Reformation Sunday 2015

6 · Opening prayer asking for spiritual receptivity to God's word and for the transforming work of the word to accomplish its purpose in the congregation

Let's pray. As always, Father, we, we marvel that we can hear your voice. We can hear you communicating yourself from your heart through words. This is, this is you and your presence and your activity now coming to us, addressing us. And we ask, O Lord, for ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that would be tender and humble to receive, that you'd cause your word to speed ahead, cause it to run, you'd cause it to get its work done, and in the process it would bring honor and glory to you, and it would It would change us. You would form us, you'd shape us into your will and your likeness and purpose for us. So please do this. Please do this. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

7 · Identifies the main command of the passage — stand firm and hold fast — and establishes God's valuation of spiritual stability as the controlling theme

The main point of this passage is found in verse 15, where it says, so then, or Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. So stand firm, hold. God values stability when it comes to the faith and the spiritual well-being of His people.

8 · Traces the theme of spiritual stability backward through Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, demonstrating that this is a consistent apostolic priority, not an isolated exhortation

There's a golden thread, and this is it. This is the golden thread that runs through the Thessalonian correspondence. Stand firm, stand fast, hold. In 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3, it says, 'When we could bear it no longer, we sent Timothy to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved.' In 1 Thessalonians 3:8, it says, 'For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord.'

9 · Uses the universal human valuing of stability across multiple domains (economic, structural, technological, personal, physical) culminating in the preacher's own collarbone surgery to make the abstract concept of spiritual stability vivid and personally urgent

So stability, it is a coveted quality in every sphere of human life. Governments talk about stabilizing the economy. Contractors endeavor to construct stable homes. We like it when we have stable, uninterrupted internet connection. We admire people who have a stable personality. We call them even-keeled. We trust people with solid character. We respect people with firm convictions. Personally, I am now appreciating how a fabricated plate about 6 inches long with 7 screws, has stabilized my skeletal structure. Back in July, I lived through a spectacular bicycle crash, and I shattered my collarbone, just snapped it completely off, and had surgery. And I'm in good shape, I mean, as you can tell, I think I could even maybe throw a fastball. So I can testify that stability is good. Stability is very good. And it's good because of the surgical installation of my own restoration hardware. I'm no longer listing.

10 · Moves from the illustration of physical stability to assert the greater significance of spiritual stability, establishes Paul's prayer in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 as the aim of apostolic ministry, and grounds the universal need for stability in Jesus's promise that trouble is a fact of life

And stability has even more significance and greater value when it comes to our faith. God means for His people to be rock solid, established, rooted, grounded, anchored, tethered, whatever word you want to use. Our spiritual stability is vital, and Paul's apostolic priority was to plant and to nurture stable spiritual communities. This is the end for which he prays in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope, establish them in every good work and words. So there are some who, by virtue of their emotional constitution or on account of perhaps some past trauma, who are more vulnerable to instability than others. But here's what is true, absolutely true for every living, breathing human being. Jesus himself Jesus said it in John 16:33, 'In the world you will have trouble.' Trouble is a fact of life. At some point or another, if not every single day, all of us will be visited by trouble.

11 · Identifies the three primary destabilizing threats Paul lists in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 (demonic assault, harmful speech, slander/false attribution) and presents them as the garden variety disturbances believers face daily

But God, through Paul, is at work even now in this moment through His word, and in particular 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, to engender a firm foundation. So then, therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm, hold fast, because there are disturbances to our comfort and joy in the Lord that are new every morning. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2, Paul says, 'We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us.' That's a fairly comprehensive list of some of the most common destabilizers. If we find ourselves shaken in mind or alarmed in our spirits, whether or not it's in relation to some false teaching, it is likely either a demonic assault or something somebody said, or how they said it, or how we heard it. Or something genuinely slanderous, something that's just blatantly false that has been attributed to us.

12 · Makes the experiential application that these destabilizers are commonplace daily threats capable of sudden disruption to our joy in God, with the vulnerability depending on the condition of our hearts

Wouldn't you agree that these are kind of the garden variety things, the daily occurrences that depending on the condition of our hearts can quickly, as Paul says, just like that, just like that, dislodge us? From our sense of joy and satisfaction and comfort in God.

13 · Uses the contemporary analogy of terror cells to make vivid the sudden, unexpected nature of spiritual destabilizers

They're like terror cells that strike suddenly, unexpectedly.

14 · Defines faith not as a beginning point we graduate from but as joyful satisfaction in God through Jesus that sustains the entire Christian life from beginning to end

Paul knows this. Paul knows this and therefore his aim is to strengthen and to stabilize our faith. It's a reminder. It's a reminder yet again that we do not simply begin with faith and then move on from faith. Rather, faith that is a joyful satisfaction in and reliance upon all that God is for us in Jesus. It is the beginning, it is the middle, and it is all the way to the finish line of the Christian life.

15 · Structural pivot introducing the sermon's three-point structure and framing the exposition in functional terms: three tools Paul provides for stability, introduced with an analogy to breathing into a paper bag during hyperventilation

So how does it work? How does faith work? How does Paul stabilize, engender deeper, more steady faith? What are Paul's instructions for Christian stability. Well, I want to draw your attention to 3 tools. 3 tools Paul uses to encourage us to stand firm. 3 means of comfort to calm us down. 3 things that function kind of like breathing into a paper bag when you're hyperventilating. And the first is this: hold fast to sound doctrine.

16 · Identifies holding fast to sound doctrine as the first stabilizing tool and grounds it in Paul's explicit command in verse 15 to hold the apostolic traditions (spoken and written)

Very principal foundational core sovereign grace value. Hold fast to sound doctrine. Paul, again, his main point is stated very clearly in verse 15. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by spoken word or by letter.

17 · Contrasts the positive command (hold fast to sound doctrine) with the negative warning (don't be shaken by false teaching), invokes Sola Scriptura as the plumb line, cites 1 Timothy 6:3-5 to show the destabilizing fruit of divergent doctrine, and distinguishes load-bearing doctrines from peripheral ones

So the command states in a positive way what Paul had said earlier in chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, where he said it negatively. We ask you not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, but 'to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you.' So true enduring faith is fixed on the things that God has actually said. And God has actually spoken once for all to us objectively through the writers of Scripture And if we're going to find ourselves anchored securely, it will be first and it will be foremost as we hear and obey God's word. Sola Scriptura. That's the plumb line. In 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Paul says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has an unhealthy healthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy and dissension and slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among the people. In other words, there are load-bearing doctrines And then there are other doctrines that have little, if anything, to do with supporting the essential structures of our spiritual well-being. And the, and the, the, the fruit of novel peripheral divergent doctrines is seldom sweet. Instead, they lead to all manner of destabilizing effects within a spiritual community. Hold fast to sound doctrine.

18 · Announces the second stabilizing tool: guarding the heart with gratitude

Second, second way Paul comforts us and solidifies our spiritual standing place: guard your heart with gratitude.

19 · Grounds the second stabilizing tool in Paul's expression of constant thanksgiving in verse 13, establishing that gratitude flows from God's profound provision of reasons to be thankful

Guard your heart with gratitude. I get that from verse 13. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord. Now Paul's not saying, you know, we really should feel gratitude to God for you, brothers and sisters, but we don't. No, what Paul is saying is that God has provided such profound, heart-stirring, faith-strengthening reasons to feel thankful for you. It's impossible not to express gratitude to God for you.

20 · Provides a word study tracing thanksgiving (eucharisteo) back through grace (charis) to joy (kara), establishing that the ground of gratitude is joy in God's gifts and that attention to God's gifts produces the stabilizing affection of thankfulness

The word translated 'to give thanks' is the Greek word eucharistein. It's the word for which we get the word 'Eucharist,' which we just observed the way some people use the word. The word Eucharistain is the word charis. Charis is the word we translate grace or gift, and the root of charis is the word kara, which we translate joy. So the root, the— or the heart, or the, the ground of gratitude is joy in all that God has given. And therefore, as we pay attention to and fix our thoughts on all that God has so graciously given, there rises within us the palpable affection of thankfulness. And what a powerful and soul-stabilizing affection thankfulness is.

21 · Introduces the books the preacher read during his recovery week — Vince Flynn's thriller (junk food for the brain) and Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts (recommended by a trusted friend) — setting up the illustration to follow

The week following this spectacular bicycle crash I endured in July, that was the hardest week pain-wise. And so I was hurting, and while I was hurting, I read two books. I read this novel by Vince Flynn about a CIA assassin named Mitch Rapp. See, I, I, I, when I'm in pain, I know two things. When I'm in pain, I know that drugs can buy you game. And two, I can deal with pain by gorging myself with junk food for the brain. And Vince Flynn cooks some very fine junk food for the brain. So Vince Flynn was on my diet. The other book I read that week was 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Now I know, that's a chick book. But I have a really good friend of mine, a guy friend that is, who had passed it on to me a while back. He and his family have actually become personally acquainted with the Voskamps. They've even spent time with the Voskamps on their farm in southern Ontario.

22 · Establishes the credibility and grit of Ann Voskamp's family story — real suffering including child death, cancer, financial devastation, and farm accident — to validate the authority of her thesis on gratitude

So anyway, so for a week I'm back and forth between Mitch Rapp and the CIA assassin and the Voskamp family. And has anybody here read One Thousand Gifts? See, it's a chick book. It's a chick book. Even though it might be a chick book, book, One Thousand Gifts, is actually quite gritty. Not as gritty as Vince Flynn, but it's gritty. And that's because their family has— they've experienced the tragedy of an accidental death of a child. Their family has experienced— been touched by cancer. They have endured the financial pressures that rise when Their sole income source, they're pig farmers. Their sole income source, their hogs were dying off because of disease. That's, that's pressuresome. They're a young family with 6 children whom Ann homeschools, and their kids are active. One of their young sons lost, I forget which appendage, to a close encounter with a farm implement. In other words, they're legit people. You know, they've gone through it. They got bloodstains on their life.

23 · Summarizes the thesis of One Thousand Gifts: that paying close attention to God-given gifts solidifies joy, comfort, and satisfaction in God

And this book, One Thousand Gifts, makes a case for the transformational power of the joy and comfort and satisfaction in God that is solidified when one pays close attention, close attention to the God-given gifts that are all around us. Thus the title, 1000 Gifts.

24 · A vulnerable pastoral moment where the preacher admits to wallowing in self-pity over losing his summer due to the injury — heightening identification with the congregation and setting up the power of Voskamp's line

And this— here's the line that I just needed to hear this week. I'm just, you know, I'm wallowing in self-pity and I'm like crazy. I'm listening like that and feeling sorry. But you know where I'm from, Minnesota. I live in South Dakota. Summer short. And I lost my summer because of this bike accident.

25 · Delivers the climactic line from Voskamp that arrested the preacher in his self-pity and serves as the thesis for guarding the heart with gratitude

And Voskamp says, as long as thanks is possible, joy is possible.

26 · Connects Voskamp's thesis back to Paul's thanksgiving in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and establishes gratitude as the most fundamental protection against disrupted joy in God

That's what Paul's getting at. Our most fundamental protection against disrupted satisfaction in God is close attention to the multitude of God-given gifts, the myriad of God-given reasons to feel gratitude and thanks for all that God is to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. So guard your heart with gratitude.

27 · Announces the third and final stabilizing tool: living daily in the good of the gospel

Here's a third soul stabilizer. Live every day in the good of the gospel.

28 · Direct application addressing listeners whose joy has been disrupted by the destabilizers identified earlier (demons, harmful words, slander, false teaching), pointing them to the gospel foundation about to be unpacked

If the joy and comfort of your faith has been disrupted by a demon, or deflated by some thoughtless thing somebody said, or has been derailed on account of the hurt of someone's slander, or become dislodged on account of the fact you've been taken in by some divergent doctrine, then here, this is right here is where you anchor your faith.

29 · Identifies 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 as a concise Reformation theology of salvation and sets the stage for unpacking its layers as the foundation for living in the good of the gospel daily

Verses 13 and 14: Brothers, beloved by God, God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a concise and thorough theology of the Reformation doctrine of salvation. Oh, to live in the good of this every day.

30 · Announces the first layer of the gospel foundation to be unpacked: God's love for sinners

I want you to look at this. I'm going to unpack this. Look at the first thing: God loves sinners.

31 · Grounds the first gospel foundation layer in the phrase 'beloved by the Lord' and poses the rhetorical question of whether knowing God's love solidifies faith and comforts the soul

Verse 13: Brothers beloved by the Lord. Does it solidify your faith? And comfort your soul to know that you're loved by God. God loves sinners.

32 · Transitions to an illustration from the preacher's current sermon series at Emmaus Road Church, introducing Proverbs 15:24

At Emmaus Road Church, I'm now preaching my way through the book of Proverbs, and in my meditation the other day, I landed on Proverbs 15:24.

33 · Expounds Proverbs 15:24's upward path and contrasts it with the downward spiral of sin → guilt → shame → condemnation → death, using the vivid image of 'circling the drain' and personal testimony of having experienced it

Proverbs 15:24 says, the path of life leads upward for the prudent. Sadly, rather than winding upward, some people's lives are in steep decline, in a downward spiral. And here's why: sin leads to guilt, guilt leads to shame. Ultimately, shame leads to condemnation. Condemnation leads to bottoming out. Death. You know what I'm talking about, right? Have you ever circled the drain? I have.

34 · Uses the analogy of a condemned building to describe the functional effect of shame — feeling unfit for use, disqualified, unworthy, unforgivable, unlovable

If a building is condemned, that means it's unfit for use. It's disqualified. It's only good for being pulled down. That's how a lot of people live their lives. They live feeling condemned, unfit when it comes to being useful to God, when it comes to worship, when it comes to feeling like they could make a contribution, when it comes to being a rock-solid piece of the foundation of what Jesus is building. They feel unworthy, unforgivable, even unlovable. They feel disqualified.

35 · Connects the remedy for shame to understanding and living in the full power of the gospel, which begins with knowing God's love

And if we're going to shake off shame, then we must understand the full power of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and live in the good of it. And it begins with knowing and trusting that you are loved by God.

36 · Announces the second layer of the gospel foundation: God's electing choice

But the good of the gospel foundation goes deeper. Secondly, God chose you to be saved.

37 · Expounds the phrase 'God chose you as the firstfruits' by connecting it to Ephesians 1:4 and exploring two possible meanings: chosen from eternity past or chosen as first converts among a people group

Verse 13: Brothers beloved by the Lord, God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved. That sounds a lot like what Paul says to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:4. God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul says God chose us as the first fruits. Now, that can mean one of two things. It can either mean He chose us from the beginning, like before the foundation of the world, or it can mean that God chose the Thessalonian disciples to be like the first converts among that particular people group.

38 · Celebrates the Reformation doctrine of sola gratia by asserting that whether election is temporal or pretemporal, our salvation owes nothing to us and everything to God's sovereign choice made in eternity past

Either way, it's amazing. It's amazing. Perhaps you're a first-generation Christian in your family line. Do you realize how powerful that is? Your salvation has nothing to do with your lineage, has nothing to do with your heritage, has nothing to do with your upbringing. It's all God. That's what the Reformers called sola gratia, grace alone. And if Paul means essentially the same thing that he says in Ephesians 1:4, namely, God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Well, then the point is the same. Our salvation, our conversion, is owing nothing, owing to nothing in us or about us or because of us. Our salvation is the outworking of a divine choice made in eternity past. He, that is God the Father, chose us in Him, that is Jesus God the Son, before Genesis 1:1. Our transition from death to life, from sinner to saint, from object of wrath to object of mercy, was exclusively and entirely the result of sovereign grace.

39 · Vulnerable pastoral moment expressing personal gratitude that salvation does not depend on the preacher's own resolve, affections, or moral clarity, but wholly on God

I don't know about you, but I am so profoundly and humbly grateful to God that my salvation does not ultimately depend on the the steadfastness of my resolve or the stability of my affections or the moral clarity of my perspective. I am happy to ascribe any and all evidence of transformation in my life wholly to God.

40 · Announces the third layer of the gospel foundation: regeneration by the Holy Spirit

The foundation goes deeper. Thirdly, we are converted. That is, we experience new birth through the work or the agency of the Holy Spirit.

41 · Identifies the Holy Spirit as the agent of conversion and regeneration — the one who makes us spiritually alive so we can respond to the gospel

Verse 13 again: God chose you to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit, which means that the Holy Spirit is the agent of our conversion. The Spirit is the one who does the regenerating, making us spiritually alive so that we're able to respond to the call of the gospel.

42 · Articulates the Reformed doctrine of human depravity (spiritual death, moral rebellion, legal guilt) and God's sovereign regenerating grace as the exclusive cause of new birth, supported by 1 Peter 1:3 and Ephesians 2:4-5

Now for some, this is unsettling, but what makes our Reformed perspective on salvation stabilizing is that it confronts us with our hopeless spiritual, moral, legal condition before God, apart from God's regenerating grace, and places the burden for any and all transformation squarely back on God. Before new birth happens to us, we're spiritually dead. We're morally selfish and rebellious. We're legally guilty before God's law and by nature children of wrath. Before we will ever turn and treasure Christ, something needs to happen to us. We must experience new birth, and we do not cause New birth. God, the Holy Spirit, causes the new birth. We're helpless and absolutely dependent on someone else outside ourselves to awaken spiritual desire for Jesus, to open our eyes to the beauty of Jesus, to arrest us from our hellbound race away from Jesus. And praise be to God. According to 1 Peter 1:3, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. Ephesians 2:4-5, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

43 · Announces the fourth layer of the gospel foundation: the internal and external call of the gospel

What a solid rock to stand on and what a good in which to live. But the foundation goes deeper. Fourth, salvation comes through the internal and external call of the gospel.

44 · Expounds verse 14's language of God's call through the gospel, identifying it as both internal (effectual) and external (spoken/heard)

I get this from verse 14. To this he called, he called you through our gospel. So loved ones, if you're trusting and treasuring Jesus today, it is owing to the internal effective call of God's triumphant word of creation through someone telling it and you hearing it.

45 · Uses the Lazarus narrative to illustrate the power of God's creative word — the call creates what it commands, bringing the spiritually dead to life

It's the call of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus says to this dead guy, Lazarus, come out! And the call creates what it commands.

46 · Transitions to a quotation from John Piper to explain the internal call more precisely

And here's where some Piperian verbiage helps us. There's John Piper.

47 · Cites John Piper's definition of the internal call as God's sovereign creative voice that opens blind hearts to see Christ's supreme value, then connects it to human gospel proclamation as the means God uses to assert His call

He says the internal call is God's sovereign creative, unstoppable voice. It creates what it commands. God speaks not just to the ear and the mind, but he speaks to the heart. His internal heart call opens the eyes of the blind heart, opens the ears of the deaf heart, and causes Christ to appear as the supremely valuable person that he really is. So the heart freely then and eagerly embraces Christ as the treasure that he is. That's what God does when he calls us through the gospel. And God asserts that call through our presentation, yours and mine, of the truth of the gospel.

48 · Describes the mechanics of conversion: human gospel proclamation + God's sovereign internal call + the Spirit's regenerating work = a heart awakened to see Jesus as treasure and respond freely in faith

So here's how somebody's saved. Explain the good news of salvation in Jesus. And as we're speaking, God sovereignly asserts his grace and communicates his internal call. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit does this work of opening spiritual eyes and ears and awakening a dead heart. And when one sees the beauty of Jesus and hears the sweet news of Jesus, And their hearts are now alive to respond to Jesus. They repent and they believe and they run to Jesus and they do it because they want to. Jesus is so sweet, so beautiful, so excellent that they respond to him as the treasure that he truly is. Faith comes and only comes from hearing. And hearing by the word of Christ. What a miracle that is! What a gift that is!

49 · Announces the fifth layer of the gospel foundation: union with Christ as the end and aim of salvation

The foundation goes deeper. Fifth, the end of salvation is being joined to Jesus. The end of salvation is union with Jesus.

50 · Expounds 'that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ' as union with Christ, identifying the Reformation principle of solus Christus and cataloging the blessings that are ours through union with Him (incarnation, sinless life, atoning death, resurrection, intercession, provision, dominion)

Verse 14 again, 'To this He called you through our gospel, so that,' this is the end, this is the aim, 'that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.' That's the end, that we obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The aim, the end of this great salvation is that all the blessings that Jesus has received from God the Father, that is all of what Christ Jesus alone, Solus Christus, has accomplished on our behalf as a Savior, His taking on human flesh and blood, His sinless perfect life, His justice satisfying self-sacrificing sin-forgiving death, his life-giving justifying resurrection, his high priestly intercession at this very moment, as well as all his kingly provision and dominion. All of these things, every last one of these unspeakably awesome glorious blessings are ours completely, entirely our possession as we are joined to Him through faith.

51 · Announces the sixth and final layer of the gospel foundation: faith (dependence on Christ) as the means by which salvation is received

This is the sixth layer of the foundation. This great salvation is ours, all ours, completely ours through faith. Depending on Christ.

52 · Returns to verse 13 to ground the sixth layer — faith as the means of receiving salvation — in Paul's phrase 'belief in the truth

Verse 13: God chose you to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

53 · Returns to the bicycle accident story to illustrate dependence and faith — the forced helplessness revealed what the preacher truly counted on for well-being and comfort, and it was an unpleasant discovery

After, after I had this accident, My mainly helpless condition for almost 10 weeks. I sat in my recliner 23 hours a day for 10 weeks. It was just like going stir crazy. Had me thinking about faith, I'll tell you. Had me thinking about who I could depend on to get me out of the chair sometimes, put me in the chair sometimes, scrub my armpits sometimes. It was all about trusting independence. And God mercifully used my condition to reveal to me what I really count on, what I really depend on, what I really entrust myself to for my sense of well-being and comfort. And it wasn't so pleasant.

54 · Moves from the illustration to the theological claim: all human dependence is partial and unstable, so if we depend on anyone or anything other than the rock-solid truth of God's word, Christ's death, and God's promises, we will be shaken

We're all weak in different ways, right? So that means that, you know, my wife, my sons that live at home, they can depend on me for some things. They can't depend on me for other things. Like for 10 weeks, they couldn't depend on me for really much of anything. I'll pray for you. It means that I can depend on them for some things and not for other things. You know, in other words, we're just all more or less dependent. You know, we're more or less dependable, more or less solid, more or less stable. Which means if we count on, depend on, rely on anyone or anything other than the rock solid truth spoken and promised by God alone, guaranteed by the death of the Son of God alone, revealed through the word of God alone. We can and we will be quickly shaken in mind and alarmed in heart.

55 · Establishes Christ's atoning death as the sure foundation for faith, cites Romans 8:32 to demonstrate that God's gift of His Son guarantees all other gifts, and catalogs the comprehensive blessings that flow from Christ's death (love, forgiveness, no condemnation, comfort, presence, provision for every need and good work), concluding with doxology

But living in the good of the gospel means depending on a more sure and certain foundation. Namely, Christ died for my sins. Romans 8:32 says, He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things, including the promise of the experience of divine love and the forgiveness of our sins and the removal of all condemnation before God and eternal comfort for our hearts and daily manifestations of his active presence and power and providing everything, providing for every need that we have and the steady supply of all that we need to fulfill every good work that to which he has called us and commanded us to fulfill. It's the giver who gets all the glory.

56 · Summarizes the sermon's three stabilizing tools (sound doctrine, gratitude, living in the good of the gospel), transitions to Paul's closing prayer in verses 16-17 as the preacher's own prayer for the congregation, and concludes with pastoral benediction

There's great stability in sound doctrine and gratitude-filled hearts and lives lived daily in the good of the gospel. And so I've asked the Lord to plant this prayer deeply in your hearts, and, and I've asked the Lord to answer this prayer for each one of you, to whom he would stir you to to pray it as well. Verses 16 and 17. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. May that be so, in Jesus' name. Amen.