Children's Ministry Celebration

We have the one in charge of the Sunday school at 12, Carlota Noriega with a beautiful team of leaders, with Naomi Blanco, with Cenia Paulino, with Eunice, with Carlos Beltrán, a good team of leaders and she is only going to share a little bit of the ministry with you .

Brothers, I think that with what you have heard you have been able to process for a few seconds that the children's ministry is really working, and that it is working because you are being pioneers. Brothers, I liked that word a lot, pioneers of the word of God. Those little critters are coming out evangelists, right? People are leaving who are taking their parents, who do not know the Lord, the word, and that is our call. I invite all those who visit us for the first time to go up to the third level and see the rooms, and see the drawings on the walls and everything, and all my brothers who are there have been programmed. Time has been taken to ensure that not only children enjoy them, but parents as well. When you go up to the third floor, do me a favor and go down to the age of your child so that you can also feel what your child feels up there. So every time he goes up, he goes down to be a boy who is cute, right?, because he goes down to his level. And I also want to tell you that I am not going to give a testimony, I am going to read a little thing, a quick note and it is called "I would like to be television." This was the prayer of a 6-year-old girl and it goes like this:

Imagine you are 6 years old. Let's all go down to that age, right? 6 years. "Lord, tonight I ask you for something special. Turn me into a television, I would like to take his place so I can live what he lives in my house. Have a special room for me, gather all the members of my family around, be the center of attention to which everyone wants to listen without being interrupted or questioned, to be taken seriously when I speak, to believe everything I say, to feel the special and immediate care that the television receives when something doesn't work, to have my father's company when he comes home even though he comes home tired from work, that my mom looks for me when I'm lonely and bored instead of ignoring me, that my brothers fight to be with me, entertain everyone even though sometimes I don't say anything to them, live the sensation of what leave everything to spend a few moments by my side. Lord, I don't ask you for much. All this is lived by any television so I hope to be answered."

My brothers are a 6-year-old girl who would like to be a television. I think that not just a child or, or a 6-year-old girl wants to be a television, sometimes an adult would like to be a television so they would pay attention. So my brothers, it's just a little note for us to take into account how important a child wants to be, and I also believe that an adult also wants to be a television. Right now you would like to be a television, right? Because you want to communicate so much and if the television stops, we stay...... and if a button is ruined we want to fix it like this... Who cares? like sports, your novels, and everything, my brothers, I tell you... make your child the importance and please make the children's ministry the importance. I don't know whether to say it like that, but let's see: I think that if I were a girl I would ask that the children's ministry be a television to always have the attention of all of you, and your prayers and your help. So the Lord bless you and let's move on then.

Thank you, Charlotte. God bless you. Do not leave because we are going to pray for you. You can sit down but we will pray for you later. Eliana also has testimony. Let it be a little short because time is running out. A new couple has been here for a year, they are a beautiful, beautiful family, so we welcome them and please go ahead.

Good afternoon, because my testimony is a great blessing, I want to tell you that in our family we are pioneers in the Lord, we are the first Christians. So I don't know if it happens to you, but in my case my family doesn't want to hear anything from the Lord, because they brainwashed us, because they are taking all our money and thousands of other things. So reaching out to them and being able to share is... there is a very big barrier that alone admits us as a family but not as a new belief, a new family, even though they see that our family is witness. Then something very particular happened with our children because you know that grandparents and uncles love children very much, and so what we could not do as adults and as children, our children did. Then my daughter, who is so loved by my mother and by her grandparents and by her uncles, she arrives and tells her: grandmother, resentment is not good. If there is grudge in your heart Jesus can heal you. He tells the uncle: uncle, if you are drinking, that is not the way, Jesus can help you. So my children were able to enter that hard area that was for my husband and I more easily and be able to bring a testimony of Jesus to our homes. Amen.

I just want to add something, and Nelson if you can say hello from there, the husband Nelson who is there. And thank God. I just want to say that I liked that she used the word pioneer and pioneer. There are many thanks to God, there are many in this church who are the first Christians in their family, their parents or grandparents were not like that. There's a lot of generational stuff coming up and what God does is he saves a couple who put themselves in the gap and say they're there for the bad bosses. How many know that there are sins that run in the family? It can be alcoholism, abuse, whatever, and what God wants are pioneers to say I and my house will serve Jehovah. And when it is done, when it is done like this, a generational chain of blessing begins, children grow up under the shadow of the Most High and have the blessing of the Holy Spirit from their childhood, and their children better, better, chains of blessing. So many of you are in the struggle but I hope that you see yourself as pioneers and that you do not tire of educating your children in the ways of the Lord. Thank you Eliana, God bless you. Amen. Thank you.

Now it is my turn to share my brief testimony and then we will pass it on to the pastor. I want to share with you my first children's Bible. I could never forget this book and it's not even mine, mind you. I was at my wife's house, in California since she was a child, and they were cleaning the house and I saw that book and realized that it was the same children's Bible that I had as a child, and that was like... .. I'm already 37 years old, something around, 36, 37. I'm older than I appear, so ....... and so 30 years ago and I remember the colors and the drawings and the stories and I almost feel as if I have found a friend. It is engraved in my mind, in my conscience, the Bible that was shared with me when I was a child. Brothers, the things that we sow in children continue with them for the rest of their lives and even though they stray for a while, they have that recorded there and it is a seed and it is a powerful seed. A seed that bears fruit and in time the holy spirit pursues them and brings them back to where they need to be. I want to encourage you, you are children's ministers. My mom gave me this Bible, my mom ministered to me. I remember once we wanted to see a horror movie ...... with all the demons and my mother, who hardly ever was, she was not very strict with us, she was kind of calm, but that day she said: “No. That movie in my house, no. And I, "Mom, you're serious, that's just a movie." "No, No, No, Satan has no place in this house." I thank you. My dad, who is not even a Christian, I remember once, I stole a shark tooth that I found in a store. I stole it and told my dad and then gave it back, just for the joy of stealing. I was about 7 years old and I share it with my dad as if he was going to tell me: Oh, well done my son! I thought: oh, how funny, isn't it dad? And he got mad at me. I, how will it be. And I never forget his reaction and his anger, but his very holy anger, his good anger with me. And I... wow, I didn't steal any more sharks teeth. What is sown in a child stays with them. I also went to Sunday school, with the Catholics and also with the Protestants. I was sent to a Protestant Sunday school, “nursery school”, when I was 5 years old. They taught me to pray there, and I returned home like a Pentecostal, with my eyes closed: Lord. And my parents, like laughing at me, but how cute, right? I learned to pray. I believe, I always say that I accepted Christ at the age of 16, but you know what? I believe that it is not so, I believe that I accepted Christ at the age of 5 in nursery school and I forgot and then the Holy Spirit persecuted me until I accepted him at the age of 16. What we plant in them stays with them forever.

Parents, you are ministers. They know that the children's ministry is an extension of the ministry of the father and the mother. You may not know where to start, a newcomer. They send home a verse, study the verse with the child, pray with the child, you will be surprised what God can do through you because we are all children's ministers raising up a new generation, a Joshua generation that He will conquer the earth.

I'm going to invite the pastor and we're going to pray once more to dedicate this whole matter to the Lord and I invite you, we're going to do exercises today. Stand up one more time and once again I encourage you after this cult, moreover if you are a father you have no choice, get on, you have to go up to the third floor, your children's teachers are waiting and they will see beautiful decorations that they have put on the walls, we beat Disney with that, OK.

You know brethren we're going to change the program a little bit to flow with what Gregory is saying and I'm just going to ask you to stand while I read a portion of the word, I'm going to be very brief and then we're going to wrap up for don't mix up too many messages, because I believe that this message that has been shared today is important enough for us to retain so that you don't go away with a lot of different things and different ideas because this is so important. So I'm going to read the word and then I'm going to share a thought and we close and then maybe you can say goodbye to us with a prayer, Greg.

It says here in Matthew, Chapter 19, verses 13 to 15, a passage well known to all of you. “Then some children were presented so that Jesus could place his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them but Jesus said: "Let the children come to me and do not prevent them because of such is the kingdom of Heaven" and having placed his hands on them he left there. The Lord bless his word.

Have a seat for a second. This morning I was preaching and what I think I'm going to do is I'm going to share that with you later, maybe next Sunday so we get the same teaching about pruning and we're still going through that John 15 passage, where the Lord speaks that He is the vine and we are the branches and remain in Him, etc. It was a message that, I think, was a blessing for many and that is why they had asked me to give it again, although it was not the original plan, because we wanted to dedicate them to this, but in that message there is something very important in this idea that God invests in us. God does not merely call us to his Kingdom, and then he says: well, you're already saved, you're going to heaven, so well, I don't have to deal with you anymore, the most important thing has already been done, which is to save your soul. Now sit and wait until your day comes to meet me in eternity. God does not do that, but God invests in us and cares for us and works for us.

In that image that I read of John 15 there is the idea of a... well, there is John 15, there is Luke too. I read a passage from Lucas, the well-known passage about the fig tree that is not bearing fruit and the owner of the land comes and says: look, that fig tree is not bearing fruit so cut it down, why make the earth useless. And there is a character there who is very interesting called the vinedresser, and I imagine the vinedresser is like a type of gardener, an agricultural worker whose function is to work this vineyard, work this plant and make sure that it bears fruit, and the vinedresser He says to the owner: Please wait a little while, give me a year, let me dig around that vineyard, let me fertilize it and then we will see if it bears fruit. And if it doesn't bear fruit then, well, let's do as you ask. And I believe that the mere existence of a vinedresser in that land is important and is an indication of God's style of dealing with us. Notice that God does not simply create things, but God nurtures them, God works them, God puts characters, so to speak, in this case, in the case of every believer it is the holy spirit. When we enter the ways of the Lord, each one of us receives the holy spirit who comes to dwell with us and who becomes a vinedresser who works in our lives and who prunes, digs, and does everything necessary for the plant to grow. of fruit.

And brothers, isn't it the same with children, what should we do as parents? We give birth to life. I saw these creatures here so beautiful. Each of them is a drama, each of them is a story, each of them is a wonderful movie yet to be developed. And you see them there each with their character, one playing with a card, the teacher has to come and take them away, another over there wanting to be a drummer, another little girl over there, sweet and tender, another restless and... each one it has.... there are already things written inside them about what they are going to do one day in their life. And they are precious lives. Gregory said, certainly his soul is not less than that of an adult. The soul is born in its entirety. And they are precious things that we cannot afford to simply, as the theistic philosophers believed, theism is an 18th and 19th century philosophy that professed that when God created the universe, he simply wound it like a watch is wound. and he launched it into space to float and disregarded it. They believe that God exists but they see him as a God unaware of his creation. And we know that it is not so. God is a God tremendously involved in his creation. And you know what? I think that this is how every father and mother should be. We give birth to life, we create in a sense because God has given us that creative capacity and we generate something marvelous, mysterious, rich in potentialities and we cannot, like the God of theism, wind up that creature and think that that creature is going to develop into something precious, harmonious, creative simply by magic. When have you seen a beautiful garden made up of flowers of different colors, textures, that bloom at different stages of the season, that complement each other in shape and size, and think that this beautiful garden with its well-planned spaces, did it happen by magic? Immediately when you see that, you know that behind that beautiful garden there is a careful hand, which has been dedicated to tending that garden. Yes or no? And you know that there have been hours spent on that land removing the weeds and taking care that the insects don't eat the soil, fertilizing it, pruning it, moving them away from each other so they don't overwhelm and destroy each other, to keep the harmony of all those different plants. And so is human life. Human life is made up of different faculties, different emotions, different possibilities, different impulses. There are negative impulses, positive impulses, and all that mace of creativity that is the creature when it is born has to be ordered as well, it has to be managed, it has to be irrigated and fertilized. And that is the part that is up to each father or mother. The Lord valued children.

Notice that the disciples are so much like us, both in our capacity as parents, and also as the church of Jesus Christ because those disciples represent that church that believes that the teacher is important or too important to care for those little brats. No, that's for the inferiors. How are we going to worry the teacher to take a moment to take care of those children? The Lord told them: No, no, no, wait a moment gentlemen. Let me tell you something, if you don't become like one of those children, you are not going to go to the Kingdom of Heaven. And so he stopped his group of people, he stopped his whole important mission and he spent time with each one of those children. He laid his hands on them, prayed for them, blessed them, and then went on his way. There is a lesson there brothers, the church and we parents have to invest in our children. Amen. We have to value childhood, we have to take time.

Yesterday Gregory and I had a moment of pastoral crisis while we were talking because we wondered what we do today? What happened was that yesterday we invited the parents, as you remember, to come and visit the classrooms, which in fact, I emphasize that after here, go up there for a little while and see what the teachers have done, our sister Sara Naranjo, Our brother Naranjo's daughter did an excellent job decorating those rooms. Hours have passed and the teachers were there a long time. We invited the parents and a nice little group came, but they were not all that we would have liked to see. So Gregory was talking to me there, and I told him: Look, Gregory, why not tomorrow we return to the service at a time to celebrate the children's ministry. They know that we had to decide if we were going to do it or not, because one often thinks that doing that is interrupting the normal course of things. Look where we've come, brothers, we never take time to celebrate children, and a day we choose is like we're doing something wrong. Glory to the Lord that we had the spiritual lucidity to say: no, we are going to do it in the name of the Lord, we are going to do it and we are going to make the people aware. It is important that the church stops its way to value children and bless them and look out to them and pay attention to them. Thanks brothers. I believe that just doing that is inherently a blessing to our children. What we have done this afternoon here is a prophetic act, it is not only what has been said, no, no, I believe that there is a spiritual energy that is released with only a congregation recognizing the importance of childhood.

Let me tell you something else, as I'm wrapping up, it's on my mind here and it's something very important: you know not only does Jesus Christ value children, but, I'm going to say something shocking, Satan values children. Satan and his demons do not make the mistake that the church makes. Satan invests in childhood. It's sad to say, but it's true, brothers. We live in a world in which the devil has been given freedom to even enter the noblest, most innocent dimension of life and we already see on television advertisements that sexualize the minds of children, you already see the intimations of sexuality in the kids stuff ads We see the consumerism with which our children are being filled with an appetite for this brand, this clothing, this toy. We see violence in digital, computer games. We see the rebellion against authority already subtly embedded in some of the children's programs. And we already see the seeds of rebellion being planted in the programs, homosexuality is being infiltrated in many ways in children's educational television programs. That is already a reality and the authorities of this nation are often cooperating with the desensitization of our children in the area of homosexuality as well. Because? Because Satan values children. Not only does Jesus value children, the strategically thinking forces of hell know that if they can reach the fragile heart of a creature and get into their mind, just as those images from that book stayed there planted like a time bomb in the heart of Gregory, the 36-year-old pastor, likewise Satan plants images, impulses, energies, attitudes that, like a time bomb, are planted like a cursed seed in the sensitivity of our children, waiting for the day to explode. What is the church going to do and what are we parents going to do?

Brothers, being a parent is a 24/7 thing. Say amen and receive it. Brothers, that creature that you have there by your side, or that is up there, is such a precious thing that you must dedicate time to it, you must dedicate attention to it, you must turn off the television from time to time and more than once in a while, that it is your priority. You must sit down to talk with that creature, you must sometimes sit down to watch a television program and interpret what you are seeing so that you learn to criticize what you are trying to sell on that screen. You must take time to share with them the affairs of life, to share the word of God. Brothers, do not skimp on opportunities to sow a seed in the sensitivity of your children. Meche and I often have to run from one place to another, I'm not saying this to say: Oh, how great...., but sometimes Meche arrives on Friday from being here in counseling or other things, Abigail arrives from school, after a while he has to come here for the time of the children, or rather of the young people, the youth service. Sometimes he has to stay here because it's not worth coming and going back to the house and coming back, and by 10-odd or something like that at night he's coming back. Or Monday for him to come... for us it is a joy that he is rehearsing with the praise team and other things and that he invests time in school, and we have to invest in his education as well. Praise God that he can attend a Christian school and that there are men and women there who are investing in his childhood. I give glory to the Lord for projects like the one at Boston Trinity Academy and hopefully others will run, because the church of Jesus Christ needs to invest in children. We have to dedicate time to our children. Brothers, that today we take a renewed awareness of the importance of valuing our children. Invest time in them. Wake up to them. The sleeplessness time is not only when that creature is screaming at two or three months for a bottle of milk, it is also when it is 11, 10, 9 years old. Something happens in the minds of our children when they reach the age of 7, 8 years. Something is wrong, some time ago I went to a meeting with the superintendent of schools in Boston and he taught us one... he himself didn't even know what he was teaching us in a spiritual sense, but he showed us how up to a certain age there was a curve which showed that kids do pretty well academically here in the city of Boston, but when they get to a certain age that curve starts to go down and down. What's going on? That these children are already interacting with the world, they begin to watch television, the world begins to speak to them, because they can now pay money, they can now be consumers, the devil already knows that their sexuality is awakening, their conscience It's starting to work, their adulthood is beginning to develop in them and that's the right time, that's spring for those children and you have to take advantage of them at that time, and the devil uses that flowering time to put things and to harm that land.

Brothers, we have to counter that. And you have a son, a girl, a teenager, take time, value it as Jesus Christ's son when you pray for them, pray for your children. Understand that you are an example for them, good or bad but you are an example for them. Understand something, that if you want a truth to stick with your child, you are going to have to repeat it about 500 times in different ways, at least 100 or 200 times. That child is going to have to observe you in some way so that this truth penetrates his consciousness and becomes something constitutive, something structural in his personality. It is not a job for cowards or for lazy people, nor for people with a low attention span. You have to do it continuously and that is your call, that is your mission, that is your vision as a man or woman of God. So, brothers, we are going to cultivate our garden, we are going to take care of our land, we are going to value our children because there is an enemy that does not sleep and he wants these creatures, and you are the only line of defense right now that he has. The church is not the first line of defense. Get that out of your mind. The church can complement what you do, but we cannot do your work. You have to... value that creature that God has given you, pray for it, impose a hand on it, make time for it, get out of your routine and pay attention to it as the Lord Jesus Christ did. Amen. Glory to God. Let us receive that word from God this afternoon and renew our commitment as a church to value the land and plants that God has given us. Amen. Amen.

Brothers, now let's stand up. They know that I still don't have children, but I have nephews and all of their children, I don't know... I feel love for them. You don't have to be a mom or dad to be a spiritual mom or dad. One can have grandchildren or encourage young families to pray for the children. Everyone here has a sacred responsibility to the Lord to care for the children who are, the children who are in the church of Jesus Christ. If they are in the church of Jesus Christ, they are my children and I feel this responsibility for them, so we are going to give ourselves to the Lord, we are going to entrust ourselves to Him, that He affirm our call in the name of Jesus. Let us pray together and I invite you to repeat this statement with me.

Lord Jesus, I am a children's minister. I will be responsible, Lord. I will take care of your children by the power of your holy spirit in the name of Jesus. Amen.

And father, I bless everyone here, Lord, and I bless in the name of Jesus the homes of this church, Lord. I pray especially for fathers, for mothers who are alone in educating their children, I ask you to give them strength, Lord, to give them anointing, to provide everything they need to fulfill, Lord, the work that you have given them, Lord . I ask you for parents, Lord, that they may be the example of the heart of God the Father, Lord. Father I ask you for couples who are struggling, that you give them strength, Lord. And let them know that they are not alone in caring for their children and educating their children. May you power and anointing them to do so. I ask you for parents that your children are lost at this moment and they cry, day and night, not knowing what to do. Sir, you know what to do. Lord, I ask that these moms and dads can trust you, Lord, that they can leave their children in your hands, Lord, that we see miracles, the miracle of the prodigal son because we live in the last generation when you will be returning the hearts of children towards their parents and the hearts of parents towards their children, Lord. You promised it, that in the last days it will be a prophetic sign of your coming. Do it here in this house, Lord. Do it here I ask you, Lord and bless the children's ministry once again. We ask you Lord, and we know that everything is in your hands in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.