Disciples radically committed to God

There is a key word that helps us how to see ourselves with respect to Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God and it is the word disciple, we are disciples and by being disciples that means that we are subject to the Lordship and authority of Jesus Christ in all things. areas of our life.

And before going fully into it, one more thing, so that you know how to situate yourself well in meditation. You may remember that last Sunday those of you who were here had Dr Dennis Peacocke, who is a man very involved in ministry leadership and global strategic thinking and who has been used of God for 35 years of ministry in many parts of the world. , and Dennis left us a challenge, do you remember being disciples well? How many remember that passage? And that message and the fact, he said something intriguing and somewhat disturbing also that Christians are not going to change the world, nor are they capable of changing the world, and that kind of goes against what one is normally used to. hear. It is not Christians who are going to change the world, but who? disciples.

Why this distinction? Because there are many people who come to church all the time and come and visit a church but their hearts are not completely given over to Christ, to the Kingdom of God and to God's dominion over their lives. And so, you really can't really call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ. Statistics indicate that supposedly 40% of the US population, of the US population goes to church on Sundays. Imagine, supposedly, although it is being questioned, 40% of North Americans, including the immigrants who are here, go to church every week.

And yet this society is in continuous moral, spiritual, social deterioration. And one wonders, wow, how is that? 40%, almost half of this nation supposedly go to church? And on a day like today, it would probably have to be much more. And where is the difference? Where is the impact?

Because I tell you 40% of Christians, of disciples in a nation, they keep everything, brothers, if they are truly disciples. It means that there is a disconnect.

There's a disconnection between the claim to being Christian and really being yielded over to the Kingdom of God.

There is a disconnect between people calling themselves Christians and being truly Christian. So that distinction struck me and I thought it is good that Lion of Judah in these days when we are fasting and praying and that God is manifesting himself in a precious way in our midst, that we put our roots deep in what it is to be a Christian, because you know what? In the vision of our church is the idea of producing Christians, he says, radically committed to the Kingdom of God.

Listen to that: radically committed to the Kingdom of God. My vision as your senior pastor and the vision of this church is that each person who considers himself a member of our community of León de Judá is a Christian committed to the Kingdom of God. And not committed, but radically committed, which is not the same. The word radical means root, it comes from the Greek "radix", root. May our very root, the foundation of our being be committed to the Kingdom of God.

And it's good that we visit that concept for a moment today. I know that many of us come on Easter Sunday and what we want is a very light and soft sermon, to go home and eat the ham that we are going to put in the oven, whatever, and that they not complicate our life too much. shepherd life. Save that one for another day when it's raining out there and the weather is bad and we can get down together.

But, on this day I want to challenge you all because it is one of the days in which I will have a greater number of you here. I want them to go.... and I don't want to depress them or anything, but I want to challenge them in the name of the Lord, I want to encourage them, I want to stimulate them to catch the vision of what the Christian life is in its reality.

And I don't want to lose the momentum of the last sermon and take advantage of that to take them to another level. It's a long introduction you'll say, let's go to Romans, Chapter 14. Don't worry, if you don't have your Bible just pay close attention.

Romans, Chapter 14, there in verses 7 to 9. We are going to use a couple of passages as a foundation for us to begin to put..... I am not going to exhaust all the material that I have but I want to at least leave you some things there. Romans 14:7, look at what the Apostle Paul says, he says: “because none of us – that includes you – none of us lives for himself”.

What Paul is saying there is you don't belong to yourself. You do not live for your own pleasure, if you are a true Christian do not say that you govern yourself. Do not even think for a moment that your life belongs to you, that you have the right to do what you want, to decide where you are going to live, who you are going to marry, what your life will be. profession.

The Apostle Paul says “none of us Christians have the right to say I live for me or by me or on my authority”. Do you understand that clearly? "... and no one dies for themselves." That is to say, not even dying is given to us to decide or have anything to say about it as Christians, but it is now in the hands of the Lord and we must integrate ourselves into that Lordship of God.

So, none of us lives for ourselves, none of us dies for ourselves, "for if we live for the Lord we live." And I ask you this morning, can you say affirmatively, conclusively, surely that what you live now in life you live for the Lord and in the Lord? Can you say yes to that truth? Do we live for the Lord?

“....and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die of the Lord we are”, and look here at the connection between the resurrection of Christ and the Lordship of Christ over our lives.

It says “....because Christ died for this and what? and.... say it again.... he died and rose again and came back to life, for what? to be Lord both of the dead and of those who live”. In other words, understand me correctly, the death of Christ and his resurrection was to give him the right to have dominion, control, Lordship, rule over all creation, and that includes you, Christian. Moreover, we can say that even those who are not Christians have to submit to the Lordship of Christ sooner or later.

The word says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And he earned that on the cross and through his resurrection.

The first Christians, when we read the Book of Acts, over and over again, for example in Peter's sermon to that Jewish crowd, in the first Chapter and second Chapter of the Book of Acts, a and once again you highlighted the fact that God has resurrected this man that you killed and crucified and has made him Lord. And the Lordship of Christ was essential in the mindset of the early Christians through the resurrection.

In other words, when we come to church on Easter Day, you see brothers, many people come simply to have a feel good time, to have a good time, to have an excuse to put on a new suit and that many people see them. That is why they come to church and go to church on Palm Sunday to take a little palm there and fulfill a purely ritual and religious task. But, they don't understand what that really means.

I am much more interested than when we come to celebrate these days, like Christmas and Good Friday and Resurrection, that we meditate on the consequences, the implications for our lives of those days that we are celebrating. Because what good is it to me to have a lot of superficially spiritual people, coming here simply to do a totally formulaic and superficial act and that their lives do not internally grasp the meaning of what they are doing.

Last Friday we talked about the crucifixion of Jesus in the passage from Philippians, Chapter 2 and we said that the essence of Good Friday is the helpful temperament of Jesus, the ministry of serving others and that therefore we too had to serve and give ourselves as he gave himself. And that is the meaning for me of Good Friday.

For me then, the meaning of Resurrection Sunday is to recognize the Lordship of Christ in my life through that resurrection that he experienced. So you are here this morning for me to help you by the grace of the Lord to become aware that Christ is the master of your life. And if you want to consider yourself a true Christian, a true Christian, you have to be able to answer that question in the affirmative.

Does the Lord control, the Lord dominate, the Lord rule in all aspects of my life? Am I a disciple or a disciple of Jesus Christ truly? That is the concept.

Let's go to another passage that might help us understand this a little bit more. Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 14, and there we will find something similar to this, where the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to his disciples and tells them what it truly means to be his servant. I want to awaken your conscience.

Luke, Chapter 14, verse 25. It says “.....great crowds went with him - and that is very important, what the evangelist Luke clarifies, great crowds. Why do you know something? At the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, many people followed him because he healed the sick, gave people food, preached a positive Gospel of God's love, etc., so who doesn't like that, as they say out there. Everyone came and large crowds flocked to the Lord, but they did not understand what it truly was to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Then the Lord, in his honesty, called them to chapter and said 'wait a minute, guys. This is not as easy as it seems, there is a cost to being a Christian.

So that's why the Evangelist Luke points out 'great crowds were going with him and turning back – he saw that great crowd of people and turned to them with his characteristic honesty – and said to them 'if anyone comes to me – listen to this- if someone comes to me as you have come today to the house of God -or as you came one day and you told him one day Lord, I want to receive you as my Lord and my savior and I want to follow you- ".. .. if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”.

When the Lord uses that word 'hate' he is using what is called hyperbole in the art of rhetoric. A hyperbole is an exaggeration that tries to affect the heart of the listener. The Lord says the following 'if someone says that he is my follower and in his heart he has not parted with his family or his profession or his money or his time, or his desire to enjoy life, or his character that needs to change, if you don't detach yourself from those things so deeply that it's like you hate them, you don't deserve to be my disciple.

In other words, Christ is not asking you to start hating your mom and dad for the moment, but He is saying that you detach yourself from them, detach yourself from them emotionally in relation to your attachment to Jesus Christ, may your attachment to Christ be so great, so powerful, so passionate that your love for your parents seems like you hate them. Do you understand the difference?

The Lord wants us to get rid of all material attachments in this world. You will remember that on Friday I told you that in the passage from Philippians, Chapter 2, the writer who is the Apostle Paul, says that the Lord did not consider being equal to God as something to what? to cling to, to cling to, but emptied himself, emptied himself. And I was telling you that this means, in the words of the Apostle Paul, that we have the same feeling that we have to do the same: we cannot become attached and cling to anything in this world, because the Bible says that we we are what? pilgrims and strangers in this world. Let's go by.

If you are attached to life, if you love this world, if your emotions go up and down as your fortunes go up and down, according to the level of your ATM account. When you go and punch the card and if there's a lot of money, well... pa... you're happy and happy, otherwise you're depressed to the ground. If you love this world so much that this world is your priority, you don't deserve to call yourself a disciple. I have bad news for you.

Because the Lord says, 'no, you have to detach yourself from everything'. You cannot hold on to anything, everything the Lord asks of you, you have to be willing to give it up and give it to him, even your dad, your mom, no matter what, you have to let go of everything. And that is one of the most important characteristics of a disciple, a true follower of Jesus Christ.

It is that it is a life of total detachment. You have to get rid of everything that men who do not know God normally consider absolutely key in their lives. And we have to ask the Lord, 'Father, each day detach me more and more from this world. Get rid of the love of money, the love of others, what people think.

You know that the root of neurosis is often that, what will they say. Many people live prisoner of 'oh, if I make this decision, what will they say? If I do the other thing, what are they going to......? Those are human ties and the Lord says 'you have to ask yourself what God thinks, what is God's opinion rather', because we are detached from everything that men think and from the normal affections of the world.

The Christian life is a life of complete renunciation. Look at verse 33, right there in Luke, Chapter 14. It says: "...so any of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple."

In other words, that doesn't mean you're going to live like a beggar. You can have your house and you can have your nice shiny car. There is no problem with that. And you can have your nice condo and you can have a healthy bank account, and even plan for your retirement, and take your vacations in the Bahamas, etc. There is no problem with that.

But, what the Lord says is 'be careful that you do not cling to those things and that those things dominate your life, control your life and that you make decisions according to those values. You have to, those things, simply consider them secondary, but they are not the center and foundation of your life. In your heart you have to give up these things.

That idea of a discipleship that comes off, refers above all to the level of emotions. Christ wants us to get rid of all those things that cause us so much anxiety in life. There are people who do not sleep because they are glued to money and are always calculating how much money they have in their bank account, how much they will earn, how much the check will be on Friday, and they are always thinking about material things. And the Lord says 'No, you have to get rid of those things. He who has, has to live as if he did not have.'

Today at least two who agree with me. Amen. And we have to live like this and you know something, brother. The wonderful thing is this: when you live like this, do you know what happens? The Lord does not get tired of blessing us then and gives us much more than when we live clinging to things. The person who is generous, the person who is generous with his goods for the Kingdom of God, look, God is always giving more and more, and he is blessing him more and more.

The word says that he who sows generously will reap generously from the Lord. The key to happiness lies in emotionally detaching yourself from material things and placing your affection and loyalty in the Kingdom of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ, who bought you with his precious blood and that the Lord made you Messiah and King of everything that exists.

When man learns to let go and live as a disciple, then he can experience true happiness. So the Lord calls you to be a disciple, a disciple. In fact the word disciple, let me also give a little bit of the etymological background of the word. In the original Greek the word that is translated into Spanish 'disciple' is 'matetes'. And at the time that Christ was moving, in Greco-Roman times, the first century of this time, a disciple was a young person generally assuming an apprentice relationship with a teacher who was proficient in a subject.

So that disciple lived with the master, ate with the master, slept many times in the master's house and wherever the master went, the disciple followed him. If the master was, for example, a carpenter, that disciple was always watching the master carpenter measure the wood, how he cut it, how he hooked the tools, how he made the corners, the angle cuts, how he made a chair, and the disciple was always watching, imitating and following his teacher in everything. And the teacher had complete control of the disciple throughout his life, especially in the religious aspect.

When a rabbi took a disciple under his apprenticeship, that disciple for the moment became a total imitator of his teacher and a total servant of his teacher. So when the Bible applies the word disciple to us, it is saying the relationship that must exist between you and Jesus Christ is the same as that between a physical, material disciple and a rabbi, a teacher; a relationship of complete surrender and subjection of all aspects of our lives.

So, brothers, I call you in the name of the Lord to ask yourself again: is my life like this with the Lord? The Apostle Paul was a man who exemplified that disciple relationship and look how the Apostle Paul thought. I invite you to look in Philippians in the letter to the Philippians, Chapter 3, verse 7 to 11. Look at the attitude of a disciple like the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:7 “..... but how many things were for my profit I have estimated as what? as a loss for Christ's sake."

In other words, Paul experienced a radical conversion in his life. Paul was a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church, a Jew who hated Christians until he had an encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. And the risen Christ knocked him off his horse and Paul was blinded and only heard a voice that said to him: 'Saul, why are you persecuting me? And the Lord there sealed Saul with his property seal and that changed Saul's life 180 degrees, even his name changed from Saul to Paul.

All his profession, all his academic and religious training, all of that he had to throw away because it was of no use to him in light of what Christ had just revealed to him. Then he had to let go of his profession, he had to let go of his name, he had to let go of the purpose of living and his self-esteem, the prestige he had among the other Jews, because he was a man who had reached a great level of knowledge and prestige. in society; all of that he had to throw away and renounce in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

So, that's why he says “.... but how many things were for my gain, I have estimated them as loss for Christ's sake”. And we have to do the same in our lives, brothers.

What do you consider gain in your life? It can be a profession, it can be a love relationship with someone who doesn't suit you. Gain for some may be a character trait that does not please the Lord but that brings you advantage and benefit. Profit can be a business that you do that hurts others and that hurts your life or that prevents you from entering deeper into your relationship with God. Gain can be plans that you have to have great achievements in a profession or in a social relationship or whatever, and the Lord says 'are you willing, if I ask you, to give that up so that you and I can have a true intimate relationship?

The Apostle Paul says “....how many things were for my gain, I have estimated them as loss for Christ's sake, and certainly I still estimate all things as loss because of the excellence of love, of knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for the love of whom I have lost everything and consider it rubbish in order to win Christ.” Glory to the name of the Lord.

And look at what it says “....in order to know him –in verse 10- in order to know him and the power of his resurrection and the participation of his sufferings.”

You know brother, there is something in the Christian life that for us to truly get to know Jesus we first have to remove everything that distracts us, all love, all affection that competes with love for Jesus Christ. If you want to get to know the true power of Jesus, of his resurrection, you have to remove all interaction from your mind and your emotions.

Many people wonder why the Gospel doesn't excite me. How is it that there are people who during a time of adoration jump, and laugh or cry. There are people who come forward and are enthusiastic about the Gospel and you are there cold, indifferent. You don't feel anything, they can stick a needle in and poke you and you are totally insensitive and the holy spirit doesn't touch you, why? Because you are not taking Christ Jesus seriously. Because you haven't died to yourself, there is a part that you still want to preserve. Because you think if I give my life to the Lord, I don't know what will happen. You lose control and we are 'control freaks'. We like to be in control, so we are afraid. If I give the Lord control of my life, then I will not know what is going to happen.

But you know what happens, brother, that this control that you retain prevents you from truly knowing Christ Jesus, it prevents you from knowing the power of his resurrection, it prevents you from letting the power of Christ move in your life bringing you joy, peace, joy, including material blessing and emotional release.

Not everything in the life of the disciples is negativity, not everything is letting go, leaving, abandoning, giving up. No, the word tells me that when I renounce those things I receive a blessing for my life. I can then know Christ. The scales fall from my eyes and I can know him in his power, in his resurrection, in his promises, in his fidelity, in his ability to provide for every situation in my life, in his ability to give me peace and joy. and hope, but first I have to let go in order to receive from the Lord.

And that's why Paul says 'everything I considered gain I gave up to know Jesus and to know the power of his resurrection and become like him.' the opportunity to win many things for the Lord. And the Apostle Paul is a very powerful example of this.

Know anything else? When you have left many things and have forsaken much for the Lord, you also receive spiritual power and authority. Let's look for example in John, Chapter 14, the Gospel according to Saint John, Chapter 14, verses 12 to 14.

The Lord Jesus Christ says there: "I say to you a desert, whoever believes in me the works that I I do he will do them too and he will do even greater because I am going to the Father and whatever you ask the Father in my name I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will".

What a wonderful promise from the Lord to His followers! He who follows Jesus Christ has access to the power of Jesus Christ, he who gives his life to the Lord, God gives him power in return.

Look at another passage that makes this idea quite clear. Mark, Chapter 16, verses 17 and 18. It says there: “... whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned and these signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.”

In other words, there is a relationship between everyone who believes and the power we receive. When we surrender our lives to the Lord then all the power that is in Christ Jesus also becomes power for us, power to live fruitful lives, powerful lives.

In Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 1 to 7. "Then calling his 12 disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all sickness and disease."

Brothers, if we are willing to live as disciples, the Lord is going to make a change in our lives and he is going to give us that power that the word promises. The Lord said that he who believes in me also says rivers of living water will flow from within.

How can we experience that full life to which God has called us? How can we experience that life where we pray and see the hand of God move and pray for a need and see the Lord answer?

Yesterday late in the service in English one of the young people who help us in the direction of praise came and told me: 'pastor, in this time of fasting and prayer I am learning to see the power of Christ manifest in my life'. And he told me about his family that had a debt of 30,000 dollars and unfortunately his mom's credit was ruined due to a family situation that was very difficult to explain, but even though they had a house they couldn't even get a loan to get out of the bind they were in. they were and had a very pressing need. And he, in that time of fasting, one of the things he asked the Lord, is 'Father, allow that in some way this situation of my family's financial debt can be resolved.'

The fact is that he enjoyed testifying to me about how the Lord opened the doors so that his mother found grace before a financial agency, a bank that gave him all the money they needed to get out of this debt pressing that if they were not going to have a serious legal problem, at extremely low interest, and she was able to catch up on her debts and put everything under the mortgage on the house and solve that situation.

And he said: 'I was surprised because exactly what I asked the Lord for, I saw.' And this young man was talking about how God is transforming his family life. He invested in fasting, in praying, in seeking God and is now seeing an aspect of the Christian life that he did not know before, which is the power to solve situations.

There are Christians who have problems with their children, and in their marriage and in other situations but many times, not always, but many times we are living double lives. We have not surrendered everything to the Lord and the Lord says 'son, daughter, why don't you surrender your life to me? Why don't you become a disciple, a disciple of mine and give me everything you have and I will manage it? And then I'm going to tell you, I'm going to put you on a diet, I'm going to give you your money every day, your food every day, your decisions every day and I'm going to take control of your life.

I want to ask you a question. Who do you want controlling your life? Yourself or the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy spirit? Who can better direct your life? Who can manage your money better? Who can manage your family relationships better? Who can manage your marriage better? Who can manage their emotions and thoughts better? You or the holy spirit?

The Lord says 'give me control.' You see, brother, discipleship is all about control. Who is at the wheel of your life. And you have enough faith to say 'Lord, I give you everything I have, everything I am, I place it in your hands and I am going to trust that you are going to direct and that you know how to do things better'.

The Lord is hungry for people who live the Christian life to the level that they are meant to live it.

I'm going to ask the musicians to come over here quickly because we're done with these.

Brother, the Lord is challenging you this morning, on this day of resurrection, the Lord is telling you, are you willing to live as a disciple of mine? Are you willing to give me the place that belongs to me by my resurrection, my lordship? Don't miss out on the opportunity to be a genuine and authentic follower of Jesus Christ. The time of vain religiosity has passed and now we need to live a genuine Christianity.

As your pastor, I am hungry, brothers, to raise up a community of men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, of men and women devoted to the Lord Jesus. My appetite is, and this is only for the glory of God, that when people look at this church they can see a model of what the Christian life is: men and women who have united their rhetoric with their experience, their words with their behavior. . Men and women who have put their hand in the plow and who say 'I'm not going back'.

That we are living like the first Christians that we see portrayed in the Book of Acts, they say they sold everything, they gave everything to the Lord, so that there was no one who suffered from hunger or need among them .

Brothers, what would happen in the US, what would happen in Europe if everyone who calls himself a Christian, all these millionaires who don't know what to do with their money, who have...... I think that if they spent a hundred thousand dollars a day and lived for thirty years, they could not spend all the money they have.

What would happen if those people that you see in very large and elegant churches on Sundays and on a Sunday like today, said 'I am going to live as a disciple and I am going to give my money to bless others, I am going to give my money so that the churches can preach the Gospel all over the world, I am going to give my money so that little children in Africa who are suffering from hunger can eat and can get up. I am going to give my money so that in the cities of the United States no young person stops going to university due to lack of money or a scholarship.

If people truly began to live as disciples, if in marriages where there are Christians who come to church and are fighting each other and abusing each other or the man dominating or the woman dominating many covertly, say 'Stop, I am going to start living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I am going to obey the principles of serving my spouse, loving him as Christ loved the church, not exploiting him, not oppressing him, not abusing him, not emotionally oppress her, but serve her like Christ who served others.

What would happen, brothers? At the moment there would be no counseling ministry because it would not be necessary because it would be a blessing for everyone. Amen. What would happen, brothers, if we lived as disciples of Jesus Christ? What if parents began to set an example for their children at home and there was more prayer and more spiritual experience? What if the children began to honor the word that says 'honor your father and your mother', so that things go well for you and that you have long days on earth? If the youngsters began to make life easier for their parents, to obey them, to submit to them as a disciple is expected, what would happen? It would be the glory of God.

If León de Judá begins to live as disciples of Christ and we pay attention to the word of God and we die to self, we die to the flesh, we die to our appetites and we give everything to the Lord, our money, our time, our property, our illusions, our plans, our professions, if we put everything at the disposal of the Kingdom of God, brothers, people out there would kill themselves to get into this church every time we have a service. It would not be necessary to make even an appeal. People would say 'I need what you have' and they would run for us to pray for them to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, because such power would be unleashed in this community that we would revolutionize all of Massachusetts, even a group of Latinos like us.

Newspapers would start writing articles about this church. If this church decides, we are going to live as disciples and followers of Christ Jesus. What a great challenge, brothers! What a beautiful vision! What power the Lord has for our congregation, if we say today, the day of resurrection, I sign up as an aspiring disciple of Jesus Christ and I am going to put everything I have at the feet of the Lord.

Please brother. Let's stand up. We are going to receive this challenge from the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to ask the Lord Jesus this morning to give us the spiritual courage to be disciples and followers of Jesus.

Lay your life at the feet of the Lord right now. I want to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness because I do not live as a disciple, if I lived as a disciple I don't know... things would be very different, I want to live as a disciple and I know that the Lord calls me and there is a challenge to my life. And I ask him, 'Father, convince me more each day and put fire inside me so that I can totally give my life to you.' I want you to do the same this morning.

There is a change, when one even acknowledges that this is what God wants from me. You're not necessarily going to be living it because that's a lifelong process, but by simply acknowledging, yes, now I understand, that's what it's like to be a Christian, that's what it's like to be a follower and I'm not there, but I will try, I will aspire to be. Then there is a transaction that occurs within your being and the power of Christ begins to be released to take you to that place.

We are going to invite the Lord this morning, Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus make us disciples, make us followers of Jesus Christ, make us people delivered to you, Lord. Make us radical people, committed people.

Father we want to be disciples of Jesus. We want to be followers, we don't want to be people who just pay lip service to Christianity. Lord, we know that religion never saved anyone, religion never touched or impacted the world. It was people radically committed to the values of the Kingdom of God, and we want to be like that. We want to be committed to the lordship, the claims of Jesus over our lives.

Lord, you have the right to enter into all areas of our being. We ask that you make this congregation a congregation of people radically committed to you.

I want to make one last call. A while ago Gonzalo invited during the time of praise if someone had not given their life to the Lord and wanted to take a step of faith and come forward and some brothers came by and it was a time of great blessing. And in light of what I just preached, perhaps there is still someone here who has come today who needs to put Christ in the place of his soul and heart as Lord. You want to take a step of faith this morning and say 'Lord, I understand what you are asking of me and I invite you to take control of my life.'

Would you like to come forward here? Glory to God. There will be someone else who wants to come by this morning and give their life to the Lord Jesus and lay down their life and say 'Father, I promise to live as a disciple, as a disciple of yours.'

Pass by this morning and the Lord will give you strength. How nice to see these two young people come here! You do not have to be perfect, the Lord says he will come and enter you and he will give you the power and strength to honor and please him. What he needs is a contrite and humiliated heart, a heart that humbles itself and surrenders to him. That is the most important part: a person yielded to the Lord.

And I know that perhaps there are others who have felt the touch of the holy spirit this morning and I want to bless and clothe them with the grace of the Lord.

Come here, don't be afraid. Even if you've passed before and want to plunge back into the blessing, don't worry. Come here. We are going to give our lives to the Lord. We will surrender our possessions to the Lord Jesus Christ on this occasion.

Anyone else? Glory to the name of the Lord. Luis, please if you can..... someone has to come through here. Stay here for a moment. We will pray for you.

Will there be anyone else? Oh Lord we bless you, we glorify you, we give you grace. You are the Lord. Say that in your heart: you are the Lord. Tell Jesus Christ, 'you are the Lord, you are the owner, you have control of my life. I give you everything I am. My life belongs to you, Lord. I want to live radically committed to you.

Father, I bless your servants who have passed here in front, Lord, and I ask you to strengthen them and give them the authority and ability to live as your servants, Lord, delivered and surrendered to you, experiencing your power, experiencing your provision and your thanks, Lord. We surrender their lives to you. You know exactly what you will do in their hearts on this day. Use them for your glory and give them the ability to surrender to you, Lord. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Make León de Judá an exemplary congregation, an exemplary church, Father, a church of men and women who live consistently, authentically as Christians, as disciples, as followers committed to the Lordship of Jesus. We praise and bless you Lord. Thank you Jesus. Thank you. Amen and amen. Thank my Lord. Thank you Christ. Hallelujah! Give glory and honor to the Lord. We are disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus and that is what this day is all about.