Gratitude for God's Guarantee | Sermon 08/25/2024

All right, if you would, open up to the first letter to the Corinthians from the

Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We just started a new series in this letter.

We're going to be in verses 4 through 9, okay? Verses 4 through 9.

And the title of this sermon today, church, is Gratitude for God's Guarantee.

Gratitude for God's Guarantee. So starting in verse 4 of the first letter to the

Corinthians, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. I thank my

God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our

Lord. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church, okay?

God, we come before you today recognizing that we are still students of your word.

We are still seeking to understand your word. You've given us a

Holy Spirit, the one in whom dwells all of us, and this

Holy Spirit you, God, gave us this magnificent word, and we seek to understand it.

We seek to know it, not just intellectually, but in our very souls, dear

God. And so, Lord, I ask today that you would illuminate the scriptures, help us to see the importance of gratitude,

Lord. We are a society that's lacking in gratitude and thanksgiving,

Lord. We are just consuming and consuming and consuming. We're entitled. We want more and we want more, and yet we give no thanks, no thanks, and no thanks.

And so, Lord, I pray today that you would show us the importance of this attitude that we are to have in Christ, a heart of thanksgiving, a heart of gratitude that the

Apostle Paul shows us at the beginning of this letter. We thank you,

Lord. Please move in us today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, last week we dove right in, right?

We went over the addressee, the sender of this letter.

We sought to understand each one of them. We talked about how a letter is intimate.

It shows care. If you write a letter versus writing a text or an email, it shows you care.

Your words from your hand are on that letter, and that shows something different. When you receive a letter, it's as if it's right from the heart of the person who sent it to you.

And in this time in the ancient world, a letter was to be a representation of the very person who wrote it.

The Apostle Paul had traveled far to get to the point of writing a letter to a church he had planted as now an ambassador of the risen

Christ. We spoke on his life last week, if you didn't see it. His name was

Saul, a young man violently zealous for a man -made religion, but then he became humbly zealous for the true religion of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.

From there, we saw that the Apostle, after his eyes were unblinded, he went into the deserts of Arabia, and in Arabia for three years, the

Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ taught this man and showed himself in the

Scriptures. And this was confirmed by the Apostle Peter, by the brother of our

Lord James. They saw that Saul was a true Apostle of Jesus Christ, and then he went on,

Paul now, to fulfill the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if you remember, you will be a witness.

You will be a witness. You will minister to the Jews and Gentiles with what you have seen. And he did.

He did. Paul took multiple treacherous missionary journeys, and then we talked about, eventually, his stop in Corinth, in Greece.

And in Corinth, something seemed to have happened to him because he met Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth, and he stopped evangelizing for a short time, and he devoted himself to building tents, making tents.

And it might just be that, of course, there was no church yet in Corinth. He had no support.

The church was still in the infantile stage. And so the man has to stop for a moment, and he's got to build tents.

He's got to make these tents. He uses leather, he uses animal hides, he uses linen and canvas, and he's making tents right there in Corinth, and he's going to sell them.

Okay? And we talked about how Corinth was a place where you could travel to the east to get to Israel, you could travel to the west, you could get to Italy, you could get to Rome, and then it brought,

Corinth brought about the biggest slave trade people had ever seen. Slaves were lined up every day and sold there in Corinth, so that was a huge moneymaker for the city.

And then, of course, it had the Isthmian games. They were like Greek games, like Olympic games.

And so all these people are traveling, coming to the city, and Paul's seeing all of them, and he's selling his tents, and then

Timothy and Silas come down from Macedonia, and he's sold enough, is what we presuppose, that now he can begin.

The rest of the brethren are here, it's time to start giving the gospel, and that's what he did.

And from there, as he reached all these people, aristocrats, political figures, down to the lowest slave,

Paul reached Corinth with the gospel, and so the church was born. Church at Corinth.

Five years later, from that point when he planted this church, five years after that, he writes this letter.

It's been five years that this church has been going. He is the father of his so -called children in the faith, and word has reached the apostles' ear.

Syncretism and mixing with the Corinthian culture has plagued them.

The same culture that they were plucked from, these people are going back to the old ways, the old self, the idol temples that are surrounding them.

They're starting to go to some of the parties again, the idol parties, and it's causing other people to stumble, there's disunity, and this is what's happening in the

Corinthian church, and so these words in this letter are carefully selected. This is very serious to the apostle.

These words are his very heart, and most importantly, this is the word of God.

Before Paul even penned it, this is the word of God, destined for this moment, and it will forever be the word, and so last week, we went over the beginning of the apostle's greeting.

He has a long greeting, that's what you did. Nowadays, I don't know about you, but when I text someone, I go, hey, comma, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or hello, or something like that.

By the way, someone recently said, when you say hey in a text, Pastor Wade, it feels like you're,

I'm about to be in trouble, hey, stop that, right, and I go, oh, okay, I better stop saying hey, and see, words have meaning, and for the apostle, there's a lot of words to his greeting.

It's been since verse one all the way to verse nine. He talked about how they are called, he is called,

Jesus is their Lord, Jesus is his Lord, our Lord, and Paul greets, not with the typical, generic greeting, he says the word caris, grace to you and peace, ultimately from God.

Now for today, we're going to finish going through the rest of this greeting, it is the thanksgiving section.

There's the salutations, and now there is the thanksgiving section, and what we will see is that Paul isn't just thankful for them, he's thankful to someone, and so if you look at your printout,

I even highlighted some of the subjects, and the action, and the recipients, you'll see there in the printout in your bulletin, because each section, each verse, has the word you in it, it impacts the

Corinthians, it impacts you, then in each verse there's an action being done, or given, or done to the

Christians, and each of these six verses also contains who did it, God, or something heavenly in origin is now our possession, but the basis of it all is verse four,

Paul's thanks to God for all of this, all the way to verse nine, and so before the messenger of God, before the apostle

Paul, starts just diving in and letting them have it, you guys have been doing this, you've been doing that, before he goes into it with the relevant subjects that he has to address with this church that's been rocked with all these issues, he's going to remind them, it is first essential to be thankful to God, and there's so much to be thankful for, so he reminds them, look at verse four,

I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, so the first thing

Christians ought to be thankful for, what you ought to be thankful for, what we should be thankful for is the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, but what does it mean to be thankful, what does it mean to give thanks, okay, what is this word?

This word, give thanks, in the Greek is eukaristeo, eukaristeo, it is made up of two words, it's made up of the word good and grace,

I good grace my God for his grace, and it's not like when you think someone is giving grace, in this way you're not giving grace to God, it's an action of recognition, thanksgiving is recognizing not just verbally, but spiritually and emotionally from your very soul that grace was given to you and it was good, grace was given to me and it was good, and Paul is saying to thank

God for that, Paul's thanking God is saying this, God I see your good grace and I know it is undeserved and I feel that, because when you're given a gift, not a payment, you understand that something was given that didn't have to be given, right, when you're given a gift, it's not because you did anything, it's just a gift, it was the good grace of God, so saying eukaristeo is to say

I see it God, I see it, I give thanks to God, I've been a recipient of grace and so I say the words good grace

God, that was good grace, thank you, thank you for that God, it was the good grace of God, I know it,

I see it, it's expressing your gratitude from the heart for God's good grace towards you, and so the way

I could explain that is, it's like seeing and hearing a symphony orchestra and you're incredibly moved by what you're seeing and receiving and you're moved by it and you go, that was beautiful, you're recognizing something true that was given to you, that was beautiful, it's like hiking up to the top of a mountain and you stand there and all of a sudden you see the sunrise from behind another mountain from this hike and you go, that's incredible, and you're recognizing something that's true, giving thanks is recognizing the gift given and saying that's good grace, eukaristeo, good grace

God, very good, thank you, and so Isaiah chapter 12 verse 4 through 5 says, and in that day you will give thanks to the

Lord and you'll call on his name and you'll make known his deeds among the peoples, make them remember that his name is exalted, praise the

Lord in song for he has done excellent things, let this be known throughout the earth.

You see, thanksgiving even moves beyond just myself,

I don't just simply say good grace God, I say it in front of other people, I let the creation know, good grace

God, thank you God, wonderful God, thank you, and I'll, I remember your deeds towards me, oh

God, I remember what you've done, I cherish them and I share them and that, and I hope that others do the same when

I do this, and so that's what he tells them, be thankful, tell

God good grace, and so now the aim of the apostle Paul is to reorient the hearts and minds of the believers at Corinth, you know why?

He knows they have disunity, he knows they've been tolerating immorality, they've been letting evil things occur in their church, he knows someone is teaching there is no resurrection, he knows they keep comparing and competing against each other, he knows that, but right now, before he touches any of that, he needs this thanksgiving to function in a way to turn their focus to God, because a position of thankfulness to God is at the start of all sanctifying transformation,

I'm going to say that again, think about that, a position of thankfulness to God is at the start of all sanctifying transformation, if you at all hope to be changed, if you at all hope to become more holy, to become more like Christ, if you at all hope to abandon your sin, you must first have a heart of thanksgiving, you cannot hope to be changed or used by God if you are not grateful for what he did toward you, entitlement, entitlement is at the heart of all works -based religion,

I did it, so I deserve everything coming my way, it is what satan felt that made him fall, entitlement, feeling owed when you're not is demonic, and you think about it, who wants to give a gift to someone who doesn't feel grateful for them, you ever given a gift to someone and they're like yeah thanks, and they throw it to the side,

I mean no one actually ever does that, but uh it hurts a little bit when you see um someone's posted hey this stuff's for free in my home, and you see your gift from last

Christmas a little bit, you know, I think there's grace there, but that's probably a little not as strong as what

I'm talking about, um what I'm talking about is someone just flat out rejects your gift, they have no gratefulness, yeah, so without gratitude we become arrogant, we become self -centered, we begin to believe that we have achieved everything on our own, the thankfulness keeps our hearts in right relationship to the giver of all good gifts, a thankful heart sees

God rightly, a thankful heart can be used by God mightily, and a thankful heart receives plentifully, thankful heart changes it all, and so the apostle says here

I give thanks always, that's the word, do you see that, he says the word always, I give thanks always, and that's what we must do, it is right to credit

God always, it is right to credit God always, at any given moment God deserves to have his goodness acknowledged, he's more good than you will ever imagine, he is more giving and loving and forbearing and merciful than you've ever thought,

God is so loving, and it's good to acknowledge that, and Paul is thankful to God on behalf of the

Corinthians, and he says concerning you, concerning you, I thank God always for you, since grace was given you through Christ Jesus, now someone might read through the whole of the first letter to the

Corinthians, they read all the way to chapter 16, and if you know this book of the

Bible at all, you might go why would Paul be thankful for people like this, people with so many problems, why would

Paul be thankful, some of these believers thought that the gifts they received from God were badges to be worn to elevate themselves, ah

God has gifted me right here, I'm the prophet of the church, I'm the one who speaks in tongues,

I'm the one here who can interpret tongues, I'm the elder, I'm the deacon, and they wore these things like badges, these gifts, right, so why be thankful for them, why be thankful Paul, because it doesn't matter if they wrongly interpret

God's good grace, Paul, he, Eucharisteo, sees God's good grace as worth mentioning, because the

Lord always deserves it, number one, and number two, he wants them to see the source of all these things is not in the slightest themselves, these gifts that you have are not because there was something inherent in you, you received something that was foreign to you,

God gave it, the kindness of God has acted and touched you, and you are a recipient, this wasn't in you, this is not a badge to be worn, you know,

I guess when it was, I'm a car guy, I love cars, it'd be like someone lets me borrow his, you know,

C8 Corvette, and I drive around, people go, cool car, man, and I'm like, I know, thanks,

I've worked so hard for it, it's not even my car, right, God has given us these things, and sometimes we act like, yep, it's because of me, and so Paul is trying to show them that that's not the attitude we are to have, it's been given, we don't initiate it, we can't muster it up in God's spirit, we can't even deliver it to ourselves, we saw in the book of Ruth that Hebrew word, do you remember,

God's hesed, the outward pouring of his love and affection, his clemency,

God's patience, his tenderness, his infinite courtesy to us, God's grace has left theory and concept, and it has touched our lives in an uncountable variety of ways,

God's grace has touched us, and so Paul starts out that way, I thank

God always for the grace given to you from God, and God did it through or in someone, and this someone is not just a filter, this someone is not just the delivery man through whom we receive the gifts of God, what was given the

Corinthians and us was given in the words, it says in Christ Jesus, and this phrase is so very important, in Christ, that combination, the quote in Christ comes up 90 times in the

New Testament text, 90 times the words in Christ, 77 times the

New Testament text says in him, the words in him referring to Jesus, that's a total of 167 times it is in Christ, we are in Christ, something is in Christ, and the word in is just a preposition in the

Greek, it's simple, it's super simple, but next to the name

Jesus or the pronoun for Jesus, it becomes profound, listen to this, the

Greek English lexicon of the New Testament shows us the importance of this word, the word in, first to be in is related to a marker of position, you are in Jesus, the word says

God is our shelter, God is our high place, he is our strong tower, he's our hiding place, no one can plunder

Jesus, no one can break in, he will keep you, no one will snatch you out of his hand, no one can kidnap you from Christ, you are in Christ, to be positioned in Jesus is to be safe even from the wrath that we deserve, in Christ you will never go to hell, in Jesus you'll go where Jesus goes, in Jesus Christ you get to be with Jesus Christ, where he goes you follow, he says

I prepare a place for you, if it weren't so I would have told you, he says I'm not lying, where I am there you will be when you're in Christ, and that's right along with the next use of the preposition, first it's a marker of position, now the lexicon says it is a marker of state or condition, state or condition, so the state of being in Christ is often used with clothing metaphors in the

Bible, to be clothed in Christ, to no longer be in the carnal evil state, but now you're clothed in Christ, you are a recipient of his righteousness, you needed it, you needed

Jesus to impute to you his righteousness, what does it take to get to heaven, and that this is real, what does it take to get to heaven, it takes perfection, it takes absolute 100 perfection, who has that, no one here, who has that,

Jesus the Christ, and so when you're in Christ you get that perfection applied to your account, that's a gift to you, being in him by grace through faith results in that present and future condition in Christ, lastly this preposition in, in the point of position or a state, it demonstrates a marker of close association, okay, to the point which the two parts or persons are as if having become one, when you're in Christ, you were, actually

I should say before you were in Christ, you were separate and Christ was here, but when

Jesus saves you and he takes you and you're in Christ, it's as if you guys have become one, one, close association, you are one with Christ when you're in Christ, your entire being and your entire present tense and future is tied to Jesus in inseparable way, you can't cut it, you can't tear it apart, you're in Christ and he guards it, if it were up to you, you would cut the tether, if it were up to me, we would wander off and we would lose our tie to him, but when you're in Christ, you become joined to him, one with him, and you know,

I was thinking about that, that now because we're in Christ with close association, we shouldn't be ashamed of him, you know, he humbled himself to be associated with you, if anything,

Jesus is from heaven and Jesus had every right to be like, gosh, I don't want to be with people like this, boy, wow, but Jesus didn't do that, he humbled himself so that he would save you, but then we have the audacity to then do what we're glad he didn't do, we go, oh boy, don't want this person to know

I'm with Jesus, Jesus, let's cut the association for a minute, okay, you know, it'd be like as if you're taking a walk with your spouse, you're with your husband or your wife and you're going down the street and all of a sudden there were some people about to walk by and you push your spouse away, like, not with them, you know, and we laugh, of course, because that's just crazy, if you were to do that, boy, there'd be some problems in your household, you push your wife or your husband away, like,

I don't want to be seen with you right now, but when they're all gone, we'll come back together, but that's what we do with Christ, that's what we often do with Christ, you know, as a husband and wife, you're one flesh, you represent each other, whoever you are now, your identity involves your husband or your wife along with you, you're not complete without that, and likewise, we don't push

Christ away at certain times to dissociate, you see,

Jesus already hurt for you, Jesus hurt for you already, and so we are to not keep hurting him, don't grieve the

Spirit of God by whom you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption, don't grieve

God, but do you see it, though, it's such a place to be, to be in Christ, to be in Christ, that's magnificent, you could say that out loud,

I am in Christ, I'm in the Son of God, I am in the eternal

God, I am in Christ, why, because he's a magnificent and loving

Savior, I'm in Christ, who are you, I'm just Wade, not if you're in Christ, I'm just this,

I'm just that, I'm just struggling to obey Jesus, I don't know what's going to happen to me, yeah, you do, if you're in Christ, you know where you're going, you know, you know where you're going, and so understanding that you're in Christ helps to well up with thanksgiving, that's what

Paul is trying to get us to do, you're in Christ, have thankfulness wash over you, and so if verse four wasn't enough,

Paul will remind the Corinthians how the grace of God in Christ manifests, look at this, verse five, I thank

God always for you, that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, so first we were to be thankful for the grace given us, grace was first, the

Corinthians and you all are all recipients, now you were enriched in everything, including in all speech and knowledge, enriched is the word plutizo, plutizo is not just getting some riches, it's not getting a couple coins, it is much riches, this is the process of getting abundance, this is overflowing, this is the fullness in everything, not just some things, in everything you were enriched, in everything it's going to pour over in your life,

I don't mean that in the kind of, you know, the way that they preach in the prosperity gospel, like,

I mean this in every, he says in everything, in everything, you were enriched in everything, if you were in rags before, dirty rags, you're now clothed in white garments, if you were in sorrow before, now you're in the greatest joy, if you lacked understanding, now compared to the most intelligent, unbelieving person, you have far more wisdom if you know

Christ, and that enrichment especially impacted the Corinthian speech, it says their speech and all knowledge, it says, this is the word logos, their words, their words, but you have to understand, in Greek Hellenistic society, it was an expectation that you would have oratory skills, you know, everyone's afraid of public speaking, right, but in that society, you were no one, if you couldn't speak eloquently, people would train to speak well, the desire for it was pervasive, so if you were anyone of importance, you would learn how to speak, but Paul isn't talking about that,

Paul's not saying in everything, and just like the Corinthians of the culture, you can talk really well now, you can get up on a stage or a platform and you can talk well, that's not what

Paul's saying here, some believe that Paul's talking about when

God gave them the gifts of words through the, was through the spiritual gift of glossai, or tongues, that's currently not mentioned here, or that of prophecy, you're enriched in everything, you're enriched in tongues and prophecy, and so if any were elevating themselves in those type of gifts that God gave them, that maybe one didn't have that gift, but another did, and then so that person gloated in that,

Paul then would be attempting to say, you think that came from something inside of you?

You were enriched by God in everything, everything, do you think you received that gift because you're something special?

It is purely a gift of God due to grace and being in Christ, be thankful, don't be boastful, and so that's definitely a possibility, this letter is going to talk a lot about these spiritual gifts, tongues, prophecy, healing, things like that, that's a possibility, but logos in the

New Testament is often shown in the scriptures to be synonymous with truth, it says they've received words and knowledge, it may be that they and we have received the gift of the truth, we've received the gift of the truth, that we would tell each other the truth, and we would tell the world the truth, and likewise having the truth as knowledge means that now we can grasp it, you were given the truth and knowledge, you know, it's one thing to have the truth in front of you, okay, so here's the truth, you could have a bible in front of you which we know is the truth, yeah, you could have that, you could possess that, but he says you don't just have logos, you don't just have the truth, you have knowledge too, you're enriched with knowledge and so you're given the truth and then you're given the knowledge to be able to understand it, and that's what slowly starts happening with believers over time, you see, knowledge means that we can grasp it, truth is not fog for us, truth is not smoke where you just go to grab it and you have nothing in your hand, something we can lay hold of, but the

Corinthians were people who let knowledge puff them up, we will see that, and that's a temptation for you and me as well, knowledge puffs up, if you think because you are outsmarted and unbeliever and that makes you, that like that makes you some kind of theologian, you don't fully grasp the truth, it was a gift and it is a gift and the gift giver determines how you use the gift, and so knowledge and speech, knowledge and truth are nothing without love, they're nothing, that's a big aspect of this letter, we're going to see that, if you don't, if you've got truth and you've got knowledge and you've got gifts but you don't have love with it, you have nothing, he's going to talk about that a lot, we'll see that, but the apostle

Paul isn't there yet, he's not addressing them with correction yet, no rebukes yet, right now, again, this is the thanksgiving, they and we are to be grateful for being enriched by God in truth and knowledge, because a big part of our faith is in the knowing,

I often say, I often think this in my prayers, I often go,

God, why do I get to know this, why do I get to live this, why do I get to know this, does that ever come over you, like, why do

I get to know Jesus is the Christ, and it blows me away, it's unbelievable, and so knowledge is an amazing thing with the truth, so we're to be thankful for these wonderful gifts, and so at this point,

Paul is thankful to God for the Corinthians, for the grace of God given, the enrichment of God to them, and especially speech and knowledge, and now, according to verse 6, if you look at it, verse 6, he's thankful for the testimony concerning Christ, which was confirmed in them, their grasping and sharing the truth was part of that confirmation, you see, the gospel is delivered by preachers, according to the

Bible, and they are often called messengers, and even witnesses with testimony, Jesus says in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth, so let's say, let's say someone realizes the northern lights have become visible in the state of Utah, northern

Utah, I think that happened earlier this year, possibly, well, imagine someone becomes a witness to the northern lights, and then they knock on your door, and they don't show you the northern lights by their example of this life, right, but they verbally speak, did you hear the good news, the northern lights are visible in northern

Utah tonight, did you hear the good news, and so if you believe me, and you come, you'll see for yourself, and so this person knocks on your door, you hear the good news, the northern lights are visible, they have to verbally say it, they don't just come up and go,

I'm living a good life, right, they have to, they have to preach it, they have to tell you that there's northern lights, and so then you take this messenger on faith that they're truly a witness of the northern lights, and you proceed to go outside, and you step out, and you look up, and you see the northern lights, you see them, you've now become a witness also to the northern lights, and Paul is saying that he proclaimed the gospel that faithful summer when he was done making tents and selling them, and him, and Timothy, and Silas, and Priscilla, and Aquila, and they went out, and the team went out, and they started to share the gospel, he says,

I told you there was something, I gave you this message, and you came, and you saw, and you believed on Christ, and we confirm that in you, we saw the testimony of that in you, he says here, confirmed, the

Corinthians responded to the truth by the grace of God, by grasping it, and sharing it even more, and observing that, and seeing the spirit in them, he recognized

God confirmed, confirmed them, this word means verification was made, okay, the witness to witness nature of the gospel of Christ, belief going on to belief, that was proven to be true in them, they really are believers, this letter isn't written to a bunch of apostates, there are going to be some, but he writes this letter to people who are truly in Christ, they were confirmed, and so they're just Christians in sin, that often happens to us, this word confirmed is proven to be true, it's used in a legal sense, but also in the form of a guarantee,

Hebrews 2 chapter 2 verse 1 through 4 admonishes us concerning the fact that we've all been made a witness, okay, it says, for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have learned and heard, so that we do not drift away from it, for if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, after it was first spoken through the

Lord Jesus, it was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles, and by the gifts of the

Holy Spirit, according to his own will, he says, don't forget what you've heard, don't forget what you've heard, don't forget what you've read, what you've seen, keep revisiting it, keep looking at it, keep going to the word, we are prone to forget, the sons of Israel kept forgetting, he says, after it was spoken by the

Lord, it was confirmed to the second wave of witnesses by the first witnesses of the

Lord, and what was one of the biggest parts of that validation, their works, their deeds, they said, we saw what you did, we saw you use the gifts of the

Spirit rightly, and Jesus says the same, you will know them by their fruits, James, the brother of our

Lord says, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works, talking about the aspect of a dead faith versus a living faith, not how to be saved, and so these are aspects of the confirmation of God, but we must not confuse ourselves, the confirmation was a result of the gifts of God, what was the biggest gift, how were they confirmed, what first came was grace, grace came, then enrichment, then words, knowledge, truth, all from God, if you're confirmed, give thanks to God for it.

Now, Paul gives us the result of all of this, look at verse 7, this is the result of all these gifts, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our

Lord Jesus Christ, this word lacking means to come short of, Paul says, you won't come short of any gift that God needs to give you, some of us feel like we've been waiting for certain gifts from God, and he's withheld them from us, if we're being honest, some of us feel like we are missing gifts, and we should have them from God, but he says here, you are not lacking at this time, you are not lacking, more will be given to those who steward the gifts well, and so it could be that you feel this way, number one, because you have forfeited a heart of thankfulness, you've forfeited a heart of thankfulness, being ungrateful stunts your ability to properly use the gifts

God gives you, you see, the boy, the boy who receives a gift, but feels it wasn't enough at Christmas, he looks at the gift with disdain, right, he looks, he thinks about only the gifts he doesn't have, he can't properly look at the gifts that he was given, and so because he only thinks and looks at the gifts that he doesn't have, he looks at the gifts that he does possess with disdain, they aren't good enough, so he chucks them to the side not to use them, there's no giving of thanks, or number two, maybe your longing for a different gift has left you immobile or paralyzed with the gift that you do have, and so you don't use it, you don't use it, now the word gift, according to one theologian, was used

A, of salvation, B, of God's good gifts in general, and C, of special endowments of the

Spirit, and here what I believe is, this is B, the wider use of gifts,

God has enriched their lives so that they lack no good gift, do you know, sometimes

I hear from some Christians who don't see the spiritual gifts they have,

I hear, I hear people say this often, where they've become like the

Corinthians, they're, they're longing after other gifts that they believe will bring more satisfaction and significance to their lives, you don't understand,

Pastor Wade, I want the better gifts, you don't know, Pastor Wade, I'm not being used by God with the gifts

He's given me, and there's this moment where they, they don't have satisfaction, they don't have gratitude, and they don't see the significance of the gifts that they do have, and so my admonishment then is, are you an encourager, do you have the gift of encouragement, do it to the glory of God, are you someone who can labor well in prayer, a prayer warrior, do you intercede for the saints, do it for their sakes, and do it often, are you good at teaching, can you teach other people, do it to exalt the knowledge of others, your pupils, don't teach to exalt yourself, are you good at hospitality, are you good at hosting people, are you good at helping other people, then stop doing it in hopes for a payback, then it's rendered void,

I do all this for people, I do all this, I open my home, but people haven't lately been doing the same for me, void, nullified, gift was just thrown in the trash, right, stop hoping for a payback, remember the

Lord Jesus says, do good and give, give expecting nothing in return, maybe you're an acts of service people sort of person, do you like to serve, do you like to serve maybe in the church, outside the church, then you are to do it without grumbling, without discontentment, you see living out the gifts

God has given in which you are never lacking, being obedient in these areas, this is what truly gives fulfillment to the

Christian, you're not waiting for the next big gift, you're waiting for repentance in yourself, that you might have the right hard attitude toward the gift that you already possess, and when

God sees that you steward that gift well, He may just give you more, He may just give you more.

Now if you look in verse 7, receiving these gifts from God that He never lacks to give you, they in some way are pointing to a better reality, look at this, at least in comparison, you see receiving the gifts should make us long for the gift giver,

He says here in verse 7, eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the apocalypsis, the apocalypsis, the full disclosure, the grand revealing, the day

Jesus Christ is made fully known in person and in faith, when

He is uncovered to the world, we are to eagerly await that, the word eager in the

Greek is apekdekomai, it is made up of two words, away from and welcome from, and so the image you are supposed to get here is this intensity built from the fact that Jesus has been away, and we are ready to welcome

Him as He comes near, there's this longing, there's this eagerness, someone who's been far off from you for a while, a family member, a husband who has gone for for months for work or or whatever, and there's this longing, this eagerness, they've been far off, and they're coming near, that's how we are to look and expect

Jesus in His coming, we desire to be with Him, we long for nearness, and when

He returns, it will be everything that we've ever hoped for, it will, so we are to be eager with thankfulness, and it is the

Lord Jesus Christ, look at this, verse 8, we're almost getting through it, almost done, verse 8, who will also confirm you to the end, the

Lord Jesus will confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of Christ, so previously the witness confirmed the other witness, and the

Holy Spirit was the seal for that, but at the end, at the consummation of all things, on the final day, in that day, our

Lord Jesus, He will personally confirm you at the end, He will do it Himself, others confirmed the

Corinthians, but here at the end, for all of us, Jesus confirms, and that's not to say the word doesn't mean that Jesus is going to, on the last day, examine you or test you, here's the

SAT for heaven, right, not any of that's going to take place,

He's not going to look you up and down and see if you're finally good enough to get into heaven, this word confirm,

I told you, is a legal guarantee that if you are His, at the end,

He will look at you, and He'll look at you with love, and He'll declare these words, as Paul said, blameless, blameless, that's what

He'll say when He looks at you, that's His confirmation, no testing, no examination,

He looks at you, and He says blameless, He said, I'm full of blame,

Jesus goes, I know, but I'm without any of it, and I give it to you, blameless, that's what

He says, one who is above reproach, one who cannot be accused of a single wrongdoing, someone who's without spot, without blemished, by His perfection, you are perfected for the day of Christ, you'll be ready, you think you won't be ready,

He makes you ready, it's His righteousness, it's His perfection, and now what the

Apostle Paul has done, before he starts the correcting and the rebuking, is he's brought hope to the situation, he's caused them to be thankful to God, he's caused them to stop looking at themselves, to be thankful to God, but he's also brought hope to this, this is a church on the verge of sinful separation, splitting, they are about to split because of the factions in the church, and in the process, they would start to exalt certain men above other people, you would have multiple factions in the

Corinthian church, and this man would be the leader here, this man would be the leader there, and who would not be the leader?

Jesus would no longer be the leader of those men, and so Paul doesn't want them to look horizontally, but vertically, look at God, Corinthians, look at God, look at God, brothers and sisters, look to God, He will confirm you on the final day, blameless, one commentator says,

Paul exudes confidence that what God establishes will endure, and that God will preserve this splintered congregation,

Christian existence depends entirely upon God's faithfulness, not on individual giftedness, do you hear that?

Christian existence depends entirely upon God's faithfulness, not on individual giftedness, and that's how the apostle ends this greeting, look at verse 9, final verse, verse 9, this is the basis of it all,

God is faithful, God is faithful, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our

Lord, that's the end of the thanksgiving, and so church, we are to give thanks to God, because He is faithful,

God is reliable, God is loyal, God is constant, our

Lord is devoted, Jesus is committed to us, He possesses no faults in His faithfulness,

His faithfulness will never fail, you see, you meet people in this world like, hey, that's a really faithful guy, that's a really faithful woman, but they're still fallible, they can still fail you, you can say the phrase,

God is faithful, and He'll never fail you, He's someone that you can boast on, you can bet on God, you can bet on God, God cannot fail in His faithfulness,

He will always make good on His promises, God's character is at stake, and He won't let

His name be tarnished, this is no vain boast, our confidence is high, and it should be, your confidence should be high, because of the unwavering steadfastness of the

Almighty, not on you, but because of Him, 2nd

Timothy chapter 2, verses 11 through 13, it is a trustworthy statement, for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him, if we endure, we also reign with Him, if we deny

Him, He also deny us, if we are faithless though, if we are faithless,

He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself, you see, everyone else in the world could lose faith, but God never will,

He'll always be faithful, Psalm 36 verse 5, your loving kindness,

O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies, what's the point?

The point is, when it says God's faithfulness reaches to the sky, when you get out of this church today,

I dare you to look up, I dare you to look up at the sky, and you tell me where it ends, and I submit to you that you'll find no end, the sky just goes on forever, you won't see a stopping point, and so now you understand the psalmist, look up at the sky after church, you won't find an end, and the psalmist says that's

God's faithfulness, never ends, reaches to the skies, and goes beyond, that's our greatest hope in the final day, and so as to secure this, it comes all back to Jesus in verse 9, it was

God, it's always been God, it was him through whom you were called into fellowship with his son,

Jesus Christ our Lord, now you're not just in Christ, you're with Christ, those are the words, you have koinonia with Christ in his church, means fellowship,

Paul certainly means we now have communion, association, fellowship, and close relationship with our

Lord, as one scholar says, this word can be, can mean common union, union together, but it doesn't stop there, if we have koinonia with Christ, if we have fellowship with Christ, we also have koinonia with those who are also in fellowship with him, and this is going to be a big precursor to Paul's coming exhortation against division and factions, he says if you have fellowship with Christ, then you ought to have fellowship with everyone else who calls on the name of Christ, stop being divisive, that's what he's going to say, that's what the apostle expects, if you have healthy fellowship with God, you have healthy fellowship with his bride, and so hopefully you could see now how

Paul has reminded us to be thankful, he's told us all that we have, that we have has come from the hand of the almighty, and he's had us recall the faithfulness of God, but sprinkled in this thanksgiving were truths of what ought to be, before he addresses what unfortunately is not in the

Corinthian church, you see he's telling them what things should be, because pretty soon he's going to tell them what they're doing wrong, and that's going to be important for us to see as a young church as well, there's nothing new under the sun, what the

Corinthians went through are things we're going to go through, okay, so let's wrap this up, last week

I wanted you to see how Saul got called by God to be Paul, and how the

Corinthians got called by God to be Christians, that being transformed is a true reality of the

Christian life, and before we hear any correction of the apostle, we have to know that change is even possible, sanctification does happen, he is making you more holy, and more like him, he's preparing you for the final day when we are to be with him, but now as Paul concludes his greeting before the exhortation, before the admonishment, before all those things come, he says we need to be thankful, it's the only way, you must be thankful, we've talked about the spiritual benefits of being thankful, did you know there have been scientific studies that have proven there are tangible benefits to the giving of thanks, these studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve your sleep, your mood, and your immunity, gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, and difficulties with chronic pain, and risk of disease, the most thankful people are often the most healthy people, thanksgiving does what most pills say they can do, but even better, and of course the pills never really work long term, do they, and so this is this is heart stuff, this is heart issue stuff, and so to summarize

Paul, he said to be thankful for God's grace given to you in Christ, to praise him that you've experienced enriching in everything, especially in truth and knowledge, we are to have sincere appreciation for confirmation of our testimonies of Jesus, and that we're not lacking in any gift, thanksgiving is to cause us to eagerly anticipate the day that Jesus will finally reveal himself upon the earth, and most of all we are to worship

God with thankfulness, because he will confirm you blameless on the final day, sealed with a guarantee of his faithfulness, and now you're called into fellowship with Christ and his church, and if you and I properly understood and felt these things, if we knew and felt thankfulness, we would then be pliable, we would be moldable, we would be shapeable for any word or any precept of God that comes our way, so I ask you and I challenge you this week church to focus on what you're thankful for from God, and when you're flailing and struggling in the faith,

I encourage you to think about it again and again and again, make a list if you need to, right, of what you're thankful for, give thanks to God always, and for those who don't know

Jesus as Savior and Lord, I pray that you see all that he desires to give you, and that it can be yours, it truly can.

So let's stop there for now, and then we'll continue in first Corinthians next week.

Let's bow our head and give thanks. Lord God, we come before you as your people.

We repent, Lord, from our lack of gratitude. Lord, we haven't had grateful hearts.

God, we've been discontent and grumbled about what you've given us. We have grace.

We have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have that promise of the declaration of blameless on the final day, and yet,

Lord, we look at what we have and we go, God, not enough, not enough, not enough, and Lord, we have thrown your gifts to the side.

We've not been thankful, Lord. So, God, I pray that today you would fill our hearts with gratitude, that we would see every day, each and every day, no matter what situation, we have reason to be content.

We have reason to be grateful. We have reason to be eucharisteo, to give good grace, to recognize that all that you've done is good, and so,

Lord, help us as your people to get the focus off ourselves and to get our focus on you and what you've done, and to see that we're lacking in nothing in Christ, and that in Christ we have everything, and so,

Lord, we praise you. Prepare our hearts for what's ahead in the letter to the

Corinthians, that as thankful people, we would be ready to be sanctified and changed.

I pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen. Well, it is now time to come to the table, and we'll, after that, sing two more songs and conclude our worship for today.

I do have a quick word that I intended to tell you about communion. This will be real quick, as quick as I can make it.

We have had people in the past at Apologia in Arizona with Pastor Jeff Durbin, Pastor James White, Luke Pearson, Zach Morgan.