Welcome back to the podcast. Recently, we've been talking about how we serve and praise God.

A week ago, we looked at what it means to serve God. One of the most important questions a Christian can ask.

Pastor John said, and that was back in E.B.J.1956, and that led to the question,

what do we offer God as we serve Him? Does He need us? And the answer to that question was,

no, He does not need us. We meet no need in Him. So then what do we offer Him as we serve Him?

It's another essential question to resolve, and that was last time in E.B.J.1957. Today,

we look at praise, but a different kind of praise than what we've been talking about on the

podcast recently. Today, we're talking about praise and the context of celebrating one another.

How do we celebrate one another authentically and do so without flattery, which is a sin?

Today's question is from Sarah, a listener who writes us this,

Pastor John, hello. Can you explain to me the difference between flattery and encouragement?

We are called to encourage one another, but also to not puff one another up in pride.

How can I know which one is which?

There is such a thing as flattery. Not all getting is good, so we have the word greed, right?

And not all giving is good, so we have the word bribe. Praise, which involves both getting and giving,

may not be good, and so we have the word flattery. The Greek word for flattery,

Colacaya occurs one time in the New Testament. Paul is defending his ministry to the Thessalonians,

and he says, we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed,

nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others.

And it's, I think, more than coincidental that flattery occurs in that sentence with the word

greed, in other words, I want something from you, and you're kind of getting at the heart of flattery

when you think about that. The idea of flattery is present without the word in Jude 116,

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