Rooted in Christ: Confidence, Competence, and Communion

Devotional

Day 1: Living with sincerity before God, not people.

Our lives are often shaped by the desire for approval from others, which can lead us to compromise our integrity. True freedom is found when we shift our focus from human opinion to divine affirmation. We are called to live and speak with authenticity, knowing we are ultimately accountable to God. This sincerity is not about perfection, but about a heart oriented towards Him in every circumstance. It is a posture of living openly before the One who sees and knows us completely. [31:15]

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:17 ESV)

Reflection: In what specific relationship or area of your life are you most tempted to seek human approval over God's? What would it look like to practice living "before God" in that situation this week?

Day 2: Finding confidence in Christ, not in ourselves.

Human confidence is fragile, built upon our achievements, abilities, and the affirmation we receive from others. This kind of confidence inevitably fails when our performance falters or opinions change. A lasting and secure confidence is found only in our identity and standing through faith in Jesus Christ. This confidence is a gift, rooted in what He has accomplished, not in what we can do. It remains steady even when everything else seems uncertain. [37:03]

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:4-5 ESV)

Reflection: When you feel a sense of insecurity or inadequacy, what practical step can you take to redirect your focus from your own insufficiency to Christ's all-sufficiency?

Day 3: God’s competence at work through our confidence.

We often believe we must first become competent for God to use us, leading us to strive in our own strength. The gospel presents a different reality: our confidence in Christ's finished work is what allows God's competence to flow through us. Our role is not to manufacture ability but to rely on His power and grace. He takes ordinary people and accomplishes extraordinary things through them as we depend on Him. [42:29]

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV)

Reflection: Where is God inviting you to stop striving in your own strength and instead rest in His ability to work through you? How might that change your approach to a current challenge?

Day 4: The transformative power of the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant revealed God's standard but provided no power to meet it, leaving us condemned by the law. The New Covenant, established by Christ's blood, changes everything. It does not just command obedience; it empowers it through the indwelling Holy Spirit. This covenant writes God's law on our hearts, transforming us from the inside out and enabling us to live in a new way. [44:52]

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6 ESV)

Reflection: How does understanding your relationship with God as based on the New Covenant, rather than your performance, affect how you handle personal failure or sin?

Day 5: Remembering and resting in Christ’s finished work.

In the constant pressure to prove ourselves, we can forget the completed work of our salvation. The Lord's Supper stands as a regular reminder to remember and place our confidence in what Christ has done. The bread and the cup point us to His body broken and His blood shed, which secured our forgiveness and new life. This act of remembrance recenters our lives on the gospel, the true foundation for all confidence. [49:43]

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:19-20 ESV)

Reflection: As you reflect on Christ's sacrifice for you, what is one area of your life where you need to consciously shift from striving to resting in His finished work?

Sermon Summary

Paul confronts a corrupting tendency within the early church: some dilute God’s word for gain. The text contrasts those who “pedal” the message—altering truth to preserve approval—with ministers who speak “before God with sincerity” as those sent from God. The transformed lives of the community stand as the true credential: believers themselves function as living letters from Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit on human hearts. Confidence, therefore, does not rest on personal résumé or public favor but on union with Christ and on what Christ has finished.

The letter insists that competence flows from God. Under the new covenant the Spirit enables obedience and life; the law’s letter exposes sin but cannot empower transformation. When confidence roots itself in the finished work of Christ, believers endure criticism without collapsing, persevere through loss without abandoning faith, and carry out ministry without needing constant affirmation. This recalibrates the gospel life away from an “approval economy” of likes, ratings, and evaluations, toward a vertical posture before God.

The Lord’s Supper appears as the fitting response: its bread and cup memorialize the body given and the new covenant sealed in Christ’s blood. Observing the Supper invites renewed dependence on Christ’s once-for-all work and provides concrete means to remember that forgiveness, enabling grace, and sanctifying power belong to the covenant community. An explicit invitation accompanies the ritual: public profession of faith and formal church membership provide opportunities to join the covenant people and to root one’s confidence in Christ rather than in human approval.

The passage issues a pastoral call to reorient authority and assurance. Truth must not be commodified for approval; authenticity before God must govern proclamation; communal transformation must validate ministry; and reliance on Christ secures both identity and efficacy. The Spirit makes ministers of a new covenant whose life-giving power surpasses the dead letter of law, and the Supper both commemorates that reality and trains hearts to stand on what Christ has accomplished.

Key Takeaways

1. Do not peddle the Word [28:17] Altering truth to maintain favor corrupts gospel witness and trades spiritual health for short-term approval. Guarding the integrity of proclamation means resisting cultural metrics of success and refusing to shape the message to applause. Authentic ministry sacrifices popularity to remain faithful to God. [28:17]
2. Speak before God with sincerity [31:46] Orientation toward God corrects the craving for human validation and clarifies ministry priorities. Speaking “before God” reorders motives so holiness and truth matter more than public ratings or personal gain. Sincerity anchors resilience when public opinion shifts. [31:46]
3. You are a letter from Christ [36:04] Visible spiritual change in a community supplies the most persuasive credential for ministry: transformed hearts testify louder than resumes. The Spirit’s writing on human hearts evidences gospel power and invites others to read God’s work in concrete lives. Measurement of ministry should prioritize spiritual fruit over self-promotion. [36:04]
4. Confidence from Christ, competence from God [40:11] Rooting identity in Christ produces endurance; God supplies the competence that the old covenant could not enable. The Spirit empowers obedience and sanctification, making taken-for-granted weaknesses opportunities for divine transformation rather than grounds for shame. Trusting what Christ has finished frees labor for faithfulness instead of performance. [40:11]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[25:03] - Announcements and visiting authors
[26:53] - Reading: 2 Corinthians 2:17–3
[30:32] - “Peddling” the word contrasted
[36:04] - Living proof: letters on hearts
[40:11] - New covenant: competence from God
[45:47] - Institution of the Lord’s Supper
[49:16] - Invitation to respond and join
[58:59] - Communion instructions and observance
[66:56] - Closing hymn and dismissal

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading: 2 Corinthians 2:17-3:6 (ESV)
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Observation questions

According to 2 Corinthians 2:17, what two things characterize those who do not "peddle" the word of God?
What does Paul say is the "letter of recommendation" for his ministry in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3?
Where does Paul say his confidence and competence come from in 2 Corinthians 3:4-5?
What contrast does Paul make between the "letter" and the "Spirit" in 2 Corinthians 3:6?

Interpretation questions

What does it mean to "peddle" the word of God, and how might that look different from speaking "before God with sincerity"? [28:36]
Why is a transformed life, described as a "letter from Christ," a more powerful credential for ministry than a human resume or letters of recommendation? [36:04]
How does living under the "new covenant," which is dependent on Christ's finished work, fundamentally change our approach to obedience and transformation compared to the "old covenant"? [44:31]
In an "approval economy" that constantly evaluates us, what does it look like practically to find our confidence vertically in God rather than horizontally in human opinion? [39:01]

Application questions

In what specific area of your life—work, family, or social media—do you feel the strongest temptation to seek human approval and "peddle" a diluted version of yourself or God's truth to get it? [29:45]
The proof of God's work is seen in transformed hearts, not personal credentials. What is one area of your heart where you have seen the Spirit's transformative work, making you a "living letter" for others to read? [36:27]
Confidence in Christ's finished work frees us from the anxiety of performance. When criticism comes or your efforts feel insufficient, what is one practical way you can remind yourself that your competence comes from God, not yourself? [40:11]
The Lord's Supper is a tangible act to remember our confidence is in Christ's covenant, not our performance. How can regularly observing communion reorient your heart away from seeking approval and toward resting in what Christ has done? [49:43]
If your identity and security are rooted in Christ's approval alone, how would that change the way you respond to a significant failure or a season where you feel completely incompetent? [42:29]
Paul endured the loss of human approval without losing his faith. Can you identify a relationship or a community whose approval you might need to risk losing in order to remain faithful to what God has shown you in his word? [33:30]
The new covenant enables the obedience it commands. What is one thing God is asking you to do that feels impossible in your own strength, and how can you rely on the Spirit's enabling power instead of your own resolve this week? [44:52]

Sermon Clips

29s

#IdentityInChrist

“Paul knows who he is and he knows to whom he belongs and so Paul can face criticism without defense. He can endure loss without losing his faith. He can even continue on in ministry ministry without affirmation. Why? Because such confidence we have through Christ before God. Confidence not on what he has done, but everything that Christ has finished.”

44s

#NewCovenant

“The old covenant was entirely dependent upon one's obedience to the letter of the law. The old covenant had the ability to command obedience, but it but it lacked the ability to to enable it. The the old covenant had the ability to to reveal sin in our lives, but it but it lacked the ability to remove sin. And so Paul begins to proclaim that we are now living and ministering in a in a new covenant that is not in the law, that is not in the letter, that is not written in stone, but a new covenant that is written in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ask a question about this sermon

First Baptist Church of Alexandria This sermon · AI assistant

What does peddling the word mean

Where should Christian confidence be rooted

How does the new covenant enable obedience

Rooted in Christ: Confidence, Competence, and Communion

Devotional

Day 1: Living with sincerity before God, not people.

Day 2: Finding confidence in Christ, not in ourselves.

Day 3: God’s competence at work through our confidence.

Day 4: The transformative power of the New Covenant.

Day 5: Remembering and resting in Christ’s finished work.

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Rooted in Christ: Confidence, Competence, and Communion

Share