FOR GOD AND COUNTRY (TROUBLE IN PARADISE)

[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] morning good afternoon good evening from wherever you're watching us from karibuni sana this is maguno church we're about to get into a time of song and dance are you ready guys yeah yeah let's show this guys how it's done welcome please feel free to join us all right put your hands together come on [Music] this is one of those songs that we used to see but when i was younger so i'm sure together [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Music] my [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me here we go [Music] [Music] let's try this one let's go one two two yeah [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] wherever you're watching us from we just want to bring our country into the hands of the lord so just lift your voice wherever you are watching us from and just say thank you god for this country come on lift your voice lord we exalt you we bless you for this beautiful country that you've given us oh god and we're so grateful god thank you for loving us [Music] thank you for this beautiful country jesus he [Music] shine is you and be gracious to you the lord turned his face towards you [Music] and give you peace [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] no [Music] oh is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign foreign foreign oh [Music] okay foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we thank you lord for your promises are yes and they are amen we thank you lord because what you've spoken over this nation is yes and amen we thank you oh god because if you have said it you will do it all god thank you for our nation oh god thank you oh god because it is so beautiful thank you because of the love that we have for each other thank you because we are proud to call this nation our home further receive the glory receive the honor receive the adoration in jesus name we pray in jesus name amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] mavuno church was birthed by nairobi chapel in 2005 and was initially located in nairobi south sea area driven by a desire to turn ordinary people into fearless influences of society and an approach to attract and disciple the unchurched men and women of nairobi mavuno quickly grew from 300 men and women in 2005 to a few thousand in just a few short years by 2014 the church was bursting at the seams running three weekend services on saturday and sunday and with hardly any extra capacity to accommodate more people spurred on by their vision to see culture defining churches planted across africa and the gateway cities of the world mavuno church had now multiplied into five congregations three in nairobi kenya and one each in kampala uganda and berlin germany it became apparent to the leadership at mavuno that there was need for a permanent headquarters from which to lead what was quickly becoming a global movement of churches we recently caught up with mavuno's senior pastor muradi wan zhao to ask him about his experience at the bellevue location and why mavuno church moved from there in the first place the time at bellevue was just a really good time it was an exciting time i mean god did such powerful things we saw many people got to get saved many people i mean the most unlikely people i mean people every sunday there will be people who were just the least likely people people would come from the club and they would hear about mavuno from their friends and they would come and every sunday would see people getting saved doing mizizi and becoming transformed for life bellevue was a time that we began we did a lot of intensive planting of churches across the nations uh because as the church grew we had the resources then to send out missionaries and many of the churches of church that exist today were planted because of what god was doing at bellagio and that was such an exciting uh time for us i mean we were overwhelmed every weekend i mean there was just a growth in the church and the impact that we were having on our city and many other cities and so why did we move it became very clear to me and to our leaders at that time but particularly to me i just began to feel that we must we must have a headquarters it was so important that god had called us to start a global movement of churches that was going to impact the world and with even though bellevue was a fantastic location it was there was a lot of impermanence in being in that rental space and i just kept feeling that it was affecting the ability of the movement to do what god was calling us to do so it became clear that we needed to get a headquarters a place from which we could launch out missionaries that would go across the world and and impact the different nations and i mean they're great memories uh from our time at bellevue one of my my favorite memories have to do with people because when i think about bellevue i think of many many different people that i met some of whom are watching this video many people i watch that i met then whose lives were so transformed and now are transforming many other people's lives uh i get a good example is my conan and osaya had just relocated from nigeria moved to uganda their home country mike's home country and then they had about mavuno i mean i think they were just online and heard about babuna and they were so intrigued they did their research found out about us and then just came over just boldly said we want to learn we want to be part of what god is doing and uh long story short they joined our team came on as worship leaders mike led worship uh at bellevue and at uh at hill city yosai was involved in worship as well and youth ministry and boy just to see them grow to see them have such an influence and today i see them out leading mavuno kampala the movement of churches that is in kampala they're network leaders there and they're having such a huge impact it's just great to see so many people being influenced through them by them and the work that that church has been able to do and i just say my goodness thank god for the opportunity he gave us to raise so many leaders who are now impacting across the nations following our conversation with the senior pastor we were so intrigued by the incredible leader known as michael onan and we knew that we had to go look for him we had to hear about his experience of his time at the bellevue location and later at the hill city headquarters we got our team ready packed our bags and took the next flight out to kampala uganda just so we could meet with pastor michael onan well i served at bellevue as a worship pastor and then i later became um services pastor and i loved every bit of it i had a front row seat to see what god was doing at marvel church i love the opportunity just to see destinies change and just to see life to see transformation happen in the life of a lot of people i mean i was also part of the strategy team that just crafted and worked on the communication to help us move uh from bellevue to hill city where we are when we moved to hill city there was nothing but background and just dust and man bushes and and just to see god's word come to pass right before our eyes man it almost brings tears to my eyes and brother hill city my family and i were sent out to plant churches in ug and because of the ministry at hill city we have three churches in uganda and hopefully more to come i mean it's just important that we are part of the free the future campaign because we're able to free up resources to help us do more ministry there's so much more outreach and discipleship that needs to happen we need to plant more churches more celebration points for fellowship and for gathering and we also need to just establish more half churches to finance this work of ministry that we're doing right now but very importantly also it's just to secure the legacy for future generations i'm talking about securing the church for our kids our kids kids and our kids kids kids and that's why i'm part of the free the future campaign and if you are watching i want you to go to the website or to a location near you make a pledge and be a part of turning ordinary people into fearless influences of society [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] morning everybody and welcome to mavuno church my name is edward ondachi i serve in kenya at the mavuno church lovington and i want to invite you to this amazing series we're doing this match it's called go for god and country i'm so excited about this series and i want to welcome you to join us kenyans especially as we go into an amazing electioneering year this year in august we will have a new president and i just want us to go towards a space where we can pray about that and where we can rally you to be able to see our country as god sees us and to be able to pray for it in the way that god would like us to pray about it in mavuno we believe that we are situated in this country to be brave people to be the kind of people who can tackle difficult difficult issues for the glory and praise of our god the object of this series is to educate to challenge and to rally every citizen to see their country as a gift from god and therefore to see it as their duty to see it as your duty and mind to be able to participate in the politics of your country but you know i can hear somebody saying pastor dacey i don't care about politics politics i don't care about it every time at nine o'clock at seven o'clock when news is on i don't want to turn the tv on i just shun away this whole topic but let me tell you something politics is your life politics is so important you are not going to believe let me tell you a short story before i begin way before kenya went through the 2007-2008 political fallout i didn't care about it either people used to tell me you know your country may go into trouble one day this political rhetoric that you have you know is very dangerous i never used to believe it until one day i sat in the same class with a guy from the beautiful country of burundi where we have a mavuno church and this guy used to be very very quiet he used to hear us talking about our kenyan politics we used to have jungle jokes we used to have kikuyu jokes we used to joke about our political leaders and everything and used to tell me these things you guys are cracking one day this thing is going to work against you and i didn't really believe where he was coming from he told me a story that chilled me to the bone and i want you to hear this story my friend right now lives in the united states and that looks like it's a very good thing but is the probably the most depressed person i know because he's away from his family he told me that one day he was sitting with a friend of his in a cafeteria that would be like java in kenya and they were having breakfast at about 10 o'clock in the morning their president in burundi had been attending a conference out in uganda tension built up in the air he doesn't know from where because they saw some army tanks cruising down the road and then they saw scores of people running in every direction he was in his sleepers in a t-shirt until somebody came and told him run just run and he said why they said because the president's plane has been shot from the air the president has been assassinated the guy ran for one week one week he was running barefoot t-shirt torn he was staying in his house with his dad with his sister and his nephew he did not see them for 10 years he ended up at the border of kenya and went to kakuma camp where he said they stayed at kakuma camp and they ate rats for food people were starving at that camp until one american missionary noticed him and he told him you know i was a bible school student in my country and i'd be very appreciative if i can be put in a bible school he was brought to our bible school and i was there he was my desperate for many years very quiet and withdrawn through the authorities in our school they finally located his dad in south africa as a refugee but suddenly he was told that his sister and his nephew were killed i didn't believe that story until 2007 2008 happened in our country that's when i knew we are not safe people that's when i knew no matter how much you want to ignore politics it's going to affect you we know people in jordan we know people in molo we know people in areas of this country who have been displaced over the years and they would never return where they were because shockingly we lost 1 500 people and i'm not saying that is a small number in 2007 2008 but can you not tell that so many times our country is in political trouble so here's what i want to tell you if you don't care about politics the devil doesn't care he doesn't care we have to talk about our country and we have to bring it to the point where we can pray for it that's how we allow you to sit up and listen because it matters to god that you can pray for your nation every five years kenya undergoes an experience very close to political heart surgery tensions are high and political rhetoric is at its most dangerous as that kind of talk dominates our hearts and our minds every citizen in kenya worries me about kenyans that eventually we go to the cocoon of our tribes eventually in spite of our salvation in spite of our christianity we always go to a cocoon somewhere and that's dangerous politics dominates our minds the economy gets stuck for a year and sometimes too and electioneering in kenya has built and expanded our democratic space it has cost us lives and slowed down our economy and development many times god has often been relegated to the back banner as the country has been sacrificed as the altar of tribal tensions and other things what will kenya's legacy be as this country approaches elections 2022 what will it be after that this month we want to look at the book of esther the book of esther was written in 4 bc and it carries themes and exploits strangely close and akin to what kenyans go through every five years the economist who said kenya comes to a stop every five years we just stop and we lose money believe it or not in the book of esther there's been a queen who has been deposed a conspiracy has been exposed and a tribe has been discriminated and genocide looming are all in this book the only some of the topics in the book of esther it reads like a modern day trailer so this month we want to mirror the book of esther with kenya's politics and see where that theme takes us so welcome to week one of the book of esther and the god and country theme we have titled someone number one trouble in paradise trouble in paradise we are reading from esther chapter 1 verse 1 to verse 19. i want to read from the new international version it's an amazing story let's just commence to read the bible says esther chapter one this is what happened during the time of zaccess this zacksis was the one who ruled over 120 provinces stretching from india to kush at that time king zaksas reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of susan and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials the military officials of parsia and media the princes and the nobles all those uh were doses were present for a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor of the glory of his majesty 180 days is half a year of bashing can you imagine when when these days were over the king gave a banquet lasting seven days in the enclosed garden of the king's palace for all the people from the greatest to the least who were in the citadel of susa the garden had hangings of white and blue and linen fastened with codes of white linen and purple material to silver rings on the marble pillars there were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of puffery marble mother of pearl and other costly stones wine was served in goblets of gold each of each one different from the other and the royal wine was abandoned in keeping with the king's liberality by the king's command each guest was allowed to drink as much as he wanted without restrictions for the king had instructed all the wine and stewards to serve each man what he wanted my goodness what a king to have queen vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of king's axis on the seventh day when king saxis was in high spirits that means when he was high on the seventh day when he was high from wine he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him mahanaim bista habona bixa abagtha zether and kakas these are very good names for a dog by the way you have these are very good names to give dogs to bring before him queen vashti wearing her royal crown in order to display her beauty to people and the nobles for she was lovely to look at that means she was easy on the eye hey the queen could choose whether the king knew how to choose but when the attendants delivered the king's command queen vashti refused to come then the king became furious and he burned with anger since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice how did it become a matter of law and justice for the queen to refuse to come he spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king kashina shetha amatha teresh meresh masena and mahanoon the seven nobles of of marsh of pasha and media and who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom so he asked them according to the law what must be done to queen vashti he asked she has not obeyed the king's command that you the that the eunuchs have taken to her then mercumen replied in the presence of the king and the nobles queen vashti has done wrong not only against the king but also against all the nobles of the people of the provinces of king's axis for the queen's conduct will become known in for to all the women and they will despise their husbands and say king xaxis commanded queen vashti to be brought before him but she would not come this very day uh this very day the passion and media and women of the of the nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to the king's nobles in the same way there will be no end of disrespect and discord allow your imagination to run for a moment and visualize yourself in a country where the first lady is fired by the president in public try and imagine what are your emotions how is it announced at the seven o'clock news how does the country respond do people remain emotionless about it what is the national mood the following day and the days following that try and imagine that happened in kenya today what would be the mood of what would happen it's trouble in paradise high-level political romances and bromances are not new neither are fallouts of the same they are new but to imagine that such alliances are without consequence is naive i think like this cannot happen in public and there are no consequences to it in kenya amazing bromances have occurred right down our political history down back in the sixties our first president jomo kenyatta and jaramillo ginger odinga had the most amazing bromance imaginable it was an amazing friendship they even used to wear the same clothes they had they had a similar heart like a muslim heart they used to wear together and they never used to remove it they used to walk with each other in public holding hands and people in kisumu loved jumma kenyatta and people out in in cairo they loved jaramoggi until their educational backgrounds came to bite them in bad places jaramoglio gingko dingo was educated in russia jama kenyatta was educated in the uk they had different political views and they decided to express them in office their fallout was terrible once upon a time jamal kenyatta was in kisumu and because of the things he felt jaramagi was doing in his ideologies he took that heart and hit it on the ground he threw it away there was a serious shootout in kisumu many people died charles jonjov and daniel arab moy in the 80s were big friends in kenyatta's government until moy became president and suspected charles jonzo of a coup against him and we all know that after georgia was tried in public and deposed of his office he never took political office again until he died early this year at 102. they had a big fallout there in the 80s moai kibaki and railaudinga had a great friendship railroading formed the national rainbow coalition that propelled my kibaki into office when qibaki got into office people say he changed and fired ray lodinga from government the latest bromance we know is uhuru kenyatta and william ruto they wore the same ties they held hands they called each other william and uk the country was enthralled by that bromance it appeared to be very something very close to joe biden and barack obama citizens are taken up in the bromance and electing the prospect of a happily ever after alliance only for the public fallout to leave the country bewildered and vulnerable as the parties in the bromance fall out and seek new partners you know it's the same as your dad is with your mom they're in this romantic space then a few days later your mom is kicked out and that is a new chick how are you supposed to respond to something like that i mean it leaves the children completely confused the dna of kenya's politics like the persian kings was that public romances are short-lived they are really short-lived to attach permanence or significance to the show would be foolish not on the part of the political players but on the part of the citizens it's you and i who are left very very bewildered in persia kings were gods they owned harems of women who would be available to them at their closest wish and queens could be deposed at the blink of the king's eye in kenya political romances are equally brief unfortunately in a democracy the fallouts are never void of consequences they create national insecurity and distrust of institutions and leadership talk to kenyans anywhere about politics in kenya on the ground being a politician means you're not a serious person if somebody tells you watch us yasa they mean stop lying that's what they are telling you we don't hold a very high regard to our politicians and our leadership in 2022 what can kenyans learn from king xaxis what is the truth behind the facade of political alliances and what causes trouble in paradise allow me to outline three political similarities between zaxes and kenyans that we can make and what lessons we can be able to learn from that number one there will be political trouble and trouble in paradise number one when looking good together becomes more important than actually being good together when you run a show just for the masses one day there will be trouble in paradise there are dangerous undercurrents running at the bottom of the bromance that's going to be serious king xaxis wanted to show off he was high on day seven and he wanted to show off his queen appearances became more important to him than reality success and vashti were running a fake reality show on live tv for them facebook updates were more important than actual conversations for our political history an appearance of unity is more important than unity itself i just turned 50. i do not recall even one time when kenya has ever had a national conference on our unity yet through our past we've had political assassinations we've had tribal tensions we've had tribal clashes nobody has ever sat down properly to be able to address our unity among the 47 different tribes that we've had we just see politicians changing their beds all their time changing partners all the time but nobody has ever actually come to us and say we need a national conversation in our unity you know why it's very expensive it's expensive to unearth all the pain that our country has gone through over the years it probably means digging up that on things which are difficult to address but friends if we do not do that we will always be here we'll always be playing a show where coalitions are only vehicles to get people into government and nothing else we know the tensions are there we know somebody kills somebody but it has never we've never ever sat down as a nation to address our unity properly we are equally running a fake reality show on tv and we are hoping that people will be duped by our hypocrisy the bromances we see eventually have a serious fallout it looks good when you see these guys together sadly it's only an inch deep personally when i see politicians getting together when they're insulting each other yesterday i worry i wonder how long it's actually going to last there'll be trouble in paradise when looking good together is more important than actually being good together i ask myself sometimes what if our politicians really genuinely loved each other what if they went to primary school together what if they know each other's mothers and fathers and children what if they have a bond that is so tight that one of them would rather die than betray the other one what would happen if somebody would forsake their tribe and their background for the sake of their friendship what if that unity was more important to them in terms of the integrity of keeping it together than anything else they know we would have a very different country number two there will be trouble in paradise when impressing political friends is more important than fighting for your queen you see xaxis had worked himself into the perfect problem he got angry when he was drunk and fired his queen and invited people to come and advise him on what he should do if you read that scripture down further we only read 19 verses you'll see a verse here that says one day king xaxis remembered vashti he missed her but it was too late he had already issued he already fired her he already said leave my house now and the law of the passions and the means once the king impressed his signet on a decision you couldn't reverse it he missed her but it was late but he had political people to impress the kingdom of pashia had 50 million people over 127 promises but he was angry when he was drunk and he had to impress people zach's allowed his embarrassment to become an issue of national security i mean what is that he quickly fell victim to what his guests were thinking of him later it was too late to change political favors can dictate political leaders on decisions they should make that should benefit the nation instead they put the nation at the back because you have got people you have got to impress it's likely that all these guests over 180 days were his political fundraisers there were people who funded his campaign and he had to impress them it didn't matter how much he loved his queen his promises could no longer protect her it's so serious so many times i have felt that our leaders choose their friends over the beauty of our nation over the unity of our nation even when our politicians know i should make this road but because he wants to impress his friends he leaves it alone just what these people who got him into office or choose people from his tribe zach's got tone between impressing those friends and siding with his queen but also queen vashti thus just got tired of playing the game she did not want to be objectified anymore you see the king wanted to show her off and i need to to say this to all the men listening there is more to women than their looks there is more to women than their looks no matter how much you want to to brag on your woman there is a brain in that head you see when vashi was hosting a banquet just like the king she was working instead he called her just to show her off you know she was saying we're not gonna play these games i'm not queen for nothing i am working and you need to learn to respect my work as well and one of the things that really depresses me sometimes i'm a man about men is the fact that we think the more beautiful a woman is then she's a trophy you know sometimes women get tired of being thrown trophified if there's a word like that you know it's not all there is women want respect for what they can do not just how they look like and king xaxis made a serious error there is more to women than how they look like queen vashti just refused to play the game finally there'll be trouble in paradise when eunuchs become marriage counselors you see this guy is having trouble in his marriage he decides to make it an issue of national security he calls men who are castrated who will never be married to come and tell him how to advise the king he calls someone and says it's a matter of law advise me on what i should do when a king who has charged of 127 provinces called you to advise him you will tell him what his ears want to hear this was a private matter between him and the queen we don't have a record of him going to the queen and telling her explain to me why you couldn't come because he really cared about her he went to people who have no idea what was happening in their marriage to come and advise him recently i listened to the president talking about how he and honorable raila odinga came to an agreement of the handshake and it's not to say that i support azimi i'm just saying that the president said they had to ignore a lot of people who are giving them advice that was contrary to what would be national interest and so he said that eventually him and railroading had to sit down in one room and just discuss national interest okay i thought that was quite impressive because i remember being in a meeting in 2007 2008 when our country was burning up and i remember bishops sitting in that room and pastors and believe it or not we could not come to an agreement about who was credible enough to talk to president kibaki or raila odinga at that time every team that was being sent to either the president or railroading at that time were coming back with the accusation that they are biased you know why who has credibility to be able to speak into your marriage except you you see people come to realize in the end eventually that talking together as just the two of them is where the solution is that's what the solution is eventually when the united nations secretary general kofi annan came he asked ryla and kibaki to sit in a room and to discuss what's important for kenya you know who tried to get uhuru kenyatta and william roto together to talk it was the press it was the press the press has never been president they have never been duty president deputy president but we keep hearing from the principal saying the president is not talking to his deputy he's not doing this he's not doing this we should try and get them together when trouble strikes her marriage those two should seek marriage counselling those two going to people who've never been married to offer you marriage counsel is a mistake and it did not work sadly we watched over the last five years the wage between our president and his deputy widening widening widening i don't even know what is the situation on the ground now you judge for yourself there are tensions on the ground for people who had nothing to do with that marriage they had nothing with that marriage and yet they became the key advisors to a president when they've never been president and they've never been vice president people who have personal interests who know that this fallout is going to help me probably these guys who are telling the king uh do away with the queen they knew there was something they were going to get by the search of a new queen who knows watch out for political interest let me close by giving us three things to do when political leaders in kenya seem very close there are three things you need to do number one be aware that it's temporary please be aware that it's temporary from the 60s to now our political alliances have never really stuck just know that it's temporary do not cling to them okay or take it personally when they break up don't take it personally because it's simply a vehicle to the office that is our national outlook as kenyans number two do not translate it to your personal life our leaders are not tribal we are they fight and they make up with different kinds of people because of the kind of interest they have we on the ground are the ones who fight with our neighbors i know our family who have been in america for the last 25 years but because they belong to different tribes and our politicians who are fighting they got divorced in atlanta and the problem is in kenya the people who caused them to divorce now are back together do not translate it to your life because our leaders are not tribal we are number three as we finish pray for our lasting and meaningful and long-lasting queen like esther to be elected president one day let's pray for our nation let's elect a president who will give us the true feeling of being kenyan the true feeling of being nationalist the true feeling of a lasting thing that god will bless for years to come i want you to pose wherever you are because we are coming to an election on august 9th this year and we need to ask god to bless our time together as we seek to elect a new president whoever it is that god will give us let's pray together father we thank you we thank you that issues of politics are important to you and we pray now our father that you will bless our nation we're the kind of leader who is going to give us our esteem we will have national interest ahead of us as we come today to to the issue of campaigns now as they completely hit up that will protect us from violence protect us from rhetoric that is dangerous for us and our children and the future of this nation that we love we want to ask in the name of jesus that will give our politicians measure as they campaign and give us the kind of person you would choose to take our country forward for the glory and praise of your name alone we ask it with thanksgiving in jesus name we pray and everybody said amen god bless you we'll see you next week with part two of this salmon series [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] know [Music] you

Channel: Mavuno Church

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Id: HnZpTweR6oE

Length: 54min 54sec (3294 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022