Speaker 1: I would like to bring us God's word, luke, chapter 15.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 15, from verse 11 to verse 24, is a very familiar passage, and I bring us this word under the title Open Door Grace Demonstrated or Open Door Grace Manifested Luke 15, verse 11 to 24.
Speaker 1: Now, it's always good to read God's word while standing, and in honor of God's word, I invite us to stand.
Speaker 1: Jesus continued.
Speaker 1: There was a man who had two sons.
Speaker 1: The younger one said to his father Father, give me my share of the estate.
Speaker 1: So he divided his property between them.
Speaker 1: Not long after that, the younger son got together.
Speaker 1: All he had set off for a distant country, and the Bible says there he squandered his wealth in wild living.
Speaker 1: After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need.
Speaker 1: So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
Speaker 1: He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Speaker 1: Now, verse 17,.
Speaker 1: When he came to his senses, he said how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?
Speaker 1: And here I am starving to death.
Speaker 1: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him father, I have sinned against heaven and I've also sinned against you.
Speaker 1: I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Speaker 1: Make me like one of your hired servants.
Speaker 1: So he got up and he went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.
Speaker 1: I want to say our heavenly father sees us and was filled with compassion for him.
Speaker 1: He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Speaker 1: The son said to him father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, quick.
Speaker 1: But the father said to his servants quick, bring the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, then bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Speaker 1: Let's have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again.
Speaker 1: He was lost and is found.
Speaker 1: So they began to do what To celebrate.
Speaker 1: Once again, father, I commit myself into your hands and also commit us into your hands.
Speaker 1: Speak to us in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the title is Open Door Grace Manifested, and there are three areas that I want us to consider Patient grace, pardoning grace and restoring grace, open Door Manifested.
Speaker 1: Let me start with patient grace.
Speaker 1: I'll go back to the Bible and read Luke, chapter 15, from verse 13.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living, distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
Speaker 1: After he had spent everything, there was a famine in that whole country and he began to be in need.
Speaker 1: So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to feed to his fields, to feed pigs.
Speaker 1: He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Speaker 1: When he came to his senses he said how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?
Speaker 1: And here I am and I'm starving to death.
Speaker 1: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
Speaker 1: Make me like one of your hired servants.
Speaker 1: Patient grace, awaiting father, awaiting father.
Speaker 1: Now, this grace called patience is one that is needed in families.
Speaker 1: It's a grace we need in the workplace.
Speaker 1: It's a grace we need in church.
Speaker 1: It's a grace we really need everywhere Patience, patient grace.
Speaker 1: And I thank God that in this passage we have a father who manifests this grace.
Speaker 1: It is possible for a grace to manifest, it is possible for a grace to express itself, and this is a very, very special grace, a very important grace that needs to happen in marriages and in relationships between husband and wife, between parents and children, within the work kind of space.
Speaker 1: It's something we can pray for and about today and we say Father, release an impartation of patient grace upon my life.
Speaker 1: It is a grace that we pick from this Father who has truly been offended by his son, but he chooses to be patient.
Speaker 1: But it is not empty patience.
Speaker 1: It is patience with expectation, because he is praying, he is trusting, he is believing that his son will come back.
Speaker 1: And let me suggest to us that our Heavenly Father's kind of grace is the grace I've just quoted here.
Speaker 1: Our Heavenly Father is full of patience and we are beneficiaries of the grace that flows from the fountain or the heart of our Heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: And I thank God for his patience.
Speaker 1: Because if our Heavenly Father wasn't patient, the kind of things that would happen around if he operated from the premise of anger, you know, or impatience, the kind of things that would happen around would just be chaotic.
Speaker 1: There will be chaos all over.
Speaker 1: And so the reason why everything is happening and moving in order the earth is moving around its axis, the earth is moving around the sun, and there's so much that God is doing.
Speaker 1: He is out there graciously lavishing us with grace, but in a patient mode.
Speaker 1: In 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 8 to 10.
Speaker 1: We just read some verses there 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 8 to 10.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, but do not forget this one thing, dear friends With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
Speaker 1: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness.
Speaker 1: Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish.
Speaker 1: He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Speaker 1: And so this father in the text is patient and he's also expecting that his son will come back.
Speaker 1: Now, remember that the son is a younger son and this son has asked impatiently actually for his inheritance because it was going to be his anyway.
Speaker 1: But he is impatient.
Speaker 1: He contrasts his father who is patient.
Speaker 1: He's a very impatient son and sometimes we have a generation of young people who want things in the here and now, and I mean they are on that kind of path and many of them, because of wanting the things in the here and now, end up tripping.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 1: You trip yourself in life because you're really really trying to carry to whatever end.
Speaker 1: That is this young man, the opposite of his father.
Speaker 1: You can imagine him in front of his father saying give me my inheritance.
Speaker 1: Just imagine, probably, how that discussion was.
Speaker 1: Maybe not one day, not two days, but this young man keeps coming and the father says okay, you can have it.
Speaker 1: According to the laws of the time, the firstborn, if there are two sons, got two-thirds of the inheritance and the other one got a third, and so he got a third of the inheritance and you can imagine what the father goes through and I thank God for patient fathers who will not be quick to speak.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 1: The Bible says be quick to hear, you know, and slow to speak and slow to anger, because the anger of man does not work.
Speaker 1: The righteousness of God and I thank God for this father who is exuding patient grace, even in the face of provocation by his own son and this is a younger son, not even the senior one, and he's given the portion of his inheritance, which is like a third, so he goes everywhere, piece of land, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: A third, a third, a third.
Speaker 1: He must have converted this inheritance into cash or into a format that he could easily carry.
Speaker 1: If it was in today's terms, he would have had several cards you know several cards a bank and cards so that he's able to travel easily.
Speaker 1: And therefore this young man makes a choice to walk away from parental authority, from the safe place called home, and he decides to go far into a far country and lodges himself in some place.
Speaker 1: Now, the father is special and I thank God for awaiting father who will not curse his son, because the easier thing would have been yes, give me his inheritance, but add something on top of it, and he say this thing shall destroy you.
Speaker 1: He never cursed the son and today, probably, there are some people here who have been cast by father figures, and today we are breaking those castles in the name of Jesus Christ, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: A patient father and the grace that is expressed is called patience.
Speaker 1: And so the father, the son, goes and begins to waste his life and enters what is called prodigality.
Speaker 1: He was wasteful, he was reckless, he was extravagant.
Speaker 1: In fact, that word prodigo means one who leaves home to lead a useless, imprudent life.
Speaker 1: He leaves home, the comfort of home, to live a useless, imprudent life.
Speaker 1: God has invested in each one of us and God has blessed us with so many gifts.
Speaker 1: You carry an inheritance and I wonder how you are using it, how you are utilizing the strength you have.
Speaker 1: You know the eyes God has given you, the hands, the feet, the resources we are all, all gifted and we carry.
Speaker 1: We have God's, the Father's, inheritance upon every one of us.
Speaker 1: But this Father waiting, expecting and hoping the Son will come back, may we today pray for this kind of grace.
Speaker 1: I am calling it patient grace, patient grace and God is able to give it to us.
Speaker 1: There are some people who have done grievous harm out of impatience, out of anger.
Speaker 1: In the first service I shared a story of this couple that end up in my house at 3 am in the morning and this gentleman has beaten his wife so badly she's bleeding and, as I welcomed them, I wondered why they didn't go to hospital first, or a police station, and they choose to come to a pastor's house.
Speaker 1: But nevertheless, we spent time together.
Speaker 1: And this gentleman tells me pastor, I'm so sorry, I didn't know I would ever do something like this, but I have anger, I have residue anger, and this is anger that has been passed on through generations and therefore, like they say, I have a short fuse and so when things like this happen, I snap.
Speaker 1: And so something happened, an altercation between him and his wife, and out of the blues, he just did what he never thought he could ever do.
Speaker 1: And I'm praying today that God gives us this grace.
Speaker 1: I'm calling patient grace.
Speaker 1: Our God is able and we can pray for impartation.
Speaker 1: Thank God, he intervened in that case and today they are doing well, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Some people have yes, you can give a hand to the Lord, let's just give a hand.
Speaker 1: There are people who have slapped their sons and daughters, you know, in a fit of rage, or they have done.
Speaker 1: I have another case where this lady went to the safe, took a gun and the husband was sleeping.
Speaker 1: It's a real case, by the way.
Speaker 1: Husband was sleeping and she cocked the gun and said man, you got to confess a number of things today.
Speaker 1: I want you to kneel here and tell me one, two, three, four.
Speaker 1: Anyway, the story also ends well.
Speaker 1: I got involved in the case.
Speaker 1: Let me not tell you the details.
Speaker 1: But impatience, you know, esau lost his birthright to Jacob just because he was impatient.
Speaker 1: He was hungry, needed a meal, needed it now.
Speaker 1: And you know, jacob says then give me your birthright.
Speaker 1: If I give you this meal, this soup, I want your birthright.
Speaker 1: And there are many people losing, including their birthright, apart from their children, their marriages, their own health, you know, and many other things, losing a whole company, a whole investment, just simply because the grace of patience has not been functioning.
Speaker 1: And so today we can pray, learning from this father that it is possible to wait and trust.
Speaker 1: Now, patience requires that you trust God, release that matter in God's hand and believe God will sort it out.
Speaker 1: Then sit and wait for what God is about to do.
Speaker 1: And you know, this patience here is not a grace you can manufacture.
Speaker 1: It's a grace that comes from God.
Speaker 1: In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is Galatians 5.22,.
Speaker 1: What does it say?
Speaker 1: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, compassion, self-forbearance, kindness, goodness, gentleness, long-suffering, self-control.
Speaker 1: And so it is not a human thing, this is a gift from God, and if you're here and you've been struggling with impatience and you don't have this grace, today is a good chance as this preacher is preaching for you to say God, I want to receive the impartation of this kind of grace.
Speaker 1: We need it because you plant a seed.
Speaker 1: You must wait for it to grow, to reach harvest.
Speaker 1: Don't start harvesting things when they are not ready or eating food when it's not cooked.
Speaker 1: I remember growing under my grandmother and she cooked kitheri almost every other day.
Speaker 1: I mean and we are many, so we would eat all of it A big pot, three stones, and you have to put firewood from every side and keep the discipline of keep the fire going, and then, of course, the food cooks to some extent, starts boiling, and as soon as grandma gets out, we get that traditional spoon.
Speaker 1: What do you call it?
Speaker 1: Keihori?
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called in English, it's like a calabash or something like that.
Speaker 1: So you go in there, you dip your boots up and you run, you hide and you start eating food, maize and beans that are not ready.
Speaker 1: I am telling you that night the story in the beds.
Speaker 1: You understand what I mean.
Speaker 1: Just because you treated yourself to something that wasn't ready.
Speaker 1: God is working out something good for you.
Speaker 1: He says in Jeremiah 29, verse 11, I know the plans I have for you.
Speaker 1: There are plans for good and not for evil.
Speaker 1: To give you what?
Speaker 1: A future and a hope.
Speaker 1: Don't run to plan B or plan C, don't shortcut God.
Speaker 1: And I thank God for this father who does the full cycle of patience.
Speaker 1: Therefore, he must harvest the harvest of patient grace, awaiting father.
Speaker 1: But secondly, pardoning grace, a forgiving father, pardoning grace.
Speaker 1: These are the other grace we can pray for today.
Speaker 1: Pardoning grace, a forgiving father.
Speaker 1: In chapter 15, verse 20, verse 21,.
Speaker 1: What does the Bible say?
Speaker 1: So he got up.
Speaker 1: So he got up, that's the father Went to his father.
Speaker 1: Sorry, the son got up.
Speaker 1: That's the father Went to his father.
Speaker 1: Sorry, the son got up, went to his father.
Speaker 1: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
Speaker 1: He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Speaker 1: Pardoning grace yes, five things the father does.
Speaker 1: It says he saw him, was filled with compassion, ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Speaker 1: Five is a number of grace, and this is the nature of pardoning grace.
Speaker 1: That's the way it manifests the father takes initiative, the son has offended him and the father has been waiting.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the pain that the father carried over the years and he was justified to do anything he would want to do.
Speaker 1: But instead, pardoning grace gets the better of the moment and I pray that pardoning grace for somebody gets the better of the moment.
Speaker 1: A week and a half ago I got this man come over to my office and he said pastor, I am so angry and I'm going to do something bad Now.
Speaker 1: He gave me the story and I found that the story was really tight and it's like even me if I was in his shoes.
Speaker 1: It's like this story of this guy who went up these big railway bridges, the steel ones, and he wanted to drop himself to death from up that rail.
Speaker 1: But there was a road running Just parallel to that rail bridge and somebody comes driving and sees somebody wants to drop themselves from up there and he says, oh, I can be a savior to this guy.
Speaker 1: And so he stops, the guy Gets out and he's shouting Please, don't kill yourself, don't drop yourself.
Speaker 1: So the guy up there said I will not kill myself, on condition that you actually come up here and I tell you what my problem is.
Speaker 1: And so he walks and goes up there and he listens to the story.
Speaker 1: The drama is the next thing we see is that the one who went up ends up jumping Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Some of these problems can be so heavy that you end up jumping up, ends up jumping Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Some of these problems can be so heavy that you end up jumping when you are told the story and I thought, hey, that is really tight.
Speaker 1: But then the Lord reminded me that pardoning grace is available and pardoning grace can be given.
Speaker 1: And so I prayed with him and by the time he left my office he said God has touched my heart.
Speaker 1: Instead of going with a sword, a knife, I am going now with compassion.
Speaker 1: I have put off the clothing of anger and pain and, instead of being ruled by the spirit called anger, compassion now rules me and I will go find that particular, the same way this father is doing here, and, instead of destroying that person, I will embrace them.
Speaker 1: And you know, and I thank God for that turnaround when I was growing up I had an issue with my father, and high school early high school part of my dream was to kill him one day.
Speaker 1: And so I was growing up, I was going to kill him.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was my vision, that was my dream, and I was full of anger.
Speaker 1: The reason is because of the way he treated my mother and the reason is I think I've told the story here one day he cut my mother's finger in my presence and blood just gushed up and something got into me and from that time I felt, one of these days I'm going to sort this out for my mother, avenge her and revenge.
Speaker 1: But I thank God for pardoning grace, because when I was in high school, form two, I met Jesus, hallelujah, and I came to the cross, and the cross is a symbol of open arms.
Speaker 1: One hand of Jesus was this way.
Speaker 1: One hand of Jesus was, on the other way, nailed to the cross, as if saying to the nations come.
Speaker 1: You know, I came to the cross and I received forgiveness.
Speaker 1: You know the Bible says before you remove the log in your, the splinter in your brother's eye, do what?
Speaker 1: Remove the log in your eye.
Speaker 1: And then there's a story of the adulterous woman in John, chapter 8.
Speaker 1: Jesus said let him who has no sin throw the first stone.
Speaker 1: And I realized I needed forgiveness more than my father.
Speaker 1: And at the cross I asked that Jesus forgive me and cleanse me, you know, of every sin and every anger, every bitterness and every resentment.
Speaker 1: And there at the cross and we shall be singing that song in just a moment at the cross, at the cross, and there at the cross, my sin rolled away and Jesus made me a new creation, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: He gave me a new beginning.
Speaker 1: And you know, in later years now, he gave me compassion, the compassion that is in this father.
Speaker 1: In later years I look for my father.
Speaker 1: I had bought a suit at Luthuli Avenue shirt, tie, everything, wherever I found him and then I entered and he was scared, of course, and I came with a suit in front of me.
Speaker 1: My dad stood up.
Speaker 1: I said this is yours.
Speaker 1: And for the first time he said you are my son.
Speaker 1: Because he always said I wasn't his son.
Speaker 1: See, I'm named after my mother's father, and he didn't like my mother's father.
Speaker 1: He didn't pay all the dowry, and so he had that kind of anger and I gave him the suit and he said you're my son and then my dad.
Speaker 1: He said for the first time, I love you.
Speaker 1: And we ended up in this kind of embrace Hallelujah, it is possible, it is doable, through pardoning grace, and this grace comes from God, and especially when you come to the cross and you realize you are a sinner yourself and you need forgiveness.
Speaker 1: And this grace can flow through you to somebody else.
Speaker 1: And I tell you, the reconciliation with my dad was sweet.
Speaker 1: I told the first service when eventually, I saw the casket going down when he passed on, in my heart there was a sense of gratitude that we had been reconciled.
Speaker 1: You know, before he actually passed away, we can give a hand to the Lord.
Speaker 1: These things are possible in the land of the living and therefore a forgiving father, and I pray for fathers today.
Speaker 1: I'm a father too and I know that parenting is never easy.
Speaker 1: I know the challenges that fathers face, but you can imagine what our heavenly father too, and I know that parenting is never easy.
Speaker 1: I know the challenges that fathers face, but you can imagine what our heavenly father faces because he's a father to all of us.
Speaker 1: But God is also very close to fathers and as you face that challenge and you work with those family members and in those scenarios and situations that you are in, remember God is with you and remember there's something called pardoning grace.
Speaker 1: If there is something expected of fathers, it is pardon.
Speaker 1: Exercise your pardon authority and exercise it again and again.
Speaker 1: Release people through that authority, set them free through that authority.
Speaker 1: That is how you grow in stature, in authority, in influence, in respect, through the path of forgiveness.
Speaker 1: As you release people, the Lord elevates you.
Speaker 1: You become truly what is called a father figure.
Speaker 1: That word father figure carries pardon and it's somebody who has to forgive and forgive and forgive.
Speaker 1: And that is how our heavenly father is our father figure, all of us, because through his son, jesus Christ, he extended the center of forgiveness, as Jesus went to the cross and then he died and he paid the price for my sins.
Speaker 1: So God embraces me and I thank God for that embrace.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how the embrace of pardon feels?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how the kiss like here, the kiss of pardon, feels?
Speaker 1: The boy has really offended the father, but the father is untying him from the offense.
Speaker 1: He's actually untying him Because, you know, sin is like a rope Sin keeps going around a person.
Speaker 1: It can tie you everywhere, from down there and you end up looking like a mummy.
Speaker 1: Do you know those mummies, the Egyptian mummies, and the way they were put in those, whatever house?
Speaker 1: And you end up like that To the extent you can't operate.
Speaker 1: This boy had gone the lowest it can ever go.
Speaker 1: Anyone can ever go.
Speaker 1: He took the money, went and wasted it, became reckless, he squandered it and if, as if, there was a conspiracy nature also there is famine.
Speaker 1: He's so hungry he has gone all the way down.
Speaker 1: He's even desiring to eat the pods that the pigs were actually eating.
Speaker 1: He has gone that low.
Speaker 1: It is, pastor Keniti, like the story, the Roman road, how you find Romans chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, I mean 1, 2, 3, is a down one road.
Speaker 1: It's like somebody just sliding to the lowest he can ever get.
Speaker 1: And the lowest you go in the book of Romans is Romans 3.23.
Speaker 1: You know Romans 3.23.
Speaker 1: It says all have sinned, isn't it?
Speaker 1: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and fallen very far.
Speaker 1: So Romans 1, 2, 3, turning point at number 23,.
Speaker 1: It's a downward slide.
Speaker 1: In Romans chapter 1, you see all kinds of sins, some of them.
Speaker 1: All kinds of morality is there, but just going, and this guy tried everything.
Speaker 1: He was there wasting himself away, started probably getting Airbnbs wherever he could and he goes for parties from this party to that party, having all these kinds of friends, and eventually his account went down and down.
Speaker 1: He finished everything Now.
Speaker 1: He was hungry, he was almost dying.
Speaker 1: He had gone down.
Speaker 1: His clothes are torn, everything is gone.
Speaker 1: Can you see that picture?
Speaker 1: And there's a waiting father.
Speaker 1: There is also a father who is ready to pardon.
Speaker 1: He is almost looking different now because he's down there alone, deserted.
Speaker 1: But thank God he came to his senses and we pray that somebody comes to their senses.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, somebody going the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: Come to their senses.
Speaker 1: How do you describe repentance direction?
Speaker 1: Come to their senses.
Speaker 1: How do you describe repentance?
Speaker 1: Repentance is a consciousness of sin.
Speaker 1: You come to an awareness.
Speaker 1: You begin to see around yourself and you see where you are.
Speaker 1: Then you realize that is not home.
Speaker 1: You suddenly realize I am here.
Speaker 1: I was never meant to be here.
Speaker 1: How did I get here?
Speaker 1: And so he comes to his senses.
Speaker 1: He kind of like wakes up from sleep and see these are pigs, this is pig food.
Speaker 1: Look at me, look at my scenario, what is going on?
Speaker 1: And he just did not stop at awareness.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 1: Repentance, does something.
Speaker 1: It is a turnaround.
Speaker 1: He has to go back home.
Speaker 1: Same journey, now the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: And he determined in himself that he has to do a confession to his father.
Speaker 1: And you know he has to return home Now.
Speaker 1: Confession psalms I have no time to read them Psalm 32, psalm 51.
Speaker 1: They are called penitential psalms and these are psalms of confession, of asking for forgiveness.
Speaker 1: They are in first person and you blame no one.
Speaker 1: I, he says, I have sinned against my father and I've sinned against God and therefore, you know I will get out of here.
Speaker 1: This is not my destiny, this is not my place anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm in a garbage pit, as it were, and I must find my way back home.
Speaker 1: And you know what?
Speaker 1: He starts his journey and while he's far off, this waiting father sees him and pardoning grace begins to flow.
Speaker 1: I want to say, at the cross and through the blood of Jesus, pardoning grace flows like a river.
Speaker 1: And you know it begins to flow and this young man must dip himself, he must be baptized inside this pardoning grace and that is called the embrace of the father.
Speaker 1: And so he sees him from very far and he says that's my son.
Speaker 1: He can figure out somehow, maybe the walking style or something, and he runs and he connects with the son and I am telling you, a forgiveness transaction actually happened there.
Speaker 1: And when we come to the cross, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Speaker 1: The old is gone, behold, the new has come.
Speaker 1: No one else can ever give you that.
Speaker 1: Money cannot, travel cannot, tourism cannot, anything else you try to do.
Speaker 1: Status entitles cannot grant you pardon.
Speaker 1: It comes through the blood of Jesus and so the father has authority to exercise pardon.
Speaker 1: And although this son has sinned seriously, there is no sin God cannot forgive.
Speaker 1: I want to repeat that there is no sin.
Speaker 1: God cannot forgive.
Speaker 1: Psalm 103, verse 12, says as far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions.
Speaker 1: You know God has taken that away.
Speaker 1: You know it says Jesus took my burdens, my sins, and rolled them to the sea.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 31, verse 34 says the last part, jeremiah 31, verse 34.
Speaker 1: God forgives our sins and he remembers no more.
Speaker 1: This is amazing.
Speaker 1: I want you to know people who suffer guilt and you go back fishing.
Speaker 1: You know when you come and you confess.
Speaker 1: From God's sight.
Speaker 1: It is sorted out, kabisa, and God forgives.
Speaker 1: So the word guilt is a human word, is a human experience, because guilt means I am forgiven, but I'm going back.
Speaker 1: I am going back to that sin to look at it, to begin to describe it, to feel sorry.
Speaker 1: But you know, when you come to the cross and the Father exercises the power of pardon and he forgives you, the record I have from the Bible is that he clears that scene completely.
Speaker 1: He forgets, and I pray for someone here who has been struggling with guilt for a long time.
Speaker 1: I want you to know you are forgiven, one of the discipleship lessons.
Speaker 1: We call it assurance of forgiveness.
Speaker 1: You know that you are forgiven and that sin.
Speaker 1: There is no record up there.
Speaker 1: Some people might remind you, some friends might remind you here, but up there there is no record.
Speaker 1: The apostle Paul was even a murderer.
Speaker 1: God forgave the apostle Paul and gave him a bigger sign.
Speaker 1: God canceled his debt and his sin completely.
Speaker 1: Never to remember anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that song.
Speaker 1: Jesus took my burdens and rolled them to the sea.
Speaker 1: He rolled them to the sea.
Speaker 1: Jesus took my burdens and rolled them to the sea.
Speaker 1: Never to remember sea.
Speaker 1: He rolled them to the sea.
Speaker 1: Jesus took my burdens and rolled them to the sea, never to remember anymore.
Speaker 1: Now I am happy, happy as can be, happy as can be, happy as can be.
Speaker 1: Now I am happy, happy as can be, never to remember anymore.
Speaker 1: Let's give a hand clap to Jesus, our forgiving father, but finally, restoring grace, our celebrating father, verse 23 and 24.
Speaker 1: Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Speaker 1: Let's have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again.
Speaker 1: He was lost and is found.
Speaker 1: So they began to celebrate Restoring grace as celebrating father.
Speaker 1: You know, he went beyond just forgiveness, but he went to restoration.
Speaker 1: Not only will God, the father, forgive you, he will restore you.
Speaker 1: And I'm asking restoring grace upon somebody right now Are you receiving this grace In the name of Jesus?
Speaker 1: Are you receiving this grace, restoring grace?
Speaker 1: Somebody can say I've lost many years, but God is looking at it and saying don't worry, I'll sort it out.
Speaker 1: And so he has a wonderful reception and in this restoring grace, he's given a robe.
Speaker 1: God will give you a robe.
Speaker 1: This robe represents authority and honor.
Speaker 1: Restored to a position of sonship and honor, he's given a ring, you know, and that is a place to represent the father, given back authority and then sandals.
Speaker 1: That is for a free man or a free woman, elevated to the level of a free man, free woman, no longer a slave, no longer a slave.
Speaker 1: And that period of slavitude is broken by this celebration and this young man is now accepted, he is, he is back home, and there is a party, a cow is slaughtered and people come and they're very happy and the father is celebrating and he's saying this son of mine was lost, now he's found.
Speaker 1: And this son of mine was dead and now he is alive.
Speaker 1: God is able to raise the dead, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And God is able to find the ones that are lost.
Speaker 1: And if you're here, a father or a mother, and you have a child, and you feel like you have lost them, I'm declaring today, in the name of Jesus God is finding them where they are.
Speaker 1: God, the Holy Spirit, is bringing them to their senses, the Holy Spirit is turning them around and the Holy Spirit is bringing them back.
Speaker 1: God is able to do that, If I understand this passage well.
Speaker 1: God is able to do it and do it in a way that even neighbors will know.
Speaker 1: This son is back, this daughter is back because there's going to be a party In Malachi.
Speaker 1: As I close, chapter 4 and verse 6, malachi, chapter 4 and verse 6 is the last verse of the Old Testament, just before the New Testament begins.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible says he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents.
Speaker 1: I just want to read the first part, because it better happen, because if that doesn't happen, then tragedy strikes.
Speaker 1: The second part is about that tragedy, but it is saying he will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents.
Speaker 1: Now I want us to read this together loud enough.
Speaker 1: Let's just state it.
Speaker 1: It's a prophetic thing he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents.
Speaker 1: How many believe this?
Speaker 1: Reconciliation and healing, full restoration happening.
Speaker 1: And that son, that daughter who was wasted, now is standing here as a trophy of grace.
Speaker 1: What better trophy of grace do you need than somebody reconstructed that, somebody healed that, somebody saved that, somebody who was in the garbage pit retrieved from those pits and brought back home to be the husband they should be, to be the son they should be, to be the daughter they should be, or to be the wife or mother you know they should be.
Speaker 1: To be the son they should be, to be the daughter they should be, or to be the wife or mother you know they should be.
Speaker 1: What better trophy of grace.
Speaker 1: And so this story ends very well, and that's what open door grace manifesting can do.
Speaker 1: The father maintained an open door as he waited, as he pardoned and also as he restored, and the son knew, even when he was lost, I can still go back home, I can still go back to my father maintaining that open door, and today I want us to know that the door of grace is open, and this is a chance we have when the door is open.
Speaker 1: A time does come when that door closes and we have no opportunity, like it happened to the rich man and Lazarus, remember.
Speaker 1: They both died.
Speaker 1: One went to hell, the other one to the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man is in hell and he's thinking he can get a second chance to come back to planet Earth To try and tell people heaven and hell are real.
Speaker 1: There is heaven and there is hell, and you make your choice while you are here, whether you'll go to heaven or go to hell.
Speaker 1: But that window was closed and the rich man would not come back this way, would not come back this way.
Speaker 1: He had five brothers but was not given any chance to come back and tell them anything about this grace, and so I thank God for the opportunity we have.
Speaker 1: We call it open door grace, in other words, an open opportunity that we have before us, and with this kind of opportunity, we cannot afford to squander it.
Speaker 1: Our time is now to connect with this grace that is flowing in this river that the father has generated through his son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: The blood of Jesus is able to cleanse every sin.
Speaker 1: The blood of Jesus is able to restore.
Speaker 1: The blood of Jesus represents the compassion of God and the love of God.
Speaker 1: It represents everything God has done to be able to retrieve a wreck like me and bring me back to the place where I should be.
Speaker 1: You know, as I close, let me say you are here.
Speaker 1: I have shared about this grace.
Speaker 1: You know open door a grace, and I've shared three channels grace.
Speaker 1: You know open door grace, and I've shared three channels of manifestation the patience of the Father, the pardon of the Father and then the restoration of the Father.
Speaker 1: And you are here and you are listening to me.
Speaker 1: I want to say from this pulpit there is an offer of grace and if you have been far away, your time is come for you to come back home.
Speaker 1: And today you can come back home by receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: It's a very simple prayer.
Speaker 1: It's a prayer of faith where you say Lord Jesus, I realize I'm not where I'm supposed to be, I want to come back home.
Speaker 1: And when you pray this prayer, god's arms are like this God comes running, god embraces you, that hug of pardon and I'm telling you, he restores you, he begins to do a new work through your life.
Speaker 1: Today, if you're not born again, whether online, pavilion or even here today, you can receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you and I promise you that you shall enjoy the trappings of the family of God and God will walk with you and God will guide you One day.
Speaker 1: I gave my life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I was about 17 years old and I see many young people here.
Speaker 1: God bless you big time and I thank God that that decision.
Speaker 1: I've never regretted it Up to this day.
Speaker 1: You can also receive Jesus as Lord and Savior today.
Speaker 1: Or the second category is where you feel it is the graces.
Speaker 1: You need the grace of patience, you need the grace of pardon, you need the other grace of restoration, and you're saying, pastor, pray with me, because I'm praying for that kind of impartation upon my life.
Speaker 1: I want to be like that father who was waiting, that father who was forgiving, that father who was celebrating.
Speaker 1: And men who are here.
Speaker 1: Let me say I appreciate men.
Speaker 1: God bless every man who is in this service.
Speaker 1: God bless you big time.
Speaker 1: God bless you.
Speaker 1: Some of you are fathers already.
Speaker 1: Others are fathers by faith.
Speaker 1: May that be quickened.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: One of these days you'll sit on the seat of a father.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate the men.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the fathers by faith or in reality.
Speaker 1: And today I wanted us to blow a trumpet for fathers.
Speaker 1: Josh, are you near If he's around?
Speaker 1: Yes, he's here, and this shofar is celebrating this father in this text, but celebrating the replication of the sin.
Speaker 1: You know that same father among us, fathers of cities.
Speaker 1: In fact, we are short of role models in cities, in nations, but I'm talking about cities, nations, neighborhoods, father figures, I'm talking about father, father figures described by those graces, and they manifest those kind of graces, and so I'm really celebrating this father and also celebrating all of us.
Speaker 1: I'm also a father of a number of children, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: I was about to give the number and I realized I'm a father and a grandfather, by the way, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And so, as this shofar is being blown, we are saying fathers have a role.
Speaker 1: Fathers have a role in the city and in the homes, and fathers exercising their grace will cause sons and daughters to come back home, and that is our prayer.
Speaker 1: So this shofar will blow before we sing that song at the cross.
Speaker 1: And the blowing of this shofar is that celebration.
Speaker 1: And if you are a father in reality or a father by faith, you ought to be standing.
Speaker 1: You ought to be standing.
Speaker 1: If there's a father here, even online, in that sitting room, you're a father.
Speaker 1: Let's appreciate all these fathers, yes, these wonderful fathers.
Speaker 1: God bless you.
Speaker 1: Now, josh, we are going to blow three times.
Speaker 1: I just want it three times.
Speaker 1: And then, after those three times and the men, I'm standing, we are all standing.
Speaker 1: Others are standing on line.
Speaker 1: After we have blown the three times the men standing, the rest of the congregation we shall just take time to clap and appreciate this man.
Speaker 1: May the Holy Spirit come upon every man right now with an impartation of these graces I'm talking about In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know where your son is, go find him.
Speaker 1: After this, hallelujah, did you get me.
Speaker 1: If you don't know where your daughter is, go find her.
Speaker 1: That's the anointing coming through this shofar blowing.
Speaker 1: And so, josh, if we can go for it three times.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Men, the rest of the congregation, let's stand up.
Speaker 1: We join the men.
Speaker 1: Now, casina, we do two verses about the cross, then I'll be praying.
Speaker 2: I receive my sight, and now I am happy only At the cross, at the cross.
Speaker 2: At the cross when I first saw the light, and the burdens on my heart Threw, the weight Cause.
Speaker 2: It was there, my fear.
Speaker 2: I received my sight and now I am happy all the day let's close our eyes.
Speaker 1: You have listened to this preacher preach and say there is an offer of grace, this embracing grace, this restoring grace, this patient grace.
Speaker 1: There is an offer of grace, take it.
Speaker 1: The opportunity to take it is now, and I have shared that.
Speaker 1: The boy decided to come back.
Speaker 1: He came to his senses and the father met him halfway and there was a pardoning embrace.
Speaker 1: Today, this pardoning embrace is possible for somebody.
Speaker 1: If you're here, you've never received Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: This preacher gives you a chance to receive this embrace of God's grace and experience the pardon of the Father, which is complete and total and doesn't matter your background, just as you are, and there is nothing that God cannot sort out in terms of sin.
Speaker 1: And therefore, if you're here and you desire to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, I am giving you a chance to indicate downstairs and upstairs, also in the pavilion, and also online.
Speaker 1: I give you a chance to indicate that this is your decision to ask Jesus into your heart today, that you may be restored into this new family, the family of God.
Speaker 1: Would you indicate with just raising your hand and putting it down Downstairs, if you can raise your hand right now?
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, thank God for that hand.
Speaker 1: Another hand.
Speaker 1: Just raise it and put it down At the back, anybody.
Speaker 1: Yes, right at the back.
Speaker 1: I see that hand.
Speaker 1: Downstairs, downstairs.
Speaker 1: The opportunity is here of grace, upstairs, upstairs.
Speaker 1: Just put up your hand and put it down.
Speaker 1: I'll see it.
Speaker 1: Anyone Upstairs.
Speaker 1: I see that hand, my sister, any other hand.
Speaker 1: I see that hand, my sister.
Speaker 1: Another hand, another hand.
Speaker 1: Just put it up and put it down.
Speaker 1: God is here.
Speaker 1: The offer where there's another hand.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, I thank God.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's another hand right here.
Speaker 1: Another hand, another hand, another hand.
Speaker 1: I saw another hand.
Speaker 1: Was there another hand around here?
Speaker 1: Yes, that hand, I've seen it.
Speaker 1: Several hands, several hands, upstairs and also downstairs.
Speaker 1: Our leader in our prayer, pastor Keniti, is here.
Speaker 1: Pastor Edith is here.
Speaker 1: Pastor Regan we have the team right here After this service, where and Pastor Victor is upstairs there After this service, walk to one of us and say to them I have just prayed that prayer.
Speaker 1: I'm a new creation.
Speaker 1: You will walk to the pastors, even me.
Speaker 1: Jj is here, we are all here.
Speaker 1: Just walk to that pastor.
Speaker 1: Tell them today is my day.
Speaker 1: I have received the embrace of pardon.
Speaker 1: Let's close our eyes.
Speaker 1: My God, I thank you for the offer of grace and I thank you for the reception of the same.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lord, for those today who have received this embrace of burden and today they have said it is my day to be forgiven, to be saved and also to be restored.
Speaker 1: If you are one of those who raised your hand, or even you didn't, but now you want to join, you can join and pray this prayer in your heart and you say Lord Jesus, I see your love and compassion for me.
Speaker 1: You have been patient with me, you died on the cross for me, you shed your blood for the forgiveness of my sins.
Speaker 1: I appreciate what you did for me and now I make it mine by faith.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, wash away my sin, cut off the string and rope of sin that entangled me for many years and break me free.
Speaker 1: Set me free completely today, lord Jesus, wash away my sin and, lord Jesus, come into my heart, be the Lord of my life, be the king of my life.
Speaker 1: From today, I'm a new management and from today I will serve God.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, come upon my life and walk with me.
Speaker 1: Strengthen me and give me victory.
Speaker 1: Restore me, father, put on the robe, Put on the ring again, put on the shoes and prepare me for this great destiny ahead of me.
Speaker 1: If you have prayed that prayer with me, you are born again.
Speaker 1: I want you to know.
Speaker 1: You can see one of the pastors after this service.
Speaker 1: They are all in front.
Speaker 1: Pastor Victor is upstairs.
Speaker 1: We are all in front.
Speaker 1: You can see us.
Speaker 1: Please come over and say I have made that prayer and I've made that decision.
Speaker 1: Almighty God, I want to thank you so much for this service.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the passage and thank you so much for this service.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the passage and thank you for the graces I've just outlined.
Speaker 1: I pray for somebody who is praying and saying give me grace of patience.
Speaker 1: Somebody else, give me the grace of pardon, another one, give me restoration grace.
Speaker 1: You are here and you are praying that prayer.
Speaker 1: I decree and declare it's granted to you in the mighty name of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Now lift your hands to God.
Speaker 1: My God, these hands are lifted to you and I know you're extending your hands in our direction and you're doing so, lord, because you love us.
Speaker 1: My Father, there is a transaction that happens every time a man or a woman lifts their hands up to you.
Speaker 1: There is something you do.
Speaker 1: From the heaven side there is a transaction, my God.
Speaker 1: These hands are lifted up to you because we look up to you Psalm 121, I look up to the hills.
Speaker 1: Where does my help come from?
Speaker 1: My help does not come from the mountain, but the God who made the mountains.
Speaker 1: And so we lift our hands up to you.
Speaker 1: May now the transaction of blessing be released, taught completely into our lives and the life of our children and our families, and may this transaction of blessing cover Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, to the extent that next Sunday, my God, we shall come back with testimonies, not just one testimony, but testimonies, in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And therefore I want you to know, my brother and sister, that what you are carrying from here is a blessing that the devil cannot reverse, based on Numbers 23 and verse 20.
Speaker 1: Devil cannot reverse based on Numbers 23 and verse 20.
Speaker 1: That, no sorcery, no divination, nothing can happen in your life because you are blessed, and so this blessing will take care of you, hallelujah, to protect you.
Speaker 1: This blessing will open doors and therefore, father, I pray that this becomes a week of open doors.
Speaker 1: Make a way for somebody, make it easy for somebody, my God, move somebody to the next level, give them success at the interview tables and all places where they need success, projects and other things.
Speaker 1: My God, we are praying that we shall walk from victory to victory.
Speaker 1: May this become the best, one of the finest weeks of our lives, because we've prayed in the name of the Father, the Son and the holy spirit, and we all say let's give a mighty hand to jesus.
Speaker 1: Glory to god, glory to god, glory to god, glory to god, glory to god.
Speaker 1: You can tell somebody the grace and now.
Speaker 1: May the grace of our lord jesus christ, and the love of god and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore.
Speaker 1: Amen, surely, goodness, mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 1: Amen, shalom.
Speaker 1: Have a great week.