Confidence. Something we exercise every day. Confidence in: our abilities, that other person’s ability and interest in stopping for the red light, our bank, our government, friends . . . the list is endless. But do we know what we mean when we use “confidence”?
con·fi·dence/ˈkänfidəns/
Noun: The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.
Knox Presbyterian [audio:https://wordsfromthemiddle.ca/wp-content/uploads/120610_-_Knox.mp3|titles=Where is our confidence?]
St. Mark’s Presbyterian [audio:https://wordsfromthemiddle.ca/wp-content/uploads/120610_-_St_Marks.mp3|titles=Where is our confidence?]
I tend not to go to dictionaries for sermons, dictionaries don’t always have the same perspective that theology or preaching needs, but in this case I think that a dictionary definition is exactly what we need. This is what I am addressing in these two sermons, that feeling that we can rely on someone or something and more importantly, who or what do we rely on.
In 1 Samuel, the people of Israel come to Samuel and tell them that they want a king like all the peoples around them have. The point I was working toward today is that when we take our confidence from God and put on anything else in His place we are going to have problems. This isn’t limited to our spiritual lives, if we misplace our confidence we are going to have problems there too. Misplaced confidence ends up in consequences we don’t want; it is inescapable.
Let me know what you think about the message or messages in the comments, I would love to hear from you.
Just so you know, I may or may not be in a position to post a sermon next week. I am preaching at First Baptist and I’m not sure how well that will work but I’ll see what I can do.
- Date: June 10, 2012
- Liturgical Sunday: Second Sunday after Pentecost
- RCL Scripture: Psalm 138; 1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35
- Sermon Title: Where is our confidence?
PS Just a reminder that if you want to download one or both of these sermons and your browser doesn’t make that easy from this page, try this one.
Ah yes, I did enjoy today’s sermon very much. I was reminded again that God is far more committed to choice that I am. To be honest I mostly want license, to do whatever I want, preferably skipping the consequences when I foolishly choose badly. I thought you did a fine job of highlighting God’s willingness to deal with the people’s unwise decision to put their faith in a king, while still being very clear he wouldn’t bail them out when (not if) they got unhappy about it later. How often I find myself asking for a do over from God when I get what I’ve asked for, which sadly, isn’t always what I had in mind when I asked. Oh the life of the fallible. Thanks for this. It was excellent!