Today, we're going to take a posture of peace
by being led by peace, not pressure.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump
to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened
to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
In John chapter five, verse 19,
Jesus says, very truly I tell you,
some translations say, truly, truly I say to you,
or most assuredly, and I love the emphasis there.
I don't want us to miss it.
It's like he's saying this is absolutely true.
Pay attention.
Very truly I tell you, the son can do nothing by himself.
He can only do what he sees his father doing
because whatever the father does, the son also does.
As a posture community, we have been focusing on
and becoming very well acquainted with
the fruit of the spirit, the very nature of God,
what he is like, and as I mentioned before,
the fruit is not gained through self-empowerment
because it is spirit empowerment.
So Galatians five is not handing you a list
of things to go achieve by yourself.
No, it's so much better than that.
It's an invitation to receive from the spirit,
and what God is offering us in this invitation
is his unchanging nature so that we too
can become unchanging in our nature and character
so we can be consistent and confident
no matter what is occurring around us.
And the fruit often partner together.
So in past conversations, past episodes,
we've talked about joy and peace partnering
and goodness and kindness partnering together,
and over the last two episodes,
we have been talking about gentleness,
and gentleness often partners with self-control.
And I know for some of you,
maybe self-control seems unexciting.
I totally get it, but I have to tell you,
I have discovered that self-control
is not simply a discipline.
It is an absolute delight, and that's what I'm gonna
be sharing with you in this episode.
Self-control partners with our expectation
of God's gentleness, giving us ears to hear
what God is saying to us.
So in noisy, chaotic, confusing situations,
with self-control, we can tune in to God
and hear what he is saying.
Be still and know that I am God.
When a terrorizing spirit threatens us,
tries to shake us, with self-control,
we tune in, we hear God saying there is no reason to fear.
I am with you.
When the enemy wants to leverage the enormity
of a crisis or a pain or a mistake
to try to block our view from seeing God
or seeing from God's perspective,
trying to close us in like he does sometimes,
we, with self-control, can tune in and hear God saying,
hey, I'm big enough for this.
I've already made provision for it.
I will lead you in this.
When we anticipate, expect the gentleness of God,
we become sensitive to his peace in us.
We become ultra-aware to that peace and we follow it.
When we are sensitive to his peace,
we cannot be controlled by fear or panic
or doubt or confusion.
We won't be controlled by pressure or angst.
Instead, we will be led by peace.
Self-control elevates us to a space
where God's perspective becomes ours,
where we can see what he sees,
where we clearly see how his splendor
so easily overwhelms any overwhelming circumstance
in our lives.
Self-control just refuses to accept any doubt or negativity.
It keeps us fully persuaded of who God is
and who he has empowered us to be.
And when we're persuaded like that,
we respond to and build our lives around
the nature of our never-changing God
instead of being swayed and tossed around
by the negative nature of our ever-changing circumstances.
It's for this freedom that Christ has set us free.
This is the life we have been freed to live.
Self-control is so much more than a dieting tactic
or a productivity hack.
I mean, leave that to the world.
Self-control for the people of God, it's a delight.
It's not some heavy obligation.
It's a massive provision.
Self-control, it creates the space
for us to see more clearly, to hear more accurately,
and to speak only what we need to.
Jesus used self-control all the time.
He said, I only do what I see my father doing.
Later he says, I only speak the words that the father is speaking.
Jesus would not allow the pressure of opinion or of negative emotions.
He wouldn't allow the pressure of pain or accusation or intimidation lead him.
He would only be led by peace.
And here's the beautiful thing.
He said in John 14, 27, that that kind of peace, his peace, he has given to us.
And so let's partner with self-control today.
Let's expect to hear the gentle voice of our father no matter what is occurring around us.
And instead of being led by the pressure of the world, let's be led by our prince of peace.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26, 3.
In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken.
This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus.
You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win.
With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display
and Satan's defeat on replay.