Latest / Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons / Who Do You Worship?
Transcript
- 0:00We can turn back to our reading in Acts chapter 17. We're looking at this section from verse 16 down to the end of the chapter where we find Paul in Athens.
- 0:13And we can read again at verse 22.
- 0:16So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said,
- 0:19Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
- 0:23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
- 0:33What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
- 0:41I believe in God is a statement that many people can make.
- 0:47And if you're a Christian, it's the obvious statement that comes to you.
- 0:52I believe in God. It's a no-brainer because that's the God that we read of in the scripture.
- 0:59But perhaps if you're talking to other people, you might say to someone around you,
- 1:05Well, I believe in God.
- 1:06And you maybe assume that they know the God that you are talking about as well.
- 1:12But do they?
- 1:13Well, if you go back to this book of Acts, chapter 17, and you find Paul here as he has come into the city of Athens.
- 1:25And this is part of one of his missionary journeys as he's going around with Timothy and Silas as well.
- 1:32He's here waiting for them to join him.
- 1:34And as he's in Athens, you maybe would think that I believe in God was a common phrase that he would hear there as well.
- 1:43And it was.
- 1:44I believe in God.
- 1:45And in the discussions that he would have with many people he met, that would be something that they would talk about.
- 1:51I believe in God.
- 1:52But it would be followed maybe by another question or another statement.
- 1:57Which one?
- 1:59Or which ones?
- 2:02Paul here has come to the city of Athens.
- 2:06And as he's there, as he's waiting to be joined by others, he's looking around this city.
- 2:11And he's fascinated by this city.
- 2:14And he's taking time to see what's going on in this place and among the people of this place.
- 2:21And it leaves him in many ways troubled and concerned about what he's seeing.
- 2:27If you ever go traveling to different places, if you go to maybe cities or towns, how do you go about finding out about that place?
- 2:37Do you maybe do research before you go?
- 2:39You can look in your guidebooks.
- 2:41You can look online and try and find out what kind of place you are going to.
- 2:46You could maybe ask others.
- 2:48Maybe you know people who have been there before you.
- 2:50So you ask them maybe questions.
- 2:52What kind of place is it?
- 2:55And you get very varied answers depending on these people's experience.
- 3:01But one of the best ways to find out about a place is if you go there to ask the people who live there.
- 3:08To speak to them.
- 3:09To see what kind of place they would say it is.
- 3:14And that's what you see what Paul was doing here as he arrived in Athens.
- 3:19You see it in verse 16 to 18.
- 3:21Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
- 3:30And then it goes on.
- 3:31So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
- 3:39So he was in among the people.
- 3:42He was meeting them in all of these different places.
- 3:45The important places in this city.
- 3:49And as Paul did this, he saw for himself, he heard for himself that Athens was a place of worship.
- 3:58But what kind of worship?
- 4:01As he spoke to the people, he realized that they were a people who were a people of worship.
- 4:08But it wasn't just I believe in God that they would say.
- 4:12But what kind of God did they believe in?
- 4:16He met them in the synagogues.
- 4:18He met them in the marketplace.
- 4:20Now the marketplace was not just a place to go and buy things.
- 4:24It was a place where people gathered to share ideas.
- 4:28And that's what he was doing with them.
- 4:31And so what kind of place, what kind of people did Paul find?
- 4:36Well he found in Athens it wasn't a place of atheism.
- 4:40A place that didn't believe in God at all.
- 4:44It was quite the opposite.
- 4:47There was probably more gods in Athens at this time than there was people.
- 4:53They had a God for everything.
- 4:56And everywhere that Paul looked, he found on every street corner, on every place that he looked,
- 5:01a God of some form or other.
- 5:04An idol or an altar or something that the people worshipped.
- 5:10And you see that he even saw, as it says in verse 23,
- 5:15an altar with the inscription,
- 5:17To the unknown God.
- 5:19So it's like everything was being covered.
- 5:22Nothing was going to be left to chance.
- 5:24They would have a God to believe in for every circumstance.
- 5:28And even for the unknown,
- 5:31they had a God who they would believe in just in case.
- 5:35That's what Paul found in Athens.
- 5:39It was a place of many gods.
- 5:44You wonder today if Paul was to visit Stornoway.
- 5:48What would he find here?
- 5:51How would he look around this town?
- 5:54What would he see?
- 5:55What would he perceive from the people here?
- 5:59What kind of place is it?
- 6:01Well, in some ways he would probably say the very same thing.
- 6:05I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
- 6:09Because there are so many indications that this is a place of religion.
- 6:15A place of belief in some form.
- 6:19But what kind of people does he find?
- 6:22What kind of worship does he find?
- 6:25Well, we are thankful today that he would find places where people come to worship the living God.
- 6:32The God of the scriptures.
- 6:34The God that Paul himself believed in and brought to the people of Athens.
- 6:39He would find that.
- 6:40But he would find a whole variety as well.
- 6:43If you look around today, you will find people in this town, in our islands,
- 6:48who will say that they are atheists.
- 6:50They would say they believe in many different things and believe in nothing.
- 6:54Not everybody here believes in the God of the Bible.
- 6:58And so you would find too that just like Athens, the town of Stornoway, the islands that we live in,
- 7:06are a place of variety, a place of mixture, of various kinds of understandings and beliefs.
- 7:15We maybe know more so people who are on the same page as us in terms of believing in God.
- 7:21And we think that when we speak to people and we say, I believe in God, that we are speaking about the same thing.
- 7:28But what Paul found that there was those who had their idols, their altars, their various gods.
- 7:36Do you find that when you speak to people around you?
- 7:38When you tell them, I go to church, I believe in God.
- 7:43What kind of response do you get back?
- 7:47There probably was a time when we would say, I go to church too.
- 7:50I believe in God too.
- 7:52But there's a whole variety now around us of people and understandings and beliefs.
- 7:59But what Paul does here is that as he comes alongside them, he draws them to see where the true worship is found.
- 8:10That is found in God who made heaven and earth and who gave his son, Jesus Christ,
- 8:16who came to die for our sins but who rose again.
- 8:20And you see that in verse 18, what he was preaching at the end of verse 18, he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
- 8:33And this provoked a mixed response.
- 8:38G.K. Chesterton once said, and this is what we find in our own day and age as well.
- 8:43When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing.
- 8:49They then become capable of believing in anything.
- 8:54So it's not just a case of, I don't believe in God, therefore I believe nothing.
- 8:59But people become open to believe anything.
- 9:04And that's the kind of city Athens was when Paul came in.
- 9:07A place where people had pushed God away and would believe in anything.
- 9:11And we're interested to hear something new all the time, as it says at the end of verse 21.
- 9:18That's the kind of world we live in today as well.
- 9:21People like to hear new things, like to hear new teachings.
- 9:26And that means that it's a day of opportunity as well, just as it was for Paul to present the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
- 9:35And for ourselves today, it's the chance to ask, well, who do I worship?
- 9:41Who do I worship today?
- 9:44If I say I believe in God, what kind of God do I believe in?
- 9:49Who is he?
- 9:51And what has he done for us?
- 9:53Well, Paul was confident in the God who had saved him.
- 9:58Who he had come to believe in.
- 10:01And that's the God that he presents to them.
- 10:04And the first thing we see here is Paul speaks to them of the unknown and the known.
- 10:10You see that in how he presents to them that he found that they were a people who were very religious.
- 10:18And in verse 23,
- 10:19The unknown he is showing can be known.
- 10:37Unknown in the person of Jesus.
- 10:40Athens was a growing town in Paul's day.
- 10:46It's probably about 20,000 people or thereabouts in the days of Paul.
- 10:52And it was a place that was very cultural.
- 10:56It was a place that had a lot of culture, a place of thinking.
- 11:00You see that just in the few verses that we've read here.
- 11:03The marketplace, the synagogue, the thinking, the teaching that was going on.
- 11:08There was a lot of it.
- 11:11And as with many of us who would go and visit a new place,
- 11:15we want to find a place to go and worship.
- 11:18If we're there on a Lord's day, we want to go and worship.
- 11:21So it was with Paul.
- 11:23He wanted to go and see what kind of worship, what kind of place Athens was.
- 11:28And he found there a synagogue.
- 11:30And he found, too, the marketplace.
- 11:34In verse 17,
- 11:36He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons
- 11:39and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
- 11:45There was Jews he was meeting with.
- 11:46There was philosophers he was meeting with.
- 11:49He was meeting with all kinds of people.
- 11:52And whoever he was meeting with, he was talking to them,
- 11:56reasoning with them,
- 11:57teaching them about the God that he believed in.
- 12:02And look at how he does it.
- 12:04He doesn't start by telling them where they are wrong.
- 12:08He starts by presenting it in a very positive way.
- 12:14In verse 22,
- 12:16Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
- 12:19He starts in a very positive way.
- 12:23So as he's preaching to them,
- 12:26he's revealing to them almost the kind of things that they have in common.
- 12:31The same way as he does, as he's writing in the book of Romans chapter 1,
- 12:36he presents things in a positive way,
- 12:40that we are surrounded by evidence for God.
- 12:43That we are surrounded by a people who are worshipping,
- 12:47a people who are religious.
- 12:49It's just what kind of religion we have.
- 12:53And you notice he doesn't try and prove to them the existence of God.
- 12:59Because he can tell already that there are people who know God in some form or other,
- 13:06because there are people of worship.
- 13:09But what he does is he talks to them about God that he knows.
- 13:15For this God that you worship as unknown,
- 13:18I proclaim to you.
- 13:22And this is the God that they are to look to.
- 13:26This is the God that we are to look to as well.
- 13:30And what Paul is getting at here is that
- 13:32in the heart of every one of us is this desire to worship something.
- 13:40To worship something.
- 13:43That's why there are so many idols and altars in Athens.
- 13:46As it were, in all the places that Paul would travel to on these missionary journeys,
- 13:52there is a desire in every one of us to worship something.
- 13:56It's just the question is, who or what are we worshipping?
- 14:03You know, in Edinburgh, there's a group that meets on the first Sunday of every month.
- 14:10They meet at 11.30am.
- 14:13They meet for about an hour.
- 14:15They sing songs together.
- 14:17They hear inspiring talks.
- 14:20They reflect on life.
- 14:22They share with others who have come along.
- 14:25They eat together.
- 14:27They say, it's free for all to come.
- 14:29We are family friendly and we welcome all.
- 14:32What does that sound to you like?
- 14:35It sounds like a church service, doesn't it?
- 14:39An hour of singing, hearing a talk,
- 14:42reflecting on life, meeting others.
- 14:45It sounds like church.
- 14:47And it is church to the people who go to it.
- 14:50It's just a very different church to what we are.
- 14:53You see, it's a part of what they call Sunday Assembly.
- 14:58And this is a group that formed back in London in 2013 as an atheist church.
- 15:05And the thinking behind it was that they were looking at churches as they met and seeing there's so many good things about church.
- 15:14But we want to leave God out.
- 15:17We want to leave Jesus out of it.
- 15:20And it's fascinating to think about how there's this desire to meet, to hear, to sing, to be together, to contemplate life.
- 15:29A desire to worship, but without God.
- 15:34Now there's eight different countries that have these kinds of meetings.
- 15:41They're established.
- 15:43But think about it.
- 15:44Would you be happy with that today?
- 15:47Coming here to just sing any kind of song.
- 15:51To hear any kind of message.
- 15:54And to meet together.
- 15:55And to have an interest in one another.
- 15:57But without God.
- 15:59Without the scripture.
- 16:01Without any word of Jesus Christ.
- 16:05It would make us go away without anything changing.
- 16:10No difference.
- 16:11It might be good just to meet together.
- 16:15But we're missing the very point of life and worship.
- 16:17And that's what Paul is getting at here as he says to them.
- 16:22You have this inscription, this altar, to an unknown God.
- 16:26What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you because this is what you need.
- 16:33And this is what we need.
- 16:36Do you come here today just to meet with others?
- 16:39Do you come here today because you love singing?
- 16:42Do you come here today because there's an interest to see who's here or what's going on?
- 16:48Or do you come here to hear about the living God and Jesus Christ and what he has done?
- 16:57Who are you worshiping today?
- 17:01That's what Paul was getting at here.
- 17:03Who is it that you are worshiping?
- 17:05An unknown God or one who can be known?
- 17:10And that's the second thing we see.
- 17:11He goes on to show, well, what's the difference?
- 17:14What a difference there is between the unknown and the known God that Paul has to tell them of.
- 17:22The Sunday assemblies were probably a bit like the church in Athens in Paul's day.
- 17:28It was all about their own ideas and thinkings and inspiration.
- 17:32And yet missing the one who was able to give life to the full, Jesus Christ.
- 17:37They were looking for life, looking for meaning, but missing where it was found in Paul's day, as are many in our day as well.
- 17:47You know, you think if only the Sunday assemblies in Edinburgh or wherever would read the Gospel of John.
- 17:54And there find the meaning of life.
- 17:57That Jesus says in John 5 verse 39,
- 18:00You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
- 18:05And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me, that you may have life.
- 18:13You are looking for meaning.
- 18:16You are looking for life.
- 18:18And maybe at times they read, quite possibly like the book of Ecclesiastes,
- 18:24that speaks about vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
- 18:27You hear it at funerals so often.
- 18:30Maybe they do read that.
- 18:34But they do miss the very point, the Scriptures that bear witness about me, as Jesus says.
- 18:41And you refuse to come to me, that you may have life.
- 18:45There is the difference between the known and the unknown.
- 18:49The unknown gives no life, no hope.
- 18:54But Jesus gives that hope.
- 18:56Jesus gives that life.
- 18:59And that is the Jesus that Paul is making known to the people here.
- 19:04Let's go back to verse 18.
- 19:07Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
- 19:11This was the difference.
- 19:12He was preaching the one who gives life.
- 19:15Again, you go to John 10 verse 10.
- 19:18And the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
- 19:21I came that you may have life and you may have it abundantly.
- 19:26They don't have it because they're not listening to the Scriptures that bear witness about him.
- 19:33Is that you today?
- 19:36You are searching the Scriptures.
- 19:38You are looking.
- 19:39You are hearing the Scriptures.
- 19:41They bear witness about Jesus.
- 19:43But you refuse to come to him that you may have life.
- 19:49There is a difference between worshipping the known and the unknown.
- 19:53Verse 25 here.
- 19:55It talks about the idol served by humans' hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
- 20:08This is what the Lord gives to us.
- 20:10Life and breath and everything.
- 20:14What a difference there is between gods that are made by the hands of man and the God who made man and gives breath to man and to all creation.
- 20:27There are many things that can make us look for a God.
- 20:32Many things that appeal to people in this world that speak to us.
- 20:36Nature.
- 20:36A beautiful sunrise or sunset.
- 20:40The starry sky at night.
- 20:41Oceans and lands.
- 20:43And just survey the creation around you.
- 20:46And for many people it makes them think,
- 20:49Ah God.
- 20:51That's what Paul is sharing to them here.
- 20:53The God in verse 24.
- 20:55The God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth.
- 21:01He is sharing this with them.
- 21:04And you think of time, days and weeks and months and years.
- 21:07They make us think of Ah God.
- 21:11And again, that's the God that Paul makes clear to them here.
- 21:17That he, in verse 26, he made man, he made man from one, he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.
- 21:29Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling.
- 21:33So their land, their place, their times was all appointed by God.
- 21:38And even ourselves can make us think, well, there's got to be a God.
- 21:43Our bodies, our minds, our experiences, all of these things make us look for our God.
- 21:49It's the same in Paul's day in Athens as it is in ours.
- 21:52What Paul talks about to the church in Athens here is these things that they are experiencing day by day.
- 22:01But he points them to what fulfills all of these things.
- 22:07The missing link.
- 22:09And that is Jesus and the resurrection.
- 22:13Because that is what makes all the difference.
- 22:18You see it in verse 30 and 31.
- 22:21The difference is an attitude, a day, an appointed man, and a time all connected.
- 22:28The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands that all people everywhere repent.
- 22:34Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
- 22:42And this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
- 22:47He is telling them of Jesus and the resurrection.
- 22:50Just like in verse 18.
- 22:53Jesus and the resurrection from the dead is what makes all the difference.
- 23:00Is this who you are worshipping today?
- 23:04Is this your Christ?
- 23:06Is this your Savior?
- 23:10The one who is judge?
- 23:12Who will judge in righteousness?
- 23:14The one who we are called by people everywhere to repent and believe in.
- 23:20Before that judgment comes.
- 23:23Because he has raised him from the dead.
- 23:27Is this who you worship?
- 23:30The known or the unknown?
- 23:32Is it your own ideas?
- 23:34Is it your own way of thinking?
- 23:36The ideas of others around you?
- 23:38Or is it the word of God that you are putting your trust in that tells us of this wonderful Savior?
- 23:46There's a great difference between the unknown and the known.
- 23:51It is only through Jesus that we can be saved.
- 23:55And the final thing we hear then is that this calls for a response.
- 24:02This calls for a response.
- 24:05We see this in verse 32 to verse 34.
- 24:09If I was to ask you today.
- 24:11Why do you believe in God?
- 24:15What's your answer?
- 24:17Why do I believe in God?
- 24:20Or if someone who you meet in the street or at work says to you.
- 24:24Why do you believe in God?
- 24:26What is your answer?
- 24:30Well you could say because there's evidence that demands a response.
- 24:37The word of God.
- 24:40History.
- 24:41Creation.
- 24:42Providence.
- 24:43All of these things speak to us of a God.
- 24:48Why do you believe in God?
- 24:49You could talk about creative.
- 24:54The creation.
- 24:55You could talk about time.
- 24:56You could talk about yourself.
- 24:57All of these things.
- 24:59And these are things that certainly spoke to me.
- 25:02Creation often spoke to me.
- 25:05Time spoke to me of an urgency.
- 25:08I need because time was passing.
- 25:10People were passing.
- 25:12From time to eternity.
- 25:14My own body speaks to me.
- 25:17That there is something.
- 25:18We are created.
- 25:19There must be a reason.
- 25:20Why can I think?
- 25:22Why am I living?
- 25:23What is the purpose?
- 25:24There's all of these things that speak to us.
- 25:28Why do I believe in God?
- 25:29Because of all of these things.
- 25:31But there's more.
- 25:34Because of a Savior.
- 25:36A God who has remembered us.
- 25:39Through his steadfast love.
- 25:42And given his son Jesus Christ.
- 25:45Who died for our sin.
- 25:47And because of the Holy Spirit.
- 25:50Who draws us to himself.
- 25:53Because apart from him.
- 25:55I could do nothing.
- 25:56I was lost.
- 25:58But by his grace.
- 26:00He draws me to himself.
- 26:04Why do I believe in God?
- 26:07Because apart from him.
- 26:09I am lost.
- 26:10But you see the response of others.
- 26:15And there's three responses.
- 26:17Some mocked.
- 26:19It says in verse 32.
- 26:22Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead.
- 26:25Some mocked.
- 26:27They ridiculed.
- 26:28Because they thought they had all the answers.
- 26:30They thought they knew it all.
- 26:33They were the philosophers.
- 26:34They were the educated ones.
- 26:36They had all the answers.
- 26:38The resurrection was rubbish.
- 26:41So they mocked.
- 26:43And we see it all the time.
- 26:45All you need to do is open your eyes and your ears around you.
- 26:47Even here.
- 26:48There are those who will mock.
- 26:50Everything that the word of God says.
- 26:54Do not be found among those who mock.
- 26:57There were those who said.
- 27:01They would hear again.
- 27:04We will hear about this again.
- 27:06You see that in verse 32.
- 27:08We will hear you again about this.
- 27:12They put them off.
- 27:13Put them away.
- 27:15They had questions.
- 27:16They had things to ponder.
- 27:18But the response was not today.
- 27:20Maybe another time.
- 27:22And again that is not the response to have.
- 27:25But maybe it is your heart today to say.
- 27:28I will leave it for now.
- 27:31We say it again and again.
- 27:34Do not leave it.
- 27:36Do not leave it.
- 27:38Because the gospel is urgent.
- 27:41The gospel needs to be heard.
- 27:43And believed today.
- 27:46Because we do not know what tomorrow will bring.
- 27:50But that is the wonder of the third response.
- 27:53So Paul went from their midst.
- 27:56But in verse 34.
- 27:57But some men joined him and believed.
- 28:01There were those who heard and received this word.
- 28:07Because they knew that their gods were nothing.
- 28:12Compared to the God and the Savior Jesus.
- 28:15Who Paul presented to them.
- 28:18The God who Paul proclaimed to them.
- 28:22Is the God who gives life.
- 28:25And life eternal.
- 28:27Through Jesus Christ.
- 28:29And that is the God you hear of today.
- 28:32But is it the God you worship?
- 28:35Micah in the Old Testament.
- 28:37Micah 7 verse 18.
- 28:39Says this.
- 28:39Who is a God like you?
- 28:42Pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression.
- 28:45For the remnant of his inheritance.
- 28:48He does not retain his anger forever.
- 28:50Because he delights in steadfast love.
- 28:54Who is a God like unto you?
- 28:58There is none who compares to this God.
- 29:01Who doesn't retain his anger forever.
- 29:03Because he delights in steadfast love.
- 29:08Is this the God you worship?
- 29:10Is this the God you believe in?
- 29:12There are many things you probably believe in life.
- 29:16Do you believe in a place called New York.
- 29:19In a country called America.
- 29:22I'm sure you do.
- 29:24Do you believe that the Titanic sank over a hundred years ago.
- 29:29I'm sure you do.
- 29:31Do you believe in the battle of Culloden.
- 29:33That took place.
- 29:35Again I'm sure you do.
- 29:37Do you believe in the Vikings.
- 29:39And the Roman Empire.
- 29:40I'm sure you do.
- 29:41Why?
- 29:42Because you were taught about these things.
- 29:45You've maybe experienced a place called New York.
- 29:49Or a country called America.
- 29:51You believe in it because there is evidence.
- 29:54And you've been taught by authority.
- 29:57Do you believe in God?
- 30:00Do you believe in this God.
- 30:02That the Bible presents to you today.
- 30:04And the Son of God who is Jesus Christ.
- 30:06Because there is no greater authority.
- 30:09than the word of God before you today.
- 30:13Do you believe in this God.
- 30:17This God who Paul presents.
- 30:20I proclaim to you today.
- 30:23Jesus.
- 30:24And the resurrection is what he was preaching.
- 30:27This is what we hear today.
- 30:29But do you believe.
- 30:31Do you believe.
- 30:32Can you say.
- 30:34With a children's hymn.
- 30:36Jesus loves me.
- 30:38This I know.
- 30:39For the Bible.
- 30:41Tells me so.
- 30:43It's the word of God.
- 30:44Not enough.
- 30:46Creation.
- 30:47Speaks.
- 30:48Time.
- 30:50Speaks.
- 30:50Our body.
- 30:51Speaks.
- 30:52All of these things.
- 30:53Were things that Paul.
- 30:54Spoke to the people of Athens about.
- 30:56That they saw.
- 30:57They understood.
- 30:59That they had their own ideas about.
- 31:02But the word of God.
- 31:04Proclaims more.
- 31:06A savior.
- 31:07Who is Christ.
- 31:08The Lord.
- 31:10Do you worship.
- 31:11The unknown.
- 31:13Of your own making.
- 31:14Or the making of others.
- 31:16Or the known.
- 31:18The God of the scriptures.
- 31:19And his son.
- 31:21Who he has given.
- 31:23That you might have life.
- 31:25In him.
- 31:26Let us pray.
- 31:29Lord our gracious God.
- 31:30We thank you.
- 31:31For your word.
- 31:32And we pray.
- 31:33That it's authority.
- 31:34It's truth.
- 31:35Would be.
- 31:36What we believe.
- 31:37Even today.
- 31:38Not just the words.
- 31:39Of man.
- 31:40Or the wisdom.
- 31:41Of man.
- 31:42But your authority.
- 31:43Your wisdom.
- 31:44Your word.
- 31:45And your power.
- 31:46To make it real.
- 31:47To us.
- 31:48Hear us Lord.
- 31:49And guide us by it.
- 31:50And forgive us our sins.
- 31:52In Jesus name.
- 31:53Amen.
- 31:58We're going to conclude.
- 32:00By singing to God's praise.
- 32:01In Psalm 36.
- 32:04Sing from verse 7.
- 32:05To verse 10.
- 32:07Page 44.
- 32:08Of the psalm books.
- 32:09And the tune is.
- 32:10Glencairn.
- 32:12Psalm 36.
- 32:14At verse 7.
- 32:15How precious is.
- 32:16Your steadfast love.
- 32:17What confidence it brings.
- 32:20Both high and low.
- 32:21Find shelter in the shadow.
- 32:23Of your wings.
- 32:24We'll sing from verse 7 to 10.
- 32:26To God's praise.
- 32:27How precious is.
- 32:36Your steadfast love.
- 32:40Of confidence it brings.
- 32:47Of high and low.
- 32:47Of high and low.
- 32:51The shadow of your wings.
- 33:02The feast within your house and drink from streams of pure delight.
- 33:17For with you is the source of light, and your life please delight.
- 33:33To those who know you are the Lord, you stand fast, love and heart.
- 33:50Make it in your righteousness to those of pure and a bright heart.
- 34:08After the benediction, I'll go to the door to my right. We'll close with the benediction.
- 34:12Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide with you all now and forevermore. Amen.
- 34:42Amen.