For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:3-5)
We will be looking at several parts of scripture through the sermon this evening but our primary reference will be Romans 1:18-32 and Colossians 1:15-20. In Romans we will see the condition of man that precipitates the question we are answering this day – Why Christ above other gods? It is the condition of sin.
Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17)
O God of all creation, thank you for the good gift that is our homeland Kenya. I don’t know how many of us have ever reflected on our homeland Kenya as a gift, a gift from God? Or do we just feel entitled to this nation we call our home? How about those who treat it as an option? If things don’t work here I can always move to another part of the world ??.
What would happen if every time we sang the Kenya National Anthem specifically this line about our homeland of Kenya gratitude to God for the gift of a home would ooze from our hearts? The translation would be amazing. We would consciously take care of this gift. Simple but significantly negative behavior when compounded would be a thing of the past. Am talking about issues like dumping garbage out of moving cars, into drainage systems, misusing water and electricity, deforestation. One of the worst if not the worst forms of violence against our homeland is silence, yes silence. When we stand in silence and watch others abuse the gift that is our homeland in a myriad of ways, we are in essence participating in their crimes.
Our homeland of Kenya is a gift, let us treasure it and treat it as such.
Prayer:
O God of all creation, thank you for the gift of our homeland Kenya. I confess that we have been callous in how we have treated this gift: both with our actions and our silence. O God you whose property is to have mercy, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for abusing our homeland and help us henceforth to make step by step, day by day conscious decisions in our actions and words to portray to you our gratitude for this our homeland of Kenya. In Jesus Name, Amen!
Our scripture reading for today is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10.
9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.”
10 Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that thou wouldst bless me and enlarge my border, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from harm so that it might not hurt me!” And God granted what he asked. (1Ch 4:9-10 RSV)
Lets us pray:
Father speak to us. Open the eyes of our understanding and our inner ears to hear what you have to say to us. We are ready to receive from you, speak Father. In Jesus Name we pray Amen!
In school they taught us that a family is composed of father mother and children; it is the most simplistic definition of a family which leaves out more than it gives. Give it to the education system though, at least they gave us a definition to begin with. What they left out is that though everyone is born of a father and mother not everyone is brought up by both parents. Some have one, some have none: because of diverse reasons ranging from desertion, divorce, distance or even death just to name but a few. Other families don’t have children, and we could go on and on about the definition of a family.
Be that as it may today we tackle the topic of family by focusing on the household of kwa akina Jabez??. We are not told about his father but his mother and brothers though they remain nameless are mentioned. Jabez was born in pain and was named pain as the scriptures we have read tell us. I don’t know what your negative name is leave alone what it means or even the negative name your family is associated with but if it is in the family of names like Jabez, be of good cheer you are in the company of greatness. If only you follow in the footsteps of this man Jabez, then that negative name you bear/ the negative name your family is associated with will cease to hold any power over you In Jesus Name!
The virtue of self control is one that will guide us in our study this morning, because if there is a virtue that can ground, grow and guard a family it is self control; lack of it breeds the opposite and sadly many of us are testimonies. We will look at three ways in which the Lord is calling us to practice self control as relates to the topic of family and drawn from our scripture reading this morning.
These three things are:
Self control in words; self control in thoughts; and self control in deeds.
Lets us begin with the tongue, since as we all know that’s where most if not all our family problems begin; are rooted.