Well, it’s good to be with you this morning. It’s good to have Haley with us on just a little reprieve from mission work in New York. So, so glad to see her face and have her with us this weekend. And good to have Dalton and Elena pop in too. So, good to have you guys. I’m glad Chase said what he said about the Puritans of William Bradford. If you’ve never read A Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, I would encourage you to do so. Find a modern English version. It is historical. And as far as literature goes, it is one of the greatest pieces of literature that we have just in the academic sense. But it’s also this very readable, beautiful account of what Chase talked about. The Puritans’ deep desire to obey God. To abide together and to do what His Word says. And all that they were willing to suffer for that cause. So, it will encourage your Christian faith to read that. And you can get it on, I’m sure, Amazon for pretty cheap. Get an e-version or something like that. But that was all free. That wasn’t my sermon. We’re going to continue on this morning. We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. If you have your Bibles, turn there with me, please.
1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Verses 1 through 9.
Paul continues on and he says, 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 than matters pertain 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. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? For 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. And he goes on and lists many other things.
There are things in life that are if not whens, but then there are things in life that are when not ifs. So if the cabin pressure changes a mask will fall from the ceiling above you on an airplane and you need to put that on, there’s no guarantee in life you’re going to be in an airplane that’s going to happen. Probably hasn’t happened to most people. It hasn’t happened to most people. If you catch on fire, stop, drop, and roll. That’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s an if. Hopefully that’s never happened to you and never will happen to you. So there are things that probably aren’t going to happen, but if they did, here’s what you should do. Then on the opposite side, there are when not ifs. There are when not ifs. When you get sick. When other people in your life get sick. When a loved one dies. There are things in life for which none of us can avoid. They just happen and it’s a when not if situation. And it’s the same very much so in church life. There are when not ifs. I think about that documentary we watched Wednesday, if you were here, about the great trials facing the church in the Middle East. A lot of those things, for them, seem to be when not ifs. You know, there are things that they’re expecting to happen, and there are just certain realities where you are. But above even where we are on the globe, and we’ll experience this, we’ll not experience this, there is for every church member, if you’re a meaningful church member, there are certain when not ifs. One of those, without question, is infighting. Having controversy with some other person inside the walls of the local church. That is a when, not an if. No one comes to faith in Christ, meaningfully plugs into a local church, goes there, whole life, and never has any kind of tiff with another human inside the walls of a local church. That is impossible. If you’ve done that, I want to meet you and introduce you to Jesus, because you can’t possibly be a Christian, really, or I don’t know what you are. It’s just not possible. And it’s really not what Paul says. Notice what he says when he starts chapter 6. He says when. He says when. When this happens. I want us to understand what Paul is talking about and make sure we understand at the same time what he’s not talking about. He’s talking with them about how they deal amongst themselves with grievances, he says. He says in verse 2, trivial cases. Small things. Issues that cause great harms to relationships. Okay, so they don’t require the intervention of local federal governments, but they’re small issues that can do great harm. They can do great harm in relationships if they’re not dealt with appropriately. And Paul, last of all, is someone to say that the local or federal governments have no place in the Christian’s life. He talks about that in Romans. We should submit to governing authorities. Okay? So there just are issues that arise without question or the business of law enforcement. And God authorizes that in His Word. So if among Christians, and God forbid it, but it’s saddened, sad to say it has happened, but God forbid it, if there was ever any case of sexual misconduct between an older person and a minor or unwanted advances from a man to a woman, there just are certain things that if they happen, we’re going to pick up the phone and we’re going to call 911 because it’s their business under God’s sanctioning to deal with those things. So you can’t say, yeah, I killed this guy, but I don’t have to inform the law because I’m a Christian and there’s this passage in Corinthians that says, you know, the church, we figure out our own stuff. That’s not, we’re calling the cops on you immediately. Alright? So let’s keep the passage in context. Let’s keep the passage in context.
Paul’s not talking about unusual, especially tragic, horrific situations. He’s talking about controversy that takes place amongst Christians. God’s people in the normal run of life, okay? And being a Christian does not exempt us from controversy with other people. It just doesn’t. It doesn’t keep us from skirmishes. I wish that that were true, but it’s not the case at all. So Paul’s not expecting them to be perfect people. He’s expecting them to respond to their relational fractures like Christian people. That’s the difference. And that’s what they’re not doing. They’re not saying at all. They’re not saying, okay, in my brokenness, in this issue I’ve got with this believer, what is the character of Christ? And how should I act now? And that’s really, if you kind of take a 30,000 foot view of Corinthians, what we’ve talked about, where we’re going to go, that’s the issue is they’re not concerned about inside the walls of the church Christian character and conduct, how we treat one another. We saw, you know, the outlandish sexual immorality last week. We saw, you know, divisions and chapters before because I’m better than you. I’ve got things figured out and you don’t. So they don’t have Christian character in forming their relationships and that’s a huge problem for them.
Paul says, dare. He said, you really dare to do it? You dare to do it? Because it’s not like Paul’s saying, hey, it’s not optimal that you are going to local authorities to solve your problems, but at least you’re doing something. That’s not what he says. He says, what you’re doing is unconscionable and it’s unconscionable and beyond frustrating to Paul that it’s not frustrating to them that they’re acting like this. And what they’re doing is this. They are going to local law enforcement. They’re going to local secular governments to solve their controversies that’s not necessary to take to governments. Okay? When the local church is God’s appropriate, capable government, to deal with these issues amongst God’s people, the church that’s equipped with the Spirit and the Spirit that gives us all truth and wisdom to understand how to work through problems together. And it’s an indictment really. He says, can I remind you? Can I remind you that when Jesus returns, we’re going to have some assistance with Him in judging the wicked? Can I remind you even that we will at the end of all time, we will judge fallen angels? You’re called to that. Great thing as God’s people, yet you can’t even deal with these little issues.
So it’s an indictment on them, but at the same time, it’s a reminder of just how special and sacred it is to be a part of the body of Christ. It’s not a small thing.
Paul says, this is to your shame. This is to your shame. You’re shaming yourselves and what are they doing worst of all? They’re shaming the name of Jesus. His great plea is act like God’s people when you have problems.
So when we fight, alright, we’re going to do it. When we fight, here’s the first thing that Paul says. Fight amongst yourselves, which is a weird point to make in a sermon. But it’s true. He says fight amongst yourselves.
In Matthew chapter 12,
Jesus says to a man, who is my mother? And who are my brothers?
Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? Again, in that documentary we watched Wednesday, as heavily persecuted as they are, he said the same thing. He said these people that I’m with in the church, it’s like more than family. I mean, we’re so close because of who we are together as Christians. So you see, what we’ve got here in Corinth, and I’m sure we have this problem, all of us, because we don’t have perfect understanding, we have a huge theology problem. And that huge theology problem creates a huge community problem.
If the church is truly the body of Christ, which is going to be a major theme we’re going to look at later in Corinth, if the church is truly the body of Christ, and you and I are in the body of Christ as Christians, doesn’t that mean we’re bound to one another in a way that’s beyond human description? And if you and I are sons and daughters of the Father through the sonship of Jesus, doesn’t that mean that we are family in a way that blood family pales in comparison? Yes and yes. So if I’m one with Christ and I’m one with His body, and so then are all the other members of the local church. We’re that connected. We’re that with one another. So if you just want friendship, church is the wrong place. If you just want teaching, like you want some pick-me-ups to help you have a better life, church is the wrong place. If you want little accountability, you just kind of want to do your thing and treat it like a buffet, church is the wrong place. But if you desire to be a part of the church, if you desire to be one with the incarnate Son of God and so eternally bound to His body, then friend, you will be committed to weathering the trials that you will face as a church member because Jesus expects you to do so because you are one with His body.
So yes, you individually, me individually, we must make an individual choice to repent of our sins, to surrender to Jesus. That is an individual choice. But understand, once you make that individual choice, you have no choice about whether or not you’re going to fellowship with the body of Christ. I said this several weeks ago and I’ll say it again. When you said yes to Jesus, you said yes to the local church. There’s no two ways about that. And again, I believe this gets to the heart of our broken theology because we want to believe God has supplied enough in Christ for me to get in that body. But by our actions, we don’t believe God has enough to keep us sustained in that body. You see? A truly active faith won’t just say, yeah, I’m a Christian. I love it. It’s great because I don’t have to go to hell. And, you know, I get to go to heaven. And, you know, I’m a better person and all this stuff. And it’s so individually focused. And that is outwardly a broken theology because of effective spiritual life is that which is lived with in a vital organic relationship to God. God’s people.
It’s proof we don’t believe by our willingness to handle our problems with each other in a God-honoring way that we don’t really believe God has enough to keep us in Christ. Bye. That’s what happens so often when problems come. It’s proof in the way that we gossip. What is gossip? Gossip is a body self-destructing. You think you’re talking about someone else. The problem is, it’s not someone else. It’s a body part.
It’s self-destructive when we choose to harbor bitterness in our hearts rather than attempting reconciliation. You’re not holding a grudge against them. You’re hurting the body because you’re together in Christ. It’s certainly self-destructing when we choose to just bounce and leave the local church rather than seek a provision that God can give. It happens because we do not seek the Lord for longevity, only for personal salvation. But here’s what the Apostle James says. He says to us, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given. In other words, this is one of many places where we can discover if I lack something, not for just coming to Christ, but for remaining in Christ, which is a vital part of being a Christian, guess what? I can go to God and God will freely supply me with what I need to get through that adversity, to get through that trial. So do I believe it? It’s a faith issue, really, when we don’t want to abide in the local church. We stop believing God is good enough to work through this and even use this bad thing for my good, for the good of the church. So do you believe it? But secondly, do you desire it? Do you desire it? Do you care enough about the body of Christ to hand it over to God? Do you want to handle conflict in God’s way? God’s way. It’s so much easier, isn’t it? I’m just going to retreat into myself. I’m going to retreat into my own little world. I’m just going to lick my wounds. This is kind of how it is now. I just want to remind us, friends, if we have said yes to Jesus, we are a part of His body and that means we are undeniably tied, joined to one another in the Spirit.
When we seek God’s supply for His church, which is the body of Christ, what does it do? It displays to the world the otherworldly uniqueness of the power of the gospel. Doesn’t it? If you and I, with all of our frustrations, all of our difficulties, all the ways that we can have problems with one another, if we can work through that and the world saw that, it would make the world go, huh, there’s got to be something, different there because I don’t know if you’ve read the news lately or you keep up with politics or you keep up with the whole host of things going on in our time or in the world. The world is a divided, messy, messy place.
But church, when we walk through adversity together by the power of the gospel, the world sees Jesus’ cross and they see that it is a solution for personal brokenness, but for all brokenness amongst people.
When we don’t choose to work through our problems together and when we don’t choose to resolve our issues God’s way, it is the equivalent of you stabbing yourself in the leg. It’s what you’re doing.
And you’ve got to decide, do I really own the local church? Like, I really believe what the Bible says that I’m one with it. Like, I’m a part of the body and our eternity is bound up together because Jesus built His blood for both of us and we’re going to the same place. And we’re a big, one messy family. We will be one just big family on the other side of glory. Right now, we’re a big, messy family and so we’re going to have to fight and work through that together. You’ve got to decide at some point the church is something I do or the church is just who I am. Which is it?
Secondly,
pray for the local church. Pray for unity. Pray for it. Because it’s the same thing. The theological point, if it’s the Spirit of God that brings us to salvation in Christ through conviction, through giving us the faith to believe, to see, to receive Jesus, guess who it is that’s going to be able to actually grow us up in that unity to sanctify us together as a body. What does Paul say? We grow up into a body into our head, which is Christ. So it’s the same thing. God, I need Your Spirit to save me. God, I need Your Spirit to help me to love, help me to forgive, help me to bear with, to have a patience, a forbearance that I really don’t have. I really don’t have. And you don’t. But in the Spirit, it’s supplied. So pray for the local church. Pray for unity. Pray for providence. And then I was trying to figure out a spiritual way to make this last point and I couldn’t so I’m just going to say it. Get over yourself. That’s my last point on that and I didn’t know how to say it prettier than that. You know what? We need to do what Chase was talking about in all of his little sermons, miniature sermons, and scriptures right there that he was giving us and it was good. If you have a thankful heart for what Christ has done for you, it puts into perspective like your wrongs and how you’ve been hurt. But just get over yourself and go deeper into Christ.
So we need to be able to fight amongst ourselves but the second thing when we fight, we need to be willing to suffer one another. Be willing to suffer one another.
Paul says in verse 2, verse 7 there in chapter 6, he says, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not?
Why not rather just suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
But you yourselves wrong and defraud and he says even your own brothers. So he says it’s a huge failure. This is a huge failure for you church. To drag the spiritual body of God, of Christ before godless, secular society and to help us fix our problems. It’s mind-boggling. And Paul says, so why not just, if a proper resolution can’t be met and sometimes things don’t work out the way that they should. Both parties don’t always surrender to the spirit the way that they should. Paul says, why not just be defrauded? Why don’t you just have less? Why don’t you just be cheated? Why don’t you just be deprived?
In verse 8, he says, you wrong and defraud your brothers. In other words, it’s like you’re not even trying to get even in court, you’re trying to get evener. Like you want to make sure that the offending party who hurt you and upset you, like you want them to feel like your righteous indignation about how bad you got hurt. You know, like you feel it. You know, and we’re that, we’re that petty. We’re that petty. It’s good for you. It is. I let you borrow my car for six months and I got it back. Why is the engine knocking? And why is there a huge swipe on the side? Like what? You didn’t tell me about that. Did you not notice it? You didn’t, oh, well, I mean, you got to fix this thing. Or I let you borrow some money, you’re down on your luck and you need $5,000. And well, but it never comes back. And I see you wearing nice clothes and you’re, you know, you’re rolling up in a brand new car and you keep telling me you’ll pay me back. And you could come up with a million situations and scenarios, really like insignificant ones in the grand scheme of things that you are ready to just fight like sword and shield and handover. Aren’t we willing to do that? So to answer Paul’s question, why not? Because we’re sinful people, Paul. We’re incredibly petty. Like, you know the answer. He knew the answer when he asked it. Why not? Because beside breathing, friends, having a prideful spirit is just the thing that we do and we have as people. We want to get even. We want to get fair. I want my due, right? You get pushed, you push back. You get cussed, you cuss back. You retaliate vengeance. And you know, the thing about it is it’s not even something like you got to grow up into. Like adults are good at it. You know who’s just as good at it? Children. Children are terribly good at it. Terribly good at it. And Paul says just be defrauded.
Let someone just get away with wronging you. It’s that shaking and shocking, isn’t it, to our sinful flesh.
How can Paul say that? How can Paul say that? He can say it because that’s who Jesus was in His flesh. And if that’s who Jesus was in His flesh and we’re one with Him, that’s who we should be in our flesh.
If you’re in Christ, you have given up the pursuit of self.
And that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t seek justice. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek fairness in life. That’s not what it means. You know, you should just be a carpet and everybody gets to walk on me because I’m a Christian. That’s not what it means. What it means, though, is as a Christian, you’re not ultimately seeking your own. You’re not ultimately seeking how you can make your dignity higher, how you can have more respect, how you can be seen as great, everybody’s going to be fair by you, and it’s you looking out for you. That’s not it because in Christ, the great end of your life and mine is to know this Jesus and be known by Him. And in this Jesus, you and I have an identity. We have a reputation. We have a relationship that far supersedes whatever you could get from anyone else in this world. You and I have been set free from pettiness to live for our own kingdoms and live for our own names in Jesus. That’s the wonderful thing about it.
1 Peter 2, verse 19, Peter says, this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. And that suffering comes in all forms. It comes in the form of persecution in the world. But again, it comes in the form of persecution in the world. It comes in the form of suffering relationships in the local church. And you know, as much as we watch that documentary Sheep Among Wolves and you hear that stuff and it’s incredible what people physically suffer, I’m really not sure what’s harder in the Christian life,
suffering physically like that or for the long haul enduring other sinful people. Because based on experience, and I’m young, you know, but I’ve been a pastor for 12 years. About now. And I see people, hordes of them, unwilling to do it. They leave. They bounce. They will not suffer other members of Christ’s body. So I’m not naive in what I say. This is a very hard thing. Only Christ says, if you’re mine, you will do what Peter says and you will consider it a gracious thing to suffer in the body of Christ.
The gospel teaches us there is no real preservation and it teaches us there is no true love. It teaches us there is no meaningful identity outside of Jesus. In Christ, we have full and proper self-respect and self-image that sets us free from trying to get it from other people and certainly it sets us free from in our flesh seeking revenge and retaliation to self-preserve. I don’t need to defend myself like that anymore because I’m known by God and I have a new life. And, most of us, there is only one person who ever lived who actually had cause to defend himself and he didn’t do it. And you know who that was? It was Jesus Christ. He was God. He was creator. He was pure and He was holy and He was perfect and He should have been worshipped, but He was nailed to a cross. He suffered wrong. Why? He suffered wrong for the glory of God. He suffered the will of God for His life in obedience so that as Paul tells us, His name is above every name. All can see how He suffered and died according to the will of God for the glory of God in His own exaltation which means this, friends, you and I, when we choose to suffer like Christ for Christ, we’re walking on that same pathway where we will share in the glory of Christ of what He has won. How can I know if I really love God? If I really love Jesus? How can I know that? Am I willing to lay down my rights and suffer people inside and outside the walls of the church? You know, do I straddle the line between the two kingdoms?
Paul’s saying to us here, why not lose
and then gain what you cannot lose?
Why not lose and in your losing you’ll gain what you cannot lose in Christ?
More pointedly, say it as plain as it can be said, if I love God, I will love people God’s way, especially through harm and trial. Beyond willingness to suffer losses for Jesus, do you count it the privilege that it is?
And at the same time, I think here’s what’s so important to remember, as much as God is a God of mercy and He is that to some Christ, He is a God of justice. And sometimes we don’t see how and why God’s allowing things to happen and things don’t happen in our timetable, but what do the scriptures remind us? They remind us that vengeance is the Lord’s. Vengeance is the Lord’s, which is really a great thought and consideration of a family. Like, if God is a good Father and He is, when I’m wrong, whether it’s out in the world or there’s some great controversy I’ve got with someone in the church, vengeance is His. And if that person isn’t repenting and He’s not repenting, and coming to God the way they should and doesn’t want to get in reconciliation with me, that hurts and it does hurt and it’s too bad. But guess what? God knows all about it and God knows the exact justice that they need and I can let God be God and I’ll be me and just keep following Jesus. I can put down my sword and pick up my cross.
This is, and again, one of the hardest parts of following Jesus and I’ve seen so many people and so many times the improper,
entirely unbalanced biblical understanding of what it means to suffer one another in the church ruin people’s relationship with the local church. And let me promise you if you hang around in the local church long enough, you’re going to be hurt and newsflash, you’re going to hurt somebody else. So you need to have grace with others as much as you need it for yourself. So it’s real easy when we have hurts to get up on a pedestal. Let me tell you about how people need to be acting in the church. Like slow down because pride comes before a fall and sometimes we don’t even know the way that we hurt one another. It’s like, and I’ve heard somebody describe it this way, it’s like a spear with two ends. The problem is when you go to throw that spear, it has a way of bouncing back and you actually end up getting more hurt when the sharp point on your end comes at you. So be careful to judge others because what does God say when I get in that judgment mode? Ooh, as you judge so you will be judged and we talked about that a few weeks ago. What do we do then when we must suffer other people? Look to Jesus and look to His cross because we’re not suffering meaninglessly. We’re suffering in such a way it glorifies Him and God’s using our suffering to grow us up. So, so, if you have some contention in the local church with someone and you choose not to suffer them, you choose to in your flesh hurt them, gossip about them, you know, get a bunch of, get a mob against them, even take them to court, what you’re doing is saying, no, Jesus, I don’t want to grow up in my salvation. This is the suffering and you have grown me through it so I’ll be more like you. But I’m actually going to live outside of meaningful fellowship in the local church. I don’t want to suffer. Thus, I don’t want to grow.
You see, God’s got His purposes for the worst things.
Are you petty or are you patient? Are you petty or are you patient? And then, the people that sit next to you every Sunday in church, are those just, you know, fellow club members or are those your brothers and sisters who you’re going to spend eternity with?
I don’t know if there’s going to be like suburbs in heaven. I’ve kind of, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about that. You know, like if there was, I always think it’s going to be hilarious like the people that we have the hardest, this is totally in my mind, this is not in the Bible.
I hope in heaven the people that I have the hardest time with in this life, like they’re my neighbors and like we’re in a court together. You know what I mean? They’re the people like I’m literally living in eternity with. Like God’s that great to like turn those things around and make them the most beautiful things.
I want to connect this though. I think it’s as helpful as all that is in verse 1 through 8. Paul makes a point at the end and it just shoots it to the moon. He says in verse 9, do you not know
that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then he goes to list like what we would like consider like, you know, like adult sins, like big time sins, like those are the serious ones. You know? He talks about the big ones. Now, I think that’s really jarring because if you don’t think
meaningfully connecting in the local church is a big deal and you don’t think living and being sustained in the local church is that big a deal, if you have a deal in your Christian life, Paul just blew a hole like right through your head. He’s saying, look, if you’re not going to suffer the local church, if you’re not going to fight in it and seek Christ together,
equal sign, those that are thrown into a lake of fire, sexual immorality, idolatry, sorcery, all this stuff. He says it’s not different. It’s not like here it is down here. You should be in the church, but hey, at least you’re not, you know, these big bad ones.
He’s saying, if you don’t do this, you’re doing this. He’s saying, if you’re really in Christ and you desire to live a righteous life, you are meaningfully connected and in suffering local church. You’re fighting. You’re fighting because you love Jesus. So I think if there’s any point in all the New Testament that says meaningful, vigorous, vibrant life and walking with God’s people is important. Paul just said it right there by making that connection to those big bad sins. And discover that living outside the church is not as small of a thing as you thought it was.
No small thing. No small thing.
John, that apostle of love, he says this in 3.15, his first epistle. He says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And this goes back to so much of what we looked at in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus goes to the Beatitudes and he reveals to us in his Sermon on the Mount, oh, you think you just hate your brother? Oh, you think you’re just doing this? No, no, no, no, no, no. In the eyes of God, you have the very seeds of a murderer in your heart. Do you love Jesus? Friends, we’ve got to love his body. We’ve got to love his body. And we do that as silly as it sounds by fighting each other. By working through things together with one another in the walls of the church, willing to suffer wrongs, fighting for unity so that the cross of Christ is exalted in our own lives for our own Christian growth, but also so it shows the world, look at what the gospel can do in sinful people. Look at how the gospel heals what’s broken about humanity. That is why we must fight. We must fight for unity. Unity in Christ.
We preached a sermon on it. I don’t know what it was a year ago, but this verse came in my mind as I was kind of finishing this out. Psalm 133.1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. There’s nothing like it. Like fresh morning dew falling down. A psalmist goes on to say, that belongs to you and I alone in Christ Jesus. That unity can be had. It’s a good idea. I wonder if there’s a church out there that’s figured it out yet. No, it’s not hypothetical. It’s not conceptual. It should be practical everyday life for us. We’re fighting for that. We’re living for that because we’re in Jesus together. Let that be a real theme of Providence Fellowship because we’re a church in Jesus. Amen? Amen. Okay, let’s pray together.
Lord, we confess
we are not as we ought to be.
But we also rejoice and are thankful that
we are not who we once were. And You are growing us and You are keeping us focused on the face of Jesus so that we will be what You desire for us to be in Him. So Lord, increase our faith. Lord, increase our desire to obey. Lord, let just every desire to be right, to win, to dominate, let it fade as we remember we’ve died with the Lord Jesus and we’ve been resurrected to new life. New life. Heavenly life with Him. In Him. Let us live for the kingdom that is to come. Lord, I pray Providence would be a beacon of the Gospel because we have the vibrancy of Christ-centered unity and fellowship here. Lord, let it be so. And Lord, as huge of a thing that is to ask for, we know it’s Your desire and You will supply it when we ask for it, God. So we ask for it in the Spirit thanking You that as Father You will supply all our needs according to the riches that are in Christ Jesus.
And that is our prayer and it is also our praise, Lord, for Your glory. And it’s in Christ’s name. Amen.