Let us pray.
Thank you Lord for keeping us to this
day.
This day where you do your wonders and
we pray that you will be in our
midst.
Speak to us through your word and through
all that we will hear.
Amen.
Well we thank the Lord for this day.
I asked the bridegroom just to share a
bit with me what the Lord has done
for him before this day.
And I asked him whether there is a
word that is on his heart.
He said yes.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation.
Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new.
I asked the bridegroom why he has chosen
this particular verse where it says that if
one is in Christ Jesus, the old things
pass away, everything becomes new.
He is a new creature.
Wonderful word.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation.
Like the word in Revelation where the one
sitting on the throne says, behold I make
all things new.
He has created new heaven, new earth, everything
is new.
Death and illness is gone forever.
Everything is new.
So it is the same Jesus who spoke
those words, who speaks these words.
If people don't want to become Christians, I
marvel and I say, but they are the
greatest fools.
When Jesus comes into your life, everything becomes
brand new.
If you want to buy a car, wouldn't
you be happy to get a brand new
car?
Or do you rather want a scrap?
Or even a second hand car?
First prize is always to get something brand
new.
If you ladies go into a shop, you
wouldn't want to buy a dress, would you,
that is second hand, been worn by other
people, or one that is blemished and that
has faults in it.
No, you'd rather want, you want something brand
new.
If you've offered a dress with a hole
in it or other defects, wouldn't you say,
no I don't want that one, I want
a brand new one with absolutely no defect.
It is something wonderful to get something that
is brand new, really new, with absolutely no
fault.
A new car you even recognize, when you
get in you can smell it that it
is new.
And other people are even happy and say,
wow we are so glad for you that
you can get a new car.
So if you really have an experience with
the Lord and meet Him, He makes everything
brand new and that happens through His power.
So if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car, if you have a car, if you
have a car, if you have a car,
if you have a car, if you have
a car, if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car, if you have a car, if you
have a car, if you have a car,
if you have a car, if you have
a car, if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car, if you have a car, if you
have a car, if you have a car,
if you have a car, if you have
a car, if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car, if you have a car, if you
have a car, if you have a car,
if you have a car, if you have
a car, if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car, if you have a car, if you
have a car, if you have a car,
if you have a car, if you have
a car, if you have a car, if
you have a car, if you have a
car.
Maybe your life is all ruined and torn.
Maybe just like you, young girl.
Maybe you've even lost your virginity.
You are maybe secondhand.
Maybe you're even a scrap.
You like that woman at the well, the
Samaritan woman who the Lord Jesus said, go
and call your husband.
She said, I have no husband.
He said, yes, that's true.
You're actually at five already.
even the one you're living with is not
your own.
What beats me about you men is that
you are married to your wife, maybe for
many years already.
You have children together and suddenly one day
you're off and you're after another woman.
Even a prostitute, maybe she's even got other
children from other men.
You'll forsake your wife, you will not even
look after her and maintain your own family.
You'll go and pay for another man's children
to maintain them.
Maybe you could even end up with AIDS
because of that lifestyle.
There's nothing like the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
There is no religion to be compared with
it because the Lord Jesus makes everything new.
You see the bridegroom?
You saw the bridegroom, how happy he is,
how radiant, even his face, you can see
it.
You see he's experienced the Lord Jesus, he's
made everything new in his life.
So I asked him to share his testimony.
So he wrote and told me, he says,
I've come a long way, I've come a
long way.
Many years ago when I was young, I
ran away from home and went up to
Johannesburg.
And the world overcame me in Johannesburg.
He was earning a good salary as a
driver, but the world swallowed him.
Drinking, smoking, even drugs, he had become a
scrip.
Then he decided to go back home.
Because up in Johannesburg, he even drove around
in a drunken state.
He ended up in prison.
He lost his license for five years.
He says, I've gotten to the end of
myself.
He decided to go home.
When he got home, he found everything was
like a ruin.
And he said, when he saw that, he
said, well if things have gotten this bad
here, I'm going back to drink.
Then one day, he met up with two
ladies who said to him, we can see
that you're in a bad state.
They said to him, you see what a
state you're in now.
They said, we can arrange to get you
to a place where you can find help.
We'll take you to Gwasisabantu.
Then they explained to him how to get
here.
From Matuba, to Mpangeni, with a taxi, then
to Stenga.
When he got to Stenga, he just started
asking around, he says, where's Gwasisabantu?
They fortunately knew, and they said, no, we
know, get into this vehicle, it'll take you
there.
That's how he got here, to the main
gate, and they took him through to the
reception.
And then they asked him what his problem
was.
Then he said to them, I want help.
Alcohol's my problem, and tobacco smoking, and drugs.
They asked someone to take him through to
where he would sleep.
He says, I didn't waste any time, the
next morning immediately I started asking who I
could speak to.
And then they should go home to make
space for the next people.
So he said every day he was busy
making right his life.
So every day he made hay while the
sun shone, and made right his life, confessed
his sins.
After the two weeks were up, he was
asked to go home.
He says, when I got home, my friends
arrived.
They said to me, let's go and have
a drink.
I said no, I no longer drink.
I've stopped smoking.
I've become a child of God.
They said, you're lying, it's just going to
be short lived, you'll go back again.
You'll give up this Christianity thing soon and
go back to your old life, they said.
He says, every day they came back again
saying, let's go back to the drink and
to the old life.
And then I told them, he says, I
no longer drink, all I drink is tea.
After a week, he said, now I'm going
back to Kosisabantu.
He heard my brother say that he brought
him here.
He says, when he got here, he wasted
no time, he carried on making things right
in his life that were wrong.
He says, from that day when he stopped,
he never went back to that old life
again, everything became new.
And then he got a job here, as
a driver.
He says, then God started blessing him, one
blessing after another.
He could build up the home again.
And one day he was in town, he
met up with a white man there, and
that man offered him a car at a
fantastic price.
And that's how God does it, he blesses.
When he blesses, he does it like with
those five loaves, they were small loaves, but
he took those loaves, he blessed them, and
thousands were fed.
And he started saving his money, because the
money he earned here, he could save almost
every single cent, because here you get free
board and lodging, so you don't have to
pay for all those things.
And what he did also, he then also
took some of that money and sent it
to his mother who was at home, his
father had passed away.
So he didn't spend it,
and
so he put away money, and he could
even now get married, and all the costs
involved, the dowry, everything, he could pay every
cent himself, he didn't even have to make
a loan.
So he's a good example in that, he
saved, that he didn't become a burden to
anybody.
It's not like young people today who go
in, they get a bit of money, off
they are to the shop, buying some coke
and other things, and they never put away
anything.
Here's a good example, this is how you
should do it.
So God has blessed him, one blessing upon
the other, and today he's got a wife.
And then he goes on to say something
wonderful, he says, look, I'm getting married today,
but I'm not marrying this wife, I'm not
marrying her because of the lusts of the
flesh.
I've found this wife because God has shown
me this is the one.
I was troubled at home, I had no
rest.
Because people were hounding him all the time.
People can really get in the way sometimes,
like Zacchaeus, he wanted to see the Lord
Jesus, he couldn't see the Lord because of
the crowd, and so it is even today.
People will stand in your way that you
don't get to the Lord.
So people were hounding me all the time,
saying, haven't you, aren't you planning to get
married, when are you going to get married,
you don't even have a wife.
And some people even said to him, you're
just worthless, you'll just die like this.
But he says that didn't make him weak,
in fact it made him even stronger.
He says it drove me to my knees
to pray.
And he says my answer to them was
always, it's in God's power.
And they said where's your wife, he said
it's in God's power.
It's in God's hands, if God wants me
to get married, I'll get a wife.
If he doesn't want me to get married,
well that's fine too.
And he says, and people were after me
all the time until one day, I just
went outside alone and I cried to the
Lord.
I said Lord, if
it's your will that I don't get married,
may your will be done.
But Lord, if it's your will that I
should get married, then lead me in that
way.
He says that night, the Lord revealed himself
to him very clearly.
He says I saw our home there in
Matuba.
And he says there I then saw a
great celebration and a group of people coming
and part of that group was a bride.
And he says they were singing, it was
wonderful.
He says there was much
rejoicing and they were shouting for joy, ululating,
like we experience today.
He says they were all, the mamas were
jumping for joy, they were ululating and he
says even my mother who couldn't walk anymore
jumped up and rejoiced with everyone else.
He says after that he couldn't sleep again.
And he says after the Lord showed him
a vision of him in his house with
his bride.
He says but after that I was troubled.
It worried me and I said what is
this?
He says I could see my wife with
me in the house.
And then he said but who is this,
I don't know this lady.
And he thought of all the girls that
he knew from his area, he says he
couldn't remember anyone that looked like the one
he saw.
And then he prayed, he said Lord if
that is your will then let it come
to pass.
And then he came back here to Siza
Bantu.
He says when he was here, as he
was walking back from where they had tea.
He met with a lady, when he looked
at her he was shocked to see that
that was the one he had seen.
He recognised her.
He says after sometime about a month he
went to his counsellor.
And shared the story with the counsellor.
And the counsellor said well Kumete this is
a problem.
Because now you've really got to pray.
I can't say anything.
I can't say anything, you'll have to go
and share this with Mfundi.
We here at Siza Bantu
don't bring
couples together, neither do we separate them.
And he came then and shared it with
me.
He says then I said to him, well
this is what you say, now we will
see by the fruit whether this is from
the Lord or from the devil.
You see there are some young men, they
never hear the Lord's voice.
They don't know the Lord's voice, but when
they suddenly want to get married then suddenly
they hear the Lord's voice, they say the
Lord has spoken.
And that's the last time they hear the
Lord's voice, thereafter they don't hear it again.
And I had a cousin who once asked
me years ago, he says is it possible
that a girl Is it possible that a
girl has five husbands?
Yes, yes.
This girl's cousin said can one have five
husbands?
I said why?
She says because five men have come to
me and said the Lord has told me
to marry you.
See she was a pretty girl so they
were all after her and eventually she did
get married but not to one of those
that had proposed.
Some people get married because of their own
will that they get married.
Other people get married because other people have
told them to get married.
Others are brought together by the will or
the lust of the flesh.
But there are a few that are brought
together by the will of God.
Now you are married, what brought you together?
And maybe things go wrong because they went
wrong right in the beginning.
But blessed is the one who gets married
because it's God's will.
What God has brought together let no man
separate.
God's will is important in a person's life.
If you look at, you see especially in
marriages, how much trouble and sorrow there is.
If you look at, you
see
how
much trouble and sorrow there is.
And if you look at the children today,
look what state the children are in.
But it's because of the way you have
been.
You've taught them and remember you reap what
you sow.
Only you reap a lot more than what
you sow.
Maybe you complain that your children don't listen
to you.
Well just think back, maybe you never listened
to your parents and now you're reaping in
multiples of what you did.
But the beauty is that if we commit
our lives to the Lord, surrender to Him
and make right our life, He makes all
things new.
He makes everything new, new heaven, new earth,
there's no death, there's no sickness, there's no
fighting, no sin.
You see He takes away all the old,
He makes everything new.
The sad thing is people claim to be
in Christ, but there's still old things in
His life of the old.
He says He's a Christian, He still smokes,
He still drinks, but He says He does
it in moderation, even though He gets drunk
to the point where He fights with you
if you challenge Him.
He says He's a Christian, He still smokes,
He still drinks, but He says He does
it in moderation, even though He gets drunk
to the point where He fights with you
if you challenge Him.
A person claims to be in Christ, yet
you find old things, there's gossip, there is
slander, there are grudges, and there's fighting, and
there's anger.
Why is it that you claim to be
a Christian and yet there are the old
things?
Is the Bible not speaking the truth?
A Hindu went to a Christian white man
and he said, Why is it that you're
so different to everyone else I know?
And the man said, No, it's because I'm
a Christian.
And the Hindu said, If
you find you're not a real Christian, not
genuine as you should be, do what the
bridegroom did, go and make right your life,
those things that are wrong.
Your life should be a bright outshining for
the Lord.
Everything should be brand new.
People that have to do with you should
be like someone getting into a new car
where they realize, everything is spanking new here.
That's what it should be like in your
life.
Now whether you're a Christian or not, you
tell me, wouldn't you like something brand new
if you've got a house?
Don't you want your whole house, the furniture,
everything?
You'd say something's wrong with someone who'd say,
No, I don't want something new.
I want something old and tattered and torn,
and I'm happy with a scrap.
There's something
wrong
with you if you think that
way.
And don't wake up when it's too late,
like the rich man who only woke up
when he was in hell, and then he
called up to Father Abraham and said, Please.
Father Abraham said, No, I
don't want anything new.
I want something old and tattered and torn,
and I'm happy with a scrap.
And don't wake up when it's too late,
like the rich man who only woke up
when he was in hell, and then he
called up to Father Abraham and said, No,
I don't want anything new.
I want something old and tattered and torn,
and I'm happy with a scrap.
And don't wake up when it's too late,
like the rich man who only woke up
when he was in hell, and then he
called up to Father Abraham and said, No,
I don't want anything new.
I want something old and tattered and torn,
and I'm happy with a scrap.
So learn from the bridegroom.
When he came here, he wasted no time.
From the moment he came, he said, I
want to get my life right with God.
And so then the Lord eventually revealed to
him that this great day was coming, that
great celebration, with a bride coming.
And so the bride, you heard as well
how happy everyone was to see you dressed
in white with your veil, and you know
the significance of that veil.
Now don't you do what some people say
about the bride, that she was so wonderful
when she arrived, but when she got used
to her husband, she kicked him.
She
kicked
him.
And in the church we can help each
other.
If you have a problem and you can't
solve it alone, you can go and get
help, and we can help each other in
that way.
As a Christian, our lives should shine brighter
than the sun, and we should also not
say, well I'm of this family, I inherited
this personality or this character.
No, in Christ Jesus, everything becomes new.
Yes.
Now I'm praying.
I'm
praying.
Let's pray for God's blessing.
Lord, we rejoice and we are amazed to
see your children before us.
Lord, we've heard about your power, the power
of the cross that's been at work in
them, and in the life of the bridegroom,
and how his life has been changed by
you.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord, for the bride and for
her life.
Keep her and make her a blessing that
she'll be like salt in that place that
she's going to, and a light.
And that the family in the whole area
will be blessed, and that they will thank
God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the love of the Father.
Amen.