Peace In The Midst of Chaos | Armond Valdez

I don't want to talk about, you know, just flowing with emotion.

You know, I just want to share something that is a Rhema, that

is something relevant or connected to what's happening

today. My topic today is this peace.

Finding peace in the midst of chaos and uncertainty #1 peace

comes from God. The Bible tells us that Jesus is

the Prince of Peace, and this peace comes from him through his

Holy Spirit. Now you see, I placed 1234

passages of scriptures. If you read those, you will

understand that it is God who gives peace.

So if you're if, if in a given situation that you are in or

maybe you're facing and you're something that you know, you're

so troubled and you don't know what to do, you're so stressed,

cortisol level is so high, you cannot sleep.

Your brain always feeds. I mean the your body, the

hormones is producing a lot of cortisol that produces a lot of

sugar to your brain and you cannot sleep, stress.

Remember this, ask God, Lord, you are my peace.

I need peace right now. So the world cannot give peace.

That's why the Bible says they say peace, peace, but there is

no peace. When they say peace, sudden

destruction comes. Why?

Because you know what, the world do not have that anointing.

They don't have the spirit of peace.

It's a false peace that they have, deception they have.

But peace comes from one source only, that is in the person of

the Lord Jesus Christ, a person who doesn't have Jesus.

If you're not born again, you cannot have peace even by

yourself. You cannot correct.

Now. If you're a Christian and you

don't have peace, something is wrong.

Maybe you need a mirror. OK, so #2 do not let anxiety,

discouragement take over your thoughts and emotion.

Instead, give your worries to God and trust in His

faithfulness. You know what?

This is true. So if you're a Christian and you

don't have peace, maybe, just maybe this is one of the reasons

why you don't have peace because instead of trusting God you,

you're so focused with your with your what you're facing,

correct? You're so worried.

Amen. Don't worry.

Hallelujah. Let me read the scripture.

It says in Philippians 4, Philippians 4 verse 4, it says,

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

And then it says here, listen. Philippians 44A45 he says, the

Lord is near. Knowing that the Lord is near,

then we have the reason to rejoice.

Amen. We have the reason not to be

shaken. You remember Jesus when when the

boat was sinking and he was sleeping and the disciples is

Lord, don't you care? We're sinking, we're going to

die and and the Lord is sleeping.

And the Lord said, O thou of little faith, he stood up and

and commanded the waves. He said peace be still, just one

command. They forgot that the Lord is

there. If the boat will sink, who will

sink first? It's the Lord, right?

Because he's sleeping. That's why I said how?

Imagine if I was there, I will just sit beside Jesus and wait,

wait and see because I don't want to disturb him sleeping.

Amen. I don't want the Lord to tell

me, O thou of little faith, because if the boat will sink, I

will hold on to him. Amen.

Amen. The Lord is near.

Philippians 4 verse 5 say the say that with me the Lord is

Philippians 4:5

near. So when the situation is

chaotic, OK, and you are not certain what's going to happen

next, you don't know what to do, what do you do?

Believe that the Lord is near you.

She knows how to rescue us, Amen.

Because not all the time you, we will be together.

There might be times when we may be somewhere else and you are

somewhere else. So so do not give in to

discouragement. Do not allow discouragement or

this thoughts to hunt you and take over or hijack your

thoughts and your emotions. But instead, and what does the

Bible say first? Peter 57 cast all your anxiety,

your cares on him because he cares for you or give all your

worries to God because he cares about us.

It happens. You know, Lord, I cannot do

this. Help me help, help, help.

I don't need to carry this burden.

You see, when I was a young pastor, it's so hard, especially

when people criticize you, when people say things about you and

it's not true. And it's really so hard until I

learned something to give, to give unto the Lord these

criticisms, this destructive criticisms, not constructive,

destructive. OK, the devil will try to, you

know, push you to the limits, so you will quit serving the Lord.

But you have to be very discerning.

Is this from the Lord or not? If it's of the Lord, you

respond, Amen. But if it's not of the Lord,

learn how to give it to the Lord.

Learn to unload, unload it. Do you have a cup, plastic cup?

Anybody go down there? This is a prophetic times.

Is there a ram somewhere God will provide?

No, no, sorry. Look at this cup.

Now I need water. OK, good.

Plenty of water. A little later.

Now I need scissors. Very demanding, huh?

OK, you have scissors. Amazing.

What else should I ask? I need 1,000,000 pesos before I

ask for one million. You raise the credit card.

Wow. It's joking.

Eric is joking. So anyway, look, this cup

represents your heart. This is your heart.

The world is so chaotic. So much trouble enough, you

know, grab a subra subra. So if the Lord is giving you,

teaching you something, giving you revelation, correcting you,

you accept it, correct? Agree.

But if you are, what you're hearing is something that is not

of the Lord, something that will destroy your faith, your your

commitment, your devotion to God.

Do you know what to do? You have to put there, Sorry,

who owns this? I'm sorry, I did not ask for

permission. But anyway, why did I put a hole

at the? Can somebody hold my microphone

here? Why?

Because if there are, if, if it is of the Lord you, you keep it.

It's helpful. But if something is not of the

Lord that comes directly to your ear, through your eyes, through

whatever, you just allow it to flow.

Don't keep it. So you are stress free.

Amen, Amen. Amen.

So whatever is not of the Lord, go just OK, somebody wants you

to stop preaching the gospel and they criticize you, it doesn't

matter. Keep preaching the gospel, Amen.

Just learn how to put an exit at the, you know, criticism comes

here, goes out here. That's good.

Because you know what? At the end of the day, what

matters is the glory of God. As long as what you're doing

glorifies God, that's it. Don't care too much about you

being honored, recognized. Even if they say bad things

about you, that's OK. Don't desire honor.

Don't desire recognition because what do you have?

Is there something that you can boast about yourself?

Even your good accomplishment is not yours.

Remember, all of those are grace, grace, grace, not yours.

We all of us are absolutely nothing.

We have nothing to say. God, I am good at this.

I am. You know you have nothing, so

even if you feel good, remember this.

God is the source of all good things.

Everything that you have are but entrustments for what?

To glorify God, not for your personal glory.

So don't carry things that will cause you stress.

Amen. Amen.

Now, so instead of, you know, entertaining all of these

negative stressful comments from the devil, OK, trust God.

God is faithful. Anyway, let's continue #3 OK, go

back. Hardships are divine discipline

or training for all believers. I want you to understand that

there are trials or tribulations that God will allow and, and,

and when these things happen, learn to overcome.

Consider because sometimes God will allow it so you can learn,

so you can grow. So I will not read anymore

Hebrews 12/1 to 11, James 1 chapter chapter 1, verses 2 to

4. Because the truth is, you know,

there are times that God will allow us to go through trials,

discipline, training, so we become mature and strong.

Amen. It will form the character of

Christ in US. Hallelujah.

It's all there. If you read Hebrews chapter 12-1

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

to 11 men, discipline is important.

That's why our parents discipline us.

And this discipline can form something good in US.

Discipline. Not it's not only spanking and

what else at the KC or correcting, OK.

I mean, discipline as a training, OK.

You know, like I said, right now I'm back to farming.

You don't tell. I realize I am not a minister

who became a farmer. Wrong.

I was a farmer who became a minister and then back to

farming. Do you understand?

But during those days, Ma, don't be angry, huh?

But my mother and my father, they were.

They have the rules. They set the rules.

You wake up early in the morning, you pull the weeds

around the house. So me and my cousins, we have to

wake up and then feed, feed the the chickens, clean the water

line and then put new water, water the plants, the light.

I have to milk the Anglonubian goats.

After milking them, I have to bring them to the grass fields,

tie them there, and then I can take a bath and go to school.

And then my classmates are OK. And then I'm tired and I'm

sweaty because I have to drive my bicycle from the farm to the

school every day. And I was thinking, oh man, this

is punishment all the time. I was thinking my life.

I'm always punished by forcing me to work while my classmates

are all OK. They have all the time to do

their assignments and I'm not. I said why?

I don't, I don't understand. I did not like it until I got to

college and finally I'm away from farm.

Yes, finally I see city. I said, oh, it's different here.

Happy. No more goats, no more, no more

earthworms, no more cleaning the poultry.

You know it smells the poop of the chickens.

You have thousands of chickens, man.

Do you understand? For me, there was something

like, I don't like this, but I have to work.

Guess what? After the pandemic, I realized,

aha, why is it easy for me to do farming now?

Because I'm used to it. Why do you think God sent Moses

back to Egypt? Because he was there.

He used to be there. He understands how the

government works now he can deal with Pharaoh.

Do you understand? And so, and so now I appreciated

my mom and my dad. I said, wow, Finally I realized

it was not them after all. It was the Lord.

It was God who disciplined me, who trained me to do farming

that now it's not due to me. You know why?

Because I already have all the actual training.

I had seven years actual training every day.

And then after my class, I have to go back to serve my

grandmother all of his flowers. I have to water carry them.

There's no drip irrigation during the time.

It's it's manual. And you know what you have to

use hand pump and two, two big pails.

No, it's not pale. Bigger than pale.

It's the Baguio oil laton. You know that.

It's the square two. I have to fill it up and then

walk very far because I have to water all my grandmother's

flowers in parts from the house all the way to the highway.

And then after that I have to do bicycle, go back to school to do

the mapping. That's my life.

I have to go home dark. But listen up.

Discipline is so important and now you cannot you nothing

scares me with farming. You know why I've I've done

that. I know that you scare me with

with with with the snakes. No, I'm not scared because I

have encountered big, big snakes during the time I was so scared.

All sorts of snakes, snakes that you cut and then they attack

you. They, they, they crawl very

fast. I know, been there.

So now I now I realize, oh God, I didn't realize that you were

equipping me during that time. What was added now was the

theory OK, but the practicum I started with the actual before

the before the theory. Let's go back to our topic.

So discipline, appreciate it. So when you go through hardships

and something like that and you feel like you're being punished,

no, you're not punished. Can you tell somebody you are

not being punished? OK, God is allowing that thing

so He can train you to prepare you for something ahead that

nobody knows about. You can be in a situation that

you can see it now. So many young people.

OK, get busy doing the right thing.

I know you hate guys. One of the things that is so

hard to challenge about is farming.

No one will volunteer on farming.

But thank you, Axel. Thank you, Joshua.

See. No, Papa.

See Jamel. See Jelmar, Kinsapaba, Asila.

Yeah. Yeah.

These people have volunteered to come to the house and help, but

they learned the bar Axel, how many snakes did we do have a

snake jump on Axel No. And we were all laughing.

You know what, not all snakes are poisonous.

You know, they they come from, you know, from the ground, from

the tree. But here's the thing.

If you're used to this, they are part of farm of a farm because

the ecosystem, they balance the, the, the, the rats, the, you

know, anyway, we're not here to talk about that.

And so I realized that survival, the skill survival skills are

very important if we want to pass it on.

And I'm thankful to Eric at the KC, the Fire School of Ministry,

for allowing us to insert at least so people knows how to

grow food, understand the system.

Amen. And experience a little how to

or how to handle tools, connect things.

System is very important. Sufferings #4 sufferings are

temporary. His promises are eternal.

Look at Job, you know, Job, the trial that he went through, you

know, the life of Job and the life of Abraham.

I, I, I will never forget. I said God.

These are the trials that I don't want you to allow to

happen to my life because I said God, maybe I cannot do it.

So I'll be honest right now. Let's make contract you, you

give me trials, but not this kind because it if it comes with

your loved ones, your children, your grandchild, your wow, my

Lord, I cannot, I cannot you give me more trials, but not not

involving my loved ones, you know, like Abraham.

Give me the one you love. Ah, man, that's hard.

But when I was single, I said, God, I can do this.

I can do this. Then they got married and we

have Jonathan. And then all of the sudden at

the hospital while I was carrying Jonathan from from the

nursery to our room. And then the helicopter came

because there was war and they were transporting soldiers that

were wounded. And so it was so loud.

So you cannot hear anything. I was looking at the helicopter.

I, I only hear the, the rotor at the flapping.

I mean the sound of the, the loud sound of the, the, the

propeller chopping the air. Then you see the leaves like and

then I heard this said remember your prayer that you can offer

your son like Abraham. I said, can you do it?

Then I look at the face of Jonathan.

I said, my Lord, I repent because I cannot.

Sorry Lord, sorry. And that is why if Revelation 13

happens, I will not allow you guys to die from starvation.

I said no, Lord, we can die for Jesus, but not from starvation.

Oh, you come early in heaven. How did you die?

Oh, I have no food to eat. Yes, God gives us wisdom just

like I mean, can God rain down mana?

Yeah, you can. But the first rain that he sends

to us is wisdom like Joseph. Amen.

Now, use your hands. Use your brain.

So. So we experimented in the house.

You know the Taro. You know who knows Taro?

What's this Taro Gabi. We already know we can eat the

leaves, but the stem, can we eat the stem?

So we tried to harvest. I harvested 3 stems and I

thought my wife will cook 3 stems.

He only cook 1. You know why?

Because it's big. The Taro is taller than me.

So. So the two stems are still in

the house. Kuyabadi, did you cook the other

from? Not yet.

Not yet. So I'm interested to hear

because that can be eaten. We can eat the root crop, we can

eat the leaves now the stem, the Lil and kayo.

Mcpatubo Ogtaro. OK guys, listen, family, family,

listen. Is it good to cook vegetables

not coming from the market, but coming from your backyard?

Yes, that is the encouragement that I want to share.

Second, Kings, remember during the time of Solomon that in

every house there's a vineyard. Vineyard.

You mean grapes? So now we don't have much of the

grapes, but you can put aloo bati, you can gross up, and you

can harvest. So guys, sufferings can happen.

Listen, I do not preach like this.

If you repent of your sins and receive Jesus as your Lord and

Savior, you will not have trouble anymore in your life.

No, Jesus did not promise that. In fact, if you receive Jesus,

you will face trials of many kinds because the devil will try

to stop you from following Jesus.

That's why you have trials now than before.

That's why a lot of people say, when I was an unbeliever, I

don't have this kind of trials. Now I'm a believer.

Now I'm full of trials. Good for you, because if you

respond, you will grow. Amen.

So if you have trials, rejoice. Can you tell somebody if you

have trials, rejoice, if you are suffering for Jesus, rejoice,

but remember this, listen up, read, read, read, read.

What sufferings are, what temporary, but God's promises

are eternal. Meaning to say what was the

verse Romans 8, Romans 818. Can we read that one?

It says, yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory

he will reveal to us later. OK, I consider that our present

sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that

will be revealed in us. So meaning to say, even if we

have to go through sufferings, as long as Jesus is glorified,

as long as the suffering is not you creating it, it's not a self

inflict suffering, but a suffering because you are trying

to glorify or you want to to serve God.

Guess what, the Lord has something good for you, just

like Job. Remember Job, he went through

something, it was a trial. And then what did God do to Job

who passed the trial? He doubled all his blessings.

Amen. So again, the sufferings are

nothing. So if you are going through

great suffering, remember great blessings are waiting.

Greater blessing is waiting of you for you.

Just pass the test with flying colors.

Amen. So, so you, you, you, you just

read Hebrews 1036 to 37. What, what, what does that say?

So you need what you need to persevere.

Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will

continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that

He has promised you. See, God's promise will come

later after you pass the test. There's so many characters in

the Bible. God gave them a promise, but the

promise did not happen, not after they are being tested.

Amen. Can you tell somebody you will

be tested? But don't quit.

I will not promise you that you will not face tribulation.

You will face trials of many kinds, but remember this.

Don't quit. Keep going. believe in God.

You see, He knows how to provide for his people.

Trust Him. Amen.

Last but not the least, I'm done.

OK, finish. Seek a first.

Seek God's Kingdom and his righteousness.

So you see, friends, this is one of the secret.

The last one besides that you don't need to entertain lives

from the enemy is that you trust God.

If they're there, you're facing sufferings for the Lord.

Remember, God's blessing is greater than the suffering

you're facing. Amen.

And also, you know that when life is uncertain, when life is

difficult, when life is hard, huh.

God is teaching us how to face this trials, this uncertainty

with faith and trust. We learn how to trust Jesus

because we went through it. So guys, we can find rest in the

middle of the storm. We have rest in the midst of the

storm, Jesus, because the Lord is near us.

So when times are uncertain, remember this, fix your eyes on

Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.

Now I can discuss more if we read all those scriptures, but

you know, for the sake of time, I want you to understand that

it's all about Jesus. Matthew 631 So do not worry

saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink?

What shall we wear? Verse 32 For the pagans, run,

the unbelievers, run after all these things, and your heavenly

Father knows what you need, that you need them, but seek it

first, His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will

worry about itself. Each day had enough trouble of

its own, so get used to it guys. The world will always be in

trouble. Proverbs 3 five.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own

understanding in all your ways. Submit it to Him.

Submit to Him and He will make your path straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil.

This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your

bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth,

with the first fruits of all your crops.

Then your barns will be filled to overflowing.

Your vats will will bream over with new wine.

So remember our guide is the book called the Bible.

Everything is in the Bible so we follow the Lord.

Amen.