The attitude of a winner (Mark 7:24)

Is God great for you? Is it really big? I don't hear them. is it really big? It is a pleasure to be in the midst of the people of God.

It's a nice time. Jesus Christ well said: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the middle". I believe that when we come together in the name of Jesus, the presence of Jesus is built in a special way, because Jesus Christ likes to be in the midst of his people and he has great things for each one of us.

Every time Jesus Christ is in a place, wonderful things always happen because he always has something good for his people. His will is good, pleasant and perfect. It is pleasant to be in the presence of the Lord. On this day I have enjoyed with all of you.

We had previously discussed with your pastor that I would like to visit this congregation and it turned out in some interesting way because we came to give a series of lectures. It was not scheduled far in advance but it happened in this church and it has been a pleasure to be in your midst.

The atmosphere feels nice and when we go to a certain place we can feel the atmosphere. It's nice to see the decorations, it's nice to see the order, the lights, the instrumentation, but there is also another atmosphere that is managed and that is the spirit of the environment. It is the environment that welcomes the Lord.

The Lord is a God who always reveals himself. He reveals his love in a special way, like a father towards his children. Jesus Christ reveals his grace in a special way. On the cross, He revealed to us that he loved us through an act in the history of humanity. In the Holy Spirit he reveals himself to us as a consolation, as someone who gives power.

Today the Lord brings a word for all of us and it is found in Mark Chapter VII. We will be reading beginning with verse 24. The word of the Lord says on that day:

Getting up from there he went to the region of Tire and Sidon and entering a house he did not want anyone to know, but he could not hide because a woman who heard of him came and sat at his feet. The woman was a Greek and Phoenician by nation, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said to him: "Let the children be satisfied first, because it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She answered: "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs of the children." Then he said to her: "Because of these words the devil has come out of your daughter." And when she arrived at her house, she found that the demon had left and her daughter lying on the bed.

Let's pray for a moment. Lord we give you the honor and glory on this day. We acknowledge your presence in this place. We acknowledge your presence in this place. We know that you are in control of all things and we know that your heart is a heart that wants to bless us; he wishes to reveal himself to us and above all things to form in us a special attitude that can make us your people, the people capable of living up to your purpose.

You have a purpose in each of us, an individual purpose, a purpose for our families, a purpose in this congregation, a purpose in this city. You have a purpose in this state. You have a purpose in this nation. Lord, today we submit to your purpose and we receive this word, Lord, this challenge to our life. From now on we tell you, yes, Lord, we want it. We long for you to speak to us. We want you to manifest among us.

We get what you got. We are willing Lord to abandon anything wrong. We are willing, Lord, to extend our tent. We are willing to leave the comfort zone; because we are your people, because you have redeemed us, because you have a purpose for us.

Lord, today we say 'Yes' to you. We accept your word and reject all spiritual opposition, everything that prevents your word from flowing in our lives. From now on we tell the enemy of our souls, you Satan, that you have no art or part in us. Jesus Christ is our Lord and that He is the owner of my will. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen and amen.

Today we want to talk about a subject that I have titled “The attitude of the winner”. Tell the person next to you: I want to have the attitude of the winner.

Whenever I get people to exercise I like to watch how they do it. I like reading people's attitudes. At first it sounds funny. I'm doing it because they're telling me, but I'm shy. When I come to church I like to concentrate on what they are telling me.

But your conquest represents your brother's victory. The victory of this church represents the victory of the neighborhood. When neighborhoods conquer, it also represents the victory of the city. And when cities are conquering cities we can also conquer states.

I know you have struggles. I know you have challenges. And it is possible that the Lord is bringing this message to you. He looks at them with special eyes. You are seeing them as capable people, as people who have potential, as people who can make a difference. Not just as people who are listening to something but who are listening with a purpose.

Because God is forming an attitude in you. So I want to show you to say to the person next to you with conviction: 'God is building a winning attitude in me' Look into his eyes: 'God is building a winning attitude in me.' How many say Hallelujah? , how many say Amen. How many say: I am a winner. I am a winner. I am a victor in Jesus name.

Attitude begins through faith. When I am able to believe I am on the way to an attitude. It is interesting how we learn in a clear and concise way from this woman. Possibly of the passages that I have read, this is the one in which a somewhat harsh attitude on the part of Jesus towards the human being is most clearly noted.

Many people who talk about this passage wonder how Jesus could have spoken to this woman in this way. How is it possible that Jesus, being such a compassionate being, reacted in this way with this woman?

And sometimes we can lose the sense of what God is doing when we focus on a detail. Because God has the big picture. Our God is a God of processes. Although he works in small details, although he likes small steps, he is on the way to something big and he is leading us to something big.

He has big things for us. He has great things for me. Those big things are conquered through small steps. But if we focus only on that one small step and forget that we have a track record, we can lose our sense of purpose. So this passage must be read. Through God's purpose in which the Lord helps a woman to develop, to form an attitude that would take her beyond simply asking the devil to leave her daughter.

Some of us come to Christian churches to get a little something fixed in our lives. “Pastor, I need you to pray for my finances. I need a job. I need it urgently. I know that I have times of not being in the things of the Lord. But I need to go, so I'll drop in there on Sunday. Notice that my daughter got sick. So I need help. So that's where I drop on Sunday. Look, I'm having problems with my wife. He doesn't want to cook for me anymore. When I'm asking him for food, he shows me the pot. So I'm even afraid to ask him for food. I need to change it. So I go to church to take it."

And many of us come to churches to have an area of my life fixed. And what happens is that sometimes the Lord does help us to solve that area. And from there we accommodate until yet another problem develops. And that stimulates us to return to seek the Lord.

This is what God wants to avoid. Because that's not having the attitude of a winner. The attitude of a winner is characterized by some steps that some characteristics are clear in the attitude of a winning person.

Take a look at this passage with me, verse 25: “Because a woman, it says, whose daughter had an unclean spirit. When he heard about him, he came and fell down at his feet." The first thing we see in a person who has a winning attitude is that they don't settle, they don't allow the problem to neutralize them.

A person with a winning attitude is a person who is moved by the problem to do something, is a person who does not allow that problem to be greater than the desire she has to overcome it. The desire is greater, the longing to get ahead is greater than any depression, than any disease, than any crisis, than any marital problem, than anything that is taking away God's purpose. Problems move him. Problems take you out of the place where you are. It is the first thing we should know about people who are winners.

The second characteristic of the winning person is that they surround themselves with people superior to them. Let's see what this woman did. He went and looked for Jesus. That was what he did? What do you have to do when you have a problem? Have to look for who? Who do you have to look for? Hallelujah! You and I have to look for Jesus.

Jesus is the being superior to all of us. She surrounded herself with superior people. Jesus was supposed to be on vacation in this passage. He was trying to be private, trying to regain his strength. We too must strive so that we too can have a moment to recover.

But this woman had a need and that need pointed to someone who could help her and that name was: Jesus. He is the only one who can help us in many situations in our life. So you are in the right place. This is the correct time. This is the right environment. It is the right place for us.

So this woman goes and looks for Jesus who supposedly was, it says here, in verse 25, it says he was practically hiding or trying to have some private time. That reveals an interesting detail about the character of God. When there is a need, God cannot hide. God is available for a need. Christ was there for her and she searched until she found him.

What is your attitude towards a difficulty in your life? They begin to search a little bit and say: well, I'm going to go to church. If they tell me something that helps me, I'll return if I don't leave. Because I don't have much time. I know I have problems. I know I have difficulties. I know that I lead a life characterized by many crises. But I don't have time to go looking in the church.

This woman persisted and persisted and persisted - until she found Jesus. Now something interesting happens. You see the barriers that she has to overcome. Once he found Jesus and we see the somewhat harsh word that says: "First I have to give to the children." Before anyone, the children.

And he mentioned the word that we translate into Spanish “perríos”. It is a word that was used culturally at that time and meant those people who did not belong to the cultural group of the Jews. And then Jesus Christ used it. But something interesting happened with that woman because she had to overcome some barriers. First of all she was Greek by birth. His nationality was against the practice of this Rabbi. Jesus Christ had come to his own. He was the Rabbi of the Jews and she goes to Him, knowing that Jewish teachers were not typically going to accept her.

The second barrier he had to overcome was Jewish law. It was not only nationality, but the Jewish legal system. Because precisely in that system that avoided relationships with and service to non-Jews.

A third element is Jesus Christ himself in his capacity as Rabbi of the teacher of the law. It represented as a kind of border patrol. She had to enforce the law, so she knew her barriers well. She knew what she was up against. This is a characteristic of a winning person. He has to know the nature of things. What is this problem about? Why am I going through this problem?

If we want to get ahead in our lives we have to learn to analyze the situations of our lives. We have to penetrate and know through every crisis. It's interesting that one of the most outstanding athletes in the world is one of my favorite athletes. It's Lance Armstrong.

I am a cyclist. So we have something in common. He became really famous after recovering from cancer and winning 5 Tours de France. In certain phrases from his latest book "Every Second Counts" he says: "if I had to choose between cancer and winning the Tour de France, I would stay with cancer" Let me explain what he means.

Cancer taught him what were the true priorities of his life, what was the value of life, what was the future that could hold for him, that he had to dedicate himself to a life of service to humanity. He had to learn to appreciate certain people and certain relatives. He had to appreciate the gift of the physical body. He learned a lot, mainly in the attitude that victory is not found in comfort.

He was able to recover. It was 40% that he was going to live and 60% that he was going to die. So he began to take an attitude. He started reading about cancer. He grabbed the best doctors. The best doctors for him were not the ones who simply told him: "you have cancer" but those doctors who knew the problem of cancer well, who looked at the possibility of defeating it. He surrounded himself with these people and began to learn all the details of cancer. And he began to believe that he could beat him and every day he got up. And after a chemotherapy session he felt bad but instead of concentrating on the feeling he concentrated on what was necessary for him to get ahead

And he began to see that as painful as a possibility to get out of there more strong. So he was able to win at the end of the day. And when he returns to compete something miraculous happens. His physical condition after cancer was stronger than before cancer. To this day he has won 5 Tours de France. In the month of July he will compete for the sixth. No one has ever won 6 and no one, a cancer survivor, has ever won a Tour de France.

It is important to know your problem. It is important to surround ourselves with positive people. It is important to seek the right help. This woman understood that.

Another thing we see is a person with a winning attitude. He is unreasonably pushy. Even if things say: 'it's not possible', even if the barriers say: 'No, it's not going to happen', the person believes: 'I have to make this happen. It's going to happen, I'm going to get ahead. My marriage has no solution. It has no more exits. There has to be a way how to conquer it.”

That is believing in the Lord. That is knowing that God is by your side. And this woman was learning to have that right attitude.

Another thing that strikes me about this woman is that she learned a new language in her life. I call it the "language of success." See how with me this language, This message in verse 26 says: "The woman was Greek and Phoenician by nationality and she begged him." In verse 28, after Jesus Christ practically told her no, she responded: "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

And this is the language of success that learns to put 'buts' to those who tell you: it's not possible. But she said: but there is still a possibility. And he wrestled with Jesus. And he fought with the situation. And he conquered her.

Jesus Christ tells him: "For this word that will come true in your life", for that word that you have said, for that language that you have, for that mentality that you have, this is going to be done in your life. I want to tell you something, brother. Christianity is about a language; It is the language of faith and the language of success. It is not a language that has an absence of problem and an absence of suffering. It is a language that learns to challenge any problem and any situation.

And he says: But I have a greater God, a more powerful God. I have a healing God. I have a transforming God. My God is bigger than my problem. And she conquered it. She achieved those results. That is what the Lord wants

What is your need? What is your problem? God doesn't have you here to solve just one problem. It has you to give you an attitude. He wants to give you the ability (say with me: ability) to conquer and win.

What is your need? What is your challenge? What is it that you need to overcome on this day? That is something we want to pray. This is the word that God brings with Him. You have something there that you need to conquer because you can do better than you already are.

As a church you have big things to come to terms with. We are hearing the news of a political event that is about to start. What will your attitude be? Ah, I knew that sooner or later . Or are you going to stop and say: no. But we can still win. But we still have power. In the name of Jesus we will make a difference. History is still being written. There is a chance to win because God is the God who controls everything. That is where I want to make a prayer.

I want you to imagine at this moment with that situation that you have what is that need that, if you had Christ here in flesh and blood, you would say to him: Lord, I need this in my life. Sir, I need you to work in my house. My relationship with my children is not good. My relationship with my wife is not good. I am not satisfied. Sir, my financial situation is going from bad to worse. Lord, I am not satisfied with my life. Sir, I would like to achieve a better education. I feel frustrated because I always had dreams and I have not been able to achieve them. Sir, my legal situation is also bad. Lord, I need your help. Lord, I wish that in this state of Massachusetts that we could have, Lord, a healthier state. Lord, I would like you not to pass these sorrows. That I have to do? I am not satisfied with this situation

Could it be that you can see Jesus at that moment? What does he say to you: let's work. I am going to create an attitude in you and you are going to create a difference. Let me work on your attitude and you will create the change. I want to join you in this situation and I want to make you a winner. I want to help you not only to solve a problem but to be a problem solver; a person who is able to face any situation and go through the crisis and come out on the other side and say: I have won! Because God, because Jesus, has helped me.

I want to pray for you now where you are. I want you to raise your hand. Just hold there. At this moment, I would like to entrust you with the task of praying for this town. I believe a lot in your Pastor. He prays for you. He loves them. I trust the prayer of a pastor who loves his people. Where you are, stand up, simply where you are. Your Pastor will be praying, I will be interceding for him.

Let's pray brothers. Father, it is not us who solve our problems - it is You in us.

It is your Holy Spirit who, as the sermon said, is a comforter and a strengthener. So Father, this morning we plant ourselves in your promise and in your fidelity and we say: strengthen us. We put aside negative attitudes, every attitude of defeat, Lord, in the name of Jesus. We refuse to conform to our situation and declare that I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. Your word says that there is nothing impossible for God. Oh Lord we clothe ourselves with that attitude.

Lord your word says that before these things, we are more than conquerors. Hallelujah. More than conquerors, Lord. Father we focused this morning on that aspect of your word that says that we are more than conquerors through what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary.

So out with defeat, out with fear. Father we dress in the garment of hope, of joy, Lord, of praise. And we adore you Lord. We thank the Lord. Your fidelity is great.