The Kingdom of Peace

Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 12 and meet me at verse 51.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 12 and verse 51.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

And I want to show you something the Lord said here to us that I want to take

a moment to explain and to declare as well.

And Jesus says, do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth?

I tell you, not at all, but rather division.

If we look at Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34,

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34, Jesus says here, Do you do not think that I

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

came to bring peace on earth?

I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

And so I don't know if you've ever talked to an atheist. How many of you have

ever had a conversation with an atheist? Yeah, I have as well.

And talking to atheists are very interesting.

An atheist is someone that believes that God does not exist.

And so talking to an atheist is always interesting because their fundamental

belief is there is no God.

Now, Scripture tells us that only a fool would say that there is no God.

And so when someone says that there is no God, I tend to say,

then you must know everything about everything.

To make a determination that there is no God, you have to know everything about everything.

To say that there is no God. You would also have to realize that you're limited.

You're basically saying, I'm unlimited.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm unlimited, and my knowledge is unlimited,

and I know everything about everything.

It would be like saying there is no gold in North Carolina.

So then you would have to be in everybody's home, in everybody's drawers.

In everybody's house, in everybody's

safe, in everybody's secret place to determine that there is no goal.

You can't make that sort of declaration about that.

And an agnostic is someone that believes in God, but they don't believe that

God exists, but they don't believe in God.

They believe that there are gods or maybe there's a superior power,

but they don't believe in God or really in a, quote-unquote, superior power.

And I've had conversations with these folks about what they believe.

And a lot of times, if you listen to them, a lot of their conversation is intellectual.

They can really talk to you intellectually.

They can talk to you from a natural standpoint.

And their selling point is this. they will always conclude that if there is

a God, then why is the earth in the condition that it's in?

That's what they always come back to. They either say there is no God or there is a God.

This is when an atheist would say there is no God because look at the condition of the earth.

And an agnostic would say, well, there is a God, but he doesn't care.

He could care less about what's going on on the earth.

So that's why I don't believe in God. And so they always conclude that if we look around,

look at all of the killings and the murders and the rapings and the foul play

and the greed and the taking advantage of others and the racism and the brutality

and the homelessness and the poverty,

there must not be a God on the earth because all of this exists.

What they failed to realize is in Genesis 1, verse 26,

Genesis 1:26

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit came together and said, Let us make man in our

image, and let them have dominion over the earth.

So notice, God didn't say let us, as in God and man have dominion over the earth.

He completely transferred and delegated authority of dominion over the earth to humanity.

And so the reason why the earth is in the position that it's in,

it has nothing to do with God, but everything to do with humanity,

everything to do with bad decisions,

and everything to do with greed and selfishness and so on and so forth.

This is why the earth is in the condition it's in. And scriptures in Psalms

also said the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

But he's given it to the children of men.

He's given dominion and the right to command, the right to control,

the right to delegate to you and I.

This is why the earth is in the condition that it's in.

I think about homelessness sometimes. I'm sorry, not homelessness,

but what is it when people are not being able to eat? Starvation.

I think about starvation sometimes. and it's like, here are people dying because

there's no food, and then you look over here, and tons of food is being thrown

away. Is that God's fault?

There's more than enough food on this planet to provide for everybody as much as they want to eat.

But there are certain factors of people that are controlling the distribution

of food, the prices, the access, and this is why people are dying of starvation.

It has nothing to do with God, but an atheist will say, look at the condition

of the earth, and this God doesn't care. He doesn't exist.

He's not real. And the Gnostic will say, if there was a God,

there would be peace on the earth.

But we see in these two passages of Scripture that Jesus definitively said,

I did not come to the earth to bring peace.

Now, that's interesting because we like to think that at some point in some

time, if we work hard and if we do the things that are right,

that we're going to bring some peace on the earth.

There is never going to be peace on the earth.

Let me say it again in case you're surprised. There's never going to be peace on the earth.

Jesus did not come to bring peace on the earth.

His name is the Prince of Peace, and we think that that means he came to bring

some form of tranquility on the earth.

But that's not what his name refers to or means.

His name does not mean I'm going to bring the absence of conflict to the earth.

There's always going to be conflict. You get two people together,

some way, somehow, they're going to create some type of conflict.

And they both could have the Holy Ghost and still come up with some type of

conflict. Come on, someone say amen to that.

And so Jesus didn't come to bring peace on the earth.

Well, what did he come to do? If we look at Romans chapter 5 and verse 1,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5 and verse 1, it says, Therefore,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Paul tells us, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, notice in this passage of Scripture, Jesus said, I didn't come to bring

peace. I came to bring a sword. I came to bring division.

But here, Paul tells us the peace that Jesus actually brings,

it's peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this verse, he says here, having been justified.

That word justified means declared righteous.

Righteous means being in right standing with God or in right relationship with

God. Having been justified means God is going to treat you just as if you've never sinned before.

God is going to treat you blameless. He's going to declare you,

you are in right standing with me by faith.

So when you believe in Jesus and his substitutionary sacrifice,

his death, burial, and resurrection, by faith, you have been justified.

You've been declared righteous. and because you've been declared righteous,

now you have peace with God. There no longer is no enmity between you and God.

There's no longer any strife between you and God.

There's no longer any obstacles or challenges between you and God.

There's no longer any other, anything you can think of, strife, confusion, anger,

pride, Whatever the case may be, it's not between you and God anymore because

Jesus came to bring peace between you and God.

You had sinned.

In your life, and sin was not acceptable to a holy God.

And so God did not like the fact that humanity was separated from him.

He didn't appreciate the fact that he couldn't have communication with his creation.

And so he came up with the plan that I'm going to get inside of Jesus,

but I'm not bringing peace on the earth between fellow brother and sister.

I'm going to bring peace between God, me, and my creation.

And when you believe in Jesus, Jesus, it tells us, Paul tells us in the Corinthians

that he who knew no sin became sin

for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

So when you believe in Jesus, you have received peace between you and God,

and you are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Somebody say, I'm righteous.

Somebody said, I have peace with God.

Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of God, the presence of Jesus.

Peace is the relationship that you have with God. God is not mad at you.

But God's not even in a bad mood.

I know we like to paint the picture that he's in a bad mood and he's up there

ready just to bonk somebody over the head.

At any moment he can get, he is not even in a bad mood.

He's not upset. There's no strife. There's no contention between you and him.

There's no condemnation between you and him. There's no guilt. There's no shame.

There's no worry between you and him.

You are at peace with him because you believe in Jesus.

It's not because of any work you have done. It's not because you deserve it.

It's not because you've earned it.

It's not because you look good. It's not because you got money in the bank.

It's not because you do everything right.

It's simply a free gift of access between you and the Father at any time of

day, at any moment, at any time you need access and fellowship with him.

Jesus came, the Prince of Peace, to bring you together with the Father.

You know, sometimes we're looking for these burning bush experiences.

I've heard people say, I just wish I need a Moses burning bush experience.

Or I need to get on the mountaintop and I need to experience God again.

Or I just need to be like Zacchaeus.

I need to hang in a tree and let Jesus walk by and he has an encounter with me.

You have access with God and those things happen just one time.

You have eternal access with the Father. Amen. Man, you have his phone number.

Glory to God. I don't know if you know this, but people that you have access

to or with, you can just call them up.

I think about some people that I know, and by God's grace, I know some very

influential people, and I have their phone number.

And if I just want to say something to them, I can just pick up the phone.

And call them. And guess what? They answer. Amen.

They answer, hey, man, or they'll call back or whatever the case may be.

Man, how can I serve you? How can I help you? What's going on?

That's the access that you have with God.

You don't need a burning bush experience. You don't need another supernatural

encounter. You already had one.

Now you just need to make the phone call.

Because he's not mad at you. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, it says,

1 Timothy 2:5

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

Who is the mediator between God and men?

The man, Christ Jesus.

And so a mediator is someone that reconciles differences between two parties.

God had an issue with humanity because there was sin.

Man had an issue with God because of sin.

So a mediator came in. His name is Jesus. And he began to mediate between the two parties.

And he came together and reconciled the two parties together so that now that

there's a relationship between God and man,

you have access to Almighty God.

I want you to don't make this so simple that you miss the profound words that

are coming out of my mouth, that you can talk to God and he knows your name.

Man, that's so important. Some of us are angry about politics.

And thank God I was talking to Kurt last night. Thank God we've just kind of

got through that volatile,

political, crazy commercials season of life, and we were talking about it,

and it's like, okay, we're through it, and all this anger and division and strife

and all this bickering, and families not talking to each other anymore,

and friendships are broken up, and these people don't even know your name.

Donald Trump doesn't know your name.

Joe Biden doesn't know your name.

Kamala Harris doesn't know your name. Nancy Pelosi doesn't know your name and

doesn't care to know your name.

They're not even thinking about you. Not one moment. I don't care how righteous

you think one of the politicians are.

They are not thinking about you. Not one moment.

I'm telling the truth. You can get mad if you want, but I'm telling the truth.

Well, he's trying to fight for me. No, he's fighting for himself.

She's going to help me with my rights. No, she's just trying to win an election. Amen.

But God knows your name.

The scripture says that your name is written in the palm of his hand.

Every time you look at your hand, he looks at his hand, he sees your face and your name.

Scripture says that he knows all the hairs that are on your head.

And to be more specific, Scripture says that each hair on your head is numbered.

So every hair, when you're combing your hair, that falls into the sink,

and I was combing my hair this morning and the hairs were falling into the sink,

they all had numbers, and God knew what the number was. Come on, somebody.

That's how intricately involved that he is with you. He's crafted you and molded

you and made you and constructed you and cultivated you and transformed you.

He knows all of your hidden secrets. He knows all of your potential.

He knows what you can do. He knows what you can't do. He knows everything about you.

He knows everything about everything.

He knows more about you than you know about you.

And if you'll just take a moment and make the phone call through prayer, through meditation,

through taking time to just listen and talk to him, he will tell you things that you don't know.

He will lead and guide you and give you direction.

This is such a simple example very simple example it was raining really bad a couple days ago,

i was driving home and i heard in my spirit go home this way that's all i heard

just go home there were several ways to get home go home this way i rarely go

home that way i didn't think much about it i just went home that way you know

i get home and then i as i'm headed home stacy sends me a text who says,

don't go home the other way.

They've blocked the road off. It's flooded. The road is flooded.

Don't go home that way. I just tried to get home and so on and so forth.

And I thought, the Holy Spirit told me that.

God spoke that to me. He cared about my time.

He won't mean to waste any time. So he led me beforehand, go home this way,

which I never really go home that way, but I did, and I thought he cares about my time.

Come on, somebody, say amen to them. He's intricately involved in you because of the Prince of Peace.

Listen, you're not going to have peace on this earth, and he knows that.

There will never be peace until after the rapture and the second coming of Jesus,

then we're going to come back and rule and reign and so on and so forth.

There ain't going to be no peace right now.

You and Willie Lump Lump may never have peace, okay?

I mean, you may never. Now, you love them, but we may never have the absence of conflict.

But with God, there's peace. When I miss the mark, I can go to him and say,

I've missed the mark. I made a mistake.

Forgive me. And he says, I've already forgiven you.

Come on, let's talk about something else. Amen?

When you make time to spend with him because there's free access to him and with him.

Listen. Be still and know that he's God. Let him talk to you.

Let him communicate with you.

Let him share some secrets with you. Let him tell you about things to come.

Anytime I meet with someone that's influential, I don't do all the talking.

I like to talk, okay? But when I meet with somebody influential and they've

been somewhere further than I have, or they've experienced some things more

than I have or they've got more knowledge in an area, I just sit there and listen.

You know what I do? I ask questions.

I ask questions.

And here's a key. Y'all ready for a key? People love to talk about themselves.

They love to do it. So just instigate it.

Just ask a question. Tell me how you get from, now how did you do that?

I know that about you. How did that happen?

And they love to tell it. Amen. And then you glean something from it.

Why don't you do that with Father God?

Father, how did you do that?

Why did you do that? Let him tell you.

Let him share with you. Because you have access to God because of the Prince of Peace.

Somebody say, man, you can, he doesn't sleep at all. God doesn't sleep.

Last night I was sleeping 1 a.m. I looked at the clock, I'm wide awake,

and I said, Lord, do you want to talk to me? Is there something you want to talk about?

And truth be told, you ready for this? Now, this is only for people that are

serious about God. You ready?

God does a lot of talking between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.

People, I don't have time to spend time with God. I'm just so busy.

You don't know my schedule. I'm so busy. I always ask, what are you doing between 1 a.m.

And 4 a.m.? I'm sleeping.

That's the time that God is talking.

I've got more direction, clear, concise direction between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.

I'm up. Not because I want to be up, but because the Lord will wake me up.

He'll, I'll just get up or I'll just sense something in my heart that he wants

to spend some time and I'll get up and the Lord will begin to talk to you.

If you don't know where to go, what to do, you're lacking direction and guidance.

I submit to you, wake up at 1 a.m.

And say, Lord, I'm here. Here's another one. Fast.

Fast. Say, I'm not going to eat until I get a word from you.

You listening to me? And God needs you to eat because he needs you alive on

the earth because he's got plans and purposes.

I ain't eating, Lord, until I hear from you.

Okay, okay, okay, I got to talk to him. I got to talk to him.

You remember in Daniel chapter 10, he prayed, And the Lord sent the answer at

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

that moment, but there was an evil spirit that was blocking the answer.

So Daniel fasted for 21 days, Scripture said.

He didn't eat any pleasant food, any delicacies, no meat.

And then the angel gave him the answer to the Lord. He said,

the Lord gave the answer immediately, but I was contending with an evil spirit.

And now, 21 days later, here's what the Lord is saying to you.

Come on, somebody say amen.

A lot of times you're not hearing from the Lord because there's contention happening in the invisible realm.

So you keep holding on and you keep fighting.

You keep trusting God and believing God and standing on the word of God.

There's contention hiding in the invisible realm.

But you have access to the Father. In Ephesians chapter 2, look at verse 14.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 14.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

He himself is Jesus. He himself is our peace, who has made both one and has

broken down the middle wall of separation.

Jump to verse 17. He himself is our peace.

I believe it's verse 17. And he came and he preached peace to you who were afar off.

Those that were afar off are known as the Gentiles. That's you and I.

He preached peace to you, those that are afar off, and to those who are near, they're the Jews.

He preached peace to those that are afar off and peace to those that are near. Look at verse 18.

For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.

Notice the message Jesus came to preach. Peace.

And he is our peace. He broke down the wall of separation and he preached peace.

Gentiles, there's peace between God and you.

And Jews, there's peace between God and you. And there's no longer a wall of

separation. If you go deeper, he broke the wall of separation between the Jews

and the Gentiles as well.

There will be no longer a wall of separation between the two parties.

They will all have free access to the Father by the Spirit of God because of

the peace that was preached by Jesus.

He's the Prince of Peace. Come on, somebody say amen.

You have peace with God. God is not mad at you.

I keep hearing this in my heart because somebody needs to hear this.

Yeah, you made some mistakes. Yeah, you missed the mark. Yeah,

you didn't do everything right.

But he's not mad at you. If you believe in Jesus, there's peace between you and God.

It's the devil that's trying to tell you that God's mad at you.

He's not mad. He's not upset. If you believe in Jesus, there's peace.

If you believe in Jesus, there's friendship between you and God.

You know, in scriptures, God calls certain people his friend. Imagine that.

And then Israel Holden wrote a song, I am a friend of God.

That's a big deal, to be a friend of God.

They even asked me this morning, who's the most famous person you've ever met?

I had to think about it, and I told him a name, and he said, okay.

I said, and you know what? They called me friend.

Amen. Why is that? Access.

Access. Somebody say access. You have access to excess.

Are you getting this this morning?

You are just a phone call away, a prayer away from receiving everything you

need when you need it at the time. I need wisdom.

God is wisdom. 1 Corinthians says that Jesus is actually wisdom.

I need understanding. The Word of God will give you understanding.

I need clarity. Jesus is the light.

Whatever you need, he supplies because you have access to the Father.

And here's what sin does. Nothing can separate you from the Father.

Listen to me now. Nothing. Romans 8 says nothing.

Nothing. I had a bad thought. I cussed. I fornicated. I got divorced.

I'm an adulterer. Can't separate you from God. But here's what does.

Sin causes you to lose confidence in your relationship with God.

Sin causes you to feel timid. Sin causes you to feel less than,

beneath, and you won't turn to him.

You won't consider him because there's sin in your life.

And if there's sin, consistent sin, habitual sin, you know you're in sin,

that's going to hurt your confidence.

It's going to hurt your confidence in God. Now, God loves you.

And he said, I'm here. I'm here.

You're righteous. Not by your activity. That would be holiness.

Righteousness is by what I've done for you through Christ Jesus.

And you believe in it. You're righteous.

Come, come. But sin is blocking you.

It's not blocking him. It's blocking you and hurting your confidence in your relationship with him.

That's why we should be quick to confess our sin.

Because he's faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

That's why I want to be quick to say I'm sorry, I apologize,

or anything along those lines,

because I want my relationship to be free, to be free of sin and guilt and condemnation and strife. Amen?

I want to have peace with God.

I don't want to be fighting against God. Who wants to fight against God or the things of God?

I want to fight the things of God. I want to just receive them.

Amen? I want to obey. I want to hear. I want clarity. I want insight. I want to know what to do.

I want to have wisdom, and I want to see things coming before they happen.

But sin, habitual sin, consistent sin, sin that's unconfessed,

sin that you're comfortable living in, will cause you to have friction in your relationship with God.

And I don't want that friction. Do you want that friction?

No, I don't want that friction. And so because we have friendship with God or

reconciliation, it's what peace is.

It's reconciliation. reconciliation, peace is bringing together two parties

that had some type of enmity or strife,

peace is bringing it together or even bringing it back together,

and they're now having the ability,

the two parties, to walk together as if nothing ever happened before.

That's what peace is all about. And part of our responsibility is found in 2

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 19.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19, it says, for God was in Christ reconciling

2 Corinthians 5:19

the world to himself. So how was he bringing the world to himself?

He's no longer counting people's sins against them.

Praise God. And he gave us, somebody said, that's me, this wonderful message of reconciliation.

So what is this verse telling us? God wants peace with humanity,

and he's not counting people's sins against them.

There was a particular time, I've told this story before, but you need to hear it again.

I was talking to a friend of mine. He pastors, many of you know him.

He's a good friend of mine. His name is Jeremy Pearsons, and he pastors in Colorado.

And I was telling him, I said, man, some of our stories, you know,

he and I were saying, we need to get some new stories. And God's doing some

new things, some new stories.

He said, but do you know that people, especially our children,

they love to hear the same story?

My kids want me to tell the exact same story over and over, and they love that story.

Daddy, tell me about that story. that one more time. Okay, this is the 100th time you've heard this.

But they love the same story. So he's like, I think people really love the same

stories. I think you're right, because I do like some of the same stories.

But one particular time, I was playing basketball. I used to play a lot of basketball.

I hurt my ankle one time, and it felt like a year to nail before it got healed.

So I ain't playing no more. I'm retired, right?

And so it took forever, it felt like, to get healed.

And so I played all the time. And particular time I was playing,

these two guys were sitting behind me, we're waiting on our game to play,

and the guy behind me was whispering to another guy, and they both were,

and I'm like, what are they talking about? I turn around and say,

hey, guys, what do you all talk about?

And one of the guys looked at me and said, I smoke, I drink, I sin.

I was like, oh, my gosh, are we about to fight? I mean, what's going on?

He goes, Devon, I smoke, I drink, I sin.

Oh, okay. And I said, Lord, help me. what am I supposed to say back to that?

And it felt like it was 20 years before the Lord gave me a response, but it was real quick.

And I said back to him, I said, what if nobody's in hell for smoking, drinking, and sinning?

And he got real quiet. I said, nobody's in hell for smoking, drinking, and sinning.

They're in hell because they rejected this peace that we're talking about today.

And afterwards, we played our game basketball. After he comes up to me,

he says, man, I need to know more about what you said.

So here I am on the basketball court talking to him. I end up leading him to the Lord. Amen.

Amen. You say, how do you lead someone to the Lord? You say,

listen, you recognize what I'm saying? Yes.

All you have to do is just say, I receive Jesus.

I just repent of the lifestyle that I've been living, and I receive Jesus. You know why?

And I told the man this, because he's not counting your sins against you anymore.

That's good news. That's the gospel right there.

God's not counting your sins against you anymore. All you have to do is receive the Prince of Peace.

Glory to God, and you will have right relationship with God.

He will treat you blameless, like you've never sinned before is how he'll treat

you. That's the word justified.

And he'll embrace you and call

you son and daughter, and you will have a right relationship with him.

Right there, I said to him, all you need to do is just say, I'm tired of living this lifestyle.

He said, I'm tired. I said, I repent of this lifestyle. I repent.

I said, Jesus, you're the Lord of my life. He said, Jesus is Lord.

And then we begin to talk. And then a few weeks later, he goes,

I'm a spiritual infant. I said, glory to God, we're going to grow you up, brother.

We're going to grow you. You're going to be a toddler next, praise God.

I still talk to him today. Glory to God. Amen.

All our responsibility is to let people know the Prince of Peace is here and

he's not counting your sins against you.

Put it back on the screen, guys, if you don't mind. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 19.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

For God was in Christ. God was in Christ.

Jesus is God. This is what put him on the cross.

Not any healing, not any good thing he did. It was because he said, I am God.

For God was in Christ. God himself was in Christ. What is he doing?

Reconciling, bringing the world to himself. And what is the message?

No longer counting people's sins against them.

God's not counting your sins against you. God's not keeping a record of your sin.

God's not taking notes and writing down all the sinful things you've done.

How many of you, when you were small, I know for me when I was younger,

I thought that when I pass away and I stand before God, there would be a movie screen.

Any of y'all thought that? And he was going to show all the sins I've done my entire life.

And I will watch this video, and it will be so long, of all the sins,

all the mistakes I've made, all of it, just every last one.

Even the ones I didn't even, that was a mistake I didn't even know that was,

right? All of the sins, that is untrue.

Somebody say, thank you, Jesus. He's not even keeping a record of wrongs.

What he is doing is keeping a record because there are crowns that we can receive.

So he's keeping a record of, man, this is what you did. These are the good things that you did.

Because we are to do good works. The good works don't get us the salvation. The salvation is free.

But then we're to do good works after. And there's a record of that being kept,

praise God. How many of you want the crowns that are in heaven, the trophies? Amen.

I want those. Amen. And so he's not counting our sins against us.

One more time, 2 Corinthians 5, 19 on the screen. I want to read the bottom. I want you to see it.

And he gave us this wonderful message. What is the message?

Reconciliation. What's reconciliation? Bringing people together,

bringing God and humanity together. and what is the message of reconciliation?

Huh? He's no longer counting your sins against you.

That should be your opening statement when you talk to people.

Let me talk to you. You know God's not counting your sins against you.

What are you talking about?

I'm a sinner. I know you're a sinner, but he's not counting it against you.

But he don't, God, you don't know what I've done. God doesn't care.

He knows what you've done, and he's still not counting your sins against you.

This is grace.

Grace is unearned and cannot be deserved.

Grace is hard to comprehend. You can take that verse down. Grace is hard to comprehend.

It's a free gift.

You mean that man could be a sex trafficker and give his life to Jesus,

and Jesus would embrace him and there'd be peace between him and God? Yes!

Well, I don't think it's fair. It ain't mine to give or not to give.

Come on, this is grace. And if you look at it, it ain't fair that he saved you either.

Amen. I was on the road headed to destruction, but grace came and peace came

and reconciliation came.

And somebody told me one day, maybe not in those words, but God's no longer

counting your sins against you.

And many of you, if not all of you in the building and online,

have heard the same message, right?

God's not counting your sins against you. He loves you just as you are and not as you should be.

Let me say it again. He loves you just as you are and not as you should be.

Glory to God. And when you hear that, praise God, you're like,

I want to grow up to be who I should be. Amen.

I don't want to go and keep, well, I guess, you know, well, shall I continue

in sin so that grace may abound?

The grace is so good that they asked Paul that question.

The grace is so wonderful. They said, well, shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?

Paul said, God forbid, Romans chapter 6, God forbid that you should keep sinning

Romans 6 · chapter mention

because that's going to wreck your relationship and your confidence with God. God forbid.

No, this grace is so good. It's the power to stop you from sinning. Amen.

I'm preaching better. Y'all saying amen in here. The power to stop you from

sinning and the free gift of salvation is to let someone know,

God is no longer counting your sins against you.

Say that after me. God is no longer counting your sins against you.

That's the message of reconciliation. That's the message we should be telling people.

God's not counting your sins against you. He loves you. He's not counting your record of wrongs.

As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, a love, which is the love chapter,

it says love keeps no record of wrong.

And when Stacey and I first got married, you best believe I was keeping some records.

I rubbed her back 10 times. She didn't rub my back at all. You got 10 more times

before I touch your back again. No, I had to stop that. Amen.

And I had to say, I'm not keeping any record.

God is not keeping the records of wrong. Glory to God.

And your responsibility, your privilege is to let people know. Let them know.

God loves you. He's not counting your sins against you.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and he came to bring peace between you and God. That is the message.

Well, you don't know. Their only rebuttal is, you don't know what I've done.

I don't need to know what you've done.

That's their only rebuttal. You don't know what I've been through.

I don't need to know what you've been through.

I know it's rough. I know it's tough. I got a testimony too. Amen?

I don't need to know. God loves you. He's not counting your sins against you.

All you need to do is believe and receive the love of God.

Just say, I repent. I repent just simply means change the direction of my life.

I repent. I rechange the direction. I believe in Jesus.

And now I have free, full access with God with no strife, contention,

guilt, shame, condemnation.

None of that exists. God loves me as I am and not as I should be.

If you agree with that, say amen. This is how you experience true life.