You are spirit, mind, and body — and God designed all three to work together, not separately.
In Korean martial arts, there's a concept called shimgon, nongon, and wayon — spirit, body, and mind. When you train, you're not just exercising your body. You have to see the board break before you break it. You have to commit your spirit. You have to engage all three at once. And if you're not using all three things, you're just exercising.
The same is true for your walk with Christ. A lot of us have set up camp in one area — maybe you live in faith, or you live in the Word, or you live in prayer — and you wonder why things feel flat. You can't just always be in your faith camp. You can't always just be in the Word. But you also can't always just be in prayer. You have to use all three things together to build yourself up and build up the people around you.
The Lord showed that in body, soul, and spirit, we also have to dwell in righteousness, peace, and love.
In your body, you have to dwell in righteousness — you have to say no to your flesh. In your mind, you have to dwell in peace. And in your spirit, you have to dwell in love. These aren't things you earn or work your way into. Each one is a free gift that you receive by faith. But if you try to operate without one of them, the whole thing breaks down.
Paul said it plainly: if you have faith and peace but no love, you are a clanging cymbal. Just annoying. And if you have faith and love but no righteousness, your ministry isn't going to go very far. All three have to be working together.
No — righteousness cannot be earned. It is only received by faith.
Romans 4 makes this clear:
When people work, they earn wages. It can't be considered a free gift because they earned it. But no one earns God's righteousness. It can only be transferred when we no longer rely on our own works, but believe in the one who powerfully declares the ungodly to be righteous. In his eyes, it is faith that transfers God's righteousness into your account. — Romans 4:4-5
So many of us think, "I messed up and now I'm apart from God forever." That's not how it works. And the flip side isn't true either — waking up, reading your Bible, and not getting arrested doesn't make you righteous. Nothing you do counts as your righteousness other than your belief that Jesus died and his blood paid for your sins. That's it. If you have faith, you have righteousness. If you are dwelling in righteousness, you are dwelling in faith.
You cannot fix disobedience through prayer — God told you to go do the thing, so go do it.
This is the part a lot of us don't want to hear. You can fix a lot of things through prayer, but you cannot fix you not doing what God told you to do by praying about it. God told Elijah to go to a specific widow, and there he would find provision. If Elijah had stayed where he was, he never would have received that provision. He had to go to the place God told him.
That's the same thing Abraham did. It wasn't the works themselves that counted — it was the faith that drove him to do the works that was counted as righteousness. And 1 John 5:2 says this plainly:
This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and obedience to his commands. — 1 John 5:2
Obedience does not care about your feelings. Discipline does not care about your feelings. You have to do the thing.
Jesus told the story of two sons. One said he'd do what his father asked and didn't. The other refused at first but went and did it anyway. Which one honored the father? The one who actually did it.
Paul describes this exact struggle in Romans 7, and there is peace available in the middle of it.
Romans 7:14-20 puts it plainly — in the New King James, which is the translation read in this sermon:
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. — Romans 7:14-20 (NKJV)
That's the war. The craving that won't shut up no matter how much you want it to. The thing you keep going back to even when you hate that you go back to it. That applies to addictions, habits, patterns, all of it.
But here's where peace comes in. God sent Jesus so that you could have peace within yourself for that exact struggle. There are only two positions: with God or against God. It's not "with God" or "without God." If you're constantly feeding that sin, you're not just without God — you're working against him. But be at peace, because God sent his Son so that you could be at peace.
Peace with God is not something you achieve — it is something you accept.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. — Romans 5:1-2
It's not about forgiving yourself for the abortion, or forgiving yourself for the divorce, or forgiving yourself for the addiction. It's about accepting the peace that comes from God. It's accepting that grace, that forgiveness from him. Because if you accept it, you didn't have to work for it — it's a free gift.
Accept it by faith, and you are in righteousness. And if you are in righteousness, you have peace from sin. You are not working for peace. You have already got it. If you're dwelling in peace, then you're dwelling in grace and mercy — towards yourself and towards everyone around you. You cannot walk in grace and mercy towards the person next to you if you're not walking in it towards yourself first.
Love is not optional — without it, everything else you're doing is nothing.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NKJV)
You can literally be a martyr for Christ, and if you don't have love, it was for nothing. That is insane. So if you're going to have your body burned for the Lord, you better make sure you're doing the love part right.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NKJV)
That is not just a description of how you should treat other people. That is a description of how God treats you.
God looks at you the way Jacob looked at Rachel — willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes.
Jacob worked seven years for the woman he wanted. Then he was deceived and had to work seven more. Fourteen years of labor for the one he loved, and it was like a day to him. If Jacob would do that, how much more would God do that for you?
And here is what 1 John 4:7-8 says about the nature of that love:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. — 1 John 4:7-8
God says, "I will move mountains. I will part seas. I will send my own Son to die beaten on a cross and take on everything that could ever be on you, just so that I could have you."
My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, I hear your voice. I see your face. For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. — Song of Solomon 2:14
That is how God thinks of you. You are the apple of his eye. You are the thing he would part the Red Sea for. And if he would do that, he would do it for you.
If you are dwelling in love, you are dwelling in the presence of God. When you really catch how God loves you, it overflows. Pressed down, shaken together, running over. It cannot be stopped.
When you dwell in righteousness, peace, and love at the same time, that is when the board breaks.
The board-breaking illustration is the whole sermon in one image. If you hit the board with just your body but not your mind, you're going to spend a long time hitting that board. If you have mind and spirit but not body, nothing happens. You have to use all three. In the same way, if you are dwelling in righteousness but not love, your ministry is going to die. If you have love but no righteousness, the same thing.
This is not about doing all the right things. It's about reminding yourself: God loves me. This is not something God is doing to me. I am dwelling in his love. Otherwise it's just exercise. Otherwise you're just wasting time. God is no respecter of persons, and what he does for one, he does for another. If someone else can break it, you can break it too.
Can you earn righteousness by being a good Christian? No. Righteousness cannot be earned by anything you do. Romans 4 makes clear that God's righteousness is only transferred when you stop relying on your own works and believe in Jesus. Whether you had your best prayer day or got arrested this morning, neither one affects your righteousness — it is entirely by faith.
What does it mean that faith and righteousness are the same thing? If you are dwelling in righteousness, you are dwelling in faith. And if you are dwelling in faith, you are dwelling in righteousness. They are not two separate things to achieve. Righteousness is the output of genuine faith, not a behavior grade.
Can prayer fix it when I'm not obeying God? No. Prayer cannot fix disobedience. If God told you to go do something and you're not doing it, prayer is not going to make that work. You have to go to the place God told you to go, the same way Elijah had to go to the widow before the provision showed up.
What does Romans 7 say about why I keep sinning even when I don't want to? Paul describes it as a war — the good he wants to do, he can't seem to do, and the thing he hates, that's what keeps happening. His conclusion is that it is not him who does it, but the sin that dwells within him. The point is not condemnation. The point is that God sent Jesus so that you could have peace even in the middle of that war.
What is the most important thing to remember about your faith? Jesus loves you. That is the core of everything. Faith without love is just noise. Peace without love is just comfort. Righteousness without love is just religion. Love is what makes all of it real and what keeps it from being a clanging cymbal.
Does God turn away from you when you're in sin? No. God does not like sin, but he does not turn his children away because of it. Romans 5 says we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. If you sin and fall away, you repent and come back. He cast your sins as far as the east is from the west, and he remembers them no more.
How do you know you are a child of God? 1 John 5:2 says this is how we can be sure we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and obedience to his commands. Obedience is not about earning your way in. It is the mark of whose child you are.
What does it mean to dwell in love toward yourself? It means applying the same grace and mercy to yourself that God extends to you. God's love for you is what 1 Corinthians 13 describes — patient, kind, keeping no account of wrongs, bearing all things. If you don't apply that toward yourself, you cannot genuinely walk in it toward anyone else.
