 I want to greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, our saviour, good morning and happy sabbat. We want to welcome you into this worship today, and we want to start with singing. We want to welcome all of those who are in church and even those who are watching us on various platforms and in various destinations in the part of this world. Before we start anything we want to pose for a word of prayer, let us pray. Loving Father, we come before you with thanksgiving in our hearts for leading us safely into a house of worship to praise your name and to give you thanks. We invite your presence to be with us now as we start this session of worship. Let you may send your holy angels to come and abide with us and that these praises may be acceptable before you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. In front of you we have choristers who are serving you today and I will request them to say their names and what voices they are saying. I start with my immediate rites. Happy sabbat and happy day. Yes, my name is Caleb Makori, I'll be doing tena. May the Lord bless you. Happy sabbat. Happy day. Melisanto Gwari, I sing alto. Happy sabbat. Happy day. Naomi Maosa, the soprano of the day. Be blessed. We want to welcome our pianist, Sister Louise Alwaj. Thank you. We'll start us song by song Damba. SBA hymnol 39. Lord in the morning. Lord in the mosh of him my voice ascending out to the high prayer, to him to guide my feet in his straight head. Our next song will be song number SBA hymnol 38. Don't forget the sabbat. Let's sing. Don't forget the sanitation. Thank you. Let's go to our nimboza Christo Sabini 70. Wopensi wabwana. Let's sing. Happy sabbat church. Good morning. We are glad that this is yet another time that God has given us the opportunity to come to his sanctuary, to worship him and just to give him thanks for the week that has been. This is that moment when we have charged a study and we are going to break into our action unit. We have been looking at in the crucible with Christ this quarter and there have been such profound lessons. Today we are looking at or we are going to discuss waiting in the crucible. Now in waiting in the crucible, I mean it's a continuation of last week's study where we learned that meekness is key while in the crucible. And waiting means waiting in the crucible then means that sometimes it takes longer than we may imagine or we may think but God has the right time. So as we are going to discuss we know and we understand personally I know that our patience is not something easy to learn. It's a gift from God and all the time you have to depend on God's grace to be able to endure and exercise patience. So today there is a word for us and the word is to learn to trust in God's time. His time is the best as we have always said and at the same time it tops us from rushing not going ahead of him but trusting in his time. And as we are waiting we are going to learn to delight as we wait upon the Lord. May God give us the grace and understanding to know that he has good plans for us. This time I'm going to ask our lesson teachers to rise so that we can have a word of prayer before we break into our action units. There will be different lesson groups within the sanctuary. The baptismal class happens at the back at the preparation room and so anyone going for that you are more than welcome. Let us pray. Mighty Father we are humble to be in your presence this morning. We are grateful because of your goodness in our lives that we experience you each and every day. We thank you for your word which is new every morning and we thank you that there are lessons for us each and every moment we open your word. At this time we ask that you bless us with the presence of the Holy Spirit that as we share our experiences. Father Lord as we read from your main servants of the past father that there may be lessons for us that as we wait upon you to act. Lord we do it with delight and praises to you. Father teachers to be patient dear Jesus and father teachers to ever trust in your word because you are not man that you should lie. I pray Father that as we learn patience may your grace be sufficient for each and every one of us as the teachers are going to facilitate the classes. I pray Lord that you give them divine power and understanding from above and father that we may not leave the classes the same but we leave trusting and knowing that you are in charge. For I pray trusting and believing in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Good morning and happy Sabbath to our viewers online. We thank you for joining us today for our Sabbath school discussion. We are the collegiate class and as you know that this month we are going to be taking you through the adult lesson. With me here today are my fellow panellists and I'd like to introduce them. Starting with my right. Hi I'm Nyakerario Omosa. And to my left. Happy Sabbath. I'm Megan Dacha. And I am Eric Oduk. And before we start I'd like us to pray and I'll invite Megan to pray with us. Let's bow down for word of prayer. Our kind and heavenly Father we come before you this day with nothing but gratitude in our hearts. We thank you Lord for this amazing Sabbath morning that you have given us this opportunity to be able to discuss your word and to be able to learn patience. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Now I'd like to remind our online audience that we will be engaging you and we'd like you to share your comments and questions with us throughout the discussion. So this is your study and feel free to engage with us. Now this week is week 11 of the adult Bible study and we're looking at waiting in the crucible. And particularly this Sabbath we are looking at patience which the Bible also describes us longsuffering. Now I'd like to ask my sister Nakiradyu waiting in the crucible. I know that we've had it here before but taking it from you what is waiting in the crucible? Okay so today's lesson is titled waiting in the crucible and personally when I begin a study I'd like to understand everything. So of course I rushed to Google and searched the definition. A crucible is a metal container where substances or materials are subjected to very high temperatures or a situation where different elements interact under high pressure to create something new. And I think it's very interesting that the author has used this metaphor to describe our transition stage when we are with God and the patience that we require in these environments. Indeed, interesting, interesting. And now remember we're looking at patience waiting in the crucible. Patience which the Bible also describes us longsuffering. So I'd like us to read our key text from today which comes from the book of Galashians chapter 5 verse 22. And it says, but the fruit of the spirit is longsuffering. Now my sister Megan, when you hear the word longsuffering or as you've seen you know patience, you know what comes into your mind, what is the definition of patience? Well, from the Oxford dictionary, patience is tolerating delay problems or suffering without being annoyed or anxious. But from my dictionary, the Bible, well patience is a gift from God. I think the most challenging gift to cultivate. It entails a lot. It entails trusting God. It entails knowing he has a best interest for us. Submitting to his plans with no worry. And having complete hope in him. Very interesting. Now, is it always an easy thing to be patient? No. Indeed, right? And so this week we're going to look at how patience is not always an easy thing and why we need to cultivate it in ourselves. Now diving into the lesson, there's a very interesting illustration that is given. So the lesson tells us that there was an experiment that was done by scientists with four-year-old children and marshmallows. Now each child was told by a scientist that they could have one marshmallow. However, if they waited until the scientist came back from an errand, they would be given two marshmallows. Now you can imagine what happened. You know, some of the children, they couldn't wait. And so immediately the scientist left, they stuffed the marshmallows right into their mouths. But some of them actually did. They did wait. Now, the differences between the two sets of children were noted. And you know, the scientists followed them up into their teenage lives. Now, the ones who waited turned out actually to be better adjusted, better students and they were more confident than those who did not. Now it seems from this illustration that patience is actually indicative of something greater within the human character. Something important and that there are actually less things in waiting. And this is actually also scientifically proven. However, as our sister Megan said, it is not always an easy thing to do. So this week at a glance, we will be looking at why do we sometimes have to wait so long for things and what lessons can we learn about patience while in the crucible. With that, I'd like to invite my sister Megan to take us through the Sunday part of the lesson. Thank you so much, Eric. Well, the Sunday part was the God of patience. And I asked myself, am I justified to call my God patient? Well, patience is a part of God's perfect character, you know, a divine attribute. We had an instance in the Bible that came to mind. But Ananias and Sathira, well, the punishment was almost immediate, if not immediate. And I thought about myself, well, God has held back His judgment and His punishment even though He's justified to just to open the gates of heaven for me. And just as I said at the beginning, patience is something you're waiting without being anxious or being annoyed or being worried. God waits for me with so much love, not with anger. As I said, He is still justified to be angry. But He waits with so much love and, you know, with open arms. So yes, I do think I'm justified to call my God patient. Let's read our key text. Romans 15 verse 4 to 5. Romans 15 verse 4 to 5. I will read and it says, For everything that was written in the past was written to teachers so that through endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. May the God who gives you endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Jesus Christ had. Well, you know, in life we've been programmed to have what we want at that time. You want food, there's a drive through there. You need to warm food, we have microwaves now. My dad always tells me you're very lucky. So I ask him, why? A long time ago, when they needed to watch something, you have to go to, I mean, I think the nearest restaurant or something and then let's say a certain tray is coming on at 7. So you watch and he said you'd be eager to see what's going on. I mean, and then they cut it short, you know, it was 7, 7, 30 and they tell you, come next time. So next time is the next Sunday. So you're being killed by curiosity. But I mean, look at us now. We want something, right there. We need to watch something right there. Allow me to read a quote that was in the lesson. We are normally impatient about things that we really want or have been promised, but we don't have yet. We are often satisfied only when we get what we are longing for and because we rarely get what we want, we are often doomed to irritation and impatience and we just like to stop us there. Let's be a bit practical and ask my sister Nakerewa and my brother Eric starting with my sister, have you ever been doomed by irritation or an instance, a practical instance that you have been impatient? I think for me the first thing that comes to mind is I won't say the person's name because I don't want to embarrass anyone but a very important woman in my life has taught me great patience and this is because I'm sure my friends here can relate. She never ever leaves the house on time to go anywhere and honestly it is so frustrating. I don't know if it's our generation but I'm very particular about time and wanting to be somewhere at the right time and for her she's just very free about it and I used to get so angry and frustrated and it would just ruin my entire day but these days I just breathe because there's really nothing you can do. You don't own the car, you're not going to carry her out of the house so you just breathe and I've found myself to be much happier honestly even if I'm a bit late. Interesting. For me I remember an instance when I was growing up that we had food, rice and beans that was cooked in the house. Now I wasn't a fan of rice but I was a fan of chapati so my uncle said he's living in the house so I asked him, could you come with some chapati? Now I waited for that chapati. I waited and I got anxious and irritated and I was like, why did he promise me and why is he not fulfilling his promise? So I think at that point maybe I didn't know what we're learning today and I was so, I went to my room and I was gloomy but with time I am learning that. You can actually decide to use what you have, what is available and you don't have to be irritated as you wait. Interesting. Allow me to finish again with this statement and in this state it is almost impossible to maintain peace and trust in God just as you've seen from both instances. I like that the lesson acknowledges that waiting is painful. I think it's been written when it's translated to Hebrew too sorrowful and comfortable it can be in conveniencing and it also acknowledges that learning patience is not easy. The literal meaning of being in a crucible Christ has given us three verses to be able to cultivate this patience. I will read Psalms 27 14 my sister Nakirare will read for us Psalms I mean sorry our brother Eric will read for us Psalms 37 7 and our sister will read for us Romans 5 was 3 to 5. Allow me to start Psalms 27 14 and it says, wait for the Lord be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Hmm Psalms 37 7 it says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him fret not yourself because of him who prospered in his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Romans 5 verses 3 to 5 we also boast of our troubles because we know that the trouble that trouble produces endurance endurance brings God's approval and his approval creates hope this hope does not disappoint us for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit. Who is God's gift to us? Thank you. So many factors are mentioned here there is perseverance I've had hope I've had do not be anxious I've had glorifying sufferings be strong but all of them center in one statement look to God now as you're waiting you have two choices to look for that thing you're waiting for and remember this path has what it has been weak all the anxiety all the opposite and you have the other way to look at who is holding what you're waiting for who is God being strong and not being anxious there's a lot that comes in my major take was the attitude we have I think at the beginning I said I'm justified to call my word patient if God is patient with me then why can't I be patient and I'd like to leave you guys with this quote just from the lesson again remember learning patience is not easy but it is also not impossible to bring to an attitude of complete surrender and submission to the Lord we need to trust and surrender to Him thank you so much thank you for that system again so I like what you really said there that while we wait we can choose to focus on one of two things we can choose to focus on the things you're waiting for or we can choose to focus on the one who provides those things and that's really powerful so much about what we're waiting for but our attitude as we wait now I'd like to invite my sister Nyakerario to take us through the mandi part of the lesson as we also find out what the online audiences is saying online here I can just see happy sabat so happy sabat to everyone out there I've seen my grandmother in the comments happy sabat okay this section is titled in God's time and for me it was just a very interesting section because often we question God's time and as a child I've just always been very curious questioning everything why does pasta get soft when you put it in hot water and my parents just were very frustrated with me and I remember I think on my sixth birthday instead of I don't know getting a barbie or something I was bought for an encyclopedia just to answer my questions so just naturally reading this part of the lesson I was asking why what's God's time why does he decide to do what he does when he does and I think a perfect place we can question that is when he sent Jesus Christ to save us of our sins sin has been there for very long from the garden of Eden thousands of years from the garden of Eden why didn't God send Jesus the moment in sin so we'll just dive into the Bible to try and answer our question could my sister Megan please read for us Romans 5 verse 6 and then after that I'll ask my brother Eric to read Galatians 4 verse 4 okay Romans 5 verse 6 you see adjust the right moment when you were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly so here we've identified that Jesus came God sent his son for us to save us of sin at the right time and we'll see that God will go out of his way he will do anything for us even send his beloved son to die for our sins so if that's not reason enough to trust God I don't know what I could tell you could you please read Galatians 4 verse 4 Galatians 4 verse 4 it says God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law amen I just think again here it's identified that God's coming has been prophesied and that's also something we need to come to terms with sometimes there's prophecy and we're told this is when something will happen and that's when it happens and I just I'll come back to that verse because I think it's very interesting and also if we look at Daniel 9 24 to 27 I won't ask anyone to read it we're spoken to about the 2300 day prophecy and how it's cut out at the 70 weeks 490 years and if God can predict something happening 500 years in advance and he says this is the time it's meant to happen I think we shouldn't question however much it's in our nature to question everything we should just accept and completely submit to God because I think that is what patience is submitting to God and understanding his timing understanding why things are happening when they happen and I'll move on however in my human attempt to understand why God sent his son when he sent his son in Galatians 4 verse 4 it says that Jesus was born under the law and I think this is just very interesting he was born in a time where there were Pharisees and there was a government the same way we have our government and there's certain laws we have to obey and Jesus I expected went through that he paid tax and all those things we know and I feel like almost it's an allegory to our lives today because we're also living under the law we also have our modern day Pharisees and it's just very interesting to be able to have the benefit of hindsight from the Bible because Jesus has lived in a time where he has been governed by the law and that's just my interpretation and my understanding also we must wait because we have no choice you can't force God to come the same way I can't force this very important woman in my life to leave the house early you just wait and you can choose how to wait are you going to wait in peace or in pain but we should also not be so frustrated with ourselves for being agitated in patience because actually I read somewhere in the lesson that the word patience is derived from the Hebrew word pain so waiting is meant to be pain again referencing verse of the day but the fruit of the spirit is long suffering so it's understandable and I want Megan to read for us Psalms 40 verse 8 just and my brother Eric to read Luke 19 verse 13 on how we should wait for the Lord and how we can help ourselves to continue Psalms 40 verse 8 it says I desire to do your will my God your law is within my heart amen Luke 19 verse 13 it says and he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said to them occupy till I come amen so as Megan we've had from Megan wait in peace and the only way you can wait in peace is to surrender to Christ and we've had from Eric occupy while we're waiting for Christ we need to occupy the world we need to save as many souls as we can because there's a time coming when Jesus won't be able to intercede for us so as we wait here and we know his word we need to intercede for those that don't amen like to hand back to Eric I like what you said in the lesson when you said Christ is our example and he himself had to go through tribulations he was made under the law and so he took him patience knowing that if he wanted he would have easily wished these things away but he also took him patience knowing that something had to be fulfilled and I think that's one of the reasons that actually God asks us to wait it's that he's planning something and it needs to be fulfilled so thank you for that I'm going to take us through the next part of the lesson which is the Tuesday section but I'd like to remind our online audience that share with us times when you've shown patience times when you've shown impatience and the differences between these two times which one felt better really which one came with all this anxiety and worries and just let us know in the comments now the Tuesday section is a very interesting one very interesting one so it talks about David and it's titled an object lesson in in waiting now David's experience of waiting is an interesting one because Saul had failed as a king and God already asked Samuel to go and anoint another king now at this time Saul was in a very unbalanced emotional state so when God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and anoint one of his sons Samuel was afraid he was like if Saul hears of it he will take my life but eventually God told him go and anoint the person I will I will show you so eventually Samuel goes and when he arrives at the house of house of Jesse this whole process where the Bible tells us all the sons of Jesse come by and God is like no I have not chosen him don't look at the appearance but David is finally called and he's anointed and from the period he's anointed until when he finally becomes king he's a very long period of time about 15 years actually and David's journey from his father's fields to the throne of Jerusalem was one of trials tribulations and sometimes he actually felt like he was in the midst of a crucible indeed right so first we see David he's first of all his journey taking us through so he's called to play music to soothe Saul's troubled spirit he then goes on to become a national hero after he kills Goliath then there are many years through which he's running for his life because Saul fears that this guy is going to take the throne from me but indeed Saul and Jonathan knew that David was actually going to be next on the throne but here is the interesting thing David did not do anything to advance his God given gift in fact even when he gets opportunities opportunities present themselves where he can take the life of Saul he refrains himself there is an instance in the lesson where he finds Saul and I think Saul was was somewhere in a cave and David cuts a piece of his cloth and he regrets it he's like why did I do this I should have never done such a thing now allow me to ask our sister Nyakerario when we read first Samuel chapter 26 verses 1 to 11 why is it that David refuses to kill Saul and what does it teach us about the way that God brings about his plan for our lives just from that passage and what you've spoken about the part I like is David did nothing to advance his God given destiny I think in terms of what we can learn if something is God given it will happen and immediately I have to contrast the character with Jacob from chapter 18 in patriarchs and prophets and we see Jacob is on his way to meet Esau and God provides him with enough protection and he knows this but yet he feels that he has to do something on his own something human to protect himself and it fails of course it fails but here David does nothing and God comes through for him completely and I think here at this point of the lesson and at this point of David's life because we know he goes on to sin he's in communion with God he knows God, he knows God's will and so he leaves soul for God and I think that's the reason if God has decided for something to happen you should not intervene or try to rush it everything happens in God's time indeed, do not rush God and I like in one of the verses it says when David's servant says the Lord has delivered soul into your hands let me take his life God forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed and we see David exercising a level of patience here now I'd like also to turn to my sister Megan and ask from the same first time chapter 26 verse 12 to 25 how does David's refusal to kill soul affect soul and what does this teach us about the advantages of waiting on God thank you I'd like to take us to the to the book of first Samuel chapter 26 verse 21 I'll just read the first half of the verse it says soul said I have sinned and just that David was able to bring soul back to God's arm and even repent and again to finish first Samuel 26 verse 25 then soul said to David may you be blessed and through that I know as humans it's very hard to say sorry and accept and you know be good to the person we've actually wronged but you see just David waiting has brought so much it's brought soul to your parents he's brought soul and people next to soul next to God and finally even David himself is blessed by soul so yes I do think he was affected and you know towards the positive side and I like that because that is very interesting when we learn that you know David exercising a level of self control not seeking to advance the God's cause even as our sister said and soul knowing that if David wanted to he would have taken his life and so what David did is very interesting so he comes soul is pursuing David and he comes to this place there or now so soul kind of pitches on a hill you know and he's very confident that I am on the highest hill and if David comes I'll be able to see him but through inspiration God instructs David too to set up on a higher hill so he sees soul and he sends spies and they know that for sure soul is pursuing me and so David goes with one of his servants Abishai and he finds soul asleep and all of soul's servants are also dead asleep and what he does is he takes his peer and the cruise of water that was there and they go a great distance away you know and he calls upon Abna now Abna was the commander of David's soul's army and he says Abna why aren't you the greatest man in Israel why haven't you been able to protect protect soul you know this action demands that you should die you know and soul awakes and you know he recognizes the the voice of David and he realizes that ah indeed this man would have would have taken my life and he calls forth and as you said he sort of repented he says I have played the full exceedingly today my life he actually says my soul was precious in your eyes and he blesses David and tells David I know you will do great things so David exercising this level of patience and self control we see it impact soul leads him to repentance and you know at the end of it soul goes back home David goes his way and of course David so he couldn't really go back with him right but we see from this illustration that David David was a patient man and through his tribulations he refrained himself and that is a very interesting lesson that we have here now from David's experience I think there's one statement that really does stick out right and it can be summarized in this do not grab what God has not yet given do not grab what God has not yet given and I think David was a good example of this the lesson tells us that just as beans sprouts grow within hours while an oak tree will take many years but when the strong winds come the tree will not be will not be uprooted David could have easily justified killing soul right first of all he was promised the throne secondly soul was this evil guy who God had rejected but his actions speak of a true faith and true long suffering as as the Bible puts it now with that I'd like to know do we have any interaction with our audience online maybe our sister can just check for us as I ask Magintu to take us through the when is the section of the lesson thank you so much I like that there's something you say don't grab what God has not given yet now when is the part we focus more on Elijah title the problem of rushing and I hope I think we're all familiar with the Mount Kamal contest yes definitely on the Mount Kamal God was proven to be the true God and 450 Baal prophet to a killed of course Jezebel was angry Jezebel is one who brought the Baal prophet the Baal God and she's like what why so of course she sends out a thread to Elijah now and of course Elijah runs for his life into the desert he's even questioning where am I alive and he hoped and wished for death and just to pose there after such an amazing experience with God on Mount Kamal you know you expect some level of spiritual strength from Elijah but Elijah ran for his life he did not consult God he had the option of stopping and saying God is the one who brought me here what do I do Elijah ran and I like that the lesson focuses that Elijah led here control his life allow me to use this metaphor when police come and they want to arrest someone they cuff you they cuff you and they tell you to be quiet or anything you say shall or something use it against you and at that state you're forced to be quiet and these cuffs are just to show you that the police are in control now again just like Elijah and most of us we've cuffed to so many things that control our lives for Elijah it was fear and unfortunately most of these things that we cuffed to don't love us back I mean I'd like us to read my brother here to read for us Genesis 16 verse 1 to 3 and our sister will read for us judges 14 1 2 3 okay Genesis 16 1 2 3 now Sarai Abram's wife pair him no children and she had an handmaid an Egyptian whose name was Hagar and Sarai said and Sarai said unto Abram behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing I pray thee Abram hackened to the voice of Sarai Abram sorry and Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife Judges 14 verses 1 to 3 1 day Samson went down to Timna where he noticed a certain Philistine woman he went back home there is a Philistine woman down in Timna who has caught my attention get her for me I want to marry her but his father and mother asked him why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get her wife can't you find a girl in your own clan among all our people but Samson said to his father he is the one I want you to get for me I like her as we have seen from the two examples we both know how those ended up for both of them Hagar and Ishmael being in Sarah's house did not really work out for the best for Sarah we see how Delilah completely takes away Samson's greatest power now just as I said we tend to carve to things that control our lives and if we give them that power they tend to pace our lives now Samson had the choice of waiting just waiting to get a decent woman from around Sarah also had the choice to just wait on the Lord just wait for the Lord to fulfill his promises we carve to things that tend to control and pace our lives we carve to let it be anger for Elijah it was fear I don't know Sarahi was more of she needed to be the woman and take control now and then Samson was self satisfaction I like this quote pleasure or self satisfaction ignores question leading to compromise and mostly compromising God's time let me read that one more time pleasure or self satisfaction ignores question leading to compromise and again I add you tend to compromise God's time you let these things you've carved to control and pace your lives and just as you seen from the three examples Elijah, Samson Sarah, how that worked out for them allowing some things to control their lives and pace them these are quotes in the lesson that I really liked the key is to cultivate a trusting faith in the goodness and mercy of God who we know loves us and wants the best for us faith is something that it might be a gift but is something we have to cultivate so our viewers out there I just like to encourage us to uncuff from the ungodly things for Elijah it was fair I mean for most of us it might be pride no it might be winning you might just want to be winning and winning is contraining your life and pacing your life just take a step back uncuff for them and take control of your life such that it is God actually take the control back and give the control to God that he may be able to place our lives I'd like to throw the ball to my brother indeed pleasure ignores caution leading to compromise a very interesting quote and as we've also seen that rashing kind of less to find ourselves in the wrong place I mean Elijah when he's finally in the wilderness God asks him what are you doing here his fear caused him to find himself in the wrong place my sister are there any comments any questions from our viewers we do not have any questions but very interesting comments very insightful I will dive into them in my section in your section the title of my section is learning to take delight in the Lord and for me this translates to seeking happiness in God I have to make sense to myself as I read it and I would like to ask what is the meaning of taking delight in the Lord and we're led to Psalms 37 I'd like both my brother and sister to open there and for Megan to read for us Psalms 37 v. 1 please Psalms 37 v. 1 and it says do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong amen my brother Eric could you please read for us verses 5 verse 5 it says commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass amen please keep all of these in mind verse 7 says be patient and wait for the Lord to act do not be worried about those who prosper or who succeed in their evil plans Megan please read verses 8 Psalms 37 v. 8 refrain from anger and turn from wrath do not fret it only leads to evil amen so I feel like the repeated word we are hearing here is don't fret God doesn't want us to worry and it's very easy to be anxious especially I feel like as young people when I point in our lives where we are creating our future it's very easy to be worried to be anxious what will happen next what am I actually doing and also it's very easy to compete with other people and I like this passage because we are told not to worry about those people who are taking shortcuts do everything in accordance to God and it's very easy to take a shortcut because you are being ambitious and personally for me I think it's a flaw of mine I'm very competitive and I've learnt that as verse 7 says be patient and don't worry about those who prosper in their evil plans it's my own journey it's your own journey with God just you and God it doesn't matter how long you're taking to do something how you're doing something you can't always be the best and God has His plans for you you can be the best at God's plan for you you don't have to be the best at everything I think that's what I've gotten from that also I like verses 2 2 don't be jealous of those who do wrong they will soon disappear like grass that dries up but they will die like plants that weather I really enjoy the metaphor of the plant that's used here and that the plant will die and weather and it kind of suggests that these plants these people don't have roots and what are those roots? God because it's only with God that you will prosper it's only with God that you will have deep roots to God that it will be long term and these people who take short cuts they do things without God they take things quickly they always find something wrong in the path and it will be short term always and I think that's just very important to understand so what is taking delight in the Lord? I think for me I've understood that it's fully surrendering and submitting to His will and the lesson puts it nicely he says they say living in a state of perfect trust I think that's what delighting in God is because it's only in doing good and understanding what God's plan for you is that you will find happiness and joy and the only way for you to know what God's plan is is to know Him more always be in communion with God and I think for me what that means is in this church when I was very young a pastor came and he spoke and he said when you're close to God you always hear His voice and I think all of us can identify with that when you're about to do something wrong like you know you're taking that that cake that the last piece you know your mum that I want you to take then you're going to lie about like you're being told nyaks why are you doing that like somewhere in your mind and when you draw further away from God that voice becomes quieter so be close to God so that He has a way to communicate with you and I saw a very nice comment in the in the comment section about having a clear path and having a clear path is being sinless you know often as young people we think that God it's okay let me do these small things but it's not okay when the hour of temptation comes as referenced in Revelation it says that God will deliver us and our misconception is that oh you know we're told that when you choose God you won't be able to buy and sell and there's all of these things that you won't be able to do and there's a misconception that oh when God delivers us we'll be accepted again by society but what we need to understand is we will be isolated with God isolated in His will and that won't look like how maybe a lot of our friends right now are acting and all of those things so we need to understand that when you choose God and when you submit it has to be fully so I'll just read a comment that I found very interesting we need not expect all sunshine in this world clouds and storms will cluster about us and we must be prepared to keep our eyes directed where the light lasts I think that's just it's very beautifully put we need to keep our eyes open persevia where the light is and that's how I'd like to end my section hand over to our brother Eric thank you indeed for that taking the light in the Lord and I think this lesson has been a really beautiful one it has in the sense that especially in our generation today there's a lot of rush especially among the young people I would say to want to acquire especially when it comes to the issue of wealth we want things now but you've seen that there are benefits in patience in waiting on the Lord and you've seen the benefits from the life of and you've seen the harm it can lead to in Elijah's in Samson's case and I think I'd like to finish with one quote here from Pachex and Prophets he talks about David after his anointing it's a very interesting one it says the great owner this is right after David has been anointed confired upon David did not serve to elate him notwithstanding the high position in which he was to occupy he quietly continued his employment now with the humble and modest as humble and modest as before his anointing the shepherd boy returned to the hills and watched and guarded his flocks as tenderly as as ever David waited on the Lord and I think I would encourage all of us too to indeed wait on the Lord and that his timing is indeed perfect I'd like us to close there and I'd like my sister Megan to finish with a word of prayer Thank you so much Thank you for watching us Thank you for engaging with us Let's pray as we close Our kind and heavenly Father we thank you Lord for the wonderful opportunity you have given us to be here to be able to discuss with my sister Nyakere and our brother Eric and our online viewers as well we've had such an interesting conversation and discussion that you may be able to draw closer to you as we dive into the Samon and today's and today's Sabbath so that you may be with us guide us and protect us This is the name I pray Amen Thank you and welcome to join us for the rest of the service We'd like to request the teachers to wind up the discussion and as we do so we will sing song number 516 in this dear hymn all the way my saviour leads me Jesus doeth all things well for a wate before thee Jesus doeth all things well easy choa this be great this be real may be God's sake from God's sake from this my soul and say we shall open song number 534 534 shall open song number 534 and we request the congregation to rise as we sing this song let us all rise song number 534 we will sing number one number three and number five first hand to the community in the same in the same first hand to the girls to them Happy Sabbath church God is good and all the time my name is Florence Yage I'm here to share the special thoughts you do this Sabbath and it's in line with our family togetherness week of prayer prayer. My sharing will be on healthy communication or communicating with grace in our families. I'll share a few texts from the Bible specifically from the New King James Version so that we can get more of what I'll be discussing in depth. Colossians 4 v. 6 Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that she may know how you ought to answer every man. Colossians 4 v. 6 Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that she may know how you ought to answer every man. Proverbs 16 v. 24 Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Proverbs 16 v. 24 Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. And the final verse, Proverbs 25 v. 11 A wide fitli spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. A wide fitli spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. I remember someone once remarked just on this podium that sometimes we speak to strangers better than we speak to our own families. I'll read that to you as food for thought as I tell you this story. A story is told of a couple that had lived with each other for some years. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. The wife, we'll call her Anna for our purposes, was at her wit's end in trying to deal with Brian, her husband. She went to her mother Gwen with a proposition for what most of us would regard as unthinkable. She told Gwen that she wanted to eliminate her husband. Her problem was that she felt Brian no longer cared for her. He always came home late, was frequently irritable and they exchanged a lot of unpleasant words. Most of all, he disliked conversation with Anna. Gwen, this is Anna's mother, who was keen on solving Anna's situation. This was her only beloved daughter agreed to prepare the concoction. Sad. The concoction was given to Anna with two conditions. Firstly, Anna would hold water in her mouth while opening the door for Brian. Then secondly, she was to personally prepare Brian's favourite dishes on a daily basis. It is to the dishes that the concoction was to be added. Anna went home, armed with the concoction and believing that her miserable life with Brian was about to end. She did as was instructed by her mother. She held water in her mouth daily as she opened the door for her husband and prepared his favourite dishes and all the while never forgetting to add the concoction to the dishes. In time, Brian started coming home earlier and earlier and their conversations became more pleasant, interesting, right? And there was peace in the house. Realising her previous folly, Anna visited her mother asking if there was a new concoction that could reverse the effects of the first one. I'm sure by now you know the drift that she really didn't want him to die at this point. And then when her mum softly told her that the concoction was purely additional spice, water relief and hence would have no effect on Brian. This is a simple story but the lessons we can glean from it is that Gwen's condition for Anna to hold water in her mouth while opening the door for Brian was to prevent her from using unpleasant words while talking to him. And in Gwen's wisdom this was an important step in restoring healthy communication between Anna and Brian. That is when we meet our bosses at the door and the first thing is to we want to unleash a tirade of all the things they've done that we're possibly unhappy about but it's important to hold our peace and to wait for a later time to discuss those issues. The second lesson is Gwen used her wisdom to find the right words to give instructions and a concoction, I'm sure by this time you know the concoction was really not poison that would help restore peace in her daughter's family rather than in aiding in the elimination plot. With a little help from Gwen's initiative through Anna, Brian was able to rediscover kind words to speak to his wife for the benefit of the union. And finally this is just to request us to guard our tongues against pronouncing words and can destroy our families. Be blessed by this special thought on healthy communication and may you always strive to find kind words to speak to your family members. Thank you and God bless. Happy Sabbath church. Happy day. I'd like to read through the announcements which is in the church bulletin. Some of you already have a soft copy of it but before I read may we please bow down for a word of prayer. I've gotten a father who had in heaven. We come before the throne of grace and mercy this morning. Thank you Lord for having given us opportunity to even reach church safely. We pray a lot that our worship may be worthy before thee and the announcements that we are about to go through may be able to internalize it and act upon them according to their will. For we pray trust and I believe in Jesus name. The first announcement is that today marks the end of family ministry departments presentation. We've had our pastor Israel Kafero who's been taking us through the week and today he will be finalizing the presentation. It's been family togetherness week, spiritual emphasis. The children ministry in the spirit of I Will Go, the teens class is planning to go and impact the society through a drug awareness project at the deep seas lamb. They are therefore requesting for our support. They have also planned for Iran stroke work on the 18th of September at the Nairobi primary school for the whole church family. They are requesting us if we can join them both financially supporting them and also for the work stroke run. To register we need to pay 1000 shillings and they will give us a t-shirt. We can do that through the church pay bill of 320 100 and in the account just indicate teens project or we can also contact one of the teachers teacher Joann on 0710 293 399 I'll repeat again 0710 293 399 Their target is to raise 500,000 where they also like to construct a library in the deep slum. So let us please support the children ministry. Next is the baptismal and post baptismal sabah school. The church runs both virtual and in person baptismal and post baptismal classes every sabah morning from 8 to 9. The baptismal classes are facilitated by elder robot Arunga and elder Benson Atteng assisted by brother Abura Katiani while the post baptismal classes are facilitated by elder Meisha Kodira and elder Elias Iyemba assisted by brother Brian Ajwan. So those desiring to attend these classes we are please requested to contact these elders or if you do not know them kindly just look for one of the church officials and you will be directed there. Evangelism, this is an appeal for funds for local evangelism. The church has been running evangelism program in North Hall, Maikona and Sololo a mission we started over three years ago. The field while appreciating our support and participation are requesting that we continue supporting them in this area. By sponsoring one evangelist in Maikona for one year the church board is appealing to the church members to contribute towards evangelism funds so that we can reinvigorate our outreach evangelism programs. Please use the normal envelopes or you can use for those who are using mobile money you can use the current or the church pay bill number of 320 1 00 and under the account you can indicate evangelism funds. I now want to read the concerns. The first one is death has occurred of Mama Elsa Auma Amayo on 28th of August 2022. She was wife to the late Mzefilamon Amayo Amanda and auntie to Elder Tom Diero and Mr. Dan Okoth Omenda of Nairobi Central SDA church. She was the mother in law to sister Pet Diero and Mary Okoth both dekoneses at Nairobi Central SDA church. Bariol took place yesterday on the 9th of September 2022 at a home in Sombro village Kokoth Kateng location Rachuanon North Homa Bay County. The second concern is death has occurred of Mama Doka Aboño Ateng. She was mother to our elder Benson Ateng and mother in law to sister Yucabet Ateng. Bariol will be on 16 September 2022 in Korongo village Kagan in Homa Bay County. The third one is death has occurred of Mama Janet Okwon of Game Akala. She was the mother of our dekoneses Felistas Obunga and mother in law to elder Alois Merindo. She will be ready to rest on 17 September 2022 at her home in Mabinju village south game location Siaya County. The family will appreciate your support through prayers and visitation when you can contact sister Felistas Obunga on 0722 298 995. The other announcement is of the death of sister Lynette Ooro Adongo wife to engineer Yuda Adongo and mother to Eve Adongo Opundo and Andrew Adongo among others. Mother in law to George Opundo and D.C. Ogembo among others. She will be ready to rest on Friday 16 September 2022 at their home in Ranen Sakwamegori County. We would just like to remind the members to please remember these families in prayers where possible visitation so that may be able to receive comfort. May God bless you. Happy Sabbath. Happy day. Happy day. Happy Sabbath. Now I want to welcome you to a singing session and all of you want you to sing with vigor, with understanding so that we may feel that we are worshiping our Lord. We will open song number 100 from Isgia Himnol, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Song number 100, Great Is Why Is Thy Faithfulness. Thank you. We really thank God for His faithfulness. Let us go to Nimboza Christo. Song number nine. Number Thesa. Next song is Isgia Himnol 579. 579. This love that makes us happy. Isgia Himnol 579. Isgia Himnol 579. Isgia Himnol 579. It helps us mind, it helps the children. It helps us mind, it makes us come to heart and tries to want to. Isgia Himnol 579. Isgia Himnol 579. It helps us come to other things. Isgia Himnol 579. Isgia Himnol 579. Apisabat. A special announcement. All church board members are kindly requested to move to the music room immediately for a brief kindly please. All church board members we are requested to move to the music room for a brief, for just a short meeting. Thank you. Thank you. We shall open song number 655. Happy the home 655. We shall all rise with the doxology. All rise with the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Just pray. Heavenly Father, King of kings and Lord of lords, we have come to your house of worship this sabati day Lord to glorify you and to fellowship together as your children. Father I want to pray that as we begin this program of the divine hour may the presence of the Holy Spirit be filled. Feel each one of us. That heavenly Father thy message may hoover around and touch every soul and enter into every month's soul and every woman's soul, every child's soul. That we may feel your presence. Lord we pray for a special transformation in our lives this morning that as we come to meet you heavenly Father in the way we are in our weaknesses, in our sinfulness, in our poor health, in our misunderstanding of each other, in our poor relationships, in poor communications and all that. We pray Lord that we may meet you and you may receive us Lord that our pleas and our prayers will be accepted before thy throne of mazi. As your servant comes to our whole life in Father to share our word we pray that may your spirit touch him and anointed lips with the call of heaven that whatever he says and passes across will reach to the end of this world. Father we pray that may we all be humbled before thy feet that you may receive a humility spirit that will help us to fellowship together as your children. We have guests who have come from far and wide world amongst us we commit them unto our hands allow them also to fellowship with us and may each one of us ever be welcomed into your kingdom because we have prayed in Jesus name. Amen. God is good and all the time thank you so much for coming to fellowship and we one thank the Lord that is a special sabat that he has given to us when we are culminating and climaxing the week that has been the family togetherness week if you did not turn up in the course of the week the Lord has something for you you have not missed because his servant will come and will talk to you and will pass his message so I want to take this opportunity to welcome each and everyone who has come and even those who are still on the way who are coming that they may all come together and we fellowship as his children I will take this moment to do a special welcome and before I do this I would like to request the church to do for me one thing the kwenkinium theme for this year from the general conference says that I will go with my family so when I greet you I say I will go you respond back and say with my family when I say with my family you respond back and say I will go so let me greet you I will go with my family amen may God bless you so much I am taking this opportunity to first and foremost welcome our guests who have come and I have a book the visitors book and our guests have written their names in this book I would like the church to appreciate them and to welcome them so please when I read your name I kindly request you to rise and wave and may the church respond by waving back to them the first one is Diana Kili who is saying nice to be here Diana Kili Diana Kili I am not able to see the next one is Sami O'Ching who is also saying nice to be here for us is O'Ching there help me try to recognize them I may miss them the third one is from the ECD is an ECD guest and is telling us happy Sabbath his name is Oksana Botnik there she is welcome church can you wave back to her thank you welcome she is an ECD guest the next ECD guest is Daniel Nyako Mensa welcome and may God bless you the next one is Rodney and Kony they are from the GC conference in Tennessee ah there they are please church wave to them thank you very much may God bless you and we have Pastor Josephat Mubagi Pastor Josephat Mubagi he is telling us happy Sabbath then we have Pastor James Kimathi yeah there he is please rise and wave thank you very much God bless you Potani Judah Potani I'm not able to see him then we have finally Evelyn Okof Evelyn Okof there she is please wave back to her thank you very much we welcome you all and we pray that the Lord will be able to feed you with this word even as we fellowship together at this hour I would like to also take a moment to introduce to us those who are serving us this morning and together with our guests so also that all can be welcomed into the house of the Lord our God is a welcoming God that is in the book of Galatians 3 28 he welcomes us all regardless whether Greek Jew or whoever we are so that is the spirit of our God and I would like us to have that one so those who are serving us we have the choristers who have presented for us the music we have been giving us and sharing with us the messages in music and we want to thank them for singing to praise the Lord we also have sister Florence Siage who came and shared with us the special thoughts thank you very much for such a wonderful thought special thought El Dabilia Pola brought for us the announcements is also serving the Lord this day we have Elda John Bousine who will be bringing us we will be serving us in tites and offerings we have sister Jennifer Orwa who will also be coming up to read for us the scripture of the day we have our children in church and we have everyone who have come we want pray that as we culminate this family togetherness we go prayer where we have been studying the topic title wounded but limping may the Lord help each one of us as we come before his presence that though we may have been wounded but let us limp towards where he is so that we can get the healing may God bless you in Jesus' name we have reached the time where we would like to seek our Lord in prayer and for those of us who are inside the church we look for place where we can kneel those who are following us virtually we request that you believe as we pray may we please kneel and seek our Lord in prayer our God and our Father who heart in heaven we come before you Lord this morning we thank you Lord for we honor your name and we give you glory we acknowledge you as our creator our protector and our redeemer we thank you my kind and loving Father for even your son that shed his blood at the Calvary for the sake of our sins we thank you we praise you and we honor you our kind and loving Father we like to present today's program unto your hands Lord may your presence please prevail until evening we like to present the speaker whom we've anointed to come and speak to us Pastor Israel Kafero from Adventious University of Africa we pray Lord that you may use him mightily even hazib gives out the messages that you've given to him and us who receiving the messages kind of loving Father we pray that you may touch our hearts that we may be able to internalize the words that you've given unto us we thank you Lord for having been with him throughout the week as he finalizes the program today we pray my kind and loving Father that you may continue to bless him together with his family Lord we pause as we want to remember our brethren who are affected in one way or the other who have been afflicted by bereavement or even health sickness we pray my kind and loving Father that those who are sick you may touch them with your healing hand may they be able to get well for your honor and glory and those who are bereaving my kind and loving Father we pray that you may comfort them with thy Holy Spirit be with them even as they make plans Lord for your final interment we pray that you may also grant peace peace that can only come from you and no humankind can ever envisage my kind and loving Father we also thank you for the peace that the country has continued to enjoy even after the elections we pray that Lord we may continue to protect and guide our leaders both at the government level and even in our church it's our prayer my kind and loving Father that as we continue with the program today everything that we do may it be worthy before the for we prayed trusting and believing in Jesus' name Amen God is good all the time okay it is time for tites and offerings and I would like to request the decons and deconeses wherever they are to stand so that we can have our prayer I will read first from the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 6 to 8 the word of God says but these I say he who shows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who shows bountifully will also reap bountifully so let each each one give asi purposes in his heart nor not grudging or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work that is the word of God let us pray kind and everlasting father we come before you Lord this sabat morning with Thanksgiving we thank you heavenly father for being our God and we thank you Lord in heaven for giving us an opportunity to come and serve you this day we pray heavenly father for the tides and offerings that will come to you that you may bless heavenly father we pray for each and everyone of us because this humble prayer in Jesus name we pray amen happy sabat happy sabat happy day thank you here to talk about a very interesting subject and this is about drug awareness as you will appreciate drug use drug abuse and drug misuse are a growing problem in our society it's a big and growing problem but we can do something about it we can all do something about it and our church can do something about it and our church has decided to do something about it the children's ministry and this has been driven a lot by the teens class have decided to help we have decided that we will put up a library at the deep sea slums which is in part of Nairobi somewhere near Parklands we will put up a library to help try to contain the problem of drug abuse and I just want to ask the representative from that area who is going to help us or who are giving us the space to actually put up this library just to stand up and wave she is in the congregation please welcome now it costs money to build a library and we need about 500,000 sounds like a lot of money but it is not too much we can raise that money and we have actually started raising that money and please allow me to thank the deconesses for a job well done the department had a target of 20,000 the first department the ladies hit and surpassed their target a long time ago already ladies thank you very much may all the young girls become good ladies like you all the other departments the elders the decons the youth please contribute that through the various groupings within the church it is not too much we can raise it but there is another part of it in addition to raising that money we also have created an awareness campaign I believe you can all see my t-shirt there is a family fund on Sunday the 18th of September there is a walk and a run each and every person in this congregation can do a 5 kilometer walk it's not too much those of us who are a bit more strong can do 10 kilometers whether you want to walk or run it's okay please plan to attend bring the family and stay with the family it's a family fund day don't just drop them and go away for that you just need a thousand shillings you'll get a t-shirt like mine and there is a lot of fun activities that have also been planned we would also want to pray about this event please join us in praying over this event so that we may succeed in building this library at Deep Sea Slums I want to add you to be part of the walk I want to add you to support this initiative with your giving and I would want to ask you to continue praying as we prepare for this event thank you very much happy to be here my name is Bismak Lumumba and this month ladies and gentlemen we will be telling the children's story the teens class will be telling the children's story and this week we have boy what a story we have for you boy what a story we have for you but before we start we'd like to pray let's pray our kind and loving father our creator our redeemer our saviour and our friend as we learn lessons from water you may give us understanding and draw us nearer to thee for this humble prayer in Jesus name amen amen amen now before we get right into it Ashley here has some amazing facts about water Ashley yes thank you Tisha Bismak my name is Ashley and I do have some facts for you and my most amazing fact is that did you know that in the world we have 117 million lakes and in the bible we have two prominent water bodies mostly in the old testament we see the red sea and river Jordan for the red sea it is about 2211 meters deep and the river Jordan is with 243 kilometers long yes BCB ah thank you Ash now ladies and gentlemen we all know the story of the first time that God assisted the children of Israel to cross the red sea but our story today is going to be about the second time that he did it we all know the first time we all remember you know the Israelites had just left Egypt in a miraculous way God had brought down 10 plagues on the Egyptians and they had come just at the bank of the red sea and just as they were about to cross ladies and gentlemen as they were about to cross the Egyptians came and were chasing after them and God delivered them but this week ladies and gentlemen we are going to learn about the second time that God pulled such a miracle for them yes so the Israelites had set out from the valley of Sheetim to cross the river Jordan which was to lead them to the promised land that God had told them about so when they were setting out to go to river Jordan the Lord told them to camp on the banks of river Jordan for 3 days and what does this show us this shows us patience for the Lord wanted to give them the correct orders for them to be able to cross over to the promised land so after 3 days God told Joshua to tell his people once they see the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant they should stop whatever they are doing they should move from their positions and they should follow the Levitical priests what the Levitical priests symbolize in the Bible they show us that they are the leaders of the church of the levels then we see when they set foot on the banks of the river Jordan the river split and built up to 2 walls and the Israelites were able to cross over to the promised land wow able to cross over to the promised land you can imagine that just imagine that you are there and the water has risen up like a wall amazing interesting facts and so ladies and gentlemen our verse come from the book of Joshua chapter 3 verse 7 what sounds like to read that Joshua chapter 3 verse 7 and it says and the Lord said to Joshua this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all of Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses so I will be with you amen amen amen and from our story we learn that what God did for someone else what God did for Moses he could do for Joshua and just similarly just like that what God did for them he could do for us in our own lives what do you learn Ashley I learn that God will make a way anywhere where there seems to be no way amen amen ladies and gentlemen that's our story for this week we hope that you will come again next week to learn more about lessons from water in the Bible we ought to pray let's pray our father in heaven we thank you for this Sabbath day Lord thank you for teaching us that no matter what happens there's always a way Lord we know that in life there are troubles no matter where we go and we know you're there for us the same way you were there for the Israelites I pray believing and trusting in Jesus amen amen bye happy Sabbath let's whisper a prayer gracious and loving father as we turn to your word we kindly ask you to give us the understanding for each and every word that is going to be read today because we pray in Jesus' name amen our scripture reading today is coming from the book of Luke chapter 15 and verse 31 the book of Luke chapter 15 and verse 31 and it says my son the father said you are always with me and everything I have is yours I'll repeat again my son the father said you are always with me I have is yours may God bless the reading we shall all rise with the song number S.D.Heminal 296 Lord I'm coming home let us all rise home we're from our father and our God we praise you and glorify your name for your goodness and must say God, we call upon you to be with us. We want to come home. We want to feel your love. We want to feel accepted. We want to sit at the feet of the cross so that we can have mercy. We are coming home, Lord. Accept us as we are Lord and talk to us. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We want to thank the Lord for bringing us here to hear His word. And I want to thank all of you who have worked with me since we started this journey of family togetherness, the revival week. It has been an interesting journey discussing several topics pertaining to family togetherness. And I gave a sub-title wounded but limping. When we encounter the Lord, we come to a full realization that we are weak, that we are so sinful, that we cannot even stand before the Lord. But the Lord is so kind, so merciful, like a deed to Isaiah when he first met the Lord. Isaiah then encountered the Lord and the Lord reached out, the angel came and touched his mouth. He was raised from a very terrible family so he said people speaking evil words, not good. The example he had from his childhood was that terrible. But the angel touched his mouth and cleansed him with fire. Friends, we are so lucky that our God is that loving that every time we encounter him, he is so merciful that he is able to clean us with the blood of the Son Jesus Christ. That's what happened to Isaiah. And Isaiah was never the same. He became a prophet, mouthpiece of God, and he preached the word. So we talked about some of the issues, the enemies of togetherness. First we talked about possession and we saw the examples of those two men, Abraham and Kazin. And how they separated because of their possession. But we specifically talked about the choices Lord made which was so good before his eyes and it took him to a city where things never went as we know well, never went well. He went to a wicked city and we know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. But again we looked at Abraham was a very rich man, the Bible said, but he meant royal and faithful to God. Then on the three we looked at another enemy of togetherness and this is the failure to realize or to recognize the purpose for your life. The reason why the Lord has called you, the purpose for your being, your family and so on. There are a lot of things that we bring along as we come to make a family. Some of the things come in and disturb our togetherness. So we discussed those on day three. On day four we talked about intimacy and the way God intended it. When we talk about intimacy, when we live together in harmony like a church family as we discussed yesterday, there is this intimate connection we experience. We are not only talking about man and woman and what they are doing in their privacy. No, intimacy is when you are living together, all of you with one heart sharing together as a family of God. We talked about this and we saw some of the issues that stand in the way of intimacy. We specifically talked about the covenant which brings us together because that's how God intended the family to be. We started with the covenant relationship or commitment and then realizing that we all need to be together by the grace of God. Because of that, we continue in that relationship empowering each other, strengthening each other and helping each other to grow. That is empowering and that one brings us into the intimate relationship or love together as a family. We talked about that and yesterday we continued strengthening that family togetherness. But on day Friday, the fifth day we talked about Ruth and what happened to this young lady, a widow who said to her mother-in-law, where you go, I will go. The faith, the example of this lady is a lesson to all of us who are struggling in life. We are wounded. These two ladies were wounded, they were all widows and they saw no future where they were going. It was so tough for them, but this lady stood firm and fast and she knew that the God of Israel is a God who is going to answer their prayer. In fact, when she eventually met Boaz, Boaz told her that, I'm glad you came to a God, a God of Israel under whose wings you are hiding and the call was hide under God's wing because there is protection. God has plans for your life, for my life. And sometimes we don't know what the future holds. We never know until something has happened and then we look back and say, hey, this is now you put pieces together and say, hey, all the things happened because of this. This is what happened to Ruth and the story ended very well. You know very well that through Ruth, who was a mobite, the son who was born to Naomi because Naomi took this grand son as her own son and she was so happy. She was excited because the Lord had answered her prayer. When she came back to her city, she told the women welcomed her and said, don't call me that name, I'm bitter. Sometimes we move with a lot of bitterness in life because of what has happened to us, but we don't have to do that because we don't know what the future has. Eventually Naomi, her life changed and when she was holding that baby, she was so happy and the women came singing and saying, see what has happened to you now. You have a son. Actually, it was the real son who was born out of Boaz and Ruth relationship and we see Jesus coming through that lineage. Jesse, David and Jesus. For your information, Ruth was a mobite and the daughter of Lot gave birth to Moab and you know where Lot got that baby. You know where she got that baby. So you can see that God can bring good things out of terrible things. Terrible things which you cannot even talk about in the national TV, but God is so faithful, he is so kind and forgiving and also forgetting. That's our God. That's my God. That's a God who is calling us to come home after wandering with all our wounds and I was trying to demonstrate. I wish I had the liberty to walk around and limp, but I said, yes, we are limping, we are limping but we are coming home and so the call is come home. I don't know what wound you have been carrying this week, this year, last year, in the last 10 years, I don't know but your father is waiting and yesterday we saw that we have a father. We have a father in heaven who is waiting, who is calling upon us, who wants us to be in the same family and we talked about Jesus, the builder because the cornerstone and the builder himself who is building all of us family members into one family. Into one family. And God is preparing this family for heavenly kingdom, the kingdom which is coming and that is what all of us are waiting for. So the call was accept what is happening. You have to be more ready to form into a good brick because we are all being built if you have observed builders when they are building a house, they make sure that they straighten the bricks. So that they can fit together in the world. That's what's happening to your life. When things don't go well, you never know why God is bringing those things to you. You never know. We have been studying the lesson in this quarter about crucibos. Crucibos happening and some of them coming and the Lord is aware. He's watching. Yes, you pray. We pray and call upon our Lord and winter seed and bring our brothers and sisters together but things don't go our way. Or the way we want. God has a plan for you. God has a plan for your life because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But you look back and say, hey, so this is why this happened? This is how things were? Yes, wounded but limping. Today we are talking about together but apart. It's the sad story. How can we be together but apart? What are some of the things that forces us to be apart when we are together? Can you live with somebody in the same bed, in the same house when you are apart? It is possible. It is possible. And here we are talking of feelings and emotions. Feelings are important dimensions of being a human being. And I am a chaplain and we chaplains when we minister to people we minister to them at the feeling level. When you meet somebody you can ask this person even if you know that this person things are not going on well. If you say, how are you? You say, fine, good. We are used to that. But that one you never get to the feeling level until you ask a question. How are you feeling my sister? How are you feeling my brother? How are things going on with you? At that level we can share now. So I am saying here that feelings are an important dimension of being a human being. The expression of feelings of love and affection is an essential ingredient in achieving intimacy in the family. Expressing love and intimacy. We talk about raising children. Children want to fulfill that love that intimate love when you touch them when you call them, cuddle them when you kiss them when you embrace them everybody needs that. And in fact I was reading that children who grow up without that kind of love should be distant and it follows them in their adulthood. And I was asking my life when we were growing up I never saw my mum hugging me or my dad hugging me. Does that affected me? All of us Africans majority of those days our parents were never affectionate. How could you even come close to your father to hug you? But today I love their families today. Parents try. They try their best to love their children to hug them. So this expression of feeling and love is very important to you as a being and in order to achieve intimacy in the family life whereby all of us are together even if they church family together expression is very important. So expressing emotional feelings to one another even to members of one's family is a difficult thing for people to do and look around how many times have you seen us doing this a lot and you never know but sometimes we just sit on these feelings you feel you want somebody to say you know the most important or is it three words or four words even sister went right about them I love you three words very very important very very powerful but how many married couples who recite those words it's not common and I'm talking of the African culture here it's not very common to hear a man saying you want to hear that and it brings it's expression of affection and love very essential ingredients to achieve intimacy in relationship so a number because people are having a problem we ask why what has happened to our society today and a number in our modern society today there are several characteristics that hindering that and they are bringing a sense of alienation and loneliness to people and I'm going to mention only for number one mechanization life has become so mechanistic you know machines have taken over our lives life is ordered graduated and routinarized there is a lot of routines in our lives wake up at 5 prepare children, take them to school go to work, come back all of these routines that's what I call routinarized according to mechanistic timetable we are working according to timetable and that's the routine of life that's the one that's not afford us time to sit together to each other and listen to the feeling level we just say how are you fine, how was your work, okay you know no time to sit down and talk about the feelings number two the prevalence of anonymity and impersonation impersonalization in our society this one has led us in relating to each other in this superficial superficial way there's a lot of privacy don't enter people have their privacy don't disturb them don't interfere in their privacy individualism which we used to be from the western world but now we are seeing it here coming here on this continent we are so individualistic you may not be surprised to sit on I mean to stay on a big apartment when you don't know anybody there and you can live there for 10, 20 years and you don't know the people in that apartment it's too huge we are just lost in the society you know or maybe in the privacy of our homes with the fences and walls and remember the first day we read almost chapter three where we discovered that the lions God is sending evil to jump over to skip over your fences to go in so you cannot protect yourself you cannot hide even if they are in those walls evil will find you but that's the kind of life we live very there's a lot of impersonation people live in their privacy and and look at even now we purchase things online is it Jumai you can be in your house and do everything you want hope I said it well is it Jumai or Jumai I'm sorry guys I've never used it but I get mares every time advertising but I mean life has reached that level my wife recent was in the US she came back and said she forgot to take money to the offering to the church and said oh you need to remind me because in the US we don't use cash anymore people don't use cash I mean and even here I am always amazed at the way M-Pesa works even if you are buying something for 20 shirings like a sugar cane on the street 20 shirings even 10 I mean that one is amazing you know but we are moving towards that whereby you are in your house you can get everything you need you don't need to meet people but that kind of life is what I'm talking about here the prevalence of anonymity and impersonation people are living their cocoons they don't want to be known how can we express our feelings and love how can we be together how can we form a family how can we form a society in the environment look around you how many people do you know on that people sitting down just look around how many can you name you will be lucky if you are known or if you know everyone but that's the kind of life we live and we say we are family we are together do we know each other really do we care this caring society about the church big family even if your mother is disappointed you are often like me you still can come here if you are accepted and loved if your church youth lead in this congregation do you know where the young people stay your youth members do you know where they stay do you even have time to visit them or they tell you oh pastor or elder you just call you just call that's the kind of life so we are living in a mass a mass society characterized by bureaucratization hierarchies ranks people have their ranks organizational chain of command as in organization where we work this is what we see even here before we talk the pastor these levels this is what explains our society people seem as seen as objects archpying the position rather than human beings that's true and I'm not dismissing the fact that we need membership I was the secretary of the union one time and of course I have to report as the secretary I have to report membership and membership growth and it is important having in the bible we see in the bible we know how people are being counted to know how many if you are a hadsman you need to know the ship you have how can you take care of them how can you plan them if you don't know them so it's important the numbers but in some cases we are only known by numbers in some countries you are known by SSN what is your SSN they don't care they don't look at you SSN here in Kenya ID ID for me it's like I have to get it out because I don't know it at this age you can't even know your ID because in Uganda we ID we don't use them much infact they have just been introduced here in Kenya I had it you cannot live in Kenya without an ID and I see it ID everything you buy ID that's what we are known for you don't care about your name just the number so you are just an object you are occupying space we are all lost in this mass we are just lost in this mass very interesting and so how and when are we going to express your feelings so people dying people lonely they are dying with their things inside they have no friend to talk to just there in their apartment alone so we bring this gadgets to help us to feel we are connected yes feel we are connected even if we are married two of us but still we are chatting and you are chatting with somebody in Canada you are here in Kenya, Canada Japan and your friend here your husband is also chatting this is what is happening a lot of impersonation this impersonation resulting in loneliness and alienation we are so alienated we are so separated family togetherness is not easy to come by it's not easy but that's what we are talking about today family togetherness we need to be together we need to feel we are loved we need to be intimate as a family can we share a meal together can we share an evening together can we share a social evening together we are such a big church when was the last time you went to have a social like you press soka and sports and run around oh by the way I saw a poster here of people running that's great that brings us together we need them we become part of a faceless crowd faceless crowd you are faceless nobody cares you go in a lift nobody wants to look at you in fact when you are in a lift and you look at somebody that's a threat why are you looking at me straight so you look down in the good thing you have in a face backward like this in a lift and you need to be very careful you can be mistaken there are some places when you are driving and you have to put your when you are stopped make sure your hands are here understanding never put it down here we always tell our sons hey when you are driving put your hands here when you are stopped make sure it's here you can be mistaken faceless society this is where we are heartless in the face of this heartless world the family becomes a refugee where we can retreat for comfort care and intimacy let me repeat this in the face of this heartless world the family becomes a refugee where we can retreat for comfort, care and intimacy the question is are we together do we explain this togetherness how intimate are we in the family you feel loved you feel accepted because we are not perfect being our sons and daughters has never been perfect such a big family you can never be perfect we make mistakes we speak bad words but because of grace how are we accepted as brothers and sisters in the same family but that's what we need that's what we are longing for we want to feel loved we want to feel accepted an example which I wanted to give today is the example of the prodigosan the prodigosan in the book of Luke 13 Luke you know the story I'm not going to repeat the issue of the story the good news about the prodigosan is that he came home he was wounded terribly where he went things never went the way he wanted he came limping home yes let me go even if my dad say I will just tell him he came limping and he came home that's the good news that's what we are calling I've been calling this week come home come limping come with your wounds because the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse and clean you and the father of that boy he was longing and waiting that's how heavenly father our heavenly father has never stopped waiting for you he's never stopped waiting for you come home the father was waiting and when he saw the son far away he ran and said this is my son the sad story is he had stayed with another son for such a long time but they were part that's the sad story the prodigosan came home he was all calm he was cleansed and they put him they gave him the best gown the life transformed changed completely that's what happened to us when we come to our father when we accept to be born again we are cleansed by the water of course yesterday we saw that we were like babies we have to be nurtured to grow we love and grace yes that happens but the other son is the issue most of us feel that we are together when we are apart that was very sad and so the father is asking look in verse 15 the father is asking haven't we been together all of this time together I thought all the things I have belong to you what has happened my son I don't know what happened to that son probably left together but apart the father probably this young man had not expressed his feeling to the father and that could be true there are many times we live with the people but we don't give the opportunity to ask them how they feel we have this kind of parenting we don't let go we keep on commanding when somebody is 2 y.o. we say the same thing with somebody who is 10 y.o. we say the same thing with somebody who is 15 y.o. 20 y.o. I don't know what the father was how the father was speaking to this young man but the man who was alienated he was lonely he was a loner and can be terrible when you get married to a loner because loners don't express themselves they don't you just see this person moody he is not talking do you wonder what has happened what have I done so this is the brother who was found home but the good news is the prodigal son came home let us just consider on that one he came home we need to come home brother than sisters we need to come home the father is waiting come home I don't know what has happened but you can come to your father there is another prodigal son probably most of us know one son in the new testament but there is another prodigal son in the old testament who also came home and that one was even lived a more terrible life than this one and this son was Judah Judah was one of the sons of Jacob and we meet Judah first of all as a kind man currently because when the dreamer came to see how things were moving with the brothers they say let us kill him let us kill him the dreamer here comes and so they arrested him threw him in the pit of course the elder brother said no let us not do that we shouldn't kill our brother we can just maybe serve him when it's starting from chapter chapter let me look at chapter chapter 38 37 37 verse 26 from verse 21 the bible says Genesis 37 from verse 21 the bible says but when Ruben had of their scheme he came to Joseph his rescue let us not kill him this is Ruben elder brother but the other brothers are determined to kill Joseph so they did what they threw him in the pit in verse 26 Judah come this is the first time we meet Judah Judah said to his brother what will we gain by killing our brother we would have to cover up the crime instead of hurting him let us serve him to these Israelite traders that's Judah kind man so okay instead of killing him let us serve him they sold Joseph but what happened to Judah when he came home of course they made a big lie to their daddy and you see how Jacob after losing the love return has passed away he became I mean desperate you can just think of what happened to this man tore his cloth and started lamenting would never stop crying for the son and so that affected Judah so much of course he had to keep quiet but that lie affected him so much that he decided to run away from the family he separated from the family and so verse 38 we are told Judah at that time left home and moved to another city and he went very far away and he married a Canaanite woman like a lot things did not go well with Judah even the sons that he got the three sons they all died because they were so wicked no no the two of them died and so one of the widow wanted because that was a Karichak exactly what happened to the story of Ruth the father had to give this widow to one of the son and you know what happened to the second son he deceived and God was so fucking dead so Judah realized ah when I give this woman this daughter in law I don't want her to to kill my third son that can anybody could reason like that have lost two the first son died now the second one died how can I give her my third son that's how he rationalized that's how he thought and so he deceived Judah deceiving the daughter in law he said okay you can wait when this one grows up I'll give him to you but the Bible say he was deceiving it never happened and so because of that deception this woman also made a plan she was told your father in law is going to a certain city and she prayed a prostitute and as as we know these people on the street they are even here in Nairobi aero cities even in Kampala I mean all along highways they are there tonight selling themselves so this is what this lady did and Judah saw her and he bought her and he took her the lady impersonated herself and the man said the lady said what are you going to give me the guy said oh I have many goats I'll give you a goat said no I don't want a goat give me your ID and so Judah gave her his ID and the woman left and after some time when they went home Judah told his servant can you take a goat to this prostitute to somewhere they know because this prostitute is known in that city they can correct the ID back they never saw this woman and they said no we don't have such a prostitute we don't have that name here we've never seen that person and first forward the woman became pregnant and the reports went to Judah your dad and law is pregnant what how can that happen bring her here we need to kill her we need to burn her and so they brought the young lady that quick to judge that is Judah you could not even think of his sins but you can only look at the sins of others he was the one who had committed the sin to her and so the woman said before you kill me whose ID is this and when everybody looked at the ID they just ran away because they knew what had happened that is Judah deceptive, immoral prostitute and so on but when his life was going that down he felt terrible and he must have repented he felt so bad and he came home Judah came home and we know that because when time came for when there was problems and there was the famine in the land Jacob told his sons 42 chapter 42 verse 3 so Joseph the older sons went down to Egypt that's what we know that oh he came home now they attend because Joseph the 11th and the young brother also because the young brother was always staying home and so Joseph is coming home I mean Judah came home as a prodigal son he came home and we see when he came home he became the family spokesperson because we read in chapter 43 verse 18 so Judah stepped forward and he said please lord he's talking to Joseph now please lord you remember when Joseph had a dream and he said one time you guys were going to prostitute and they said how can we do that to you? now he's saying please lord have mass on us have mass on us don't do this to us and he begged the fathers there and even in verse 33 he said please lord my lord let me stay here as a slave for you so that you don't because he was worried that if this the younger brother he will explain what happened the father is going to be so hurt because his lovely son died and now this young brother you are demanding please lord Joseph had confessed his sins had repented and first forward when you go to the end of the book of Genesis when Jacob was praying blessing to the sons he when you read this is chapter 49 we see Jacob speaking prophesying towards Judah in fact it was the longest the longest of all the sons other sons you will suffer you will do this the words the father told Joseph listen from verse 8 Judah your brothers will praise you you will grasp the enemies at your neck Judah my son is a younger lion remember the lion of Judah yes that's how far God can forgive us and that's how far God can cleanse us the Bible is very clear he can throw our sins way so that we can be together he was cleansed and through Judah we see that lion of Judah the savior was born savior was born this is a prodigo son who came home and things were settled he was forgiven, he was cleansed brother than sisters I don't know how much wounded you are but they called this morning come home come limping we need to be together we need to enjoy this fellowship together we need to be together as a family I don't know what has happened to this church and I'm not saying things that have happened to the church but we need to come together to enjoy this intimacy together and even at the family level the primary level let us come home let us stop this business of running and alienation let us throw away the gadgets that are separating us from each other we need to come home that's a call I've been expressing this week and I was saying I want to hug someone today who would say I've wondered if I want to come home I want to come to my family my church family my home family I left my children, I left my wife I went away, there's no reason to do that come home I went out of the church because the members are not so good nobody's good we are all wicked, we are all wounded but by God's grace we are accepted as we are because when we come at the foot of the cross we are cleansed we are cleaned by the blood of Jesus Isaiah was touched by fire you aren't be touched by the waters those of you who have never been who have never given their life to Jesus Christ and they want to be cleansed and be baptized because we are cleansed by the blood and water this is the opportunity to say here I am Lord I want to come home I want to hug someone I want to say welcome someone welcome home this is our calling so we are going to be singing our last song and during this song I want to pray for someone who would come forward and say Lord I want to come home this is your opportunity don't lose this opportunity as the choir is singing as we are doing our last music you can walk down here saying Lord I have wandered far away I have been lonely I have been feeling sick alienated but now I want to come home I want to be accepted God is waiting your father is waiting as he waited for the prodigal son he is waiting come home my brother come home my sister that's my prayer in Jesus name we shall rise up song number 296 Lord I am coming home and we shall sing it in this pattern first stanza all of us shall sing second stanza men third stanza all of us fourth stanza ladies and fifth stanza all of us if you want to be prayed for I am waiting for you please come home just before we pray faster is asking for a family just one family that feels they need the presence of God they are struggling but still you can come to the Lord though limping you though wounded you just can come before the Lord I want to make a prayer for your family thank you mam for coming is there any other person there we need to pray for our marriages pray for our families I know it is not well within our marriages and pass has been here for the whole week is giving you one more opportunity this morning that you may commit your marriage before the Lord God is able to fight for you the tears you are shedding every day the struggles the hopelessness which is in your marriage the Lord can fix it and he is trusting that you may give a step of faith just come in that commitment that he may pray for you you never know maybe God sent him this week just for your marriage just for your family just for your child just for your husband just for your wife just come and let's trust the Lord this moment of prayer we are trusting and believing that he is waiting let's do stanza one again or that song as I wait for members to come thank you for those who are coming it is a family life we go prayer and it does have no go without you getting committed we can trust the Lord one more time specifically for our marriages don't mind about what people are going to say they are even hurting more than you are hurting just come for your marriage come for your children present those issues before the Lord as we pray stanza one one more time and then we pray if you are there just make your way just come just come the devil is working hard in our marriages fighting spouses fighting children we are praying but we can still hang on in the prayer trusting the Lord to do something just come just come just come don't fear what people are going to say this is about what you feel just come just come just come this week was specifically targeting your marriage the struggles within your family just come just come to the Lord just come just say Lord I'm coming home I'm struggling I'm in pain I'm having wounds but Lord I'm coming receive me just come just come just come don't fear thank you my sisters thank you my brothers just come don't fear just come just come you may be living together yet apart emotional breakdown just come to the Lord just come to the Lord just come to him just come to him just come to him thank you my sisters just come just come just come he knows your case he knows your pain he knows your frustrations he knows your disappointments just come to him just come just come thank you my sisters just come just come just come those of you online I know you're not able to make your way up front here but I want you to believe wherever you are as you're going to pray be part of this raise up your hand wherever you are Lord I am coming home Lord I'm wounded I'm in pain but I'm trusting in coming back to you because of time we are going to pray I want to thank you for those who have breathed it and know it's not very easy especially standing up for your marriage before the congregation but the Lord knows the struggles in your marriage it could be your children it could be your spouses it could be your extended family you're standing here for this morning accepting to receive you this morning as we pray I want to invite the man of God pastor to commit these families before the Lord we praise the Lord and those of you who have come forward here I don't know your wounds but the Lord knows he reads your heart he understands he knows your background he knows where you're coming from he knows your prayers and in the right time God is going to answer your prayer I would love someone outside back there in a special way those of you who want to have a private conversation with me or we can share my phone or WhatsApp we can chat and help each other so that we can strengthen each other this is what we want as a family that's what we need as a family to be together let us pray Father God we have come as we are we have come limping father but we know you promise to strengthen us you promise you are healing masses like Isaiah when he encountered you his life was never the change was never the same Lord you touched him in a special way you cleansed him by fire cleans us Lord today by your spirit touch us in a special way all of us are wounded all of us are hurting there's a lot that has happened in this country in this world people in Pakistan are crying because of floods in Uganda Kasese area in western Uganda they are flooded they are dying many other parts it is flood and famine and drought and families breaking apart and unemployment our young people graduates are not working and things are not going well businesses are slow and we are trying Lord but things are not coming our way oh Father we have come as we are we have come to you father you have the power to heal us Lord heal us, help us, deliver us Lord God we need your deliverance Father God we need your power come and touch us in a special way touch your children have come here Lord I don't know what the wounds they are carrying but you can heal them you have the power to heal them you are healer you are physician father touch their hearts in a special way heal them because you are the owner Lord be with us continue to guide us and feed us may you hold the spirit touch us in a special way and continue in our lives to mold us and as we prepared for your kingdom brace the entire church Lord and if you now brothers want here on the line Lord we pray for them wherever they are Lord God touch them and reach them in a special way I thank you for here in God prayer for you have prayed believing and trusting let the church say amen amen God bless you thank you so much pastor and all the church members who have come up front here and those who are online and of course I know there could be many who didn't have courage to step up front here but you have been praying in your heart and learned to remember your struggles in marriage we continue praying for you and I pray that next time when we having family life we go prayer take advantage because the devil has really taken much time in destroying our marriages is working hard on our families let's every time try to come together encourage one another because there is no single marriage that is perfect including mine we are all struggling but we have the Lord on our side let's keep praying for one another let's keep encouraging one another because we know who is on our side is greater than the one who is our enemy I want to invite this team that is well dressed smartly dressed just make your way upfront from the children department we appreciate that the children department has various ministries they run and one of them is training the trainers of the children and also the trainers of parents they have a vast ministry not only training children and teachers but also training parents on how to bring up their children and this moment before we end our worship we are having a team that has been going through a very unique stage of training and today they are graduating and so we will take the next few minutes to commit them to the Lord I want to invite their leader to come and give a very short brief on this and then we are going to pray for them Happy Sabbath church Happy Sabbath once more Okay Mine is a simple duty I'm here to present the graduates for Season 4 Footprints for parents and mentors I would like to start by introducing them First is Joyce Somoni Please raise your hand Grace Kendele Damaris Mdira Sara Okelo Mrs. Were Angela Ruto Diana Gunga Elizabeth Corus Elda Ezra Maio Ya, those are the graduates Thank you very much Now I want to take this opportunity to invite teachers who are standing behind them are the lead team members they are the facilitators that the Lord has been using them to train these parents together with their children who are going through footprints for kids Thank you Now I want to take this opportunity to invite teacher Sara Maiwa to give a description a small description of the ministry and what kids in discipleship is all about Welcome I greet you all in the name of Jesus Saba Yes, we are so happy this morning the children ministry department because we have a ministry within a ministry that is called kids in discipleship and probably you are new this morning and you are watching us online and you do not know what kids in discipleship is this is a ministry that equips parents to become the primary spiritual mentors of their children Amen Yes, this is the mandate that God has given all parents to become the spiritual mentors the first primary spiritual mentors of their children and just like our slogan or our motto says kids in discipleship is designed for families and focused on children Can you say that together designed for families focused on children Yes, that's our motto Footprints it has two parts divided into it has two major sections that's footprints for parents and mentors and footprints for kids Footprints is a curriculum that helps us to take these parents through their lessons of becoming primary spiritual mentors of their children Footprints for parents and mentors has 12 lessons that help to strengthen your personal work with Jesus and your faith journey and it also helps you equip you gives you the tools because when you are doing something like that very important ministry that God has given you as a parent you need tools and so the kids in discipleship footprints for parents and mentors gives you the tools you need to be equipped to mentor to your children and to and to help become an example a true example and a true model in teaching by precept and example and it also helps you you become closer to your child as you continue to mentor them the footprints for kids curriculum has 24 lesson classes and in this 24 lesson classes you are able to take your child through all the 28 fundamental beliefs or foundational beliefs for our faith and so the unique feature about this class it's not like the pathfinder club or the other clubs we appreciate them but this has a unique feature because the parent sits in class with their child you sit in class and these facilitators who have come to support us they help you, they facilitate you to give you the tools to become the parent who is spiritually mentoring your child so some of these lessons like these parents today have finished 12 lessons and just in passing lesson one is come to Jesus come to me, Mathew every lesson has a Bible character that helps us know what you're supposed to achieve in that lesson come to Jesus, Mathew and it's a lesson on renewing commitment to spend time alone with God we normally tell our children have you prayed have you read your lesson but are we doing it ourselves so it helps you become this lesson makes you have a renewed commitment to spend time alone with God and then you can know woman of grace and all the other 12 lessons I may not have time to say all of them but each of these lessons helps us to become better spiritual mentors over children the main goal of both footprints for parents and mentors and footprints for kids is life transformation that's our main goal that you are going to have a life transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit and our other goal is to help families become disciple making families would like not to just help you disciple your children and come and sit at the pews our anchor verse is Deutronomy chapter 6 verse 4 to 7 it is the anchor verse that helps us to know what God has called parents to become the spiritual mentors of their children may God bless us as we go through this service thank you thank you so much how many of us parents in this room this moment wish to go through this training especially the young parents being trained on how to become a mentor a spiritual mentor of your child how many of you would admire that thank you thank you you can see a number of hands I will invite you to see the team here they can take your names and they can enroll you for the next classes that are supposed to be upcoming I want to invite Pasta Ogeda to come and our guest speaker to specifically commit this team of graduates to the Lord thank you Pasta I'm inviting now Pasta Nyaga to help us parents as you've heard teacher Sarah Maywa the chief trainer tell us that these ministries anchored in prayer it's only Christ that can help us sail through all the challenges of life and it's through Jesus that we seek our strength as a ministry and I believe all the families here so I'm inviting Pasta to light the candle that represent Christ and he's going to help the other parents take light from them take light from them and I'm now inviting the children of the graduates together with the spouses to come the spouses and the children of the graduates to please join them as Pasta is lighting the candles kindly come okay as the children are joining their parents okay thank you Pasta children I'm now requesting you to turn to your parents and take the light from the candles that your parents are having thank you very much please face forward let's turn back and face the church I'm now inviting Pasta Ogeda to do a dedication prayer so this light the candles are just a symbol of the light that Christ has given you as parents Pasta's candle was representing Jesus Christ light then the parents have given the same light that they received from Christ to their children so I'm inviting Pasta Ogeda to do a dedication prayer please thank you thank you so much for the program kids in discipleship and I believe that we want to dedicate these families and our families seated there and I want to thank God for the privilege He has given me to dedicate all of us to the Lord in prayer let's close our eyes for our prayer Father in the name of Jesus we thank you so much for giving us this Sabbath day to worship you thank you Lord for calling us unto yourself thank you Father for your blood which has redeemed us Father as we struggle with the sin factor in this life in our families with our children Lord in our church, in our nation Lord we are standing before you to rededicate ourselves to you as our Lord, our God, our Savior and our Redeemer that Father you may reveal yourself to us and to our families O Lord those who have come before you Lord families who have decided to guide their families according to your written words young ones are going to grow to know you as the living God that's our desire families we may clearly represent you in this world and stand for the truth and for the glory of your name I now dedicate them all in the name of Jesus that Father your spirit may descend upon each and every one of them that they can really remain firm in their faith and in their discipleship role be with us O Lord remember them and bless us all as a church and as families in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and let all of us say our Father and our God before you are your precious children and all of us have been children Lord we praise you and thank you because you are the one who raised us you are the one who are going to raise these precious souls before you and all those who have not come here Lord who are watching us online we thank you for the gifts of children Lord we thank you that you promised send your Holy Spirit to guide them to teach them and to build them but above all Lord I pray for the parents they have a lot of work to do big responsibility to love and to care for these precious souls give them the courage give them the wisdom give them the loving spirit and make them together let them stay together with a lot of intimacy so that they can raise these children as God-feeling children bless them Lord God this word is not easy but you promised even during the storm that we never leave us alone bless us Father God this end I pray in Jesus name Amen Thank you pastors for that prayer I pray that may the Lord keep us faithful He finds us faithful as we're waiting for Him together with our families I now want to take this opportunity to invite teacher Elizabeth who is one of our facilitators to give a call for food prints for parents and mentors Season 5 starting in January 2022 Welcome Children of the Most High God Happy Sabbath and Happy Day Happy Day Happy Day So Are you a parent or aspiring to be one? Are you a guardian or a mentor? The kids in discipleship ministry is for everyone and that includes single parents it includes grandparents who have grandchildren it includes older brothers and sisters who have younger siblings it includes everyone and children are God's gifts to us and God calls us to be their primary spiritual mentors We are to make them disciples but before we can do this ourselves must be disciples, right? Yes Deutronomy chapter 6 verse 4 to 7 says that here o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength these commandments that I give you today are your hearts impress them on your children Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up and since we are the spiritual Israel this call is being made to us today as parents and mentors and it is in this regard the discipleship ministry is inviting you to register for footprints for parents and mentors season 5 at the youth desk right after this the classes are going to begin in January 2023 it is my prayer and it is my hope that you will heed to this call from our loving father thank you thank you very much parents I'm now requesting to put off your candles we've had I want to take this opportunity to really thank the parents and especially fathers who've really supported the ministry and they've been part of us among the graduands we have one elder elder Ezra Mayo elder I want to invite you to just come and encourage other parents fathers in particular and tell them your experience being in the kids in discipleship ministry welcome happy sabat when these classes are beginning this is season 4 I was wondering why I needed to join this curriculum it is a 12 lesson intensive classes and I have two young daughters and I have two elder daughters my first born is 23 years old and our last born our first born is 23 years old and our last born is 8 and they are 2 in between so I was wondering what was I going to learn from this group of teachers and the first lesson really brought me because when we read the book of Luke 5 we met Matthew who was a tax collector and I discovered that I was not a disciple when Matthew was called he was working at the tax office and Jesus called him he left everything he left his friends he left his relatives he left what he was doing and followed Jesus Christ that really touched me so much because I am a type of person who is very busy we leave the house before 6 and come back very late at times we carry work home and we work late and so I found that I had not been very good in bringing up my kids and I discovered I needed to be a disciple first like Matthew and so we learnt a lot through the 12 lessons it's not very easy it takes over 1 hour or 2 per lesson and it took over 6 months it was a long period because it's a lot of material and so what I learnt and what changed me apart from being a disciple and learning to be a mentor I learnt how to bring Jesus into our family through what we call TAG time alone with God without time alone with God you cannot be a successful disciple you cannot be a successful parent or a successful mentor time alone with God and we have inculcated the same to our children say that they have time alone with God on their own say that when they grow and go out of our house they will learn they will continue with the same same thing because right now the kids we are going through with the kids another 12 no lessons apart from the 12 for mentors and parents so I want to encourage you you might wonder and say I know all the fundamental beliefs but there are a lot of things you will learn to be a disciple to be a mentor and how to bring Christ into your family so I want to encourage parents don't be skeptical the way I was by the fourth one I said let me try and see and right now I feel empowered I feel more after the ways the tactics of bringing making it easy for my family to have time alone with God at times we have so mechanical we have the devotionals we want to read every day until it becomes a burden to the family how do you bring it to the kids and you yourself grow spiritually join us may God bless you thank you very much elder you've heard from an elder I'm going to pick out lesson 8 of the 12 lessons it talks about Abraham when Abraham travelled and moved from one point to another he would put up an altar and sacrifice and he sang Isaac would sing as Abraham was worshiping long after when Abraham had died Isaac would do the same thing and when he called on God he said my God the God of my father Abraham fathers I'm encouraging all of you to bring up your children in the ways of the Lord let your children see that you're that father that depends on God long after as soon as you come you will live a generation that will know that you serve the most high God I'm also taking this opportunity to encourage mothers using lesson 9 the title is teacher children to love God it's a story about Lois the grandmother of Timothy and Eunice the mother we all know the story about Paul who trusted Timothy and he told them the lessons I trust you and I know you're going to do this we can bring up our children and we all know the story from the Bible they lived in the city of Lystra Lystra was a city a very busy secular city like the city of Nairobi but because this grandmother and this mother made sure that they brought Timothy was their grandson respectively to know the ways of the Lord and still bring up a godly generation in the midst of our busy schedules of life and all the noise from from the world I now want to put it at rest I'll invite the team to sing a song but first I want to give past an opportunity thank you thank you, thank you so much I know we are rushing after time and I thank you members for being patient with us today we have taken a little more time than usual before I sit and allow the keys to sing as we break for lunch I am aware that in our midst today in this worship we have been having a guest from general conference and I think it's proper for me to invite them just to greet the church and we also give them our greetings as they go back to our headquarters they are here for our future assignment they are auditing our vision and they found it okay for them to come and fellowship with us this day how many of you welcome them just to say hi to us thank you so much our leader just have your way up front here come and greet the church thank you, thank you so much thank you for choosing our church we are so many church in this area you have chosen thank you for coming thank you elder Roko for being a good custodian and keeping them safe throughout the worship God bless you so much our elder please welcome, greet us and feel very much welcome this worship, thank you thank you very much for the opportunity to worship with you today and yes we greet you from our various churches in North America I actually attend church in Collegedale Tennessee and Oxana and Daniel they attend in Maryland close to the general conference which churches are yours we attend four churches my husband he is a pastor in Baltimore area so we send you our greetings from Spanish churches in Baltimore I originally so I attend Washington Canyon SGHH and Columbia, Maryland thank you so greetings and happy Sabbath to all of you thank you, thank you so much when you go back to your churches in your country pass our greetings to them we will thank you allow me to now invite the kids to say they have a song to sing and after which we say the grace and then we break for lunch and as we break for lunch just remind you that the family department has very interesting program in the afternoon starting exactly at 2pm we want to invite everyone of you to come back for that program believe you me it shall be very interactive we'll be having a panel discussion here seasoned parents and experience people in marriages we want to hear from them as we continue discussing on this very important topic wooden but limping may the Lord bless us even as we continue this worship we invite you to stand may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ God bless you, let's meet this afternoon thank you