FROM GOD, NOT FROM US
WHY AND HOW TO KEEP GOING IN MINISTRY
Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give
up… . We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in
despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not
destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:1, 8–9 CSB
What do we need to remember when we feel like giving up?
·
o We have received God’s
Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. 2 Corinthians 4:1 CSB
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 CSB
o We live in a
But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:3–4 CSB
o We wish to
Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:15–18 CSB
· How
o DON’T
Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully …
2 Corinthians 4:2a CSB
o DON’T
… or distorting the word of God … 2 Corinthians 4:2b CSB
o DON’T make it about
For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake… . Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:5, 7 CSB
· How God’s work actually gets done:
o His
… but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth. 2 Corinthians 4:2b CSB
And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak. 2 Corinthians 4:13 CSB
o His
For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. 2 Corinthians 4:5 CSB
We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthians 4:10–11 CSB
o His
For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 1 Corinthians 4:6–7 CSB
Memory Verse:
Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 CSB
Next Steps:
· I will step into the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ and be saved.
· I will give God all the credit and glory for all that He’s doing in me and in this church.
· I will resolve to keep going in my service to Jesus because I know my “why” and my “how.”