Reconciliation

Good morning. Let’s thank our kids one more time for leading us. Pointing us so well to the cross of Jesus. If you got a Bible, if you told me that in Romans five, it’s we’re gonna spend most of our day to day Romans five, we’re gonna look verses eight through 11. We will be in a couple other places. If you’re at home, welcome, we’re glad you’re here, we’re gonna take communion as part of our worship today. So if you aren’t home, you may want to hit that pause button and grab some elements so that you’re prepared to take. You can see the stage setting behind me tonight. Just as a reminder, if you didn’t catch this, our 18th, which is our part of the part of our body, that is adults with special needs is going to be putting on a performance that’s going to remind us of what Christ did coming into Holy Week, and how his death and resurrection have saved us. So I just encourage you to come back and buy tickets at the door for five bucks. So if you’re free tonight, you’re welcome. We’d love to have you. Alright, so let’s dive into God’s word. So we’re going to be Romans chapter five. As I was thinking about this series, we’ve been taught about the power of the cross. We’ve talked about the work of the crosses the work of substitution, and the work of propitiation, and we, you know, I know those are big words, but hopefully did an okay job of explaining them. But I was thinking about a trip that I took, when I think about the power of the cross a couple years ago, I had to go visit some of our ministry partners in India. While we were there, I was with pastor and so is the two of us. While we were there, throughout the week, one of the things I think were there 10 days, and every day, our hosts so graciously would adjust the items that they made. So they would eat one thing, and they would give us something different than what they ate. They would say, you know, this is your spice level, this is our spice level, you’re gonna eat this, and we’re gonna eat that. So same thing, just cooked with a little less something in it a little less kick in it. So, you know, right before we decide, Ian and I were gonna get on a pretty long plane flight. So I don’t know if this was the right choice at that moment. But the last day, we were going out for kind of our last meal together with all these really dearly loved pastors that we’re partners with over there. We said, Look, Listen, stop giving us the kind of sissy plate. Give us what you’re eating. To which our friend looked at us and said, I don’t think you know what you’re asking for. Really? No, no, come on. We’re just we want to eat while you’re eating. So he said, Okay, if you’re sure. We’re like, yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, like, how bad can it be right? I’ve never put anything that hot in my mouth before or since. It was so hot. I mean, it was a another level of it. I grew up, like really enjoying hot food, right? Like I enjoy. I grew up in Texas. We had jalapenos I remember like having a dinner with a friend. Like can you finish all the fresh jalapenos on your plate at this Mexican food restaurant, which did interesting fresh jalapenos, like pickled jalapenos. They’re much hotter, but they’re not like habaneros. You know, they’re not that hot. When you moved here, we went to Wegmans. In the section that sells the jalapenos at Wegmans, it said, caution, very hot. Then we thought, oh, sweet Pennsylvania. Sweet, sweet Pennsylvania. So you know, we’re use a little heat and it was brutal. Have you ever eaten something so hot. Here’s the experience that I want you to remember in your mind, you put it in your mouth, and the heat just grows, you know what I’m talking about? Like, it starts and you’re like, Oh, that’s hot. Then it finds another place in your mouth and it goes, Oh, no even more. Then it hits the back of your throat. You’re like, I’m gonna breathe fire. That’s how this meal in India felt. I just kept looking at each other. We were sweating like a flopsweat. We’re like, how long is the flight after this. As I think about that, that’s a little bit of a silly way to help you understand what we’re trying to do in this series that as we reflect upon the power of the cross, you see what I want you and what we’re hoping will happen in this time to prepare ourselves for Good Friday and Easter together is that we would understand and let the power of the cross grow in our hearts, and in our minds. Now, I’m not suggesting that I’m adding to the power of the cross. There’s nothing that needs to be added. But what I hope you see is something far beyond what we sort of often say that, you know, Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins, which is an absolutely true statement. But we sometimes leave it there. Our hope is that in sort of understanding how he was our substitute how he bore the wrath of God for us, and today, how he’s reconciled us to the father than in looking at the cross, what we’re doing is trying to let the power of the cross grow, and take hold of our minds and increasing measure, and then take in take hold of our hearts and increasing measure kind of the same way that heat grows when you eat something hot. We want the heat of the cross to grow in our hearts. Does that make sense? That’s what we’re hoping to experience and hope you’re helped by it. So today we’re going to try and answer two questions. We’re going to see that the cross is not just a work of substitution, and propitiation fun, but a work of reconciliation. We’re gonna show you how those three things are connected.

So first we’re going to talk about well, what does it mean when we talk about reconciliation? Then what does a reconciled life look like? What if you recognize that the cross of Jesus is so powerful? That it can reconcile you to God the Father? What does that kind of life look like? I just want to offer you a few things on that’s one of those you recognize, as soon as asked that question, we could just stay here all day, talking about all the implications. I’m just gonna give you a few. Okay. So let’s look at Romans five together. Then we’ll ask that first question, what is reconciliation? So Romans chapter five, starting in verse eight. Here’s what we find. Paul says, But God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, there’s that word, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation, those and there’s a few really key texts, when you think about this doctrine of reconciliation, the idea that the cross has reconciled us to God in the scriptures. One is this one, the probably kind of preeminent one is second Corinthians chapter five, at the end of that chapter is verses 16 through 21, we’re going to look briefly at that. But I chose this text, because it helps bring together the last three weeks of what we’ve been looking at. So let’s understand when we talk about reconciliation, what do we mean, when we talk about it, just sort of in layman’s terms, reconciliation just means you are estranged from someone, and you’ve now had a relationship with Him restored? Does everyone agree that you’ve been estranged from him something broke that relationship thing, fractured it, and now you’ve been restored in relationships with your right with one another. You have re-instituted the relationship. It’s been restored, made whole. Right? Now, in theological terms, when we talk about reconciliation, what we’re saying is that our sin and the sin of the human race being part of this thing called humanity, being in rebellion against God, we’ve been separated from God, we’ve got this fracture in our relationship with Him caused by our sin. As a result, we need to be reconciled with Him. One of the things Jesus did at the cross was he enabled us to have a reconciled relationship with God the Father. So Jesus reconciled our relationship with the Father. Now, that’s sounds very simple, but it’s a really crucial understanding. Now, let’s ask the question, how does that work? Because you might, if you’re kind of processing all this, you might recognize, well, let’s just think in human terms for a moment, if I have a broken relationship with you. Then I owe something, I’ve done something, I’ve harmed you in some way. So I owe a debt to you. If a third party comes in and pays that debt does something to make payment for what I’ve done wrong, you can certainly understand we get how now that that person to whom the debt has been paid no longer has holds a penalty over me that makes sense to us. Yes. But we might then think, but that person still not going to trust me. That person doesn’t feel restored in relationship to me, because this third party did something to take care of the penalty doesn’t make them go, Well, now, I’m going to receive you back because they would still probably hold me at arm’s length. Would you agree with that? So how is it that this third party Jesus, in doing what he did on the cross is able to not just make us legally right with God, but he’s able to restore our relationship with God? How does that work, and it connects to what we’ve talked about the last two weeks. So if you remember, we’ve talked about that he was our substitution, which means that he took our place on the cross, it’s a penalty we should have paid, and he paid it. Then in week two, we looked at what it was that he was our propitiation, which is a big word away, big way to say that he bore the wrath of God for us that I should have borne he bought it. That was the penalty that he took. So there was a penalty. That penalty was God’s wrath being poured out on sin and sinners. Jesus took that. Now both of those things are sort of legal ideas. They’re the idea that there is a courtroom and adjust judge is going to pass judgment upon someone deserving of that judgment. But Christ intervenes in that courtroom scene and declares us legally righteous, He makes us right with God, he pays the debt and makes takes away our penalty. Everybody with me so far? Those are legal ideas. But what Paul’s going to do this week is he’s going to take us out of the courtroom, into the home, if you will. He’s gonna take us out of the legal and into the relational. He’s gonna say Christ did those legal things right so that he could invite you back into relationship with Him. They made away. He loves you so much that he desired not just to enable you to not have to bear penalty and punishment, but to bring you back to him in relationship. If you stop at substitution and propitiation, if you stop at those legal ideas, you come up short of God’s full heart in the cross. Because his heart in the cross is to know you, deeply and intimately in drink, bring you close to Him for all eternity. So I want to talk about what that reconciliation looks like. But first, we got to understand how it happens. So there’s really a key piece. Let me read these verses. Let me show you how they build on one another. Then we’ll see the answer to that question. When we flip out a second Corinthians and see how is it that his death can actually make us reconciled to God the Father. So Look again at verse eight, and nine, and we’re gonna see those first two things, right. So he says in verse eight, chapter five of Romans, but God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So when we talk about substitution, remember, we said that phrase, He died for us means he died in our place? That’s what the literal translation would be. He died in our place. So do we see substitution? Yes. Alright, so we took our place, then what happens next verse nine. Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more, shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God, there’s propitiation do we see that? So he was our substitute, then he bore the wrath of God for us, right, so that we’ve got those two.

Now, if he stopped there, what he’d be saying is, Christ did a legal work so that you could enter into eternity. But it wouldn’t be relational in nature, it would just be this, okay? You no longer have to bear a punishment, because it’s been taken for you. But look where he goes next, in verse 10, For if, while we were enemies, we were what’s the word church, reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? So here’s what I want you to see. He has done not just a legal work, but a relational work. We got to let the cross go fully all the way there. Not stop at the first or the second, but go all the way to the third, do you see the connection that he’s making in verse eight, and nine, he did a work of substitution, he did a work of wrath bearing so that he could do a work of reconciliation, the first to lead to the third. That’s what you need to see. Which tells us that our ambition in life is much more than just being justified by the blood of Christ, it’s knowing God through the blood of Christ is to know him closely in fellowship with Him. That’s what we’re going to talk about what that looks like. But now if you if you’re gonna want to flip around your Bible, go over to second Corinthians, chapter five, we’re gonna put the words on the screen as well. But you can kind of keep a finger in Romans because we’re gonna go back there. Second Corinthians chapter five, says this, we’re gonna look at verse 19, and 21, okay, just those two verses. So in Second Corinthians five, he’s talking about how God has done this reconciling work. He says, in Verse 19, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation, right. So what he’s just said, there is, God through Christ’s cross did not count the sins of people against them. Well, how was he able to do that in the answers in 21, so 20, he’s going to elaborate a little bit more, but I want to say focus or go to 21. He’s going to answer that question how he was able to not count our sins against us. In verse 21. For our sake, he made him Christ, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Now, listen, we talked about this verse when we talked about substitution. Here’s what I want you to understand. The reason that the death of Christ can reconcile these two other parties, me, you and the Father, the reason that works that way, is because it wasn’t just a legal work of penalty taking. It was a work of transformation, so much so that he took his righteousness and put it on us. He took our guilt and sin and put it on himself. In doing so he removed the thing that caused the relational fracture between us and God. So that the thing keeping me from being in close fellowship with God, the thing that ruptured my relation to them, it’s gone. So much so that Psalm 103 can say as far as the east is from the west. How far is that? As far as the east is from the west, so far, has He removed our transgressions from us?

Do you see that? What he’s saying is he doesn’t remember your sins anymore, not because he’s like, Oh, I just forgot them, because they’re so covered by the work of Jesus, you are so clothed in his righteousness, He has so taken your guilt and sin upon himself, yet without becoming sinful, somehow, in his miraculous power. He is so taken it that Christ that God the Father no longer sees between you and him the thing that fractured your relationship that’s so hard to comprehend, because you and I, have you ever had a ruptured relationship, or better yet better. You’ve had two people in your life that have a fractured relationship, and you’ve tried to talk to them, about reconciling with one another. It seems like no matter what you say, it will not move their hearts. You’ve been there and said, Come on, don’t you see, come on, no, really like, and you just beg, and you control and you try to reason with you, and nothing works. Because the heart that has been wounded and hurt by someone does not easily reconcile. It does not forget those things, it does not so easily say all have restored trust. We were in utter rebellion against God, in hatred of him, and through the power of the cross. Christ has so brought forgetfulness of sins, to the Father, that he now turns upon us with love and affection, and intimacy and joy when he looks at us, rather than seeing us as the utter rebels that we were. The power of the cross goes far beyond legal righteousness. It covers you so that you might have a relationship with the Father reconciled to Him. Does that make sense? So we’re building the power, we’re helping grow and understanding it now. So that’s how that works. That’s how that righteousness comes about. So let me just ask this question before we move on to the second question, which is what does a reconciled life look like? If substitution and wrath bearing lead to reconciliation, and that’s what he’s been building towards? Are you living your life? Like what the Cross did was restore intimacy with God? Are you living like closeness to him? was granted to you at a very great cost? Or does he sit over on the side of life? Does he kind of stay over here? When you think about him, do you think in different thoughts? Or do you think thoughts of love and peace and hope? Do you enjoy him, which is what we’re going to see in a moment is an indicator of a reconciled life.

So let’s go to that second question. What does a reconciled life look like? So the first thing again, go back to Romans. Now, if you’re kind of flipping around, I told you keep a finger over there. We’re just going to look in verses 10 and 11. Now, we’re gonna see the first thing and reconciled looks like reconciled life looks like it looks like investing in a forever friendship, investing in a friendship that will last for ever. So look at verse 10. There’s a bit of an interesting thing that happens here, okay. He says, For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? So here’s what’s happening there. There’s a there’s, in verse nine, he’s just said, because he bore the wrath of God, were reconciled. So one results in the other, follow me so far. He bore the wrath, we are reconciled, then he goes, because we are reconciled, and we live that way through all of life. He says much more when we come to the end of life, and we go to the father or the son returns, whichever one happens first. Jesus begins to bring judgment on the earth. Let’s just imagine we’re alive when Jesus returns. He says whether it’s the end of life or it’s Jesus returning, and he brings judgment upon sin, I am confident because I’ve lived in this reconciled state now, because he bore the wrath of God that when I come to the end, that will not get reversed that because he died in row goes through his life. It says, I am not fearful that one day I will face his wrath. So he started with wrath, he went to reconciliation, and he returned to wrath. Said, when you live in this reconciled way to God, here’s what you’re absolutely certain of your friendship with him, your reconciled relationship is never going to be undone. You’re not, it’s not going to end, you’re not going to show up at the gates of heaven, you’re going to show up in the presence of the Father and him go, I’ve decided to go ahead and bring wrath upon you anyway. You maybe had it for a little while, and then now you’re not going to have it. So what he’s saying here is he’s giving them confidence, your relationship with God, your friendship to God, you’re reconciled, friendship, is going to last forever. through all eternity, it’s unlike any other relationship in your life. So just think about what that means. We’ve all had, I hope we have, you have friendships that lasts for a season in life, right? You’ve had friendships that like when I was in college, they were my friend, but then we kind of gradually moved off with different ways. You know, it’s okay, we just weren’t as connected anymore. We have other relationships that are lifetime relationships, I hope you have some relationships. There’s probably not many, I don’t know that there’s intended to be many, maybe it’s three or four, right? Where you say, you just sort of No, this one’s for life. We’re going to be friends, for the rest of our lives, we’re going to be connected. Wherever God takes us however far apart, we end up, we are going to stay connected. When God brings those kinds of relationships, you treat them differently than the relationships that for our first season, don’t you? The relationships that are first season are wonderful, it’s good, but you don’t need to feel guilty when life circumstances take you in different directions. You lose contact because those relationships were there. They served a great purpose, but they were probably more seasonal. Some relationships are lifers. Those are the ones. Those are the ones that you you treat them differently. That’s what I want you to see. What he’s saying here to them is this is not just a lifetime relationship, this is forever. Your reconciled state with God means you will be close with him forever. Now, let me take a quick little aside here and say, and talk to my guys for a moment. Because we don’t naturally build these kinds of relationships. I watch a lot of guys get into their 80s. They have very few guy friendships left in their lives. Because it takes intentionality. It’s hard for us. Now ladies, I know you may not understand that. But it is hard for us to invest that way in one another. But I’m begging you to do it. I’m telling you, you need men in your lives, you need to invest intentionally, you need to have a few guys that are going to be there all the way to the end, all the way to the end. That takes a lot more than just talking about the game, or latest hobby, or whatever it is that we relate around, we’ve got to go deeper with one another and not be content to stay here on the surface. Now that said, always remember this, I think it’s very true. Ladies, you tend to connect face to face, you don’t need anything between you other than a cup of coffee, to have a great conversation and go deep with one another. Guys, we connect shoulder to shoulder. We tend to do better if we have something else to do together. But when we do, don’t just do the thing together. Find out about one another’s families find out about what has caused that other person to follow Christ and to choose to love Him and to walk with Him find out about them know them deeply. What makes them tick, right? Maybe I’ll put up on our website a list of questions guys can ask each other. We’re like the worst question. askers right. But here’s the good news. If you become a guy who’s a great question asker, right.

All of a sudden, relationships, start building relationships, start building. Alright. Alright, so box over, I’m gonna move over here. We’re off that now. So the first thing we say about a reconciled life is that it treats your relationship with God, like I’m reconciled forever. I’m going to be with him in eternity forever. Now, here’s the second part. Okay, one word. One word in this text gives us our next two points. This is how rich the scriptures are thinking take one word and build off this thing. And we need to see it. So the next thing that we see that a reconciled life looks like is deep joy and enjoyment, deep joy and enjoyment. Look at verse 11. He says this. So he said if we were sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of a son much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. So what he’s saying there is the reconciliation is the ground the reason for the rejoicing. All right, so what does that word mean? That word rejoice means two things the first, it means to enjoy and express that enjoyment, to take joy in. So when he says, because we’ve been reconciled, we rejoice in God, the first thing he saying is, you can actually enjoy who God is. Now, you might think, Well, why is that a big deal? I think I’ve always enjoyed things about God, you’re actually wrong. You didn’t you hated who God was. Before you’re in Christ. You know, what Colossians chapter one? Verse 21:21. Yeah, 21 Colossians. 1:21 says, We were alienated and hostile in mind, towards God before Christ. So you may have enjoyed certain parts of him, that seemed beneficial to you, before you were in Christ, you might have been like, I kind of like this about God kind of thing. I kind of liked that about God. But at the end of the day, our thoughts towards God were hostile, because we wanted his position. Because we wanted to be in charge of us, and maybe more than us. Until we came to Christ, and he won us, our minds, when they thought about who God was, did not love what they thought about did not treasure what he was. But in Christ, having been reconciled to Him, do you see what he’s saying? We now having been reconciled, rejoice in God, we now have a relationship with someone that we actually enjoy, and take joy in and can express our enjoyment of you know that when you enjoy something, the enjoyment never stops with just the enjoyment you always have to what expressed the enjoyment. You know this intuitively, because when’s the last time you ate something great, and just sat there and said nothing. Some of you will make weird noises when you enjoy something. Mm hmm. You know, whatever you just like, well, that’s strange. But enjoyment just comes out. It’s what it does. It just, it just gets out of you. Because you’re like, and everyone around, you knows, like, oh, yeah, they really liked that. That’s what he’s saying. We rejoice in God, because we’ve been reconciled to Him, you get that it’s a supernatural thing that today, when you go home, whatever you’re going to do this afternoon, right? You’re going to watch the Women’s Championship game, you’re going to mow the grass, you’re going to go throw the ball with your kids, whatever you’re gonna do. Whatever you’re doing, if you find yourself in the midst of whatever that task is going, Man, I’m so thankful that God reconciled me what a, what a patient, God he is. What a loving God, what a wise God he is. Anytime you have a thought about God, that you find I enjoy that about him. That’s a supernatural thing that you enjoy that It’s Supernatural, that you are not hostile towards him in mind, but that you are enjoying him, you didn’t choose to start enjoying him, you were hostile, and he brought enjoyment of Himself to you. That’s a miracle. We I think we discount because we think we’re pretty good. We think well, of course, I enjoy these things about God. No, no, no, no, no. We were alienated we were hostile in mind, and he caused us to rejoice in. So that’s the first thing is that our relation that looks like joy and enjoyment. So the question for us there is men, pay attention to what comes into your heart. When you think about God? What are the feelings you feel? What are the thoughts you think and as you do recognize that those things that are enjoyment of God are supernatural gifts.

Now, the second meaning of that word, rejoice in God is our next point. It’s this a reconciled life looks like having a stable purpose, and value, a stable purpose and value. Now, here’s what I mean by that. When we he says, we now rejoice in God because we’ve been reconciled to Him, that word can also be translated and original hears, would have understood both of these meanings, can understand it can be translated glory in we glory in God the Father, and what glory means is not to glorify. Right? That’s part of that’s the rejoice in part. But it also means to find your own glory in the thing that you are rejoicing in, to find your own sense of worth to find your own sense of value. So what he’s saying is, you have a stable source of identity. Identity is a word that gets bandied around all the time. He’s tell you what identity is identity is where you get Your sense of value, and where you get sense of purpose, it’s what it is. It’s where you get your sense of value, what gives me value? What makes me valuable? Where you get your sense of purpose, what am I made to do? What’s my, what’s my work in this life? What is it you’ve made me for? Right? That’s, that’s what identity is, essentially, value and purpose. So when he says, we glory in God, because we’ve been reconciled to Him, what he’s saying is, you now have a stable resource, a stable source of establishing an identity in this life, one that doesn’t move and doesn’t change. Because here’s what happens. God says you have value, because I say you have value, I call you valuable, therefore you have value. Now try getting that kind of, and that’s never going to change, because God does not change his attitude towards you, because of the cross, because your reckons will not change. Right. That being the case, then now my value does not rise and fall with how well I do at work with how well my kids do with how obedient they are with whether they succeed in life, my value doesn’t rise and fall with my grades, it doesn’t rise and fall with anything related to my performance, my value is now in a stable source. The other thing that happens is my purpose is certain, because it’s not one that goes over here, and it goes over there and goes over here. God establishes my purpose, and in him now, I’m able to go from there into the purpose he has for me. Now, here’s what that should lead to. That should lead to some amazing risk taking. So here’s my question. If you’ve been reconciled to God, you now have an immovable identity, how often do you take risks? If your value can’t change, and your purpose cannot be thwarted? Why would you be afraid? Any failure is not going to keep God from accomplishing His purpose through your life. It’s not any failure will not stop God from accomplishing His purpose in your life. Any failure does not diminish your value. Because he says you’re valuable. It wasn’t based upon how well you performed in that risk that you took. So here’s the risks that you can take, let’s just think about a few, you can take the risk of actually sharing the gospel with somebody opening your mouth and declaring the hope of Jesus. Maybe think about it this way, enjoy him and talk about what you enjoy. You can take the risk of going deeper in a friendship, like we talked about earlier, you can take the risk of trying to create a company culture that is radically God honoring, you can take the risk of adopting a child, you can take the risk of asking that that woman out that you’re afraid she’s gonna say no, because if she says no, you’re still okay. You can take risks, when you know that you have a stable identity. You can risk asking for forgiveness from your spouse when you need it. Because it doesn’t lesson you and put them over you. It only strengthens you in who God says you are. When you seek forgiveness when you need it. Does this make sense? Yes, have a stable value and purpose.

So we’re going to come to the table now, last time, and we could just keep going and going friends, I want to stop there. Because, you know, a wise man once said, know when to stop. But listen, we could talk about how we are reconciled to one another and Ephesians chapter two through the reconciling work of the Cross, we could dive deeper into second Corinthians chapter five, and understand that as we leave this place, we leave here as ministers of reconciliation, because it is the necessary result, the necessary result of being reconciled, that we become now what Paul says is ministers of reconciliation, who want others to be reconciled to God and pursue that. Service. If you’ve come, we’re going to come to the table the Lord now, it’s fitting that we, in thinking about the power of the cross now come to this ordinance of remembrance where we remember the work of the Cross and reflect upon it. So two things always for us church, and we say them over and over, because we need the repetition and reminder. The first is that as we come to the table, we never come lightly. You don’t come in a light hearted way. But the scriptures invite us, in fact commanded us to examine ourselves, which is to say, as we hold the elements, we say to the Lord, there’s any sinful way in me. Help me see it. So that I might yield to you and walk with you as we put it to death. We don’t want to walk in that way any longer. I don’t want to partake of the elements that represent the death of Christ and act as if I’m going to go on living in any other way than ways that honor him and bring him glory. So we reflect and we take with sobriety, these elements. The other thing we always remind ourselves of is if you’re with us friend, and you are not a follower of Jesus, you’ve not yielded your life to Him, place your faith in him, just invite you to let these elements pass. Because as we take them, we are really proclaiming something with our actions, right? We know our actions matter, not just our words. So we’re proclaiming in the taking of the elements, we believe. We have yielded everything to him, we have placed the all the Trust for our salvation upon him. If that is not a decision you’ve come to yet, we pray today that you would see it is extending salvation to you in Christ. Until that day comes where you yield to that and receive it when available at these elements past so that you wouldn’t say with your actions, something you have not believed in your heart and in your mind and confessed with your words. So we’ll let those elements pass today. Service wants to come we’ll take together here in just a moment.