Goodwill Toward Men
First B Jackson
2024-12-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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That's the spirit.

Would you would you stand? Let's... I'd I'd love to sing together on this fourth Sunday in Advent. Can you believe it? Fourth Sunday already.

Good word from Matthew two to lead us into worship and says this about the wise men who sought Jesus that on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother married, and they bowed down, and they they worshiped him. We say we do the same. Sing we now of Christmas.

Alright. Got a few announcements for you. Let's see what they are. Oh, Angel Tree. This is a thank you right here.

The Angel Tree was pretty awesome. Most of the gifts were distributed yesterday and as one of the people, Tanya and I were here to receive the folks coming in and... Yeah. It's awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for for that. For... It's an amazing undertaking to get that to happen, and it's just... It's awesome to see it come to pass.

So anyway, that happened yesterday because of y'all. Thank you very very much for that. No Awana this week, not as... Not a not happening this week. They're out of school.

Middle school class, middle school, high school class is not meeting this morning downstairs during the service. Discovery class is happening today. Normally, it's the third Sunday of the month, but there was so much going on. It's happening today. So that's happening in my office in between...

Oh, good luck with all the Christmas that threw up in there. Yeah. I really thought about that. There will be a discovery class this morning probably in my office. That's happening.

Teton Valley. Teton Valley Fellowship, the second Friday of the month. They're gonna be starting in January. The second Friday of the month, it's gonna be a fellowship time. Emily, do you wanna say any more about that?

Or did I just say it? Valley, Idaho. Teton Valley, Idaho. Thank you very much for being specific. The the peaks, if they lean left, right?

That's the way. Okay. Teton Valley, Idaho, fellowship and starting Friday, the second Friday of the month, starting in January. If you want to, would you stand up, Emily? Just wave.

That's Emily right there. If you're from Teton Valley, Idaho or you wanna be over there on the second Friday of the month, you're welcome to join that. Connect hour today is a potluck. There should be plenty of stuff down at the end of the hall in between services today. And Christmas Eve services, 04:30 and six.

04:30 and six. Typically, usually, the 04:30 is the busier one, the one where more people show up. So if you're thinking, oh, I don't want to be there with more people, want be there with less people, then maybe you want to come to the And if you are somebody who comes all the time and you've been through this, the story's the story. You've heard the story. Right?

Okay. We're not going to change it. We're not going to add any characters. We're not changing anything up. But if you come every year and you are a part of first b and you want to make space for somebody else, during the four thirty, if you want to go down to the fellowship hall and sit in there, that would be a great time.

We're going move the furniture out of the vestibule down that direction, add chairs. There's a no delay simulcast, if you will, just right over there that'll be happening. If you want to join us at 04:30 and you're a steady steady, you might wanna go into that to make space for somebody else. Is there another one up there, Jeff? Okay.

That's all of them. Did I miss anything? Brad? No men's study this week. No men's study this week.

So that's the the men's lunch study that we don't have lunch. That's not happening this week. Okay. Alright. Thank you very much.

Well, I'm gonna invite up our Advent readers. You know who you are. Here we go. The McMullans. Yep.

Yeah. I'm gonna do that after. There you go. It's on. Yep.

Morning. Good morning. Amen. Thank you, McMullets. Now, would you stand with us?

We've got something else afterwards. So we'll just do it after afterwards. Is that fine?

Except the kids won't be up here.

Let's do that right now. Can I get the Oigs to come forward? Yeehaw. There's been a, are you gonna be here, are you not gonna be here? If you haven't heard, the Owings are moving to Laramie.

And it's a big loss for us, but it's a big gain for Laramie. And we love him dearly. Liz has served as children's director for years back, a while back before serving as a teacher out in Kelly, and Glenn has served as an elder. And the kids have served in various capacities throughout all of the years, steady as they go. Do you wanna say anything?

I'll probably cry. Yeah. I'm gonna cry when I pray for you. So as a blessing, I wanna bless them on their way out. But I wanted y'all to see them up here, and so that y'all bless them on the way out too.

Alright? Maybe at the potluck down the hall in between services. But God for Glenn and for Liz and for the kids, Lord, I pray that your blessing would accompany them, that you would... That your blessing would rest on them. In Jesus name, Lord, we pray that they'd be carriers, carriers of peace and grace and love and mercy and forgiveness and Lord that they would be serving as examples in Jesus name.

Lord, would you do your goodwill and your good work through them? Would you do all that you can do, Lord? And I just thank you for using the humility of this whole family. In Jesus name, I thank you for the movement among teenagers that's going on right now, and movement among children that has been going on for some time, and the way that you are steadily progressing. Your church advances when your good gospel advances.

Would you go with these Lord and use them in the community as you have here. In Jesus name, we're so thankful to have known him. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with us now?

We're gonna sing.

Can I pray? God, the the words of this song couldn't be any more true that you have opened heaven's door, and it is through belief in you. Thank you, Lord, for your first coming. We look forward to your second coming. I want thank you that when you came, you came to live, die, rise, and reign.

And, Lord, to reign in our hearts, God, would you that this holiday season that we would fix our eyes on you, the author and perfecter of our faith, Lord, and be filled with you. Thank you. Thank you for your presence with us right now. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of one another in this room, Lord. Would you give us eyes to see one another this morning as well that we could truly see one another in this room and care for one another as you have cared for us.

In Jesus' name. Amen. That is a wordy song. That's like a whole sermon in, like, two minutes, isn't it?

And 75 chord changes.

That you

needed. And this is what he

is. Let's sing.

He's the comforter, counselor, prince of peace, author and maker of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings, heals, helper, and healer forevermore. Savior and shelter through every stone. My refuge, redeemer, You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite our ushers to come forward from Psalm 29.

It's ascribe to the Lord, the glory be his name, and worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. And before we

sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray? Sure. God, thank you for for this season to remind us of Emmanuel, God with us, that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Lord, you had that perfect life lived in submission to the spirit by the will of the father. And it's amazing Lord when we contemplate it that you carried yourself in the power of the spirit throughout life.

Lord, we we we really really struggle with that. We can't do it without you. And so Lord, I'm just thankful that you are still in the business of saving. You're still in the business of sanctifying. You're still in the business of of reaching out into the darkness.

So Lord, may we be a part of it as your church. May we be a part of the advance of your good gospel. Would you go forward here today in this room and Lord from here to the very uttermost parts. We pray that this offering would be multiplied to do your will Lord and your way in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Alright. It is time for Children's Church downstairs. There they go. It's a foot race.

I'm gonna invite somebody up. I have not locked eyes with him yet. I hope he's here. There he is. Come on forward, Joel, And I'll let you introduce yourself and your and your family as you see fit.

These folks are serving the Lord on the other side of the planet. And I have been hearing about them from his mama for a long time. And I've been reading newsletters for some time. But there's nothing like sitting down over a meal with somebody and getting to know him a little better. So brother, here is this.

Tell us who you are and what you do.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Is this on?

Catch up on, please.

Alright. Hey, everybody. Good morning. My name is Joel Hill and I'm Den Hill's son for those of you who know me. I was actually born here, but now I live in Thailand.

And my family and I, which my wife... Oh, there she is. Lacey, can you wave? There's my wife. We got three little boys.

They're all born in Thailand. And we founded a ministry eleven years ago called Glad World. And what we're doing is we are equipping indigenous missionaries among unreached people groups. So our heart is to lift up the native believers. Believers from those places, from those nations, from those people groups, and empower them to be effective and fruitful and joyful representatives of Jesus in their own communities.

So, you know, I believe... I wanna see the life of Jesus, the life of Jesus multiplied and manifested over and over and over throughout the world. Through the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, God is doing that. And so it's our great joy to be a part of that, one little part of that. But we're working exclusively in unreached people groups.

So these are people groups that are less than 2% Christian. So where we live is is under 1%. We're based in Thailand, but we're working all over Asia. And just some testimonies of of some of the things that God's doing. You know, we're out there on the the cutting edge of the kingdom advancement in these places.

So earlier this year, there was we're we're working in a a community of slaves in Pakistan, modern day slaves. And, we were with them and and there was a man there who was paralyzed from a stroke and he was mute. So some of the team prayed for him. Again, local people prayed for him and he was able to speak again immediately by the power of the Holy Spirit. That same day, back in Thailand, some of the local Thais that we've been mentoring over the last several years were out for a walk in the park, and they came across a woman who was crippled and unable to walk.

And they just prayed for her in the name of Jesus. She was able to walk again and started dancing right there in the park and was born again and put her faith in Jesus right there on the spot. So same day, two different countries. This is a little glimpse of how the Lord is moving in those places, and it makes me so excited to see it happening through the local people. You know, this is absolutely what what we're giving our lives for, you know.

And we've been we've been given access to the local prison this year and a lot of the inmates have been coming to Jesus. The inmates actually all on their own started a church right there inside the prison. We weren't... We didn't have that goal but they just did it after they came to the Lord. And they've been studying the word, worshiping together, praying for one another, sharing the gospel within the prison.

One of the inmates actually led her family to the Lord who's not in prison while she's in prison. So her whole family came to Jesus through her while she's in prison. Isn't that amazing? So we're we're also engaged as a part of this this thing. We want to empower the local church.

Right? Among the unreached. So as a part of this, there's humanitarian relief as well. We're engaged in Myanmar, where there's been civil war since 2021, the most recent wave of civil war there. Currently, there's over 18,000,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Over 3,000,000 displaced by the armed conflict. And through the local church, we have direct access to the people who are in the war zone. Like, through the local church inside the war zone. These are not refugee camps somewhere else. This is where the bombs are falling.

And we've been able to equip and resource the local church to show up in the time of crisis. So we're feeding 1,500 to 2,000 people each month inside the war zone through the local church. And in this period of crisis, the local church has actually been growing even as they're, you know, having to flee to the jungles and caves. And so this is, you know, this is a bit of our heart. This is a bit of of what we're doing and how God's moving.

And yeah. Thank you so much for letting us share. Yeah.

God, for Joel and for Lacey, for the kids, Lord, and for all of the people that are equipping and encouraging to be on mission every day. In Jesus name, the gospel advances. Lord, would you build your church in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, buddy. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And so, you can just leave that right there. Perfect.

Somebody's gonna need it in a little while. Where are we? To sigma or not to sigma? Do you all know what this means? Sigma, do you know what it means?

Middle school slang, nobody's up on it. Okay. Sigma, it's the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Yes. That is the truth.

I heard of somebody that got a note from a kid this week, that at the end of the note, signed off fifth grader said to the teacher, you're so sigma. That's a good thing. Okay? It's a good thing, but it's in Greek, it's the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. It has two forms in lowercase.

One looks like this, one looks like this, and it has one in uppercase. You probably see that on fraternity houses or sorority houses, and that's the only place you ever see it. Unless you're an accountant where it means to sum up. Right? There are lots of meanings with sigma.

In middle school slang though, this is it. It refers to a person who is independent, self reliant, and prefers to operate outside of traditional social hierarchies. They're not terribly concerned with peer pressure. It doesn't seem to get after them or bother them, but they make bold moves and oftentimes, they're leaders that think outside of the box. And it's cool and they inspire other people to be able to do the same thing.

It is definitely a good thing if you hear it. It's definitely a good thing. Can I get an amen from a schooler? So I hate to break the code for you. I thought about doing the whole sermon in middle school slang.

I am not that choogy. I just can't do that. So this is Greek. This is Greek to me. This is Greek to y'all.

These are the sigmas in this sentence, right, they're highlighted, and it's an interesting one. I mentioned it last week because we talked about the message that the angels brought. The message that the angels were bringing, glory to God in the highest. This literally says, glory in the highest to God, and upon the earth, peace in anthropois. Two men are towards people, peace, and then, Eudochaea.

Or is it Eudochaeus? And this is something that has been an ongoing debate for a long, long time. There are ancient manuscripts where the stigma was erased. There are others where it never appeared in the first place. Anyway, I don't want to erode your confidence in the Bible.

I think both of them are great and both of them are true and I don't want to erode anybody's faith. The Texas Receptus, King James, New King James, that variety tends to have one, and the newer traditions tend to have the other. Both of them are true. I don't want to erode anything for you, but this is an interesting point. Okay?

So Utokia, this is all capital letters by the way, And there's another little sigma that's called a lunar sigma, where this is normally the form that'd be in the middle of the word, but it's at the end of the word, but it's just little bitty and up high. Utopias. Which one is it? To sigma or not to sigma, that is the question. What does eutochia mean?

And if it has an s on it, or doesn't have an s on it, a sigma on it, or doesn't have a sigma on it, it doesn't change the overall meaning of the word. It just... I'll show you in a minute. It changes just the grammatical form and kind of what the sentence means. So Utopia means will, goodwill, right?

That's the goodwill. Will or choice, in particular goodwill, kindly intent, benevolence, it's prompted by goodwill, it's out of a full heart. If you hear the way that God described himself in the Old Testament, he says that he's slow to anger, and he's rich in mercy, and he is favorably disposed toward people. Okay? So that...

God is there. Delight or pleasure or satisfaction with the genitive blah blah blah grammar stuff of the thing that pleases. God's good pleasure comes up a lot. In certain circles, it comes up more. But his delight in people, his pleasure or his satisfaction with people.

Desire. For if something, it's delight in any absent thing easily begets a longing for it. That's a weird sentence. But if you would delight in something that just is not here, there's a desire to see that happen. And so, Udokia, God has goodwill for people.

He takes delight and pleasure when people accept the plan that he has for them, the goodwill, the good plan he has for them. And there is a desire in God's heart and in the hearts of his people to see others come to know him. Does that make sense? Could you hear desire in Joel's heart that the whole of the Western... Eastern world would come to know Jesus?

Yeah. There's desire primarily. It conveys a sense of goodwill or favorite pleasure. It's often used to describe God's benevolent intention, his delight towards humanity. And I think, if we listen to the world and we listen to him rail about the problem of evil and lots of other stuff, we start to pick up from our surroundings that God must be mean or God must be either not all powerful or not all good, but that's not true.

That's not the biblical picture of God at all. Okay? He is favorably disposed towards us. His intention and his delight towards humanity. In the New Testament, it reflects the divine favor and the gracious will of God.

Grace is unmerited favor and God is full of grace, as well as the pleasure or desire of individuals in alignment with God's purposes. When you come to know him, you want for other people to know him. It is all consuming. Okay. So there you go.

It's used nine times in the New Testament. If you want to know where they are, Matthew 11. This way was well pleasing in the sight of God. It's God's plan. It was well pleasing.

Luke parallel passage. Yes, father, for doing so, revealing things to the simple and not to the learned was well pleasing in your sight. You didn't want to make it so hard. You just wanted to be taken by faith like a child, that's God's plan. Brothers and sisters, Paul says to the Romans, had never met.

My heart's desire, my good pleasure is and my prayer is for God, for my own people to be saved. That's what he's saying. Good pleasure in Romans one here twice. Philippians. Oh, I love this passage.

So this is great for when you just get aggravated with other churches. Okay? When you get aggravated with other people and you see this, Paul in Philippians one is so positive and so great. He says, some you ought to be sure they're preaching Christ out of envy and strife and they're aggravating to deal with and they're doing it for the wrong reasons, but there are some who do it by eudokia, goodwill. Good goodwill, an earnest desire to have people come to know God.

The latter do it out of love, that's great. Good will is motivated by love. Yes, God is love, that's wonderful. Utopia. Knowing that, I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel.

He goes on to say, either way the gospel is being preached. Right? If the content is there, God can use it. Here we go. It's again in Philippians, it is God who works in you both to desire and to work for his own good pleasure.

He knows what he's doing. Thessalonians. To this end also, Paul says, we're praying for you that our God will call you worthy of your calling and fulfill every one of his good pleasures, his desire for goodness and for the work of faith with power. God wants to not just save you, but he wants to use you to save others. Okay.

So here it is. Back to the back to the Eudokia at the end of this sentence. Eudokia right there is nominative right here. It's genitive for you to grammar nerd, you're like, yes, finally. For everybody else, who cares?

Nominative, genitive. These are the translations. So I like the King James translation on this verse a lot because I love the Christmas songs that sing this translation. Right? Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards directional.

It is saying God has goodwill and he's pushing it towards mankind. New King James, exactly the same verse. Oh, the King James purple edition, where the names of God are in purple. Why? I don't know, but that's it.

Goodwill toward men. Here's one, the Young's Living translation. If you ever get confused, you say, I don't know what that literally means. Young's Living is an old old translation, but it is literal. If you want to know, you know, where it says heart and it really says gut, you know, use Young Living.

Young's Living translation. Glory in the highest to God and upon earth peace. Among men, and he chooses not to enter into the debate really, goodwill. Okay. Goodwill towards men.

Among men, there's goodwill from God. Okay. Goodwill among men, New Testament of our Lord Jesus, savior, Jesus Christ by the American Bible Union 1865. Weird translation. But the parallelism here is that glory to God in heaven and on earth towards people, peace.

It's transmitted. God has the peace that passes understanding and he can share it, and that's what he's trying to do. The genitive, and we sing a song in this service a lot. We sung it a couple of times recently, and it's hard to get all the words in there because it's longer. This translation, glory to God in the highest in heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests.

Okay. That feels like it's not nearly as universal a thing. Right? It's not as spread out as towards all men. It is peace belongs to those on whom God's favor rests and that's true.

That is true and it's good. Let's keep going. New Living translation. Glory to God in the highest heaven, peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. Did you hear the Udokia in there?

Pleasure, goodwill, favor. Glory to God in the highest among those with whom he is pleased. Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace among men upon whom his favor, on whom his favor rests. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people he favors.

Now, that one bothers people. It feels like there are no favorites with God. James tells us that that's true. There shouldn't be any favoritism with us. Right?

But does the favor of God rest on a people? Yes. The ones who have received him, his favor resides with them. Now, does that mean it's gonna be happy happy happy joy joy prosperity till you die? No.

But you can be a martyr that's experiencing the favor of God because you believe him. Glory to God in the highest heaven, peace on earth to those he favors. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased. Wow. He is well pleased with people.

He is well pleased with people. At Jesus' baptism, yeah, makes sense that Jesus. But he is well pleased whenever anybody takes him at his word. ERV, ISR, the Institute for Scripture Research. Esteem to Elohim in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.

Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth among those whom he favors. That one catches me a little bit. It feels like it's exclusive. Well, the gospel is exclusive. It is the way.

There are some who have accepted it and do experience, and actually the last one says, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people who enjoy his favor. Isn't that great? That's a place of peace. When you recognize the gift of God and you accept, oh my goodness, it's Christmas. What better example is that?

There are plenty of gifts. Plenty of gifts came in for the angel tree. Plenty of gifts are coming probably in the next few days, you know. But a staff love gift. Praise God.

Amazing. Thank you. Wonderful. But if you don't receive it, this... It doesn't mean anything to you, to people who enjoy his favor.

So parallelism in this would be glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to the ones that God's favor rests upon or the one whom God favors. So this one seems more open and more universal, and then this one seems more kind of smaller group. Right? Not all will accept him. That's the truth.

If you let your brain get locked up with, wow, it's a universal call, but not all will take him. Okay. You're going to come to this, and it always comes to this. We were part of a Bible study before we moved to the mission field, and we didn't know the terms, Calvinism and Arminianism. We didn't know all those terms, hadn't hadn't run into those, but we could.

There was one faction kinda among us. We loved each other, we kept on pulling through it, but there was one faction that talked about the plan. It's the plan. It's God's plan. It's gonna come out just like he said, the plan.

And the other one was like, no. No. God's plan is that we would receive them and we can. We really do have a choice. And so that's Calvinism in Armenia.

It's the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And those things are held in the Bible in tension. They both are absolutely true. How can that be? I don't know.

It's a mind blow. It just is. This was one of the... He's one of the presidents at seminary I went to, but a good friend. He has now passed.

His name is Robertson McCookin. He said, it's easier to go to a consistent logical extreme than to remain in the center of biblical tension. Amen. Amen. And we tend to spend time.

Some of y'all, I know you're leaning towards one side and some of y'all, I know, are leaning towards the other. I say get to be friends with one another. Get to be friends with one another and serve other people. And you won't be heading outward, you'll be heading inward to the center of biblical tension. So there we are.

Now that, I open up and I'm going to hopefully illustrate some of this. I think that this helps to resolve this. It helps us to get this because if you lock it up and say, wow, if God... If the whole elect and predestination, I can't quite get it, it feels like God has made some people just to burn. That is heartbreaking, and it is really really hard to deal with.

There are some who will not accept his gift, and they will suffer for it. Galatians four four and five is a great Christmas verse. We're gonna get there in a second. Second Corinthians eight nine is also, and there's one more familiar verse. So this is something that I help...

I think helps resolve the plan versus the choice. And it's this, a henna clause. You all remember I have carried a scroll out here a couple of times. It's about 30 feet long and I just... Those are all the times in the Bible where there's a henna clause where it says, so that.

And it gives us, me as the pastor, preacher, proclaimer, it gives me the place where I can say, this is why God did it. Because he says, this is why I did it. So here it is. The henna clause plus a subjunctive mood. A lot of stuff for grammar, nerds, and middle schoolers today.

It generally shows purpose for an action or the result of an action. So so that can be the purpose intended or it can be the result. Does that make sense? If a henna clause, if I start off a clause with, oh, I did that so that you would blah blah blah. Or I did that in order that the police would not come after me.

Right? Whatever it is. I did something definite so that I have a purpose and then what comes after that? So here we go. Galatians four four and five.

One of my favorite Christmas verses is this, but when the fullness of time had come at exactly the right time, God who is outside of time introduced himself into the mix, the incarnate son of God, God with us. God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. That's a great great Christmas verse. Now, the henna is right there. So that, this is telling what God's good pleasure is.

This is what telling what God's goodwill is. It's telling what God's desire is. He did this at exactly the right time so that what? We might receive adoption as son. Second person plural subjunctive.

That we might receive. He did this so that we had the opportunity to take it, to accept it, to believe it, to receive it, and to receive adoption as son. Sorry ladies, but at this time, adoption as a son was was a greater thing than being adopted as a daughter. It just was. So what this communicates to people that would have understood it, is it it offers all of the same privileges as being a child.

Or as John one would say, to those who believed he gave them the right to be called children of God. Second Corinthians, next verse. For you know the grace, the unmerited favor of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, think about this, he was in heaven. Second person of the Godhead, in heaven, he was rich. Yet, for your sake, he became poor.

If we were to go to Philippians, it says he came and he was in every way just as we are frail, human, weakened. He emptied himself of his divine rights. For your sake, he became poor so that you, through his poverty might become rich. The so that is right there, the henna clause is right there. So that through his poverty, you might become rich.

So that's second Corinthians eight nine. Now, that so that you might become rich is the henna, so that plus a subjunctive, so that you might become rich in him. So so that you might be enriched. So note the similar structure, the two verses, it has that God acted. That's an indicative mood.

It is an absolute thing that happened in time and space. God acted and he did so with a purpose. The first part is indicative. God did something so that purpose. And I have to say this, So if if...

I don't use football analogies very much, but if a coach trains and trains and trains and trains somebody so that they'll be able to kick a field goal when they need to. Right? He might not kick that field goal when he needs to, but the coach is acting so that he can. Right? He's trying to make that possible.

God acted so that what? A verb in the subjunctive mood. In the first one, God acted so that you might receive adoption adoption as sons. God acted so that you might be enriched in the second example. So that's subjunctive mood.

So here we go. So that you might receive, so that you might be enriched, so you might receive a specific gift since it's Christmas. God acted so that you would receive something. So the hentaclause tells the purpose in his act, and I've already made that abundantly clear. He wants this.

His goodwill is towards you. So Luke two fourteen is saying goodwill towards men. It's out there. Now, what are you going to do with it? That's the specific gift right there.

So does the mic bother you? I mean, we speak English, we don't speak this other stuff, and a lot of us don't use the subjunctive at all, middle schoolers. No, just kidding. We don't use it much in English anymore. It's dying.

If you're studying another language, probably the hardest thing to learn in Spanish is the subjunctive mood. So let me get into that. Quick note on the subjunctive mood. Is there an English teacher in here who would love to tell this story? No.

The subjunctive mood, in English it would be like, would that it were so. That's contrary to reality. Would that it were so that everybody who's ever been a part of this church in the time that I've been here still was here, but they move away. It's not true. It's not, but would that it were so?

I can longingly say that, but the truth of the matter is, it's contrary to reality. Now, that's one of the rules for subjunctive. They're like 30. For the purposes of this sermon, I want to talk about the main thing that the subjunctive is used for is when more than one will is involved. If you're husband and wife, you might illustrate this during the Christmas season.

One of you might think that that's enough Christmas lights. The other one might think that's not enough Christmas lights. Right? Never enough Christmas lights. The two wills involved, like, I did that so that, but that doesn't mean you're going to do like I said.

Right? If there are two wills involved, there's a sort of a contingency there that both of them have to agree in order for it to come to pass. Right? So the subjunctive mood, it would be presumptuous for me to to believe that I said it and so you do it. Right?

I mean, even as a preacher, even as a pastor, this is one of the dangers I think of preaching and pastoring is that is that God has said and I am attempting to say exactly what God has said, and then you ought to do it. But that doesn't mean you're going to do it. Right? So for me, every week, all the time, if if I'm trying to process through what I'm going to deliver to you, I have to make sure that I've received whatever it is from God's word, open my heart to confess my shortfall, frailty, and sin, and everything else, and ask God with a humble heart to show me what that means, and then let me align up with his will before I ever get up here and lay it out in your lap. Right?

That's that's what I hope to do. I hope to do. But the subjunctive mood for this sermon is basically when there are two wills involved. If you train up your kids so that they'll be able to be good people when they're adults and making their own decisions. You can do everything you can in indicative mood, absolutely, But it's up to them whether they're going to put that into effect or not.

Does that make sense? Okay. So that's the note. So this is a familiar verse. I actually translated it myself to just confuse you a little bit.

It's not exactly like you've heard it before, but indeed, indeed, God loved the world. Can I get an amen? He loved it in such a way as this, God loved, he acted in a very specific way, indicative, no doubt about it. He did this. He acted, he loved in such a way as this that he gave.

He gave his one and only son. He acted. He acted in the context that we understand in, in time and space. He was born of a woman, born at exactly the right time under the law to redeem those that were under the law. The introduction of God into our sphere just as we are.

He loved, so he gave and those are in the indicative mood. God acted and he acted for a reason, so that. It's a big deal. The henna clause tells us exactly why God did what he did. He acted so that whoever's putting their trust in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.

Now, the might still in English is a little bit, oh, I might. Oh, gracious and Jackson, really. Like, you wanna go skiing tomorrow? Oh, I might. Are you going skiing with that person tomorrow?

Probably not. But in this case, the might only introduces the possibility, so that we might. He tells what his goodwill is, He tells what his good pleasure is. He tells what his desire is. All you have to do is accept it, receive it, believe it as this verse says.

So that all who are putting their trust in him are believing in him. So c s Lewis says it this way, that the son of God, Christ Jesus, became a son of man in order that or so that the sons of men might become the sons of God. To all who have believed, he's given them the right to be called children of God. That's amazing. That is a great gift.

It's really really amazing. And since God is absolutely sovereign, you can spend all your time thinking about that, but consider that we are absolutely responsible too. And what are we responsible for? We're responsible for the message that we have heard. Now, I'm going share one verse from second Peter.

Second Peter three nine says that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise or his desire. He's not slack as some men count slackness. They look at him and say, well, God. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but he is as he described himself, long suffering towards us. He's patient towards us in the same way.

Right? That his goodwill is coming towards us and he is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance, and it's not on him if we don't accept it. He's done everything necessary so that we might receive it. So my job is to proclaim the message as faithfully as I can. God's sovereign goodness and grace are available in Jesus Christ to whoever will receive him.

That's as close as I can get the gospel truth. God's sovereign goodness and grace are available in Jesus Christ to whoever will believe him. The whosoever's in there, right? It's in there, and that really means it. It's a very real offer.

So I just have to ask what your response will be. God is absolutely sovereign. Yep. Don't get locked up about it, and you're absolutely responsible for what you do with this message. You're absolutely responsible for what you do with his goodwill and I can say it extends beyond salvation because his goodwill is that you would keep on carrying that message forward, that you'd keep on helping people.

So what we do with the message of peace on earth and goodwill towards us makes all of the difference. I'm just going to ask you if you will allow. Come on up, band. Come on back up. Will you allow God's favor to rest upon you?

He's doing all he can. He's doing all he can. He's done all he needed to do. Lord God Almighty, would you allow for humble hearts, for a softness of heart? Would you allow for deep deep introspection?

Would you allow us to see ourselves as we are? So that we may come into seeing us the way that you see us? Useful, helpful, light bearers, grace carriers, those who carry peace that passes understanding. In Jesus name, that's what we ask for Lord. In all of the hubbub and anxiety of the season, we pray that we come to a place of absolute peace and rest.

In Jesus name, amen. The altar is open, but the song is peppy. I'm here all week. Would you stand? We're gonna sing to go tell it on the mountain.

Amen. And one more example, the benediction slide that's coming up here is is in exactly the same format. They're all over the Bible. It's all over the Bible. God acted so that you might do something.

You would even do something. He wants you to. For God has not destined us for wrath, but he has destined us to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, he acted. So that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live fully in him. In Jesus name, may we go forward.

If there's somebody in the building today that just today has decided, Lord, I pray that you wouldn't let them go, that you would keep on pursuing them until they just accept it, and just begin to live it out, and to see what peace is like. In Jesus name, amen. Hey everybody. The discovery class is supposed to happen in my office and there's food down the hall.