Uh if you are joining us for the first time, or if you're new to church and your head is spinning from all the clapping and the hand raising and all the what's going on, uh, you know, we have a new song in our church uh that is called Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen, which might be the most Christian ease set of words that have ever been put together for a song in my life, but I love the song. And you might be wondering, like, what is going on here? But the reality is you've stepped into a room of people who are uh transformed and excited, and all the devotion and all the giving and all the things that people are pouring into church comes from individuals who have been touched and transformed by Jesus. Amen. A couple of weeks ago we had Jasmine Johnson here, and she talked about our tambourine testimony, and she started in Ephesians chapter two, where Ephesians is a letter written by Paul. Uh it is in the New Testament. Jesus has died and risen again, he's gone to heaven, and now Paul is writing to the church that is uh in Ephesus, and he says this in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. He said, Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. And then it goes on if we look at it in the message translation. The message translation is a paraphrase. It is uh not a word-for-word translation of the Greek, but it's a paraphrase written by a great man of God, Eugene Peterson. He puts it like this It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with unpolluted with polluted unbelief and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it. All of us were doing what we felt like doing when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. But this room is full of people that once lived that stagnant, polluted lives, but until we experienced the but God moment. God who steps into our brokenness and brings healing. He moves across the distance to draw near to us, steps into our death and brings us life. And if we go back to the New Living Translation, Paul continues on. He says, But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved. For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and he has seated us with him in heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. And that is what it's all about. That's the excitement, that's why we're building the church, that's why we lift our hands, that's why we clap, that's why we do all the Christian things we do, is because of that but God moment. Jesus gave his life so that we could receive life. We couldn't earn it, we didn't deserve it, but God. This is a church that knows the richness of his mercy, that knows the power of his love, and knows the gift of life we have. And it's from that revelation in the first part of Ephesians chapter 2 that the church is built. And like I said before, at the start of the year and through this month, we've been talking about building together. And this theme that's shaping our year as a church is from that same chapter where Paul is explaining to the Ephesians, but it's relevant to us today, that God is now building his church. And again, from the message translation, it says this at the end of Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19. It says, God is building a home, he's using us all, irrespective of how we got here, in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets as the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all parts together. We see it taking shape day after day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it. A temple in which God is quite at home. And part of why we honor Audrey and I honor all of you who are building day by day, brick by brick, is because we create an environment where God is very much at home and people get to experience it. The thing is, when we've been discussing this idea, I think it's more like stonework than brickwork. You know, bricks are uniform in shape, they're square, they're made from a mould. But stones, they're what you find. Perhaps they're a bit shattered, you know, they've been shattered from boulders, or perhaps they're a bit worn down by the weather, perhaps they've been cracked by a chisel. But somehow, no matter how you find yourself here today, the good news is like Eugene Peterson paraphrases, he's using you. You may feel like your stone doesn't fit, but God, by his grace, finds a place for you. And the beauty of this work is that it's God, the beauty of this work by God is a holy temple, all of us built into it. A temple in which God is quite at home, built by God and a home for God. So this month it's been a beautiful moment as we've joined our hearts and hands together in mission, building together, bringing our bricks to build something where God is present. So today I want to look at the bridge between these two thoughts. That uh first thought in Ephesians chapter 2, where God, where Paul is talking about um we've been saved from death to life. We've been made new. And that that final passage in chapter two where it talks about being built together. And I want to look at the bridge in between. And I want to speak to you today on this idea of building on peace. Building on peace. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace, that you have chosen us, that you are bringing together a community built together for your presence to reside, Lord God. And we pray that as we speak and as we open our hearts to your word, that you would um knit us together, that you would build something that glorifies you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The Bible tells us that uh when people get married, that two become one. Uh in fact, the Spice Girls, they tell us the same thing. So uh you know that there is some truth to it. And uh part of uh entering into marriage and that sort of relationship is um I bring my stuff and Claire, when we got married, she brought her stuff, and the stuff kind of gets smooshed together, and you have to work out how that works. Uh, Claire, my wonderful wife who pastors with me, is uh in our kids' ministry today. Uh shout out to her taking care of the young ones. So the good news is I can't get in trouble for whatever I'm about to say because she won't hear it. And uh Claire and I, our relationship uh fit together very naturally. We had a lot in common. We both loved church, we both loved God, uh, we both came from families that had similar values. Uh culturally, we were two Aussie kids, uh albeit I grew up in Perth, so Perth and Newcastle sometimes feel like different countries. But um there was one difference that really stood out to me when we uh, you know, started in our relationship, and that was sibling dynamic. And there are Roonies scattered throughout the room here today. And if you've been in our church, you've probably met a Rooney. Uh, there's probably some in Kids Church uh helping out there, and there was some playing keyboards today and things like that. And uh the Roonies do this thing called a car wash. I don't know how it gets its name. You'll have to ask Mark and Sharon where the name actually comes from. But around special times like uh birthdays and things like that, they they go around the table and they sit there and they'll say something like, uh Claire, I love you because, and then they say something nice and edifying about that person. And it's a really beautiful moment, and it's now a tradition our family uh for Claire and I have taken on. Uh, but for me, when I first began to experience it, it was quite foreign to me because there was no like backhanded compliments, there was no subtle, you know, like insults slipped in. It was just genuine like kindness to one another, and they were genuinely open and blessing each other. And it frightened me because I had not come from this family dynamic. I had, although raised in a very positive environment, I want to make that clear. My mum's here. I don't certainly uh I certainly am grateful for a lot of things, but she would be the first to acknowledge that she would use the phrase that our dinner table was more like a locker room than the picture we had before. And for us four boys, I have three brothers. Um while the Rooneys may have been like the Cosby show and you know, like really wholesome family moments, our dinner table was a bit more like South Park. Like it was uh just constantly offending everyone. And uh we didn't have a name for it, but maybe you could call it a reverse car wash, where you would begin insulting someone, and they would be the uh point of you know everyone's jokes until they could divert it to someone else. Uh perhaps the lowest point we ever reached was that one of my brothers had uh gone through chemotherapy, had had cancer treatment, and at one point got referred to as cancer boy, which seems like probably the harshest thing you could ever say. And I can see some faces. And thank God for wives and uh the women who came into our lives, uh, because they at some point pointed out to us like this is not okay, this is not normal, and uh we've uh we've learned to grow out of that. And it's that example of two families colliding, Thompson's and Rooney's, and the differences that they have, that Paul is speaking to in this middle section of Ephesians chapter 2. God is building us together, and like he said before, all the bricks aren't uniform. Sometimes they're a bit different. And if Claire and I's story teaches us anything, that even people who are in love, like Claire and I were, we still had our differences, and peace isn't just something that naturally happens without a bit of work. It's almost like humanity has this innate uh predisposition to fracturing, to a tendency towards finding differences. And Paul acknowledges that there are two distinct people groups that have experienced the love and mercy of God. And as he writes to the Ephesian church, there are Jewish believers whose worldview is the Old Testament, they've grown up with you know the God of the Bible and all the traditions and all the things that come with being um a Jewish believer, and then on the other side are what's called the nations, so that's the literal definition of Gentiles, if you've ever read that in your Bible. And the Gentiles have experienced the message of Jesus, they've experienced the same love and mercy, and they've experienced the same adoption into God's family, but they don't necessarily have that same Old Testament view or upbringing that the Jewish believers had. And today we could go through this room and identify all the differences that are being smooshed together. That's the theological word for it. And there are people here who have been smooshed together brick by brick. Aussies and immigrants smooshed together for God's purposes. People who have spent their whole lives in church, and people who have just newly come to church. They're getting smooshed together. There are extroverts and introverts, they're smooshed, there's rich and poor, they're smooshed, there's young and old, and we're all smooshed together. Church is the great smooshing. Jews and Gentiles and everything in between. And it's in this context that Paul writes that middle section of Ephesians chapter 2 that we'll look at today. And I am jumping around translations for anyone following along at home. We're in the New King James Version here. It says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished, that is removed, in his flesh the enmity, that's the reason for opposition, all the things that could separate us have been abolished now. That is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. And that he might reconcile them both, whether Jew or Gentile, whether Aussie or immigrant, whatever background you come from, God in one body threw the cross, thereby putting to death the things that separate us. And he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near, for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Jesus didn't come so that we could just tolerate different people. Jesus didn't just come so that different people could get along, he came that we might have peace, because he himself is our peace. What's the first thing you think of when it comes to peace? Does peace make you think of you know the Miss Universe pageant where all the MissUniverses say that they want to have world peace? Do you think of you know sitting on a beach as the sun rises? Or perhaps for you people who aren't mourning people, as the sun sets, you prefer? Or does peace simply look like being able to enjoy your cup of tea while it's still warm and the kids are not bothering you for a few seconds? There's a few people amening to that. In the world's mind, we often think of peace as something out there that we go to find. Peace is like this external event that we're searching for, but the world continues to grapple with an ever-increasing attack on the peace of our souls. Twenty years ago, believe it or not, the internet still had like long-form like blogs and stuff. People used to actually write paragraphs of text. And then we moved into like the social media, iPhone, app, um, time, and we began scrolling. And all of a sudden, everything became shorter to the point now where we live in a 10-second, 20-second reels and videos. And what that means is there is just a constant barrage of information, and it's designed uh as if we have this term rage baiting, it's this cycle of emotional response in the name of engagement. And what it's doing in our society is it's eroding peace, it's eroding a sense of stability. So no matter what part of the algorithm that you are trapped in, it will just constantly feed things to you designed to create an emotional response. And that idea of 20 years ago where you could actually read something for 10 minutes, now it's 20 seconds just designed to get straight to the point and create a moment of emotional response from you. But in a world where peace seems fleeting, both externally and internally, both in our relationships with others and the relationships with ourselves, Jesus' words reach out to us. In the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 27, it 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. Jesus is speaking to listeners whose worldview is the Aramaic language with a Hebrew influence. Their view of peace that he's talking about is the word that's used in the Old Testament and one that you perhaps have not heard, and that is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Now, the New Testament transcripts they are in Greek, uh, so this particular phrase was recorded with the Greek uh word which is Irene, but most likely Jesus said the words as he spoke to his disciples, shalom alekem, which is peace be upon you. And shalom gives a broader idea of peace, where we often think of peace as just as the absence of conflict, but shalom speaks to more than that, it speaks to what replaces the conflict. Shalom speaks to completeness and wholeness. And I'd recommend uh if you are online and looking at the Bible project, they have a great word study on Shalom Peace, uh, if you ever want to check that out. But in the Old Testament, Shalom speaks to a stone without cracks, a wall without gaps, a community where no animals are missing from the herd or flock. It is that idea of completeness, like all is well and full. And it extends to a person's well-being. In all the moving parts and complexities of the human spirit, shalom can take place internally. It's not just an act, uh it's not just a noun, but it can act as a verb that you can bring shalom to a situation, that you can bring completeness and restoration. For example, uh Solomon, when he completes the temple in the Old Testament, he brings the temple to Shalom. Uh Moses, when he sets out laws and talks about restoring damages to what to someone that you've wronged, he talks about bringing Shalom to that situation and that relationship. And in Proverbs, it talks about a relationship being restored through the bringing of Shalom. And kingdoms that experience Shalom, they don't just stop fighting, they start working together for one another's benefit. And it's in this context that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah speaks to what he sees in the future, speaks to one who is coming. In Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 and 7. And I feel like uh Sam Gebethna typically sings this song around Christmas time, and it's all the emotions and it's all the vibes, and you get the tingles on your arms, and it says, For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, the government will rest on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. In the moments I have left, I want to share three thoughts with you. One, that peace is a person, that peace is the platform, and that peace has a place. Firstly, let's look at this idea that peace is a person. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14 says, For he himself, Jesus, is our peace. When Jesus comes and says, Peace I give to you, he's giving us so much more than a moment in the midst of a day full of tantrums. He's giving us so much more than a moment where you don't have to worry about work deadlines or a busy schedule. He's giving us something deeper than that. He gives us what Paul describes in the book of Philippians, when he says in Philippians chapter four, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your heart and your mind as you live in Christ Jesus. So Jesus gives us peace, not the world's peace. Where the world's peace is absence of conflict, his peace is his presence. Where the world's peace is temporary based on the circumstances, based on how the day is going, based on what the news report is, based on what the CGT tax is going to be next year, or whatever the things that we assign our peace to, his peace is permanent based on completion. And while the world's peace is passive, it's something that happens to us, it's something that happens because of whatever's going on around us. His peace is active, it's something we carry with us and we take it into whatever environment we go. And I understand stress. I understand that many of you might experience stress, and I understand there are some very practical things you can do, like go for a two-hour long run to reduce your stress. Bless you with that, Ruth. Or whatever it is that you do to reduce your stress. But we can fall into the trap of worry, and this is a different thing. Worry makes you feel like you're taking responsibility for a situation because you're worrying about it, but worry never actually achieves anything in its action. There is never any positive fruit that comes from worrying about something. Worry relies on me, like I have to fix this. But peace understands that the source of peace is him. We can look at the world, but it is constantly shifting beneath our feet, or we can look at Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And in this room, as I talk about peace, like it's this easy thing that we can all have as we leave today, I understand that there are broken situations. In this room, perhaps with broken hearts. I want to encourage you that the truth of God's word, that your peace isn't rooted in that circumstance. You can have peace in the midst of it. I'm believing in this atmosphere of faith as we worshiped before, that as we lift up Jesus and magnify him, the Prince of Peace, that you could experience a peace that surpasses understanding. Peace isn't something out there that you have to find if the situation aligns and the weather's just right and the air con's not so freezing cold, and you can find peace. Peace is something you can have. It's something you can have right here, now, in the complete and full work of Jesus Christ. But God, so rich in mercy, who loved us so much, he hasn't given us coping mechanisms just to get through life, he's given us new life. So the world around you might be in chaos, but you are in Christ. He is peace and his peace he gives to you. I don't need distractions to take my mind off it. I need Jesus. I don't need substances to dull the anxiety. I need Jesus. I don't need to get away from it to experience peace. I just need to find Jesus in the midst of it. Your world might be in pieces, but I can experience the one who is shalom peace. So first and foremost, peace is a person. Peace is the presence of Jesus. We receive peace in Jesus. And secondly, peace is the platform. When the message paraphrase speaks to that final uh passage in chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, it says, God is building a home. He's using us all. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all parts together. That whole passage, verse uh 19, starts with the Greek araun, that is the so then translated in your new King James. It says, so then, because of this peace, because of what he's done, so then, now he's able to build us brick by brick. We are built on peace. Because peace is something Jesus gives us and it's something we receive, we can now build on peace. That's where we get this picture of the church being built together, brick by brick, because shalom peace is completeness. And completeness doesn't happen in isolation, it comes by us, our togetherness being joined together. So by the end of Ephesians, as Paul talks about unity, forgiveness, humility, it's not a strategy for peace. He is describing the life of people who have already experienced peace. Peace is not the goal we're aiming for, it's the reality we step into. And as people in Christ, peace is our inheritance and our identity. Jesus is in not just the peace within us, he's the peace between us as people. So what are the behaviors of people who are in peace, people who live with peace? Ephesians chapter 4 talks about uh people who are humble and gentle. Because we are complete and whole because of what Jesus has done, we're secure. So we aren't threatened by our differences, we aren't threatened by different giftings, we aren't focused on what separates us. We can celebrate others without the need for recognition of ourselves. We don't stand for unforgiveness or gossip, and we don't hold grudges because we are people who live with peace. Ephesians chapter 4 talks about patience and bearing with one another. Because we're complete, because of what Jesus has done within us, we can cover other people's shortcomings. We don't have to be offended, we don't have to repress people because of every mistake they make. It says we're making every effort to bind ourselves together in peace. Because we're complete and whole, we become generous people, not just in gen, not just in our giving, but in our emotions and in our kindness and in how we bless one another. Our interactions aren't based out of what we get out of it because we already have peace. Our interactions allow us to give freely because from what we give, we are still whole. We don't come as takers, we come as people who already have shalom wholeness. We don't have to see what we can get from other people to try and make ourselves whole. We're already whole. So we don't come as takers, we come as givers to one another. Because we are at peace, others can experience God. And ultimately, that's how Ephesians chapter 2 becomes its crescendo, its final statement, is that it is a place where God is very much at home. So we see it taking shape day after day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. The same restoration we've experienced and are experiencing, we can extend to others. And in this, the church fulfills its call to bring the kingdom of God to the world, brick by brick, building on peace. We create a church community where people can experience restoration. They can experience that shalom completeness and restoration. I'll invite the band to come. Lastly, we've spoken about peace is a person, and peace is the platform on which we build our church, and peace has a place. Ephesians 2, verse 16 says, Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of death on the cross. If you want to find peace, peace is a person, and peace has a place. Again, Isaiah in the Old Testament, he speaks into the future as to what one day Jesus would achieve on the cross. In Isaiah 53, verse 5, it says this. We're now in the NIV version, but he was pierced for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment, the cross, that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. And we talk about that often in a physical healing, but it is so much more deeper than that. By what he bore on the cross, we receive peace. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity or the shortcomings and failures of us all. It's at the cross that all the different pasts, Jews or Gentiles, Aussies or immigrants, church folks or people new to faith, extroverts, introverts, rich and poor, young and old, whatever it is, you and I are reconciled to God at the cross, and the church he's building is formed. The smooshing together takes place, it takes place at the cross. It's the cross that Isaiah prophesied, where our failures, our shortcomings, our brokenness, our sin, that is our pride and rejection of God, it was laid on him. And because God, who took it all upon himself on the cross, we receive peace. We come to the cross, where we exchange our brokenness for his completeness. We exchange our fears and uncertainty for his steadfast love. We exchange our trust in things that fail in his never failing love. We exchange the things that separate us for the things that bind us together. We exchange our sin for his righteousness. And we exchange our anxiety for the confidence of the cross that the work was completed. The things we can't carry ourselves, we can take to the cross and we can leave them there. The cross is the place of the great exchange. Our brokenness for his wholeness. The cross is where all the broken things of this world were taken upon Jesus. And in his completed work, he gives us shalom peace. The cross isn't just a moment of peace. It's not just something you experienced perhaps one time and you raised your hand in a church service or prayed a prayer or whatever it looked like. It's a permanent, finished work of peace. And it was Jesus on that cross when he uttered the words it is finished. Peace is ours.