31st August 2025: Sunday Service; Family Discipleship. By PBC Family Pastor, Phelista Kamau

Today being Family Sunday, I was asking the Lord what can I share today?

And this song, which the choir sang last in the morning, when we sang it, I was just telling the Lord.

Today I just want to make you glad, I want to share what is in your heart and when I was sitting here for this service, I was just asking the Lord yes, I already have prepared the sermon here, but I want you to navigate me.

You are the one who knows the hearts of your people, what is in their heart.

And I believe that, as I do what I came here to do and I need to say this that in the morning service, at the end, we had Reverend Simon come over and lead us in our powerful prayer that reset families and reset the family altars, and also there was the blowing of the shofar.

And I can tell you, when I was seated there, I sensed that it's a new season.

God has just released us and unleashed us and healed us and restored us.

So I want to encourage you to stay until the end of the service so that you can participate.

You know, when the shofar is blown, it is a sound, it's a battle cry, it is an announcement, it is a declaration.

So when the shofar is blown in this service, take something for your family.

So far as blown in this service, take something for your family.

Don't just listen to the show but say that that sound, that shout that the Lord is releasing is going to my own home and dismantling dysfunctions, altars, witchcraft, whatever it is that has held us back.

And I tell you you are like.

This is the eighth month.

Today actually is the last day of the eighth month, as we start the ninth month of the year.

To the end of the year, I am telling you there will only be grace, prosperity, healing, operating under an open heaven, and there will be a divine reset in every area of your life, in Jesus' name.

So I want to start my message.

The theme for this teaching is family discipleship.

Family discipleship, and I'm presenting family discipleship as the antidote for today's family crisis.

I tell you that families are in crisis and the crisis in families has reached such high levels that God Almighty, from his seat in heaven, has decided to come down and look at what is happening and provide a solution.

In the morning, because I like sometimes to use big words, I asked myself I love the word antidote.

What does it mean?

What does this one mean?

And I said let me check the meaning from the dictionary.

When I checked the meaning, I almost changed it, because antidote is not just medicine, it's not just painkillers, it's not even antibiotics.

But antidote is a specific dose that is able to remove poison from your system.

And I can see Sophie there.

Sophie, you didn't stand.

Sophie has been helping us with the adult singles and their events.

I just saw her there and I was like I have to recognize her.

So antidote if there is venom, if you have been bitten by a snake or something has happened and you have eaten something that has raised the levels of toxins in your own body, if the doctors want to save your life, they will inject an antidote.

And this antidote is going to go and shift things in your life.

And I was seeing that this really is what God is doing in this life, that he is bringing in family discipleship.

He is resetting families back to their original purpose and intention that he had when he created families in the Garden of Eden.

If you look at Job 14.7, that picture of a tree, a tree that has been cut, the scripture says that there is hope for a tree, there is hope for a tree that, even if it is cut down at the scent of water, it will sprout again.

Many of our families and you know that we are the ones who are dealing with families, families in crisis.

Dealing with families, families in crisis, dealing with families that are broken down, dealing with every all matters family.

This scripture has become a reality that it doesn't matter what has come against the family, it does not matter the battles, even when all hope is lost, even and I'll be, I think at a point I need to mention, about the issue of remarriage, because, pastor Simon, lately we've been receiving many calls from other churches asking us can they bring their people here for remarriage?

And I was thinking that this is a conversation that we now need to have, a conversation in the line of this theme that, at the sight of what I said our God is a God of a second chance can cause a family to thrive again, a family that you had given up hope on.

Allow me to bring some concerns that are in the heart of God this morning concerning families.

And, in order for me to best bring this concern, allow me to bring in some statistics that these statistics might shock you.

In the first service, I got the feedback that some of the people said really, we are in very serious business.

I did not even know that.

God has work for me to do.

So as I bring these statistics, I want to believe that I am presenting what is in the heart of God as a crisis, not only in the family institution, family unit, but also in the nation and in Africa.

So I will ask media to help me with that.

So if you can look at these statistics, they represent the hierarchy of ages at which people received Jesus and you can ask yourself when did you first receive Jesus?

When did you first give your life to Jesus?

And if you're here and you have never given your life to Jesus, you know many people have not given their life to Jesus because they have not been asked.

Nobody has asked them to give their life to Jesus.

Nobody has approached them and told them friend, give your life to Jesus.

The question has not been presented because this is a question that cannot be ignored and I am aware that some of us gave our lives to Jesus many times.

As different people came to our homes, you know, for us, the gospel, the message of the gospel, was brought right to our own homes.

People came to preach to us and they preached, and every time they preached there was genuine conviction and we gave our lives to Jesus.

And, of course, also many of us gave our lives to Jesus in high schools.

According to these statistics, 83% of those who come to Christ between the ages of 83% of people come to Christ between the ages 4 to 14.

I want you to begin to look at your child your child who is 4 years, your child who is 5 years, your child who is 6 years, your child who is 10 years, the children we saw this morning leaving the sanctuary to go to the children's church.

This statistic says that 83% will give their life to Christ children's church.

This statistic says that 83% will give their life to Christ between these ages.

If you look at these ages, these are the ages when the children are with you.

These are the ages that the children are under your authority, because when your child is 14 years and below, you can tell them what to do.

You can tell them where to go.

You can force them, you can preach to them.

You can drag them to church.

You can tell them where to go, you can force them, you can preach to them, you can drag them to church, you can drag them to your own church.

You can do a lot of the things you want to do.

They are still under your authority.

But when they move from 14 years, then it becomes a different story.

You have to involve their will.

You have to have this conversation.

And I began to look at these children from the age of four, from the age of five, age of seven.

These children are not accessed by other people to be presented the gospel.

Because even though there might be people who want to lead them to Christ, a lot of times there is a restriction, a restriction of safety, a restriction of access.

And even though we might bring them to church and that in the church the Sunday school teacher can ask them who wants to receive Jesus?

Who wants to receive Jesus?

I had a story about a young child when the Sunday school teacher was teaching seriously and the teacher asked who wants to go to heaven?

And all the children raised their hands to go to heaven, except one child called Johnny.

And when Johnny was asked, why don't you want to go to heaven?

Johnny said because my family wants to go out for lunch in the afternoon.

So that shows that sometimes our terminologies and our explanation might be too much for them and they may not really understand what it means to go to heaven.

But you are with these children every day, you are with them at home, you are with them when they eat, and that is how discipleship was supposed to be done.

It was supposed to be done at home, by the family, by the father, by the mother.

They were going to instruct them, they were going to recite, they were going to teach the children at their level.

The Catholic Church.

At a point.

Two things about two things age of accountability.

At a point, the age of accountability was put at the age of 12.

They said that the age of 12 is the age that we can say that children have reached the age of accountability.

What is the age of accountability?

It is the age a child knows for sure for himself that this thing I am doing is a sin against God.

I have not just hurt my mother, I have not just hurt my father, I have not just hurt my teacher, but I have hurt the heart of God.

And I want to tell you this that there are many 12-year-olds that are in rehabs not rehabs, but there are those facilities that they used to take children who have committed crime.

There are many 12-year-olds who have committed crimes you cannot think about.

There are many 12-year-olds who have done drugs, many 12-year-olds who are doing vape.

There are many 12-year-olds who know sex and can do sexual sin.

There are many 12-year-olds that if you look at an average 12-year-old today in fact if you look at the subjects a 12-year-old is handling even languages a 12-year-old can speak you know very well for sure that a 12-year-old has not only reached the age of accountability, but a 12-year-old is fully responsible for the decisions they make in life.

Are we together?

Why I'm saying this is because sometimes we wait for too long.

We wait until they're 12-year-old before we can lead them to Christ, but at 12-year-old it's too late.

It's too late and the Lord is giving us an opportunity that at the earliest stage of the child at home, we can lead them to receive Jesus.

The statistic given here is a statistic of four years.

Some people have said that when I was four, I remember giving my life to Jesus, so the statistics was used.

So what I'm saying here is that we must reach children earlier.

Children of Christian parents reach the age of accountability earlier than children of non-churchgoing parents.

And the reason is because we are always talking about God, but not in a good way.

We are telling them you have refused to do the dishes.

God is seeing you.

You have refused to do this.

God is seeing you.

You have refused to do the dishes.

God is seeing you.

You have refused to do this.

God is seeing you.

You have refused to do the other.

Jesus is not happy with you.

So they develop the sense of God, the sense of God's presence, god's character, very early in life and that means, if they can understand, then they must be led to Christ.

43% gave their life to Jesus before the age of 12.

Of these 83% who came to Christ, 43% gave their lives before the age of 12.

64% gave their life to Christ before the age of 18.

Again, many people will receive Jesus when they are in high school and I want to believe that a lot of us who are preaching today, a lot of us who are serving God today, are of that generation that gave their lives to Jesus at school.

We went to high school and there were sews, there were rallies, there were weekend challenges and everything, and we gave our lives to Jesus and we went back home to tell our parents that we have received Jesus and we caused them trouble because of the type of gospel that we had received.

Right now, I am aware that this is not possible.

It's not possible for us to go to schools.

It's not possible for us to go to high schools.

It's not possible for us to go and do weekend challenges.

It might not even be possible for us to go and do prayers for examination.

All these things are possible.

It's not possible.

And now, what this means is that the parents have now a greater spiritual responsibility to be the spiritual leaders of the young generation.

8%, 8% sorry 13% will come to Jesus from the ages of 18 to 21.

And the reason for this is because, at the age of 18, when they leave high school, they now begin to be faced by life.

They begin to be challenged, they begin to be questioned, their faith comes under questioning and testing.

And in the absence of their peers who they used to go to meetings together, in the absence of a pastor, in the absence of their peers who they used to go to meetings together, in the absence of a pastor, in the absence of the youth leader, then they doubt, they begin to doubt their faith and many of them will leave Christ.

In other words, we are saying that the great numbers who might have come to the Lord when they were young, if there is no family discipleship, if there is no discipleship at home, if there is no scripture at home, if there is no prayer at home, if there is no guidance offered at home, we might also we stand in danger of losing them by the time they are reaching 18.

And I believe that this type of statistics are responsible for the many, many adults who gave their lives to Jesus as young people and in high school.

But when we now meet them in their 30s and in their 40s, they have no recollections.

This looks like an old story.

8% of those who come to Christ will give their lives to Christ between the ages of 22 and 29.

These are the ages that they are in marketplace.

These are the young people you meet in Safaricom.

Young people you meet in the corporate.

Young people you meet in the supermarkets.

Young people that you meet.

They are now already out.

They are beginning, they are in campus.

Most of them are in campus.

They are in their second years, they are in their third years, very strong children of Christian godly homes, very strong youths in the church, very strong in high school.

But now, when they go to campus again, they find it's a different story and they begin to be introduced to many things.

They begin to be introduced to drugs.

You see, it's an issue of freedom.

It's an issue of exploring, it's an issue, and that's why family discipleship is core, is at the core of healing the family crisis, because family discipleship is not even an issue of rehearsing teachings, it's not an issue of quoting scripture, but it is even an issue of explaining why we believe, explaining why we are Christians, explaining why we are following Jesus and explaining in such a way that the young people, the children and even the adults will know this is what I believe.

I am a Christian because of this, this is what I stand.

That means that even if the whole group decides to drink, the young person will say I don't drink.

And if they are asked why, they will say because I am born again, I am a believer.

And even if they laugh because they can laugh at you Even if they laugh, even if they ridicule you, even if they cut you out, you can be able to say yes, it is okay, because it's not an issue of the whole world being against you.

A discipled young person, a discipled child, a discipled young adult, a discipled adult when the whole world turns against them because of their faith, they don't think that the whole world has turned against them.

They say that they are the ones against the whole world and it is okay.

It's not a situation of pity, but it's a situation of strength, because don't we say that greater is he who is in us than the one who is in the world?

If greater is he who is in us than the one who is in the world, then it means we must stand for him.

We must make decisions in life that favor him.

8% will receive Jesus in their 30s and many of those who receive Jesus in their 30s probably are looking for a husband.

I have been told, pastor Simon, that there are very many people who come to Parklands Baptist Church because of the type of girls we have in this church.

When you go to the online church and you see our media and the cameras, usually they will choose the very bright ones.

They will choose the very good-looking ones, those who come here to sing you have seen the type of girls we have here and when brothers from other churches come, when our TikTok and everything you saw, even the ones making announcements here, when they see these people, they come over here Because in your 30s you think a good wife is in church, you think a good husband is in church.

So you might literally just talk to yourself to start coming for the second service, to start coming for the morning service.

And again, the tea that we offer here.

That tea is not for nothing.

That tea also is an opportunity to connect, I feel, for those people who don't take that tea and they are single, because Parklands Baptist Church is giving you an opportunity to get a spouse and you are walking, you are living and we are even paying for your dates.

We are paying for your tea.

Do you know how expensive dates are?

Do you know how expensive?

I remember the first date I was taken to in the marriage journey when I looked at the bill, I wished I could be given that money.

I just thought what a girl can do with this kind of money.

But I thank God, 9% of those who are 40 and above, only 9% of those who are 40 and above, will give their life to Jesus, because people who are in 40s are beginning to rise in corporate ladder.

They are beginning to be busy, they are looking for investment, they are looking for significance and they do not think that church is the place to find significance.

They are beginning to network, they are beginning to collaborate with others, and I believe that this is the pit that families have entered into.

I remember talking to a group of lawyers and we were looking at why are the lawyers spending too much time out in the night deals, collaborations and the like and they said that that is the only place.

That is where the job is, that is where the conversations are, that is where you meet people, that is where you are introduced to people and for this kind of people, for them to make a commitment for Christ, there must be a crisis in their lives.

There will be a crisis in their lives.

There must be a situation in their lives, and that's why I want to just make this confession, and you need to forgive me.

If we are told that a man is sick and he's in hospital and as we follow the story, we are told now he's in HDU, we will run there because we want to check.

Is this the opportunity for him to receive Jesus, please don't wait until you are in the end of your life to give your life to Jesus.

We are coming to pray for you.

We don't even know if you are responding, we don't even know if you're hearing us, and yet you spent the whole of your life.

Has it occurred to you that God also wants a full life?

Has it occurred to you that God wants your ears, that God wants you to serve him?

Has it occurred to you to do that?

And that's why we must do family discipleship and mentor children and young people, because in children and young people the Lord has a full life.

There is no telling what God can accomplish through the life of someone who is mentored and brought to the Lord as a young person.

Why are we doing these statistics?

We are doing these statistics to show that the window of childhood, teenage and youth are the most critical years for evangelism and discipleship.

Allow me to bring to us a second chart that shows that 64% of people become born again before the age of 18.

And only that 6% become born again in their later years.

We also know that women will come to church, come back to church, come back to the Lord when they enter the marriage institution and when they have young ones, and the reason is because everybody wants their baby to be dedicated.

Nobody wants their baby to not come to church.

They will now remember that their mother used to force them to come to Sunday school wearing white or pink dresses and socks, and they will want the same for their daughters.

Unfortunately, because of the gap of discipleship, by that time they entered a union that does not accommodate church and they will start coming to church alone, with the children and again.

So what I'm doing here may be wondering what is Pastor Felisa doing here.

What I am doing here is that I am presenting the gaps in the Christian family that the Lord has noted, and he is saying that it is about time we change the statistics.

It is about time we change the story, and I was thinking concerning before I go to the statistics of children.

I was beginning to think about even when I was seated there.

I said you know what we need to as the older generation?

We need to apologize to the young people that we didn't pass the faith.

We didn't pass the faith the same way we received Most of us when we received the faith, when we gave our lives to Jesus, we did it passionately.

We read our Bibles, we prayed, but when we have passed the faith, we have not reproduced that.

We have not reproduced the same thing.

We have not given them the passion, we have not given them the love for the words.

We have not reproduced the same thing.

We have not given them the passion, we have not given them the love for the words.

We have not given them the love for prayer.

We have not given them the love for holiness.

We have excused things which were not excused for us and because we have done that, we have created a gap.

Somebody said those fathers who have very nice, beautiful girls have wondered who can we give our daughters?

Who can we give our daughters when our daughters will come for marriage the time will come who will we give those daughters?

Because if the Christian families are not intentionally discipling their sons, by the way, they could be discipling their daughters, but they are discipling their daughters.

By the way, they could be discipling their daughters, but they're discipling their daughters because they don't want trouble.

They're discipling their daughters because they want to protect them, they don't want shame, but are they discipling their sons?

Are they allowing the young men to come in at midnight.

Are they allowing the young men to drink?

Are they allowing the young men to do what they want?

The children of Africa.

I will very quickly give the statistics concerning the numbers of the children of Africa 2023.

There was approximately 21, 211 million children in Africa aged 0 to 4.

You might be thinking that there are no children.

People are not getting children.

You are the only one.

People are in the business of getting children my age mates, my counterparts.

When I stopped at two, in fact, some of my Muslim counterparts who I know.

When I stopped at two, they have eight, they have ten.

They don't understand how busy we are, that we cannot take care of five or six.

The same study says that the total population of children aged between 0 and 17 years, that is, young people and children under 18 years 680 million.

Africa is a young continent, is a continent of young people.

Unicef, in their statistics, said that the current child population in Africa the same ages 0 to 17, estimated at 580 million.

In other words, the population of young people is nearly 47% of all of Africa's population.

What does this mean to us as a church?

It's that resources need to be invested in the young people.

What this means is that church budgets, the budget for the young people, needs to be greater.

They are the future of the church, they are the future of Kenya.

They are the future of Africa.

What this means is that the best resources that we have, the best pastors that we have the best workers that we have the best teachers that we have need to be delegated there.

That is where they need to go.

The best buildings that we have need to go there need to go there.

It's unfortunate that Africa still has over 3,000 groups, 3,784 people groups, people groups.

Somebody asked me what is people groups?

People groups are tribes, people speaking different tribes that have not heard the gospel.

One in three of the existing people groups have existing unreached people groups.

Why do we say a community or a people group is unreached?

They don't have a critical mass of believers, indigenous believers, to share Christ with their own community.

Most of the places we think the gospel have gone.

They are not indigenous people.

They are people sent there by the teacher service commission, people sent there by the government.

They meet there and they start to fellowship together and they make reports and we think that the church is there.

We don't consider that.

We consider the groups, even including having the word the scriptures written, published in their own language, then we can say that that group has an adequate witness of the gospel.

Now, when people are discussing unreached people groups, it burdens us.

We start to say, oh, we need to send more missions, or ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers.

Ask why are we giving these statistics?

We are giving these statistics because the greatest number of unreached people, unreached, undiscipled people, are children, teenagers and young people.

The same cry, the same burden we can have to cry for them, to cry for those tribes, communities, is the same cry we need to have with our children.

And the reason is because if our own have not been discipled, have not been mentored in the ways of God, and if they even walked away from it, if they walked away from this path, then it means they are undisciples and it means that their weakness, effectiveness for Christ is wanting, is wanting.

If Africa has the world's youngest population of 580 or 680 million children and if the unreached people groups also have children, unreached children, then discipling families becomes the fastest way to reach generations and nations.

We have a conviction, we have a faith, the faith of the fathers, the faith that is mentioned in the book of Hebrews, a strong faith, a faith in God.

We need to pass it on.

We are in danger.

There is a danger that some of our families that were reached with a lot of prayer and weeping and evangelists coming to our home disturbing us.

If I can tell you that when those preachers would come to our home, the adults would be very tired.

The adults will be you that when those preachers would come to our home, the adults would be very tired.

The adults will be wishing when will they come out?

When are they going to stop?

It was a heavy investment, but if this faith is not passed to our children, if we don't disciple them enough, if this faith is not passed on to the young people, grounding them in the word of God, grounding them in the word of God, grounding them in the ways of God, grounding them in the faith, working with them until they reach Christ, they enter family, they enter family institution.

Because what is happening now is that because we are not discipling them and the team is here, the PMCC team is here because we have not invested in grounding them, because we are not following them, even when they are in the university, checking them, checking their faith, sitting with them, asking them questions, enrolling them in Bible study, doing this from the home.

We have more leaving the marriage institution than entering it the numbers of those who are entering the marriage institution and the numbers of those who are exiting.

They are exiting faster than we can join them and, my friends, that is why the young people are saying that marriage is a scam.

They are saying they don't believe in marriage.

I was shocked to hear that even some 10-year-olds as I have already said, they will not get married.

How can you decide whether you'll get married or not when you're only 10 years?

Do you even know what it means to fall in love?

Do you even know what it means to not get sleep because of a girl?

Do you even know the power of a text message?

I think they need to go back to letter writing.

They need to go back to card writing.

I don't know if, rosie, you can remember getting a card and the card says I was walking through a flower, bush with thorns, and in the middle of that was a red flower and that flower was you.

And you kept that letter.

You kept that card.

You read it many times to see if there was a secret message, an inspired message.

What do you if the author did not sign his name, so you don't know which boy you meet?

This one?

You think he's the one you meet the other one?

Those think he's the one you meet the other one.

Those boys used to confuse us.

It's just by the grace of God and I've come to realize that falling in love needs to be.

We need to rethink falling in love.

When you say you are falling in love, what does it mean?

Because to me it appears that when you say you are fallen in love, what does it mean?

Because to me it appears that when you say you are fallen in love, is that you are not in your senses.

You are fallen in love.

Falling, you are down.

It means you are not using your head, you are not using all your faculties, you are just using your sensual faculties, the law of attraction.

Maybe when you say I've fallen in love, you mean that I am attracted to this person and if that is the only thing you entered with in marriage, you are contributing to the numbers that are exiting.

You need to start bringing in a bit of common sense, because common sense is not so common.

You need to employ it to make your decision, that once you have felt the law of attraction because people can be attracted to anything I've come to realize that you cannot trust even your own attraction.

You know, I like what somebody said is that, especially if you're a young person, you're a teenager, you're in your 20s, you're in the age brackets we are talking about here.

And the person said that when you get attracted to somebody and you are not ready for marriage, please see that as the way of the Lord to tell you your type.

What this means is that if you are at, if, if you see a young man very stout, very energetic and you feel, wow, just know you might like a short, stout husband, go and write it down somewhere, to go write it down somewhere to take it to heaven's gates.

If you see a man who is like this, maybe you like those rugby players or you like those footballers.

Me, I just think we're going to arrive at a Nigonga.

I cannot save myself.

I cannot deliver myself.

I cannot deliver myself from there.

Falling in love is what brought us here.

Many of I want to speak to the young people who are here.

Many of your parents fell in love.

Many of your parents went to visit the boy they had fallen in love with, and when they went there, maybe they did not return home.

And now, the next day, I want to tell you, young people, the type of parents we have are not like the types of parents we had, are not like the parents you have Us.

You can reason, you can negotiate Our parents we didn't negotiate.

That means you could not go back, because going back would have gotten you killed.

So you saved your life by staying, and three months down the road they looked for you.

They knew where you were.

They were angry.

Their father, the father of your parents, literally swore he will not want to see you again and even sent the mother of your mother away from home.

They sent your grandmother away from home.

That's how angry they were with the whole story.

So there was no room for your mother to go back.

Because can you go back to a home where your own mother has been sent away because of you?

And you stayed there and you didn't have a choice.

Yesterday I was telling a group of women about the issue of dowry.

It's only in Africa, it's only in Kenya that dowry is given to parents.

You come for marriage.

They come to visit your home and they take all that investment and they give to your father and to your mother and you, on your wedding day, you go with nothing.

So when you will want, if anything happens, you have to stay because you know your parents have already eaten.

Don't worry, shout out to Lisa, they ate it the way.

The day you left, actually, they were waiting for it, they ate it.

They didn't take it away.

And so, even in that home, when you go to that home and you are beaten and there is so much happening, you cannot leave.

I am rethinking the issue of dowry.

The dowry needs to be given to the bride.

She is the one who is getting married, for God's sake.

She is the one who is going to do the journey.

She is the one going to another family.

She is the one who is going.

She doesn't know what is ahead of her and I am in love with the communities that give to the bride gold, gold bracelets, gold rings, gold earrings.

And the bride, as she's leaving to go to the new home, she's going with honor that she has been given these things and she puts and decorates herself with them.

But that is in the Bible.

A lot of these brides if they went to the new family and the family mistreated her.

The family did not want her and the family started to do bad things to her.

The bride could escape.

She just needed to sell the gold and run away.

In the night, or in the morning she asked something hey?

So I want the young people to understand us.

I want them to see the challenges their parents have faced so that they will be gracious.

I think I'm enjoying the sermon, but I need to bring it to a close.

I want you to see the responsibility that we have the responsibility to disciple the young generation into marriage, the responsibility to disciple them, pass on their faith to the next generation until they will also start godly families.

Because if you look at the book of Malachi, god says that the only reason he brought in marriage godly offspring, and that godly offspring must also go and reproduce for God.

Raise families so that they can have impact.

Young people who are in this service, I want to tell you this that your parents did not know any better in raising you and that marriage is not a scam.

You can give marriage a chance.

You can give marriage a chance.

You can give marriage, give it an opportunity.

You can say yes to that young man who has been pursuing you.

You can know that he's a godly young man.

You know that he loves God.

I need you to know that.

The breakdown of families, breakdown of marriages and raising rates of divorce I want to take responsibility that we participated in causing that, because sometimes we didn't take responsibility and the young people are angry with us.

They're angry with us that we allowed family dysfunctions to stay for too long.

You know these young people are looking at us.

They see us when we are not talking to one another.

They see us when we are fighting.

They see all our dramas.

Are we together, please?

Young people in the house and when I say young people, even 30, because at 30, you are old in the city and at 30, you are old from the village Do you know those ones from the village?

At 30, they are like 60.

The wisdom on their head.

They are actually married with many children.

We are asked that the 35-year-old here is still praying to the Lord for something the issue of fatherlessness and absent parenting.

I want to also ask those 30 and below to forgive us for being absent.

You see, our parents told us to work so hard, to study, to do everything so that we can cross the poverty line, but they did not tell us to value families.

Most of us, our mothers were maybe teachers, business.

Our mothers were around, but we did not take on the same careers.

We took careers that are so demanding.

We took careers that make us to fly across continents and the thing we were pursuing was good.

But the thing that we were pursuing the children did not understand when we left them home being taken care of by other people.

They did not understand that we loved them and that it is for them that we were doing this thing.

We need the young people of Africa to forgive us.

We need them to forgive us that we did not mentor them enough and many have left church.

I get very many people coming to me and say I've been a member of this church when I was young and I'm asking then what happened?

I take responsibility that maybe they didn't find a safe space, they didn't find a place they could come and weep, they didn't find somebody to talk to, they didn't find somebody who could have told them leave that guy alone, leave that woman alone.

And if we had spoken, if we had boldly discipled them and said these are the marks, this is how you know, this is the will of God, this is how you know if this is a godly, because we didn't teach it.

I take responsibility.

Take responsibility for the moral confusion and the cultural influence that has shaped the lives of families, more than Scripture, because scripture is clear.

Marriage is not a scam.

Family is not a scam.

There are principles in the word of God guiding a godly family, guiding a godly marriage.

In fact, there are scriptures in the word of God Telling us patterns of what to do when your marriage even has broken, because if your marriage has broken, you need to run back to God, not to run away from God.

You need to run back to God.

You need to come back to the pastor.

You need to come for your healing when you're wounded and you feel as if all is lost your dignity, your integrity.

That's why we have the healing ministry for the divorce care.

I can tell you that that program, by the grace of God, has seen over 500 people coming for their healing and being restored back to God and restored back to families.

Pastor Simon the other day preached about more are the children of the barren woman, of the single woman, than the children of the married.

What this means is that God also favors those who've been wounded and, as I ask the young people to forgive us of our woundedness and trauma, that we are allowed to stay in the homes and to fester Candid conversations.

We should have had that we didn't have Protecting our images, protecting our reputation, causing children to be silent and not to talk to anybody, and now they are lost.

Many of them don't trust us as pastors.

The Gen Z generation does not want to hear us because they were told don't talk to anybody, including the pastor.

How can you tell your children not to talk to the pastors?

You know what I learned?

I would rather they went and talked to the pastor and they received the help.

We can handle the disgrace If they are whole.

If I don't want them to talk to somebody, then I must create a safe space in my home.

I must create a safe space, a safe environment that they can do what they need to do.

Hallelujah.

I want to say that the responsibility of family discipleship rests on the home, but we, as a church, we come in to support, we come in to have the conversations that empower you to raise your children.

Bible says train up a child in the way he should go.

In the end, when he's an adult, he will.

It's not that he cannot leave it, it does not mean that he cannot walk away, but when he's an adult he will remember the investments and he will stay.

Amen, god's word is to be taught every day Diligently.

Hallelujah.

As I close this meeting, I want to not close the meeting, but as I end this conversation, I want to say that there is an invitation to your family.

It's not too late.

There's an invitation for you to make things right.

There's an invitation for you to correct things.

I believe that when I was talking here, you saw some situations that you need to correct.

There are some conversations you need to have.

There are some conversations you need to have with your wife, conversations you need to have with the mother of your children.

Conversations you need to have with your children, conversations you need to have with the adult children.

Maybe the conversation might be a conversation of forgiveness.

Might be a conversation of forgiveness Saying that on this last day of August, as Parklands Baptist Church raises an altar for families, I'm forgiving my spouse, I'm forgiving the mother of my children for that thing she did, and you may want to give her a call and tell her I've forgiven you for this.

Maybe you may need to give access.

The children need access.

Their father needs to access them.

The reason they and it would be sad if they've already gone to school and they were not given access God's original intention was that children are put in a home with two parents.

When you leave a marriage, you can divorce a spouse.

You cannot divorce children.

Amen, the two things are separate.

You may want to reconnect with them.

You may want to reconnect with them.

You may want to call them.

1 Peter 1.9 says but you are a chosen people.

That is your identity.

We are not like the world, we don't do things like the world, and I want to invite you because, pastor Simon, I know that there are many people here who don't even have a marriage covenant.

What they have is a even have a marriage covenant.

What they have is a contract, a marriage of convenience, no-transcript.

The wife of your youth.

You've been with her for years.

She's given you children, but you've never made it official.

We want to invite you.

You don't even need.

Of course, it would be nice if you could give her a big wedding, but that's not the issue.

You can just come to Pastor Simon's office and you can marry your wife there, because you might even shock us that you had not married her, and we know you, tosimaji, yeah, you are a chosen people, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

As I invite Pastor Simon, I want to ask you whom are you choosing today?

Choose for yourself whom you will serve your own family.

Are you going to serve the Lord?

Who are you going to serve?

Your children must know who you are serving.

Maybe for you, the response is to ask for forgiveness.

Maybe the response is to ask the Lord to forgive you for the wrong choices you've made, for the bad example you have been to your family.

You have not led them, you've not been the spiritual leader of your house.

Maybe you may want to ask the Lord to forgive you.

For some it would be raising a family altar of prayer.

You know very well there is no altar of God in your own home.

There is no altar in your home that can speak against the things that have been pulling your family down.

Maybe it would be rededicating your life.

You once knew the Lord.

Your reputation was known, your walk with God was known.

But as you went into the corporate, as you went into university, as you went out of the corporate, as you went in to university, as you went in, out of the country, the blessing of God, which the Bible says makes rich and adds no sorrow, brought you sorrow and you walked away from the Lord.

And you may want to rededicate your life to the Lord.

As Pastor Simon comes to pray, even pray for us.

Maybe some families, the hedge is broken, the hedge of protection is broken and they've been under an attack financially, an attack in every area.

I believe that this is the moment for us to be reconciled, restored in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you very much, pastor Felista.

Sometimes I call her Prophetess Felista, because she tells it as it is and her message has a sense of urgency and a sense of precision.

And I really appreciate the gift that you are to us as a community here, parklands Baptist, and not just us, to the whole of the continent of Africa.

And the message you have just brought is precise, it's to the point, it's addressing the family and especially the family crisis as we know it.

And you have proposed family discipleship as the panacea or the antidote, that super treatment from God in terms of treating that problem which is in our midst.

And I really appreciate that you have brought that message to this altar and that you've brought it from this altar.

It is now in the realm of our hearts and minds.

It is our message and I invite us now, using the word of my brother Njoka, is that, yes, earlier Introspection, I think that's what you said.

Yes, invite us to consider this message so that it finds its place where it needs to be.

And I want to believe that by our introspection and reflection and also indigenizing the message to our families and our own personal situations, that we shall give God a chance to bring change and to bring healing in these aspects that our sisters have just raised.

One of the blessings and benefits we have is that we have a very big young population 580 million, you said under the age of 17.

And that means, then, that we have a great catchment where this message would actually be domesticated and also grown.

And once again, I want to thank God for the young people of Africa that you've ably addressed.

Why don't you give a hand to the Lord?

Yes, those in the pavilion, those following online and around the world, because God has given us a whole big population of young people.

And so what I'm going to do, I'll lead us in a prayer in response to the message and then, after that, joshua, after that, we are going to have the shofar blown because we are going into the ninth month, which is September.

Today is the last day of August and it's a month of birthing, and for that reason, we see a rebirth of family, a rebirth of family values.

We see something fresh and something new.

Me, I see it spiritually my brother, alex Button, who is going to be at CNN very soon you know that we agreed, it's going to happen the voiceologist right here, in Jesus' name, and I'm seeing a rebirth of those values.

My brother, joe, I can see you there with a very good tie and Job, job and Job and the right there, hallelujah.

A rebirth of those family values, once again within the terrain of our continent.

As I'm getting into that, let me appreciate all the internationals from other countries who are visiting us.

Let's give a hand to the Lord and appreciate them.

We have those who are from Tanzania.

I know Kenya and Tanzania.

There's some beef.

We kick it out in Jesus, yeah, hallelujah.

And Tanzania is saying no, no, no, it's not there, because we have a great ministry in Dar es Salaam, the reality of Christ TV, and the team is here, led by the station manager, seth Mapoli if you'd just stand up and also the marketing manager, maureen Maureen Michael, who is there.

Remain standing, remain standing, and thank you.

We also have production.

Sylvester Kamara.

Is he here?

Yes, upstairs, sylvester Kamara, sylvester Kamara, sylvester Kamara.

And we have our own, who is part of ROC, our friend Christine.

We call her Dot.

She is creative manager.

We thank God.

Yes, why don't you give a big hand to the Lord and appreciate them?

God bless you, god bless you, god bless you, thank you very much.

Thank you.

You may sit.

We also have from Nigeria, my friend, samson Adamu.

Where is he, samson?

Is he still around?

Yes, I know he was meant to be here and I really appreciate him.

I know he will hear this sound when he follows this video.

Adamu and the team from CAF, caf, who invited me, my children and also a number of our youth here, with Pastor Sylvester as well, to attend the football match yesterday at Kasarani between Morocco and Madagascar, and I was put in the VVIP.

I was put in a place that I could watch the match very strategically.

I haven't been there for so long and so beautiful.

Thank you, faith and Lydia and all the others Pass my message to Samson Adamu, who is also a Baptist.

He's in charge of his director, caf, for tournaments and events across the whole of Africa and he's from Nigeria and one of the Baptist churches is based in Egypt.

And he told me Pasi, come 2027, I'm back here Because you're having the big soccer bonanza or extravaganza, which is going to be here in Kenya.

And he said prepare the place spiritually.

I said I'm going to do that.

So the 2027 is going to be bigger than it was this time and I pray Kenya wins that time.

Kenya wins, and I'm also praying Tanzania becomes number two.

I'm actually Tanzania and Kenya that rivalry that is.

So.

There were so many young people in the stadium last night and I was very, very excited to be at Kasarani Sports Stadium with many others.

I know right now you are raring to go because lunch is ready somewhere.

Let me just say this After this service, don't leave in a hurry.

We have a cup of tea, visit us, we have a place for you, and also we have exhibitions.

You'll find so many tents on the other side.

Take a moment, go there, encourage our members who are in the marketplace.

So as you leave, we have so much for all of us out there.

And so we've come to a time of prayer.

The worship team is here very ready.

Thank you so much for your leadership.

I will ask us to stand up.

We will pray.

After that, we blow the chauffeur.

Almighty God, we open our hearts and allow the message on family discipleship that our sister, pastor Felista, also a team with her husband Elias, has been released from this pulpit.

And, father, we open our hearts to receive it and we pray it is settled in our hearts.

Father, we pray that there will be realignment.

And, as she used the word reset of family in our continent of Africa, and that, father, the Holy Spirit would work with this word that has been released to actually rework things within our marriages and also within our families.

Father, thank you once again that the family altar can happen once again.

And, father, we want to be able to say, like Joshua in Joshua 24 and verse 15, that, as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord and we are recalling the value of Bible in the home.

We are recalling the value of prayer back into the home.

We are recalling the value of love and fellowship back into the home.

We are recalling the value of planning together and thinking together and working together back to the home.

Because, lord, we know and we realize that the first church is not here in this plenary where we are gathered.

The first church is the home and that is the crucible where these values are formed.

And therefore, from the message of this pulpit, today, we are opening our gates to the values I've just shared and Pastor Felicia has actually shared from here and therefore we pray together.

Ancient gates be lifted up and let the King of glory come back to the family.

Who is this King of glory come back to the family.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord, god Almighty.

As a pastor, I am the first to rededicate myself and my family to these values and I invite all of us who are following this message around the world to invite these values once again.

Let the family altar find its I mean altar find its place again in the home.

And God.

As we pray this prayer, we know there are some things that need to take off and I pray a strong prayer that all those demons that have been allowed in their homes, in bedrooms, sitting rooms, kitchens and all those spaces within our homes and they have disrupted the family and caused a crisis, as it were, literally within the family unit.

I pray this prayer that those demons get out right now, in the name of Jesus.

If you agree with me, give a hand clap to the Lord, those demons.

They get out right now, in the name of Jesus Christ.

That the family may enjoy the sitting room again and have fellowship and have communion and plan together again, that the bedroom would serve its purpose and those things that should happen there will happen in the name of Jesus Christ.

That in the kitchen, what should happen there will happen Because these demons are fleeing right now, even as I'm praying.

They are fleeing in the name of Jesus and as we go back to our homes we shall find that they have vacated of those demons.

We are breaking the tenancy, in the name of Jesus Christ, of those spirits and demons that don't own a family.

We break their tenancy.

And Lord, I pray this strong prayer because I know for our spirituality is a foundation, a foundation of healing within the family, and we must start at the spiritual level.

And therefore, I break the yoke of the spirits of hell in the homes, in the name of Jesus, and I invite, in the spirit of God, let's invite the spirit of God in our homes by a hand clap to the Lord, right again in the family unit.

And, father, thank you, because family discipleship is the way to go and family discipleship is now invited back to the home.

And, father, as we leave this place, we are grateful and we are thankful because, god, you have taken over and our families are going to raise young generation who honor the Lord, who are going to serve the Lord in their season and dispensation.

In Jesus' name, we pray and we all say glory to God.

Our God is good.

Our God is good.

Our God is good.

Our God is good.

Now, as we go to the shofar, because we are blowing it seven times, we are speaking anew, beginning in the families.

There are certain things we are uprooting and there are certain things we are bringing in Media, like you did in the first service.

Give me Jeremiah, chapter 1 and verse 10.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

I want us to read it together.

This shofar that is blowing seven times is releasing certain divine action because it's going to take the hand of God.

Some things are going to be uprooted and thrown out, and we're also building and also, you know, healing here.

Why don't we read that together?

Jeremiah 1.10.

Let's read it.

See, today I appoint you, over nations and kingdoms, to uproot, tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plan.

I want you to say that is me.

Let's say it loud enough.

That is me.

That is a mission you and I have, and both the young and the senior.

We can take up this and activate it in our homes.

As we blow this shofar, let us agree, because the Bible says what you agree on earth is agreed in heaven.

What you lose on earth is loosed in heaven, and that's why I've prayed a strong prayer those demons must flee in Jesus' name, and the shofar is confirming Hallelujah.

It's confirming this uprooting business must happen, but also there is the building and also the planting, and therefore may heaven get a chance now to build and to plant a new season through family discipleship.

That has just been taught.

So we will do seven times, then I'll close in the name of Jesus.

After that we just say the grace.

I'm Ajik Asina, sinevo, tibet.

Hallelujah.

Let's go.

Glory to God.

Glory to God, glory to God.

Hallelujah Amen.

In Jesus' name and God's people say.

God's people say and now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore.

Amen.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord Forever and ever, never.

Amen.

The gates of September are open.

You are blessed and covered the whole month In Jesus name.

Shalom, shalom.

God bless you.