The widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17)

First Book of Kings, Chapter 17, says the word of the Lord about the prophet Elijah:

“.... then the word of the Lord came to him saying: “Get up, go to Sarepta of Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to support you." Then Elijah got up and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow woman was there gathering sticks, and he called her and said to her, "I beg you, bring me some water in a glass." for him to drink", and she went to bring it to him, he called her again and said: "I beg you, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand", and she replied: "As the Lord your God lives, I have no baked bread, only I have a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in a jar, and now I was collecting two logs to go in and prepare it for me and my son so that we could eat it and let ourselves die”. Elijah told him: "Do not be afraid, go do as you have said but do me first - everyone say "me first", that sounds good Pentecostal make them say that - make me first of it a small cake baked under the ashes and bring it to me and then you will do for yourself and for your son because Jehovah, God of Israel, has said so. The flour in the jar will not become scarce, nor will the oil in the jar diminish until the day Jehovah sends rain on the face of the earth.” So she went and did as Elijah told her and ate he and she and their house for many days. And the flour in the jar did not become scarce, nor did the oil in the jar dwindle, according to the word that Jehovah had spoken through Elijah.” May the Lord bless his word to us. Amen.

Well, for those of you who have joined us recently, perhaps you weren't there last Sunday or the day before, we are as we were saying in the middle of a time to reflect on the subject of stewardship, specifically applying it to our financial campaign that we have to build our temple, which we know the Lord has called us to do. God has called us to build this temple that is going to be, in a sense, I believe, the culmination of many years of our church being built.

I think that since we got here we've been building something. How interesting God has called us to be builders! And I do not believe that this is a coincidence, but that this is something prophetic of our church because one of the passages that I like the most in all of the Old Testament and that I believe that God gave us years ago, before we even coming here to Boston, is the one who says that they will rebuild the ancient ruins and remove the rubble of many generations. And God has called us to be a building church, in fact, when we were going to make the logo for the church, one of the images that came to mind... Do you know what a logo is? It is the symbol of the church, which is currently a lion outlined in this way. When we were considering different ideas for the logo, the symbol of our church, I came up with the idea of a crane, a crane in the shape of a cross, I don't know if you have seen these very large cranes that have like a small one, a slight suggestion of a cross, and the idea was to make a crane in the shape of a cross, which would be like the symbol of our church. Because look, our church has been, since we've been here, they're building the big dig and all the highways and all these things, and we're here.

We built first, we renovated this building, then we are renovating the other one here and now we are going to build a temple with the help of the Lord. And I think there is something there that God has called us to be a church that is always building, rebuilding things, renovating things, renewing the city, and renewing lives and helping to rebuild lives, and that is the work of the church: to be a rebuilder. And we are part of that. So we have always been in something to build and I believe that the Lord has told us that way in a prophetic way to tell us: you are builders, you are rebuilders of ruins, you raise things that people do not see the value in them and they put them back to work and to be a source of blessing.

And I think that this is our temple, when I sometimes read sermons from years past, like in these days, that I was collecting the sermons that have to do with stewardship, that I have preached through the years, and I have them in different places so according to books, etc., I was able to rescue sermons whose outline I did in the year '95, '94 when we were just beginning to build this place here. I sometimes laugh at my innocence because in one I say, when we are starting to build here, that I hope that in 6 months we can have the building done. I wrote there: hah! I put it there in the sermon because the truth is that innocence is sometimes a sad thing. It took us two and a half years to do it and with a lot of work and hard work and for a lot more money than we thought, although always much less than it would have cost to do it normally.

But one of the things I also see when I read those sermons is that I talk there about God calling us to be a church and encouraging the brothers to work and give to build this building that is going to be of blessing to the city of Boston, and I talk about how God is going to allow us to establish relationships with the city and with the city government, with other churches and so many things, brothers, that I say: wow, glory to the Lord! , because everything has been fulfilled. And that we are saying, where did that come from? I don't know why nothing really suggested that that dark little church, there in Cambridge, could have any of the relationships and the impact that God through His mercy and to Him the glory, has allowed us to have in the city of Boston and establish relationships and I know that we still have not seen anything of what God is going to do through you, this congregation through his holy spirit in us, and if we continue based on the word of the Lord and doing things with humility , as God wants.

But truly one did not imagine at that time that God was going to allow us to be builders and builders together with other churches in the city to bless our community. And we are now in the process of constructing this building that I hope is already true, never say "I will not drink this water", but that it is the last thing that God calls us to do for a good, good time. And this is the construction, not of bricks as we say, but of a vision for the city of Boston. I want to encourage my brothers in these weeks to reflect on what God is calling you to do. Each of us is one of those bricks in that building. Within you there is perhaps one and perhaps many more bricks, to build our building. You have to see yourself like this, each one of us, and I am speaking here above all to the brothers who identify with this congregation, if you visit us or you are not yet on that wave, do not feel alluded to, we respect where you are in your spiritual journey , but I believe that those who are more mature in the Lord, identify with our church, are members or love our congregation and are fed here, I encourage you not to fall short in this great company that God allows us to be build a temple for the Lord that allows us to bless the city even more and for this process we are talking about stewardship these Sundays. I hope through these teachings, to build in us a position of faith, of faith, of generosity towards the Lord, to increase our vision to see everything that God wants us to do because if you look in the Scriptures that God has a great project chooses men and women.

The first construction project in the Bible was the construction of the Tabernacle, when the Hebrew people were in the desert. And notice that although God sent manna from heaven for the Hebrews to eat, and did not allow their shoes to grow old and their clothes to fall apart on them, yet for the building of his tabernacle, God did not bring down a made tabernacle from heaven, but that he commanded the people to give, and different people brought different things. Some brought cloth, others brought metals, some contributed their craft skills, others brought wood and different things for the construction of the temple. God used his people and used Moses to impart the vision of a tabernacle to the people, and from there other construction processes that are in Scripture, such as the Solomonic temple, and the other temples that were rebuilt after the destruction of the first temple. The walls of Jerusalem through Neemías and so many other things, construction works, we always see that they are preceded, that is, before the construction there is always a call to the people to give to the Lord to make this work possible, because the Lord He likes to build cooperatively with his children. And when we receive those calls, we say: amen, Lord, I am present. I want to be part of that.

You remember..... what I am putting there in the hearts of my brothers, that God allows us to have 200 people or families, or family units, 200 individuals or households that commit themselves in two years, 24 months to give the Lord 5,000 dollars for the construction of our temple, which is about 50 dollars a week, for two years. I know that some of you consume it only in cappuccinos every week. If you only stop drinking those cappuccinos, which is going to make you fat anyway, and turn your teeth yellow, give them to the Lord so that you can see a great temple built for the glory of God. There are so many things that we can do, brothers, that in reality if we look to see, they are not life or death, and if we say: I am going to exempt myself a little from here and there, look, you will be blessed. Those old clothes that are there that you have not been able to wear for 5 years, for the moment they will serve you and many other things, because you will have found a creative way to give to the Lord. So that's our request.

Now, we want everyone to be able to give and that is the second goal that God has placed in our hearts that everyone who identifies with the Lion of Judah congregation can give something to the Lord. If the Lord has not given you that possibility or that faith to give in this way, do not feel bad, do not feel alluded to and despised because that is not the idea. You can give the Lord something. We can all come before the Lord with something in our hands, so ask the holy spirit to enlighten you, then about how you can give to the Lord, and in what way and to what degree and then there you with your Lord, no one should judge you for that, but quite the contrary, the Lord blesses what comes from the heart. The Bible says that we do not give to the Lord out of obligation or guilt, but with joy. So give the Lord what you can give him with joy and another perhaps with pain. It's okay, there's no problem in giving to the Lord in pain too. That is important too.

And the third, the third point, and with this I finish the preliminary, because I am putting what we are preaching in context, is that perhaps there are people, perhaps there are people in this congregation and I know there are, that they will be able to give more than $5,000 in two years, and maybe God has blessed you in some way or is going to bless you in some way and maybe God puts in there that I want to honor the Lord with something beyond that $5,000. If God puts that in your heart, I assure you that we will not resist it. Bless the Lord and bless his people in that way. So if anyone feels it from the Lord to give more than that $5,000, please encourage them to also think about that and ask the Lord to enlighten them on that.

There you have the preliminary. Now we go to the word of the Lord. First Kings 17. The Bible is full, brothers, of references to this principle of giving. Now that I have been making a list of texts from which to preach on these Sundays, because I truly want to bless your life and teach you principles for the provision of your life, to live a prosperous life in all areas of life. I have found dozens of texts because the Bible continually talks about this concept of giving and receiving, about how we have a God who wants to bless his people, but also a God who has established certain laws, certain principles, certain ways in which we can unleash his blessing for our life. And those texts are everywhere. And in fact I tell you, brothers, that this text that we are going to study here this morning is not only about receiving food, food or money, I believe that it refers to any miracle, any divine intervention that you want to receive in your life. life. It can be the solution to a family problem, to an emotional problem, to a mental bond that exists in your life, to an emotional wound that exists in you, a problem with a child or whatever, problem of material provision, housing, money, work, studies, this applies to all these dimensions of life. What one needs to receive to have a prosperous and blessed life, how God has established spiritual principles to be able to trigger his blessing. Because if you look at God, he is a God of order, and God has established physical principles that scientists, upon discovering, allow them to operate on reality and lift planes of tons that can travel through the air, put submarines on the bottom of the sea that can travel on the bottom of the sea, cars that run across the surface of the earth, laser beams that operate on something as delicate as the pupil of an eye, because scientists have discovered the physical principles that God has buried in nature and by discovering those principles and putting them into operation can take advantage of them.

I maintain that the same is true for spiritual principles. God has established spiritual principles and has given a map to discover them, which is called his word. By putting into practice those principles of his word we can, like scientists in the physical world, also receive blessings in the spiritual world. And here, for example, we have one of those small maps, in this very rich text that is the text of the widow of Zarephath and it says here that God called Elijah to separate himself for a while from Ahab and Jezebel, those evil kings who wanted to kill him, because through Elijah God had said that it would not rain on Israel until Elijah gave the word, and then God asked Elijah to hide for as long as necessary. And Elijah hid in the brook of Cherit, you know the story, and there God provided his prophet for many days with bread and meat through ravens, and water through a brook. One day, the Bible says, the stream dried up and there was no more water because there was drought on the earth and then God said to Elijah: ok, Elijah now get out of here, and there our text begins and go to Sarepta of Sidon , it was a non-Jewish land, a town that was not Hebrew, go there to that city and there, says the Lord, I have given an order, look at that, I have given an order to a widow woman to feed you, to give you support, to keep you for as long as necessary.

I already see something there, brothers, it is this: that God is a God who provides his servants, his children. All stewardship teaching first says that God is the owner of everything that exists, as we saw last Sunday, but another principle of stewardship is that God is the provider of those who honor and fear him. And no matter how much lack there is in a land, brothers, God is powerful to provide for his own. I know that there are people who love the Lord who suffer misery in other countries of life, but from my family's own experience I learned one thing and that is that when God comes to a house, the negative financial circumstances change and the blessing begins. I can say this because when my mother met the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago in the Dominican Republic, our family, her financial circumstances were very adverse, but I remember in my mind as a little child that when my mother met the Lord something changed in our life and God began to provide us in a precious way. And I could explain to you, but that is not the point, the point is that when Christ enters the life of a family, the processes of blessing and prosperity begin, if that family is faithful to the Lord and if it uses the principles of faith.

That is in the Scripture, that is not said to manipulate, no. I see that in every page of Scripture that God provides. The Bible says, for example, "I was young and I have grown old and I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread." I believe that if God throws me on the moon, there I know that I would get a tree of something to eat, if necessary, because that text is there and it reaches up to the moon itself. "I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his offspring begging for bread." Now, could we believe that, brethren. How difficult it is to adjust the mind to the promises of God! But God is a provider God, in fact, one of the names given to Jehovah in the Bible, what is it? Jehovah Gire, which in Hebrew means Jehovah is my provider. The very essence of God's character is to provide for his children, which is why he provided the Hebrews with manna in the desert, he provided water from a rock, he provided clothing and shoes, and he provided his power, and he provided the cloud of smoke in the day to guide them and the pillar of fire at night. Listen to me, not even Mapquest had a service as good as that cloud and that column of fire, it was a map through which God guided his children where they had to go, because God is a God who provides in all dimensions of life , if we believe it. He provided his servant Elías, when he ran out of water he said: now go, I have another option for you. There is always a choice.

I have discovered that, brothers, in life. My motto is there is always a solution. Do you know what I practice in my life? and when there is... it can be a simple, small thing but my motto: there is always a way out, there is always a solution to any problem, because God is the solution to any problem in life. God is the door that opens when everything seems dark and there is nothing that reason suggests solutions, God can provide in our life, if we believe, if we trust in the Lord. Imagine, he used ravens to provide for his servant and now he uses.... look it's interesting that throughout Scripture we see something that God uses many times something that he can't seem to provide to provide. Look, he provided water, from what? From a rock He provided food in the feeding of the 5000 from whom? From a little boy with five loaves, two fish over there. God always.... likes to provide through seemingly barren and barren things. Here he provides through a widow who didn't even have social security, the poor thing was taking. There was no welfare in those days, there was no social security, no coupons, nothing, brothers, no credit cards that one could at least give a card and say: I'll see how I get out of that later. Nothing, this woman was destitute and the Lord likes to provide through unexpected ways.

How many of you have received something in life through an unexpected way or from someone who didn't seem like it could be from a source of solution? Because God loves it, because God is a God..... He has a sense of humor, I think. He even does it this way so that it is evident that it is his glory, that it is not man but he who truly provides in the last instance. And God tells Elijah: I have given the order for this woman to feed you. Now, he does it through a complex and zigzagging process, because when Elijah arrives there, in Sarepta, I think he expected that he would be met by a woman in a mink coat, in a limousine, a rich widow who might even she was going to marry him if it suited him, or something like that. But when he arrives at Sarepta, look, God says: I have given orders, and when he arrives there, the first thing he sees is a woman completely undone and depressed because she is reaching the end of her life, and all she has left is a handful. of flour and a few drops of oil to make a pankake without even milk. And this widow makes the situation worse, she doesn't even know who Elias is and that God told you, what? You're crazy, boy, go see a psychiatrist. what would I give you food? But, if this is the last thing I have left, I'm going to eat it with my son and lay down to die. How interesting!

Brothers there's the thing, you see. God gives statements in the spirit that then have to be carried out in the world of time and space. And we have to participate many times in miracles. God sometimes declares things in the spiritual realm and through his mouth that in external reality does not seem to agree with what God has said and that is where we are often the protagonists of the second part of the drama, because God He has declared his spiritual principle, but then now it is up to us to develop that, and be part of the miracle. We would like God's principles to go from 'a' to 'b' to 'c' to 'z', point, straight, straight line, but God does not work like that. God works through complex processes like the one given here. He has said: this woman is going to provide for my prophet but the details of that process are going to be developed by the interaction between Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. God is such a God. God is an economist God. He says: this is going to be done. The details. You take care of that, like great executives do. how strong is the Lord!

And then it's up to us, depending on our faith, you see? God, by saying that this widow provides for my prophet, has already declared a principle that is reverberating in the spiritual airs, but now the faith of the prophet and the faith of the widow and the dialogue that occurs between them come into action. That's right, brothers, many times God has said to you in your life: I have declared that dream that you have come true. That economic, financial project that you have, I have declared to be successful. That desire that you have to study and become a professional woman, even though you are 40 years old and have three children and the rest of your time you spend washing dishes and cleaning the house, I have given the order for you to come and have a drink. master's degree. Or that you learn to speak English. Or that you have your house one day. God has given the word, you see? But now it's up to us to go through a process of faith so that what God has declared in the air can come true. And that's where many of us fail many times. We don't believe God or because the process becomes a little difficult along the way and it doesn't go well for us, the first time we try it we start to die and say: Forget it, God is not faithful, God doesn't keep what he promises. And so we lick our wounds for the rest of our lives and call God unfaithful, when God wanted us to put in a little more effort and learn, get something out of it.

Do you see? Here God is not only interested in this widow feeding his prophet and filling his stomach with bread and water. No, God wants something else. God wants the prophet to learn certain things and the widow also to learn certain things of faith and spirit and that she too be blessed with all her house. Because when God works, many times his processes drag not only us but also others who are around us. And if we act in faith, we are blessed as well as others who are witnesses of the process of faith that we are living. How precious is the Lord! TRUE? How complex is God's way of operating! He wanted to develop a drama between Elijah and this widow.

But let's not forget about that, brothers. The principle here that I see as important is that God is providing. God has given an order: my prophet cannot go hungry. My prophet has to be blessed. Although others are starving because of their wickedness and their lack of faith, I want my prophet to be blessed. And this brothers, here is another very important principle: when we give to the Lord we always have to give to the Lord from a position of trust and faith that He is our provider. The mental background of our faith action must always be God is powerful and faithful to provide me. you see?

Look, every time God calls people to give, there is something like He tells them: don't be afraid or He tells them: don't worry, I'm going to give you. Take for example Luke, Chapter 12, because these principles are everywhere, not just in the Old Testament. Luke 12:32, says: “do not fear” –say with me, brothers “do not fear”, again “do not fear”- little flock because it has pleased your father to give you the kingdom”.

Look at the promise there. He says, people of León de Judá do not fear, do not worry, you do not worry about tomorrow. Do not go around with that anxiety in your lives and that idea that your life is something fragile that on the least expected day you are going to lose your job, they are going to throw you out of the house, you are going to get sick, you are going to lack the money to pay water or electricity. The Lord says: do not fear, I am your provider. Don't be afraid, little herd, because your daddy wanted to give you the whole kingdom, everything. God has promised you everything. I live like the land is mine, because it belongs to my father who loves me, and I try to live that way, with that confidence that God is my provider. He has left those texts there in Scripture, from Elijah and others to teach that He can do the same with me.

And then look what continues, your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom, he says: “sell what you have and give alms. Make yourselves bags that do not get old, treasure in heaven that does not run out, where thief does not arrive nor moth destroys ". You see, first he sets a background of provision and of promise and of faith. do not fear. It has pleased me to give you the kingdom, and now look at the consequence of that. Therefore, sell what you have, give alms to the poor, be generous, because you have a line, you have an unlimited credit account, it's like banks give someone a card, it says: limit, 100,000 dollars.

Brothers, we have a line of credit in the kingdom of heaven and God says therefore, dare to be generous here in life. Gives. In everything you can, help the poor. Help people in need. Give of your time generously, give of your energy. I like energetic Christians, brothers. Flattened people, as the Caribbean say, are not saints of my devotion, because I believe that God wants people with an excess of energy because he knows that there is much more of that energy than God has. God is power and when you give to the Lord ..... look, you will not lack. believe it. Strive and be brave, says the Lord, because I will be with you wherever you go. In other words, go for it, dare, do things, undertake things, because I am with you. And from where you gave there is more for you to receive even more.

What happens is that we do not believe God and we are conservative with our energy, with our time, with our money, with our possessions, and we are always counting the little coins we have as miserable... and God says : do not be stingy. Gives. Because I wanted to give you the kingdom. Dare in the name of the Lord. Many times there are so many opportunities, brothers, for us to serve someone or give to someone and we don't dare because we are thinking.... Someone calls us depressed and tells us: I'm going to shoot myself, brother, I'm depressed here. He says: well, yes brother, please let's talk another day because I have to go to sleep, I'm tired and I have to get up at 5 in the morning. Instead of saying: well, I'm going to comfort this brother, I'm going to talk to him because even though I'm sleepy and lose an hour and a half of sleep, the Lord will restore it to me tomorrow morning.

So we're always thinking about fear, what we do not have, instead of thinking about the God who has said: I have more where that came from. There is more, there is unlimited treasure. Dare yourself. Give of your energy, give of your time, give of your talents, invest in my kingdom because I have no limits in what I can give you.

And that is why many of us, brothers, live mediocre lives and limited lives, where God's provision does not reach us and it is because we have some very finite little cables through which only a little bit of d's blessing can pass. I have learned that the more I give, the more God gives me. The more generous I am in the Lord, the more generous God is with me. That's why God says: don't worry, give.

Look how Elijah says to the widow. Look here at the mentality of man and the mentality of God. Elías sends the widow to fetch him a little water. That's the little shell for her to slip on. "Find some water." And she, it seems that she had enough water, “of course, no problem”. And then, as if he didn't want to, he says: “ah, and please if you can bring me a pancake made with that flour and that oil”. He says: “ah, not there, yes, I can't help you. There it will not be possible, as a man we knew when we were little used to say. It will not be possible". Because? Because she says, the only thing I have is a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil and that is reserved for me and my son and we already think with that and we start to die because there is nothing else. Don't tell me anymore (34:41) that there is no more grass, as the Dominicans say. Notice she is thinking about her limitation. She has not heard the word of the provider God. She does not know the provider God that Elijah knows. So she's just thinking about her limitations. She's thinking about what she doesn't have. She is operating in what I call the lack mentality. Christians can operate from two zones: the zone of lack or the zone of abundance and provision. The carnal, rational Christian only operates thinking that if I give to the Lord I will lack. If I withdraw that money from my account, I will not have to pay the bills or to complete the project that I had, or whatever. You see, one thinks with the lack mentality, and you see that all over Scripture.

For example, when Caleb and Joshua and the other 10 spies return from the promised land, the ten incredulous spies tell the Hebrew people that they had sent them: look, gentlemen, don't bother going to Canaan. That is full there of people who are 6, 8 and 7 feet tall and have taller heads than even Arnold Swarzenneger and they have chariots and metal spears and gigantic horses and when we looked at those tall people we saw ourselves as madmen, like lobsters, he says, like little things. That is the lack mentality. It is the mentality that only sees the limitations in life. It is the mentality of the person who only thinks, well, but in my family there has never been anyone who has money. There has been no professional. What is that that I said: buy my house or I go to university. It's not possible. Because you are thinking of lack.

It is the idea when the Lord tells you give me first, as Elijah says to her, dare to honor me with your tithe. Dare to honor me with a promise and I promise you that you will not miss it. But the person says: well, but those will be others there because that one earns 50,000 a year, but I only earn 24 or 20 or 18. I can't do it. Because one is thinking of limitation, one is thinking according to the flesh. One is thinking according to reason. Since this woman only thought, I only have a handful of flour, a little oil, and I'm going to die, and where am I going to give this man what I get? you see? That is the lack mentality. The lack mentality we see throughout all of Scripture.

The disciples when the Lord says to them: Give the whole crowd something to eat. They say: what do we feed all these people? Look, if we had 20,000 dollars we couldn't buy bread, and it's even more so if we had the money where we were going to buy, if there isn't a bakery in all the surroundings. The lack mentality. But the Lord who knows the provider God, tells them: go there, start looking and see what you find. Five loaves, two fish. Come here, bless them, pray for them, and eat the whole crowd and there are 12 baskets full of loaves and fish left over. Because? Because the Lord wanted to teach them a lesson: don't live according to the lack mentality. Live according to the mentality of faith.

Brothers, there is one thing, that when you live according to a mentality of faith and possibilities, your life becomes magnetic towards blessing and towards prosperity and towards opportunities. Brothers, I try as much as possible to cultivate a mentality of possibilities and I have discovered that secretly it is like there is a magnetism that attracts possibilities, attracts blessings. I would like to have time to give you examples of this, but look, just one, even though time is running out, but these things are important.

That building years ago God had put it in my heart to build that building and I wanted to start long before the neighborhood became complicated with all the condominiums that have moved here, because I knew it was going to be much more difficult neighborhood process. However, there were so many legal obstacles and so many difficulties in the process, that I knew they were coming, that I chickened out for a long time and waited and waited and waited. Because I didn't dare to get my hands on it, it seemed impossible. I remember one day when Meche and I in the kitchen at home, I said to Meche: Meche, if one day you see that this project is happening and you see that the city approves us doing that building, say yes. You have seen a miracle. She herself agreed that it was so. Because there were things there, impossibilities that didn't even come up, that could have stopped us from getting that building going, if they had known things they could use. And yet one day I said: Lord, if this is about you, the only thing I can do is start walking in faith. And if this is yours, you are going to solve the problems and you are going to knock down the giants and that is going to happen, and the city is going to give us permission. And you know, I started to pray and I decided in my mind that, ok we are going to undertake that.

One day they invited the worship band, they remember, the worship band to the Roxbury Presbyterian Church to play there at a gathering of various churches for prayer and worship and that was a few days after I decided. And I said to the Lord: Lord, the first thing I need is an architect, someone to make these plans for us at a very low price and to be the best person in the city of Boston. And you know what? That day, Sunday after the service, tired and exhausted after the meetings here at the church, I got there when the service was starting, our group was playing and when I was walking towards the seat I found, behind the seat where I was going to sit there was Glenn Knowles, a Christian architect I had met years before in Cambridge, at the American church that shared the building with us. And Glenn Knowles is a graduate of Harvard and works for one of the best architecture companies here, in the city of Boston, an illustrious man in architecture and with a heart of service to the Lord and when I saw him, in my heart I said : this is my man, this is the man that God has put there to do this job. I started talking to him and we agreed to meet and the rest is history. There are the designs that came out to us for a fraction of the cost of what that type of thing normally comes out of. To the Lord the glory.

And this man throughout the process was my lawyer, my architect and my battle partner. Every time we got into the lion's den with a group from the neighborhood or from the city because when the Lord provides, He provides big. But, it required me to leave my mindset of difficulties and obstacles and change it to a mindset of possibility, and to dare to take the first steps of faith. When you begin to walk in the name of the Lord, the river opens before you, because that is what God is waiting for. A move of faith. He is waiting for us to dare, to break this mentality of limitations and impossibilities and that this has never been done before, that no one in my family, or that I don't have, I can't, I don't know, and for you to say: everything I can do it in Christ who strengthens me, as the Apostle Paul says.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And you can break all the chains that the devil puts in your mind and in your life and in your circumstances, everything is that you believe in the Lord and that you dare and that you have what is called a mentality of possibility. And that's what I see in Joshua and Caleb. The Bible says that there was in them a different spirit from the others. And Caleb and Joshua, when these ten spies said: this is impossible, these people are huge, they are too big for us, Joshua and Caleb said: Do not be afraid of them, because God has given them to us and we are going to eat them like bread, said Joshua and Caleb. For greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. I believe that people who are in Christ and whose faith is active think that way. The God that is within me is bigger than any circumstance. I'm going to get ahead no matter what. God will make a way. That chorus (43:09) says: God will make paths where you think there are none. That is true for the one who believes, brothers. Hallelujah! But you know that in the process many times there are obstacles because that is the God we have.

We recently heard a teaching by a writer named Elbridge who talks about the God from dramas and the God who makes dramas. I love dramas. My doctorate is in literature, and I love dramas, I love the plot of a novel or even a poem or a story. God likes dramas and in dramas, look at TV sitcoms for example, the boy meets the girl, they fall in love, but if they got married right away, the movie would take 5 minutes, but what happens? No, someone he knew for 10 years comes and starts talking to her in the street and the first one who fell in love with him sees them talking and already thinks that he has left her and she gets into tremendous trouble there, and the next 45 minutes are about resolving that little problem that started to lengthen the thing and there we are crying with the Kleenex or eating pop corn left and right, because the plot is getting tasty, right?, until finally they get married and they live happily for the rest of their lives, right? Because that is the essence, the plot is the complication, that is what makes a drama and God loves it, God is the novelist par excellence.

Then God tells us: I am going to bless you, I have given the word for you to be blessed, then you believe the Lord and there begins a process that can last years, months, weeks. There are going to be difficulties, giants whose heads you are going to knock off, seas you are going to cross, maidens you are going to save from terrible giants, but you will reach the goal because God said: you will arrive because I have said so.

Go to the other shore, says the Lord Jesus. As they go to the other shore they find a rough sea, a storm and the Lord there on his throne praying, he sees them and in the middle of the night he walks towards them and gets on the boat and tells the storm: Stop, be quiet. And the storm subsides and they reach the other shore because the Lord said: they will reach the other shore. God is complex in his processes. Many times we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the complexity of the processes and we become intimidated and then we lose the opportunity that God wants to give us. Never give up because the process gets tough along the way. Say: no, what the Lord is doing is teaching me things. He wants to bless me beyond the tiny goal that I had. The Lord's goals are always much broader than what your little mind can conceive, my brother, my sister. God loves travel, he loves processes. The life of the Christian is always the same, what he says: leave your land and your relatives to a land that I will show you. That is the faith process at its very core. And every time God gives you a dream, a word, a goal, a plot, launch yourself in the name of the Lord. Like Abraham, you will go through scares, you will make mistakes, you will do things that you did not think you were going to do, but you will reach the goal because the Lord told you: I will be with you wherever you go.

Brothers, I would like to have more time to develop all these topics. Perhaps we will continue next Sunday. But the important thing is that we see that here. This woman is tested. Elías tells him: Go and look for me first. He says: give me first. You have to give to the Lord first.

Say with me: you have to give to the Lord first, first. When you give to the Lord first you receive. Elías tells him: give me first and then you will have to eat, not only today but tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and next week and next month until bread grows again on earth. This is how God works, you dare in the name of the Lord. Nothing guarantees that you will arrive, only the word of God. The firstfruits is a concept that is in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. "Honor the Lord with your firstfruits." Give to the Lord first.

Proverbs 3:9, “honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase, and your barns will be filled with abundance and your presses will overflow with must,” says the Lord. Your barns will be abundant and full, my brother, my sister. But honor the Lord with your goods, give the Lord the first fruits. Do not give him the rabandija (48:06), do not give him the tail, do not give him what you have left, do not give him what is left over, do not give him when you have already paid for everything and you know that everything is fine and everything is covered, then from what remains you give to the Lord. No, you have to give to the Lord first, you have to take Him out, His first.

If you have faith that your God provides, hit Him first. Dare in the name of the Lord. I don't think your life is as extreme as this woman's, that's why God chooses the extremes too, to illustrate his principles clearly, in the purity of the artificial tube that He builds. This woman has nothing. He has nothing left. He is at the ends of his life. Most of us are not in that extreme position. And that is where the Lord tells him: give me, now, first. Risk your life. Risk your provision. Risk your hope. Risk your illusions. Put them on the sacrificial table. Give me first, and then you will see if I am Jehovah, if I am faithful and if I fulfill what I promise or not. Or whether or not I have the power to bless you and open the sea before you. Honor the Lord with your possessions. There you have a principle that is more precise than the principles of gravity or any other physical principle. The one who honors the Lord first, the one who puts the Lord first in his life, the one who loves the Lord with all his heart with all his mind, with all his strength, the one who does not care about himself, but cares about glory of the God. The one who, whenever there is a need, says: I am present because I have a direct line of credit to my Father. And give to the Lord in any situation, or give generously in your life in the name of the Lord. That person will be prosperous, will be blessed and will never lack for anything. Listen to me tell you, write it down, date it and put it to the test and you will see if God is faithful or not in your life.

Let's stand up. Glory to the Lord. Do not let that word escape from your heart because I believe that it is a word that God has given me this morning for you. Those are principles of the Bible, those principles are not in the heart of man. Those principles are divine principles. If you want, buy that cassette and listen to it again because it is a seed of faith that God puts in your life. God wants to bless you. God wants to provide you. God wants to get you out of your lack. God wants you to have a broad life, a life of achievement, a successful life. But there are spiritual principles and God tells you: take risks, take risks. If you don't take risks, the blessing will not come, says the Lord. You always have to take risks. David took a risk when he threw himself on Goliath, a madman, a little dwarf boy against that great giant. Nothing but some stones and a slingshot. What guaranteed David that he would return healthy? Nothing. If the great soldiers did not dare to put a hand to Goliath but David risked his life because he loved the Lord and loved the glory of God. The rest is history.

You are a David, you are a David. You can do great things in the Lord. You can live a prosperous life. Your future, the curve of your life will be upward. Your children will be blessed. You will reach things that you cannot imagine. The best times of your life are ahead of you but you have to believe the Lord first. If you stay in the zone of limitation, in the zone of lack, in the zone of shyness, in the zone of poverty, in the zone of I can't, I don't know, I don't have, God will not activate His word that He has given to bless you.

Every believer lives in the zone of achievement, of success, of possibility. Some do not realize that because they only remain in potentialities. They do not use the principles of Scripture and therefore their life is always small, their children are small, their family, their house is small. But if we dare, brothers, to live in the zone of possibility, in God and we dare to risk, to die because before any resurrection there must be death. If there is no death, there is no blessing. Whenever God wants to bless you, he kills you first. In some small or big way but it kills you, I assure you. There always has to be a crucifixion of the mind, reason, self, pride, self-sufficiency, whatever, but God always asks of you for something. Sacrifice me that first. Die and then I am going to bless you, I am going to raise you up. You are going to be much older than you were when you started.

Brothers, the Lord wants our minds to be revolutionized on this day by the word of God. Let's lower our heads. Receive in the name of Jesus, receive in the name of Jesus the word of faith. Receive in the name of Jesus, the word of possibility, live your life, live your life believing in the God of miracles, in the God of provision, in the faithful God, the God who says that the whole earth is his. He owns everything and He wants to use his power in your favor. Receive the word of faith. Give up the small mentality. Say right now: I renounce the limited mentality, the I can't mentality. I renounce the mentality of smallness, of limitations and embrace the spirit of possibility in Christ. All I can. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Hallelujah! Thank my Lord. Thank my Lord. Thank you God, we adore you Lord.