The Peacemaker’s Prerequisite: How Peace with God Precedes Peace with Man

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:06:04] Good to see you all today. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Joe Kaiser. I'm one of this year's Davidson Fellows.
[00:06:14] It's nice to see you all survive the wintry weather these past few weeks, but it is good to be back in the groove of things, whether if you're in person or with us online.
[00:06:23] Before we get started with some worship, let's open up with a word of prayer.
[00:06:26] Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and this time that we can come together to worship you.
[00:06:35] Show yourself in today's service and let those who need to hear your words Open their hearts. We live and praise you know that you say and do in your name. We pray. Amen. And then will you stand with us?

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:07:01] Makers for they will be called children of God Zacchaeus the tax collector

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[00:15:08] Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
[00:15:16] He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.
[00:15:21] So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
[00:15:28] When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.
[00:15:35] So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
[00:15:39] All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.
[00:15:44] But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
[00:15:56] Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.
[00:16:03] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
[00:16:06] This is the word of the Lord.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:16:08] Well, there was one when I was young who knew my heart. He knew my soul. And he helped and he led me to trust. Safety, I trust your heart and I trust you complete intent.
[00:17:04] All the stuff that we walk in this room with, Lord, we bring it all to you.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:21:22] Nothing in the world can handle it.
[00:21:25] We can't handle it.
[00:21:27] But Lord, you have told us that you can handle it and you've shown yourself able.
[00:21:32] So in the ways that we've seen it and are confident, Lord, receive that position of our hearts as worship.
[00:21:38] In the areas of our lives where we are not confident, where we are waiting for your goodness to show itself, Lord, receive that as worship.
[00:21:47] Receive us offering what we have this morning as worship, Lord.
[00:21:49] for your glory and our good we come in the name of Jesus amen you may have a seat well good morning

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:21:57] again everyone my name is Joe Kaiser I'm one of this year's Davidson fellows with me today I have Miss Laura Townsend she is one of the ministry partners here at Story Hill Laura can you tell

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:22:09] us why you're up here today yes my name is Laura Townsend my family and I have been a part of Story Hill for a little over three years my kids are a part of Story Hill kids and two times a year
[00:22:20] Story Hill Kids and the Davidson Fellows partner together for something called Parents Night Out.
[00:22:28] Before I get into that, though, will you tell us a little bit about the Davidson Fellows?

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:22:32] I will certainly try my best, and if I somehow mess it up, you can blame our director, Cesar Guerrero. Davidson Fellows is a nine-month journey of leadership and discipleship focused on community, faith, and career. I'm one of three fellows on staff here at Story Hill. I work in
[00:22:49] communications department yes i am currently on the clock there's my boss another aspect of the davidson fellows is that we partner with story hill kids for the event you mentioned parents night out and we're really looking forward to doing it again this is our second time doing it

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:23:04] during the fellows program parents you don't want to miss this because these guys have taken the logistics out of finding a babysitter you get to show up drop your kids off they've already figured out dinner. They've already figured out activities and games. There's probably a dance party that
[00:23:22] will happen at some point. And while there are indeed grown-ups that are here, my girls like to remind me they're not real grown-ups. But this is one of those times I'm so thankful for this
[00:23:34] church because this church is really intentional about putting generations side by side and serving. And this is one of those times where my kids get to see that and experience the blessing of receiving it but also the vision of what that will look like for them in the future
[00:23:48] so thank you for all you have planned um and now how do we sign up you can go ahead and pull out

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:23:54] your phones and scan the qr code up on the screen uh for those of you who need some important information in our note takers this event is happening this friday and registration closes this wednesday so the event is for kids three and up and we're looking forward to seeing you
[00:24:11] all there uh yeah if the fellas want to wave hi yeah we're really looking forward to the event and um yeah the kids are so well behaved we're really looking forward that was totally planned

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:24:38] don't worry about it planned uh stand up and greet your neighbor ask them if you think that was

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:24:43] planned also ask them if they knew that today is the one year anniversary of us being in the

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:24:49] the building. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:26:34] Good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everybody.
[00:26:59] Good morning, everybody. I'm Michael Flake. Good morning, Michael. Part of the pastoral team here.
[00:27:15] Hey, it really is great to be together as a church family, both in our sanctuary and worshiping online the last couple weeks we had like 40 or 50 people in the sanctuary nice to have a few more today great to be together as a church family as joe was saying we have these
[00:27:32] little connect cards that are on the sanctuary tables as you enter and exit the sanctuary there's a qr code on them and use the qr code at the very least to get signed up for the weekly
[00:27:41] newsletter so you can find ways to connect into the life of the church we would love that because whether you're cautious about Jesus, curious about Jesus, or committed to Jesus, there is room for you at Story Hill. This is a place where it's safe to learn, safe to grow, and safe to
[00:27:56] change. So long as you don't have it all together, you'll fit right in. I hope today you have a chance to look around and see others who are here to train in how to live, to train in how to love.
[00:28:06] As you remember that gatherings similar to this are happening today on every inhabited continent in thousands of different languages, as very different people come to Jesus with open hands, open hearts and open minds. Well, as Joe did say, before I jump in and we need to celebrate
[00:28:25] something, the one thing I wanted to say to you is, as in the life of the church, what's about to happen is we're now going to have to compress from here to Easter, which was like an eight or
[00:28:34] nine week span into like a six week span with the snow weeks. So as you find the church calendar or your own personal calendar feeling a little crunch to the next little bit, let's have grace for
[00:28:44] ourselves and each other with that. We will find that again and again. The other thing some of you found in your inbox this week was an email from me. I'm going to put me in quotation marks asking
[00:28:56] you to send me gift cards. Please know I will never ask you to send me gift cards over email.
[00:29:05] I will ask you for money and I will have the decency to do it to your face.
[00:29:13] but these sort of you know spam emails will come out periodically if you ever get one of those just mark it as spam and that helps the the email universe understand what to do with those
[00:29:24] emails in the future we would appreciate that but as joe did say this is the one year anniversary of when we moved into this building yes for uh we could we obviously continue to praise god for
[00:29:41] his provision for us for 13 and a half years, 703 Sundays, that provision came through providing a rented space. And now for a whole year, we've gotten to worship inside this structure, this tool for ministry, this outpost and launching pad for the hope and the mercy of Jesus. We must always
[00:29:58] remind ourselves, the building is not the church. The people are the church. And this last year has brought a lot of change, good change, God honoring, aligned to what he's called us to do, change and a lot of change. And so in this year, this second year in the building, our encouragement
[00:30:16] to everyone is to find that fresh yes, to not just go through the motions of church, but to find a way to say a fresh yes to how you and I engage in the transformative work that God is doing
[00:30:29] in this world and at Story Hill. So that may mean you take a new step, whether here or with one of our mission partners. It might mean you find a new-to-you opportunity and engage with that,
[00:30:41] or it may mean you just look at how you're already engaged in the church and heartily recommit yourself to being engaged in that way. That's what my wife Mandy and I have done. We're actually this weekend doing an alongside family hosting as part of our Fresh Yes, and so I'm
[00:30:59] hopeful that it won't be obvious in this sermon. We've been corralling a two-year-old for a lot of the last few days. But today we continue, but fresh yes, finding that fresh yes. Today we continue our series of sermons called blessed or blessed that we would amplify the voice of Jesus
[00:31:18] in the midst of all the voices in the world telling us who to be and how to live. We're amplifying the voice of Jesus by looking at his beatitudes that are at the beginning of his sermon
[00:31:28] on the mount. So will you join me in saying the Beatitudes together? This is what Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter five, verse starting in verse three. We'll do them from memory. Say this with
[00:31:47] me. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those
[00:32:01] who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
[00:32:14] Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. One with this week and then the final one next week. I recently had a conversation with someone in our community,
[00:32:34] a Christian who does not worship at Story Hill. And the conversation went something like this.
[00:32:38] Are you Michael Flake? Depends who's asking, but you pastor that new church in Davidson, the congregation I've served since 2011. Oh, Storybook is that old? It is. And we actually are called Story Hill now, but the heart of the conversation was something about this.
[00:33:06] he told me that he had met some different people from our congregation. He did not know they were all part of our church. And when he put that together, it struck him that those people all
[00:33:14] had one thing in common. And he wanted to tell me what that was. And I said, okay, he said, my sense is they are all seeking the peace of the community. And so today, as we mark our one
[00:33:30] year anniversary of being in this building, our 756th Sunday as a church family, how appropriate that we would focus on this beatitude. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God. Now, I don't know which of you jokers this guy met. I don't know if he's right that this is
[00:33:53] part of the personality God is giving our church family, but whether he's right or not, I want us to hear the words of Jesus calling us to follow him, that we might experience the goodness,
[00:34:04] the rightness, the blessing of being peacemakers. The word translated peacemakers is a compound word. It comes from smushing together. That's a technical linguistic term, smushing together two words, the word for peace and the word for to make or to do. Blessed are those who make
[00:34:26] peace. Blessed are those who do peace for they will be called children of God. To understand the heart behind this beatitude, we turn together to Luke chapter 19 verses one through 10. This is the passage Kylie read for us earlier, the passage of Jesus and Zacchaeus. And if you don't have a
[00:34:48] Bible, we have physical copies of the Bible on those same sanctuary tables. As you enter exit, we would love you to take it as our gift to you. So in this passage, Jesus and his first disciples
[00:35:00] are passing through a city called Jericho. And in this city, there is a man named Zacchaeus.
[00:35:06] The Bible tells us four things about Zacchaeus, that he is a chief tax collector. He is wealthy.
[00:35:12] He is short and he wants to see Jesus. So first he is a chief tax collector. This means he is one of the Jewish people that has been hired by the Roman empire to systematically extract the wealth
[00:35:28] from his own people. But he's not just a tax collector. He is a chief tax collector, meaning that he has climbed up the corporate ladder. He is a go-getter. If you ask to speak to the manager,
[00:35:41] you get Zacchaeus. The second thing we learn about him is that because of this, he is wealthy.
[00:35:47] tax collectors in ancient Rome made a nice living because they could charge and pocket extra taxes and additional fees what you or I might call bribery or extortion or often called standard operating procedure wealthy tax collectors were generally speaking morally despised and socially
[00:36:12] despised the third thing we learn is that Zacchaeus is short I have a hard time relating to this but this is an important detail for the passage because Zacchaeus wants to number four, see Jesus
[00:36:25] as he passes through Jericho. He has curiosity about who Jesus is. He has heard some things about Jesus and he wants to know more. The Bible does not say that Zacchaeus wants to meet Jesus
[00:36:39] or wants to talk with Jesus simply that he wants to see who Jesus is, but there's such a crowd forming to see Jesus. Zacchaeus cannot see over the crowd. The people do not have goodwill towards
[00:36:54] Zacchaeus, so they are not going to make a place for him. And Zacchaeus has to come up with a plan.
[00:36:59] And this is the plan, verse four. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way. When Zacchaeus encountered resistance to seeing Jesus, what does he do? He does not give up. That echoes of blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
[00:37:21] for they will be filled. That was snow week number one for those paying attention.
[00:37:27] He does not give up. This tells us something about the curiosity that is bubbling up inside of Zacchaeus. This is not a passing curiosity. He really wants to see who Jesus is. And some of us
[00:37:42] relate deeply to this part of the passage, don't we? We have this curiosity that from the outside just looks like curiosity, but you know, deep inside, this is a bubbling curiosity that you just cannot shake. This wealthy, professionally accomplished man starts to climb up a tree in
[00:38:02] order to see Jesus. And Jesus makes it to where the tree is and he stops. And with a single word, he changes Zacchaeus' life. It's a word that Zacchaeus has heard thousands of times, but never quite like this. Verse five, when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,
[00:38:25] Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. You must remember Jesus and Zacchaeus have never met one another. Jesus changed Zacchaeus' life with one word, his own name.
[00:38:46] And as he looked into the eyes of Jesus, and he saw the compassion, and he saw the depth of eternity, Zacchaeus must have thought to himself, I'm just a curious onlooker, and yet Jesus knows
[00:39:01] me. Jesus is fully God, fully human. God wrapped himself in human flesh and dwelt among us in order to reconcile us back to himself. And many of us have had this moment that Zacchaeus had.
[00:39:19] where we are learning about Jesus. And all of a sudden Jesus makes it really clear. He already knows us. He sees us and he knows us. He calls us by name and says, I'm coming to your house today,
[00:39:38] which is a strange thing to say, right? Like Jesus, I know you're God and all, but it's really strange to invite yourself over to somebody else's house, but realize what a house is, right? A house is a metaphor or metaphor. It's a metaphor
[00:40:00] for a life. Think about who you have come over to dinner in your apartment, who you have come over to dinner in your home. It's the people who are part of your life, or it's the people you want to be part of your life. Jesus is saying, Zacchaeus, I see you.
[00:40:22] I know you. I call you by name and I am coming into your life. I see you. I know you. I call you by name and I am coming into your life. And I'm not going to give you time to go clean it up
[00:40:39] first, because I am coming into your actual life, because I intend to transform your actual life.
[00:40:55] Verse six. Wait a minute, not just verse six. Should I do it? Should I do it? Six, seven.
[00:41:12] I was in my house for two whole weeks, y'all. I'm giddy right now. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, he has gone to be the guest
[00:41:29] of a sinner, which Jesus actually takes as a compliment. Jesus is a person of perfect character and imperfect company. And Jesus says, Zacchaeus, I see you. I know you. I'm calling you by name and I'm coming into your life. You don't have time to go clean it up first. I'm coming into
[00:41:53] your actual life because I intend to transform your actual life. And how does Zacchaeus respond?
[00:41:59] He responds with a joyful, okay, as a follower of Jesus, or if today or sometime in the near future, you become a follower of Jesus. Actually, after the sermon today, we are receiving communion.
[00:42:17] We're inviting all Christians to receive communion. That would be a beautiful way to mark your faith in Jesus, to mark that you now depend on Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, you and I follow in the footsteps of Zacchaeus. We do welcome Jesus into our lives, like our actual
[00:42:35] lives, so that he might transform who we are. Not a carefully curated image of who we are, but who we actually are. We welcome him into our lives, but we welcome him in only in response
[00:42:50] to his gracious action towards us. We respond to him with a joyful, okay. You know that question you got asked in grade school sometimes, if you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be? And as a pastor, I know my answer. I actually know your answer is supposed
[00:43:16] to be Jesus. Like, you know, your answer is supposed to be Jesus. Here is the unimaginable, unexpected good news. Jesus' actual answer to that question is you. I must come to your house today.
[00:43:44] And so verse eight, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back
[00:43:57] four times the amount. Now I do think it could help us to act out this part of the Bible to remember it just a little bit better. Oh, I need someone to volunteer to be Zacchaeus and I will
[00:44:10] volunteer to be a person Zacchaeus has cheated out of $10,000. Four times the amount. So Jesus comes into Zacchaeus' life to change him. And Jesus coming into his life is changing him. Zacchaeus starts to call Jesus Lord. Lord means the one in charge. I'm surrendering my life to your leadership,
[00:44:34] Jesus. I'm trusting you, Jesus, to reconcile me to God, to give me a peace with God. I'm now going to follow your lead, Jesus, in how to live. And how does this begin to play out for Zacchaeus?
[00:44:47] Well, Zacchaeus is a financial guy. So he immediately thinks of the transformation in financial terms. He decides to give away half of his possessions to help those who are poor as an imitation of the heart of God. Now there is a principle in the Bible called tithing. You can
[00:45:07] find it in places like Leviticus 27, Malachi 3, Matthew 23. The idea is that we give the first 10% of our income to God's work in the world through our church family, maybe also through
[00:45:19] some ministries and missionaries so that the people's spiritual needs and their physical needs would be cared for. My wife, Mandy, and I tithe. We find it to be more joyful and more life-giving with every passing year. And yet Zacchaeus has blown past tithing. He says, I'm giving half of
[00:45:39] my net worth to help the needs of people. Then he says, if I have cheated anyone, I will pay them back four times the amount. Again, in the first half of the Bible, there is a law that would
[00:45:54] require Zacchaeus to have paid back the funds with 20% interest. That is Numbers chapter five.
[00:46:00] But again, Zacchaeus is blowing past that and offering to pay back people he has cheated with 300% interest. Zacchaeus is now holding on tightly to Jesus and Jesus is amazing grace.
[00:46:20] And so Zacchaeus grip on everything else is loosening. And Jesus said to him, this is verse nine, Jesus said to him, today's salvation has come to this house for this man too is a son of
[00:46:35] Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And this is the second half of the beatitude. They will be called. They will be declared children of God, not to earn it, not to
[00:46:54] deserve it, but to know that Jesus says of you, as Jesus said of Zacchaeus, you too are a descendant of Abraham and Sarah. You too are part of God's family. Oh, it was looking pretty dicey there for
[00:47:08] a while, but you may have underestimated me because I, Jesus, have come to seek and to save the lost, the least, the locked out, the left behind. However far you wander, I can find you.
[00:47:23] however shameful your life, I can love you. Whatever masks you wear, I can know you.
[00:47:31] And even when you try to lock me out, I will stand at the door and I will knock.
[00:47:45] So what does this passage about Zacchaeus have to do with Jesus' beatitude? Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God. I'm glad you asked at least three things.
[00:47:56] Point number one, number one, number, number, number, point number one is that peacemaking starts with Jesus peacemaking starts with Jesus before Zacchaeus could become a peacemaker himself he had to find peace with God and
[00:48:10] how did he find that peace with God the good news is that peace came to find him and Jesus stopped and said Zacchaeus I see you I know you I call you by name and I'm coming into your life your actual life because I intend to
[00:48:31] transform it. And Jesus and Zacchaeus sat at the table together, broke bread together. Zacchaeus was not changed through his own willpower. He was changed through God's power as Jesus transformed him from the inside out. So before you and I can experience the goodness, the rightness, the
[00:48:51] blessing of peacemaking, we must first find peace with God. We must first surrender ourselves to Jesus as the one who saves us, the one who forgives us, the one who leads us, the one who
[00:49:05] transforms us. He is our Lord. He reconciles us to God. He gives us an eternal peace with God.
[00:49:15] And that eternal peace with God through our Lord Jesus can then begin to overflow out of our lives.
[00:49:22] So peacemaking starts with Jesus. And then point number two is that peacemaking is proactive.
[00:49:30] Peacemaking is proactive.
[00:49:32] You'll remember the word has the sense of those who make peace, those who do peace.
[00:49:39] Peacemaking is not the absence of conflict.
[00:49:43] Peacemaking is a proactive posture of trying to make this world look a little more like heaven.
[00:49:53] Trying to make this corner of the world look a little more like God's kingdom.
[00:49:58] We saw Zacchaeus proactively give away half of his net worth.
[00:50:02] He was not responding to a specific situation, but because Jesus was transforming him, he responded.
[00:50:11] He experienced the generosity of Jesus at his point of need, and he decided, I'm going to pay this generosity forward.
[00:50:19] When you realize that Jesus has reached out to you with grace, it may help you reach out to somebody else with grace.
[00:50:28] When you realize that jesus offered you mercy when you did not earn it. It may help you extend to others mercy When they do not earn it If you realize that jesus made room for you, it may help you make room for somebody else
[00:50:46] peacemakers Reflect on what we have found in our relationship with god And we can then translate that into our relationships with other people Romans 12, 18 says, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
[00:51:07] And since we've gotten to open this structure, we have been able to offer mercy to those who would have otherwise been sleeping on the streets. We've gotten to offer hope to people who did not know they were still eligible for hope. We've gotten to offer a home to ministries
[00:51:25] who need one day in and day out, we get to offer the hope and the mercy of Jesus inside of this tool for ministry. That's all a building is a tool for ministry. But my point is we do this as a
[00:51:38] response to Jesus work in our lives. We have experienced Jesus care. We have experienced Jesus mercy. We have experienced Jesus generosity. We have experienced Jesus hope. Jesus has served us. Jesus has invited us into his home. Jesus has given us peace, unearned, undeserved. At our best,
[00:52:04] we can translate that into our relationships with one another. So peacemaking is proactive.
[00:52:14] And then point number three, number three, number, number, number, finally, point number three, you might've been able to guess it. Peacemaking is reactive. Peacemaking is also reactive. So it starts with Jesus. It is proactive is also reactive. Zacchaeus was also willing to make
[00:52:32] peace, to bring restoration and wholeness to any relationships he had injured. He offered to pay back people he had defrauded and would do so at what was it? Four times the amount he was willing.
[00:52:48] And you think about that, how much money this dude had amassed that he said that he was willing to admit the harms he had done. And he was willing to make amends.
[00:53:00] he was willing to seek forgiveness and seek to live differently. Now here, we must remember the words of Romans 12. You and I can only do so as far as it depends on you, but peacemakers know
[00:53:17] we are not perfect. We need to seek God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And then there are times we need to seek forgiveness and live differently in certain relationships in our lives. We all have relationships where we need the future to look different than the past.
[00:53:35] And by God's grace, inspired by Jesus' grace, may we be like Zacchaeus. May we be willing to go first. But we also know that in this world, perfect peace will have to wait. All the cracks
[00:53:56] will not get caulked up with gold until Jesus returns to take us home. So we know that. We also know that peacemaking comes at a cost. It will cost us time. For Zacchaeus, it cost him money.
[00:54:13] It may cost us emotional energy. It may cost us our reputation. You remember what the people in Jerusalem thought of Jesus for welcoming Zacchaeus? They scoffed at him. They looked down on him for it. The same thing still happens today in a culture that thrives on moral superiority and outrage,
[00:54:37] where we love to be right. And we love to be wronged with an ed on the end. We love to be right. And we love to be wronged. And so it matters what voice we listen to. Will we listen
[00:54:54] to the muttering crowd or will we listen to the voice of Jesus as he declares as part of God's family and the goodness, the rightness, the blessing of having peace with God and letting that transform our relationships. Here's words when he says, blessed are the peacemakers for
[00:55:18] they will be called children of God. So now we'll prepare ourselves for time for prayer, time for reflection, time when Christians will can receive communion. And I'll ask you to reflect on this question as we do, where have you seen the grace and truth of Jesus beatitude?
[00:55:37] blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of god maybe you've seen it in your own life or in the life of others or maybe just keep your eyes open this week to see this
[00:55:49] grace and truth in action doing peace comes at a cost making peace comes at a cost and jesus declares with his words he declares with his life he declares in his sacrificial death to which
[00:56:09] we now turn, that the cost is worth it. The cost is worth it. And so with that, I will invite

[00:56:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:56:20] Pastor Katie to come and to invite us to the table. We now have a chance for all of us to have a time for prayer, a time for reflection, and a time for Christians to come and receive
[00:56:42] communion. And so if you are here this morning and you are a follower of Jesus, no matter what branch of the christian family tree you come from we invite you to come and to receive and whether
[00:56:54] or not you feel like you do a good job following jesus we invite you to come and to receive sorry and if you're here this morning and you are a really new christian then we hope that you will
[00:57:07] take the step today of coming and receiving as well to demonstrate your newfound dependence on and to be strengthened by the crucified and resurrected Jesus.
[00:57:18] And if you're here today just exploring the Christian faith, then we are honored that you're here with us, and we hope you'll take this time for prayer and for reflection, maybe even asking the Lord to reveal himself to you.
[00:57:30] And we hope you'll be able to join us for communion next time on March 8th.
[00:57:36] So in a moment, I will pray, and then at the conclusion of the prayer, you'll be free to move around to the different communion stations that we have around the room.
[00:57:45] And so if you're in the risers, remember you just take all right-hand turns to go up to the stations at the top of the stairs and then come back down.
[00:57:53] Unless you're in these two sections, then you just go up and come back down.
[00:57:57] And if you're on the floor, there are multiple stations on the floor as well.
[00:58:02] And if you're not comfortable navigating stairs or getting up for whatever reason, then just get the attention of one of our two roaming stations, and they will come and bring communion to you.
[00:58:12] and for everyone to know as well all the bread is gluten free what's in the cup is juice and so when you go to the station just take a piece of bread dip it into the cup and receive it there and so
[00:58:26] now hear the words of scripture when it says for i received from the lord what i also passed on to you that the lord jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks
[00:58:38] he broke it, and he said, This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
[00:58:47] In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this whenever you drink
[00:58:59] it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And when he comes, we will feast at his heavenly banquet table.
[00:59:12] So now join me one more time in prayer as we examine ourselves before we eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Lord, we take this time to humble ourselves before you and to reflect
[00:59:30] on the things that we have done wrong and on the good and right things that we have failed to do.
[00:59:37] We reflect on the ways we've been focused on ourselves at the expense of you and of those around us and we also reflect on the ways in which we have ran away from your sacrificial
[00:59:49] lay down your life love for us and so now help us as we take a quiet moment to humble ourselves before you show us anything standing in the way of you and of us lord you have called us into true
[01:00:39] community true fellowship with god and with one another through the forgiveness of our sins and you call us from death into life everlasting. The story of the life you lived and of giving of your body and blood on the cross is the greatest story, and you have offered to redeem
[01:00:56] our stories as well. Amen. So now hear this invitation that the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, has prepared all good things, and he invites us to come and to feast on him, to receive through him and through his work the life that is truly life. He invites you to come.