[0:00] All right. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, thank you for who you are. Thank you that now we get to look to your word. God, as we continue with hearts of worship, we pray that you would speak to us through your truth. We love you and praise you and it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.
[0:24] Okay, you can turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three. We're still looking at verses 21 through 26. And before I go any further, I would just like to say, Eric, that was that was probably the most normal version of how great there are that there is. So I'm curious what other ways you sung it.
[0:52] Wow. All right, man, maybe we should know how great there are medley one week, all of the different ways to sing it. That would be great. Well, we are in like I said, we are going to be in Romans chapter three. But before we do that, I want to take just a moment. And I want to remind you that this is the first Sunday of Advent.
[1:17] And so today we're going to light the first candle of Advent, which normally would be the hope candle. But today it is the peace candle. And as we light this candle, I want you to remember that we serve a God of peace. We serve a God of peace. He promised peace to his people and he makes peace available to us through Jesus.
[1:44] And we also look ahead to the new heavens and the new earth and the promise of everlasting peace with him because Jesus suffered for our sins. He grants us peace beyond understanding.
[1:57] The prophet Isaiah, looking ahead to this prince of peace, says, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders.
[2:11] He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
[2:31] The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. As we're looking now at this idea of peace, I want to ask you a question.
[2:44] Have you made peace with God? Have you made your peace with God? I'm asking that question in that exact term, in those exact terms intentionally.
[3:00] And I'll be honest with you on where I get this language from primarily. It's from the 1994 cinematic masterpiece, Forrest Gump.
[3:10] If you remember, you all remember Forrest Gump. You got Lieutenant Dan. Remember Lieutenant Dan? It's going to be really hard for me to not do a Forrest Gump voice.
[3:21] But anyways, that country accent. Anyways, in Forrest Gump, you remember Lieutenant Dan was always angry. Like all the time.
[3:32] He was always angry. He was always yelling. And there was this scene after they're back from the war. Him and Forrest are on the shrimp boat. You know what I'm talking about? And he is screaming at God.
[3:44] And then it cuts and there's this huge storm on the ocean. You remember this? And the idea is that God is yelling back at him. And so Lieutenant Dan, he climbs up on the mast of the shrimp boat.
[3:56] And I don't know how he did because he didn't have any legs. But he climbed up there. And he's shouting, is that all you got? Come on, is that all you got? Well, then you go ahead a little bit. And Forrest is talking to a lady on the park bench.
[4:07] And then it cuts back to Lieutenant Dan. And he's subdued. He's calm. And he says to Forrest, Forrest, I never thanked you for saving my life.
[4:20] And then he dropped off into the water and floated away. Do you remember that? And Forrest told the lady on the bench, he said, He never said so, but I think Lieutenant Dan made his peace with God.
[4:38] There's some faulty thinking, though, with this idea of making our peace with God. See, we imply, when we say that, Have you made your peace with God?
[4:49] Have I made my, I've made my peace. I've made my peace, right? We sometimes imply that we get to dictate the terms of peace. As if God is groveling at our feet, Asking for peace with us, And we finally get to say to him, Okay, on my terms, we can have a good relationship.
[5:12] The problem is that couldn't be further from the truth. We cannot make peace with God unless God makes peace with us. There's nothing that we can do.
[5:25] We're not holy. We're not righteous. We're not set apart. We're not perfect. God is not begging for us to make peace with him. He sought us out and made peace with us.
[5:38] He writes the terms and conditions. He writes the peace treaty. The only way that you or I or anyone can have peace with God is through faith in Jesus Christ.
[5:50] I'm going to read for us from Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 21. It says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed. Attested by the law and the prophets, The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, Since there is no distinction.
[6:08] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace, Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood through faith, To demonstrate his righteousness, Because in his restraint, God passed over the sins previously committed.
[6:26] God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, So that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
[6:38] As we think about the peace of God that is offered to us in Christ Jesus, I want to draw your attention to two words. On your bulletin it says redemption, And that's the first word we are going to talk about today.
[6:50] And it's found here in Romans chapter 3, verse 24. For justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So I want to explain to you what the word redemption means.
[7:00] That's one of those words that we say quite a bit, But I don't know that we always have a right understanding of what we say when we say it. So I want to clarify for you what the word redemption means. And the second word is like it, And you won't read it directly in this passage, Unless you have a different translation than me.
[7:17] But that is the word atonement. Atonement. So the first word is redemption. When we're thinking about how to have peace with God, We have to understand that in order to have peace with God, We need to be redeemed.
[7:30] We need to be redeemed. So the word redemption, It means to buy back, Or to reclaim, Something that was lost.
[7:41] So God buys back sinners. God redeems sinners. That's what the word redeem means. It comes from the, It's an Old Testament word.
[7:54] It's a Hebrew word. And what redemption means is to buy back, To reclaim something that was lost. Alright? In the Old Testament, You see a really beautiful example of this, In God's instructions for the kinsman redeemer.
[8:09] The family redeemer. You see this play out really beautifully in the story of Ruth and Boaz. You remember this? A limeleck. Naomi's husband died. Her two sons, Malan and Chilion, They both died.
[8:21] And now, Naomi's a widow, Orpah's a widow, And Ruth is a widow. Well, Ruth and Naomi stay together. They go back into, Not Jerusalem, I'm sorry, Back into Bethlehem.
[8:33] And Ruth is committed to taking care of her mother-in-law. And then she meets a guy. But the guy is just a really nice guy, Who gives her food, And all these things. Come to find out, He's a family member of a limeleck's.
[8:46] And he has the opportunity, To redeem the broken situation of Naomi's loss. Essentially. By providing an heir for a limeleck's family.
[8:57] And he does that. He ends up marrying Ruth. He redeems the family. And so God, Has, Had allowed for his people, To have this redemption process, To fix what is broken, To buy back what had been messed up.
[9:10] And you see it play out there, In the story of Ruth and Boaz. Now in the New Testament, The term redemption, Is used, Almost exclusively, To describe God, Buying back, Sinners, From bondage to sin.
[9:27] So, The Bible talks about us, In our sin, As people who are captive. We are enslaved to sin. Sin. If you don't believe me, Read Romans 6 and 7.
[9:38] We are slaves to sin. Read Galatians, Chapter 3 through chapter 5. We are slaves to sin. Apart from Christ, The choices that we will make, Are tainted by sin.
[9:50] And, Given the choice between sin and not sin, We will choose sin. We are sinful being. One of the easiest, Maybe the easiest doctrine, In all of scripture to prove, Is the depravity of the human heart.
[10:01] We are fallen creatures. If you don't believe me, Look around the world. We live in a depraved world, Because we are depraved people. We are sinful. We are in bondage.
[10:14] And here is the thing, About being in bondage to sin. We cannot break the chains on our own. We are stuck. We are enslaved. And so, God, In his grace, Redeems his people.
[10:29] He buys us back. Right? What had fallen into sin, He now buys back. And I want you to notice, A couple of things, About redemption.
[10:39] First, Redemption is a work, Of God's grace. Romans 3.24 says, They are justified freely, By his grace, Through the redemption, That is in Christ Jesus.
[10:51] God buying back sinners, From sinful captivity, Is a work of his grace. God is gracious to us, He is kind to us, When we don't deserve it.
[11:03] We are enemies with God, In sin. The Bible describes us as enemies. We, You know, We're not friendly, We're not on good terms with God, We're certainly not on good enough terms, To write our own peace treaty.
[11:14] We're enemies of God. But God, In his grace, Shows kindness to sinners. And he redeems us, He offers redemption. Number two, I want you to see that redemption is available, Because of the shed blood of Jesus.
[11:29] John, If you can skip ahead on the slides, I've got a Bible verse for this. It's Ephesians chapter 1, Verses 7 and 8. It says, In him, We have redemption, Through his blood, The forgiveness of our trespasses, According to the riches of his grace, That he richly poured out on us, With all wisdom, And understanding.
[11:47] And you go to the next slide. So, We have redemption available, Because, Of Jesus' shed blood. Like, You figuring out your peace with God, Through words, Or through feelings, Or through any other means, Is insufficient.
[12:04] The reality is, The blood of Jesus, Was necessary, Because of our sin. Redemption is necessary, Because of our sin.
[12:15] And I want you to contrast, This peace that God offers, Through the shed blood of his son, With the peace that the world hopes for. Okay? The world hopes for a peace, Absent of conflict.
[12:27] Alright? So, We're going to do a poll here. Raise your hand, If you had a Thanksgiving meal, With, You know, Extended family, This past week. Okay, I'm glad to see that.
[12:40] That's good. Now, Raise your hand, If there was an argument, At Thanksgiving. Anyone? Any arguments? Thank you for honesty, Jason. I know the, Eric, Thank you for the honesty.
[12:52] Alright, There's always arguments, At Thanksgiving, Right? Now, Some of us in the room, I don't know who, I'm kind of one of those people, That when my family members, Are arguing, I like to poke the bear. You know what I mean?
[13:02] Like, Let's see how big this can get. You know, Maybe that's not right. But anyways, Some of us in the room, Are like, We're peacekeepers. Okay? You might even describe yourself, As a people pleaser.
[13:13] Right? Like, Like, The argument starts to, You know, Get going about politics, Or football. I won't bring up Vanderbilt, Don't worry. Arguments get going, You know?
[13:25] And maybe you're the person, The guy or the gal, Who you're like, Guys, Can't we all just have a good time? Let's just enjoy Thanksgiving. You know? Why do we have to argue? And here's the thing, Sometimes that's fine.
[13:36] Sometimes that's fine. But when that's our approach, To every situation, There's not real peace. Right? If you don't actually work through, Conflict can be a good thing. Conflict can lead to a solution. And in the spectrum of sin, And our complete incapability, To save ourselves, We need some divine conflict.
[13:55] And there was. God sent his son, Into this sinful world, And he died on the cross, For our sins. He shed his blood. He was beaten.
[14:06] He was bruised. He was, He was, You know, Maligned, Because of us. For us. Jesus was willing to enter into our mess, And take the conflict, Take the punishment, So that there could be true, Lasting, Eternal peace.
[14:25] There's this, There's this faulty logic, False teaching, That goes around, Sometimes it gets repackaged, Into a new, You know, A new cool way, And comes back around.
[14:36] It's called universalism. Universalism is this belief, That everyone is going to be saved, That no one's going to be punished, And go to hell, Because God loves too much, To punish his loving creation, Right?
[14:49] That's the idea, Behind universalism, Is that everybody's going to be okay, In the end. But, Universalism, As great as that sounds, Is not a biblical teaching, God's word speaks of, The necessity, Of punishment for sin, We serve a holy God, We serve a glorious God, And in our sin, We could not stand in his presence, And live, He must, Cover our sin, And so, Redemption is necessary, And the way that God, Has offered redemption, Throughout history, All of salvation, All of salvific history, Old testament and new, There is one way, That God offers, The covering of sin, And it is through the shed blood, Of an animal, Or, Christ, So, If you go back to the old testament, Earliest sin possible, Adam and Eve in the garden, What did God do, After he caught Adam and Eve,
[15:50] In their sin, Do you remember? He made, He killed an animal, And made clothes for them, So he covered, Their nakedness, Covered their shame, With the death of an animal, And then you go into, The sacrificial system, You have the Passover lamb, The blood of the lamb, Was supposed to be painted, On the door post, And the idea was, That the blood of the lamb, Covered the household, Covered the people, In that household, So that they were saved, They were preserved, From destruction, And then you fast forward, To even more, Into the sacrificial system, And you have, This sacrifice, This celebration, This feast, This day, Called Yom Kippur, Which was the day, Of atonement, And that brings us, To our second word, Which is, Atonement, The day of atonement, In the old testament, It's found, Described, First, In Leviticus chapter 16, And you can turn, To Leviticus chapter 16, If you want to, Maybe bookmark it, It's a very interesting, Chapter of scripture,
[16:51] But I'm going to explain to you, What this day of atonement was, Okay, Because God is just, And he punishes sin, Our sin, Must be atoned for, That is, It must be covered, It must be forgiven, Must be wiped out, In other words, God, Has wrath, And his wrath, Is directed towards sin, God's wrath, Must be, Must be, Subsided, It must be, Satisfied, And, Our sin, Must be taken away, Removed from us, Now God, Outlined, This process, For the people of Israel, In this, This celebration, Called Yom Kippur, In Leviticus chapter 16, So here's what, What happens in Leviticus chapter 16, First of all, Aaron is the high priest, At the time, And he was told, That on one day out of the year, He would go into, The, Not only the tent of meeting, But into the deepest meeting place, The holy of holies, Okay,
[17:51] In the holy of holies, The ark of the Lord, Dwelt, And above, The ark of the Lord, Was a cloud, Where the Lord himself, Appeared, The Lord was, Constantly appearing, There, In the holy of holies, His presence, Was constantly, There, One day out of the year, The high priest, Would go into, The holy of holies, And he would take with him, Five animals, He would take, A bull, For a sin offering, For himself, Because you have to remember, Aaron, Was a sinful person, The high priest, Was a sinful person, So he had to take, A bull, To sacrifice, For his own sin, To cover his own sin, And his families, He would take, A ram, For a burnt offering, Actually two rams, For a burnt offering, And then he also took, Two goats, Into the tent with him, Okay, So, The whole purpose, Of Yom Kippur, The day of atonement, Was to cover the sins, Of the camp of Israel, Of the people of Israel, Once per year, Because they were sinful, Otherwise God would have had,
[18:53] To pour out his wrath, On them, But instead, He gave them this way, To cover their sin, Okay, So, These two goats, There's one goat, It was called, The goat of propitiation, On the count of three, You're going to say propitiation, Okay, One, Two, Three, Propitiation, That's good participation, Now I know you're awake, Okay, And the other one, Is the goat of expiation, On the count of three, You're going to say expiation, One, Two, Three, Expiation, You guys are Hebrew scholars, Okay, So, So here's, Here's the deal, The goat of propitiation, Would be killed, The blood of the goat, Of propitiation, Was the, The, The means, For God to pour out his wrath, Okay, Symbolically, God's pouring out his wrath, On the sins of the people, The blood from that goat, Was sprinkled onto the mercy seat, Which was on the top, Of the ark of the covenant, And then there was the second goat, The goat of expiation, It's kind of like the part of turkey, For thanksgiving, Okay, The goat of expiation,
[19:54] Would have the blood, Of the other animals, Sprinkled on it, And then it would be led, Out of the camp, This is where we get the term, Scapegoat by the way, Okay, You take the sin, Away from the camp, So, You have in this, Day of atonement, This beautiful picture, Of God's wrath being poured out, Because the shed blood of the goat, And then you also have, The sins of the camp, Being removed from the people, In the goat of expiation, Okay, So atonement, Means God's wrath is satisfied, And, Our sins are removed from us, Okay, And now you're like, Joseph, Where in the world did atonement come from, From this Romans 3 passage, Well let me show you, Romans chapter 3 verse 25, God presented him, That's Jesus, As the mercy seat, By his blood, Through faith, To demonstrate his righteousness, Because in his restraint, God passed over the sins, Previously committed, There in the New Testament, It's translated, Mercy seat, In the Christian standard Bible, Sometimes you might see in your Bible,
[20:55] That it's translated propitiation, The point here, Is that, That word in the Greek, Directly ties back, To the day of atonement, In Leviticus chapter 16, Alright, So the idea is that, Jesus, Is now, The means, By which, Sins are covered, Are you still with me?
[21:17] Okay, So, We're redeemed, Which means, God has bought us back, He has taken us, Out of, Slavery, Out of captivity, And our sins, Are covered, The only way, That we can be redeemed, Is if our sins are covered, Okay, The only, In other words, The only way, That you can have peace with God, Is if God, Covers your sin, So that he does not, Pour out his wrath on you, Because here's the thing, There's been a lot of people, In the world, Who felt like, They made their peace with God, Right, They settled on that, Now I made my peace with God, I don't want to hear anymore about it, Right, I don't want to talk about it anymore, Well then when they died, They realized, Very quickly, That there was no peace with God, The only way, That you and I, Can have true, Lasting, Eternal peace, Is through faith, In Jesus Christ, It's not through good works, It's not through good feelings, It's not through anything, Other than, A submission, To the work, Of Jesus Christ, So you have Jesus, Who is, This mercy seat, The mercy seat,
[22:18] Where the blood was sprinkled, Remember, The presence of God, Appeared constantly, Over the mercy seat, So that when, The blood was sprinkled, On the mercy seat, God made propitiation, He covered the sins, Of the people, So that then, The sins could be, Walked out of the camp, It's a beautiful picture, Jesus is that mercy seat, And so if we're, If we're looking now, At the person of Christ, And we're thinking, How do we have peace with God, Well, Here's how it is, Okay, One, Jesus is the perfect high priest, You know, Aaron, When he went into the tent of meeting, He went into the holy of holies, He had to, Sacrifice a bull, For his sin, And for the sins of his family, Because he was sinful, Jesus, Didn't have to sacrifice anything, There had to be no shed blood, For his own sin, Because he was sinless, Jesus is perfect, Jesus, Is the goat of propitiation, Jesus, On the cross, Had God's wrath, Poured out on him, We've talked about this word, Imputation, We gave, Jesus took from us, I should say, Our sin, And God poured out his wrath,
[23:20] And punished it, Effectively, Right, There's no extra sin, Hanging out, That went unpunished, God punished his sin, Or our sin, On the cross, On the cross of Christ, He is the goat of propitiation, He satisfied God's wrath, That otherwise would be for us, If we did not have peace with God, And then he went to the grave, He took our sins, Like the goat of expiation, Took our sins, To the, They're gone, Right, Completely satisfied, Our sins are forgiven, And then, He rose again, Three days later, Jesus had victory, Over sin, And death, And the grave, He rose again, He is the perfect day of atonement, Jesus is where, You and I, Can have freedom from sins, He is where, Our sins can be forgiven, You know this week, I've been, I've been doing this for, I guess a few weeks now, But, I teach a class, On Tuesday mornings, You might have seen this on Facebook,
[24:21] With some friends of mine, From Myanmar, Okay, Pretty cool, Technology is awesome, I can talk to these people, In Myanmar, Every Tuesday, For me it's 6.30 in the morning, For them it's 7pm, So, We meet from 6.30am, To 8.30am, Or 7 to 9, And, They have me teaching, New Testament theology, Which is a blast for me, I love this, It's a lot of fun, So I'm teaching, New Testament theology, To these students, These master level students, And, One of the, Or today, Or this past week, The topic, That I had to teach them, Was on the work of Christ, The work of Christ, And it was really, Really fun, To explain to these guys, And girls, And the reality is, They knew a lot of what I was saying, But it was fun still, To teach, And to show, How Jesus, Is the perfect sacrifice, For our sins, Right, The same way that the goat, In the Old Testament, Stood in the place, You know, Substitutionary, Stood in the place, Of the people of Israel, By dying, By taking that, Punishment for sin, Jesus,
[25:22] Stood in our place, On the cross, He took, Our sin for us, And the question comes, When you think about, The work of Christ, And you think about, Atonement, And redemption, The question comes, How in the world, Is that even possible?
[25:36] How did he do it? Here's the thing, It requires, A perfect, Sacrifice, Who was a human being, Jesus, In order to be, The proper atonement, The one who could, Cover our sins, Had to be like us, Hebrews chapter 4, 15 says, He was like us, In every way, Except without sin, He had to be, A perfect human being, But if Jesus was, A perfect human being, And he died on the cross, And he wasn't, Also God, Then that death on the cross, Would have only been good for him, He also had to be, The son of God, He had to be God, In the flesh, So Jesus Christ, Is truly, Truly God, And truly man, The two natures of Christ, Alright, No separation, He is, Truly God, And truly man, And because, He is truly God, And truly man, Jesus Christ, Is, The mercy seat, For us, He is the one, Who makes atonement,
[26:37] He is the one, Who covers, Our sin, And, And I know that sometimes, When I get talking about these things, I get kind of nerdy, So, I'm sorry, If that was too nerdy, Let me bring it back for us, Let's go back to Advent, Alright, Advent, Is a season of waiting, The people of Israel, Waited for thousands of years, For the promised Messiah, They had to, Constantly wait, When it seemed like, All hope was lost, Because the nation, Split into two, They still waited, When it seemed like, All hope was lost, Because the northern kingdom of Israel, Was taken into captivity, They still waited, When it really seemed like, All hope was lost, Because the southern kingdom of Judah, Was taken off to Babylon, They still waited, The prophets, Still faithfully prophesied, The priests, Still, In some cases, Faithfully, Taught God's word, And they waited,
[27:37] And they waited, And they waited, Until one day, A baby was born, In Bethlehem, Jesus, The fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, They had to be patient, When I think about waiting, I think about Advent, I think about two people, From Luke's gospel, You have Simeon, And the prophetess Anna, Whenever they are there, In the temple complex, When Jesus was dedicated, Remember Simeon was so excited, Because he had waited, To see this promised child, And he finally got to see him, He finally got to see him, God had been good on his promise, For Simeon, And then Anna looked forward, The prophetess, She recognized, That Jesus was, This idea of waiting, They waited for years, Right?
[28:22] Their whole lives waited, And they finally saw the fulfillment, And that baby brought peace, He made peace possible, A baby grew to a man, He didn't sin, He lived perfectly, Truly God, Truly man, He died on the cross, And now if you put your hope, And trust and faith in him, Then you can have peace with God, And here's the thing, He invites you, To be at peace with him, He has conquered, He is the victor, He has overcome sin, Which means he writes the terms for peace, If you don't have peace with God, Through Jesus Christ, Then you have no peace with God, Because here's the second part of Advent, Like Miss Amy talked about, A little bit this morning, We now wait, For Jesus to come back, Because that Jesus, Who died on the cross, Rose again, And he didn't go back into the tomb,
[29:23] After that, He ascended, And is on high, With the father, And one day, He is coming back, And on that day, Those who have peace with him, Will celebrate his victory, And those who have never trusted in him, Will shudder, So, The question, As we think about this season of Advent, And we look ahead to the second coming of Christ, The question for us to consider, Is, Do you have peace with God, On his terms?
[29:57] Not, Have you made your peace with God? You don't write the contract, He wrote it, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, With his blood, Do you have peace with God, On his terms?
[30:12] And those terms are, Like Chris preached about last week, Faith, Trust, Believing that Jesus Christ, Is the son of God, That he died on the cross for your sins, And rose again, And not hoping in anything else for salvation, Only him, Faith, Is all it takes, We couldn't write a better deal than that, By the way, I can't make peace with God better than that, He offers that to us freely, So as we think about the season of Advent, The season of waiting, And like, With holidays, Look, We just drove to Texas, And back from Texas, I'm about to go on a mission trip, It's really hard, To have peace, When you're super, Super busy like this, Okay, Now, Add to that, You got a couple of little kids, And now I'm like, Man, I'm leaving Audrey by herself, I hope they're okay, You know, I hope that they're safe, While I'm out of the country, I hope I'm safe, While I'm out of the country, All these, It's hard to slow down, And have peace, But that's just my experience,
[31:14] You have all sorts of things going on, You got gifts to buy, Parties to attend, You've got people to see, You got all these things going on, During this season of Advent, I'm going to challenge you, To pause, And rest, In the peace, That God offers, If you have faith in Jesus, That means pausing, And thanking Him, Living in a moment of thanksgiving, Thanksgiving has passed, But you can still have moments of thanksgiving, Okay, If you don't have a relationship with Christ, That means that you, Give your life to Him, You believe in Jesus Christ, You trust in Him for your salvation, And know, That His peace, Is greater than any peace, This world offers, It's an eternal peace, A lasting peace, It's freedom from sin, It's freedom from captivity, And it's forgiveness of sin, Because your sins have been paid for, That is available to you today,
[32:14] Because of Jesus Christ, I'm going to pray for us, We're going to sing a closing song, And if you have questions, About what it means to trust Jesus, To follow Jesus, Please come talk with me, But I want you to understand, That redemption is available, Atonement is available, And it's available in the person of Jesus Christ, You do not have peace with God, Unless God has made peace with you, Let's pray together, Lord Jesus, Thank you for who you are, Thank you that you are the perfect sacrifice, That you stood in our place, That you took our sins on yourself, That you received the punishment, The wrath of God, So that we can have life, We can have eternal life, And we can have peace, Lord we know that your word says, That you offer a peace, That passes understanding, And it's incomprehensible, That you would offer to us, Any semblance of peace, When we were your enemies, And yet you do, Lord Jesus we love you, We praise you, I pray right now, That anybody in this room, Who does not have a relationship with you, God that you would call them,
[33:15] To the peace that you offered, That you would make yourself known to them, In a way where they do not deny, But they receive your grace, We love you, And praise you, And it's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.