Welcome back! Season 2, are you ready? I am. Today we are going to take a posture of peace
by stepping fully into our identity in Christ. 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. Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 says,
God has never wavered on his primary purpose with us, which is to make us in his own image and likeness.
Before creation, God knew the choices that humans would make and in his goodness and his kindness,
he had already made provision for us. Jesus had already agreed to die in our place and the Holy
Spirit had agreed to become the helper and the teacher and the comforter that we would need
for a new life in God. The true nature of God, his likeness, is clearly revealed in Galatians
chapter 5 and the fruit of the spirit. We've talked about this before, you know, it's love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Now, I used to think that this was simply a holy to-do list of things that I had to strive to be
better at. You know, it was like, I've got to be more patient. Man, I've got to be more kind.
I've got to get some peace in my life. I need to be more joyful, you know. I've got to get better
at self-control. But the fruit of the spirit cannot be gained by any of our self-empowerment
methods because they are in and of themselves spirit empowerment. Isn't it interesting that
often the self-empowered journey, our own methods and ways for trying to achieve this fruit, love
and joy and peace, it's never marked by the fruit themselves. Like, it's never peaceful trying to
get peace. It's not a journey that's full of joy. It's not marked with kindness or patience.
Instead, all of our self-efforts lead to condemnation and self-hatred and stress
and an anxiety and fear. You know, that should wake us up to the truth that this fruit is not
some holy to-do list to achieve by yourself. It is an invitation to receive from the spirit.
This fruit is not worldly. It can't be gained by worldly means. It is the very nature of God.
This is who God is. He doesn't just have love to share with you. He's not just asking you to love.
He is saying, hey, I am love and I have come to live in you. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ,
the empowering presence of love himself lives in you. Think about what this means. It means
when you walk into any situation, love also enters. When someone rises up against you,
love rises in you. When all seems lost, love remains. This is the true you.
To live outside of your identity in Christ is to live a lie. Often when we are faced with
conflict or crisis or hard situations or evil itself, we become overwhelmed by it
because we are not already overwhelmed by God and who he is. Let me tell you something, your enemy,
your real enemy, Satan, is terrified of who you really are because he has no defense against
your true identity in Christ. He can't put any hooks in the you who is alive to God.
He cannot. He cannot take you out or keep you down. He doesn't want you to see
yourself accurately because he knows that if you see yourself accurately,
beloved of God and made in God's image, you will see others accurately, beloved
of God and made in God's image, and you'll see Satan himself accurately as
the already defeated, limp wimp that he is. So when crisis hits, what the enemy
does is he tries to distract us with this lie, I don't know what to do, and
we're left feeling paralyzed and powerless and hopeless and acting
outside of ourselves, trying to fix, trying to bring a solution. But really,
really, the issue is we don't know who to be. We don't know who we have been
empowered to be. This year, as a world, we have faced a crisis together with a
COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently in my nation, the United States, a reoccurring
national evil has resurfaced once again publicly with the murder of an
African-American man named George Floyd, and his murder has ignited, and
perhaps for many reignited, a wholehearted pursuit for racial justice
and reconciliation. I wholeheartedly believe that this pursuit is a kingdom
one, and it is one that can be done with a posture of perfect peace. Racism is a
fruit of hell, and it has no place in a world where people of God's kingdom
have once again been given dominion through Jesus Christ. In Christ, the who
always precedes the how. You know, Jesus said in John 15 5, He said, I am the vine
and you are the branches. If you abide, or if you remain in me, and I in you, you
will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Because Jesus is in us, we
are being empowered to see through the lens of who He is in us, and the promises
that He has spoken over our lives. Go ahead and ask this today. I dare you. Ask
God, who are you and me in this situation? We abide in the who of His presence, His
nature, so that we are fully engaged and we're fully focused on how His revealed
presence will transform us and our world. We're in Him. He is in us, and our
helper, the Holy Spirit, empowers us to stay in Him, and He does that by
increasing our awareness of who God is in us, for us, and through us. In this way, we
always give God the preeminence. He is so worthy of it. Christ in you is the
catalyst for transforming your world. It is not secondary to worldly wisdom, it is
never impractical, and it is never a cop-out. His nature, love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, this does not make you tame.
His nature shuts hell up. Jesus, He never died for a movement. He didn't die for a
particular ministry or denomination. He didn't die for a business. He didn't die
for a specific nation. He most certainly did not die for the agenda of a
political party. Jesus died for you. You. Now, He may bless what you build,
movements, ministries, business, but He's not living in those things. He is living
in you. You. It's you who bears the image of God, who carries the authority of His
kingdom, and who has His empowering presence living on the inside. Now, look,
I know it is so very obvious that in this world we are living in, there are
things to be done. There are systems to fix. Reformation must take place,
but not by a people who don't know who they are. We will only wreak more havoc
if we continue bearing His name, but not taking on His full identity.
It's time for you and I to become well acquainted with
and totally overwhelmed by who God is
and who he has empowered us to be.
Let's stay in awe of him because he is worthy
and he is majestic.
Jesus reigns and his plans and purposes forever remain.
Satan has already lost.
It's time we live like it.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 three.
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.