Insecurity Confidence to the End

 

Insecurity

Confidence to the End

Daily encouragement is necessary

The student who practices every day will get better

But without daily encouragement, desire to practice will fade away

To practice your faith and become a confident Christian

You will need daily encouragement

So be in a place where you can hear God’s voice daily

Where do we hear God’s voice?

Prayer, God’s Word, Preaching, in the Community of Believers 

Playing an instrument or sport should be fun

Even though it is work, it should be something that gives you peace

From practicing to playing with confidence is a place of rest and enjoyment

But you will never make it if you do not have encouragement

Or, you forget the faith you had at the beginning

Don’t be like the people of God in the wilderness because

“We see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”

 

 

 

Confidence to the End

 

Confidence starts with faith.

 

You believe you can do something

and the more you do it the more

your confidence grows.

 

When we start something like playing

 an instrument or sport,

we make lots of mistakes and we can

 become discouraged if we begin to doubt.

 

 The excitement of playing music or

winning a trophy can turn into disappointment…

 

 If we stop believing that each

day’s work will make a difference.

 

Your beginning is very important to enduring.

 

In the beginning, it is faith not

experience that gives you confidence.

 

Along the way there will be times when

exercising your faith to be a good

musician or athlete will be challenged…

 

It might be other interests, just tired of trying

 or not seemingly getting any better.

 

Children always do the best at learning

a skill and becoming good at it.

 

We encourage little children, who we

know are not developed yet, to push on.

 

 We know that if they keep working at it, they

will someday find playing a joy, not work.

 

There will be peace when

they stand in front of a crowed.

 

Hebrews 3:14 says…

 

 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly

till the end the confidence we had at first.

 

Hold firm till the end with confidence.

 

This means we sometimes have to

remember how we got started.

 

We started by faith.

  

As children, life around us is much

easier than the role we take as adults.

 

So much competes for our time and energy.

 

It can become easy to loosen our

grip on our confidence in Christ.

 

Hebrews 3 reminds us of God’s people as

they were led by Moses through the wilderness.

 

It was a time of unrest.

 

Their faith and confidence they had when

leaving Egypt had faced some challenges.

 

They had lost their peace,

the rest, in the midst of work.

 

The enjoyment of practicing their

faith turned into complaining.

 

An unbelieving heart in anything is a

heart that turns away from future hope.

 

No hope - no confidence.

 

No confidence - no peace or rest.

 

It may seem like life is easier when you quit,

 but the goal or dream will never come to pass.

 

This is why it says in Hebrews 3:14…

 

 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly

 till the end the confidence we had at first.

 

So what do we do to…

 

Remember to hold firmly to the faith you

had at the start, before you got any experience?

 

The 2 verses before verse

14 also tell us what to do…

 

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

Hebrews 3:12-13

 

When the heart becomes unbelieving,

doubt turns into missing the

mark (sin), get encouragement.

 

Daily encouragement is necessary.

 

The student who practices every day

will get better, but without daily encourage-

ment, desire to practice will fade away.

 

To practice your faith and

become a confident Christian…

 

 You will need daily encouragement.

 

So be in a place where you

can hear God’s voice daily.

 

Where do we hear God’s voice?...

 

Prayer, God’s Word, Preaching,

 in the Community of Believers.

  

Playing an instrument

or sport should be fun.

 

Even though it is work it should

be something that gives you peace.

 

From practicing to playing with

confidence is a place of rest

and enjoyment.

 

But you will never make it if you do

not have encouragement or you forget

the faith you had at the beginning.

 

Don’t be like the people of God

in the wilderness because…

 

“We see that they were not able to enter,

because of their unbelief.”

 

 

Scripture Reading

 

 Hebrews 3:7-4:1 NIV

 

7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:

"Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"  

12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said:

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."  

16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.