[Applause] [Music] good morning good morning let me say how happy I am to be with you this morning I've already been told that the congregation here are present represents a number of countries from within the continent of Africa and from outside of Africa and that it is in a manner of speaking the United Nations in microcosm I have been asked to speak on a subject that allows me to mention a number of things but because this is a Christian certain I've chosen to predicate my speech upon three Bible verses the very first one is to
be found in the Book of Daniel and you will remember that in the Book of Daniel the story is told of King Nebuchadnezzar and how he conquered the territory that was occupied by the Jewish people and we are told that immediately he made that conquest he asked one of his officers to identify from within the ranks of the conquered people intelligent individuals and the Bible records in that Book of Daniel that they identified Daniel they also identified an individual called a Nanaia and they identified another individual called Misha and a third one called Azaria and
the Bible proceeds to tell us that they are all renamed Belshazzar Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and there is a sense in which it is those given names that they are known by throughout the ages and we are told that there was cooled in the arts and that there was some of the most intelligent individuals if one want to be dramatic about it one may say that they gained admission into the University of Nebuchadnezzar and if once they saw that there were certain protocols to be followed once you joined the University of Nebuchadnezzar number one that
you are to eat from the king's table and to drink the King's wine but these individuals were so wedded to their own conviction for their own God that they made a request of the king's attendants that they be allowed to take food that was not served from the king's table and we are told that after 10 days they were better than everybody else and we our father told that on the day of red graduation when they were examined there were ten times better than everybody else that is the first verse in the Bible the first
chapter in the Bible upon which I'll predicate my presentation the second chapter in the Bible on which I shall dedicate my presentation is to be found in the book of first Kings chapter 18 it is a story with which you are familiar is the story that gives us a hub in the Bible and give us gives us one of the most notorious women in the Bible Jezebel and we are told that they had been no rain in that land for a long time and the story we are told of a man called Ovadia who was
sent by her to go and look out for the prophet Elijah and we were told how these over dia was scared and we are also told how God instructed this Elijah to go to the palace of Ahad and we are told how when Elijah confronted her hubby told him that I am the only one of the prophets of the Lord who is still alive that is not to say that Obadiah had not hidden fifty others fifteen one cave and fifteen another cave and we are told that Elijah said let us not be of two opinions
if in dead God is God let us worship God and if Baal is God let us worship Baal and we are told that he asks bring out the 450 prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who have been dining at the table of Jezebel and there was the competition if you may that took place at Mount Carmel and the stories told of how they prayed unto their God and how they were mocked by Elijah and nothing came to pass and ultimately when Elijah had is the opportunity we are told that fire came
down from heaven and it consumed everybody else and we are told how the prophets were about valois then executed then the final chapter in the Bible book in the Bible if you may that I want to refer to is the book of the prophet Joshua chapter 24 to be exact and this is a very critical time when Joshua has taken over from Moses and the Israelites are about to go into the Promised Land and we are told that Joshua gathered all the children of Israel and the story is told of how he reminded the people
when when they were crossed the river that Abraham's father Terah worshipped gods other than the real God and he tells the people choose you now whom you shall serve shall you serve the gods that your fathers worshiped across the river or the lord of the Amorite in whose land you dwell as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord I've chosen to predicate my conversation with you this morning three chapters in the Bible because even if you chose not to be a Christian they are relevant particularly to young people and particularly to young
Africans and I'm acutely aware that there are other people who are not Africans and that is also acutely relevant to you because I've been asked to talk about the time is now and let me speak to my African brethren first just this morning when I woke up I was listening to somebody who is going to be the presidential candidate in Sierra Leone the former director-general of you needle and he was wondering to himself why is it that Africa continues to punch below away economically politically and otherwise we are continent of 1 billion people but we
cannot feed ourselves we are a continent of young people but there is a sense in which we have no faith in ourselves we our continent with resources like no other continent on earth yet there is a sense in which we are still in the gaiters of human civilization we are continent which in the words of afro pessimists he is a scar on the conscience of humanity which begs the question what is it that we are not doing right this particular individual said and this is what he said the Africa still suffers from the Garden of
Eden syndrome and the Garden of Eden syndrome is that God has placed you into the Garden of Eden and you protect of the fruits without any labor we have forgotten that after the fall of man there was the divine instruction go out and subdue the world because from the sight of thy brow thou shall eat there is a sense in which the three books in the Bible that I talked about speak to my agenda they speak to the entire question of choice and let me tell you one thing the African continent has been traumatized and
remains traumatized today Africans were enslaved Africans who are colonized Africans claim that we gained our independence but the neo-colonial project is alive and well speak to who he was young will tell you that our minds are still colonized and that is why it talks about decolonizing the mind because throughout the ages the battle has always been the battle of the minds that is where it is won and lost and one of the things that I've discovered over the ages is that those who want to control you the first thing that they do is to change
your name even God changes his name when he wants to deal with you when you are Abram he makes you Abraham when you are Sarai he makes you Sarah and the very first thing that the colonialist did was to change our names to convince us that a Christian name could only be Andrew and Mary and Jane and all these are the name that Kamau cannot be a Christian name that in Georgia cannot be a Christian name and we believed it and I'm submitting to us that there is a sense in which our mind not free
I'm submitting to us that even your generation is not free I'm submitting to us that in that Book of Daniel even though their names who are chained to Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and Belshazzar there is something that they did not allow to change in them they refused to eat meat or anything that was sacrificed to the idols do you remember that day when Nebuchadnezzar put forth an image which was six cubits high and six cubit wide and they reported to Nebuchadnezzar that this young man had refused to worship this Idol the young man said we
shall not worship it because the Lord that we serve is going to save it but even if he does not we shall not bow down and the story is then told that when they were thrown into the fire those who threw them into the fire while consumed by the fire but within a few minutes Nebuchadnezzar himself said but we threw in three of them but they are Spears to be a fourth man hula is like the son of the gods I'm submitting to us there are all critical times in history we have to make painful
choices I'm speaking to you Africans who are Christian who are present here what choices have you made have you made choices to run away to the United States to get the green card is that your choice have you made a choice to run away to Europe to flee from bada have you made a choice to run away to go to Europe and to be humiliated at the embassies of the United States of America Australia and the United Kingdom I'm submitting to us that we must change because that divine instruction is that each one of us
must met do with what we have it cannot be right that a continent that is so blessed has I young men and women with only one ambition to go to the United States I know families where when high wives are pregnant they want to go to the United States that they may give birth there that their child may be a citizen of the United States of America the United States of America was not built by an army of angels now it was built by human beings and I'm submitting to us that going forward like Shadrach
Meshach and Abednego we must make a choice and I am submitting to us that if your Christianity is the kind of Christianity that only appeals to your emotions and make you feel good without making you good that is not Christianity because there is a variety of Christianity today that makes you feel good but he doesn't make you good and I'm submitting to us that we must change now because if we don't change now you are going to be subdued by other civilization and as I said at one forum and I repeated now there are two
ways of being at the dinner table civilization you can be at the dinner table as a dying hour as a waiter choose you now whether you want to be a diner or a way to choose you now but even as I proceed I've not forgotten that there is another book that there is the battle between Elijah and the gods of Baal today we are rekted unto ourselves God jabal I go to many churches and there is the prosperity gospel the gospel that tells us that the charges are see no we are depending on how much
you pay as a time so givings then you'll get blessing that is not the God that I worship and if there was such a God I'll refuse to worship such a god the God that I worship and the Christ that I follow I remember on that day when an old woman had given the smallest contribution he said that woman has given the most because there was sacrificial given we must now interrogate our Christianity because Paul says I would want you to be like the Christians of Berea because the Christians of Berea wants you free to
them they would go to the gospel and ask are you preaching the right thing or you are preaching my good gospel I'm submitting to us that are critical moments in history there has always been a choice and this is what Elijah is confronting the people with is he says for how long shall you waver between two opinions if God is God worship God and if man is God washable I'm submitting to you that the time for choice is now if material things are the things you want to worship if you think that having Lamborghini if
you think like having Ferrari and all these are the goodies is the right thing then you can go on but the last time I checked greed is insatiable he's like drinking salty water the more you drink the more you want so choose you now you Christians and Africans shall come to the white man who are present in this room shortly I'm submitting to us and there is a preacher that I love for only one thing or son sometimes I think they go overboard on his love way Israel John Hagee and he says one thing that
I love the uncompromising message of Jesus Christ it is the same yesterday today and tomorrow so that there is no question of humoring you in the church it is telling you as it is and I'm saying that even as we are waiting for heaven and heaven Islam will come in the fullness of time in the intervening period we must eat in the intervening period we must go to school in the intervening period we must make Africa great and we can't make Africa great what pains me most is when I see young men dying in the
Mediterranean Sea you know a long time ago they took Africans to Europe and Caribbean a long time ago and they were whaling on kicking and I have seen the dramatization of Alex Haley's roots and I've seen how in roots a young man is taken from the Gambia Kunta Kinte and I've seen how Kunta Kinte refuses to change his name and they call him Toby but he says I'm Kunta Kinte ultimately for strategic reasons he accept the name Toby but he retains Kunta Kinte throughout the ages and 200 years later Alex Haley is able to trace
his roots but today young Africans are going to Europe willingly to be enslaved is slavery by another name because you are paying wages you are paid wages that can barely keep you alive I'm submitting to you I hear Africa is the land of action I'm submitting to you here that the Europeans will never respect you if you don't respect yourselves cause respect is earned given I'm submitting to you that you'll never sit on the tip of civilization as equal partners unless you are demonstrated that you are worthy of being a diner rather than a waiter
choose you now what you shall do the book of the Prophet Joshua he is also another book he speaks to his days realize these relights wine captivity for 400 years they brought Moses on to them Moses delivered them but our critical moments they wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt at critical moments God parted the Red Sea at critical moments there was a pillar of fire to separate them from the Pharaoh but they still went back to the old ways and on Aging under dying Joshua is telling them the point for making the
choice is now when we were taken away from all of the Chaldeans Tara was worshipping idols Abraham was worshipping idols there was a change in him and he became Abraha and now you have come to the land of the AMA rights and you are worshiping their God choose you now whom you shall serve the Lord God or the Lord of the AMA writes as for me on my house we shall serve the Lord I'm submitting to us now choose you now whom you shall serve the Lord whom you only serve on Sundays for the Lord
that is imminent and must be served every minute choose you now as Christians and as Africans one can go on and on but let me turn to the white people who are present in this assembly who our brethren you came here by divine instruction to evangelize Africa but in your land God no longer has the opportunity to operate that is why I'm happy to see you here because Africa now lives in evangelization and this is how God operates there was the time when the white man came here to evangelize they lost God I'm not saying
that there is a godless society that is a sense in which when one travels to Europe one sees cathedrals being converted into discotheques and museums and here we are struggling to operate in a tent how I wish that we could have the faith spoken of in the Bible that we could approach the cathedrals that they may settle here but I know that that is wishful thinking that there is no Cabra cadabra in this thing that i know but i'm submitting to us that your presence here is a good thing is the demonstration that we are
children of God children of a God of diversity you know and this is very human eco some of you would be offended but I do not care whether you are offended or not the Great Mahatma Gandhi whom I respect was not a Christian but at a critical moment one day said that he remembers one day in his homeland in Gujarat when the pastor who was presiding over the service read from the Hindu Gita through to the Jewish Torah through to the Muslim Quran on to the Christian Bible reading from one book to the other as
if it did not matter which book was being read as long as God was being worshipped and there is a sense in which I found power in that you do not know the whole truth none of us we do not know how God operates and that is why Christ tell us judge not lest you be judged there is a puritanical streak that sometimes we Christians particularly those who are born again have we are quickly judge contrary to the divine instructs let us be slow to judge who knows how God operates who knows how he does
things because all of you including myself we are so sinful that if it was by walks alone none of you I haven't bound none of you you may think that you are good you may think that you are doing all good things but he says none of you is heaven bound except by the grace of God and if we appreciate that then we would be very humble but even as I talk about these things and change now I am NOT unaware that I was asked to speak for 25 minutes and being aware that I was
asked to speak for 25 minutes let me now move with jet lag speed in the direction of my conclusion what is it that I've been saying I'm saying that we who have the advantage of knowing God we are in a unique position because we may sin and throughout the Bible there are many sinners I used to wonder why God said that David was a man after his heart this man David who to Korea's wife this man David who took her beguile this man David who Santeria to be killed this man David of whom the Israelites
sang that soul kills by the thousands and David by the tens of thousand I said how could he possibly be a man after God's art but then I made a discovery that the man is so human so prone to making mistakes and to sinning but so devoted that when he sins he goes to God with a contrite heart and then I discovered that all of us must strive to do that which is good at right then I discovered that wherever we are whatever we do we must use or Christianity well friend of mine told me
not so long ago that he was at an airport in the United Arab Emirates and there was a signpost whether this story is true or apocryphal I do not know but I'll use it nevertheless there was a sign that said you can leave your things here they are safe there are no Christians yeah and the moral of the story is one that is not far to seek we claim to be 80 percent Christians and yet we are one of the most corrupt nations on earth where is our Christianity we claim in Africa to be immune
from all these other things I know theythey opions yeah and I'm not unaware that your economy is doing well but yet the Oromo has a problem with the Tigrinya and the Tigrinya with the Amhara so that when the chips are down the blood of ethnicity is thicker than the blood of Christ I know that they are Ugandan Zia and I know that there are moments when Bingham ganda is more important than being on a Charlie Oritel so the blood of ethnicity is thicker than the blood of Christ and the people whom I love there were
knees I how can we forget 20 years ago people speak one tongue a people who live together husband slaughters wives on the ground only that they labored them Tutsi in the Churches of God priests killed the blood of ethnicity is thicker than the blood of Christ and one can go on and on the only country in Africa that appeared to have been vaccinated against ethnicity is a Tanzania the home of that great man Julius Canberra generally they appear to have been vaccinated but come to my Kenya oh my Kenya Oh Kenya even now as we
approach the elections and you are going to make the decision I can assure you that there'll be no change because the formations we have are merely tribal alliances and if one were to be blunt about it on one side the Cullen gene elite and the Kikuyu elite have gummed up and they have hypnotized their tribes male and persuaded them that is only by electing them that their circumstances will change will not on the other side there is another arrangement called NASA this is also an assembly largely of the law of Kenya they come they loo
here and a few are the tribes and their leaders their little hypnotized their tribesmen they cannot think no reason so that what we are going to have in Kenya on the eighth day of of August is not an election on any issue they not talk about agriculture about education about unemployment the critical things it is going to be an ethnic sensors to determine which formation brings together the largest number of tribes so those of you think they'll be dramatic change you'll be disappointed as I said elsewhere in Kiswahili neon in Haleiwa Halima seeped into a
mobile Erica I'm saying that the monkeys are the same the forests of change and if you ever doubted me there was once a forest called code there was once a forest called ODM it has now changed into NASA there was once a forest called u RP there was once a forest called DNA it is now Jubilee Yan in Walla Walla Nahal khazzani Zilly Zilly so you are here you are Kenyans when you go to vote on the 8th what will you be watching for agriculture employment or Mordo in Europa you who are from the lower
extraction when you'll be voting you will be watching or do I do or health and education will be tied to you because the question has always been choose you now whom you shall serve the Lord of the AMA rights or the Lord God as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord you know one of the things that I find painful is for anybody to tell me to vote an individual because it's from my ethnic group it is the greatest insult why did I go to school you tell me what you are going
to do about education I'm about to conclude timekeeper the British had an election have an election today if you came to Kenya and listened to what you would think that there is an animal called election which has never been seen by any human being since creation and that God has instructed that Kenya be the experimental ground you listen to what is happening yet elections are known is the competition of ideas within a few hours tomorrow the day after we'll know who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and they will be counting 50 million
votes in Kenya will be counting no more than 10 million votes and Africans can't count [Applause] when it comes to elections Africans can't count and Africans never lose elections Africans are reached how can you run a continent like that yet we claim to be Christians if you go to the Germans they'll have an election and within a few hours they'll have results because it is a competition of ideas in AHA when look when you look at Europe the reason why Europe is the head of us how many of you and this is what I must
conclude with in the book of Matthews the story is told of a businessman I'll paraphrase it who goes out on a long journey and then Trustees walk as one with one talent the other one with two talent and the other one with five talents and the Bible record says he goes away for a long time when he comes back he goes to the one who was given to and he says Lord you gave me to have worked on it and is now full and the master says good work and he goes to the one with
five and says Lord you gave me five and I've worked on it is now ten says good work and to the one with one talent he says I know you you're hard-hearted person who likes to reap where you have not sown and therefore I kept it here it is and the master says why shouldn't you then have given it to those who are in the business of giving interest and the Bible records and to those who do not have even the little that they shall have shall be taken away and it shall be given to
those who have we have but we don't utilize that is why God has now brought the Chinese to take it away from us that is why God has brought all these people to take it away because we do not know what it is I can go on and on but what is the wisdom of going on and on when it is so clear that we must make a choice I am submitting to us in conclusion that this is the choice the choice that we are confronted with is the choice that Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were
confronted with to choose to worship the god idols erected by Nebuchadnezzar or to remain faithful to their agenda the choice that you are confronted with is the choice that Elijah presented to the prophets of baha choose you now do not waver between two opinions if the Lord is God serve the Lord if Baal is God Sabha and the latter-day balls come in the form of cars houses and other earthly things the other choice is the same one that Joshua gave to the Israelites choose Yuna whom you shall serve the Lord whom your fathers worshiped across
the river or the Lord or the God of the alma rights in whose land you serve as for me on my house we shall serve the Lord I'm submitting to us that you young Africans must change Africa you young Africans must do something for Africa and you are not going to do it by tweeting nah you are not going to do it through Instagram no you are not going to do it through Facebook nah you are not going to do it through social media no the last time I checked is that you must roll up
your sleeves you must roll up your sleeves and going to the arena of what Safa said plant the tree in the knowledge that those who plant the tree may never enjoy shadow but the joy is that the planter of the tree has planted the tree another generation will water the tree another generation will prune the tree another generation will enjoy a shade god bless you [Applause]
