Today we're going to take a posture of peace by receiving a love like no other.
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.
How do y'all feel about my new studio space? I'll be honest with you, it's just another room in my
house. I have not gone extra on you, but this space does allow me not to be recording in the
middle of my living room, which means I can record anytime I want. If you missed yesterday's episode,
we kicked off season two. I am so thankful to be back with you all. Please, I encourage you,
watch or listen to that episode. I will be sure to link it. It lays a foundation for our focus
this week as a posture community. We are going to be fully engaged with and focused on the fruit of
the spirit found in Galatians 5, the nature of God. This fruit, it's who God is, and it's who
he has empowered you and I to be. And the tone in Galatians 5, like we talked about yesterday,
it's not one of striving. It's not some holy to-do list you have to strive to achieve by yourself.
Let's face it, self-empowerment of any kind is finicky and fragile. Life in the kingdom
is all about spirit empowerment. So when you're reading Galatians 5, when you're reading the fruit
of the spirit, it's not like this, you better be patient. No, it's God saying, hey, I am patience
and my presence in you empowers you to let patience rise from within you whenever frustration comes.
That is good news. I know for some of you, you're like, that sounds too good to be true.
I've said it before, you cannot trust who you don't know. And part of my story is for too long,
I lived a life based on only pursuing to know more about God instead of knowing God more.
And I'll tell you from my own experience, when conflict comes, when crisis hits, when evil rises,
and you only know about God, the steps, the sermon points, the formulas, the how-tos,
they're all quickly forgotten. And whether we realize it or not, what happens in hard seasons
is we lean hard into whatever kind of relationship we believe we have with God,
which is based on who we believe God to be. And for some of us, we've only experienced our
relationship with God through others, whether it's about what they've told us about God or what
they have demonstrated through their own lives about God. Either way, if that is the only way
we have known God is through other people, we have set ourselves up for disappointment.
Because no matter how amazing our leaders are, our pastors, our teachers, our parents,
because people can be pretty amazing, people are still people. But the good news is,
you know, Numbers 23 verse 19, it reminds us, hey, it says God is not human, that he should lie.
He's not a human being, that he should change his mind. It asks, it says, does he speak and then not
act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I just love the certainty and the security of that.
If we only know God through other people, we will give him human characteristics and we will
struggle to believe what his word actually says about who he is. We'll struggle to believe that
his mercy is new every morning, that he's not trying to fix our old sinful dead nature,
but instead he is fully focused on relating to the new us who is alive in him. We'll struggle
to believe that he doesn't remember our sin, that his love endures forever. We'll struggle
because human love is not like that. The love that most of us have experienced here on earth
is based on approval and agreement. And when it disapproves or disagree, human love is withdrawn.
We've all experienced it. We've been unfollowed, muted, ghosted, abandoned, replaced,
but not with God, never with God. His love for you is unconditional. The love of God, it never
changes based on our response or non-response. It never changes based on our behavior, good or bad.
How do I know this? Well, we talked about it before. First John chapter 419, it says,
we love because he first loved us. It takes God to love God. He initiated his love towards us.
us while we were still sinners, while we were still his enemies, and he loved us
unconditionally. He loved us into life with him. How wonderful is he? Love, love
himself empowers you to love, to love God, to love yourself, to love other people.
And as always in the kingdom, our starting point is first receiving and
then giving. Jesus said in Matthew 10 8, he said, freely you have received, freely
give. You can't give what you don't got. Remember, this love, it's like no
other. So if we're actually going to know God and impact the world around us, we're
going to have to see love himself from a perspective that is not of this world.
And that's going to require renewing our minds. We're going to have to learn how
to adjust our behavior and thinking to love himself, to align with him, not to
work for or love from a situational love or performance love that human love is
is like, you know? Because his love, his love expands our capacity and elevates
us above the noise of this world. This, this is what has a profound effect, not
just on us, but on the people around us. Now back to Galatians 5 in verse 6, it
says that faith works through love. So love actually unlocks faith. What does
this mean? What does it look like? Well, it means that God wants you to feel love,
experience love in such a dimension of strength and power that your automatic
response is to believe him, to trust him. But again, it's not about this like
trying harder to believe. It's not like, okay, I believe you, I believe you, I
believe you, I believe you. No, no, no, no. I've done that before. It doesn't work.
It's about realizing, understanding, wow, Lord, I am so loved by you. I can trust
you. Do you trust God to love you completely? Do you trust God to make
himself known to you? Today, just, just focus on receiving his love. I do this
every day. I often actually do it through worship. With my focus on love
himself, I just can't help but to receive from him. So try it today. Don't
strive, don't give in to frustration. Don't believe the lie that if you get it
wrong, love will be withdrawn from you. No, that's human love. Ask love himself to
reveal himself to you today. He loved you first, and he is so eager to love
you today. 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.