Speaker 1: You may have your seats.
Speaker 1: Can I hear you say what a day, what a day, what a week, what a week.
Speaker 1: What a church, what a church.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, you've not said that with conviction.
Speaker 1: What a church, what a church.
Speaker 1: What a city, what a city.
Speaker 1: What a season, what a season.
Speaker 1: Now, finally, can we say what a God.
Speaker 1: Can we give God a big round of applause?
Speaker 1: Amen From Paki, revival, week 1.0, 2.0, 3.0.
Speaker 1: Where has the Lord brought us 10 point?
Speaker 1: Does God deserve a bigger round of applause than that?
Speaker 1: Amen, amen, congratulations, congratulations.
Speaker 1: Parklands Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: Let me honor a spiritual father, pastor Amros.
Speaker 1: Let me honor you, sir.
Speaker 1: I have grown up and served under you.
Speaker 1: You received me with such grace, you gave me an open slate, you gave me full, full support.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: And when I launched out, you launched me out with your mantle of blessings.
Speaker 1: That's the mantle I continue to walk in and I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, pastor Simon.
Speaker 1: Your heart for Africa and your passion for the nations is contagious.
Speaker 1: I still honor that, I still respect that.
Speaker 1: We still carry that.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Both of these amazing men of God have poured into my life.
Speaker 1: They have truly affirmed me, they have supported me, they have shaped me, they have molded me.
Speaker 1: And today, pastor Ambrose and Pastor Simon, it's my highest honor to be standing here and ministering at Parklands Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I also honor all the pastors and the deacons that are here.
Speaker 1: Can we celebrate our leadership, the pastors and deacons?
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Let me, in a biased way, just celebrate Pastor Maxi.
Speaker 1: Can you allow me to just celebrate Pastor Maxi?
Speaker 1: This one I have to Pastor Maxi.
Speaker 1: Can you allow me to just celebrate Pastor Maxi?
Speaker 1: This one I have to Pastor Maxi.
Speaker 1: Let's celebrate the youth pastor of Nairobi.
Speaker 1: Let's give him a big round of applause.
Speaker 1: Thank you, pastor Maxi.
Speaker 1: Thank you for continuing the legacy of Parklands Baptist Church Now let me finish Of Parklands Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: Now let me finish Of Parklands Baptist Church being the home of the next generation.
Speaker 1: God bless you.
Speaker 1: Asante sana Paki.
Speaker 1: Thank you, paki, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Paki has a very special place in my heart and I am glad to be back home.
Speaker 1: I am glad to be back home.
Speaker 1: Yes, sinime Wamis Paki.
Speaker 1: I have missed the birthday celebrations.
Speaker 1: My wife and I were sitting there and thinking, oh man, we have missed this.
Speaker 1: I have missed the welcome song.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear it today, but I have missed it.
Speaker 1: I have missed the life-changing moments with young people at the Mugumo tree.
Speaker 1: If that Mugumo tree was to speak the secrets that it holds, buana Sifu Esana, it has truly, truly been an honor to be invited to Kampaki.
Speaker 1: We love you and we thank God for you.
Speaker 1: Now, before Nichome, let me introduce my wife.
Speaker 1: Okay, julia, if you could stand up, that's my wife, julia.
Speaker 1: She's here.
Speaker 1: We call her Jush because it's more romantic.
Speaker 1: I met her 28 years ago and, by God's grace, we've been married for the past 21 years.
Speaker 1: God has blessed us with two boys.
Speaker 1: They're seated right behind me, don and Dan.
Speaker 1: If you could stand, let's give them a big round of applause.
Speaker 1: Amazing, amazing guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you, don, thank you, dan.
Speaker 1: We love you.
Speaker 1: Asante ni sana.
Speaker 1: Now, if there's someone here who has identical twin beautiful girls, to kutane nyaya, tent after this Receive greetings from your brothers and sisters on Gong Road at Nairobi Chapel.
Speaker 1: Do you receive their prayers, their blessings?
Speaker 1: Please receive greetings from them.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Can I hear you say access granted.
Speaker 1: So tell your neighbor, go beyond.
Speaker 1: Now, if I don't give you a tell your neighbor or speak to your neighbor moment, you'll think I'm a fake pastor.
Speaker 1: Please turn to your neighbor and tell them go beyond.
Speaker 1: All right Access granted.
Speaker 1: Go beyond, amen, amen For the longest time.
Speaker 1: For the longest time, the motto of the great nation of Spain was this Na plus ultra.
Speaker 1: It means there is no more beyond.
Speaker 1: For the longest time, even their maps.
Speaker 1: At the corner of their maps was the phrase na plus ultra, because for the longest time, the Spaniards thought that they had discovered everything that was discoverable or that was worth discovering.
Speaker 1: And in testament of their discovery, they labeled the motto of their country Naplus Ultra.
Speaker 1: In 1496, a man called Christopher Columbus set off into uncharted waters and very soon, they say, he discovered the Americas.
Speaker 1: But he discovered the Americas and came back with reports of new lands and new territories.
Speaker 1: Right now, as we speak, the greatest monument attributed to Christopher Columbus, his greatest monument, stands in Spain, in the city where he died, in Spain.
Speaker 1: That's where the monument is.
Speaker 1: It's a monument of a lion with its mouth wide open, and outside of its mouth are these words na plus ultra.
Speaker 1: But you can't see the first two letters because the lion has chewed the first two letters and the only letters you can see is plus ultra.
Speaker 1: There is more beyond.
Speaker 1: Because the testament of this man was that he discovered new lands, and he discovered, or proved, that there is more beyond.
Speaker 1: In fact, spain changed its motto as a country and its motto now became plus ultra, more beyond.
Speaker 1: They minted coins with the phrase plus ultra and is known till today as the place that discovered new lands.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, parklands Baptist Church, the Lord has sent me here to tell you and to declare to you, as Parklands Baptist Church, there is more beyond.
Speaker 1: There is more beyond because access has been granted.
Speaker 1: So do what?
Speaker 1: Go beyond, go beyond.
Speaker 1: So the title of what we're sharing today is Go Beyond, move Beyond because there is more beyond.
Speaker 1: I'd like us to look at the text that we're going to be looking at today.
Speaker 1: It's a text we are very, very familiar with from the book of John.
Speaker 1: Theme verse has been in John.
Speaker 1: This time I'll go to chapter five of the book of John.
Speaker 1: Our theme verse has been in John.
Speaker 1: This time I'll go to chapter 5 of the book of John.
Speaker 1: There's a story that we are very, very familiar with in John, chapter 5, from verse 1 all the way to verse 9.
Speaker 1: I'll just read the first nine verses, so, if we're there, john, chapter 5, from verse 1 to verse 9.
Speaker 1: The Bible says sometime later, jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.
Speaker 1: Now there in Jerusalem, near the sheep gate, was a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
Speaker 1: Here a great number of disabled people used to lie.
Speaker 1: The blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
Speaker 1: One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years.
Speaker 1: When Jesus saw him lying there, he learned that he had been in this condition for a long time.
Speaker 1: And Jesus asked him do you want to get well, sir?
Speaker 1: The invalid replied I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus said to him get up, pick up your mat and walk.
Speaker 1: At once the man was cured.
Speaker 1: He picked up his mat and walked.
Speaker 1: The day on which this took place was the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: The setting of the story that we've just read, as the Bible clearly gives us, is in Jerusalem, a place called the Sheep Gate.
Speaker 1: Jesus had come to Jerusalem, as any other devout Jew, to observe one of the three major festivals that God had instructed his children to be able to observe.
Speaker 1: We don't know if it was the Feast of the Tabernacles, we don't know if it was the Passover, we don't know if it was the Pentecost, but it must have been one of these three.
Speaker 1: And Jesus Christ finds himself next to a pool, the pool called Bethesda.
Speaker 1: This pool was unique because this is where the blind, the lame, the paralyzed would gather, simply because they believed that there was healing power in this pool.
Speaker 1: Now, occasionally, unpredictably, the water was stirred by an angel and the first person to get into the pool, it was believed that they would be able to receive their healing.
Speaker 1: This was something like a therapeutic lottery the first one to get in and everybody was there waiting for their opportunity to get in.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us that there was a man who had been an invalid.
Speaker 1: He had been sick for 38 years.
Speaker 1: He was seated on a mat because he was paralyzed.
Speaker 1: He was unable to make his way around.
Speaker 1: He was right there at the pool For 38 years.
Speaker 1: This man has been longing to be well.
Speaker 1: For 38 years he desired to be well, but nothing had happened.
Speaker 1: And the Bible tells us that one day, can I hear you say one day, one day, jesus comes by and asks this man the question do you want to be made well?
Speaker 1: Well, to be made.
Speaker 1: Well, now, jesus did a very typical Kenyan thing Kuliza maswali obvious.
Speaker 1: For 38 years he has been longing, longing to get well.
Speaker 1: Now you understand this typical Kenyan thing where you're on your phone and someone comes and walks beside you and tells you ah, you're on the phone.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're in the gym and somebody walks by and tells you, hey, you're doing this.
Speaker 1: Or you're in a restaurant and your friend finds you at a restaurant and tells you, ah, you're in a restaurant.
Speaker 1: And your friend finds you at a restaurant and tells you Kukula, unakula.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's so obvious what you're doing that sometimes the typical Kenyan thing is to feel like responding in a not so good way, like when he tells you Some of us would feel like telling you you know, or something like that, you're on the phone.
Speaker 1: Some of us would feel like telling you what's up, I'm not a farmer, you know, or something like that.
Speaker 1: Or you eat, you eat, right.
Speaker 1: And some of us feel it's such an obvious question and you want to look at him and tell him no, I'm a farmer, you know.
Speaker 1: Or someone asks are you doing this?
Speaker 1: And you're like no, I'm doing my work, you know.
Speaker 1: It's an obvious thing.
Speaker 1: And just to give us context, I think this is what this man felt when Jesus asked him the question do you want to be well?
Speaker 1: What an obvious question.
Speaker 1: And it makes all the sense in the world for this man to respond to Jesus and tell Jesus duh, of course I want to be well, I've been here for 38 years.
Speaker 1: But what I'd like us to notice, that this man did not actually answer Jesus's question.
Speaker 1: He didn't say of course, I desperately want to be made well.
Speaker 1: He didn't express the amount of time he has waited and longed for this opportunity.
Speaker 1: Instead, he gave reasons why he is not yet well.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 7.
Speaker 1: I don't have anyone to help me to get into the pool.
Speaker 1: That's his response to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Whenever the water is stirred, someone else gets in before me.
Speaker 1: What this man did not know in responding to Jesus Christ's question do you want to be made well?
Speaker 1: In responding to Jesus Christ's question, do you want to be made well?
Speaker 1: Is that the one that was asking him?
Speaker 1: The question is the one that holds the key.
Speaker 1: He's the one that provides access.
Speaker 1: He's the one with the password.
Speaker 1: He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life, he is the creator himself.
Speaker 1: That was the person that was standing right next to him.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: Pastor Simon had said this verse in the beginning, where two or three are gathered in his name.
Speaker 1: Where is he today?
Speaker 1: He is right here in our midst.
Speaker 1: Jesus is here.
Speaker 1: Jesus has the habit of showing up in the most ordinary places.
Speaker 1: He has the habit of doing the most extraordinary things, and this man did not even notice.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus is going to do the same today in our midst.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Let's unpack this man's response, his response to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus gave him an open door.
Speaker 1: Jesus gave him for those of us that play soccer a through pass.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ gave him an open check.
Speaker 1: And what does the man tell Jesus?
Speaker 1: It's not my fault that I am unwell.
Speaker 1: I don't have the help that I need.
Speaker 1: In fact, other people take my place and I suggest to us today Parklands Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: His response explains to us why sometimes we don't access the open doors that God has already for us, even if the access has already been granted.
Speaker 1: His response reflects the reason why we don't step into some of these open doors.
Speaker 1: And today, what God has asked me to do is to demolish every obstacle that denies us access to what God has in store for us, for us to access God's destiny, for us to access God's purpose.
Speaker 1: God wants us to remove any of these obstacles that deny us from Jesus, the uplifted open door that is right here today.
Speaker 1: Today, very quickly, let's look at three obstacles that can deny us access, three obstacles that can deny us even though this access has been granted.
Speaker 1: There are three obstacles in this passage that I just want to bring out.
Speaker 1: Number one the obstacle of people.
Speaker 1: Can I hear you say people?
Speaker 1: Number two, the obstacle of place.
Speaker 1: Can I hear you say place?
Speaker 1: And number three, the obstacle of period.
Speaker 1: The obstacle of period.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the first one, the obstacle of people.
Speaker 1: This man, in responding to Jesus Christ, begins by saying I have no man, and then he concludes that phrase by saying in fact, somebody else goes in before me.
Speaker 1: He tells him I have no man, somebody else takes my place, somebody else denies me the opportunity to go first.
Speaker 1: How many times do we attribute where we are today to somebody else.
Speaker 1: How many times Either someone in our past and you say in my past life, in my past job, in my past relationship, in my past church, in my past school or in my past institution somebody did something that denied me access to where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not somebody in your past, maybe it's somebody in your presence right now, where you are.
Speaker 1: You're saying if so and so was not my academic supervisor, I would have already gotten my degree.
Speaker 1: If so, and so was not my boss.
Speaker 1: If so and so, unfortunately, was not my wife, was not my husband.
Speaker 1: If so and so was not my parent.
Speaker 1: Or if so and so was not my pastor.
Speaker 1: One problem we have as human using others as a reason for why we are where we are today.
Speaker 1: This results in our failure to take responsibility for where we are in life.
Speaker 1: We naturally, and we effortlessly, shift blame on others.
Speaker 1: Shift blame on others, but by shifting the blame to others, we are also shifting the responsibility to them, the responsibility of where we are today.
Speaker 1: In the book of Genesis, you remember Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1: Adam blamed Eve for eating the forbidden fruit Genesis 3.12.
Speaker 1: The woman that you put here is the one that caused me.
Speaker 1: Eve blamed the serpent.
Speaker 1: The serpent deceived me.
Speaker 1: It has been that way ever since.
Speaker 1: Others are the reason why I am where I am today.
Speaker 1: It is the guy who introduced me to drugs.
Speaker 1: That's the guy who is responsible for my addiction.
Speaker 1: It's my colleague.
Speaker 1: The colleague that made passes at me at work.
Speaker 1: He is the one that is responsible for my infidelity.
Speaker 1: It's the boss.
Speaker 1: The boss that laid me off.
Speaker 1: That boss is the one that is responsible for my depression.
Speaker 1: It is the business partner, the business partner that ripped me off.
Speaker 1: It is that business partner that is responsible for my current financial crisis.
Speaker 1: It's the parent, the parent that abandoned me.
Speaker 1: That is the person responsible for my parental weaknesses today.
Speaker 1: It's the school the school that refused to take me in.
Speaker 1: They are responsible for my current career drift, or where I am where my career is concerned.
Speaker 1: The fact that there are reasons for it, no matter how valid those reasons are, guess what?
Speaker 1: They don't solve the problem.
Speaker 1: It just simply makes me feel better.
Speaker 1: Temporarily, of course, just makes me feel better.
Speaker 1: But guess what, guys?
Speaker 1: We still have a problem.
Speaker 1: I am still seated on the mat.
Speaker 1: I am still paralyzed.
Speaker 1: I am still seated by the pool.
Speaker 1: Blaming others simply creates a diversion, diverting our attention from the fact that I, we, not others, have the ultimate responsibility for changing our situation.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad relationships every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad businesses every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad backgrounds every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad habits every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad decisions every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad careers every day.
Speaker 1: People turn around bad financial situations every day.
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 1: By me putting my arms around my situation and owning my reality and taking personal responsibility to do something about it?
Speaker 1: Not by blaming others.
Speaker 1: So turn to your neighbor and tell them so why can't you?
Speaker 1: So why can't I?
Speaker 1: Why so why can't I?
Speaker 1: Now, about a week after honeymoon, at home, my wife prepared an amazing meal one evening and she brought the meal to the table and we had an amazing meal together.
Speaker 1: Then, at the end, I was a bit tired, so I went to sleep.
Speaker 1: I left the plate on the table.
Speaker 1: Tired, so I went to sleep.
Speaker 1: I left the you know plate on the table, you know left everything and I went to sleep.
Speaker 1: The next day she made a meal and we had a nice meal and in typical you know Nick fashion, after the meal, I left the plate and I went to watch TV the next day.
Speaker 1: This continued for two weeks and my wife observed a trend of this guy leaving his plate on the table and taking off.
Speaker 1: Now, where I come from, I come from the Rift Valley and how we were brought up is that when men have come of age, you know you've come of age and now you're married Food is brought to you and the utensils are taken away from you.
Speaker 1: We never participate in that process, that class I never attended.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's how I was brought up, and my wife observed this.
Speaker 1: And after two weeks she walked up, you know, to me after we finished eating and observed that I was about to take off.
Speaker 1: She said, just before you stand.
Speaker 1: She said I just want to ask, humbly, ask you a simple question, a very simple question, with all humility.
Speaker 1: She asked me, please, and then this is exactly what she said.
Speaker 1: She said could you explain it to me like a five-year-old?
Speaker 1: Okay, how will this plate move from this table all the way to the kitchen, into the sink?
Speaker 1: Okay, nick, just like a five-year-old, how will it get clean and dry into this cabinet where you can remove it the next day so that you can serve a meal, martha, your daughter msaidie, okay, so you know the way.
Speaker 1: As a guy remember we were talking about obvious questions.
Speaker 1: As a guy, I looked at her and said Yanni, this is when problems in marriage begin.
Speaker 1: This is how they begin.
Speaker 1: Now, this is what my wife did.
Speaker 1: She held my right hand and she held my right hand like this.
Speaker 1: We held the plate together.
Speaker 1: We walked to the sink like this.
Speaker 1: She put the plate in the sink like that Okay, now, when the plate was safely in the sink, she told me Nick, that is lesson number one.
Speaker 1: Next, we are doing lesson number two Buona si fei.
Speaker 1: For 21 years, the lessons have continued.
Speaker 1: Martha, please do not give a high five.
Speaker 1: Please resist the temptation.
Speaker 1: Take responsibility.
Speaker 1: I learned a vital lesson very early in marriage, but let's apply it to the context that we're in.
Speaker 1: The question I want to ask us in this point is what do you need to take responsibility for today in order for you to access what God has in store for you, in order for you to go beyond where you are to experience what God wants you to experience?
Speaker 1: Please turn to someone next to you and tell them stop blaming people.
Speaker 1: Number two what was number one People right.
Speaker 1: Number two is place.
Speaker 1: We continue with the verse.
Speaker 1: He says I don't have anyone to put me in the pool the pool.
Speaker 1: Jesus asks this person do you want your situation to change?
Speaker 1: And what does the person say?
Speaker 1: Yes, but I am not yet where In the pool.
Speaker 1: I want my situation to change, but I'm not yet where In the pool.
Speaker 1: I want my situation to change, but I'm not yet in the pool.
Speaker 1: The pool is that place that you think you need to be so that your situation could be transformed.
Speaker 1: It's that place that you think you have to be so that things in your life align.
Speaker 1: I do not live in the right country.
Speaker 1: I do not live in the right city.
Speaker 1: I did not study the right degree.
Speaker 1: I do not work in the right company.
Speaker 1: I do not have the right degree.
Speaker 1: I did not go to the right university.
Speaker 1: I don't have the right degree.
Speaker 1: I did not go to the right university.
Speaker 1: I don't have the right friends.
Speaker 1: I do not come from the right family.
Speaker 1: I did not marry the right person.
Speaker 1: I am not the right age.
Speaker 1: There are so many things that we could state today.
Speaker 1: That is a representation of our pool, the place that we think we need to be so that our situations could be transformed.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many of us remember a famous 20th century escape artist called Harry Houdini, century escape artist called Harry Houdini.
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini gave a challenge and he said I can be locked up in any jail, any jail, and I'll be able to break out in a few minutes.
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini made do.
Speaker 1: He made.
Speaker 1: Do that challenge every time, except once.
Speaker 1: That one time, as Harry Houdini was locked up in his jail and he was trying to pick the lock, he knew that something was wrong because it had taken more than a few minutes, but he was determined to keep his record and he continued trying to break the lock.
Speaker 1: He continued, he continued for such a long time until he began to feel exhausted and after three or four or five hours he was tired trying to break the lock and he decided to take a break.
Speaker 1: And Harry Houdini sat down.
Speaker 1: Sat down because he was tired and he was exhausted.
Speaker 1: And while he was tired and he's exhausted, he decided let me just take a short break and he leaned back on the door that he was trying to pick the lock.
Speaker 1: And as he leaned back on the door.
Speaker 1: Guess what the door opened?
Speaker 1: The reason the door was never locked in the first place.
Speaker 1: The door had always been open.
Speaker 1: It's the only time he failed.
Speaker 1: Are you blinded by your opportunities?
Speaker 1: Are you blinded by your open doors?
Speaker 1: Are you blinded to your place of freedom?
Speaker 1: Simply because you already have a mindset about the right place that you need to be for you to be able to experience a breakthrough In your mind, there is a particular place that you need to be.
Speaker 1: Is an open door standing beside you today, and yet you can't see it?
Speaker 1: The same way, an open door was standing beside this man and he could not see it.
Speaker 1: Are you still focused on your pool?
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus Christ is standing beside you?
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus Christ is standing beside you.
Speaker 1: Are you still focused on the place that you think you need so that you can experience your healing?
Speaker 1: I want you to notice something Jesus did not help this man into the pool, because Jesus does not need the pool to heal him.
Speaker 1: Jesus had the power, the power to heal him without the pool.
Speaker 1: Jesus does not need a top job or a top business to give you your financial healing.
Speaker 1: Jesus does not need that famous degree or that organization to give you your career healing.
Speaker 1: Jesus does not even need that spouse that you've been longing for to give you your relational healing.
Speaker 1: Can I hear you say Jesus is enough, Jesus is enough.
Speaker 1: Can't you see that it is Jesus that is standing right next to you today asking you the same question do you want your life to be transformed?
Speaker 1: Your situation, I announce to you today, is never too dead for a resurrection, not when the resurrection and the life himself Is standing right next to you.
Speaker 1: The point is this Regardless how far you are from the pool the pool being the place that you think you need what matters is how far you are from Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's what matters.
Speaker 1: Regardless how far you are from the pool.
Speaker 1: Jesus is here.
Speaker 1: Turn your attention from the pool, because your pool has become your problem, not your solution.
Speaker 1: Pastor Ambrose told us in the beginning of this week you can be seated in first class with an economy class mindset.
Speaker 1: What do you need to put out?
Speaker 1: What do you need to focus away from?
Speaker 1: What mindset needs to change so that Jesus, the one that gives access, can give you the access that you need in your life?
Speaker 1: What was the first obstacle?
Speaker 1: What was the second obstacle.
Speaker 1: The third obstacle is period.
Speaker 1: Period the last part of the phrase that this man says is when the water is stirred.
Speaker 1: You don't enter the pool anytime.
Speaker 1: There is a particular time that you will experience healing.
Speaker 1: To get healed, you had to get in when the water is stirred.
Speaker 1: There were some ideal circumstances, some ideal conditions for healing to occur.
Speaker 1: The pool of Bethesda is a very familiar place to many of us.
Speaker 1: We find ourselves living what I call an as soon as life.
Speaker 1: As soon as this or that happens, I'll be happy.
Speaker 1: Please stand to your neighbor and tell them as soon as and jazz a pingo as soon as.
Speaker 1: As soon as.
Speaker 1: As soon as this or that happens, I will feel that my problems have gone away.
Speaker 1: I'll be satisfied.
Speaker 1: I'll be well.
Speaker 1: As soon as I reach the pinnacle of my career, I will now dedicate my time to my family.
Speaker 1: As soon as I get a second degree now I think I'm ready to be married.
Speaker 1: As soon as I've worked for 10 years, I think I now can begin to invest.
Speaker 1: As soon as I've been saved for five years.
Speaker 1: Now I feel I can start serving God.
Speaker 1: As soon as the economy changes, as soon as I graduate, as soon as I get my job as soon as I get married, as soon as I have more time, more money, as soon as I get a better house now I can host house group Andrew.
Speaker 1: Pastor Andrew is the one who's lifting up his hands as soon as he changes the way he acts.
Speaker 1: If you're in a relationship, as soon as she apologizes, as soon as I recover, as soon as I get through this season in my life, as soon as I retire, as soon as I move out of home, as soon as you can basically fill that gap with anything.
Speaker 1: Many of you know I have two passions.
Speaker 1: My first passion is the youth of Africa.
Speaker 1: My second passion is adventure motorcycling.
Speaker 1: Pastor Ambrose, tell them it's a spiritual thing.
Speaker 1: It is spiritual.
Speaker 1: Next year I want to embark on the journey of my lifetime, a dream I have had for over 15 years.
Speaker 1: I want to ride my motorcycle around the entire continent of Africa, to be the first African motorcycle rider to circumnavigate the entire continent of Africa.
Speaker 1: I choose to go beyond.
Speaker 1: I choose to go beyond Next year.
Speaker 1: I'm turning 50.
Speaker 1: Buenas Fesana, and I'd like to establish an endowment fund that is able to help needy students, young people in our country, go through high school, and that's why I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: I'd like to sponsor 50 needy students every single year of my life until I die.
Speaker 1: Into posterity.
Speaker 1: That's why this trip is called 50 for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: 50 for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: My sons will continue it.
Speaker 1: Their grandsons will continue 50 every year for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: I have refused to wait for the ideal conditions To be trapped in an as soon as life.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, my dreams are being parked.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile your life is on hold.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile you have pushed the pause button of your life.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile you are left seated on a mat, imprisoned by your circumstances.
Speaker 1: Pastor Ambrose, exactly one month ago Today, on July the 4th, we lost Our young adults pastor.
Speaker 1: His name is Pastor Simon Wameri.
Speaker 1: He went to be with the Lord exactly one month ago.
Speaker 1: Four years ago he was diagnosed of kidney failure and for a year or two he went through dialysis twice every week and they told him that the only hope he got to be able to get back To a life as normal Was to get a kidney transplant.
Speaker 1: We thank God that we got a donor Whose kidney matched his and he was able to do a kidney transplant.
Speaker 1: Two years ago he went through a kidney transplant.
Speaker 1: About six months after the healing process.
Speaker 1: He came back to ministry to serve in our young adults ministry as our young adults pastor, and I kid you not, he came back with 10 times more energy, 10 times more passion and he said the only day I have and I am sure of is today, in 18 months.
Speaker 1: In 18 months he did ministry worth 10 years and he impacted people beyond what we could ever think or ask or imagine.
Speaker 1: He is my ultimate example of someone who refused to be imprisoned by his circumstances.
Speaker 1: He served God from a place of commitment, not a place of convenience.
Speaker 1: It was a place of pain, it was a place of difficulty, it was not easy for those four years, but what he did and the impact of his life is yet to be matched.
Speaker 1: He did not wait for the ideal conditions to serve God, and his legacy to us as a pastoral team, to us as a church, is never wait for the ideal conditions for you to be able to step up and to serve God.
Speaker 1: For this man that we're talking about in this story, that was seated on the mat, wishing did not work, complaining did not work, criticizing did not work, justifying did not work.
Speaker 1: What worked was when he made a choice To focus his attention away from the period, the ideal conditions, away from the place, the pool that many people think you need for your life to change, and away from the people, the people that many times you think you need so that your life will change.
Speaker 1: He moved away from the period, the place and the people and he turned his attention to the only one that gives access, the only one that grants access.
Speaker 1: The minute this man shifted his focus to Jesus, the Bible tells us in verse 8, jesus tells a man stand up, take up your mat and walk.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: This man don't worry, don't worry this man that had been immobilized for 38 years, for the first time in his life Experienced motion for the very, very first time.
Speaker 1: And the man did what?
Speaker 1: He stood up.
Speaker 1: And what did he do?
Speaker 1: He took up his mat and the man started to walk, because he responded to the one that gives access, the uplifted open door, and he sees motion for his very first time.
Speaker 1: What I want you to notice is this man did not leave his mat behind.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you noticed that he didn't leave his mat behind.
Speaker 1: Do you know what his mat represents?
Speaker 1: His mat represents his circumstances, the things that defined his life, the things that he was facing as challenges, the reality of your circumstances do not disappear.
Speaker 1: They remain with you.
Speaker 1: The reality in that marriage may remain with you.
Speaker 1: The reality of those children may remain with you.
Speaker 1: The reality of your health may remain with you.
Speaker 1: But I'd like you to notice the difference Before, before, before, before before, these circumstances used to carry me when I was seated on the mat, but now I carry the circumstances, and that is the difference.
Speaker 1: They used to control me, they used to determine me, they used to define me, but used to determine me.
Speaker 1: They used to define me, but now I carry them along.
Speaker 1: The point is this Jesus changes us first, so that we can take charge of our circumstances.
Speaker 1: Jesus calls us to a new life.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of seeing.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new life.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of seeing.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of thinking.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of acting.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of speaking.
Speaker 1: He calls us to a new way of being, so that, as we stand up in obedience to Christ, our circumstances may be the same, but we are not the same.
Speaker 1: We are now in control of our circumstances.
Speaker 1: Our lives may not be easy.
Speaker 1: They may be difficult.
Speaker 1: Our circumstances are now manageable.
Speaker 1: They are now.
Speaker 1: You know, before I was in a different position.
Speaker 1: This is a position of hopelessness, a position of helplessness, a position of desperation.
Speaker 1: This is the position I had assumed.
Speaker 1: But guess what?
Speaker 1: Now I have assumed a different position.
Speaker 1: This is now a position of strength.
Speaker 1: This is now a position of victory.
Speaker 1: This is now a position of strength.
Speaker 1: This is now a position of victory.
Speaker 1: This is now a position of uprightness, and I can face my life situations differently.
Speaker 1: Please tell your neighbor, reposition yourself, reposition yourself, reposition yourself, reposition yourself.
Speaker 1: The last thing I want to give us is a final image.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many of us love animals.
Speaker 1: Anyone love animals.
Speaker 1: The last image I want to give us is the image of an animal the African impala.
Speaker 1: The impala Can jump 10 feet high.
Speaker 1: It has the potential Of jumping 10 feet high and it can jump.
Speaker 1: Is this 30 feet More than it can jump?
Speaker 1: 30 feet forward?
Speaker 1: 10 feet high, jump 30 feet forward, 10 feet high and 30 feet forward.
Speaker 1: But guess what?
Speaker 1: If you go to a zoo, you will find an impala locked up in a cage that has a three foot high fence.
Speaker 1: Three foot high fence Do you know why?
Speaker 1: Zookeepers know that an impala will never leap if it cannot see where it is going to land.
Speaker 1: So if the fence is solid, solid, it has to be solid, even though it's three feet high.
Speaker 1: If an impala cannot see where it's going to land, it will never leap, even though it has the potential to leap ten feet high and thirty feet forward.
Speaker 1: An impala is kept a prisoner its entire life simply because it cannot see when it is going to land.
Speaker 1: Many of us, simply because you don't have all the details, you don't have all the information, simply because you don't have all the facts, you're not sure, you have not figured it all out, you remain caged, unable to take off into the promises of God.
Speaker 1: I tell you today, the sick man thought the only possibility of healing lay in the waters of the pool and for 38 years His name was not called up.
Speaker 1: But finally, this man does what.
Speaker 1: He walked Because his hope did not lie In the bubbling waters of Bethesda.
Speaker 1: His hope lay In the living water Of our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: He is the one that granted him access, and today I, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: He is the one that granted him access and today, I dare say, the living water Is standing Right next to you.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ Is here.
Speaker 1: A simple Act of obedience Can completely Transform, transform your life.
Speaker 1: Jesus is asking you and I the same question today Do you want to be made well?
Speaker 1: Do you feel stuck where you are?
Speaker 1: Do you feel helpless where you are?
Speaker 1: Do you feel you need an overhaul, a complete makeover of your life?
Speaker 1: Total transformation begins by acknowledging the one that grants access, our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ, the uplifted open door.
Speaker 1: I'd like us to bow our heads as we pray uplifted open door.
Speaker 1: I'd like us to bow our heads as we pray.
Speaker 1: The living water is here.
Speaker 1: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one that grants access, is here.
Speaker 1: The one that transforms and changes our life, is here.
Speaker 1: I want to give you the opportunity, wherever you are, to make the same decision that this man made To respond to Jesus today, to tell Jesus yes, I choose to stand up, to get up, I choose to take up my mat, regardless the circumstances that I am in, and I choose to walk ahead with you If you're here and you have never responded to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: You have never responded to this call of our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ, and today you want to respond to him, for your life to be completely changed and for your life to be completely transformed, I'd like to kindly request that you lift up your hand wherever you are.
Speaker 1: Lift up your hand.
Speaker 1: Lift up your hand, thank you.
Speaker 1: Lift up your hand wherever you are.
Speaker 1: Wherever you are, lift up your hand and tell Jesus yes, I say yes to you.
Speaker 1: I say yes to you, thank you, I say yes to you.
Speaker 1: I can see you, sir, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, the back.
Speaker 1: Lift up your hand.
Speaker 1: You're saying I'm responding to this open door, I'm responding to this savior, the very back.
Speaker 1: I can see you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Just keep your hands up, keep your and, as your hand is up, just say Dear Lord Jesus, I respond to you in obedience.
Speaker 1: I ask that would you stretch out your hand and touch my hand right now and assure me that I am now your child.
Speaker 1: I surrender my life to you and I pray that your hand holding me will walk with me throughout my life.
Speaker 1: I receive forgiveness for my sin.
Speaker 1: I receive full redemption because of what you did on the cross, and I will hold your hand and walk with you all the days of my life.
Speaker 1: I thank you and I praise you in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for someone who's here and is seated on the mat.
Speaker 1: You're seated by your pool.
Speaker 1: You've allowed people or you've allowed a place, or you've allowed a period, a set of conditions to deny you access to your destiny, but today you're saying I'm surrendering those and I'm declaring that there is no obstacle.
Speaker 1: There is no obstacle that will deny me access to our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: If there's something you're surrendering, lift up your hand, wherever you are.
Speaker 1: Just lift up your hand and confess it to God.
Speaker 1: Lord, I surrender this, lord, I surrender this.
Speaker 1: I surrender some people that have been putting my trust in more than Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I surrender people I've been leaning on more than Jesus Christ and today I turn my heart away from that and I choose and I commit myself to be able to walk this journey with the Lord.
Speaker 1: I surrender the places that I thought I needed, the places that I had put my trust in more than the Lord.
Speaker 1: I surrender them.
Speaker 1: I surrender them, pastor Ambrose, if you could come up.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you and we praise you for the opportunity, oh Lord, to remove every obstacle, every inhibition, every obstacle from our access to you.
Speaker 1: I pray that nothing, oh God, will take its place over you in our lives If there are people, if there are places that have denied us access, have denied us the opportunity to go beyond.
Speaker 1: Father, I know that you're not asking us why we are not well Today.
Speaker 1: You're asking us whether we want to be made well.
Speaker 1: So, father in heaven, whatever door in our lives needs to be opened, we now open it in the name of Jesus Christ and we declare full access right now, because we have the one that grants access, whatever area in our lives that we've been settling for less.
Speaker 1: Father, we pray, be it our marriage, be it our parenting, be it our finances, be it our jobs, our education, our dreams, our walk with God.
Speaker 1: Father, we grant access right now and pray that, lord, because we have surrendered these obstacles, would you hold our hand and we declare and confess access is granted.
Speaker 1: So go beyond.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, amen.