SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting because as I was listening to Theo just share on what was what God was placing in his heart is what he doesn't know is that it's like he was reading my entire sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So I will definitely not take so much time because I think we have been praying around that area.
SPEAKER_00: But I have titled my sermon as the future starts now.
SPEAKER_00: Because for sure this future starts now and it has already started.
SPEAKER_00: So I will talk about three things that will help us to get to the future.
SPEAKER_00: And I agree the future starts with the youth, but I also agree that the future starts with those who are available for God's work.
SPEAKER_00: The future is for those who are available for God.
SPEAKER_00: Because we could be saying that this future is for our youth, but they can fail to be available, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And God is looking for one man.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even two.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love about God is He doesn't work with masses.
SPEAKER_00: It just requires you to say, Lord, I am here.
SPEAKER_00: Walk with me.
SPEAKER_00: I have said yes to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I will talk about three points.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because I was catching up with someone today, and they said, there's a way this church has three points.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the blood, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I think it is the spirit that is leading us in that direction.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll talk about three points that will help us to pick up this future and run with it.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I'll mention is about a return and a commitment to God.
SPEAKER_00: A return and a commitment to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then when that happened, the point number two is a release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: A release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: Then the last thing is there will be a restoration and a redemption.
SPEAKER_00: A restoration and a redemption.
SPEAKER_00: So come with me to I'll read many scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Um I hope the media team could just work with me uh bit by bit.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll begin with Luke 3.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 14, sorry, verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 14, verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Please go back.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to underline the word everything.
SPEAKER_00: Then let's go to 2nd Corinthians verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: 2nd Corinthians 8 from verse 1 to 5.
SPEAKER_00: 2nd Corinthians, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian church.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
SPEAKER_00: For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And they exceeded our expectations.
SPEAKER_00: Please note why they exceeded their expectations.
SPEAKER_00: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
SPEAKER_00: So it's Paul who is giving a testimony of the Macedonian church of how much they had given, how much they had done.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 5, he talks about that they were able to exceed even Paul's expectation because they had given themselves first to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then now through the will of God, they were able to give to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Deuteronomy 30 20.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 30 20.
SPEAKER_00: And that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many ears in the land he sought to give to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is your life.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you that's why God is saying that I looked for a man on earth that I could use and I found none.
SPEAKER_00: Because people are busy with their businesses, people are busy doing what everyone else is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And God is there and wondering, is there a man I could use?
SPEAKER_00: For such a time as this, God is wondering, is there a man?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a woman?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a teenager I can use at Parklands Baptist Church for such a time as this?
SPEAKER_00: And it will take you committing to God and telling God, Lord, I am committing myself for this season.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's easy for us to come and tell you, oh, we want you to serve in church, we want you to give your money, we want to give your time.
SPEAKER_00: We agree, and these are good things.
SPEAKER_00: But unless you have given yourself to God, then even your service comes with a lot of murmuring, it comes with a lot of pain, it comes with a lot of expectations.
SPEAKER_00: And when these expectations are not met, then you will want to meet the pastor and say, This is not what I expected.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have given yourself to the church, to the pastor, and then you have forgotten who you ought to have given yourself to.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a call.
SPEAKER_00: It's a call God is making to us, a sparklance Baptist Church, at a very personal level.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we could be 10,000, we could be 20.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to believe in days to come we will even be 50,000.
SPEAKER_00: But that 50,000 will require one woman, one man who will say, God, I'm here for your work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for you to use me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's easy for us to look at others and say, that person is not doing that thing, the other one is not doing that thing.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you, when you came to Parkland's Baptist Church, you walked, even now, you walked alone, you used your feet and came.
SPEAKER_00: It took you, it took your determination, it took you just making a commitment that I will show up in that service.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not showing up because these are good times.
SPEAKER_00: We are showing up because we have decided in our heart that we have made a commitment to God that come rain, come sunshine.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe my prayers of five minutes for Parklands Baptist Church is what will transform even the youth of Africa.
SPEAKER_00: But are we ready?
SPEAKER_00: And how do we show that we are committed to God?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that shows that we are committed to God is that our mindset are transformed.
SPEAKER_00: There must be a mindset transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12:1.
SPEAKER_00: A mindset transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And this is actually the hardest, hardest to do.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Let me remind us that a sacrifice, when you're offering a sacrifice, and especially in the Old Testament, a sacrifice meant this is something that kept burning and burning and burning, alright?
SPEAKER_00: If you're, for example, to produce incense, you have to keep burning the incense stick for it to keep producing the incense.
SPEAKER_00: That means that your commitment to God will show in your mindset that you're offering yourself daily, every day, every second, as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Not to anyone, not to our senior pastor, not to myself, but to God.
SPEAKER_00: Holy and pleasing to God, for this is your true and proper worship.
SPEAKER_00: So this worship beats us coming here on a Wednesday, us coming here on a Sunday and singing and saying, Oh, that was a wonderful worship team.
SPEAKER_00: No, our holy and pleasing worship is when we are constantly offering ourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: Have a transformed mindset.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is that it comes with transformed habits.
SPEAKER_00: A return and a commitment to God shows in three ways: transformed mindset, transformed habits.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, transformed hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to James 3 13.
SPEAKER_00: In our transformed habits.
SPEAKER_00: James 3 verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Who is wise and understanding among you?
SPEAKER_00: Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Please go back.
SPEAKER_00: Who is wise and understanding among you?
SPEAKER_00: Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm to break down, is by their good life.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I would ask, does your good life reflect that Christ has transformed you?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we are here always announcing there is this need met, there's this other need met.
SPEAKER_00: Are we giving our creativity?
SPEAKER_00: Or do we take our talent and bury them?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I would want to hear how much we are giving until there is an overflow, because that is what Macedonian did, that they gave themselves to God so much that there was also an overflow in terms of their giving and deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Paul says that they were giving out of their poverty.
SPEAKER_00: In Leviticus 25, verse 17, and I know that is our anchor theme, all the way from verse 17 talks about that we are not even to take advantage of each other, but to fear our God.
SPEAKER_00: In the Jubilee year, how we show transformed hearts is that we are not taking advantage of one another.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are transformed so that when you want to take advantage of someone, when we want to do something else, God is like, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: Your fear for God drives you to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we are doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not accusing us because I can tell you Parklands Baptist Church is a giver in terms of time, in terms of money, in terms of volunteer.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't gone, and I'm saying this because I have served in other different big and small churches.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't met a church like Parklands Baptist Church that give their all.
SPEAKER_00: But even then, we can continue to give our all from the fact that we are giving because our giving first is to God.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I love about God is He's no debtor of man.
SPEAKER_00: He's no debtor.
SPEAKER_00: You can be giving here and thinking that it is not adding up, but one day, even days after you're gone, your children can be the beneficiary of the sacrifice that you made.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I want to fault God, I'm reminded of Rehab, a prostitute who only just wanted to spare the spies, and the entire family was saved because of just that one act.
SPEAKER_00: God is not wicked.
SPEAKER_00: As we give ourselves to Him, God is not wicked.
SPEAKER_00: He's able to send men for our sake.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing I talked about is a release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: As we enter Jubilee, there must be a release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's an advantage of us saying yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: And now it is God's work to release us from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And when I talk about bondage, many times people think that bondage are things that are generally evil.
SPEAKER_00: But we live in times where people are glued stuck.
SPEAKER_00: We are stuck on screens.
SPEAKER_00: Research says that an average person spends eight hours a day on screen.
SPEAKER_00: An average person, you're not average.
SPEAKER_00: An average person spends at least eight hours in a day.
SPEAKER_00: Out of 24, so it's a third.
SPEAKER_00: So it means that in this generation and the next one, and by the way, not to forget our children that are now spending even more than that time.
SPEAKER_00: Because the demand on them is even less, right?
SPEAKER_00: So give or take our children could be spending 12 hours in a day.
SPEAKER_00: So that's almost like half of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying screens are bad because these are just gadgets that help us to make lives better.
SPEAKER_00: How you use it is what makes the screens good or bad.
SPEAKER_00: The bondage of possessions.
SPEAKER_00: We live at a time when now everybody is just possessed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the other day you just look at a young girl who wants to get married, and they say, unless the man has a car, and I'm not saying these things are bad.
SPEAKER_00: But you can have a man with a car who beats you day and night.
SPEAKER_00: You're driving, but your tears become food.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning at lunchtime, it's a dosage, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We are stuck on possession.
SPEAKER_00: Nowadays, we can't even look at a person nicely because of even the way they are dressed.
SPEAKER_00: Because we think there is a class, there is a standard.
SPEAKER_00: We are stuck on possession that it is very possible that you are in a matatu, somebody does not have 20 shillings and is thrown out of a bus, dies, loses their life.
SPEAKER_00: You wonder, was their life worth 50 shillings?
SPEAKER_00: But the response is economy nibaya.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in God's economy by the way, unless you live on the economy of our president or of your leader, I believe that in the economy of God there is no drought.
SPEAKER_00: Stuck on our possessions.
SPEAKER_00: We are stuck on busyness.
SPEAKER_00: So that busyness now becomes the pride of life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm busy, I'm busy.
SPEAKER_00: No time for family, no time for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so busy?
SPEAKER_00: I understand career life is demanding, I understand ministry is demanding, but it can become a bondage because God has called us, even as pastors, first to himself and then to the people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, unto me, if I would serve the people so much that I forget that my call is to God first.
SPEAKER_00: Because even with the disciples, in the scripture in Mark, it says that he called them to himself first.
SPEAKER_00: He was calling the disciples not even to send them, but he just wanted them for himself.
SPEAKER_00: But we are also stuck in the bondage of hopelessness and despair.
SPEAKER_00: You get to the mart, economy nimbaya.
SPEAKER_00: You get to the full station, economy nimbaya.
SPEAKER_00: You go to church, economy nimbaya.
SPEAKER_00: My God, it can be hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: We can just be people who are living on the outside, but deep inside we are hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: We are lost in despair.
SPEAKER_00: We are lost in a lot.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even think there is a tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Yet there is a tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And every day you go to God in kneeling and you're just crying, oh God, I'm mourning.
SPEAKER_00: I agree there's mourning.
SPEAKER_00: But I also agree that God says, comfort, comfort, my people.
SPEAKER_00: Because the mourning can actually be the thing that prevents you from seeing what God is doing next.
SPEAKER_00: It could be the door that has So slammed ahead of you that every time you think my mom died, my dad died, yes, it is true.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: But we also have a God whose comfort is able to say, I understand, because I lost my son at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I understand.
SPEAKER_00: Come with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let's move.
SPEAKER_00: Come.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is pride not to receive the comfort of God, people.
SPEAKER_00: It is pride.
SPEAKER_00: We are released from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder God tells us forget the former things.
SPEAKER_00: As we move, we are celebrating a legacy.
SPEAKER_00: But even that goodness, even that victory, we need to move behind it and tell God we are forgetting the former thing because Parklands has a good legacy.
SPEAKER_00: But that legacy can hold us back from doing what God has intended for us.
SPEAKER_00: Former things is both good and bad.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah 61.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 61, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah verse 61.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read my scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Lord speaking.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord has anointed me to bring goodness to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim the captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come.
SPEAKER_00: If you have been mourning, the time of the Lord's favor has come.
SPEAKER_00: With Jubilee, the time of the Lord's favor has done what?
SPEAKER_00: Has come.
SPEAKER_00: And with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I love it because on one end it's comfort and joy, but on the other end, it's God just saying, even your enemy, the enemy that has caused you to mourn, I the Lord, is taking it up, and my anger will be against those ones.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a comfort from God.
SPEAKER_00: Is it hard?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Can we receive it?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: If you give me John 8, verse 3, verse 36, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: This is the assurance that we are getting.
SPEAKER_00: That there is a release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just coming from your desire, it is a promise that he who the Son, he who Jesus has set free, this one who is telling us that the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one setting us free.
SPEAKER_00: And if we accept that freedom, then we are free and free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: That they cannot be addicted to screens.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot be addicted to alcohol and substance abuse.
SPEAKER_00: Because, Lord, on my sake, because I've given myself fully, it also means if you have given yourself fully, even the children that you have, because they are yours, then they belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: Then you can tell God, you know what, God, I am trusting you fully that salvation will come at my door, that addiction will be broken, alcoholism will be broken.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: You saw I love it because if the sun sets you free, does not say if the sun sets you free of what you are afraid of, it's you're free, completely free.
SPEAKER_00: So there's need of you coming to God and telling God, Lord, help me, break, help me to break free.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we are heavily laden with issues, then it becomes very hard for us to serve God fully.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it, I really love it because us accepting the freedom also means that we have come into the full acceptance that we are sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Galatians, Galatians 4, because I believe this is our theme for the month.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4 from verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that as long as an ahair is underage, he's no different from a slave.
SPEAKER_00: Although he owns the whole estate, the hair is subject to guardians and trustee until the time set by his father.
SPEAKER_00: Also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But when the Satan had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship.
SPEAKER_00: So Christ was not coming, not fully knowing that we were under the slavery of spiritual forces of this dark world.
SPEAKER_00: But he comes that we may receive adoption into sonship.
SPEAKER_00: And what sonship then will come us into is redemption and restoration of inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: We are now on the third hour.
SPEAKER_00: I said the first hour is we are doing a returning and a commitment to God.
SPEAKER_00: Then the second thing I said is that there is a release of bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, it is a hope that God is giving us that once we return to Him, once the bondage has been released, then God is just assuring us there's redemption and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Go to two verses Ezekiel 34, 25.
SPEAKER_00: And this is God speaking about the Israelites and talks about how he will bring them back.
SPEAKER_00: I will make a covenant of peace with them and read the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forest in safety.
SPEAKER_00: Please continue to verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: I will send down showers in season.
SPEAKER_00: There will be showers of blessings.
SPEAKER_00: The trees will yield their fruit, and the ground will yield its crop.
SPEAKER_00: The people will be secure in their land.
SPEAKER_00: They will know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When I break the bars of their yoke, this is what I'm talking about, slavery, and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.
SPEAKER_00: They will no longer be plundered by the nation, nor will wild animals devour them.
SPEAKER_00: They will live in safety and no one will make them afraid.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God is promising us that once the yoke is broken, that we will enjoy a covenant of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We will live in a land where we are not afraid of season because it says there will be showers of blessings.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it because this scripture talks about in the deserts and the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: So it means that even the places that God is giving us peace are not very conducive places.
SPEAKER_00: He has not said in the palace, he has said in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we think the peace of God will come when we are living in palace, and it is good to live in palace.
SPEAKER_00: But I imagine our country like Kenya, where every time you turn to the left or you turn to the right, you're afraid somebody will pitter with your bag, somebody else will snatch your phone.
SPEAKER_00: You are constantly living in fear.
SPEAKER_00: You're constantly living in that somebody in the matatu will pretend they are sick, they vomit on you, they pick your belongings.
SPEAKER_00: You are like you are constantly in fear.
SPEAKER_00: You go home just thinking, hey, somebody can just rob me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the other day I was just watching, very interesting.
SPEAKER_00: In Thika, some people just entered someone's house while people were sleeping, picked things, picked things, and then just left.
SPEAKER_00: So even in your house, you think you're safe, but you're not safe.
SPEAKER_00: Yet at such times, God says that even at such time, He's giving us a covenant of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We will not live afraid of what happens to me, what happens to my children.
SPEAKER_00: You know, last semester there was just last time there was just an approach because children were burning everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: If you had a child in boarding school, my God, you constantly live on the fear, what happens to my child?
SPEAKER_00: You are afraid that any other moment you can be called.
SPEAKER_00: Because they are burning schools.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Lord's promise is that even at such time he has a covenant of peace with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you could just give me Ezekiel 39, 23.
SPEAKER_00: And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin because they were unfaithful to me, so I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting that the only time the Lord said that he turned away, He handed them over to their enemies is because people had turned away from God's face.
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that's what is happening?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord is just saying, come, draw near to me.
SPEAKER_00: Draw near to me.
SPEAKER_00: I hear of a story.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I I love to read Kenyan heroes.
SPEAKER_00: There is there's a man in Ukambani, he's called Mooli.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember there used to be a movie, I'm not very sure if it's still there, around 2023, that Mooli left his transport business to go and start rescuing street children.
SPEAKER_00: You can go and search, there's a movie called Mooli, the Mooli.
SPEAKER_00: He's still alive, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember one of the things he said in that movie is there was a time he went into Okambani.
SPEAKER_00: By the Ukambani, anytime you mention Ukambani, if you're from Ukambani by the Nisameed.
SPEAKER_00: But the picture that quickly comes to mind is dryness, right?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe a place where there is no water.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember he said that God woke him up in his sleep and told him, Here there is water.
SPEAKER_00: Because they had dug boholes, bohols, and every time even the children sat laughing and sat telling the dad, Dad, you never get tired of telling us that here there is water.
SPEAKER_00: By that time the Lord appeared to him in the night and told him, Here there is water.
SPEAKER_00: He went and marked the space at night and woke up in the morning and told the children, now here the Lord has given us water.
SPEAKER_00: And for sure he dug and there was water.
SPEAKER_00: But now the interesting bit, forgetting about the water, is that he used to pray to God and it would only rain in his land.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of the Ukambani is so dry, so so dry, yet there was heavy rainfall in his land.
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the largest exporters of French beans, actually, to date as we speak.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave him even the idea of French beans.
SPEAKER_00: Something that you would not even think that it actually has.
SPEAKER_00: Export.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how God just began to expand him.
SPEAKER_00: During COVID, by the way, and there were IDPs, he would transport food all the way from Mukambani to Eldoret with his buses and give the IDPs food.
SPEAKER_00: So it's possible that at a times when everyone is scared, people, because I remember one of the traits of COVID times is we were taught how to hold.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you would go to the supermarket because you want to do all the shopping, but you it's it's the idea of you're holding for for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Yet there was a man who was giving and giving, and I think he did that for a whole year.
SPEAKER_00: So it means that there's a level we can get to God, and he's like, come, there's a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the place where God tells us our land will bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In Leviticus 25, verse 17, it talks about our land bearing fruits.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting because in the Jubilee year, one of the commands God was giving them is don't plant, there will be food.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, tell a Kenyan not to plant, my God.
SPEAKER_00: Tell a Kenyan to stay at home.
SPEAKER_00: They will ask you, where will my food come from?
SPEAKER_00: True?
SPEAKER_00: But on the Jubilee year, Leviticus 25, 17, God was giving his people rest.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: If you can just give me verse 18, even as you come to wind, follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.
SPEAKER_00: Please continue.
SPEAKER_00: Then the land will yield its fruits, and you will eat your feel and live there in safety.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize when the Lord is talking about abundance, he's also giving an assurance of safety?
SPEAKER_00: Have you realized that every time God is giving abundance, he's also saying that there is safety.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that that which the Lord gives, he's also able to protect.
SPEAKER_00: This is the question we keep asking.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Lord is saying that even at that time, it is not our labor.
SPEAKER_00: And I loved it that we came from a jubilee, and one of the speakers just said that the Lord is calling us to labor even from a place of rest.
SPEAKER_00: Are we laboring from a place of rest?
SPEAKER_00: Or will we still be stuck in the cycle and the wheel of life?
SPEAKER_00: I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
SPEAKER_00: So it's possible that once we come back to God, the kind of restoration He can give you is one year that covers that year and three more years.
SPEAKER_00: So it means that you can labor for one year and for the next three years you are seated eating.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the promise that God is giving.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the redemption and the restoration that God gives is He gives people rest, He gives people abundance, He gives people fruitfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And what this does is then we walk in the assurance of God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you labored somewhere and you are always sure that the Lord is with me.
SPEAKER_00: Would you not labor with a different attitude?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you walked with the assurance of God's divine promises.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's possible to just take the scripture and not know that these are divine promises for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we also walk with the conviction of divine victory.
SPEAKER_00: So three things happen when the Lord redeems and restores we walk in the assurance of God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We walk in the promise of God's divine presence.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, we walk in the conviction of divine victory.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where you're at today.
SPEAKER_00: The future has already started.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, on Sunday, no, it started on Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: The future starts now.
SPEAKER_00: We switched the mantle, right?
SPEAKER_00: I hope as we switch the mantle, you will switch the mantle at a place of return with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: At a place of a release from fear, a release from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, that we get to enjoy the Lord's redemption and the Lord's restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Please let's stand and rise as we pray.
SPEAKER_00: But it could just be one.
SPEAKER_00: What is that one thing that you really want?
SPEAKER_00: What is that one thing that as we cross over, we've already crossed over, we've already begun another series of 50 years.
SPEAKER_00: What is that that the Lord is asking of you today?
SPEAKER_00: Is he calling you to return?
SPEAKER_00: Is he calling you to release?
SPEAKER_00: Is he calling you also to a place of receiving his divine redemption as a son?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not receiving inheritance as a stranger, you're receiving inheritance as a son of God.
SPEAKER_00: So just speak to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Speak to God.
SPEAKER_00: Just tell him, tell him this is where I am at, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him this is my desire.
SPEAKER_00: This is what, Lord, things are happening.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I yearn for.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the Lord, this is what I really desire, even for my family, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I desire, Lord, for my country, for my church, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That we receive divine, divine restoration.
SPEAKER_00: We receive divine redemption.
SPEAKER_00: We receive divine release of every bondage, every fear that.
SPEAKER_00: Has held us back.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, Lord, we are committing our lives to you again.
SPEAKER_00: You are tells us in John that you're the vine and we are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone that remains in you bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are coming with just a realization that we are coming in a season where, Lord, indeed, it may look like nothing is bearing much fruit, but we come with the assurance, Lord, that our return to you because you are the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Cause us that, Lord, to bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And not just fruit, oh God, that can be stolen, but fruit that will last.
SPEAKER_00: Fruit that will last for this generation.
SPEAKER_00: And even in the generation behind us, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may those that come behind us find us faithful, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: May those that come behind us even now.
SPEAKER_00: May those that will come, oh God, after Parky has celebrated 50 years find us faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this is our desire, God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this is our desire.
SPEAKER_00: We draw near to you tonight, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We render our hearts, not our garment.
SPEAKER_00: We render all that we are to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Draw us back to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: In our time, in our money, in our service, Lord, draw us back to you.
SPEAKER_00: Like the church in Macedonia, and we will give fast to you.
SPEAKER_00: And then, Lord, our giving will flow that we have given over ourselves to you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, even tonight, Lord, we are giving over ourselves to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We are giving over our church to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We are giving over our pain, our frustration.
SPEAKER_00: We are giving it all to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We are giving up our disappointment because sometimes we are disappointed by you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we are disappointed that your promises are starried.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, yet we return.
SPEAKER_00: We return, God.
SPEAKER_00: We return with our disappointed heart.
SPEAKER_00: We return with our mourning hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, we return.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to return to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to draw near to you because then you have promised that you will draw near to us, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: We return to you so that we can even trust you again, God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, there are people here because of how life has been hard, God.
SPEAKER_00: Moving from luck, from death to loss to sicknesses.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, sometimes we have lost our trust in you, but we return to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We render our hearts to you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We render our hearts, not our garments, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: We render to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That you may have mercy on us, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you may set us free, Lord, that you may release us, God, from every pain.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you may release us from past victories, oh God, that have always come in the way of us wanting to dive deep, Jehovah God.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're calling us at a season of not just anchored deep, not needy, oh God, but we fully immerse ourselves in you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, in places where we've not trusted you for our children, in places where we've not trusted you for our families, we return to you.
SPEAKER_00: In places where we have not trusted you, God, even for our church, with our finances, with our volunteers, with our time, we return to you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We commit ourselves to you back.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Come and have your way, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Come and take your prayer maintenance, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: At our workplace, Lord, we could be holding things in our marriages.
SPEAKER_00: We could be holding things.
SPEAKER_00: We release them, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We release them to your Lordship, Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: We release them because you're a God that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above, beyond what we can ever ask, think, or even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: For there's just an assurance that, Lord, the things that you have prepared for us that no ear has had, no eye has seen.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we partake.
SPEAKER_00: We partake of your divine redemption.
SPEAKER_00: We partake of your divine restoration.
SPEAKER_00: We partake of your divine abundance and safety.
SPEAKER_00: That we will walk in this land without fear.
SPEAKER_00: We will not be afraid of any man.
SPEAKER_00: We will not be afraid of any circumstances that comes our way.
SPEAKER_00: For indeed we have a promise of God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, when you are with us, nothing is impossible for us.
SPEAKER_00: God, come and have your way, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We exalt you and we honor you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're giving God a clap, please give him like a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we come to the close of the service, just a few reminders.
SPEAKER_00: This is our youth week.
SPEAKER_00: Please send your teenager, send your youth, your young adults.
SPEAKER_00: We have activity going on all the way to Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That's Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: And then we culminate with our service here on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it will be a youth-led service.
SPEAKER_00: So send your teenager.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot God has prepared for them, alright?
SPEAKER_00: All right, please let's share in the words of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And now 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_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please stand to your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them you appreciate them.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them there is also a cup of tea for them.
SPEAKER_00: Please pass my love and regards to your loved one.
SPEAKER_00: Have a good evening.