PLO LUMUMBA: WHAT YOU'RE PREPARED TO DIE FOR IS WHAT DEFINES HOW YOU LIVE | CHARACTER & CHOISES |

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] to be present with you at this time of worship this evening on this Monday the 19th day of June the year 2023. I want to share with you a message but before I do so I invite Katarina to read a poem which I consider to be one of the most powerful poems ever written by man is a short poem that I read it [Music] say that before entering this a river trembles with fear she looks back at the path she has traveled from the peaks of the mountains the long winding road

crossing forests and villages and in front of her she sees an ocean so vast that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever but there is no other way the river cannot go back nobody can go back to go back is impossible in existence the river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear because that's where the river will know it's not about disappearing into the ocean but of becoming the ocean thank you very much you know when we say of God that is from Everlasting to

Everlasting we mean exactly that and those of you who are believers will find several scriptures in the Bible that talk about faith that talk about moments of doubt and many of them are known to you one of them that I love that talks about faith is a conversation between Christ and Philip when he asks of Christ we have seen you Now show us the father and Christ tells him but Philip I've been with you all this while but you still ask of the father the father is in me and I am in the father for

he who has seen me has seen the father he was seen the river seeing the ocean the other one that I love comes to all of us in moments of doubt it is a conversation involving Philip and Nathaniel and Nathaniel are involved in a conversation he said there is a man he must be one of whom the prophets talked about [Music] about whom Muses talked he comes from Nazareth then he says Nathaniel but what good com can come out of Nazareth many of us find ourselves in that space when our background is used against us

and we doubt ourselves and yet there is a sense in which doubt is the mother of faith I remember when you read the Bible it tells us is that on the day that Christ himself was baptized the Lord appeared as he was being baptized until John the Baptist this is my son in whom I am pleased but yet this very John the Baptist when he is in prison he is indulged and his sons two of his despised disciples to go to Christ and to ask of Christ are you the one or we should wait for

another and Christ does not say that I am the one he says go and tell John the lame walk the blind sea the lepers are cleaned are cleansed and the gospel is being preached to the poor I often wonder to myself how John must have felt because he's then executed and that is what brings me to what I want to talk about today character and choices because the world is about choices making choices and when you look at the Bible it has always been about what choice do you make [Music] you who are believers will

be familiar with that famous contest [Music] between Elijah and the prophets of Baal the 450 of them and the contest is organized at Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal pray unto their God and they are mocked by Elijah but before that Elijah tells the Israelites Choose You Now if God is God worship him if Baal is God worship Him and many times in our lives we are called upon to make choices difficult choices and we know the story of how it all ends up the prophets of Baal pray unto their God and nothing happens

and Elijah invokes the name of the true God and fire comes down and the sacrifice is consumed is about choices and is about character the other major choice is to be found in the book of The Prophet Joshua and you'll remember when Joshua has moved the Israelites and they are facing the Jordan the people are confused as they are wanting to be confused and he tells them Choose You Now whom You Shall Serve will you serve the gods of our ancestors that they prayed to before they crossed the river or you will serve the god

of the amorites in whose land do we dwell as for me and my house I Shall Serve the Lord it is a choice that must be made but it's a choice that must be defined by one's character because as I talk to you now we live in difficult and perilous times the times about which the Bible talks about the times about which the prophets have spoken throughout the ages these are those times these are the times that when Paul is writing his second letter to Timothy or chapter 3 talks of those times in the end

days there shall be a form of Christianity where people shall be lovers of themselves and they shall have a form of Christianity which does not honor God and he proceed to say just as Jonas and jambres troubled Moses in the desert so shall they do but they shall not succeed these are those times these are those times that are talked about in Matthew 24 24 that in this end days that there shall arise many christs and they shall work wonders and that if it were possible they would deceive even the very elect these are those

times these are those times of which in Paul's letter to Timothy in the book of Roman he says that they shall be haters of God at Roman 130 shall they shall be haters of God and they shall be inventors of new sins they will have committed all sins and they'll invent new ones these are those times and these are the times therefore when we must ask ourselves who are we because it is a very easy to be a Christian when all is good it is very easy to say your hallelujahs when there is no adversities

it is very easy to say that on the 19th day of the month of June the year 2023 I was born again the Lord appeared unto me when you are in the comfort of Nairobi it's very easy to say so but it's not so very easy to say so when you have no food on your table is not easy to say so when you do not know how you shall survive it is not easy through Christianity it is only discovered when you are faced with adversity when you have your own little Golgotha when you have

to make a choice and that is why sometimes when I talk about character I find great wisdom in the Book of Daniel when you read the book of Daniel in chapter one it tells us that in the third year of the reign of Joachim the king of Judah the kingdom was captured by Nebuchadnezzar and he took the Israelites as captives and King Nebuchadnezzar then asked the chief of the eunuchs and spanners to go into the land of Judah and select from within their ranks young men who are knowledgeable in their arts and in the sciences

and in everything and to bring them that they may come into the kingdom into the temple into the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar that they may be trained that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar and we are told that he went into Judah and picked four young men one was called Daniel the other one was called hananaya the other one was called Michelle the other one was called azeria and King Nebuchadnezzar changed their names unto Daniel he became Belta shaza and to hanana he became Shadrach and to Michelle he became a bed nego and we know Shadrach he became

Meshach and unto Azaria he became Abednego many of us who read the Bible do not remember the names we only remember Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and they came to be in the palace [Music] and entrepreneurs was instructed by Nebuchadnezzar to feed the young man with wine with meat which you all of us would love meet from the palace wine from the palace but Daniel said I am asking you I do not want to eat of the meat of the palace and of the wine of the palace because they have been sacrificed to idols said if

you do that it shall not be good for me and Daniel said give us a trial for only 10 days that you may see how we are and the Bible says after 10 days they looked better than everybody else they looked better than everybody else and after several years they were brought all Nebuchadnezzar and we are told that there were 10 times better than everybody else in their wisdom in their science in their acts in their everything Daniel the dreamer The Interpreter of the dream Shadrach and the bed nego and they were revered throughout Babylon

but then we are told as it is always in humanity when you are doing well you have no shortage of enemies there are those who want to bring you down there are those who want to malign you they are those who want to destroy you you remember even in the case of Christ the very same people who sang hosanna in their eyes are the very same who say crucify him that is life they sing hosanna in the highest when they think you are going nowhere when you are going somewhere they say crucify him crucify him

the history of the world is that when they are given a choice between Christ and Barabbas the world will always say release Barabbas release Barabbas that is the nature of humanity go have demonstrated to Nebuchadnezzar that they have a gift thing that they have an anointing that they are beloved of God that they are possessed of wisdom that we have talked about but then they have no shortage of enemies and enemies are manufacturers of Lies throughout the ages they manufacturers they create lies they invent lies they malign you they dehumanize you they humiliate you they

denigrate you and if you allow them to do that then you collapse and they hold parties about it and some of you are worst enemies are your closest friends in quotes and quotes that is why we sometimes says oh Lord save me for my friends because my enemies I know so it is with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego so somebody looks at them and see Daniel doing very well Shadrach doing very well Meshach doing very well a bad doing very well and they are not happy with that and they go to the king and say O

King you are great king you must be worshiped and they make an idol of King Nebuchadnezzar and King Nebuchadnezzar gives the decree saying that everybody shall worship that image and of course they worship that image and they have set a trap for Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused to Bow unto that image [Music] and they are reported to Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar summons them and say I am told that you have refused to worship my image [Music] why and they tell Nebuchadnezzar will worship only one true God and we shall not bow unto anybody and the decree

has said that anybody who disobeys Nebuchadnezzar shall be thrown into a furnace of Fire and this is the most beautiful thing that I've ever loved they say if you throw us into the fire the god that we serve will rescue us but even if he does not because many of us only worship God when he does that which we desire but these three young men say even if he does not even if he does not we shall continue to be faithful to him and the Bible says that Nebuchadnezzar then summoned some of the widest chested

men in Babylon and they tied the young men and threw them into the furnace and the Bible records that as they were throwing them into the furnace they themselves were consumed by the fire that is how hot it was seven times heated over and then a few minutes later Nebuchadnezzar looks Into the Fire and he sees the young man walking majestically and he says but we threw in three young men we see a false person who is like the son of the Gods you know when I listen and read that story it tells me about

character he tells me about character because Shadrach Meshach and Abednego missile and Azaria Daniel is belter you change their names but they don't object you can change my name you can call me anything call me a fool call me anything but that does not change me you can call me anything call me a fool call me anything call me but that is only skin deep because arose By Any Other Name is but when you want to change the things that make sense that Define who I am who I worship and what I do then I'm

prepared to give my life that is character what are you prepared to die for this is the question you know it would have been very easy for Shadrach Meshach and Abednego to say oh King you are mighty we shall worship you we shall with our mouths worship you but in our hearts we shall believe in God now God says that if you are lukewarm he shall spew you out it is either him or nobody else I do not know how many of you have watched the film Ten Commandments there are many ten commandments but there

is one Ten Commandment which was in 1956. that Ten Commandment has Charlton Heston acting as Moses and Yul Brynner as Ramesses and I always remember these words when Charlton Heston as monsters has gone into the mountain of the Lord and is up there and he is receiving the Ten Commandments and when he is receiving the turn Commandments and he tells God you are from Everlasting to Everlasting and he says pick me not pick my brother Aaron because I'm slow of speech and the Lord tells him it is me who is the maker of speeches I

shall make you a god unto Aaron and whatever you do Aaron you ask of Aaron he shall do unto you and he gives him the Ten Commandments and when he is coming up down from the mountain of the Lord below there is already a rebellion death and Jonas and jambres have told the entire crowd of Israel how can a man survive for 40 days and 40 nights let us make unto ourselves a God let us enjoy ourselves and they do and as Moses walks down down in that dramatization he meets Joshua who is acted by

John Derek and Joshua tells him there is rebellion there is an attack on the people and Moses says no that is the song of joy and dance and revelry the people have rebelled against God and when he comes down and he hold the two tablets of the Ten Commandments datan appears unto him and the sons of Korah and says you have made unto yourself laws that you may become a king over us we are free and Moses say there is no Freedom outside of the law that is character there is no Freedom outside of the

law and the Book of Daniel affirms to us that when you be a person of character you must be a person who is prepared to face all adversity and to be prepared to die for something throughout the Bible they have always been men and women of character who have been prepared to die for something because ultimately what you are prepared to die for is what defines how you live you know when I read the arks of the apostle there is a man known as Simon Simon the Sorcerer or Simon Magus you'll meet him in the

Acts of the Apostles he sees Peter performing Miracles and he tells Peter you know he was a levitator he could levitate he could float in there to demonstrate how great he was and on that day Peter prays and he stops him in there I don't know whether you have read The Acts of the Apostles where someone Marcus is stopped me there when he's levitating and then he comes to Peter and say this thing that you have I want to buy it there are people will want to buy that which is in you because they believe

that you can't be bought but the question is do you have character that will tell them I have no value you cannot buy me do you have the moral Courage the moral strength are you capable of being enticed by Earthly things because today we have not shorted your people who are prepared to buy you for anything are you prepared to sacrifice I use prepared to sucker to sell your soul for 30 pieces of silver are you prepared to surrender you are all remember all this has been done you remember that story when Christ himself is

taken by Satan and taken to the mountain and is shown all the kingdoms present and kingdoms yet to come and he tells him bow before me and all these shall be yours but can you do it of your own will no you are weak you are made of clay you are weak you cannot resist it when you are properly tempted you will fall history has shown the fall of Man because they were weak because they avoided the right thing tell me if you read the book in The Genesis they were weak Adam was weak Eve

was weak Abraham was weak that is when he is confronted he was weak and selfish he says Sarah is my sister he was weak Samson was weak Moses was weak people are weak in the Bible when they don't up God to God they are weak everybody is weak strength only comes when you believe in a power that is outside of you foreign Ty is all about that is why when Christ is told you a good man he says who is good but only God who is good even you are weak in the flesh that is

when you become an instrument for God so the choice is yours because today as I said we live in perilous times when the word of God is perverted you must have a Discerning spirit and that is why Paul says that we only went and he met the Christians of Berea he liked the Christians of Berea because the Christians of the Berea when the world had been preached unto them they went back and looked at the word and said Is it true there is no shortage of man even divide the Devil Himself can quote scriptures he

did on that day when God assembled the sons of God and the son of man and he came and the Lord asked him well what are you doing he said I've been loitering around the world and he told God oh God told him that is a man who pretends to love you but he does not you tempt him a little and if you temp in a little and if you take the thing that he has then he will deny you and he said you go on to job do all the evil things against him but

do not take his life and their things started disappearing one by one one by one one by one one by one and the friends of job came to him one by one one by one telling him oh job why are you worshiping this God who cares not for you why don't you turn against him and his own very wife told him job why are you continuing to worship this God but here character he had character and he withstood there tsunamis can you withstand the tsunamis can you withstand the tsunamis that we now face in this

country and in this world when you live in a while we are the ones of a person is measured by material things if you are a lady we are asking you which perfume are you wearing is it Donna Karan and if you don't wear a donut Quran we don't think you are doing very well [Music] are you carrying is it Louis Vuitton and if you are not carrying Louis Vuitton we don't think you are doing very well which watch are you wearing is it radio or Rolex which car you driving these are the things that

are testing your character can you withstand all those tests or you will succumb because these are the latter day Birds these are the things that have been made unto us that they may test us and if you are a man which underwear are you wearing the last [Music] which shoes are you wearing is it Tommy Hilfiger [Music] these are the questions which tie are you wearing which car you're driving is it a VA or a Range Rover which goal are you going to sell or pretend to sell that you may please the other John says

there is no shortage of Temptation but yet you must be strong enough to say like Alexander the Great empty-handed I came an empty-handed I shall leave vanity of vanity you must be able to say with Solomon I've tried all these Solomon of the Bible of whom we say he was wise he says in the book of lamentation if it is women I had a thousand of them 700 as my wives 300 as my concubine if it is clothes I had the most beautiful clothes on us I had it all but then Solomon the son of

David says it is all vanity of vanities [Music] character sometimes I imagine to myself on that day of judgment [Music] when the books are open and all of us we Pretenders who are present in this and many assemblies [Music] who look past as if we are Heavenly baked on that day when our sins known and are known now opened unto us [Music] and they are counting them one by one will you withstand the test will you [Music] you who are surpassed you who are giving tithe on a daily basis oh you who you who could

say the hour and the minute when you are born again you was the Bible something Sunday and Saturday attending church on a daily basis but you who and alone was Jezebel will you withstand the test because character is not about what you do to please us character is about what you do because it is good to be good and because it is divinely ordained you can cheat US most of the time but God says he is omnipresent and omniscient Every Act every thought he says he says I number yeah on your head when you are

dealing with such a being you must be very careful extra careful because he knows you are very Act you are very thought before you think he knows and that is why we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and is only by his grace but we must make effort in fact sometimes I dare think at the risk of being heretical that on the day of judgment we shall be made to pass on the basis of our effort there is a column I think in the marking scheme of Heaven which is called

effort what effort did you make genuinely to do good in this world and that is why I understand Shadrach Meshach and Abednego say the result is not in our hands we shall do that which is good and right but we are not responsible for the result that is why they say we will worship the true God but it matters not if he does not rescue us he does not cease to be God you and me we perennial Sinners we evil doers you and me who are in the business of thinking that a church and God

is running a lottery under Casino where we buy the ticket and we win the jackpot and if we don't win the jackpot then we blame God we are doomed there is no Casino in heaven there is no lottery ticket salvation is not a lottery ticket no if you think is a lottery ticket that guarantees that you shall have a beautiful life that when you become born again then you are shifted into Shangri-La or El Dorado the land of God no your life begins to be painful when you accept to do the right thing one of

the most dangerous things to be today in this country called Kenya is to be a honest man and woman if you are honest you are endangered if you are truthful you are endangered if you want to do good you are endangered we have become a land where we canonize thieves and demonize Saints this is the land in which we live we have become a country where our virtue is wise and vice is virtue we have become a country where we have stunned material things into God we worship man and worship and we mock God will

God recharge every Sunday and even to most and we mock God we sight The Lord's Prayer mocking God beside the Creeds mocking God is passionate in Paul's letter to Romans at chapter 1 verse 28 say I shall abandon them that they may do what it is that they want to do because they have become inventors and innovators of new sins [Music] that is who we are because we have no character so the most defining things throughout the ages is character if you have character you must show it and at critical times even the weakest of

men in critical matters they have always shown character when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans [Music] go into the unknown and behold you and Moses left the Palace of the Pharaohs into an unknown lands adjourned in the desert for 40 years and he goes back to the Pharaoh and does one of the most foolish things empty-handed he says the Lord my God says Let My People Go by faith Joshua goes crossing the Jordan and make such eyes when everybody else is a coward he says as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord

a bunch of cowards if you have an the Disciples of Christ were a bunch of cowards all of them because they thought like we always do that Christ has come to to build a kingdom where they would be ministers and that is how I understand the Sons of Liberty when their mother accompanies them how many of you have accompanied our children to a government office is the same thing they accompany their sons to Christ and said we want one to be on your left side and the other one to be on your right and Christ

says as to who shall be on my left and right it is not me to determine but the father [Music] but they shall be they were disappointed because they thought that this man would come and change their world and many of us who worship God will come to work we come to this Sanctuary expecting a miracle that if the Reverend my good sister Natasha prays to you tomorrow the doors of all jobs in the world will open unto you now that is for God to determine not ah we are instruments of God and God has

his own time of choosing yet we say oh it did not happen and therefore God does not function yet this bunch of cowards who after Christ has been crucified they go out and they are said there came a man there was a man who came here and this man came and he was crucified and everybody goes back to their fishing done Peter goes back to his fishing everybody goes and one day on the journey to a mouse something happens this summer illiterates these cowards suddenly become totally different and on the day of the Pentecost something

happens to them and people are saying what has happened to them it is in the morning they are drunk and Peter says but how can we be drunk in the hours before noon because alcohol was consumed in the afternoon they are speaking in tongues and the world was never the same again 2000 years that message whether you doubt it or not it is alive and well and there is no shortage of Doubt as that message is Alive and Well I remember listening to one of the most classic sermons ever delivered by a man Billy Graham

in 1971 in Chicago in the United States of America we asked who is this Jesus Christ and he said this man whom whether you like him or not whether when you meet him you are never the same again [Music] and he says in that sermon that look at the Young Rich man who comes to Christ and a Christ asks him do you want to join to see the Kingdom of Heaven he says have you obeyed all the laws of monsters and he says I've done all that then he says there is only one thing that

I want you to do go and sell all your things once you've sold them follow me and the young man goes dejected and Christ then says how difficult shall it be for a person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven character choose you now which you what you shall worship it is temporal things all the Divine unclear things by faith and this message has been preached and will be preached for a long time and you who are present here today I'm asking you to wear the spirit of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego let your name be

changed let them call you all they want to call you but when it comes to making a determination of what is good and what is right tell them I shall do that which is good and right because it is good and right to do so and I shall do so at the pain of death and let what will be be God bless you because he is from Everlasting to Everlasting [Music] somebody say powerful [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music]