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Today, we are going to take a posture of peace by being ourselves.

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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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Oh, I've got so much good news today. I hope I can make it brief.

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Okay, let's start in Galatians chapter 5.

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It says in verse 1, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

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Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

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In last week's episode, we talked about the heavy burden of self-protection,

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really self-righteousness. And what is this burden that Paul's talking about here?

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So let's go down to verse 4 where it says,

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you who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ.

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You have fallen away from grace.

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Interestingly enough, he's not talking about a scandal here.

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He's not talking about a behavioral misstep.

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He's not even talking about a sin issue.

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He's saying you and calling that a fall from grace.

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He's saying you who have been trying to be justified by the law,

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you're trying to find your righteousness somewhere outside of Christ himself.

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By doing something instead of being one with God,

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leaning on the finished work that Jesus did, you've fallen away from grace.

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You've alienated yourself from Christ.

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Let's go down to verse 16 where Paul says this.

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He says, so I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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So many of us, I get a lot of DMs about this, about the sin issue, my sin nature.

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Am I really no longer a sinner if I've been saved,

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if I'm following Jesus and I still sin?

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I just want to do the right thing.

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I get all these types of messages and that comes from a good heart, guys.

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There's no mocking that. That's not a bad thing.

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But the question that I often get is how do I start living this life that God promised,

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this life that I've been called to?

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How do I live for my identity in Christ?

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This is what Paul says.

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Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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He doesn't say focus on not being this way and you won't be this way.

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He says focus on this instead, life in the spirit.

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Let's go down to verse 22 so we can see what this life in the spirit looks like.

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It says,

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But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

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faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

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Against such things there is no law.

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Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and its passions and desires.

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Since we live by the spirit, let us keep and step with the spirit.

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So much of this is spoken as it has been done already.

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We belong to Christ, so therefore we've crucified the flesh.

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And we live by the spirit, so let's keep and step with the spirit.

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This is the truth, let's be true to it.

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I think one of the biggest cons the enemy ever pulled

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was trying to get us to focus on external behaviors

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so that we would not be focused on the person of Jesus who is living on the inside of us.

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Religion disciples us this way.

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Religion disciples us to high standards and complicated systems

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and wants us to believe that our security is found within organizational structures.

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And I'm not, I'm talking all religion.

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I'm not just talking about Christianity.

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But the standards and the systems and the structures, they change, don't they?

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They fluctuate as time goes on.

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Sometimes they split apart.

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Sometimes they completely break down.

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And then what?

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We feel duped.

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Many of us feel let down.

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We feel disillusioned.

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Many of us feel abandoned.

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And so then maybe at best we find another church or another religion

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or another denomination with an expression of faith

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that makes us feel safe again, that makes us feel at peace again.

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But at worst, which I know that many of us are witnessing

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or maybe have experienced ourselves, is we leave the faith altogether.

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We deconstruct or we self-destruct.

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We walk away from God or we try to walk away from God

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because we think he is the one who let us down and abandoned us.

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God, I did what you told me to do.

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I reached the standards.

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I followed the systems.

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I lived within the structures and it didn't work.

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My life still sucks.

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This is the cruelty of religion.

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It masquerades as God himself, promising us things only God can give us.

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Protection, provision.

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It promises us an identity if we just do what it says.

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But what it says, the rules, the rituals, it's not what God required.

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And much of it is man-made to try to control behavior.

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Now, I know this

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This is a lot, but guys, I told you at the beginning

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of season seven, I said we are going after

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this abandonment issue, because it is a big issue.

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So many of us who love Jesus believe that we are always

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on the verge of being abandoned by Father God.

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That we are one step away, we are one behavior away,

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we are one belief away from him completely

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leaving us behind.

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I said at the beginning of season seven,

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we're gonna really focus on identity.

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Together we're gonna become more and more aware

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of who God actually is and who we actually are in him.

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Because there are so many things that we all want

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out of life here on earth.

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I mean, maybe you came to this podcast because like me,

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you really wanted peace.

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You wanted stability in a chaotic world.

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Like me, you wanted relief from the stress

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and the pressure and the burnout.

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You wanted rest from the hustle.

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Guys, I know we want love, we want joy, we want patience.

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We want the fruit of God's spirit, his nature,

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his character, him, we want him.

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It's a deep desire that we all have in us,

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but we think we have to go find him,

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we have to figure him out.

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But if we come to his word, we will find again and again

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in scripture, we already have him because of who Jesus is,

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what Jesus did when he died and rose again.

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He made us one with God again, there is no separation.

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And we are now identified in Christ.

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And your identity in Christ is not fluid.

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It's not a religious system or structure.

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It doesn't come and go.

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It doesn't change based on your behaviors

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because it is fixed in Jesus.

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Romans chapter six, did Christ die as you?

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Yes.

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When he died, did you die also on the cross?

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Yes.

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When Christ was buried, who was buried with him?

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You.

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And when he rose again to newness of life,

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you rose with him.

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This is the gospel.

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The gospel is not go follow these rules

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and you'll be right with God.

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The gospel is Christ died as you

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because you needed to die.

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And you rose as him.

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So you're not only right with God,

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you are now one with God.

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So why does that feel true one day and not the next?

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Why does it feel fluctuating and fluid?

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Why does my identity in Christ feel like it comes and goes

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day to day or moment to moment

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or circumstance to circumstance?

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I think it's because we don't know what to do

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with this identity that we have been given.

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We have been given it.

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This new creation identity,

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it's like we don't know what to do with it.

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We don't know how to be ourselves

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because we are so used to earning every single thing.

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We're so used to striving to be something,

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someone significant here on earth

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through our work, our jobs, our relationship,

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our networks, our skillsets, our awards, our trophies,

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our ability to articulate ourselves,

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to communicate well, to show up in big places,

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doing big things.

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We are so used to our identities being defined

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by the way we think and feel and act.

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Or should I say this?

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We are so used to our identities being defined

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by how the world around us interprets or appreciates

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how we act, how we feel, how we think about things.

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We have let the world tell us who we are and who we are not.

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Now, some of you maybe will relate to this illustration.

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Have you ever shown up in a social situation,

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maybe with new people you've never met before,

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and you just don't know how to act

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because you're trying so hard to navigate the newness,

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you're trying to figure out people's personalities,

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the cultural nuances, like what jokes they'll appreciate,

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where the humor boundaries lie,

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what the social etiquette is for the situation,

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and you're so busy reacting to it all,

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how you think that they want you to act,

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so you don't know how to be yourself.

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Like you're not even focused on who you are

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because you're trying to be

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who you think they want you to be.

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I think for many of us new creations living here on Earth,

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it's like we don't know how to be ourselves.

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We are so busy trying to react to the external circumstances,

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the people around us, the news that's swirling,

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the things that are going on, the world events,

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instead of being activated by the word of God

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who resides inside of us, Jesus.

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You do not become a new creation

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by first changing your outward behavior.

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That's not how you came into salvation.

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You simply believed on what Jesus did.

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So you don't now live the lifestyle of new creation

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by trying to change your outward behavior.

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discover the person you already are in Jesus

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and you act accordingly.

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You walk in that direction.

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Romans six, chapter four says,

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"'Therefore you have been buried with him

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"'through the baptism into death,

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"'that just as Christ was raised from the dead

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"'by the glory of the Father,

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"'even so we also should walk in the newness of life.'"

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And that word walk is the same word

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used in Galatians 5.16 that I read earlier.

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Walk by the spirit, walk in newness of life.

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And I looked it up and in the Greek it means this.

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It means to walk, to move, to live it.

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So how do we do that?

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What do we do with this identity?

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How do we start to be ourselves?

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How do we walk in it?

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Well, first we have to understand this.

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Your spirit, which is one with God,

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has no limitations, no disabilities.

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No, nothing is inhibiting your spirit

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from being one with Christ, nothing.

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Now, maybe you're dealing right now

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with some physical disabilities

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that are inhibiting you from maybe feeling

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like you're living in peace or joy, for instance.

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Maybe there's an imbalance happening in your body.

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Maybe there's things happening in your mind

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or even your soul, your mental health.

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Maybe there's neural pathways happening in your brain

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that are locked in habits or in ways of thinking

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that you feel you cannot break no matter how hard you try.

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And I'm not here to deny any of those facts

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or pretend they aren't real.

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I'm just saying that you are not subject to them.

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Even if your mind and your body are broken right now,

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your spirit is not, and this is good news.

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Because so often, we're focused on the tangible,

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what's happening in my body, what's happening in my mind,

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what's happening in my emotions,

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and we're allowing those things to be the evidence

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for what the word of God says.

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Or it's true or it's not because I feel this way,

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I think this way, I'm experiencing this in my body.

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Instead of being focused on what is happening in my spirit,

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what is happening in your spirit is the Godhead,

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Father God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit,

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they are cultivating newness of life within you.

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And that newness of life is gradually taking over

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every area of your being as you agree to it,

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as you receive it.

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Everything in the kingdom is received, it can't be earned.

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Romans 6 says, consider yourselves dead to sin

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and alive to God.

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Receive it.

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We agree to this.

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Now, here's what's frustrating.

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Often, it's happening one area at a time.

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And because we're experiencing it in one area over here

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and not in this area, we think it's not real

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or it's not true or it's not my reality.

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But slow learning is great learning

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and this is the beauty of practice

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because practice makes permanent.

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So how do we practice this truth today?

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I wanna give you something that I'm doing.

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Pick a fruit and walk in it.

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Allow who you are in Christ to rise.

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Just pick one fruit, one area today.

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Don't try to do all the things.

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Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you

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in one of the things today.

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You don't have to rush this process

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because it is who you already are.

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You're just becoming more and more aware to it.

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So here's some questions you can ask yourself today.

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Maybe the fruit you pick is love.

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What does love look like in this place of hurt?

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Maybe the fruit you pick is joy.

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What does joy look like in the middle of this conflict

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or in the middle of this diagnosis?

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Maybe it's patience.

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How does patience act at this dinner table,

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at this boardroom meeting?

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Maybe it's peace.

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How does peace feel when watching this news story

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or having this conversation with a friend?

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What does kindness say to this Facebook post?

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It's not your behavior that makes it so.

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It's who you already are because it's who he is in you.

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You are just becoming aware and aware

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and you're agreeing to it more and more.

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The practice today is being true

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to the truth that is already in you.

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♪ Hey ♪