do turn with me to Genesis and Chapter 1. Genesis and Chapter 1. We are having our second installment in what we are calling the cultural mandate and then after that Mr. Chakwunta will come forward and lead us in the breaking of bread. So Genesis and chapter 1. I will begin reading from verse 26, and then I will give a recap of what we saw last week since this is part two, and then we will delve into the material for today. The Bible says, beginning in verse 26, that is, after the creation of everything else except the human beings. Verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth. and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said, and that's our text by the way, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. I'll end the reading there, the last time we went a little further. Let me quickly recap what we have looked at thus far. I've mentioned the fact that these two messages are essentially related to the seminars that we are running as a church. We have begun last year, but COVID was quite a challenge. We then are attempting this year and we are hoping to sustain these for at least 10 years to achieve the purpose for which we are laboring. And basically the root, the foundation of what we are seeking to do is found in what is called the cultural mandate or the creation mandate. We noticed last time that this is something that God gave to Adam and when there was the destruction of the whole of humanity and consequently a fresh start in the days of Noah, again the same demand or command or mandate was given to Noah and his sons as a fresh beginning. We mentioned the fact that what the cultural mandate does is it gives you a purpose for living, a purpose for life beyond the fact that when you come to church and you are fired up with respect to the gospel that you think that's all that matters. We get out there, evangelize the world because of course it's a sinking ship, which it is, and then just salvage as many people as possible. or there's something bigger that is taking place even while we are doing that, and it is glorifying God in the very activities that occupy us six days a week, five days a week, and eight hours sometimes, all the way up to 12 hours a day, seeking to glorify God in that. And what is that? So what we did was to quickly pay into this statement and we essentially found two layers. One of them was saying be fruitful and multiply. And we mentioned the fact that this is not just have children and have children and have children and the children are sort of scattering all over the place. You know, that's, yeah, that's a little bit of it, but it's in terms of creating a social order that's going to manage the multiplication of humanity across the entire And so we will develop communities with institutions that are governed by laws. And that's basically what human beings have been doing since then. And then there is the aspect of not just filling the earth but subduing it, having dominion over it. And what we said there was that God was saying that through this growing order, harness the potential that is in everything else that I have made for the purpose of development. And that it is in that creative capacity that God had himself, which has passed on to us as human beings, that we then go on to see this ongoing development. And it's what has given birth, as I said, to science at its lowest level, technology at its lowest level, and then beginning to develop and develop and develop from there. Because God has given us that capacity. We are inquisitive creatures. And out of that being inquisitive creatures, we do our research. Anybody who's raised kids, we'll soon discover that somewhere between the age of about 8 on to about the age of 14, they can be quite irritating because of this why question. Okay? You say to them, go and sleep, and they say, why? Yeah, it's time to go and sleep. Okay? Why is it time to go and sleep? Well, it's because dad says, go and sleep now. So why should we sleep when that says you? Go! OK, basically what's happening is that the mind is beginning to process things. It's beginning to throw all those instructions into some kind of logical sequence. And it is meant to sort of understand life and living, and then add to that everything else. that comes. And so I went into quite a bit of details last time, talking in terms of what has developed out of this. We talked about planting of gardens and crops and composing music and clothing and building houses and so on. All that is growing out of this. And consequently, through this, God is basically saying, build civilizations for my glory. civilizations for my glory. And then we went on to see how it is that yes, in Genesis 1, God gives us the pattern In Genesis 2, Adam is now put in a garden with an actual model that has been put into place, an actual garden. And then he is saying, take care of it, work it and take care of it. And that's beyond simply maintenance. It is in terms of developing it, and so forth, so that there is real fulfillment in what is happening there. And I ended by saying that, you know, yes, we ought to emphasize the gospel, because as we shall see again today, sin has entered the world in Genesis chapter 3. But those of us who are evangelicals, we can easily become lopsided so that all we think about is purely personal salvation. And we fail to see that, in actual fact, we are custodians of God's world. We are stewards of God's world. We are regents on behalf of God in this world to carry out this creative capacity so that to God's glory, we are developing something that is for the good of mankind. Now, today, I want to go from theory to practice. That's what I want to do today. I want to give a few examples. But before I do that, I need to just clear a few quick matters. And first of all, it is the fact that every so often you come across this being taught as creation mandate and other times you find it being taught as cultural mandate. It's basically the same thing. When the emphasis is on creation mandate, basically whoever is teaching is emphasizing the fact that this was given to us at creation. It's from the beginning of human history. This is not some afterthought that comes to us. This is what we were meant to do, that's what we're meant to be. But then when we use the word cultural mandate, The emphasis is on how we are then to carry this out as human beings. And it's this multiplication issue. It is this feeling of the earth. Because that's what a culture is. A culture is not just one thing that's being done. It is when it multiplies and consequently fills the space. In medicine, often, that's what they do. If you are sick and they're not exactly sure, they've tried whatever they can and you're not getting better. What they do is they get a sample from you and then they use the phrase, they culture it. That's the phrase they use, they culture it. And basically what they do is they put it, before I express too much ignorance here, but they put it somewhere and it multiplies. Okay? And through that multiplication, they then start testing various forms of medication on that multiplied virus or bacteria or fungi, or whatever it might be. And then somehow, in one section, they find that it responds correctly. And they say, aha, so this is the right medication. So by the time you are coming back for review, they prescribe the medicine, and there you are. You get well. So the culturing has to do with this multiplication so that they are able then to address the cause. And I always use the example of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. When Steve Jobs came up with the iPod, exactly the same thing happened. It caught fire everywhere. Young people were now going around with white earpieces, with this little thing that has now been added to Noah's Ark, you know, and the dinosaurs and everything. It's since died, the iPod. But when Bill Gates tried his own version and it never finally took off, when he was asked, his answer was, it's too late because the iPod has become a culture. That was his answer. It's too late. The iPod has become a culture. It's gone so wide, it's so widespread that nobody is now beginning to think, here's some space where I can enter in. It is too late. So that's the idea of cultural mandate. If you're going to educate humanity, You can't do it by building one school in a small corner somewhere with 50 people being educated. You can't do that. Then the rest of humanity is in ignorance. You have to multiply schools. You've got to spread them far and wide. And as you do so, then you create a culture of educated people. So it's that element. that cultural mandate captures. This multiplication filling the earth and consequently subduing it. To subdue the earth, you can't just do it in one small corner. That's what happened with the internet. By the way, the internet, in principle, started long before we began to participate in it. I'm told it began in the 1960s going into the 1970s. And basically what happened at that time was that it was functioning purely as local networks. That was all. Until at a certain time, I don't know who it was, they decided, fine, let's get together and build a world wide web. And so they connected it to the entire world. and therefore even John Banda could now participate. Okay. So it became a culture and before we know it, all of us now are functioning through the internet, through emails and downloading this and uploading the other and so on. It's become a culture. But prior to that, it was there except that it was not yet in the culture. So, This is how we impact creation. It is as a cultural mandate, a cultural mandate. And that's something that needs to be done. The first universities were run by churches. In fact, they were run on African soil before they were run anywhere else in the world. And it was primarily in Alexandria, which is now Egypt. and they were being run by the church. But while it was being held under lock and key as it were, the rest of the world was in levels of ignorance that needed to be addressed. Well, today it's different. The universities are now out there all over the world, and consequently, the levels of knowledge have since picked up. So our job description while we are on God's planet is exactly this. That's what we do that when you wake up in the morning and you get out there in the world, it's not just looking for souls. And most of us will agree that we don't do that. There's something else we do. But what is that to fit it into this entire structure, and it is the cultural mandate. And once you understand this, it gives you a joyful sense of poise in the midst of what's happening with you, with your family, with the world. It gives you a sense of where is this world going? What is my contribution in it? in such a way that when I die, I'm fulfilled. I'm fulfilled. I'll say that which life was all about is what I participated in. Now, in Genesis 3, the fall came into being. So we look at Genesis 1, we look at Genesis 2. In Genesis 3, the fall came into being. And yes, the fall necessitated the gospel, but the point is that it made the creation mandate not to be cancelled, but to be more difficult. So it did not mean that therefore We abandon the cultural mandate because, as we noticed in Chapter 9, God came back to Noah and said, I'm giving you this again. But rather, it makes it more difficult. And let me explain it very quickly. First of all, now it means we need security. Previously, there was no need for security. But now there are thieves, there are enemies, There are people who are likely to come in and destroy. But number two, we also now need maintenance because decay and corruption have also come in. So where as previously that wasn't there for Adam and Eve, for us it is there. There is wear and tear inevitably because of God's command in Genesis 3 as part of the punishment. And then also there is the replacing of individuals who get injured, who grow old, and also who die. Think about it for a moment. We've had Individuals who've become very educated in certain fields. And they've accumulated degrees. They have written in journals. They are like walking libraries, basically, in their field. And some of these, those of us who've been in the educational field, would have worked with them. And when you are in these seminars or meetings, and you are dealing with an issue. When they open their mouths to speak, you say to yourself, wow. After that, nobody else talks. Nobody. And then a time comes when they fall sick and they die. Do you realize what has happened? It's that an entire library is going into that grave. An entire library. And yes, the educational process is the process of, before that entire library goes into the ground, it is offloaded onto a few hard drives, if you understand what I mean. Offloaded. That's necessitated by the fall. Now, you can imagine if there was no fall, if we were all alive all the way from Adam and Eve, the amount of development that would have taken place by now because those brains that were accumulating information then would have continued not only to accumulate the information but also giving it out. Obviously, there would be a lot more. But then, because of that, we have found ourselves in more stringent times. So because of the fall, we don't just need schools, but we now also need hospitals, because we need to save lives. We don't just need factories to produce new things, we also need garages to fix the things that have been broken. We don't only need laws for order, we also need the penal code. In other words, what penalties will we put into place for those who break the laws? We don't just need accountants, we also need auditors. Okay? Because it's not just counting the money, it is finding who has taken some of it into his pocket. All right, so we now also need auditors. So it has made the cultural mandate that much more difficult. And even in those remedial areas, like hospitals and garages and, you know, courts of law and auditors and so on, We have to keep improving on what a previous generation has achieved. So again, it is a learning from a previous generation and then building on top of it. We have to do that. Otherwise, it's obvious what keeps happening is you come up with ways in which, for instance, to catch thieves in the accountancy world they quickly come up with other things and so forth. So you have to keep building on top of that. And even in the area of curing illnesses, it's the same thing. You can't just stop at where your knowledge stopped in the 1960s. You have to keep adding and keep adding and keep adding and getting better. I've never forgotten the first time I had my teeth checked in America, the dentist said, open your mouth, and looked, looked, and he saw what Zambian dentists had done to my teeth. And then he said, yo, yo, yo, you mean they still use this in Zambia? We stopped doing this long ago in America, long ago. And then he got some of those things out and put in new stuff and my mouth began to feel fairly new and so forth. So they've moved on, moved on. But there we are still using methods that were being used when my father was, you know, a child playing football in the compounds. So it's this adding of knowledge. It's our responsibility. We can't just continue doing the same things as they were always done. So that's part of where the difficulty is. Now, as I said, we need to try and apply this. What is it that the elders are doing with this cultural mandate and tying it up with the seminars. As I said last time and I've said it a number of times even yesterday when we had the heroes of the fifth day on Truett Cathy, I said you people have the potential to transform Lusaka, transform Zambia, transform Africa and even beyond. you have the potential but there has to be a shift in mindset, a serious shift in mindset because currently our mindset is that the place of work we go to at the most to be spiritual is that we do not participate in the wrong things that are being done. That's it. The wrong things are being done, we don't participate in them. We take our work seriously. So if I'm an accountant then I'm careful, I'm doing my accountancy work. If I'm a lawyer, I'm doing my law firm work. If I'm a doctor, I'm doing my doctorate work and so on and so forth. And we don't seem to think in terms of, okay, what's the bigger picture? What is this life all about? Where is Zambia? What is our role now to have a better Zambia? We're not thinking like that. It's all, I'm doing this, I get my salary, and then I'm building a house here. I'm just doing all I can as I'm growing up so that I can raise my kids and they have a better life than I have. And while we're doing that, our world is getting worse, and we know it. Another example that I will use as I'm giving three examples in my sermon is that we have a lot of universities and every year they are churning out tens of thousands of degree holders and only one-tenth of them are getting into the job market. So every year, You've got people in nice graduation gowns. And these days, we don't shake any president's hand. So we just take photos in different places and so on. As long as you are wearing a graduation, smiling. And then a solid three years of looking for employment. I know employment is coming through. And it's getting worse. We know it. But here's the question. Which Christians are doing something about that? Our answer is something like this. Government. That's our answer. Government. What's the problem? Government. Government is not employing enough teachers. Government is not. Government is not. And it's that which is altogether wrong thinking. Because actually, it's us. It's not government. It's us who should be doing something about it. So let me quickly go on. Currently, we've got seminars in health and environment, one of them, another one in education and development, another one in governance and politics, another set in media and arts, another set in business and economics, another set is marriage and family. And the idea with these seminars is that in each of those areas, all of us get educated, all of us, in order to understand that area. Not so much that we ourselves can be professionals in that, you have to go to university to do that, but rather that we should imbibe similar values, similar values. because we have come to a common understanding of the role that these areas play in the bigger picture of our lives. Now, our understanding is this, that as we do so, very few of us, very few, so if you can imagine a pyramid or a triangle. Everybody is being educated, but at the top will be individuals who will have two characteristics. First of all, those individuals are actually already trained in that area, already trained, and they are gifted. So that's them there. So if it's in health, you've got doctors and so on. If it's in education, you've actually got teachers. If you've got governance and politics, it's actually individuals who are politicians. Media and arts, that's obvious. Individuals who are either journalists or whatever it might be or even musicians and so forth. So you've got individuals who are gifted, individuals who are trained in those areas and they are not the rest of us. But secondly, It is individuals who will have a sense of outrage about this, a real sense of outrage, who will say, no, I'm failing to sleep because of this. This is wrong. This is utterly inadequate. Or as we said about the workforce, guys, we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. That's what we're doing. We can't be half asleep like this because it won't be long before we have a complete crisis on our hands. So a few, just a few individuals will feel like that and then they will say, we better do something. Now those few individuals who will say, we better do something, are the ones who are going to come up with institutions. Because they are saying, it's not just a matter of talking, it's actually doing something. And they're the ones who come up with these institutions and so forth. Now here's the point. Here's the point. They will need the support of everybody else. Now, if the rest of us are ignorant, our attitude will be, ah, it's theirs. That's our attitude, it's theirs. And that's it. As a result, it will be next to impossible to impact Lusaka, impact Zambia, impact Africa, and even beyond. Why? Because they cannot do this alone. This is where all of us need maximum exposure. All of us. Let me hurry on to the three areas. I don't have much time. So let me give an example. The last seminar we had was in health. And in health, we didn't go into details of medicine and so on. That's their world. But we're asking the question, why health? Why medicine? Why should we be interested in that at all? And again, you're right. You've guessed right. We began from the cultural mandate. That's where we went. And we saw that there's no way we are going to carry out this cultural mandate to its maximum efficiency and impact while disease and death is roving through the streets. There's no way. Your capacity to deliver depends on how well you are. So, in other words, it's business that we should all be interested in. And that is what we went on to say at that seminar. At this stage, we know, when you are really sick, how frustrating it is in our medical fields. You know that. Unless you've got a lot of money and then you either go to South Africa or India. Yesterday I was meeting a cousin of mine who broke her leg. Her dog hit into her out of excitement. But you know when you are 60 years plus and your dog hits into you, bones break. And she then went to a hospital, see I won't mention which one, and they worked on her. And then she was supposed to be healing. At a certain stage, she just said, no, I'm off to South Africa. And when she went there, they said, you did well. This leg would have rotted by now. You need surgery afresh. So they opened her up, fixed her afresh. And yesterday, she was saying, I'm glad I went. I'm much better. Now, here's the point again. Is that what we should all be doing? Should we all be rushing South Africa when a dog hits into you? Come on. Now, let's just suppose just two or three doctors at KBC, just two or three, we've got about 10 of them, but just two or three, get outraged about this. Let's just suppose so. Let's suppose they came together and says, no, no, no, let's build the best possible hospital in the whole of Zambia. One which will be like any other hospital in the world. After all, we've reached the highest levels of education in medicine. We are now professors. We're speaking all over the world in all kinds of seminars about these things. Why should we be lacking basic medicine here? So they are outraged. So they've got the gifts, they've got the training, they've got the experience, and now they're outraged. Here's the difficulty. The rest of us will be waiting. That's the problem. We'll all be waiting until they've built the hospital. It's the best hospital in Africa. And then, that's when we'll all be lining up there. Hey, you know, brother X and sister Y, you put up this nice hospital. Praise the Lord. And that's what the problem is. And it's this. How will they do it alone? How? How? It's not possible. While the rest of us are waiting, it's not possible. Now, let me try and show you this. I've just taken from our church directory. You know, we put the areas in which we sit. in which we are trained, which we work in our directory. I've just copied a number of them. Listen to this. They will need accountants, and we've got accountants here. They will need administrators. We've got administrators here. These two to three doctors. They will need architects. We have here. They will need businessmen and women. who are in different areas of business because this private hospital will have to function as a business. And doctors, sorry if you're here, know nothing about it. They will need demographers, people who know where the populations are and where they are coming from and what the needs are in those areas. They will need those. They will need development specialists. They will need engineers. They must put up structures that will stand the test of time, that are functional and so on. Yes, an architect can draw them, but those things finally have to be built. civil engineers and mechanical engineers and hey, these days it's also software engineers because they will have to have systems on those computers that actually function right in order for the work to be done. They will need human resource specialists who will handle personnel issues. They will need laboratory technologists, it's obvious. Remember, culturing, we talked about it earlier. They will need labs there. They will need lawyers who will handle the legal parts of their work and no doubt they will need nurses, they will need nutritionists, they will need pharmacists, they will need procurement specialists, they will need project managers, they will need researchers, they will need scientists, they will need social workers and guess what, they are all here at KPC, all of them, here. There's not a single profession that I've mentioned here that's not in our church directory. You're probably going to answer something like this. That's okay. They can employ us. After all, we are looking for employment. But again, that's the problem. Because you see, if that hospital is going to be filled with so-called brothers and sisters who don't share the values, they don't share the vision, guess what? You become a dead weight on them. That's all you become, a dead weight. Because all you are thinking about is your salary, getting money out of the system. That's all you're thinking about. And so while the doctors are busy trying to get this Today, they call them something of excellence, trying to get this thing that's going to be really the best, best, best. Their personnel are just absolutely uninterested, absolutely uninterested. And what's going to happen is this, that the clients, the customers, the people that are supposed to be coming there are complaining about the standards that they are getting from the people. And I think we all know it. You go to the hospital today, and the nurses, I know I've married one of them, but that's a chief complaint, the nurses. Nursing now has gone to the dogs, they say. It's gone to the dogs. Why? Well, because people entered nursing as a job. That's all. As a job. It's not that they love to serve, to nurse, which is what the name itself means, to nurse. No. It's, well, you know, you need a job. And there's a possibility that if you become a nurse, you can even get a job in the UK and America. So they go. Without that mental shift, that enable people to say, yes, let's labor together. Let's throw all our weight into this. That becomes next to impossible. The second example I was going to give, time has run out, is Chick-fil-A. Because it was our seminar yesterday, you remember how Truett Cathy insisted that he did not want the kind of business partners who simply bring in money, and then Chick-fil-A is one of their businesses. He said no. He wanted those who, to them it was a commitment, it was a passion. They should be willing to give up all other businesses, whatever it is they're involved in, and make this Chick-fil-A restaurant to be everything. And you remember how constantly he was saying, it's not about profits, it's about people. It's not about profits, it's about people. It's not about profits, it's about people. That our job is to concentrate on people, and especially the young people in the community. And now he kept running workshops and seminars, and they continue up to now, constantly running them in order to bring about this shift. And he said he wanted those who share the value. And those go not just among the operators, the managers, all the way down to the waiters. Down to the waiters. And you recall that phrase, which the waiters are the ones who are giving. It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. And from a hamburger, a chicken sandwich, because everybody or most people are sharing in this value, from the operators all the way down, It's become a culture, a culture right across America, the favorite in terms of restaurants. Not because the founder had degrees. No, he never went to college or university, zero. But because of this. So now, the other restaurants have to up their game. because there is cheap filling. Thirdly, and lastly, going back to the example I gave, we have so many universities. And even this year, they've churned out thousands of degree holders who are now on the streets looking for jobs. A few people get outraged and they say, let's begin a university with a difference. Where our graduates are not going to be looking for jobs, they will be providing jobs. And hence, the African Christian University comes into play. I want to assure you that that will fail if the rest of us remain nothing but individuals who are watching, waiting until our children grow up, and now they need to get into university, then we're hoping we'll find this flourishing university, and then they can get in. And then we'll be saying, hey, by the way, it's our university, it's ours. Why should our own children be failing to get in there? Oof. But when we capture Christian education, what it is. We capture it. In fact, I brought this book because one of the things that we do at SCU every Wednesday from 17 to 18 hours is we go through what Christian education is and how to implement it. Now, this is not the book we are currently going through, but I thought if I just went through the table of contents, it will already show you what we are doing which I doubt that any other university is doing. Chapter one is simply the nature of theology and education. Chapter two is what makes education Christian. Chapter three is biblical principles for a theology for Christian education. Chapter four is revelation, scripture, and Christian education. This is not about teaching theology. This is in all areas, agriculture, business, whatever it might be, medicine, law, and so on. Chapter 5, the tree and God and Christian education. Chapter 6, Christology and Christian education. Chapter 7, pneumatology, which is the Holy Spirit and Christian education. Chapter 8, humanity, sin and Christian education. Chapter 9, salvation and Christian education. Chapter 10, ecclesiology, in other words, the church and Christian education. And then finally, Chapter 11, Toward a Theologically Informed Approach to Education. Again, that's what we're going to do. And every time we have seminars and our young people from that university come to sell things here, we keep saying, support them. Support them. What we are developing are entrepreneurs. In our university, we'll have very few workers, very, very few, because the students will manage the university, the students. As they're being trained, they begin working. So that by the time they're finishing university, they're not looking for jobs. They are creating jobs. But here's the point. If we miss the seminars on education because we are not teachers. For the teachers, and we're looking elsewhere. The point is, this university will need you. All these jobs I'm talking about here, these careers, these inputs, they'll need you. And therefore, it's up to us to realize Friends, we rejoice. Either we sit back and hope government will solve the problem of the masses that are coming out, or we will take the cultural mandate serious, we ourselves. And out of a real sense of outrage, others begin something like that, and the rest of us say, we'll put an end to it. Because we understand what this is all about. The seminars over 10 years have opened our eyes. We can still sit still. We want to put all our shoulders to the wheel. And by the end of 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, the entire Zambia will see a model that they will begin to replicate and begin to replicate. And instead of all of us marching to state house angry because our children don't have jobs, Africa will be saying, how did Zambia do it? How did Zambia do it? That's because you took the mandate seriously. You. You said, it's not about others. It's us who must do it. I could go on. I've already taken 50 minutes. But just one more point, and it will lead us into the Lord's Supper. It is this. Brethren, the Lord's Supper has never been meant to be a private institution. That's why even during COVID, we were not saying, let's have Lord's Supper at home through that tube. It's because it expresses the body. And that's why we speak in terms of a loaf that is broken. And as the Bible says, one cup, although we ended up dividing it. But the point is, ultimately, it's one cup, the cup that we partake of. It's meant to show a sense of body life. It's meant to show that we belong to one another, although we have different gifts, different abilities, we belong. and that together we can impact the world. And therefore, when we come to eat together, we are looking at one another and we are saying, this is my support. These are my brothers and my sisters. Together, we can take on the world. Therefore, let's learn to stop this selfishness of saying, since this training that's happening is not about my field, I'm not interested. Let's be there for each other. Christ has shed his blood. He has brought us, he has brought us together that we might transform this world for his glory. And together, we impact our world. Our dying bed, our deathbed, will be sweeter. It will be sweeter. Remember Truett Cathy, on his deathbed, we're learning about yesterday, in his home, surrounded by a few members of the family. What a difference to know. that I began an uneducated guy trying to improve a chicken sandwich. Now as I die, I've left a workforce of 50,000 people. 50,000. I'd like to die like that. I'd like to dare to say my life counted for something. Wouldn't you?