Christian Character Qualities

Many times one begins a series of sermons and weeks go by and continuity is lost. But I decided to finish this sustained meditation that has included several sermons on the theme of participating in the divine nature, how to be integral members of the beauty of God, of the divine character, of the divine nature. Because we can participate in that beauty of God's character.

And in Second Peter, chapter 1, we have some ideas that teach us about that. You will remember that there in that passage, Second Peter, 1, beginning with verse 3, the Apostle Peter states and enumerates a series of qualities that make up the Christian profile and that the Bible calls us to aspire and pursue these qualities in our personality. , our constitution, our spiritual nature. And this is a list that instead of making us feel inadequate, that oh, that's too much for me, should encourage us, spur us on towards spiritual greatness, towards spiritual excellence. And I'm going to try to squeeze a lot of material in a short time. But let me read this passage from Second Peter, chapter 1, beginning with verse 3. It says:

“As all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us by his divine power – speaking of God – through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and excellence, through which God has given us precious and great promises so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature.” You see there my insistence on "partakers of the divine nature." We are participants in that divine nature and God has invested in our constitution as men and women of spiritual excellence. And note that this is the preamble to what is truly the conclusion he wants to reach. But notice that God has given us great privileges, great promises, great knowledge, access to sublime mysteries from God, a number of beautiful things that He has invested in us. And the idea of the Apostle Peter is that since God has invested so much in you, as God has taken the trouble, so to speak, to load you with spiritual wealth, and here comes the conclusion in verse 5, for all that I just to mention, he says, "... you also putting all diligence" and the idea of all diligence means a lot of effort, a lot of vigilance, a lot of intentionality, "... putting all diligence for this very thing add - and that is a key word on which I am going to insist on a moment, add, - add to your faith - and here comes a series of qualities. These qualities we are supposed to yearn to have in our spiritual profile.

Jonathan alluded to when... if you are going to apply for this request for job applications, put your sheet of... your bio, your resume. And what does one do in a resume? You put, well, I did this, I worked on that, I have these skills that I can bring to the job I'm asking for, I have these past experiences. That is your profile, that is your biology, that is your resume, that is your trade sheet. So, that is what Peter is bringing us here, a profile of the mature Christian man or woman, of a person who has acquired a series of qualities that make up the mature character of a believer, a person who can walk with a certain degree of respectability. Let the word be used in the Christian life, because he has certain qualities, like a soldier who has also been in the war, he has acquired certain training, he has gone to an officer's school, and now he has a service record that enables him to say , I am a competent soldier. That's the idea.

He then says, “Putting all diligence, for this very reason add to your faith – the first quality faith – virtue, - the second quality. - To virtue add knowledge, to knowledge add self-control and to self-control add patience. Now, when you have gained a bit of patience, then, “…add pity to patience, - and when pity is more or less worked on a little bit and you are working on the others simultaneously – add brotherly affection. And when you already feel that you are reaching a little brotherly affection, add love. The pinnacle of all other virtues. Both Pablo and Pedro as they always end when they add these lists of qualities and virtues, they end with the most powerful quality of all, which is love. And here is a very captivating phrase, it says, "Because if these things – all that he has pointed out above – are in you, - if they are there in your character, in your Christian formation, - and they abound." Because these qualities are not supposed to be there for a chinchín, as the Dominicans say, just a little bit. No, they are supposed to be in abundance. "If these things are in you and abound, they will not let you be idle or unfruitful."

That means that if you have these qualities in your character, in your profile, you are going to be a ball of fire. You are going to be a productive Christian, wherever you go you are going to bear fruit. In any church you go to, if you move, you are going to be a resource for the Kingdom of God, because these qualities are life itself. And the one who has them by nature produces fruit, like an apple tree without having to squeeze, produces apples. And the Christian who has these qualities will always be fruitful. So, I want to stop because we have already talked about the other pieces, about everything we have, what God has given us, what He has invested in us. And that those things that God has placed in us impose a way of living the Christian life on us. The French have a phrase that says, “noblesse oblige” which means that if you are the son of a king, if you are a member of royalty, it forces you into a lifestyle. The great nobles know that being born in a royal family gives them many privileges, but also, they have to live a life of self-sacrifice, they have to live a life that they do not owe to themselves, they owe to the crown, They are due to the nation. If he has to marry a princess from another nation to strengthen the strength of his nation, he has to do it even if they don't love her because they are children of royalty.

And likewise, when we Christians enter into Christ and when God invests so much in us, by endowing us with his spirit, by being heirs of the salvation that Christ made possible on the cross of Calvary, that already imposes a way of living on us. Amen. And that's what Peter says here. For all these things that you have received then, "giving all diligence, he says, add these things." Notice for a moment here this idea of “giving all diligence,” that refers to intense effort. We must fully dedicate ourselves to that search for perfection and Christian maturity. We must focus on this with determination. We must seek the sanctification and perfection of our lives with effort. "Look, I command you to make an effort and be brave." Paul tells Timothy, “I advise you – and that advice is not advice, no, I advise you – to fan into fire the gift of God that is in you.” Amen. It is a call to what God has given you, take advantage of it, invest in it putting all diligence.

The life of a Christian can never be different, flattened, as we also say in the Caribbean, it cannot be comfortable, it cannot be lukewarm, it is an intense life where we are dedicated to only one thing. We are athletes of the spirit. Amen. We are warriors of the spirit and intentionally live the Christian life committed to ascending to spiritual greatness each day. It is not just come, punch the card in the church, we already left and left exactly as we entered. No, now we leave here to live the Christian life, and to do everything possible to be pleasant and useful to the heart of God. We are always pursuing Christian maturity. So, that's why Paul says, “put all the diligence add – that mandate, it is imperative, it is very important. Add means that we are called to add various qualities to our Christian character. We must add to faith, virtue, and to virtue etc...

I was telling you, I think, once in speaking of this that the mature Christian, the Christian who is pursuing sanctification and perfection, must be like an art collector who is always looking for new pieces to add to his collection. And we believers have to be like that, when we have gone through a test and God has made us aware that, look, you need this, you need that. Once we have started to add that quality, we already have to be looking for the next quality. We have to have an insatiable appetite for perfection and we have to know what constitutes perfection. But every day of our life we have to be looking for new qualities, love, peace, joy, patience, mercy, forgiveness. All these qualities of the Christian life must be added from one thing to the other. And of course, we know that it is the Holy Spirit that does that. I cannot clothe myself with hope or peace, but I can cooperate with that work of God.

There is a tension between what God gives and what we cooperate to receive. God doesn't take you and blow your brains out and put patience in you. No, you have to say, “Lord, I long to be a patient man, woman. Teach me how to do it." You have to be meditating on that virtue. You have to be praying for the Lord to make it possible in your life. You have to be open to the training you need to receive to develop that quality in you. And so with all other qualities. You can cooperate by opening yourself up to it, meditating on it, praying for it, longing for it, repenting of not having that quality and then, God is part of instilling that quality in you. For example, David's prayer in Psalm 51, “Create in me, O God, a pure, healthy spirit,” came to mind right now. “Create in me, O God, a right heart and a clean spirit within me,” something like that. The idea is, David is eager. He knows he lacks in that direction. He has sinned in that direction. So, he tells him, “Lord, create in me a clean heart and a right spirit within me because I recognize my transgressions. My sin is always before me. Examine me God, know my heart, test me, know my thoughts and see if there is a wicked path in me and guide me on the eternal path. David is eager, yearning, recognizes his need and then God says, "Son, I understand your need, I understand your call, and I am going to help you in that process."

So, there is a part that God gives and a part that we give. Add to your faith virtue, etc. The other thing I tell you, brothers, is that you are not satisfied with just having faith. There are many Christians, especially Pentecostals, we suffer from this. And it is that we believe that good, if I have faith, if I speak in tongues, if I fast, if I pray, if I rebuke demons and if God does healing through me, well, I already arrived. I graduated. That is the beginning. Maybe you have faith for those things but there are other things that you need to add: love, for example. That is why Paul says, “if I have all the faith in the world and perform miracles, I move mountains, but I do not have love, it is of no use to me. I am nothing."

And there are many brothers in the Pentecostal world, we teach them to look, that's what you need: holiness, faith, fasting, prayer, and what about Christian character? What about the qualities of a servant of God? And many people discredit the gifts because they do not clothe themselves with the fruit of the spirit. Wow! Put that down there quick. We get so enamored with the gifts that we forget that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is just as important as the gifts. And many times we undress a saint to dress another. And so many Christians oh yes, who are a ball of fire in faith, but in character, forget it. Fighting with the wife continuously, at work he can't stand it. They are a hazard on the road. They don't dare put a sign behind that says they are Christians because we know that if they see us drive... I sign up for that sometimes. But, brothers, we have to make an effort so that our walk is the same as our profession. Write that there too. [Laughs] Both. So we cannot be content with just having faith, we must also add the other virtues and other qualities of the Christian life to have a complete profile.

So, add to your faith virtue. So, faith is important, which is the platform of everything, and what of virtue? Virtue is a beautiful word. In the original Greek the word virtue is written “earring” not earring, sister, don't put your hand to your ear. No, earring that means character, means solid behavior. Arete refers to goodness, virtue, moral excellence, perfection, Christian character, solidity in behavior. There is a certain connotation in the word virtue of manliness, from which the word "viros" comes, man, virility, for example. That idea of a spiritual manhood. Both men and women can have manhood. It's like spiritual testosterone. It is solid in walking. He is a mature personality, an excellent character that leads to a solid reputation.

How sad it is when there are Christians whose character belies what God has done in their lives. So, in his work, people don't respect him. In his family, he does not have the respectability they need. In the church, they are a source of conflict many times. And the Bible calls us to cultivate a solid reputation. It is not that we are perfect, brothers, but the children of God should characterize ourselves because when people talk about one, they say, “This person is a serious person. He is a person who has character.” And that is what Pablo or Pedro refers to, excuse me, with that idea of virtue, “arete”, means having solidity of character. And the formation of Christian character is something that requires many years of training, brothers. That is why Paul speaks also in the case of Paul, he talks about character, affliction produces Christian character. Affliction is needed many times to treasure, to strengthen the build of a child of God. That solidity with which we walk, that poise with which we walk, because we have been tested.

A soldier who has been to war and has seen the bullets whistle over him, has seen comrades fall in the trenches, has perhaps been wounded in battle, walks with a solidity and a confidence and an authority that one who has been He's stuck in an office there, filling out paperwork, even when he's wearing a uniform, because that weighs heavily on his character. And that's what I think Paul is… “To your faith add strength of character,” a solid character, a solid reputation. Virtue. But already with virtue add other things, and the next thing he says is "add knowledge," "gnosis" knowledge. This refers to the knowledge of the truth, the truth of God, the truth of the word of God. You have to study the word of God. You have to know the principles of the Kingdom of God. Again, what use is a Christian, a lot of faith, many tongues, and sometimes virtuous and well behaved, but he doesn't know the Bible, he doesn't know the themes of the Bible. He does not know the characters of the Bible, he does not know the theological principles of the Scriptures. He does not know the things to which he is entitled as a servant of God and what his responsibilities are. All this is acquired through the word. God wants informed Christians. God wants educated Christians.

That's something you have to take into your service record and you have to ask yourself from time to time, okay, how am I doing in my knowledge of the Bible? I love this word study this year that we have been studying. I don't know how many have followed, I hope that if you committed to continue studying the Bible in a year, you will do so. Know what? I'm already going through the first reading, I already passed it, and I have half of the second reading. I promised myself to do it twice in a year. Because for me it is important to know the Bible, like a soldier who knows his weapon. He knows that in a soldier's training he is taught how to assemble and disassemble his rifle, or his weapon with his eyes closed. Because? Because your weapon can get stuck in a battle and you need to be able to disassemble it and assemble it again if sand falls on it, if it gets wet, if something is stuck, you must know that weapon because that weapon is your guarantee of life, up to a certain point. And you have to be familiar with it.

What is our lifetime guarantee? The word of God. What is our sword? What is our aggressive weapon? It is the word of God. Know her. Therefore, "add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge." You do not say I am ignorant, you can learn from the word of God. Strive and know the word of God. Ignorance kills believers. In Colossians, Paul asks that we be filled with the knowledge of his will. And Christ said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Do you know that the entry of your word, says the Bible, enlightens the heart. When the word of God enters your mind, your spirit, it has a sanitary effect, it heals you, it cleanses you, it is hygiene. The word of God enters and heals by virtue of being the word of God. eat the word Let the word run through your spiritual blood system, and that word will give you life, it will give you strength, it will give you effectiveness in Christian service. Commit yourself that you are going to be a connoisseur of the word of God. To faith, virtue, to virtue, knowledge, that is very important.

The fourth quality that Paul mentions, “to knowledge add self-control.” What good is a Christian with a very fat and big head if he does not have self-control. Proper domain in the original Greek is enkrateia. And that word enkrateia means control over our passions, our appetites, our personal defects. I say here, we cannot eliminate our passions while we are in this body, but we can learn to dominate them, control them. We cannot eliminate them but we can manage and control them. We can put them under the control of the Holy Spirit and that is what we have to aspire to every day. Lord, give me control over my sensual appetites. Give me control over my anger. Give me control over my tendency to swear. Give me control over my desire to control others. Give me control over my tendency to be aggressive or to be resentful, or not to forgive, or to be violent with my mouth, to control my children more than necessary. Give me control of my pride. Give me control of my past wounds. Give me control over my nightmares, my fears, my mental addictions. Give me control. Give me dominion over all these things.

Because, brothers, as long as we are in this biology and until God glorifies us in a glorified body, we are going to contend against human nature. And what we can ask of the Lord is, “Father, give me self-control. When I want to hurt, bless. When I want to wallow in that resentment that I have towards that person whom I have imprisoned in my mind for the last 20 years, let me let go and bless and forgive them. And give me the power to do so.” We are going to fight against the passions until we die, but God gives us control over it, gives us dominion and that is the part that we have to learn to ask the Lord, that when we are in the flesh, we are under the dominance of the flesh, but now God gives us hope, strength to have that self-control, that control of our passions. That self-control is very important.

The believer's experience is totally different from that of the man or woman who is in the flesh. As we continue to grow in spirit, the sinful nature in us must lessen in its power and dominance. The neuroses and deformations of sin have to be less and less powerful over us. Own domain. Add… Ask the Lord right now, “Father, give me self-control so that I can be a worthy representative of the Gospel.” So, to self-control, we have to add perseverance to the Christian profile. The Greek word here is hupomone and it means ability to resist, persistence. Someone has defined the word hupomone as heroic perseverance in the service of Christ despite opposition. Commentator William Barclay defines a hupomone as having the quality of standing firm, weathering the storm, and fighting against difficulty and opposition. Hupomone, perseverance, is a quality that moves forward in the face of a trial rather than just passively waiting for a difficulty to be resolved. It's the difference between gritting your teeth until the devil gets tired of beating you on the back, and taking control and saying, “In the name of Jesus I get ahead. I rebuke you Satan, I hold you down. I can in Christ, I'm going to get out of this, I'm going to move on, I'm going to come out better than I was before going through the test." Christian resilience.

That is to say, that hupomone, the capacity for when the doctor diagnoses you with an illness that is going to force you, unless the Lord heals you, to take medicine for the rest of your life, that you say, amen, I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me. In these things I am more than a winner. When they tell you, you know what? Look, you can't have kids or whatever. You say, "Well, if that's what God wants, amen." When they tell you, you know what? You have a degenerative disease that will progressively weaken you. "Lord, I cannot understand this, but in you I take refuge." When that person you love tells you, “We're not going to be together,” you say, “You know what? God is my husband. God is my lover. God is my boyfriend. I can in Christ.” You don't collapse. Don't sink into depression. You say, "No, I'm going to use this ball that the devil throws at me and I'm going to hit a home run out of the field." Amen. I'm going to use this to get ahead.

Christians grow with trials, brothers. It's that persistence, that perseverance. I think of Paul's word in Ephesians, chapter 6, when we are going through the bad day. How many have gone through a bad day? But not a day in 24 hours, a day in 6 months, a day in a year, a day in 5 years. That is the bad day. It is not a 24 hour day. And having passed it all, when I finish what happens? stand firm I was talking to a young woman a couple of days ago who came from another state to talk to me, a friend of hers brought her, and this young woman, I say this with all due respect. I'm not going to violate any confidentiality, I think. He has had a terrible headache for years that does not go away and as a consequence he has contracted a very strong anxiety that is eating his life. And I have been praying for her because her condition has touched me very much. And then I say, wow! Father, how does one live after one has prayed, one has gone to the psychiatrist, one has gone to the counselor, one has taken pills, and a condition still persists, what do I do? I plunge into despair or I promise myself that from somewhere God will bring the solution. And you know that while I'm saying that, Daniel came to my mind saying the same thing to the King of Babylon, he said, “Oh, king, if we believe that God can take us out of the fiery furnace, but if he doesn't, still, we are not going to adore you.” In other words, he wanted God to… free him from the oven but in the long run… We have to be willing to thank God in the midst of the whole situation.

Mordecai told Esther himself, "Esther, remember one thing, that if you don't pray, you don't intervene, God will bring an answer from somewhere, but who knows if God has saved you for a day like this." I mean, God brings solutions out of somewhere and we have to believe that. When you find yourself in a situation where you don't know where the solution is going to come from, look, hold on tooth and nail to the idea that although I don't have the solution, God does. And that somehow He's going to get her out. So, arm yourself with that confidence and start looking for the solution with the help of the Holy Spirit, and wait until God brings it to you. The Christian never throws in the towel. The Christian always believes that God is somehow going to get me out of this, I don't know how. And if my feet are missing, he says, it's because I left [inaudible] [00:29:41] my voice is missing, that chorus. Somehow God promises that he will get us through. That is perseverance. That's hupomone. That is believing that God has the solution and I am not going to hang up the gloves until He shows me what He is going to do.

The other quality, I'm running here for miles because I want to finish now, pity. To patience, hupomone, add mercy. The eusebian word. Is there someone called Eusebio here? I know that Miguel is a brother from the church, I don't know if he is here today. But why aren't you here, Miguel. [Laughter] Miguel Eusebio. If your name is Eusebio or you know someone called Eusebio, I don't know if there are Eusebias. Is there Eusebias? Yes, okay. Eusebia and eusebio means to be fair, to be pious, or rather, pious. Piety, total dedication of life, consecration, devotion. A pious person is a person who is committed to God, a consecrated person. Who knows someone godly in the Bible? Let's see those who know here. That is why it is important to know the Bible. Who? Cornelius, it is true. Cornelius was one, and there is another that I really like who was just and pious, it was Simeon.

Remember Simeon? Anna and Simeon in the Gospel. Simeon says that he was a just and pious man, both, because sometimes piety and justice are two different things but we don't have time now to differentiate between one thing and the other. But Simeon was a pious man, and how did Simeon live? Simeon lived in the house of the Lord, together with Ana, they were two old people and God had told Simeon that he was not going to die without seeing the Messiah. And Simeon was an old man and lived stuck in the house of God, a man consecrated to the Lord. And when Simeon finally sees the Messiah, in the form of this little baby that he takes in his arms and thanks the Lord, he said something interesting, he said, "Now, Lord, you send your servant away in peace." He didn't say fire, but he said, “now you're firing me. I have already seen the son of God, I have completed my career on earth, I am leaving happy.” Because for Simeon life was summed up in seeing the Messiah. That was his wish and once he saw Jesus in his own flesh he said, "Okay, you already fulfilled your promise in my life." Simeon, his pleasure and his identity were engulfed in his Christian identity.

And that is what we have to... The pious person is a person who is committed and consecrated to the Lord. Serving the Lord is his pleasure. Your identity is defined by your relationship with God. How many of us can say that our life is to do the will of the Lord? Simeon, since he loved the Kingdom of God so much, the house of God, his Christian identity, when he fulfilled his purpose, he said, "Amen, Lord take me, because I already filled everything I needed." Unlike many of us who want to stick to life here to the fullest. The old lady is dying and we love her so much that we say, "Lord, don't take her away even though she is suffering." Let her go now, she is a daughter of God. I don't know if I'm prophesying to anyone here, but sometimes we get too attached. I know a sister, a pastor's wife in another place, her husband has been in a coma for a year and a half and they don't want to let him go, a man of God, a pastor there on a machine giving him artificial respiration and the sister doesn't want to let go of her husband.

Brothers, I believe that there comes a time when we have to know that our life is more than this world. The Christian has to have – again, I don't know if I'm prophesying to someone here, but we have to let our loved ones go and we ourselves be willing… If my passport is already stamped, if I have my visa, if all the papers are ready, Lord, whenever you want. Now, like Paul, we say, look, if God can use me a little more time here, well, amen. Because Pablo says, "If I can be useful, I'll stay, but if not, I already know where I'm going." And that idea, I believe, of total consecration, total commitment to God, to our Christian faith, that is important, piety. That is what piety means, it is the consecration, it is the sanctification of our life. It is the lack of attachment to the world. It is knowing that my identity is, he says, immersed in Christ. I am already buried in Christ, I am already dead in Christ. I live in this world here in ñapa and that is the idea of that mercy, that Eusebia that is so important.

Two more qualities, brotherly affection. Who knows how to say brotherly affection in Greek? We'll see. Philadelphia. How many have heard of the city of Philadelphia? Philadelphia is the city of brotherly affection, the city of brotherly love. That is what translates into Spanish as brotherly affection. How interesting. You have faith, you have virtue, you have self-control, you have perseverance, character, and then here is this quality, brotherly affection. What do you mean brotherly affection, philadelphia? Love for brothers, brotherly affection. Love, edges, love, delphi, brothers, love for your brothers. Brotherly affection. And that quality is one step below the love that is the pinnacle of everything. Because affection and love are linked, but affection, I think you will agree with me, is a minor quality, it is a little below love. It is a more humble and everyday form of love. It points to the kind of everyday love that we should show one another as we live the Christian life in community. There is another word, courtesy, hospitality, service. You're in a church meeting and you're going to get coffee and you're sitting with others at the table, and you ask, “Can I get someone else some coffee? Does anyone need anything, a glass of water or whatever?" That's brotherly affection. It is hospitality, it is sharing your table with someone in need on Thanksgiving day. It is making a phone call to someone who is lonely at home. It is a pat on the back encouraging someone who is discouraged. It's forgiving someone who stepped on your keys at one point and said something and forgive and encourage them. Brotherly affection. And that quality, unfortunately, in many churches is lacking, in families, that consideration that we have for one another.

Love, I say, here you work in daily life, in the little things. A church that does not show brotherly affection is dead. It has no legitimacy. How many of us if we see someone in the service that is there like lost, arrived at the church and cannot find a seat, how many of us feel to raise the command and say, “Come, sit here next to me.”? No, what do we do? We move the bag a little more so that it is known that I do not need anyone here next door. We put our hand to the side of the seat as if to say, like a dog snarling at a bone, stay away from me. But for me, for example, when I'm up here sometimes and I see someone come in and I see that person looking for a seat, my heart immediately goes, how could I give that sister or that brother a seat? Brotherly affection, we care for each other. You see someone out there in the morning or in the bathroom driving around in the car and you assume, guess what? This person is possibly a visitor and doesn't know where to park. "Brother, look, the parking lot is over there." Brotherly affection. We have to have that delicacy with each other. That is what makes the Christian life beautiful, beautiful. And a church that is distinguished by this is a blessed church. "Look how good and how delicious it is for brothers to live together in harmony because there Jehovah sends blessing and eternal life." A church that is characterized by that brotherly affection will be a blessed church. The Lord will forgive him a multitude of sins because there is brotherly affection.

And the quality par excellence, everyone say amen, is love, agape, love. That's the crown, that's the cherry on top of the ice cream. That's the cream on the cake, love. That is what blesses and adorns all other qualities. What good is it for you to have a lot of faith if you don't have love? What is the use of having a head full of the Bible and you have no love? The Pharisees had a lot of Bible but they had no love. And that is what we... Father, give me love but not just any love, agape love. That love is something very different. I say it's like the color white. Did you know that scientifically the color white includes all other colors scientifically within itself? For example, the color pink includes a bit of red and perhaps a bit of blue. The color blue includes purple and perhaps another color. But white includes black, blue, yellow, green, red, all colors are embedded in white. If you take all the colors and mix them in one way, it's going to produce white, it's not going to produce black. How strange is that? Don't ask me to explain it because I don't even know how to explain it to you myself. But believe me it is.

Love includes all the other Christian qualities. That is why Pablo always leaves it for last and Pedro also in this case. They always end up with this supreme value on their list of virtues. It is the master that God has manifested to us through Jesus Christ. That is the love that leads to self-sacrifice, the love that only God can manifest, that when we have the Holy Spirit then, we can begin to express that love because humanly we cannot express it. I say that love is not an emotion, it is a lived principle. Love gives others what they do not deserve and does not give them what they deserve. Love is what leads you to put your personal satisfaction aside and seek the satisfaction of others. Love is what allows you to lose so that others may be blessed. Love is what allows you to shut up when you're crazy about spewing a couple of swear words at someone that hurts them, and you have the power to hurt them and stick a knife in their heart, but you say, "No, I can't because I'm going to leave a wound there that will never heal.” That is love. Love is something that no one can fully exercise except for the Holy Spirit loving through us.

We have to ask the Lord, Lord, help me to love as Christ loved me. So, brothers, this afternoon I am going to read you those virtues and if you recognize one that you need God to impart to your life [inaudible] [00:41:48], I want that. You also putting all diligence for this, add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, self-control, patience, patience, piety, piety, brotherly affection and brotherly affection, love. Father, lower your head with me, open your spirit right now, open your spirit like a flower that opens to the water from heaven to receive blessing. Open your spirit to the earth that opens to receive the moisture that comes from heaven. Open your mind, open your heart. Lay aside every excuse for not receiving one of these qualities, for not dressing in it, for not wanting it. And tell the Lord, “I need love, I need mercy, consecration to you, I need self-control, Father, give me more faith, Lord. I want to know your word better, I want to know your character, your mystery better, I want to reflect more of Christ so that my reputation is right and honors you, Father.

Lord, take this beautiful, beautiful church to a higher level of consecration to you. We still have a long way to go, Father, including the one that preaches. We are so aware of our faults, we are an insatiable void, Father, but you are powerful to sanctify us, heal us, adorn us with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Father, the Lion of Judah desperately needs an extra measure of your grace. Thank you because we can't be proud of anything because everything comes from you and it's because of your goodness and your mercy. We have failed scandalously, Father, but thank you because your love is so great, your goodness is so infinite that we know that we are covered by your grace. But we are not satisfied with knowing that you have accepted us, we want to be more pleasant to you every day, we want to reflect more the character of Christ. help us.

I ask that if there is someone this afternoon that you have convinced of the need to go further in their Christian growth, that you right now instill in them the strength and power to go to that new level to which you are taking it. . We believe, Father, that you are using our failures, our struggles, our deficiencies, you are using everything to create a man, a woman that will honor you and delight your heart when you look at us. We receive our trials, our training as part of the love of Christ manifesting through us and taking us to a new level. Heal us, bless us, adorn us with the character of Jesus and we will declare that in all these things we will be more than conquerors. Thank you for deigning to invest in us. Help us to live up to our calling in Jesus name. Amen. Amen and amen. God bless you, my brothers.