How to Experience God's Shalom

Unleashing peace. How many of you need more peace in your lives? Can I see a show of hands? I thought so. Well, if you came in a little bit late, my name is René. In fact, if you came in on time, my name is still René, but I mentioned earlier that I just returned from a three-month sabbatical. I'm so blessed that this church every seven years. Thank you. It's great to be back. I feel like I've been gone a year, honestly. And once again, let's just thank everybody who filled in for me during those three months. It was phenomenal. We did not miss a beat. Fantastic.

But I'm so blessed that this church as a matter of policy, every single pastor here, every seven years, gets a three-month sabbatical and they don't just offer that. They actually require it like they make us take a sabbatical because you know what? Taipei people like a lot of us pastors are, if they was just like, here's an option for you. We would never do it because it's like there's always something to be done. They make us go away for three months because a long time ago, somebody noticed, somebody on the board noticed that when you look at other churches and kind of like after about seven years, pastors start to go a little weird. And so they just tell us go away for three months and we're able to come back restored and refreshed.

But I got to tell you something. I did not realize how much I needed it until I'd been gone about two or three weeks and I felt myself starting to unwind. And I felt the burden started to lift off my shoulder. I was just the RPMs were so high. You know what I'm talking about? Well having returned from that and feeling rested. I'm noticing that it's not just pastors like that sense of unrest and unease and anxiety and living on the edge that is permeating our culture and not just like our culture out there our culture in here Christians even though peace is such an emphasis in the Bible.

So a few months ago when I picked up the new book Unleashing Peace, it's written by Dr. Jeremiah Johnston. I thought man our whole church needs to hear this because what he does in his book is he talks about the mental health aspects of living in God's Shalom, which is the Hebrew word for peace and he and he goes to he has interviews with psychologists and he talks about scriptures that talk about mental health that are often hidden because scripture doesn't use the term mental health, but that is what it's talking about and there can be such a stigma about mental health issues in the church and yet after the last two years, we're all experiencing that we all have some sort of frankly mental health emotional health trauma that we were living through right now.

So I thought what I want to do is start a mini series four weeks here at Twin Lakes Church where we cover this topic and I thought in an ideal world like in my dream world. I would do three weeks the last three weeks talks about my own struggles with mental health and how the Lord has blessed me and and really is teaching me through all of that, but I thought ideally I'd love to get the author of this book that has influenced me so much to give us kind of the download on his book to kick off this series. So I emailed Dr. Jeremiah Johnston and he said no, so we're going to have a substitute. No, he said yes and let me just kind of introduce this guy to you.

Dr. Johnston, he finished his doctoral studies at Oxford University and he's published by Oxford Press. So that's a pretty high bar. First of all, pretty smart guy and you've seen him around. He knows how to translate these concepts into things that that that people not just Christians but people in the world at large can understand you've seen him on CBS on Fox read him in USA Today and much much more. He's the president of the Christian Thinker Society and get this the last time he was here was six years ago almost to the very weekend and that weekend was his final speaking engagement before his wife just a couple of days later gave birth to triplets and he says he has not slept since.

So would you please give a warm TLC welcome to Dr. Jeremiah Johnston? When we went into the ultrasound appointment, I don't know if we had a substitute ultrasound appointment tech that day, but he said real quietly ABC 1 2 3 and I thought that he was singing a Michael Jackson song underneath his breath and he said baby A baby B baby C you have three heartbeats and friends my life has changed radically since that day. I tell people the truth. My name is gold-plated at Costco. I think I have the record in Texas for buying more diapers than any other person 700 at one time.

Here's the family and I do have three little minions that are just amazing. Two of the three are identical and they keep me on our toes and it's so good. I've written a book on mental illness being a dad of multiples ladies and gentlemen, truly it has I've needed every word and every study. I bring you greetings from our family and also the great nation of Texas where God has a second home. It's great to be in California. There's the whole family. I love Twin Lakes Church and I will be brief but this church has so informed my personal faith in Christ and also the method with which we do ministry at Christian thinkers Society and I would encourage all of you to connect with us.

Our ministry is all about helping every one of God's people not just the Delta Force Christians like Pastor René and Lori and the team but every one of us be a Christian thinker to fulfill the great commandment to love God with our heart our soul and our mind and our thinking. I was so inspired here six years ago for so many reasons one of which is on the second row or Dan and Lynn Wagner. Would you raise your hand Dan and Lynn these amazing people? Lynn met me at the door and she shared a life transformation story with me of her amazing two daughters and we want to say their name Carrie and Mandy right Carrie and Mandy in Heaven we can speak about them in the presence. Thanks be to God for the resurrection.

She shared that story with me. I was so moved by it. I began sharing that story anytime I had an opportunity. I wrote about it for a major cable news network and then I closed my blue book. We only have a few copies left my whole book closes. It's about the Jesus Factor in the world. And after getting through all my arguments I closed with Dan and Lynn Wagner story of faith and perseverance and I mean I'm talking I've been on the platform with John Lennox at Wilberforce event sharing that story. I've been in some other places TV televised things sharing their story. I shared it last week at Prestonwood to our Academy one of our teachers dads was here and they texted him and said Dad I'm hearing about Dan and Lynn from Twin Lakes Church Santa Cruz. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your faith that inspires me and so many of us and I want to thank God for the faith of this church and your pastor René who I have to check my notes when I preach here at Twin Lakes because he's on the front row.

He's such a great Christian thinker and such a wonderful example of the pastor's public theologian but also as someone who practices the power the superpower of vulnerability. A lot of pastors don't do that. I've gone over my time. I could talk the entire sermon about how much I love this church. Can you take me into your membership right now? Can I do that and then Twin Lakes take your Bibles and go to Philippians 4. We're going to be studying a passage that you may be familiar with if you've never heard of it before it's in the New Testament just turn right from the book of Psalms. We're going to look at the greatest anti-anxiety passage in all of the Bible and I want to encourage those of you seasoned Christians in here. Please don't let your familiar familiarity with the passage rob you of some new truth that God wants to show you through His Holy Spirit today.

There is no doubt about it that we are living in a time as René said where mental illness mental pain anxiety is off the rails 48% of the people in this room at some point in their life will have a personal physical struggle with mental pain. So many of us though it's stigmatized because after all as Christians, you know, we don't gossip right. We're all Godly. We share prayer requests. We don't gossip and so we can't step back fast enough from sharing if a son or daughter is struggling with a mental illness. It's like we can't even say it and God has put this message on my heart because after 12 years of taking questions from live audiences across the US Canada and the UK. This is the number one question I've been asked how Christians can respond to mental pain. Is there an answer and the answer is yes. We are the people who bring hope so grab your outline this morning.

We're going to go through a peace outline to kick off this series and church family. Listen to me. This is one of these outlines you want to keep don't fill it out and then forget where you put it. Take a picture of it with your phone. You're going to be in situations and God has given you this outline where you're going to be able to pass this teaching on to your family to your place of work to your community to your friends. This is I'm in a big immediate next steps guy. We're going to give you the immediate steps to walk through to live in the Shalom of God. Now would you say that word Shalom with me out loud Shalom. Let's do it one more time. Shalom.

Now I met a Hawaiian last night. She said we actually say Shalohah. So I love that as well. Shalohah Shalom. It's this beautiful word that is so informative that if I were to sum up 750,000 words in the English Bible if I had to sum up the 1,189 chapters of Scripture with one word I would say the word Shalom. It encapsulates the gospel the message of Jesus the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. It is Shalom and the beauty is it's promised for every single follower of Jesus and yet we live in a time as I said when mental pain is so stigmatized and it's no different than the time of C.S. Lewis.

You know, I've had to break through a lot of stigma. I teach a lot in higher ed people think oh, that's just something uneducated people struggle with mental illness. Actually, it's the opposite. Did you know the more education one has the more likely they are to develop some kind of mental challenge? It was no different for C.S. Lewis. He wrote and have you read The Problem of Pain recently? He begins the book mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it's also more common and it's more hard to bear. It's the frequent attempt to conceal mental pain suffer in silence stigmatize it increases the burden. It's easier to say my tooth is aching than my heart is broken and I know in an audience of this size and those of you joining us online there are many broken hearts and the pews and in the homes watching us.

How can we how can we have a mended heart? How can the Scriptures be the balm of Gilead for us today when we've been struggling many of us have been paralyzed with anxiety? I want you to hear a few things number one anxiety is not dangerous Church family. Anxiety is not dangerous. Anxiety is not sin. Did you know that anxiety is suffering and Jesus gives us a plan to live in Shalom in the midst of that suffering and I want to make you a promise based on the Scriptures. You can turn your pain into your purpose and experience peace. Some of you think oh no, that's not for me. I'm so triggered right now. I'm so paralyzed by what I've experienced know through Christ and Christ alone. He can turn our pain into our purpose and we can experience peace.

I think of the example of Don Richie from Australia. I want to introduce you to a man in his 80s whom God used mightily. There's Don. What a great smile. He lived in the Gap at Sydney Harbor. That's what it's called the Gap the beautiful sandstone cliffs you see the homes and the community looks like a golf course. Did you know that this is one of the number one suicide spots located Lee in the world? People fly here from all over the world to take their life and Don and it's only a three-foot fence. Unfortunately, Don began to notice after 50 years of living there just a hundred his door was 164 feet from the fence line. He began to notice men and women who would linger just a little too long at the fence line if you know what I mean.

Don sees no one's doing anything about it. He puts on his bathrobe his house shoes. He walks out and he says hey smiles. I'm Don I live right here. Would you like to come over for a cup of tea? The person dazed actually I would there were times that Don had to physically as a younger man physically restrain people from taking their own life. He said the ones that haunt him were the ones he couldn't restrain. Don is not a crisis mental health psychologist. Did you know that he sells kitchen appliances and then he moved on to life insurance? He doesn't have any higher education or education credentials at all in mental health trauma, but he had this beautiful ability to practice the ministry of presence in someone's life.

He said don't ever discount the power of a smile and to be present with someone. He said my goal is to get them away from the edge long enough for them to stop. Think about it. Take account. Let them feel seen. He was given the highest award that Australia can give the matter of Medal of the Order of Australia. He died in 2012. His son stood up and he said my dad saved 400 people from taking their own lives. In fact, one of the individuals he saved painted a picture, mailed it to him and she said you saved my life. An angel walked among us and they call him now the angel at the gap.

Now here's a couple of neat things. Don't ever buy the lie that you're too old for God to use you. It's just like the lie. I'm too young for God to use me. Don is in his 80s. Dan if he doesn't mind we share a birthday. He's 70 sweet Dan and Lynn. Their stories are changing lives right now. You're never too old for God to use you in his kingdom. You can be the hero in someone else's life. So how do we get there? How do I become a hero? I want you to take this outline and I want you to be an angel in someone's life and say you've been struggling. You're seen. Let me sit down with you and give you immediate steps.

Church family. It's time to get past the fortune cookie Christianity. Amen. It's time to get past bumper sticker theology. I was speaking in Alabama at a mental health conference not alone and the dad season man of God walks up to me in tears. He said I used to think you could just slap a Bible verse on someone and go along your way and he said I realize now it's yes. The Word of God is powerful, but we have to walk with people and community. Unleashing peace. How do we unleash peace in our life? It begins with the word Shalom and you need to study it. It's been translated 70 different ways in our English Bible. It's a rich term and it means so much more than peace.

Here we have in the Greek, "erene." That doesn't quite cut it for me. Even though that's what our original Greek is, Jesus would have spoke Hebrew Aramaic. "erene" just simply means the truth. It means an absence of war, no conflict. In many of us, that's what we live in right now. We're not living in Shalom. We're just at a truce with the people around us. We're at a truce with our anxiety. No, Hebrew read from right to left is something that means peace in the sense of completeness, wholeness, to flourish, to lack nothing. Do you see the difference?

And so when Jesus is preaching and remember I have a PhD which means I know a lot about a little ladies and gentlemen. The little I know a lot about are the Gospels and I felt like this is a subject that has been so elusive to so many followers of Jesus. When's the last time you heard a sermon on the word Shalom and yet it pops up 550 times in Scriptures. It was a constant theme in Jesus's life and in his ministry and it's available for you today. So 550 times the promise of Shalom and hundreds more if you take all of the cognates of Shalom rest Etc. Peace living at peace.

How do we get there in Jeremiah? Do you mean that I can live in the peace of God and still have challenges? Write down Judges 6 Gideon. He's afraid. He's hiding. The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and Judges 6 and Gideon has the audacity to interrupt the Lord and say, excuse me while you're talking to me. Lord if you're really with me, why do I have all these challenges in my life? And if you keep reading in Judges 6, he keeps saying I will be with you Gideon gets on his knees. Don't miss this. He builds an altar to the Lord and he calls it Yahweh Shalom. It's the first time in Scriptures chronologically the word Shalom is used as a descriptor for God.

He gets on his knees and he makes an altar to Yahweh Shalom. Here's the key Gideon still had to go fight the Midianites ladies and gentlemen. He still had to go fight his battles and you have to go fight your battles and I have to go fight my battles. I can do it in the peace of the Lord. And do you know when I walk into a difficult situation by the way most prayers in the Bible are short prayers. I'll pray the prayer of Gideon and I'll just say my God is peace. My God is Shalom. I'll just say that under my breath if I'm in a situation when I walk into a meeting an appointment an opportunity. My God is peace. Do you know you can pray that prayer from Judges 6 Yahweh Shalom. My God is peace.

How do I live in peace? Number one the Shalom of God will happen in my life. It will not happen until I plan for it. I have to be intentional about the peace of God in my life. Here's where we get to the immediate steps and it's so fun. You have a financial plan. I've met many people they can tell me the day they're going to retire. That's great. You have an educational plan. You might have a five or ten year plan a diet plan a social plan. Can I issue a question? Why don't you have a peace of God plan for your life where you take inventory of everything that's true about you according to the Scriptures and say I'm going to orient my life towards the Shalom of God Shalom happens when we have a plan and if you don't intentionally plan for the peace of God it's not going to happen automatically.

I wish René and I could bomb you with like water balloons full of the Shalom of God. We can't you have to own this for yourself. But there is a plan in Scripture. So Shalom happens when I have a plan you don't do the planning by yourself. We believe in the priesthood of the believer at Twin Lakes Church. The Holy Spirit according to John 16:13. Are you ready for this? He's our peace planner. The Holy Spirit will guide us into the peace of God because he guides us into all truth. The force of the Greek is he's literally a tour guide. He grabs us by the hand and then we make it in relation to the church our plan and I want to say a few things having written 80,000 words on the peace of God. It is God's will and listen to me very closely. It is God's will for every believer to live in his peace.

It is not just something for Delta Force believers. It is God's will for you to walk in his peace. A lot of Christians think you know, I don't know how to do that or I don't have that spiritual gift or I haven't prayed long enough or had enough faith. No, you don't even need to pray about it. It is God's will for you to walk in Shalom. It's a promise of Scripture. So key. Let me say it another way. It is not God's will for you to live in anxiety constantly. It's not God's will for you to live in conflict. It is not God's will for you to live in confusion. That's how you know you need a peace plan.

That's how I knew I need it as I evaluate my life today. I need to answer questions and these were questions I had to grapple with as I was doing the research and the writing is my life defined by peace in Shalom or would someone look at me and say, you know what? He's all over the place. He just kind of is a hot mess in my house right now. And I think that there was a time when it was the latter for me and I literally had to push away from the desk get on my knees and say Lord, I've allowed my busyness to be an excuse to bring conflict in my home. I've allowed my deadlines to trump the peace of God for my kids and Lord, I need to stop that. I can't write another word of this book Lord until I get my heart right with God.

So here's a great question. The scriptures say blessed are the what makers the conflict makers the doom scrollers. Blessed are the peacemakers. I'm inspired by those of you in this room. You can walk into a hospital room. You can walk into a classroom and it's like you bring the peace of God with you in that room and it touches everyone around you. Everyone can see it. I have to plan for it. Can I show you my peace plan by the way? So I actually wrote down a plan for peace. Now, this is Jeremiah's peace plan. I know please don't at me. I know that there's a typo in my peace plan. I didn't know the whole world was going to read it. Okay, I sat down because Audrey's like well Jeremiah, you know, I think you know, she always critiques my sermons, you know could have been better here there and she said you need to share your peace plan. You might want to get a picture of my peace plan.

It's also on my social media at underscore Jeremiah J. I share this. It's been all right put this up. It's been shared thousands of times. This is my grid every day for how I try to live in the peace of God and you can see these different very important steps. Isolation worst punishment. Do you know how isolating it is to create content constantly be researching? I could never leave the library ladies and gentlemen. Do you know what is part of my peace plan now? I love to use my chainsaw to cut down trees and grind stumps. I'm YouTube smart about this. I found something that was totally different than what my daily routine is and I go fight my battles against the trees.

Number seven. I get out of the house. I get into nature. I thank God more for what he's done. Number 10 instead of always thinking about what's coming next. I've learned is just say thank you Jesus throughout the day. There's something about uttering the name of Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Throughout the day. I love falling asleep in prayer. If I wake up in the middle, I mean these are these are 18. I'm struggling with right now. Pray for me number 18. It's hard to say no for the bigger yes of God's peace when when every decision is a good decision, but I have to say no to some of those. I need to do better at number 20. Friends. This is my peace plan and guess what? I'm not looking for perfection. I'm looking for freedom. I haven't had a day yet where I've checked off all 20. That's not the point. Don't bring that all-or-nothing thinking because that will destroy your Shalom.

I was speaking to a division one University this week and they were actually using this peace plan to craft a peace plan for their classrooms and I thought it was great. You know, this is not a static document. Please develop it. Edit it. Revise it. Expand excerpt. What was really cool is one of the groups came up. They said, you know, an enemy of my piece is comparing myself with everybody around me. I have to stop doing that. When I do that, it just steals my piece and so develop your peace plan. Do you see there's something too about writing it down? I can't explain it. But when you actually and I didn't know. I was gonna have 20. Audrey's like you could keep going Jeremiah. Don't stop there. I just started writing things that were stealing. That's why I started with the news and doom-scrolling and not contributing to the panic.

So peace number two. I need to go quickly. Shalom is always connected to Jesus Christ. I love John 16:33. Jesus compares his peace to the world's and this is his final words. It's called the farewell discourse for a reason these things and what were these things everything he had said in the in the all in the excuse me in the farewell discourse. I have spoken to you that in me and by the way, the force of the Greek is in me and me alone. You may have peace now. It's guaranteed in the world. You're gonna have trouble tribulation Tharsaytae in Greek. It's just gonna tear you apart the world but be of good cheer. We get that wonderful word Nike from it. I and I alone have overcome Nikow. I have victory over the world. Jesus overcomes the world. So you don't have to. Peace has to be found in Jesus.

A lot of people miss this next point. There is a divine order to God's peace and I want to speak to the religious people listening right now and I love you. You've likely missed the Shalom of God and all your religion because you have missed Jesus. Do you know it's possible to be religious and miss the peace of God because you've missed Jesus? Look at Luke 19. This is a powerful passage because Jesus in his triumphal entry. He's approaching Jerusalem. He sees the city now. What is the city? He sees all of his fellow Jews the especially the religious leaders. He said if you even you had known this day what would bring you Shalom but it is hidden from your eyes. He's speaking to the religious people. They missed peace embodied. Don't miss the peace of God because you've not come to a place where you've put your personal trust in Jesus for your salvation for your Shalom for your forgiveness of all your sins. Peace begins there.

So don't miss the starting block. It's Romans 5:1 please write that down. Therefore since we have been justified not through religion not through our efforts not through church perfect attendance not through being a good guy since I have been justified through faith. We have Shalom with God. Amen. And you know what's great about this piece. It doesn't increase or decrease that peace stays. You should make a decision today to nail it down if you haven't and then third secondly so that's the divine order number one peace with peace with God. Guess what happens next. Colossians 3:15 once you have peace with God you have the opportunity then to experience the peace of God and you know what there's a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ you stop at step one. Yeah, you're a Christian. You're not living in the peace of God. Why do you think Paul wrote in Colossians 3:15 excuse me in Colossians 3:15 let the peace of God rule your hearts. I love that. It's Jesus purpose that we have peace.

So I want to ask you a question. Are you missing peace because you've somehow missed Jesus? Jesus is here for us to give us a plan to meet us right at our greatest point of need number three living in Shalom is a discipline. Now this is where we get totally past the fortune cookie Christianity and the the greeting card Christianity and we actually get into the meat of how it works. Okay, Jeremiah, I'm going to make a plan. I'm going to make sure my peace is connected with Jesus. I'm going to make sure I have the divine order right peace with God through Christ and now the peace of God. What do I do next? You have to learn the peace of God in Philippians 4 and our passage you should circle all the times the word learn shows up. Paul had to learn the peace of God. Paul saw Jesus seven times during his earthly ministry. Do you know he's been called a professional warrior and don't you find it ironic that Paul who's also referred to as the Job of the New Testament the professional warrior who Jesus had to keep appearing to I think just to keep the guy going in his life. He still struggled with anxiety and he gives us his peace plan in Philippians 4:6-7 and 8 that is Paul's peace plan. Paul had to learn the peace of God. The peace of God is a discipline. It is not something we can toss at you or tag you with but it is God's will. It is a discipline. I've got to retrain my thinking and guess what happens when we live in the discipline of God. It's Philippians 4:8 is a powerful passage.

Now these are 32 English words. There's one verb. So there's one action about living in the peace of God and do you see this word right here? Would you just say it out loud with me think Paul's peace is anchored in what he focuses on. He gives us six adjectives two nouns one verb 32 words. This is how Paul survived his anxiety. I go back to truth. A latheist in Greek Paul wrote about truth 55 times in his epistles. He loved truth always coming back to truth. Whatever is noble right pure lovely admirable if anything's excellent appraiseworthy think and it's not just like I'm thinking I'm daydreaming its focus on these things and you know what you might have to do this 200 times today. And you know what the brain can heal itself when you do that. That's how you're going to get out of trauma. That's how you're going to get away from the lies. Do you know how assaulted we are with lies. We touch our phones 2600 times per day. We see 10,000 media messages a day full of lies. This is do you see why Paul said we have to keep coming back to truth. What is the truth?

So the content so peace comes through thinking and trusting through action and this is so much different than the world's peace. The world wants you to be an avatar. The world wants you to be a screen name a handle not a real person go lose your mind somewhere get in somebody else's life escape. No, the Bible says think about who you are in Christ think about how much God loves you in the plan he asked for your life see yourself as Jesus sees you. Do you see the difference? The content of my thinking will determine my peace and happiness factor. So here's a great question. I had to again push myself away from the desk. I'm writing the book. Lord, am I trusting what I know is true of my life through Christ or am I focusing on my problem to such an extent that I have factored God out of my situational equation.

And you know what I'm not here to you know, no one's ever been judged into the kingdom of God. I love you. I've been into that. I've been in that place where you do a quick calculation in your mind of your problems. And you go catastrophic and then we factor God out of the situation and then it just spirals. Come back to truth. Come back to the one who says I'm the way the truth in the life. I spelled truth J-E-S-U-S Jesus. It's a discipline. So every time I experience anxiety and and it doesn't feel right at first we'll talk about that in a minute but it works. And I promise every time you experience anxiety, I don't care if you're on a plane train automobile, whatever take a moment and misbelieve any lies you're believing and instead focus on the truth. A lie will become truth in your life if you believe the lie. Don't believe it. My life has to be bolted to truth. I love how Keller says there's a stupid piece and there's a smart piece. The Christian's Shalom is not by making yourself stupid. It's by making yourself as aware of your beliefs as thoughtful as possible. I love that.

So we learn the peace of God. It's a discipline truth. Our life is bolted to truth and that brings transformation. And can I just tell you this? Let me encourage you for a minute because I remember when I was in the prism of anxiety, would you give yourself some grace today? Do you know how long Paul had been following Jesus before he sits down and writes Philippians 4? He had been a Christian 30 years ladies and gentlemen. He had experienced a few things. Then give yourself some grace. You're going to come out of this situation. Give yourself some grace. He gives grace for today. We learn God's peace. He used the word truth 55 times. We think about it. I must choose the trust in the truth of God over all the lies. What are some lies that we sometimes believe? And again, I have a whole series on the lies that can just well up within us and paralyze us. I'm alone. I have no hope. I'm the only one who's ever gone through this. Another lie is I have to have it all figured out. Can I tell you something? You don't have to have it all figured out.

Now, I prepared for my sermon this week. I've been preparing for it all week. So I'm not saying don't be prepared, but you don't have to have it all figured out. Leave room for the Lord to work in your life. Uncertainty isn't danger. Do you know that we live in a society we want certainty in everything, especially among our college students? Don't build a distortion about God and myself and reality. So it's a discipline. Number four, living in Shalom then is definitely countercultural. I've already explained the prescription the world gives for peace. It's faulty. It's shallow. It's vacuous. The Bible says that when you begin to live in the peace of God, you're going to live a countercultural lifestyle. This means now Jeremiah, are you saying that you actually sat down with your wife and your five kids and said, you know, I'm an Uber driver for my kids full-time ladies and gentlemen, that's my position. They don't give me reviews or stars or anything.

They just Lily wants me to Lily's at this stage like a lot of kids where she's individuating. She's trying to figure out where her parents end and her identity begins. She wants me to keep the refrigerator full pay for all of her bills. Keep the refrigerator stocked. Take her to Ulta for three hours, but then drop her off on the corner. Don't say hi and act like I don't know where in public. So I'm there. I had to sit down with my family and say guys, we're going to start saying no to a few things. Our family wants to live in peace. Do you know it's changed the countenance of my kids? Can I just be transparent with you? We've been just running and gunning for six years and I put a stop to it. Church. My wife is in church today. My kiddos are in Sunday school. We orient our life around the church and the peace of God and my parents came to visit and even my dad said Jeremiah Lily's countenance has changed. Not that it was terrible before but there's a peace in our home. Now I say that, you know, I'll go home and the wheels will fall off tomorrow with the triplets, but you might hear read the news and some but it is today. Living in Shalom is countercultural.

Don't look to the world for this prescription of peace. I have to develop a care team, someone that will help me. I need people in my life that help me manage my stress, anxiety, and depression. Jeremiah, do you have a care team? No, I just do it all by myself. I'm so smart. I can handle it all myself and I don't need any encouragement. I don't need anyone to talk to. I'm Mensa. I'm a genie. Really? No. So many of the people you love whom God is using to minister to you, they see a counselor regularly. We don't wait until a crisis to see someone. I go to an annual physical. I go to an annual appointment with a psychologist. Ladies and gentlemen, it's one of the most important things I do. I need a well-check. Everybody shares with me their heartbreaking story. Do you know sometimes it's hard to go back to my room and just turn it off? I need a care team. You have a pastor that is exemplified what it is to live in Shalom and I can't wait to learn from him the next three weeks.

I close with this very important point of living in the peace of God. Number five, my faith is not what I feel. My faith is what I believe. Now you might have to remind yourself of this 20 times before you go to bed tonight, but it is a fact. According to the scriptures, my faith is not what I feel. I am not justified with God based on my feelings. No, my faith is what I believe. I'm justified with God through faith in Christ. We live in such a feelings-dominated culture. I shared this in the last hour. I'll share it again. I was speaking recently to college students and a student walked up to me and said, Jeremiah, I don't vibe you. And I'm like, well, brother, I don't vibe you either. Vibing, feeling. I feel this is truth today. It becomes very odd and yet we want to live in a world like that and we shouldn't. My feelings do not validate the Word of God in my life. I'm a Christian because Jesus died and rose again. It's a fact. I follow that fact and it's changed my life now, but I want to reach out to the person here today and nobody may know it but you but you're struggling and panic you hear all that and you think Jeremiah if I'm willing to make these marginal changes, is it going to like is the anxiety going to turn off tonight? I'm sorry to say no, it probably won't.

But you'll be amazed if you'll just put these five points into action and you just make a few marginal changes and if you start doing it today, tomorrow, a week, a month, you'll be a different person a year from now. I want to close and share this with you. I'm living in the peace of God today. It's a great place to be. Will you please live in the peace and the Shalom of God? Will you make a commitment today to make your own peace plan? Let's bow our heads and pray.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity to trust you, Lord that you will bring us peace, a peace that passes understanding. The Lord you expect us to orient our life to your Shalom. We take your word, God, that you will let us experience you as the God of peace. The Lord help us to think and concentrate on what's true. Father, I pray for everyone here today with every head bowed and every eye closed. Some of you are here, you've missed that first step. You haven't placed your trust in Jesus Christ and so you've missed the divine order of God's peace. You can nail it down right now. I'm not going to embarrass anyone or call anyone out, but I do want to lead you to faith in Jesus Christ. I can't forgive you of your sins, but I can lead you into a personal relationship with the one who can.

If you want to make sure that you're not just one of those religious people that are missing Jesus, you can make that step conditioned on one thing alone, faith, and not just faith and faith, but faith in Jesus. Pray this prayer with me if you want to know for sure, Jesus is your Savior. Lord Jesus, I admit I'm a sinner and right now by faith, I place my trust in you Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to give me eternal life and peace and Shalom with God. Jesus help me now in my Christian walk. If you prayed that prayer, you're forgiven immediately, transformed, forgiven in a moment and now the peace of God is the wonderful promise for you.

How many of you with every head bowed and every eye closed would just say Jeremiah, I've been listening to you and I need a peace plan in my life. If that's you, would you just raise your hand up so I can pray for you as you embark on a peace plan. We're not looking around but there's hands raised all over this auditorium. I need a peace plan. Father, I pray now as we leave this wonderful worship service that your spirit Lord John 16:13 would guide us to begin creating our own peace plan as a church and as an individual and a family with our kids. Lord, I pray you'd give us the strength to say no to maybe good things so that we can live in the best thing your peace. Give us strength Lord to give ourselves grace today as well knowing that transformation is a process. Salvation as we just saw happens in a moment. We thank you in a blink of an eye. Lord, we're forgiven but God transformation is a process. Help us to live in grace. Bless Pastor René. Thank you so much for his teaching and I pray you're anointing on him the next three weeks. Lord, we love you. I'm going to invite you to finish that prayer wherever you're seated. Right now just take a moment and you put a PS on that prayer. You just customize your prayer to the Lord in Jesus name.