Who holds the missing peace? Missing ‘peace’ sounds like missing ‘piece’. In the invite, there’s a picture of a jigsaw with a missing piece.

The ultimate cause of unrest is the failure to fill the void in the human heart. A baby cries when its hungry. Quickly he falls asleep when he’s fed. But when we grow into adulthood, things become complicated. So complicated, we don’t even understand ourselves. When we can’t get what we want, we do things that harm others and ourselves. Sometimes we do things that knowingly harm others. Sometimes we do things that unknowingly harm others and ourselves. It’s a vicious cycle. The world becomes more chaotic. People become more fearful and insecure. The void in them becomes more greatly felt.

There is a children’s book called ‘The Missing Piece’. It’s a written by a poet Shel Silverstein. He wrote ‘The Giving Tree’ too.

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An incomplete circle rolled around trying to find its missing piece. Along the way, it sang, “I’m trying to find my missing piece~” Finally, the incomplete circle found its missing piece. But when it found its missing piece, he realised he couldn’t sing anymore. So it thought it’ll be better off without it, and let it go. The incomplete circle continued rolling and singing, “I’m trying to find my missing piece~”
Life is a constant search for a missing piece after all.

This is a nice story telling children to accept themselves despite their incompleteness. But today’s topic is about a totally different thing.

There are certain things in life we cannot do without. So we cannot live our lives just singing and looking for our missing piece. There’re some things we cannot live without. We can still live with a missing kidney, or even a missing lung. But we cannot live when we have a missing heart valve, even though it’s a very very small piece.

Interestingly, there’s a teen fiction book: an Abundance of Katherines. In the book, the father gave his son a missing piece. He asked the son, “Son, do you sometimes feel like a circle with a missing piece?” The son replied, “I’m not a circle, I’m a boy.” It’s true. We’re talking about human beings not a circle. We cannot afford to have a missing piece in our lives. A missing piece in a jigsaw can never be acceptable. Maybe it’s acceptable to us. Perhaps the missing piece is part of the sky which is all the same colour. But is that really acceptable? There’s a Chinese story where a piece of the sky was missing. There was a hole in the sky, it kept flooding the earth! The hole needed to be plugged!

There’s a void in the deepest parts of the human soul that needs to be filled, otherwise we can’t have peace. There’re philosophies that teach us to empty ourselves e.g. letting go of our hunger. It’ll never work. Imagining we’re not hungry doesn’t take the hunger away. Man is made to be filled, not emptied. So our thirst for fulfilment will never go away.

Some who lead ascetic lives fast themselves to death, believing it to be true liberation and the achievement of ultimate peace.

The Bible tells us that our thirst MUST be quenched. The good thing is that the Bible also tells us how.

John 4:7-10 (read)
Jesus purposely went to this place to speak with the Samaritan woman. To break the ice, He requested for water to drink (since they were at the well and she was drawing water). At that time, there was interracial disharmony. Sounds familiar? This was 2000 years ago.

Woman: “How come You, a Jew, speak to me?”
Jesus: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (v10)

Regarding the gift of God:
When we feel emptiness in us, many human beings, instead of going to the Creator, we try to find satisfaction on our own.

When we have an expensive, complicated piece of equipment and something goes wrong, the best solution is to bring it back to the manufacturers. If we don’t know how to operate certain things, when something doesn’t seem to be working right, we look at the manual the manufacturers give us. If we do things by trial and error, we might spoil it! How much more when we talk about human beings? Therefore we should go back to the one who created us; to fill up that void in us; to right what is wrong in us.

Jesus knew this woman led a very unfulfilled life. So His approach was to raise up how her life was so unfulfilled and dry, and needed water.

v16-18
Jesus knew what her life was like. What Jesus said to her was so true, she went to the city to tell everyone to hear from Him because He had told her her whole life. Did Jesus really tell her her whole life? Not literally. But in essence He did. By saying she had 5 husbands and was cohabitating with a 6th man described how unfulfilled her life was. Don’t be so quick to judge her for being loose. No one wants to get married so many times.

Many of us live our lives similarly. We want to fill our void with things we think can fill it. With cars, clubbing, tattoos, sex, dangerous adventures. But we remain empty.

That was the Samaritan woman. But she was so slow in realising what Jesus was saying. That’s why Jesus asked her to bring her husband.

v13-15
Jesus said the water from the well would only satisfy her for a while. But the water He could give her would satisfy her forever. “The water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water sprinting up into everlasting life.” This clearly shows the water isn’t physical.

She was slow in understanding physical things can never fill up our void.

There was very very rich man. So rich that he could give half his wealth to the poor and have enough for himself. But he was very lonely. One day he met Jesus. He gave his wealth to the poor and returned fourfold to those he cheated. He was willing to part with his wealth because he found true satisfaction. And he found peace with himself!

Many of us are not at peace because we’re not at peace with ourselves. Our mind is very confusing. We try to use ways that cannot fill us to fill us.

Often we can only understand things on a material plane. That’s why we can only look towards material things for the answers.

John 4:10
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
We must know who Jesus is. Then we’ll know who holds the missing piece/peace in our lives.

John 4:11-12
When Jesus said, “If you know who I am, you’d ask Me for living water.”
She answered, “This well is so deep! Are you better than our father Jacob?”
Jacob had dug that well. Jacob was gone but people still benefited from the well he dug.

There’re people we respect. Perhaps they are dead but they have brought us benefit. Lee Kwan Yew for example. Some of us pray to our ancestors for help too.

But they are human beings, and human beings can only give us limited help. Who is Jesus then? Can He help?

Mark 4:35-41
These people were in a boat. There was a great storm. They were almost going to die because the boat was sinking. At first they didn’t know who Jesus was and what He could do. Then Jesus rebuked the winds and waves, “Peace, be still!” The winds and waves ceased.

Mark 2:1-12
A paralytic man was brought to Jesus by 4 good friends on a stretcher. They couldn’t find a way to Jesus. They surveyed and decided to go up to the roof and open up the roof roughly where Jesus was. They opened up the roof and lowered the paralytic down. It was obvious what they wanted Jesus to do. As Jesus, what would we do? Say “Get up and walk” obviously.

But Jesus instead said, “Your sins are forgiven you.”

People thought Jesus was being blasphemous. Jesus said, “Which is harder: to say your sins are forgiven you or to say rise up and walk?” He then told the paralytic to rise up and walk.

Jesus performed the miracle to show He had the power to forgive sins.

So who is Jesus? Someone who was in control of the wind and waves. Someone who could release a man from his sin. And when he told the man to get up anyways walk, He’s trying to say, “If I have power to release people from sin, I have the power to release people from their sicknesses.”

You may say, “This is in the Bible, how do I know it’s true? Or even if it’s true, Jesus is gone. How can you get Him to do the same now?”

There was an employee from Nanyang Sanpao, a table tennis team. Once they were on a boat and the sea was very rough. Everybody knew they were in great danger. The employee saw his general manager kneel down and pray and speak in tongues. He was praying for his life and all their lives. Quickly, a man went to the helm and took control of the boat. Quickly, the waves were calm. The man happened to be an experienced sailor.
The point is this: when the general manager prayed, not only did the man come, the sea calmed down too.

It left a very strong impression on the Nanyang Sanpao employee. Years later, his son came to the True Jesus Church and brought him as well. The moment he came here and heard the prayers, he immediately wondered, “Is this where my general manager attends?” This man became a True Jesus Church member.

Another true Singapore story (not ghost story lol):
There was a man who was a gangster; a secret society member. He even had links to Eastern Europe. He didn’t think very much about Jesus or respect Him. He showed the speaker a picture of his friends in Eastern Europe. They had their own way of worshipping Jesus. In name, they were Christians. His friend baptised his son. In order to celebrate, they threw a party. Friends congratulated him and gave him a gift. The gift was a portrait of Jesus on the cross. The face was the face of the man whose son was baptised. That’s how people treat Jesus, including this Singaporean man who thought it was funny.

One day his daughter became very very sick, diagnosed with cancer. It went to the brain. The speaker saw the girl. She was frail and was undergoing cancer treatment. She lost all her hair.

This man came to the True Jesus Church. We shared the gospel with him. He believed. He got baptised. His daughter too. At the point of baptism, the doctors gave her 2 months. Strangely, after baptism, she became better and stronger. There was less pain. And then the cancer was gone.

But 2 years later, the cancer came back and his daughter died. What happened to this man? After the funeral, he was praying, with gratitude. The speaker talked to him after that. He said, “God is great. My daughter only had 2 months left to live. But God gave 2 years. For me to enjoy time with my daughter and to know Jesus better. He’s the Lord of life! He’s the one who brought healing for 2 years.” If his daughter had died after baptism, he said he would’ve done the most evil thing and be angry with God. “But not now because I know Jesus better.”

Jesus is the same. To prove he has the power to forgive sins, He says, “Get up and walk!” Of course that paralytic still died in the end. All healings, whether by God or the doctor, will end up with us dying in the end. Because God doesn’t intend for us to stay in this world. Miracles are a window for us to see a future world where there’s no sickness, suffering, sorrow. Without death!

Just as Jesus was able to heal sickness and forgive sins while He was on earth, today skentikes in our baptism in the True Jesus Church, healing takes place. Just like this girl whose cancer was healed for 2 years. To show Jesus is the Saviour and forgives sins.

John 4:28-29
What did the Samaritan woman do later? After Jesus painstakingly explained things to her, she got it. She left her entire water pot. At first she thought when Jesus gave her water she didn’t need to draw water anymore. Her routine was to draw water and bring the water pot back home. She left the water pot, because she met Jesus. She went to tell people of the newfound joy she had.

People who meet Jesus will behave like that.

We don’t know your situation. But in certain ways, we’re like this woman. Maybe you’re facing difficulties with your job. Maybe you’re having problems with your spouse, parents, children. Your life is full of problems but Jesus can fill the void in your lives.

Broken marriages have been healed. The wife wanted to commit suicide because of her husband. But God saved her. God gave her the Holy Spirit. She threw the poison she wanted to drink away. She wasn’t even baptised. God brought her to church. Later, her husband was changed and came to church also.

In conclusion, let’s look at what happened to the men the Samaritan woman talked to.
John 4:39-42
After the Samaritan woman told people about Jesus, they came to Jesus and urged Him to stay there. Later they said they believed not because of what the Samaritan woman told them but because they heart directly from Jesus.

To the truthseekers in the congregation:
You have made your way here because somebody has told you about us or you saw the tract. Why not speak to Jesus directly? And find out He holds the missing piece/peace and is the Saviour.