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Welcome back! Season 2, are you ready? I am. Today we are going to take a posture of peace

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by stepping fully into our identity in Christ. Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind

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you God is with you in everything. Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily

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posture of perfect peace. Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 says,

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God has never wavered on his primary purpose with us, which is to make us in his own image and likeness.

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Before creation, God knew the choices that humans would make and in his goodness and his kindness,

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he had already made provision for us. Jesus had already agreed to die in our place and the Holy

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Spirit had agreed to become the helper and the teacher and the comforter that we would need

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for a new life in God. The true nature of God, his likeness, is clearly revealed in Galatians

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chapter 5 and the fruit of the spirit. We've talked about this before, you know, it's love,

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joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

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Now, I used to think that this was simply a holy to-do list of things that I had to strive to be

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better at. You know, it was like, I've got to be more patient. Man, I've got to be more kind.

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I've got to get some peace in my life. I need to be more joyful, you know. I've got to get better

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at self-control. But the fruit of the spirit cannot be gained by any of our self-empowerment

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methods because they are in and of themselves spirit empowerment. Isn't it interesting that

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often the self-empowered journey, our own methods and ways for trying to achieve this fruit, love

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and joy and peace, it's never marked by the fruit themselves. Like, it's never peaceful trying to

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get peace. It's not a journey that's full of joy. It's not marked with kindness or patience.

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Instead, all of our self-efforts lead to condemnation and self-hatred and stress

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and an anxiety and fear. You know, that should wake us up to the truth that this fruit is not

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some holy to-do list to achieve by yourself. It is an invitation to receive from the spirit.

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This fruit is not worldly. It can't be gained by worldly means. It is the very nature of God.

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This is who God is. He doesn't just have love to share with you. He's not just asking you to love.

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He is saying, hey, I am love and I have come to live in you. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ,

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the empowering presence of love himself lives in you. Think about what this means. It means

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when you walk into any situation, love also enters. When someone rises up against you,

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love rises in you. When all seems lost, love remains. This is the true you.

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To live outside of your identity in Christ is to live a lie. Often when we are faced with

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conflict or crisis or hard situations or evil itself, we become overwhelmed by it

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because we are not already overwhelmed by God and who he is. Let me tell you something, your enemy,

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your real enemy, Satan, is terrified of who you really are because he has no defense against

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your true identity in Christ. He can't put any hooks in the you who is alive to God.

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He cannot. He cannot take you out or keep you down. He doesn't want you to see

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yourself accurately because he knows that if you see yourself accurately,

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beloved of God and made in God's image, you will see others accurately, beloved

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of God and made in God's image, and you'll see Satan himself accurately as

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the already defeated, limp wimp that he is. So when crisis hits, what the enemy

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does is he tries to distract us with this lie, I don't know what to do, and

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we're left feeling paralyzed and powerless and hopeless and acting

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outside of ourselves, trying to fix, trying to bring a solution. But really,

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really, the issue is we don't know who to be. We don't know who we have been

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empowered to be. This year, as a world, we have faced a crisis together with a

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COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently in my nation, the United States, a reoccurring

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national evil has resurfaced once again publicly with the murder of an

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African-American man named George Floyd, and his murder has ignited, and

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perhaps for many reignited, a wholehearted pursuit for racial justice

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and reconciliation. I wholeheartedly believe that this pursuit is a kingdom

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one, and it is one that can be done with a posture of perfect peace. Racism is a

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fruit of hell, and it has no place in a world where people of God's kingdom

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have once again been given dominion through Jesus Christ. In Christ, the who

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always precedes the how. You know, Jesus said in John 15 5, He said, I am the vine

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and you are the branches. If you abide, or if you remain in me, and I in you, you

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will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Because Jesus is in us, we

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are being empowered to see through the lens of who He is in us, and the promises

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that He has spoken over our lives. Go ahead and ask this today. I dare you. Ask

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God, who are you and me in this situation? We abide in the who of His presence, His

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nature, so that we are fully engaged and we're fully focused on how His revealed

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presence will transform us and our world. We're in Him. He is in us, and our

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helper, the Holy Spirit, empowers us to stay in Him, and He does that by

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increasing our awareness of who God is in us, for us, and through us. In this way, we

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always give God the preeminence. He is so worthy of it. Christ in you is the

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catalyst for transforming your world. It is not secondary to worldly wisdom, it is

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never impractical, and it is never a cop-out. His nature, love, joy, peace,

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patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, this does not make you tame.

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His nature shuts hell up. Jesus, He never died for a movement. He didn't die for a

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particular ministry or denomination. He didn't die for a business. He didn't die

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for a specific nation. He most certainly did not die for the agenda of a

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political party. Jesus died for you. You. Now, He may bless what you build,

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movements, ministries, business, but He's not living in those things. He is living

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in you. You. It's you who bears the image of God, who carries the authority of His

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kingdom, and who has His empowering presence living on the inside. Now, look,

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I know it is so very obvious that in this world we are living in, there are

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things to be done. There are systems to fix. Reformation must take place,

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but not by a people who don't know who they are. We will only wreak more havoc

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if we continue bearing His name, but not taking on His full identity.

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It's time for you and I to become well acquainted with

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and totally overwhelmed by who God is

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and who he has empowered us to be.

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Let's stay in awe of him because he is worthy

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and he is majestic.

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Jesus reigns and his plans and purposes forever remain.

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Satan has already lost.

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It's time we live like it.

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The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 three.

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In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom,

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meaning complete wholeness,

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nothing missing, nothing broken.

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This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus.

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You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win.

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With every step you take today,

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you're putting Jesus's victory on display

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and Satan's defeat on replay.