Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:06] Welcome back to another edition of the Weekday Podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us. If you ever miss an episode, you can just go back to weekdaypodcast.com and play catch up and find a topic that's helpful in the season that you're in. Now I want to talk about returns. You walk up to the return counter with all the confidence in the world. You've got the item, you've got the bag. And the person behind the counter looks up and says the five words that you don't want to hear.
[00:00:29] Do you have a receipt?
[00:00:31] And now you're patting every pocket. You're scrolling through your email. You're digging through the car console, pulling out a straw wrapper, a chick fil, a sauce packet from 2023, a single French fry from some unknown origin. Because without the receipt, there's no proof that it was paid for. Well, when Jesus showed up, Jesus brought the receipt. On that first Easter night, Jesus walked into a locked room full of frightened disciples. And he said, peace be with you. And then he did something. I think we skipped past too fast. In John 20 ver. Verse 20, it says, and when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side.
[00:01:08] The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. He says, peace. And then he holds out his hands. That's the receipt. The peace he was offering had been paid for 700 years earlier. Isaiah saw it coming. In Isaiah 53. 5 when he wrote, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well being fell upon, and by his scourging we are healed. The word well being well, in Hebrew, it's the word shalom that we get peace from. The punishment that brought our peace fell on Jesus. So when Jesus says shalom and he shows his scars, he's showing them exactly where their peace came from. And think about this. Jesus had a resurrected body. He could have come back without scars, but he kept them all on purpose.
[00:02:01] Position, not performance. Pastor Chuck makes this distinction. This kind of piece is a position. It's not a technique. It's not a personality type. It's not something you earn by having a really good prayer life. Romans 5, verse 1 says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, we have it. It's present tense is paid in full. Now here's the honest pushback. If I have peace with God, why don't I feel peace? That's a great question. Peace with God is your position. It's settled. The peace of God is something we learn to practice one day at a time. But you can't practice what you haven't first received. And it starts here, now, when you think about the scars, not the scoreboard. Here's the practice. The next time you feel behind. Maybe it's in prayer or behind as a parent, or behind on everything.
[00:02:56] Don't reach for the scoreboard.
[00:02:58] Reach for the scars. Pastor Chuck even admits he sometimes feels behind in prayer. So you're in good company.
[00:03:05] Picture Jesus hands and say, that was for me. It's already paid. If you're listening and you're honestly not sure where you stand with God, this is where it starts. Not with getting your act together, but with looking at the scars and realizing he already paid for your peace. As Chuck says it, he says, if Jesus thought your peace was worth dying for, it's worth fighting for. Peace isn't a technique, it's a person. Tomorrow, Jesus says, peace be with you a second time in that same room. And this time he follows it with something none of those frightened men saw coming. It might be the last thing you'd expect, too, especially if you're still scared. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
