 Happy Sabah. Happy new year. I'm saying happy new year because this is my first time to be here this year and I believe the loan has prepared something great for each one of us. Today is a great day that we have our leadership from the division just to come to celebrate this magazine. I will not talk about it now because the time is coming. I have done what you call a quick review of the magazine. It has very important information, not only for Nairobi, central church but the leadership in the entire church and this is the voice to the voiceless. May the Lord bless the church because things will be said about this magazine. It has reflections done by great men and women taking time to do this work. May the Lord bless them. This morning as I was coming my family said I greet you. I don't know whether you have received their greetings. It's my privilege this morning just to speak few words from the word of God so that we are all blessed. As I was thinking about this religious liberty, I went through and scanned a lot of materials both from the church and from other mainstream churches and also compare some of the constitutions of the world. Allow me to say I'm not an expert of law but we have lawyers in the room who will share with us and information in the afternoon about state and church. Number two, as I was going through the Bible I realized that God himself is the author of freedom and liberty and this text I chose, I libaned checking through to understand what it means to have religious liberty like today as we worship our living God and what went to my mind is John 8 verses 3 to 2 I extended to 36 and allow me to read and I invite you to read with me so that I can try to give synopsis of these texts in the context of religious liberty. The word of God says if you have reached there you can say amen. Has he spoke these words? Many believed in him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him if you are combined in my words you are my disciples he did and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Buzz that tree, they answered him we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you don't give us freedom or made us free? Jesus answered them Most assuredly I say unto you whoever commits sins is a slave of sin and a slave does not unbind in the house forever but a son unbinds forever. Therefore if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed. Let's pray. Our great God in heaven this morning I invite you Lord to open our heart to receive what you have prepared for us. Lord, I am a human being. I call upon you Lord you may speak on my behalf that your children will be blessed that the message will touch my heart and transform me equally as you touch your children this day in Jesus name we pray. Amen. The implication of this verse three implications implication number one as you read verse 30 it is about the mission it is about the mission of God the mission of Jesus he says many who believed in him someone or Jesus himself was preaching and many people followed him he begins with the mission because our God is a missionary God and from that perspective Christ brings something else on board when we go to verses 31 and this is another message which he is trying to give us in that one and he says that Jesus when he spoke to these Jews who believed in him we talked about them if you unbind in my words you are my disciples and the concept he is bringing is the concept of discipleship if you are my disciples there are certain things you have to do from a missionary God to a disciple God then from that point of view he moves to the other part which they didn't understand properly and that is verse 32 and he says and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free he brings us another aspect of liberty and freedom liberty and freedom he did not begin with liberty and freedom he did not understand or start with the expression of an individual but he begins expressing himself in a mission from mission he come to discipleship and then from discipleship he talks about now the freedom because you cannot experience freedom before you know the Lord who has called you and the calling of the Lord has consequences or the people who have identified with Jesus Christ have suffered consequences in many countries and in many foreign missions and that's why the Lord is calling upon his disciples to unbinding him and to follow what he says but now then the complication again comes when they themselves the Jews won't believe to Jesus Christ when they say we have never been a slave of anybody because we are the children of Abraham literally they know that there was slaves in Egypt there was slaves in Babylon and we were expound with that statement now allow me to say this my dear friends I trying to look at the constitution of America and this is what they celebrate every 4th of every month in July and as I was reading this constitution the Americans celebrate their constitution because this is the new beginning the dawning of the American freedom and they say we are a free nation that's according to the American the founding fathers of Americans cannot be preserved unless they acknowledge the dependence of God in their life and as they were moving from this point of view Americans feel they are free the question I posed to their constitution is as we ask this question do we have freedom without limits that's the question I posed this constitution of the super wound country can we have freedom without limits just to refresh your mind in 1960s there was the beginning of paradigm shift from that constitution and arise the people who called themselves free thinkers the free thinkers in this context they said that we need freedom without rules they argued that rules makes them not to be free and therefore they would not want any rule at all thinking from this perspective they influenced many religious institutions they influenced many government in the world and this is what they were saying and this is what their statement was that freedom does not require any law my question is that I want to pose to each one of us today if we go through the thinkers the free thinkers therefore it means true freedom will not be there and according to them they need freedom which means no rules no laws, no morals no community standards however the moralists came and challenged that position and this is what the moralists came and said if everybody will be allowed to do what pleases him therefore the exercise of free love will not be there but this is what it will be implying that there will be free love you can love anybody anytime you can work out with my wife you can work out with somebody's daughter because we are living in the free world where you can love anybody anytime you can go with somebody's wife then it says free drugs you can take good and bandit drugs because we are in free world it means free sex, you can do anything that you want and then it means if everybody is allowed to do what he feels and he does the same thing then we will be ending in anake and chaos as you look from the biblical perspective in the children of Israel when God says when everything was doing what was right in his own eyes God looked at them and was not happy free thinkers bring this concept in mind that we have to challenge this position as Christian because we must stand firm for what the free thinkers are saying and to stand with moralists who believe in the Bible and what the Bible says God is a God of mission who is calling each individual to come and worship him God is a God who has given and freedom and freedom with limits because of the free moral thinkers this what has happened to the world today and the highest rate because people say I can marry anytime I need and I can divorce my wife anytime and that has been populated in the world today the data can tell you today marriage are in trial people they say before I marry I must have someone people are cohabiting and many constitution have allowed cohabitation and they call it marriage and these are the challenges we are experiencing in trial my dear friends gender identity is another problem people they say my gender is my individual choice God never created people with the individual choice he created male and female and period biblically but now people have changed the rules people want to be women and women want to be men that is not the biblical concept those are the moral thinkers who have influenced the world they are messing up the world and the church must speak out and the church has already spoken praise be to God to this church they have spoken about these things and the Lord will bless this church the time we need to speak and the times we keep quiet this is not the time to keep quiet it is the time to speak what the Lord has impressed in our minds dating in our colleges has become rampant where they explore love in this kind of freedom engaging in a relationship that has ended in short lived lives in the university either you live the university impregnated or you live the university with a skill you live the university with a disease or you live a university as a professional these are the things we have to speak out as the church and to tell the world enough is enough as we look at the problem of 1960s that has plunged the people into the positive wound thinking they say truth is relative and personal and then they continue to say that is not enough they say authority is objective it is objective it is objectivity it is not the truth that we need to know but freedom has boundaries praise be to God freedom has boundaries that is why our Lord has called us as the 70 day and event church as we celebrate religious liberty somebody today wound over we promote freedom of conscience in every aspect of our life as we express our belief as a religion as a church we need to go back to the fundamental issue that promote respect of every aspect of human being Jesus respect every person in terms of mission therefore believe is accepting Jesus Christ you cannot be quashed because you have believed in Jesus Christ you can't be quashed because you are an eventist you can't be quashed because you are a Muslim you can't be quashed because you are a Catholic you can't be quashed because you are an atheist in your own way because that is your choice according to yourself God has said we live in wound of pluralism and as we live in the wound of pluralism let the wound of God define our principles of what we believe let the wound of God speak to us and live by the principles of God himself as he has spoken to us in the wound let us promote good life that respect and promote freedom for each one let us and advocate what the Lord has spoken to us in his wound this wound again also implies that his audience didn't understand himself that's why I'm calling it religiously incorrect religiously incorrect allow me to tell you why I thought through this one go back to me in John chapter 8 as we read together let's read again when Jesus has said in verse that one this once and he said then Jesus has said to the Jews whom believed in him if you are imbind in my wound you are my disciples he did and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free according to the Jews they were free and Jesus is giving them is introducing them to slavery according to them that's why they said we are the children of Habram we have never been slaves allow me to take you to the Bible in Psalms 137 if you can recollect your mind when they were in the foreign land they said how can we sing the songs of Jerusalem the songs of Sayon in a foreign land the Bible says they hanged their halves in polas they could not sing because they did not understand what Jesus was telling them to be free did is to be free from sin and according to them freedom means that we are not under the bondage of everybody the understanding of religious freedom according to the wound is to be free that you know one can hold you responsible but according to Jesus every believer must be free every believer must be held responsible by God who created you in his own image you must obey his laws you must follow that says the wonder of God but today people want to live a free life they don't want to be held responsible in fact this tells me they did not know the truth that's why I'm calling it religiously in the correct of the understanding of who Jesus is they went on to tell Jesus we are free he did but Jesus trying to explain in verse 34 that's where now my message comes home he says Jesus answered them most I assuredly I say unto you however commit sins is a slave of sin the slavery in which Jesus implying in this context is not the slavery that you are under the bondage of somebody but you are at the bondage of the sin that has taken control of your life I want to say my dear friends religion and religious freedom has no natural bearing but they have the call have the statement from the Ten Commandments of God those are the principles that begins to help us to understand it is the declaration of worship where it is exclusive of God who created in classical Jews understanding of freedom it was Covenanto it was Covenanto according to the Jews that permitted some things to be done and that forbidden some things to be done it is permissive and forbidding according to the understanding but according to the Lord whom we worship such religious had driven from God's conscious and when we understand the conscious mind of God and live by what the Lord has done to us therefore it means the freedom Jesus has given us is to let the people of God go and this where Jesus got this statement from Exondas 726 talking to Pharaoh when he said let my people go allow me to say let the central church go and serve their Lord let central church speak against these issues affecting our country today men who want to be homosexuals and they baptize it those who want to be lesbians and sometimes we don't want to speak in the pulpit because we can be accused if you are accused the Lord will be your arbiter praise the Lord because he is the one who has spoken these things he created people with limits but now people have gone ahead they don't want to have any limit in the church today the issue of freedom the issue of gender equality has become a subject of debate when the Lord has spoken one man one woman and debate as they keep on debating upon it let us leave these things and leave within the borders of the Lord who has called us to be individual saved by him and him alone religious and religion are two things that cannot be left without working together the true faith remains what Jesus says to ourselves allow me to take you to another thing to say apart from being seen as God has given us a gift of freeing us from sin and making us his people according to what he says now allow me to say something else that is very important for you possibly to consider and to see whether it makes sense to you as you live in this world and you consider apart from having the three concept you have talked about mission discipleship and freedom then I want to talk something about what happened somewhere one father and two children daughters and they decided they need to put boundaries in their family on how to live and they said that the father you have given us many laws in this house you want to freedom then the father said no problem you can have the freedom you need in your own house this is your home let everyone have a key you can open the gate anytime you want to come home you can have the key for every room when you want to come in you can open and do what you want to do you can come anytime in the house as you wish you can cook at your own time and that is the new law they began in their home they started the first daughter could sit there not talking to the sister and they were not talking to their father they were not talking at home anytime you need to come in the middle of the night you can cook and eat and go and sleep if you have eaten where you have come from no problem then daddy could come in his own time and he sleeps and they wake up in the morning and they leave the house and go their way the first month ended the second month ended then the daughter said father let's review the laws again they want to live in a world without laws and boundaries father let us review the boundaries again and let's go back to where we started at least with the laws we could talk to each other with the laws we could sit together in a table and pray together with the laws we could cook together as we talk but now without laws no one is talking to each other then they ask them again my daughters it is true what do you want us to do they say let us go back to the laws God is calling the one to go back to his commandment because the commandment describe the character of God any human being who want to live without the law of God will think as a moral thinker no law no moral issues we need to have but the Lord is calling us to have those morals that's why Jesus says Liberation from sin and death is what we need today we need to examine our heart we need to look at the state and what the state are saying and we need to redefine our personal and social relationship as we live with human beings we need my dear friends to understand the journey of freedom began with God himself the journey of freedom goes back to God himself and God is calling upon the men and women to say no to all moral issues including the corruption that we experienced in this world I was reading and I went to check through the religious leaders of our time who spoke against many things the lack of akibishofmuge who were killed because of standing for what is right people like enjoyer who suffered in the hands of men because of speaking the truth people like akibishof guitar of this country for speaking their mind it is time for us and eventist also to speak when our time comes to speak we should not be quiet all the time when we need to speak we need the world to know we have a voice and this voice cannot be ignored praise be to God this voice my dear friends cannot be ignored we must speak out candidly and tell the world we are here we live in the world of pluralism we respect one another as we live in this world of pluralism and these guys they said that the world today is so corrupt people are living in the corrupt world even in the churches there is corruption but the bible and they spoke and said men want to get money in the context of helping the poor people want to make sure that they are richer and we have the poor people Jesus was telling you only to be free from sin but also to have the freedom that respect other people and also respect the nation it is our time to speak as the church when the government does something wrong we must come out and say this is wrong but we cannot keep quiet all the time and say the Lord will help us yes it is true the Lord will help us but we need to speak out if we keep quiet God will bring other people somewhere to speak in some scenarios in the bible when people kept quiet there is someone in the bible by the name Esther she went to the king and talked to the king and she spoke to the king because the uncle said if you don't go to the king and talk to the king the Lord will bring another salvation from somewhere else the church must speak out the elders we must speak out we must say no to evil things hallelujah we must uphold the principles of the Lord we need people like Nehemiah Nehemiah was turned to restore the church to restore the nation and to build up the kingdom of God again when even religious leaders and ran away Nehemiah stood alone and God used him we need people like Esther men who stood and said we need to return back to the principles of God we need to return back to the commandment of God and in Esther 3.10 when you read that verse he spoke to the people he ran to them the constitution of God the 10 commandment and when they understood the commandment they cried and they raised their voices and they said we have hand we want to obey we want to submit I'm calling upon ourselves men who are here today and women that we live by the principles of God that we don't need to fear anyone because the Lord has given us this freedom of expression he has given us liberty to worship we don't need to shy off but we need to talk out and at the same time respect others because they have also their right my dear friends in my synopsis I could say freedom has limits has boundaries let's respect those freedoms which has limits which has boundaries and one of them is one man one woman period you can quote me I stand with what the Bible says one one one woman anything else beyond that is the moral thinking of this world where people want to be given freedom even where the freedom is not now no genuine freedom my dear friends even in your own house you need rules with your children you need to tell them how they should live in your house rules are very important rules are a part of God's kingdom and rules are a part of God is telling them that why Jesus was telling the Jews here if you abide in me if you follow my ones and if you are my one sticks into you my dear friends I want to tell you freedom is free indeed freedom freedom is not defined by the constitution of the world allow me to say this again freedom cannot be defined by the constitution of the world even our country cannot define our constitution our right and privileges are defined by God the creator we need to uphold those one and to remind the law makers that they cannot give freedom by interpreting the law they need to go back to God and interpreting the law with God the creator of the universe that's what I call genuine freedom that I manage from God himself freedom and truth can only be exercised in love we need to love God himself and as we love God who is our creator then he will be with us he will use us the way he would want to use us he will stand with us in times of need and this is what we call good news the moral thinkers are promoting bad news in the life of this world when they tell people freedom is to do anything you want to do moralists are saying freedom has limit God is saying freedom has limit but you have to exercise them within the love of God and God says if you love me if you love me you will keep my commandment nobody can help you to keep the commandment of God by making laws we can only keep the commandment of God by subscribing to the love of God who has called us to love him who is the creator of the universe freedom my dear friend is a permanent status guaranteed by the creator and the creator has guaranteed each one of us the freedom what we need to do is to surrender ourselves to him and our faith in him you know faith is to let the wonder of God to do what it says if you believe in God even in your place of work and you stand with the Lord he will stand with you when you stand with God and you speak out from the beginning of the life he will move with you he will change things in your life my dear friends allow me to say freedom does not come by accident freedom is the gift given to us by God himself freedom is to be imbound in a relationship with our God the Lord who has defined our intimacy relationship with him this God who has called me my dear friends has given me freedom to express myself with the respect this God who has called me he want me to remain faithful to him to keep his commandment not because they are his laws but because the commandment define the love of God in myself they help me to have the character the character that is built in the love of God himself my dear friends there is nothing else we can do in this world than to uphold what the Lord says there is nothing in this world that can give me peace of mind but to come and say God here I am your son here I am your daughter use me the way you want to use me freedom is to sit down to reflect and ask yourself am I living in this allow me to go now the same verses 35 and that 6 as we come to the end this is what the Bible says verses 34 35 and that 6 says and a slave does not unbind in the house forever but a son unbinds forever therefore if the sons makes you free you shall be free indeed my dear friends Jesus is introducing the concept of slave and a master and he says a slave does not unbind in the house of the master forever he can be sold out he can be sold out and that now will be breaching the freedom that individual because you can sell him but Jesus says when you come to me you will not only have the freedom of expression in my house but you will be free indeed in my house you will eat anything you want to eat with Jesus in heaven one of the things that I admire when I go to heaven I want to see the fruit that undermined Eve's head and they were changed for the garden of Eden that I can go back and eat that fruit I lost because of this thinking more of thinking and this thing that was free thinking for this want to go to the direction it has gone when I go to heaven I want to see how God created this world and how I can be united to Adam before sin and look at the Adam after sin and then Adam after being delivered by God himself and dear friends when I go to heaven I want to see how God defines freedom without limit but also freedom that I can express myself in God's free will finally allow me to say that God has elaborated me from sin and that is what makes me to be who I am and that what makes you to be what you are God has come today to give you freedom God has come today to deliver you from all the evil forces of this world can you say man God has called you to tell you today stand firm and speak what you know hallelujah may the lord bless you if you identify with us kind of prayer can you stand that we can pray together let's pray as we hear the lord speak to us again let's pray our father and our god in heaven what a privilege you have given us to know that freedom begins with you you have called us lord to identify with what you have given us that we may live as your children lord forgive us where we have kept quiet when you are supposed to speak that we may now learn to speak when the time comes for us to speak lord humble ourselves to live according to your will and wishes oh lord I pray that you may bless this church they have spoken through a magazine they may not go to the media and speak but this magazine will reach to many people in the world lord bless the leadership of this church bless our union bless our division bless our general conference for this religious liberty we have experienced for over 100 years oh lord I call upon you to be with us and help us learn to live according to your will in Jesus name I pray amen may the lord bless you