We welcome to our service this day. We want to welcome you this chilly morning to the sanctuary of the Lord so that we may start our service on day 7 of the camp meeting. We ask that you may join us as we begin, but before we start, may we start with the word of prayer. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we are grateful to be in your presence once again this day. You have seen us throughout the week and now we are coming to the end of our camp meeting. As we begin our service this day, we ask that may you start with us, O Lord, be with all the speakers as they minister to us, as you minister to us through them. Lord, I pray that may we be in your presence and your blessings in our lives. We pray all this trust in and believing in Jesus' name. Amen. We are going to start our morning session with the hymns of praise. And with me up here are my fellow choristers from my far right. Please introduce yourself. My name is Davin. And my name is Salivan. Our pianist this morning is Eric. Eric, you can play a key. We're going to start off our song service with song number 348. The church has one foundation. 348. Here at the sanctuary, those of you that are into us wherever you are, may the Lord, may the Holy Spirit speak to your heart. I'd like to request that we stand. Dear Jesus, once again we stand before you to listen to your word. A very special message as we come to the close of these camp meetings. We thank you because you have been with us from the very first day and you have spoken to our hearts. So we pray that you will speak to us here again. So that ultimately we will stand convinced that we are ready to go out to the world and take this special message to everyone that we can reach. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Thank you. We want to praise God. I know it's a much chillier morning today and many of you probably are feeling quite cold but I feel quite warm right here in the church. So if you're not here yet, then we'd like to pray that you make haste and be with us here so that we can enjoy the warmth of the blessings of God together. During this period we have been focusing on the title when the Lord says go. And of course we've seen many from the Old Testament that God sent out, that God said, I need you to go for a specific purpose and we have yet another character today that we are going to look at. Now this specific character is a bit different from the others but also from the book of Genesis. He's first mentioned in the book of Genesis chapter 12 and then as we move on we'll find him in other chapters specifically in chapter 19. But before we go to our character for today, I would like us to read a verse from the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 19 verse 22. The Bible says, the one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. After the many blessings of the week it is my hope and my desire that many among us are now ready to go to proclaim the three angels message. But it could be that many of us are still choked by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the pursuit of wealth in this life and thus we will remain unfruitful. And so I have chosen to take this final period to sound a warning from the Bible to those that may not take this seriously because the consequences may be very dire. And I pray that the spirit will help me present this message in a way that we will truly receive it and learn from it and live better lives in Jesus name. Now I would like to remind you that I am fully convinced that the message I will go and proclaim the three angels message that the Seventh Day Adventist Church has made a pillar, has made a foundation is critical for these last days. It is a message of power, it is a message of salvation, it is a message for everyone, it is a message that is to be believed. And so I would like to encourage you to ask God to help you to always remember about the gospel and ask the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to proclaim the gospel. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to have time for the gospel. From the very beginning the very first man and the very first woman had a challenge when it came to listening to what the Word of God says. They had a challenge when it came to heeding to the call of God. And there in the Book of Genesis chapter 3 verse 9 to 11 the Bible says in the Lord God called to the man, where are you? He replied, I heard you walking in the garden so I hid, I was afraid because I was naked.  Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? So it is very clearly evident that from the very beginning man has always found reason to hide from God when we hear the voice of God. And throughout this week there have been many speakers that have stood on this podium before the Lord and have brought a great message. And have reinforced the theme of this week reminding all of us that we have a special responsibility to proclaim the gospel. I once cut out a very interesting analogy about how you can boil a frog. If you wanted to boil a frog it says all you have to do is put it in cold water and then put it on a stove and turn up the heat very slowly. The frog an amphibian being a cold blooded animal tends to respond to the environment around it. And so over time it will not realize that it is about to die. And the reality with the 21st century is that we are not always very serious about the call that God has given us and about the gospel that God has asked us to take to the world. And for this reason we stand warned that it is possible that we may lose out as we folk body else went with him. The Bible calls him lot. Lot went with him. Who is this lot? In verse 5 the question is answered, lot is his brother's son in African culture and very much in Jewish culture.  And because Abram and Sarah at this point did not have a child it was clearly evident that they looked upon lot as their own. And so as Abram answered the call to go out so did lot together with the rest of his household. And the Bible tells us that wherever Abram camped lot also encamped with him. Wherever Abram went lot also went with him. And when Abram found his way into Egypt at the very beginning of his stay in Canon the Bible says that lot went with him. And you all know what happened in Egypt that's not the most important part. But the reality is that whatever happened in Egypt left an impression in the life of lot and in his heart. And so when we get to chapter 13 the Bible begins as such and says that so Abram went up from Egypt in the Hebrew means an ancient land or a black land or a land of darkness. And he moved to the Negev with his wife and everything he had and lot went with him again. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold and from the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel. Bethel is known as the house of God. So he moves from the land of darkness into the house of God a very significant step in the life of this faithful patriarch Abram. But the Bible also mentions that he moved further to a place between Bethel that is the house of God to a place called AI which means a heap of ruins. So Abram positions himself between the house of God and the heap of ruins. And here he sets up his tent because he had been there earlier where he had first built an altar. And the Bible says that there Abram called on the name of the Lord, amen. And lot who was basically a son of Abram was learning from Abram. His faith was the faith of Abram. He worshiped God. He built an altar along with his uncle Abram. But the Bible says now as we move on down the chapter to verse 10 that a time came when it was not possible for Abram and lot to live together. He was a grown man. It was time for him to move on and start his own life. And the Bible says that Abram called his nephew lot and gave him choice of any portion of the land. Actually Abram said that whatever you choose I will take the rest. And in verse 10 the Bible very clearly states that lot lifted up. He looked up and saw that the whole plain of Jordan was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt toward Zohar. And so lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. So he made his choice. He said uncle Abram I'm going to move east so you can move west. Now in verse 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan while lot chose to live among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. If you notice that lot doesn't move into Sodom right away. First of all he pitches his tent right about near the city of Sodom. And verse 13 sounds a warning that says that now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. And so you ask yourself why is it that this young man who had had such a great training, who had great promise to serve as a patriarch of faith for the Lord under the tutelage of Abram himself. Why is it that he chooses to move so close to those that are sinning greatly against the Lord. Lot is moving his tents closer, closer towards Sodom. And the Bible says of course and of course I tried to understand took my time to try to delve deeper into this story. And it takes me back to the previous chapter 12 where lot and Abram had moved into Egypt. And I realized that Egypt had great cities also at that time. It was one of the great civilizations of the world at that time and lot had experienced city life in Egypt. And so lot and his wife felt like this was more appealing to them. And so when they had an opportunity to move into a city back in Canaan they took it. And thus it is very important for parents to realize that what you expose your children to would very well define who they become for the rest of their lives. And what you choose to make your own could define whether you become an effective minister of the gospel, an effective child of God, an effective missionary, an effective evangelist. So how, pray tell, do we move our tents towards Sodom? Beware children of God of moving your tents towards Sodom. How do we do that? We move our tents towards Sodom when our attitudes lead us in the wrong direction. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 22 abstain from every form of evil children of God. We condition ourselves, we allow an attitude or tendency to lead us one step after another in the wrong direction. Proverbs 4 verse 23 says keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.  How do we move our tents towards Sodom when we allow ourselves to become selfish? Look 10 verse 30 to 37. How many of us would be the good Samaritan? Or would we be the ones that pass by on the other side? In our business relationships, in our jobs, in our community dealings, in our neighborhood and sometimes even in our family relationships, are we always number one? Or is God number one? How do we move our tents towards Sodom when we become materialistic?  How do we move our tents towards Sodom is when we live for pleasure? Matthew 16 verse 26 says we cannot become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, children of God.  How do we move our tents towards Sodom is when we seek to be popular? Jesus was condemned, Jesus condemned those who so avidly sought approval of men that they neglected the things of God. Even in church, are you here because you really love God or are you here because you want to be popular? You want to be known as a good person? How do we move our tents towards Sodom is when we pursue the path of immorality? Adultri in the Bible was punishable by death, but one step after another we may find ourselves living in immorality. When we go back to the Bible, Genesis chapter 19, we find that by this time now lot has moved into Sodom. At first he just pitched his tent outside Sodom, but at this point he has moved into Sodom. And in verse 1 of chapter 19 God has already made a decision. God has said, I have heard the cry of Sodom that it is so sinful, it is so great and God sent two angels and the son of God himself came down to investigate. And two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting at the gateway as was his custom. Lot who had tried so much to cling to his culture, his Christian generosity, his Christian nature always spent time at the gate welcoming people who came into the city of Sodom trying to protect them from the obsanity of the city. It is the place where he had his fellowship. But the Bible does say, no matter how hard Lot tried to maintain his culture, what he had learned from his father Abraham, Proverbs chapter 6 verse 27 and 28, can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? Is it possible for us to play with sin and not suffer the effects? And so you may ask pastor, what were the real sins of Sodom? Why is it that God was not so happy with this city? In the book of Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 and 50, the Bible makes it very clear that this was the sin of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. They did not help the poor and needy. They were hotty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. If in church we get to a point where we are over, we are arrogant, we are overfed, we are unconcerned about the problems, we are even unconcerned about the mission that God has given us. We don't care about the poor and the needy around us. We are hotty, we do detestable things before the Lord, then we have become Sodom itself. The Bible says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2, do not ye be conformed to the world but be transformed. Amen. Praise the Lord. By the renewing of your mind. And the Bible says in Genesis 19 verse 4 to 8, that before they had gone to bed all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old. Nobody in the city of Sodom was left unaffected by the sinful behavior of that city. Both young and old. And the Bible says that all the men, all, what does all mean? Everyone was affected. Both young and old surrounded the house of Lot and they called to Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight, bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them? Lot left the confines of his uncle, where everything wonderful had been taught to him and now he is in a place where all the depravity of the world was concentrated. And verse 6 makes things even more difficult for me to consume because I realize that Lot himself had been polluted by the obscenity of the city of Sodom because this is what he suggests. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, no my friends, don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you and you can do what you like with them but don't do anything to these men for they have come under the protection of my roof and I ask myself at this point, what father does that? How can you as a father give your own children just so that you can protect two strangers? Aren't your daughters too under your protection? And so I realize that by this time the ways of Sodom had had their effect on this man of God. Lot had started off well when he had left his home country of earth and journeyed with his uncle Abraham when he had learned from him, when he had sacrificed with Abraham when he had worshiped God with Abraham but a time came when Lot was on his own and the choices that he made one after the other step by step took him far away from the word of God. We remember how Abraham was reasoning with the son of God wondering that if Sodom might be spared if there were at least ten that were righteous. First Corinthians 15 verse 33 says do not be misled children of God bad company corrupts good character if you want to try to get a rotting tomato and put it among fresh tomatoes and see what happens in a day or two. Further in the Bible, Colossians chapter 1 verse 21 once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior if you stick to the ways of the world you become alienated from everything that is godly. Ephesians 4 verse 22 to 23 says you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds God wants to control your mind if you want to be a true child of God that can embrace the three angels messages that can present it to the world in a way that the world can believe then you need to be renewed your mind needs to be renewed child of God and therefore again Robins 12 verse 2 do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world that be transformed by the renewing of your mind many tend to believe that lot was a righteous man but after studying so deeply I came to disagree it came to the point that these two angels are now the ones protecting lot and they are trying to get lot and his family out of Sodom lot tried this tale that he was trying to spin around and lot finally was able to get out and the Bible says that the angels had to take them by the hand and practically drag them out of the city of Sodom and you go if you are being dragged many of us do not want to serve God many of us want to be comfortable in the warmth of our churches many of us do not feel that they can go out and proclaim the message of the gospel and so many of us are being pushed dragged pulled let's go on mission let's go out and sing let's go out and serve let's go out and help and finally when the angels were able to get the two daughters and his wife out of the city they gave them a warning escape for your life do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley go up the hills or you will be swept away and still lot wants to live in the cities he is still saying I beg of you do not send me to the hills let me go to Zohar and Zohar in Hebrew means insignificant so you want to move away from destructiveness to insignificance still the voice of God is not getting through to lot and so it was that lot who had been under the tutelage of a great patriarch as Abram the father of the faithful did not remain faithful himself he was not able to partake of this great mission God had called Abram and told him that through you and your family the world will be blessed the world will learn about God the world will learn about the salvation that Jesus Christ is to bring to the world lot knew everything that there was to know about the plan of salvation about judgment that is to come but yet because he could not get the city life out of himself he dragged his family into it and when the time came God tried to pull him out of it and it was still so difficult if you take time to read you understand that what happened to lot's wife she perished in that van she couldn't she couldn't come to terms with leaving her beautiful home and her nice shop where she used to sell beautiful shoes and beautiful dresses she couldn't come to terms with leaving her beautiful home that she had worked so hard for and what about her beautiful daughters that she had brought up her grandchildren her heart was in Sodom and so children of God may I resound this warning do not spend too much time in Sodom because your heart may remain there Lot has lost almost half of his family by them and he makes out with just two of his daughters and we know what happened to them at some point they got drunk they got their father drunk and they had children by their own father and so no matter how far they had gotten out of Sodom the behaviors and the traditions of Sodom were still in them and I want to put it to you if you have studied the Bible that not one of the family of Lot actually came out of Sodom not one of them was saved and not one of them took part in the proclamation of the gospel that God had called Abram and his family to deliver to the world in contrast to Lot you see Abram that had remained in the hills of Canaan Abram that had remained faithful and his son Isaac when it came to the time when Isaac was to be a sacrifice Isaac gave up his hands and said bound me I am ready if it is God that has asked for my life I am ready to give it to God what a contrast children of God for those that choose to love God and his appearing for those that choose the ways of God when God says come out of it the second angels message for Babylon is fallen why children of God do we linger why do we hold on the words that the Bible uses flee iniquity pursue righteousness Abram finally had to separate with Lot Lot was ready but he made his choice today today you are ready God has called you the voice of God is very clear as it was to the prophet Isaiah when he says who will go for us whom shall I send Isaiah was ready and he answered here am I send me Lot was not ready to be sent he still wanted to live alive life Lot could not make a decision between the life that his father Abraham had taught him to live and the life that he had experienced in Egypt and so he was pushed slowly pitching his stand first outside Sodom and then moving right into the city and so I would like to tell you children of God that if you would gain the favor of God he must be first in your life not self not family not anything else God must be first in your life there is much that we would love to accomplish in life but Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 puts it very clear seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness in the world and then all these other things shall be added unto you the Bible says all the things that we seek and we wish for shall be yours as well so don't be too mindful about these things first first choose God be right with God demonstrate an integrity that only God can put in your heart by being close with him and so church may the mistakes of lot serve as a warning to us let us not waste our lives in the indulgences of the world around us let us not waste the time that God has given us the Bible says in the book of Genesis yesterday that the days of man are 120 years and later on in the book of Psalms they are reduced to how many years 70 years but I want to put it to you that even that has come a lot lower these days you have no guarantee to get to 70 what you are guaranteed to have is right now this could as well be your very last day on this world how are you going to spend the moments that you have in first Timothy chapter 6 verse 11 and 12 Paul is speaking to the young pastor Timothy and he is saying but as for you, oh man of God flee these things pursue righteousness godliness faith, love, steadfastness gentleness fight the good fight of faith take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses that is on the day of your baptism if you have been baptized into Christ then God is saying flee these things make a choice because ultimately that is your right make a choice that I plead with you to make the right choice lot made his choice and his family the whole of his family was consumed in evil including lot himself Abraham made his choice and you see that the legacy of Abraham is what we have today if you choose to love God if you choose to give of your time to God if you choose to pursue righteousness then then you can be a part of proclaiming the three angels message what would they say love God serve God come out of Babylon because it is fallen the time of judgment is coming child of God it is almost here with us if you are found to be righteous and faithful then truly you are blessed but if you are not then you will be judged make your choice today what is your decision this is our final message during this camp meetings and I would like to reach out to each and every one of us wherever we are even those that are watching us that the Lord may truly touch your heart and that you may answer to this very specific message this very specific call when the Lord says go what will you do are you ready are you ready to respond to God are you ready to answer to this call I would like to ask the choristers to come and and help us with a song that I love very much it is a very old song but it is also a great song that epitomizes the commitment that a Christian must have that a Christian must make a decision I have decided to follow Jesus he's decided it is up to you to make your decision I would like to read once again Matthew chapter 13 verse 22 the Bible says the one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it making it unfruitful this is a message of power this is a message of salvation this is a message for everyone this is a message that must be believed ask God help you to always remember that you are part of taking the gospel to the world and ask the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to proclaim the gospel in Jesus name and if you choose to do so please stand with me for word of prayer our Lord we want to thank you for you have fulfilled the promise thank you for you have truly spoken to us you are sending us once again to the world to proclaim the very final message that the world must hear to awaken those that are in a slumber to shock those that are asleep so that they may awake and respond to this great call because Gabriel is about to sound that great trumpet it will open the clouds the coming of the Son of God many among us have decided to go follow you and to show the world that we truly love help us O Lord give us courage help us to boldly proclaim your love to the nations around us to the peoples around us to the family around us to our friends to our colleagues at work to wherever it is that we may go may we always sow the seed of love that you have sown in our hearts and may we like Abram choose to be faithful so that ultimately when you come as king and when you receive us into your glory we will truly rejoice when we know that we have done well bless each one of us and bless this church for the great mission that you have given him and made finally truly show your love to the world in Jesus' name We will continue in song by use of song number 501 501 tees the blessed hour of prayer Tees the blessed hour of prayer It is a privilege once again that we have been considering other than Revelation 14 and we are looking at Revelation 14 verse 1 it says then I looked and behold alarm standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads and it continues We have said here that this is a beautiful announcement of commendation God is commanding the people who have been faithful and then after we have proved faithful then there is assignment assignment that we find in verses 6 to 12 that's the text that our speakers have been looking at and I said I would not go into the details of that because there are people who are dealing with that this morning it is my privilege once again to talk on leadership and today we are looking at spirit field leader that's what we want to finish with as we come to the close of our 2022 camp meeting on leadership and so when we roll back the hand of time and get our perspective from the history of the leadership of the early Christian church when Christianity arose the world was largely blanketed by paganism and the secularistic philosophies of Greece and Rome because of its inward looking mentality Judaism failed to pass the light of truth that it possessed its candlesticks illuminated only the narrow confines of its own people and the world at large was left to revolt in moral and spiritual darkness that was an unfortunate situation Judaism did not lack men of leadership caliber in her midst were men of learning men of prestige and men of skill the great Gamalil is one example they were also the men from the Levitical priesthood the seminary and so on and so forth to speak Israel failed in her leadership as a nation and God had to turn his attention elsewhere so God chooses unlikely leaders God picked his leaders from the most unlikely places when Jesus was here he went to the seashore he went to the tax collectors booth he met a lonely strip on the Damascus road and then the original 12 men whom Christ chose to lead the Christian world would certainly raise eyebrows today in our nominating committees as we see to choose leaders in our churches and we were to choose the 12 men that Jesus chose that would raise a lot of debate in our committees the Lord is not impressed by men or women's resume I have said that he is concerned about one's response the disciples responded when he called them at the seashore when he met them he called them Peter James Andrew John the Bible says that they straight away left their nets and followed him that is what God is looking for in leadership the question is did Christ pick inferior men and women yes according to world standards even the religious leaders at that time looked at Peter and John and they said that these were unlearned men they were ignorant men and yet Jesus chose them I want to say that today top executives excellent administrators expert promoters can be picked up anywhere there are literally hundreds of employment agencies that can fill any number of leadership position I think I have said that already here but Christian leaders are special if not rare breed they come only from God's production line cast in his own mold and crowned by his unique glory they are special people they are no ordinary people I want to say that to a large degree the success of the church depends on the kind of men and women that lead it Gandhi once remarked to a group of religious leaders from the west he said there are only two kinds of leaders of the church religious leaders and Christian leaders and he said I would have been a Christian now if I had seen a real one if he had seen a real Christian leader he said it would have been a Christian sister White talking about leadership she said true leaders must be the recipients of the Holy Spirit and continually respond to the grace of God in their lives the human heart would never know happiness or real meaning until it is submitted to be molded by the Holy Spirit so unless we are willing to be transformed by the Holy Spirit our leadership will basically mean nothing so the foundation of Christian leadership I look at what Jesus told Peter in John 21 John 21 v. 15-17 to me is the beginning of the foundation of Christian leadership and so it said here that so when they had eaten breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonah do you love me more than this he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you he said to him feed my lambs he said to him again the second time Simon son of Jonah do you love me he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you he said to him hand my sheep he said to him the third time Simon son of Jonah do you love me Peter was grieved because he had said to him Lord you know all things you know that I love you he said to him feed my sheep this text was expounded on the stewardship side but now I am looking at it on the leadership side yes Peter became discouraged when Jesus allowed himself to be arrested and crucified and so there the word is carried and not sure what to do next he said to his friends I go fishing and they followed him and they went and they spent the whole night out there without anything and then they came back broad daylight and there was this man standing out there calling them children do you have any meat they said no and Jesus told them to cast their nets we have been told during stewardship time so after they had eaten they had come Jesus knows everything about us even when we were hungry and he knew that these people were hungry so the first thing that he could do for them was to prepare breakfast for them can you imagine the Lord himself preparing breakfast for these discari disciples he prepared breakfast for them there was fish and there was bread and he told them bring some more and so after they had roasted and they had eaten now Jesus called Peter and so as they were walking along the Sea of Galilee and whenever I walk along the Sea of Galilee I think of how Jesus was talking with Peter they are walking and John is following and then Jesus begins to ask Peter Peter son of John do you love me do you love me more than this do you love me more than the fish or do you love me more than your friends and then Peter says yes Lord he says he asks again the second time do you love me and he says and Peter was relieved and he says Lord you know all things you know that I love you what is Jesus saying Jesus is basically giving Peter leadership of the church and he is saying to him take care of my lambs the little children that come in here take care of them take care of my lambs and also take care of my little spiritual lambs not everybody who is in the church is mature spiritually they are those who have just been brought in they have just been born spiritually and so you need to take care of them walk with them step by step not everybody who is here understands the 28 fundamental beliefs but those who are coming in walk with them step by step as the Holy Spirit leads them and so he says again take care of my sheep feed my sheep again that is a serious responsibility for the leaders that when people coming they need to give them food don't just give them crumbs here and there if the people food spiritual food that they will eat and be satisfied this is direct motion to leadership and so all of us Jesus is saying tell me you cannot be a leader in God's church without loving God first so the first requirement for leadership in the house of God is to love Jesus then after you have loved God enough then you will love the people you will take care of the children you will take care of everybody who comes in here because I have already said everybody who comes in here has a unique experience that we must meet we cannot love God without the Holy Spirit taking charge of our lives and so that is why number one that people must do is to be a spiritual person being a spiritual person basically means that we must be filled with the Holy Spirit I want to say that spirituality is not bestowed on the leader by birth or by education or by social status it is not given by conference committee or church board spirituality is given by the Holy Spirit himself a church leader must make Christ his partner I think I have said that so we look at Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 again this gives us how we can be spirit filled how we can be spiritual leaders in the church and so the text says but the fruit of the spirit is love peace long suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness, self control and then it says against society there is no law hallelujah to God I want to look at this attributes of the Holy Spirit step by step it says love love is the greatest of all Christian virtues it is what makes it is what must govern your leadership it is that does no ill to all members in the church the absence of love cannot be compensated by sacrifice or by even life itself because love is the giving up of your right as a leader love goes upward the love that goes upward is worship and love that goes outward is affection love that stoops down is grace God has demonstrated is love and a church leader that serves without love is a misplaced leader as it was and he can be appointed by the church board by the conference by the division or by the general conference but without the spirit of love in such a leader he will only feel opposition but he will not do the will of God and so I look at joy what is this joy joy in service joyously you are happy even when members oppose you over different views you can still serve them with the spirit of joy even when you are persecuted like Paul you can still serve with the spirit of joy because there is joy in your heart then we look at peace peace is a gift of God it is a calm attitude it is walking in the footsteps the spirit produces peace in the leader that even when times are challenging and things are completely outside control the leader can still rest in peace because there is peace given by the Holy Spirit what is long suffering long suffering is patience it is perseverance it is steadfastness it is endurance the word describes a state of mind that enables a leader when oppressed or wrongfully accused when they are challenges you are dealing with difficult people you can still be patient with them and you can persevere in your work as a leader love must be the principle attribute in long suffering again without love the leader cannot be a long suffering person without love the leader becomes cold and cannot be along that a leader carries the dirty water of the people even as we saw from the first time how the shepherd went out looking for the lost ship and he carried the ship home and so this is what we can see here that in leadership you can bear long with people as you carry their weight you carry the dirty water of the people long suffering enables us to learn things which we might have never become aware of long suffering and knowledge go together the Holy Spirit makes us knowledgeable true Christian leadership does not feed on the diet of ignorance I think we have already said that also here that as a leader you must take time to learn you must take time to educate yourself and get more knowledge the next thing is kindness kindness makes love real kindness is love in action kindness makes leadership active kindness should never be selected it should be directed to every member of the church without discrimination I know that there are times when people that we consider down here when they are in need sometimes we don't reach out to them as fast as we do but kindness will not discriminate kindness will serve people the same whether is the pastor who is in need or whether he is the new member who has just come in need all of us will show kindness to someone who is in need kindness takes time to understand the needs of the members and that's why again we said from the beginning that as a leader you need to know your members a leader of the cyber school you need to know the members here you need to know their contact you know how you can get them for us to reach out and show kindness we must know the people and understand their needs when things go wrong in the church a kind leader will go out of his way to show care for the members like the good shepherd I have said that however there are things kindness will not do hallelujah to God there are things kindness will not do kindness will not gossip kindness refuses to cheat kindness want to make fun of others kindness will not insult others it is sad to know that sometimes leaders with old kindness I want to say that God has enabled me over the years the many years that I served the church and I have sat at the feet of many many leaders many leaders in the government and also in the church and I have understood the types of leaders that are there there are times when leaders will pretend kindness when the person is there but as soon as the person turns they are back then the leader begin to say some negative things kindness will not do that kindness will not gossip kindness will be genuine kindness will be real kindness will be extended to all people without discrimination hallelujah to God amen this what I am considering the fruit of the Holy Spirit and we are talking about a spirit filled leader and so as a spirit filled leader God has empowered us and God is willing to empower us by the Holy Spirit so what is goodness goodness is basically uprightness in the heart and in the life in motive and conduct we have demonstrated here by saying that a leader's private life will definitely affect the professional life a leader's private life will affect the private the public life and so if goodness is exercised and maintained in life a leader will be a leader that will not cause confusion in his life what he is in public is what he will be in private life so goodness is God likeness goodness is a deep change of our hearts by the Holy Spirit goodness is the result of divine power it is transforming the human nature a leader in a living connection with God becomes the center of spiritual influence because we understand leadership is all about influence it is about influencing people and so this leader will become the center of spiritual influence John 7 38 there is in this leader a power which flows forth like a river a river of water that no dam can confine no sun can dry up and no situation in life can make dirty that this kind of a leader is flowing water that is flowing everywhere and this water as it passes down from the hill and passes everywhere this water meanders as it moves on moves on down to the lake I come from the lakeside and I can imagine this river coming from the highlands and moving everywhere this water passes leaves regrence of life that is the leader that Christ needs in his charge goodness is kindness goodness is thoughtfulness goodness is truthfulness goodness is sympathy goodness is fairness goodness is unselfishness goodness is helpfulness it is generosity it is tolerance it is forgiveness a Christian can never exhaust the least of goodness and that is why when we are filled with the Holy Spirit as leaders nothing will threaten us nothing will threaten our leadership because God is leading through us so goodness is also food for the hungry goodness is medicine to the sick goodness is forgiveness to the offender it is a lift to the unfallen it is a push to the discouraged it is a song to the helpless it is a big heart to everybody everywhere without selective I wish the church would say amen hallelujah to God amen this is goodness and we are talking about leadership that is filled with the Holy Spirit goodness is leaving footprints for others to follow and Jesus sums it up in Matthew 7 12 and so we look at faith faith is another beautiful thing that we must apply in our leadership faith is trust faith is confidence faith is reliability faith is supreme it is a supreme need for all who are waiting for the coming of the Lord faith is a settled assurance based on confidence that God will fulfill his promise it is impossible to have faith if you are not faithful Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 25 verse 14 about these three men three men not 30 two were faithful and one was not and we understand the one who was not faithful the one who took his talent and went and hid it and so faithfulness cannot be counterfeited we are either faithful the man who hid his talent could not counterfeit his faithfulness and so we are saying you cannot fake faith you are either faithful or not and so we look at again the spirit of meekness meekness is humility meekness is harmlessness meekness is submissiveness it is gentleness it is peaceableness it is modesty harmlessness can we imagine such kind of a leader a leader who is filled with the Holy Spirit a leader who is filled with the Holy Spirit and has got all these beautiful traits meekness carries the idea of submission to the divine will so meekness is an attitude of the heart of mind and life that prepares the way for sanctification meekness is a cardinal Christian virtue meekness and humility were two of the most outstanding characteristics of Jesus Paul writes about it in Philippians 2 verses 5 to 8 I wish that could be displayed for us to see if you can display that I didn't put it down if you can have it if you don't have it I will read it here Philippians 2 to 8 it says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a born servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in the appearance of a man he humbled himself at the point of death even the death of the cross therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on the earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory and so we see the meekness of Jesus Christ here and that is what every leader in the church should exercise and so meekness is not doing meekness is not about doing meekness meekness is being you are a meek person you become a meek person just like Jesus was a meek person and so we want to look at the last part the last part is self control self control is temperance temperance is moderation in all that is good we know it and avoidance of all that is bad have you wondered why self control is mentioned last in the least it is mentioned last because it is the most important of all these things that we need to find in a leader it is the foundation of the fruit of the spirit and it makes the other fruits impossible without self control sooner or later the leader would crash there must be self control in the life of a leader there must be self control over the food that the leader is there must be control over the drink that the leader drinks and there must be control over the tongue of the leader I think I have expressed a lot on the tongue of the leader because I have seen that the challenges of the tongue the Bible says life and death are in the power of the tongue and if the leader's tongue is not sanctified there will be a problem if the leader's tongue does not exercise self control there will be a problem you remember the story I told you here about the three leaders who were confiding in each other and saying please pray for me the first one said I have a problem with faithfulness the other one said I have a problem of handling money and the third one said I have a problem with my tongue that even what we have shared here I want to assure you that I am going to be talking about you with other people who cannot control the tongue and I want to say this here the reason why sometimes we find that our members don't feel confident enough to share their issues with the leaders of the church is because they have been betrayed you share something with the leader and before you know it the thing is already at the CNN and so you wonder did I take it to CNN myself no if the leader did because as soon as you finish then the phone and so on and so forth and so I'd rather keep to myself than come to you as a leader and share with you my problem if I know that you are going to take it to CNN so I'm saying here there must be self control over the tongue of the leader hallelujah church amen there must be temperance also over the fashion the fashion designers have got control sometimes over us but then there must be control then there must be control over sex I think this has been expressed here over and over by our our leaders as the Holy Spirit has led so we are saying there must be control you have seen people who have completely dropped from high up there and they have come down because there was no self control over their lives organizations, groups within the church gone down completely wiped because of lack of self control and so there must be control over temper temper we have already talked about temper there are things that can destroy temper like anger, bitterness, criticism and then there are also other things like debt when a leader has got huge debts all over you are a leader but the debts are overwhelming as a leader you have no authority like the life of David later on when he sinned against Uriah's wife he had no control over his children and things could just go upside down because he had no control so as a leader we must have control over issues that affect others so we must have control over our lives anger, pride, arrogance these are some things we must have self control because I must choose the leader must choose every day to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit it is a daily choice that we make that as a leader I must depend on the Lord Jesus Christ every day and so here we see the Lord is coming but before I go there I want to I want to say that there is agency and the sense of urgency of this mission is characterized by who we are and what we are reveals actually who we are reveals what we do and so we have a world to one we have said that we have a gospel to proclaim and we have a savior who is soon coming and because God has made us leaders in his church we must do whatever it takes to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit Hallelujah to God I have a few minutes that remain before I give you time to ask any question or to contribute I want to give you quickly 10 common mistakes that leaders make the 10 common mistakes that leaders make I will run that very quickly to the next question that you may want Mistake number one as a leader remember you are under the direction of the Holy Spirit but the mistakes that leaders make if a leader thinks that he is superior than his followers when you think that you are high up there because you are a leader and so you tend to look down on the followers as a leader you are a team player in God's leadership we are all the same I remember one time a humble civil servant came to this church many years ago and he was so surprised to find a senior leader of the nation carrying benches when we were still out there in the old sanctuary that a senior person in the nation can come to church and carry benches for ordinary people like us to sit on he was so impressed he said that is the church I want to belong to and he came and he was baptized as a member of this church just because of that sign only and so what we are saying here as a leader a leader should not think that he is superior than all others everybody is busy but every time when people want to see you you say I don't have time I will call you I will give you appointment next week and they never call and they never give appointment and so as a leader remember to keep your promises if you don't have time for the people then they will not have time for you you will look for them they will not have time for you and they will be busy for you so as a leader please share your time mistake number three is when a leader fails to give appreciation give credit where credit belongs take time to appreciate people take time to recognize what people have done like I see people in this camp meeting there are people who have worked day and night and I see them working up and down all the time at the end of the day I think they deserve a great appreciation not only from the chairman but the higher church board and the entire church because they have worked so hard people feel good when they are appreciated point number four is when a leader fails to recognize the unique contribution of every member we are different and each person brings in a different contribution and a unique contribution so as a leader you need to recognize every unique contribution that is important because if you don't then next time they will not contribute they see you struggling but because you don't recognize them I will just sit back because you don't value my contribution so why should I waste my breath everybody is unique point number five is when a leader fails to involve other people in decision making you are not the only one yes you have been gifted God has given you but you are not the only one who can lead the church of God there are people who can help you also this church is a community where all of us contribute together and that is why even if you don't hold a position of leadership in quotes I have said all of us are leaders but if you are not appointed a decon or an elder and you see something is amiss with the church and you say to the pastor pastor I think I am seeing this in my own ordinary way and this is what I am seeing and you talk to the pastor about it and the pastor will give you a listening here because as a leader you need to be listening with the ears of others and also seeing with the eyes of other people and so you go to the pastor rather than going out and starting talking about the church and sometimes we make this mistake we go out there and who can't do not maintain this church they have no contribution at all in this church they never return any type they never give any offering they don't know how the church is run and when they are challenged in the church we run to them and talk to them and gossip with them that is restoring the church that is not helping that is not leadership when there is something wrong make an appointment and lead you to the pastor it is also good that we reach out and help the church because all of us are in it by the way if the church has a problem they don't care who the leader is they will say the 7th day Adventist church now it does not matter who the leaders are it all of us are in it so when there are challenges and there are issues we need to do our part as leaders point number 6 we need to delegate again you cannot fulfill everything even Jesus when he was here he delegated responsibility he sent out the 70 out there so you need to delegate as a leader you cannot finish all the work alone nobody can finish the work yes we are going but you are going in your own way and I am going in my own way the people you can meet I may never meet them and so it is important if you fail to communicate clearly you need to be a good communicator communication is important in the life of a leader if you don't know how to communicate then you are going to create a great vine of gossip so you are encouraging the members to gossip because they don't know where the leader is going and so you need to give communicate clearly what are the issues involved what is the goal and what are the strategies that will help us reach this goal what is the vision so you need to clearly bring it out to the members point number 8 is when a leader fails to respond to the value and sentiments of followers I have already said here that as a leader you need to be keen enough to see with the eyes of the followers and be keen enough to listen with the ears of the people that is true but it is very important that you listen to people and listen even to someone whom you can think is so so low and may never know the policies and may never understand everything that is in the church manual listen to them they will help you listen to them point number 9 when a leader fails to train others bad leaders eliminate potential leaders bad leaders eliminate potential leaders they see this leader is coming up and is threatening them the best they can do is to push them away that is not the spirit of leadership in the church a person that is filled by the Holy Spirit cannot eliminate others by sending them out very far that people will not see them train when it comes to nominating committee time and the nominating committee looks around and they don't see anybody who can take for example women ministry leadership and they say who can take women ministry leadership this time because Jerusha has been there far too long and they look around and they say but we don't see anybody is only Jerusha that we see here then it means Jerusha do not do a good job if Jerusha has been there for 10 years Jerusha has been there for 4 years and Jerusha has never prepared someone to take a position she is a bad leader you are not the only one that the Holy Spirit can use God can use all of us hallelujah to God and by the way when God brought people into leadership there were people who were so naive Moses even cried take someone else Lord I cannot do it Jeremiah cried I know I am only a child please don't take me so I want to say as a leader you cannot be in a position of leadership for 10 years train others no leadership is a permanent position yeah train others if you are not going to train others then you are failing as a leader if it is you all the time every year every now and again Jerusha is Jerusha is not right you are limiting the Holy Spirit and by the way do you know that if you have been in leadership for a long time you cease to grow as a leader so you end up doing the routine things you end up being routine that even your vision becomes limited because that is what you can see that is what you know unless somebody gives you a new vision or ever no your vision becomes limited so enable others also to enjoy this position not to enjoy but to experience the challenge because leadership is not enjoyment but if God I am not saying if God push you there like he put Moses for 40 years that's fine hallelujah to God yeah because sometimes God can use you for 40 years that is still okay that is the spirit prerogative that is making is that as a leader you are in a position please train others so should something happen to Jerusha Muga then somebody can get in and then the work will continue the last point I want to mention is when a leader fails to focus on the future please be a future leader Jesus is coming yes we are living in for today but our focus is our goal is what I have shown here that is our goal hallelujah yeah so that is where we are going that is our goal one of these days Jesus is coming and so as a leader my whole focus is in the coming of Jesus whatever I do that is why leadership in the same day Adventist church is unique because we are not keeping people down here we are preparing people of God because Jesus is coming again hallelujah to God yes two minutes that I have is there any question any question no question thank you very much so I assume that you understood what I said did I hear a voice no I want to say that in our leadership made the Lord help us for us to be ready as individuals and also to prepare the people prepare the church that when Jesus comes he will find us ready together with the people that we have worked for hallelujah to God praise the Lord how many are saying Lord Jesus fill me with your Holy Spirit that I can be a leader after your own heart fill me Lord because I cannot be a leader on my own Holy Spirit if that is your desire please stand as we pray our Father and our God in heaven what a privilege that is ours that we can be appointed leaders by the Holy Spirit in your church please Lord we realize our helplessness take full control over us take full control over your church and help us Lord that we will be a channel through which your grace will flow to others that they too together with us we will be waiting for you when you come to the church bless the leadership in the church from the general conference right to the local church in Jesus name we pray amen God bless the church good morning everyone happy Sabbath we do thank God this morning for what he has done for each and everyone of us so as I begin to demonstrate for the books that we have this morning let us pray first our Father in heaven later we will be done as we are going to discuss and to say about the books later we will be felt upon each and every individual through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray amen this morning from the first day of our come meeting we are very much sorry we forgot to promote the book of our mothers of young brothers and our fellow team so now this morning allow me to bring on to you the book by the title health and strong the book health and strong talk about on how to talk about the pregnancy and how to get pregnancy and how to prepare for the pregnancy some other times we as a parent we ignore some various things one of them the preparation on pregnancy we have a proper guideline on how to prepare so that we can get for the pregnancy we have all the guidelines all the food that we are supposed to take and all the measures that we are supposed to follow for the pregnancy and another thing the book talk about food that we are supposed to take as a mother pregnancy as well as the food that we are not supposed to take we are preparing for the pregnancy it also talk about the food which was for the proper food for the winning to our young ones and also it gives a proper guideline to prevent or to get against problems like diabetes progeria and many others the book it has all the details for us the book held and strong it also explained or it exposes advice which may imply the prevention of future health problems in our sons and daughters so this books is also recommended for our mother our child and our teens it's much applicable for each and everyone of us we have another book by the title Kansa as per the World Health Organization Kansa is one of the leading cause of death in the world and we thank God for about 30 30 to 45% of those who have this book they have a better they got a chance on how to live a better life without facing these diseases now in the first page of this the Kansa book it explains the possible causes and what triggers Kansa there are other things that we human being may ignore or the other activities which may allow Kansa to take part to ruin our body life and now the second topic of this book talk about to diagnose and how to do it how you can diagnose the Kansa itself and the procedures on how to do it it has a symbol and a better way that you can understand now to diagnose the disease sometimes you need to be psychological prepared if you are not psychological prepared about these diseases now this book we thank God it has here with us it help us on how to cope to live and how to manage the disease Kansa have this book with you and will be much and better much and helpful with the book Kansa to Heart Heart to Heart this book it is written by Nancy Van Belt and as usual we know that Nancy Van Belt she is the lover of the family being the lover of the family this book it has several successful works on the family it teaches us a series of communication techniques for interpersonal relationship from our most intimate environment to the social world we interact on a daily basis in a summer of this book it gives us all the knowledge around the corners or now we can have a strong bond between our friends between our spouse and between our workmate as well as it talk about or now we can have social, moral and operate values as we are living as brothers and sisters now as we can go further to this book it has a 10 it talks about it tell us about the 10 major problem that we face as a couples which lead to the breakup in marriage also it has it teaches us on how to interact with different personalities we have sanguine choleric, plegmatic and all the team as well as this book but also gives us on how we need to interact with the people those people who have a problem of how we can bring a speech if we can give them a chance to give a speech either in a meeting or in a workplace sometimes it's a problem now the book itself it gives you the courage on how to prepare on how to handle yourself and how to develop a confidence in your life I do recommend this book for each and everyone of you there is another book that I will bring in front of you is the book of Hail the Jewish Hail the Jewish as the topic implies it talk about the juices like for example we have smoothies we have shakes we have infusion and we have different kind of juices locally and readily available for each and everyone of us this book also it gives a practical guide on how to manage and how to handle various kind of juices for example it gives on how you can handle diabetes it gives out you can manage to our women it provides a little bit so Hail the Jewish as it's been displayed in the screen it has all juices which are good for your health now despite of the Hail the juices it also give us the juices for example there's other people who get hungry more easily you have the juice the problem of blood cleaning detox and various activities so for you to be fit without without for medication I do recommend that you have a book Hail the juices so that it will be helpful for you and for your family and we thank God that all the juices and all the fruits are locally available here with us next week we have been conversing several books with you here we do thank God for all viewers we have been calling us and those becoming and collecting the books which we have here for you now I do welcome you today being the last day of our display so I do urge you each and everyone for you kindly pass there so that you can collect and carry the book that sheets for you and for your library kindly decorate your house with a book like this one the Encyclopedia Health, Lestress Diabetic and all kind of the books that here for you kindly make sure you have a copy with you as well as we have a book Stay by Christ that you can donate to your friend what you've learned here that others outside there kindly buy one and donate one of your friend as well as to those who are our grandfathers kindly buy for us books prepare our brothers prepare for our sisters on how to live a better and healthy life I can give a good example and I'm sorry to quote this we have one of the presidential leader who is going for the president by the name of Jacoya there is a term that usually is to use and we as an adventist that other thing which is not good unto our life so we need to equip our fellow brothers and sisters with the proper knowledge so when they face such kind of a challenges they have a proper guideline to say no to something which is not good and proper to their life kindly I do recommend medicinal plant I do recommend young woman and I do recommend the book by the title no matter what happen life is still beautiful so when they have all those set of the book they will face all the challenges without fear so it's my prayer that may God bless you so much as you are listening and as you are continuing to listen all the speakers messages that they brought for us but the major thing that I'll advise you kindly today is make sure you have a book with you each endeavor on for you kindly make sure you promote this calm meeting with only a book and may God bless each endeavor on for you let us pray our Father in Heaven we do say thank you for what you have done to our life we have the book here for our people to understand and to read all the knowledge that have been prepared and inspired by you we call your presence to be with us for to see the name of Jesus Christ the one that we do pray trusting and believing in His holy name Amen I do welcome you all to our table there behind Mic check, Mic check, check one two Lord is good the other time good morning I hope we are all blessed to be the house of the Lord this morning today is a bit cold but I think it's a unique way of crowning our we call prayer we are here this morning to continue with our service on the prophecy and we been discussing on the theme God's last appeal before the final crisis or God's final appeal before the final crisis we have centered our discussions on the prophecy of the three angels messages as found in Revelation chapter 14 verse 6 through verse number 12 and this morning one more time I seek to take us through to that discussion where we will be looking at the subject the beast the image the mark and the worship the beast the image the mark and the worship now this is drawn from that angels message and I'm going to read in your hearing another angel then at that angel fall on that this chapter 14 of Revelation verse number 9 then another angel that angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation with the fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the lamb and the smoke of the torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image whoever receives the mark of his name verse 12 here is the patience of the saints here are those who keep the commandments of God and Jesus Christ the band angels message brings to us the beast the image the mark and the worship let's pray before we get this discussion are gracious for the heaven hallowed be the name thy kingdom come thy will be done for this message as it is in heaven for buying is the kingdom the power and the glory to yourself and so Lord my assignment this morning I seek to lift you and so for the prayer that may I not be seen may I not be heard may you be heard as you speak to us all or I pray the Lord you can put your words into my mouth and order my adult and may lives to your will I pray in Jesus name the beast, the image the mark and the worship now that angels message is after the second angels message of course when we were discussing about the fact concerning the three angels messages I did indicate that these three angels message should be pronounced or preached or taken to the world in their proper order you cannot interchange the order in which they come from because it's a development from one aspect to another of our salvation the angels message where John says I saw an angel fly in the midst of the skies with everlasting gospel God begins salvation story the sort of redemption by the gospel and so when the gospel was given to us through the sacrifice of the lamb right at the garden of Eden but of course as it was we saw Jesus symbolically it was the lamb of God which was sacrificed or slain before the foundation that Jesus has come has died for us and so we have received this hope and after that then God tells us now if you have received this hope then you need to know who I am and once you know who I am then fear me, glorify me and worship me and we saw yesterday how Babylon has fallen because Babylon has refused to worship the true God Babylon has refused to fear God Babylon has refused to glorify God in the state Babylon wants to be worshiped, glorified and feared and so today we are dealing with the last angels message and that angels message has something to do with what God feels or he has purpose to do with those who despite the fact that he has revealed himself through a San Jesus Christ and bought us with an expensive price to reject this grace who take this grace in vain that is something that is going to happen and so begin by warning because the controversy is between him and Satan and because he want to be worshiped and Satan want to be worshiped he is warning again as those who may heed to the pleadings or promptings of the power of Satan even to worship the evil one and those are going to worship him then says that is something that is not very, very kind now chapter 14 also comes shortly after chapter 13 if you want to look at it from that sequential order and in chapter 13 I'll be getting there a little longer after this it's where we find the beasts the two beasts one comes from the sea the other one comes from the land and especially the one these two beasts especially their intention is to lead the humanity it begins from chapter 12 I am going to discuss about those things and what I want to bring out to us this morning is the issue of the great controversy is a worship issue when you talk about great controversy we are not talking about the day you go to worship you are not talking about what you eat and how you dress we are not talking about them we are talking about worship and when we are talking about worship any how we will be worshiped this is the issue about the great controversy and so this is what we are going to look briefly after this in this series and we are asking who is the beast what is the image and the mark of the beast and who is to be worshiped now to answer these questions we will use the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation so I will be jumping here and there in those two books just in the next few minutes to summarize so much which is there to bring out this argument and answer those three questions who is the beast and what is the mark and what is the image and who is to be worshiped so straight to the book of Daniel chapter 2 now in the book of Daniel chapter 2 something very interesting here the king of Kinesa is in a dream and says he finds a dream he is not able to get it Daniel comes and tells him you all king who are watching and behold a great image this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome this image his head was of the fine gold chest and arms of silver and partly of iron and partly of clay you watched well a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold were crushed together and became lecture from the summer threshing flowers the wind carrying them away so that no trace of them was found the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the OR we all know the image that Nebu Kinesa saw in his dream this is not what I am dealing with just to bring this to our remembrance because you know it and so he sees a big image a statue that was there and head ahead of gold and chest of silver and legs of iron and down there the feet which was mixture of soil and iron and he was not able to understand exactly even to remember the dream or even the interpretation of the dream but Daniel came and he gave him the dream and its interpretation and Daniel in his interpretation as he was given by God in the form Nebu Kinesa that as you saw the hand of gold than all other kingdoms it is symbolized by gold because gold is the stone even today is the most precious stone we have on earth so you are this particular head and he showed him the chest that you saw of silver is Pashia the king which is coming and take over your kingdom and yesterday I mentioned how we remember our king Serbius came and he took over the kingdom and then that kingdom that would come after them was the kingdom of Greece which is represented by the eyes of bros of course a lesser stone in terms of value than silver and gold and down there he was to have the kingdom of Rome and we know this is the time the kingdom that ruled even all the way to the times of Jesus and of course at the feet it was speaking about how the Rome is going to split into several segments and what we call the divided Europe now in this God is talking about powers but then he brought it to Kingdom Keneza in a form of precious stones because Keneza was a man who valued a lot prestige but then shortly after God gives Daniel also a dream now one day Daniel is also sleeping and he gets a vision and in this vision Daniel says I saw in my vision my night and behold the four weeds of heaven was tiring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea each different from the other now Daniel is talking and he is innovation or a dream and he sees four great beasts that are coming up from the sea and each different from the other now this is very very important just note here the four great beasts Daniel is seeing here are the same things Keneza has seen in his statue God speaking to Daniel the same message he gave Keneza in a different way but so that just laying emphasis to Daniel that what Keneza hadn't seen and what he interpreted to him I mean it and it's going to happen and so Daniel in his stream sees those beasts one look like a lion another one which look like leopard another one look like a bear and another one which had a mixture of all other beasts very terrifying beast that is so there and Daniel was amazed at one tend to understand what exactly this means now before I tell you what is he in the book of Daniel let me take you to the book of Revelation 13 we are just introducing the issues of beast I'll be jumping here and there because of the few minutes I have and I have to speak a lot and make sense in this presentation now come with me John is in the island of partners and we all know the story of John and as he is there he also sees a vision says he was in a vision and then says then I stood on the the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea of course I have always a problem with verse number one of chapter 13 of the book of Revelation because that when look at the Greek atens this particular translation from the Greek text is wrong it is not I it is he well that's a story for another day when you pick from chapter 12 you discover the context is the dragon who is running after the woman and wanting to devour her and the woman is giving wings of ego to fly and then the dragon is not able to catch up with the woman then he steals water out of his mouth to drown the woman he is not able to do that and then the ending part of that particular chapter it is this one which appears as verse number one of chapter 13 then the text there the Greek text is there and the dragon stood in stood on the on the sand of the sea and it is the issue of the dragon so it is not John standing it is the dragon standing and so what happens after the dragon stands at the shore of the sea is very important for us to note now it says and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea now when the dragon stands at the shore of the sea John says I saw a beast rising up out of the sea of course we know that sea in the prophecy is or waters in the prophecy is people and so in other ones the beast the dragon is standing at the shore of the sea and John sees a beast coming out of the sea having seven hands and ten horns and on his hands on his hands a blasphemous name a beast that has ten horns and on each horn a crown ten hands ten horns and crowns and on each head has blasphemous names now when you look at this beast is similar to what Daniel says in chapter 7 I saw in my dream the four beast was a terrifying beast now John says in the New Testament I was also given the vision and I saw a beast that looked like the beast which Daniel saw so in other ones briefly we are dealing in Revelation chapter 12, 13 and 14 we are dealing the same story that you find in the book of Daniel chapter 2 Daniel chapter 7 of course I'm going to mention about Daniel chapter 3, 5 and 6 but I want you to see we are dealing with the beast here and the Bible says here John ends by saying now the beast which I saw was like a leopard his feet were like feet of a bear Daniel saw four beasts one looked like a lion the other one looked like a leopard the other one looked like a bear the other one was this great beast that was so confusing now John sees the same thing now what are the beasts in prophecy now Daniel chapter 7 verse 17 answers Daniel is given the interpretation what is a beast in prophecy those great beasts God is telling Daniel which are four kings which arise out of the earth the simple as that so when you interact with Daniel and Revelation or the book of Daniel or prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and you meet beasts don't be terrified these are not beasts but kings you can tell your neighbor now it is easy for me we are just dealing with the kings we are just dealing with the powers we are dealing with the nations we are dealing with authorities of this world so God tells Daniel don't be terrified those are simply kings that are going to arise on earth and it tells him especially the fourth beast that you saw which was so terrified is what the fourth kingdom the fourth kingdom so when you see this thing illustrated here these are just kingdoms are you with me these are just kingdoms these are just powers like Kenya, Tanzania, America these are just powers and kingdoms simple as that but I want you all just to note here as much as they are powers they also represent political or and religious power political or and religious power and that is why they are very very important because politics and religion affect our lives and as we near the close of the history of the world and so much the experiences we are going to get politics and religion now the beast of Revelation chapter 13 describes a religious political system that grew up out of Rome now chapter 14 listen to me chapter 14 in that angels message the angels is then at that angel follow them saying with a loud voice the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God chapter 14 the angel talks about worshiping of the image receiving of the mark now who's mark where is this mentioned now in chapter 13 the prophecy of Revelation in chapter 13 is the one that introduces to us the image of the beast and the issue of the mark of the beast now in chapter 13 let me summarize thoughts and say this way chapter 12 the dragon that wanted to destroy Jesus that is certain when he was not able to he vowed to go and make war with the remnant of the seed of this woman that is the church and in that way he changed the tact and so in chapter 13 it begins by him raising a kingdom or a power or a nation that would help him or a system that would help him to fight the church and that's why we talk about the issues of prophecy now the dragon gets into the hearts of leaders of some nations in this world and they cooperate together to destroy the church now prophecy in prophecy the union between the state and the church are you with me so when the church unite with the state that is what is called purpose and we all know that this exactly happened when they were not able to destroy Jesus of course Jesus died and resurrected we know how the history unfolded even to the coming together of the state and the church and out of that for the period 1,260 years the church was subjected into total darkness and it was criminal to be found preaching about Jesus it was criminal to be found with the Bible and for that particular period of time a lot of erases were introduced to the church and in that way the church was being oppressed the system that supported this to happen is the union between the state and the church the state legislates comes up with laws that govern what this particular system wants to accomplish through the religious circles and so the state supports the enactment of laws that curtail the freedom of worship of our liberties and so this beast of Revelation 13 is simply prophecy that has done a lot of eroding the religious principles are taught in the scriptures and introducing human traditions that are contrary to the teachings of the scripture of course this happened in the great Europe drum being the center and we know all that is happening in that part of the world chapter 7 verse number 24 ten horns out of this kingdoms are ten kings that shall arise that Europe was divided into ten kingdoms and even today they are struggling to be united and this dragon or this beast the prophecy was to wear out the sense of the most high and being to change times the laws and we shown this yesterday and they shall also speak words again is the most high God and this is what prophecy is constantly powerfully deliberately done the Roman Catholic Church that they are priding in that they have the power to change the writings of the scriptures and they are the representative of God and they have the powers even to speak on behalf of God in fact they are saying that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church Pope is God himself they have a lot of literature on this and a lot of time to go into that now the church that was to be subjected into that torture demulation and persecution for the period of Wanda Baibu because time times and have a time as I've shared is 1,020 60 years you can see how we arrived at this is something that we all know as adventist so where time stands for a year and times for two years and have a time for have a year and of course one year 360 years you can have that math there quickly which translate to 60 1,020 60 years because execuus is one day is equivalent to one 2,000 years and what happened in 1798 the general Napoleon gets to Rome captures pope he put him in prison where he died and of course in chapter 13 of Revelation verse number 2 and 3 indicate that beast would receive a deadly head meaning a deadly wound and this would heal and after healing then the world would again come back and one other beast now this is what we see as the deadly wound that he received when Napoleon matched into the city and captured the pope then and he was put in prison where he died of course from 1798 a lot has been happened behind the curtains remember I stood here last year and spoke powerfully about these things we know that as I am talking now the deadly wound is healed and a lot is happening and I am not sure how soon we are expecting to see things taking shape but we know in prophecies that the wound has been healed but not in verse number 2 of chapter 13 the dragon gave his power the dragon is certain who is working with nations it is certain who is working with powers of this world it is certain who is working behind a postage church that is oppressing the church of God so then we can see clearly when we talk about the great controversy that the loose or certain is behind all this chapter 12 of course it mentions about the pure woman that was expecting I want to mention here about chapter 12 of the book of revelation that it was certain who stood next to the woman to devoah her child as soon as he was born but certain operated through the instrumentalities of who herod we know when we read in chapter 12 of the revelation and we saw John saying and I saw a dragon waiting the baby to be born who wanted to destroy Jesus so in prophecy some was that I used to speak about persons and personalities and powers but it was devo who was in erode that he wanted to destroy Jesus and of course we know that is very clear in mother chapter 2 verse number 16 this is to indicate how the devo is working through the prophecy that we are discussing all that you see the purpose of the pope and all these people devo one because we are constant controvers between right and good so in chapter 12 it is certain working through pagan room to destroy Jesus kid did not succeed and I can assure you is not even going to succeed this particular time now verse 8 of chapter 13 of revelation indicates something very important the dragon gives that the beast support the second beast support the first beast to make up an image then this image is to be worshiped and when people worship the image then the Bible says they worship the dragon now in verse number 7 and 8 it is very clear that the intent of erecting an image of the beast is not just for the beast to be worshiped but is for the dragon to be worshiped and in this prophecy the dragon is certain so the intent of purpose the spirit behind purpose the power behind purpose is for certain to be worshiped are you with me now let me summarize here and say in the prophecy of Daniel chapter 2 chapter 7 revelation of chapter 12 chapter 13 chapter 14 and of course chapter 17 it is the dragon that is behind all these things so picking it we say satan was working through the pagan Rome and they attempted to kill Jesus that is the story found in chapter 12 of the book of revelation then it was the same dragon drew Papa Rome who persecuted the woman for what period of time 1260 years of course this is what you call the dark ages in history that is the period when a lot of erases that we find in church today were introduced the state of dead we were taught that when people die they don't die they go to some other place we were taught about Pagatwe and even today I have always heard this kind of ideologies and teachings from this prophecy flashing in our worship at times now have you heard people here in church making announcement especially when we are dealing with people we are brave and saying so and so has passed on hello do you say those things and you think we are being it's posh English we are more we are more enlightened have you ever asked yourself what are you talking about he has passed on on to where are you with me people I hear so many times here I look at the programs the funeral service programs almost every sign of this city the advantage church is here he has passed on when I was in school my primary school taught me proper grammar when you die you say that person has passed away simple grammar but we think he is being enlightened he has passed on now to pass on is a doctrine of prophecy that began in the text of Genesis chapter 2 verse number 17 when Satan told Eve you shall surely not die and from that time he has taught people that when people die they don't die they translate these things happened during the period of one thousand twenty sixty years and we are saying as we are not we are not from a couple of people as we are adventists but in practice and that's just one thing just an example so many things so many things a lot of time because of what I want to discuss today so Satan through Papo Rome who persecuted the woman for one thousand twenty sixty years is what has brought so much of many of erases that we are dealing with today in the church it will be as going forward the same dragon through the surfactant Papo Rome with the aid of a postage protestatism who will persecute the remnant of the woman seen when the deadly wound is healed now in chapter 13 the deadly hood heals in verse number 3 and the entire world marvels and wonders and says who can make war with this one who is like this one and then verse number 4 indicate and the world worshiped the dragon now the prophecy is very clear that what happened in the period of one thousand two hundred sixty years the dark ages experience of the church being oppressed and the freedom of worship being withdrawn it is going to be repeated before the close of probation are you with me before Jesus comes the period that is of one thousand two hundred sixty years is going to be repeated because John was shown that the beast and received a deadly hood but yet the deadly hood did what healed now I'm saying it will be the dragon that is certain through the surfactant Papo Rome with the aid of a postage protestatism now let me speak to us here briefly and say this as I'm talking to you right here there is no more protestant church are you with me as I'm talking to you this morning and I'm online I'm telling the world there is no more protestant church protestant church was born as a result of a man of God called Martin Luther who protested against the apostasy of the Roman Catholic church and he was very clear that the teachings the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church was not based on the scripture but based on human tradition and he was calling the church to move away from human tradition to come back to the tradition of the scriptures Luther was persecuted and that led to great persecution of the church that led to the protesting and Luther was the first man to have the first church protesting and the church was called the Lutheran church after the name of Martin Luther and they had reasons we have the 903 there is 903 statements of faith that Martin Luther came up with against the teachings of the Roman Catholic church even today as I'm speaking to you none of those statement raised by Martin Luther has been challenged based on the scripture neither as the Roman Catholic church changed her way and her belief in what she practiced in that time yet the protestant church has declared the protest is what the protestant church has declared the protest is what is over and they are back to their mother so what we are waiting here there is a statement here that as we are going forward Satan grew the vector in purple Rome with the aid of a post protestant who will persecute the remnant of the woman seed for the denle hood is here this is the reason why chapter 13 verse 4 of Revelation Bible is very clear that the world will not only worship the beast but it will also worship what the dragon from whom the beast received its power his throne and great authority where am I telling you all these things that that angels message lemme remind you again let's read together verse number 9 of chapter 14 of book of Revelation that angels message then at that angel follow on them saying with a long voice if anyone worship the beast are you there with me if anyone worships the beast God knows very well as we close the history of the world the worship of the beast is going to come back again the test of the remnant church the test of the faith of God the last days shall be who are you worshiping and it won't be the way we are today that we can practice silently and ignorantly about this worship but it will come as a matter of law registration and you will be forced to choose where to belong now you say those who are going to choose to worship the beast and this image and receive the mark of the beast they are going to face the wrath of God which will be poured without being mixed full cup concussion of the wrath of God friends chapter 13 the reason for raising up the beast and raising up the image of the beast is for the purposes of worship now the mark of the beast will be given as a sign to enforce this particular worship of the beast in other words the dragon certain want to be worshiped and as you are going forward it won't be easy it will be diplomas anymore it will be a first thing that you have to worship the beast and as you worship the beast what do you know you are worshiping the dragon it will be by law and if you don't do this then there will be persecutions and if you are not allowing yourself to be persecuted then you will be on the side of the loose and God says I'm also coming with my persecution and mine is dire than you can imagine now let me tell us here when the Sunday law is coming of course when we talk about the mark of the beast we are talking about the Sunday law are you with me you know I'm summarizing things because these are not new things to us Sunday law Sunday is the mark of the beast Sabbath is the mark of God are you with me Sabbath is the sign between God and his people is the sign that I den for is the true worship and the true worshipers Sunday is the making of man Sunday I mean if I had time I would take you through the writings of the Roman Catholic Church they write saying we have nothing to fear we have nothing to fear because we are the ones who actually has brought this let me give you this claim here this claim from a Catholic Church just for you to see they say here this is from public record on September 1, 1923 they wrote and said Sunday is our mark hello Sunday is what our mark of authority the church is above the Bible and this transference of Sabbath of servants is proof of that fact this is what personnel are saying this is Roman Catholic Church writing you know in 1900 this is when they were fighting the issues of reform protestant zim protestant church and there was a lot of literature where they were exchanging writing and fighting and as a point saying we are the ones who have changed the worship from Saturday to Sunday and they say Sunday is our mark and he goes on to say I love this one in St. Catherine Catholic Church Centennial May 21, 1995 written perhaps the boldest thing the most revolutionary change the church ever did happened in the first century what do they do the holiday the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday not from here not from any directions not in the scriptures but from the church sense of its power people she goes on to say who think that the scriptures should be the soul of the witi should logically become 70 day Adventist and keep Saturday holy these are writing from the Roman Catholic Church let me tell as friends you know at times I see let me use Swahili here let me be Mutanyelawa see you to Kuna Shidagani see you to Kuna Shidagani I don't know what problem we have because God has given us everything and it says you are the light of the world you are the sort of the world you are my remnant but we are walking as though it is a mystic to be Adventist and remember one day a studio to preach and was preaching about these things after stepped out and somebody came and told me pastor are you not hearing that what are you fearing if I have said I am pastor you come and call me pastor are you doing enemistic have you done enemistic so if a church says we are the ones who change worship from Sabbath to Sunday so what are you fearing of saying what they are saying hello what are you fearing they are bold enough to write and say if anyone thinks there is an authority from the scriptures to worship on Sunday you know there is no authority from the scripture to worship on Sunday this is only and can only be appreciated if you admit and acknowledge that the Roman Catholic Church has power and authority above the scripture and you want me to be silent on this and I have a daughter who is growing and I have to tell her the truth but as you are nearing the close of the history of the world you get to get more bold to speak the truth so the central issue here is worship is worship now let me summarize my discussion today by showing you through the all issue here is worship now the book of Daniel chapter 3 what we find there chapter 3 of Daniel is when Nebkenez the king feel so good and so powerful and send to erect an image a statue that it should be worshiped are you with me and then everyone is ordered to worship and bow down to that particular image now what happens in that land in this particular time in Babylon there are some guys who are taken in that story from Jerusalem and they are Daniel and his friends that they are and they have been taught you cannot worship any other God apart from God of wealth of heaven so Daniel and his friends refuse to worship but to bow then they are taken they are thrown into the lake of fire in fact in verse number 15 Nebkenezha is asking who is God who can save you from my hands I'm saying there is no reason there's no intervention there's no authority under the sun that can stop me from having you worship me now that is where we are going hello that's where we are going when the image of the beast starts speaking because the Bible is very clear it shall be given breath and it's going to speak and when it speaks you are going to follow what it says now speaking is registration the parliaments are going to come with laws that are going to force people to worship on Sunday and if you don't worship on Sunday you are against the government but thank God but Daniel said it doesn't matter let you o king know whether he saves us or not from your hands we shall not bow to you or worship you now this is what that angel's message is calling us to appreciate and behave like Daniel in the close of the history of the world that even though there will be no country in the universe that is going to speak about liberties of worship even though we shall all be forced to worship on Sunday yet we are willing to die than to do human traditions instead of the rights that God has given us in terms of worship so chapter 3 of Daniel is about worship chapter 6 what is in chapter 6 of Daniel king Darius are you with me ah so what does king Darius do no him he does not erect an image him he through his people legislates comes up with laws that cateros the freedom of worship now Tingnam Kenesa makes an image but king Darius comes up with laws that oppress and removes the liberties of worship now in this particular case it is Daniel only who is there and Daniel again stands and says this can't be persecutions has to come and Daniel was persecuted and what was done to him grown where the den of what the book of Daniel chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 8 they are all dealing with worship the book of Revelation chapter 12 chapter 13 chapter 14 chapter 17 they are all dealing with issue worship and the question is on who side are you going to belong LNG white in great controversy chapter I mean page 445 when the leading churches of the United States uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions then protest America will have formed an image of the Roman hurricane and the inflection of several penalties upon the centers who will invetably result by the way how many of you follow the world events and history and happenings are you aware that as I'm talking to you right now many nations of the world have already passed national Sunday laws are you with me pass is just being an analyst no you like it or not it is happening you want to hear it or not you can't stop prophecy being fulfilled you better take this advantage and hear these things and ask the Lord what you want me to do then things are happening this way many nations today have passed the national Sunday law and remember when you talk about the Sunday law fulfilling this prophecy we have two we have the national Sunday law now the national Sunday law is when every nation will be pushed to legislate our parliament here is going to legislate we saw I think two years or three years ago one of the governors in this country tried in this county are you with me are you people you don't follow these things you can't use it in Asia don't see prophecy in what is happening but many nations have legislated it's illegal it is offensive on Sunday and ask today the other day I told you when Pope Francis came in and give his first encyclika on environment the solution for global warming and climate change is not on science the solution is on the text of the scripture people must respect and obey God and keep Sunday the truth of God what is Pope Francis for you it says the only way to heal the heart people to rest to have a day when the earth can rest because is a common home for us all and from that particular time you have seen every nation up and down bring a lot of things in terms of climate change and global warming out of what Pope Francis gave in 2015 ask you know the combination solution for climate change and global warming Sunday is discussed by him I think I think 275 I need to confirm alone 275 of his discussion where he discusses the issue of Sabbath and says Sunday is Sabbath and the only solution is for people the entire universe to agree to rest on Sunday to allow the earth to give us a better place for us today that is a voice telling you very soon even the nations which are reluctant doing that will be forced by the big brother to legislate in the last day events page 254 paragraph 2 the season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure awareness today and hunger a faith that will not fade though severely tried that is where we are ended and the pen of inspiration is calling us to deepen our experience with the Lord to deepen our faith because where we are ended it will require a faith that can endure awareness delay and hunger soon we shall leave our comfort zones we shall leave this city we shall leave our homes we shall be found in places hiding because there will be no liberties for worship but are you going to stand God is calling the last day church his people to take a stand that Daniel did and said let you o king know even though this God we serve is not helping us from your hands we shall never bow and worship so the third anguish message is a call for fitness is a call for endurance is a call to stand that is where verse 12 says based then is a patience of womb saints who do what keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus is it a prayer that you will be patient you may deepen the experience of your faith and be ready to face the days coming ahead was not very long from now the things I'm telling you here are going to play before your eyes it's my prayer that you will be prepared to stand firm with the Lord no matter what happens the good news is look at this when I say end the good news is this Daniel and his friends refused what the king wanted and they were thrown into the fire did they burn no when Daniel refused what the king Darius wanted and was thrown in the dense of lion did he die what does one tell you we have nothing to fear can you say amen let those persecutions come but let us be faithful because their butt is not ours he want to be faithful he is going to take you through because this butt belongs to him but you must extend be on the side of the Lord that he can fight for you stand with me as we pray ask him to help us these come meetings is an experience for us to deepen our experience with the Lord deepen our faith and I pray that as we end these come meetings you will think more critically about your faith and especially where you are headed as an adventist, as a remnant church member to get more faithful more serious the world is coming to an end and yet Jesus is beckoning and says come unto me come out of her my people and come to me thank you so much for the period of giving us this week to go through the discussions of the prophecy of the free angels message today Lord we have summarized a lot of thoughts from the book of Daniel the book of Revelation and the spirit of prophecy and the summary of all the thoughts that we have discussed here today is a call to stand faithful in a trying moment Lord I pray for this church for anyone getting this message that you will push us with your love and through your grace to get more prepared world is attractive saving and the fact that it appears as though you have delayed coming many have given up on this hope many have given up on true love and commitment but yet we know in prophecy is a such China when the trumpet is going to sound so Lord as we await the events that are ahead of us here the Sunday Laws the closer provisions coming of plagues that we will have nothing to fear because all those things are not coming to harm us but they are coming to glorify your name and to help us be assured into your kingdom help us to see how powerfully you have fought for the faithful that have worked before us that we can also admire to be faithful in hour of trial the main faithful until when you come to take us home bless us with your presence revive us for the prayer in this come meeting keep us with your spirit and seal us for eternity we pray in Jesus name Amen Good morning Pityan, Jiyan, Kila, Sikutwa, Safiri, Twango, Je, Jesuyu, Aja. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much for that wonderful song for giving. With me here is a team of Pelo Koresas. I'd like them just a bit to introduce themselves before we do a song. Good morning. My name is Davin. Morning church. I'm Caroline. I'm Kennedy. And I'm Joe. And on the keys we have Eric. To start this session you're going to do the song 4-8-3 in our SDA Hymno that says, I need the area. I pray that this also be your prayer today. And since we've been sitting since morning, I kindly invite the congregation within to be upstanding of the song. It's 4-8-3. We respond to your word and glory and honor. In Jesus' holy name we pray. Let's get seated and praise God. Praise him. How many being blessed. Thank you. Thank you and God bless you. We invite you to this Friday morning divine service. For those who had the privilege to walk in here upon invitation by the Holy Spirit, we thank you for coming. Those who are joining us through our airwaves, that are platforms, YouTube and Facebook, we also take the privilege to welcome you wherever you are in your offices, those who are driving, those who are in their seating rooms, feel welcome for the divine service that is ahead of us. I would like to take this privilege also to appreciate those who are making sure that these messages are relayed live. Not just here in Kenya, but all over the world, our platform managers, our sign language interpreters who have been with us, who are still with us, our guest choir from Kampala, who have really blessed us with their songs and other choirs that have been part of this, our choristers, our pianist, we thank you and we appreciate you. May God bless you. Feel at home, feel blessed as we continue with our services. God bless you. Welcome. Good morning saints. God is good. And all the time. Amen. It's time for us to read the word of God. Let's turn our bibles to the book of John. John 11. John 11 verse 38 to 42. John 11 verse 38 to 42. I read, Jesus once more deeply moved came to the tomb. He was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said. But Lord said, mother, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad order for the, for he has been there for days. Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have had me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you send me. God bless his word. Welcome the choristers for the theme song. Our opening song is going to be the theme song for this cup meeting with a story to tell to the nations. And if the congregation within does not mind this kind again, let us be upstanding with a story to tell to the nations. We have a story to tell to the nations that the time will be soon that shall live a message to give. Thank you, Father, that you can invite us into your presence this morning, worship you. Father, we are privileged because we can seek your presence today. We are privileged because we can experience you today. We are privileged because we can hear you talk today through your great servant, Pastor G. We bless him into your hands, touch him, touch his lips with the call of fire that whatever comes out of him will be your word that you prepared for your children to hear today. Father, we are privileged again as a congregate to prepare our hearts through you to hear your word. May we experience you, may your presence, your Holy Spirit be amidst that glory and honor be unto you. Father, thank you for the theme of this week's cup meeting. I will go. Father, we don't have that ability, we don't have the strength, we don't have the resources, we don't have the wisdom. We can only draw it from you because you are limited. Father, may we experience you abundantly. May the challenges that are laid praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Almighty God for this privilege to come before him. I want to invite us to the next session of worship and that is to our giving. Indeed God has been so faithful to us. He's been with us throughout the year and now we've come to the camp meeting at the time that we need to just give thanks to him for the many things that is done to us. I invite us to give so that we can actually be able to share in the blessing of God. Our pay bill number is that is for those who are using the Farikom 320 100 and then you state the category of offering that you are giving. Come meeting offering or come meeting expenses and so forth. And also we have for those who are online SDA airtime airtail money you can also give it through that or the bank. We are all invited to share in this blessing. I would want to invite the deacons and the deaconsess to take your positions so that we can be able to serve the congregation as I invite the glorious Karel to be able to give us a song. My sister, welcome and give us a song. But before then, I want us to pray so that we can go into that session. Let's believe and pray. Our gracious Lord, our Father watching heaven. We humble ourselves at your feet this morning. We are so grateful for you been so gracious to us. Thank you for this week of camp meeting and thank you for the blessings but at this point we want to return to you that which belongs to you in appreciation of the great things that you've done to us as we partake of this service we invite you to be with us. May you help us even as we give bless each and everyone of us those who have and those who do not have that we may be able to give even next time. Thank you because you have our prayer. To us in accordance to your will, our humble prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise God. Praise God again. My name is Bella. Gloria Sound is a group, not me. I had something so metaphorically beautiful I hope you will understand. Some person named John Raskals who passed this life over 100 years ago wrote and said there is no music during the musical rest but the rest is part of the making of the music. Often in our in the music of our lives we tend to fight the rest that God brings to us and so he brings first leisure by allowing sickness, frustrated therefore disappointed plants to come so that we may appreciate the rest and we cry to the Lord that there is no music during the rest and we want to the music. We really feel like the music is important and we cry that our voices should be heard but don't you forget that there is no music during the musical rest because the rest is part of the making of the music. Amen. Be blessed. Hello boys and girls. Welcome to our children's story. We hope you have been blessed throughout the week. Are you guys happy to be here? Amen. Come meet in 2022. Come meet in 2022. Come meet in 2022. Amen. It's happening here at Nairobi Central. Today our children's story will come from 2 Chronicles chapter 25 and will read from verse 7 to 9. 2 Chronicles allow everyone to turn their Bibles as we get to 2 Chronicles. Okay the Bible says but a prophet went to the king and said to him do not take these Israelite soldiers with you. The Lord is not with these people from the northern kingdom. You may think that he will you may think that they will make you stronger in the battle but it is God who has the power to give you victory or defeat. He will let your enemies defeat you. Then king Amazai asked the prophet but what about the silver I have already paid for them then the Lord replied the Lord can give you back more than that. So children in 2 Chronicles were learning that there was a king that had come to power and his name was king Amazai and so when he had come to power he decided to go for battle and as he was going for battle he said wait as we have few soldiers how about we hire some avengers from the northern kingdom so he went and had the avengers he went and had strong soldiers from the northern kingdom the Bible says that they could kill many but when the Lord saw the people he had brought to come and fight with him the Lord told the king that those avengers you have hired to come and fight with you I will not be with you the enemies are going to defeat you but if you let them go I will let you win the battle and so the king was now worried because he had paid so much money to bring the what the soldiers and then the Lord he said but I have paid so much money I can't let them go they need to work for what I have paid then the Lord told the king that the Lord can give you more than what you paid the soldiers and then the king let them go the Bible says that after that Amazon won the battle against those that he was fighting against what are we learning from this story number one is that you and me must trust God yes what are you learning from this story amen with the Lord you can defeat so God is saying when you go with him you can defeat any army yes what are you learning from this story yes you must be with God every time you must not go alone yes what are you learning from this story then the last one then we close yes you must trust God that in every situation he will see you because God is the only one who can say yes we must not go with people God has ordained that God has not ordained to go with us on mission so boys and girls let us go on this mission but let us go with the people God has ordained to go with us because it's not everyone that God will commission to go with us and so we pray that as you go on this mission you will keep trusting God because it is God that brings the victory so let us depend on God and learn not on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him that he may direct our path and so I'm going to ask someone to pray that God may go with us at this battle so teacher just give one of the kids a mic let's pray thank you for this day thank you for giving us this confidence as we are in the children's story this help us to go with people that God has chosen to go with as we are ending children's story and to remember that God is the one who can give victory only amen amen thank you for joining us for our children's story remember to go with God and he will take you all the way so from my team we love you and hope to see you tomorrow for our last children's story bye amen don't forget another quickly but sing day for one let another day go by without Jesus amen thank you so much for that wonderful message give an honor to your pastoral staff to all of your ministry leaders officers to the verifying congregation here at Nairobi Central to all of our guest and friends and all who are joining us the virtual airways it is good to be in God's house one more time you ought to say amen to that there will come a time when we won't be able to assemble like this so it's good to be in God's house one more time primarily because that means you are still in the land of the living if you are here today well we've been on a journey throughout this week for the singular purpose of drawing nearer to Jesus Christ and I am excited first of all that your pastoral staff had the wisdom to provide an opportunity for those who've been intending watching and participating and worshiped throughout this camp meeting to make the ultimate statement of your desire to follow Jesus Christ by baptism baptism is simply a public statement you want the world to know it's almost like a wedding where you are declaring that your intended is the one that you want to be with and you want everybody else to know that this person has a special relationship with you and so I am just excited humble their persons who have decided that this is the time for their ebaniza experience they want to make sure that henceforth going forward they are placing Jesus first, best and foremost we want to encourage others who may be in the valley you want to do something that really pleases Jesus then there is a place for you it is not too late well let me move on to my assignment I want to call your attention to the book of John what book did I say everybody the book of John and I would like to call your attention to the 11th chapter of the book of John and I want to add a few verses on to what was read to us earlier during our scripture reading the bible says this in the book of John 11th chapter I am picking up the narrative at verse 43 and as has been accustomed throughout this week I want to invite you to stand as we give honor to God's word the bible says this the 11th chapter of the book of John I am picking up the narrative at verse 43 I am using the new King James version but I trust whatever version you have it is important the bible says now when he had said these things he cried with a loud voice Lazarif come forth the bible says he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was wrapped with a cloth and Jesus said to the people who were there witnessing this great miracle loose him and let him go I want to talk as the Lord your guide on the subject entitled are you dead defeated or dangerous are you dead defeated or dangerous Father once again we dare not open this sacred book without the assurance of your presence so we pause humbly at this time to ask you to honor us today be with your people may their minds be opened and their hearts be opened I ask in a special sense that you might hide me for I have since enough to know that your people have come today to hear a word from you bless us we pray in Jesus name let everyone say amen and amen and you may be seated in the presence of the Lord are you dead defeated or are you dangerous my brothers and sisters I want to begin this morning by saying to you that the fourth gospel the gospel written by John was written with a specific purpose we don't have to guess why John wrote this book because he tells us John said I wrote the fourth gospel called the gospel of John that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God and that believing we might have life through his name John declared that if he used all of the evidence available to him if he attempted to record all of the exploits of Jesus then they would be too many in order to put it in a book so in order to accomplish his goal John chose seven miracles or signs that Jesus performed in order to paint a clear picture of who Jesus is and what he can do he did this for the express purpose of leading people to the conclusion that Jesus is indeed the Christ the Son of the Living God seven significant events that were designed to see and press our minds who Jesus is and what he can do now by the time of our text six significant signs have already shared their testimony in the book of John but in chapter 11 the narrative of our consideration John reveals the seventh sign the superlative display the ultimate display of divine power it is his climatic sign the last significant sign before we move toward the closure of Calvary which takes up the rest of his book the crowning miracle setting the seal of God on the work of Christ the ultimate witness attesting to the deity of the Son of God the if you will if you missed all of the other six signs and the spiritual lessons from them don't miss what I'm trying to convey in this seventh sign of who Jesus is and what he can do it is an interesting story that John chooses to be the seventh sign the Sabbath sign of all of his signs the record says now there was a certain man named Lazarif Jesus had thousands of acquaintances he had 12 people that formed his special group he had 3 within the 12 that were very close to him but despite all this there were times where even Jesus just needed to get away and there was one home brothers and sisters where he could get away relax eat a good meal and enjoy some down home fellowship and that was the home of Martha Mary and Lazarif now Lazarif was a good man a faithful friend but Lazarif had a serious dilemma he had a serious problem you see Lazarif was dead and that's a problem the interesting thing about this situation was that Mary and Martha had informed Jesus prior to Lazarif die by sending a message to him that the one whom you love is sick and yet the record says that Jesus still did not postpone mission nor stop what he was doing in order to rush to Bethany even though Lazarif was sick in fact the Bible says in verse 6 in the 11th chapter that when Jesus received the news that Lazarif was sick therefore a bone two more days exactly where he was ministering now permit me to pause here because that's odd Lazarif is a close intimate personal friend in fact verse 5 of chapter 11 says that Jesus loved Martha Mary and Lazarif which means brothers and sisters if you are following what I'm saying closely that therefore in verse 6 is terribly disconcerting verse 5 says Jesus loved Martha Mary and Lazarif verse 6 says that when he heard that Lazarif was sick therefore he decided to stay exactly where he was two more days that therefore is disconcerting because it focuses our attention on a cause and effect relationship that I don't want you to miss he loved them therefore he delayed Jesus abstained from going immediate likely to rush to Lazarif side not because he did not love them but precisely because he did love them his affection and the fact that he did care was the very thing that kept him from hastening to help them right away and then brothers and sisters was even more disconcerting is this that even if Jesus was too busy to stop what he was doing he'd already demonstrated in an earlier encounter with the Centurion that he could take care of business long distance all he had to do was just speak the word why this strange divine delay? why does Jesus deliberately receive news that Lazarif is about to die and yet the Bible says therefore he delayed I suggest to you that his delay appears to be peculiar and alarming to us until we begin to understand that God's ways are not like our ways and God's thoughts are not like our thoughts you see delays go against our nature we are the people that are caught up in the idolatry of the immediate the push button is our symbol and the cell phone has become an altar to us use artificial intelligence to answer our customer calls we turn on our TVs with a remote we microwave our food and we text and tweet and use the internet to fact check right away some of us have even pushed button our relationships we don't want to wait for anything so we have cultivated an itch for the instantaneous when we send up a prayer request we are in a hurry but God is not we want the short cut but God seems to take the long way around and when we are confronted with those times when it seems like God has forgotten our address we are tempted to think that something is either wrong with either us or something is wrong with God the acuteness of our need cries out for action Lord I need a job now Lord I need a mate now Lord I need to get rid of my mate now Lord I need Lord I want Lord let me have Lord give to me and because help doesn't come according to our timetable we seem driven to the discouraging conclusion that it will not come at all or if it does come it will be too late well that's the way it was with the disciples they were trying to figure out how in the world could Jesus say he loves Lazarif and at the same time not rushed to go to heal Lazarif that's the way it was with Martha can't you hear it in her voice when she declared to the Lord Lord if you had just been here on time my brother would not have died but let me help somebody today because one of the most common words in the Bible that you must get used to is the word wait the Psalmist says wait on the Lord and even when the Psalmist senses our frustration of waiting when we want answers right away he still declares resolutely wait I say on the Lord and here's why divine delays are part of God's plan God uses that waiting time in order to season us spiritually that's why brothers and sisters divine love will from time to time hold back your blessing until the angel of adversity and obstacles has done his work first think about it where would your faith be without a trial to deepen it and whoever heard of a testimony without a test how could you develop patience if you have no cross in your experience how could you have a mature spiritually without God allowing a little shake up in your life how would you know that you know that you know unless you go through some storm and survive see God has a plan Jesus said to the disciples in verse 15 I'm glad for your sake that I was not there right away why so that you may believe in other words brothers and sisters don't miss this God often intersex your life with I feel like a motherless child experience in order to enrich your knowledge of him there are some things that unless you have an ordeal an obstacle a challenging experience you will never see some sides of God God was simply seizing the moment to deepen the faith of the disciples he delayed in order to develop them don't ever forget that God operates as one who sees the end from the beginning point is eternity don't ever judge God by a thin slice of time and here's the point just because Jesus delayed did not mean he planned to arrive late late rightly understood he was right on time Jesus didn't go immediately because he had already proved