Facebook family and friends, this is Pastor Dwayne Russell, Beacon Baptist Church, Shelbyville, Indiana. I'm coming to you virtually today. I'm in the sanctuary of the Lord. Snow has already started, and so I had planned to come and do a virtual Bible study, like our normal Sunday school, and then do a message, a sermon, at about 11 o'clock. I was gonna do a sermon today. For those of you who might be tuning in out there, I want to say stay warm, stay safe, be safe. There's already a nice little light covering of snow on the ground between here and home for me. But I'm glad to be here with you live on this Facebook feed. I hope that I can share a message of encouragement for you today. If you want to follow along in your Bible for this Bible study, this is our Sunday school time. If you want to follow along in the Bible study today, I'd like for you to get your Bible and go to Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah chapter 53. That's our Bible study class reference for today. And I'm not sure how many of you are out there. I'm not sure how many of you will tune in for this Bible study, but I felt led really kind of just within the last few hours to go to this particular passage of Scripture. And so if you want to follow along today, grab your copy of God's Holy Word and go with me to Isaiah chapter 53. Right now I cannot see who is coming on live with me and who's not coming on live with me because I'm not watching my phone feed. I'm just watching the camera for the sermon or the Bible study. So, but don't hesitate to give good mornings and hellos out there. Don't hesitate to share prayer requests because I'll go back through and read all of the comments that you all make and any requests for prayer that you make. I'll take those needs to the Lord. But on this particular Sunday morning, we want to, on January the 5th, 2025, we want to still be about studying the word of God. And that's what I've come prepared to do with you today. So if you would be so gracious as to grab your copy of God's word, turn to Isaiah chapter 53, and follow along with me here in this Bible study. Now, I do see a couple of comments coming across. And so I hope that folks will come in and stay with us for this Bible study. This is not our main preaching service. This is our normal Bible study time. And I thought it would be a good place for us to go to kind of pull all that we have experienced in the last few weeks of Jesus' life and his birth, and also to tie together what part of our purpose is in the coming year and what we're supposed to be doing as we approach this coming year. And so I hope that you'll participate with me. Have you got your copy of God's word? Are you ready to open it up to Isaiah chapter 53? Now, for many of us who have been believers in the Bible and have studied the Bible, you're going to be very, very familiar with this passage of scripture. This is not going to be a brand new passage for you. However, I hope and I pray that we can kind of unpack it a little bit and really begin to look at the insights that I believe God would want us to glean from this passage of scripture as we study it together. So let's have a word of prayer and then we'll go into Isaiah chapter 53. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the privilege I have to come alive on Facebook And Heavenly Father, to bring a lesson out of your scripture, your holy word means more than anything we have in our lives. Your holy word is the revelation of who you are. It is also a demonstration of your love for us. And so, Father God, I pray that as we open your Bible together for these next few moments, I pray that you, God, will be glorified and magnified in every bit of your word. I pray for the people who are watching me through Facebook Live right now. I pray for a blessing on their lives. I pray, Heavenly Father, for anybody that will watch this message and this lesson. I pray that you will bless those that they might have an openness to the reality of who you are. And Heavenly Father, for the weather and the forecast, I pray that you would keep us safe. I pray that you make provisions for us I pray, Father God, that you would put a blessing, a blanket of blessing over each and every one of us, Father, that we would be constantly aware of your love, your power, and your presence. I pray for some of the needs that I do know about. I pray for Miss Kim Karas and her continued needs. Karas, I'm sorry, Lord. I pray for her. I pray for Connie and Tanya. I pray for Desiree, Father God. I pray for Felicia. I pray for Brother Jack. God for Jim Pogue, Shelly. God, I pray for each of those individuals because, God, they've asked me to remember them in prayer. And so, Father, I'm lifting them up to you, and I'm asking you to minister grace and mercy and strength to each of their lives. I pray for Miss Joanie and Brother Ron. I pray, Heavenly Father, for others in the church. Pat Newbold, as she's not been feeling well, God, I pray for blessings and strength to her. God, most of all, I pray that you provide for those that are requesting it, just a blessing of your presence. That means more than anything. Father, I pray for Susan as she continues to heal after her procedures. Lord, be with us as we study your scripture. May you be glorified in everything that's said and done in our time together. And we give you this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it is good to see all of you out there. I hope this message comes across loud and clear. I hope it's not overwhelming. I hope that you can follow along in your copy of God's word. We're gonna just study Isaiah chapter 53. And as I begin this passage of scripture, I just wanna remind you of a truth that I've been sharing with you for a long time, if you've been following my ministry and my teaching. And here it is. God gives us a full revelation of himself in the whole of the Bible. That is from cover to cover. He is alpha and omega. That means he is the beginning and he is the end. And he is revealing himself throughout. And so God is an eternal God. He is the same. And these are preacher phrases that we use a lot. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God never changes. And so, but he does respond within the context of time. He responds to us in the time in which we live. Does that make sense? So God is the same, but he knows how to respond in the seasons of life and in the seasons of time. And all of us are in different seasons of our life, right? And you think about that. Some of us are in the season of being young and some of us are middle-aged, some of us are older, some of us have children, some of us have grandchildren, great-grandchildren, right? We all recognize some of us are working full-time, some of us are retired, some of us are ill, and that caused us to not be able to work. I mean, there's just so many different contexts of the seasons of life, right? And so I just want to remind you that whatever God says in the Old Testament, He doesn't change his mind when you come into the New Testament. As a matter of fact, what he does is he reveals his relational side in the Old Testament and he reveals his grace side or his mercy side in the New Testament. And you say, well, which one do I like better? Well, you better like him completely. Don't put God in a box and say, well, you know, if I read the Old Testament, That means I'm full of judgment and all that. And if I read the New Testament, I'm full of love. No, no, no. God has always, always, always been love. And he will always be love. If he ceases to love, he would cease to be God. But at the same time, While he is love, he is also truth. And so you can't say, well, if he's always truth, then if he ever told us a lie, then he would no longer be God because he told us a lie, right? He is truth and he is love. He is mercy, he is grace. Mercy is seen throughout the Bible. Grace is seen throughout the Bible. And we have to be really, really careful to recognize that God is always the same in our lives. All right, so you got your Bibles. I've talked long enough to get you to open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 53. Let's go to Isaiah 53 together. And here's what the prophet of the Old Testament says. He says in verse one, who has believed our report? Now that's a simple question. And the question is, who is going to believe our message? Who is going to be open to receive this message? Who out there, that's what I do when I preach, when I teach online, I never know who's watching the full message. I have no idea how many people are actually meditating on the things that I say. or accepting the things I say, all I can do is throw it out there. It's like putting out a big fishing net. All I can do is throw the message out there. That's really what the prophet Isaiah is saying. Who has believed our report? That is, who is going to accept the reality of God's revelation? And so he says, who has believed our report? And to whom, now watch this in verse one, we're in Isaiah 53, one. He says, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now, can I just talk about that for a second? The arm of the Lord is an expression of his strength. So what the prophet is asking is how many of you have experienced the power of God And how many of you are believing the message of God? That's really what the prophet starts out in Isaiah 53 one. That's really what he's saying. He's saying, here's the message. Now the question is, who has ever seen the demonstration of God's power and God's strength? Does that make sense? And so I'm going to ask you that question. How many of you have ever in your life witnessed firsthand the power and the strength of God in your life? And you say, well, preacher, I'm not sure that I'm a believer or a follower of Christ. I'm not sure where I stand in my relationship with the Lord, but I can identify an illness or an accident or a period of my life where I was desperate and help came from nowhere. It seemed like all of a sudden somebody helped me that they didn't have to help me. That's an example of what he's talking about in Isaiah 53.1. He's talking about who has believed our report and to whom has God revealed himself. Has God revealed himself to you in that accident, in that trial, in that sickness, in that difficulty of your life? Did God reveal himself to you? And you said, well, I mean, I could look back and see that I couldn't do that for myself. God must've been there. Well, that's the point Isaiah's making. It must be that God is working to make himself known to you. And the question you and I have to answer is, are we willing to respond to the God who loves you enough that he would reveal himself to your heart, that he would reveal himself to you? Do you have an acknowledgement that it was God? And are you willing to look at God and say, God, Thank you that you revealed yourself to me this way. But Isaiah doesn't stop there, does he? That's why we've got our Bibles open to Isaiah 53, and we go to verse two, and here's what it says. Watch this. He says, for he shall grow up before him. Now what is Isaiah doing right there? He's talking about one who is going to be growing physically in the eyes of God. That's really what he's saying right here. The one that is the arm of the Lord, the one that is the strength of God is going to be revealed to humanity. And we're going to watch him grow up as what? A tender plant. What's Isaiah talking about? He's prophesying about the coming of Jesus Christ of heaven. And he says he's gonna grow up like a tender plant. In other words, he's gonna grow just like every other physical body grows, he's gonna grow up. Now watch what else he says about it. And as a root out of dry ground. Now think about that. A root out of dry ground, that doesn't happen very often, does it? You don't very often see certain kinds of plants that can grow in the desert. Now, there are some certain plants that can grow in the desert, but not like many of the flowers or many of the trees that we have. You wouldn't be able to see those take root in sand and dirt that's all dry and desert-like. Now, I know some of you are already thinking in your head, you're already ahead of the preacher saying, oh yeah, preacher, there's pictures of flowers that grow in the desert. I didn't say some flowers, I said, There's some that do not grow that way. Now here's what he says, Isaiah says about Jesus. He says, he's going to grow up like a tender plant. He's going to come out of a dry and dusty place. Now that is both physical and that is also spiritual. When God wants to reveal himself to humanity, Doesn't it seem like it usually comes to us in some of the most desert-like places of our life, when we're going through a lot of difficulty, when we're going through aloneness and sadness, when we're depressed or we're facing difficulties in our life? Isn't it true? Have you ever been so thirsty that when you finally get a drink of water, you can feel the entire drink go from your mouth right down your esophagus into your stomach. Have you ever been that thirsty? The principle is this, he said, he is going to be like a root out of dry ground. He's going to come alive in the desert places of our life. He's gonna make life. He's gonna make a way where it seems like there is no way. He's going to do things in your life and your circumstance that you can't hardly explain it. You know what happened? but it's hard to put it into words. That's how God works. And what Isaiah is saying is, this one who is going to come, and we'll see who he is in a moment, this one who is going to come in some future moment, he's going to come up out of what seems to be a very, very dark and a very challenging time in the culture. He's going to come in a middle of oppression and difficulty. He's going to come when it seems like the harsh winds of difficulty have blown across the landscape and he's going to sprout up. And that's exactly how God works in your life and mine. If you're facing great difficulty right now, you go to God and trust Him, and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because I'm telling you right now, you might be feeling like you're in a dry, dusty, difficult circumstance, but watch the landscape of your life. Watch what God can do if you'll trust Him, if you'll believe Him, if you'll rely on Him, if you will turn your life over to him, he can bring life out of the death of circumstance and difficulties of circumstances. And so he says, he'll come out like a tender root or a tender plant. He will come up as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor commonness. And we're talking about Jesus, all right? We're talking about the son of God, the only begotten son of God. And we're talking about his future arrival on this planet Earth. And what he's saying right there is he's just simply saying, Jesus, when he walked on the face of this planet, didn't have an aura around him or a glow around him. He didn't have something that would be so unique that people would be drawn to him in the sense of his physical appearance. Does that make sense? His physical appearance was just like every other human being. He doesn't have, you know, something extra handsome or peculiar or unique about him. He's just like everybody else. And so he says, now watch this now. This gets more powerful if you'll stay with me. Here's what he says, if anybody's just tuning in, we're in Isaiah chapter 53. Grab your Bible and go with me to Isaiah chapter 53 and continue to study with me, if you will. And here's what he says. In verse two, he says, and there is no beauty that we should desire him, which comes back to what I said a moment ago, right? When Jesus physically walked on this earth, He did not have a particular look, a glow, an aura. He didn't have something around him that just caused everybody to be attracted naturally to him. That is not what God sent his son here to do or to be. And so the Bible gives us this description that he walked among us. He walked in the midst of people. He lived like everybody else in the sense of his physical identity. Now remember, Jesus, when he came into this world, he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. But remember, he is the promise of God. He is God's promise to the world. He is God's promise to mankind. And so when you see that little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, you see the very nature of almighty God wrapped up there. And what he does in his physical life, is he begins to grow just like every other human being grows. He plays in the streets of Nazareth, and even for a period of time in Egypt. He's just living his everyday life as a human, on the human nature, the human side. He walked among men. He didn't stay isolated, is the point I'm trying to make, all right? Now watch what he says. He says in verse three, now stay with me, okay? He says in verse three, he is, watch this. He's just like everybody else. He's human in his nature. He's a tender plant growing up. He's not got any certain aura about him or life about him that everybody's drawn to him. But what happens in verse three is a complete transition, isn't it? Look at verse three. Here's what he says. He, this one who is the Son of God, this one who is Jesus in the flesh, this one who is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, this one who has been sent for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting, this Jesus, In verse three is what? Despised. Despised and rejected of men. Despised and rejected of men. How in the world do you imagine Jesus being the only begotten son of God, he comes into this earth to fulfill the father's wishes and the father's plan The purpose of his coming was to die on the cross of Calvary for your sin and mine. But yet in 33 plus years, Jesus did no harm to nobody. All he did was love like God would love. All he did was touch like God would touch. All he did was live like any other person. And then he experiences the glory of God working. He's just like one of us. What is there to despise? What is there to reject? What is there to hate? I'll tell you what there is to reject and hate. It is the very light of God's glory. When the glory of God shines in a person and reflects through a person, there are people who will, by their human nature, they'll just immediately hate. They will immediately reject. They will immediately turn their back. They'll immediately say, I don't want anything to do with that person. And they don't even sometimes know why. They just feel something well up against. You know what it is? You know what it is? The light of God disturbs the spirit of Satan, the spirit of evil. the spirit of sin, the spirit that is mightily at work in the world. When light shines, the world grimaces. When light shines and the glory of God is manifest, people get nervous. And that's exactly what you see in Isaiah chapter 53. You see, he comes and he is despised and he is rejected of men, Look at what else he is, ladies and gentlemen. We're talking about Jesus. He's a man of sorrows. Do you know what that means? That while he is fully God, he is also fully man. Do you know what that means? He grieves like we grieve. He feels like we feel. He struggles in understanding like sometimes we struggle to understand. You say, wait a minute, I can't imagine Jesus having that kind of a person. Well, that's what the Bible says he was like. It's hard for us to wrap our human minds around, isn't it? It's hard for us to wrap our minds around. He's fully God, but he's also fully man. Why did Jesus come to be fully man in the midst of people? It was so that he could understand and relate and make us understand and relate to him. that he's not a holy God deity that's out in the universe somewhere demanding and commanding things from his subjects, but he looks to your life of mine and he says, I love you with an everlasting love. And in order for you to see my love, I've got to come and walk in the midst of you. I've got to come and touch the untouchable. I've got to come and love the unloved. I've got to come and be in the midst of you to see the grief of death and the despair of difficulty. I've got to see all of that in order for me to come and be your savior. I've got to make you understand. I understand where you're coming from. That's what he's saying through his sacrifice. It's powerful, isn't it? It's powerful to think about Jesus like that. So he is despised. He is rejected of men. He's a man of sorrows. He's also acquainted with our grief. The Bible says, now watch this, watch this. And the Bible says, and we hid as it were our faces from him. Isn't that what I just said a minute ago? When we're in the condition of unbelief, guided by the prince of the power of the air, that is Lucifer, Satan, the devil, when we're under his influence, our first response to the glory of God is to turn away. That's our first response. That's our natural response to the light. The Shekinah glory of his light is for us to turn away. It is not natural for us to immediately embrace that beautiful glory. That's not our nature. Human nature is not that way. Why? Because we're sinful by nature. We're living according to our will, not his, until we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Watch this now. I really want, if anybody stays with me through this Bible study, I really want you to connect the dots here with me. And look at what he says. He is despised and rejected. He's a man of sorrows. He's acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. You know what that word esteemed mean? That means we lacked understanding of his value. We lacked understanding of his value. We esteemed him not. When Jesus came wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger as he grew up in his young teenage years and into adulthood, people could not value him for who he was. They could not understand it. They could not see it. They could not accept it. They could not realize it. We esteemed him not. That is, we did not value him the way we should have. Now, you find, you say, what's interesting about that to you, Bridget? This is hundreds of years. This is 700 years between Isaiah's prophecies and Jesus coming to this earth 700 years later. And when Isaiah writes this passage of scripture, he writes it in the current context, like this is presently the reality. Isn't that how you read that scripture? It's like, he came, his glory shined and shone, I think is the right word. We saw his glory, but we couldn't value him. We couldn't understand his value. We couldn't esteem his value. We couldn't even regard his value because we were so overshadowed by the will of our own self and the desires of man. We were so overwhelmed with the world, we couldn't even value God. Now real quick, I'm not preaching a sermon right now, I'm teaching a Bible study, but can I make this point? It's true that sometimes we get to a place where we start valuing things in our lives more than we value God. We start, if we're not careful, we start living a life that values stuff more than valuing God. And that's a dangerous place to be. Now think about this. He wants to be the first place we go. He wants to be the first one we run to. He wants to be the first devotion of our heart. And so easily in our humanity, we get caught up in the pursuits of other stuff, other people, other places, other things. And we so easily begin to replace God in our lives, right? We're all guilty at times. Think about this. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the whole problem with the people of Israel in the Old Testament. They were on that cycle that I talked about so often, right? They were in that cycle of rejecting Christ, rejecting God, living according to their own will, their own pleasure, their own life. So here's what he says, now watch this. This same Jesus, who valued humanity enough to walk among us, this same Jesus who valued humanity enough to get to know our sorrows and our griefs, this same Jesus who was rejected and despised, this same Jesus who was God in the flesh, this same Jesus, verse four says, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Now that verse, verse four, Do you know what that really is saying? Remember Isaiah is one writing this, and Isaiah is foretelling what's going to be said about Jesus in the future. But think about this for a second. Listen, listen. Just like in today's world, there are people who look up at the Jesus that's hanging on the cross of Calvary, battered, bruised, and bleeding, and they look up and they feel sorry for him. And they say, why would he do that? Why would he do that? Why would he allow himself to be put through all of that? Why would he do that? That's what it means in the latter part of verse four. That's what it means. It says, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. It's almost like we're looking up at Jesus hanging on the cross of Calvary and saying, man, he sure was devoted. He sure tried hard. He sure went through an awful lot. Are you seeing the facial expression, the motion? People are standing at the foot of the cross. And they're looking up at Jesus, hanging, writhing on the cross of Calvary. And they're looking up, it's almost, and I don't mean any disrespect when I say this, but it's almost like, that poor man. That's the attitude of the world. And in today's culture, the attitude of many people in our world is, I didn't ask him to die for me. I wasn't there. I didn't put him on that cross. I didn't do that. And so people disassociate, right? That's the glory of God in full force on the cross of Calvary. And there are people that go like this. Well, I didn't tell him to go to the cross. I didn't expect him to do that for me. But it wasn't our expectation to put him on the cross. It was our need to put him on the cross. It was our sin to put him on the cross. It was our lack of interest in the things of God. It's our self-destruction that stems from sin. That's what put him on the cross of Calvary. That's what caused him to go to that cross for you and me. And so it goes a little bit further. Let me show you what he says. He says in verse seven, In verse five, he says, but he was wounded. That's the suffering of the cross. He was wounded for what? Our transgressions. What is a transgression? It is a breaking and a breach of the laws of God. And he says, he was wounded for our breach, our breaking of the commandments of God. And you say, well, I've never broken a command. You just broke it. You just now broke it. When you say you didn't break it, you broke it by saying the little lie right there. We've all broken the law of God. Follow me. Have you ever in your life, one time, ever told a little white lie? Then guess what? The Bible would define us as a liar because we lied. That is a breaking of one of his commandments. The Bible also says if you've broke one commandment, you're guilty, I'm guilty of breaking them all. And so Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken something that didn't belong to you? Have you ever lusted for somebody that you're not married to? Have you ever had jealousy in your heart for what somebody else has? I could go down the entire list, right? Have you ever put idols in front of God in your life? Have you ever done any of this? Have you ever, ever done any one of any of those things? And the truth is, all of us have done some form of that. And so you look at this Jesus and you say, but he was wounded. The Bible says he was wounded, verse five, for our sin, our transgression. He endured the cross for our need, for forgiveness and salvation. He was wounded for our transgression. Now remember, Isaiah's writing 700 years before Jesus comes onto this planet earth in physical form. But the reality is, ladies and gentlemen, sin has been a humanity problem since the beginning of time. Sin has been the self-will that contradicts the will of God all throughout human history. That is our sin. That is our transgression. And so it goes a little bit further. And if you can stay with me, I'll finish with our Bible study. But here's what he says, watch this. He says, he was bruised for our iniquities. Now remember what I've been teaching. An iniquity is sheer evil at another level. It's not just sin. Sin is my will contradicting the will of God. That's a transgression. Iniquity is when I know what God wants me to do, and with total disregard for the things of God, I do my own thing anyway. It is sheer evil to openly, outright disobey what you know God has said you should do or shouldn't. It is an absolute slap in the face of God to commit iniquity. That is evil at a higher level. It's still sin, but it's a whole nother level. Why? Because it knows, we know to do what we know to do, and we choose to say no, Lord. That's committing iniquity. Sin, iniquity, look what else he says. The chastisement, watch this. That is the cost, the payment for our what? A peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. Now you think about the payment for our peace. Do you realize, and I'll finish right here. But do you realize how much peace we're lacking in modern times? Where is the peace that we talk about but don't experience? Let me say this to you. We have to first and foremost find peace in our relationship with God. And when God reflects back to us that we're sinners in need of salvation and we're in need of grace and mercy, And we cry out to God and say, God, forgive me and cleanse me and live on the inside. At that moment, you and I can have peace with God. Does that make sense? That peace causes me to love myself with the kind of love God has for me. In other words, My past is forgiven, my present is sure, my future is planned by God, the steps of my life are ordered by Him. When I have peace with God, I should experience peace within. And that peace within is a reflection, not of what I see when I look in the mirror, it is a reflection of what He has done for me. It is a reflection of His glory. It's a reflection of His love. It's a reflection of His mercy. It's a reflection of His grace. And when I begin to value that more than I value anything else, I'll be at peace even when the world is going crazy around me, even when the circumstances around me are overwhelming. Now, I hope that speaks to somebody's heart out there. If you're not experiencing peace when you look in the mirror of your life and you're not experiencing peace, The only way you're ever gonna have real peace in your life is to come before the heavenly Father and say, Lord, I can't find peace here. He says, no, you won't. You have to turn to the one who is your peace, the one who is your love, the one who is your grace and mercy. You have to be willing to turn to him. And when you turn upward to him, then you begin to recognize peace doesn't come from the circumstance of my life. It doesn't even come through somehow making peace with my failures of the past. I can't forgive myself. You can't forgive yourself. How many of us could look back and say, we messed up a lot of things. You can't make peace with that. Don't even try. Don't waste your time doing that. It is a time waster. It will get you nowhere. You and I need to be saved. We need to be forgiven for our sin and our transgression and our iniquity, and we need to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look up to him and say, now, Lord, I want to experience how you love me, how you forgive me, how you have grace and mercy for me, so that my heart can walk in peace with you, God, And after all, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't love Him, we can't love ourselves. And if we don't love ourselves, how are we gonna love other people? And so you have to look at this and say, but I don't love myself because of what I've done. I don't love myself because of what I've accomplished. I don't love myself because of what I'm able to do. I simply love myself as a reflection of the love of Almighty God in my life. God so loved me that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. That is the beauty of his offering for your sin and mine. Well, I hope I've whetted your appetite to do a little bit more Bible study on your own in Isaiah 53. And in about 15 minutes, I'm going to take a break. And in about 15 minutes, I'm going to start a second video for today and bring another kind of a message for you. I hope that you'll be willing to tune back in. There's no place to go. Snow's on the ground. So grab a cup of coffee. I'm going to grab mine. and take about a 15-minute break and come back at about 11 o'clock. I'm gonna start the second teaching for today, and I hope that it's a blessing for you. And if you're out there looking for peace, if you're out there looking for a relationship with God, hang on. Hang on and listen closely. You can have peace with God right now, this very moment, but you cannot have peace if you remain self-willed. You have to be willing to call upon the Lord and you have to be willing to say, God, I am a sinner. I need to repent of my sin. That means I turn away from my past and I turn towards you. And I ask you to forgive me. Now, some of you know that this is not my normal way to end our Sunday school Bible study, but I'm doing it this way because some of you may not tune back in in the second message for today. And so I want to give you an opportunity right now, if you're watching this video, to have peace with God. And the way you can have that peace is you bow your head, if you're able to, and you pray this prayer with me. You say, dear God, I'm a sinner. And I have broken your laws and I've broken your commandments and I'm sorry. God, I've got a terrible past. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've got a lot of failure behind me. But God, will you please forgive me? Will you please cleanse me? Will you please heal me and make me whole? Give me the reflection of your glory. Cover my sin with the blood of Jesus. and wash my sins away. And God, fill me with your presence and teach me how to love you the rest of my life. I give to you this prayer in Jesus' name. If you prayed that prayer, send me an instant message or send me a message. Send one of the people that's in the room a message. Let somebody you know, know that you prayed that prayer. And until 11 o'clock, I'll just say to you, I'm tuning out, turning off the video camera until 11 and 15 minutes. We're going to come back on live for the second portion of today's teaching. God bless you. I'll see you soon.