Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
The Wisdom of God or the Wisdom of the Age?
Christians suing one another? It happened in Corinth—and still happens today. But what if the gospel actually gives us a better way? This week’s message explores a hard but liberating truth: you are not what you were.
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In this message from 1 Corinthians 6:1–11, Pastor Paul Lawler addresses how believers should handle conflict—not with lawsuits or public accusations, but with the wisdom and reconciliation of Christ. Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for taking fellow Christians to secular courts over civil matters. Instead, he calls them to remember who they are and whose they are: saints who will one day reign with Christ and judge angels. The sermon outlines Jesus’ biblical model for resolving conflict (Matthew 18), explores the difference between sin and crime, and dives into three Greek words for forgiveness that bring healing and freedom. Pastor Paul ends with a powerful reminder: no matter your past, you are not what you were. You’ve been washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ.
[0:17] Let's pray, church family.
[0:21] God, would you remind us that all people, human beings, are created in your image. And all people are of sacred worth. And as we've heard this small part of our brother's story, we pray, speak to our hearts, create intersections within us that stir responsiveness as your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[0:51] Greetings in Jesus' name. My name is Paul Aller. I have the honor of serving as the lead pastor of Christ Methodist. We welcome you here today, whether you're a regular attender, member, or guest. Thankful that you're here. We're in a series on the book of 1 Corinthians. I want to invite you to open your Bible there. We're going to read as we're in this series. We're now in chapter 6. And so I'm going to read verses 1 through 11. And so hear the word of God. I mean, I'm thankful for that sound. I'm going to let that sound of pages turning, holy sound. I need to honor that for a moment. Let you get there. 1 Corinthians 6. All right. 1 Corinthians 6, hear the word of God. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more then matters pertaining to this life? So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.
[2:00] Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. And God always adds his blessing to the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now, loved ones, I said something like this last week. I was preaching in a different venue on campus, so a few of you may have heard this. But one of the reasons we teach through books of the Bible here at Christ Church is because you get to hear the word of God in its context.
[3:15] Also, and I would submit that's the best way for us to be discipled and developed, but in addition to that, when we teach through the scriptures, you will discover that the Bible itself addresses a whole myriad of topics that deal with the fallenness of the human condition. That was true last week in the text, and I mentioned to you last week that if you haven't encountered what we navigated in 1 Corinthians 5 in your lifetime, if you're young enough, You probably will if you stay alive in Christ and active within the body of Christ. I would also submit, and this is a little bit of Pastor Paul working through his own denial, I have been in ministry for four decades, which is like, pinch yourself, is that for real?
[4:02] But in four decades of ministry, what I've just read out of this chapter, I have found to be highly relevant in the church.
[4:12] And some of that will be explained as we journey forward. And so we're going to ask a deeper question as we launch today, and that is, what does the wisdom of God provide for the church in this context where we're mindful of believers who are actually having disputes in business, and they're suing one another.
[4:37] Going to secular courts, rather than working things out between themselves. And we'll get into more detail of that as we journey forward. So let's begin here. We're going to begin with what the scriptures would describe as the wisdom for reconciliation. Look with me at verse 1. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Now, let's talk about what this does not mean before we talk about what it does mean. This doesn't mean that believers in Jesus Christ are prohibited from pressing criminal charges against another believer. And the reason we say that is because in verse 8, the fact that the verse says, why not rather be cheated, implies that what the Apostle Paul is dealing with here are civil cases, not criminal cases when it comes to matters that are before the church. We must always distinguish, particularly when looking at verses in the Bible like this, there's a distinguishment between sins and crimes.
[5:49] Sins in this context are handled by the church. Crimes are handled by the state, And we know that that too is of God because Romans 13 tells us that God has ordained the governing authorities. So those of you who are serving on civil levels in government that make up our church family, you're doing God's work. What you're doing is very important. Furthermore, when a crime has been committed, a Christian may at times be obligated to actually turn another Christian in if they've committed a crime and even testify against them in court. So the church does not have jurisdiction over criminal justice. That belongs to the state. And again, that is supported by Romans chapter 13. Also, we could go to some other passages, but we don't have time this morning. So back to verse one, when one of you has a grievance against one another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
[6:52] Paul's asking this question, and again, some of this emanates out of chapter 5, but he's asking this question because believers have been instructed that when they have a problem with one another, that there is a biblical pattern for working that out. And that's found in Matthew chapter 18, where Jesus teaches in verses 15 through 20, that if you have a dispute, a disagreement, or your brother or sister is in some type of sin, the scripture says, go to your brother, go to your sister privately, one-on-one. And that's important for many reasons. One of the reasons it's important is because what the scripture doesn't teach us to do, and that is to go to other people, to gossip about other people or to wind up slander around another person because there may be things going on that we don't understand. The scripture teaches very clearly, Jesus teaches, go to your sister, go to your brother privately. Don't gossip about them, don't slander them, go to them privately.
[7:59] Secondly, if you're not able to reconcile and to get things out in the open where we're moving in a God-honoring direction, Jesus says, then take a brother or sister, take two witnesses with you and sit with that individual and try to work things out. And if you can't reach a God-honoring solution, then Jesus teaches it's to go to a third level, and that is bring it before the church. Now, I do not believe that Jesus is teaching us to bring those matters before the church on a Sunday morning in the middle of worship. I don't think that's orderly. I don't think that's what Jesus has in mind.
[8:42] What I do believe is that it goes before the leadership of the church, and the leadership seeks to bring collective wisdom to the table, prayerfully, scripturally, tenderly, but truthfully with two individuals that may have disagreement or have issues with one another or other matters. I'm not covering everything in this brief time.
[9:07] But if that cannot be worked out, if there is sin involved, the Scripture teaches that if an individual is not repentant, that by the time it's gone to the third
[9:18] level, that they're to be removed from the church. And as we covered last week, that's not vindictive, that's not punitive, that's rooted in the love of God, and that's so that that sister or brother senses the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and they are drawn back into relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The motive of that is love. Now, when Paul gets to this, what's happening in the Corinthian church with believers suing one another, he's shocked by what's happening because he knows that the Corinthian church is not going through any of this process, and these believers that are suing one another are not going through any of this process, and he's distressed by this approach, which brings him to a different phase in the passage where he begins to lift up something that we overlook at times. The Corinthians overlooked it, and I would submit it's relevant for all of us, and here it is. The wisdom of who and whose you really are. Look with me at verses 2 and 3. Paul says this, he's reminding them of who they are in Christ. He says, do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
[10:36] Whoa. Is that heavy? It's a rhetorical question. It's not in the text. I added that. And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? Whoa. Again, not in the text That's your pastor Whoa, How much more then matters pertaining to this life?
[11:06] Now, as we unpack this for a moment, let's validate something together. When we study the scripture, should it not stretch us in some ways, right? I mean, we're talking about God here. We're talking about infinite reality. And in light of that, there's some things here that may stretch you, may not. Some of you may be familiar with this text. But for many of us, we may get stretched a little bit in our thinking and in the reality of because of whose you are, who you are in Christ. So five times in this chapter, Paul asked the Corinthians, do you not know? Do you not know? He says this five times. Why?
[11:45] Well, there's a couple of reasons. One is because he has spent a lot of time with them and he has taught them. And the very things that they're not applying are things that he and other apostles have taught the church. There are other reasons he's repeating, do you not know, is because this strikes a blow at the pride of the Corinthians. They are operating independent of God. They're begun to, as I said last Sunday, they've gone Fleetwood Mac. You can go your own way. And that's what's happened. They're going their own way. They think that they are so wise in the way they are handling matters, and they think the Apostle Paul is oh so naive and provincial in his thinking. So Paul begins, do you not know that the saints will judge the world in a way that he's saying you most certainly should know this. In fact, you know down in your knower that you do know this.
[12:45] And so to just support that Paul's not pulling this out of thin air, what we're going to do for a moment is just look at a few passages of Scripture so that you recognize that this is not an isolated thing that Paul is lifting up. And because it's not isolated, this enhances our understanding of why the Corinthian Christians should have known this, and it also enhances the fact that all of us should know this, even though it stretches us. First, let's go to an Old Testament book called Daniel. Many of you know that Daniel is not only a book written that dealt with some historical facts, but it also is a book that contains prophecy about the future. And so in chapter seven, this is what's written. I kept looking and a horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the ancient of days came. The ancient of days is a reference to Jesus, that he is going to come again. And judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. A day is coming, the meek shall inherit the earth. And so that day is coming, as Jesus shared in the Sermon on the Mount.
[14:00] Meekness is power under control. That is, the Holy Spirit dwells in you as a Christian, as a believer. And one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control. A Christian is meek. They have power under control, but those who possess the presence of Christ in their life, they will inherit the earth. Now, unless that sounds like fantasy to you, let's process this for just a moment in this way. It's a scientific fact that a day will come when the sun will burn out.
[14:33] Right? It's a scientific fact that the universe is expanding, right? For physicists in the room, the universe is expanding. The point is, is life as we know it is not sustainable forever, okay? And now, let's do this for a moment. If the universe was created from the Big Bang, okay, which I would support, doesn't conflict with scripture, but that's a whole other discussion at another time. If the universe was started with the Big Bang, the deeper question that we need to ask is that if matter went boom, if that's what's happening, who moved upon that first? And I would submit the creator of the heavens and the earth, who loves you, who created you, and sent his son to die on a cross so that in our sinfulness.
[15:32] God being holy and perfect and infinitely creative, we could be reconciled to him for eternity. Now, I share this because as the scripture says, he's the highest one. We're gonna continue with this verse tech team, Daniel 7. The time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. That day's coming when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, remember heaven is not some ethereal place where we float on clouds. Heaven is a newly created heavens and earth where Christ dwells on earth, and there's no more sin and fallenness. And we're living in our full design and the presence of Christ as we were intended to in the garden. So then the sovereignty, dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to who? Somebody say it out loud.
[16:25] Okay, one of you, okay? All right, it will be given to who?
[16:31] People of the saints. Who is that? That's you, okay? That's you. It's going to be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. The point is, is the Bible's laying groundwork that you one day, we, I know this sounds too good to be true, too true to ignore. You're going to reign with the person of Jesus Christ in a new creation. It's deep, okay? Matthew 19, Jesus refers to this. Truly I say to you, that you have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne. You also shall sit upon twelve thrones. He was talking to his disciples. Judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Huh, that's deep. Let's pick it up again. Revelation 20, verse 4, describing our future in Christ. And I saw thrones and they who sat upon them and judgment was given to them. And I saw souls who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus. Let's stop right there. So it's very clear that those who've been martyred for
[17:24] Christ, who would not deny Jesus, are going to be given special honor in heaven. You may remember a few years ago, a group of men and women in orange jumpsuits, that Muslim fundamentalists beheaded them because they would not deny the person of Jesus Christ. We see right here in Scripture, they will be given special honor in heaven. And so let's read on. Because of the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast in his image, not receive the mark on their forehead, upon their hand. We don't have time to teach that right now. And they came to life, and notice this key word, say it out loud, they what?
[18:01] Reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So here's the picture. Here's what's going on. Paul had taught these things at Corinth that you're going to reign with Christ one day. He taught that you're going to judge, participate in the judgment of lost humanity with Jesus, and you're going to judge angels. And so Paul assumes that they know it, but their actions absolutely, completely are contradictory to their theology. And that's why Paul is calling them out on it. If the saints are going to reign with Christ and participate in the judgment of the world, how in the world can the Corinthians turn now to the unsaved for judgment?
[18:43] The righteous, if the righteous are going to judge the unrighteous at the second coming, how can the Corinthian church now be looking to godless people to judge the righteous? So that's the question he's asking as he's correcting them. So when Christ judges the world, the Bible teaches that we will participate. It's deep. It's glorious.
[19:05] But also the scriptures teach, and we don't have time to get into the depth of it, that God will judge angels. And what's challenging just to think about in judging angels, as God judges angels, we too will participate in the judgment of angels as well. So let's continue. Verse 4. So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brothers or brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers. And so Paul is saying, why are you laying disputes like this before godless people? Again, he goes on to say, verses seven and eight, to have lawsuits with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not suffer wrong, he says? Why not rather be defrauded, but you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brother. And so, church, you can see this. Paul's instructions to the Corinthian church can only be understood in terms of an utterly different value system for that of a Christian as opposed to the unbeliever. So.
[20:24] Isn't it true that when Jesus invited people to follow him, that he taught us in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you're on the way with him, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. In other words, intervene, take action before things escalate. And church family, that's wise advice. This is, again, why E. Stanley Jones says to the body of Christ, when you are in the way of Jesus, the way of Jesus works. When you get out of the way of Jesus, the way doesn't work. So if you can reach an agreement together, get help from others in the church and work it out. The Apostle Paul said, Jesus said, as well as the Apostle Paul, affirming it in this passage. Now, I didn't put this in the notes, and it's a little bit personal.
[21:30] Our family has developed businesses for a number of years, and there's a part of me, this is kind of, you know, Paul said this is opinion, this is not gospel. So what I'm about to say is opinion. It's not gospel. But I just want to share this because I think it's relevant.
[21:51] And I know a little bit about when you get sued or people take you to court. In fact, and this is maybe I have a little cynicism. This could be unreconciled anger. I'll confess that. I'm not sure you can build a large business without being sued sometime I don't know Because there are fallen people in the world that want to Take advantage sometimes and cut corners and Make a cheap buck, Forgive me, that's not gospel I'm just saying this Why am I saying it? Because those of you who own businesses in our church family I want you to know that you have a senior pastor that understands, That when you go through some things like this How serious it can be How it can weigh on you How it can weigh on your entire family, I'm also aware That there's hurt involved, That even when you can reach a stage of mediation Where on paper you may contractually agree To some type of amicable agreement There's still hurt down inside God.
[23:04] And in light of that, what I want to do for a moment is offer you three Greek words on forgiveness and why they're relevant for us all. Let me do that. First Greek word I want to give you is the Greek word aphiome. It's the Greek word used for forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer. We prayed it this morning. Lord, forgive me of my sins in the same way that I forgive the sins of others. It's a weighted prayer. But epheme is a word that is used oftentimes in a ritualistic pattern or kind of like a catechesis. It's teaching us something. And as it does, as we forgive in this way, epheme is like cutting across the heart. Like my heart doesn't want to do this, but what I do when I step into this pattern of saying it, it cuts across the heart. Some of you raising children, you know that when your kids are playing on the playground and they get into a spat with another child, one of the things that as a parent, responsible parent, you look at your child and you say, honey, tell him or tell her you're sorry. And then oftentimes the child does something like this.
[24:24] Okay, I'm sorry. And you can tell the words aren't connected to the heart, but they're taking the step. It's a phyome. In other words, they're doing the right thing. It's not the direction that the heart wants to go when it's fallen state, but they're cutting across the grain
[24:41] of the heart. That's a phyome. And what it is, you're training the heart to move in a Godward direction. I can tell you that a lot of adults who never learned to do that as children, I've watched them struggle as adults to forgive because they've never learned to cut across the pattern of their fallen heart and move with Jesus. Epheme, Lord, forgive me of my sins in the same way that I forgive others. Need to recognize that's a conditional prayer that Jesus taught us to pray that has everything to do with your spiritual health, getting free.
[25:18] So ephiome, we need to learn to practice that rhythm. The second word that's a key to your freedom is the Greek word forgiveness, which is epluo. It's the word that Jesus Christ used on the cross. When Jesus had also been betrayed, when Jesus had been lied about, when Jesus had been maligned, when Jesus had been physically persecuted, verbally persecuted, mischaracterized, which is a lot of the type of betrayal that we experience when we end up in some type of dispute with someone. And yet, even as he's facing death, Father, a pluo, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. A pluo is to forgive in the way that Jesus forgave, and this sets you free.
[26:13] The third Greek word, and please know that I'm not trying to impress you with Greek. I'm trying to help you. The third Greek word for forgiveness is charismetso. And the root word of charismetso is the Greek word charis, is where we get the word grace, the very power of God working in us. And the way charismetso works is that when I begin to affime, or shall we say, practice cutting across the heart in the ritual of saying the words, I forgive him, I forgive her, even though our heart is not feeling it. I'm cutting across the pattern of my own heart because I know this is what God would have me do. What happens is God begins to meet me with charismetso. In other words, the grace to get me there, to bring me over the threshold. So it becomes a pluo. That is, I begin forgiving others in the way that Jesus forgives and Jesus has forgiven me. Otherwise, you ever heard this phrase? You ever heard a farmer say, what's down in the well will come up in the bucket?
[27:23] The reason that's relevant is that if you don't get free, what's down in the well will come up in the bucket because the toxicity of the past pain of trying to work through things, and even being betrayed or lied about is going to come up. And so the pathway, according to Christ, is to forgive. This is why Paul reminds the church of the wisdom of who and whose you are, because in that truth, you get set free, church.
[27:54] Thirdly, the wisdom that comes from a godly perspective. Listen to what Paul says here, because at first, people think he's taking off on a tangent, if you'll bear with me for just a minute, you'll see that that's not the case. First Corinthians 6, 9 through 10, Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexual immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
[28:30] Don't kid yourself about the facts that Paul just outlined. Paul warns that persons who are committed to living in these patterns of sin, he doesn't say stumble, but living in these patterns of sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[28:48] Sinners include those who commit sexual sin outside of marriage. That is sexual immorality between one man, one woman outside of marriage. That's sexual immorality. Those who serve other or various kinds of gods, that's idolatry. That's an idolater he refers to. Those who commit sexual sins against their partner in marriage, that's called adultery. And if a man or woman lives in that pattern, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Active homosexuals, it doesn't say a person who has an impure thought, but a person who participates in that lifestyle, just commits to it, lives to it, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those excluded from heaven are thieves. We see that in the passage. Those who lust for what other people possess, that's covetousness and greediness. People who abuse alcohol. In other words, I drink to the point of inebriation regularly. That's a drunkard, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who speak words against other people, gossip, slander, that's a reviler. That's a person who divides people from other people. A reviler, who a person who lives in that pattern will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[30:06] Con artists, which are swindlers, person who tweak deals in a way where people are deceived, that you swindle other people. And so this is a sampling Paul gives of persons who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Let's remember, heaven, you're in the full presence of God, who is holy.
[30:28] Consequently, persons who are not under the blood of Christ and seeking to live for Jesus and are committed to living an unholy life will not enter his presence. Now, what is this unto? Why does Paul, did Paul just take a rabbit trail?
[30:46] Listen to what he says. And such were some of you. Why does he say that?
[30:54] Because this is the behavior that characterized the Corinthians before they came to know Christ. But now they've abandoned those lifestyles as they've come to know Jesus. Therefore, if God's strong enough in you for you to abandon those lifestyles, then surely you're strong enough in Christ to stop suing one another. That's his point. And so he says in 1 Corinthians 6, 11, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Now, let me say this, you and I, all of us should find great comfort in this passage because one of the things it tells us is no sinner is too far from God where they're gone. You should be encouraged by this. What was in the past in the lives of the Corinthians did not determine what or who they were today, because the cross of Jesus Christ separated them from their sins and separated them from their past. What Paul is emphasizing is that these things are made up of what you were and not who you are.
[32:03] So, I think I have shared with you that when I pastored Christ Church Birmingham for a number of years, about one or two o'clock in the worship center there, there were every Sunday about 25 or 30 human trafficking victims that were a part of our church family that sat just right over here.
[32:27] And a few years ago, I was preaching on this passage. And I got to this passage and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. And when I got to this passage, one of the young ladies among the human trafficking victims, she began to shout. Now, she wasn't shouting like an inappropriate shout. I don't mean something that was disruptive, she began to shout in a way where the only way I know how to say it is it felt holy. It was like right in the groove and rhythm of what was being taught.
[33:11] And she began to say out loud, I am not what I was. I am not what I was. Glory to God. I am not what I was. And as she began to say those words, and I had a bird's eye view as I'm looking out in the congregation, I look over and by the third row, I see a housewife in the church. She's got tears coming down her cheeks, not only because she is rejoicing in what Christ is doing in her life, this young woman's life, but she's also thinking about her own past, that she's not what she was. And then I look up and there's a Sanford professor, Sanford University professor toward the back. Then I notice this history professor with her hand up in the air right in the middle of the sermon as this young lady is rejoicing that she's not what she was. And this Sanford professor back here holding her hand up with her hand over her heart and her hand lifted to the Lord. I look over here and there's a banker.
[34:12] He's shaking his head like in his heart. He knows, I'm not what I was. He's hearing the witness of this human trafficking victim and all that she's been through. But what's happening is he's identifying with what Jesus Christ has done for him. He's not what he was. And I look around the congregation, their heads nodding, their tears on people's faces. And as they all realize and rejoice in the depth of what Jesus Christ has done, many who battle the voice of the enemy. He loves to bring up their past. The enemy, isn't it true, he knows your name, but isn't it true that he calls you by your sin? But isn't it also true that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, knows your sin, but dignifies you by calling you by name? Because when your life is in Christ, there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. Your struggles and your past are not your identity. You are not what you were. You have been liberated, church, into a new reality because the ultimate reality bled and died for you on a cross and redeemed you. You are not what you were.
[35:22] Such were some of you, but you are not any longer. You have been set free by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. May God be glorified.
[35:39] So here's how we want to close today. I'm going to ask Kyle if he'll come. I want you to look at the cross just for a moment. You don't have to. It's just if you have liberty to do so. Just look at the cross. And be mindful that the Son of God, the Bible says, bore your sins there. Took them. All of them. And as you ponder that reality, Kyle's going to lead us in a song called Be Thou My Vision. Many of you know it. The Bible, contrary to how many people translate, many scholars translate the passage in Proverbs, it says, without a vision, my people perish. In the Hebrew, it actually says, without a revelation of God, my people perish.
[36:29] And that was the problem at Corinth. they had lost their sense of a revelation of God and they began to do things their own way they went fleet with Mark.
[36:41] And it can happen to any of us, and so as Kyle leads us in the song be thou my vision, let God rekindle his way a vision of his revelation our vision of God and his revelation over your life and the way we live into our life together,
[37:06] our practice of following Jesus. Let's stand. Let me pray over you for a moment. Father, as we honor you, we, as an act of worship, lift this song before you. Let the words also be a prayer. and we pray, hear our prayer, oh God, in Jesus' name, amen.