know what? Ignorance
looks like confidence from a distance.

A lot of the times that God can do the most
through somebody is when they know the least.

But let me mess around and live for
a little while, and I build a file

of everything that can go wrong, things I didn’t
know I was supposed to be scared of when I was 17,

things I didn’t know I was supposed to be
scared of the first two years of church.

The benefit of ignorance is that it
gives you this kind of confidence.

Paul is not writing about that kind of
confidence, though. He knows how much it

costs to serve Christ. He knows how uncertain
it is. He knows how hard it can be sometimes

when you feel completely abandoned by the people
you help. “No other churches? No other partners?

Nobody is going to stand with me?” He knows all of
that, but he’s confident. Like David in Psalm 27.

“I will remain confident…” That’s
not a feeling; that’s a decision.

Do you know the difference? The
feeling of confidence and the decision?

The feeling can be stripped so quickly,
but the decision can be made any moment.

“I will remain confident.” Being
confident. Becoming confident.

If we build the right kind of confidence… Paul
calls this the righteousness that comes by faith.

It’s not the confidence in the flesh. It’s not
anything you can buy. It’s not anything you can

achieve. It’s not anything a human committee has
to give to you. It’s none of those things. I guess

you could say it’s a kind of confidence
that comes from above, so it never runs out.

If you go back over to Psalm 27…

I want to marry these two Scriptures, because
they’re interesting together. You’ll notice

that David must have been fighting something in
Psalm 27 that threatened his sense of stability.

I don’t want to leave this in the text so
long you think this is a history lesson.

There are so many people I’m talking to these
days that life has taken on some new dimensions

for them, and they no longer feel competent
for the challenges of this season.

They have experienced some things (I’m not talking
about you; I’m talking about somebody you know)

that made them bitter, that
made them apprehensive,

that made them timid about believing
God. They prayed for somebody; they died.

They loved somebody; that person took advantage
of their love. All of these things that happen.

If your confidence comes from that
place, then it runs out when that ends.

When David starts Psalm 27… I love the
whole psalm. “The Lord is my light and

my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the
stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”

He gets all the way to verse 13, and he says, “I
will remain confident in this…” Go to 1 Samuel 17.

I have to show you something. This is
amazing. I’ll show you what I’m talking about.

So, David shows up. Remember that any given
day, God is doing more in your life than you

can imagine. He’s delivering cheese and bread, but
he’s really going down to meet Goliath so he can

kill him so the nation can move on, just
like God is doing great things in your life.

David didn’t know what he was going
to do, because probably if he had

known what he was going to do he might have
second-guessed whether he would go or not.

Ignorance is sometimes to your advantage in
trusting God. All right. I know you know this

story pretty well, but I want to show
you something. In 1 Samuel, chapter 17,

he goes down to the battle lines. He hears
Goliath intimidating God’s people, and it

freaks him out. “How can y’all be passive about
something God promised to give you victory over?”

Remember, these are the experienced soldiers,
and three of them are his own brothers.

I want to show you a difference between Paul and

David and see which one you feel
more like right now in your life.

Paul had some partners who believed in him enough
to support him in his hard time, his dark time.

Watch what happened to David when
he went down to help his brothers.

“When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard
him speaking with the men [asking, ‘Who is

this giant that defies the armies of the living
God?’], he burned with anger at him and asked,

‘Why have you come down here? And with whom did
you leave those few sheep in the wilderness?'”

This is the person David came to feed.

The person he came to feed is fighting
him. Have you ever felt that way?

If they’re sitting next to you right now, we
can just have an unspoken, tacit agreement.

I feel you. It’s hard to raise your hand
on something like that when they are right

next to you or in the other room.
You’re scared they might hear. No,

this is crazy, because Paul is saying, “Your
partnership in the gospel encourages me.”

Have you ever had somebody step up and believe
in you when you didn’t believe in yourself?

Have you ever had somebody just see
something in you that had gotten buried?

They don’t even realize they’re doing it. They
just say something in passing, and you’re like,

“Really?” And your chest sticks out, and you walk
a little bit different for the rest of the day,

just because they saw something in you.

I think Paul felt that way about the Philippians.
I think when he went back, he said, “I remember

when we started. I didn’t have authority in this
province. I didn’t have the resources. You helped

me with that. I didn’t have a big brand or a big
ministry. You believed in me like that.” There is

nothing like people who believe in you when there
is nothing to see to prove what they believe.

If God gives you somebody
like that, do not let them go.

Hold on to those “day ones” who had
nothing to gain from loving you,

people who gave you a shot, people who
gave you a chance, people who said,

“Come on and do this.” That’s awesome.
I’ll always honor Pastor Mickey,

because he said God had his hand on my
life when I was 16. I’ll always honor him.

You need people like that when you get in
one of these passages where you’re like,

“I never did this before. I’ve never been a mom
before. I’ve never been through a divorce before.

I haven’t been unemployed in my adult life
before. I’ve never been to college before.

I never tried to quit smoking before. I never
tried to get my drinking under control before.

I don’t know how to do this.”
God will send you a partner,

somebody who sees potential in you that your
pain has blocked from your own visibility.

That’s why I called you over
the other day when we were

in the middle of the project. I was dealing
with uncertainty. “Is this the right thing?”

I was so in the middle of it I needed you to
come over, because you’ve been there with me

since…well, let’s be honest…since we were doing
the dumbest stuff that two teenagers can do,

since riding around in your Jeep.
I needed that first-day faith.

When you saw what I was creating, you said, “This
is it!” He was so excited. He said, “This is it!

This is what we were doing. This is what you
were doing.” He helped me connect the dots

of what God was doing, because I couldn’t
in the moment. I was in the dark.

I needed that first-day faith,
like Paul had from the Philippians.

He was like, “Oh man. I don’t
know what God is going to do,

but I’m going to choose what I
remember.” Instead of calling

to mind all of the people who didn’t support
him, he remembered the church that did. Isn’t

that hard to do? You thought I was going to say,
“Isn’t that great?” No, isn’t that difficult?

A lot of what we call believing
is really just remembering right.

He said, “Every time I remember
you, I get joy in this prison cell.”

Or like the prophet Jeremiah
said in Lamentations 3:21.

“This I recall to my mind…” What? The calamity?
The ruins? The desolation? The betrayal? The

feelings of forsaken? No, no, no. “This I
recall to my mind; therefore, I have hope.

It’s because of the Lord’s mercies that we’re
not consumed, because his compassions fail

not. They’re new every morning. Great is your
faithfulness.” “This I recall to mind.” So,

imagine right now. A million things are
going through your mind. Right? Like,

“Should I be mad about this? Should I be upset
about that? Should I be worried about that?

Should I fear about that? Should I forget
about that? That, that, that, that, that…”

Then that one God thought comes through. When
it comes by in your mind, it comes by fast. It

moves along. Here comes doubt. Here comes hatred.
Here comes envy. Here comes comparison. Here comes

jealousy. Here comes all of that, and then here
comes that one thought, that contentment. This.

Grab it. This right here. David is actually in
the opposite situation that Paul is in. Paul is

preaching to people who support him, but they can
only do so much for him because he’s in prison.

He’s saying, “I am confident for you in what
you can’t even believe about you right now

because we’ve never been through this
before.” He’s saying, “Borrow my confidence.”

Did you know you can do that? I don’t know
what your philosophies are on borrowing money.

It’s fine. I don’t care. We
all think different things. So,

you’re Dave Ramsey. You don’t borrow or you do,
or whatever. I don’t care. Rich Dad Poor Dad,

Dave Ramsey… I’m not a money
man; I’m a preacher. All right?

I’m not talking about borrowing money.
I’m talking about a different currency

called confidence and what you believe about
what you can be and what you believe about

what you have inside of you and what you
believe about what God called you to do

and what you believe about what you’re going
through. That’s what I’m talking about:

the currency of confidence. When you’re young, you
start borrowing confidence from the wrong places.

You borrow confidence from sexual attractiveness.
Ooh, did you hear the decibel levels sink down

beneath the floor? “Oh my god! He’s preaching
like it’s 2021.” It’s like people really run

around to different sexual partners, partner after
partner after partner after partner after partner,

and rather than ever being in a
real relationship…the good part

where you have to love somebody for who
they are, not what they look like…you

take this feeling of “Oh, I have somebody,” and
you borrow the confidence of having somebody.

But when you borrow confidence from the wrong
places, the interest rate is ridiculous.

That hit me right there.

I’m talking about when you get in a relationship
where you have to compromise your values

to get your needs met. Y’all, that’s
worse than the check cashing place.

It’s an interest rate… Let me tell you
another thing, while I have you fired up,

about all of the people you’ve kept going
to because you wanted them to validate you,

but they can’t because they’re not God and they
didn’t make you and they don’t know you like that.

They have their own insecurities, so
leave them alone and get it from God.

Hey, you keep trying to borrow confidence
from people who have insufficient funds.

They can’t do it. They can’t! They want
to; they just can’t. They’re flesh and

bone and blood and dirt and snot and
spit and human and stuff like you.

That’s why Paul wouldn’t go into self-pity.
“Nobody helped me. Nobody prayed for me.”

He’s like, “No, I’ve got a partner.”
Say it right now. “I’ve got a partner.”

Wow. God gave me some people who were with me at
first. God gave me some people who have been where

I’ve never been before. Did you know when you go
through something challenging you can read a book?

You are not the first one in
history who went through that.

Do you know how many times I borrowed Tom
Laymon’s knowledge, confidence, wisdom? Lisa,

every 9:30 that y’all would be at, he would text
me before the 11:30. I would be back there in

the back trying to rewrite my message, because I
would think, “That was horrible. That’s awful.”

He would text me. “My pastor, preach
it just like that again at 11:30.”

I’d be like, “Huh?

That was good?” How many times, Kari…? It’s
a little melody in a songwriting session,

and somebody goes, “Oh, that’s good,” and you’re
like, “It is?” That’s why you need partners.

Are you always the needy one

or can somebody else hold a little bit
of your faith for a while? Are you always

Epaphroditus or can you be Paul sometimes too?
I hope more than Elijah borrows my Boosts…

If he borrows my shoes… I hope more
than he borrows what’s in my closet…

I hope God will help me get to a point kind
of where Paul was in my life, where it’s like…

Becoming confident. That’s great. To
borrow confidence…you have to sometimes.

Then there’s being confident. It’s where,
“This is what God has called me to do. This

is how God made me to do it. This is what
he has given me to get the job done. This.”

I keep hearing that: this, this, this. All of the
clothes in the world, all the money in the world…

I know that sounds really abstract and spiritual,
but I promise you, all of that cannot compare

with one word from this.

“You forgot about David,
Pastor.” No, no, I didn’t.

The people who should have been his partners,

the people who should have been his comrades,
the people who should have believed in him…

Isn’t that awful when the people who should have
said, “You’ve got something, man. Keep going. Hey,

I know that’s all right. You don’t fit in,
but that’s for a reason. You’re too big for

that small place. Just keep growing. You don’t
have to fit in. That’s all right right now.”

David, the future king of Israel, comes down
to bring bread to his brothers, and his brother

burned with anger and said,
“Why have you come down here?”

David didn’t exactly know that yet.

He thought he came to feed his brothers. He really
came to fight for his nation. So, his confidence

is not in what he’s doing; his confidence is
something different. “I will remain confident in

this…” That’s what he said in Psalm 27. Now look
at this incident. It’s not necessarily connected,

but maybe this is where he started becoming
confident. Be building that confidence.

Building the skill to walk into a room and
have enough confidence that you don’t need

to be the center of attention; building enough
confidence to have people who criticize the way

you choose to live your life and just keep on
being true to what God has put in your heart.

Yeah, I’m going to adjust and
change, but that’s a process.

This event in his life is really indicative of
the integrity of what God was creating in David.

When Eliab said, “You left those few sheep in the
wilderness,” he’s demeaning David. Do you see it?

“Little shepherd, you’re not a soldier. You’re
too young for this. You’re too small for this.

You’re too little for this. You have
bad motives.” All of the things people

may say. He’s saying all of that, and he
accuses him and belittles him. He says,

“You’re down there keeping a few
sheep. You don’t belong here.”

“I know how conceited you are and how wicked
your heart is; you came down only to watch

the battle.” David is a little bit confused,
frustrated for sure. “‘Now what have I done?

Can’t I even speak?’ He then turned away to
someone else and brought up the same matter,

and the men answered him as before.” Watch this.
His confidence didn’t come from his big brother,

so his big brother can’t take it away.

There needs to be a part in you that knows, “I
appreciate everybody and everything God sends me.”

But if they walk away, he won’t. If
they fall short, he won’t. If this

brook dries up, there will be a
bird in the sky an hour from now.

David is young, but he’s confident. It’s not
about the shoes. It’s not about the swag. It’s

not about the beliefs of other people. When will
you stop borrowing other people’s bad beliefs? It

wasn’t that Eliab didn’t believe in
David. Eliab didn’t believe in himself.

I don’t have to carry things others believe. I
don’t have to carry things that culture believes.

I don’t have to feel how
culture feels about things.

I don’t have to pay the interest rate
on a broken world system of thought.

I don’t have to pay a generational
tax on what happened in my great… I

can break it in my bloodline if
I can believe it in my spirit.

God says some of you are built to break
it. What they said is not your limitation.

Don’t let their limitation become your insecurity.

Just because they can’t see it
doesn’t mean you can’t see it.

Just because they can’t believe it doesn’t mean
you can’t believe it. You’re like, “You sound kind

of cocky up here right now, Pastor. I thought
we were supposed to be humble as Christians.”

Imagine what it took for Jesus, for the
joy set before him to endure the cross,

despising its shame, with everybody telling him,

“Come down and prove that you’re God.
Call the angels. Call your Father.”

He stayed up there, confident, on that cross. Paul
said, “I learned from the master. I want to be in

the fellowship of his sufferings to participate
in his resurrection power.” It’s a partnership.

David said, “I don’t need to be partners
with Eliab; I’m partners with God.

I have the name of the Lord.” Things
start getting really weird after that,

because Saul, who is the king God is replacing,
hears that David wants to go fight Goliath.

He calls him over in verse 33 and says,
“You are not able to go out against this

Philistine…” This Philistine. What’s the
Philistine’s name? Goliath. This Philistine.

“…you are only a young man, and he
has been a warrior from his youth.”

His inexperience was his greatest benefit.

Everybody else knew too much. David was dumb
enough to defeat the enemy they were running from.

So, stop saying, “Oh, I can’t do this. I don’t
know enough.” I have to show you something.

David said to Saul (verse 34), “Your servant
has been keeping his father’s sheep.”

He starts reading his résumé to the insecure king.

Isn’t it funny? David put the same thing on
his résumé that his brother used to insult him.

The things you use to disqualify you… God is like,
“That’s exactly what I want to use. That’s exactly

why I want to use you.” Isn’t that crazy? “I’ve
been keeping sheep. Didn’t you hear my brother?”

Watch this. “When a lion or a bear came
and carried off a sheep from the flock,

I went after it, struck it and rescued the
sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me,

I seized it by its hair, struck
it and killed it.” Confident.

“Your servant has killed
both the lion and the bear;

this uncircumcised Philistine
will be like one of them

[because I have a partner].”

So, what do you do when your big brother doesn’t
believe in you and neither does your leader?

When you go to get help and encouragement and love
and support… Some of you are there. You’re like,

“I don’t have anybody. I’m not like Paul. I don’t
have the Philippians. I’m not an apostle. That’s

great, Pastor Steven. I don’t have Holly on
the front row. She’s an encouraging angel,

and she loves you.” And she does, and that’s
great. But since David couldn’t get it from Eliab

and he couldn’t get it from
Saul, he borrowed it from a bear.

He said, “Now wait a minute. I never
did this before, but one time…”

“One time I was out doing my job, and
there was an attack that came against

what I was responsible for. No, it wasn’t
some big giant, some Philistine army.” “No,

I’ve never been on this level before. No, I’ve
never been in this season before. No, I’ve

never dealt with this challenge before. I’ve never
pastored through a pandemic before, but one time…”

I’m talking about first-day faith. One
time. Come on, bring it all the way back.

I know you never did this before, but you did
that. “I held on to God when I had no job. I

held on to God when I had…” This is for somebody
who’s up under a threat of intimidation right now

for something that you’ve never traveled
this way before. But you did that.

The most anointed thing I read in a long time is
verse 36: “This will be like one of them.” This.

God has given you a this for every them…every
enemy, every insecurity, every question.

God has given you a this. Now, if
you start getting distracted by them,

what they’re doing, where their life is, how
they’re progressing, what they’ve accomplished…

Your power is not in them; it’s in this.
Your confidence will follow your focus.

You will start believing the fear report, like
the spies who kept the whole nation from going

into the Promised Land, because they had
a good land, but they had a bad report.

This. It’s an amazing thing to realize the
power of your this. “I never did this before.”

I begged my kids one day… They
were all fighting, and I was mad.

I was like, “Y’all, stop! I
never did this before as a dad.

Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!” I’m a really good dad, I
promise, but I just have moments of weakness.

Have you been saying that to God lately? “I
never did this before. This is new to me.

I’ve never been on Monster.com.” Do they still
have that website? “I’ve never been doing a

résumé. I’ve never been on LinkedIn looking
for a job. I’m 52. I never did this before.”

“I never had to impart wisdom to somebody
else, and I don’t feel very wise myself.”

David said, “This will be like one of them.”

The key to all of this will be:
Where does your confidence come from?

If it comes from Epaphroditus, he gets sick. If
it comes from Eliab, he has his own issues. If it

comes from Saul… Do you remember what Saul did to
try to help David? He said, “Here. Take my armor.”

David is like, “Um, I could, but
you’ve been wearing it for 40 days,

and it’s not really working for
you.” Why do you keep wearing

what’s not even working for
the people you’re copying?

Why do we keep doing what the world is doing?
Why do we keep participating in the same stuff?

David said, “I can’t wear your
armor. I’ve got my own swag.”

In David’s case, his swag was his sling.
It was what he killed the bear with. It

was what he killed the lion with. So, when
you’re standing in front of something you’ve

never seen before… “I’ve never seen this
stage. I’ve never seen these challenges,

never seen this environment, never seen this
uncertainty, never seen this instability.”

Borrow it from what’s already in your
bag. There is a this for every that.

All you need to believe is to remember.

I call you to remembrance today of what
God gave you, who he has been to you,

what he did for you. I declare prophetically
over your life, whatever Goliath you’re

standing in front of (because we all have
one): this Philistine will be like one of

them. Do you see those dead lions behind you? Do
you see those dead bears behind you? Do you see

those seasons you survived, and you didn’t feel
like you had enough, but God stretched it out?

“I don’t have it right now.”
God said, “You can borrow mine.

You can come up in my closet.” Why would
you wear Saul’s armor when you have the

shield of faith? Why would you wear Saul’s
armor when you have the shoes of the gospel?

Why would you wear Saul’s armor when
you have the sword of the Spirit?

David said, “Why would I borrow the armor of
somebody whose faith is smaller than mine?”

You have your own sling. You have your own
personality. You have your own gift. Some of the

most confident people are the most quiet
people, because I know what I have.

I don’t have to broadcast it. I
don’t have to compare mine to yours.

This. The power of this. For every insecurity
in your life, God has given you a this.

So, when it comes to your faith, remain
confident. Before you can remain confident,

you have to be confident, and before you can
be confident, you have to become confident.

Paul said, “I don’t think you
feel very confident right now.

I don’t think you see how it’s going to work out.”

Just remember certainty is knowing
how; confidence is knowing who.

“I am confident of this…” This. Paul knows
the Philippian church has limited faith. God

knows you have limited resource. God knows
you have limited experience. He didn’t say,

“I’m confident about you.” He said, “I’m
confident in this: he who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion to the day of
Christ.” This. “I will remain confident in this…”

I can’t think 10 years ahead right now.
I can’t even think 10 minutes ahead.

I have to reach back to the last bear I
killed, the last challenge I overcame,

the last way God made, and stay confident
in this. You might be like Moses

standing there at a burning bush, asking
God, “What do I do if they don’t believe me?”

Exodus 4:1. “What do I do if they…” They,
they, they. “…they don’t believe me?”

Remember, God has given you a this for
every they…for whoever doesn’t like you,

for whoever doesn’t support you. They may not
believe you, but watch what God did with Moses.

Next verse. The Lord said, “What’s
in your hand?” Moses said, “A staff.”

Like David has a sling, Moses has
a staff. You have something too.

Just put it in the chat right now.
“I have a this.” Moses is like,

“I have a shepherd’s instrument.
I have something that’s

very common and very ordinary.” How can
confidence come from a shepherd’s staff?

He doesn’t know what the staff is
capable of yet. Neither do you.

He doesn’t know it’s going to split waters.
Neither do you. He doesn’t know it’s going

to produce water from rocks, hydration
from impossibilities, and neither do you.

But in his hand was a staff. Verse 3:
“The Lord said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’

Moses threw it on the ground and it
became a snake, and he ran from it.”

He’s running from the thing God is
going to use, but that’s not the point.

The point is this. Verse 4: “The Lord said to him,
‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So

Moses reached out and took hold of the snake
and it turned back into a staff in his hand.”

Now you have it in your hand. Watch
what the Lord says. Verse 5: “This…”

“You mean my staff?”

“Yeah, this.”

“You mean the symbol of my mistake?
I wouldn’t even be a shepherd

if I hadn’t killed the Egyptian.”

God said, “Yeah, this.” “This is so that
they may believe…” God gave you a this.

This moment. Give us this day our
daily bread. This. Yeah, this.

This is the day the Lord has
made. I will remain confident

in this. No, I can’t do what you can
do. I don’t have to. But I can do this.

No, I can’t do next Wednesday’s
work in my head, but I can do this.

Father, we release our staff. We release the
thing that was good for us in one season but needs

to become something else in this season. I thank
you, Lord, that you showed me while I was studying

the power of this…not them, not that, but this.

All across the world right now, I believe
in your ability to interpret this word.

It will be custom-made for the exact situation

that each person is hearing it. They will
hear this message when they need to hear it.

They will receive it when they’re ready to
take it in. Our confidence has been shaken.

The entire world has been rocking
and reeling nearly for a year now.

What we used to absolutely assume now we can
hardly predict. We thank you for that, because

in a lot of cases, our confidence was coming from
a bad bank that was charging us too much interest.

So, we’re coming back to you today.

We confess that sometimes we’ve trusted in the
wrong things. I have. I trusted in my own wisdom.

I didn’t ask you. I trusted in my hustle. I didn’t
know I could rest and be strong. Sometimes, Lord,

I assumed that when something left my hand it left
my life, but it didn’t. You were just changing it.

We thank you for this. When the next
thing comes, we thank you for that too.

We’re looking back over slain lions and dead
bears, and we’re walking right past Eliab,

and we’re shaking off Saul’s armor today.
We have our sling. We have our swag.

It comes from coming in the name of the Lord.

Particularly, Lord, for those who don’t have a
partner right now, I want to stand in the gap

and believe with them. You know my faith
fails. You know that so well, Lord,

but in this moment, you’ve given me great faith
to preach this message. So, from the overflow

of your Word that you put inside of me, the
engrafted Word that produces faith… Faith

comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God. So,
as we step into this Word, we borrow confidence.

We borrow confidence, not in
what we see but in what you say;

not in what we’ve experienced
but in what you predestined.

We’re coming into this moment in this season with
uncertainty, but we’re coming in with confidence.

I stand with every brother and every sister
who has been wondering, “Can I do this?”

I agree with heaven that what you’ve
put in their hand is more than enough,

be it a sling, be it a staff, be it five
loaves and two fish. I will remain confident

that I will see the goodness of the Lord.
Help them see it, God. Help them see it,

to walk right past every other
thing and see the power of this.

We believe you for breakthroughs
because this word was preached.

We believe you that people who have been unable to
sleep are going to find rest in your presence this

week. I thank you, Lord, that there is nothing
the Enemy can put in front of us that is greater

than what you put inside of us. I believe that.
I decided to believe. I choose to believe it.

This Philistine will be like one of them, and this
battle will be like one of those past victories.

God, we’re not reaching into tomorrow to
borrow worry; we’re reaching into our past

to borrow faith. Now we touch heaven, and
we agree that whatever we do in your name,

it shall be established. It shall be done! We
come into covenant with your Word. We come into

covenant with your Son Jesus, and we declare, “Yes
and amen!” Your promise is true. In Jesus’ name.

Lift up a great shout of praise, you giant killer,
you bear slayer, you lion killer! Thank you, Lord!