WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.280 Good morning, good day, good afternoon everyone. 2 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:09.960 Today is day 30 and this is entitled Peace with God. 3 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.840 Restful one, listen with your spirit to the word of God for you. 4 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:18.760 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. 5 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:26.440 The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:34.880 Isaiah 53, 5 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and has destroyed 7 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:41.800 the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its 8 00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:44.760 commandments and regulations. 9 00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:50.240 His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and 10 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:57.480 this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to 11 00:00:57.480 --> 00:00:59.680 death their hostility. 12 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:06.160 He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. 13 00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:09.120 Ephesians 2, 14-17. 14 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:14.600 These two passages sum up the story of mankind and his relationship to God. 15 00:01:14.600 --> 00:01:17.960 Peace centers on relationships. 16 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:25.160 In the Old Testament, two-thirds of the uses of the word peace refer to mankind's having 17 00:01:25.160 --> 00:01:30.880 fulfillment, protection, provision, or intimacy because of the presence of God. 18 00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:37.080 God yearns to have intimacy with us, to have each one of us be at peace with him, so that 19 00:01:37.080 --> 00:01:42.560 we can be complete, fulfilled, and ordered in our inner lives. 20 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:49.840 Adam and Eve were made without sin, but from the time they sinned, every person has fallen 21 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:50.920 into sin. 22 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:54.240 Sin poses a problem between us and God. 23 00:01:54.240 --> 00:02:01.560 Sin is disobedience to God, violation of the standard that God has placed before us. 24 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:07.800 God chose Abraham to be the father of a great nation, which we call Israel. 25 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:10.780 They had a special relationship with God. 26 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:16.700 He entered into a covenant with them, and he left his presence in that nation for many 27 00:02:16.700 --> 00:02:19.100 hundreds of years. 28 00:02:19.100 --> 00:02:22.280 Sometimes they were holy and turned to God. 29 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.420 Sometimes they were sinful and turned away from God. 30 00:02:25.420 --> 00:02:27.160 But he remained with them. 31 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:33.140 They remained his chosen people, in contrast to the rest of the nations who were permitted 32 00:02:33.140 --> 00:02:41.020 to come to the God of Israel, but did not have God residing among them. 33 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:46.580 Eventually Jesus Christ came to earth, fully God and completely man. 34 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:51.820 He was the only person to live without sin, and he chose to go to death on the cross and 35 00:02:51.820 --> 00:02:59.380 pay the price, not for his sins, because he had none, but for our sin. 36 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:05.620 Isaiah said, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquity. 37 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:11.780 The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 38 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:17.900 He died on the cross for the people of Israel who did not know him fully, and for Gentiles 39 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:23.460 who were far away from him and knew less about him than the Jews. 40 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:32.780 God sent Jesus Christ to do this for those far away and for those who were near, so that 41 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:35.660 we may have peace with him. 42 00:03:35.660 --> 00:03:41.880 Restful one, I bless you with the work of the Holy Spirit that gets you past the barrier 43 00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:47.260 of sin and into intimacy with your Father and with his Son Jesus. 44 00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:52.220 I bless you with peace through harmonizing your life, bringing all the different components 45 00:03:52.220 --> 00:03:59.220 of your life together into one clear purpose, the purpose which Jesus Christ designed for 46 00:03:59.220 --> 00:04:04.140 you from before the foundation of the world. 47 00:04:04.140 --> 00:04:11.340 I bless you with coming into peace with yourself, peace with God, and peace with others through 48 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:17.100 the work of Jesus Christ in removing your sins and repairing your brokenness to bring 49 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:19.260 you to peace. 50 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:26.380 I bless you with knowing that sin erects a barrier that keeps you from knowing all of 51 00:04:26.380 --> 00:04:29.140 God that you are supposed to know. 52 00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:33.260 Your Father loves you, and he communicates his love to you. 53 00:04:33.260 --> 00:04:39.180 I bless you with understanding the sinfulness of man and the holiness of God. 54 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:43.460 I bless you with a spirit that is profoundly sensitive to right and wrong. 55 00:04:43.460 --> 00:04:49.620 I bless you with a high moral standard and a keen desire to experience the peace and 56 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:51.140 pleasure of God. 57 00:04:51.140 --> 00:04:57.620 I bless you with a desire to be close to God and receive the full work that Christ has 58 00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:00.060 already done in his death on the cross. 59 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.040 cross. I bless you with understanding in your spirit and your mind the salvation 60 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:09.520 that Jesus Christ offers you which removes all hostility between you and 61 00:05:09.520 --> 00:05:15.320 God and enables you to come into his presence with full peace reconciled to 62 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:20.960 him. I bless you with the truth of his wonderful salvation coming to you in a 63 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:25.740 profoundly transforming way because the Lord Jesus Christ desires it. He 64 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:30.660 desperately wants you to be fully and completely reconciled to him. I bless you 65 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:37.420 in the name of Jesus of Nazareth whose crucifixion brought you peace. 66 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:53.420 Lord we've recently talked about being ambassadors of peace and there's been 67 00:05:53.420 --> 00:06:02.260 other passages about you being the prince of peace and it's so 68 00:06:02.260 --> 00:06:06.780 interesting the different definitions of peace that they they offer here and what 69 00:06:06.780 --> 00:06:10.740 it was in the Old Testament and and what it is meant in the New Testament and 70 00:06:10.740 --> 00:06:24.580 that there is certain aspects of peace that are available to us but we can't 71 00:06:24.580 --> 00:06:30.420 necessarily receive until it's kind of like we we get it a person used not in 72 00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:38.180 this context but used it once about that we on our cell phones that we receive 73 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:42.540 all the notices or a computer or whatever of all of the updates that are 74 00:06:42.540 --> 00:06:50.340 available for the apps now those those download those apps are all all those 75 00:06:50.340 --> 00:06:58.180 updates are available to us but unless we you know have automatic you know I 76 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:02.700 don't have it automatically set for most of us you know there's a there's a place 77 00:07:02.700 --> 00:07:09.020 where we would have to go in and download each one that we have access to 78 00:07:09.020 --> 00:07:13.980 it that those things are there waiting for us but we have to do something there 79 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:18.620 has to be something that we do that brings that into that brings that update 80 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:22.740 into our phone and that there's some aspect of who you are and what's been 81 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:29.220 done including the pace the piece that you've you've paid for that's available 82 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:36.580 to us to somehow is available to us but we're not accessing and some of that 83 00:07:36.580 --> 00:07:41.180 comes from being at peace with you in that respect and some of it also comes 84 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:48.340 from a reconciling of our the sinful nature I'm thinking of Jeremiah that 85 00:07:48.340 --> 00:07:54.300 called himself a man of unclean lips and touching the cold to his lips or he 86 00:07:54.300 --> 00:08:00.900 comes from an unclean people I'm thinking of the the reality of of our 87 00:08:00.900 --> 00:08:06.100 carnality in some respect when when people have a profound experience say 88 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:11.060 rare is the time that I've seen the manifest presence of God come into some 89 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:17.460 service where there's not a certain level of wailing that your holiness the 90 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:27.580 the extreme I will say of your holiness and your purity acts as a mirror and I 91 00:08:27.580 --> 00:08:39.620 remembered a a diagram where there was a point of salvation and and we go forward 92 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:45.660 and and there's these two divergent lines that get further and further apart 93 00:08:45.660 --> 00:08:53.660 and those two lines one is the holiness of God and the other is an awareness of 94 00:08:53.660 --> 00:09:02.300 our own brokenness or our own sin nature so to speak and as time goes on that we 95 00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:08.100 become as we become more aware of the holiness of God we also become more 96 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:15.980 aware of it's kind of like when when you first get saved I mean for those 97 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:19.300 that have been with the Lord forever it's maybe a little harder but when 98 00:09:19.300 --> 00:09:23.420 people first get saved there's there's this place where you feel like you're 99 00:09:23.420 --> 00:09:28.180 doing pretty good and we're all in this boat together and then we we've moved 100 00:09:28.180 --> 00:09:32.660 the clock forward and all of a sudden we we see another layer I call it the 101 00:09:32.660 --> 00:09:37.180 peeling the onion of it you know there's another layer of things like wow I didn't 102 00:09:37.180 --> 00:09:42.660 notice that before and we become more and more as we've been cleaner even if 103 00:09:42.660 --> 00:09:47.140 you did this in the natural the cleaner you eat the more you can tell when 104 00:09:47.140 --> 00:09:52.140 you're not so as you become for lack of a better term cleaner even though the 105 00:09:52.140 --> 00:09:56.380 blood of Jesus has already paved the way but as we as this sanctification process 106 00:09:56.380 --> 00:10:02.340 it works out in our life we become more and more sensitive to the impurity 107 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.880 pure. And we are more sensitive than we used to be. But the point is that these two lines 108 00:10:06.880 --> 00:10:11.580 start to become further and further apart. The more we learn of the holiness of God, 109 00:10:11.580 --> 00:10:18.040 the more that we also become aware of our own kind of depravity, that there's a never-ending 110 00:10:18.040 --> 00:10:31.360 kind of process, right, that something has to span that gap. Or we fall into, you know, 111 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:41.040 works or you can call it hyper-grace or what's the other term that I'm looking for. You fall 112 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:47.160 on either side of the ditch, I'll just put it that way. And only the cross, this person 113 00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:53.400 was teaching, you know, drawing this on the board. But there's an aspect of a piece that 114 00:10:53.400 --> 00:11:03.120 comes of understanding that you're the thing that makes it up. You, Lord, and who you are. 115 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:12.320 And that knowing that you have done this, you've spanned this, that it doesn't matter what we see 116 00:11:12.520 --> 00:11:19.080 of ourselves going forward and our becoming more like you, that there's an aspect of you, 117 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:24.360 tower, you're the one that seems this stuff all together. And in all of that, we can have peace, 118 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:32.120 that we don't have to be afraid. I don't really know who I'm talking to right now, 119 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:42.080 but this is definitely for someone that there's no fear. The shame is broken. These 120 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:47.200 things have been done away with. We don't have to hide. There's no more fig leaves that are 121 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:56.240 needed in our lives. The tower, you know, and we have access and that we have peace with you. 122 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:07.120 And you give us peace in these situations. And that you bridge the gap. And the other thing 123 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:14.400 that's come to my mind, Lord, is, and I don't, I'm not going to try to borrow her language, 124 00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:24.160 but it's a, it's a place where that Ashley speaks of also oftentimes. And, and she talks 125 00:12:24.160 --> 00:12:30.000 about having accusations against God, talking about being peace with God. And, and oftentimes 126 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:38.880 when I've walked people through forgiveness, there's this aspect of, well, we have to forgive 127 00:12:38.880 --> 00:12:44.560 those. And then, okay, well, let's go a little deeper and forgive. We're going to forgive the 128 00:12:44.560 --> 00:12:52.480 things that they did to us. Most of us stop there. And then, and then if we really want to push it 129 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:58.480 really hard to do is to forgive ourselves. And then oftentimes at the very end, depending on 130 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:03.760 who the person is and what's going on, there's this one. And it's very shocking to say like, 131 00:13:03.760 --> 00:13:11.760 well, what about God? And the reaction is always the same. Almost like, what are you talking about? 132 00:13:11.760 --> 00:13:18.880 I don't have to, God doesn't need my forgiveness. He's God. But the thing is that God doesn't need 133 00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:28.080 our forgiveness, but the forgiveness that's needed is, is ours. That, that there's this place where 134 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:34.000 we need to be at peace with Him. And that there are times when life just didn't turn out the way 135 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:43.200 that we expected. Maybe we felt like we did it all right. And, and, and our neighbors getting 136 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:51.840 everything that we wanted. You know, Psalm 37 talks all over and over again. It was like a song. 137 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:56.880 It was a, it was just all over me for months and months this last year. And it just talks about 138 00:13:56.880 --> 00:14:01.760 not fretting when we see, you know, those that are doing evil to seem like they're prospering. 139 00:14:01.760 --> 00:14:06.400 And that we're supposed to be patient and not do anything. And to trust God in it. 140 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:14.320 No self-initiated action, as it says in the passage that it leads to evil. 141 00:14:14.880 --> 00:14:23.760 So I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this, Lord, other than there's this expansive idea of 142 00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:32.960 what the peace that's made available to us and the, including the peace that we have available 143 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:39.520 to be at peace with you. That for us to be at peace with you in that, 144 00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:48.720 that there's things have been done to allow us to be, as in the early translation of this, 145 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:53.200 to mankind having fulfillment, protection, provision, and or intimacy because of the 146 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:59.520 presence of God. That we have a certain peace that comes from, from you and that through the 147 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:08.680 Reconciling through the cross that we have and can live at peace with you. 148 00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:13.000 And that as we go through our process and we become more aware of our own brokenness 149 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.280 and how holy you are, that we can also be at peace. 150 00:15:18.280 --> 00:15:21.960 That the work of reconciling these things is done and there's a unity that comes on 151 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:27.240 us and the more that we can come into a unity and union with you, the more resident and 152 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:30.400 resonant that becomes within us. 153 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:37.000 And Lord, my prayer is also that I used to say that God's a big boy. 154 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:43.320 He can handle you being angry or forgive me, you know, pissed off with him. 155 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:48.160 And there are many of us that, I don't know why I'm saying this, forgive me for being 156 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:52.320 crass, but you know, there are some of us that it's just, we just have to realize that 157 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:55.720 we're pissed off and God can handle it. 158 00:15:55.720 --> 00:16:00.400 He, as a pastor, changed my life, said, some of you need to have some R-rated prayers with 159 00:16:00.400 --> 00:16:03.280 God. 160 00:16:03.280 --> 00:16:05.460 I was shocked. 161 00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:09.320 I didn't know if I should be offended or liberated. 162 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:10.320 R-rated prayers with God? 163 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:15.040 Well, I tell you what, I had a couple and it changed my life. 164 00:16:15.040 --> 00:16:22.980 But I pray, Lord, that we can have in our own hearts to be at peace with you, that anything 165 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:30.140 that we hold against anyone, but especially, Lord, anything that has happened in our lives 166 00:16:30.140 --> 00:16:38.540 that causes us to have something that we have erected that keeps us from that peace that 167 00:16:38.540 --> 00:16:43.460 is already available to us, that Lord, that I pray for each of us that we will come to 168 00:16:43.460 --> 00:16:46.140 a greater peace with you. 169 00:16:46.140 --> 00:16:51.540 You don't need it, but Lord, we want to experience your peace. 170 00:16:51.540 --> 00:16:53.280 We want to experience you. 171 00:16:53.280 --> 00:16:56.660 We want to have all that is available to us. 172 00:16:56.660 --> 00:17:00.580 So Lord, if we need to become aware of the things that we're harboring against you, then 173 00:17:00.580 --> 00:17:05.099 Lord, bring them to the attention, release the spirit of truth to reveal all truth, search 174 00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:09.420 our hearts, Lord, and anything that we're holding against us, anything that is keeping 175 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:14.740 us from being able to experience the fullness of who you are and the peace that is available 176 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:23.020 to us, that we can walk in, live in, that Lord, it be done today, and Lord, if I've 177 00:17:23.020 --> 00:17:30.760 said anything wrong here, if I've been a little bit too direct or meandering, Lord, I pray 178 00:17:30.760 --> 00:17:40.980 that you would touch each and every person here today, that Lord, that we would experience 179 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:50.940 the peace that we have in you and with you, that we can fully be at peace, that there's 180 00:17:50.940 --> 00:17:56.740 nothing else that has to happen, but Lord, that we would also, in our own hearts, come 181 00:17:56.740 --> 00:18:08.340 to a fullness of peace with you and who you are, so that we can truly live an immersive, 182 00:18:08.340 --> 00:18:15.100 transformative, united life with you, and that there truly be a place where we know 183 00:18:15.100 --> 00:18:22.100 in our minds that there is no separation, but we're not experiencing it. 184 00:18:22.100 --> 00:18:33.260 Lord, that we would walk in close fellowship and union and unity in communion with you, 185 00:18:33.260 --> 00:18:39.300 and that Lord, that there nothing be within us that is standing between us and the very 186 00:18:39.300 --> 00:18:44.740 thing that we want, which is you and the fullness of the life that you have for us. 187 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:47.700 We bless you, Lord, and we love you, in Jesus' name.