Healthy children in difficult times
Dr. Roberto Miranda
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: In 1 Samuel 1:20-28, we see the story of Hannah, who prayed fervently for a child and dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord. She recognized that her son was a gift from God and committed him to serve the Lord all the days of his life. By doing so, she exemplified a sacrificial dedication to the Kingdom of God that God blessed with more children. We can learn from her example and commit our families and homes to be a resource for the Kingdom of God, serving sacrificially and seeking first the Kingdom of God. We must also recognize our responsibility as spiritual leaders to exemplify the values of the Kingdom of God and educate our children in the fear of the Lord.
In difficult times like those of the biblical figure Ana, it is important to understand that our children are gifts from God and we must consecrate them to the Lord, raising them as resources for His Kingdom. Both parents must participate in their education, modeling love and loyalty to God and His values. In these times, it is even more important to be intentional and purposeful in our children's education and not neglect the values of the Kingdom of God for fear of offending others.
The speaker believes that the Church must not omit teachings that may offend visitors or those who have different values, but instead must educate its people to stand firm in the Word of the Lord. This includes teaching children about their sexuality and gender roles according to the values of the Kingdom of God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of raising masculine boys and feminine girls, and the complementary relationship between man and woman. They call on families to make a commitment to live according to the Word of God and to become a source of instruction for their children and society. The speaker also blesses the congregation and asks for mercy for those in society who lack good examples of family values.
In difficult times like those of the biblical figure Ana, it is important to understand that our children are gifts from God and we must consecrate them to the Lord, raising them as resources for His Kingdom. Both parents must participate in their education, modeling love and loyalty to God and His values. In these times, it is even more important to be intentional and purposeful in our children's education and not neglect the values of the Kingdom of God for fear of offending others.
The speaker believes that the Church must not omit teachings that may offend visitors or those who have different values, but instead must educate its people to stand firm in the Word of the Lord. This includes teaching children about their sexuality and gender roles according to the values of the Kingdom of God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of raising masculine boys and feminine girls, and the complementary relationship between man and woman. They call on families to make a commitment to live according to the Word of God and to become a source of instruction for their children and society. The speaker also blesses the congregation and asks for mercy for those in society who lack good examples of family values.
I want to invite you to go to the Word of the Lord in 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 20 to 28. A few days ago I shared a brief illustration as I sometimes do, such an inspiring thought at the time of offerings and tithes, and I talked about Ana who is one of those examples of a woman born with a mother's heart and that God literally gave her a son after an incarnated struggle in prayer for not being able to have children. But that after having had that son that she had waited so long for, like Abraham, she decided to return that son to the Lord and dedicate him to Him, and He blessed her.
When we dedicate the gifts we have received from the Lord, when we recognize that they come from Him and that they belong to Him, something special happens, and God blessed Ana, and God opened her womb abundantly, and Ana conceived more children later. of that.
And this morning I want to approach Ana's example in a little bit differently than I have perhaps in previous years when I've spoken about her from time to time in the context of Mother's Day.
But there in First Samuel chapter 1 verses 20 to 28 it says that: "It came to pass that when the time was fulfilled, after having conceived Ana gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying: "because I asked the Lord "Then the man Elcana" went up" that is, he was Ana's husband, "with all his family to offer the customary sacrifice and his vow, but Ana did not go up, but rather said to her husband: "I will not go up until the child be weaned so that he can carry it and be presented before the Lord, and stay there forever" and Elkanah, her husband replied: "do what seems good to you. Stay until you wean him. Only let the Lord fulfill his word"; And the woman stayed, and nursed her son until she weaned him."
"After she had weaned him, she took him with her with three calves, an ephah of flour, and a jar of wine, and brought it to the House of Jehovah in Shiloh, and the child was small; and killing the calf they brought the child to Eli , and she said: "Oh my Lord, live your soul my Lord. I am that woman who was here next to you praying to Jehovah, for this child I prayed, and Jehovah gave me what I asked for. I therefore dedicate it also to Jehovah; All the days that he lives shall be Jehovah's" and he worshiped Jehovah there."
Let me emphasize that verse 27, "I prayed for this child and the Lord gave me what I asked for. So I dedicate him also to the Lord. All the days that he lives will be the Lord's."
What I want to point out for our consideration this morning is that posture, that attitude of recognition and dedication of Ana with respect to the most precious thing that she had, which was that son for whom she had been praying for so long, had longed for so much. , and finally God gave him the desire of his heart.
Ana now fulfills a promise she had made to the Lord, that if God gave her a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord all the days of her life, and so now Ana fulfills that purpose: she already has her son, her son has already reached the age of fruition, of being a viable creature, already in a sense he is ready to detach himself from her, and Ana then with all integrity brings him to the same temple where she cried out with bitter tears for a son and gives him to him. she surrenders to the Lord, the most precious thing of all, she dedicates it to him, and she knows that she is separating from that son and that she is releasing him to the Lord for His own property; henceforth that son was to live as a Nazarite.
The Nazarites were like super priests dedicated only to the Lord: they did not cut their hair, they did not drink wine, they had no property, they did not live like any other ordinary human being because they were like a living sacrifice totally consecrated to the service of the Lord, and Ana is doing this.
As I say: the interesting thing is that God recognized the integrity of this woman and her love for Him, and then rewarded her and blessed her with five more children after that. The truth is that God is not stingy: when He blesses and responds, He does so in great quantity, and one also sees, right? that when one is generous with God, I believe that this is the key to success in the Christian life and in life in general; when one seeks first the Kingdom of God and his justice all other things are added to it.
Ana dedicated her son to the Lord. She did not think of herself but thought of adding something to the Kingdom of God and then God gave her three more males and two females to compensate her for her delivery.
The same thing happened with Abraham, by the way, when God told him: Give me your only son, sacrifice it to me, and Abraham with the pain that you can imagine took Isaac to the place of sacrifice and he himself was going to sacrifice him, he was going to kill him. , the Lord said to him: Stay your hand. Since you did not deny me your son, I am going to give you an offspring that if the stars of the firmament can be counted, your offspring could be counted, and you will be prosperous, blessed, multiplied, and I believe that this is the key to success in every way: in our families, in our homes, in everything.
When we dedicate our home as a fortress of the Kingdom of God and we say: Father, everything that we are as a family: my marriage, my property, my goods, my profession, my work, my talents, we will dedicate everything to you. to you. When we live with that red-hot life for the Lord God, then he blesses in all dimensions of being.
How can we have blessed families, prosperous families? Well, forgetting a little about our own convenience and dedicating ourselves to blessing the Kingdom of God, to being a resource, to being a station of the Kingdom of God in our house, and then the Lord opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessings until overflows in our lives, right? I believe that this is the key to having prosperous and blessed families in our time.
Sometimes I feel sorry because when couples get married, sometimes they are single members of the Church, they meet in the Congregation, they get married and then many times, not always but sometimes the natural thing is that then life turns more complex, already married life gives energy but also absorbs energy, the commitments come as a couple, the burdens of the home come, the children come and when they are children they demand many, and many times the Church loses resources.
I believe that the ideal would be that when a couple joins and now they are more economical in the sense that they are more united, I believe that the Church should gain a resource, not lose a resource. Now, that requires the couple to make a definitive resolution that "we are going to be a blessing to the Kingdom of God" and then one has to make a proactive decision because if one simply waits for such opportunities to arise, life He will never give us such natural opportunities to serve the Kingdom of God, it is something that we have to make a programmatic decision and that couple must come before God at the beginning of their marriage, and say: Father, we want to serve you with the same passion with which we served you before and we want to be a blessing for you and for your kingdom, and here we are with everything we have, our future, and use our home, and that this space be a space for your kingdom to be advanced, and then serve the Lord in that sacrificial way. And so it's amazing how God blesses a couple like that, because a couple that serves together stays together.
You have heard the phrase "a family that prays together stays together", well I believe that a family that prays together but also serves together is blessed and prosperous. I believe that on this day we should all make a commitment to God that we are not going to serve God simply because it is natural, it is convenient, it is spontaneous, no. We are going to serve it at first. Our home is going to be a resource for the Kingdom of God and then, you see how marvelously, mysteriously, other things literally come in addition: work comes, money comes, harmony comes, intimacy comes in marriage, communication, the blessing of God, the children are prosperous, they are blessed because mom and dad are serving the Lord in a sacrificial way, in a deliberate way. Ana is an example of that: she served the Lord, she dedicated her first child, her firstborn to the Lord, and God opened her womb in a way she never imagined.
One of the interesting things about Hannah is that she lived in one of the most barren and spiritually difficult times in the history of all of Israel. In chapter 2 verse 17 he tells us about the sons of Eli.
Eli was the high priest in Israel but he was sadly deficient as a father, he did not discipline his children, he did not educate them in the fear of the Lord. They say that in the house of a blacksmith a wooden knife. Well, Eli was unfortunately a terrible example of this, because being the lamp of Israel, high priest, spiritual guide of the nation, he did not educate his children in the fear of the Lord, he neglected them, and his children unfortunately tarnished the image of God in the community.
He says then that: "The sin of the young men and the sons of Eli was very great before the Lord, because men despised the offerings of the Lord." These men were abusing their family position as part of the priesthood and living an immoral life, and also the offerings of Israel were used for their own benefits in an ugly, very, very disrespectful way, and the people had already lost respect for the priests. sacrifices and offerings. They had simply turned them into a way of eating what they wanted and doing business with the animal offerings that the Hebrews brought to the House of the Lord, and they had completely discredited the Kingdom of God.
God severely punished Eli for this and reprimanded him on several occasions, including the young Samuel, when he was a young man, to give a terrible warning to this man who, having to be an example, neglected his responsibility and did the opposite, discrediting the Kingdom of God and the Spirit of the Lord was grieved in all Israel.
If the heads do not exemplify the Name of the Kingdom, what will happen to the others? If the Church, we, the spiritual leaders, the Pastors, the leaders of a Congregation are not the first to take care of the values of the Kingdom of God, what will become of the people? If the Church of Jesus Christ is not an example in the world, then how are we going to want to bless the community? it is a call that God makes to all of us as well and I gently extend to each one.
Brothers, let us feel the great responsibility that we have as priests before this community and ask the Lord to help us live lives that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. We are going to commit ourselves, we are going to take seriously the call of the Kingdom of God to the Church to reflect that love for the Lord, a life of commitment, of holiness, of obedience to the principles of the Kingdom of God, and we are going to fight with all the strength of our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be an example.
Because part of the chaos that today society reflects in the family, in sexuality, in all these things the truth that falls at the feet of the Church. People in the Church often want to live as men live out there, we want to live lives in quotes "normal" and it is not possible. We have to exemplify something different.
Our call is a call much higher than the call of the ordinary person, and we have to make the effort, every day we have to feel that call of the Holy Spirit. Hey: renew your vows before the Lord today, commit to being a Christian family with very powerful values, different values, values of obedience to the Word of God, find out what those values of the Word are and ask the Holy Spirit to help you give strength to live them.
The fact is that Eli had not educated his children, he himself had lost his spiritual discernment. At the end of his life, he says that he was already a grotesquely fat man, he did not exercise spiritual disciplines, when he saw Ana crying bitterly and praying for her son, he thought she was drunk and criticized her, and corrected her, not knowing that she was a devout woman. completely to the Lord and that is why he was there crying out to the Lord, he had lost his spiritual orientation, and all this had grieved the Spirit of the Lord.
In chapter 3 verse 1 it says that: "The Word of the Lord was scarce in those days, there was often no vision." In other words, the Holy Spirit that was upon Israel had been grieved and the gifts of the Spirit were not manifested; there was no vision, there was no direct instruction from the Holy Spirit for the nation. Does that remind you of our times?
Sometimes we complain that the Spirit of God is not manifesting itself with more power. We say: where is the God of Elijah, where are those miracles of which the Word says, of which we have heard in the past? we have to start by examining what is going on? Are we perhaps contributing a little to that sterility?
The fact is that there was a very great sterility on Earth and Ana moved in that context, and in that context Samuel was born, in a context of great sterility and great spiritual scarcity, how we have to educate our children at this time .
I know young people who say: I don't want to have children, we're not going to have children, or we're going to have one to comply with Scripture, but no more because these are very difficult times to have children and I don't want to, and the truth is that one despairs when one sees education, when one sees the values toward which culture is moving at this time, one says: wow, do I really want a child to grow up?
Sometimes parents are not allowed to educate their children properly and where the State often wants to take away the children and prevent the parents from teaching them certain things, and the State arrogates itself and takes for itself Even the right under a civil conception, of paternity and maternity, and of the family, and using arguments that seem very legitimate, right? because a child is a citizen and then the citizen must supposedly be educated on how to live in society, but that also has moral and spiritual implications, nothing is neutral, so the State tries to turn it into something simply civil, political, legal, but nothing is that simple. The world is a network of relationships and so they are also affecting the education of our children and they are contradicting and undermining the spiritual education that we are supposed to give our children.
So in this negative context and hostile to the values of the Kingdom of God, we educate our children as Ana also had to educate her children and she had to educate Samuel.
Now, I think that again, there are other things that help us in Ana's example and one of the things that I want to highlight is that Ana knew that her son was a direct gift from God. She was very aware because her process had been a very painful process, she had already had to fight for that son and she had the privilege of not having any doubt that this son came actively and directly from the Lord for her.
We often have our children in a natural way and well we have them because they are healthy, and everything is in order and well, our children are born, but there is nothing different between Ana's situation and ours. Children are a gift from God, children are an active blessing from the Lord, children come from God.
When we receive our children we always first have to consecrate them to the Lord. That is why we do it like this, we present our children to the Lord. In other words, it is a public acknowledgment: "this creature belongs to Jehovah and I present it to the Lord, and I give thanks to Him" and one says: "Father, I know that this son belongs to You" and thus we have to understand that our children are not our property but that we are what? mere butlers.
Whenever you look at that very special creature, that you love so much, say to yourself: "You are not ultimately mine, you belong to God. I am simply a caretaker, a steward of your life. God has given me in my hands so that I can take care of Him." That creature is not my son, he is Diso's son and I am his nurse, the person who takes care of him, and I think that repeating that to ourselves will help us maintain the correct perspective. Give your son to the Lord or your daughter to the Lord continually to remind yourself.
I think that is very different from the modern perspective. What is the modern, secular perspective? It is that, while the son is in the woman's womb, that real estate where he is living belongs to the woman, that womb belongs to her, that is the legal understanding, brothers, and cultural social of this time, and about that a lot of doctrine is based on abortion and everything else.
I have read statements by very advanced thinkers who say that, until the last day of gestation, until that child leaves the mother's womb at nine months, that child belongs to the woman and that she should have the right to abort it until the ninth month if necessary because it is inside her womb, and her womb is her property, and therefore what is inside her womb is hers.
Look: that is not true even in the outside world. I have a house, you have a house, an apartment, and ultimately you can't do what you want with that apartment. You can't take and burn the house like that because you just felt like it or paint it in weird colors compared to the neighborhood, there are neighborhoods where you can't put certain types of wood or build every last inch of your property because you have to consider the laws of property around and appearance and everything else, however we want to do that with the children as the child is absolute property.
The son of God, we believers understand that this is not the case, but that our children are the property of the Lord. We have to educate them to Him, raise them up in the fear of the Lord and according to the values of the Kingdom of God, and that what we have to raise up is a resource for the Kingdom of God. That son, that daughter belongs to the Lord and we have to educate them to the Lord so that this child grows up to be a man, a woman that God can use greatly for His Work and for His advancement on Earth.
And Ana wanted to prepare a resource for the Kingdom of God and that is why she gave Samuel to be educated inside the temple to be a servant, a prophet of God, to bring the Word of God, to bring revival to Israel in that time of great need.
And I encourage you to see your children, our children, as future resources for the Kingdom of God and educate them with that end in view. Before wanting to train successful and prosperous professionals, our first wish should be that they love the Lord and that they guide their lives by the values of the Word of God, amen? Before my son is a great engineer, a doctor, a teacher, I want him to be a God-fearing man, a servant of the Lord. And within that context, amen, may she be a professional God willing, and may she make money, and live a successful life, but may all of this take place in the context of a special love and loyalty to the Kingdom of God.
We have to educate our children with that same intentionality and consistency in everything we do to educate them. The education of our children has to be purposeful, not random or left to the school, the culture or even the Church. I am responsible for presenting to the Lord a resource for His Kingdom, we cannot abdicate our commitment at any time.
The Church is not responsible for our children, you know that? it is you and me, your husband, your home. We bring them to the Church to educate them to a certain point, that is true, but ultimately it is in the house where those important values begin. So it's very important, right? our children are not ours, we have to raise our children as a resource for the Kingdom of God.
Another important value that I think we have to take into account in these difficult times is that both parents, both parents as much as possible, I know that many times it is not possible because there are homes where the father is not present or the mother, but as much as possible, both parents have to participate equally in the formation of the child, since both masculine and feminine sensibility are essential components for a balanced personality.
Parents: let's not abdicate the responsibility of educating our children, let's do everything possible. The male always tends to be a little more detached, right? let's make a proactive decision to be a very present influence in our children's lives.
Children need both mom and dad, they need the smell of their father. Daughters need the warmth of a father, they need his presence, they need to hear his voice, they need to learn what a merciful man is, what a well-functioning man is, who works as Christ worked, a balanced, loving, tender personality, and they need that influence. So father, no matter how old your daughter or son is, get involved. Mother, let's be a team and work together to educate our children, both parents are important, especially at this time.
Thirdly, we are supposed to educate our children by modeling, that we be a model of what we are teaching our children by modeling a total dedication, being ourselves an embodiment of love for God and consecration to the interests of His Kingdom. . Brothers, we first need to fill ourselves with the warmth of the Holy Spirit, surrender our lives to the Lord, live red hot for the Kingdom of God, that our children see us coming to Church early, reading the Word, loving intimacy with God, being adorers proactive, serving the Lord in everything possible, giving our tithes and our offerings to the Lord, being loyal and fervent for everything that has to do with the Kingdom of God.
When your son grows up watching that modeling, he will continually inhale that energy. Children receive much more by impartation than by verbal teaching. What they see daily is what they are going to ingest into their deepest internal sensitivity. So know that you have two or four, or six, or eight little eyes out there looking at you 24 hours a day, and that you are always teaching something, you are always demonstrating something, you are always exhibiting, you are always imparting something. Never neglect knowing that your children are little sponges and they are going to absorb the love of God, they are going to absorb your loyalty to the Church and the Kingdom of the Lord, the words that come out of your mouth, the television programs that you watch, how many books are in the house Sometimes we want our children to be regular readers, but when do they see us reading a book? so we have to.
I think one of the things that gets lost with iPads and computers is that it's hard to tell when a person is reading a book or something, right? because it may be that he is watching a video program or whatever. How good it is when a child sees mom or dad reading a book and knows: oh, they are reading, specifically. I believe that there is something beautiful in books and we should as much as possible buy books for our children and we too be readers, that they see us sitting down. Buy yourself something and even if you're not reading, pretend you're reading for half an hour so they can at least see you.
If you tell him "boy: read, read, read" but you never read (laughs). We have to model, model love for God and constancy with the Lord. I want to invite my brother Omar to come here, and these are values; In difficult times like Ana's, you are with things that are key in the lives of our children.
And the last thing I want to point out that is already overshadowed by everything I said is that, in difficult times, more energy is required, more intentionality, more clarity, and more emphasis on the values that we instill in our children.
My brothers, if twenty years ago it was difficult to educate our children in God's values and it required a lot of effort and intention on our part, in this time as never before, it is more important. What before would have been excusable, certain oversights, a certain coincidence in the way we educate our children, now it is almost a sin to practice that level of carelessness in the education of children. Now you have to practically shout to be heard amid all the noise and jarring sounds of the culture in which we live.
I believe that this is one of the errors, by the way, of the Church in these times, I believe that in many Congregations for fear of offending visitors and scandalizing those who think differently from what the Word of the Lord says, many Congregations and many Pastors feel tempted to omit from the pulpit certain teachings that are offensive to visitors and people who are not educated in the values of the Kingdom of God.
So in this desire to be attractive and not sound hateful and confrontational, what the churches and pastors are doing is dulling and silencing any voice that is scandalous to the culture because in that way we are not supposedly going to alienate the people who come to our services, but if you think that this is the most terrible mistake that a Church, that a Pastor could make, what's more, I would say that it is a sin and an act of cowardice, because in these times of confusion and where the world If you feel you have every right to shout your values and propagate them through all possible means, including legal and unfair, then how is the Church going to lower its level and its insistence on proclaiming the values of the Kingdom of God? it's crazy.
Quite the opposite. We must be more insistent than ever in educating our people so that they can have the tools they need to stand firm in the Word of the Lord, yes or no? This seems logical to me, right? And our young people, our young people also need the advice of the Word of the Lord, and where will that advice come from if it is not from the Church? when they come here to receive teaching, instruction, where the teaching of the Church is supposed to exercise in the clearest way through the teaching of the Sunday school.
If the Church abdicates its responsibility to teach the people in times of confusion and sterility, there is no hope for this world, brothers, and I have the commitment, we must have the commitment as the Church, to be a prophetic voice in this world and in this time, and to declare the Word of the Lord with humility, with meekness but without apologizing either.
We must do the same in our homes because when he goes to school his sexuality is going to be questioned. The commandment of human sexuality that the Word of the Lord has proclaimed and that the great religions of history proclaim through the centuries and centuries is being questioned by a group of elite people at this time who represent a very recent and very momentary of human sensibility through the centuries and the centuries.
His sexuality is going to be questioned, and we have to tell him: no, God created man, male and female he created them, man | woman to reflect a unity, to reflect the richness of His personality. God is without gender and is both genders, he is male and female, he is rather something else, man and woman reflect God rather in their different energies. The masculine and the feminine are reflections of energies that are in God, and God wanted to create himself and reflect himself in a man and a woman in their complementary relationship. The Church has to proclaim that without ambiguity and without asking for permission or forgiveness for it (applause).
And um, us in our home, let me tell you brothers: if we want boys, I'm going to talk for a moment about boys but also about girls because today lesbianism is growing by leaps and bounds. If you want to raise a masculine little boy you have to work on it, you know? Don't depend now on the hormones that are going to help you and take care of it. Today there is social engineering, the biological endowment is no longer respected, that is not as valid as before and confusion today is everywhere, our children can be confused even in the same gestation.
That is why it is so important that boys are part of the education of their sons and that you teach your son to be a boy, there is a part in which you learn to be virile brothers, dedicate time to that, I think that it is important to educate our children in what it is to be a man. And I think that also a healthy man, not a man there all rigid like a dry stick that breaks easily because of how masculine he is, no. You also have to teach him to be gentle, helpful, loving, tender. I believe that a man can and should cry, he can and should caress, he can and should ask for forgiveness, he can and should reflect fear and express fear, and confusion, and weakness, and deficiency, but there is also something in a man that is aggressive, It's hard, it's angular and we have to teach our children that too. We have to be very proactive in raising masculine males in our time.
And the ladies alike, that our daughters are feminine brothers. There is nothing wrong with our daughters learning to be feminine too. That they play with their dolls, that they develop their motherly instincts, that they dress in pretty and delicate dresses, that they speak in a certain way, that they behave, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't apologize. That's why I don't know about you, but I think that's nice, and that we also have to educate our girls to be feminine (applause). Give it time.
Especially you young people. Many of you young couples have drunk of the water and milk of this culture, and all this type of that all these are purely cultural issues that, look. The woman has femininity inscribed on her body and each month she has to remember that she is a woman and not a man, and the man equally. There are things that, no matter how sophisticated we get, will not change, that is inscribed in the genetic code of humanity, and fighting against it is kicking against the sting, it is you wanting to rebel against what you are, it is inescapable, it is inevitable.
So we have to be very intentional brothers, we could spend a long time only on that point because it is a very important point but we are going to be intentional in educating our children in the Word of God, educate our children in their sense of sexuality, in what they are like gender. We are also going to educate them in their complementarity, man, woman, what a beautiful thing that unity, that union that has no equal in all of creation. The man without the woman is nonsense, the woman without the man is useless either, a man and a woman are needed, be it in friendship, be it in marriage, be it as a work unit. God made us (applause).
At any level, at the level of society, at the level of a corporation, at the level of a Church, at the level of a community, at the level of a school, at the level of whatever it is, men and women are needed together working and each one giving their gifts, and their virtues in a loving struggle there of two essences complementing each other in what each one lacks, and we have to educate our children in that too. The little boy who appreciates the female, the female the male, that they begin to create that mutual appreciation for the beauty that they are of creation.
We are going to dedicate time to all these things, brothers. These are difficult times but we can raise blessed children, children who adorn and who are a benefit to the Kingdom of God. I leave you with the words of Deuteronomy 6 from 4 to 9, Deuteronomy from 4 to 9. Stand up for a moment, receive the word of the Lord this morning. Healthy children in difficult times.
"Hear Israel" hear the Lion of Judah Congregation, "Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one, and you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength; and these words that I command you today shall be in your heart and you shall repeat them to your children" and you shall repeat them to your children "and you shall speak of them while you are in your house" you shall speak of them while you are in your house, "and as you walk along the road with them you shall repeat the same words to them; lie down, and when you get up" is our part, in our own life we then exemplify before our children, "and you will bind them as a sign on your hand, and they will be like frontals over your eyes, and you will write them on the posts of your house and at your gates." Amen, may the Lord help us to live with that level of commitment to the Word of God.
Let's make a commitment there as a family. If you want, take your wife or husband by the hand, your children, your grandchildren, a friend there by your side, someone by your side, and in difficult and sterile times, in times when the Word of the Lord is scarce and when the Spirit of the Lord seems to have moved away from society, we as a Church are going to invite the Spirit of the Lord to come among us, and we are going to commit ourselves to live in that Word of God and become a source of instruction for our children, to our neighbors, embody, model that love of ours first.
Let's commit ourselves to love our partner, our husband, our wife, to be a united and blessed marriage, and if you are a single mother, don't worry; the Lord is going to supply all the nutrients that you lack in terms of a physically speaking husband. God is going to be your husband, God is going to be a father, he will not lack nutrients because the Lord specializes in covering deficiencies.
In all possible ways, however, if you have the blessing of having your partner with you, let's do it, I do it with my wife who is in Puerto Rico today with her family, and we unite in faith to be homes where the Word of the Lord abounds. , where the Words of God are inscribed on our doorsteps, on the very forehead of our heads, where we carry the Word of the Lord inscribed in our hearts, and where we read those Words and share them with our children right and left, and be a resource for society.
Father: We give you our children, we give you our paternity, our motherhood, we give you the children of this Congregation, and we ask you to help us to be a blessed Church, prosperous in the Word of God first and in a fierce loyalty to the values of the Kingdom of God.
I bless our descendants, beloved Lord, the descendants of this Congregation. May Your favor continue to Congregation León de Judá Father, may Your favor bless right now children who are growing up in this very city without the benefit of a father who are being distorted by the presence of too many men who come and go from the apartments where they live Lord, perhaps they are suffering from sexual abuse, perhaps they are seeing their mothers being physically abused Lord, perhaps their mothers are not being the example they should be for them, certainly their parents are possibly in jail right now, we bless them wherever they are Father.
We declare Your Mercy over apartments and towns throughout this city Lord where there are Hispanics, where there are African Americans, where there are whites in South Boston and even elsewhere Lord, here in the South End with incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars but no examples of good fatherhood, motherhood, family.
We ask Lord for mercy for this society around us. Make us a refuge here Father and with humility teach us to embody the values of Your Kingdom, and help us to be better every day Father, and to do everything that is on the part of this Congregation to produce healthy families that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. It begins with the main leadership of this Father Church and from there it goes down to the most hidden person of this Congregation, we bless Your people on this day.
Thank you for our mothers, may they leave here strengthened and affirmed in their exemplary work. Thank you Lord, in the Name of Jesus the people of God say: amen. I bless you my brothers, the Grace of the Lord be with all of you, amen.
When we dedicate the gifts we have received from the Lord, when we recognize that they come from Him and that they belong to Him, something special happens, and God blessed Ana, and God opened her womb abundantly, and Ana conceived more children later. of that.
And this morning I want to approach Ana's example in a little bit differently than I have perhaps in previous years when I've spoken about her from time to time in the context of Mother's Day.
But there in First Samuel chapter 1 verses 20 to 28 it says that: "It came to pass that when the time was fulfilled, after having conceived Ana gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying: "because I asked the Lord "Then the man Elcana" went up" that is, he was Ana's husband, "with all his family to offer the customary sacrifice and his vow, but Ana did not go up, but rather said to her husband: "I will not go up until the child be weaned so that he can carry it and be presented before the Lord, and stay there forever" and Elkanah, her husband replied: "do what seems good to you. Stay until you wean him. Only let the Lord fulfill his word"; And the woman stayed, and nursed her son until she weaned him."
"After she had weaned him, she took him with her with three calves, an ephah of flour, and a jar of wine, and brought it to the House of Jehovah in Shiloh, and the child was small; and killing the calf they brought the child to Eli , and she said: "Oh my Lord, live your soul my Lord. I am that woman who was here next to you praying to Jehovah, for this child I prayed, and Jehovah gave me what I asked for. I therefore dedicate it also to Jehovah; All the days that he lives shall be Jehovah's" and he worshiped Jehovah there."
Let me emphasize that verse 27, "I prayed for this child and the Lord gave me what I asked for. So I dedicate him also to the Lord. All the days that he lives will be the Lord's."
What I want to point out for our consideration this morning is that posture, that attitude of recognition and dedication of Ana with respect to the most precious thing that she had, which was that son for whom she had been praying for so long, had longed for so much. , and finally God gave him the desire of his heart.
Ana now fulfills a promise she had made to the Lord, that if God gave her a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord all the days of her life, and so now Ana fulfills that purpose: she already has her son, her son has already reached the age of fruition, of being a viable creature, already in a sense he is ready to detach himself from her, and Ana then with all integrity brings him to the same temple where she cried out with bitter tears for a son and gives him to him. she surrenders to the Lord, the most precious thing of all, she dedicates it to him, and she knows that she is separating from that son and that she is releasing him to the Lord for His own property; henceforth that son was to live as a Nazarite.
The Nazarites were like super priests dedicated only to the Lord: they did not cut their hair, they did not drink wine, they had no property, they did not live like any other ordinary human being because they were like a living sacrifice totally consecrated to the service of the Lord, and Ana is doing this.
As I say: the interesting thing is that God recognized the integrity of this woman and her love for Him, and then rewarded her and blessed her with five more children after that. The truth is that God is not stingy: when He blesses and responds, He does so in great quantity, and one also sees, right? that when one is generous with God, I believe that this is the key to success in the Christian life and in life in general; when one seeks first the Kingdom of God and his justice all other things are added to it.
Ana dedicated her son to the Lord. She did not think of herself but thought of adding something to the Kingdom of God and then God gave her three more males and two females to compensate her for her delivery.
The same thing happened with Abraham, by the way, when God told him: Give me your only son, sacrifice it to me, and Abraham with the pain that you can imagine took Isaac to the place of sacrifice and he himself was going to sacrifice him, he was going to kill him. , the Lord said to him: Stay your hand. Since you did not deny me your son, I am going to give you an offspring that if the stars of the firmament can be counted, your offspring could be counted, and you will be prosperous, blessed, multiplied, and I believe that this is the key to success in every way: in our families, in our homes, in everything.
When we dedicate our home as a fortress of the Kingdom of God and we say: Father, everything that we are as a family: my marriage, my property, my goods, my profession, my work, my talents, we will dedicate everything to you. to you. When we live with that red-hot life for the Lord God, then he blesses in all dimensions of being.
How can we have blessed families, prosperous families? Well, forgetting a little about our own convenience and dedicating ourselves to blessing the Kingdom of God, to being a resource, to being a station of the Kingdom of God in our house, and then the Lord opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessings until overflows in our lives, right? I believe that this is the key to having prosperous and blessed families in our time.
Sometimes I feel sorry because when couples get married, sometimes they are single members of the Church, they meet in the Congregation, they get married and then many times, not always but sometimes the natural thing is that then life turns more complex, already married life gives energy but also absorbs energy, the commitments come as a couple, the burdens of the home come, the children come and when they are children they demand many, and many times the Church loses resources.
I believe that the ideal would be that when a couple joins and now they are more economical in the sense that they are more united, I believe that the Church should gain a resource, not lose a resource. Now, that requires the couple to make a definitive resolution that "we are going to be a blessing to the Kingdom of God" and then one has to make a proactive decision because if one simply waits for such opportunities to arise, life He will never give us such natural opportunities to serve the Kingdom of God, it is something that we have to make a programmatic decision and that couple must come before God at the beginning of their marriage, and say: Father, we want to serve you with the same passion with which we served you before and we want to be a blessing for you and for your kingdom, and here we are with everything we have, our future, and use our home, and that this space be a space for your kingdom to be advanced, and then serve the Lord in that sacrificial way. And so it's amazing how God blesses a couple like that, because a couple that serves together stays together.
You have heard the phrase "a family that prays together stays together", well I believe that a family that prays together but also serves together is blessed and prosperous. I believe that on this day we should all make a commitment to God that we are not going to serve God simply because it is natural, it is convenient, it is spontaneous, no. We are going to serve it at first. Our home is going to be a resource for the Kingdom of God and then, you see how marvelously, mysteriously, other things literally come in addition: work comes, money comes, harmony comes, intimacy comes in marriage, communication, the blessing of God, the children are prosperous, they are blessed because mom and dad are serving the Lord in a sacrificial way, in a deliberate way. Ana is an example of that: she served the Lord, she dedicated her first child, her firstborn to the Lord, and God opened her womb in a way she never imagined.
One of the interesting things about Hannah is that she lived in one of the most barren and spiritually difficult times in the history of all of Israel. In chapter 2 verse 17 he tells us about the sons of Eli.
Eli was the high priest in Israel but he was sadly deficient as a father, he did not discipline his children, he did not educate them in the fear of the Lord. They say that in the house of a blacksmith a wooden knife. Well, Eli was unfortunately a terrible example of this, because being the lamp of Israel, high priest, spiritual guide of the nation, he did not educate his children in the fear of the Lord, he neglected them, and his children unfortunately tarnished the image of God in the community.
He says then that: "The sin of the young men and the sons of Eli was very great before the Lord, because men despised the offerings of the Lord." These men were abusing their family position as part of the priesthood and living an immoral life, and also the offerings of Israel were used for their own benefits in an ugly, very, very disrespectful way, and the people had already lost respect for the priests. sacrifices and offerings. They had simply turned them into a way of eating what they wanted and doing business with the animal offerings that the Hebrews brought to the House of the Lord, and they had completely discredited the Kingdom of God.
God severely punished Eli for this and reprimanded him on several occasions, including the young Samuel, when he was a young man, to give a terrible warning to this man who, having to be an example, neglected his responsibility and did the opposite, discrediting the Kingdom of God and the Spirit of the Lord was grieved in all Israel.
If the heads do not exemplify the Name of the Kingdom, what will happen to the others? If the Church, we, the spiritual leaders, the Pastors, the leaders of a Congregation are not the first to take care of the values of the Kingdom of God, what will become of the people? If the Church of Jesus Christ is not an example in the world, then how are we going to want to bless the community? it is a call that God makes to all of us as well and I gently extend to each one.
Brothers, let us feel the great responsibility that we have as priests before this community and ask the Lord to help us live lives that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. We are going to commit ourselves, we are going to take seriously the call of the Kingdom of God to the Church to reflect that love for the Lord, a life of commitment, of holiness, of obedience to the principles of the Kingdom of God, and we are going to fight with all the strength of our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be an example.
Because part of the chaos that today society reflects in the family, in sexuality, in all these things the truth that falls at the feet of the Church. People in the Church often want to live as men live out there, we want to live lives in quotes "normal" and it is not possible. We have to exemplify something different.
Our call is a call much higher than the call of the ordinary person, and we have to make the effort, every day we have to feel that call of the Holy Spirit. Hey: renew your vows before the Lord today, commit to being a Christian family with very powerful values, different values, values of obedience to the Word of God, find out what those values of the Word are and ask the Holy Spirit to help you give strength to live them.
The fact is that Eli had not educated his children, he himself had lost his spiritual discernment. At the end of his life, he says that he was already a grotesquely fat man, he did not exercise spiritual disciplines, when he saw Ana crying bitterly and praying for her son, he thought she was drunk and criticized her, and corrected her, not knowing that she was a devout woman. completely to the Lord and that is why he was there crying out to the Lord, he had lost his spiritual orientation, and all this had grieved the Spirit of the Lord.
In chapter 3 verse 1 it says that: "The Word of the Lord was scarce in those days, there was often no vision." In other words, the Holy Spirit that was upon Israel had been grieved and the gifts of the Spirit were not manifested; there was no vision, there was no direct instruction from the Holy Spirit for the nation. Does that remind you of our times?
Sometimes we complain that the Spirit of God is not manifesting itself with more power. We say: where is the God of Elijah, where are those miracles of which the Word says, of which we have heard in the past? we have to start by examining what is going on? Are we perhaps contributing a little to that sterility?
The fact is that there was a very great sterility on Earth and Ana moved in that context, and in that context Samuel was born, in a context of great sterility and great spiritual scarcity, how we have to educate our children at this time .
I know young people who say: I don't want to have children, we're not going to have children, or we're going to have one to comply with Scripture, but no more because these are very difficult times to have children and I don't want to, and the truth is that one despairs when one sees education, when one sees the values toward which culture is moving at this time, one says: wow, do I really want a child to grow up?
Sometimes parents are not allowed to educate their children properly and where the State often wants to take away the children and prevent the parents from teaching them certain things, and the State arrogates itself and takes for itself Even the right under a civil conception, of paternity and maternity, and of the family, and using arguments that seem very legitimate, right? because a child is a citizen and then the citizen must supposedly be educated on how to live in society, but that also has moral and spiritual implications, nothing is neutral, so the State tries to turn it into something simply civil, political, legal, but nothing is that simple. The world is a network of relationships and so they are also affecting the education of our children and they are contradicting and undermining the spiritual education that we are supposed to give our children.
So in this negative context and hostile to the values of the Kingdom of God, we educate our children as Ana also had to educate her children and she had to educate Samuel.
Now, I think that again, there are other things that help us in Ana's example and one of the things that I want to highlight is that Ana knew that her son was a direct gift from God. She was very aware because her process had been a very painful process, she had already had to fight for that son and she had the privilege of not having any doubt that this son came actively and directly from the Lord for her.
We often have our children in a natural way and well we have them because they are healthy, and everything is in order and well, our children are born, but there is nothing different between Ana's situation and ours. Children are a gift from God, children are an active blessing from the Lord, children come from God.
When we receive our children we always first have to consecrate them to the Lord. That is why we do it like this, we present our children to the Lord. In other words, it is a public acknowledgment: "this creature belongs to Jehovah and I present it to the Lord, and I give thanks to Him" and one says: "Father, I know that this son belongs to You" and thus we have to understand that our children are not our property but that we are what? mere butlers.
Whenever you look at that very special creature, that you love so much, say to yourself: "You are not ultimately mine, you belong to God. I am simply a caretaker, a steward of your life. God has given me in my hands so that I can take care of Him." That creature is not my son, he is Diso's son and I am his nurse, the person who takes care of him, and I think that repeating that to ourselves will help us maintain the correct perspective. Give your son to the Lord or your daughter to the Lord continually to remind yourself.
I think that is very different from the modern perspective. What is the modern, secular perspective? It is that, while the son is in the woman's womb, that real estate where he is living belongs to the woman, that womb belongs to her, that is the legal understanding, brothers, and cultural social of this time, and about that a lot of doctrine is based on abortion and everything else.
I have read statements by very advanced thinkers who say that, until the last day of gestation, until that child leaves the mother's womb at nine months, that child belongs to the woman and that she should have the right to abort it until the ninth month if necessary because it is inside her womb, and her womb is her property, and therefore what is inside her womb is hers.
Look: that is not true even in the outside world. I have a house, you have a house, an apartment, and ultimately you can't do what you want with that apartment. You can't take and burn the house like that because you just felt like it or paint it in weird colors compared to the neighborhood, there are neighborhoods where you can't put certain types of wood or build every last inch of your property because you have to consider the laws of property around and appearance and everything else, however we want to do that with the children as the child is absolute property.
The son of God, we believers understand that this is not the case, but that our children are the property of the Lord. We have to educate them to Him, raise them up in the fear of the Lord and according to the values of the Kingdom of God, and that what we have to raise up is a resource for the Kingdom of God. That son, that daughter belongs to the Lord and we have to educate them to the Lord so that this child grows up to be a man, a woman that God can use greatly for His Work and for His advancement on Earth.
And Ana wanted to prepare a resource for the Kingdom of God and that is why she gave Samuel to be educated inside the temple to be a servant, a prophet of God, to bring the Word of God, to bring revival to Israel in that time of great need.
And I encourage you to see your children, our children, as future resources for the Kingdom of God and educate them with that end in view. Before wanting to train successful and prosperous professionals, our first wish should be that they love the Lord and that they guide their lives by the values of the Word of God, amen? Before my son is a great engineer, a doctor, a teacher, I want him to be a God-fearing man, a servant of the Lord. And within that context, amen, may she be a professional God willing, and may she make money, and live a successful life, but may all of this take place in the context of a special love and loyalty to the Kingdom of God.
We have to educate our children with that same intentionality and consistency in everything we do to educate them. The education of our children has to be purposeful, not random or left to the school, the culture or even the Church. I am responsible for presenting to the Lord a resource for His Kingdom, we cannot abdicate our commitment at any time.
The Church is not responsible for our children, you know that? it is you and me, your husband, your home. We bring them to the Church to educate them to a certain point, that is true, but ultimately it is in the house where those important values begin. So it's very important, right? our children are not ours, we have to raise our children as a resource for the Kingdom of God.
Another important value that I think we have to take into account in these difficult times is that both parents, both parents as much as possible, I know that many times it is not possible because there are homes where the father is not present or the mother, but as much as possible, both parents have to participate equally in the formation of the child, since both masculine and feminine sensibility are essential components for a balanced personality.
Parents: let's not abdicate the responsibility of educating our children, let's do everything possible. The male always tends to be a little more detached, right? let's make a proactive decision to be a very present influence in our children's lives.
Children need both mom and dad, they need the smell of their father. Daughters need the warmth of a father, they need his presence, they need to hear his voice, they need to learn what a merciful man is, what a well-functioning man is, who works as Christ worked, a balanced, loving, tender personality, and they need that influence. So father, no matter how old your daughter or son is, get involved. Mother, let's be a team and work together to educate our children, both parents are important, especially at this time.
Thirdly, we are supposed to educate our children by modeling, that we be a model of what we are teaching our children by modeling a total dedication, being ourselves an embodiment of love for God and consecration to the interests of His Kingdom. . Brothers, we first need to fill ourselves with the warmth of the Holy Spirit, surrender our lives to the Lord, live red hot for the Kingdom of God, that our children see us coming to Church early, reading the Word, loving intimacy with God, being adorers proactive, serving the Lord in everything possible, giving our tithes and our offerings to the Lord, being loyal and fervent for everything that has to do with the Kingdom of God.
When your son grows up watching that modeling, he will continually inhale that energy. Children receive much more by impartation than by verbal teaching. What they see daily is what they are going to ingest into their deepest internal sensitivity. So know that you have two or four, or six, or eight little eyes out there looking at you 24 hours a day, and that you are always teaching something, you are always demonstrating something, you are always exhibiting, you are always imparting something. Never neglect knowing that your children are little sponges and they are going to absorb the love of God, they are going to absorb your loyalty to the Church and the Kingdom of the Lord, the words that come out of your mouth, the television programs that you watch, how many books are in the house Sometimes we want our children to be regular readers, but when do they see us reading a book? so we have to.
I think one of the things that gets lost with iPads and computers is that it's hard to tell when a person is reading a book or something, right? because it may be that he is watching a video program or whatever. How good it is when a child sees mom or dad reading a book and knows: oh, they are reading, specifically. I believe that there is something beautiful in books and we should as much as possible buy books for our children and we too be readers, that they see us sitting down. Buy yourself something and even if you're not reading, pretend you're reading for half an hour so they can at least see you.
If you tell him "boy: read, read, read" but you never read (laughs). We have to model, model love for God and constancy with the Lord. I want to invite my brother Omar to come here, and these are values; In difficult times like Ana's, you are with things that are key in the lives of our children.
And the last thing I want to point out that is already overshadowed by everything I said is that, in difficult times, more energy is required, more intentionality, more clarity, and more emphasis on the values that we instill in our children.
My brothers, if twenty years ago it was difficult to educate our children in God's values and it required a lot of effort and intention on our part, in this time as never before, it is more important. What before would have been excusable, certain oversights, a certain coincidence in the way we educate our children, now it is almost a sin to practice that level of carelessness in the education of children. Now you have to practically shout to be heard amid all the noise and jarring sounds of the culture in which we live.
I believe that this is one of the errors, by the way, of the Church in these times, I believe that in many Congregations for fear of offending visitors and scandalizing those who think differently from what the Word of the Lord says, many Congregations and many Pastors feel tempted to omit from the pulpit certain teachings that are offensive to visitors and people who are not educated in the values of the Kingdom of God.
So in this desire to be attractive and not sound hateful and confrontational, what the churches and pastors are doing is dulling and silencing any voice that is scandalous to the culture because in that way we are not supposedly going to alienate the people who come to our services, but if you think that this is the most terrible mistake that a Church, that a Pastor could make, what's more, I would say that it is a sin and an act of cowardice, because in these times of confusion and where the world If you feel you have every right to shout your values and propagate them through all possible means, including legal and unfair, then how is the Church going to lower its level and its insistence on proclaiming the values of the Kingdom of God? it's crazy.
Quite the opposite. We must be more insistent than ever in educating our people so that they can have the tools they need to stand firm in the Word of the Lord, yes or no? This seems logical to me, right? And our young people, our young people also need the advice of the Word of the Lord, and where will that advice come from if it is not from the Church? when they come here to receive teaching, instruction, where the teaching of the Church is supposed to exercise in the clearest way through the teaching of the Sunday school.
If the Church abdicates its responsibility to teach the people in times of confusion and sterility, there is no hope for this world, brothers, and I have the commitment, we must have the commitment as the Church, to be a prophetic voice in this world and in this time, and to declare the Word of the Lord with humility, with meekness but without apologizing either.
We must do the same in our homes because when he goes to school his sexuality is going to be questioned. The commandment of human sexuality that the Word of the Lord has proclaimed and that the great religions of history proclaim through the centuries and centuries is being questioned by a group of elite people at this time who represent a very recent and very momentary of human sensibility through the centuries and the centuries.
His sexuality is going to be questioned, and we have to tell him: no, God created man, male and female he created them, man | woman to reflect a unity, to reflect the richness of His personality. God is without gender and is both genders, he is male and female, he is rather something else, man and woman reflect God rather in their different energies. The masculine and the feminine are reflections of energies that are in God, and God wanted to create himself and reflect himself in a man and a woman in their complementary relationship. The Church has to proclaim that without ambiguity and without asking for permission or forgiveness for it (applause).
And um, us in our home, let me tell you brothers: if we want boys, I'm going to talk for a moment about boys but also about girls because today lesbianism is growing by leaps and bounds. If you want to raise a masculine little boy you have to work on it, you know? Don't depend now on the hormones that are going to help you and take care of it. Today there is social engineering, the biological endowment is no longer respected, that is not as valid as before and confusion today is everywhere, our children can be confused even in the same gestation.
That is why it is so important that boys are part of the education of their sons and that you teach your son to be a boy, there is a part in which you learn to be virile brothers, dedicate time to that, I think that it is important to educate our children in what it is to be a man. And I think that also a healthy man, not a man there all rigid like a dry stick that breaks easily because of how masculine he is, no. You also have to teach him to be gentle, helpful, loving, tender. I believe that a man can and should cry, he can and should caress, he can and should ask for forgiveness, he can and should reflect fear and express fear, and confusion, and weakness, and deficiency, but there is also something in a man that is aggressive, It's hard, it's angular and we have to teach our children that too. We have to be very proactive in raising masculine males in our time.
And the ladies alike, that our daughters are feminine brothers. There is nothing wrong with our daughters learning to be feminine too. That they play with their dolls, that they develop their motherly instincts, that they dress in pretty and delicate dresses, that they speak in a certain way, that they behave, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't apologize. That's why I don't know about you, but I think that's nice, and that we also have to educate our girls to be feminine (applause). Give it time.
Especially you young people. Many of you young couples have drunk of the water and milk of this culture, and all this type of that all these are purely cultural issues that, look. The woman has femininity inscribed on her body and each month she has to remember that she is a woman and not a man, and the man equally. There are things that, no matter how sophisticated we get, will not change, that is inscribed in the genetic code of humanity, and fighting against it is kicking against the sting, it is you wanting to rebel against what you are, it is inescapable, it is inevitable.
So we have to be very intentional brothers, we could spend a long time only on that point because it is a very important point but we are going to be intentional in educating our children in the Word of God, educate our children in their sense of sexuality, in what they are like gender. We are also going to educate them in their complementarity, man, woman, what a beautiful thing that unity, that union that has no equal in all of creation. The man without the woman is nonsense, the woman without the man is useless either, a man and a woman are needed, be it in friendship, be it in marriage, be it as a work unit. God made us (applause).
At any level, at the level of society, at the level of a corporation, at the level of a Church, at the level of a community, at the level of a school, at the level of whatever it is, men and women are needed together working and each one giving their gifts, and their virtues in a loving struggle there of two essences complementing each other in what each one lacks, and we have to educate our children in that too. The little boy who appreciates the female, the female the male, that they begin to create that mutual appreciation for the beauty that they are of creation.
We are going to dedicate time to all these things, brothers. These are difficult times but we can raise blessed children, children who adorn and who are a benefit to the Kingdom of God. I leave you with the words of Deuteronomy 6 from 4 to 9, Deuteronomy from 4 to 9. Stand up for a moment, receive the word of the Lord this morning. Healthy children in difficult times.
"Hear Israel" hear the Lion of Judah Congregation, "Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one, and you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength; and these words that I command you today shall be in your heart and you shall repeat them to your children" and you shall repeat them to your children "and you shall speak of them while you are in your house" you shall speak of them while you are in your house, "and as you walk along the road with them you shall repeat the same words to them; lie down, and when you get up" is our part, in our own life we then exemplify before our children, "and you will bind them as a sign on your hand, and they will be like frontals over your eyes, and you will write them on the posts of your house and at your gates." Amen, may the Lord help us to live with that level of commitment to the Word of God.
Let's make a commitment there as a family. If you want, take your wife or husband by the hand, your children, your grandchildren, a friend there by your side, someone by your side, and in difficult and sterile times, in times when the Word of the Lord is scarce and when the Spirit of the Lord seems to have moved away from society, we as a Church are going to invite the Spirit of the Lord to come among us, and we are going to commit ourselves to live in that Word of God and become a source of instruction for our children, to our neighbors, embody, model that love of ours first.
Let's commit ourselves to love our partner, our husband, our wife, to be a united and blessed marriage, and if you are a single mother, don't worry; the Lord is going to supply all the nutrients that you lack in terms of a physically speaking husband. God is going to be your husband, God is going to be a father, he will not lack nutrients because the Lord specializes in covering deficiencies.
In all possible ways, however, if you have the blessing of having your partner with you, let's do it, I do it with my wife who is in Puerto Rico today with her family, and we unite in faith to be homes where the Word of the Lord abounds. , where the Words of God are inscribed on our doorsteps, on the very forehead of our heads, where we carry the Word of the Lord inscribed in our hearts, and where we read those Words and share them with our children right and left, and be a resource for society.
Father: We give you our children, we give you our paternity, our motherhood, we give you the children of this Congregation, and we ask you to help us to be a blessed Church, prosperous in the Word of God first and in a fierce loyalty to the values of the Kingdom of God.
I bless our descendants, beloved Lord, the descendants of this Congregation. May Your favor continue to Congregation León de Judá Father, may Your favor bless right now children who are growing up in this very city without the benefit of a father who are being distorted by the presence of too many men who come and go from the apartments where they live Lord, perhaps they are suffering from sexual abuse, perhaps they are seeing their mothers being physically abused Lord, perhaps their mothers are not being the example they should be for them, certainly their parents are possibly in jail right now, we bless them wherever they are Father.
We declare Your Mercy over apartments and towns throughout this city Lord where there are Hispanics, where there are African Americans, where there are whites in South Boston and even elsewhere Lord, here in the South End with incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars but no examples of good fatherhood, motherhood, family.
We ask Lord for mercy for this society around us. Make us a refuge here Father and with humility teach us to embody the values of Your Kingdom, and help us to be better every day Father, and to do everything that is on the part of this Congregation to produce healthy families that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. It begins with the main leadership of this Father Church and from there it goes down to the most hidden person of this Congregation, we bless Your people on this day.
Thank you for our mothers, may they leave here strengthened and affirmed in their exemplary work. Thank you Lord, in the Name of Jesus the people of God say: amen. I bless you my brothers, the Grace of the Lord be with all of you, amen.
