A Life Pleasing to God: Encouraging Faith

Pastor Tyler Speck from CoaH Brookline preaches from 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. Discussion points: Your faith encourages others towards Christ, interwoven faith requires deeper relationships within our Christian family, there is always someone younger than you in their faith that you can encourage, the faith of others prompts us to thank and praise God.

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  Scripture reader: [1 Thessalonians 3:6-13] But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and longed to see us as we long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we've been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.

  Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: How's everyone doing? You could tell your lead pastor is much taller than me. It always just feels so way too chest level for me. one small note about the COA Cobras. I actually incidentally play for the other COA, team, and I've nothing else to say except for we won last year against you guys and. That's all. I distinctly remember making one of the best catches of my church softball career off of a hit from Michael in the outfield, so, you can just remind him about that as you sign up for the team.

  Again, my name is Tyler. I'm one of the pastors on staff at CoaH Brookline, with how much I get to be with you guys, I should say I'm a part-time pastor on staff here. I say that with a complete amount of gratitude, by the way, I, I, it's a joy to be with you all just like Paul and Silas in our passage. We're so encouraged to hear about how the Thessalonians were doing over the years. I've just been so encouraged when Fletcher shares about how CoaH Somerville, how you all are doing. I get so encouraged when I get to come in and spend some time with you guys. So it's truly truly a joy to be clear, I am not a part-time pastor on staff here. I'm just here as a guest, but it is a joy, to be with you all.

  About a month ago I went to Orlando, which, you know, March in Boston, good time to go down south for a week. I went down there for a conference, a church planning conference, and. I stayed a day or two after because I actually have a good friend who lives in the area. He was actually my best friend in high school, and that friendship has kind of endured. He was the best man at my wedding. we've kind of kept in contact and so, he lives nearby. He, he drove down and picked me up after the conference and, we got to hang out for the afternoon, into the evening and then early the next morning he, he dropped me off at the airport.

  Mike, his, his name isn't actually Mike, but for the sake of privacy. Mike, he, he grew up Catholic, and definitely, drifted from religion, which is what I would kind of say or suspect he had more than a relationship with God, going through college into his mid-20s, into his late 20s, and now he's in his 30s, he, he drifted away from God, and, for me that was sad to see. I became a Christian when I was 19 and we were still very close friends at that point and we're still close friends now. but that was sad to see, and I at times would encourage him to try to take his faith seriously, to try to take this idea of walking with Jesus seriously, but there was no kind of getting around the fact that like the two trajectories of our lives were, were going in opposite directions, and it's a bit ironic actually. My, my senior year of high school when we got to see each other almost every day, I would go to Catholic mass with him and it was actually him that was influencing me, to think about this Jesus person who I didn't know at that time.

  But it's quite clear that he was drifting farther from God, and that as I read the scriptures more, prayed more, I, I just spent more time at church, like I was drifting closer and closer, not drifting, I was moving closer and closer to God. and here's the thing, right? I, I, I wasn't sure, if he was saved or not. I wasn't sure if he was walking with the Lord at all. Those are things that I would pray about. So for the past. 10 plus years, this is just kind of a constant on and off prayer of mine, right? This is for this friend, for this friend Mike, and similar to, to Paul and Silas and First Thessalonians, like I didn't know how he was doing. Right all this, this love I had for my good friend, all this time in prayer I spent for my good friend, I didn't know how he was doing faith wise.

  And if you're here a few weeks ago, we covered 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 1 through 5, before Easter, and Paul essentially says, therefore we could bear it no longer. This, this not knowing how the Thessalonians were doing. He just couldn't, he couldn't contain it. He had to know. Right, he was, he had to know so much so that we are willing to be left behind at Athens, it says in verse one, and they sent out Timothy to Thessalonians, right, to establish and exhort you in your faith. And so they sent Timothy out to disciple them, to care for them, but also because Paul just had this itch. He's like, I have to know how the Thessalonians are doing.

  And so for my friend, over the years I, I tried to kind of poke and prod at various times and we, we never really had substantial conversations about it though we kind of avoided or redirected, but I was dying to know and I didn't send a guy out named Timothy, 800 miles to kind of figure it out for me, but, about a year ago I got to visit the same friend and we had some slight conversations and it was good to hear that like. He had started going to church, he and his wife and their kid but there wasn't any small group involvement. I don't think there was engaging with the word of God, the scriptures outside of Sunday service. It was kind of a a check box sort of thing and so I left that trip with actually more questions than answers and maybe feeling a little more worried about my dear friend than when I'd come to visit.

  But I continued to pray for him. Right, then back to this time about a month ago when I was with him for the day we spent the day in Orlando and just kind of walked around and ate food and and had drinks and just kind of catching up right at this point in the evening no real substantial talk about religion, about faith, about church involvement, and we kind of decided at this point too, you know what, like we see each other, we've seen each other twice over the past 5 years. We both have young kids like we're not going to do this very often. Let's like, let's like ball out a little bit. Let's, let's go a little hard so we make this reservation at like this fancy steakhouse, it's so fancy that that Mike walks in and like. They make him take off his hat because he can't wear the hat in there.

  I was like, OK, we got a bottle of wine, we got we got steaks, we got lobster, bacon mac and cheese, like all these fancy things and good stuff and we're ending, going towards the end of the meal, and I finally kind of muster up the courage to ask, how's church going, and, and I, I'm not scared to ask because of asking, but I'm scared to ask because of the answer that might potentially be behind that and and he looks at me and kind of looks down and just says not, not great. and I'm kind of preparing myself like a little bit of disappointment, a little bit of like, man, it's just praying for this guy for 10 years and trying and trying and trying and just kind of mentally preparing for like, all right, it's not the Lord's timing or if I'm completely honest with you, like a little bit of disappointment.

  So I'm kind of preparing for the worst and he goes on to say, the church that we go to right now does not preach the word of God. He goes on to essentially say, I read the word of God, I believe the word of God. I want to hear the word of God preach for me and my family on Sunday mornings. Now I could go down like a whole spiral of like why you should and shouldn't leave a church. The church certainly should be preaching the word of God, but that's beside the point. But just like Paul and Silas, I was like overjoyed and he was saying this and it was kind of awkward because he's like complaining and sad about how this church has failed and now I'm like, let's go like, like let's go. that my friend who I had been praying for for 10 years was taking his faith seriously and reading the Bible and could tell when a church wasn't preaching the gospel and he wants to hear the gospel preached and like it just took all my power to not have this massive grin about talking about how sad he is at church and like oh my gosh, it was like let's go and I, I get back home and I'm like tearing up as I, I tell my wife, like this is, this is 10 years in the making and the the impact of, of Mike's faith and his growth, right? It, it was so encouraging to me. It was so encouraging to me.

  And it's just exactly the kind of same thing we see in our passage too. Paul and Silas. They had a great sense of joy, a great sense of encouragement when they heard about the Thessalonians faith. Right, a long time, I, I, I don't know exactly how much time between the, when they planted the church and when they wrote this letter, but let's just assume it's substantial amount of time. That they're just like, how is it going? Alright, and if you remember the story of the Thessalonian Church plant, Paul got out of there in like 3 weeks. Like they went to Thessalonica and They preached the gospel and got kicked out of the city and then the city went in an uproar. There was a mob, right? The guy that hosted Paul was dragged out of his house for hosting Paul and preaching the gospel like it was not a good start. Like when you think about church planning strategies, that's not one of them get kicked out of the city you're trying to reach is not, not how it goes, not how it's supposed to go, it's not what you plan for.

  And so it's safe to assume that's, that's Paul's like last memory contact point, substantial contact point with the Thessalonians and so he's just like, what a rough start. Like, are they still even walking with Jesus? Like, I love these people. And he hears back from Timothy and their faith encouraged him. The faith of the Thessalonians encouraged Paul. So our main point for today as we look at this passage, as we look at our lives, is this your faith encourages others, the faith of others encourages you. Your faith encourages others, your faith ought to encourage others. The faith of others ought to encourage you. and we're gonna talk about it by answering two questions.

  First, how to have encouraging faith. You can see that mostly in verses 6 through 8, and then secondly, how to be encouraged by faith, how to be encouraged by the faith of others in verses 9 through 10, and they'll close by looking at 11 through 13 as well, which is not the end of the letter, but it kind of reads like a beautiful benediction of sorts. So first, how to have encouraging faith verses 6 through 8. I'm gonna read it one more time.

  But now that Timothy has come to us from you - remember Timothy was sent out to them and then came back with this news. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress, in all our affliction, we have been comforted. We've been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord.

  So in this scenario, we pretend that we're the Thessalonians. Right, that we are those with the faith that is encouraging to Paul and and and how is Paul encouraged? Well, two things, right? I mentioned he mentioned comfort. And then he mentions this kind of hyperbolic idea of being alive. Right, but to start, actually I would actually kind of argue we don't often think about our faith being an encouragement to others. Mainly because we don't view our faith in the context of a deeply connected community. Right, I might walk around thinking, how can I encourage you today? What nice words can I say to you today, but I don't necessarily think about how can my faith encourage you today.

  I think the average American Christian views their faith as their own thing. I think many of us in this room, myself included, view our faith as our own thing. That we just happen to do with other people around. Right, when it comes to people in our faith, it's more about kind of living that out singularly within proximity to other people that are trying to do the same thing. Rather than living it out with other people. Does that make sense? There's a, there's a distinction there. It's kind of like, you know, professional athletes on different teams. They're doing the same things. The same kind of training, the same type of travel, the same kind of lifestyle. But completely separate teams, completely separate goals, largely not impacted by each other, right? They just happen to play the same sport.

  But the Christian life lived out in local churches just like this one is meant to be like professional athletes on the same team. You're working for the same goal. When I work on my skills and abilities and I get better, the team gets better. When I slack and I lack. I don't try subsequently, it doesn't just make me worse. It hurts the body of Christ as well. It's exactly what Paul is saying in First Corinthians, right? If you've read the passage where he compares to the church to a physical human body, right? First Corinthians, he says, for the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ear should say because I'm not an I, I do not belong to the body, that would make it not make it any less part of the body. He goes on to say that all of these things, there are many parts yet one body, that there may be no division in the body. But that the members may have the same care for one another, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

  In other words, we need each other. Right, we're all important. We all have roles to play. This is one of the beautiful things about Christianity is it bestows honor and a place of importance to you regardless of where you stand as long as you believe in Christ Jesus. Right, you could be a toenail. That's kind of weird, I guess. Yeah. You could be a toenail in the body of Christ and you are just as important, just as valued in the eyes of God as the brain, as the lung, as the eye. We were made to work together, to be with each other, to encourage each other. Our faith is meant to encourage each other.

  You might say, understandably so, how in the world, like Tyler, you don't know what I did last night. Like how can my faith encourage anyone? I'm doubting all the time I struggle with this sin or that sin. Like I'm not just the toenail. I'm the toenail that hasn't been clipped in like 4 months and dirty. And while that may be, It is always the case that there is someone who isn't as far along as you. There is always some, there's always someone who wishes they were where you are in your faith. That's not to say be content with where you're at, where where where you're at in your faith, but that's to say there's always someone that could be encouraged by where you are at. There's always someone who could be encouraged by your faith.

  To be clear, the goal with this too, by the way, kind of like an upper level goal is not just to like reflect on our own lives and reflect on the lives of others and how we can encourage each other that's part of it. It's actually meant to be kind of a cultural shift in the church. Not just like Church capital C, but church like CoaH Somerville Church. And I can't, I know I joked. I'm a part-time preacher here. I can't answer specific questions as to like what does that look like, how should that look at CoaH Somerville? What does it look like for you all as a church to grow in encouragement to encourage each other and to receive encouragement?

  But let me just throw out 3 observations, 3 assumptions even you could call them, 3 observations about how this happens, about how you can have a faith that encourages others. First, encouraging faith is not private. We've talked about this already. Right, your faith is not to be practiced in isolation. Are there parts, are there parts of your faith and times in your faith where, as Jesus would encourage you, you're alone in your room and you're praying to God. Yes. Are there parts of your faith that are only between you and the Lord? Yes, but faith, the Christian life in general is a communal thing. You look in the New Testament, you see the word you all the time, right? You, you, you, you, you do this, you do that, like you've received this, you've received that. Did you know 2 out of 3 times it's actually plural? The Greek is actually plural there, you all. It's talking to a people, a collective people, a group of people.

  Encouraging faith is not private, right? Faith is private is a little bit of like the motto of the day. It's a little bit like, hey, I don't care what you believe in and what you do, just kind of keep it to yourself. Do it in your, do what you want to do in your own home. That's what the world thinks and if we're not careful, that sort of thing starts to drift into the culture of the church too. Right, we like kind of subconsciously carry that view into the way we live our lives in this body of believers. So encouraging faith is not private.

  Two, encouraging faith is interwoven with others. It's like that's the same thing, no it's not. Right, it's different than not being private. That's step one. Interwoven faith is a step further. Right, faith that is interwoven with others, it's more than just Sunday attendance, it's more than just showing up to community group. It's actively caring. It's actively loving. It's actively pursuing the other brothers and sisters in Christ around you. Right, so this idea of encouraging faith is not private. That just means you live out your faith with other people. This idea that encouraging faith is interwoven with others, it means that you go deeper with other people. Means that you know what's going on in their lives and they know what's going on in your life.

  Third, encouraging faith is a lifeline. Verse 8, Paul says this, for now we live. For now, we live. Now I am alive. If you are standing fast in the Lord. How should your faith encourage others? Well, the faith of the Thessalonians in a certain sense, Paul is saying here, gave him life. It's a bit of hyperbole. But the inverse of that actually I think maybe might clarify a little more what Paul is actually saying, right? The inverse of that is Paul saying if the Thessalonians aren't walking with the Lord. All that work, all that sacrifice, all that love, all that those prayers that we spent for and on the Thessalonians, the deep care that I have for them. If they aren't walking with the Lord, I'm gonna be devastated. I'm gonna be in ruins. I am. You're just gonna be destroyed.

  But the Thessalonians, they were walking in faith. So he is the opposite of those things, he is life, he is joy, he is happiness, he's gladness. And here's something to ponder. This was a bit of, this is super convicting for me personally. If we don't have this kind of joy. Over the faith of others, something is off. And I, I'm, I'm really preaching to myself here. I can easily get numb to the incredible work of God in other people's lives. An example like at Cove Brookline right now we got some really cool things happening with people that. are coming in with no Christian background all of a sudden. Meeting Jesus and beautiful things are happening and we're, we're gonna baptize like 6 or 8 people in the next month, and it's incredible, but. You know, sometimes when my mind first goes to. Means I got to get there early and fill up the baptistry and lug it out of the closet. My work's doubled. I gotta work with these people about figuring out how to write their testimony to share with the church. I'm already a busy man.

  You know what that makes me? The older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. There's a stained glass windows you guys have them all around, but the ones straight back, the one of the ones on the left depicts that, that, that parable. And on the bottom, there's a guy half dressed. Looking at pigs going like this. And and I'm not sure if he's kind of, I'm not sure what he's doing, he's in despair. if you know the story, the younger son took his father's inheritance and ran off and wasted it all and is living in a life of sin and. that's the bottom half. He's, he's, he's eating with the pigs. That's what the story says.

  And then the top half of the stained glass window, you're all gonna go look at it now after the service. You gotta form a little line after that. I bet everyone's gonna go look, the, the top half is, is the father welcoming home and, and on the, the far right side there's another figure there who's who's nicely dressed. He's kind of standing there. It's kind of a funny expression, but he's looking like this and he's very displeased. See, we hear the story of the prodigal sign and what do we think of? We, of course, we think of the the younger son that ran away and lived in sin and the welcoming love of the Father who takes him back in, which is extremely beautiful picture of God's love.

  But actually a lot of the people who were present when they heard that story would have focused on the older son. Right, who when he saw his younger brother return, which represents returning to God or coming to God for the first time. When he saw his younger brother return and how happy the father was, he was bitter. He was jealous. The passage says he was angry. It literally angered him. What does the father do with this? Notice. Actually quite beautifully. I noticed this for the first time. The father did the same thing with the older son that he did with the younger son, he went out to the older son. A small kind of side note, something beautiful here, the kindness of God to you when you first come to him. It's just as strong as the kindness of God to you when when you've been walking with him for 20 years.

  The older son, he says this to the Father, he says, look, these many years I've served you and I've never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a party. That I might celebrate If we're not careful, if I'm not careful. My heart can slide into that posture. With God, faith, others. Right, it becomes, how did you get that or I have to go do that, not, not look what God gave you. Not look what God has done in your life. Here's a good heart check. Someone with a lot of problems and needs and is new to the faith steps into your community group. They're a new believer, you know you're gonna have to disciple them. You know, you're gonna have to help them logistically with some life stuff. You know it's going to take time. You know it's going to cost you. Are you overjoyed to walk with that person as Christ walks with you? Or do you immediately view them as a burden? Or immediately view them as something someone to be handed off to another person in the group.

  Our faith ought to encourage others. That's first, how to have encouraging faith. Second, how to be encouraged by the faith of others, which full disclosure, these things like totally overlap, like, how do you encourage others with faith? You comfort them. How are you encouraged by others with faith, you're comforted, right? Like.

  But verses 9 through 10, For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. So in this scenario, we, we are Paul. Right? And we're encouraged by the Thessalonians in the same way, right? We're, we're comforted, we're, we're being made alive, so to speak. Right? Paul overflows with thankfulness and joy. But key part here Not because of his own faith. Not because of his own circumstances. Right, but because of the faith of others.

  In the circumstances of others would seem to be quite better than his own circumstances, right? Paul's circumstances were trash, which it kind of feels like his whole life, that's just always the case. Yet he's so encouraged. So happy, so overjoyed about the faith circumstances, scenario that these other Christians are living in. He doesn't say why can't that be me? He's happy and he says, I desperately want to see you someday soon. And the encouragement he received leads him to what? To praise God. Right, verse 9, for what Thanksgiving can we return to God for you? That's hyperbole again. He's not actually saying like there's no sufficient way to thank God. There's no doubt he's thinking, God. Right, the faith of others was so encouraging to him that he lifted up, that he lifted up his spirits. It prompted him to pray, it prompted him to praise.

  So three ways again to be encouraged by the faith of others, or rather how to have an encouraged faith. So first was encouraging faith, now we're encouraged faith. And they're kind of the same thing. Which drills down the importance of these things. Encouraged faith first is surrounded by other believers. You can't see what God is doing in people if you're not around God's people. You just can't Yes, that's an invitation to show up here on Sundays. That's an invitation to go to community group consistently. That's an invitation to partake in the life of the church. Encouraged faith is surrounded by other believers.

  Second, encourage faith praises God for the work he does in others. So just like the first two with encouraging faith, right? Step 1 is kind of showing up. Step 2 is going deeper. It's the same thing. Encourage faith praises God for the work he does in others. You have to know other people, you have to know what God's doing in their lives to be able to do that sort of thing. And in other words, when we're properly encouraged in our faith and by the faith of others, it ought to prompt us to pray, it ought to prompt us to to praise and to thank God. Right, not the person. Right, when we're seeing scenarios properly, when we rightly understand circumstances, it ought to lead us to say, wow, look what God did for you. That's not to say we don't appreciate when someone makes a bold move of faith and we say that was awesome. You did a that was a really courageous step thing you did. It's not like we don't say that, but we understand there's something higher, someone more powerful pulling the strings, prompting the hearts of the people behind that. Encouraged faith praises God for the work he does in others.

  And third, encouraged faith desperately wants others to do well. It's not jealous. It's not indifferent. Encourage faith desperately wants the people sitting beside you to succeed in their Christian life, whatever that looks like or means in a godly way. Encouraged faith is so deeply moved and this, this comes from a deep love for those people, by the way. We desperately want others to do well because we so deeply love them and we so deeply care for them. And I'm sure many of you have the moment. Where you say you, you pray for someone, right, they shared something like oh I'll pray for you and you see them a week later. Like, hey, that thing happened and it went well, thanks for praying, and you're like, oh. Yeah, I'm glad it worked out. Like you're not lying, but you're not, you're definitely not like, yeah, I definitely didn't pray for you like. Like, well, like sometimes, and I get it too. I'm not, I'm not guilting anyone like I, I, I have two kids under the age of 4 and. They're not sleeping well. I've been sick for like 12 weeks straight and you know, all these things that are just like, I don't know what day it is, I don't know what church I'm on staff at anymore and like all these things and so, so there's some grace for that.

  I'm not saying like feel bad if you just got so much going on that you genuinely forget, but if I'm honest. Completely honest with you guys. I forget often because I don't love. Because I don't care enough. Cause I prioritize the things going on in my life, more than the things going on in the other person's life.

  You don't see that in the life of Jesus, do you? You know how much Jesus had going on in his life? You know how much he had on his mind. How many people he wanted to talk to, how many people wanted to talk to him and. This looming Death that was coming his way. But he still cared. He still loved and what's beautiful about the scriptures is you see him loving both the church corporately, but you also see him loving individual people by name, their particular circumstance. He cared, he remembered he prayed because he loved. He loved God and he loved the people in front of him.

  So as we close, I wanna look at the last three verses 11 to 13. Because if I'm honest, if I, if, if I ended the sermon here. It's, it's not enough. It's not enough to just encourage you all to be encouraging. It's not enough to just give practical how-tos. When it comes to having encouraging faith or being encouraged by others, because ultimately, The question is how does the gospel enable this to happen? How does a resurrected Christ, like we celebrated and focused on so intently last week, how does a resurrected Christ bring this idea of encouraging faith to bear on our lives? I think we see a glimpse of it in verses 11 to 13 or at least the main principle.

  Eleven to 13 again. Now may the God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Just one thing I want us to see. Look at all the actions being described, all the things going on. Ways are being directed. There's an increase in abundance of love for one another. There's an establishment in a in a blameless and holy heart before God.

  Who's doing all of those things in the passage? We aren't doing any of it. Paul's not doing any of it. The Thessalonians aren't doing any of it. If you want to have an encouraging faith. If you want to be encouraged by the faith of others, realize this, it's not the actual faith in and of itself, it's Christ. Faith is only enabled by God. Faith is a gift from God. Who's doing the things mentioned in these verses. Now, may God Himself, may Jesus Himself direct you. May the Lord Jesus make you increase in a bound and love for another. May he, Christ, establish your hearts blameless and holy. God does it. We don't.

  Whether you want to be encouraged, whether you want to encourage others want to, whether you want to grow in your faith or share your faith, realize it's not about the quality of your faith, it's about the object of your faith. It's about the God of your faith. It starts with God moving. It starts with God encouraging. It's not just you, it's not just the person beside you, that we have important parts to play. But it's God, and that is the essence of the gospel. It's God. It's God who does it. He saves us by his own good works. Not ours. He saves us out of his own good love for us, not our love for him. And that principle that it's God, it spills over into every part of the Christian life. It's God always working in and through us. And so the encouragement you give and the encouragement you receive, yes, we need to be thankful for how God has used the people involved with that, but ultimately that raises into thankfulness and praises and prayers to God.

  Mutual encouragement. Encouraging others, being encouraged from others should come from a shared faith. Which is really a shared savior. From a shared belief and appreciation and love for Jesus. Let's pray.

  God thank you that you've called us together. Not to just live out the same faith in silo, but to live out the same faith together. God, I pray that this church, everyone in this room, God that they would lean into you, Jesus, and encourage the people around them because of it. That there would be mutual encouragement. God, that we would point each other back to you, Jesus in all things and in all ways that we would look at what's going on in the lives of other people and be encouraged at how you're at work, not jealous, not dissatisfied, not angry, not bitter God, but pleased with you. God I'm thankful for your son. I'm thankful for how you saved us. Help us to trust this, believe this, know this, to see it as beautiful and true. In your name, Amen.