- Well, prior to Christmas back in the fall, we launched into a brand new series called the Unshakable Truth. And we embarked on a journey this year of looking at 12 essentials of the faith. These essentials in many ways serve as lenses in our eyes so that we can see more clearly the world in which we live. And it allows us to see who God is, it allows us to see who we are and how we need to have a relationship with him. And so it really describes a wonderful concept called a world view. A view in which we can see our world, but we see that world accurately through truth. And today we are coming really to the center point of many of the things we've talked about. We've kind of been building towards this because we started with God and who he is, we discovered who we are, we discovered how we've all been placed into a position of being separated from him because of sin in our life. We talked about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the magnificent redemptive plan that was embarked on in order to bring us back into a relationship with him. And prior to Christmas, we covered a massive subject called the substitutionary atonement of Christ, okay? Now, know this is not a theology course, but we're gonna talk about some rich stuff this morning. And today's topic is connected to that, that Jesus became my substitute. And today, we're gonna uncover really another topic that goes together with that concept. It's really at the core of our faith and it is this, the topic of justification through faith. Now, honestly, this topic, this essential sets us apart from every other major world religion. Now it is connected to the sacrifice that Christ has made on our behalf, don't forget that, but really today it comes together. It sets us apart from every other major world religion, every other philosophy, every other belief system and quite frankly, other kinds of religions that even call themselves ''christian religions''. This sets us apart because this is something that has happened to those of us that have trusted Christ as savior and Lord. Now some of you grew up in a good Lutheran family. Any former Lutherans here or if you're willing to admit it, I don't know, quite a few of you I guess. I wasn't, but for those of you that were, the name Martin Luther is a name that comes to mind, okay? Martin Luther didn't start out as a Lutheran, just for those of you that maybe didn't know that. Martin Luther started out as a Roman Catholic priest. It was a struggle that he had inside of his soul. No matter what he did, he couldn't build a platform high enough to reach God. That's really the essence of what he was doing. He kept trying to do good works, he kept trying to do penance for his sin or make up for all the bad things. He'd lay one block down, he might get up to the second block. But every time he got up here, he would commit some other act whereby he would feel so guilty down in his soul, he could never find peace, he could never find rest, he could never know for sure that he was right before God because no matter how high this platform got, he would commit some other act and he could never get there. He could never reach this Almighty God that he was supposedly serving even as Catholic priest. Now, he began to teach though as a professor in a seminary. A book in the New Testament called the book of Romans, if you've never read it, I highly recommend it, okay? And as he read through it, he didn't even finish off chapter one. And all of a sudden, he discovered this concept that the righteous or those that are made right with God are made right with God by faith, not a platform of works. And all of a sudden, it came together for him. And there was a sense of peace in his soul that he had never experienced before because no matter what he did, he couldn't get high enough. And then he realized, wait a minute, being made right with God has nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with what Jesus Christ has done for me. And as I said, this sets us apart because even if you travel around the world and I've done a little bit of that myself and you come in contact with various philosophical concepts of life, religious movements, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, whatever it may be, there is always at the core of it a system of trying to build a platform high enough to reach God. Every one of them has that common denominator without question. I've looked at them, I've done it, I've been with people, I've seen it, I know it to be true. Why is that the case? Well, because there is a holy God who is the moral law giver. That's why we started with some of the proofs of the existence of God. And this element of moral lawgiver gives a moral law whereby inside of our conscience, there is a sense of right and wrong, in some way, shape or form. And so it doesn't matter whether you are engaged in Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism or New Age philosophy for that matter. And you believe in reincarnation, there's always a sense of, I have to do something to eventually attain to another form of life so that it impacts the life they're after. And that's why what we're gonna talk about today sets us apart. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to take your Bibles out, electronic version or the one that you brought in here and I want you to go to Romans chapter three verse 21. It's page 941 in your chair Bible, it's an easy way to get there. Grab your notes and a pen, we're going to go through what I believe is probably... Okay, I wanna be careful here 'cause there's a lot of great stuff in the Bible. 66 books and a lot of fun stuff, I could go on for five hours this morning. But verses 21 through 26, is what we're gonna look at in chapter three, the Book of Romans, is quite frankly at the core of what we hold to as followers of Jesus Christ. I mean, it is at the center and I wish I had so much more time to unpack it. So if you feel like you're sucking on a fire hose this morning, that's okay. If you are new to the faith, you're gonna feel that, but here it is, you're gonna take a little bit more of a step in a direction whereby it's gonna open up one of the richest, if not the richest truths we have or essentials to our faith. This so cool. So I'm gonna read through verse 26 and then I'm gonna go back through and dissect it for you. And then we're gonna do a third review whereby we're gonna review a couple of key points, okay? And then we're gonna wrap it up by illustrating it with communion, both here in this room and down in our warehouse. So look down to verse 21, let's jump in. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So now let's go back and take a look. If you look briefly up at verse 20, Paul says this leading into this section. He says, ''For by works of the law, ''no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.'' What's the law that he's talking about? The Old Testament law. He's writing to Jewish audience, Gentile audience, the Old Testament law. Some have put together a list of all of the regulations in the Old Testament. You have to trust me with this, it's either 613 or 616. I never can't quite keep this number straight in my head. Regulations you must follow. What Paul is saying to individuals then and quite frankly I've heard it today from an individual who's Jewish so I know it happens still today. That if I follow these regulations, I get to be right with God. That has never been the case. Paul is not saying that, the Old Testament never said that, God never said that, the law doesn't say that. Why is that the case? Because the law with 613, 616 regulations is not a way to be made right with God for us, okay? It points out our sin 'cause we can never get there. His point is, Martin Luther perfect example, I can't get high enough to reach God. Every time I turn around, I violate another one. So the point of the law given to us as humans, we're not Jesus, we'll talk about him in a second. We can't do this and that's because God created us but we rebelled in the garden and that's why sin was such a critical essential for us to understand. And so he says, now but, verse 21, now, the righteousness of God. This is a provided righteousness. This is something that has now been given to us, manifested or made known apart from the law. If the law doesn't get me up to God, it just points out all the things I do wrong all the time and feel guilty about which all of us do from time to time, then how do I get made right with God? Well, he comes along and says, well, one has been provided for you and the law and the prophets and all those regulations and all those sacrifices, they bear witness, they point to a greater one to come. And Paul is saying that this righteousness of God provided to you is given to you as a gift. And we know that it comes through Jesus Christ. We've been there, we've talked about that. That's the idea, the context of what he's saying here. If you had a terminal illness and you had cancer, okay? Let's just say it's terminal, you know it. There is nothing within yourself, your human body that can heal yourself, nothing. And I realized there's some concepts out there and that's why these truths are so critically important in our culture today. They believe, well, if I just believe hard enough, if I have just enough positive thinking, if I just do something or other and I figured out how far I have to go in terms of believing but if I just do something my body will heal itself. No, it won't, okay? It's broken down. You can believe all you want, you can be so sincere, you can believe in a philosophy, whatever it is, if it is a terminal illness folks, it's terminal unless there's outside intervention. Your cells can't heal themselves, they just can't. This really gives evidence of how we live in a sinful world with sinful consequences called sin. Those consequences are to remind us of a more important truth. That's why all this fits together. And so there must be an outside influence, whether it's medication, whether it's God miraculously healing me or healing me through the medication, he gets the credit for any of it. Something has to happen. How was this made manifest? Well, it's through the gospel, it's through Jesus Christ. We've already read that point. And it was Jesus who came to show us that he was the way, the truth and the life. That's why he said in John 10:25, Jesus answered them, ''I told you and you do not believe.'' He's trying to convince them and specifically the religious elite of the day who were buying into the 616 commandments, that you can't get there by doing this, you guys are violating the law all the time, inside and outside. And he says, the works that I do in my father's name, bear witness about me, just look to what I've done. Paul says in First Corinthians 5:15, 17, he says, ''And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.'' Why? Because the resurrection proves that all of Jesus claims are true and that God accepted a sacrifice on your behalf, which he's gonna unpack here in just a second. John 14:11, Jesus said, believe me that I am in the Father ''and the father's in me or else believe on account of the works of themselves.'' The scarlet thread of redemption is there, Jesus pointed to it. The law and the prophets allowed us to look forward to it. And then he says in verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. There's a period there for a stop there. Now if it's your Bible, I love doing this. How many of you like drawing on your Bible? Oh man, I just love this. So grab your pen if it's yours, don't do it in the chair Bible 'cause then we got to replace it, right? But circle whatever words that come to mind, but you gotta underline the righteousness of God. This has been given to me. It comes to me through faith, somehow put that in brackets, in Jesus Christ. He's the key that Paul is gonna unpack. I want you to circle the word all who believe, all who believe. That's the prerequisite right there. It happens by faith, I believe in Jesus. He is the way that this happens. It comes by faith in him. He's the object of my faith and it doesn't matter how much faith, the issue is the object of my faith. That's the key piece here that Paul is saying. And yes, it comes through faith, but it comes through faith in the faithfulness of Christ. That you're gonna wanna write down. Because he did what I could never do. Remember I told you there's all these regulations of the law. Jesus came not to abolish it, but to what? Some of you know the answer to this, fulfill it. Only he can, I can't. It was given to point out that I can't. And so he added humanity to his divinity through the virgin birth. That's why that essential is so critical so that he would faithfully fulfill the law, do what I could never do as a human, fully God, fully human in order to pay the price for my sin. We're gonna get to that in a minute. But the object is him and it comes through faith. Now, whether you realized it or not, you've already exercised faith this morning, okay? Probably driving, I don't know if the roads were still icy when you came in here, but you had to have some faith in your car to get you here. Hopefully that'll go away. But you're also exercising faith right now, you know why I know that? Because you're seated in a chair that's holding you up and you had faith and you need to think about it that if I put my body in this chair, it's actually gonna hold me up. You transferred the weight of your body and trust into that chair so that it would hold you up. That's the idea. It's the object that matters. This is why you can sincerely believe as a Hindu in over 30,000 gods and reincarnation and it will not get you to heaven, even though you may believe, as strong as you possibly can because it's the object of faith. Whatever it is out there, this is why people are so sincere about their faith. It's why right now in our geopolitical situation, we have individuals who are willing, you've seen it all over the news, willing to die for Islam and jihad against you and me. They hate you, you're an infidel, and so am I. Now, they sincerely believe that, but they're sincerely wrong. Because while they think that's gonna impact their eternal life, it will not. Let me ask you a question. If you were to die and stand before God, it's a question that I ask people all the time. Couples, individuals in my office, wherever we are, I'll talk to them. If you were to die and stand before God and he would have say, why should I let you into my heaven? What is your response? Don't say it out loud, just think it in your head. You wanna know the most common response I get today in this world? The most common response I get to that question is, I believe in God and I've tried to live a good life. Now, you'd say, well, that's kind of pretty good, right? No, actually the truth is, it's wrong, it's not accurate. You wanna know why? Well, first, let's start with God. What's your definition of God? Is it some force? Is it he? Is is she? Whatever, I don't know. Whatever that concept is, wait a minute, we've gotta define who God is first. Second, you may sincerely believe in God, but the other part of that answer is, you're developing a platform right here trying to reach God. And so oftentimes what happens when I get that response? Again, it's most common. I'll start pushing into and find out where are you? There's two distinct possibilities. One is, what you meant by God was Jesus, you haven't been discipled to the point to where you fully understand what that means and nobody's ever taken you to help you and guide you along. And so you got some mixed up theology in there, all right? I'll just grant that, okay? However, the one that I'm entirely suspect of which I oftentimes pursue, is that you've really not embraced the gospel because if you still believe that somehow living a good life and not putting your faith and trust in Christ alone, who already lived the good life for you, you haven't gotten grace yet. Now that may put you back a little bit today. You may have something to think about when you leave and watch your Vikings game because that is essential to saving faith. He goes on, and here's the reason why he says that's essential. Look at verse 23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, notice the all, circle it. Connected back up to the all of, verse 22. The all who believe, the same all who have sinned in the past, we've all violated God's holy standard in some way, shape or form, by thoughts, deeds, things we do, motives of the heart. And therefore we have been placed into a relationship with God whereby we fall short, we're not right with God because of our sin. Notice what he's saying here, that everybody as a part of humanity has sinned, been separated from God at some point in their life, but the distinguishing factor for those that are no longer guilty are those who believe. Because even though I am a follower of Christ today, I've still committed a sin in my past, in my presence and will in my future and therefore that sin means I'm guilty and therefore my just punishment is separation from God because of it. However, I believe that's the key. I believe through faith in what Jesus Christ has done and therefore he says in verse 24, are justified, those who believe, that's the key factor, who have sinned, separated from God, but by faith in Jesus Christ, I am now justified. And he says it's a gift and it comes through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Here's what he's doing. You know those little eggs that come out around Christmas or those little figurines, people get them over in Europe, they get in Poland, Russia, all over the Europe and you've probably bought one and people buy them and then they show up in somebody's garage sale. Okay, you know, I'm talking about? One little figurine, you pull it out and there's another one inside, same thing, right? You pull it out, there's another one inside, pull it out. Eggs are the same way and they come out around Easter, you see them all time and eventually get to the little figurine on the inside. It's kind of what Paul's doing here. One layer after another layer after another layer and the gems get better and better and wonderful till we get the concept that he's talking about here and he starts with justification. What does that word justified mean? It means declared righteous. It means just as if I had never sinned, I am now made right with God. That's the idea that he's after. Though I stand guilty 'cause he just proved that point, with no righteousness of my own, I can't get high enough to reach him. This verse says that I've been put in a right standing with God, justified, righteousness or a right standing with God has been transferred to me from the outside. Put your thinking caps on, grab a hold of this one. Justification does not mean the subtraction of my sin, it's very important. But what it means is that even in spite of my sin, I have been declared right with God. My position has changed, my practice has nothing to do with it 'cause I can't get there on my own. That's why Paul says this is apart from some system of works. This is something that has been provided for you. That's the idea. God doesn't forget my sin, he chooses not to hold it against me based upon what he says here. And he says that now that I and I'll use Roy as the example, believe, okay? I sinned, I'm guilty, I'm separated, but by this act of belief, faith or trust in what Christ has done for me, that's the idea, I have been justified. He calls it by his grace as a gift. It's handed to me, it's unmerited favor, I can't earn it. That's the idea. And how does this come? Well, then he tells you in the third part of the verse through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus did something to redeem me. This is a little bit foreign to our culture today. So let me give you a past illustration that helps and then kind of tie into a little bit of an illustration today. Back then they didn't have government social agency. So if you owed somebody something, you owed a debt to them. The only way to pay that was to become their servant so you gonna work it off, okay? This would be like you going in, taking a mortgage on your house, you can't pay the mortgage anymore and so you don't have any money and so they say, ''Well come on over and wash my dishes ''for the next 25 years and that'll pay off your mortgage debt.'' That's kind of the idea. Now, what could happen though is if you indentured yourself as a servant to someone to pay off your debt that you borrowed for them 'cause you had to have money to do something, they owned you and they could actually sell you back in the first century. That's the idea. So they could market you out, they could put you on social media, they could run a campaign and say the scouts say this and that or whatever about you, put you on the platform and then sell you to somebody else. If you had somebody who bought you that was cruel, that's a pretty bad deal. Now, this would be similar to... You all have a mortgage, right? If you ever got one of those letters, your mortgage has now been sold to some other mortgage company and some other mortgage company and dada, dada, dada, dada. And that's kind of the idea here. But let's just say somebody comes along who says I'm gonna buy you. You can't release yourself from slavery, I will pay the debt that you owe this guy, I will purchase you as a slave. And instead of making you a slave to me, now that I paid your debt, I'm gonna set you free. That's redemption. That's the idea. You know, really? How did that happen? Well, that happened because of what Christ has done for us. This is where the substitutionary atonement of Christ comes to play because it was Jesus who came along and paid a price that I could never pay. I was guilty. Because of that I deserve to be punished. Paul says elsewhere in Romans chapter six verse 23, the wages of sin is death. That's separation from God. There is a guilt placed upon me whereby I am placed in the prison of sin. Sin is now my master so that I do its bidding. I'm subject to its penalty, its power, its consequences. I'm in the courtroom of God, God is the judge. He puts the gavel down and he says, your works, the stuff you've done cannot get high enough. You are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty and therefore you deserve to be punished. That is your debt. However, God put together this massive, incredible plan of love and redemption to provide a right standing with him, a righteousness apart from anything that you could do 'cause we're stuck there. See, we can't do anything about it and so he comes along and he says, I'm gonna provide something from the outside and that is the very faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He's gonna fulfill it all, he's gonna do what you and I could never do so that he could with his life, pay your debt you could never pay. Do you realize if you don't know Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, you are paying that debt right now by being separated from God and if you die in this state, it's gonna go on for eternity. You cannot pay that debt. But God in his wonderful plan of redemption said, but I'll provide a substitute for you. I'll provide the one who could come, the only one who could live a faithful life, the only one who could take the punishment that was yours so that Jesus would walk forward in that courtroom and say, I've paid the price with my sin so that you can be bought with his costly price and then set free. And that's redemption. So how did that happen? Well, now, he tells you something else. So let's unpack this. See, we're getting down into the egg right now. And he says here that this act of redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Notice in verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, blood represents life. So he gave his life, he died and that accomplished this big word called propitiation. Circle it, star it and it's received by faith. So what is this big word here? Are you with me? Okay, now I gotta unpack this. The word propitiation means satisfied. It means satisfied. God was satisfied. The punishment, the debt that was yours has to be paid, okay? And you can't pay it, so you're going to be punished for all eternity. But it says Jesus came, faithfully lived his life, did what we could never do in order to satisfy God with his redemption, meaning dying on the cross for our sin. I'm stuck there, he came along, he said, I will offer my life for theirs and God accepted it. It's the only solution. We know that to be the case because he raised him from the dead. And so his sacrifice was the one that all the law and the prophets pointed to in verse 21. It was his sacrifice that would satisfy God so that his wrath and punishment would be averted towards you and me. Now that's where this word becomes so interesting. Because there's only one other place where this word in particular, it's referred to... Propitiation is translated in other verses in the New Testament, but this one is found in Hebrews 9:5 and you wanna know how it's translated? It's translated mercy seat. So in other words, you can make an argument here that even though here it says propitiation, it could be translated as a mercy seat by his blood. What is mercy seat? Well, mercy means God didn't punish me, his wrath was averted. So what was the mercy seat? Well, let me help. For those of you that are new, I'm gonna bring you up to speed and that's why I want you put your thinking caps on 'cause this is so cool, all right? Mercy seat was the top of the ark of the covenant inside the holy of hollies in the tabernacle in the temple. That lid was called the mercy seat. Why was it called the mercy seat? Because on the day of atonement, which is Yom Kippur, which that word from my understanding is related to this one too so it's got all these incredible threads of redemption and all these different words. And on Yom Kippur, the high priest would bring two goats forward. He would put his hand on one goat. It was symbolic of the sin of the nation being transferred to that goat, it would be sent out into the wilderness, God's removing my sin. How is he removing my sin? That's the second goat. The second goat explains the first goat. The second goat was killed. The blood was taken by the high priest into the inner part of the temple or tabernacle called the holy of hollies where the ark of the covenant was. He would take the blood from that second goat that explains why the first goat was found in the wilderness, symbolic of your sins being forgiven. How did that happen? Based on this sacrifice, he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, the place of satisfaction. All of those old testament sacrifices pointed to the greatest sacrifice to come, Jesus Christ. Here's where it all comes together. I can't get high enough. Jesus Christ lived a faithful life so that he would be and do what I could never do myself. I'm stuck in my sin, I'm separated from God. It's everything I've talked about. He did it for me. And then he offered himself as a sacrifice to God almighty as the final sacrifice and the final place where God would be satisfied on the final mercy seat, the cross. Isn't that cool? The cross is the mercy seat. The cross is the place where his blood was shed. His cross is the place where he as prophet, priest and king paid for it all. He is our sacrifice. He's the one that went to a cross and did for you what you could never do, so that you would be given a right standing with God by faith, by faith or through faith. It's given to you as a gift and it all comes together and this is why Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. And that's why all the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the sacrifice of Christ. God saw that, so even though they acted in faith and didn't know who Jesus was, if they offered those sacrifices in faith, they were forgiven then because God is not bound by time, he knew the sacrifice was coming. And then verse 26 is so powerful. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith, there it is again, in Jesus. He's just because he's righteous and holy and sin must be dealt with. And you could never pay that debt. This is why his love is so unfathomable because it was Jesus who would come who would go to the cross, the mercy seat and he would give his life and he would shed his blood so that you and I could be forgiven because you can't get there on your own. You've got to grasp that. And because you can't get there on your own, he did it all for you because he's the faithful one who went forward and died for you. And then when we receive him as savior and Lord, it is God's righteousness. That's the difference. God's righteousness is seen. In the middle of verse 25, why? Because he was just in verse 26 by punishing Christ instead of you. Sin was paid for, not just slapped away. A crime was committed, justice needs to be served and it was because he accepted the death of Jesus in payment for the debt that you could never pay so that you might be justified by the justifier, the God of the universe and placed in a right standing with him. I'm telling you, that is one of the most remarkable truths we have to our Christian faith. So how do we wrap this up and go into communion? God has provided a way for me to be declared righteous before him. Go ahead and fill it in. And this ability to receive this right standing with him, has come through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's why God's righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe in him. That's the key. This comes through faith in Jesus Christ. That's why we will oftentimes say it's through faith, by grace, in Christ alone. God's righteousness cannot be earned because we're not perfect. It has to happen through Christ. I can never get there on my own. And that's why his righteousness is provided by his grace as a gift because and here's the key words I want you to write in so you don't forget them. We're justified and redeemed by Jesus Christ. He is the only way to be made right with God because of his sacrifice for us. And then, Jesus Christ is our propitiation. So if you write that word out, you won't forget it, it means satisfied. God was satisfied with his substitutionary sacrifice for Roy so that I am forgiven. Past, present and future of my sin. See, this sets us apart from everything in our culture, from people that come along and say and you see it in the news reports, you see it in churches, yeah, yeah, all dogs go to heaven and you just gotta work hard enough and be sincere enough and there are even certain Christian, I'll say churches today that believe still that you can participate in salvation. What Paul is saying is absolutely not. This is not something that progressively happens to you based upon your works 'cause you can't get high enough. It happens through faith, by grace alone, in Christ alone and then his righteousness is transferred to me. And I am declared righteous. I don't gain it, I don't earn it, I'm declared righteous. I don't participate in my salvation. No, it's handed to me because of my faith. And therefore, God is righteous because he is both just. He punished Jesus, Jesus took what should have been mine. And then I am justified because he is the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus Christ. Now as we move into a time of communion, I want you to think about these concepts and then I'm gonna pray and we're gonna pass the elements up here, downstairs, if you're in the warehouse, you're gonna participate in communion by coming forward and taking communion yourself. But here's what I want you to think about, as you hold the bread in your hand and the cup, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I want you to remember what he has done for you. He gave his life when you had absolutely no hope whatsoever. He is not stuck on your sin because he's already paid for it. He wants you to rest in it. And if you have put your faith and trust in Christ alone, you are free to take communion with us. And today, I want you to give him thanks because he did what you could never do, live the life you could never live so that you could be forgiven and set free. And now you have a chance to thank him again and then renew your commitment to follow him because your position has changed and now the practice of your life needs to change so that others can see the hope that you have. It should give you great boldness to understand that those who don't know Christ as savior and Lord, are bound for an eternity, separated from God in a real place called hell. And that should be the motivation for us, knowing that this is the only hope and you've embraced it. So give him thanks and then look for every opportunity you can to share that hope with others. And if you are here today and you've never made that choice, and today it's finally become clear. Then I would extend for you the invitation, let the cup and the bread pass before you, extend the invitation to say, God, I need you now because I know I'm a sinner and I know I deserve to be punished. And in this moment in the quietness of your heart, you can say, but I now believe that Jesus died for me and I receive him as my savior and my Lord. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the next few moments we will share in communion, for the truth of what Jesus has done and the hope that we have in him. It's in Christ's name we pray, Amen.