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Today we're going to take a posture of peace by letting love overcome all opposition in our lives.

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Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.

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Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.

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1 John chapter 4 verses 7 through 20. I know we're covering a lot of ground at once so just

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sit back and soak this in while I read it. It says, Dear friends, let us love one another for

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love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love

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does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one

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and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God

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but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends,

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since God so loved us we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God but if we love

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one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live

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in him and he in us. He has given us of his spirit and we have seen and testify that the father has

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sent his son to be the savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God,

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God lives in them and they in God and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

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God is love. Whoever loves lives in God and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us

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so that we have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world we are like Jesus.

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Wow. Verse 18, there is no fear in love but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do

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with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.

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Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love

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their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.

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This is such good news. It is so good. Okay, as we talked about yesterday, love empowers us to love.

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Love himself empowers you and I to love with a love like no other. It's a love that this world

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does not know. It's a love that this world cannot author or create because it's not a human love

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that so easily withdraws itself when there is conflict or opposition or disapproval or

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disagreement. Just read 1 Corinthians 13 if you want to know what you're actually capable of

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with this kind of love. This kind of love overcomes all opposition. Now, Jesus tells us

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in Matthew 544, love your enemies, bless them that persecute you, which has always been a hard

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verse for me. You know, in this world we're going to have some enemies but for the Jesus follower,

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the purpose of enmity is to empower you to love well. Okay, just let that sink in for just a

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moment. Nothing, nothing is wasted in the kingdom. The purpose of an enemy of opposition is to teach

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us, to lead us in how to move in love of God. Okay, here's what I've been practicing and not

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always perfectly but joyfully because this is a process where I'm being empowered and empowered

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more. Rather than coming under the heaviness of opposition, I am learning to come under the weight

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of the glorious empowering presence of love because when I read Matthew 544 for the thousandth

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time, I finally realized something. I have a choice. Now, of course, Satan is our real enemy

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and he's the one who brings opposition through other peoples and circumstances to try to literally

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take us out, to destroy us. So, God doesn't create an enemy or opposition to teach us a lesson.

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Instead, the Holy Spirit, the helper,

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He leverages what Satan sends to harm us to lead us into discovering even more

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amazing things about the love of God and become even more empowered by it. So our

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real enemy, Satan, has absolutely no defense against love. Even when he tries

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to come against us, we're more empowered by it. Love is who God is. Satan can't

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take love out because he can't take God out. So as we talked about in yesterday's

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episode, the starting point for everything in the kingdom is to first

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receive so then we can respond, so then we can give, okay? So I realized that I

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had a really hard time putting Matthew 544 into practice because I did not

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believe I was completely loved. I didn't feel like I had any love to draw on.

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In fact, having any kind of enemy or opposition feels like evidence sometimes

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just to prove that we're not loved. It's like, God, if you really loved me, why

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didn't you protect me from these people? Why didn't you, you know, keep these hard

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circumstances from coming my way? You know, and for some of us, this is a very

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deep wound because our enemies here on earth have been people who were once

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close to us or were supposed to love us and protect us. Maybe you didn't have

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great parents. Maybe you've experienced abuse or abandonment from family members.

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Maybe you've been betrayed by friends who swore up and down they would have

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your back for life. And that pain runs deep, but love himself can heal even

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those deep wounds. Your heavenly Father, your true Father, your faithful

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friend is permanently passionate about you. And while you may find yourself in

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opposition where there just seems to be nothing, no love to draw on, you know,

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nothing, love himself says, draw on me. Not from without, but from within. This

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love invites us to rise above the things on the lower level and live life on a

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much higher level. We don't get to choose our family. We can't always prevent or

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protect, you know, people from withdrawing their love from us or hurting us, but we

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get to choose what level we live on. So today, as you enter the arena of life

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once again, your home, your workplace, your relationships, your screen, choose

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your level. Let love bring you to a higher level that overcomes all

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opposition. First receive and believe that he completely and totally loves you

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so that in every situation, even in opposition, you can always respond in

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complete love. The promise of perfect peace is found in

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Isaiah 26.3. In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness,

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nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus.

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You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take

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today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.