WEBVTT 00:00:00.782 --> 00:00:08.489 As I was being confired you know there is a special kofia and all those things the scripture 1 Corinthians 15, 58, was playing in my head. 00:00:08.489 --> 00:00:18.810 That says Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor in the Lord is never in vain. 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:20.123 Let's give a hand to the Lord. 00:00:20.123 --> 00:00:33.713 Our labor in the Lord is not in vain, and that this gospel we preach and we take it all over the world brings peace among nations, peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others. 00:00:33.713 --> 00:00:37.609 And so the best way to bring peace around the world is to preach the gospel. 00:00:37.609 --> 00:00:39.786 And so I thank you very much. 00:00:39.786 --> 00:00:44.771 The title of the message is the Macedonian call from Acts, chapter 16. 00:00:44.771 --> 00:00:49.090 We will be reading Acts, chapter 16, from verse 6 to verse 15. 00:00:49.090 --> 00:00:52.845 Acts, chapter 16, verse 16,. 00:00:52.845 --> 00:00:55.591 Chapter 16, verse 6 to verse 15. 00:00:55.591 --> 00:01:01.270 The Macedonian call I will read from the NIV version of the Bible. 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:16.852 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Frisia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 00:01:16.852 --> 00:01:29.251 When they came to the border of my Asia, they tried to enter Bethenia, but the spirit of Jesus, which is another way of saying the Holy Spirit, would not allow them to. 00:01:29.251 --> 00:01:34.471 So they passed by my Asia and went down to Traos. 00:01:34.471 --> 00:01:45.043 During the night, paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him come over to Macedonia. 00:01:45.043 --> 00:01:51.569 That's where I drew the title of the message from Come over to Macedonia and help us. 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:58.387 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready and we their meaning. 00:01:58.387 --> 00:02:09.794 The writer of the book of Acts, who happens to be Dr Luke at Traos, now joins Paul and Silas and Timothy to do this joint mission. 00:02:09.794 --> 00:02:12.467 It is a second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. 00:02:12.467 --> 00:02:19.979 We got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 00:02:21.002 --> 00:02:29.000 From Traos, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Samothras, and the next day we went to Neapolis. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:43.673 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia, which actually is the northern part of Greece as we know it today, and we stayed there several days. 00:02:43.673 --> 00:02:50.432 On the suburb, we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. 00:02:50.432 --> 00:02:55.000 We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:03.653 One of those listening was a woman from the city of the Attira named Lydia, a d-line purple cloth. 00:03:03.653 --> 00:03:05.747 She was a worshipper of God. 00:03:05.747 --> 00:03:09.000 The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:14.431 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. 00:03:14.431 --> 00:03:21.693 If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house and she persuaded us. 00:03:21.693 --> 00:03:23.462 Let's pray, father in heaven. 00:03:23.462 --> 00:03:27.292 I thank you for your word, which is just amazing. 00:03:27.292 --> 00:03:31.287 I commit myself and us in your hands. 00:03:31.287 --> 00:03:33.510 Even as I deliver this message. 00:03:33.510 --> 00:03:43.389 You've given to me that, god, you would come through for us and speak to us in manifold ways because, god, you're not limited in how you come through for your people. 00:03:43.389 --> 00:03:51.328 Therefore, I commit this moment to you with joy and thanksgiving for the congregation here, the ones in the pavilion and the ones following online. 00:03:51.328 --> 00:03:55.628 In Jesus' name, we pray and we all say amen, we may have our seats. 00:03:57.622 --> 00:03:58.967 The Macedonian call. 00:03:58.967 --> 00:04:00.293 The Macedonian call. 00:04:00.293 --> 00:04:13.283 I've just read the text and I want to divide this one in three parts, because the Bible encourages us to divide correctly the word of truth In this call. 00:04:13.283 --> 00:04:18.000 I call it a sovereign call, a strategic call, a significant call. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:19.646 Let me come back on it. 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:27.000 The Macedonian call a sovereign call, a strategic call, and a significant call. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.706 First of all, a sovereign call. 00:04:29.706 --> 00:04:52.834 A sovereign call God is not limited in the way he envisions his people, and why he chooses to envision his people in a sovereign way is because he would like to mobilize them or to encourage them to respond to his call and actually to get them where he needs them to be. 00:04:52.834 --> 00:05:09.973 And so God will sovereignly trespass or sovereignly find his way into our mental space or emotional space or any other space that we have, and God will show up there and envision us. 00:05:09.973 --> 00:05:21.374 And so God is sovereign in the call of Paul and his team as they make the next step in terms of their missionary journey. 00:05:21.374 --> 00:05:28.834 But the second way you see the sovereignty of God, in the passage I just read, is that God opens and closes doors. 00:05:28.834 --> 00:05:34.952 So not only does he envision his people, he also opens and shuts doors. 00:05:34.952 --> 00:05:41.819 And so, under the sovereign nature of God's call, he is at liberty to enter your space. 00:05:41.819 --> 00:06:00.052 Suddenly, even in a service like this one, you are here and suddenly, in your picture world, all of a sudden, as a preacher is preaching, something begins to show up and that thing has a sense of urgency, and it tends to invite you to get engaged and get connected. 00:06:00.052 --> 00:06:10.980 And so God is not limited in his own ways in terms of how he plugs in his people, in terms of his purpose and also in his will. 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:28.834 And that's why you find in the text that I just read, from verse 6 to 10, so that you just hear within the context of my introduction there, paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 00:06:29.581 --> 00:06:40.449 When they came to the border of Myasia, they tried to enter Bethania, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to do so, so they passed by Myasia and went down to Trails. 00:06:40.449 --> 00:06:52.783 During the night, paul had a vision this is envisioning of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him Come over to Macedonia and help us. 00:06:52.783 --> 00:07:02.615 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 00:07:02.615 --> 00:07:21.908 And my invitation today is asking us to give God free course and free way to interrupt the programs of our lives and be God as he needs to be and actually hold us by the hand and shepherd us. 00:07:21.908 --> 00:07:23.971 You know, unshapored us. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:28.264 God exercises divine discretion. 00:07:28.264 --> 00:07:56.694 And God is not limited, he's not subject to time, he's not subject to space and he's also not subject to circumstances and therefore he has a freedom of movement this way, that way, the other way, up and down, and God is not stopped by walls and the infrastructure we set up around ourselves, especially when we want to be distant and difficult and when we don't want God to come and get involved in our lives. 00:07:56.694 --> 00:08:02.692 Let me say this God is sovereign and his call is sovereign. 00:08:02.692 --> 00:08:06.363 This Macedonian call is a sovereign call. 00:08:06.363 --> 00:08:26.000 It's coming from God who is absolute, god who is all able, god who is not limited and God who cannot be confined, and therefore he comes over to this man called Paul and his team and he sovereignly engages them. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:54.285 And as I was reading, I'm sure you are here in several areas, either of divine trespass or divine realignment, because most of us are where we want to be and not where God wants us to be, and therefore our encounter and engagement of God has this tendency of realigning us, realigning us to the center of the wheel and the purpose of God to bring us to the place where God desires. 00:08:54.285 --> 00:09:08.980 And that is why, when you engage God, there is always this churning and this movement and sometimes a sense of restlessness, because God is moving me from where I want to be to the place where he wants me to be. 00:09:08.980 --> 00:09:18.980 And so in those first few verses that I've just read, you are seeing God engaging man and trying to pull God man to the center of his wheel and his purpose. 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:21.443 And he does that as God. 00:09:21.443 --> 00:09:23.166 He is sovereign. 00:09:23.667 --> 00:09:42.000 And there are two ways, as you can see there in the envisioning, whereby there is a man from Macedonia in a vision and it's at night, and Paul sees a man from Macedonia and he's kind of desperate and he's saying come, help us. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:47.153 That picture and that image is so stirring, it's so engaging. 00:09:47.153 --> 00:09:50.000 Paul cannot remove his eyes and his mind and his heart from it. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.807 It completely consumes it. 00:09:52.807 --> 00:09:55.273 And you know the vision. 00:09:55.273 --> 00:09:57.980 He's saying come help us, come help us. 00:09:57.980 --> 00:10:03.875 And I know in the neighborhoods where we live there are many things that are inviting us. 00:10:03.875 --> 00:10:12.171 And that's how the Macedonian call is a universal call, it's a present call, it's a call around us, when we are sleeping and when we are waking. 00:10:12.171 --> 00:10:13.913 And that's why I said God can trust us. 00:10:13.913 --> 00:10:20.432 You find something that needs to be fixed and something that needs to be done and it invites you in terms of engagement. 00:10:20.432 --> 00:10:41.000 And so Paul is there and God is there, and God is engaging this man, and that's why I say today let us give God free will and free cause to deal with us as he so desires, and so that image comes up and he cannot but engage and connect with it. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:50.955 They're in a place called Trails Look, dr Lukas just joined them and by this vision, there is a clear call and there is a clear invitation. 00:10:50.955 --> 00:10:54.745 Let me say, when God is leading, it becomes very clear. 00:10:55.187 --> 00:11:01.763 The second aspect of sovereignty is that God opens and shuts doors One way God leads us. 00:11:01.763 --> 00:11:18.782 Another way God leads us, apart from the images and the envisioning, is that there is a systematic way of opening and shutting doors and you may be going in one direction and that door shuts and some people stay there for a very long time, long time, and you may be here. 00:11:18.782 --> 00:11:25.000 You have been operating at a shut door for the last 10 years or the last five years, and you have stuck there for a long time. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:49.000 May this summon us today, encourage you, to shift your focus in a different direction or to go on a retreat outside the hustle and bustle of the city, go to a prayer center in a particular place and just be there alone with God and just talk about doors that are shutting and opening, and God, in his own sovereign way, does shut doors. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:53.366 And you keep trying to go in that direction and it doesn't work. 00:11:53.366 --> 00:12:08.183 Maybe it's a business idea, maybe it's a career direction, whatever it is, and you stuck there for a very long time and God is saying today to you my son and my daughter, I will bring you to my papa's and to my will. 00:12:08.183 --> 00:12:16.135 Just become gentle and soft to me and Listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and I will show you the door. 00:12:16.845 --> 00:12:23.945 Revelation 3, verse 7 and 8, talks about this idea of doors to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. 00:12:23.945 --> 00:12:31.154 Right, these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David, and that's a very important key. 00:12:31.154 --> 00:12:34.836 It's a master key, is a key that belongs to one and only the king. 00:12:34.836 --> 00:12:37.205 Are the king and the king of kings and a lot of lords. 00:12:37.205 --> 00:12:43.275 What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. 00:12:43.777 --> 00:13:04.671 And the scriptures go on God calls and he calls sovereignty, and people who are in rebellion will find themselves in spaces, either where there are closed doors, or in spaces when they saw a vision or a dream and God was leading in a very clear way, but they put it in a back burner, you know. 00:13:04.671 --> 00:13:08.979 And after that they leave a life of not and not fulfill. 00:13:08.979 --> 00:13:11.817 Because there is a call that's obvious. 00:13:11.817 --> 00:13:18.017 There's a call that is in your life, but for some reason God has tried everything he can and you have not followed it. 00:13:18.017 --> 00:13:20.934 It is possible to know God's will and know it well. 00:13:20.934 --> 00:13:23.696 God reveals himself through the Holy Spirit. 00:13:23.696 --> 00:13:25.725 He reveals himself through his word. 00:13:25.725 --> 00:13:29.032 He reveals himself through circumstantial providence. 00:13:29.032 --> 00:13:31.878 He reveals himself through godly cancel. 00:13:31.878 --> 00:13:43.866 You know people who are godly, and everywhere we go, a word will keep coming in your direction saying you are, of course you are, of course you are of course you need Realignment. 00:13:43.866 --> 00:13:55.371 And so I thank God for this call, the Macedonian call, because, because it reminds us about the sovereignty of God in the call is a Sovereign call. 00:13:56.186 --> 00:14:06.054 God's ways are not our ways, neither his thoughts are our thoughts, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are his ways, are above our ways, and he thought above our thoughts. 00:14:06.054 --> 00:14:09.424 That is is our 55 and verse 8 and 9. 00:14:09.424 --> 00:14:10.750 And because God. 00:14:10.750 --> 00:14:14.825 Therefore, his ways are not my ways and his thoughts are not my thoughts. 00:14:14.825 --> 00:14:19.784 I should grow into his ways and grow into his thoughts. 00:14:19.784 --> 00:14:21.331 It should not be the other way around. 00:14:21.331 --> 00:14:30.538 And so, on a daily basis, therefore, we find ourselves In a journey of trying to figure out how things are going to be, but I want to say God is there. 00:14:31.046 --> 00:14:38.827 May I speak to somebody here and say there is an open door for you and there is an open door that is Custom door. 00:14:38.827 --> 00:14:41.976 It is customized, is a customized door. 00:14:41.976 --> 00:14:46.428 When God created you, it was for a purpose, it was for a mission. 00:14:46.428 --> 00:14:50.077 You are not generic, you are not one in a crowd. 00:14:50.077 --> 00:14:56.097 God knows you by name, he knows every hair, he knows every toe, he knows your future. 00:14:56.097 --> 00:14:58.433 He understand everything about your situation. 00:14:58.433 --> 00:15:00.190 Why don't you turn to him? 00:15:00.190 --> 00:15:04.684 Because he's the one who knows where you need to be and there is an open door. 00:15:04.684 --> 00:15:08.264 There is an open door for every person, every person. 00:15:08.865 --> 00:15:16.648 There is an open door, and my prayer, through this sermon, is that you find that door and you walk through it in Jesus name. 00:15:16.648 --> 00:15:17.874 Is somebody connecting with me? 00:15:17.874 --> 00:15:20.125 May you find that door in the pavilion. 00:15:20.125 --> 00:15:23.359 There is somebody there and I'm saying there is a door, open door. 00:15:23.359 --> 00:15:24.644 You are watching online. 00:15:24.644 --> 00:15:26.634 There is an open door. 00:15:26.634 --> 00:15:28.544 I know it as a servant of God. 00:15:28.544 --> 00:15:33.085 That is not God's plan that anybody gets stuck and stays in a closed door. 00:15:33.085 --> 00:15:37.474 There is an open door and he who holds a key of David has opened it. 00:15:37.474 --> 00:15:39.258 The Apostle Paul finds it. 00:15:39.258 --> 00:15:41.311 He tries to go where he wants to go. 00:15:41.311 --> 00:15:45.373 The whole is two times Going to Azizia, maizia. 00:15:45.373 --> 00:15:47.539 The Holy Spirit just stops it. 00:15:47.539 --> 00:15:48.745 He tried the other way. 00:15:48.745 --> 00:15:50.812 The Holy Spirit stopped it. 00:15:50.812 --> 00:15:56.577 But the fact that this door is locked and that door is locked does not mean there is no open door. 00:15:56.577 --> 00:16:05.184 And Thank God, for people who are sensitive to God's leading, suddenly there is a vision and there is a voice and there is a clarity. 00:16:05.184 --> 00:16:09.465 He gets to trials, they get into a boat and then they are, they are gone. 00:16:09.465 --> 00:16:11.494 There is a door that is open. 00:16:11.494 --> 00:16:13.904 So don't stick at the door of somebody else. 00:16:13.904 --> 00:16:17.395 Don't leave out somebody else's dream or somebody else's vision. 00:16:17.395 --> 00:16:19.730 Understand the will of God for you. 00:16:19.730 --> 00:16:22.136 There is an open door. 00:16:22.136 --> 00:16:38.697 There is an open door for everyone, and God sovereignly and he will even trespass Into the mind to make sure this individual is able to see that open door. 00:16:38.764 --> 00:16:40.610 But secondly, a strategic call. 00:16:40.610 --> 00:16:47.893 Not only a sovereign call, but a strategic call, and this is a divine direction. 00:16:47.893 --> 00:16:49.898 We dealt with discretion first. 00:16:49.898 --> 00:17:07.530 A strategic call God wants every person to engage strategically and therefore the management of time, energy and resources For every individual must be maximized. 00:17:07.530 --> 00:17:26.184 That is really God's plan for every individual and therefore Every day must count, mondays must count, Tuesdays must count, wednesdays must count, thursdays and Friday and Saturday Sundays every day, every month, every year, for every individual. 00:17:26.184 --> 00:17:50.199 Not only is there an open door, there is a strategic Consumption for every individual and the resources and gifts that God has given you talents and gifts and resources, opportunities and platforms All of them need to be engaged and connected together In places where they must be optimized, and that is what is happening here. 00:17:50.882 --> 00:17:56.724 A strategic call God doesn't just call generic, he calls every person by name. 00:17:56.724 --> 00:18:12.134 But, second, he leads them in a place where they shall blossom, where they shall flourish, where they shall look at their outputs and be able to say thank you, god, I am fulfilled, I thank you and I bless you. 00:18:12.134 --> 00:18:18.625 God leads his people to places where, when they put minimum effort, there is maximum returns. 00:18:18.625 --> 00:18:27.067 It is not God's will that people just work so hard and then, at the end of the day, or they are getting a Droplets. 00:18:27.067 --> 00:18:30.096 God wants us to become rivers of living waters. 00:18:30.096 --> 00:18:37.113 John 7 38 out of you shall flow, reversal of living waters, not a struggle of droplets. 00:18:37.113 --> 00:18:41.192 And so you are very gifted, you are very talented. 00:18:41.192 --> 00:18:51.787 God has invested in us, every one of us, and God will lead us into that strategic platform where we shall fully be Fulfilled. 00:18:51.787 --> 00:19:03.733 And that's what's happening in verse 11 to verse 14, from trails we put out to see and sailed straight for some more thrace, some of these names, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 00:19:04.217 --> 00:19:05.565 From there we traveled to Philippi. 00:19:05.565 --> 00:19:14.817 I talked about this town and this Philip was the father of Alexander the Great, so this town is named after the father of Alexander the Great. 00:19:14.817 --> 00:19:18.833 It was a lot a Roman colony and the leading city key. 00:19:18.833 --> 00:19:26.053 This is strategic the leading city, that, the leading city of that district of Macedonia. 00:19:26.053 --> 00:19:27.395 And we stayed there. 00:19:27.395 --> 00:19:28.637 Remember I said this is Greece. 00:19:28.637 --> 00:19:31.130 On the sub-bath. 00:19:31.330 --> 00:19:41.179 When we went outside the city gate to the river, where they we expected to find a place of prayer, we sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 00:19:41.179 --> 00:19:47.345 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Theatera named Lydia Adela, in purple cloth. 00:19:47.345 --> 00:19:48.968 She was a worship of God. 00:19:48.968 --> 00:19:52.413 The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 00:19:52.413 --> 00:19:56.825 So there is, there is a strategic city for every individual. 00:19:56.825 --> 00:19:59.080 For Paul it's Philippi. 00:19:59.080 --> 00:20:13.603 And there is also a strategic partner For Paul is a woman called Lydia and she was an influential business woman from a town called Theatira and she was positioned by God strategically. 00:20:14.234 --> 00:20:21.237 And that city God made it strategic and Paul would have gone the wrong direction to Asia, my Asia. 00:20:21.237 --> 00:20:23.825 Worked so hard, get so little returns. 00:20:23.825 --> 00:20:31.884 But God leads him by a vision he must go to the strategic center and platform where he must thrive and where he will flourish. 00:20:31.884 --> 00:20:38.803 You know, by going to Philippi and by ministering there, then the gospel would come back to Asia. 00:20:38.803 --> 00:20:48.825 Hundreds of people will be sent from the strategic center and they will go and accomplish what Paul would have spent many years trying to do and eventually die and is buried. 00:20:48.825 --> 00:20:54.242 And they are giving a eulogy and they say a guy who worked so hard but got so much little coming back. 00:20:54.242 --> 00:20:57.564 So there is a Philippi for everyone. 00:20:57.564 --> 00:21:01.505 There is a strategic city that God wants you to get to. 00:21:01.505 --> 00:21:14.223 There is also a partner and a connector, a destiny builder, an influencer that God wants you to connect with, and this lady, she's in Philippi. 00:21:14.223 --> 00:21:17.400 How do you get to that Except by God's leading? 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:24.041 And that's why it is important to submit to God's will and to surrender to God's will. 00:21:25.075 --> 00:21:31.500 God, by His grace, has chosen us to be members of a strategic city called Nairobi. 00:21:31.500 --> 00:21:35.423 This city here we are staying in is a herb city. 00:21:35.423 --> 00:21:38.979 This is a herb city, and how do I know? 00:21:38.979 --> 00:21:44.361 Because nations are coming here, hallelujah, nations are coming here. 00:21:44.361 --> 00:21:49.566 Which other country has a United Nations center in Africa? 00:21:49.566 --> 00:21:51.540 Actually, I think there are only two in the world. 00:21:51.540 --> 00:21:53.599 Am I wrong? 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:53.881 Three? 00:21:53.881 --> 00:22:05.959 Maybe New York, geneva and probably Nairobi, where we have the yeah, rome, eh, italy as well. 00:22:05.959 --> 00:22:08.782 You can see, we are really among the people across Africa. 00:22:08.782 --> 00:22:11.301 We are the only one. 00:22:11.301 --> 00:22:12.914 Why don't you give a handclap to the Lord? 00:22:12.914 --> 00:22:18.467 Because of Kenya and God putting us in a strategic city. 00:22:18.467 --> 00:22:23.383 It's a hub of the nations and I'm seeing even more nations coming here. 00:22:24.095 --> 00:22:29.702 I thank God for this highway that has come from the airport, running on up to somewhere here James Geshiro. 00:22:29.702 --> 00:22:35.838 These days, you can come from the airport to James Geshiro in about 20 minutes, yeah, or maybe 25. 00:22:35.838 --> 00:22:39.919 For the first driver's 15 minutes, my brother's a sion. 00:22:39.919 --> 00:22:41.960 I know you're a fast driver. 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.122 Yeah, for the first driver, maybe 15 minutes. 00:22:45.122 --> 00:22:57.505 But God has laid the infrastructure within a strategic city, put a strategic people so that we can maximize on our impact. 00:22:57.505 --> 00:23:18.540 And I believe that Parklands Baptist Church, by our positioning, by the way, 10 acres of land in Westlands, here is a road, raptor Sports, another Saitoti, there roads, and if you look around, we have easily in the last 23 years become a hospitality center. 00:23:18.540 --> 00:23:25.403 When we came here 23 years ago, these tall buildings you see around here, this Ibes, is it called Ibes? 00:23:25.403 --> 00:23:29.782 There is another one, I say Parkin, and I think it belongs to Parklands Baptist Church. 00:23:29.782 --> 00:23:40.582 It's somewhere here, in Jesus' name, god is able to make it happen and our visitors will be sleeping there because the hotel will be ours, this one you're seeing here, parkin. 00:23:40.582 --> 00:23:43.942 There is Africa one, africa, right here. 00:23:43.942 --> 00:23:52.404 You just walk outside here and you look around 23 years ago, because we came here, year 2000,. 00:23:52.404 --> 00:23:55.403 None of these buildings was there. 00:23:56.415 --> 00:24:02.839 You look at the strategic position and God reminds us, even by this infrastructure around us, that you are meant for greatness. 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:06.820 There is something I want out of you and I want you to change the world. 00:24:06.820 --> 00:24:09.214 I really want you to change the world. 00:24:09.214 --> 00:24:12.798 Yes, we can give a hand to the Lord, change the world. 00:24:12.798 --> 00:24:35.898 So strategic positioning is a divine thing and I'm not here as a pastor by accident and therefore I understand my calling, I understand my responsibility as a leader and I must rise to the occasion and I must provide what is needed to grant that horizon view, you know, horizon view that is actually needed. 00:24:35.898 --> 00:24:41.481 But just by placing, just by the city, just by everything God has given us. 00:24:41.481 --> 00:25:06.721 There is a strategic placing concerning you and God wants you to maximize on everything that you have and therefore God must take Paul from wherever he was trying to go according to his plan and strategy, and cancel those strategies, place him in his strategy, divine strategy, and then bring him to Philippi, because that's where he must be, and then he meets this woman as he goes out of the gate. 00:25:06.721 --> 00:25:09.218 There's a prayer center there and they are praying. 00:25:09.218 --> 00:25:13.625 All of that, imagine, is sovereign leadership, is strategic leadership. 00:25:13.625 --> 00:25:17.325 God is a planner, god is a strategist. 00:25:17.325 --> 00:25:31.326 If you think God doesn't understand the elements of strategy, things like vision, things like mission, things like sort analysis, things like all these things we talk about, god understands them better than any human being. 00:25:31.326 --> 00:25:37.403 God is the best planner, the best strategist, and let me say this there is a strategy for your victory. 00:25:37.403 --> 00:25:38.898 Are you receiving this? 00:25:38.898 --> 00:25:40.619 Everyone of us here? 00:25:40.619 --> 00:25:47.039 No wonder you can say I'm modern, I conquer through Christ Jesus, our Lord, and you are meant for great output. 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:49.821 And so there is the strategy. 00:25:50.454 --> 00:25:59.523 When they needed fish the disciples in Luke, chapter five Jesus told these disciples launch into the deep, just throw your net there. 00:25:59.523 --> 00:26:09.922 It wasn't the right time, but when God of the marketplace and his name is Jesus says a marketplace word, why, who am I not to align with it? 00:26:09.922 --> 00:26:17.480 And although Peter struggled with the divine speaking, and God is saying I have the strategy, even on fishing matters fishing, can you imagine? 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:18.636 Matters, fish. 00:26:18.636 --> 00:26:20.584 And he says go back there. 00:26:20.584 --> 00:26:21.938 You had caught nothing. 00:26:21.938 --> 00:26:24.184 You tried to walk in your own strength. 00:26:24.184 --> 00:26:28.440 You caught nothing, but divine strategy will bring back the harvest. 00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:34.103 And so he goes in there, they throw the nets and they caught more fish than they ever caught. 00:26:34.103 --> 00:26:37.598 I see somebody catching more fish than you ever caught in life. 00:26:37.598 --> 00:26:43.284 In the name of Jesus Christ, because God has opened that door for each one of us. 00:26:43.284 --> 00:26:49.443 But God has released a strategy that will cost us to optimize with the skills and everything that we have. 00:26:49.443 --> 00:26:53.500 Let me say to the people of Africa this is our hour, hallelujah. 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:56.738 This is our time, this is our day. 00:26:56.738 --> 00:27:10.903 The Holy Spirit has been poured on this continent and God is speaking people from all over Africa and is positioning them in the places where they need to be, and God is going to do wonders with every one of us. 00:27:10.903 --> 00:27:12.840 Is somebody catching what I'm saying? 00:27:12.840 --> 00:27:15.923 Let's give God another hand, hallelujah. 00:27:18.661 --> 00:27:50.778 On Friday I was in Narok and I got through Narok town, went past Narok towards Masai Mara, into some remote space called Olalosua sounded like Lele-sua Olalosua and I was received very nicely and, by the way, when I went there, interesting enough that the people group there, because of the ministry out there, it was actually to appreciate the doctrine, and so I put the whole gown in the dusty and our grounds there. 00:27:50.778 --> 00:27:55.222 And with all these people coming and singing around, it was amazing. 00:27:55.222 --> 00:28:13.896 And as I was walking with this crowd in that place, my eyes, attention was drawn to the horizon because it's a big plane and then some hills in the backdrop and then I, within that, some cloud formation that was there and as we were walking to the tents where we were going to sit. 00:28:13.896 --> 00:28:20.726 I looked in that horizon and within me, those clouds and the horizon started speaking. 00:28:20.726 --> 00:28:29.944 I saw a picture and I saw the glory of God and I had God telling me I'm revealing my glory in a new way. 00:28:29.944 --> 00:28:53.042 And then it went on to say God, tell Parkland's Baptist Church on Sunday that I will reveal my glory through them and I, hallelujah, I will reveal my glory through them and I will take them in spaces where they'll be optimized and spaces they never, ever imagined. 00:28:53.042 --> 00:28:55.721 If somebody connecting with that I had. 00:28:55.721 --> 00:28:56.544 God tell me that. 00:28:56.544 --> 00:29:18.621 And so I'm telling you today, under the hot sun, under the elements, walking, but God envisioning me and he's showing me his glory and he's saying I am revealing it through Parkland's Baptist Church, this strategic church in Nairobi, in a strategic city, in a strategic season in time, with technology and everything that we have, and I'm going to reveal my glory. 00:29:19.035 --> 00:29:24.657 The young people of Africa in the first service I had a young man you remember those who were here who came up to here. 00:29:24.657 --> 00:29:29.182 He was sitting somewhere around here and I laid his hand as I was continuing with the sun. 00:29:29.182 --> 00:29:36.023 The young people of Africa, when you hear us say Arise and shine, I come back to you around here. 00:29:36.023 --> 00:29:42.324 Arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. 00:29:42.324 --> 00:29:49.622 Then in verse three, that's Isaiah 60, verse one, it says nations will come to your light and kings to the rising of your dawn. 00:29:49.622 --> 00:29:52.897 How many are connecting with that Glory to God? 00:29:52.897 --> 00:29:54.343 Let's give a big hand clap to Jesus. 00:29:57.261 --> 00:30:08.222 I have a very deep conviction about that and every day the last 20 years, 21, actually 22 years I've been praying for Nairobi and Kenya and Africa. 00:30:08.222 --> 00:30:18.578 My Monday, from morning till evening, is prayer, is a day of prayer, and I drive, I stop at population center, supermarkets, hospital, schools, anywhere. 00:30:18.578 --> 00:30:21.005 I stop and I pray. 00:30:21.005 --> 00:30:34.478 And as I pray regarding the city and it regarding the continent, every time I do that, I see the potential we have to make the difference worldwide. 00:30:34.478 --> 00:30:36.759 Let me say where we see your kiddo go. 00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:39.019 Can you say me, me, see your kiddo go? 00:30:39.019 --> 00:30:46.747 Let's say it again Never underestimate your capacity. 00:30:46.747 --> 00:30:49.020 All you need is a platform. 00:30:49.020 --> 00:31:04.875 God will strategically get you there and as I speak, if you pray in your heart, god get me to that very strategic place where I will maximize on me, on everything that I am Now. 00:31:04.915 --> 00:31:26.398 When I'm standing here, I'm addressing many people and when I was in Korogosho those days, I grew up in the slums and you know, god made it clear when I went to Uhuru Park one time, at the upside, where the government offices are, and you can see now Uhuru Park down there, uhuru Highway is there and then you see the city in the backdrop. 00:31:26.398 --> 00:31:34.462 While I was there, I saw the map of Africa come upon, actually come upon Uhuru Park. 00:31:34.462 --> 00:31:37.642 And let me tell you, years later, god is amazing. 00:31:37.642 --> 00:31:49.719 That's why I insisted this map must be put here and I remember I was told no, when it is being washed it will be rubbed Capets maybe we should put capets, but thank God the map is here. 00:31:49.719 --> 00:31:59.000 I saw it on Uhuru Park and I heard the voice of God saying I give you Africa, I give you Africa. 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:00.137 I heard it. 00:32:00.137 --> 00:32:04.237 I heard the voice of God From the slums. 00:32:04.478 --> 00:32:06.262 Now I'm standing here maximizing. 00:32:06.262 --> 00:32:08.480 God has given you a platform. 00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:11.641 Hallelujah, let's give a hand to the Lord. 00:32:11.641 --> 00:32:12.439 It is possible. 00:32:12.439 --> 00:32:17.701 It is possible For a young man from the slums. 00:32:17.701 --> 00:32:19.121 It doesn't matter your background. 00:32:19.121 --> 00:32:20.720 Don't let that put you down. 00:32:21.234 --> 00:32:22.520 People have said many things about you. 00:32:22.520 --> 00:32:25.044 Don't allow it to affect the destiny that God has. 00:32:25.044 --> 00:32:26.140 It's a big destiny. 00:32:26.140 --> 00:32:30.781 Just simply obey and Paul followed the plan of God. 00:32:30.781 --> 00:32:36.227 So that strategy is something that is inside the call. 00:32:36.227 --> 00:32:39.163 So God doesn't just call. 00:32:39.163 --> 00:32:42.558 You know, some people think the only call is a call to salvation. 00:32:42.558 --> 00:32:50.184 Then when you're called to salvation, I'm OK, I'm home and dry, I can come sit in the pews and I can come watch the drama. 00:32:50.184 --> 00:32:53.864 But let me say that God has much more. 00:32:53.864 --> 00:32:57.018 The call is sovereign, it's from God. 00:32:57.018 --> 00:32:58.980 The call is strategic. 00:32:58.980 --> 00:33:04.518 God wants you to maximize on what you have Parkland Baptist Church, let me raise it, bring it home. 00:33:05.015 --> 00:33:07.383 Parkland Baptist Church and the leadership of this church. 00:33:07.383 --> 00:33:12.125 How are we maximizing on what God has given us? 00:33:12.125 --> 00:33:14.380 What kind of meetings do we have? 00:33:14.380 --> 00:33:16.179 Committee meetings, what do they discuss? 00:33:16.179 --> 00:33:18.819 How is it moving us forward? 00:33:18.819 --> 00:33:22.804 How is it aligning to the will and purpose of God? 00:33:23.355 --> 00:33:27.603 That is personal reflection as a leader, and I invite the other leaders also on board. 00:33:27.603 --> 00:33:29.339 Let us reflect. 00:33:29.339 --> 00:33:35.660 Are we where we should be or are we where God wants us to be? 00:33:35.660 --> 00:33:42.925 Rather, let me ask you different Are we where we want to be or we think we should be, or are we where God wants us to be? 00:33:42.925 --> 00:33:46.675 Congregation, what is your reflection on that? 00:33:46.675 --> 00:33:53.999 What would you say as God talks to you, would you say we are where God wants us to be, or are we where we want to be? 00:33:53.999 --> 00:33:55.883 I leave it as a question. 00:33:55.883 --> 00:33:57.867 I really leave it as a question. 00:33:57.867 --> 00:33:59.380 But God is a mobilizer. 00:33:59.380 --> 00:34:02.590 He'll give you a vision, he'll open and close doors. 00:34:02.590 --> 00:34:04.497 He must get you where he wants you to be. 00:34:04.876 --> 00:34:23.987 And Paul is now at Philippi a strategic lady and there is a ministry being released, and my prayer is this May God locate you in that strategic place where you will blossom and you will flourish and the best of you shall come out. 00:34:23.987 --> 00:34:27.755 Even street boys and girls have a future. 00:34:27.755 --> 00:34:31.902 Yes, street boys and girls. 00:34:31.902 --> 00:34:33.505 Daniel, would you stand? 00:34:33.505 --> 00:34:36.110 Just come up here. 00:34:36.110 --> 00:34:48.625 Daniel has a background in the streets, as I have called him, and you can see the weight lifter. 00:34:48.625 --> 00:34:53.476 Well, he's my son in the faith, and Daniel has come from the streets. 00:34:53.476 --> 00:34:57.887 Another day, maybe you'll give your chance to really share the story of your background. 00:34:57.887 --> 00:35:00.157 But can you see what the Lord has done? 00:35:00.157 --> 00:35:08.489 He looks handsome and he's looking good and I'm telling you he has a very powerful ministry as a Westgate, isn't it? 00:35:08.489 --> 00:35:10.818 Yes, and you're touching CEOs. 00:35:10.818 --> 00:35:12.521 Let's give another hand to the Lord. 00:35:13.043 --> 00:35:23.327 This is Daniel, and not only that you got married when 29th of July and I conducted the wedding. 00:35:23.327 --> 00:35:24.530 Where is your wife? 00:35:24.530 --> 00:35:25.992 Would you stand? 00:35:25.992 --> 00:35:27.115 Just stand up where you are. 00:35:27.115 --> 00:35:28.780 Let's give a hand to the Lord. 00:35:28.780 --> 00:35:30.125 Glory to God. 00:35:30.125 --> 00:35:33.172 Thank you, daniel. 00:35:33.172 --> 00:35:33.914 You may have just sit. 00:35:33.914 --> 00:35:40.349 Yes, thank you very much, but the narrative is changing. 00:35:40.349 --> 00:35:48.010 Hallelujah, and God is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, nudging you to that place where he wants you to be. 00:35:48.010 --> 00:35:50.858 And as God is doing it, don't resist God. 00:35:50.858 --> 00:35:56.452 Don't resist God, just simply allow him and he will get you there. 00:35:56.893 --> 00:36:00.981 There is a dream and I say, like Lupita Nyong'o, your dream is valid. 00:36:00.981 --> 00:36:02.684 It is valid. 00:36:02.684 --> 00:36:15.490 Joseph's dream was there, it was valid, and God, in the last days, is revealing himself through dreams, you know, through vision, through the prophetic dimension, and he has discretion and he's doing it. 00:36:15.490 --> 00:36:17.358 So God has been speaking to you. 00:36:17.358 --> 00:36:20.027 How far have you gone in terms of your response? 00:36:20.027 --> 00:36:35.708 But finally, in the it is of time I must finish talk about a significant call, a sovereign call, a strategic call, a significant call, just one verse in the book of Acts, chapter 16 and verse 15. 00:36:35.708 --> 00:36:36.369 What does he say? 00:36:37.233 --> 00:36:41.869 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. 00:36:41.869 --> 00:36:43.936 If you consider me a believer in the Lord. 00:36:43.936 --> 00:36:47.884 She said come and stay at my house and she persuaded us. 00:36:47.884 --> 00:36:56.525 The mission and the ministry of Paul settles in a homestead the life of a lady called Lydia. 00:36:56.525 --> 00:37:02.605 Like Lydia who is going to Rwanda God bless you and then her family. 00:37:02.605 --> 00:37:15.550 They give their lives to Christ and immediately they were baptized and then they made an invitation for this leadership now to make their home a church. 00:37:15.550 --> 00:37:27.989 So she grants her boat, she grants her life, she grants her everything and she's saying use this space for the glory of God so that this strategic mission may find its consummation. 00:37:28.695 --> 00:37:31.681 And you know what this was so key. 00:37:31.681 --> 00:37:40.606 You know the significance of this is that the church is now planted in Europe for the first time. 00:37:40.606 --> 00:37:51.976 The church is now planted in Europe for the first time, and the first church in Europe, the church at Philippi, was actually planted in the homestead of a lady. 00:37:51.976 --> 00:37:54.922 Her name is Lydia, a business woman. 00:37:54.922 --> 00:37:57.827 You know she gives her platform a business lady. 00:37:57.827 --> 00:38:00.744 And the church in Europe planted for the first time. 00:38:00.744 --> 00:38:05.760 Now look at it coming down the years From that church at Philippi. 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:29.940 They move on there's the Saloniica, there is Corinth, there's Athens, there is Berea, and they're leading the whole Macedonia circuit and from the strength they're getting from that church they're planting new churches and then, over time, europe, christendom, europe let me put it this way Europe becomes the center, the center of gravity of Christendom. 00:38:30.664 --> 00:38:34.077 And the missionary enterprise is actually accelerated from Europe. 00:38:34.077 --> 00:38:44.088 It began in Jerusalem, then went to Antioch, the next center, and then now it has gone to Philippi and from there it is thrust to the ends of the earth. 00:38:44.088 --> 00:38:53.581 You know, acts 1.8 says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, samaria and to the most part of the world. 00:38:53.581 --> 00:39:17.356 The Holy Spirit is the commander in chief of the missionary enterprise and he's propelling, you know, propelling his people to reach the farthest point, the farthest extremities of the world, and from a home state, a home state, the next thrust of the gospel is released, world changes Talk about a world changer like Lydia. 00:39:17.356 --> 00:39:29.315 From there we become beneficiaries because it goes to North America, south America and back on to Africa and even farther in Asia, and we have the global missionary enterprise. 00:39:29.315 --> 00:39:41.695 It all began in the house of a lady called Lydia and therefore this was significant in the sense that the first church in Europe is eventually founded because of this particular call. 00:39:41.695 --> 00:39:44.121 It is a significant call. 00:39:44.661 --> 00:39:51.784 I want to say this God has called you unto significance and therefore, what he wants you to start will thrive. 00:39:51.784 --> 00:39:53.389 It will also last. 00:39:53.389 --> 00:39:58.543 John 15, verse 16, says I have chosen you and ordained you. 00:39:58.543 --> 00:40:00.088 Let me just read from verse 15. 00:40:00.088 --> 00:40:01.331 You did not choose me. 00:40:01.331 --> 00:40:02.878 Go back to verse 15. 00:40:02.878 --> 00:40:06.291 You did not choose me, yeah, 15. 00:40:06.291 --> 00:40:08.298 Go back. 00:40:08.298 --> 00:40:14.416 Yes, I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. 00:40:14.416 --> 00:40:20.378 Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I've made known to you. 00:40:20.378 --> 00:40:35.262 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit Now listen to these words here Fruit that will last, and so that, whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you. 00:40:35.262 --> 00:40:52.559 May God lead you to a place where you shall do things that leave a legacy, that you shall do things that are of significance and things that will stand the test of time and I'm speaking across the boat, in your own platforms and where God has put you. 00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:55.509 May you rise to significance. 00:40:55.509 --> 00:41:00.742 Hallelujah, may you rise to that level that is called significance. 00:41:01.744 --> 00:41:12.268 The apostle Paul is immortalized by the letters he wrote, but also by the work he did, which eventually now spreads all over the world. 00:41:12.268 --> 00:41:24.085 And I want to say to us, as here at Parklands Baptist Church, let us constantly reflect on the things we do and align ourselves to the things God really wants us to do. 00:41:24.085 --> 00:41:30.166 And God is leading Parklands Baptist Church to do saturation, church planting. 00:41:30.166 --> 00:41:38.637 I know what I've said is a missiological statement, but God is leading us to do saturation, church planting. 00:41:38.637 --> 00:41:39.920 What I mean? 00:41:39.920 --> 00:41:42.144 Establish churches everywhere. 00:41:42.144 --> 00:41:44.155 Brother Georgie, you probably understand that. 00:41:44.155 --> 00:41:47.483 Establish churches everywhere. 00:41:47.483 --> 00:41:50.210 My daughter Lynn, yeah, establish what? 00:41:50.210 --> 00:41:52.454 Churches everywhere. 00:41:52.454 --> 00:41:54.018 I want to. 00:41:54.018 --> 00:41:55.179 I'm coming to a close now. 00:41:56.682 --> 00:42:06.898 You know, out of my prayers every Monday and I go around, god made it clear we shall take the city, we shall take the nation and we shall take Africa. 00:42:06.898 --> 00:42:10.507 Then I asked God how can this be done? 00:42:10.507 --> 00:42:18.048 And it was clear to me as I prayed establish small communities called house groups. 00:42:18.048 --> 00:42:24.746 In my prayer and I'm talking to a leadership now they become house churches, so the full ministry actually happens there. 00:42:24.746 --> 00:42:27.463 That is, that was a vision, actually house churches. 00:42:27.463 --> 00:42:33.822 But the intermediate step was house groups and we have them all over. 00:42:33.822 --> 00:42:34.523 Right now. 00:42:34.523 --> 00:42:37.096 I think we have about 300 or they're about all over. 00:42:37.096 --> 00:42:39.221 They are around small communities. 00:42:39.942 --> 00:42:43.277 And then the next word that came was take the gates. 00:42:43.277 --> 00:42:45.302