This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day two together of our look through 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We're
going to be looking at verses 4 to 6 today. Yesterday we began to look at what
do you do when you feel inadequate?

And one of the things you need to do is you need to turn your thoughts to
serving others. Today we're going to look at a second thing that you and I need
to do. You turn your thoughts to serving others.

Secondly, you turn your thoughts to God. When you're feeling inadequate for the
task of ministry or for anything in life, what do you do? You turn your thoughts
to serving others and you turn your thoughts to God.

Listen to verses 4 to 6. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before
God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but
our competence comes from God.

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. In verse 4, Paul
talks about a confidence that we're supposed to have in Jesus Christ.

So we're not supposed to feel inadequate in serving Him. We're supposed to have
a confidence, but where does that confidence come from? He says such confidence
is ours through Christ before God.

Not that we are competent, but our competence comes from God. You turn your
thoughts to God. Competence comes from God.

God is El Shaddai. He is the almighty, all-sufficient one. So whenever I feel
insufficient, He is sufficient.

In ourselves, what Paul is saying here is in ourselves we cannot be confident,
but God wants us to have a certain confidence in ministry. He doesn't want us to
shrink back from the opportunity to serve Him. So where does the confidence come
from?

If I try to build it into myself, it's going to result in pride. So when I
realize the confidence isn't there to step ahead with what God wants me to do,
Paul's example, Paul's advice is realize that your competence, your confidence
is through Him. Now he says here we're not competent in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, and many people have the question, how does knowing I'm
inadequate, I'm not competent, build my self-confidence?

Well, we're not trying to build false confidence. We're not trying to build
self-confidence. We're trying to build genuine confidence, confidence in your
relationship with God.

How do you deal with self-doubt? You do it by finding genuine confidence. You do
it by being honest about life, truthful.

And the truth is we are inadequate for much of what life throws at us. We are
inadequate. You are inadequate.

I am inadequate for much of what life is going to throw at you. That's why
people, by the way, discover so many ways to escape in life. Because of their
feelings of inadequacy, they find a way to escape.

And some people escape into drugs. Some people escape into alcohol. Some people
escape into sexual sin.

Some people escape into more innocent-looking things like entertainment or
vacations or travel. Some people escape into what might even seem to be good
things like working harder all the time. But the truth of the matter is they're
just all ways of escape.

Including the fact that I know I'm inadequate for the task. You see, there's
this moment in life that we all face, that most of us face, most of us that are
honest about life, where I realize the truth. I am inadequate for what I'm
facing right now.

And when I face that, usually people make one of three choices. Either they
choose to think, "I will make myself adequate," and sometimes people do make
themselves fairly adequate. And the result of that is pride.

And the problem with that is you're only making yourself adequate for what you
think you can do in the moment, not for what God wants to do through your life.
But some people react that way, "I'll make myself adequate. I'll pull myself up
by my own bootstraps.

" A second response that many people have is, "I'm inadequate, so I will give
up. I'll just give up. I can't do it, so I'll give up.

" Neither of those are godly responses. Instead of thinking I'll make myself
adequate or I will give up, what Paul says to do here is realize I need to
depend on God. When I feel inadequate, it's an invitation to realize I need to
depend on God.

In verse 5, our competence comes from God. You see, one of the main reasons that
God allows a season in which we lose our confidence, and some of you may be in a
season like that right now, one of the main reasons He allows us to go through a
season like that is to invite us to renew our confidence in Him. I've seen this
cycle in my own life and many other people's lives.

We go through it again and again and again as a believer. This cycle is I depend
on Christ, and Christ does wonderful things in my life. He brings some
fruitfulness in my life.

And then I begin to think, "Okay, thank you, Jesus, for getting me started. "
And as the days go by, I tend to depend more and more on myself. And as I depend
more and more on myself, I then am setting myself up for that moment when I have
a fall, when all of a sudden it all falls apart.

And no one else may even know about it, but inside of me, I hit this wall where
I realize I cannot do it anymore. Now, in that moment, God is not saying to you,
"He wants you to give up. " It's an invitation to, again, depend on Him, so you
depend on Him in a fresh new way.

I wish this cycle only happened once, but in my own life it's happened many,
many times. I depend on Him again, and in depending on Him in a certain area of
life, after a while I think, "You know, God's blessing me as a teacher. I'm a
pretty good teacher, so I don't have to depend on Him as much for teaching
anymore.

I'll depend on Him for the harder things. " And then all of a sudden I fall flat
on my face as a teacher. You see, this cycle that we go through is continually
inviting us to depend on Him.

Some of us, knowing that we go through this season again and again, we try to
avoid this season of feeling like everything's falling apart, so I've got to
depend on God. And the way we try to avoid this season is we try to keep life
pared down to our human limitations. Listen, unless you're attempting something
you could not pull off on your own strength, you've surrendered to the fear of
being inadequate.

You surrendered to that fear, and you're trying to keep life pared down to your
own limitations. So as we talk about what it means to depend on God, to trust
Him in new ways, for some of you that means you begin to trust Him and think
about being married, because you've been afraid of that. Or think about being a
parent, because you've been afraid of that.

Or think about starting a new ministry, because you've been afraid of that. How
do I live above my human limitations? You recognize the fact that you were made
to depend on God.

Now in verse 6, Paul talks about how this works out in everyday life, and
there's actually a play on words in this verse. He says, "He's made us competent
as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the
letter kills. " You remember yesterday we talked about, Paul says, "You are our
letter," and he talked about letters of recommendation that were written back
and forth.

Now he's changing the meaning of that word. Yesterday he said, "Some need a
letter," but now he's talking about something different. He's talking about the
letter of the law, the letters that were put down in those Ten Commandments by
Moses.

And he's saying the letter, the law, kills. It tells us why we're separated from
God. We'll talk about this more in coming days this week.

But he says, "It's the Spirit that gives life. " You see, in order to have life,
I have to be attached to life. And if I attach myself to something that's dead,
the letter, the law, a list of rules and regulations, the only result can be
death.

Paul says, "Attach yourself to God's Spirit. " Jesus said, "I'm divine. You're
the branches.

You need to be attached. You need to be connected to me. " So when I have these
feelings of inadequacy, what do I do?

I realize I need to depend on God. I realize this is re-inviting me in a brand
new way to attach myself, recognize my attachment to the vine. Now, in one
sense, I think we all need a recovery group for this one.

We'd like to think that we can handle life perfectly all by ourselves. But the
truth is, hi, I'm Tom, and I admit I am inadequate to meet life's opportunities.
And so because of that, I need to depend on God.

Let's depend on him in prayer right now. And as we pray, there may be something
in your life that right now you need to depend on him in a new way. Maybe you've
been trying to escape.

Maybe you've been trying to make yourself adequate. Maybe you've given up. And
right now, you bring this thing.

Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's a ministry. Maybe it's a dream.

You bring it to God and you say, "God, I depend on you. I depend on you. I'm not
depending on my competence.

If you lead me to go there, I want to go there. And I know that apart from you,
I'm going to fall flat on my face there. And so I depend on you.

Even if I fall flat on my face, it's going to be with you. And I know you'll
pick me up. And I know you'll show me why.

And I know you'll give me new strength. So I depend on you. In Jesus' name,
amen.

" Tomorrow we're going to talk together about how God's Spirit works in us as we
depend on God.