Day 1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We started by emphasizing the fact that how you define success will determine how you live. Once there is something you discuss as your destiny, something that define your destiny , then you will do everything possible to achieve it.
How Kenya poverty is so feared that you would rather go to hell than be poor. So even knowing very well that what you are doing is not right, is not Christian, you still feel to actually do the alternative is to be poor, and you would rather go to hell.
Your driving force is simply how you define success, and therefore do things in a way that makes you successful. As you read this some of us are young, some of us old, I think it is important to ask yourself, what is my definition of success.
Let us remind ourselves the story of the first king that Israel ever had. He is called King Saul. And I will pick the story in 1 Samuel 15:7.
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves[b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
16 “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?
Here is a story of success measured from different perspectives. This king is very happy that he has been successful in his missions. And listening to the story where we started, he certainly was successful. He destroyed all Amalekites except Agag. He destroyed all the sheep except the fat ones. Now, in his own definition he was a total success. And he is coming rejoicing to Samuel, and therefore also to God, saying, God are you not lucky to have a king like me who obeys you in every sense and does your bidding?. What a success I am!
But the prophet said, wait a minute. What do I hear?the bleating? Is that a sign of somebody who has done what God has said?
I want to ask you, are you a success? According to whose standard? Because a lot of us think we are success because we are measuring it our own way. And yet you can see there are two different types of success.
What is success measured from God’s perspective? And we said number one, the first thing in success is accepting God as your master and agreeing to follow him. So in as long as you do not have God running your life, it does not matter how successful you think you are , you will be successfully in hell eternally because until you know the master then you will run things your own way. And as you run things your own way, what will happen is you will think it is right,even if it sends you to hell.
Day 2
Proverbs 14:12
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death
To a foolish person things look right in their own eyes. And so if we want a Kenya that is different, we must get Kenyans that are different. You know a long time ago there was a conference in KIA, and it was called the Kenya We Want. Those of you who are older do you remember it? They forgot to discuss the Kenyans who can give us the Kenya we want. The big problem of this country is that God is not the leader. We sing in our anthem, oh God of all creation. And the rest of it is a prayer recognizing that Kenya will never be a success until we recognize God as our master. Success is knowing God as your master because then you are able to know how you will achieve the things He has given you to do.
You know, if God becomes your master, then anything you start to do must be what He has asked you to do, and because He is the one who has asked you to do, He will give you the power to achieve it.
I can stand here and say I will never be drunk with alcohol. Why do I say that? Because He is the one who said, don’t be drunk with wine. And if He asks me not to do something He will give me the power not to do. When I started working in Shell I remember somebody advising me with the kind of leadership we had of foreigners, that if you truly want to go up the career ladder, I know you are serious with this thing of yours of Christianity but you must take a little wine. You know it is called social drinking. It helps you with career upward mobility. You know the language?
And I replied, I certainly want to rise , I do not want to remain junior. I have joined Shell I want to reach the very top. But not by disobeying the bible.Tempting myself to be drunk. I know the Bible doesn’t tell you anywhere not to drink but tells you not to be drunk, but how can you be drunk unless you drink. So the minute you start drinking, it is the first step towards being drunk. So if you have no intention of ever being drunk, why are you starting to drink?
We pray Deliver us from temptations. Now, how does He deliver you when you take yourself there? Now, you need to understand clearly I had to make up my mind as a young person, ambitious, wanting to go up my career, but I knew if God’s word is critical and drunkenness is commanded clearly, I must keep off. If you find somebody drunk and tell him , I don’t know whether you are going to hell. You know he is, because the word of God tells you so. The same Bible that says don’t commit adultery also says don’t be drunk.
But you know our definition in the village is don’t be drunk and unruly. That is not in the Bible. You can be drunk and sleep, you are still going to hell. But the word of God never differentiated whether when you drunk you also slept. It is only the law of Kenya, it will not bother you if you don’t drive. But if you are drunk in the back of the seat you will never go to jail, you will just go to hell. It is very important to understand clearly that you must come out clear who you want to please as you seek success
So I had to make up my mind while still young, ambitious wanting to succeed, I will not start social drinking? And I decided that is not the route I take to success. If the Lord wants me to be a success in industry, He can achieve it without my necessarily compromising.
And of course somebody said you don’t know what you are doing. However by the time I retired I was in top management, but at no time did I ever need being in a company party or when I am out of the country joining others in various Shell countries, I never needed to compromise and take a little wine for social drinking.
Success like this where the end does not justify the means is only possible if you have a master who has the ability to make it happen. The reason why a lot of people compromise is because they don’t have a master, because they see themselves as master.
They are three things with our master, He is sovereign. So when He gives you instructions, it is instructions He expects you to follow. Number two, He is with you. Jesus when He left , and He said I am with you always to the end of this age. It means that in obeying whatever He asked you to do, He is going to walk with you through it. So you are not afraid of failure. It is not difficult to fail, it is impossible if you follow his way.
Day 3
Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more.
When He sets you to do something, you will certainly be a success as defined by him. So there isn’t a time that you are going to need to compromise. And we emphasized that, that you need to know your Master.Once you know your Master you will define success his own way. And there is no time He will force you into anything.
I once had a car accident on my way to Kisumu in the eighties. And my car was a written off. I have never seen it up to today because I was taken to hospital and left it there.The police removed it, the insurance took it over, and they gave me money to buy another car. So I never saw the car.
Since it was written off it was just a wreckage, but somebody bought and he went and worked on it and it became a car again. But he never registered it as his. So after I had stayed in Kisumu for three years, I came back to Nairobi to discover police were looking for me., anywhere he did an accident he ran away. Then they would go to the registrar of motor vehicles and see the name John Ng’ang’a of Shell/BP House. So they were always coming asking for John Ng’ang’a. Then I come back after three years and I am told there have been askaris that have been asking for me. I say, I have no crime. I told them, next time they come tell me. And I came strongly told them I do not have such a car. They said, no, no, no. They showed me a heap of cases about that car. I said, but the car, was written off.
How is it on the Kenyan roads and doing crimes. So me I thought the best thing is sort out the matter. It was insured by the company shell. So I took the insurance clerk and said, let’s go and sort out this matter. So we went to City Hall right at the top floor. Now, we were meeting the people that are dealing with it. They said, waah, insurance did a very bad. But they are talking in a manner as to suggest they want some money? But for what? You understand what I am talking about. They want us to talk, we are not talking.So when they realized we are not understanding their coded bribe message, they said the best thing is, let’s go to court and clear the matter. We can follow up the guy who bought the car.
So I thought it is a good idea. So the shell insurance clerk, the person in charge of insurance in Shell, and myself followed the investigators. Just to discover they had tricked us. We were not going to the magistrate’s chambers, we were going to a court in session. When we reached the door he beckoned without speaking to seat. I had thought we were going to an office. there was a case going on. He went to see the prosecutor who changed all the files and ours was put as the next. Before I knew it I heard the magistrate shout , ‘John Ng’ang’a’. I looked around wondering What do they want?
I had no idea what they wanted but I discovered that next I was under arrest and in the dock. And when the magistrate looked at the case file he saw it was cases upon cases. Because the guy knew he cannot be caught. It was a Thursday. the magistrate sounded annoyed, he says, this type we don’t discuss today. Lock him up until next week.
I wondered, I haven’t even be given a chance to say anything. And I started shouting , your honour! But he said, next case. But I continued pleading Your honour!
But two askaris.. One askari took me this side, the other one this other side. They took me out of the court. I discovered in that court the cells were underground. So I went down the stair case shouting. As we went down disappearing, my head disappearing underground,I continued shouting your honour! Your honour! Until my voice could not be heard in court upstairs. I was locked in the cell.
Now, they arrange it very well because as you arrive in the cell, there are two askaris, one bad, one good. One says, oh pole. The other one says, useless guy! Deserves to be in! So the first one is saying, let’s talk. The other one is saying, ignore his pleadings. First of all you have to remove the shoes, remember you are a mhabusu ..prisoner now . You have to remove the shoes, remove everything that can hurt, as you are thrown in.
Then one of them is telling you to talk. I have been locked up until next week. Now, as I am there it is when I discovered people were getting money from the widows above the cell.You know we are underground, so there are small windows at the top. So the way relatives throw the money from the windows to get you released and it was only a hundred shillings. I had thousands of shillings in my pocket.
Then you are released this way you promise to come back next week to go to court. You don’t have to go to Industrial Area. All that for One hundred, two hundred bribe. And I had thousands of shillings. In fact I remember another mahabusu looked at me and seeing me in a suit knew I had money. It is actually laughable but it is not a laughing matter. He said, mkubwa, if you don’t want to pay for yourself why can’t you pay for me to be released? Because he knew I cannot lack that kind of money.
You know you have to decide, if going to court is not success, you have to fight it out, isn’t it? Because success defined your own way will lead you to bribe. Will you not bribe? For you, if to succeed is not bribing then you won’t.
We were destined for Industrial Area prison. They were now waiting for the maria, the big prison truck, for us to be taken to Industrial Area. And as I sat there I knew my wife does not know where Iam. Nobody knows except this shell clerk. Nobody else knew that I had been locked up.
Additionally,I was not actually feeling well. I should not have brought myself to such a place because I was under medication, and it was reaching lunch hour and I needed to take my medicine. And I sat there in shock. It is a dirty place, in my suit I just sat on the floor wondering, who knows I am here?
But I remembered, God knows I am there. Nobody else may know but God knows I am there. Then I realized from the way I was feeling , water could help. So I stood up and went to the small holes where you can see the askaris guarding the cell. I said, askari! Askari! The guy went away. The others came and told me, you don’t know how to call him. I was now being educated in the cell. I was told, you don’t say askari, you say, afande. Ooooh. Now I went back. And called him Afande! The guy came. So I discovered afande works.
But he was not looking at me, he is treating me like trash. So he is looking the other side and giving me his ear. So I explained that I need some water. He said, you have looked at me and assumed I am your doctor! That’s when I realized I am a proper mahabusu.He started walking away. So I started now pleading with him as he was walking away. But after sometime,he changed. But only God can explain how, that man came back .’ I said, afande. You know I am not even here because of any crime, it is only I was not given a chance to explain. He is still looking away. But I know he is listening even if he is not showing me the face.
So I explained the case that I had on the car. I had some papers to prove that we had transferred the car to insurance company . It is not my car. I have nothing to do with it. The man turned round, looked at me . I said, just look at these papers. He looked and said, just wait there, let me go to upstairs,
By that time the court had ended and so took himself to the magistrates chambers and gave the papers to the magistrate. He was asked to come back for me, yet it was after the court session had ended. And again the two askaris held me side by side.I am still a mahabusu. I was taken to the magistrate’s chambers.
The same magistrate who was so rough and could not hear me, said, do you have two thousand shilings? Of course I had more than two thousand in my pocket. He said, just take him to the cashier, let him pay bond and he can come back next week. Thus I had offered bond. When I reached the cashier’s place is when shell lawyer came. God delayed the Shell lawyer long enough for him not to be involved.God himself had gotten my release.
So as I get my release I turn round and Mr. Waiyaki, who is a very well-known lawyer, from Hamilton Matthews was out there . Of course he knows me, I used to preach to them in Parklands Campus CU. So when he heard it was me he was in a rush to come to rescue me . But he was too late. I had been released. We went for a cup of tea to explain what had actually happened.
Now, you need to understand that since I was not feeling well I was desperate not to go to prison. I could have done everything for I had a reason to.If you accused of corruption I I can claim I was not feeling well. In another time I would look forward to go and preach in prison, but for now I was not in a physical condition to do it. But I did not give any bribe. I knew that a bribe is not a bribe because of how much you give, two shillings is as bad as bribe as two million.
So when you are in hell asking each other, why are you here? I was a briber. Oooh, just like me. One will say, how much did you bribe? Two shillings. And for you how much? Three million. They will be in the same hell, same temperature. It will not matter that one gave little. The amount does not matter. The critical thing is, do you have a master or do you do everything by yourself.
Day 4
take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise
Just look at this King Saul. First of all it cannot have been easy to kill all Amalekites. He had done a good job. But the motivation was not just honouring God, it was also making a name for himself. As soon as he succeeded, he went to a town and put a monument of him, suggesting success was not obeying God, success was making a name for himself. Once you want to make a name for yourself you will cut corners because you cannot allow yourself to embarrass yourself. You cannot be in a place and you are feeling embarrassed.
I still remember when I was a young man in 1979, I had just joined Shell and we were in Kericho Tea Hotel and we were with another Shell staff who was not a Christian, and I was tempted with alcohol I learnt a lesson as I was asked… Why didn’t you say that from the beginning? I learnt how important it is to say who you are way in advance. When you don’t want to be embarrassed you will give in. They were so happy with me, so you don’t want to change their view of you, so you give in. After all taking a little will not make me drunk.
I can tell you in as long as you care for your name you will be corrupt. Sometimes they will not give you any money but you dare not do something that you believe will embarrass you when you believe you are in charge of your name. I have built this name to where it is, you cannot destroy it… you argue .No, you have not built it. God gives you a name and God protects your name.
So if you are talking about living ethical lives in our areas of business and in our areas of our lives, do not seek to protect your reputation.Some of us are not in business, we are even in Christian organizations or in other areas, but wherever you are, the first thing you must deal with is do you care for your name like Saul, the king, did? Then rest assured you are going to turn round when confronted by issues. A girl will come and tell you, you know, your wife must be lucky surely to have you. God just took his time creating you. You feel, waaah, even my wife does not appreciate what a gift I am. You go to her later and say, by the way do you know how handsome I am? She says, useless man! The next time you hear it from a girl you will want to hear more. And in the process of hearing more, do I have to say the rest?
It is very important to understand when you care for your name, your name is what drives you, rest assured my brother, you are going to go the wrong way. And we are not talking about destiny to heaven. Your destiny will not be heaven. We are talking about success, but you will have success the wrong way.
So that’s what we hear about the king. In his definition of success, it is creating a name for himself. Secondly, in his definition of success it is impressing God by sacrificing. God has told him to destroy everything. Then he says, God I can amend your instructions because how will I impress you with a sacrifice? Let me save some of the sheep so that the sacrifice will not be small, it will be bigger, the bigger the merrier. So he disobeyed God in order to please God. It sounds crazy, isn’t? He disobeyed God in order to please God. And when Samuel is coming he says, eeeeh come. He argues it is party time. I have done what the Lord told me. In fact I am even having a lot of to sacrifice.
And I want to ask you, do you have that kind of idea of success? You can talk about how much you have sacrificed. For those of us who have been born again for more years like me, you can look at the work of the past and ignore God.
Day 5
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Some time back I was speaking in CITAM Valley Road a program they call Saturday PM, and the leader said, eeh before we talk let me tell you, the next week’s speaker is somebody from the US. And when he heard you are the one speaking he said, what? Ng’ang’a made my life different. And he started giving stories about me. He even can remember the story of where I spoke in their school in Maranda High School in 1989. Those days I was living in Kisumu. And you can see the leader turning and saying, waah, I was not born. Those are many, many years ago.
With that you can start feeling, aaah haven’t I sacrificed for God? God are you not lucky to have somebody like me? That’s if that is what you define as success. And many people in ministry, that is their definition of success, how much they have sacrificed, which is a meaningless term.
The king was going to sacrifice sheep given by God. Or Where did the sheep come from? Isn’t it in God helping him to win the war. Am I right? So he got some sheep, then he kills them. What has he lost? Absolutely nothing. And he expects God to be excited?
That’s what we do. Some of us in giving, other people are giving ten thousand, twenty thousand, we just give twenty million. So when finally the fundraising is done, it has raised thirty million. So all the rest of the congregation gave ten, you and your wife gave twenty. And you start wondering, if we were not members of this church, what could Pastor do? Is he not lucky to have us? And you go there feeling you are a success.
If truth be told, the twenty million is not your money. You study it and you can tell every shilling came from God . Assuming you never stole it, every shilling came because God gave you. Then out of what God gave you, you gave back twenty million. The reason why you gave twenty million is because you had it. Others gave only twenty shillings but they had nothing else beyond twenty shillings. You, even after giving twenty million you still have another forty hidden somewhere. Are you getting my point? And both the twenty and forty all came from God.
So if you start measuring success in terms of how much you have sacrificed, my friend, sacrifice is a totally meaningless word in Christianity, because what can you sacrifice? What can you give God that he never gave you in the first place? Yes I was preaching in the nineteen seventies ,and I am preaching in the second decade of the new millennium. Is that a sacrifice. But there are many people we preached with but who have died earlier. Am I right? The fact that I am preaching forty years later has nothing abut me. It is only because God has given me a longer life.
There is a time I was very sick and I would get an invitation and I wonder, do I say yes or do I say no. Will I be alive by then?It will require a miracle for me to honour the invitation. And I started realizing every time I speak is because God gave me health.
What sacrifice am I making? You need to understand that God does not require any sacrifice from you, He only wants you to give back what He has already given you. So when you use a gift and the gift came from God, can you tell God to thank you for giving back part of the gift? Who should thank the other?
Are you getting the complication? How do you ask God to thank you for having received a gift from him? Are you getting the word sacrifice is meaningless? Oh I have sacrificed, I gave my children to the ministry. Whose children? Many people, rich, do not have children. Am I right? You, you got children. Children are the best example of what it means to have a gift, because you can’t manufacture them. No amount of wisdom will bring you children. Then you got some, and when the preach you say they are serving the Lord. So did you sacrifice? Let’s be honest. The one who has no children, has he refused to sacrifice? No.
So this king misunderstood sacrifice. So he felt success is to be able to sacrifice a lot before God. And many people who have that theology end up with the next implication of this theology. Because you have sacrificed so much before God, you can do a few sins and they can balance one another. Because,God don’t talk about the little sin I did. Don’t you know how much I did for God? As if for God it matters what you did.
Now, just listening to Samuel talking to this king in verse twenty two, he says,
does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of lambs.
And remember it is the same God who had taught the king to sacrifice. The same God had taught Israel the importance of sacrifice. But sacrifice should only be in obedience, not a cover up for disobedience. Are you getting the point? And a lot of us use sacrifice that way. I know that because I got saved young. I would be in school, and I know there is a problem I am having with the Lord. At such a time when we go for the Wednesday fellowship I will be the first to give a testimony because I am thinking people might know what is happening in my heart. So the way to cover it up is to give a hot one on that day.
When you are backsliding, when you are walking in the school you tell others , praise the Lord! Only for somebody to answer, coldly. Now, you wonder, you mean he has discovered?. You are so disturbed you call him back, why didn’t you tell me praise the Lord? Because for you, you think everybody knows about your sin and so you become more religious. When people are backsliding they are properly religious.
However My brother, no amount of giving more to the church, serving the Lord more, you know, doing all the things you are doing sacrificially, will ever matter if you are living in disobedience.
Day 6
It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—
Success in God’s definition is living a life of obedience. And if you know there is a certain area of your life where you are not obeying God, it does not matter how much you have done for the church, it does not matter how long you have been a Christian. God is saying clearly that you are a rebel. And He puts very strong language for rebels. Rebels are people who don’t obey the law. He says in verse twenty three,
for rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of adultery.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king. Can you imagine this: that if you don’t obey God, in other words you are a rebel, you are similar to a diviner. You know diviner? We in Africa know diviners, isn’t it? They are kind of witches but a good witch was called a diviner, a bad one was called a witch. But they both have a spiritual power from ancestral worship. Am I right? But in the kingdom of God the good one and the bad one are both condemned. But in Kikuyu customs you are always taught there is a good one and a bad one. But a diviner was a good witch, who you go to him and he tells you about the future, that guy is actually better than a rebellious guy. And we are saying both of them are condemned.
So can you imagine that as much as you have served the Lord, as much as you have sacrificed, if you truly have an area of disobedience, you are not a success. And what is worse you are like a witch. You are arrogant and people who are arrogant are worse than the people who worship idols. Yet you say, but Brother Ng’ang’a I never worship idols. It is not me. Read it again. That if you are disobeying God in a certain place, you are an idol worshipper.To God you are somebody who is disobeying God.
How can we go to the destination God has chosen for us? In other words how can we be success? I think what I have said so far just tells you that if you totally commit yourself to having God not just as saviour but as Lord, that is success.You know a lot of us want him as a saviour to save us but don’t want him to be a master. Then a lot of the other things we are saying are going to go okay. So I want to ask you in conclusion , do you have God as the one who is helping you succeed?
But thirdly I want to say success is measured only if you know the purpose for which you were created and living on it. Do not try to be like Ng’ang’a because Ng’ang’a’s call may not be your call. God will call somebody successful if they have fulfilled their assignment. If you live somebody else’s assignment you are a failure because you succeeded on behalf of somebody else. When you were growing up, your mother leaves you an assignment to wash plates and leaves your brother assignment to get water from the river. Then you go to help your brother to bring water, by the time your mother comes all the water pot is full but your plates are not cleaned. What will your mother think of you? A success or a failure? Failure. But you worked.
So you need to ask yourself, why was I created? My book The Christian Professional…cover this issue . And I am trying to help young people to know that hearing the call of God is not just becoming a pastor,or is not working for FOCUS, it is not working for a Christian organization. Hearing the call of God is hearing the purpose for which you were created and following it. Another youth says, me I am in Garissa. I was an engineer, I stopped engineering to come to reach the lost. How can you compare me with those making roads? I said, you know, if you are in Garissa and you are not doing what God created you to do, you are a failure. If God created you to make good roads as a civil engineer, and you are not making civil roads, you are a failure. And there are many pastors who are pastors but that’s not their calling. But because they seem to have certain level of honour, they want to remain in pastoring. Success is not joining the ministry, success is doing what God has called you to do and doing it well.
Day 7
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
So you need to ask yourself, am I doing what God created me to do. Because if you don’t you are a failure. You know when you discover what God calls you to do, three things happen. Number one there is a sense of calling that allows you to give your best. Number two, what you do you will do it with passion. Number three, whether easy or difficult you will do it with joy. There is nothing more fulfilling than to realize I am doing what God created me to do.
So when you talk about success, it is impossible for me to know whether you are a success or not, because to me you may be the wealthiest person but God never called you to make money, He called you to make souls, and you are making money. The whole world will be saying how successful you are. But because you never went to the ministry to do what God called you to do, you are not a small failure, you are a total failure.
So , you need to ask yourself, am I a success? It is exactly the same; when God gives you children, question, what is successful parenting, how do you define successful parenting? Ooh, my child is now doing medicine, oh my child just became a lawyer, oh my child… That is not the issue. Did you help your child to go to God’s calling? And many parents today are not doing that. Every time I see somebody doing medicine I sympathize with them because most of them did not go there willingly. You make a mistake of getting a straight A, even your uncles will have a chama to tell you, we cannot waste an A. Which of your cousins has ever gotten an A? You know you have an A and you want to do history. They say, what? What’s wrong with you young man? You must go and do medicine.
So you have to sympathize with them. And why? I was running a mission in upper Kabete campus and during the week, because I was there for a whole week, I counseled many young people. I will never forget a young man who told me he was in his third year of study but he was only a second year. Why? He got a straight A and the family said he had to be a doctor. He said, but that’s not my calling, I want to be a biochemist. They said, no. And because the father is our type, he went to the university and changed the course without the child’s permission. When he went to check he was doing medicine. He said, papa I told you I don’t want it. So he went to try to change, the father went and changed to vet medicine. Now surely, if you don’t want human medicine at least become a vet. The next time he went to check he found himself under veterinary. Because a doctor, surely, even if you don’t treat people, treat animals.
So as he was crying because it really bothered him, as he was crying and I am talking with him I said, I wish your parents were Christians. If they were saved they would understand. He told me, they are. I wish they were educated; they are. Now, I ran out of explanations… Now you need to understand clearly our parenting is not to produce a doctor, our parenting is to produce God’s person. And you will be a total failure of a parent if your child does something which you force them to do which is not God’s calling.
The best thing you can do is to help your child, by the time they become teenagers teach them how to listen to God. So we are saying success is coming to where you give yourself to God and do what God has called you to do. And if you are not doing it, everybody is thinking what a success you are, God is telling, like He told this king, everybody is congratulating the king, but God says you are a failure. Even Samuel found it very difficult to go to tell Saul that, when he has done so much, but God insisted you must tell him he is no longer a king, and I regret having appointed him.
History does not matter once it is repented. Would you like to come before God and say, God I want to search your mind, I want to know what you have called me to do and I want for the rest of my life to live to fulfill it irrespective of what people think.
You know when finally Saul was told that the kingdom was going to be taken away, he pleaded with Samuel to sacrifice with him so that he is not embarrassed before people. That’s the third reason Saul had called himself a success, that people thought he had a great name. Now, I want to ask you something, have you heard God? Do you know where He is leading you? Are you doing it?
We all want to hear, well done good and faithful servant. But that will not be possible when we have done a lot of activities but doing somebody else’s assignment, we never took our own assignment. May we know our assignment and to be obedient to God’s instructions.