 Happy Sabbath everyone. We are glad that you found time to join with us. Today being the education Sabbath here at Nairobi Central on the 18th of June, we welcome you to have a worship experience with us. Before we start we'll have Sister Joanne, leaders in a word of prayer. Let us pray. Dear Father what in heaven we thank you so much for enabling us to see this this blessed Sabbath morning Lord even as we start the program we pray that your Holy Spirit may abide with us and may lead us through till the end. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you. With me is a wonderful team of choristers who will be leading with us and I would wish that they introduce themselves starting from my far right. Happy Sabbath. My name is Emily Karibune Sana. Happy Sabbath. My name is Joanne. Welcome. Happy Sabbath. My name is Dennis Odiambo Karibune Sana. Amen. Timothy Maena will be leading us as well and that the piano we have brother Crispin will be blessing us with the melody. Thank you. To start us off we'll start with song number 262. 262 is a prayer of inviting the Spirit. 262 there is a sweet spirit. To the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our next song is song number 240. 240 fairest Lord Jesus 240. 207 207 It makes the shadow real. We shout the glass we touch us. But the glass we see. Here we shout the glass we touch. Our next theme is 213. 213 lift up the trumpet and loudly. Congregation to just rise. I think you're going to have to do that again now that we're standing and ready. Let's do that again. Let's go. Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Happy Sabbath. We have come to another moment when we want to study our lesson. We are discussing the character of Joseph. Joseph has been a lesson for last week where we learned about Joseph Master of Dreams. Today we want to learn about Joseph Prince of Egypt. We will have our lesson discussed online and we will also have our teachers who will teach us within the church sanctuary. This juncture like to ask the teachers to kindly rise so that we can have a word of prayer. Let us pray. Howdy, Heavenly Father. We want to thank you for the week that has just come to an end and even for giving us this opportunity to come and study at your feet, Heavenly Father. Invite your presence and the Holy Spirit to dwell with us to expand on our understanding about this character of Joseph and Heavenly Father as we learn of him, Heavenly Father. May you change us and bring us each and every day to resemble your character. All this we ask, trust and believe in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. To discuss and to contemplate upon the Word of God through the lesson study or the Bible study guide, we've been looking through the book of Genesis. I hope the Lord has taken care of you the whole week and you're joining us this morning that we may go together or journey together as we look through Joseph, the story of Joseph. With me in the panelist are Sullivan and my sister Dorita. Kindly say hi Dorita. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. Happy Sabbath Saints of the Living God. We trust that we will share in the Word of God and be changed. May you be blessed. Amen. Our brother Sullivan will be joining us soon. Let's turn to Bible. Today we'll be looking through the book of Joseph and meanwhile as we open, we're starting from the book of Genesis chapter 41 all through to chapter 45. Dorita, how was your week? My week has been a blessing and thank God that it is Sabbath and we are ready just for a rest. Amen. At Jesus' feet. Amen. Would you kindly offer the Word of Prayer? Sure. Sure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are before your presence this Sabbath morning. Our hearts are full of thanksgiving because of your goodness in our lives. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that you have walked with us throughout the week and you have allowed us to gather here together as your children. Father, we are praying, Lord, that you bless us with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Bless every listener. Bless every discussion, every word that we will be sharing. Lord, we pray that you use us in a mighty way. We surrender, Father, to the power of the Holy Spirit, that you take charge, that you take control. And Lord, that the lessons may transform our lives and may keep us always at your feet in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Thank you very much. We want to welcome you. If you had any question, if you have any query, a comment kindly send us through our usual platform, the YouTube or Facebook. We will try to respond to them and engage you as we move on. Amen. We are live. Yes. Last Sabbath we looked through Joseph, the master of dreams. We went through history back and forth and we saw how God used him to interpret Pharaoh's dream and now we come to him, Joseph, Prince of Egypt. It's been a week God has taken care of us. Now here we are looking at Joseph who was lifted from the prison up to the second most powerful person in the Egyptian country. Now our memory text comes from to us from the book of Genesis chapter 41 verse 41. Kindly read for us. It says, in Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Amen. I love to repeat it once again. It says, and just and Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over the land of Egypt. It's what a blessedness for a son of God who has gone through difficultly struggles being despised, you know, evil being put to him, things he had never done. And now God comes through for him and he hears this pronouncement by Pharaoh himself, that behold, I have set you over the whole nation of Egypt. Not one person will lift his hand or his foot without your word. That is how God can miraculously lift us from the pits to glory. Yes. You only say from grass to grace. Amen. Yes. God is not limited by human power. He can do anything. He can change our situation. And that's the reason why I thank God so much because he comes to us in ways we least expect. Amen. Now, Joseph is lifted above not because of his spiritual or his spiritual inclination to God, but because he offers a solution to the problem that is currently facing Egypt. What exactly is my sister Dorita? How or what prompted Pharaoh to say, Behold, I put you above the whole nation? Actually, it is by God's design. And this is his favor upon Joseph one more time. Now, last week, we were able to see that when God's favor is upon you, even those around you get to benefit from it. And once again, we see that difficult moments are moments that God uses for his glory in our lives. Amen. And so we see that here again, the last I checked, Joseph was in a pit. He was cast down. He was wrapped up. Then we also see that he is thrown into prison because of an allegation that wasn't true, but God's name was still glorified. Today, I like how the table turn or the flip of events in Joseph's life. And we see that he is honored. He is now risen to power. And this is by God's grace and God's favor. So we see that if we read through the book of Genesis chapter 41, verses 37 to means that you have been elevated, you have been brought up, you are going to be in charge. And this is such a heartwarming scene or scenario. And we are excited to understand and know that, well, Pharaoh himself is saying that we can now have you as the leader. I am going to be the second. And then the preliminaries happen. He is given all the privileges. And the first thing I observed, the first thing I saw is the Pharaoh took his signet ring and put it in Joseph's hand. That's symbolic. It's a symbol that now your position has been elevated. It has changed. Then we see that the next thing he does, he's clothing him with fine garments. Fine here for me means most expensive. You are a royalty at this point. So it's not the same old story. And then he puts a gold chain around his neck. I mean, how amazing is this? Things have changed now. He is no longer the Joseph we knew. He is not just working at the palace, but he is occupying the palace. He is the leader now. And besides that, he's also given a new ride that is understanding it in today's context. He's given a new ride, the second ride of the chariot. And that means that he has now been fully given all the power to, you know, be the leader and rule over Egypt. Actually, it doesn't end there. The other interesting thing is his name changes. He's given a new name as Zephaniah, Panier. And that basically transforms who he is because, you know, change of name means a lot. It has a lot of connotations. And eventually he's even given a wife. Now that means that all these other preliminary is all done and he is in that position where he's supposed to, you know, do what he's got to do. But before he got there, there was a lot of learning that Joseph had to do. Remember, we encountered Joseph at the age of 17, still very, not too sure what to say, what not to say. God has to had to take him through change in character. And I see that he is now a fine, respectable young man at the age of 30, ready to execute and represent God. That means that he now is able to discern. Actually, he's blessed with the spirit of discernment. He's also blessed with wisdom. He's not the young man that we saw initially. And so he's ready. God has equipped him and made him ready for this position that he has been given. So he's not that simple. Joseph, we met and we understand that there are several stories that we can glean from here. First of all, God has a solution to every problem. When we present to him, we know that he is going to take care of us. And at the same time, there's another lesson that I thought we should also share together that God puts us in situations where he knows that we are able to glorify his name. But that only happens or it's largely dependent on the choices that we make. Are we willing to surrender? Are we willing to be used of God? Now, the question I leave you with today, which situation or which position do you find yourself in? Have you figured out that it is meant to be for the glory of God? That means that whatever happens to you, whatever position you're holding, whatever you're doing right now, please be reminded that you are there for God's name to be glorified. Sorry for the interruption. We thank God once again. We are continuing and we're looking at Joseph. He was in a single day of saying, Jesus told his disciples, see, keep fast the kingdom of heaven with all its righteousness and the rest shall be added unto you. And at this point, God gives Joseph in a single day the blessing of wealth, power. You know, actually in the book of Psalms, David converses and says, for the Lord God is a son and a shield. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing shall he withhold from those who walk his upright. It's such a revelation of the goodness of our God. When we remain faithful like Joseph did, God will come through. We do not serve God in vain. He will come through to us. He also said that his clothes were changed and everything. It reminded me about the prodigal son. After wandering so many times, he comes back home, the father removes the ring and put it in his hand and he changes his clothes and they're celebration. Once we trust in God, good things are in waiting. Continue sending your questions, your comments. My brother Sullivan, we will read to us and we'll try and respond. And now seven years have passed, seven years of plenty and the years that Joseph had said there is going to be drought starts. Now, Joseph is 37 years old. He's been separated from his brothers for a whooping 20 years old and now he comes to these years of droughts. Something he's gonna meet change of circumstances and their brother come to look for food. Sullivan? It's now that time when there is the drought that has hit the land and we see in the land of Canaan, the home of Joseph, where his brothers and his fathers were living. They have now exhausted all their supplies and Jacob instructs his son and tells them that I have heard that there is food in the land of Egypt and we read that in Genesis 42 verse 1 and immediately he tells he instructs his sons to go down to Egypt in order to buy food so that they can have plenty to eat so that they don't die. Little did he know that he was setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to him being reunited with his son and we see his sons going, packing their bags, getting sacks and their donkeys and they go down to Egypt. When they arrived, they are directed to the governor of the land. Now, to the governor of the land who was Joseph, he was able to recognize these men that these were his brothers but they could not recognize him because of the transformation that had happened for the period of time that he was in Egypt. I believe even the way he dressed and everything was more of like the Egyptians and to their eyes this was just another ordinary Egyptian Egyptian citizen and given the fact that he could recognize them, of course they least expected to find Joseph or you know Joseph to be in such a position because they had sold him to slavery so imagine what they had in mind was that he's probably suffering somewhere. It'd be you know beaten up you know he's looking all rugged and worn out or perhaps he's even dead. Yes, actually that's what the father knows. Yes, they know that their brother is dead, his son is dead so we see them coming down and asking for to buy grain. They explain where they're coming from and Joseph at this point in time decides to put them to the test. We read and we are told that and Joseph remembered the dream which he dreamt of them and said unto them ye and he said unto them ye are spies to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. So he remembers immediately his brothers bowed down to him and asked if they could buy grain he remembers that dream that he told them and he decides to put them to a test. He says you are spies you have just come to survey our land and then you know you probably intend to take it from us and they plead with Joseph and say no no no we are just all the sons of one man who is back at home and we have a younger brother also who has been left with him and Joseph insists that he are spies and he takes them as prisoners and sentences them into and sends them to jail for three days. Then after three days he comes to them and tells them this is what you're going to do I will let you go but you leave one of yours behind go to your go back to your country and come back with your brother that you that you have told me is left at home because I fear God so he's trying to be he can did yes with them and he really wants to test and see if indeed these brothers have changed and they now he now gets hold of Simon and he puts him back into prison and the rest are left to go but he does something interesting he also puts back instructs his servants to put back the money into their socks so that they can go and on their way they come to the other realization that oh our money is still with us when they are trying to feed their their donkeys and at this point in time they are just they have been lamenting throughout this time having been sent sent to prison they you know even the eldest brother Ruben is like oh you know you're paying for the blood for the blood of our brother what we did so we are seeing them um soul searching they acknowledge their faults they even confess one to another the things that they did um even Ruben rebukes them and says in tight tell you that uh let us not shed blood you know this this lad this brother of ours now look what is befalling us and they decide you know we'll just go back home nonetheless make sure that next time we come we come with we bring this money back and say that we found it in our socks so that they don't see us as thieves so we are seeing things have really uh you know uh things have been sent into motion we see their brothers his brothers here soul searching uh going through their minds and realizing what they did was wrong and uh it's at this point in time that they are actually very repentant of their deeds when they get back home they relate to their father what has happened and uh and now we see another uh another event taking place and they they stay home for a while yeah and just reflecting on what they had gone through thank you so I think the most important thing here that we need to learn there are two lessons that we are taking in place one is that the you see what what uh what Jacob did this he initiated an event which he didn't know will culminate in him being reunited with his son and we are seeing his sons here the brothers of joseph encountering a situation whereby they are now starting to recount the deeds that they have done and they are sorry for their actions and indeed as as much as joseph is testing them it's not um it's not something that we should uh perceive to be him taking revenge because you can see the motive of joseph is different his love for his brothers is still genuine but he just puts them to the test so it doesn't mean that every time when we what we need to know is when we do something wrong it doesn't mean that when we are forgiven that is the end of it we still have to bear the consequences of our actions just the same way um as seen as we are bearing the consequences of sin it doesn't mean that if we don't repent of our sins we will not see eternal the eternal kingdom so we just have to to always know that um the actions we take will have consequences to it and therefore we need to be careful of the things that we do thank you amen amen he uh sulevan has said something very interesting and uh in today's uh experience we know that um we forgive and in most cases the relationship is never restored back to what it used to be why because of the consequences that sulevan is talking about because you've got to go through it eventually and be able to restore or get back the trust that was already broken so but then that does not mean that you have not forgiven and you are not ready to move on it's just dealing with the consequences but forgiveness and true repentance is a real experience in jesus thank you now these brothers go back home they narrate to the father we found this governor we found this chief he was very tough on us and they tell him he asked us all sorts of questions and we were answering and to him and he told us you were going he's taken he's with the hell the simon and he's told us we cannot see him again unless we take our younger brother on hearing that the father said no he's not going anywhere and ruben was very quick to answer he tells the the father let the kid go with me and if i don't bring him back slay my two sons i think that was too quick and thought off yeah he did not reflect on his answers and jacob their father says nope he's not going and they take her quite a while staying at home with the daddy and finally the daddy says hey why are you guys looking at one another can you get out and go find food and it is this time that juda says and says no dad the man was so tough on us and he asked why did you tell him you had a brother we didn't know he will tell us to bring him back now if you had given us the son we would have gone and would have come back and then he blesses them and tells them may god take care of you and bless you take the best gifts from the land and they collect gifts and they take their money that they were put back in their bags and additional money and they go they set on their journey to egypt they walk i know on their way they are thinking and trying to to see what is going to happen and on arrival they are received by the servants or the workers of the master they do not know him because initially when joseph first spoke to them he spoke to them through an interpreter they never knew he was understanding their language and they are taken and the the first thing they on reaching they tell the master no when you reached home we saw our sacks and we saw the money and we have brought the money and additional money to buy the food and now here we are the money that we saw in our bags and the money to buy more food and all of them and the servant says no i took your money god has given you back your money amen yeah god has given you back your money don't be afraid it's fine on that reception they are taken to the palace or joseph's house and they are welcomed they are made to wash their feet i think this is where foot washing came in they are made to wash their feet food is given to their cattle or their donkeys and they are welcomed into the house table is set very well and amazingly they are made to sit how they were born from the eldest that is ruben all the way to benjamin the youngest and they're not mixed they're given their own table the egyptians have their own table and finally joseph come and he has his own table and he commands that benjamin receive actually they are given portions from joseph's table and benjamin receives double more than each and every one of them and this does not even bother them they seem to have been transformed it's their younger brother they they used to be very jealous of joseph but this time they are very very calm and as they were being welcomed simon was released on to them and they eat they enjoy and joseph seeing his younger brother and says is this the brother that you told me of is your father okay and says and says oh god bless you my son he calls his brother son to show grace and he cannot hold himself he dashes out he goes to his chamber and cries he cries a lot and then he composes himself he wipes his face and comes back and they enjoy the meal and then on their way out he instructs his his servants put back their money put my division a cup in the young man's cup bag and of they go celebrating hallelujah praise god everything has been fine we've been given simon and we have the laddies with us we're going home we're going to celebrate before they go very far out of the city they hear the galloping of the horses coming and they stop and the servants of the master are here and say hey why did you do why can you how can you just steal our master's divination cup there we see trouble they had gone out so very well they had enjoyed joseph had met his brother benjamin dorita yes the cup of divination what was joseph doing with this cup um actually i wanted to mention that uh joseph was not practicing divination or um believing in magical spirit but he was testing don't forget that joseph is in egypt and basically everything that was in the palace you know had um connotation that would say is hidden in some sort and therefore this is also not different however joseph is doing this to test the brothers and uh he's actually not using it in the sense that it would have mean or it would have meant in egypt but he is using it just to find out the depth of character change in his brothers yeah um in the egyptian world divination was something that was commonly done and commonly used and for joseph it was a way of um inquiring or getting information and that's the reason why uh he did it just to test have this guys changed have they moved have they been transformed he wants to find out are they truly repentant so basically the brothers are tested and uh i am glad to say that uh they have excelled in this test they have proved that they have already learned the lesson and they have not reason to debate of uh envy that joseph thought they still were hovering in their hearts so basically we see that what is revealed in uh this the divination cup uh we see that joseph was still in that uh thought of what he experienced while he was young benjamin is the younger one here he's finding out are these guys still going to treat him like they treated him in the past but then he realizes that these brothers have changed god has transformed their thinking god has transformed their character and they are no longer the same guys they were and you know what warms my heart is when juda juda says that you know what i'd rather be the slave than benjamin i mean that is nothing but god's hand that we see that ben juda has been changed and has completely been transformed by what the power of the holy spirit has done in his life and at the same time we also see that his use joseph's use of the divination cup is not that he believed in it but not that he believed in the power but as we have already seen that for him it was just to evoke the supernatural um uh thoughts that would have been in the brothers to see that he can awake the guild and so that they can have this full repentance on god so for me here i see quite a number of things or a number of lessons that we can take home that when god changes he changes completely and what i mentioned earlier that forgiveness does not mean that you do not live with the consequences and we see that joseph has forgiven them but he still does not have the trust that he should have had in them because you know the experience that he had with them so he's still not fully trusting them that they have completely changed but he has forgiven them he's having a new walk with them in fact he tells them guys it's not that we are not it's a good thing that you people have come here so we are not completely um uh in that sport or space we were in but you can see that he has extended his forgiveness hand towards them and he has accepted them uh to be his brothers and even also benefit from the position that god has blessed him with thank you very much um there's a comment here from on facebook from a brother called musense umar i'd like to read it out it's very interesting he says this is touching down my heart i wronged a friend with whom i intended to become a mister and mrs we had gone a full six months without talking to one another it's only today in the early morning hours that she called me herself told all that angered her it was so clear all it was so clear all what my fault was i had to apologize for everything my friend says i'm forgiven but some consequences of my actions that exist will remain i have to learn to deal with them this study is directly communicating to me in the lands far away from home where i am i pray god sees me through amen rather musense we say indeed um we serve a merciful god whenever we wrong him he is quick to forgive us he says amen while we are yet seen as he sent his son to die for us so take heart my brother um and it's it's indeed uh wonderful to see that they have been able to forgive consigned to reconcile yes and i pray that may god continue to lead you in his work with amen amen i i also saw a comment here right from dr tinga who asks that how does fallen man keep his spirit from being lifted in pride in position such as that of joseph i think i didn't mention uh that earlier that with all that joseph was endowed with when he was being given the position of being the chief ruler over egypt humanly speaking i mean i would be very happy and let people know and i i mentioned about the contrast between the 17 year old joseph who whenever god gives him or allows him to dream he's ready guys listen i've been told i have this dream you will worship me exactly you're going to bow down and sometimes you're like joseph keep it i mean some of these things you don't need to share them but here now we see that he has been elevated he's been lifted up but god has already prepared him for this position of slavery he's already understood that humility is an aspect that god appreciates and god expects us to have he first of all the god shall lift the humble up and the and the proud shall he put down a man but we see now joseph's full position we see that what he is what is exercising what is showing us is humility and i was asking myself when god lifts me up ask yourself when god blesses you are you also going to exhibit humility like joseph has shown that he was that lifted up but pride did not come through and i'm imagining if he had pride then he would have looked at his brothers with those eyes of guys i haven't forgotten what you did but he's welcoming them he's telling them you know what take it easy relax we are here yes actually we will see that as we look through when joseph reveals himself that reminds me of something that question let me delve a little bit inside of it this young man also known in the bible as the man after god's own heart david was anointed at around 16 years but he took a hoping 20 years of preparation before he ascended the throne he went through a lot of hell i can see difficulties he's given a wife the wife is taken away he's promised to to have the throne and he's been persecuted day in actually to a point where by he was asking god oh lord you can only be the one who can save my life he was telling his best friend jonathan between me and death there is only one step because your father is seriously seeking my life and tells jonathan tells him no no no no no there's nothing like that and then he goes and tells the father to become the king he understands what it means to be persecuted so he does not exercise his power arbitrarily he does not persecute people the same case if we get power when we have gone through a lot of preparation we are very cautious with amen but if it's too quick we are prone to misuse it just look at Solomon's son when the Israelites came and told them oh please your father made our our burden too heavy please make it lighter he went to console the young men and went to console the older men and older men told him you go tell the people speak good with them tell them we'll lighten the burden and everything and then the young man told i know you go tell them my small finger here is bigger than my father's waist if he beat you with whips i'm going to whip you with scorpions i'm going to make your burden very heavy and let me tell you it was too quick and the kingdom was split why as the question is coming the problem of getting power too quick without preparation now let's come back to our brothers here i want to go back to what you're talking about this brother when the this chief inspectors come and tell them why did you steal the cup of my master they tell him no we can't do that we are very honest people we even brought the money and how can we do that they say fine if you ever get anyone with a cup he will be your slave and he should be killed and he starts with the eldest ribbon all the way to the youngest and lo and behold the cup is found in benjamin's sack the reaction of the brothers is devastating they had gone out of the palace with jubilation and happiness yeah and now they are going back wailing and crying and then that's when now juda yes narrates to joseph and the joseph cannot withhold himself right it's send us now to the book of jenice is the next chapter sylvan is ready to tell us they are here now they cannot go back home right and actually joseph tells them it's only the person who in whose bag this cap was found is going to be my slave and they do they all of them have come back pleading actually they prostrate themselves before joseph and pleading and crying oh please jack of juda says i cannot go back to see my i will send my father to the grave it's interesting how they are feeling different yes yet they did the same thing for joseph yes but now there's a change of things i'm interested in finding out some more yes indeed yeah genesis 45 is is about love about hope and faith and i'll just summarize it very quickly because of time it is at this point in time in verse verse verse 34 of genesis 44 where it says four how shall i go up to my father and the lord be not with me less paradventure i see the evil that shall come of my father that is now juda pleading with with the joseph let me let me let me interject what they are thinking the same when they were killing joseph they actually they killed the lamp and put some blood on the on the coat and actually they sent it they never cared what let him go and find out is this actually the one who's find look and find out if this is your son's coat alfred when you encounter jesus it's a different experience and i think that's what solevan wants to share with us because these are a different lot of brothers indeed the behavior is very different from what we saw in the beginning and i'll use our illustration to sum it all up i'd use this illustration of i wanted to imagine with me that you are in a country that has been ravaged with war and you and your friends have been taken up as prisoners of war by the by the by the aggressors and you are put in a prison camp and while you are there as the war continues more prisoners keep coming in and it gets to a point whereby they feel like this place is too overcrowded we need to reduce the number of prisoners and the captors come up with an idea they say we are going to line all of you up and every tenth person we are going to kill and then when you're lined up you count the people who are ahead of you and you realize oh my goodness i'm the tenth person so it means i'm going to be killed what happens then the person who's next to you who's number nine taps your shoulder and says you know what let me take your place you come to mine i will i will i will i will i i offer myself to be killed on your stead how would that make you feel you'd be very grateful to this individual and you probably live the rest of your life just looking back at that situation and and seeing and thinking how different things might have turned out if indeed this person had not you know stepped in to take your place and we are seeing juda taking that place here on behalf of benjamin saying that if indeed he's the one who has been found to be with this cup then i offer myself to be your slave forever for the sake of my father so that you know he knows indeed his father is is old he's stricken with age and if this news gets to him he will die and uh it is uh it is at this point in time when joseph now realizes how contrite his brothers hearts have become that he reveals himself to them and says i am joseph your brother indeed and he calls them he says come close to me and he embraces them we see here what we say it is undeserving grace amen he extends undeserving grace to his brothers who had wronged him but he saw it differently through the afflictions that he had faced in his life this is what he had to tell to them he says god sent me here it is not them he realizes the bigger picture that god is indeed in charge of all the affairs of our lives it is god who sent him through them as much as it was not the best ways in which he could get there but god had a purpose if by if joseph had had just gone to egypt like a normal person without being being the using that path that god took him through probably he may not have gotten to where he was because we saw the way he was as a young land he was very you know outspoken he would just go and say oh you guys would worship me one day but god took him through this experience that it humbled him it made him faithful and it made him trust in god through it all and we see it happening here at this point in time when he calls his brothers is the same way we as sinners when we have repented of our sins it is god god is calling us and says come to me we are told that while we were yet sinners christ died he laid his life down for us and he invites us to come to him the undeserving grace that we have received from god because we are sinners yet christ indeed is calling us to come to him we see it you see it manifested in this story of jacob and his brothers he invites him come and he sends them after that he the news gets to ferro and ferro says you know joseph has done great for this land he sends wagons to go and collect his father and all their belongings and he offers them the best and most fertile land in the whole in the entire egypt that is the land of gaussian and in i to just wrap it all up we see that when this news gets to jacob he quickly rises up and says my son is alive and i want to go and see him oh i die what a wonderful culmination to this story and we see how god restores everything despite having gone through a lot of trouble in the same way we may have faced many troubles and tribulations but we are promised one day when christ comes back the second time to take us home that all these troubles we did we will see the bigger picture that indeed god was taking us through just to test and to strengthen our faith in him amen amen thank you very much now now let me go back a little bit to the story and this happens when the brothers are stepping and they are pleading their case and joseph finally sends everybody boy he reveals himself he sends everybody out he cannot after seeing the transformation he cannot hold himself and he bursts into tears and they are seriously amazed you know and you have as you had said they expected perhaps joseph to have been dead but now he only the he's a house he states the owner and the power he's exercising they hardly believe that this is joseph their brother they are in utter confusion they do not know what to do but he tells them please come closer and that's when they come closer he kisses them and embraces his smaller brother benjamin and cries bitterly what a reunion i know yeah and actually i am reminded of the contrast between the scene of last week where what we could see within or between the brothers was envy hate and jealousy this week we are ending with a very heartwarming experience of love through and through and they are all embracing each other they have accepted that their brothers and all we can see is god's love that has been restored now this is a message that god restores god replaces envy hate with his love you cannot encounter god and remain the same or remain in hate envy and jealousy when you encounter god and experience him you are definitely going to exude love to people around you to your family and to everybody around what a joy amen when as you said when we encounter our god we no longer remain the same even paul before he became paul he was soul when he met jesus he was transformed right he's not the only one even this tax collector the short man zaki is he met jesus and after encountering jesus he said half of my money of half of my wealth i give to the poor and if i had stolen anyone's money i will restore four times the transformation that comes by embracing our lord jesus is real amen is real we no longer remain the same so it's a call upon each and every one of us to have an encounter with god and as we've seen he's able to change and to transform your situation either from poverty to richness from dishonor to honor and he can do everything actually the bible says everything works for the good of those who love him those who've been called according to his good purpose and it goes ahead and says give thanks to the lord in all circumstances for this is the will of god and to you through christ jesus just have me not have understood the will or understood the final picture that god were taking him through but he remained faithful it's a call upon us we see the goodness and how god has driven joseph to glory and he's now celebrating he's in power it's a call upon each and every one of us to be faithful to god to never give up in spite of the dungeon or the prison or slavery that we're going to go through he will see us through because he says for i the lord your god knows the plans that i have for you our plans to do you good and not to harm you plans to give you hope plans to prosper you and to give you the future that you hope for your parting shots will end with these three words trust the process trust the process why do i say that isiah 55 verses eight and nine it says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways say the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts we may not understand why we face certain circumstances in life but let us trust the process that god is leading us through because in the end we shall see the greater picture and we shall give him glory for all that he would have done in our lives thank you amen sister dorita what's your parting shot um when we repent god has the power to forgive us when you have repented you have confessed you can never remain the same and therefore i add you my brother and my sister wherever you are whatever your past may have been god has the power to transform you and to change you and to plant the seed or the gift of love in your heart that you're able to live peaceably you're able to love you unconditionally and you're able to depend upon god through and through for whatever you are going through may god help us to keep trusting to keep hoping and to keep loving god bless you amen we come to the end of our lesson discussion this morning we wish you a lovely sabbat we pray is good for his tender care we invite you once again to start embarking on the next lesson that you're going to see through the whole of this coming week israel in egypt we're going to see finally jackob is no longer referred to as jackob once again he's now augland stricken with age and he changes his name is changed completely to israel now it's we're going to look at israel meets his long lost son joseph what's our an encouragement what's our joy of our father being reunited with his dead son in quotes so let's be faithful let's look forward and we pray that god may take care of us may he protect us may he bless the works of our hand and above all this sabbat wish you a lovely sabbat as you continue may god bless you have a lovely day we're going to request my brother sulivan to offer a closing word of prayer amen as i pray i want to thank all our online audience for being active today for the comments that have been sent through indeed they are all a blessing to all of us and we pray that you may continue to actively participate and we hope to see you and read your comments next week again amen thank you and may god bless you let us pray our heavenly father we are grateful for the message that you have had for us today a message of love a message of hope and faith oh god i pray that father thank you for the reminder you have given us of the undeserving grace that you have extended to us though we are sinners and the invitation that you have extended to us asking us to come to you oh god because you have said you will set aside all our heavy burdens and you will give us your load which is light and compared to that which we carry i pray that lord may the lessons we have learned from the story of jess joseph and his brothers inspire our lives that oh god we may always seek to follow in your guidance to allow you to lead our lives and to invite you to change our hearts oh god we would not harden ourselves to the pleadings of the holy spirit but may we be receptive to its um entreaties towards us bless us oh god for the remainder of the Sabbath day i pray that all the programs that are ahead of us may they be uh inspired by you oh god and may we listen to you speak to us through the various speakers of the day bless us oh god and may you will be done for this is my humble prayer in jesus name amen thank you so much god bless you and have a lovely Sabbath amen now let us pray everlasting father in heaven we have come again to you to thank you because you are precious and you are gracious we thank you for this day when you have gathered together so that we can learn from you and you pray that you may continue to guide us in our worship after the end of the programs of the day in jesus name we do pray and believe now this morning we want to share a special thought on christian education the purpose of christian education is to prepare the learners to be citizens of heaven through the process of transformation and restoration of the image of god in their life this process is informed by the wonder laid by jesus christ when he took flesh and blood like children of men through is a death that he might destroy him who had the power of death and that is a devil and also set free those through the fear of death were all held in slavery the book of improves chapter two verse 14 and 15 and so in the school of his human parents looked after two verse 51 and 52 in Nazareth jesus was subject to his parents in christian wisdom stature and refer with god and man in this christ demonstrated the four dimensions that christian education seeks to develop the physical well-being that is in stature mental well-being that is in wisdom spiritual well-being in favor of the god and social well-being in favor of man the scope and how to make objective of christian education is given in Matthew chapter five verse 48 be ye therefore perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect secular education proposed to develop the learner in the same dimension but the measurement of these fears is diametrically different from christian perception as successful educated person in secular system is one who is rich intelligent physically attractive and influential this is what many parents want their children to be on the other hand christian education is valued by love mercy justice findality or humility which is what god values maker chapter six verse seven asked will the lord be pleased with thousands of realms within ten thousands of rivers of oil shall i keep my first born for my transgression and the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul maker six says has he should oh man what is good what god what does the lord require thee to do justly love mercy and walk humbly with the god the reference point of philosophy christian education is a scripture that is a bible while the reference point of philosophy of secular education is scientific theories like evolution continental drift theories of matter which differ grossly in the areas of fundamental inquiry of one origin of matter nature of matter what is good what is sifu what is power what is value of life and truth in origin christian educational odds the universe and us were created by personal god for his own purpose and we are accountable to him the secular holds that the world came by chance which is a genesis of corruption because men are only accountable to other humans what is good is what is good evil truth is relative and depends on the interest of majority power people is that is determined by wealth beauty intelligence and size of ammunition and territory territory in control christian power is measured by faithfulness by which they fulfilled god's purpose as his stewards of god's property they eat and wear what golespa is god first god in the antenna that one secular eats and wear what pleases their highs and therefore when we are called to have christian education we are the true values which can save this nation from the corruption which you are which is eminent and we are sure with the christian education we need our children to get there and that all of us may be called and may be able to reach the ultimate goal which god purpose for our eye may god bless us happy seventh happy day thank you very much it's another the church would like to notify you that the year 2022 which is this year the camp meeting dates a schedule to run from 2nd of july to 9th of july 2022 please plan accordingly secondly holy communion next Sabbath on the 25th of june 2022 is the holy communion please welcome and plan to attend holy communion and it will also be served in the schools too and also here in our church this item three is the women ministry we are currently studying the book steps to christ please propose to read and grow spiritually we invite the 200 contribution for the monthly kitty and to support the programs pay through our church bill 320 100 and please remember to write their women ministry and then i would also like to announce that please bear in mind that every Wednesday is our day for prayer and fasting every Wednesday is our day for prayer and fasting the next item is the youth sabbat school lesson discussion the youth sabbat school lesson discussion shall be held every Sabbath morning at the balcony at 8 30 a.m all young members are invited to attend right up there at the balcony then the youth are away for their Sabbath outreach to motherly care children's home please remember the main prayer then the next item is baptismal and post baptismal sabbat school classes for those who wish to be baptized the church runs both a virtual and in person baptismal and post baptismal class every Sabbath morning as from 8 a.m up to 9 and baptismal classes are facilitated by elder robata runga elder robata runga whom you can reach on 0722 789 160 or you could equally get in touch with elder bensuna tang on 0707 344 154 if not finally you can also reach through brother abura kathiani on 0733 961937 while the post baptismal classes are facilitated by elder mesha kodira who's on 0722 849 191 and elder elisa yemba on 0720 235 479 he's also assisted by brother brian ajuan on 0728 912 852 those designed to attend these said classes are welcome to get in touch through the above contacts we also have our website you could kindly just get into our website feel free to drop an email and show your interest if you are interested in baptism and then evangelism appeal for funds for local evangelism these are renewed interests in the evangelistic work in areas that have been unentered and particularly in the north hall in my corner and sololo a mission which this this church started about three years ago the field while appreciating our past contribution in this area has requested for us to continue supporting this mission by sponsoring one evangelist in my corner one year so if you can take one evangelist sponsoring for a year it will be so appreciated and then the church board is appealing to members to contribute towards these evangelism funds so that we can reinvigorate our outreach evangelism program please contribute through the normal envelopes or through the pay bill of the church and indicate local evangelism then wedding bands nice nice nice there will be wedding there will be a wedding ceremony between sister robbie martini and rodney genger both of sda church amazing grace norwood 2117 they are from joe bag south africa but the wedding will take place here in church next sunday and that's on the 26th of june 2022 from 11 a.m so you are all invited to this auspicious occasion and finally appreciation the family of the late uh uh joseph ocharo kiage and dr joe's kathore gaishu take this opportunity on behalf of the larger kiage family to express the sincere gratitude uh to the larger fraternity and members of Nairobi central sdh church the pastorates uh the eldership and also the members for their kind messages messages of condolences the phone calls what's up messages chats home visits and financial support that you accorded them during the demise of their beloved dad elia kiage combo may our good lord bless you all that's the end of my announcements and i wish to now welcome to the rest of the program of the church please enjoy your sabbath and have a good day amen have a good day to you too elder happy sabbath saints happy day if you were here earlier you heard the song you said you'd come and share all my sorrows jesus said come to the waters thank you and it's good to have you with us worshiping today i appreciate kbc will be sending us to many parts of the world i also want to appreciate everybody who is within the sanctuary those who are viewing us through the church churches um live stream channels caribou nissana and happy sabbath we want to enter into a bit a season of singing so pull out your hymn books as many as you can the different ones that you have at the piano we have crisp in our base is timothy our tenor is denny's our alto is john but i'm also here my name is emily let us start with face to face with christ my savior number 206 in the seventh day adventist hymnal please find it in any of the hymnal that you may be holding face to face together face to face face to face with this one watch rejoicing in this prayer if we shall see if my beauty jesus christ so assurance doesn't it i shall it's not a suggestion that i could just try to see him it's very definite i shall see him by and by by and by basically means you know if i could say in another language soon now now we have come from meeting coming up very shortly and we were being taught the theme song last sabbath maybe we just go through one stanza shall we we've a story to tell to the nations it is not in the seventh day adventist hymnal but it would be perhaps in another hymnal if you can find it we've a story to tell to the nations just stands the one and maybe stands a four sing together we've a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the ground a story of truth and money of peace and love the dark nation to a question who has never heard this song never had it right so you've just said it so you've heard it for the first time all right shall we try it one more time at least familiarize yourself with the tune i know those online it is likely that you can see the lyrics you can see the text those in the church once we have our screens up you'll be able to see it but i believe we shall be able to share the lyrics pretty soon one more time just that first stanza so that we are familiar with it but just we up the speed just a little we've a story together we've a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the ground a story of truth and money of peace and please we shall soon behold him we sure do have a story to tell to the nations because christ's great kingdom is coming on earth and it is that kingdom of love and light a call to discipleship amen timothy what do we sing next all right thank you our next theme is three seven five three hundred and seventy five walk for the night is coming oh walk for the night is cut through the morn the dew is further grown what it is go to the side rest come sure give i go the night shall we all rise to sing praise god from whom all blessings flow kind and everlasting father we come before you lord this suburb morning we thank you heavenly father for giving us another opportunity to come and worship you today feel us with the holy spirit heavenly father prepare our hearts to receive you in jesus name we pray amen okay happy suburb church happy day how many of us are happy to be here today just wave thank you very much i stand here to welcome all of us to today's service uh the fiscal congregation you are all welcome including our visitors from karura sds secondary school feel at home for the online viewers through kbc and all other uh channels we welcome you also feel at the feet of jesus christ just feel at home i also stand here to welcome our pastor pastor uh wahonia who comes from baraton who will do the sermon pastor feel at home and also pastor came with his wife maybe she can stand so that we can all see her uh me uh miss margaret let's wave to her pastor we pray for you and we thank you for accepting to come all of us let's just wave to pastor as we wait for him uh during his time thank you as we now want to watch our prayer as much as possible if you can find a place to kneel please do so those who may not be able to kneel and bow our head in reverence to our lord we are praying almighty god our father in heaven we want to thank you this morning for being with us on this special day of sabbat a day of rest lord we come from various directions we are laden with various challenges but when we come to your house we have hope that the god love god of love will lift us up we want to thank those who are in the sanctuary we know that through new technologies we are able to reach many from different parts of the world at different times of the day some are just waking up some are going to sleep others are on various choices but lord we thank you for lending us your ears so that we can listen to your word and the servants whom you have appointed to manage and run this church we are praying for these servants of the lord in the different levels starting from the local church through the various fields conferences and up to the general conference we pray for those who are taking charge of the various institutions especially our schools that are preparing young people for service in this education day we are grateful to have with us carola school where the children are being prepared but we know there are many other schools advantage schools non-adventive schools where your worship is taking place we want to remember our branch Sabbath schools of this church where people are being prepared for salvation lord we pray because we are human being seen as saved by your grace but when we come to your house we have hope of resurrection we have hope that Jesus Christ promised to us may this hope strengthen us and when we go back to our various places we can see your face and you will listen to us Lord there are many who are sick some are in hospital beds others are at home because they are too tired either to move or even to go anywhere be with them and may your grace be sufficient for all of them wherever they are we know we cannot count one by one but you are reminded that if we count our blessings the small you have done to us then we can even be able to enumerate for today Lord we have a speaker whom we have appointed we are praying for pastor paul wahunya from the University of eastern africa baraton who will share your word with the congregation here in church and even those who are listening from many places of the world Lord may that message be able to transform us enrich us revive us and also prepare us as we continue to wait for your second return may your message from this house be able to lift us improve our approach to evangelism and sustain our children we pray for our children because they are vulnerable they're going through difficult problems of learning but Lord through education they can be better prepared to serve not just themselves but also this church and also be better citizens as we wait for your second coming Lord we pray that we may now accept all our supplications because we have asked all these in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and our savior as we say amen amen I would like to make a statement because the Lord has been so gracious to us he has taken care of us and we are in another another season of camp meeting camp meeting is here and we are going to have our camp meeting from the first week of July beginning 3rd to 9th and we want to invite the entire church family both those who are present and those who are watching us online those who have become our online members to be part of this celebration and we want to ask you to remember that for us to do the camp meeting we need your participation think of offering because the Lord has been so good to you he has taken care of you until the year is coming to an end and what can you do what can you offer to the Lord again for us to do it we need to ensure that the expenses are catered for and we need your generous contribution therefore we are asking all our members those who are here in church and those who are watching us online to give an offering towards this camp meeting camp meeting is a family time it's a time that we come together for internal revival and we have lined up great speakers whom the Lord has given us who will be a blessing to all of us our members who are watching us online and those who are in charge we trust and believe that the speakers who are going to speak are going to be a blessing to all of us and therefore we want to ask you to spare time from your work to be part of this great camp meeting it is going to be one week and you will never be the same again after the end of that week please let us all participate in this great time of feast of tabernacle and may the Lord bless you now I want to invite the ashes to stand as we give offerings I want to believe that we know our pay bill number and those who are giving from outside the country the details are already there on your screen you'll be able to see all the details the bank details so that we can generously give and I know that the Lord will bless us all as we give the deacons let's have a word of prayer before we allow choir from carola school to praise the Lord even as we give let's close our eyes for a word of prayer Father in the name of Jesus we want to thank you so much you have taken care of us oh Lord till this end of the year when we are approaching camp meeting and Father as we plan to spend a whole week just to be revived Lord I pray that your Holy Spirit may be present in each and everything we are going to do the entire program we are praying for our speakers who are coming Lord that you may enrich them and prepare them to bless this congregation we are praying for those who are watching us online Lord that you may convict them to spare time to be part of this great blessed moment we are praying Lord that even as your sons and daughters are contemplating to give both the camp meeting offerings and the expenses Jehovah may you touch them we know that we'll not lack because you are with us continue blessing those who are planning to give and those who are giving now and those who don't have remember them and may you provide for them as well be with us for this we are praying believing and trusting in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and let all of us say amen good morning and happy Sabbath to you all in church today and all those who are with us in the various electronic media we welcome you my name is teacher George and with me are some of the children from primary yes this is primary B as we start this I'll have a word of prayer John can you pray with us that's why it's for a lot of prayer oh god thank you for this day thank you for guiding us and protecting us help us to understand what you're told and help us not to be rude to others Jesus my prayer amen thank you very much John for that beautiful prayer and this week we are continuing from last week and our lessons has been the lessons from locus and who can remember anything that we learned last week about the locus let me start with Jesse what do you remember the three stages of our locus ah the three stages of our locus which were egg yes hopper yeah and adult great anything else that somebody can remember ah Steve you remember something they they they like being in groups right anything else yeah there are many other lessons that we learned as well from that and more so is the lesson that we learned and we learned that we remember when we remember locusts see that again yes when we see the locusts remember God loves order and that was our take home from last week so this week we are continuing more lessons and our text comes from Joshua I mean judges seven verse 12 and children I want us to read judges seven verse 12 from behind us let's read together the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts too many to count so that's our key reading hi glory welcome and our teaching will come um a few um one chapter behind chapter seven and that takes us to chapter six at the beginning of chapter six we find the children of Israel in trouble they had been invaded by the people of the east these are also referred to as the Midianites so the Midianites were cattle keepers or they were animal keepers so when you say that the animal keepers what kind of animals were they keeping who knows any of the animals that were keeping yes locusts no the animals that were keeping at home yes cows their cows there were camels any other chloe dune any other that they were keeping yes john goats goats there are many sheep yes jesse yeah you said it okay good so there were these the people of the east who are the Midianites were basically keeping animals but the Israelites were mainly growing crops there were farmers who are growing crops so when the Midianites came they destroyed the crops they destroyed the farms and we were told that there were so many like a swarm of locusts too many to count so they were troubled and together with that the Midianites were not friendly and so they troubled the Israelites to an extent that we find that at some times the Israelites actually were hiding out in the caves they were hiding out where children away from who the Midianites and in the forests you can imagine how difficult life was for them so at that time they cried out to the Lord they cried out to the Lord in their in their travel and do you think God had them yeah who can tell me yes God had them yes God had them and God sent who God talked to a young man called Gideon and Gideon was at that time hiding out in underground he was preparing wheat he was preparing wheat and Gideon responded to God's call and that response is also what we learn in the I will go call who remembers the I will go call do you know they will go call be the someone that we went to as well and we have the needy have we all been in that one yes what did we do we helped or we visited the needy children we also responded there I will go call when we come to Sabbath when you participate in our mission stories that's how we as children can also participate and respond to that so Gideon responded and he selected 30,000 men how many 30,000 but God told them no too many we need to make them fewer because you are not winning as the might or the ability of man but you are winning because you trust in God so they reduced the number so he told the people if you feel afraid if you don't feel like going for this battle please do what go back home and he remained with how many 10,000 how many remind and eventually God guided Gideon and they only remained 300 men imagine 300 men and the people from the east were how many too many to to count and so they with 300 men Gideon won the war and the meteorites were chased away and the people of Israel were happy because Gideon trusted in the Lord and so they were able by trusting in the God in God and through God's intervention and which he does in our life every day they did what won the law so children remember when we see locust we remember that God always wins when we see God remember what yes when you see locust remember God always wins so listen trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and which girl is praying for us as we close let us pray let's pray our kind and loving father thank you for this day thank you for the gift of life as right here protect us guide us in Jesus name I pray amen amen so we welcome you again next sabbat as we learn more from the locusts but for now bye happy sabbat happy sabbat church at this time you're going to read the scriptures and you're going to read Daniel chapter 13 verse 3 before we read I would like us to pray heavenly father I invite your holy spirit to help us understand these words as we read in Jesus name amen okay so we are reading Daniel chapter 13 verse 3 Daniel I'm sorry Daniel chapter 12 Daniel chapter 12 verse 3 those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the farmament and those who turn many to rushesness like the stars forever let me repeat the reading Daniel chapter 12 verse 3 those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the farmament and those who turn many to rushesness like the stars forever may the Lord bless the reading amen shall we all rise and sing our opening hymn number 286 wonderful words of life 286 in the sda hymnal maneno we'll take it just a little faster we'll take it just a little faster than christian has given us shall we go together sing them over again to me wonderful words of love you to see wonderful much let us have our prayer as we continue worshiping god heavenly father in the name of jesus we come before your throne of grace we have come just as we are and we thank you oh god that you have given us this chance so that we can gather here as members of your community both here in the church and also internationally virtually bless us as we listen to your word we pray in jesus name amen i want to take this time to thank the leadership of Nairobi central sda church for inviting me to this church at this particular time so that i can be with you during this service which is education Sabbath this is a place that i am pretty much aware of because i was the pastor of Nairobi central church for about three years 1989 all the way to december 1991 so i am i have come back home and i really want to thank the leadership of this church for having given me that time so that i can come and minister to this congregation i am reminded of the time when we were laying the foundation of this church it was a great great day with men and women young and old coming with different tools in order for us to see how to build a bigger church so that we could worship together instead of the two services that we used to hold in the small church so i'm just happy to come back and be in this big church the dream that has been realized i really want to praise the name of the lord uh this is education Sabbath and we have come here so that we can just get to learn how we can be better people in terms of education christian education so that we can help ourselves and also help our children and so it is quite but a great moment you know as we look at the theme that we are looking at today the theme that we have with us that we are trying to expand on this Sabbath is you know looking at Jesus and i've just titled it come and see the educator for excellence it is an invitation to come and see this person who is the educator for excellence and friends this morning as we go through this time i believe that you will heed to that invitation so that we can look at what it is that really enhances education you know today many countries including kenya itself is grappling with the idea of what is the best system of education which will help our children to become better members of communities and so we have the system that is going on right now that the government has introduced but i want to say that proper education does not just begin when a person goes to school i want to recommend this morning that education that is properly based is education that begins at home praise the lord it is an education that begins right there where a child is born and so parents if you fail in doing your part and playing your part as a parent right there within the home then there will not be much that this child will attain in life it is quite important that we do it right there within the home the theme as i have said is come and see the educator for excellence how does this person who is the educator for excellence and i want to recommend and say that the educator for excellence that i'm bringing before this congregation today is none other than the lord jesus christ he is the educator for excellence yes we may have all kinds of instructors teachers of different kinds including those in the primary schools the secondary schools universities and colleges but let me tell you none of us including myself teaching at the university of eastern africa baritone can equal that teacher the teacher who is jesus christ himself the teacher for excellence and now that i've mentioned that i teach at the university of eastern africa baritone i want to thank god for christian schools i want to praise god for christian schools that are educating young people today i want to thank god not just for christian schools but i want to thank god for even those public schools and i want to thank god even for christian teachers who are in both christian schools and non christian schools teachers who know that they are working under the teacher for excellence the educator for excellence the lord jesus christ himself i saw this morning i want to say my friends that right there at the university of eastern africa baritone which god has also placed in this country to help our young people to help our youth attain christian education i want to tell you that we really want to thank god for that institution we want to thank god in this congregation and many were listening to me around the world i believe there are a number of those who have passed through the university of eastern africa baritone we have christian teachers we endeavor to help these young people to be better members of different communities and different societies we have in that university different kinds of university education in a place like baritone did you know that after they have made the selections that they just made that they can still come to the university and we are opening the last week of august of 2022 that they can still change their programs to other programs that they are that they are interested in so my friends baritone is just but one of those institutions that provide christian education helping our young people to increase to cut to have values to be men and women who can be dependent upon in society but back to the theme that we are talking about and i'm inviting you to come and see the educator excellence the lord jesus christ so how did this particular individual how did jesus himself become such an educator for excellence what is it that made him to me who he is my friends it started right from the home thank god for godly mothers thank god for godly parents who are engaged and involved in their children's education is interesting that as a result of his great upbringing that you find the testimony right there in the book of luke chapter 2 and verse 52 and jesus increased in wisdom in stature and in favor with god and the man praise the lord you know i mean maybe the mother of jesus did great work in the upbringing of this particular child and i want to challenge us those of us who are parents to do our part many times we are so busy you know pursuing our jobs our professions to the neglect of our children we cannot do that any longer you know in the book of john chapter one if you look at the book of john chapter one and verse 43 it goes on to verse 46 because jesus has now come from home and he has started his ministry he has started calling disciples of different kinds and at what particular point jesus meets uh he meets one person who is called nathaniel but before jesus meets nathaniel philip whom jesus has already called and has started following him is the one who finds nathaniel and he tells nathaniel we have found the messiah we have found the messiah jesus the man of nazareth and then philip i mean nathaniel after hearing what philip has said about this man the messiah nathaniel asked himself a very interesting question and what is the question can anything good come out of nazareth can anything good come out of nazareth and you know what philip told nathaniel what does he tell him just come and do what see just come and see if you doubt that something good can come out of nazareth just come and see beloved nathaniel went and nathaniel met jesus and as the conversation begins jesus tells him hey you know what nathaniel you are doubting that something good can come out of nazareth but before you even came i saw you when you were under the fig tree my friends proper education starts right at home jesus grows up at nazareth nazareth we are told was a bad bad place we are in Nairobi there are places that people even fear to live in they fear even to go to because of the criminal activities that go on in those places they are known as dens of criminals my friends nazareth was a place like this nazareth had all kinds of negative influences but it is in nazareth that jesus became a great person where jesus because of the interaction of the parent was able to inculcate the successes that he had and so come my friends and see the educator for excellence the engagement and involvement of parents tomorrow sunday the 19th day of june 2022 is going to be father's day tomorrow is father's day and i want to appeal to the ladies in this congregation spoil your man spoil you spoil him tomorrow please tell me for tomorrow if you've never been spoiling that man spoiling tomorrow daughters who are in this congregation and who are hearing me anywhere around the world please do something for appreciate your dad they're apparent they're in your life do something for them you know last saturday last saturday by 11th of june 2022 there is a school in this country that made headlines a school a small girl's school in baringo capropita girls high school let me tell you teachers let me tell you educators let me tell you leaders there are times when you got to get out of the box there are times when as an educator you don't have to do things right the way they have always been done so what did this school do they decided to invite to have a parent's day and invite only fathers only fathers to that particular school in fact when the invitations were were given out when the invitation went out people started complaining how do you only invite fathers don't you think there are other children who do not have fathers yes it is true but let me tell you when saturday the 11th day reached and nine o'clock reached and the parents began streaming in i want to thank those teachers every parent was given a flower to give to their daughters every parent was given a flower to give to their daughters my friends they are if you read that story and i will encourage you to go and read that story because the students in that school that particular day those students were so appreciative i was looking at some pictures last night of girls capropita girls high school in baringo county every girl having a flower every girl carrying a flower and i believe for many of them it was the first time they were given a flower by who by a father the first time my friends if you want your children to be successful get involved don't leave them far away from you get involved because it is significant for their success jesus upbringing within the home enabled him to be so successful that he was able to touch the lives of so many many other people do you want your son to be successful do you want your daughter to be successful my friends i want to invite you to emulate the parents of jesus who did everything possible to make him a great person and a great individual you know success is something that we love every one of us loves success and as i know that i'm i'm speaking to many students i want you to know that there are advantages of being successful so you can't do you can't be a student who wants to be mediocre in your performance let me just share with you seven advantages just seven advantages of being successful of trying your best just like jesus tried his best and there he was increased in wisdom stature and in favor with god and man number one advantage of being successful it's that it makes people respect you it makes people respect you when people know you are working hard when people know you are doing your best they will respect you praise the lord number two it enables you to be a blessing to many people in the society and in the community when you have been successful god has blessed you you have done your best in your educational endeavor i want to tell you that you will be a blessing to many people in the society number three point of the advantages of being a success is that it opens up opportunities both locally and internationally you know how many people have got scholarships simply because they did so well in school such that they got scholarships to go to the next level of their educational career how many people working so well in their places of work did so well that they were promoted my friends success makes you to be you know open up great opportunities for you both locally and internationally and number four it brings happiness to your loved ones success when you are successful it brings happiness to the people who are your loved ones your parents you know your spouses it brings happiness to anyone who associates with you i cannot forget the year is 1993 i have just completed my form for exams and the results have come out and those of you who are in that discharge know very well that during that time when results of form for exams came out they were not sent on on sms s on telephones they were put on the newspapers the delination the standard it had all that and i remember when the results came i had just done my form for in 1972 and so when the results came and i went and looked at the newspaper men i found i was in division one no praise the lord do you know how many calls i received do you know how many people wrote to me congratulating me you know when you are successful it makes people who are close to you to be so happy it brings happiness to those who are of your loved ones and number it makes you have a high self-esteem success you are successful when you are doing things and things are working on well it builds your self-esteem what is self-esteem just that feeling of just feeling good about yourself you know just having a good feeling about yourself success brings that self-esteem and it builds it in your life number six it makes you listen to this one i love this one this is one that has been i love this when i found it i really love this this number six it makes you more attractive to members of the opposite sex hallelujah you know success makes you attractive to members of the opposite sex after all who likes to have a person who is a failure my friends success makes those others who may be interested in you interested in you for a much longer period be interested in you and number seven which is the last one you know when you are successful it makes you praise the lord it makes you go back and begin thinking who is it that has given me this success it is none other than god himself and so in your success when you have been successful in doing different things you know you will go back as a christian and say it is not of my own making there must be a god who has enabled me to be who i am and so this morning my friends i want again to invite you to just come and see the educator for excellence the lord jesus christ himself who is himself the source and the fountain of wisdom and knowledge and understanding praise the lord just come and see so we have seen how he has a great background that is right with from right within the home and he has become a successful individual he has become a teacher a great teacher for that matter and i want to tell you this teacher now this great educator the lord jesus christ number one is interested in his students this is a teacher this is an educator who is interested in the welfare of his students you know as teachers we have to be interested in the welfare of our students if we are not interested in their welfare something is wrong when i read the book of john chapter four it reminds me of jesus as a teacher as an educationist who is interested in his pupils in his students look at this interaction with the samaritan woman look at that interaction with the samaritan woman the woman who is right there at the well and the bible says before jesus even comes to meet her he had to make a decision to come and pass through samaria so right there at the well the samaritan woman comes with a jar of water to draw water look at the interest that jesus has with this particular woman and ask that a question give me some water you know give me some water and then look at the kind of interaction that begins to go through i was reading through that chapter and i saw where jesus makes six different seven different statements and after every one of those statements the woman of samaria gives her answers my friends jesus was so much interested in the well-being of this particular individual a woman for that matter the bible tells us that the samaritans and the jews never saw eye to eye but here is jesus knowing that here is a student who is interested in getting to know more he engages her and discusses things with her i know many of us are lecturers and sometimes we are so much into lecturing especially those of us in the universities that we forget to engage students on a one-to-one here is jesus a great teacher a great educator engaging a student on a one-to-one i want to ask you a question as a teacher when was the last time those students found you in the in the office when was the last time you are able to interact with your students on one-on-one right there within your setting jesus engages this samaritan woman one-on-one she asked questions she answers he answers she asked the questions he answers until finally because of his interest in this particular woman and the things that they have been discussing finally the bible tells us the woman ran back to syca her village and when you read verse 29 john chapter 4 verse 29 the bible says after this woman has ran to the city she starts shouting come and see the man who has told me everything that i have ever done praise the lord Jesus the great educator the educator for excellence he has infused that understanding of salvation in this particular woman to the effect that this woman cannot remain the same she is changed forever and she has to run go and see how to tell others to also come and see my friends come and see the educator for excellence having a great interest in his students a great interest in the pupils look at the conversation that he has with john with nicolemas i'm sorry in john chapter three look at that great conversation in john chapter three nicolemas comes in at night and then jesus the teacher for excellence engages nicolemas to that great conversation until he challenges him and tells him you must be born again the conversation continues and finally it gives us one of the greatest texts in the bible john chapter three verse 16 for god so love the what the world that he gave his only begotten word son that will so ever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life my friends come and see come and see the educationist for excellence jesus the son of god i want you to come emulating i want you to come look at his methods i want you to come see his humility i want you to come see how loving he is of the people that he meets jesus is not only showing interest to the adults to the men and to the women but jesus the educator for excellence is also showing interest to the young people to the youth look at the way he shows interest to the youth the book of mark the book of mark mark chapter 10 and verse 13 all the way to verse 16 jesus the great educator is interested in the education in the welfare of young people of our children is interested in the welfare of our youth so parents are bringing their children to jesus and then the disciples try to keep the children out and jesus knowing that he has a place in his heart in his life as the educator to also have children and young people within he tells them just leave the little children to come to me he has open arms for our young people he values our young people he's interested in the welfare of our young people my friends one of the very unfortunate things that is happening in the world today is that our children are in great danger excuse me our children are in great danger just the other yesterday no no not yesterday on Thursday this week the 16th of June was celebrated as the international day of the african child 2022 did you know that did you know that just this week celebrated as the international day of the african child 2022 now do you know what the theme was do you know what the theme was for this particular celebration of the african child the theme was eliminating harmful practices affecting children progress on policy and practice since 2013 that was the theme eliminating harmful practices affecting children my friends our children our children whom jesus the educator for excellence is interested in are in great danger today that child is in great danger your child my child is in great danger my friends our children are in great danger i want to share with you some very interesting statistics let me share with you some very very interesting statistics but also came up i just read about this this week very interesting statistics and that is children and the internet children and the internet there is a study that has just been released and that study says that more than 12 million children in kenya have access to the adult pornography online million children in kenya have access to adult pornography online the report on the national plan of action to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse has revealed that 55 percent of the 21.9 million children in kenya have widespread access to pornography and are exposed to sexual exploitation we are not even talking about the children of the rest of the world we are just focusing on the children of kenya they are an endangered species parents teachers our children are an endangered species we have to wake up it is time to wake up it is time for us to do something we cannot be asleep anymore manizas zaman the country representative for unicef says this the country representative for unicef says this more than 1300 kenyan children have already shared sexual naked or semi-naked images or videos of their bodies with other internet users more than 1300 you know of our children have already removed their clothes and allowed somebody somewhere to look at their bodies naked online terrible and she goes on to say that and three million others have gone on to have a physical meeting with a stranger they encountered online do you know what your children are doing are you aware of what your children are doing their teachers their parents i don't care where you are you may be so far away but you're within reach of my voice what i am saying is these statistics that i'm sharing with you are not just kenyan statistics i believe that if you look at the statistics of children in your own country it would probably not be different from the statistics that we are having here in kenya our children are an endangered species my friends these are not just your children and you know one of the things they tell us is that the facilities that implements the instruments that these children don't burden from coming to me jesus the educator by excellence is interested in the welfare of your children what are you doing to protect your children may god bless us as we go through this afternoon as we go through this service as we go back to our homes to recognize that our children need our protection our children need to be brought to jesus so that they can be helped to ward off these influences that come into their lives this is my prayer for you and i want to ask this morning how many of you right within this congregation in the setting of your home in the setting of your office how many of you would want to say lord i also want to come to jesus i want to come to jesus the educator by excellence so that i can get better acquainted with him if that is your desire please let us stand as we sing our last song song number 245 more about jesus i would know praise the lord our loving heavenly father i just want to thank you for everyone who has listened to your voice and i want to pray oh god that you will bless each one of us that we will become your representatives my god in this world that has so many challenges bless this church bless its leadership bless its members we pray in jesus name amen happy Sabbath happy Sabbath i would like to take this opportunity to announce that you are coming to the close of the morning sessions and i like to thank god for the chance to worship him he has given us the chance and you've taken it we say thank you to the lord for the programs and before we wind up i wish to invite you to the afternoon program which i'm very sure you'll not want to miss this we'll be starting at 14 hours east afghan time and the topic is educating disciples in public learning institutions i'm very very sure you'll not learn to miss this so make time we meet here again at 14 hours east afghan time and for those who might not be able to make it to this hall we're inviting you to follow us on our platforms because they're still open but before we do that i also want to thank our flow managers i'd like to thank those that are involved teachers children classes our choristers our guest choir carola secondary school we all thank you and the bless you've taken and the part you played may god bless you not forgetting our preacher dr we are really blessed with the message not just the people associated with the learning institutions but to us as well because it's the gospel may the lord bless you as we continue we'll say the grace after the singing may god bless you thank you let's rise for the grace may the grace