The Secret Behind Peace - Guest Speaker Jay James | 10.4.26

It's so good to be with you again.

You know, time flies by so fast.

It's been one year since I last shared, but seems like it was yesterday.

Yeah.

Time goes so fast.

So thank you, Pastor David.

Thank you, everybody.

You guys are praying for our ministry.

For me, when I go, I feel really um encouraged and uh strengthful.

Uh, that God is our God, amazing God, living God.

He has all the ways to protect us and provide us what we need.

So thank you so much for praying and supporting this ministry.

And thanks again, Pastor David, for giving me a chance once more to come and share.

I appreciate your support, your prayer.

Uh, it means a lot to us because our ministry has only the support from people in the shape of prayers and giving.

And that's what we believe that God multiplied and you know encourage other people.

We always talk, Jesus is our shepherd, God is our shepherd, God is leading us, guiding us, God is providing us no matter what.

But God makes the resources available to encourage other people to make this story become true, what we tell people.

And these stories are becoming true through your prayer, through your giving, because when we go and somehow, somewhere, people are praying, Lord, I need your help, Lord.

I need protection, Lord.

I need this uh uh my financial needs to be met.

Lord, I need to travel, I need to hide somewhere, but I don't have money to pay the rent or this and that.

They they are praying this thing out there in somewhere else, remotely in other countries.

God is making this a story.

What they are praying about, they are believing in, trusting in God.

God is making this true through us, through you, through your prayer, through your giving.

So thank you very much.

I appreciate so much.

Um, you know, I was uh having a little chat with Pastor David, and uh he said one amazing thing.

He said, Um, you know, when I preach up there, um I keep myself humble and I remember the story of donkey.

How amazingly God made the donkey speak about something.

Believe or not, I cannot do right, I cannot speak right if God is not with me, if the Holy Spirit is not with us.

So I always encourage people myself that before pastor comes to the pulpit, please, either in your heart or little, whatever way you you are comfortable, it's okay saying a little bit in a low voice, praying for the pastor.

That's very, very important.

When I go to my mission, it is my lovely family, my lovely wife, my my son John and uh my daughter Susanna.

We have two more kids.

They went to a different church today, they have their own plan because you know they are grown up.

Um so whenever I go, the only sport, believe it or not, I have there are frustrated uh situations.

Uh sometimes the only sport I have is prayer, and when I hear my wife praying constantly for me, I feel so proud about it.

Other day I was sharing in one of the church, and a pastor came over to me.

He said, Jay, isn't this amazing that we have loving and amazing wives who pray for us?

I said, Yes, it is.

It's so amazing when we pray for our partners when our wives pray for us when we are gone to the mission.

So, maybe I'm saying too much because Pastor David gave me plenty of time today.

And uh, maybe you're gonna get stuck with me two hours or so.

But I'm gonna try to finish it in 30-40 minutes.

But I'm so glad that I'm given enough time in most churches, believe it or not, they don't give me enough time.

They limit me, okay?

30-40 minutes, that's it.

But uh possibly I will not go over that.

But thank you again.

Um, the message I'm bringing to you um is uh the secret behind peace, especially now these days when we see you, you know, we all have these smartphones.

My son's phone is broken, and he's uh you know, now finding uh his ways asking people.

Other day my daughter walked in um and he said, Um, uh sister, you look nice today.

And she said, What do you what do you need from me?

And he said, My phone is broken, and mom said, Yes, well, he's collecting some money to buy the phone.

So, we have all smartphones, we cannot live without them.

It's it if it's broken, we need the new one, but we need it, we do need it, and when we have it, we we you know all the time we keep scrolling the phone, we are on social media, emails, whatever, you keep scrolling this, and you find everything possible what you are looking for.

All the news, all the jokes, and then sometimes people are out there and they are saying something, but it doesn't make sense.

But you have all there.

Accept one thing.

You keep scrolling, you have a news, you have a wars going on, there are different types of things going on, you laugh, you sometime, you know, uh bring some sort of uh uh, you know, little you don't you you don't feel happy sometimes.

You find everything, but there is no peace.

You keep scrolling, keep scrolling, you do not find anything about peace.

And we all are looking for peace now these days, especially with the with the news we are hearing, there are so many wars going on, and these are the wars what we can just physically hear and see, but there are so many conflicts going on in this world we even now know, but there are so many.

There is no peace, and we all we all need peace now these days, we need a peace in our heart so we can we can focus on something.

Right now, our ideas, our things are so mixed up that we are not able to focus.

But we Christian, we believer, when we need peace, and there is no peace around us.

You can see, I'm here to share with you about persecuted Christians today, but you see around Christians are being persecuted, Christians are not welcome in many countries.

Even here, last time I was hearing actually my wife sent me uh a video and I I watched this in uh in a Dearborn, Michigan.

They were almost about to kill the pastor there.

So, even here in this country, in a free country, with no peace.

Around us, there is always something going on.

So, we Christian, we believers, then try to find the peace, and our first weapon or tool is to go to use is a Bible.

How many people sitting here believe that the Bible is the true word of God?

Amen.

If the Bible is the true word of God, then we turn ourselves to the Bible to see if there is something we can find about the situation we are going through, how we can handle this situation.

And that's very important going to the Bible and and searching something.

Now, I'm gonna share with you a story today of the wonderful, of a wonderful man, amazing man who was being suffered as a shepherd boy.

I'm talking about David from the Bible.

When we open the Bible and see the King David, he was suffering as a shepherd boy.

The parents gave him the job, which was very difficult, tough job, thinking that our son maybe only can do this job.

He's only able to go in the field and take care of sheep.

Least he can do this.

That's what they were thinking, but you know, God was not planning this way.

God see differently what you and I can see.

God see something deep in us because He has created us and He has avoided us differently, and He sees us different way, differently what people around us see.

So God was seeing something different, he was suffering, you know, in the field where He was taking care of a sheep, he had to take care of a sheep and and face the harsh, harsh weather, difficult situation.

Even he had to face sometimes furious animals, difficult animals, animals which were very, very dangerous.

He had to face them.

But he always found his peace.

He always kept himself calm.

He suffered as a as a shepherd, and then he suffered by by by by Saul.

After he was anointed secretly.

You know, Samuel walks from the distance and comes to Jesse and ask Jesse, Jesse, this is a purpose of my visit to you.

God has sent me all the way to you to anoint the next king of Israel.

Do you have sons?

And he said, Yes.

He showed all the sons he had at home.

And Samuel said, No, I don't feel calm anointing any of them.

Do you have any other boy?

He said, Yes, I have one more son.

He is uh in the field taking care of a sheep.

He even didn't mention about his uh this son to Samuel.

Because I do believe family and father was thinking that that my son is not able to be a king, but God was planning out there to make him the king.

That's why God said to Samuel, Samuel, this is not the one, Samuel.

This is not the one, Samuel.

This is not the one.

As soon as David came in and God said, This is the one, don't go on his appearance.

This is my guy, this is the man I want to be a king of Israel.

And when he became king, you know, Saul started persecuting him.

He had to hide, he had to run, he had to go from his town to live far away, and you know, he he kept hiding himself.

It was great suffering.

Even he had a chance, he had a chance once to kill Saul when he was sleeping in a cave.

But then he took the the piece of his clothes instead of killing him just uh as a proof to show him that I had a chance to kill you, but I didn't.

He was a showing a peace, humbleness, he was calm, even though he was suffering so much.

And we know David suffered so much throughout his life.

But then, you know, when we open the Bible and we see and we we we read this story, we ask ourselves, what was the secret behind the peace of David?

How this was happening.

We need that secret to be to be explored.

We need to know that secret.

And then we open the Bible and Psalm 23, verse 1 beautifully, beautifully explained this peace.

Psalms 23:1

Why David had this peace?

Because David showed this profound supernatural peace and trust in God that what we need today.

Psalm 23, verse 1 says, The Lord is my shepherd, and I lack nothing.

Psalms 23:1

All God people say, Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

That's the real secret, that's the secret of our peace when we have God, and He we we we believe that He's our shepherd.

That's the real secret behind that peace.

That's the kind of peace we need.

We need ourselves to surrender before God and ask, Lord, Lord, you are the one who can protect, who can provide, who can guide, who can give me peace without you.

I can't get this peace, I can't survive, I can't, my needs cannot be met.

When we do that, God intervene.

I'm gonna say that again.

When we do that, when we surrender ourselves, when we see God as our shepherd, God intervene.

He has power to intervene.

We will say, God is my shepherd and I lack nothing.

When we look into our lives now these days, we are worried about so many things.

So many things.

We are worried about our jobs, we are worried about our relationship, we are worried about our health.

There is so much going on in our lives.

We have a job, but we need a better job.

We have a house, but we need a better house.

Our relationship is broken.

Husband and wife, they're not anymore praying together.

They used to, their peace is gone.

Your sons and daughters maybe are not, you know, in in uh in the right shape.

When I say right shape, I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about faithfully, spiritually.

There's so much going on around us.

We have a little, but we need more.

We have more and then we need more.

We have more and then we need more.

We are stuck there forever.

We are stuck there.

But when was the last time?

We keep finding peace, peace, why I can't get this job, why my relationship is not becoming good, why we cannot just batch up, why my friends are walking away?

We just keep thinking about this.

We're finding some sort of peace.

But when was the last time you stopped thinking and went to the Lord and said, Lord, you are my shepherd?

When was the last time you stopped and you said, Lord, this relationship is not getting better?

I need your help, Lord.

Take the control of my relationship, take my the control of my all thoughts and thinking.

I need you, Lord.

When was the last time we taught our children?

Hey, listen, you are much worried about your about your couriers and about your job and doing this and that.

Stop.

You need a break.

Go in the room, shut the door, and start praying to the very God who can give it to you.

When was the last time we prayed for our wife?

When was the last time you prayed for your children?

You prayed for your friends, you prayed for your neighbor.

How many people are sitting here praying for their neighbors?

Amen still.

We need to pray for our neighbors.

We need to ask, Lord, Lord, you are my shepherd, Lord, you are my peace.

Without you, I just can't do it.

We are so depending on our either dollar if we are rich and if we have it, or we are so depending on our own knowledge and wisdom if we have.

Do we really have wisdom?

Do we really have knowledge what we need?

Can our money save us?

There's so many rich people I saw sometimes committing suicide.

No peace.

The peace comes only from God.

When we ask him, Lord, you are my shepherd, Lord, you are my life, Lord, you are everything in my life.

I can only Go with you, but I cannot take even a step without you.

That's the real secret of a peace when we ask Lord.

Revelation 3.7 says, remind us that.

Sorry, Revelation 3.7 says that what God opens no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open.

We need to go to God and ask Him, Lord, this door is not being opened in my life.

I've done everything possible, what I could, but this door is so closed.

It's not opening.

Lord, I want you to open this door, and believe or not, once God opens the door, then no one can shut it down.

Amen.

Amen.

We need to sustain our peace through God.

In our suffering, in our persecution, no matter what is going on in your family, in your neighborhood, in other country, the people you love, they're suffering, being persecuted.

We need to sustain our peace through God.

Through Lord.

Psalms 3:5 says, I lay down and slept.

Psalms 3:5

I woke again.

For the Lord sustained me.

What a beautiful verse.

I lay down and slept.

And then woke again.

I woke again.

The reason is God.

I woke again.

The reason is our shepherd.

Our God.

That's why it's important.

You know, in David case, God always brings some resources to you.

God has many ways to help us out.

Direct intervention.

I've seen God's direct intervention many times.

You might know our story.

I always tell a famous story of angels.

When angel rescued me and my wife, sometimes God directly intervened, and sometimes he brings resources.

He uses other people for your help.

And in our whole life, in our own persecution, when we were sustaining ourselves through God, when we were, we had only option, and that was God to sustain us, to keep us, to protect us.

And he sent to us many times different people to help.

In a devot case, God was sending different people to help him.

Even the very king Saul who wanted to kill him, his own son God used him to help him out.

God intervened.

And when he intervened, his intervention is a music.

The similar way.

I see when we were being persecuted, God intervened through people himself directly.

God brought the whole family of mine, which was they were in prison, and God brought them out of prison.

We had to run for so many years.

But God was protecting us.

You know, it it's so many, it's it's been so many years, twenty-eight years or so.

You know, we don't have our family members with us.

My wife especially.

We trust in God in the midst of so much going on.

If we look nice, if we look happy, if we look amazing, who is sustaining us then?

God.

God is sustaining us.

And when I see these persecuted Christians, you know there is a persecution happening everywhere.

Last time I shared with you, I was searching up, there were 380 million people.

Christians are being persecuted around the world.

If this number is correct.

God is using you, God is using me for these persecuted Christians, the peace they need.

God is giving them through prayer, God is giving them through amazing protection, but God is using different people.

When we came in uh in this country, it was much easier for us to sit back and you know just to have a little comfortable life, even though there is no peace around us.

But at least I could have said, okay, we are out of persecution now, now we need to sit back and do nothing.

We don't need to go back in a in a danger where we came from.

We don't need to go and rescue other people.

But we prayed to God, Lord, we need to do that.

If you have sent people for our life for us, then use us for others.

And God did it.

We opened, we started the ministry, and through this ministry, praise the Lord that we are rescuing people, we are saving their lives spiritually and physically, we're providing them shelter and rebuilding their lives, we are building hope, we are bringing them from darkness to light.

I will share the word of God with many non-Muslims, sorry, non-Christian background.

And I'm talking about Muslims.

I baptized many, many people.

Sometimes this baptism was really, really, you can say weird, or you have not seen it.

One person having a little bit of water in the cup and pouring out water in his head, or you know, praying and and anointing him, okay.

But I've done it through this ministry.

We are resettling and relocating people who are in need, we are providing them monthly essentials.

We have started now some sort of homeschools and self-development programs for them so we can prevent some persecution actually coming to them.

Because when these kids go to Muslim schools, that's where they get some sort of persecution and things get bigger and bigger.

Our women who go to Muslim houses for cleaning or for work, they are getting raped there because they really believe in a different faith.

We have started some sort of program so they can we can prevent also a little bit this happening.

Through this ministry, we've been providing amazing counseling over the phone to these people and encountering people and providing this uh kind of counseling.

I uh during this time of my prayer with the people over the phone, there were many families and people they postponed committing suicide because they were so tired, running away, in persecution.

If your wife is being raped, and you being tired in front of her in the same room, and you are helpless, you cannot do anything.

What would you do at first hand when when they are gone?

You will try.

Oh, it's better for me to kill myself because I was not able to help my mother.

These thoughts keep coming in people's minds.

When your daughter is kidnapped and you have no idea where she is, and you think you you were not able to protect her, so many wrong thoughts are coming in your mind.

And God revealed this wisdom and saved many people's lives.

Thank you so much.

Many of you are helping this ministry, and we keep uh going because we depend on this, we depend on prayer.

You know, your suffering, whatever pain or suffering you have, even sitting here in your life, in your family, in your house today, is very real, is very real.

The thoughts you have in your mind are very real, but God can give you that amazing peace, even in the midst of all this, whatever you are going through.

Because that's what God promised us that if you come to me, I will give you peace.

Psalm 23:4 says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your star, they comfort me.

Psalms 23:4

God is the only one who can comfort us.

Without Him, there is no way that we can survive or we can sustain.

But I tell you one more amazing thing.

If you apply, if we all apply that in our lives, then God is going to intervene.

And that is when we pray, we must pray in action.

That's very important.

Act practically.

We need actions in our prayers.

If you pray for your neighbor, for your neighbor health, and never go and stop at the door and ask your neighbor, how are you feeling?

I'm praying for you.

Your prayer is kind of a hollow.

It's like going nowhere.

You pray for your wife, for her good health.

But you never go to your wife and ask her, honey, how are you feeling?

I was praying for you for many days.

You are thinking about helping some somebody and praying about it, but not taking steps.

That prayer goes nowhere.

But don't dismiss the idea, the faith that yes, God can intervene directly.

But open the Bible and see how many people were in trouble and how God uses other people, how God uses their prayer in action.

That is very important.

And last thing I would ask you, ask Lord, ask Lord, I always at the end of the sermon or sharing, I ask this.

Are you planning today to ask Lord?

Lord, show me my steps I need to take.

Lord, I'm praying for this certain thing.

Please show me what I need to do.

Lord, I need your help.

Are you willing today to promise yourself before God?

Lord, if I go through any situation, I have to stop and ask you, Lord, I need your intervention.

If I have a broken relationship, I need to stop and ask, Lord, Lord, I need your intervention.

God is asking you that promise from you today.

Are you willing to promise God?

Lord, I will pray for persecuted Christians, my brothers and sisters, because you are only the solution.

I'm sitting on thousands of miles away, I can't do anything.

But Lord, you can reach out.

We need to do that.

If we don't do this, if we don't bring God in our lives, and we if we don't say, Lord, Lord, I need your intervention, things are not gonna change.

If you rely on your own wisdom, I never rely on my own wisdom.

I always ask Lord, Lord, give me wisdom.

Even I've done this message, I will share maybe a fourth or fifth time.

But I always ask Lord, Lord, I need your wisdom.

No matter how many times you have done this one thing, and if you have to do this again, you still need God's wisdom.

You still need God's power, you still not need God on your side.

Without God, you cannot walk, you cannot say anything, you cannot really.

It's it's it's it's uh it's just not working.

You want God to intervene.

Amen.

God bless you.