 Good evening. I take this time to welcome you all into this session, the Dragawareness Conference, which is running throughout the week, and today is ought to be our second day, and before we begin, I ask all of us to rise up for a wado prayer. Please may we rise up so that we pray, our God Lord in heaven, further in the name of Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for allowing us to be here into this house called by their name. We want to confess our sins for the sins we have done knowingly and unknowingly. At this hour, Jehovah, we have come to listen to you. May you give us our listening ears and the heart to apply what you have for us. Just for this moment, Jehovah, take our minds away from all the distractions that may be. We also pray for the speaker that you use him, that you give him the Holy Spirit to present to us a word in a way that will understand it clearly and do what you expect of us. We ask living and trusting in that holy name of Christ, God Lord, we believe and pray. Amen. Praise the Lord. Good evening. We want to thank you for joining us this evening. Welkom to the Dragawa Neswik. I'd like to read the scripture reading and the key text is inspired from the book of Acts chapter 13. We shall read from verse 6 to 7. I shall read in KJV version. You shall follow in your respective translation. Acts chapter 13 reading from verse 6 and verse 7. And I read, the Bible says, now when they had gone through the island to Perforce, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus. Verse 7. We really thank the Lord for bringing us this far. We welcome you to the program. Those who have attended physically and those who are attending online, we believe that we'll be blessed together this week of addiction conference. Remember that the all of month of May we always have drug addiction month and the health department has organized for us this addiction conference. We welcome you so much. I take this opportunity to welcome our preacher today and the rest of the week. The leader will be our pastor, ordained minister of the gospel, pastor Jacob Laichana, a friend of ours and also addiction counselor. He has done several forums on addiction and has been doing counseling on the same. We hope the Lord is going to bless him, the Lord is going to use him that we may be blessed this week. Also he reminds me that he was baptized in this church and so he is a son of us. So we are very happy to have you pastor. The Lord will be able to use you. The Lord bless you as you bless us this week. May God bless you and welcome pastor. Thank you pastor. Thank you pastor for the kind words and the introduction. Yes, it's true that I was baptized here by a pastor King Oina many years ago and I'm always delighted to be back here to serve and minister to us. Praise the Lord church. The Lord is good and all the time we want to bless the name of the Lord for giving us this moment again to come together to celebrate him during this week of addiction. Addiction and drug abuse and I want to thank sincerely the church for allowing me to come and share with you this subject that is dear to me issues relating to addiction and especially substance abuse and drugs is very dear to me. So I'm delighted and I'm glad to be part of you this evening and on the same bread we want to welcome those of you who are watching us online. We are glad that you have joined us. Please invite friends so that this conference can be a blessing to us as you bless other people. And even those who are with us we encourage you to invite your friends so that we can continue to be blessed and together. Our reading has been very well read. I want us to go back there again. The book of Acts chapter 13 verse 6 and 7. Acts chapter 13 verse 6 and 7. And before we read the word I want to invite us to pray again. Gracious and loving father we are before your throne again. I stand to speak your word and I'm not able to do it unless you infuse your Holy Spirit unless you speak to me. Unless you touch my mouth unless you touch my mind that I may be able to speak to your children and they may be able to be drawn closer to you. So I invite you to take change of this evening. Worship this hour of prayer that indeed Lord will hear your voice and will turn to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The Bible in the book of Acts chapter 13 verse 6 and 7 says that And when they had gone through the Isle and to Perforce they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus which was the deputy of the country such as Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and soul and desire to hear the word of the Lord. I'll continue further to verse 12 and the Bible says but Elimas the sorcerer for so is named by interpretation which stood them seeking to turn the deputy from the faith then Saul who also is called Paul failed with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said all full of all subtality and all mischief Thou child of the devil, Thou enemy of righteousness with thou not cease to provide the right ways of the Lord and now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blight not seeing the sun for a season and immediately there fell on aim a mist and darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand then the deputy when he saw what was done believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord the title or the theme of our week is freedom and peace from Jesus Christ today I'll talk about the quest for freedom and the peace from enemies of the society addiction is one of the enemy of the society and statistics shows that drugs are becoming commonly used everywhere now if I was to ask how many of us have been affected in their families I would bet that most of us have a family member a friend a brother a sister nephew niece auntie uncle a daughter son a father a mother who is in a way a neighbor who in a way is affected by drug and substance abuse and so when as a church we set aside this time is to see how we can make this call to bring comfort to those who might have been beaten by this enemy of the society drug and substance abuse to give hope to the mother who asks past I did everything that I could I took my child to sabah school when they were young I prayed with them we prayed every evening at home and every morning but I'm fighting my son is addicted a father who has a challenge sharing with other people about what their son is what the son is doing and so as we look at the challenge of addiction as a key enemy to the society we find in this text the conflict and that's what I want to lift up the conflict that is there the great controversy that is there drug and substance abuse are part of this great controversy in the passage the Bible says and when they had gone through the Isle of Palm Falls they found a certain sorcerer I am sure that when we think about sorcery what comes to our mind is some supernatural spell or power that is likely to befall someone we get confused but it's interesting to know that the ancient Greek the word sorcery or witchcraft as the origin from the word parmakea parmakea is where we get the word parmasi and permacology all those root words which in essence the English word for this is drugs and some great root words of course borrow that I need to make a disclaimer that I'm not talking about conventional medicine when it's used appropriately any doctor says the pastor is preaching again is what conventional medicine and that's why we define drugs then and say that a drug is any substance that when it's introduced to the body it alters the normal functioning of the body and the person using it continues to use it despite or regardless of the negative consequences and of course this takes away then the prescriptive medicine from the way we understand them from a parmasi perspective however when parmasi medical medication or prescription drugs that we refer to as the OTC over the counter drugs are also used without prescription then we regard that also as drug abuse we use the word abuse and it's good for us to get this we use the word abuse to show that a drug being injected into the body or induced into the body is not being induced with the purpose for which it is intended for one might ask then pastor does it mean that when I take piloton that is not prescribed I'm abusing drugs the answer is if you take it so much that you can't sleep without taking it then your body is already getting addicted to using it that you can't function optimally without that chemical component that is in that drugs and interesting to say that now that they are talking about permacology or permakeya it is that every drug that is abused as some chemical component that makes the brain to want to get more of it we call it the rush when a smoker lights a cigarette and puffs it when an alcoholic seeps alcohol to quench the bust when someone choose Mira beat the band of Mira and they chew to get the good feeling we call it andas that's excitement when a person smokes marijuana because they want to feel hirie or to feel happy we are referring to that as now inducing substances into the body and now when does it become addiction it becomes addiction when you continue to use even when there are negative consequences now coming back to this man the sorcerer man who the bible is also referring to as referring to as elimas in verse 9 saying that but elimas for so is named by interpretation we stood seeking to turn the deputif from the faith when I was reading this text and praying about it I was saying that this jil why would he turn away somebody from faith let me bring it closer home this adventist finds somebody wanting to do a bible study and finds that the person adventist is doing a bible study with a member of the community and then this person comes in and says no you don't need that I think I have something better for you what would you call that spirit let me bring it closer home do we as a church feel like that could be happening although not as practical as the bible is putting it do we sometimes not give the right information do we sometimes not provide the right environment do we sometimes not treat people or do we misrepresent the adventist's information so that people are not converted to the truth I have been in the adventist's faith for a long time and I found many people who express and say I wish the church was more loving and it would love me just the way I am and appreciate me for who I am the spirit of turning away people from the word of God those who desire to hear the word of God cuts across and that's why as a church we need to have open arms one of the people that I do addiction meetings with she is public Ann says that one morning she woke up and she was feeling that I need to go to church today she had drunk herself sayly the previous night and she heard some singing from near her house so she woke up she didn't do a lot of make up or dressing up she just went to church the way she was staggering one step forward one back two back she had one blue sleeper she says and the other one red and the deacons saw her from far and she was excited that they noticed her and they started walking I hope there are some deacons and deacons around and they started walking to Wanza it was in one of the slummy area or the slums and when they got to her they told her mama pilekha yuleviya kuwabi apasiyonini the bar is next next door of course this might not happen in our church but you know in estates or in situations where there is a church there is a pub there is a shop especially in the modern setting that we have people can easily be different so now you are missing the door church doesn't belong to people who look like that and I want to thank central church for the care and support center that we have and I think we will have time to talk about that on Sabbath because that's when I want to do to check a little bit on that whether we are utilizing it maximally to all the better living center to help people who have addiction challenges but back to this man called Elimas the sorcerer it turns a man who wants to come to the Lord and the question that I'm asking is when we are fighting this battle are we understanding the battle of drug and substance abuse do we understand why people use drugs do we understand so that we can be able to say what I am dealing with I have cancelled with one girl very bright girl and she says pastor I would open my heart to him I have been abused 7 times by my relatives and I I don't think anybody ever loves me what would return to that person who has gone through a lot of neglects through a lot of shame and guilt and needs people to open their arms to them Sagius Paulus the Bible says was a prudent man and he is standing to listen to the word of God but comes the interruption from this man David Marshall in the book occult explosion says that the spirit of drug abuse is the spirit of demonology the dispossession in the way people abuse drugs and they are not able to come out of it but I need to say that we need to separate the spiritual the mental the social and the biological effect of drugs so that we can be able to see as members when are we addressing the spiritual aspects of the addiction when are we addressing the social reaching out to the parents to the family members, to the friends when are we addressing the mental health component of drug and substance abuse it is interesting that sometimes we can over stretch the spiritual aspect I have found people of course now with the wrong biblical teachings that are there we need to subject every teaching to the word of the Lord to the spirit of the Lord for whatever stops the desire to hear the word of the Lord whatever goes against the spirit of the Lord is not of the Lord what is the spirit of the Lord saying to us about our bodies the Bible says what not you know no you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in 2 Corinthians 1 Corinthians excuse me verse chapter 3 verse verse 16 and 17 what do you know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and the spirit of the Lord dwells in you if any man defiles the temple of God he shall God destroy for the temple of the Lord is holy which temple you are 6 verse 19 of the same the same book says what know you not that you are the body your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you and you are not your own for you were bought with a price there for glorify God with your body and your spirit for we are gods understanding this makes us appreciate that we are unique and God desires to maintain that uniqueness and also to extend out our uniqueness to other people so that they can appreciate the spirit of God that is leading us friends this evening as they look at this sorcerer and this false prophet my thoughts are lifted up to see what is it that we are teaching about drug and substance abuse what are we teaching in our churches what are we sharing with our children with our families about drug and substance abuse how Jesus do it how Jesus deal with people who have been affected of course having said that I am using this text I like the way Paul allows the Holy Spirit and by the way chapter 13 is punctuated with the Holy Spirit because if you start from verse 1 it says that it talks about Paul and and back to that passage again that verse 2 and it says and they minister to the Lord fasted the Holy Spirit separates me Barnabas and Paul for the work where unto I have called them verse 4 says so they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit departed into Salusia for they sail to Cyprus there is a lot of the Holy Spirit being mentioned verse 9 says then Saul which is called Paul failed with the Holy Spirit set his eyes on him I want to say that the Holy Spirit is only one who can guide us appropriately to be able to fill in the gap that is between us as a church or as individuals or in our families on issues, drug and substance abuse and I'm saying this because I see incidences where Paul is rebuking the fortune teller in act chapter 16 verse 16 to 18 which you can read on your own time when this girl who is being used by the fortune teller comes and starts screaming to Paul what does Paul say he says I rebuke you I think I need to turn to that 16 verse 16 and the Bible says it came to pass as they went into prayer a certain themselves possessed by the spirit of divination met us which brought our masters much gain by should saying the same Paul and us cried saying these men are servants of the Most High God and shew us and to us the way of salvation and this did Paul say many days but Paul said being grieved turn I command you in the name of Jesus come out of our and he came out of our I am saying the same same thing in Matthew chapter 17 you remember the boy who is possessed Jesus the disciples are not able to heal him and when he is brought to Jesus Jesus prays for him and this boy is delivered what am I saying I am saying that we need to incorporate the spirit of the Lord the Holy Spirits of God to invoke him to help encountering the challenges that we are having in the spirit that when Paul when Luke is writing in Luke 11 verse 13 says if you being evil not to give good gift to your children how much more will I give you of the spirit friends we need the Holy Spirit of God to fight the battle and the challenges of drag and substance abuse how I feel like as a church we need to make our foundation weak the power of the Holy Spirit that the freedom and peace that comes from Jesus Christ can only come by us evoking the power of the Holy Ghost like the disciples praying and fasting the spirit of sorcery Paul is saying the spirit of force hold force prophecy can only be kicked out by the power of the Holy Ghost you know friends force prophecy is in our tongues for we have seen 18 our own eyes people prophesy I will not say as a pastor that we can pray for people and deliver from them from addiction but I suggest that when we are praying for people we also need to incorporate conventionalism we need to seek for counseling every church needs to be a health center and I'm happy that this week pastor is a health week of prayer every church needs to be a health center where they are able to find help if people are being affected invoking the Holy Spirit against sorcery against things that chain and turn away from God against force prophecy against the wrong Jesus says because this man's name was but Jesus and lastly against this man but Jesus was a Jew in the spiritual privilege if you are living in our time we would say he was a good adventist and many people have asked us do we as adventists let me not say Christians have addiction challenges in our churches are we dealing with them appropriately can addiction and adventist be in the same sentence do we have people who are addicted in our churches in our families can we own it up or being a Jew because the Bible is saying that this gentleman since he was a Jew he thought he is more privileged to the extent that he perfected the Word of God he didn't believe in the Word of God and if adventists are affected like other members of the community the question is what are we doing we provide freedom and peace that comes by Christ Jesus are we loving them enough are we opening our arms to them that they can feel that our church is a loving church that tolerates those who the world rejects what do Jesus do our text this evening is bringing out that Paul contradicts the evil spirit by bringing the right spirit a countenance evil by good the spirit that the Susara had was a spirit that was not of God and the Bible says and that's what was desiring for something better you see the people who were in addiction know what is better they know what is true love they know what caring is I was talking with one parent whose son is no longer coming to church and the kid does in just drugs I can say that I can testify that because I have interacted with them the only thing is at that excitement of teenage he decided to do what is air he decided to do some they call it what they call it what do they call this half half rasta but it's just on the top there and when he came to church he mentioned the other come and see so and so what and they were almost ignoring him and feeling him feel very awkward no sooner the church ended than the elders called the mother and the boy and the next thing is they took him to a baba unto them would you shave somebody's child without their concept they did it I will not tell you we charge they shaved the boy and from that time the boy said the boy said he bought a kufia and covered his head until dreadlocks did what long dreadlocks developed and he said pastor I'm not shaving my what my locks neither am I coming to the world to the church neither am I taking drugs made with not taking drugs and it's not in church and it was just I think that because of that hairstyle which needn't to be corrected with love that he left to church why am I saying this what are we countering the spirit of sorcery with what are we countering drug and substance to make it clear with the power of the Holy Ghost and the Bible is saying that they prayed and fasted look at this the connection that when Paul in the whole of chapter 13 is talking about prayer and what in fasting chapter 16 is equally talking about this girl that he rebuked by the power of the Holy by the name of Jesus and also Jesus in Matthew chapter 17 is saying that such cannot go out unless through prayer and what and fasting it is time we started praying and fasting for the people who have been affected that God will give them freedom and peace that comes from Christ Jesus for this peace the society needs part of the gift of the Holy Spirit who is a counselor who Christ promises to us and says I will ask of my father and he will give you another advocate to help you and to be with you the spirit of truth part of his work is counselor chapter 14 through 16 the Holy Spirit is referring to as a counselor a helper the helping ministry is a counseling ministry being able to be available to listen to those who need help that is the only way we can fight the battle of drag and substance abuse I know sister Olivia is here but the only way we can fight the battle is by being available and laughing understanding our enemy is the only way we can win battles and our enemy like in the case of the sorcerer and Paul is by the Holy Spirit the Bible says in verse 9 that Paul filled with the Holy Ghost set eyes on him and rebuked him the Holy Spirit does not always rebuke at the Holy Spirit as a sweet silent loving voice he listens ones that are used to attribute to him are counselor advocate comforter intercessor strengthener standby those are the things that are used by the Holy Spirit I have never seen an advocate who goes before the client and start to call them elder they want to listen to them tell me what happened I am yet to see who can intercess unless they understand who can strengthen unless they understand their weakness so friends the spirit of the Lord that is promised is already with us for God has already sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost he was poured abundantly and after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the disciples were able to fight battles that they were not able to fight this death every year from alko use 5.1% of the global population as the burden of disease by drug and substance abuse people are dying because of drug and substance abuse the enemy of peace as taking away the freedom that many are looking for and Christ is inviting us to join this caravan and fight on the front line and I pray that by the end of this week we will have accepted this call that yes by the gift of the Holy Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit I want to be a freedom fighter I will fight for the freedom of those people who are struggling with drug and substance abuse I will pray for the peace of those who are struggling and like I started there are many families that are burdened there are many children that are struggling there are many young people who need somebody they can talk to and I pray that these children and I pray that this church we will be there available for them in finishing some one some 16 excuse me verse 11 says some 16 verse 11 starting from verse 10 for thou will not leave my soul in hell but I will thou suffer that in only one to see corruption that will shield me the path of life in that presence is fullness of joy at the right hand there are pleasures for everyone or in the presence of joy in the presence of the lord on his right hand there is pleasure people just drugs because they want to find pleasure in time they want to experience joy from time but we are going out telling them that come to Jesus who is able to give you joy and pleasure evermore to give you freedom and peace that is everlasting that is my prayer in Jesus name the great physician is here the sympathizer in Jesus we are going to sing that song together and then we will have a word of prayer the great physician is here Jesus is here let's fight again our enemies in Jesus name let's all rise and sing song number 254 254 great physician now is near three sing the great physician now is near the sympathizer in Jesus he speaks the drooping heart to chitty to the die said saviors name sweetest not insert sweetest sky guilt and fear sweet we will sit down Shaluwe bow down for prayer. As we pray, the house of the Lord is a place where we cast our burdens and we should not come and still go away with our burdens. So as we have come to pray this day and even this week, we want to learn to take our burdens to the Lord in prayer. For when we are weary, He says, come to me or you who are weary and never laden. And I'll give you rest. Christ desires us to give us, to experience rest. And also this week Christ desires that we have peace and freedom that comes from Him. He desires that we embrace His Holy Spirit. As we close with prayer, I invite you to lift your heart to Him. And tell Him, Lord, I need to be free. I need your freedom. I need my heart which is heavy to feel light. I need that's your prayer. Then we can pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for speaking to us today that your word is still active and living and the people who desire it. Thank you for giving us the hope through the Holy Spirit, the hope of peace and freedom in Jesus' name. We pray, Lord, that you may bless us this evening as we cast our burden and cares to you. We've been talking about addictions, and we pray, Lord, that you may lift us as a church to cast our cares on those who have been affected and those who have the challenges of addiction to you. Some of them are labruns. They could be our children, our parents, our siblings, our relatives, and even our friends and our neighbors. We want to pause and pray for them this evening and even pray that this week you may hope as we the way through the enabling of the Holy Spirit that we can be able to reach out to them and by the end of the week we'll testify about your goodness. Give us wisdom, Lord. Send your Holy Spirit in abundance to guide us as we live here hoping to come back tomorrow, dismiss us but not from your presence until we meet again. For we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. See you tomorrow. Please come with a friend and have a blessed night. Thank you. We have come to the close of our program this evening. Tomorrow we'll still meet at 5.30pm as usual until the end of the week and please continue to pray for the speaker as it takes us through the program for this week. We also ask you to fund this program virtually by sending your offering to fund the project. M-Pesa 320-1000 account is health. This is to fund the program for the week and then we'll have the free counseling services during this week and please if you really need or you know a friend who is in need you can pick these numbers. I'll give you two seconds to prepare to pick the numbers. We'll have free counseling services and please if you really need or you know a friend who is in need please pick these numbers to help share the message of health. 0724-362-216 I'll repeat 0724-362-216 The other alternative number is 0715 and please if you really need or you know a friend who is in need the alternative number is 0715-620-008 I'll repeat 0715-620-008 That brings us to the close of our program for today. May we rise for a word of grace and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now forever more amen.