Shalom | Rachel Ann

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

The title is Shalom.

When I turn to someone beside you and say shalom,

turn to the other person beside you and say shalom shalom.

Hey, it means peace, peace.

And how tiny right we are entering to Christmas soon?

You saw that.

Even our production is call where wisdom finds peace. You know,

please come, make sure you come for Christmas. Bring your friends,

your family, especially those who don't know, who have no peace,

who have no hope. This is where they can find

peace us then to come just enjoy Christmas together and

hear the message of hope.

Yeah. So this is my title today and how I

got to this was also through.

A series of events that happen, you know, the past

couple of weeks. You know, a lot of my stories

come from work, because that's where I spend most of

my time, right, all of us working people, that's majority

of our times that work. So a lot my stories

are from there. So I I have another you know,

precious colleague. Uh And and because you know, I get

to spend a lot of time with them, so I

hear their stories and what they go through. So this one,

dear colleague, who is really you know, this year, has

been on a journey of I don't know where to

call it self discovery, a spiritual journey, she calls it,

you know. And she made a trip twice actually to

India this year to just you know, find find a

spiritual path or you know. And she's been to temples

and she even went as far as shaving completely, you know,

to just be renewed in spirit, shave her head, be

renewed in spirit. And yeah, and finding finding well, I

think it's you know, finding peace, finding God, finding answers.

And so she's been on that journey, you know, she's

doing when we were fast thing, she's also asking like

how you do it?

How you do it? I can't know, just.

Like one meal and they can already I will break

the fast. And I've had, you know, opportunities to share

with her. But so she's on this journey. And when

my CEO was down, so he's done for two days

when he always flies in, you know, Monday night, comes

to office, Tuesday Wednesday, and then Wednesday night he's off.

So we spent a lot of time together and and

they got to meet so she she met out with him.

He's the kind of ask me anything, you know, my

ceios like ask me anything, or anyone wants to meet

with me, just.

Come and speak to me.

So she went and spoke to him to kind of

get some advice, career advice. And before he left, so

we had our last meeting just to to connect, to

review what happened, you know, the meetings that have taken

place the whole week, just to review and talk about

what's next steps. And the first thing that he said,

because he just came back from a meeting her, we

sat down and the first thing he said to me

was what a tortured soul. And it's quite heartbreaking, right,

that's the first thing that came up, as a tortured soul.

And it got me thinking, there's so many of so

many people in this world that are looking and searching

and seeking for something. And you can try all kinds

of things, right, be religion. I don't know what else

people go to, so maybe you know, alcohol, drugs, whatever

it is, but trying to find some kind of answer

and peace, and the result of.

All that was a tortured soul.

It's really it's quite heartbreaking to hear that. But then

I think about our spiritual journey, what we have, those

of us who have journey with Christ, with Jesus. It's

a different kind of He's right that we experience. And

I wonder whether people see that piece and experience that piece.

When they look at us.

Do they see like Hitler's chicken or do they see Shalom?

Is there zen? You know?

Is there just a calmness about us? But it really

got me thinking the whole weekness. Why as I read

the scripture, you know, this word has been jumping out

at me, peace because this is what people are looking for.

And yet we know the answer. And yet you know,

we are the ones who are able to give them

that hope. But our question is have we truly experienced

God's peace?

Right?

So I want to spend some time talking about this

a little bit, and so let's go into scripture. Let's

start off with John chapter fourteen, verse twenty seven, and

this is Jesus speaking to his disciples. He shared a

lot of things with them, you know, throughout the Last

Supper and just leading up to his arrest, and this

is one of the.

Things he spoke to them.

I you're there. Those who have your bibles there say yeah, hey,

you don't have a Bible, so you can follow along

on screen as well. He says, peace, I leave with you,

my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives,

do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,

neither let it be afraid. Twice he just says peace,

I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

And he says all this before, just before he was arrested,

telling his disciples why, because he knew they were going

to be in panic mode in a little while, in

a little one more, he was going to be arrested,

taken away from them.

You know, they've been following him.

He's there, Messiah the Savior, right, and suddenly he's gonna

be taken away.

They're gonna go into.

Panic, chaos. They're gonna be in anxiety, in fear. They're

going to be lost, just like how Zachariah the propheside

right strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.

And Jesus knew that was coming, so he had to

speak to them, peace, my peace I give to you.

And when we read on, So this was before his

arrests Now after his crucifixion and after his resurrection.

We read again in chapter twenty.

If you just move down John chapter twenty, have it

on the screen as well, reading verse nineteen.

Hey, Jesus already rose from the day.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day

of the week, when the doors were shut where the

disciples were assembled.

We don't know this this before.

Yeah, the doors were shut and then Jesus appears before them.

So either he just appeared or he walked through the walls.

Either one, okay, So yeah, the disciples were assembled for

fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood in

the midst and said to them, what do you say?

Peace be with you? Peace be with you.

And then if you read on to verse twenty one,

so Jesus said to them again, peace to you. As

the Father has sent me, I also send you. And

then moving down to verse twenty six, this is eight

days later. And after eight days his disciples were again

inside and Thomas with them. So before this, the first

time Jesus appeared, Thomas wasn't there. And when they told Thomas,

you know, he said, yeah, show show me. I only

believe that it's Jesus when you show me his hands right,

his hands and his side, the nail scars and the

hole there.

So Thomas was with them.

Jesus came and the doors being shut again, shut again,

Jesus stood in the midst and said peace to you.

And you say, Jesus uses these words a lot always.

That disciples, peace, peace, Peace, And we know that it's

so needed all rest while living in the world today.

We need this all the time.

And so let's talk about the word piece a little bit. Okay,

let's talk about shalom xt we can show the next slide.

So the Hebrew word is shalom, right, say shalom shalom.

They use it as a greeting.

The Jews also, you know, they greet each other shalom shalom,

shalom perfect peace.

But it's more than that.

It also refers to the well being of a person.

It's a person being safe, being whole, being.

Sound in their mind.

And the Greek word is uh irene or irene.

Yeah, say irene irene. Yeah.

Oh, I found out everyone said it is her name

name means peace. So Erin is derived from irany you rene, okay,

and what what is this piece? Let's you don't go

a bit further and read into God's words. So why

don't you turn with me into Collotions coloss chapter one.

So Paul is speaking.

To the church of Colloss one, chapter nineteen, verse twenty,

And it's so important to get this first part right.

Verse nineteen says, for it please the Father that in

him all the fullness should dwell and buy him to

reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on

earth or things.

In heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

So if we look at this, the first thing that

we have to look at when we look at peace,

it is that it is the reconciliation to God. It's

us being reconciled to God. If not, we don't even

need to talk about peace, because apart from God and

separated from him, there is no peace. There is no

perfect peace. Maybe it's temporary calmness, temporary relief, but being

reconciled to God, that's where you know He made peace.

He gave us peace through his sacrifice. And what is

this reconciliation?

It just it means being rightly related to God, okay,

and taking joy in that relationship because now we're right

with God. We take joy in that relationship.

That's why it's not as simple as, okay, say the

salvation prayer, except Jesus, now all my problems magically go

away and I am peace forever.

Right, It doesn't work that way.

We all know that we've been through our challenges, our

ups and downs, and there are times where we don't

feel the peace.

I want to encourage us. It is the relationship with Christ.

There is to keep growing and keep deep for that

peace to to be.

Present, right, to be ever present, to continue and as

we enjoy that relationship, because if we're far away from

Him and we're not really walking with him, it's going

to be very hard to experience that shalom. As we

walk with him, walk closely to God, then we experienced

the shalom. So the shalom is multi dimensional. Heay, we

talk about complete well being, you know, it's physical well being,

is psychological well being, is social social well being, and

it is spiritual well being everything all in.

Okay, it's not just one.

It's not just the mind, but it's it's body, soul, spirit,

and socially as well. It's it's not just the absence

of conflict. Why we talk about peace means there's no war,

no battling, right, So it's not just absence of conflict,

but there's presence.

Of wholeness, wholeness, harmony and well being.

And really this flows from your relationship with God. It

flows from that right standing, that right relationship with God.

And guess what, when we are right with God, the.

Result of that, or the process that comes after that,

is that we also start relating to ourselves rightly.

Right. How many of us have experienced that?

You know, before we were walking closely with God, we

didn't have a good self image. We didn't believe in ourselves.

We didn't we didn't see our self worth. But the

more that we walk with God, then the more we

see ourselves through his eyes. We see ourselves as He

sees us, beloved child of God, precious masterpiece. And so

you're you know, your own standing with yourself, your own uh,

you know, it's like a right relationship in your own eyes.

And then thirdly, we start having a right relationship with others.

Right doesn't end there. That's why we cannot just be

just me and God alone.

Let's it.

No, we don't start having right relationships with others as well,

because you also see others true God's eyes, God's lenses,

and you start loving them with God's love. So, in

other words, this piece is having right relationships and taking

joy in those relationships. But as we got yourself and others,

you got that for that, okay. The piece is is

much more than just the word. The English word piece

is very simplistic, like just peace come, But it's so

much more than that. Can you just remember that having

a right relationship and taking join those relationships? You know,

time and time again, I hear my colleagues complaining about people.

That they can't work with. How many, Yeah, people that

you can't work with, don't rest a lot.

There's a lot of people who like me, right, excuse teachers, all, okay,

And but when I reflect, right a lot of those

people that they've complained about, you know, at my workplace,

I find that I.

Don't have that same experience or that same you know,

level of conflict.

And I used to think, oh, is it is it

because a personality thing or you know, a personality match

or I'm just chill, but reflecting now and you know,

reading through his verses, I realize it's it's not just

about personality and It's not just about about my character

or you know, just being more chill, but it is

that this shalom that we're talking about, it is the

right standing with God that also then allows me to

have the right relationships with people and work more easily

with others. And that it makes a huge difference. Hey,

it makes a huge difference. Okay, So let's talk about

shalom with God.

First.

Hey, let's look at Collosions chapter one. Just now we

read verse nineteen. I'm gonna read on from verse twenty

one onwards, Okay, and you can follow on screen. And

you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind

by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled.

It's a different version. I'm reading from the Nkhav, but

that's an easier, simpler I think it's.

Nalty if I'm not wrong. So if this one doesn't

make sense, yeah, you can read that in the body

of His flesh through death to present you holy and

blameless and a birth reproach in his side. And if

indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and

are not moved away from the hope of the gospel

which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven,

of which I Paul became a minister. And you see

here again in verse twenty three, it says, but you

must continue. A nalty version says, but you must continue

to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.

So we really know that we are made right with God. Amen.

A man, we are reconciled with him. But we have

to remember this truth that we did not earn it.

There's nothing that we can do, nothing that we can erase,

nothing that we can change about ourselves that will cause

us to be able to earn this. It is only

by grace. Only by grace is purely christ work on

the cross, that this reconcilation, you know is is experienced

by us and enjoy it by us. And even Isaiah

prophesied this in fifty chapter fifty three, vers.

Five.

Isaiah says, but he was piers for our transgressions. He

has crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us

peace again, you really hear it was his, you know,

the punishment that was supposed to be upon us. He

took it upon himself, and that brought us peace. A man,

and only by his wounds we are healed. So we see,

we have to remember that we cannot you know, there's

nothing that we can rework and do, and u's nothing

of our working but the eighties only by grace, and

it's only Christ's work. And we have to continue to

stand firm in this and continue to walk and.

Believe this truth and.

Be careful not to add anything to it. You know,

it's it's very easy for us who, especially those have

been believer us for a long time, we start adding,

you know, yeah, it's grace, and it's grace and me

finishing the Bible in one year, or it's grace and

me spending two hours on my knees.

Its grace.

And you know, we sometimes add all these things, but

actually it's already done. We are reconcile the piece. His

piece is upon us because he took the punishment, and

everything else is is bonus. We do it because we

love him a man, and we want to draw closer

to him. And we know seeing disrupts saying does disrupt shalom.

So whenever we are not at peace, sometimes we do

need to reflect and think, yeah, is there something my life,

Lord reveal my heart, there's something there that I need

to repent.

There's something I need to you know, surrender to you again.

Let go off.

And praise God that he is the God of grace.

And many many many chances I don't. We'll say second chance,

many chances. I see that in my own life. How

many times I failed? So many times I fail, and

yet God forgives and still gives me shalom when I come.

Back to him.

Amen, I say I thirty two verse seventeen. Another verse

for us, it says, and the work of righteousness will

be peace. The work of righteousness will be peace. And

I think this firstly, the righteousness of God will bring

us peace.

And the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever.

Come on, how many of us once on? Quietness and

assurance forever?

In some versions it says quietness and confidence forever.

It's an assurance.

There's a confidence no matter what happens, or matter what

storms you go through, you know anything, but you are

quiet and you're assured and you're confident.

And when the when.

The storm is there and you're in the ship and

you know everyone's panicking, you'll be like Jesus, just sleeping there,

sleeping in the storm, right because yeah, yeah, peace, peace

I leave with you.

So now, for those of us who know we.

Are saved by grace, we know we have been reconciled

with God through Christ, we know we have peace with God.

But I think the more difficult part sometimes is having

and maintaining that peace with or within ourselves and with others.

Right with God, we are convinced because I mean, God

is so good and we know once we confess our

sins and we say Lord Jesus, I need you, he

has already forgiveness and we already reconcile with God. But

then maintaining the peace within ourselves and maintaining the peace

with others, that is sometimes the bigger challenge.

So let's zoom into that a little bit.

Okay, so let's look at Philippines Gain one of Paul's epistles,

and our total first service as well our mission team

that's going to chang My end of this year. We

are reading the four epistles because it's I mean, he's

really encouraging hearing what Paul is saying to the churches,

what he's saying to us, and what we can also

bring the Changma to encourage the church there. So let's

read Philippians chapter four, verse six to seven. A lot

of you know this verse it says, be anxious for nothing,

but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God.

And what and the peace of God which surpass us

all understanding. Will God your hearts and minds through Christ

Jesus and peace that surpass us all understanding. You know,

we use this term a lot, but do we really

experience it day to day through the challenges we go through.

And just reading this verse and later we read down

in flipping chapter four, I'm going to draw out some

points on how really, how do we.

Let this peace continue in our lives?

Hey?

Number one, it's on the first thing that verse six says,

do not be anxious.

Do not be anxious, And it's so easy to say, right,

how the to do when we're actually going through something

and we are feeling anxious. And Matthew chapter six, verse

twenty five says the same thing, I don't worry.

That's so easy to say, don't worry. You know, when

I was young, I used to be a worrier as

a child. It's like worried.

About everything on and I remember for the longest time.

This verse, do not worry about tomorrow was my verse,

Like I had to keep reading that, you know, through

my teenage yers, just keep reading it, meditating on the word.

And I can tell you now, I hardly worry about anything.

It's a fact. Hardly worry. That was was giving me

a look. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't agree, but

I don't. I don't think I worry about much. So yeah,

he says, do not worry.

And it's funny because yesterday Samers were at a at

a Young Family Young Family talk with doctor Golchiong's a

group CEO in Help University, and he was talking about

he mentioned one thing about stress, like your kid is

stressed and tell.

Him don't be stressed.

It doesn't really make sense to them, right, like don't

be angry or don't be upset, like okay, how people

tell us, so don't be stressed?

How right?

And here in god'spel we say God saying the same thing,

don't don't be anxious, don't worry. But one thing that

doctor go share was really really good and practical, which

is to learn to identify what is in your control

and what is outside your control. Right Because There's no

point worrying and stressing about what is outside your control

because you can't do anything to change it, can't change it.

But what we can do is work on what we

can control.

And the cool thing is that God will never place

us in a situation or circumstance that we completely have

no control.

I used to think like.

Yeah sometimes, I mean my lingo at least used to

be like, yeah, sometimes we are in a position where

we really can't control it. We can't do anything, and

then hence we believe it to God love we surrendered

to with God, which is true. But there will always

be something that God allows us to still have control of.

Because we are not like chess pieces, you know, we're

not robots. There will still be some control. Let me

give you an example. Just say as a doctor's report

and someone you know has cancer or you yourself, and

the argument is that, yeah, it's out of my control. R.

I can't I can't do anything. I can't I can't

control how long left there is to live. And that

is true, that that part we are to live to God.

But what is what is in our control is the

quality of life for that six months, one year, whatever

it is. What is the quality of life that we

can control? How do we If it's for our loved one,

how do we make the best help them experience the

best of their life throughout that time. If it's our

own life, same thing, how do we make the best

out of that time left? So there will always be

some control that we have. So focus on that, because.

If we focus in on those things that we can't control,

you just be forever stress.

Right, everything is out of our control, and that's where

we get hopeless.

Get hopeless. I give you another examp.

I have no control over the business decisions that my

company makes. I can have some influence, but decision is

still at the top, right. I'm just middle management, and

so sometimes I have to carry out difficult decisions. I

have to execute difficult decisions, unpleasant decisions, and it's out

of my control, and I can get really anxious and

worried about it. But starting I think last year into

this year, you know, a lot of there's really been

a lot of shaking. And she's not a past few years,

it's like past five years really since the last acquisition

has been like roller coaster. But I've learned to focus

on what I can control. And what I can control

in these situations is how those decisions.

Are carried out. How do I have.

Those difficult conversations or yeah, difficult conversations with people. How

do I you those situations to even minister and share hope.

When I have to tell someone that they're losing their job,

it can sound all bad, right, but actually it's also

an opportunity to share hope, you know, to help someone

else see past the bad news and see what's in

the future and what's the ht of them.

Okay, So those things.

Can control, and I hope you reflect on your own

life that there will be something whatever going through, there

will be things that you can control. So focus on that, man, Okay.

Second one, prayer and supplication. Okay, This one I don't

think I need to explain much. Is when we surrender

it to God and say and when we praise, we're saying,

you know, God, really I can't do this on my own.

I need you, I need you. There's a dependence on God.

And when we depend on the one who knows it all,

who knows the end, you know, it's the beginning and

He is the beginning and the end, and he's the

one who loves you. Once you depend on him, then

you don't need to worry about anything. But I say, right, like,

look at the kids. Young kids are all the kids,

then is not to worry about younger kids.

They don't worry about anything. They just trust their parents.

They're not gonna worry about Am I gonna get food

on the table?

It's no brainer. My daddy will give me food. My

mummy will feed me.

Right.

And so when we depend on our father who loves us,

depend on a God who yeah, there's nothing impossible for him,

then no stress, peace shalom, and of course applications, praying

for others as well, so any any needs, whether our

own or others.

And the third one thanksgiving. There is such power.

In gratitude, don't you think, just giving, being thankful for

the little things. You know, maybe I didn't get a raised,

or you gotta cut this year, but hey, I'm thankful

I still have a job. My kids didn't win any

awards at school. He was quite upset this morning, Naney

is it's about that? But certificate? But yeah, and saw

them fail some subjects. Someone please help my kids with

their mandrin and themassa. But I'm thankful that they are

in school. I'm thankful that they're teachers that really love

them and invest in them and are patient with them

even when they don't get mats.

So that's that's just my daughter thankful, thankful, Thank you

teach Laura being patient with my daughter.

And I'm thankful that they have friends and they enjoy school.

So maybe someone felt sick. Many times this year, our

family members have been sick, been ill. Thank we can

be thankful that we recovered, can be thankful that we

are alive, we still have breath and God has sustained this. Yeah,

so gratefulness, thanksgiving, bring our prayer, bring our requests to

the Lord. And it ends with that right, make your

make your let your requests be known to God and.

The peace of God.

And it's that you follow all these things and the

result is the peace of God, which surpasses understanding. Amen,

and sometimes thanking God in advance as well, thanking God

in advance because we know he is good.

He will come through for me. And uh, you know what,

we talk about God's peaces surpass us understanding. It's actually

my points I went, but yeah, I jumped a hate.

Ready when we say trusting in the Lord, leaning not

not on my own understanding, lean not on your own understanding, right,

because when we lean our own understanding, that's when we

kind of have the piece that surpasses understanding. Because we

are sitting on understanding, we need to step out of it,

get out of it, and we can experience that piece. Okay,

my point four she comes from further down Philippines, Chapter four,

US eight to nine. It says, finally, brethren, whatever things

are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just,

whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things

are good. Report if there's any virtue, and if there's

anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. And so my point

for is simply meditate on good things. Think about good things.

Get all the trash, the nonsense, get it out of

our head. Just think about things that are praiseworthy, things

that are lovely.

No, my kids sometimes.

Before they sleep, they always us us to pray that

they will not have bad dreams.

I don't mind. They always they won't have bad dreams. Sama.

Yeah, I think wow, the fairs are echoing that. Yeah,

I think it's something that really scarce them from going

to sleep.

Right.

But you know, if we are meditating on things that

are good throughout the day. There should be no reason

that we get bed dreams. And always tell the kids

so like whenever they accidentally saw something that's disturbing, or

you know, walking in the mall, I'll tell you October

is the worst. My daughters say, Octoba is the worst

man ever. Cannot walk into any mall in peace, right.

It's like, yeah, if we are Malaysians want to be

celebrating anyway, any people coming up to kids dressed up

in like some horror scream people and giving them sweets.

I mean, yeah, it's terrible.

And then we have restaurants that we will will supposed

to go celebrate our sister or doctor Jill, so you

know she's spoken here I want to celebrate her birthday.

And then we already said okay, we'll go to this

restaurant when there, and then got all this I don't know,

but don't all hanging.

There and we just walked out and Jack was like,

you know, these scaring kids.

Are scary told of the Yeah, he told her this

is Oh is this good? I mean, families are going

to walk away. It's not helping you your business?

How did I get there? Yeah? So October. They sometimes

see things and then like, you know, Mami, I I

keep thinking of scary things that she always tell like,

I keep thinking of something scary and I have to.

Think of something else. Then think of something, think of

kittens and.

Rainbows. I don't know.

I try to think of what's nice for kids to

think of ice cream?

What does she like to think of? Mhm, cat, Yeah,

everything is okay. Cat. We have a cat name Christmas,

so both my kids love cats. Yeah.

So think of good things, meditate kids the same, us

the same. If we're thinking about bad things all day long,

guess what, that's the reasult like everything else around us,

So we will be bad right, okay, So Mendi day

and good things. That's number four. Number five. I took

this from verse nine and says, the things which you

learned and received and heard and saw in me, these

do and and the God of Peace will be with you.

So there's something about you know, we can pull it

out from here. Why would the peace of God be

with us when we look to our leaders, we imitate

our mentors, our leaders, our disciples.

Because Paul say, the things to which.

You have learned and received and heard and saw in

me these do, and so I encourage you as well.

Practice practice what you've learned better from the pulpit, from

listening to sermons, from your one on one.

With your leaders.

Practice what you learn, what you've received, what you've heard,

what you've seen, what you've seen. When you look at

your leaders different ones, see how they live out their

lives of faith, imitate, do it, practice it right, and the.

Peace of God will be with you, or the God

of Peace will be with you.

Okay.

And number six, reading down, I pull this from verse twelve.

It doesn't specifically speak of peace in this verse, but

it says I know how to be a base, and

I know how to abound everywhere and in all things.

I've learned both to be full and to be hungry,

both to abound and.

To suffer need.

And what Paul is saying is here is that he's content.

He's content whether he has lack or he's in abundance.

And I think, actually, if we earn, not earn, if

we get this skill right, the skill of just being

content when we have really little and when we have

so much, nothing is going to shake you like, no

matter what circumstances you're going through, situation. You know, financially

we are still content. And when you're content, that you're

at peace.

Right. And I mentioned just now.

Briefly, if we read Isaiah chapter twenty six, verse three,

can bring up the verse STV.

Do I have a dare Isaiah?

Oh?

Okay, I cannot see you to one you will keep

him in perfect peace.

Perfect peace is shalom shalom, whose mind is stayed on

you because he trusts in you. I say just now,

I trust in the Lord Leana on your understanding. It's

in Proverbs the Tree vers five or six Lena on

your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and

he should direct your past.

And so that's my point seven perfect number right. Trust

in the.

Lord God gives us that that shalom shalom, that perfect peace,

and it's a profound psychological and emotional peace. And as

I mentioned just now, we have to move past our understanding.

As long as we keep and we're stactor understanding, it

will be hard to trust, and then it'll be and

then you won't have that peace that surpasses. Because it's

a peace that surpasses. It's you know, our understanding. We

cannot understand it it is impossible situation to be at peace,

and yet we are at peace. That is, that is

what you want, and when people see that, you know

that they will also wanted. Man. Now, I'm not only

sharing this to us because we someone's already know this

and maybe it's a reminder, but I also I'm also

wanting to share this because we can share this to

those around us. I'm sure all of us can think

of someone who needs a bit of peace in their

life now because they are trouble going through things, trials,

times of testing in their lives, uncertainty, no direction, and

yet we have the answer. And so as I share this,

I pray it will but take note, and when people

come to us looking for advice, looking for peace, you

know we're able to share. Hey, this is how we

get it. Start with being reconciled with God, right number one.

And then these are the ways to be at peace

in ourselves, with ourselves, and then we're.

Going to move on to shalom with others. Shalom with others.

Let's read Closure chapter three, verse twelve to fifteen. Amen.

It says, therefore, as the elect of God, Holy and Beloved,

put on tender mercies kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing

with one another, and forgiving one another if anyone has

a complaint against another. Even as Christ forgave you, so

you also must do write. Another version says, since God

shwes you to be the holy people, He loves you,

you must clothe yourselves right. Put on close yourselves with

tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And make

allowance for each other's faults. Who wants to make allowance

for someone else to do wrong to you? God is

asking us to make allowance, make way.

It's okay.

Allow once in a while, people stepping on your feet.

It will happen. And forgive, forgive anyone who offends you.

And when we don't forgive and we hold on to offense,

I tell you that's you know, that's when we'll find

it's really hard to find peace. And we see right,

It goes on to say in verse fourteen, But above

all these things, put on love, which is the born

of perfection.

And again, and let the peace of.

God rule in your hearts, to which also you were

called in one body, and be thankful.

Sorry.

You go back to the verse XCIV. So the nalty

you say it's above all. Clothe yourselves with love which

binds us all together in perfect how many, and let

the peace that comes from Christ's rule in your hearts.

For as members of one body, right, we are one body,

members of one body.

You are called to live in peace.

Ye are called to live in peace with everyone, and

always be thankful. And so here here are some again keys,

keys to us on how.

To live peaceably with everyone.

Right Number one is that that tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patients.

I was staying in the first survice. When we ask

God to give us patience, what do you get difficult people? Yes,

God place a difficult person our children, or your coursemate,

or your colleague, or your boss or your subordinate or

you're in laws. I won't I won't repeat that. Yes,

but someone difficult will be placed in your minds, and

then that's where you learn patients. For me, my journey

of patience or two patients or gaining patients was when

we had our first born, and my daughter taught me

lots of patience. Because some we have heard the story

she You know, she would have meltdowns that last after

two hours. A few times a day, every single day,

and I remember, come on your mind. My Joe came

and visited us when Elias was born and my son

was born. She came to visit and she had to

wait in the hall for two hours while Shay was

having a meltdown because she was afraid of the shower.

I don't know, I don't know what it was. Okay,

but she's just to her shower, brushing teeth and meal time.

It's like torture time for her, so she would have

messy meltdown.

I don't know what it is, but she just cried.

And so I still remember Joe was sitting out there

and I was just trying to manage say and the

moment finally, I can't remember how it ended. Everything's a blur,

but I remember when I came out. I still remember

very clearly. Joe said, Rachel, I've never met anyone as

patient as you, and I'm like, I'm close to tears.

She read, of course, have no idea what am I doing.

I don't know what else to do. But it's really

true those moments with my first born that I learned patience,

and so now I have a lot of patience.

Similarly, you all with humility, right, God.

Will give us a situation where we think we are right.

Actually we know we are right, and yet there's the

opportunity to be humble and say the first sorry, maybe yeah,

all the husbands and wife say amen, all right.

So that's the first one.

Number two is making allowance for each other's faults, bearing

with one another, forgiving one another. Matthew Chapter eighteen, verse

twenty two says, forgive.

How many times do you remember? Wow?

See the engineer did the mets really? Ninety seventy times seven?

That's the that's the phrase that Jesus Us right, seventy

times seven times. Forgive your brother. No, it's not four

hundred and ninety times. It is limitless.

It just means keep forgiving.

No matter how many times someone wrongs, you keep forgiving.

It's limitless.

And so as we do that, if we keep that

in mind, I mean, first of all, it's knowing that

Christ has forgiven me, So how can I not forgive

someone else? You know the parable, or you might know

the parable of the what's it called unforgiving servant?

Right, that's the name of it.

I didn't put it down here, but you can read

it up parable of the unforgiving servant. And you know,

his master forgave him, and yet he couldn't forgive his

fellow servant.

And if we are like that when we read the story,

like yeah, what this guy? Okay, do that so correct?

You know, people already clear your debts, you don't need

to pay him back.

And then you're a little bit like that, so you

still get that your fellow servant thrown in jail, beaten up,

so terrible. When we read it, we're like, oh, this guy.

But then actually we don't realize a lot of times

we are that we are that servant.

You know, God has forgiven us so much, all the things.

We've done in the past, in the past, and just

who we are we're born into sin, right, and and

yet it's so hard to forgive another person. We can't,

you know, we have to get that, get that that perspective, right, Yeah,

get that perspective right. God it's forgiving us so much,

we're just forgiving someone else, okay. And the third point

on that is clothe ourselves with love, right, put on love.

Put on love.

It binds us together in perfect how money, it says,

And and then it answer that and that the peace

of God ruled in our hearts. So I mean it's

really love, right, love, love, love. Our God is the

God of love. And if we close ourselves, if we

put on love easy, we'll be at peace with everybody.

Love everybody. So easier to say, right, so easier to say,

I know, But let us really take on you know,

we already I peace with God. Let's also we get

peace with ourselves and with others.

Amen.

Now as I draw to a close, you know, we

talked about We've already talked about making peace with God.

We talked about having and experiencing that peace within ourselves

and peace with others. But now I want to end

with saying that we have an even higher calling. And

we can read this from Matthew chapter five, verse nine.

Can help me put up that verse. It's from the Beattitudes,

and someone on the mouth Jesus says, blessed other peacemakers,

those who make peace. They have peace makers. But they

shall be called.

Sons of God. What are calling?

You know?

We are He calls us children, He calls us sons

and daughters. When we are peacemakers, it means we are

restoring peace within between people.

It can be between.

People, between family, even between nations. If God has placed

you in that position of influence and authority, you can

even do that. But even more importantly, we are called

and we had this active role in.

Bringing peace and restoring peace between man and God. That's

what this verse is about, restoring that peace between men,

between others and God. Right because the moment people turn

away from God, we've already become his enemies.

But we can turn people back to Him and reconcile people.

Always God. And then we read Ephicients, chapter six, verse fifteen.

I test you all those are here, God be your time.

Who knows the armor of God? Get Teacher John and

Teacher joint can answer.

Was singing the song?

Do you all know the pieces of the armor of God?

God names some don't show the verse verse.

X TV.

Okay, okay, Peter John's wife coming. Just name one one

piece of the armor chall of faith hmm, sort of

the spirit.

Seth bell of truth, breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation,

anything else?

Yes, okay, that's the one I want to touch. Okay.

Go to the verse Ephesians chapter six, verse thirteen fifteen.

Rights, therefore, put on the full armor of God, so

that when the day of evil comes, you may be

able to stand your ground. And after you've done everything

to stand stand firm then with the belt of truth

buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes

from the Gospel of peace. Again we see shalom, the

Gospel of peace.

The shoes of peace. You know, we wear shoes to

go out.

You don't wear shoes to go to bait, right, don't

wear shoes to sleep, to stay at home, unless it's

bedroom slippers. But you can't go to war with bedroom slippers.

But we wear we wear the shoes of peace. We

strap out, we know the sandals, and we go out.

We need to be prepared to share the good news

of peace with someone else, that gospel of that good

news of reconsoliation with God. And it's only through Christ.

So this year, you know, our team has been Disciple first.

Hey Dream Malaysia d R E A m D. This

year's disciple first. And I really pray that all of

us have enjoyed that relationship we talk about, that reconciliation,

enjoyed that relationship with Jesus. Throughout discipleship journey, I pray

we've all gone deeper with Him, and I pray that

even with one another, with strengthened our relationship with each other.

And I see that.

I see that here in x KK right, the relationships

that have been formed, you know, we are strengthened as

fellow believers together with one another. And even I've been

so I encouraged us hearing the testimonies from our missions team,

our TA, my missions team. When we share testimonies, there's

been a few already touched on just experiencing God's peace

even through that, going through difficult and painful circumstances and

comparing with what they went through maybe last year and

this year. But God's peace was evident and that made

all the difference, right, And it comes from a closeness

with Christ, that proximity with Jesus with God. So this

year we've been talking about discipleship. Next year we're going

to enter into a new theme.

Which is revival. Okay, that's the R and Dream Revival.

And I thought, well, how I had to end this

message talking about the shoes of the gospel piece and

taking out because why I pray all of us.

You know, answer that call.

To action, which is to step out, step outside, bring

the good news to someone, anyone that you meet, and

everyone that we have the opportunity to.

We will have the opportunity.

If you have not had either our eyes are not

open or we haven't asked God.

Ask God, give me the opportunity. I'm ready, lod, I'm ready.

My shoes or pisare on. I'm ready.

Send me, send me someone or send me to someone

and maybe share and bring that revival to all our Malaysia. Amen,

and then come extreme can come forward. I'm trying to close.

So I want to pray for us today. Three things.

One of it I think all of us have to

respond to it, which is really to have our feet

fitted with the readiness, readiness to share, readiness to share.

And I don't mean now we need to know our

Bibles inside out. It's good if we do, but even

if we don't. Being ready to share your testimony, being

ready to share what God.

Has done for you this year.

Being ready to share how you experience peace even in

difficult times. If everything is good all the times, honest

people don't want to hear that story, you know, Ye

easy for you to say your life is so easy,

so good, but if it's in those difficult.

Times, then you're so broken.

And yet you can say, but still, my God, my

Prince of Peace was still with me. That testimony, I

pray always will be ready to share that because that

testimony will lead to ultimately to the good news. It

will lead to who this Prince of Peace is. Okay,

you want to pray for us that we'll be ready. Secondly,

I have to pray for those of us who maybe

are and we know that we are struggling to forgive someone,

because until we release full forgiveness, it's going to be

hard to experience that shalom shalom.

That perfect peace.

And thirdly, it's for those of us who just you're

in such a difficult circumstance.

And you need that peace that.

Surpasses understanding, or maybe you're even struggling with anxiety depression.

I really believe this is not for the children of God.

Anxiety and depression is not for the children of God,

because His word has already promised us peace, and he

speaks it over us so many times, and Jesus himself

is interceding for us in heaven and so there's no

place for anxiety and depression in our lives. We need

to take hold that we need to rebuild. That lie

is the lie of the devil.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church org. We

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you.

God bless