Today we are going to take a posture of peace by resting in God's affection for us.
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 Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 8 it says,
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace
in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so,
but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance,
character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Because God's love has been
poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. You see,
at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very
rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly
dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. It's a very special week. We are celebrating two whole years of posture.
The very first episode aired on February 16th, 2020. And here we are. If you're new to posture,
welcome. If you've been a part of this community for any length of time, I am so thankful for you.
It is truly amazing to me that we can connect in this way. Every week, all over the world,
through our screens, for such a time as this. It is such an awesome time to be alive. Don't let
anyone tell you differently. Now the whole reason that I started posture is for you. I had this
shared desire with God to knock on people's screens, maybe even disrupt your scrolling.
Not to just give you more information, but to present you with an invitation to fully realize
the majesty of Jesus and the magnitude of this life in Christ that we have been given.
I'm kind of sentimental. I wanted to mark the moment today. So I really wanted to say something
like, if I could say anything to you guys after two years of being here, what is the one thing I
want you to know? And the message has actually always stayed the same with posture. We've taken
it from many different angles, but the message is this. Jesus didn't just come to give us good
things like peace, love, joy, healing. He came to give us himself and not just a piece of himself,
but his whole self. It's so much better than we think, guys. Colossians 2, 9 through 10 says,
all the fullness of God dwells in Christ and in Christ, you were brought to fullness. Other
translations say you are complete in him. No matter what translation you read, it's all speaking
to something that has happened, not something that is going to happen. This is very good news.
It means his fullness is your starting point today. It's not in some far off destination you
have to try to earn access to by surviving this obstacle course of life here on earth. No,
it's yours. Everything Jesus is, is yours. Now, some of you know my story from past episodes.
It's really, you know, my testimony is a foundation of why I started posture.
When I was in the chokehold of anxiety and panic, living a lifestyle fueled by the fumes of hustle,
can anyone relate? Believing that being a good Christian meant being a busy Christian,
believing that being sold out for Christ meant being completely burnt out for Christ.
When I was in that desperate place, that dark pit, I knew I needed a change and I so desperately
wanted peace because I thought peace was the opposite of the anxiety and the panic and the
burnout that I was living through. And I thought, therefore, that peace might be the kryptonite,
so to speak, of all the issues that I was facing. Peace would be the thing
that would solve all of my problems. I knew I needed peace. And here's the thing. I knew
that peace had been promised to me. I read scriptures like John 14, 27 and John 16,
33, where Jesus promised me his peace, but there was a gap.
Between the promises that I was reading in scripture, and what I was actually experiencing in my life.
There was a gap between the peace I had been promised and the crippling anxiety and panic that I was living with.
Maybe you've experienced the gap too.
Maybe you see promises for joy, but you're battling depression.
Or you see the promises for healing in scripture, but you're sick.
Or you see the promises for victory, but you feel so defeated all the time.
And when we face this gap, so many of us have good hearts.
We want to love God. We want to believe Him so badly that we try to fill the gap in order to make sense of it all.
And some of us do this by adhering to bad theologies.
Theology that says that healing is not for today, it passed away with the apostles.
Or perfect peace cannot be fully experienced in a broken world.
We have to wait for heaven to experience peace.
All kinds of nonsense.
And I'm not making fun of anyone.
This is coming mostly from a good heart.
A heart that wants to believe God in the midst of unbelievable circumstances.
But what we do when we try to fill that gap often is we try to dilute His promises.
By leaving them in the past or putting them off in the future instead of fully embracing them in our present.
In our here and now.
This is what I was doing when I faced that gap of peace.
I tried to fill it.
I tried to fill it with one big if.
I believed if I just loved God more.
If I just loved God more, then He would give me this peace that He promised me.
If I just loved God more, then I would figure out how to access this healing for the anxiety that I was facing.
If I just loved God more, this Christian life would finally be working.
If I just loved God more, that gap between what I was reading in the Bible and what I was actually experiencing in my circumstances, my thoughts, my emotions, my relationships.
That gap would finally be closed and I would finally be doing it.
I would finally be living the good life.
I would be living the Christian life.
But here's what I discovered.
You and I are not called to live a Christian life.
We were given a life to live in Christ.
Not a life with a Christian badge slapped on it.
That's religion.
A life in Christ.
What does that mean?
A life in Christ is not a formula to follow.
It's not a standard to achieve.
It's not a code to crack.
It's not a wage to earn.
It's relationship.
It's union.
It's oneness with Jesus.
Absolutely no separation.
Nothing between you and him.
Jesus did not come to earth to make us love him more.
In fact, Jesus didn't come to earth to make us do anything.
Jesus came to give us something.
He came to give us himself.
Now Romans 5.8, I just read it.
It says,
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Life in Christ is not gained by loving God.
Life in Christ was given by his love for you.
And how it started is how it is sustained.
By his love.
Not your love.
Now I know this is extremely offensive to the religious spirit.
Because it cannot control you.
Nor can it condemn you when your standing in God is secured in his love for you.
Not susceptible to the ebbs and flows of your love for him.
It's offensive to the religious spirit.
I know some people are going to be so mad at me for saying this.
For telling you this.
I can feel the heat coming through the screen right now.
But you need to know the truth.
You need to know the truth.
It will set you free.
God is this good.
God made every provision for you to be reconciled to him once and for all.
So there would never, ever, ever again be separation from him.
Jesus is not another holy hoop for you to jump through in order to gain God's favor.
Jesus is the favor.
He is the blessing.
Jesus is the provision.
He is God's love for you poured out.
And it's time that we break off every religious entrapment once and for all.
And rest in God's affection for us.
The gap was filled not by my loving God more.
It was never filled by my loving God more.
It was filled.
with a realization of God's total, complete affection for me.
I had the promises for peace, John 14, 27, John 16, 33.
And I said, Jesus, if you gave me your peace, where did it go?
Where is it? Is it coming back? Can I make it come back?
And I heard him say, I am right here.
And I realized the whole time that I was searching for peace
and striving for peace, trying to make it happen for me to fix all of my issues,
that whole time, the presence of peace himself was already in me.
And he was not leaving me and he was not forsaking me
because it wasn't my love for him keeping him there.
It was his love for me.
I don't want you to take my word for it.
I want you to take Jesus's word for it.
Listen to the prayer that Jesus prayed for you.
In John 17, I know we've read it before.
This is a powerful prayer that Jesus prayed for you.
We're going to start reading in verse 20.
Jesus said, my prayer is not for them alone, meaning the disciples.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.
That's you and me.
That all of them may be one father just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them my glory that you have given me.
That they may be one as we are one.
I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Complete union.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given to me to be where I am and to see my glory.
The glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous father, though the world does not know you, I know you.
And they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known.
In order that the love you have for me may be in them.
And that I myself may be in them.
Everything you desire today, peace, joy, healing, it's found in him.
And he's in you.
And when you become convinced of this truth, which is faith by the way, being convinced of the truth.
When you become convinced of this truth, you live differently.
In Christ, we discover a victorious, glorious lifestyle of perfect peace.
Even in the midst of an imperfect world.
Living an imperfect life.
Dealing with imperfect circumstances.
I want to be the answer to Jesus' prayer.
I want to let him love me.
I want to fully receive him.
I want to fully believe him.
I want my love for him to be a response to his perfect love for me.
I don't want my love for him to be a resistance to his finished work.
Like, no, no, no, Jesus.
Let me love you.
Let me make myself worthy of your work.
Let me put my finishing touches on your cross.
By doing good works and behaving well.
And jumping through all of the hoops.
No.
Because anything I could produce on my own is filthy rags.
We have been given something so much better.
I want to encourage you today.
Lay down the works.
Stop trying to fill in all the gaps.
Just receive his love today and let them fill in the gaps.
And mark the moment in your own head and heart by saying it out loud.
You can do it when you're alone.
But say it out loud.
Mark the moment.
Say, Lord, I lay down all of the striving and I receive your love for me.
And then ask the Holy Spirit to do what he does best.
And help you learn how to receive and rest in the affection that God has for you.
And watch.
Just watch.
As it transforms you and the world around you.
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