the main passage for Pastor Kamau's sermon on unity
20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;
23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
cited to illustrate how Peter and John's time with Jesus was visible in their bearing and speech
1 As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them,
2 being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening.
4 But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
5 In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem.
6 Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest.
7 When they had stood Peter and John in the middle of them, they inquired, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
9 if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,
10 be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole.
11 He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
12 There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.
14 Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it.
17 But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.”
18 They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves,
20 for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
21 When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done.
22 For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
23 Being let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
25 who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
26 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’
27 “For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
28 to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
29 Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”
31 When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
32 The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
33 With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all.
34 For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,
35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need.
36 Joses, who by the apostles was also called Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,
37 having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Kamau preached from John 17:20-26, the portion of Jesus' high priestly prayer where He prays specifically for future believers. He focused on what Christian unity is meant to demonstrate to the watching world, drawing four reasons from the text.
What was said
Pastor Kamau opened by noting that John 17 is different from the Garden of Gethsemane prayer recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Here, Jesus prays while His disciples are listening, making it a kind of final public declaration of His desires for the church. In African culture, he said, a person's last words carry great weight, and the family will always ask what the dying parent said in those final moments. Approaching this prayer with that seriousness, he said, is exactly right.
The first thing Pastor Kamau drew from the passage is that unity demonstrates that believers actually know God. Jesus holds up His own oneness with the Father as the pattern, and says the church's oneness should mirror it. Where there is division, Pastor Kamau suggested, it may show that some have not fully grasped who it is that called them. He quoted an African proverb: "I am because we are," and said that for the church the full version is "I am because we are, and we are all joined with Christ."
The second point was that unity demonstrates oneness with God, not merely knowledge of Him. Pastor Kamau used the image of being drawn together through a mutual friend. People unite not because of who they are to each other but because of who the common friend is. He connected this to the account in Acts 4 where the Sanhedrin looked at Peter and John, saw people who were unlearned, and yet said they had been with Jesus. The glory surrounding them was visible because of their union with God.
Third, Pastor Kamau said that unity is directly tied to evangelism. Jesus prays that the world may know He was sent by the Father, and He ties that knowledge to the unity of His followers. Pastor Kamau was plain about this: the lifestyle of unified believers often speaks more loudly than words. When the church is visibly one, people outside it are drawn to ask why, and that opens the door to knowing Jesus.
The fourth reason was what Pastor Kamau called a demonstration of the believers' eternal dwelling. He pointed to the vision in Revelation of every nation, tribe and language gathered before God, and said that unity on earth is a foretaste and a witness to that reality. He shared a joke from Kenya: even if you do not love someone now, remember that Jesus went to prepare a place for all of us, and your bed may be next to theirs forever. Unity, he said, tells the world that the church cannot be ultimately divided by earthly differences because it knows where it is going.
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Pastor Kamau said that in Africa, a person's last words are highly valued, and that Jesus prayed John 17 while his disciples were listening. What does it mean to you that Jesus used some of his final hours to pray specifically for the unity of future believers, including us?
Pastor Kamau pointed to the African saying 'I am because we are' and applied it to life in the body of Christ. How have you experienced that idea in your own faith, and where do you think it breaks down in practice?
Alright, everybody. I think it's I think it's a little after 09:00. We should probably probably get rolling. Welcome to First B, First Baptist Church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We affectionately call it First B.
And we we're glad you're here. And once you guys stand up and we'll start singing. I'll just read a verse. Luke twelve seven, and the very heads, hairs of your head sorry. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid. You are more than valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
And fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. See the cross, the empty grave, the evidence
Hey. Y'all can have a seat.
Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah.
Woah. Hi. Hey. Hey, Ray. Hi.
How's it going? So many kids there from Vacation Bible School, from First Baptist Church, and all throughout the community. We've got a slide. Real quick, would you mind, Josh? There you go.
Hi, everybody. Hey. We just really wanna let you know that there were 95 students that attended, and they raised over $873 for the benevolence fund. Wow. Great job, kids.
That's excellent. And we really wanna thank all the volunteers who came and participated, helped clean up, and also to say thanks for the Jordans for all their hard work. Can you clap for Amy and Philip? Yeah. Yeah.
That's great. And, yeah, that that's it for me, pastor A. Can you take it from here?
Yes. Oh, good. You've been Thanks, scout. Nice. Wow.
That's a surprise. Compass Women's Care has a gala event coming up July 10. That is coming really, really quickly. Friendsofcompass.org/fortieth is the way to get to register. First b has a table and has some seats.
I think still has some seats available. You talk to Nick. I don't know where he is. He's around here somewhere. Anyway, first BBQ has happened in July 13.
The next one is July 13. On the mornings when we have first BBQ, we will also have children's church. Today, we are not having children's church. We are doing that just once a month over the summer, same Sunday as first BBQ. Games, food, fun, fellowship out here on the green space, and that's coming.
Seeking truth in the twenties. Seeking truth in your twenties. Hey, that works both ways, cause it's 2025. Seeking truth in your twenties. This is a Sunday night get together for college age from graduated seniors up through college age in your twenties.
Sunday nights out at the McCooey's in the shadow Of The Tetons. Right? 06:30 until free entry. There will be games, food, fun, fellowship, and probably some music. So that's pretty fun.
If you wanna know more about it, you can ask these two folks right here or any of the 20. Y'all had a pretty good turnout for the first one. Right? Alright. We wanna keep that keep that going.
Jackson Hole Men's Alliance meets the first Wednesday of the month at 06:30AM, Berkeley. Yes. We're Brian McCooey. Look. He keeps on coming up.
Brian McCooey is sharing his testimony this Wednesday morning, 06:30 down the hall in the fellowship hall. Bring your family that's in town for the fourth. Bring bring the male members of your family that are in town for the fourth. Alright. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance.
That sounds fun. Okay. Anything else? The church website is a pretty good one. That QR code will get you there, but first b jacksonjackson.org will also get you there.
And is there anything else? Yes. There's a baby dedication. So here we are. We got they're packing a pew up here this morning, the Melton family.
Can I get Joey and Samantha and Hayes Timothy Melton to come forward? Little Hayes Timothy turned a year old yesterday. Rodeo themed party. It was his first rodeo. He's he's a little scared of large people, and I am one of those.
So we're gonna give him a little distance. Yeah. He's great. Hayes is great, and we love him. Samantha and Joey, I got to do their wedding about six years ago.
Is that right? Yep. And so Hayes Timothy is their son, and we're dedicating him to the Lord today and praying that he would come to know and serve him early. We dedicate Joey and Samantha to God too, asking that he'd give them wisdom and understanding and knowledge and the ability to raise Hays Timothy and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And as a church, we wanna dedicate ourselves to setting a godly example for Hays as he grows up, so that he might one day come to trust in Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
So we're dedicating this little boy, We're dedicating these parents, and we're dedicating ourselves as the church family. We wanna be the village that helps to raise this child.
And
so can I just pray? Lord, thank you for Hayes, and thank you for Joey and Samantha, and for your orchestrating them together. I thank you, Lord, that they are they're here, that they're submitted to do doing your will, Lord. I thank you that they're raising up this child in the way that he should go so that when he's older, he won't depart from it. I thank you that you know everything that there is to know about each of us.
As Ryan already said, you know every hair on our head, even those who don't have it. You know every hair everywhere else. Lord, you know us. You know us from the inside out, and you know Hayes from the inside out. I pray, Lord, that he would listen to creation as it pours forth speech growing up in this beautiful place.
There's no language, Lord, where it can't pray you be to to
to pray that that would
that. Life and through his life. We dedicate him to you. And Amen. Now, Joey and Samantha, do you recognize that Hays Timothy is a gift from God and both of you thank and glorify God for him?
Alright. Do you accept the joys and the responsibilities of raising this little boy, skittish though he may be? Promise him to give proper love and care to him throughout his life. Good. With the help that God provides, do you commit to teach Hayes the fullness of God's word and demonstrate through your own example the witness of what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength?
As God is my helper. Right? And now to the congregation, will you offer your ongoing love and support and prayers and encouragement to Joey and Samantha in their roles, Hays Timothy's parents? And would you be faithful in praying for him? As much as you're able, help teach and set a godly example for him so that he might one day come to trust in Jesus.
Would you? Amen. Well, hey, Timothy. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace.
Amen. Alright. Amen. Y'all can stand and we'll bring you back together with a song. Alright.
Thank you.
The king of glory the king above all who shakes the whole earth with only thunder who leaves This is unfailing love that you take my place that you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life that I would be set free. Oh, the Who rose the nations with truth and justice. And it's like the sun in all of its brilliance. The king of above glory, the king above all all kings.
This is amazing grace. This is unfailing lay down your life, that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Set free.
Oh, I sing for all that you've done for me. Amen.
Just thought we'd do a read a quick verse. I was turned to it. Now it's gone. Galatians.
Well,
I'm gonna I'm gonna read a different one. That was a great verse about freedom, but we'll read another one. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find his grace to help us when we need it most. God, we come before you, and we just thank you for your grace that leads to freedom, freedom from sin, and freedom and peace that you that you give us only the peace that only you can give, Lord.
We come to you with all types of things this morning, and we just pray for each one here that that they would feel your presence, they would feel your grace, they would feel your peace this morning. To your name we pray. Amen.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the dazzling and wonder how he could love me. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest friend, but only trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing alone cornerstone weak made strong in the savior's love through the storm. He is lord lord of all.
You can have a seat.
We're gonna enter enter a time of the worship of giving. We'll ask the ushers to come on forward. Before we do, can I have you pray, Ray?
Thankful, happy to be together, overjoyed at new life, green grass, blue skies. Lord God almighty, thank you. Thank you so much for this church home, for this for these people right here gathered in your name, Lord, singing your praises. I'm overjoyed and verklempt. God, would you use this offering to do whatever it is that you wanna do?
Would you give us an indication of what your will is and what your way is so that we may we may walk in that way, Lord. We we do things the way that you want us to do them. That's what we want. And we fall short and we get off the path sometimes, lord, but I pray that we would be consciously turning over every shortfall to you and looking to you for direction for the advance of your good gospel. Would you use us, lord, to bring other people into the knowledge of God?
And Lord, would you give us a great unity in the body? Yesterday's services here, a wedding here, a funeral at Saint John's, and the community turning out for both of those. Just, Lord, I'm emotional this week. In Jesus name, I ask that you'd use this to further your kingdom. Amen.
Speak oh Lord as we come to you to receive the food of your holy word. Take your truth, let it deepen us, shape and fashion our deeds of faith. Speak, oh Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory. Speak oh Lord and renew our minds. Help us grasp through eternity and by grace we'll stand on your promises and your faith will walk as you walk with us.
Speak, oh Lord, till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.
I'm gonna introduce someone, but before I do, I wanna read the passage for today. Hey, here it is. From John 17. John 17 is Jesus' high priestly prayer. This is on the night that he was betrayed.
This is him in the garden and the disciples are hearing this. Some of the disciples are hearing this. There's a going pretty strong here. It's probably from the bass cello. Jesus says when he's praying to the father, my prayer is not for them alone, not just for my disciples.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. That all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I've given them the glory that you gave me, and that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory. The glory you've given me because you love me before the creation of the world. Righteous father, through the world though the world does not know you, I know you. And they know that you have sent me, and I've made you known to them, and I will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, that I myself myself may be in them.
Lord, would you bless the reading of your word and the the proclamation of your word? Would you plant it deep in us as that song said, Lord? Would you plant the word deep in our hearts that the the truth may be known in our hearts and through our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.
Now, gonna introduce pastor Kamau. Pastor Joseph Kamau Kabui is serving still at Togoni Baptist Church. It's been, I think, fifteen or sixteen years since he last visited us here. But Tanya and I went to see him earlier in the year this year. And Roseanne Welch, is was a long time member of this church.
Roseanne and Darden moved to Kenya, and pastor Kamau was a youth pastor at the time when she was there in the late eighties, early nineties around there. Roseanne should be here soon coming up. Togoni is a blessing to the community around it. And the Kenyan Baptist Theological College, pastor Kamal is the president of that. It's hard to get a day off between being the head of a seminary and the lead pastor of a church.
But he is here. He's been in The States for a couple of weeks, and he's gonna present to you today. Do you have any this is a a fairly recent picture of Tigone, but he has a few more. And I'll let him flip through those. You can flip through this with this.
Come on. Come on up pastor, come out. He's one of my favorite people on the planet.
Thank you. And a
unit a unity mindset for sure.
You have a you have I do.
And the dudette, if you just hit that.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. That is Tanya, Ray, I, and my wife when they visited Kenya. Good morning, everyone.
Good morning. I bring greetings from Tigone Baptist Church. They know that I'm here in Kenya Baptist Theological College, and I'm so glad to be with you. This church has been a bless a blessing to my life and my family. We've always received your support through the years since I returned to Kenya.
I graduated with my masters of divinity from Indiana and a Baptist Mennonite biblical seminary and moved back to Kenya. And from 2009, I've always received your love and donations for the ministry in Kenya, and I appreciate that very much. We we are blessed with two children, Sheila, who is 28, and Angela, who is 25. Yeah. They are both back in Kenya.
Sheila works with a nongovernmental organization. While Angela does a small business, she is thinking of coming back to The US next month and do her second masters in financial analysis. So we hope that will work well. That is the building. When Tanya and Ray were there, we had not done a lot, but we we still thank you for the gift that you gave us.
We were able to paint and tile most of the front part of the building. And that is the building that we have. We were able to tile the front part of it. That is the entrance to the building and the staircases. Yeah.
The reason why I'm glad about the building that we have come up with is that Tigone Baptist Church was established in 1964 by IMB. And we have an old building whose foundation was not that good. And we thought instead of putting a lot of money in a building that would not last long, why don't we come up with a new one? It has taken us fourteen years to get where it is, although the vision started long time ago. Yeah.
That is Jonathan. Yeah. I am I want to share with you from God's word, from John 17. Yeah. Verse 20 to 26.
I love this passage because it's a call for us to be united. It is a a priestly prayer that Jesus prayed in his last day of his life on earth. Matthew, Mark, and Luke talks about the prayer that he prayed in the Garden Of Gethsemane, but John records a different prayer. If you read the book of John chapter 13 all the way to 16, Jesus talks to his disciples, instructs them on on how they should live after he goes. But then in John chapter 17, he prays for himself, for his disciples, and for us who are seated here this morning.
And I want us to focus on the prayer that he prayed for us. And one issue that I look at in this passage is that Jesus was praying the prayer while his disciples were listening to him. In the prayer that he prayed in the garden, the disciples were not there with him. But here, he prays for them and they are listening to the prayer that he's offering for himself, for the church, and for us who are here this morning. And that is what I want us to look at and look at the reasons why he prayed for us.
Why did he pray for our unity? What did he want us to do? In Africa, and I think it applies even in The US, a person's last words are very valued. If a parent is dying, he calls all the children. And if one misses that last moment of the parents leaving, they always wanted want to know what did our mother, what did our father say on the last day of his life.
And therefore, looking at this prayer, we are looking at the desire that Jesus demonstrated about the church in time to come. Yeah. And let us look at some of the reasons that Jesus prayed for our unity. One, our unity demonstrates our knowledge for God. Our unity demonstrates our knowledge for God.
As Jesus prays, you you look at verse verse twenty and twenty one. As he prays, he prays for the church. And he he prays that the church may be united. And in his prayer, he basically talks to his or he to his father about what he desires for the church. Verse twenty and twenty one, he says, my prayer is not for them alone.
Meaning that he's not only praying for the disciples, but he's also praying for those who will believe in him through their message that they may be one just as the father and father and he says, just as you are in me and I am in you. Basically, what Jesus is talking about, he's giving an example of his oneness with father. And he says that that oneness should be demonstrated by the unity of believers. When believers unite, it demonstrates that they know God. When there there there are divisions among the believers, it shows that some may not be aware of who him who called them.
And this is what Jesus is praying, that just as the father, him and the father are one, we should be one. He demonstrates that the oneness that we have should should demonstrate the oneness that he and the father have. And he prays for us in this generation and in generations to come that we should demonstrate that we know God by the way we live with one another. There is an African saying that says that I am because we are. That means without you, I am not.
And therefore, for believers, we can say we are because I am because we are, and we are all joined with Christ. And this is what we should seek as we walk together as God's children. The second reason is that our unity demonstrates our oneness with God. Our oneness with God oh, okay. There there is that part of knowledge.
We we know God, but are we united with him? In verse twenty one and twenty part of 22, he says that, father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I I love that. That he prays, may they also be one. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one as you as we are one. This is to show that our unity demonstrates that we are united with God. I look at places that I've visited and most of the time, if I have a friend who might know in that place and I go to that friend, his friends or her friends will come there and we will we will join together because the friend that is joining us is the factor that makes us come together. And therefore, if we know God, if we love God, this is what Jesus is saying is that if we know him, if we love him, then we will come together not because of who we are, but because of who he is. Jesus is talking about us demonstrating us coming together.
And he also talks about the glory that we receive. The glory that we receive from him. In the book of Acts chapter four, Peter and John had preached a message and people who were looking at at them and the Sanhedrin had caught them and were trying them. They looked at them and as people that were not learned. And they were amazed at how they were able to express themselves.
And they said, these people have been with Jesus. The the glory of God was over them that everybody would know that they were with Jesus because of the glory that God had surrounded them with. And therefore, our oneness, our unity with one another demonstrates our oneness with God. Thirdly, our unity demonstrates our willingness to exalt Christ. I I love these two.
Verse 22. I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you are in you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know here as the disciples of Jesus are listening to them, to him pray. Jesus puts a lot of emphasis on evangelism whereby as they go out, those whom they are going to preach to would come to know Jesus because they were exalting him.
The world would the world would would know Jesus because of their unity. And therefore, it's a cause to evangelism. When we are united, people that surround us will look at us and know that we follow Jesus and they will desire to come to Jesus out of our unity. And the world will know that God sent Jesus and that he loved Jesus out of unity. And this is a prayer that Jesus is praying for his disciples showing that, yeah, you need to go out and evangelize.
You need to go out and make disciples. And our lifestyles, as much as we tell people about Christ, our lifestyle talks more about Christ at times more than our words. Yes. We may talk about it, but then when we are united, the world will know that Jesus came from God and they will come to know him. The fourth reason is our is that our unity demonstrates our internal dwelling.
Our eternal dwelling. Isn't this beautiful that when we are united, we are showing the world that we know where we are going? Amen. We we we yeah. In in the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation, John saw a vision where all the nations, all the tribes of the world, all the languages will gather before God in heaven.
And when we are united, we are showing people that we are we cannot be divided by our differences because we know where we are going to be when we leave this world. We we we have a joke in Kenya that even if you don't love me, remember Jesus went to prepare a place for us, and your bed may be next to mine. And that would be forever. It would be forever. So when we are united, we are demonstrating to the world that, yes, we know where our dwelling is.
We know where we are going. And it is my desire that all of us would seek to be united in order for us to exude Christ in our lives. And may the Lord bless you. Amen. Amen.
Pastor Lee.
So thank you, pastor Kamau. I I forgot something. Big surprise. I forget stuff all the time. If it's not on the screen, I don't say it, and I didn't put it on the screen.
But this is one of those Sundays. It's been fifteen or sixteen years since he was last here. And for those of you who come to church here, this is a fairly normal experience. That when we have a missionary come, I say it's Sunday morning, you can tell what's going on, but Sunday morning we come together to hear God's word. And so he faithfully presents it every week in his home church back home, and I asked him if he'd do that this morning, and he has.
This is a Sunday when we take up two offerings, and I blew it because I didn't mention that first and it sounds really tacky to say it now. But I'm saying it anyway. It's not because we didn't receive enough money the first time around. And if you brought one check and you put it in the plate that already passed and you'd rather have it go to pastor Kamal, let us know and we'll do that. I hate to be tacky, but I'm gonna invite the ushers to come back forward.
I'm gonna invite the band to come back forward. I'll blame it on emotion. This was a very moving week for me. Sorry. It's pretty terrible.
Pretty awful. Would you pray with me again though? We've been praying for pastor Kamal. He said since 2009. And Roseanne and Dart were praying for him before that for a long long time.
He was a youth pastor while he was while she was there. And while we were there, we visited three different ministries. You all know Dave and Kim, and we did this recently for them. And you all have heard of Grace Lacanje, and there was a team that went from here for 19 ladies, went in 2013, and I went with them. And when we got over there, Tanya was speaking to Grace Lacanje, who was a youth in pastor Kamau's youth group, and she started a ministry called the Nama girls.
We're hoping to get her over here pretty soon too. God is doing a work in Kenya. And a lot of times when we think of Africa, I think we think of them in a different way than Kenya really looks. There is a faith ful theological tradition, and there are people who are walking out the gospel. And it's a really, really good thing.
And it's a lot of it has to do with faithful pastors continuing and training up faithful pastors at the seminary. Follow the steps. There's so many examples as we're studying the book of acts where there's a collection that's taken up for people in a a distant place. And I'm thankful for pastor Kamal bringing the message this morning. Good news from far country is like a drink of cold water on a hot day.
So lord, I ask your blessing on this offering and on and on pastor Kamal and on the advance of the gospel in Kenya. In Jesus name, amen.
Father of kindness you have poured out grace, brought me out of darkness, filled me with peace, giver of mercy, you have built your time amen. I want you guys to stand up. Savior pulled me out in vashes you've broken every curse music redeemer you have set this captive free lord are yes and amen. All your promises are yes and amen. I will rest in your promises.
My confidence is your faithfulness. I will rest in your promises. My confidence you are all your promises are yes and amen all your promises are yes and amen
we've got
hey.
That all of them this is what Jesus is praying, that all of them may be one. Do y'all feel like as believers we are all one? We are. So we are because we believe in Jesus. Do we act like it?
No. So let that sit in your lap for a minute. That all of them may be one. Jesus is praying to the father. Father, just as you are in me and I'm in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
It's a problem when we're not in unity. It's a problem. And it limits our evangelistic capabilities and it limits so much. So God, we are praying that you would make us one. Would we reach out across the divide and bring people, and allow them to bring us to the middle right there in the good old gospel way.
Tanya has approached. Amen. Tanya has approached. I think that we have if if you want I
was gonna sign that, and I just I wonder if my husband remembers the sign language I'm about to give. But instead, I can just say it in in English. So there are we are having a kind of drop in thing to come talk and speak and love on pastor Kamal at our house from two to five. And if you don't know where our house is, text Ray. It's it's in Raptor J.
It's 3335 Cow Camp Drive. And so we would love to have you. It's we have no idea if there are two or 42 people that might want to come, but bring it on. We're happy to see you and get you to be able to talk to him a little more. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Y'all Have a great day.
