My Peace I Leave With You

To watch the sermon The Fruit of the Holy Spirit: My Peace I Leave With You

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Shabbat Shalom everybody.

Good to see you all here today.

I know we have some people visiting with us who are going to participate in Debbie's celebration service later this evening and we welcome you here this morning.

We are continuing in our series on the gifts or the fruit of the spirit, which are also gifts.

We are taking our time in Galatians chapter 5 and I want to just kind of give you an advance warning that kind of dawned on me when Chris was praying.

This is probably going to be the first time you ever hear a sermon on peace in a Saturday fellowship, Torah sensitive congregation, where my thoughts are not going to be based on the word Shalom.

I'm going to assume that most of you have heard that sermon a few times and that you know that Shalom means peace, that when we say Shabbat Shalom we're saying Sabbath peace to you.

I'm assuming you know that Shalom and Shalem come from the same root and Shalem means to pay, that we have peace with God because we have a debt that's been paid.

So that's the classic messianic teaching on peace and that's as far as I'm going to go with it today.

We're going to go somewhere else.

Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 through 26, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and its passions and its desires."

May I just state categorically that this really isn't a study of the fruit of the spirit.

Now Chris is in the back having a hemorrhage right now.

Because in reality it's a study of a life lived in Christ through the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit that He has placed within us.

And the fruit of the spirit is a byproduct of the presence of the Holy Spirit living in me.

Just as the gifts of the spirit are a byproduct or a manifestation of His presence.

This is not a how-to course, not a behavior modification study, though pressing into the Holy Spirit will reveal how to walk in the spirit and that will certainly modify the way I live and the way I behave.

But it's not a how-to course.

You see, none of the fruit of the spirit will ever manifest in our lives, in your life or in mine, if you do not belong to Messiah.

If you don't belong to Christ as Paul has, well we just heard Paul say, then there isn't going to be a manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit because there is no presence of the ruach ha-kodesh, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And I'm not saying that to shame you, I'm just saying that as a statement of fact, that if it is the fruit of the spirit, in order for it to be present, the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ must be present.

So it's not just a study of what the Holy Spirit might theoretically produce in our lives.

It's a journey to making sure that we are pressing in to Him.

So before we dive into our study of the spirit's fruit of peace and patience, the greater question today is not are you a person that has mastered peace or that you are a person that has mastered patience.

And again, amen on that one.

The question is, do you belong to Him?

Is that the defining reality of your existence?

That you belong to Jesus?

Let's pray.

Abba Father, we come to you, b'shem Yeshua ha-mashiach, in the name of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, our King and our Prince of Peace.

Lord, our goal this morning is to learn how to press deeper into you, to understand what your presence means in our life, and to submit ourselves to you for the growing and the partaking of the fruit of the spirit.

Lord, I know we come in this morning with all kinds of baggage from the week.

I know I'm carrying a lot.

And so I ask you, Father, to help us get past the distractions of our flesh, the weariness of our bodies, the recovery of illness, the relational issues we've had, this whatever it would be, Father, that might keep us or rob us from listening to the voice of your spirit.

Father, we say we are here, we are yours, and we know you're here, for two or three have gathered in your name.

And so, Father, we simply pray, let those who have eyes to see and ears to hear in this place hear what the spirit says to us today.

Lord, God, speak to us.

In Jesus' holy name, amen.

Now I'm sure we're gonna come back to Galatians chapter 5, verse 24 again before this series is over, but after Paul lists the fruit of the spirit, that which is present in us because he is present, that which we choose to partake of, Paul speaks about what exactly is crucified in our flesh when we choose to belong to Jesus.

There are two things that die in us according to Galatians 5, 24, our passions and our desires.

The death of these two things relate directly to what I'm gonna refer to today as the twin towers of peace and patience.

Let's be clear, it is not the death of passion, it's the death of flesh-driven passion.

It's not the death of desire, it's the death of flesh-driven desire.

Let's be honest, a life without passion, a life without desire, well, let's just be honest, it sounds a little boring, doesn't it?

I mean, I want to want what this life has, I want to want what the Holy Spirit gives me, that's a type of passion, that's a type of desire.

So what are we really talking about?

I want us to see and to view peace and patience as that which is born again in us that replaces fleshly passion and fleshly desire.

These two things that Paul kind of wraps up with in verse 24 are actually very related to these two things we're gonna talk about today.

This makes the fruit of peace and patience two of the most important fruits of the Spirit if we're truly gonna walk a Spirit-empowered and Spirit-enriched life.

So let's look at them.

The first one is the fruit of the Spirit is peace.

Jesus said in the Gospel of John, "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives do I give to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither be — let it be afraid."

That's in John 14, verses 26 and 27.

So this kind of raises a question.

How does Jesus give us peace that is different than the way the world gives us peace?

Jesus gives us peace in the person of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

He doesn't give us a promise of the absence of conflict, pain, or challenge.

He gives us the one whose presence equips us to overcome all of those things.

And that's better.

Because He never promised us that we weren't gonna have relational difficulties.

He never promised us that we were not gonna have some financial struggles.

He never promised us that everybody was going to like us, and He never promised us — hold, don't take a hand — that everybody's gonna agree with you.

Which makes no sense to me because I'm sure I'm always right.

And He never promised that everybody was gonna agree with me.

I mean, there's sinners in the world, you know, we gotta deal with those people.

For those of you who are humorously challenged that that was a joke, send any complaints to Chris@HebraicFamily.com.

He gives us the person, His Holy Spirit, to live with us.

And He gives us the one who is greater in His presence within us than the presence of all of those difficult circumstances we have to deal with.

He gives us the Holy Spirit.

Now in Hebrew, the word for spirit is "ruach."

Everybody say "ruach."

"Ruach."

It's so American.

Let's try it Hebrew style.

"Ruach."

There you go.

Now apologize to the person in front of you.

The Holy Spirit in Hebrew is the "ruach ha-kodesh."

Ha-kodesh is the Holy.

He breathes the Holy Spirit into us when we choose to belong to Him, when we die with Him in baptism, when we rise to walk in new life with Him.

He breathes the Holy Spirit into us so that His presence becomes my reality and my existence.

Now here's something that, you know, here are just a few questions we need to be reminded of.

Does the Holy Spirit of God ever fret?

Does the Holy Spirit of God ever fear?

Does the Holy Spirit of God ever fuss?

Sidebar, if the Holy Spirit doesn't fuss, neither should we.

Okay, back to our message.

Because as church folk, we love to fuss, don't we?

Okay, sorry.

We'll get back to it.

So where does my peace come from?

It comes from the one who dwells within me.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2.14, "For He Himself is our peace."

So Jesus, Holy Spirit within us, is the source of our peace.

But what is the substance of peace?

Meaning, what is peace?

Now the Greek word is kind of a fun word.

Everybody say "irene."

That's just a kind of fun word to say, isn't it?

Irene.

This is a noun, and there are four definitions for it.

One, that's the definition.

Two, peace, quietness, rest.

Shabbat shalom y'all.

Did you hear that first definition?

Not the first one I said, but the first definition is one.

There is something about peace that relates to oneness.

Irene is a noun that means one and means peace, but it's kind of more helpful for us to go and look at the verb form of that word.

Because in the verb form, we get the action that kind of tells us how that oneness, how that peace actually comes about.

Because the Greek word for peace is irene, but the verb form is iro, and it means to join together into a whole.

To join together as one.

Whenever there is conflict, what happens to oneness?

Do you get the picture now?

The verb form of the word for peace actually gives us a really cool understanding of what God is wanting to do in our lives and how He actually produces peace.

He takes that which was divided, us and God, and what does He do?

Iro.

He makes us one.

How did He do that?

He put the ruach ha-kodesh within us.

Jesus said, "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, but I don't give it as the world gives."

Last week I spoke about joy as a new state of being, more than an emotion.

It's a new reality in which I live, and that reality is that Christ lives in me by giving me His Holy Spirit.

And the study of the Holy Spirit, or the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is a study of what that new reality brings.

So why does Jesus do this?

Because in oneness, please hear this, in oneness there is wholeness.

And by the way, one of the definitions of shalom shalem is completeness.

It's wholeness.

When there's a debt, something is missing.

And when there's something missing, then there can be no peace.

Peace is a byproduct of that which has been brought together into wholeness.

His wholeness and His holiness dwelling in me, making me one with Him, that's how He brings peace.

That's actually what the verb form of peace says He does.

Isn't that cool?

He joins me in this journey.

This is the unifying action that brings peace.

Not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Christ in me.

If I belong to Jesus and have been crucified in my flesh so that His Spirit's presence may be the guiding voice in my life, I become one with Jesus.

And that's why I come back to the most important question I can ask you today is, do you belong to Jesus?

Because if you have given your heart and your life to Jesus, He has given His heart and His life within you by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

That's a really cool deal, isn't it?

Oneness.

In John 14, before Jesus tells His disciples that He was going to give and leave His peace with them, He starts that chapter by telling them how to maintain their peace.

John 14, one says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me."

Jesus says, "You believe in God."

Do you believe in God?

Then believe in Jesus.

Now this isn't a place where some like to say, "Oh, this is evidence where Jesus is showing us He's not God."

That is exactly the opposite of what this is showing us.

Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus is constantly helping them understand He only says what He says and does what He does so that everybody would see that what He's saying and doing is the testimony of the Father in Him.

Oneness.

I and the Father are one.

It's pretty consistent, isn't it?

Jesus is saying, "Believe in God and trust me also."

So why does He tell them they need to trust?

I love this.

He says, "In my Father's house are many dwelling places.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

For I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am you may be also."

Man, I love this because, I mean, I wish Jesus would come down and sit us all down and correct all of our eschatologies.

Yeah, that ain't right.

No, that ain't right.

I don't know what that, where I, no.

But before He leaves, He tells His disciples, "If you have believed that in my Father's house are many dwelling places, then this whole thing ends up with us being in fellowship with Him."

It's true.

And if it wasn't true, if this thing didn't result and conclude with the division and the separation between God and man, if the end result wasn't we were going to be together again, He said, "I would have told you."

Man, I love Him for that.

Because He tells them, "You can trust this promise."

Jesus frames why we can trust Him.

Because of His oneness with the Father and because His whole purpose, and because His whole purpose is so that we can be one with Him, we can trust all the prophetic promises will come to pass.

Because wholeness is oneness and oneness is peace.

Husbands and wives, come on.

When there's not oneness, there's chaos.

When she doesn't understand how right my opinion is, trouble ensues until I find out I was the one that was wrong.

And then oneness is restored.

You're laughing because you know it's true.

Oneness is wholeness and then when that oneness is disturbed, so is our peace.

So when you're pursuing peace, what are you really pursuing?

Oneness.

Now when all the storms of life come, are you going to try to go and be one with the storm?

One with the chaos?

One with the problem?

No.

You press in to be one with Him because that's how He left His peace with you, He became one with you.

This is so important because it defines how Jesus gave us His peace.

He places the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit within us.

Paul actually says more about this topic in his letter to the church in Philippi than he does in Galatians.

Last week we referenced the first part of this in Philippians chapter 4, verse 1.

"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice, let your gentleness be known to all men, the Lord is near, be anxious for nothing."

How can Paul tell me to be anxious about nothing?

Because the Lord is near.

Do you realize that the, and I'm going to steal my own thunder from a future series, but do you understand that if you go to the Gospel of Matthew in particular, that Jesus frames His Gospel as the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near.

I mean it, that whole thing changes our whole reality.

It changes the perception that I'm here and God is distant.

The Gospel of the Kingdom says that's not the right equation at all.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is, it used to be this and now it's this.

In fact sometimes we translate the Gospel of Heaven is near as the Gospel of Heaven is at hand.

That's pretty close.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that transcends, surpasses and exceeds all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

How many of you have ever had that moment when you had a peace that made no sense whatsoever?

I mean and you knew it was the Holy Spirit because you knew the way you normally function is you go straight to chaos.

I've been there.

I've been there at times when people said, "Who are you and what are you doing?"

Because that's not you.

There are those who would describe me as a famous television character.

George Costanza.

I'm not proud of that moniker, neither can I deny that at times Brent is a bit passionate.

And when they see me functioning in peace, they're like, "What's going on?"

Because they know it's not me.

That peace of God is so, it's a tangible thing and I'm telling you when you find yourself in that moment it will change everything.

When my passion is in Him then what I have or don't have in this world melts away.

When my desire is for Him then I begin to relate to the world the way He relates to the world.

Not in selfish desire but in selfless patience.

How many of you need a little selfless patience as you look at the TV on a nightly basis?

Paul goes on to tell us how to remain in His peace.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is holy, whatever is good, of good repute.

If there is anything of excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, dwell or think on these things."

Yeah, I'd like to tell you I really knocked that one out of the park this week.

But I have to go home and face my wife.

I didn't do so well with that this week.

And I'm kind of frustrated with myself for that.

I don't like wounds, I don't like pain, but I especially don't like wounds and pain that are self-inflicted.

Because I chose not to do what I know the Lord has called me to do.

Paul says there's a direct relationship between what we focus our thoughts on and the maintenance of our peace.

Now I want to say something to you this morning, and it may be offensive to you, but hear me out.

Most of us in this room are what I call wounded narcissists.

Some of you will be offended by my use of the term narcissist to describe you.

What do I mean by it?

It's not a statement to demean you, it's a statement to diagnose what is affecting the body of Christ at large.

A wounded narcissist is a person that is driven by their wounds, their painful experiences of life, and it causes them to think a certain way.

Primarily to focus on that pain, to focus on protecting themselves from future pain by controlling, manipulating all these things.

And we all do it to some degree.

Some of us are more irritating at it than others, but at some level we are all self-preservationists.

Once Satan convinces us, well one of the reasons I can say that many of us, if not most of us, are this way is because we are Americans who have been saturated and bombarded all of our lives with the message that no one matters more than you.

I mean, you don't have to even do anything to get a trophy anymore.

Just tell them you thought about joining the team and they'll send you a trophy.

Now listen to this, once Satan convinces you to be utterly self-focused and to believe the lie, and to believe that lie, he then sets out to create a world in which people are constantly abused by, in one way or another, by someone else, and the wounded narcissist becomes fixated on trying to solve the riddle that keeps our mind locked in a pursuit of an unsolvable dilemma.

If I'm the most important thing in the world, how could someone else not recognize that and hurt me in the way they've hurt me?

And he gets us in that victim mentality and suddenly we're looping, we're looping.

Come on, am I wrong?

We're focusing.

We're dialoguing in our head.

We're assuming the worst case scenarios.

We're withdrawing from people to protect ourselves from being hurt again.

And we get so self-absorbed and we don't even realize we're doing the exact opposite of what Paul told us to do.

We're running storylines in our head about every possible negative reaction or way it could play out, and he's saying, "What are you doing?

If there's something pure and holy and good, why not disconnect from that and start thinking about I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?

Me and Christ and Christ in me?

Wouldn't that be better?"

How do those negative self-conversations and storylines affect your joy?

How many of you have talked yourself out of joy?

Like a madman.

I had it and then I threw it out the window because I wanted to have a conversation with myself about how I won that war.

And at the end of it, I lost my joy.

I lost my peace.

And if there ain't no peace, there ain't no patience.

We'll get to that one.

You see this trap that Satan gets us in?

Convinces us to live a completely self-focused life and when the world doesn't reciprocate that we're the most important thing, then we implode trying to fix it.

Instead of looking inward to Christ who dwells within me, I'm trying to fix all the chaos.

Isaiah 26, 3, Isaiah writes, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because they trust in you."

Jesus said, "Believe in God, believe also in me."

Paul concludes that section in Philippians with these words, "The things which you have learned and received and have heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you."

To partake of the fruit of the Spirit, to partake of peace means that we must become laser focused on the good things that he has called us to focus on.

Well, let's move on to the fruit of patience because I know you're sitting there impatiently waiting for me to get to it.

Yeah, I know this is everyone's favorite topic.

Can I tell you why I think we hate the topic of patience so much?

One, for most of us, we don't do that well with it, do we?

And secondly, we don't really like other people who do do well with it.

That's kind of ironic.

Nothing causes me to lose my patience more than someone else who hasn't lost theirs.

You ever think about that?

You're sitting there and some car decides to let somebody else in?

And you're furious because they're being patient and you're not.

And then their patience exposes how you're not.

Ooh, I don't like those people.

They shove the mirror of the word right in my face going, "How you going to act?

Look at you acting all impatient."

So let's look at this topic, maybe in a different light.

Let's start by remembering the whole reason Jesus gives us his spirit of holiness, the Ruach HaKodesh, and I'm using the Hebrew name of the Holy Spirit for a reason today, is so that my life begins to look like his holiness.

This is what being conformed into the image and likeness of his son means, which means the end goal of his presence in me is for me to look like him.

So last night, Tanya and I went out to dinner with my Israeli son.

Now my Israeli son is not Ashkenazi, which means he's not white like me.

He is a Sephardic Jew, he's a Middle Eastern Jew, and so he's very dark skinned.

And for some reason, he decided to tell everybody in the Cheesecake Factory last night that I was his father, and then to ask them if they noticed the resemblance.

You should have seen the awkwardness on their faces.

They stood there, the waitresses, the people next to us, like, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do right now."

I told them the resemblance is on the inside.

What would happen if we ran around telling people, "God is my father."

Do you see the resemblance?

Awkward.

Things could get very awkward.

And I'm just going to say it, some of y'all don't look nothing like your heavenly father.

You know how I know?

Because some of y'all, your nose is way too short.

Did he just say that?

I mean, just so that they can make a clip of it and hang me out to dry on Facebook.

Yeah, some of y'all don't look nothing like God because your nose is too short.

Simon says, "Touch your nose."

Okay, very good.

Yeah, some of y'all's noses don't look anything like the father.

How do I know that?

Because you're saying, "Brent, are you saying the father has a big nose?"

Yep.

How do I know?

The Bible tells me so.

They should make a song about that.

Exodus 34, verse 67.

Then the Lord passed — or six and seven.

Then the Lord passed by in front of him.

This is passing by in front of Moses.

And the Lord proclaimed about Himself, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, flow of anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin."

Did you hear it?

Our father is long of nose.

How do I know that?

Because God is slow to anger.

Will you say that with me?

God is slow to anger.

In Hebrew, that phrase is erik apayim.

Literally long or large of nose.

So you can put down your pitchfork and torches.

The Hebrew word for slow to anger employs a powerful word picture.

When a bull is angry and ready to charge, what does it do?

It snorts.

I've been thinking about this and I'm afraid to do it.

I just want to trust that you know what it means.

It snorts through its nostrils.

I mean, if you've ever seen a picture — I mean, you can tell this ferocious release of breath comes out of its nostrils.

It is signaling its rage and its anger.

And my friends, we do the same thing.

Have you ever noticed how your breathing shifts from your nose or from your mouth to your nose when you're mad?

Think about it.

Why does that happen?

How in the world does this help us in our study of patience?

The Greek word for patience is makrothumeia.

You would know what the definition of micro means, small.

Makro is just the opposite.

It means long or large.

Thumeia comes from thymos, which means passion or anger.

Epithumeia is the Greek word for desire that Paul uses in Galatians when we read, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified its passions and its desires."

Isn't it interesting that of all the fruits of the Spirit, Paul loops back to these two words which directly relate to the twin towers of peace and patience.

Belonging to Christ and having his Spirit within us changes our passion into peace and our desires, things we passionately want into patience.

How does he do it?

He changes the way we breathe.

You see, patience isn't just about getting antsy when something seems to be taking too long.

It's about losing our peace because we give into anger.

Makrothumeia, long suffering, meaning we are willing to wait and be slow to anger.

Patience is deciding, "I'm not going to lose my peace.

I'm not going to let my heart take me to anger.

I'm going to breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to receive His peace.

I'm not going there."

Why?

Because I want to look like my father.

I want to be conformed to his image.

And my father, who is long of nose, is slow to anger.

I'm fixing to blow your mind.

God who is slow to anger is slow to anger about the fact that you are quick to anger.

God who is patient is patient with the fact that you're not.

Now everybody go, breathe in.

That felt good.

Because it's the truth.

The God who is slow to anger isn't mad at you because you're struggling with it.

The God who is patient isn't sitting there tapping His foot and tapping His watch like you guys do when I preach.

He's patient.

Isn't that good news?

You see when we come to these topics, it just feels like sometimes they become just another thing for me to judge myself.

"Oh, well, I'm not doing good on that.

Not doing good on that."

Father wrote in 1 Peter 3:20 that Noah was saved because God patiently waited in the days of Noah before the flood.

God was patient while the ark was being built even though sin was continuing to increase.

Let's be honest, 120 years is not fast.

But He was patient.

And because of His patience, humanity was saved.

We are saved because the God we serve is long of nose.

He is slow to anger.

He doesn't lose patience with us and resort to snorting anger against us.

How ironic that most of our frustration with God is often based on our impatience with God.

The God who is never impatient with us.

While we rush to anger about circumstances in our life, He doesn't rush to anger because we rushed to anger.

Can you just kind of ...

Doesn't that feel good?

It's not a justification to keep making the same mistake, but doesn't it feel good to know that He's not doing ...

He's calling us to be like Him.

That's why He put the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit within us.

2 Peter 3, 14 and 15, Peter wrote about peace and patience and even referenced the things that Paul had written on this subject.

"Therefore, beloved, since you look forward to those things," meaning dwelling with God, "be diligent to be found in Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to us."

Paul says, "In this pursuit of peace and patience, don't forget that's how God saved you."

James wrote, "We must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God."

The very thing kingdom people are supposed to be seeking.

Luke writes in the third chapter of Acts, this is Peter's second sermon, and I want you to listen to these words.

"And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also, but the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ would suffer, He has fulfilled.

Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

Did you hear that?

Times of refreshing come from where?

The presence of the Lord.

"And that He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you."

If there was ever a time when men had the right to be frustrated and impatient with other men, it was in those days that the apostles had every right to be angry and frustrated with their own national brothers who had turned Jesus over to be crucified.

But notice how patient and kind Peter is in speaking to his fellow Jews.

The Bible says that God is long of nose, slow to anger.

The connection is to the breath of God is not only seen in this vivid description of anger but also in Peter's plea for them to experience a time of refreshing.

How many of you feel like you could use a time of refreshing in Christ?

Listen carefully.

How do you know when something isn't fresh?

Fastest way to know.

"Honey, is this still good?

Well, what does it smell like?"

Well, I'm a dude, so that's not a good question.

Lest you think I'm grasping at straws, let me tell you the definition of one more Greek word as we draw to a close here.

It's the word we translate as the word refreshing.

Refreshing literally means recovery of breath.

To breathe easy again.

When you don't have peace, when you have chaos, you have tension, you have strife, are you breathing easy?

You want to be out of that, you want to be away from that, but sometimes you can't get out of that situation.

It's a long-term relationship, it's a long-term battle with a fleshly disease.

You may not be able to get out of the circumstance, but you can still have a time of refreshing by how you choose to breathe.

Because God wants you to recover His breath in your life.

The Hebrew word for Holy Spirit is ruach ha'kodesh.

Ruach means the wind, the breath, or the spirit.

It's spelled with three Hebrew letters, resh vav het.

The vav in that word sounds like a vowel, it's the oo sound.

But in Exodus 8, 15, another form of this word, a word built on the same three-letter root is used to describe how Pharaoh in Egypt hardened his heart after there was relief from the plague of the frogs.

And that Hebrew word relief is written with the same three letters as ruach.

It's pronounced revach, and it means space, it means an interval, it means a respite, it means a relief.

Do you understand the application?

Worship team, you can come back.

The Holy Spirit, the ruach ha'kodesh, is given to bring us relief, to give us a season of refreshing from suffering of this life, and from the weariness of our hearts, reaction to all those things that afflict us.

Patience isn't about learning to love to wait.

Did you hear that?

Patience is not about learning to love to wait.

Sometimes we have to wait on things that quite honestly we shouldn't have to wait on.

Somebody is being rude.

Somebody's dropped the ball.

God doesn't say learn how to love to wait.

It's about learning to love waiting on the Lord, because you're waiting with the Lord.

It's taking our mind off of the things that are causing us frustration and putting our mind on our relationship with Him.

Patience doesn't mean that you enjoy the wait, it means that the wait doesn't destroy your joy by becoming anger.

There are times when you have every right to be frustrated with the pace that something is happening.

If you sit down in a restaurant and 45 minutes later you still don't have your food, I'm going to call a waitress or a waiter and say, "Is there a problem?"

But I don't have to be a jerk about it.

And I don't have to lose my joy.

In fact, I could turn that moment of impatience in a chance to show patience and joy to that person that's been waiting on me.

Doesn't mean I love being forgotten or having to wait.

It just means I choose a season of refreshing.

Peace and patience are fruits of the Holy Spirit that are found and experienced in circumstances and situations where our human flesh and narcissism do not believe they can be found.

But those who belong to Christ and are in Christ have His refreshing breath, His Spirit's presence in our life.

I close with this illustration.

When I had open heart surgery in 2017, five days into my recovery they came into my room and they wanted to put me on a CPAP.

Apparently they'd pass by in the night and heard me snoring.

Said, "That guy needs some help with his breathing."

I didn't let them do it that night and sadly it took several more years before my wife's voice finally echoed loud enough in my head that I gave in and had a sleep test.

And from the very first night that I put on that CPAP, my life literally changed.

I went from waking up five or six times a night to once and sometimes sleeping the entire night.

So men, stop being stubborn and go get a test.

Why do I tell you that?

I'd spent most of my adult life not breathing.

My heart problems were probably caused by the fact that my body never entered a time of genuine rest and relief and refreshing.

As we close today I just want to ask you, how are you breathing?

The next time you find yourself in a situation, maybe in an argument, and spouses don't do this to each other, don't look at the other spouse and say, "You need to touch your nose!"

But maybe, maybe we need to touch our nose.

And we get in those moments and ask ourselves, "Am I snorting with anger?

Have I let this situation affect the way I'm breathing?

Or is the Ruach HaKodesh, the spirit of refreshing, am I opening my heart, my mind, my lungs to breathe in His presence?"

We sang about it, I think, in the first or second song.

We sing that song, "He is the air I breathe."

But are you breathing?

Because when you get angry, you stop breathing.

And your body can't live with that.

A friend sent me a message this week and said he was really struggling.

You know what my great spiritual counsel was to him?

Go swimming.

Go get in the water.

Go get a time of refreshing.

Not just splashing, but just get connected with your Creator.

Let it go.

I know we're long and I could just keep going, but it doesn't matter what's happening in Washington.

It happens with whether you're letting God wash you inside.

And if you're sitting there watching the news night after night and Tanya and I, we, I make my comments and, and there, I'm not great at this myself because there are legitimate reasons to be frustrated and angry and concerned and sometimes even a bit fearful about what we're seeing on the news.

Touch your nose.

It's not worth it.

The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God is still going to win over donkeys and elephants.

My peace is not in who wins an election, my peace is that God elected me to be saved and said if you will believe in me, you will belong to me.

That's where my joy is.

That's where my hope is.

Man, I can be mad at both sides of the aisle, but I'll never be mad at the one who sits on the throne because he breathed the breath of life so that we could become living beings.

Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

My encouragement to you today as we close is not to beat you up, "Oh, you go home and be more peaceful," or "You go home and be more patient."

Just go home and remember to breathe the breath of the Ruach HaKodesh he has placed in you. (gentle music) (gentle music)