Encountering God’s Goodness (transcript)

Aliyah. So so great to have you. So Aliyah is a ninety day wonder here I’m sorry. I have to help you because you’re, like, in the middle. It’s not?

Check. Check. Aliyah’s a ninety day wonder here with us for the ski season, and she’s with a Christian ministry in the National Park, AMPC, NLMOP. And so they do they do, like, a a summer session and a winter session. And the winter session, they lead correct me if I’m wrong, but on Sundays, you your team leads a little church service at the top of the gondola.

Yeah. Okay. Great. Okay. No.

There’s a buzz. Jesus is alive. He’s returning soon. Okay. We will it’s not Okay.

I hope everybody had a great thanksgiving. Did anybody travel and is back already? Oh, y’all traveled and are back already. Okay. Great.

The rest of us either didn’t go anywhere or had Thanksgiving together or had people come visit us, and so so glad that we get to be together today. This is the last Sunday of November. And next week, we well, next Sunday, we’ll get into December, and we’re going to for the month of December, we’re going to look at several. There are many, but we’re going to look at several really cool prophecies that were spoken of about the birth of Jesus long before he ever arrived in a little feeding trough in the sleepy town of Bethlehem. And so as we get into December, we’ll kinda get into the holiday spirit.

We’ll talk about, the first advent of Jesus and how it was prophesied long before he arrived and how he beautifully and perfectly fulfilled numerous prophecies, but we’ll start that next week. This week, if you have your bible with you, let’s turn to the book of first Corinthians. First Corinthians is where we’re going today. And, Aaron, do you have the mic in there? Oh, it’s behind.

Say, look. Let’s do this together like a family, and we’re not gonna read it altogether at the same time, but let’s yeah. Too liturgical for me. Everybody instantly, slips into this droning monotone. I always thank god for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you.

So instead of doing that altogether, let’s invite someone to read for us. First Corinthians chapter one verse four through nine. And whoever would like to. Thank you, Gretchen. Of course.

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by him, in all utterance and all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our lord. Oh, that’s great. Will you read verse eight again from your translation?

Who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our lord Jesus Christ. That’s cool. New King James. New King James. Alright.

In the NLT, it says, he will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our lord Jesus Christ returns. Okay. This is, not a sermon about the return of Jesus. But it’s inescapable. The return of the lord is everywhere.

What we’re going to do is have a conversation about Paul’s perspective and how he opens the letter to the church in Corinth. And if you’re taking notes this morning, you can write at the top of your notes the title of the conversation that we’re gonna have today. The title of the conversation that we’re gonna have today is encountering god’s goodness. Encountering god’s goodness. As we just had Thanksgiving to kind of kick off this holiday season, I was spending time with the lord this week thinking about how much we have to be thankful for.

We had our two little kids home with us for Thanksgiving this year, Selah and Kai. Our two little babies, one of our little babies is here. The other little baby is sleeping in. He’s a sleepy baby, and he’ll be here at the 11:00. He’s so big.

He just needs a lot of sleep. He’s still probably probably still growing. And so as I was thinking as I was thinking and meditating on on the the the goodness of god and how I was so thankful to him, to the lord, for all that he has done in our life and listen to his life and all that he is, I was just thinking about how much we actually have to be thankful for. And I don’t know what kind of circumstance you find yourself in the midst of today, but the truth is and the reality is, of course, hello, duh, all of us have so much to be thankful for. And so as we read this passage, first Corinthians chapter one verse four through nine, Paul gives us a great example of living with thankfulness.

One of the his very first words as he’s writing this letter to the church in Corinth, he says in verse one, I always well, in verse four, I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he’s given you. It’s just so it’s just it’s so great that he is always starting his letters in this way. Now there’s a whole lot to the letter to the church in Corinth, but he begins in verse four with, I always thank my god for you. Now you know how we like to do things conversationally. And so if you look at these verses, you can go will you just go, back one slide to just, verse four through nine, just the address?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and can you leave it right there for just a moment? Thank you, sir.

As you look at these verses, verse four through nine, I’d love to hear from you. Go ahead and look with your eyeballs into these verses and tell me what are some things that you noticed or a detail or an aspect that particularly stands out to you as noteworthy. What do you see in verses four through nine? And if you have an observation in verse eight and then somebody else has an observation in verse five, it’s okay. We can go forwards and backwards.

He’s telling us okay. Explain a little bit more. Here comes the mic. I mean, you know. And he’s saying, you know, we’ve been in we’ve been enriched in every way from speech to knowledge.

We lack nothing. We lack no spiritual gift. Yeah. So, I mean, he’s telling us what we’ve got, whether we choose to do with whatever. So I see I see two things in what you’re saying.

Number one, you’re you’re seeing, like, these several things that are listed specifically, but then you are and you’re not wrong for grabbing a hold of that verse yourself. You’re seeing Paul speaking that to you. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. Oh, okay.

That’s great. That is fantastic. And and the thing about in, like, verse seven, you do not lack any spiritual gift. Well, you know, and the bible tells us the gifts are there for us. We choose whether to receive them or not and what we do with them.

So he’s already given them to us. We don’t have to ask for it. Oh. Oh. Yeah.

I was gonna thanks, Muncy. I was gonna talk about verse seven. Verse seven. But so that you come short in no gift. And that really stood out to me because, like, how often have I said things like, well, that’s just not my gifting.

But is that like me not accepting that I have come short in no gift? And then my bible has a little commentary section, and it says, they were enriched with known language, knowledge, prophecy, and nonrational spiritual or heavenly language. Right. It’s in first Corinthians in chapter 12 that Paul gets into the gifts of the spirit. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, that’s great. What else are you seeing? There he is. It was off, apparently.

I have a nice commentary here that I don’t normally read from, but it’s really nice. I think it’s just worth sharing. Alright. Well, let’s do. Although there were problems among the Corinthian believers, Paul began his letter to them on a positive note.

He understood that confronting others about their failures is more effective when we approach them diplomatically. We need to gain a hearing by recognizing the good things in the lives of those we need to confront. In this way, we show that we are concerned about them and value them as people. Ah, so he’s saying that Paul, even in even though we don’t see it in these verses, Paul is going to confront some things, but a little spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. A great reference.

Okay. Alright. So no. No. No.

Save it. Save it. Save it. We almost we almost sang the entire catalog of songs from the Greece soundtrack on Thanksgiving. And Oh, we did sing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is it recorded? No.

It really should have been. Okay. Let’s hear from let’s hear from Phil, and then we’re gonna zoom in on one particular verse. Yeah. So all this this talk, it reminds me of, like, the now, but not yet, where, like, we are made new.

We’re new creations, but also he’s still sanctifying us. Like, Paul is reminding, this church in Corinth as well as, you know, something that we can glean that, like, we have everything that we need. God is sanctifying us, and he’s making us new. And we have the capacity to, like, walk alongside him in step with his spirit, but also he’s still, like, in the process of of making us new. And so, like, yeah, he’s gonna admonish the rest of these believers because there’s still more they need to work on.

There’s still more we need to work on, but it’s like, at the same time, we are right with God, but in the now, but not yet. So Yes. What do we do with this? I think it I think that is an important principle to apply to the examination of scripture and our journey of following the lord in general always. Like, have been saved.

We are being saved, and someday we’ll be saved. Well, I don’t know about the someday we will be saved. Well, it’s in your bible, bible, and so you should really dig in. And so what you’re saying, Phil, is a a principle that is a beautiful tool to keep in mind when studying God’s word and comparing your own journey and how you’re doing. So I think that’s great.

Let’s zoom in on verse four, and we’ll put it up here on the screen. We’ll just double click on verse four, and I want us to look at this for just a moment. Paul is speaking, and he says, I always thank my god for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you. Now that you belong to Jesus Christ. Okay.

And I put this in my notes. You already said it, and I think you said it better than I put it in my notes. So yeah. Yeah. So well done.

But I said, yes. This is for us individually. We have been given gracious gifts now that we belong to him, and Paul is speaking to the church. When it uses this word gracious gifts, what an interesting joy. What would you describe in terms of grammar, what would you describe this word that modifies the word gifts?

It’s an adjectives. And and tell me a little bit grammatically what what’s happening with How often? Alright. To me, I some people are numbers people. I’m a word person, and so I always like to think about the grammar and stuff.

Yeah. The well, the main thing with an adjective adjective is it’s has to describe a noun, and so gracious here is specifically describing gifts. Oh, there we go. Okay. So here’s a question for us to consider.

Why does Paul use the word gracious? And I know that he wasn’t speaking English when he wrote these things down. Just bear with me. But why is this word describing the word gifts? He could have said abundant.

I mean, there could have been a lot of other adjectives. Why do you think and your own translation may give you a clue, but why gracious gifts? Is he pointing out that we don’t deserve it or we haven’t necessarily earned it? Okay. I think that is part of the picture.

What else do you think or see? It’s probably worth having a quick, not side conversation, but importantly tangential conversation about what does when God talks about or when Paul talks about grace, how do we define grace or what is understood with the application of grace? When we get that, it may help us to grab a hold of what Paul is saying when he says gracious gifts. How do we we don’t deserve them. Yeah.

We’ve done nothing to deserve them. Imagine if the the and we’ll talk about the church in Corinth in a moment, but imagine if the people addressed in that letter were all squeaky, clean, perfect Christians. Well, then maybe they would have done something to earn those gifts. Or what if they were all naturally very talented in their own strength and energy. Okay.

Well, I deserve it. And so what you’re saying is this gift is undeserved. Any other thoughts to modify or add to that description of the word gifts? Gifts? Right.

So there’s there’s a lot that that we don’t deserve, but is given to us. Yes? It’s saying Woah. Gift in Greek is charisma, and it’s related to other words derived from the word of kara. Kara Charisma or charis is this word in the Greek and it is a undeserved free gift from God.

Here’s what’s important about this descriptive word that we’re all beginning to glean and pick up from the text is that God enjoys to give gifts to those who don’t deserve them. Now why he do that? Because it’s just who he is. This is something that we need to put down that the deep, deep, deep foundational bedrock of our understanding about god, his relation to us and our relationship with him is that he is a good god, and he loves to give good gifts. Unlike Santa Claus who only gives gifts to who?

Good boys and girls. Silly Santa. So I just took a little trip to Romans 12. Here we go. We’re going to Romans 12.

Yeah. Romans twelve seven through 11, but I’ll only read part of it. But it it calls to that. It’s but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and then he goes to the gifts, which goes oh, wait.

Sorry. First sorry. First Corinthians 12. Sorry. And back to first Corinthians.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I went to Romans first, but now I’m at first Corinthians 12. And so I’m really struck by the spirit is given, and these gifts are given for the profit of all.

And so I think sometimes we can be like, oh, was given this gift, you know, graciously. I didn’t deserve it. The Lord gave it to me. But like, if we’re not using it to profit everyone in the church, then we’re wasting it. Okay.

Yeah. And I’ve I’ve been reading this book by Chris Palatin’s Something Royalty. What is Something Royalty? I don’t know. Okay.

But it says, he says that it’s so important not to just share a prophetic word with one, like the person that it’s for, but to share it with people that are in community with that person so that everyone can start treating that person according to that that prophetic word in the way that God is making them instead of who they are now. Oh, that’s great. So in first Corinthians 12, we see what’s known as the the sign gifts and word of knowledge or a word of wisdom is given. It is if it’s under the category of gifts, which can be connected to what we read here. Because Paul in this letter is going to further describe the gifts that has been given and for the gracious gifts he has given you.

So individually, corporately, and when they are expressed corporately, they are intended for the benefit of the corporate gathering. He says numerous times in first Corinthians between 11 and chapter 14, he says numerous times, when you gather, when you gather, when you gather, when you gather. And so you’re exactly right. Jacob, did you have something? I was just gonna read.

It’s not gonna be good. I mean, In my version, it says, I thank my god always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. So ultimately, it’s the grace that is the gift. Oh. Oh.

Oh, alright. Okay. The holy spirit’s moving on the front row. Just to kind of yeah. Just to kind of piggyback on that.

I hand wrote, I don’t know when, but the particular Greek word of that just in verse four, gifts from the Greek, it actually yeah. It’s, like, less like the gift gift hospitality and that sort of thing, but describing, like, the character and the nature of God. Like his kindness, which produces peace of mind, consistency, humility, that sort of thing. So, yeah, I just I had written a note more foundationally because the rest of verse four says, for the gracious gifts he has given you now that you belong to Christ Jesus. So I feel like having the character and the nature of God, his kindness, his compassion, his humility is the foundation we need then to operate further upon the other gifts that they are speaking of.

Hospitality, word of knowledge, that sort of thing. And I like how you talk about him operating in his according to his nature and character through us. That’s the gift. Yes. And now over here.

If this isn’t where you’re going, just I’ll say it and then you just go, thank you and move on. I always Or you could start by saying, I’m gonna just go for it. But the I always think of his grace and his gracious gifts as the supernatural empowerment to walk out this Christian life. It’s also the grace that saved us. It’s also the grace that continues to allow us to even do this thing, to do anything that would please the Lord and honor him in any way, shape, or form.

Yes. It wasn’t a one time gift. It’s a continual gift to allow us to live this Christian life. It empowers us. I love it.

I we always have to say some version of this whenever we encounter this word in the text because it’s so very important. I grew up in a church where they talked about grace a lot. Grace, grace, grace, grace, but it was the unmerited favor of god unto or for the purpose of salvation. And so once a person got saved, the the word lost its potency or had such a very narrow myopic definition that it then sort of became almost like a filler word. You know when you had to like like write a paper in school and you had a certain word count that you need to hit?

Almost there yeah. Very. In conclusion. And so if we don’t understand God’s intended purpose for this word, it can seem we just race right through it as if it’s like, well, this would be a good opportunity to, like like, add increase the word count and just say, not just gifts. I always thank my god for you and for the gifts he has give oh, I can tick off some of the word count and add the word gracious.

If a person only thinks of grace as unto salvation, that is fantastic. The unmerited favor of God unto salvation for you. Great. Fantastic. Awesome.

However, Paul intends through the inspiration of the holy spirit who wrote the bible for there to be such a not broader as in deluded, but more robust and thorough definition of grace for our understanding intending for us to grab a hold of this what Lissa just said. Said. God’s supernatural enabling power to do what he’s called us to do. This is why Paul either begins or in the middle or concludes many of his letters with some sentiment conveyed like, may God’s grace abound to you. May you be overflowing with God’s grace.

Well, if grace is only unto salvation, then why do I need more than just 100%? If I get 99% of God’s grace, well, I’m not saved. But then if I get a 100%, woo hoo, I’m I’m saved. But there’s no need for more. But Paul talks over and over and over.

May you abound in his grace. May God’s grace cover you. May you walk in his grace. May you be the the like, the English transliteration of the Greek is super abounding. Maybe, like you said a moment ago, overflowing with god’s grace.

And so when we see Paul speaking, he says, always thank my god for you and for the gracious gifts. As you said a moment ago, Lissa, that this is an ongoing present progressive action that we would continually be grabbing a hold of the gifts from the lord. I love this grammatical road we’re going down together. Oh. So as as my friend here shared the the word, I I said, oh, let’s look at the blue letter bible.

Let’s see what we got. And what it says in that as one of the etymologies is goodwill and loving kindness. And so loving kindness then triggered my my Hebrew brain. Hasid. Woah.

There it is. Hasid. You guys are always stealing my notes where I’m going. Sorry. I it’s my one chance to get to do it to you.

That just means we’re all in sync. I love it. Keep going, bud. And the one of the the kinda aspects of the blue letter bible, what it talks about is the divine influence upon the heart. I thought that was a really intriguing way to put god’s grace.

As using graciousness as the especially the divine influence upon the heart. God’s divine influence upon the heart. Oh, okay. Chris, I’m gonna ask you to hold on to that phrase because it’s gonna come back into play as we, like, get towards the end. So commit it to memory and or keep that page open.

Didi, there he just he just did. Okay. So Paul has Paul says a lot. He verbal verbalizes a lot that he’s thankful for the church in Corinth as he begins the letter. He sees that god’s grace is clearly at work in them.

We’ve covered that. That they lack no spiritual gift. They’ve got everything that they need and that god is faithfully sustaining them. What a great thing to be thankful for. Could we not say that about tribe?

Like, you, Lord, for your faithful hand sustaining our community here in Jackson Hole, the gifts that he has given to us. Yeah. Gift from the spirit was just said. So so there are there are three. First Corinthians, Romans, and then I believe maybe in Ephesians, there are three different kind of broad categories.

Paul is speaking all these times, and he groups gifts together. And most people are familiar in first Corinthians, 12 with the sign gifts. There’s nine of them listed. But then in Romans, there’s another place that I some people call, like, the administrative gifts. Or if you have the gift of leadership, and he lists these.

And then he goes on to make an exhortation regarding the gifts. And so so specifically, Paul addresses several different lists. Yeah. We’re getting it all. So that would be the fruit of the spirit, and that’s mentioned in Galatians.

Lot of lot of gifts that he’s that he’s given us. So Paul starts by thanking God and admonishing, like encouraging, hyping up the church at Corinth. However, we’ve touched on this moment. Were they perfect? Did they have their issues and challenges?

And how do we know that? Maybe somebody that has like been to the church in Corinth that has seen those the the ruins of the church there may have some color to add to the situation to paint a picture for us. If own oh, if only there were oh, there is someone, and they’re on the front row yet again. So Amanda was well, just tell us. Yes.

I got to visit the ruins of Corinth. Was it last year? Last year. Or was it this year? Mhmm.

There’s a few. But, yeah, it was really cool to be in this in this space, but there was only one section where, like, I had my bible open to the page we’re on today, and I was, like, greeting it under a tree and just thinking and imagining where Paul might have been, and the ruins are phenomenally large. Like, it’s so much bigger than you think it would be. But the guy that was taking us there, was just telling us all the things. It wasn’t he wasn’t preaching out of first Corinthians.

He was just showing us all the things. And there’s lots of places. It was a a town where a lot it was like the Las Vegas of the time for just a season. And so he was telling us all the naughty things that happened there as well. So there’s tons of little g gods, and we saw the ruins of that.

There was lots of, like, prostitution rings. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff. And there was one teeny tiny little Jewish church that he kinda showed us where where it was. But everything else, it was pretty like, just think of Las Vegas. Just like Sin City.

Mhmm. You know? And so, and because it was close to what was it? Like, was it coastal? Like, like, a a lot of people traveled through it.

It was a central spot. Like, I’m thinking, like, Catan, the board game. It was like a it was a, yeah, big trading route, and so everybody went. But he our guide said, like, the men would come there because that’s where they could go and do whatever they wanted, you know, and then leave. So it’s like, stays in Corinthian Corinth?

What is it? What happened? What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth. So it’s a very naughty place. Wow.

In its day. What a great perspective. Like, Corinth, if we say the word Corinth or we read Corinthians, we’re like, okay. But if we can connect it with something that we have some association with, a known association with, helps us put things into perspective. So if you at the at the beginning of Corinthians with your pen in your bible write the Las Vegas of the ancient world, you’ll be like, okay.

I got it. The church at Corinth wasn’t perfect, and Paul in this first letter to the church at Corinth had to address some things of some huge some huge issues. There were divisions in the church. There were there were there was a a culture of tolerating sexual immorality. He spends a lot of verses talking about guys quit suing each other.

Yeah. He has to address that. Why are you dragging people from your church? Like, these are people that you’re doing life in community with. Why are you dragging them to court as if a secular court is a higher authority than the authority that’s governing your community?

And then he goes into talking about disorder in worship. So there was a lot of issues in the church in Corinth. And then I was just doing a little bit of studying, studying, trying to compare of the things that he addressed in his first letter to Corinth, how many of those things came up in his second letter. And there were a decent number of issues that Paul addressed in his second letter, like a sleepover and it’s 2AM and mom had already come in one time and said, that’s it. Turn the lights off and go to bed, you kids.

Don’t make me come in here again. And then you hear her get up and come down the hall and you’re like, she’s coming again. Now we’re in real trouble. So how is it? With all of the issues that the church in Corinth had, how is it that Paul could start his letter in verse four with this?

I thank Christ Jesus, our lord. No. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

I always thank my god for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Do you think that he was just, like, trying to butter them up before he, like, really hammers them, or do you think that they’re that he genuinely is so thankful to god for the church in Corinth? That one. You are correct because Paul doesn’t speak ingenuously. Remember, he’s speaking by the inspiration.

He is genuine genuinely thankful. So the question arises considering in light of all that the church in Corinth was going through, all their issues. And you can read through the book of first Corinthians, and you should read yourself in the text so that god’s word can do some heart surgery on you and correct you. Yes. Yes.

But with all of the issues that the church in Corinth was going through, how could he be so thankful for them? And when we discover this, that’s that’s the that’s the crux of where we’re going today, and I know you’re gonna find there, like like, really quick. How could Paul say, I always thank god for you when they were so naughty? Joy, what do you think? Well, I think that Paul had an understanding of if we’re if we’re connecting I thank my God for you and for your gracious gifts and the gifts being God’s nature that he has given us, I think he was, again, just basing his own thankfulness, not on the people and on their works, but on God’s character inside of them.

So what you’re saying is Paul is able to say these nice words because he’s seeing the Lord being expressed through them. Yes. Oh. Not necessarily based on their merit. I think it it takes us to a level of community that we all can be challenged by to be able to see Christ in us as opposed to judging people for their human fleshliness.

That sounds so dirty. I like that perspective, and I think it’s an important aspect is to be able to see the for a person that is saved, it’s it’s makes for a nice coffee mug. I see the god in you. Like, oh, that, like, like, that’s some dangerous theological heresy that a person’s flirting with. But for the person that’s invited Jesus into their heart, made him the leader of their life to be able to see the the not god light, the Yahweh light.

Let’s be really specific in this day and age. The Yahweh light in them to to recognize and call that forward. I think that’s super valuable. Aaron, we’ve got a few contributors in the back. Maybe his sincerity was coming from his own personal experience of being delivered by Jesus on the road of Damascus, and he recognizes that he’s no different than they are.

He killed Christians for years, and God was more than gracious to him and saved his life. And so maybe the sincerity in this verse comes from his personal experience from Jesus delivering him. See if Joe had something. That’s good. Aliyah.

No. He doesn’t. Aliyah, Quit looking at my notes. Last verse that we’re going to turn to this morning, first Timothy chapter one, and I’ll put it up on the screen. It’s a rather large section, and so I’ve split it into two slides.

So we’re gonna read all the way to verse 17, but this slide gets us to verse 14. I’ll give you a moment to turn there and or you can read it from the screen here, but I wanna read this for you. So what was the secret sauce to Paul being thankful? This is the season of thanksgiving and Christmas. This is the season where we need to be thankful.

This it’s it’s it’s written all over your Facebook page and and decorations like thankfulness. Well, how does a person actually be genuinely grace filled thankful? We get we get a clue to that, and Aaliyah just tipped us off. I think Jesus Christ, I’ll he’s always thanking god, that guy. I always thank Jesus Christ, our lord, who has given me the strength to do his work.

He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. Even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. Aliyah, you were just talking about this. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief.

Oh, how generous and what’s that word? Gracious our lord was. He filled me with the faith and love that comes from Jesus Christ. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the how does that go?

Aliyah, and how does that go? Christ came in to save sinners, and I am the worst one of them all. Right? Were you the worst one of them all? I was the worst one of them all.

Was anyone else in here the worst one of them all? Yes. When we compare our life to the righteousness and holiness of god, All of us were the worst one of them all. Verse 16, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners, then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor and glory to God forever and ever.

He is the eternal king, the unseen one who never dies. He alone is God. It’s almost as if when you hit verse 16, he’s just writing so feverishly that ink can barely keep up in the quill as he talks about how much love and forgiveness has been demonstrated to him. Paul could be thankful for the church in Corinth despite their challenges because he personally experienced God’s goodness towards him. So in this season of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the holidays, when we are invited to be thankful, how instead of just pretending to be thankful, as we saw Paul wasn’t just pretending to be thankful for the church in Corinth.

He was genuinely thankful. What was the secret sauce behind Paul’s thankfulness? He personally experienced God’s goodness. And so I wrote this for for you. Thankfulness is a natural reaction to encountering God’s goodness, and we’ll put it up on the screen here.

Thankfulness is a natural reaction to encountering God’s goodness. Are you a thankful person? May maybe. Have you recently encountered his goodness? When we encounter the goodness of God, the normal, natural human response is for us to just be thankful.

Despite the challenges of the church in Corinth, Paul was thankful for them. Like, you guys, you’re doing so good. Look at you. We got some things to tweak. And then in his second letter, alright.

We’re still working on a couple of these things, but you guys, In this season, I mean, you’ve already felt it. We’ve you’ve already felt it. The the busyness of this of of the schedule leading up to the holidays, and I’ve gotta travel or we have people coming into town, and okay, now people are leaving town, and I’ve got to cram, like, a month’s worth of work into, like, a couple of weeks between the gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and and there’s just so much and I’m traveling or more people are coming or or maybe it’s a really lonely time for you during the holidays and it’s really difficult for you to be thankful. The antidote for a lack of thankfulness in your life is just a fresh encounter of God’s goodness. When we encounter his goodness, thankfulness just naturally erupts in our heart.

And that’s as far as my notes take me today. Let’s make some room for the Holy Spirit to breathe on our hearts. And, Chris, I ask you to keep that thing committed to memory, and I saw you lock it in. Will you read that one more time? And that’ll be a a beautiful bow on on our conversation.

Graciousness is especially the divine influence upon the heart. When we encounter his goodness, it is a divine influence on our heart. Paul could be thankful because he knew how much he was cognizantly aware of how much he had been forgiven for and how in his flesh he falls short. Thank you, Jesus, for your goodness continually demonstrated towards us. God, I ask for every heart that is willing that it would experience an encounter with your goodness.

We don’t even have to, like, well, I gotta prime the pump and start saying all these things I’m thankful for. I mean, that’s good. That that’s good. So I can stir up an attitude of gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But Lord, when we encounter your goodness, only two words bubble to the surface. Thank you. Let’s just with the few moments that we had left, let’s just make room for that. Thank you, When we do these moments where we end with a little bit of ministry time, it’s like a a flight of beers at your, you know, at a new pub that you’re visiting. Like, you’re just gonna get a little bit, and then you can pick the idea of this is, like, to just take a little bit of moment to practice what you can do and should be doing on your own all the time.

Just making room for the holy spirit to draw close to you to encounter his goodness. Just before we leave here, let’s worship the Lord in one other way with our tithes and offerings. And you know that, this December, is our we haven’t done it historically, but I just want to give you that opportunity that in the month of December as we head into December before the end of the year, that this is our big year end giving push where we are inviting you to close out the end of this season by being extra generous with your not only your tithes, but above and beyond that with an offering. And in January, we’re gonna be starting a next campaign, which is a a fundraising campaign for us to find our next home. And as we get into December and especially in January, we’re gonna talk more about that.

Tribe needs a new home so that we can all be together at one service number one. Number two and I would actually say this is number one we need a a better safer environment for our tribe kids. They’re right in that front door. We want to create an amazing safe place for our tribe kids. We are thankful for the TMC that we’ve been in for so many years, but it’s time for tribe to find its next home.

And so you’re hearing giving goes towards that and our next campaign in January, which we’ll talk more about in the coming weeks, is is a big initiative to find our next home. Okay? Let me pray over the tithes and offerings. I’ll tell you how to give. Couple announcements we’ll get out of here.

Lord Jesus, we are thankful for how good you are towards us in every aspect of our life. And so by way of telling you that we love you and we trust you, we surrender a portion of our finances to you. God, I ask that you would receive these finances. You would use them to make your name famous here at Tribe in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and everybody said, amen.

As we often talk about just like at your house, the important things and events and happenings and going on, you put them on the refrigerator to keep you reminded of them. Well, that’s just what we do here at Tribe. Someday when we do get our own our next home, we’re gonna have to put a refrigerator in the lobby just so that we can continue to say check the refrigerator for all that’s going on there, things that you can sign up to be involved with. Don’t forget we’re doing Christmas Eve service on the town square. This year will be at 5PM, and so I wanted to remind you of that.

Those are the main important in announcements that you need to know about. Check the refrigerator for other other things. Ways to give. Check, cash, Bitcoins can be put either in that little wooden box or just outside, of the TMC doors. You can go to tribejh.com.

A lot of people are generous with their smartphones through the text to give slide. And the number for the text to give slide is (833) 369-7847. If you stand up, I’ll pray for you, and then we can skedaddle out of here. We got Christmas lights to hang. I mean, I already hung mine.

But for the rest of you, Lord Jesus, thank you so much for being so good to us. I pray, Lord, that when we ask you that you would draw close to our hearts so that we can encounter your goodness. And as we encounter your goodness, that thankfulness would just rise up for us no matter the circumstances that we find ourselves in this season. Lord, when we encounter your goodness, that we would just be so thankful because we have so much to be thankful for. I command a blessing over each and every person here this morning.

Lord, thank you for your goodness demonstrated towards them. Keep it up, Lord. You’re doing such a great job of demonstrating your goodness to them. Thank you for your faithfulness. Lord, give us a great week.

We pray these things. In Jesus’ name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen. I love you so very much. Have a great week.

Remember, you got this. You got it. Yay.