Today we finally get to the word “reconcile”. God “has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ”. What does that mean? Our reconciliation with God is an act of God. God has taken all of the initiative, done all of the work and made all of the sacrifices. We have not reconciled ourselves to God, God has reconciled us to Himself. This means that He hasn’t made us better, He hasn’t given us purpose, He hasn’t given us a destiny or a job to do, He hasn’t cleaned us up, made us acceptable or simply changed our lives, God has made us His. Transformation comes after and because of reconciliation but before we can ever be changed we have to first become God’s. We have to be in Christ, we have to become His possession, we have to belong to Him and all of this has to be not so that He will reconcile us but because we learn that He is a reconciler. Reconciliation is a work that God does for us because it is who He is. Reconciliation is God’s heart, it is His character, it is His very being. He is the potter that reaches down and takes hold of the clay, the woman who cleans the house looking for the one lost coin, the shepherd who leaves his flock in safety to find the one that has wandered off, the father that runs to the son that has chosen his own way. Reconciliation with God is all about God. He reconciles us. We are sinners, we are the offenders, we are His enemies and yet He has come to rescue us and to become our ransom. Reconciliation is about God never changing, never giving up, never losing hope and never being willing that any should perish. Reconciliation isn’t about our great value it’s about the great value God has chosen to place upon us, He’s God He has no need of us and yet as our Father He has an unquenchable desire for us. All this is of God because God has always pursued us. This morning we will try to define what it means to be reconciled to God. We will see that reconciliation begins with regard, requires a surrender and that it is reconciliation that creates peace. This morning I hope that we will all see that we don’t simply have a king who leaves His gates open to welcome anyone who might come in, we have a king who goes out searching, with great cost to Himself, longing to find any and all that will surrender to being loved, adopted, enjoyed and reconciled to Him forever.