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Prince of Peace | Clayton Hentzel

Crossing Church with Clayton Hentzel

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  1. Good work, good work Crossing family.

  2. I love you. It is so good to be with you

  3. today. I want to welcome all of our

  4. different locations. Those of you watching online,

  5. those of your part of the crossing inside, I want to do a

  6. special, welcome to those of you who are joining us for the first

  7. time, or maybe the first time in a long time.

  8. I want to encourage you to take advantage of the QR code.

  9. On the seat in front of you. And it'll give you access and

  10. opportunities for you to take next steps.

  11. Learn more about our church or get connected.

  12. One of the things that we're going to be pushing across all

  13. of our different locations, as we're in the Christmas season.

  14. Is our Christmas Eve services. And we have a bunch.

  15. In fact, I was doing some math and I'm not much of a

  16. mathematician. But we are going to have more

  17. Christmas Eve services this year than I had people in the first

  18. church I pastored, which is a little crazy.

  19. Yeah, which you know, God bless them.

  20. And what I want to encourage you to do is I want you to know this

  21. upfront. These are going to be great

  22. services for you to invite some friends and some family to.

  23. We're going to start our services on that Thursday, and

  24. then we're going to have month Friday and then we're going to

  25. have them again on Saturday and then on Sunday.

  26. We're going to give you an incredible opportunity to

  27. worship Jesus in your house with your family.

  28. And you might be going to Clayton.

  29. We want to come to church. Listen you can you can come here

  30. and you can hang out the parking lot, you can Grill.

  31. Something, you can pick up trash, you can pick up, you can

  32. pull weeds at all of our Christmas Eve services.

  33. We are going to give you something for you to leverage in

  34. your home off, for our Christmas service on Sunday, which we're

  35. going to broadcast. You're going to have access to

  36. that at your house, around your timetable and you'll have stuff

  37. for communion. So that way you can still

  38. celebrate the Lord's supper. We're going to give you all

  39. those opportunities. We've already partnered with

  40. another church on this thing. It's incredible.

  41. I can't wait for you guys to experience it.

  42. If, if you're wired, like me, you're going to eat it up

  43. because there's a special, like 30 minute gift at the end, which

  44. is super cool. But for those services on

  45. Thursday, almost, I think almost every look at almost every

  46. location is doing a Is day than a Friday, then Saturday.

  47. It's going to be a great service and I cannot wait for you guys

  48. to be able to participate in that, I believe you'll be

  49. encouraged and I believe you'll be blessed.

  50. Well last week, we started this sermon series called the gift I

  51. need and I made mention of my level of frustration and

  52. disappointment with you because as we were going through the

  53. survey questions, I just realized how raw of Sinners, you

  54. really are. And I have more data.

  55. I asked, we ask this question, how many of you prefer homemade

  56. presents and how many of you prefer store-bought presence?

  57. Fifty-two percent of you said, homemade. now, look, look at the

  58. people you came with, are they that artsy They're that crafty.

  59. What? All right, whatever.

  60. The rest of the Smart Ones are like just sent it to me from

  61. Amazon and give me a receipt. Okay, now here's here's here's

  62. the next one. We asked this question.

  63. If you had a choice, no present. Or a bad present. 65% of you.

  64. So no present. Just don't even get me anything

  65. if it's bad. I don't even.

  66. I don't want to. I don't want the hassle of

  67. having your bed gift in my presence and I was gonna hit you

  68. hard for it. I was going to preach a hard

  69. message to you. But then I went through and I

  70. looked at some of the bad gifts, you guys have received, and I

  71. got to be honest with you, I get it now because there are you

  72. have bad people in your life. Can I can, I can do, can I take

  73. a couple minutes and just walk you through some of the bad

  74. gifts? You've received, here's one a

  75. half set of tools, dad, cut the plastic in half and gave one

  76. half to one brother and the other half to him.

  77. It's just okay. Someone got a rock.

  78. Someone got soap. We didn't know how to tell you

  79. that you stunk so well. We got some soap wrapped it up

  80. in a present for you and that way, when you open it up, you'll

  81. feel really insecure half-eaten box of chocolate, was one of the

  82. gifts, okay. Back shaver, I don't remember

  83. what her name was when she turned it in, but I mean that

  84. would be a that's a brutal gift to get.

  85. Here's like the ultimate prank, here's one.

  86. How did they say it home decor? That isn't their style but they

  87. feel obligated to keep it to keep it up.

  88. Which I think as like in-laws like this is the ultimate power

  89. play. Start buying stuff that you know

  90. that they don't like that. They feel obligated to hang on

  91. their walls. Like yeah, who's in charge now.

  92. Okay. One of the note said this, when

  93. I got nothing from my first husband, that's a baller

  94. statement right there because she's acknowledging.

  95. She used to be married to that guy.

  96. She's like, yeah. But I traded him.

  97. I was like, you gotta go, you didn't get me.

  98. Anything for for Christmas and I got myself a second husband.

  99. That's what I got. I got myself a gift fellas, just

  100. quick. I saw a lot of ladies saying

  101. that they got vacuums and workout equipment.

  102. You guys. I'm just gonna to tell you

  103. something. They can buy that stuff for

  104. themselves with the Christmas money, but you cannot buy.

  105. You know? I saw that mop and I was

  106. thinking of you sweetie now. It's like, I should get her a

  107. nicer one. No.

  108. Okay. Now, here are my top 5 and these

  109. are, this is us. This is who we are ready.

  110. Number five is a shoplifted football jersey, that was too

  111. big and not from a team that I like, Dad number four, a maple

  112. syrup subscription. How big in the pancakes?

  113. Do you have to be where someone's like?

  114. Yeah, we're going to put this guy on a plan.

  115. Okay, we gotta all right. Number three, this is probably

  116. from our Iowa location. Underwear from my boyfriend's.

  117. Mom! How did that?

  118. So what do you what do you think I should get your your

  119. girlfriend for Christmas? Some underwear.

  120. All right, I don't, I don't know.

  121. I think hope she likes it. I, how do you even?

  122. Okay, now the number two and number one have pictures.

  123. Here's what it is. This is for a log.

  124. You Harry Potter fans. This is what she writes as a

  125. Harry Potter fan. I loved Dhabi.

  126. My husband ordered me a life-size Dhabi statue for my

  127. classroom. He got a great deal on it for a

  128. reason when the package showed up, it was an Ugly plastic

  129. version that was about the size of my hand.

  130. We laughed, pretty hard, but then we went to return it the

  131. website that we bought it from no longer existed.

  132. Okay. Here's what he thought he was

  133. getting her. And this is what, Yeah.

  134. But the best one ever turn to your neighbor say owl.

  135. Mittens Yeah, that's right. You didn't think you were going

  136. to say that today Church? Okay, nobody filled that one out

  137. on their bingo card. This is what it reads.

  138. I'm a teacher and have recess Duty in the cold needing a pair

  139. of new warm gloves. My husband thought he was buying

  140. me, a really cute pair of owl mittens, I love it.

  141. But what he got what was not was not what was pictured on the

  142. website, the gift that came was a pair of Woolen mittens with

  143. two large plush. Owl keychains thankfully, it

  144. came With giant safety pins to attach the owls to the gloves.

  145. This is what he thought he was buying, and this is what he

  146. actually got. Now, I understand why some of

  147. your like, just don't get me anything please.

  148. Just, I don't want that pain. Okay.

  149. Did you know I mentioned this last week, did you know that God

  150. is a good Gift Giver? The Bible goes out of its way to

  151. describe to us that God gives good.

  152. Yes, Matthew 7:11. If you then though, you are

    Matthew 7:11

  153. evil. Know how to give good gifts to

  154. your children. How much more will your father

  155. in heaven? Give good gifts to those who ask

  156. him eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus.

  157. Isaiah, the prophet talks about the kind of gift that we would

  158. eventually receive from God, which is his son, Jesus Christ.

  159. We find some of these words in Isaiah chapter 9, For as, in the

    Isaiah 9 chapter mention

  160. Day of midians Defeat, you have shattered the Yoke that burdens

  161. them, the bar across the shoulders, the rod of their

  162. oppressor every Warriors battle are or every Warriors boot used

  163. in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined

  164. for burning will be fuel for the fire for to us.

  165. A child, is born to us. A son is given and the

  166. government will be on his shoulders and he will be called

  167. wonderful, counselor, Mighty God Everlasting father.

  168. Other Prince of Peace of the greatness of his government and

  169. peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne

  170. and over his kingdom establishing upholding, it with

  171. Justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

  172. Last week, we talked about Jesus being a wonderful, counselor and

  173. a mighty God. And in case you missed it and

  174. you want to catch up, you can always catch up on our sermons

  175. by going to the crossing dotnet /, watch or you can go to

  176. YouTube and search. Search one Crossing and it will

  177. get you there. But today, I want to talk to you

  178. about what it means for Jesus, to be the Prince of Peace.

  179. The ancient word for peace in the Old Testament is Shalom

  180. turned your neighbor, say shalom, shalom.

  181. Yeah. Now, you know, your sound

  182. smarter, Shalom. Peace.

  183. Can be broken down into three categories.

  184. External Internal and spiritual external.

  185. This is Shalom. Externally would be the absence

  186. of War. It would be relational in

  187. nature. Question.

  188. In your marriage. Is there slom?

  189. The absence of War. Would you say your home?

  190. Life is Shalom. Or are your kids driving you

  191. crazy? Are you at Shalom in your

  192. workplace? Are you in in the absence of

  193. War? That's external.

  194. Internal is your well-being? Like internally personally, are

  195. you at? Shalom.

  196. Are you at peace? Do you have security health

  197. freedom from care? Are you content?

  198. Those are all signs that. You have Shalom.

  199. You have an inner peace about you.

  200. It includes everything given by God, in all areas of your life,

  201. everything that makes for your highest good.

  202. It was Joseph when he was in Egypt and his brothers came to

  203. visit him that he required about his dad, all the way back, who

  204. was not in Egypt at the time and this is what he says, is it

  205. Shalom with our aged father. Is our dad at peace, is he in a

  206. good place internally? And then finally, it's spiritual

  207. Is your soul at Shalom? Is your show.

  208. Is your soul at peace? Are you walking in the Green

  209. Pastures and sipping from The Still Waters of God?

  210. There is a universal desire for people to experience, shalom.

  211. That is why it is the go-to answer at beauty pageants.

  212. If you could just get one thing, what would you wish for World?

  213. Shalom. It's why it's the promise of

  214. politicians. If you notice when a politician

  215. campaigns, he's going to talk about external piece.

  216. Our interactions with other countries with other parties and

  217. then he's going to talk about how it's going to make you

  218. content. Because everybody everybody

  219. wants Shalom. There was this song written by

  220. Ed McCurdy and I didn't know him either.

  221. But this song has been covered by Simon & Garfunkel and Johnny

  222. Cash. See those of you over 50.

  223. I remember you. Come here and this is the song

  224. that he the title of the song. Last night, I had the strangest

  225. dream Can we do the lyrics? Last night, I had the strangest

  226. dream. I never dreamed before.

  227. I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to War.

  228. I dreamed. I saw a mighty room.

  229. The room was filled with men and the papers.

  230. They were signing said they'd never fight again.

  231. And when the papers were all signed and a million copies

  232. made, they all joined hands and bowed.

  233. Their heads and grateful prayers were made.

  234. And the people in the streets below, they all danced round,

  235. and round, and guns and swords and uniforms were scattered on

  236. the ground. When I awoke twas but a dream

  237. and peace, a dirty word. I tried to tell them of my dream

  238. but not a word, they heard. And when are then I got me

  239. fighting mad and knew, just what I do I'd fight non-violently for

  240. peace until my dream came true. I say it gets at the heart of

  241. this. This Shalom, this desire for

  242. peace. Those of you last week, you may

  243. remember that I made a big deal about getting in and the

  244. Israelites defeating the midianites.

  245. And Isaiah says, when the Messiah shows up when the gift

  246. shows up, it will feel like right after midians defeat,

  247. where the 300 defeated an army, too.

  248. Numerous to count this, what he says, I've had nine four and

  249. five for as in the Day of midians Defeat, you have

  250. shattered, the Yoke that burdens them, the bar across their

  251. shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, the look at the

  252. description of uses sounds. A lot like that song from Ed

  253. every Warriors boot used in battle.

  254. And every garment It rolled in blood will be destined for

  255. burning will be fuel for the fire.

  256. There will be no more need for these things.

  257. There's no longer going to be a need for soldiers.

  258. There's no more blood-soaked garments.

  259. There's no flag covered caskets. No.

  260. We know as Christians that this will all happen upon the return

  261. of Christ. When all of us who are followers

  262. of Jesus Christ, will be ushered into his Heavenly presence.

  263. We know that eventually, we will all experience an eternal,

  264. Shalom and eternal peace. But the question that you want

  265. answered in the question that I want answered.

  266. His, is there any peace for today?

  267. Is there any piece for me from now until that time?

  268. And the good news is the answer is yes, let's begin spiritually.

  269. Is there peace for you? And I today spiritually can we

  270. have Shalom? The answer that question is yes

  271. and the reason you and I can have peace spiritually is

  272. because we are justified by faith, not by our own actions or

  273. our own goodness. Imagine if you and I were trying

  274. to have a right relationship with God, based on our

  275. abilities, how stressed to the max?

  276. Would you be or any of you good enough to please a holy and

  277. perfect? God can you do enough good

  278. things? Can you give enough money away

  279. to write your relationship with God because deep down inside you

  280. know how bad you've been? And I know how bad I've been.

  281. That's why we find this in Romans 5:1.

    Romans 5:1

  282. Therefore since we have been Justified, you've heard Jerry

  283. talked about this before. What is justified mean?

  284. That means just as if I'd never sinned making everything, right?

  285. Therefore since we have been Justified everything has been

  286. made, right? How was this made right through

  287. faith? We have Shalom, actually it?

  288. See Renee. This is in the Greek now but

  289. Shalom with God through our Lord.

  290. Jesus Christ. Through whom we have gained

  291. access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we

  292. boast in the hope of the glory of God.

  293. Let's stay here for just a second.

  294. Here's what he's doing. He's moving you and I into a new

  295. neighborhood. This is what he's saying in the,

  296. in the grace, in which we now stand.

  297. So you and I stand in a place of Grace.

  298. Well, how did we get there? We got there.

  299. Through faith. Through faith in what through

  300. faith in, what Jesus Christ did on our behalf.

  301. He justified us and made peace between us and God because we

  302. were at war with him. We were enemies of God, because

  303. of our sin, but Jesus comes in and through his sacrifice.

  304. He justifies us, we take hold of that justification through faith

  305. because I believe in who he is and what he's done on my Behalf

  306. I have been made right before God, I've been Justified, and

  307. this is a Grace that was bestowed on me.

  308. It is not a Grace. I earned it was something that

  309. was poured out on me. Let's keep going in the text,

  310. not only, so, but we also glory in our what I should have

  311. stopped at verse 2. Glory in our sufferings.

  312. Hold on a second. You mean I can have peace with

  313. God but I might still have to suffer here on Earth.

  314. Yeah. What?

  315. But Clayton, if I've been made right with God, everything

  316. should be super easy. In fact, if you read through the

  317. scripture, you'll find people who had a whole lot of peace

  318. with God. But they suffered.

  319. I'm trying to think of one off the top of my head.

  320. Well, there's Jesus. He had to Jesus have perfect

  321. peace with God. Yeah.

  322. Did he also suffer? Yeah, well, one of my favorite

  323. passages in scripture, Paul and Silas are in prison and they're

  324. worshipping. Well, we for worshipping you're

  325. probably at peace with God but their circumstances were full of

  326. suffering now. Come here.

  327. Keep going because we know that suffering, produces

  328. perseverance, perseverance character and character hope.

  329. Let's keep going in the text and hope does not put us to shame

  330. because God's love has been poured out into our hearts

  331. through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

  332. Here's this. Picture.

  333. God is opening up your heart and he is dumping a hundred gallon

  334. bucket of love into your life. That makes you at peace with

  335. him. Which means when you have peace

  336. spiritually, You can suffer in this world and it can't be taken

  337. from you. You can have something inside of

  338. you that allows you to go through what you're going

  339. through. You can have peace in the midst

  340. of storms. This is just what God does on

  341. our behalf, and look at the company that piece keeps in

  342. scripture. Like if I were to make you list

  343. off your friends like every time you go somewhere, you're

  344. bringing these people with you. When you go golfing.

  345. If there's these guys in the golf cart, when you go to your

  346. knitting club, these are the people that show up with their

  347. own needles like this is your, these are your homies will piece

  348. has homies. Because if you go home and you

  349. do this, do home typing, in Bible Gateway.

  350. Look at all the people are all the other things that hang out

  351. with peace in scripture. There's glory honor and peace.

  352. Peace is friends are Glory and Honor later on.

  353. It says this life and peace. Peace, hangs out with life,

  354. peace and joy, Grace and peace, love and peace, shall be with

  355. you everywhere. That piece goes.

  356. He shows up with friends, the kind of friend.

  357. You want, love, and joy, and patience and kindness.

  358. No, fewer than six times in the New Testament.

  359. Is God called a God of Peace. When God's spirit, brings his

  360. Harvest into your heart and into my heart, love and joy are

  361. followed by piece. And this piece is ours for the

  362. asking. Peace.

  363. Which replaces anxiety peace which transcends understanding

  364. is only a prayer away. A prayer away.

  365. You say. Yeah you can have access to that

  366. piece through praying a prayer. Look what it says.

  367. Philippians chapter 4 do not be anxious about anything.

    Philippians 4 chapter mention

  368. Anxiety is the opposite of Peace.

  369. There is no calm, but in every situation, how many situations

  370. is that? That's all of them.

  371. There is never a situation that you are facing that doesn't fit

  372. in. This scripture by prayer and

  373. petition. What does that mean Clayton?

  374. I've only prayed of never petitioned if I'm if I'm doing

  375. the math problem here. If I want this piece, you've

  376. only taught me how to pray. You've never taught me how to

  377. petition, okay? This is free.

  378. No charge to this, here's the difference between prayer and

  379. petition, prayer is Prayer. Is you talking and being a

  380. really good Christian to God? It's you saying God, I know

  381. that. if this is in your will, I would just really appreciate it

  382. if you would help me out petitioning.

  383. Is you like going to the governmental authorities and

  384. saying, I need relief. I need Justice, I need help.

  385. It's you approaching a higher power at you going to God and

  386. say, look, man, if you don't show up, I'm done.

  387. I'm coming to you because you're the only one that can get me

  388. through. But God, I'm also a prayer.

  389. And I know that your ways are higher than my ways and if you

  390. see fit in your heavenly powers to make this situation, right?

  391. I would greatly appreciate it. But God, I got to be honest with

  392. you deep down in my heart, I'm worried about everything that's

  393. coming. My way.

  394. I'm scared, out of my mind, I need you to deliver me but God

  395. if you don't I just want you to know.

  396. I'm still going to show up at church early and I'm still going

  397. to help out and kids church but God, I need you to move on my

  398. behalf. In Jesus name, I pray, amen.

  399. That is prayer and petition. With Thanksgiving.

  400. Now, how are you going to put all three of those together?

  401. God, little If it's your will, would you deliver me?

  402. God, you got to show up. And man, I'm thankful, I can

  403. talk to you about this because my wife won't talk to me right

  404. now and God, I don't know what kind of work you're doing in my

  405. life. I don't know if this suffering

  406. is going to produce character but God I'm asking you to use it

  407. for your glory only. You could take a messed-up

  408. person like this and pull me through.

  409. Got just get me through it but I'm telling you, if you if you

  410. leave me alone here if you don't move on my behalf, I'm ruined.

  411. In Jesus name. I pray.

  412. Okay. Now, look at this.

  413. Let's keep going to verse 7. And the peace of God, which

  414. transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your

  415. minds in Christ Jesus. He's going to guard your heart

  416. and your mind. He's gonna protect you.

  417. He's in the middle of what you're going through.

  418. He's going to remind you that you're loved by him and you are

  419. held by him. And while everybody else is

  420. looking at you and seeing the suffering that you're going

  421. through and they're going, how do you have so much peace in the

  422. middle of the storm? yes, I because I have shalom.

  423. Spiritually. Well, what about peace

  424. internally? Well, if this Mighty God, this

  425. wonderful counselor this maker of Worlds, the suffering

  426. servant, this water walking demon, casting people healing

  427. resurrecting. Jesus is in my corner.

  428. How could I not have peace internally?

  429. How could I not be? Okay, my future secure because

  430. he has it. My destiny is joyous because he

  431. purchased it. My judgment will be grace.

  432. Because he died for it. What can the world take away

  433. from me? When I have all of that going

  434. for me. But Clayton, what about

  435. externally and relationally? Well, two things here, the first

  436. is we find peace with others because of what Jesus did on our

  437. behalf in light of what he has forgiven.

  438. In our lives, we can forgive people relationally and our own

  439. life. If you racked up a million

  440. dollar debt with God and he forgave it, When your aunt sends

  441. against you, $100 sin, you can go.

  442. Look, I've been forgiven a million so I at least ought to

  443. be able to forgive 100. And I'm able to make peace

  444. because there's nobody on planet Earth that I have done more harm

  445. to than God. And nobody has ever abused me

  446. more than I abused my relationship with God.

  447. And if God was willing to still pour out his grace into my heart

  448. and move on my behalf to make peace, I can I can make peace

  449. with you because of what Christ did in me.

  450. The second thing is as I was more and more people that you

  451. know and love and care about find peace with God spiritually

  452. and that produces a piece internally.

  453. Then it has no choice but to expand its domain as the world

  454. becomes more and more Peaceable. Look what Jesus says in John

    John 14 chapter mention

  455. chapter 14. Peace, I leave with you.

  456. My peace. I give you.

  457. I do not give you as the world gives.

  458. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.

  459. The absence of peace is trouble and fear and he's saying because

  460. you have shalom. You don't have to be troubled.

  461. You don't have to be afraid now hear me this peace cannot be

  462. taken from you. But you can give it away.

  463. No one can lay hold of the peace that God has put in your heart.

  464. But you can give it away. You can have this incredible

  465. peace in your heart like right now you're all at church and go

  466. man, I feel whole lot of peace and then you're going to go home

  467. and you're going to try and figure out where you're going to

  468. eat today for lunch. And those say, where do you want

  469. to go to eat? You'll say I don't care and

  470. they'll be like, I don't care either you pick and then you'll

  471. pick and then they'll say not there.

  472. And so you'll pick another one and they'll say not there

  473. either. And you will find the peace of

  474. God leaving your soul. No.

  475. That is not the peace of God. Leaving your soul that is you

  476. giving it away to a food order. Your peace cannot be taken from

  477. you. No one can lay hands on what God

  478. has placed in your heart, but you can shell it out.

  479. You can lose it to the new cycle, you can lose it to the

  480. politics. You can lose it to your social

  481. media, you can give it away, but no one is taking it from you.

  482. Can you imagine a world? Dominated by this kind of

  483. Shalom. A people group walking around

  484. better at peace with God. Peace with themselves and at

  485. peace with others. But no wonder the Angels broke

  486. through the clouds and said this when they are announcing the

  487. birth of Christ glory to God in the highest heaven and on Earth.

  488. Shalom. To those on whom his favor

  489. rests. Perhaps it should come as no

  490. surprise. That the very first time that

  491. God is called a god of peace, takes us all the way back to the

  492. story of Gideon, getting ready to fight and army too.

  493. Numerous to count. Getting it's done having this

  494. discussion with God and this is what Gideon says.

  495. So, getting and built an altar to the lord and there.

  496. He called it. The Lord is peace.

  497. Jehovah. Shalom.

  498. Now, come here, come here, pay attention.

  499. Gideon calls, God, the God of Peace before he ever fights the

  500. battle. He calls god Jehovah.

  501. Shalom. Before an army is ever

  502. assembled. He calls him Jehovah.

  503. Shalom before the trumpets are ever blown.

  504. He calls them before, the 32,000 show up before the 22,000 go

  505. home. Before, he's left with only 300.

  506. Before any of that takes place, he goes Jehovah, Shalom, the

  507. Lord is peace. which means that Gideon recognized who God was

  508. before he experienced, who God was He goes, God is a God of

  509. Peace before he ever experienced the peace of God.

  510. There's a Devo in here for us. You still have to do your part.

  511. You still have to walk it out. That's why in Romans chapter 5.

    Romans 5 chapter mention

  512. It says we lay hold of this by faith.

  513. That the only way you and I are going to experience this piece

  514. of God is when we by faith step into it and lay hold of it, we

  515. must walk into it. We must take hold of the peace

  516. that God offers before we will ever fully experience it and I

  517. hope you'll do that is we're moving to is time to decision.

  518. There's an old church, he's saying you've probably heard it.

  519. If you you know been here long enough for went somewhere before

  520. you came here But you can't know the peace of God without peace

  521. with God. That you will never experience

  522. the benefits of this, heavenly peace or internally, or

  523. relationally and externally. Until you've got it figured out

  524. spiritually. Just not going to happen.

  525. I want you to see what God did on your behalf.

  526. If it's hidden inside of Colossians 1:19 through 20, let

    Colossians 1:19–20

  527. me read it to you for. God was pleased, so it made God,

  528. happy to have all his fullness, dwell in him, whose him?

  529. That's Jesus. So what we learning about Jesus

  530. is all of the fullness of God, everything about God was made

  531. manifest in the person of Jesus Christ, okay?

  532. And threw him through Jesus to Reconcile.

  533. You know reconcile is satisfying the new you went out to eat and

  534. when you got done they brought you the bill and you had to

  535. reconcile the bill yet to make payment when you went to get the

  536. oil changed this week. They sent you there.

  537. Like, hey look, here's the air filter.

  538. You're going to need to get that.

  539. And here's new wiper fluid. You're going to need that and we

  540. got some new are that we're dealing out that's like 10

  541. bucks. If you guys want the new where

  542. you go, you bought the new Air and then like your taillights,

  543. right? Yeah.

  544. I need to eat the tail. Taillights and you just kept

  545. going, okay, what else is wrong with it?

  546. And then they bring you the total and you have to reconcile

  547. because you're in a state of being a debtor and you want to

  548. resolve that debt reconcile. Hold on a second.

  549. So God is reconciling to himself.

  550. You and me. He's making a payment.

  551. To himself to repurchase a right relationship on our behalf with

  552. us and God things, whether on Earth or things in heaven

  553. because you might be wondering, is this good news for me?

  554. Well, do you live in heaven? Anybody in here, Heaven dweller?

  555. Nope, okay. So that part isn't you any of

  556. you that live here on Earth? I love that it says this things

  557. on earth because you could be tempted to come up with all

  558. kinds of reasons why you wouldn't qualify. if I, I was

  559. talking to someone before service and he was talking to

  560. trying to talk to somebody about coming to church and the

  561. question was well I mean can I get to heaven?

  562. Because I've smoked weed. Like dear God, I mean if you

  563. haven't smoked weed, you might not even be able to serve it our

  564. church. Okay.

  565. Like how are we how are we gonna put this stuff together?

  566. Right. And someone sitting there

  567. thinking to himself I can't have a right relationship with God

  568. because I've smoked weed, you might be going, I can't have a

  569. right relationship with God because I'm divorced.

  570. Now there's no way I could have a right relationship.

  571. Ship with God because my kids don't follow the lord.

  572. Now, you might be going I can't have a right relationship with

  573. Jesus because I'm I'm too fat and room to Harry.

  574. You could be coming up with all kinds of reasons and this is the

  575. reason he gives are you on Earth.

  576. Are you affected by gravity then you are affected by my love?

  577. That's the qualification. God sets out for you and me.

  578. How did he do it by making peace?

  579. Shalom. Through his blood shed on the

  580. cross. God, put all of the fullness in

  581. Jesus, to reconcile to pay the debt to restore peace with us.

  582. And how did he do it? But Jesus suffering to make that

  583. piece of reality. And if you're here today, and

  584. maybe you've never heard about Jesus, or you're wondering why a

  585. bunch of people show up every single week, to celebrate him

  586. and worship him because it's easy for us.

  587. Because we realize what he did on our behalf and cannot get

  588. over it. And I want you to know that you

  589. can have access to that today and just a few moments.

  590. I'm going to pray in the people around you against and some of

  591. them are going to come up to the steps and get down and pray and,

  592. and you can too. But you know, what else you

  593. could do, you could walk right over there to the baptistery and

  594. you could talk to somebody about what it means to start an

  595. intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ to step into

  596. that piece. To the rest of you.

  597. Christians in synchrony is chapter 5.

    Isaiah 5 chapter mention

  598. This is what it says that we are.

  599. Therefore Christ's ambassadors as if God himself were making

  600. his appeal through us, you guys know what ambassadors are right

  601. there. People that you know, bribe the

  602. president for them to be able to give you a stationed in some

  603. really cool place and speak on our behalf in a really tropical

  604. climate to, pretty good Gig. If you can get one and what they

  605. do is when they speak they speak with the authority of the United

  606. States government. They're the Ambassador.

  607. They represent us to whatever country they're in.

  608. This is what Paul is saying that you and I are, we are therefore,

  609. Christ's ambassadors as if when we speak we are speaking on

  610. behalf of God and do you know what we speak?

  611. That we can be reconciled. The world is thinking that they

  612. are at war with God and we get to step into those moments and

  613. say no. No.

  614. Peace. Shalom.

  615. Peace for your family, peace for your soul, and peace for your

  616. heart, I come to bring this message from God, there can be

  617. peace, the war is over how because 2,000 years ago, God

  618. made it right before you could ever make it wrong.

  619. He died in advance for the sins that you haven't even committed

  620. yet. And that's a message that's too

  621. good to keep to ourselves. Would you stand with me?

  622. Heavenly Father, you are good. Good, good.

  623. And I pray that you would do a good work in us right now.

  624. God for people who have never started a relationship with you

  625. to people who've been here so long and been following you so

  626. long that they can't even remember what life was like

  627. before you do it. Work in US.

  628. Bring peace into our hearts. Bring peace into our souls and

  629. bring peace into our lives. And I pray, amen.

  630. And I pray, amen.