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Today we're going to take a posture of peace by receiving a love like no other.

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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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How do y'all feel about my new studio space? I'll be honest with you, it's just another room in my

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house. I have not gone extra on you, but this space does allow me not to be recording in the

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middle of my living room, which means I can record anytime I want. If you missed yesterday's episode,

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we kicked off season two. I am so thankful to be back with you all. Please, I encourage you,

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watch or listen to that episode. I will be sure to link it. It lays a foundation for our focus

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this week as a posture community. We are going to be fully engaged with and focused on the fruit of

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the spirit found in Galatians 5, the nature of God. This fruit, it's who God is, and it's who

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he has empowered you and I to be. And the tone in Galatians 5, like we talked about yesterday,

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it's not one of striving. It's not some holy to-do list you have to strive to achieve by yourself.

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Let's face it, self-empowerment of any kind is finicky and fragile. Life in the kingdom

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is all about spirit empowerment. So when you're reading Galatians 5, when you're reading the fruit

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of the spirit, it's not like this, you better be patient. No, it's God saying, hey, I am patience

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and my presence in you empowers you to let patience rise from within you whenever frustration comes.

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That is good news. I know for some of you, you're like, that sounds too good to be true.

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I've said it before, you cannot trust who you don't know. And part of my story is for too long,

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I lived a life based on only pursuing to know more about God instead of knowing God more.

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And I'll tell you from my own experience, when conflict comes, when crisis hits, when evil rises,

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and you only know about God, the steps, the sermon points, the formulas, the how-tos,

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they're all quickly forgotten. And whether we realize it or not, what happens in hard seasons

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is we lean hard into whatever kind of relationship we believe we have with God,

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which is based on who we believe God to be. And for some of us, we've only experienced our

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relationship with God through others, whether it's about what they've told us about God or what

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they have demonstrated through their own lives about God. Either way, if that is the only way

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we have known God is through other people, we have set ourselves up for disappointment.

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Because no matter how amazing our leaders are, our pastors, our teachers, our parents,

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because people can be pretty amazing, people are still people. But the good news is,

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you know, Numbers 23 verse 19, it reminds us, hey, it says God is not human, that he should lie.

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He's not a human being, that he should change his mind. It asks, it says, does he speak and then not

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act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I just love the certainty and the security of that.

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If we only know God through other people, we will give him human characteristics and we will

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struggle to believe what his word actually says about who he is. We'll struggle to believe that

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his mercy is new every morning, that he's not trying to fix our old sinful dead nature,

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but instead he is fully focused on relating to the new us who is alive in him. We'll struggle

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to believe that he doesn't remember our sin, that his love endures forever. We'll struggle

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because human love is not like that. The love that most of us have experienced here on earth

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is based on approval and agreement. And when it disapproves or disagree, human love is withdrawn.

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We've all experienced it. We've been unfollowed, muted, ghosted, abandoned, replaced,

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but not with God, never with God. His love for you is unconditional. The love of God, it never

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changes based on our response or non-response. It never changes based on our behavior, good or bad.

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How do I know this? Well, we talked about it before. First John chapter 419, it says,

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we love because he first loved us. It takes God to love God. He initiated his love towards us.

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us while we were still sinners, while we were still his enemies, and he loved us

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unconditionally. He loved us into life with him. How wonderful is he? Love, love

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himself empowers you to love, to love God, to love yourself, to love other people.

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And as always in the kingdom, our starting point is first receiving and

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then giving. Jesus said in Matthew 10 8, he said, freely you have received, freely

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give. You can't give what you don't got. Remember, this love, it's like no

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other. So if we're actually going to know God and impact the world around us, we're

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going to have to see love himself from a perspective that is not of this world.

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And that's going to require renewing our minds. We're going to have to learn how

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to adjust our behavior and thinking to love himself, to align with him, not to

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work for or love from a situational love or performance love that human love is

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is like, you know? Because his love, his love expands our capacity and elevates

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us above the noise of this world. This, this is what has a profound effect, not

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just on us, but on the people around us. Now back to Galatians 5 in verse 6, it

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says that faith works through love. So love actually unlocks faith. What does

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this mean? What does it look like? Well, it means that God wants you to feel love,

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experience love in such a dimension of strength and power that your automatic

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response is to believe him, to trust him. But again, it's not about this like

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trying harder to believe. It's not like, okay, I believe you, I believe you, I

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believe you, I believe you. No, no, no, no. I've done that before. It doesn't work.

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It's about realizing, understanding, wow, Lord, I am so loved by you. I can trust

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you. Do you trust God to love you completely? Do you trust God to make

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himself known to you? Today, just, just focus on receiving his love. I do this

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every day. I often actually do it through worship. With my focus on love

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himself, I just can't help but to receive from him. So try it today. Don't

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strive, don't give in to frustration. Don't believe the lie that if you get it

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wrong, love will be withdrawn from you. No, that's human love. Ask love himself to

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reveal himself to you today. He loved you first, and he is so eager to love

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you today. The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3. In Hebrew, it is

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shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is

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who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a living testimony of Jesus's

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ultimate win. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on

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display and Satan's defeat on replay.