All right, well, let's get to the time, and we've set aside for our look into the Word. And as you know, we've been piggybacking on Pastor Kitt's excursus that he did in the Book of Acts when he came across the words of Paul in Acts 23, 6, where Paul said, I'm on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead. And Kit, the kind of impetus behind this series that he was doing called The Gospel of the Resurrection, is that somehow Paul saw that the summary of his teaching concerned the resurrection of the dead, where Paul taught a whole bunch of other things, and he preached a whole bunch of other things, and he wasn't The sum and substance of his teaching wasn't only Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus was raised from the dead. He spoke of many other things. He spoke of the redemptive work in Christ Jesus. He spoke of the justifying work of Christ Jesus. And today we're gonna look at his reconciling work. But what Pastor Kitt sees is, and we've already kind of gone over this and established this groundwork, but Pastor Kitt sees that resurrection, broadly conceived, is God bringing life out of death. And then we see that in a whole bunch of God's other activity which is all about bringing about our life out of death, and we have already covered the ground, and I think that you already carry with you the broader meaning of life and death. That is, existence in conformity to God's design, and death, existence in estrangement from God and his design for us. So I think that there is a, I've been arguing for this, and I just say it by way of introduction here, that there is a wonderful complexity and simplicity that all at the same time in the gospel, as I'm coming to understand it, it's like at any point that we duck into the scriptures, we can see that this is a part of the gospel, and so it's multifaceted and complex, But it's also very simple. Our God is a God who is characterized by love and that love was manifested in his activity of reaching into the fallenness of humanity and bringing life out of death. So it is this richness and simplicity all bundled into one in the gospel as I see it coming out of all of the scripture. Well, Paul was on trial for what he preached. And he preached more than the resurrection of the dead. But he saw that resurrection of the dead lay behind much, if not all, of what he preached. And in the broader principle of resurrection, by that I mean in the principle of life out of death, we see Paul, commonality of all of Paul's preaching. Again, we have seen kind of methodically over the last few weeks that resurrection can be seen in the incarnation. It was one week that we looked. Resurrection can be seen in God's redemption. Another week we've seen that resurrection can be seen in God's justification. And this week we want to look at resurrection as it's being seen in reconciliation. The fall dashed the very good relationship that God had with his image bearers. And his image bearers were sons unto him. So if we look at the creation and we listen to the way the scripture described humanity, the humanity described as son, son in relationship to God, the father. And so the fall dashed that very good relationship between God the Father and his image-bearing sons. And he had given us that relationship to our first parents to enjoy communion, presence with God in this father-child relationship. that we see for a glimpse in the first two chapters of Genesis before we get to the third which begins the story of the fall. That father-child relationship with good and right communing together That was dashed in the fall and replaced by estrangement from God. So even if you just start there, what was mankind in need of? Mankind was in need of reconciliation to God. And so that was part, even in the Proto-Evangelion, we can look and see that that's what God was promising. Even in the promise of the seed of the woman who would come to give a fatal blow to the serpent, implicit in that is that the serpent's work would be destroyed and the serpent's work that manifested itself in human estrangement from God. And so even though it's shadowy, even in the first promise of scripture, we see that God is promising reconciliation. I take special note in seeing that God is promising reconciliation through the seed of a woman, meaning that, which now from this vantage point, we say, oh my gosh, you know, Christ Jesus was the seed of a woman born miraculously, is it? through Mary, but nonetheless the seed of a woman. And we're right to see that that was God bringing about reconciliation that he even promised at the very get-go, at the point of man's fall. My hope today is to raise our awareness to this wonderful, complex simplicity of the gospel that we find in our Bibles, if not so much in the pulpits in our culture in this day and age. The gospel of the scriptures, I have represented it to you before like this, and I represent it to you again. The gospel of the scriptures is a diamond, multifaceted, beautiful to gaze on. Sometimes this facet catching our eye and reflecting this color, sometimes another facet, but all part of the same gorgeous gospel. The gospel of the scriptures is the gospel of resurrection. And I hope almost by, certainly by knowledge, but by repetition, that that becomes to be a part of your thinking. The gospel is the gospel of resurrection, where resurrection is understood as a principle of Life out of death. And in the broader conception of life out of death that we've already commented on this morning, as we gaze at it in the pun intended sunlight of Christ, we see the facet of incarnation. and then the facet of redemption, and then the facet of justification, and then the facet of reconciliation that we'll look at more today. Each facet can be spoken of individually. Each facet can be described somewhat individually, but none of the facets are an island in himself, and none of them are the whole, but a part of the whole, and each actually has to be understood with the facets that they are related to, much like our human body, the Paul analogy that he used there. We cannot explain either our own identity or the gospel by summing it up on one, two, or three discrete aspects of God's work. It is actually all that God has done. And we've been looking at it under these headings, because these are some of the big theological headings that people think about. So if you go to get a systematic theology open, you'll find a chapter on incarnation. You'll find a chapter on redemption. You'll find a chapter on justification. You'll find a chapter on reconciliation. And I think, I don't know, I didn't ask Kit this, but I think the reason he picked those is because we typically think of those as sort of discrete acts. And they can be talked of separately, but they only are fully understood as we see the interrelationship between them. And I'm saying that they're actually all part of this overarching thought that our God is a God who works to bring life out of death, which is resurrection. So the gospel is simple and complex all on the same time. And again chiming my mantra for this series, the gospel is bigger and better than the gospel I first understood. So let's consider resurrection. as the heart of the gospel and reconciliation as one of the gospel of resurrection's wonderful facets. So first of all this morning under the heading of Resurrection as Reconciliation. A question for you to start you off so that you have a context for this. Have you ever loved and been loved in a truly committed relationship where your loved one has your best interest in mind and you have theirs? I hope you are so fortunate. It is one of the greatest treasures of life. Now, a corollary question. Have you ever been estranged from a loved one? It's one of the worst things people have to endure. Ever since Adam and Eve's rebellion in the garden, mankind has been estranged from God. Normal existence in estrangement from God is what the Bible calls death. Estrangement from God The only so-called life that mankind knew was what the Bible calls death. Death is life or existence not according to God's design and ultimate intention. Reconciliation in that light is the solution to our estrangement from God. Reconciliation turns the worst into the best, it turns death into life. And I'm asking that we would please see that reconciliation is related to resurrection, especially when we understand resurrection as the principle of life out of death. Here's how they're related. God's reconciling work causes dead humanity To live. I'll say that and I'll give you definitions along the way. God's reconciling work causes dead humanity, that's humanity existing in the state of nonconformity to God's design and ultimate intention, to live. that is, to exist in conformity to God's design and ultimate intention. God's reconciling work brings life out of death, replacing existence in estrangement from God with existence in communion with God. The good news, the gospel, is that God reconciled us to himself through Christ. We'll encounter that in the second Corinthians in just a little bit. The good news, the gospel, is that God has resurrected us already in our spirits. Those two are really saying the same thing. It is because God created us in his image and for the purpose of being in a father-son relationship characterized by mutual love. It's because of that that existence in estrangement from God is death. And because man is dead when estranged from God, when mankind is reconciled to God, he experiences life. Reconciliation joins the list of God's grand works. Incarnation, redemption, justification. It joins the list of those grand works bringing about his purposes for his creation. Know today that reconciliation is an expression of resurrection since resurrection is life out of death and the person who has been brought Out of death into life is a person who has been reconciled to God. Hope you see they overlap so significantly. I'll be happy if we can take this one point away with us today. We can better understand resurrection and that is the heart of the gospel. We can better understand resurrection as the heart of the gospel and reconciliation when we see that God's reconciling work in Christ Jesus is one and the same with his work of resurrection. Both speak to God's activity of bringing life out of death to humanity, and as we know, through humanity to the rest of creation. Jesus was resurrected, but as the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead, meaning that he went on to send us his spirit, giving us a share in his life. So when we think of resurrection, go ahead and think of Jesus' resurrection, but don't only think of Jesus' resurrection. Think of his resurrection under his enthronement and his first major act as the enthroned and reigning forever king of the kingdom of God, was to send his spirit into his people, to define and enliven his people in this new age of the new creation. No longer are we who believe dead in our trespasses and sins, as we once were, rather we are alive in our union with Christ. We are alive because we have been joined to God by our union with Christ and that being affected by the indwelling of the life-giving spirit, who the Bible calls the spirit of the resurrected Christ. The gospel is the gospel of resurrection, and we see the resurrecting life out of death work of God in all of his restorative works. Again, Kit surfaces incarnation, justification, redemption, and reconciliation, and this reconciliation is what we're looking at today. Each of these works has their own nuanced aspect, right? Diamond, facet. But they together comprise the diamond, the solitaire of resurrection. Gaze on it and take in its glory. God has worked and worked and worked to bring life out of death, which is reconciliation. So when we think of the gospel, I want you to see with the Apostle Paul that resurrection is at the very heart of the gospel, especially as it is understood as this broad principle of life out of death, which we can see in all of God's grand works. Reconciliation is commonly understood, and I give you this out of my little dictionary, the concise dictionary of Christian theology, is commonly understood as the bringing together of two parties that are in dispute, particularly in Christ's bringing God and man together, the result of which is salvation. So that's your, pull the dictionary off, the biblical dictionary off the shelf and look up reconciliation definition. And I think that is a typical way that we regard reconciliation. That's the common way that we regard it. Would you understand reconciliation in a less common but more true way today? Reconciliation is the culminating expression of resurrection when resurrection is understood as life out of death. The components of the gospel are not independent, discrete events, so much as they are marvelously complex, cohesive, and interrelated activities of God, which are all facets of this diamond of resurrection. What is the Christian gospel? It is the good news that God has done what is necessary through Christ Jesus to bring life out of death to us by reconciling us to God, making us new creatures in the new creation kingdom of God. We were dead. Scripture says directly, and we can conclude from all the indirect associations of what death means, we were dead in our estrangement from God, existing in a state nowhere near the state God intended for his human image bearing sons. But now he has reconciled us to himself in the person of Christ, causing us to live as new creatures in his new creational kingdom, to exist in union with God, which was and is his intention and design for us all along. We live not like we used to live, which the Bible calls death, estranged, only now forgiven. Rather, we live and enjoy a new life as new creatures, now in union with Christ by his indwelling spirit, and therefore in communion with God the Father. We were dead, and God the Father has made us alive in Christ by his spirit. That's the Christian gospel. May we know it ourselves and share it with others. May it stand in sharp contrast to the gospel too frequently preached in our day, the so-called gospel of believe in Jesus and your sins will be forgiven so that when you die you get to go to heaven, not burn in hell. All that is true. that part about forgiveness of sins and going to heaven. All that is true, but it is a small part of the bigger and better gospel that comes to us out of the scriptures more carefully considered. The gospel is the gospel of resurrection, and we can see resurrection in God's glorious work of reconciliation, which he has done in Christ. My anchor verse on reconciliation comes out of 2 Corinthians 5, and let me start from verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says this, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Here's your ministry. Here's my ministry. Namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 through 21. Paul could not speak of the gospel without speaking of the death and resurrection of Christ and the new life out of death that has come to us as a result of God's reconciling work. That's my take on Pastor Kitt's chapter. But I want to give you a few more nuggets from his chapter. But that represented my heart for you to understand in regards to reconciliation. But let me give you a little bit more. I want to give you, some of these things struck me as I read Pastor Kitt's notes. He communicated and spoke of reconciliation as God's goal, and I wanted to camp on that just a bit. When we think of God's purposes for his fallen creation, including mankind, especially mankind, first mankind, reconciliation can and should be seen as God's goal. Okay, now I hope this makes you sit up and listen. It's like, so what's God's goal in his dealings with humanity? Well Kidd is offering reconciliation as the goal of God. All that he, God, at first created and rightly related to himself through his image sons, mankind, which was alienated from him in the fall, all that he created, which has become estranged, he purposed and promised to reconcile to himself. Back to our passage, 2 Corinthians 5, a part of that says God reconciled us to himself through Christ Jesus. Let me give you a little bit more from Kip here. Kit says this, he says, every facet and implication of resurrection, okay, points to and has its goal in reconciliation. This is what God is moving to, okay, this is what he's purposed. I think of, you know, we engage in any task that the steps of the task can be kind of all-consuming, and you just think of whatever task you set your mind to, grading papers at Naval Postgraduate School, or organizing volunteers for the AT&T, we can get overrun with the details and the minutiae of all that is required to bring about the goal, and all of a sudden we forget the goal. And I think the same thing is true when we consider the works of God. We can kind of take note of how and what he has done, and we forget the goal. So it's so important in my thinking to keep the goal in mind. What's God's goal? in all this is our reconciliation and the reconciliation of creation through us. That's his goal. It's his goal. Let me read on a little further, sorry. Reconciliation, not just of God with his image children, but of the creator with his creation. Creational restoration means resurrection and resurrection means reconciliation. This is the constant drumbeat of the Old Testament salvation history, both in its historical outworking and in its prophetic promise. The trajectory of biblical revelation is directed toward Creator, creature, reconciliation centered in man himself and this trajectory terminates on the man Jesus of Nazareth and his work as the Lord's Messiah. Gotta love the thoughtful putting together these concepts. This truth embodies the substance of Jesus' assertion that all the scriptures testify of Him. The Creator, Father, promised reconciliation and creational renewal, and He accomplished this in His Son, beginning with the incarnation and culminating with Jesus' resurrection and the outpouring of His Spirit. What's God's goal for you? Well, you weren't so special. What's God's goal for us? Reconciliation with Him. Life out of death. Resurrection. That's His goal for you and for me. But think of it, please, I want you to stretch yourself. If that's God's goal, then it begs the question of how we enter into the goal. We know he's satisfied his goal. He's reached his goal. He has brought it into effect. Yet I bet you that we don't spend every waking moment in the awareness of what God has done and the fact that he has actually reconciled us to him. And we are indeed his image sons, his image children, representing him and spreading his life and love, filling the world with it. So it strikes me that our goals for ourselves may be different than God's goal for us. Our goals might be succeed in my career, succeed as a spouse, succeed as a parent, retire with enough nest egg to live comfortably. What is God's goal in relation to us? reconciliation to him. Life lived with us as his sons in his kingdom. Put just for a moment there, put your parental hat on and know the value of your children. Picture one of them or more of them estranged. What's God's heart for estranged dead humanity? Reconciliation into right relationship, the intimate relationship of a father. and his child. What should we do with the difference between our goals and God's goals for us? And let me put something before you today. Success in life is success in life as God intended and designed. It is communion with God in union with Christ by his spirit. May we succeed in life. God's goal. If you didn't write anything down, write down reconciliation as God's goal. Next Kit pointed out some stuff in regards to reconciliation's relationship to incarnation and I want to talk about that just a little bit. While we most easily see that reconciliation was the product of God's redeeming and justifying work, his redemption and his joining of us to him, while we most easily see the work of reconciliation was the product of his redeeming and justifying work is making us righteous, we also see an even more fundamental level. Reconciliation finds its first New Testament expression in the incarnation of the pre-existing Son of God in man. in Christ Jesus. Okay, so one of the things I'm impressed with in Pastor Kitt's little booklet here is that he makes much of Christ's incarnation and it keeps hearkening back to that as being the first expression of resurrection even, the first expression And as we look at incarnation, we can see a first expression of, and not just by way of introductory expression, but a first substantive expression of these other acts of God. So incarnation, we look at incarnation and we see redemption. We look at incarnation and we see justification. We look at incarnation and we see reconciliation. And such is the relationship here between these things that Pastor Kidd is bringing out that I want to put before you again. In the Incarnation, God entered into fallen creation, right? That's what he did. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He entered into creation. In the Incarnation, God entered into fallen creation, and he did more than just exist as perfect God in the midst of corrupt creation. God the Son joined himself to fallen humanity. As the son of Mary, who was, I've heard Kit say elsewhere, despite Catholic theology, who was herself fallen and dead with the rest of humanity, He joined himself to, I mean picture the conception, picture conception as we know it. Can you get more joining together than the conception and the formation of a new life? So in the incarnation, God joined himself to fallen humanity. Listen to Pastor Kitt, and let's fill out our understanding of incarnation here, and then I'll try to make the connection between incarnation and reconciliation, but just kind of let this fill out our understanding of incarnation. Jesus' conception within Mary's womb involved him taking to himself Adam's humanity. the humanity that writhes in death under the curse of alienation. And he entered into man's fallen condition in order to judge, condemn, and destroy it by living as an authentic man. Long before the work of completion at Calvary, The Son of Man had already condemned sinful man in the flesh. That is, by taking our fallen corrupted flesh to himself. In the first instance, and substantially in his incarnation, Then through his faithful life, I heard Stacey even pray this way this morning, through his faithful life as a true son of God in contradiction to his Adamic sonship. I know this is a little out there, but God in Christ entered into and took to himself fallen humanity. Kit continues, death was judged and overcome by life in the very moment of Jesus' conception. But this initial resurrection of life out of death occurred in the context of divine, divine human reconciliation. It was precisely in the hypostatic union, and he defines that as the full and forever union of God and man in Christ, that life triumphed over death. Again, because death is estrangement, life out of death is reconciliation. And just as estrangement began with God and his image son, and then flowed out to the whole of creation. Okay, catch this. This is coming out of 1 Corinthians 15 that we saw just as death entered through one man and through one man spread to all humanity. I'm paraphrasing that again. And just as a strange began with God and His imaged Son and then flowed out to the whole of creation. So it is with the undoing of estrangement in reconciliation, it has as its marrow in a divine human event. which to me is significant, okay? Again, think the person of Christ, obviously, in his incarnation. Not in the first instance at Calvary, but in the incarnate person of Jesus the Messiah. In and through him, the Father's work of reconciliation extended to Adam's other offspring and the rest of the created order. Let me read you a little bit. Speaking of Jesus, Paul says in 1 Corinthians, At the first chapter, beginning in verse 15, speaking of Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn. of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him." This is our Lord Jesus he's talking about, who himself is the incarnation of the eternal Word of God, who is God. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross. Through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in the heaven. So more than a way cool miracle, the incarnation was the beginning of God's eschatological, his final, his ultimate work aimed at restoring fallen humanity and through them all of creation. As we consider what all was going on in the incarnation, What in the world is that about? As we consider that, we see that in it, God was beginning his final great work of resurrection, which we've seen in the acts of redemption, justification, reconciliation, towards the ultimate goal of that thing we're talking about today, towards reconciliation. Again, come with me, please, brothers and sisters, to the point of understanding that for mankind who God created in his image for the purpose of communion, reconciliation requires not only forgiveness, but the life lived in communion with God. Forgiveness can be granted someone from a distance. Have you noticed that? You can forgive somebody. You have it in you. God has it in him. To forgive a person who lives on the other side of the earth. Reconciliation unto communion requires interaction in a dynamic personal relationship. God has reconciled us, bringing us into a vital relationship with him, a relationship of communion, of union with him as our father. When I think about the implications of this, God the Son did not simply walk amongst the perishing. He joined himself to us in order to reconcile us Pastor Kidd began this chapter titled Resurrection as Reconciliation. by very quickly saying this, he said, it's been seen that resurrection has a substance in incarnation. It was there that life penetrated the darkness of the cursed creation, but it did so by means of a creator-creature conjunction in the hypostatic union in the incarnation of God in Christ. Life as present in the incarnate Logos didn't reside above or outside of dead creation, but rather joined itself to it in the person of the Son of Man. So as we look at Jesus, when we read of him in our Bibles and speak of him together in our times of speaking of the Bible together, we see not only the example of true humanity who we should imitate, We see the one who has allowed himself to be born of a woman as we all have, joining himself to us in this very incarnation. We see one who has allowed himself to overcome the scriptural definition of death, to overcome death in every aspect of his life. We see one who allowed himself to die in order to atone for our sins, and we see one who allowed himself to overcome physical death in his own bodily resurrection as the first fruits of the resurrection of the dead, ourselves being the second fruits, if you will. We see in him one who allowed himself to ascend, allowed himself to be enthroned as the king of the eschatological new creational kingdom of God, and reconciling us to God in the fullest way possible, awaiting only. the consummate fullness in the bodily resurrection which is to occur when he comes again. Satisfying the longing expectation Paul speaks of in Romans 8 of creation groaning, waiting for its redemption. Jesus didn't simply walk among us as the incarnate God-man. And I envision here, what I'm trying to get at can be helped with this image. He wasn't simply a lifeguard who paddles his rescue board through a pod of swimmers in need of being rescued, speaking kind words to them, but grabbing none of them. Rather, he joined himself to us and rescued us from death, granting us his life, true life, life in right relationship with him, the relationship of a son to his royal father, characterized by that mutual love and communion that we've been talking about. Colossians, for he rescued us. from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. The rescue of fallen humanity is the rescue of estranged humanity out of the waters of our estrangement from God onto the solid ground, can we say solid rock, of our communion with God. What God has done is more than give us a second chance at our old lives. He has given us new and true life altogether. John and Peter speak of it as being born again. Paul speaks of it as being new creatures. I'm convicted that if Jesus personified true humanity, and he certainly did, and if true humanity has at its core communion with God, and it does, then there should be no greater goodness, no greater value in my life, no object worthy of greater devotion No joy of greater value to me than fellowship with God in my union with Christ Jesus through his indwelling spirit. That should be the sweet spot of all sweet spots. May our joy be made full and our devotion heightened and narrowed. May we find in our relationship with God and Christ by his spirit the peace and joy and all the goodness of life God intended for us to have. May we abandon or at least set securely out of competition any other value so that Christ is first in all things and God is all in all. I preach to myself. I'm reminded of the lyrics and sentiment of what I looked up and I guess it's almost a hundred year old hymn now, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. The chorus of that is, turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full into his wonderful face, and the things of the earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace. It speaks to the narrowness, the narrowing of our focus that I would wish for you. The heightening of our value of God as the single greatest priority, but more than priority in our lives. as the single purpose for our lives, communion with Him. Wow, if communion with Him is His goal. reordering of our life is called for until it reflects God in that ultimate way. May you turn your eyes upon Jesus. May you look fully into his wonderful face and may the things of the earth grow strangely dim in comparison. It'll take discipline. May we all, though, do that. May we turn our eyes upon Jesus as the first and always way of our lives. May we do it in the trials, in the humdrum, in the victories, in the valleys, in the mountaintops that we experience in life. May our eyes be upon Jesus. One more thing. Yeah, I'll leave that. I commend you to Pastor Kitt's work. And if you're interested in where to get that, you can come talk to me, and I'll make sure I hook you up with that. There's a couple more things I wanted to say, but let me just take one of those. And that's a final note on Ford that I've mentioned several times, but I want to bring forward with some focus here. And that's in regards to sonship. God has reconciled us to himself in the person and work of Jesus, the incarnate word of God. And when God and mankind are reconciled, we exist in a right relationship, one according to God's design. And what God has designed, though, and this is the point I want to make to you, what God has designed and created and redeemed and justified and reconciled us to be is sons. Jesus is the ultimate Son of God, and by all that he has done, he has shared his life with us, making us sons in our union with the Son. This is where Pastor Kitt gets his phrase, sons in the Son. Give you a quote from Pastor Kitt, and I'll wrap it up. Kitt says this, he says, God has fulfilled his promise for creational restoration in Jesus. but as he is true man, as well as true God. It is as the Son of Man that Jesus reconciled the world to the Father. And this underscores that the focal point of reconciliation is the production of sons in the Son. I believe that we can miss this. I believe that we can think, oh, we're reconciled to God. But without seeing the particular relationship of sonship that God has reconciled us into. So the New Testament everywhere exalts sonship as God's goal for his human creature. Whether atonement, justification, redemption, or resurrection, they all serve the cause and the manifest glory of the sons of God. Who are you? Well, you are a redeemed son of God. That's who you are. What are the implications of this fact that God's restorative activity in Christ has made us new creatures who are sons in the son? What's the implications of that? Sons in the son designed to live, intended by God to live in communion with him as a son with his father. What are the implications for that? If we are sons, how should we live? If we are living as sons in the sun, how are we to live? What should characterize our lives and fill our days? May our lives be characterized by at least devotion to God in Christ by his spirit. May our lives be lives of worship and communion and witness. as we prepare to take the Lord's table today, may we spend our time of reflection that we normally have, may we spend it in preparation remembering Christ, but remembering Christ as God incarnate, who worked reconciliation, with the end result of causing us to be sons in the Son, causing us to be sons who live in union and communion with God the Father by means of the Spirit. Then we come to the table and we will share the elements together and we do that to visibly demonstrate our unity and our communion which is the result of his restorative work. When I say our communion, I say our communion together as a group with him. Then come to the table, and we'll share the elements together. Paul selected a song, and as I looked, he texted me the song, and I thought, ah, perfect, perfect song to serve as a backdrop for our reflection. So let me pray in light of what we've just said and for our time at the table, and then we'll receive communion. Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful time that we have just ahead of us in taking the elements of the Lord's table. May we regard them in a very special way as symbolizing the communion that you have worked as a result of your reconciling activity in Christ Jesus. I pray for this church body and for myself that we would have within the quiver of our understanding of the gospel many sharp arrows, arrows that we have become familiar with, arrows that we recognize as we touch them maybe selecting the right run to bring forward in the course of our lives that we might be able to bear witness to the person or people in front of us in a way that is sharpened to the point Lord, that we might be witnesses, not of what we know, but of the gospel as it is in Christ Jesus, as all the scriptures testify of it. Sharpen us, Heavenly Father, equip us with a robust understanding of the gospel. And today, that arrow of reconciliation, may it have been made more tangible, more accessible to us, and may it have been lifted up to the heavenlies so that it carries with it not too much of the earth, but all of what you have intended in the large, grand scheme of your redemptive, restorative work your saving work. Heavenly Father, equip us that we might know you and share you as you are. In Christ's name, amen.