10/30 at The Gathering
Blake Coffee and Tony Diamond each taught from 2 Corinthians 2-4 on Sunday, October 30. The videos and listening guides from both those lessons, followed by the scripture, are below.
Core Lesson (Tony Diamond)
Living This Day for That Day
2 Corinthians 2:17-3:16; 4:1-6
Core Listening Guide
There are only two days in my calendar. This day and that day.
- Martin Luther
True Christian ministry begins with sincerity before God Ministry is not performed for personal gain. Rather, it is done fully in the presence of God, which eliminates selfish motives.
Christian ministry will see lives being saved The number of people being saved is not the best way to determine the effectiveness of a ministry, but effective ministries will see people coming to Christ. Those who are saved become living testimonies to a ministry’s validity.
Salvation comes from God An effective ministry gives God all the credit. God is magnified in an effective ministry, and the ministers take a back seat to him.
True Christian ministry does not distort God’s word It plainly presents the message of God. Christian ministry is based on Scripture, and Christian ministry clearly teaches Scripture. It is the word of God.
Are you living this day in light of that day?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Venture Lesson (Blake Coffee)
The Measure of a Ministry
2 Corinthians 3-4
Venture Listening Guide
When the pastor or ministry leave himself is benefitting more than those to whom he is ministering, something is not right.
The clearest evidence of success in ministry is lives being impacted by the transforming power of the Word of God.
While life under the “old covenant” was marked by moments of God’s glory which then faded over time, life in the Spirit (i.e., under the “new covenant”) is about being “transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”
There is no place for deception or manipulation in Christian ministry. All such measures, no matter how “polished” they may appear, are not from God. ”For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord…”.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2 Corinthians 2
17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.
2 Corinthians 3
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
