2023-09-17_Sunday 2nd Service - Breaking Barriers to Empowered Relationships: The Transformative Power of the Cross: From Barriers to Empowered Relationships with Parkie Associate Pastor Rev. Dr. Simon Mwangi

Our reading today comes from Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 11 to.

Ephesians 2:11

Verse 22 is a great passage on empowered relationships.

The title is dismantling barriers to empowered relationships.

Dismantling barriers to empowered relationships.

I'm reading from the NIV version of the Bible.

Therefore, remember that formerly, you who are Gentiles by birth and called and circumcised by those who call themselves, a circumcision which is done in the body by human hands, remember that at that time you are separate from Christ.

This is now a description of Gentiles.

You are separate from Christ, excluded from the citizenship in Israel.

Then another word and foreign us to the covenants of the promise.

Another statement without hope and without God in the world.

Then there is a shift in verse 13 by saying but now in Christ Jesus, which is a new position, new identity.

You who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations.

His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who are near, for through Him, we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of His household.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief conerstone.

In Him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in Him.

You two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

This is God's word.

Let's pray.

Almighty God.

I thank you for the word I've just read and, my God, thank you for the Apostle Paul putting it together, and thank you, lord, that we can draw inspiration from the Scriptures that he has put together for us In our Holy Spirit.

I pray that you may use me as your servant and vessel to communicate your word to your people today.

We also thank you for those who are following this service online those in the pavilion, those in the other overflow spaces.

Lord, we thank you for all of us as a family and I pray that you bless us together.

In Jesus' name, we pray and we all say Amen, we may have our seats Dismantling barriers to empowered relationships.

Three I have an outline there the power of the cross, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the body of Christ, that is to say, reconciliation paid for, reconciliation sustained and reconciliation at work.

You know, this year our main text is the story of the Samaritan woman which is found in John, chapter four, and Jesus encounters this lady at a well called Jacob's well, which was dug by Jacob, handed over to Joseph and had benefited many people for a long time.

And Jesus, coming from Judea and going to Galilee, decides to pass through Samaria and eventually comes to Jacob's well.

It's about noon and he stops there because he was tired.

A lady we call her famously the Samaritan woman shows up and she has come to get water from the well and she finds Jesus.

Now.

Jesus now gets into making a relationship or putting up a relationship with this lady and he has to go through so many barriers, so many barriers for him to eventually connect with her properly.

And I want to say that God is fully determined to relate with us and God has gone out of his way to reach every human being on planet earth.

We shall not be reached only when we refuse to be reached and when we refuse to open the door, because God says behold, I stand at the door and knock.

In the book of Revelation, if you'll open the door of your heart, god says, I'll come in and eat with you, have fellowship and friendship with you.

And so Jesus tried to reach this woman, but he has to go through several barriers the gender barrier, for example he is a man, she is a woman.

The race barrier he is a Jew, she is a Samaritan.

The morality barrier she has had five husbands.

Now she's living with a sixth husband and Jesus is the seventh that she is actually meeting other well, and so she has that kind of background, a religious barrier.

And she told Jesus you know, you worship in Jerusalem and we worship at this mountain.

In other words, she was just saying there is nothing that can happen between me and you.

This cannot go anywhere.

But Jesus does not give up, just like he has not given up on anyone to this very day.

World view barrier, expectation barrier.

But Jesus, as though peeling an onion, cuts through one layer of barrier, into another, into another, until he eventually reaches her heart and connects with her.

And this lady leaves her water jar, goes to her town, sika, and goes and tells the people come see a man.

There's not just any other man, come see a man.

And this lady brings the whole city, much of the city, to Jesus Christ and she's used powerfully for the glory of God.

God is out, god is out to break, to dismantle every barrier, to be able to reach us and to have a relationship with each one of us.

Will you open your heart on a daily basis to allow God to have a relationship with you?

One of the ways I find I do this is having quiet time in the morning and waking up early, setting apart, going to a particular place and I take my Bible and then I pray.

That's one of the ways I open the gates for God so that we can spend time with one another.

Relationships are everything I know.

Today we are sacrificing relationships at the altar of assets, altar of money, all kinds of altars, and you find relationships have been brought a little lower than they should be.

Yet relationship should be the high value thing to pursue and the high value thing to make happen.

In fact, eventually, when all is gone and finished legacy is about relationships, and so God holds back nothing to reach you and to reach me, and we see that in the story of the Samaritan woman.

The text I've just read here is a masterpiece.

It is really a masterpiece, a text on dismantling barriers to empower relationships.

The church at Ephesus is predominantly Gentile, but they are also Jews in that particular church.

It is a church with a wide base.

In other words, you have people from different culture, different races, different languages, different persuasions.

You have people.

It's a big city.

Ephesus was a port city just off the Mediterranean show, and it was at that time as big as Alexandria and it was really a hub town where road transport and water transport actually converged.

It was also a center of business.

It's more or less like Nairobi and more or less a church like this one, and so you find a church that really represents the whole region, and remember it was the biggest town of Asia under the Roman government at that particular time.

And so, because of the Jew and also the Gentile, the apostle Paul writes this letter so that the Jew and the Gentile can be brought together, they can actually come together, and so he's saying it is possible to dismantle the barrier between a Gentile and a Jew and actually bring them to the place where they can actually serve together.

And God's prayer if you read John, chapter 17, the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, it was that we may be one, as he and the Father are one.

John 17 · chapter mention

That's God's desire, that's God's prayer.

And let me tell you when we are together, we are better together.

When we are together, we'll achieve much, much more.

When we are not together, we achieve very, very little.

I said in the first service, if the church in Kenya would really come together, a lot of things would change.

One of them is the interest rates that really have become very difficult when people borrow loans and they're trying to pay these loans.

And you know, the whole thing becomes bigger with time instead of getting smaller with time.

And I said in the first service, if the church would come together in Kenya, for example, and all the giving from Parklands Baptist and all the other churches, we decide to bring it under one basket, maybe one bank, I'm telling you we shall be able to influence interest rates.

Are you getting what I'm saying?

Yeah, if we got all the money together and by the power of the numbers of that money, we'll begin to impact the interest rates, rich terrain.

And sometimes we pray here and we say Lord, take away poverty, lord, open doors for your people.

And God is speaking back to us, to me as a leader, and he's saying you have the answer with you, you just have the answer with you.

And some of these prayers we pray, we are the answer to those prayers.

And if we came together we would make such a big, big difference.

A family together is unstoppable.

A village together, even the security concerns within neighborhoods, if that neighborhood is together, some of those security issues and concerns would not arise at all, because the thieves who come to neighborhoods, if they see a group that's really together, they're not going to go there.

But when people are actually one here, another one there and they're not together, then actually the blessing doesn't come in their direction.

Someone, 33 says where believers dwell together, the Lord does word, he commands a blessing.

And so this is a powerful text that we have in front of us, and he says three things.

One, dismantling barriers to empowered relationships through the power of the cross.

The power of the cross, reconciliation paid for, reconciliation paid for the gentle and the Jew.

Their relationship could not be changed by the law, neither could it be changed by ritual or any other effort they may have tried.

The thing that was going to change this relationship was the power of the cross, and I want to read verse 11, where I read.

Well, let me start from verse 13.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who are far away, and peace to those who are near, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

The cross is a symbol of God's mercy, is a symbol of God's grace.

The cross represents the atoning work of Christ, and at the cross, that is where we become equal.

At the cross, that's where we become brothers and sisters.

Do you know?

It was through the work of the cross that we receive a new identity.

In 2 Corinthians 5.17, the Bible says, and I believe we all know it if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The oldest gone, behold, the new has come.

And all of this verse 18 says is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

You know, at the cross the atoning work of Jesus, of God, was actually finished and at the cross we get a new identity.

At the cross we enter the family of God and at the cross and through the cross, you can call your brother, the person next to you, my brother or my sister.

The power of the blood of Jesus is able to change the Gentile and change the Jew, give them a new identity, induct them into a new family called the household of God.

And within that household of God, the Jew and the Gentile are able to call each other my brother and my sister.

And I would like to turn to the person next to you and call my brother or my sister, depending you.

Just turn to them and say hi, my brother, and hi, my sister.

That has been made possible by the cross, the power of the cross, and maybe the person you talked to is your spouse and probably you didn't.

You aren't talking in the morning, but something has changed now, in the name of Jesus Christ.

And so he writes to this church in Ephesus and he says it's not by the law, it's not through circumcision, it's not by any other act that you're going to become one, it is through the cross.

So in verse 14, therefore, he says the cross has broken the middle wall of partition, that barrier that was between the Jew and the Greek, through the power of the cross has been broken.

And for that reason a Jew can call a Gentile brother and a Gentile can call a Jew brother.

And I pray that even within our families, that we come back to the power of the cross.

We try to solve our differences by good persuasion, human wisdom, calling elders and doing everything else except, first of all, coming to the cross.

When you come to the cross, it becomes easier to say forgive me.

It becomes easier to say I'm sorry, you know.

It becomes easier to reach out to somebody else because God reached out to you and you experienced the mercy and the love of God.

Then, at the cross, you are able to reach out to somebody else.

Without the cross, it is totally impossible to have empowered relationships.

Through the cross, therefore, jesus paid the cost and the price of reconciliation, and we call it the price of the atoning activity of God.

And he did this so that then, at the cross, you may come to the place where you can find salvation, you can find deliverance, you can find restoration, you can find healing and you come to the cross.

Reconciliation price paid and you don't have to pay a cent.

Today, if you are not born again and you're in this service, I invite you to the cross and you find everything has been paid for.

Noanda Isaiah wrote and he said come without money, you know, just come as you are.

You don't need to pay a thing, because the cross has mitigated everything.

And at the cross, then, god is able to reach you through his grace.

And so you come to the cross and you acknowledge what Jesus did on the cross and by faith, you say today I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I receive my salvation.

And so if you're here and also following online, I encourage you today, wherever you are, you can pray that simple prayer and I'm telling you, god will come through for you, he'll come in and you know what?

He will make you a child of God.

1 John 5, verse 11 says and this is the testimony God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son.

1 John 5:11

Whoever has the son of God has life.

Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.

It's very simple.

Sometimes we complicate the gospel, but the gospel is pointing people to the cross.

It is saying Jesus went up to the cross and he shared his blood so that people of all nations, from all kinds of backgrounds, can come.

And on the merit of Christ.

That is what grace is all about on the merit of Christ, on the credential of Christ, just by faith, accept what he did and when you do, then that you receive salvation.

If it is healing when you come to the cross and maybe you're following me online and you're somewhere, you're not feeling well at the cross, even now and today, because the Bible says by his stripes we are healed.

At the cross, you can come and you say by the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.

Brother Timothy has prayed for healing and I want to make a declaration If you're here not feeling well, and also maybe online and not feeling well, I decree and declare your healing right now in the name of Jesus Christ.

Is anybody receiving that In Jesus' name?

I release it.

I release it.

It is yours.

Receive it In Jesus' name.

Why?

My strength comes from the cross and what Jesus did on the cross reconciling us to the Father, opening the gates of God's provision so that when we come to the cross, then God provides what we need that reconciliation with God to make us to have access to the blessings of the kingdom.

Jesus made it possible through the cross.

But also reconciliation with one another.

You know relationship with one another, and so at the cross you ask for forgiveness, you ask for salvation, you ask for deliverance, you ask for healing.

God provides all of this.

You don't have to compete with your brother or your sister anymore about assets and about anything, because you applied to the source.

Now you can reconcile with your brother and sister Vertical reconciliation, horizontal reconciliation made possible at the cross, and I thank God that Jesus actually went to the cross and paid that price for me.

There's a song I sang in the first service.

I hope I remember it again.

It goes like this he paid a debt he did not owe.

I owed a debt I could not pay.

I needed someone to wash my sins away.

Well, now I sing a brand new song Amazing Grace, christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Christ Jesus paid a debt you and I could not pay.

And therefore we say reconciliation is not by works, reconciliation is a work of grace and it's all paid for.

Just simply look at the cross, submit at the cross, and God will make it possible for you to do the horizontal reconciliation.

And so barriers are broken by the power of the cross and Jesus, who went to the cross, meets the Samaritan woman, peels layer after layer after layer of barrier until she finally connects with the soul of this woman and there is reconciliation between the woman in heaven and the woman in Jesus.

And she lives her jar and she goes now a changed woman.

She is no longer, she has a new identity.

She is a child of God, she belongs to the household of God, she is now a minister of the kingdom.

Just at the cross, the Samaritan woman meets Jesus and from there her life totally changes, her perspective actually totally changed.

And I want to say today the power of the cross, not any other power, the power of the cross, and that's what Paul is telling the Ephesian church you gentle this problem between yourselves.

The barrier is broken through the power of the cross and I really appreciate this power today and I pray that somebody appreciates the power of the cross but secondly, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit.

These barriers, relational barriers, broken by the power of the cross but also by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And this is reconciliation sustained, reconciliation paid for, reconciliation sustained.

It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to sustain reconciliation.

And so he tells the church at Ephesus this is in verse 18, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

I want to repeat for through him, we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

The power of the Holy Spirit has sometimes been underrated, but I want to say the power of the Holy Spirit is everything in terms of discipleship, keeping you in the faith and also keeping you in relationships.

I said here the other Sunday that when I am dealing with couples there's something I call the love retreat I shared here and I said that love is a gift of the Holy Spirit Efficiency, galatians 5, verse 22,.

Galatians 5:22

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, long-suffering, self-control that's the fruit of the Spirit.

So, to sustain this reconciliation, the power of the Holy Spirit, who grants us those attributes that make relationships stand 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, is needed.

And even you, as a believer, to continue being a believer and remain strong as a believer, you need the Holy Spirit.

Without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, you can't survive a day.

You just can't.

It is totally impossible, and so we call it the grace of reconciliation that comes through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

I remember as a young person, struggling in my faith, I reached a place.

I determined this is too hard, I'm going to give up.

But thank God, who speaks to our hearts and also leads us clearly, he spoke to me and said surrender to the Holy Spirit.

And I encourage us, you know, in our own personal work, in relationships and also in our faith Went to a place and just said Lord, I release myself, I surrender everything to the Holy Spirit.

And I tell you, right there there was such a visitation and from that particular moment I was never the same again.

I was in Mombasa and I found myself leaving the campus where I was going to the North Coast, south Coast.

That's how I became a preacher in Matatu's, a preacher on the streets in Mombasa, because you know of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, of course I did some foolish things that time and I decided I was going to teach people how to speak in tongues and I put up a place called the dome in Mombasa.

It was called the dome, the upper room, and it was a dome.

You know that architecture, arabic architecture.

So there was a place and it was a dome, and I would tell the fellow students, my fellow students then, that the dome is a place to meet if you want to speak in tongues.

And let me tell you some of those superstars in Nairobi, that God uses our foolishness sometimes, you know, and I would go pray in partation and I thank God for the power of God, hallelujah, the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is not by power, nor by my spirit.

You'll make it say, it's the Lord.

It's as simple as that.

I don't know any other formula.

It's as simple as that.

Simply surrender to the Holy Spirit.

And the church at Ephesus, facing the goddess Atemis, there was a big temple of the goddess Atemis.

There was the occult, there was sorcery, there was black magic in that city.

And he's writing to the Jew and the Gentile and he's saying you're going to make it, you're going to make it, you're going to make it, but you need the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, if you're a father here struggling with your son could be a son yes, struggling with a son.

I'm giving you a prescription for sorting out that struggle.

Go to a corner this evening, just kneel alone before the Lord and you say, like Jacob said, I'm not living here until you bless me.

I'm not living here until the power of the Holy Spirit descends on.

Go to a corner and pray.

I'm telling you that God, who is able to give us bread, he will not withhold the Holy Spirit.

There will be an impartation right there.

Now I'm telling you, dealing with your son will become very, very easy.

But if you continue the way you're continuing and trying in your own strength and your own power is going to break both of you.

So the power of the Holy Spirit the cross and then the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through the cross, you receive the benefits of the atoning work of Christ and you enter a new relationship with God, but through the Holy Spirit now.

You're empowered now to be able to release the ministry that you need to release, and God uses ordinary people.

He makes us able.

We are not able, he makes us able and therefore, if you just simply surrender to the Holy Spirit, he gives you the power.

You are here.

You are very fearful, you know you've had fear for some time.

God is saying I've not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.

And you are here and you have faced certain barriers in life and handicaps and challenges.

God is saying depend on the Holy Spirit.

He's able to bring those handicaps and those barriers crashing down.

Our God, through the Spirit, therefore leaves in us and therefore he walks with us, both Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, sunday brings a consistency in terms of our outputs and life, because His presence dwells inside us.

And so when you're dealing with people, dealing with issues, whether it's work, even this corruption thing we talk about in Kenya, are there Christians in all those offices?

You know, with the Holy Spirit working with us in those spaces, I'm telling you he's able to give you victory, you know, over the power of corruption.

Do you believe that with me, it is very, very possible and you'll find it very easy.

And then God will bless you in other ways and you shall prosper, your children will prosper.

But if you take corruption money, it will just do one generation.

The next generation will eat it up, in fact we'll just swallow it with big spoons, and by the third generation there will be nothing and poverty will come calling and come knocking.

But if we trust in the Lord and depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, then you have that sustained reconciliation with God and with others and the blessing of God visits you in a big, big way.

And so he tells this church you need to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit and those attributes I just shared are very amazing attributes.

I said the other Sunday, you don't find them in a supermarket, you find them in the presence of the Lord.

That is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, long suffering, self-control.

And when you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you, you become more handsome, you become more beautiful, you become a magnet, you become attractive and there's just something you become a world changer.

And when you are in a neighborhood, somehow relationships just connect with you.

It's like just relationship.

You become a magnet of relationships.

And let me say this a nation submitted to the cross, a nation depending on the power of the Holy Spirit, will prosper.

And how will it prosper?

Because nations will come to the rising of its dawn.

In Isaiah 60, verse 3, the Bible says nations will come to your light and kings to the lighting, to the rising of your dawn.

Isaiah 60:3

Then you release yourself to the Holy Spirit, your ministry will grow.

You're struggling with that Bible study.

Submit to the Holy Spirit, release it to the Holy Spirit.

You'll be surprised what happens in that neighborhood as people start coming, knocking at your gate and they're joining that Bible study and that little Bible study begins to expand and to grow and you make it two Bible studies, three Bible studies and pasta machine, even house groups.

I know yesterday you had a house group conference.

The way to grow these house groups is through the power of the Holy Spirit, not the intelligence of any human being, not even the size of the house where they meet.

In fact, people can meet in a kiosk and the ministry grows in a kiosk, an informal structure.

That because of the Holy Spirit, the oil of the Holy Spirit.

And so he's the one who has been called alongside us, to walk with us, to make us successful, to cause us to develop relationships and grow them beyond Nairobi, across Kenya, across Africa and around the world.

How large is your ministry?

This month we are talking about enabled ministry.

That word there, enabled ministry, means the Holy Spirit making it possible.

How large is your influence?

How big are your networks?

How is it growing, diminishing, or is it flat?

How are you doing Surrender to the Holy Spirit and tell me in a week's time whether you will not see a major, major difference?

So to love another person takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

To say I'm sorry, takes the power of the Holy Spirit To say forgive me.

And so if you're here, a husband you've differed with your wife after this service run, find where your wife is.

If both of you are not here, and quickly say I am sorry, be the first one to take initiative.

Is that easy?

I see my last born brother is here.

I'm asking you, is that easy?

That's my last born brother.

Let's clap, clap, appreciate him.

God bless you.

So I'm asking him, is it easy?

I know he's married to Esther.

Where is Esther, by the way?

Okay, so no differences, hi.

So you rush because the Holy Spirit moves you.

There's a word called compulsion by the Holy Spirit.

There's a propulsion and a compulsion and you want to reach that person that you have differed with, and so barriers are broken, not in the power of man but in the power of the Holy Spirit, but finally the power of the body of Christ, and this is reconciliation at work.

So we have reconciliation paid for, reconciliation sustained and reconciliation at work, the power of the body of Christ.

In Ephesians, chapter four, I read some verses there, from verse seven, the Bible says chapter four but to each one of us grace has been given, as Christ apportioned it.

Again, remember this grace is apportioned to each one of us.

This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.

And so Christ as he ascended, mean except that he also descended to the lower, at the regions.

He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers to equip us people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith, and this is our goal in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is ahead, that is, christ.

From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up as each part does its work.

The catch word there is as each part does its work.

And Paul also speaking the same about reconciliation at work In Fast Corinthians 12, verse 12.

He says just as the body, though one has many parts, but all it many parts form one body, so it is with Christ, for we were all baptized, and thank God for the group that was baptized.

Okay, it's talking about baptism in the spirit, by one spirit, so as to form one body.

Whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, everybody there, we were all given the one spirit to drink, and so the body is not made up of one part, but many.

Now, if the food should say because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

And if the ear should say because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

And if the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact, god has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

If there were all one part, where would be the body as it is?

There are many parts, but one body.

This is reconciliation at work.

You know, barriers broken.

We need each other, everyone gifted and everyone needed an eye and everyone commissioned.

You have a hand, you have a foot, you have an eye, you have an ear and every part has a function.

I want to say here that every one of us was made for a particular purpose and reason by God and there is no redundancy.

Are you getting me?

Everyone here was made for a reason and a purpose.

We are all custom made and, as far as God is concerned, there is no redundancy.

Love is what makes some people function, or lack of it, and others are left aside.

Clicks and clubs are formed, and when these clicks and clubs are formed, some people are put outside yet gifted, and others are picked to stay within a group.

What the apostle Paul is saying is that everyone is important, everyone is needed, everyone is gifted and for that reason everyone has a role to play.

And where the barriers have been broken, there will be no clubs, no clicks.

We shall be one body.

Yet diverse but united, can only be described as one body functioning like one machine and every part doing its bit.

Let me tell you, if we achieved what the scripture is teaching here, I'm telling you, we can change the justice church alone, we can change the world in one generation If we achieved what the scripture is saying here.

And so nobody was designed to sit back.

All of us were supposed to function, but because of barriers to empowered relationships, you find some people are in the background and others are doing all the work.

And they are doing all the work every other time.

The same group of people, the same group of people.

Yet God has given gifts to all people.

The end time revival will be a revival of gifts, a revival of gifts upon every believer.

When we go back to church history around 300 after Christ, that is when this was reversed, the body of Christ was reversed.

And I said the other Sunday seats were created for the clergy and there was a dichotomy and a line drawn between clergy and lady.

And I believe that's not a godly thing.

Clergy and lady, that divide.

We are all ministers, we are all servants of God, we are all gifted.

And that council of Nisair put a line and said you have clergy and then you have the lady.

I am here to again reverse that and say we are the body of Christ and every part has its own function.

We need to break those barriers and bring us to the place where everybody is active and everyone is actually involved.

So relationships are the ones that cause ministry to happen and if that was to be recovered again, then you will be surprised how much ministry just this congregation would do in one week in a city such as this, backing each other, supporting each other, praying for one another and having those kind of relationships.

This kind of ministry we are talking about is ministry by all enabled, ministry through the cross, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by all.

This is a kind of ministry that we are talking about, and we pray here in Parkland Baptist Church that we will have ministry that comes through everyone, because God has gifted every person and that gift must find its platform, must find its place.

So the calling for us is to create that enabling environment where each one of us can become all that God wants them to be, and I pray this would be the case for a nation.

Can you imagine you have a nation that acknowledges the gift of everyone and creates a path for everyone to flourish, everyone to find their niche and for everyone to be fully actualized?

Can you imagine if you had a nation like that?

Can you imagine if you had a continent of that nature?

And therefore God has not created any redundancies.

It is our lack of love and lack of unity that has shunted some people to the margins of life, where they have very little, and others have been pushed to other margins where they have more than they need and there is lack of equity.

But God, in his wisdom and in his plan, designed that every person is gifted and designed that every person should function, and so reconciliation at work is where everybody finds their space, finds their place and everybody is functioning within that space and that place.

And when that happens the church grows very fast.

That happened in the book of Acts, you know, at the beginning.

When you follow, you will see that actually happened.

And the fastest growth in history that you've ever had of the church happened in that early church, the first hundred years.

But over time now things started changing, and so I'm here to share with us and say the barriers to empowered relationships have been broken through the cross, they have been broken through the power of the Holy Spirit and that they are broken through the body of Christ when it's functioning the way it ought.

And so my prayer is this that each one of us now will take a position Jeremiah 110 give me that on the on the screen.

Take a position where we go out and we say I am want to be used of God to uproot, you know, to tear down and destroy and overthrow all the barriers of relationships and I want to build, and I want to plant and build and heal relationships.

So these are statements are.

Read it and then we shall read it together.

It says the sea today appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

Let us read that verse together, the whole of it.

Let's say together see today, appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

Now we turn it into Rima.

Rima means the life in the word.

And how do you turn the word into Rima?

By make it first person and you apply it in a particular situation.

I know there is a Rima first coming this week and so some people here must be ready, I'm sure, for that conference.

But before you get there, let us make this one Rima.

We make it first person.

Let's try it together.

I have been appointed over nations Nations are people, those are families and kingdoms to do what to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

You will say it again more confident now.

I have been appointed over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

I believe, as we live this service, there are certain pockets that need this activity, this kind of activity here, through the power of the cross, the power of the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ working together.

There must be a pocket somewhere, either at family level, neighborhood level, at work station level, you know.

There must be some pocket that needs this kind of application and God wants us to take that mantle of authority, because if the church does not lead in this area, then who will heal the nations, who will heal the relationships?

We are the ones to take that frontline role, because Jesus healed the relationship between us and the Father, and I can call God my Father.

Why?

Because Jesus took a position to uproot the barrier of sin and all the other barriers that were between me and my Father, so that at the cross I would find that healing and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it can be sustained.

I am the agent of Jesus Christ and so, as we live this sanctuary, there is a space that needs you.

There is a space that needs healing.

There are barriers that need to be uprooted.

Some of them have been there for 10 years and you have allowed them to stay.

Some of those have made them not even enjoy your inheritance because you are in court already fighting over inheritance, and these are material things.

You are sacrificing your relationships at the altar of assets and material things.

You know those things need to be removed from court in Jesus' name, and I declare you are here.

Please run and take those things out of court.

Bring them outside the court.

Simply love each other, come to the cross, allow the Holy Spirit to function, and I'm telling you that matter will be sorted out like this.

You are spending so much on legal fees.

You are literally seeing your inheritance fall apart simply because these things have not been uprooted, and you are saying they'll know who I am, and so there is a barrier which has stayed for so long.

That's your brother, that's your sister.

Take the mantle, uproot that barrier.

Connect with your brother and your sister again, like Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33, verse 5.

Genesis 33:5

Hug your brother, although you've been away from each other for 20 years.

That's how long Jacob and Esau were apart, and you know there was that thing that was between them.

For so long.

They would never really prosper, you know, because this relationship was not working right.

But finally Jacob comes back.

Esau doesn't even need to be paid anything.

The Holy Spirit has mellowed the whole thing and he's just coming to harvest.

You know the blessing of a reconciled relationship, and they hug each other.

My prayer is this you are in church, thank you, but out there there are these differences and barriers with your brother, with your sister, with your mother, with your father, with your neighbor, immediate neighbor.

By this scripture that we have just memorized and made first person, I am sending us, this is the article, and I'm commissioning us to go and Take your month to uproot, overthrow, remove, dismantle that barrier.

May those barriers crush.

Now, in the name of Jesus Christ, hallelujah.

May they just come down like the walls of Jericho.

May they just sink and disappear.

May you get back to your brother or your sister and I had them and you say, sister, the Holy Spirit will go ahead of you, by the way, sister, I love you.

And let me pastor.

This pastor say I love you, hallelujah.

Another day somebody told me oh, you're the love pastor.

I found that interesting.

Let me say it again I love you, hallelujah, hallelujah.

I know if I say say to the person next, you can get a little strange Hallelujah, depending on whether they owe you rent or owe you something.

But barriers can be broken in the name of Jesus Christ, and God loves us.

In fact, john 3, 16 says for God, so love the world that he gave his only bigotten son that we so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So if the Gentile and the Jew can sit on the same table at the church called Ephesus, if the Gentile and the Jew can plan a ministry together, and if the Jew and the Gentile can even go through a door like this and Execute that ministry as a partnership, I say that reconciliation is possible.

I say that barriers can come down and I say that ministry, amazing ministry, is going to happen.

So as we leave this church, I believe that coming next Sunday we're going to be hearing testimonies of how people have things have sorted out at business level, at home level, at Neighborhood level, and how the Lord is manifesting.

John 13, verse 34 and 35, says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another.

John 13:34

By these, all men will know that you are my Disciples if you have love for one another.

So you are this servant of God, this priest, who must go out now.

The curtain in the temple was torn into two so that now you don't have a court for women, a court for Gentiles, a court for the Jewish men, a Court for the priests, the high priest, and then the high priest goes once in a while in the holy of Holies and is coming back.

The curtain was torn in two when Jesus, by the power of the cross, it was actually torn into two so that everyone of us can become a priest and a minister.

And so the invitation today, simply that that we go, do what Jeremiah did Jeremiah one verse 10 up root, dismantle over through all those barriers, that bad air that has been in that family for three Generations and I know what I'm talking about when I say this, because I deal with it every week, week in, week out here.

You know that bad air that has been there between for three generations.

It must stop now, in Jesus name, those differences must end and it is possible.

And when we have healthy relationships, we have a healthy nation, a healthy family, it is good for us, it is good for you.

When you go out, do this, do this, god heals you and God begins something special and precious With your life, then God chooses to use you greatly.

And so we have a mandate Jeremiah 110.

We have a commission Jeremiah 110.

We go out there.

And if this week you can reach five people, three people, two people, pull up those barriers, bring about this ministry to happen, grow your networks.

That would be great.

So next Sunday I'm looking forward to a testimony.

So let me make this declaration Monday becomes reconciliation Monday.

Tuesday becomes reconciliation Tuesday.

Wednesday becomes reconciliation Wednesday.

Thursday becomes reconciliation Thursday.

And and where am I?

Friday?

Friday becomes a reconciliation Friday.

Saturday becomes reconciliation Saturday.

Alex, if you need to go to Nakuru, I'll give you fare.

Are you getting me?

Yeah, I'm just picking him at random.

That's, I'm just trying to illustrate this week.

And then Next Sunday is a testimony celebration, sunday of the harvest of reconciliation, what the Lord is able to do and eventually, whether you like it or not, we shall all be for before the lamb.

Revelation 7, 9, and I saw people of every tribe, every nation, every background gathered before before the lamb.

I hope we have picked this commission.

I want to pray now.

Let's all stand up as we pray together and trust God for for to apply what we've just shared.

Let's pray, father, in Jesus name, I Thank you so much for putting us in Nairobi, kenya, and Lord, thank you for putting us in a city that has a prophetic destiny.

It is a hub city, is a high in a hub nation and, lord, you've given us a prophetic sound that says for Nairobi, nations will come to our light and kings to the lighting of our doom and Lord.

I know that Nairobi and Kenya are is a magnet nation and the peoples of this country and also across Africa shall be sought after Lord.

I know that this will happen as networks and relationships are developed here and globally, and done through the power of the cross, through the power of the Holy Spirit and done as the body of Christ Functions, the power of the body of Christ, my God, thank you for the scripture.

We have just read Jeremiah 1 and verse 10.

As a commission, out of this message today that you have given us a place and appointed us To take a position in nations and kingdoms, to a proof to overthrow, to demolish, to plant and to build.

And, god, I thank you for this commission.

I pray that somehow, by the Holy Spirit, my God, you empower us afresh to go and shift the paradigms out there, where people think pride and ego is what wins.

But, lord, by humility and love, we change the world out there.

So, holy spirit, take over, holy spirit, take charge and I pray you descend on every homestay, every individual.

I see revival.

I see revival, I see the work of the Holy Spirit at home and the work of the Holy Spirit in supermarkets people helping one another, people stretching a hand to one another, people loving each other, lord, I see this work in schools and universities and I'm seeing it across the nation, across Africa.

Thank you for the harvest of reconciliation that I've just talked about, and God, we shall see healing the needy, who their needs will be met.

There will be equity in the land, lord, everybody will be taken care of.

Thank you for what you are about to do.

Much of the pain and struggle we are going through is because we have become so much of Individuals, but, god, you want us to reach out and so, father, I thank you for this mandate and I thank you for this commission.

And now, because of this commission and this mandate, I choose to bless us.

If you would raise your hand to the Lord, father, I Thank you because, when Jacob Decided to go looking for iso, you met him midstream.

Because he has adopted, he had adopted the journey to reconciliation and Jacob was willing to break the barrier with his brother iso.

And because he was on this mission, my God, you determined to bless him.

And somewhere in between, when he got to penwell, my God, you showed up and there was a wrestling match under the break of dawn when he said I'm not leaving you until you bless me.

My God, you blessed him.

Oh, men and women on planet earth involved in this work shall be blessed.

And that's why, lord, I'm releasing this very special blessing today.

And, my God, the blessing I release is that, like the one that came upon Jacob, who was on a mission of healing and reconciliation, breaking barriers between himself and his brother, and that blessing fell upon Jacob.

Jacob's name was changed forever.

That old name that was a bad name, hanging on his neck, was broken.

The yoke of that name and the venom in that name was broken and he receives a new name that is really a blessed name Israel.

And not only that, the blessing leads him on to meet his brother and he's not going from back to where he he's come from, he's going back home.

Lord, the blessing that lifts us out of Places of struggle, where Jacob was for 20 years, and puts us to the places of rest, that's the kind of blessing I'm asking my God as, as we pick up this mission.

The blessing, lord, that brings Protection upon those who take up this mission and I thank you today at this altar.

My God, I'm releasing this kind of blessing that changes the name, that changes the destiny of a person, that brings reconciliation and healing between a person and family, that leads Jacob on to a place called Bethel, a place of consolidation, a place of legacy.

Just because you're taking up this mission, my God, this is the blessing I am now releasing and therefore, my brother and my sister, in the name of the father, in the name of the son, in the name Of the Holy Spirit, I decree this blessing upon your life on Monday, this blessing on Tuesday, this blessing on Wednesday, this blessing on Thursday, this blessing on Friday, this blessing on Saturday, this blessing this coming Sunday, and because of this blessing, god is leading you to a wider space, god is leading you to the next level.

God is taking over that debt and that issue and that problem that has plagued your life for a long time.

God is doing a miracle afresh upon your life and God is breaking the yoke of poverty and Yoke of cycles of poverty and struggle, the yoke of depression.

Like Pastor, a brother, timothy prayed earlier God is lifting all those yolks over your life and God is bringing healing in your relationships and is healing in your family and healing in your destiny.

And I decree and declare generations that come from you are now blessed Because God has released this blessing that was released on Jacob and this blessing makes him Israel, and this blessing is changing everything about your life this week and in the days to come, because we've prayed this prayer in the name of the father, in the name of the son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, and you say let's give a hand clap to Jesus.

Glory to God, glory to God, hallelujah, our God is faithful.

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 and ever.

Amen.

Say hi to your brother and your sister.

So you're my brother, you're my sister, thank you.