Traveling towards perfection

People get on planes every day, and the world is filled with tens of thousands of planes every day that are flying around the world. And that plane has a particularity and that is that once it takes flight, it cannot stop. It can't stop. If you think about it, it's what makes you feel so fragile. The fact that that plane can travel thousands of miles and it has to keep moving, if it stops moving what happens to it? It goes to the ground. As long as that plane is in the air, those engines have to be running. If they stop, they are a cause of disaster. And those of us on that plane are taking a great risk, but we do it because we want to travel, we want to go to other places. But the idea of that, a vehicle that has to be constantly moving because if it stops before reaching the goal, there is destruction. And it occurs to me that our lives are like that, that it has to be a process in perpetual motion. Once you enter into a relationship with Christ and enter into the Gospel, you are obliged to continue in process, in movement. You can't stop.

And therein lies the Christian life. The Christian life is a process of continuous renewal, continuous work, continuous sanctification, continuous treatment of God with us. And when we enter the Gospel we do not enter to vegetate, we do not enter to be calm or comfortable. It is a process, to some extent sometimes, agonizing to which we commit ourselves. However, I would say that a large part of the Christian world when they enter the Gospel believe that, okay, we are here, I already punched the card, I already raised my hand, and now they just wait for the day to come to enter the presence of the Mister. No. And God wants us to be continually in effort. It comes to mind, I'm getting ahead of myself, the words I think from Philippians, where the Apostle Paul says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." And that word take care means that we have to be busy. We have to be continually in process, busy working for our own blessing, growth, development and for the Kingdom of God.

Another passage that comes to mind with the term get busy is the Lord in his parable of the boss who goes on a long journey and tells his servants who are waiting for him to return, “Get busy while I come. ” And that idea of being... The Christian life is an occupation. Not being busy like Martha, who was busy with a lot of work and many occupations, but busy in the sense that we have to always be involved and invested in a process of perpetual formation and of letting God deal with us, and to be alert, to be vigilant. The word of God calls us many times to be sober and watchful. Like the ten virgins, five of them, how were they? They were watching. There was a chorus that said, "You will be watching like the ten virgins," so that when the husband comes he will find you alert and alert.

So this idea that God calls us to a continuous involvement in our own sanctification, our own treatment, to a dynamic position. It stuck in my mind, as you know, I started last Sunday and thought I was going to end there, but the word of the Lord always worries us and so I felt it was important to continue with that reflection of continually adding new components. to our Christian life. And I haven't even read the passage but that's okay. I'm going to read from Second Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. But continually add new things. What's more, let me read it and then continue developing, because the images will inevitably come and I want to focus first on the word, what the Lord is calling us to conceptualize.

Second Peter, chapter 1. And I know I'm not going to finish today. This is going to be a series that I'm starting. Sometimes the series start and one realizes it. I did not start this as a series but as a single sermon, but I want you to impress that image in your mind, the Christian life, perpetual movement, perpetual involvement in God's dealings, cooperation with God, who never rests. The Lord says, “My Father and I are always working. My Father never stops working and I also have to work.” And that's how we have to be. These sermons are an invitation to each of us to make our life a life of continuous involvement. We have to cooperate with the divine sculptor who is always giving chisels and brush strokes in our lives to form the image of Christ in us. And we have to cooperate with Him. Sometimes we resist it or sometimes we are just passive and don't realize what God is doing. But we have to cooperate with God's work in forming the image of Christ in us. Let me read it.

Second Peter, 1, verse 3 onwards. The Apostle Paul says, “Like all things that pertain to life and godliness,” – by the way, the thought of the Apostle Paul is very complex, grammatically, the structure of thought is well convulsed. He is a man who thinks complexly. He is a divinely inspired intellectual and Pablo always writes in such a convulsed, very complex, zigzagging way. But it's a thought he wants to get to. It says: “As all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us by his divine power, through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and excellence, through which he has given us precious and great promises. , so that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust…” Wow! I'm already out of breath. Five different things and he still hasn't gotten to what he wants to say. There are five clauses there. And each one of them constitutes a thought that we must examine and dwell on in order to understand what he means. But he is circling around one thing and now as all those things are true in our life, "You too are putting all your diligence for this very thing," - and here is the punch line, here is the landing of Paul's thought, - "for this reason, since all these things are true, add..." Everyone say add. You have to add things to what God wants. “…add to your faith, virtue; to virtue add knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, patience; to patience, mercy; to pity, brotherly affection and to brotherly affection, love.”

Many people can say, ah, I already added mercy to my faith. Oh, I can rest now. No, when you feel you've reached a certain measure of piety, and we're going to discuss later what piety is in Paul's mind, you're still left with a number of different things. When you have overcome the challenge of tithing, for example, oh, that's the beginning, you have twenty thousand things ahead of you. When you have controlled your bad temper, there are still many other things to add. When you have controlled the tendency to speak badly and swear, there is still a lot to go on. When you have stopped kicking the dog when it bothers you, there are still many other things to accomplish in your life. There is always more and more and more. And do you know when that race ends? When we die So the idea is to never be satisfied like I've already reached the top. No, God has other things, other dimensions, God has other views, God has other achievements, other victories in your life. And He wants you to go more towards greater things, to be a collector of virtues, if you will.

Now, why is this perpetual search for new dimensions of the Christian life and perfection so beautiful? Look what Paul says, "For if these things are in you and abound, they will not let you be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Why is it important to have all these virtues? Brother, because when you acquire many of these virtues, you become an extremely useful being for the Kingdom of God. You are going to bear fruit even if you don't want to. Wherever you move, the fruit of the Lord will come out of your life. People are going to be blessed by you and your way of being, by a word said at random, by an intervention with someone. Your life is going to be a tree that bears fruit perpetually and that God will always be pruning so that it bears more fruit. Your life is going to be a fertile land because it will be full of those virtues that produce fruit for the Lord.

So sometimes we worry so much about bearing fruit, when the Lord says, "No, no, don't worry so much about bearing fruit, worry about fertilizing your land, about having in you the virtues of Christ because if you have those virtues, the fruit is the least of it.” That is why I always say that God cares more about who we are than what we do. Worry about becoming like Christ and then you are going to bear fruit like Christ, you are going to have the power of Christ, you are going to have the influence of Christ, you are going to please the Father like Christ. Our goal as children of God should be that, always seek more to be more, so that God can use us. So, I want you to see this, and it is the thought that I want to imbue you with through these meditations. It is that God calls us to a wonderful journey, an adventure, an incredibly exciting journey, the Christian life. However, we see so many people in the Kingdom think that the Christian life is to come to church on Sunday, throw three, four slips in the tithe basket and go home and vegetate the rest of the week. How poor is that image of the Christian life.

The Christian life is an exciting relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. It involves death many times, sometimes it involves terror, because when God approaches us with the knife of the intervention of his power in our lives, we are horrified. Sometimes it involves sadness, when we see ourselves dying and decaying because God is working in us, pruning us. Sometimes it involves shame, sometimes it involves fear of the future, sometimes it involves desert times. But all these things God does to work in us. Don't be afraid of God's scalpel. Don't be afraid of God's scalpel. When God enters us into his oven, it is to lose weight and make us stronger and more dangerous for the devil and the kingdom of darkness. But that is what God wants, that you enter the Christian life with great expectations. God invites you on an adventure, to be a knight-errant, or a knight-errant, looking for the next giant to defeat, like Don Quixote.

And that is what I believe God calls us here. And remember that last Sunday, Paul was saying the same thing in a different way, that's why all these sermons are connected to each other. Paul was saying, “Don't be like the Jews who stayed in the Old Testament, comfortable with the revelation they received in the wilderness, and when God appeared with a new revelation through his Son, they said, “No. We prefer to remain in our vain dream of being the only ones and in the superficiality of the law and the commandments and the holidays," instead of entering into a poignant, lively, intimate relationship with Christ himself, where the old things have passed away. and they are all made new, where it is no longer the symbol of the most holy place that was a simile of something, but now, we have access by the grace of Christ to the very presence of God. And there are many Christians who are like that, they stay in the past. One day they had an encounter with God, one day God touched them and they already made three tents and stayed there, like the disciples. God says, "No, no, no, come down from that mountain, there is a father there with a demon-possessed son who must be released." God did not call you to be up there on the summit. God called you now to process what He has put in you and continue to develop it and give it to others.

And we are like that, brothers, God calls us to a process of perpetual renewal, of perpetual service, of perpetual giving, so that He can do everything He wants in us. It is a continuous thing. And I think that all that is involved here. If you want, look up last Sunday's sermon and match it with what I'm saying here. It's a similar idea but developed in a different way, a little more thoroughly. Paul calls us to a life of continually adding virtues. Also last Wednesday, something similar occurred in the Wednesday meditation, where Paul says that we glory in afflictions because affliction produces patience, and patience produces character, proof in translation, and character produces hope, I think it's , and hope is not ashamed. That same idea that when God's dealing in your life has produced one thing, don't stay there, because that thing is supposed to produce something else and that something else, something else, until your life is rounded out and you can show the totality of the presence of God. We will never do it completely, but the idea is that your life reflects the multifaceted divine personality. And if we... Why is it important for us to understand this? Because if you understand that, then you are going to live according to that vision and then God is going to deal with you and he is going to take you. Because many times God is doing things in our life and since we do not understand how He deals with us, we run the risk of not understanding what He is doing, or of misinterpreting what He is doing, and wasting God's intervention. In our life. Many times God intervenes with mysterious, painful interventions, which would seem to be the devil himself doing them. But no, it is God who is working, sometimes using the devil, that is true. But in the end it is God controlling him for your blessing and your growth.

The disciples when they were in the boat in the middle of the storm say that Jesus came walking towards them and they said, "A ghost." They thought it was the devil, but it was Christ himself showing them his glory and wanting to show them that he walks on the storms of life, and that he rushes towards us to rescue us. But many times if you do not understand the mysterious dealings of God, sometimes when God is working most deeply in your life, you will believe that it is Satan or darkness or a sin. No, it is God working in mysterious ways. And you have to know that, God will always be working in my life. "To those who love God, all things work together for good." God will never allow Satan to walk over you, even when the devil wants to come and destroy you, God will use that for your blessing and growth.

Who was behind Judas delivering the Lord? Satan? It says that Satan entered Judas and Judas then left and handed him over. But who was behind it? The father. The Father knew that Jesus had to be crucified, but the devil was used as the go-between to lead to God's most powerful intervention in history, which is the cross. Behind that was a demonic power that I think was rather forced into it. Satan sometimes has to be forced to… is the rare instrument that God uses to work in our lives. That may sound like heresy to you, right? But no, the Apostle Paul says that God, so that he would not be too proud, gave him a thorn, a messenger from Satan. And the word messenger is angelos, angelos satan, in other words, he was a demonic angel that God sent to Paul to train him in humility. What thing. That is something scandalous. God sometimes uses dark and sinister things to work with us, to take us to another level.

I believe that if we were not under anesthesia and we looked at God, at a surgeon with a scalpel or a scalpel, we would be horrified. Thank God for the anesthetics. I think I heard my sister, is that Rosi there? Rosi is a dentist. How many have gone to a dentist and have seen that needle approaching the gum to get into us? But in reality it is a merciful intervention but it is sinister at the same time. Sometimes God deals with us that way. Sometimes God uses a loss, a failure, a sin. It's not that God causes these things, understand me, but God uses them and turns them into our blessing. We sometimes oversimplify God and believe that God only works through beautiful interventions. But I believe that God is the most sinister being there is. Many times when God approaches you with love and mercy and you look at him, his face seems violent and aggressive. But no, it is the loving Father, taking away an insect that you have got into your skin, wanting to rip it off so that you can be well. We are sometimes superficial in the way we measure God's dealings.

I know I'm stuck on that. But sometimes it is important to understand these truths. Because there are many believers who do not understand that God is always dealing with us, and that sometimes he uses sinister instruments, they do not realize when God is closer to them. And then divine interventions happen to them at a hundred miles an hour when God wants, look, what I'm doing. Bless him. Welcome him. Get more into it so that I can fulfill my purpose in you. Most of us Christians are so superficial that God is telling us, “Look at what I'm doing,” and we don't understand and it goes over our heads. When you understand that God is going to be committed to your perfection and that He is going to use all possible means, you will be prepared to cooperate with God's treatment. When God wants to put the cross on your shoulders, do not shy away from the cross, tell him, Lord, put it on me more, accommodate me better. Because many times when God wants to put the cross on us we run away from it. And God wants us to have it for a little while because the cross is one of the most beautiful things there is for our dealings.

All this remember, why am I harping on this? again, God is working in our life and there is no substance, there is no matter that cannot be used by God for something. God takes dark, sinister, ugly materials, and often turns them into instruments for our blessing and for our improvement. We cannot put anything above or below God. God can use everything in our life, because He is committed to your growth and development. And that is why I say, brothers, that the perfection of the believer, the perpetual journey towards perfection, is the most important aspect of the Christian life. It's above tithing, even if they don't stop tithing, please, that's important. [Laughter] It's above volunteering at church, it's above teaching children's ministry. All of this is very good, very necessary. But above that is the fact that you are formed in the character of Christ, because if the character of Christ is formed in you through divine interventions, you are going to tithe, you are going to volunteer, you are going to help others, you are going to disciple, you are going to do all things because that will be your nature and you will act according to the nature that God is operating and installing in you.

So, that passage is about that and it's a very complex passage, and as I'm telling you, this morning I just reached a couple of verses, the introduction, sometimes we can't even get to the introduction. What do you think if we travel a little, a little walk? Let's take our time. No hurry. Christ, I think he still has a little bit to come so let's analyze that a little more. What Peter is saying in this passage is the following, the Christian life is not something passive, religious, external, static. The Christian life is dynamic, it is progressive, it is a continuous process, it is active, it involves all the faculties of the believer, one by one. Why does the Bible use images like the image of the soldier, the image of the athlete, the image of the farmer? Why does the Bible call us to run the race of faith with ease? Why does Paul say, leaving what is left behind, I press on to the target? Because all those images are dynamic images, they are images of things that are in process, they are traveling towards something. The farmer has to work hard before the harvest, he has to clear the land, he has to remove the weeds, the weeds. You have to fertilize it, you have to plant the seed, you have to make sure that the seed breathes and that it has water, etc. The farmer works continuously.

The soldier is never calm because he has to be in formation, in training. All the images with which the Bible compares the believer are dynamic images, images of movement because the Christian life is perpetual movement. I've told you before, one of my favorite passages is that passage that says, "For the path of the just is like the light of the dawn, which increases until the day is perfect." If you are in the will of God, it has to be like the light of dawn. The light of the aurora starts out dark, minimal and as the morning goes by, it gets a little more… some of us don't, we get up at 8, 9 in the morning, we try to avoid the darkness of the early morning. But if you like to get up at dawn, you really appreciate that light that increases, increasing until noon arrives and the light is perfect. No, it's complete.

And the Christian life is like that, brothers. We go from immaturity and childishness to, supposedly, a dazzling, incandescent brilliance that is the image of Christ reflected through us. Why does Paul in last Sunday's passage compare our life to the life of Moses when he was on the top of the mountain? Moses goes to the mountain, contemplates something that no other man has contemplated, the divine figure, the shekinah, the shekinah glory, and by dint of contemplating that glory for 40 days, that glory is transferred to him and now he shines with divine glory. And when he goes down to the town his face is shining like… I imagine in a smaller version, like the face of God shined in the presence of God. And Paul uses that image and says, this is what we have to do, contemplating without a veil, without any interference, without anything intervening and interrupting the glory of God. We have to contemplate it so that that glory is transferred to us and we can shine in the same way, looking face to face at the face of Christ Jesus, we go from glory to glory. I like that chorus that says, “I see you from glory to glory, the more I know you I want to have more of you,” or something like that. I want to be more like you, see life like you, etc.

Brothers, God calls us to contemplate the glory of Christ through intimacy with Him. How do we contemplate the glory of Christ? Having intimacy, adoring him, reading his word, imagining him, seeing his interventions in the Gospels, looking at that personality, that character and allowing that character to transfer to us. That is why it is so important to read the word, because when we contemplate the word of God, observe it, meditate on it, it transfers itself to us. She is alive and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. And when we contemplate her, she begins to inject us with her temperament, her energy, and then we begin to be like her. There is nothing more beautiful than contemplating the face of Jesus because when we see him in his interventions, in the Bible, healing the paralytic, not letting that woman with the issue of blood go lonely having stolen her anointing. One sees Christ, for example, in that moment when the woman touches him from behind and He feels that there is a release of power, and He says, "Who touched me?" And she, frightened, because she feels that she stole her strength without permission, He listens to her story and tells her, "Your faith has saved you, daughter, go in peace." He sends her off peacefully. When I see that I say, wow! How important it is to be merciful like the Lord. If we are going to be pastors, let's be merciful, let's be loving to people in need. Let's not treat him like servants. Shepherds do not use their sheep, shepherds love their sheep, they do not shear them. And that's how we have to be.

When I see that I say, wow! Here is a facet of the personality of Christ, I want that more of my life, even if I don't reach it perfectly. And we then have to contemplate the face of Jesus as Moses the glory of God, and allow the personality of Christ to be transferred to us and become part of us. And the Christian life is a perpetual process of contemplating Christ. The monks, the monastics, the mystics of the church through the centuries have understood that, that contemplation is an important process, because one must fix one's face on the different aspects of the divine personality and of Christ and let that settle. transfer to us, to our character. And that is what God wants from you, that is why it is important that you live your life in continuous meditation, continuous praise and adoration, continuous prayer so that little by little the divine personality is transferred to you and you come to be like Jesus .

And that's what Pablo is… I know I'm going around the same topic, but that's important. The Christian life is a continuous process of contemplation of Christ so that the power of Christ is transferred to our mind. The Christian life is movement, it is dynamism, it is progression towards the target, towards the goal. How different from a person who comes on Sunday simply there to be told something and goes home just like when he entered. It's something different. Look how it says First Timothy 6:11, as I say, we're going to take time, we're going to ride smoothly, we're going to take time to enjoy the ride. First Timothy 6:11. It says, "But you, oh man of God, - or woman of God - flee from these things..." That is a word that we are going to see again in the passage that we are meditating "flee from". “…flee from these things and follow justice.” Look here again at another list of virtues. “Follow righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness,” that's what I'm trying to focus on with you: the list of virtues. The Christian life is a continually adding components. There is an image that I want to use but I don't want to get ahead of that, to add. It says, “Fight the good fight,” notice all the verbs on this list. It says, “…flee, follow justice, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called.”

So, the Christian life is dynamic, it is a continuous effort, but it is an effort that does not wear out, that is the thing. The believer's effort must not be compulsive or neurotic. There are people who try to be saints and they squeeze and distort themselves and they do it self-righteously and neurotically and so they always live feeling guilty, inadequate. Brethren, the effort of the believer must be something delightful. It's like a runner, there's something called runners, I don't remember the name right now, but a high, it's like a euphoria that long-distance runners have. It's a euphoria that you get when you're… which is endorphins that are produced by the body and long-distance runners experience a sense of well-being even while they're tired. That well-being comes from that endorphin that is released when they are running. And it is interesting that this is how Christian effort should be. It is not an effort like Marta's, when the Lord tells her, "Marta, Marta, you are busy and busy with many things." It is a delightful effort. It is an effort that we know that it is not possible for me to fail the exam because God already gave me an A through Christ Jesus.

If you know that you have an automatic A, that when you take the test you will laugh at it because you know that you cannot fail. God already gave you an A. How did he give us an A? Through Christ Jesus. You already passed the exam. Christ already passed it for you even. So even as you strive to bear fruit, don't do it in fear, don't do it in fear. The devil is going to want to fill you with fear and he is going to want to wear you out along the way. But what you have to do is, as Juan Luis Guerra says, laugh. God takes care of the devil and if along the way you have any proof, keep going, don't worry, the Lord sends wasps to torment him. If in the race, if you sometimes stumble in the race, stand up, clean your knee, mend your pants and keep going, because God is already happy with you. What does Solomon say in Ecclesiastes? It says, "There is never a lack of white clothing on you or oil on your head because God already approves of your works." That other topic too. How to experience joy in the middle of the day? How to proceed in the Christian race with joy and peace? How to strive without wearing ourselves out? It is because we know that the Lord has already completed everything. It is not by works, it is by grace. Now that does not mean that you do not make an effort, but your effort must be without agony. God does not want us to live in agony. God wants us to live exercising but with ease, relaxed, because the more tense we are, the less we can give to the Lord.

If the woman is tense, she does not give birth, she has to relax. I don't know about that, but they tell me that it is so. [Laughter] The more tense one is, many times the less one produces. An artist who is tense can be wrong and miss the note. But if you relax because you've practiced enough and you're happy with your performance, then you let your breath loose and you can flow because you don't have to think about mechanics. That happens with the Christian life. God wants us to strive, to work hard, to go towards mercy, towards love, towards patience, but knowing that the Lord knows where we are going to arrive and He is calm. And I have discovered that many times the more we relax the more we do. And it is important that we understand this. But again, let this idea not get lost in our minds, the Christian life is a life of work, of effort in the Lord, an effort that knows that God is already happy with us and with our work. The best image of what that Christian life is we find in Romans 12:1 says that we submit our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God so that we can confirm God's good will, pleasing and perfect.

How are we supposed to live the Christian life? Like a living sacrifice. When you enter the Christian life, you are supposed to make yourself as a sacrifice on the altar of the Old Testament, frying yourself exquisitely little by little, and your smell delighting the divine nose in his temple. Sweet-smelling offering, do you know what that means? It is the fat of the animal while it is consumed. By the way, how good a steak is when it's cooking on the wood. And do you know what makes the smell of a steak so tasty? It's the fat. And it is interesting that for the Hebrews that was what God… God aspired to the fatness of the animal. That human fat consuming in the fire of improvement is the most exquisite thing for the divine nose. We must be like a sacrifice, prostrated on the altar, like a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. Paul says that this is what constitutes our true worship. God calls you to this process of adding virtues, adding new facets to your life. “Let us press on toward perfection,” says Hebrews 6:1. We have to go forward.

So, with these meditations on consecration, I want to destroy, undo the image of the Christian as something passive, something mediocre, something religious. The Christian life as something comfortable, static. God wants to form a church of consecrated people, not Sunday. Our desire for León de Judá is that each believer who identifies with this family that is León de Judá, is a man or a woman in perpetual treatment by the Holy Spirit, people in preparation, people under construction, people hungry for God's treatment. in their lives, active people, not passive people. How many would like to do that in their lives? May the Lord form in us... I am prophesying these words about this people, a community that pleases the Lord because they are consuming themselves as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. And this is what we want to achieve. God wants to form a church, as I say, of people delivered in a perpetual state of formation. The difference between religious and ineffective Christians that Paul already outlined last Sunday when we read that passage, the difference between a flattened Christian and a Christian in process and filled with the Holy Spirit, is made by this idea of the believer as someone actively involved in the process of their sanctification, actively cooperating with God to put off the old nature and assume the divine nature. It is a process of continuous death, continuous exercise, continuous treatment, continuous learning and training, continuous improvement. There is no truce, there is no rest, there are no limits or barriers for God.

And again, I repeat that it is not a neurotic effort that wears us down, it is an exquisite effort that rather does not bring joy and strengthens us. There is a passage that says that the anointing of God, or something like that, does not impoverish, but enriches. God's blessing, something like that. And that's what we... When God is dealing with you, you don't get weaker, on the contrary, you get stronger. You make an effort and you don't get tired and that is what God wants. We see it clearly in this passage from Second Peter. We're going to get into it a little bit now. Second Peter, chapter 1, look at the first expression. “As all things pertaining to life and godliness have been entrusted to us, they have been given to us, by his divine power…” Dwell on that for a moment. All things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us. God has given us wonderful revelations and treasures. He has given us believers access to high and sublime principles and truths. It has opened up a world of excellent energies for us. He has entrusted to us the mysteries of the universe and the world of the spirit. That must be an incentive, a stimulus towards perfection. The fact that God has entrusted us, his children, with things that even angels do not have access to. You are the bearer of truths and revelations through your faith in Christ and your relationship with God that no one else, neither the wise men of this world, nor the scientists, nor the intellectuals of this world have. You can be a person who never went to school and be part of truths that university professors and intellectuals of this world do not know unless they know God.

And understanding that should be something that brings us joy. That is why it says, “As all things pertaining to life and godliness have been entrusted to us,” in other words, since God has given us so many wonderful things, we must behave in a certain way, we must be vigilant. God has given us believers access to all these things. Look, go to First Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 6 through 10. It says, “Nevertheless, we speak wisdom among those who have reached maturity, and wisdom not of this age, nor of the princes of this age who perish, but we speak wisdom of God in mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the centuries for our glory, which none of the princes of this century knew, because if they had known it they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Rather, as it is written, things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the heart of man, are what God has prepared for those who love him." And Paul boasts, says, "But God revealed it to us by the spirit because the spirit searches all things even the depths of God."

My brothers, let us remember that we have the right to search even the depths of God. God has given us access to the intimacies of his personality and He does not grant that to the wise men of this century. That's why we can't be too impressed by people with a lineage, an academic pedigree, glory to God, it's a good thing they earned it, but you know what? That we have better things than that. The humblest of the Kingdom of God can instruct many of the wise of this world. Do you remember Priscilla and Aquila? When Apollos was converted... Apollos was a great scholar, he was a Greek who knew languages, he knew philosophy and Apollos was a baby in Christ, he was just beginning but he was a man who had tremendous skill. And he began to preach right away and God began to use him. And Apollos, however, had many things missing. Aquila and Priscilla were mere tent craftsmen, but they were experienced in the mysteries of the Gospel. And it says that when they heard Apollos they said, “Uhm, this boy is missing something.” They were able to discern Apollos had components that he did not have, despite all their knowledge. And he says that they called him aside and revealed to him a little better the revelation of God. And so Apollos became a great, great leader, a great servant of God, almost rivaling Paul in his ministerial prowess.

Because the most humble person, if he dedicates himself to knowing the word of God, and gives himself to Christ, he can acquire a wisdom that no one else in the world has. That is the beauty of the Gospel. The humblest person can know more about Christ than the highest person, but haughty and who does not know the revelation of God. And that is what Paul says, since all these things have been revealed to us, these mysteries, let us not waste this call from God. All things that pertain to life and godliness. I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to stay where I left off this morning. Brethren, to summarize God wants athletic men and women, committed to a life of growth, hungry for God's revelation, wanting to know more of God, not content with the peaks of the past, but moving towards the next stage of their lives.

You will see in this passage that Paul says, "add to faith godliness, to godliness contentment, to contentment this, that, brotherly love, love," I love those word lists. Called to develop new virtues. Child of God, Lion of Judah Congregation, God wants you to know him as perhaps no one knew him. God wants you to say, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and present myself before the house of God? If you are hungry for God, God will fill you. If you thirst for God, God will give you living water. If you want to know Christ, He is going to take you seriously and He is going to treat you, he is going to bring you to his workshop, the Master's workshop and he is going to have dealings and love with you. But you have to want it. Abandon that idea of the Gospel as a religious matter, that you come here... No, no, no, it is a dynamic activity with Christ Jesus. He wants you to see him, he wants to reveal himself to you on the mountain, up there. Only a handful of his disciples saw Christ in all his glory, on top. He says that there God stripped him of his human nature and says that his face shone and they saw him as he is. And that is what God wants for you and me.

Do not be afraid of the process of perfection but long for it and with fear and trembling tell him, Father, I want to know you in your sufferings and in your resurrection and in your power because we cannot know Christ only in his resurrection, we have to know him in his death too. And that means dealings that God is going to have with you. But there is nothing more glorious than that. Do not fear God's treatment. Lion of Judah Congregation God calls you to intimacy with Him, God calls you to adopt the Christian life as a great adventure. Put your head down right now, we're going to ask the Lord to reveal to us what this means. I want to meet you, Lord. I want to have you and that you have more of me. I want you to flood me and overwhelm me and undo me and overwhelm me and submerge me in your waters until nothing is seen of me. We want you to take this town, Lord, and deal with us. Don't leave us barren. Don't leave us sterile, we want to give birth to the figure of Christ in our lives. We want to go from imperfection to increasing perfection. Deal with this town. Look at the hearts of all those who want more from you right now. Look at me. We hunger for you and we want to reflect the glory of Jesus in our lives, and we want to add virtue, and virtues to our collection. May your name be glorified in this town, Father, may you be pleased with our agony, our exquisite agony. We love you, we love your presence, we love your intimacy, we love your mysteries, we love the figure of Christ and we want more of Him. So be it, Father. Make this church something exemplary for your exclusive glory. Don't stop dealing with us. We invite you to intervene surgically in each one of us. We give you our being. Work Lord. And thank you for taking us seriously in Jesus name. Amen and amen. God bless you.