No condemnation

The Lord planted that word in my heart, Romans, chapter 8 and I felt that I had to develop it a little more because it is a key teaching. It is a central teaching of the Christian life. It is one of the most theologically complex passages in all of Scripture, and I would argue that the entire Gospel is summed up in that message of Romans, chapter 8, one of the key chapters, lynchpins of all of Scripture. And there the Apostle Paul actually lays the foundations of a free Christian life. And I love that today, since I had chosen this passage many Sundays ago to preach it today, today coincides precisely with the Independence Day of the United States, independence from a very strong dominance that existed over this nation from England, its independence, their emancipation in a sense of national ties, but today we celebrate independence in Christ Jesus, independence from evil, independence from that spirit that held us captive when we did not know Christ. So we are celebrating freedom in Christ Jesus. And you know what? We are free from condemnation and that is what I want to talk to you about this afternoon. No condemnation, that is the title of this message.

In Romans, chapter 8 I want to read you the passage because only the passage blesses us and instructs us. Pay attention to what the Apostle Paul says. He opens that chapter with a withering statement, says, "Now then, no condemnation." I want you to repeat that with me, no condemnation. That is very low, very light. Come on. That is the test. Now, no condemnation. Esta bien. That is. Thank you. “Now then,” he says, “there is no condemnation for whom? For those who are in Christ Jesus, those who do not walk according to the flesh," here is a clarification, "those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free of the law of sin and death.” I have been fighting for two ways to preach this sermon, let's see which one. This morning I preached it in a very organized way and my notes in English are, in fact, on the website and you can see it. But sometimes it is also good to preach the word of God organically, with a complete living system, such as the human body, and this passage has so many teachings that we can make it our outline, the passage itself teaches us how to talk about these truths that the Apostle Paul… so I'm going to do it that way. Let me just flow in the spirit and share some truths with you.

Paul begins by saying something very important, he says, "Now then," that word 'well', why is it there? That means that there is something that precedes that passage and he is like making a conclusion from what he has just said. What is the 'so'? Why the 'so' there? Because in chapter 7, if you read chapter 7, you'll see that Paul talks about his slavery to sin. Pablo was a very honest man, very transparent, and despite his great achievements, his tremendous anointing, he was also a man who recognized that he had debts with God, that he was a man like any other and that he had things that still hurt him. they bound, and from which he could not free himself though he tried. In chapter 7 it is like an admission of guilt, and Paul talks about how there are two laws in him, on the one hand he wants to please the Lord and serve the Lord, and on the other hand there is another law that pulls him, he says, and binds him to sin. On the one hand he wants to please God in all areas and on the other hand, he knows that there are also things in his life that should be right with the Lord and that are not.

Look, for example, in the case of the Apostle Paul, one of the things that he says that God gave Paul so many blessings, so many revelations, that God was careful that Paul did not get too proud. It seems that God discerned that in Paul there was an inclination towards pride, and the truth is that Paul received some incredible revelations. And Paul says that so that the enormity and greatness of the revelations that God had given him would not make him excessively proud, God gave him a thorn in the flesh. He is a messenger of Satan. God sort of artificially put something in Paul to keep him humble, to humble him, to remind him that he was always a prisoner of God's grace, that he needed the Lord's grace. Paul also lived tormented with the idea that he persecuted the church of Jesus Christ and he says that "I am the least of all the Apostles because I persecuted the church of Christ." And he also said that he was the chief of sinners. And so, that made Paul have a very great appreciation about the grace of God. And many of the passages of Scripture that he wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have to do with that grace of Christ that neutralizes the evil of sin that is in him.

So in chapter 7 he goes into a pretty detailed discussion of his sinful condition, and at the end of that chapter 7 he says, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" It is a statement of total frustration in him. He knows that by himself he cannot even appear before the Lord and that he needs God's grace. But in chapter 7, again, it's like the negative background of this luminous passage that is chapter 8. Remember that, chapter 7, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Because what I don't want to do I do, and what I want to do I don't. And then, there comes a time when he reflects on himself and he gives us the antidote to that agony that he feels for his sinful condition. And for this reason, he says, "Now then," in other words, now, despite this inherent inability that I have to please God, something comforts me, something gives me peace, and that is that "there is no condemnation for those who They are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, he knows that despite everything, in Christ he has mercy, goodness, fellowship, reconciliation with God.

And brothers, I believe that we, the children of God, live oscillating between these two extremes, and that the secret of a healthy, balanced and peaceful Christian life is knowing how to maintain the balance between these two inclinations, these two consciences that exist in us. . On the one hand, the awareness that we are sinners, that we are going to offend the Lord, that we are inside a body whose very constitution leads us to sin and that makes us feel sad, makes us feel debtors before God. But, on the other hand, we have forgiveness of our sins in Christ Jesus, we have peace with God, we have reconciliation in the Lord, we have justification, we have life, and we can confidently appear before the throne of grace, as the word of the Lord says. So, I believe that the secret of a happy, balanced, mature Christian life, is to reach that point of taking those two truths that seem contradictory: our sinfulness, our inability to please God, our inclination towards sin because of our biology. ; and on the other hand that God who has forgiven us, has blessed us, has justified us through Christ Jesus.

How to live that balance? That is the secret and that is what Paul tries to leave us here. This afternoon I would like all of us to leave here with that double call to please God, on the one hand and knowing that we are going to fail many times, and on the other hand, rest in the Lord and live our lives in peace. Amen. At least there are two or three here that they get it. [Laughs] I know everyone gets it. That is the task of our life, to leave this place wanting to please the Lord and knowing that we will never fully arrive, but also resting in the Lord. So, says Paul, "Now therefore, despite this, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The expression 'in Christ' is very abundant in Paul's theology. Paul talks over and over again about 'in Christ' and that expression 'in Christ' has great importance because being in Christ means like a tree is integrated into the earth… Where does a tree derive its life and its capacity from? to bear fruit? It is from the fact that it is rooted in the earth and the earth gives it its nutrients. He knows that the wedding of the tree is the root, that's where the tree eats, that's where the tree receives nutrients from the earth, that's where the tree maintains itself. And the branches of a tree derive their life from being attached to the trunk of that tree that is receiving the sap from the earth. And if one of those branches breaks off the tree, it immediately begins to die. The branches are alive because they are on the tree, and the tree is alive because they are on the ground. We have life because we are in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Because we dwell in Him, because we breathe in Him, because we dream of Him, because we are continually entrusting ourselves to Him, because we know that without Him we can do nothing. So says the Lord.

He says, "Remain in me, and I in you, and you will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." And it's what Paul says, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And the tendency of many of us, ah, okay, I am in Christ. I already punched out the card, I already went to the front, I already raised my hand, I lie down to sleep. But being in Christ is something very complex and that is what Paul wants to develop and that is why in that second part of the verse he says, “…those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. ” What is he doing there? He is qualifying what he just said. Paul was a highly developed theologian, a very rational man, a highly educated man, and he dotted the i's, he differentiated very well. So what Paul wants now is to teach us what truly constitutes being in Christ Jesus. And what is it that makes us truly qualified? He opens and tears and shells out that expression, 'to be in Christ' and the first thing he says is, "You are in Christ if you walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." It says, "Those who do not walk according to the flesh, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ has freed me from the law of sin and death." And there an interrelation between two or three principles is unleashed. Many times in his writings Paul speaks of law and grace.

The law is the commandments, the law is the torah, all the books of the Old Testament. The law is what made the scribes and the Pharisees agonize. The law was what had turned Judaism into a prison where the commandments had become a deadly burden on the conscience of the religionists of the time. Israel went from being an idolatrous, immoral nation, which we see portrayed in many of those books that you have been reading in the Old Testament, and when God punished them with exile, when they returned from exile they were so punished for their sins that they left to the other end. They went to the extreme of being obsessed with the commandments. And he knows that there is a lesson for us there. When God's commandments become an obsession, they become death. Now, when we relate to God's commandments in an organic, breathing way, a way that combines the desire to please with repose in God's justice and grace and mercy, then there is life. But for the Jews, the commandments of the law became a reason for death, they killed life in Judaism. And people were haunted by their sins. If they did anything and didn't wash their hands, they already believed that God was no longer with them. If they did not pay the tithe they already believed that they had lost their salvation. If they did not do this, if they did not do that, if they touched an unclean person, if they passed where there was a person with leprosy, everything was a source of condemnation. And what does it mean? that when you live like this, forget that you are going to be a bundle of nerves, as they say. You will be continually obsessed with your guilt. Guilt is going to be what controls you in your life. Because? Because we by ourselves are never capable of completely pleasing God.

Someone has said that no one can survive a government audit, of taxes. How many of us live in fear that if they start digging through the taxes, something is going to come out of it somehow. Because? Because audits get deep into your taxes and someone will always have forgotten a receipt when they bought something, they will have forgotten to put a little number there for something they were given, a gift or something and they did not pay the government. God is worse than an audit. If God gets into your life, he will always find some sin. No one can please God because of his own justice, because our very life, our biology makes us offend God in a thousand ways. Yes or no? our thoughts, what we do, what we don't do, what we say, what we don't, all become a relationship of sin. So Paul says that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and death. And for that reason it is that our debt, our loyalty, should not be to the law or to things of matter but to things of the spirit. Because it is there where our salvation is, it is there where our hope is. So, Paul establishes this, the law condemns us and God, the Bible says, established the law to prove that no human being could save himself. And so all those Old Testament books and all that time that was spent in the Old Testament with all those laws, it was God preparing humanity for one thing, it was to appreciate what Christ was going to do. As if to say to the man, you see, in your own way you're never going to be able to please me. And God took centuries to prove that to humanity and then He sent Christ Jesus as the solution, so that we can appreciate what Christ has truly done.

Brothers, in the flesh none of us will be able to please the Lord. As I say, again, our constitution itself, what we are, our neurology, our physical, biological, animal, earthly, carnal constitution, is not capable of pleasing the Lord. This is the matter. Matter will never please the Lord, only the spirit of Christ Jesus in us. So, that is why Paul says, look, if you know that the meat does not lead to anything good, then your loyalty should not be to the flesh, your mind should not be giving so much value to the things of the flesh, but to the things of the flesh. things of the spirit So, you must live your life seeking the things of the spirit, appreciating the things of the spirit, because the flesh does not lead to anything good. So, that is why Paul says, look, those who have no condemnation are those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, because the law of the spirit of life is what has freed us from the law of sin and from the death. So, let's see this too, this antinomy, matter-spirit. And God asks us, where is your trust? Is it in what you can do for yourself? Is it in the world? Is it in the things of the world or is it in the law of Christ Jesus?

So in verse 3 Paul says, “For what was impossible for the law in that I was weak through the flesh, God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. ” Again, in other words, God knows that by ourselves we cannot please him. And something occurred to me, a thought that I want to share with you that is related to this. He says, "What was impossible by law because I was weak through the flesh," knows that God, He knows, He knows that we are dust and God instead of demanding and attacking and harassing us with our inability to please Him, He sent a medicine that is the grace of Christ Jesus. And that reminded me of something that as parents, brothers, as parents we can get much more out of our children with grace than with the whip of the law. And that we should try as much as possible to be merciful to our children. When we demand of our children, when we call them to behave well, to study, let us always do it so that a sense of redemption remains in their hearts, that they know that we love them, appreciate them, we know that in the end they will do things well, and I believe that one gets much more out of children with affirmation than with condemnation. We know that being young always leads to mistakes, to delusions, a number of things, and we must always have that grace with our children.

We must also have grace with our peers, our friends, with our brothers because that often brings more than condemnation. So, that's why God devised this way, because He knew that by always reminding people of their sins, their mistakes, their inability to please Him, what He was going to do was just put them further in the hole and that's why He sent Christ to we could rest in Him, that we know that He is not there angry with us, that He has forgiven us and that He knows that we are dust, that we are weak, that our very constitution is to offend and err. So, “God sends his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and condemns sin in the flesh.” Here is something very important that we have to remember, when Christ died on the cross, not only was Christ crucified, but it was almost, I don't know how to explain it, but sin itself was crucified in Christ. Christ assumed the form of a man, a perfect man, yes, but he was a man representing humanity, and when Christ dies on the cross, not only is He being nailed, but also our sin, our condemnation is being nailed. on the cross of Calvary.

The Bible says that on the cross Christ dethroned principalities and powers, and annulled, it says, the act of decrees that was contrary to us. That is to say, that on the cross all the accusations of the devil, all the condemnation of the devil were neutralized. It is as if when Christ was being crucified there was also a paper there that was the condemnation of humanity, and that too was crucified. He assumed the form of a man so that upon that man would fall all the sins of humanity, present, past, and future. Christ was the victim that before, in the order of the temple and Old Testament sacrifices, the victims were continually burned for the sins of the nation. Now, God was much more efficient and with a single sacrifice, that of Christ Jesus, as a victim, He burned all the sins of all of us. And today when we abide in Christ, we are drinking, eating, receiving from the life that came out of his broken body, his body bruised by sin. It says that by Christ's stripes we have been healed. And that is a physical, emotional, spiritual healing, and what is required is then, that we enter into what Christ has already done, that we accept for me, for you, what the Lord did on the cross of Calvary.

And it's important that we understand that too, because what Paul is saying here is that we have to put our signature on that check, so to speak, that Christ wrote on the cross of Calvary. If you do not put your signature on what Christ did then, what Christ did is not valid for you. How many know that if you don't sign a contract, the contract is worthless? If you don't sign a check, what you wrote on the check is no longer valid. If you buy a house and do not sign a contract for that house, it is worth nothing. If you make a will and you don't put your signature on that will, what you want done with your money is worthless. And in the same way, the testament that Christ left on the cross of Calvary requires your firmness, it requires that you accept it, that you be clear that this is for you and me. That is why when we invite people to raise their hands in a service, to accept Christ as Lord and savior, to come forward, what we are saying is put your signature on the check that Christ issued on the cross of Calvary. . Recognize that what Christ did is for you. And if you do not put your signature, if you do not appropriate what Christ did, then what Christ did on the cross of Calvary is not valid for you. That idea of neither condemnation is for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so, Paul goes on to elaborate on that, in verse 5 he says, "Those who are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but those who are of the spirit mind the things of the spirit." And here there is something very important that we also have to elaborate a little on them. This idea that those who think of the flesh, what does that mean? Or those who think about things of the spirit, where are your priorities? What do you think about when you are alone? What are the things that worry you? What are the things that catch your attention? When you are taking a shower, for example, what things do you think about? When you have your day off, what are the things that catch your attention? What do you spend your time on? And what are the things that have priority in your life? Because that's what Paul is saying, that life in Christ is more than just coming to church on a Sunday and then going home. And the other Sunday you come and then, you are a Christian again, but the rest of the time you spend doing your life as you want and your Christianity does not impact your human relationships, your marriage, your priorities, what you do with your money, how you spend your time, how you invest your talents, what decisions you make with your career, where to live, where to invest your energy. The children of God, those who are in Christ, think of the things of the spirit and not of the flesh. This is unlike the people whose priority is their career, and how many Christians there are truly who for them the Christian life is an after thought, it is something that is an appendage of their life, but what really matters to them is reaching the peak of their career, make money, have a nice house, buy the BMW they have always wanted, their children are their adoration, their Saturday morning rest, wash the car and make it shiny for the weekend. And for many Christians, and certainly for people who are not in Christ, that is life. Life is something earthly, something that simply has to do with this time and this space. And what Paul says is that if we are truly Christians and we are in Christ Jesus, our outlook, our inclination, our perspective on life will be totally colored by our condition as Christians. And that is where we are going to be thinking and obsessing and looking for how to cultivate.

The Christian thinks and loves and gets involved in things of the spirit. And really, for the Christian that Paul is talking about here, life out there, so to speak, is second or third category, his concerns are in his condition as a child of God. This means that their greatest pleasure will be to serve the Lord, to grow in things of the spirit, to be an instrument in God's hands, to know more and more of God. Pablo says, as Meche said last Sunday, his desire was to know Christ in his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection. How many are hungry and thirsty to truly know God? How many live their lives wanting to be more and more like Christ? For how many of us our passion is that we be a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord? And how many of us spend our time thinking? How much time do you spend meditating on the word of the Lord? What do you think about when you get up in the morning? What is your last thought before falling asleep? In what do you invest your money, your time, your talents? What are the things you think about? Because that is important, because for God the only thing that truly pleases the Lord is a total commitment to Him. God is not a half God. The word says that God is jealous. He does not share his love with anyone. He is a jealous husband. Furthermore, the Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. There is only one thing that pleases the Lord and it is a heart on fire for Him, a heart that desperately loves Him, “As a servant pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when will I come and present myself before the house of God?" that is the cry that must consume our lives continually.

I long that I long, that I long to know God more and more in his crucifixion and in the power of his resurrection. I want to know Christ in all dimensions, not only in the good, but also in what I do not like so that my life is pleasant before Him. And that is what I think Paul means, those who do not they think of the flesh, of the things of the flesh, but of the things of the spirit. Do you know that the greatest protection for a believer is to worry about Christ, to worry about things of the spirit. If you care about the things of the spirit, God will care about the things of the flesh in your life. The Bible also says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things will be added to you.” How many can say 'God has proven that in my life'? I have discovered that serving the Lord is the best investment of all investments that a man or a woman can make. When you serve the Lord and give everything, the Lord cares about you, cares about your children, cares about your finances, cares about your health, cares about your emotional state. All the things that the Gentiles, those who do not know Christ, live squeezing and agonizing to achieve, the Lord gives them to you without any pain. Your deliveries are painless deliveries because your priority is to please Christ Jesus.

I can tell you in my own life, brothers, when the Lord called me into the ministry decades ago, my concern was, well, if I quit my career and start serving the Lord, I'm going to be a starving pastor over there. , my daughters are going to have work, my wife is going to be in need, my house, the good ambitions that I have for progress and I am going to have to sacrifice my life, so to speak. Know what? The Lord has surprised us with his provision through 30 plus years of ministry. God is not lacking. God has blessed us. God has given us the desires of our hearts, brothers, both in the material and in the spirit, as in the emotional, as in the family. God has been more than merciful because we have served Him. When you worry about things of the spirit, and you understand that your first call is to please the Lord, and you put aside all the things that obsess human beings , God says, now we can work. Now I am going to make you a channel of my grace. And not only are you going to be a blessing to yourself, but you are going to be a blessing to others as well.

The Lord asked Peter for his boat. Do you remember that passage? The Lord is preaching to a crowd and the crowd is pressing on him and he wants to preach and because he is so close to the people, in his human limitation, he could not reach those who were far behind because his voice was not projected. He says that he saw Pedro who had his boat and Pedro had come from a whole night of fishing without catching a single fish. And the Lord says to Peter, "Peter," and Peter at that moment did not yet know Christ as he truly should know Him, and the Lord says to him, "Peter, can you lend me your boat?" And then, it says that the Lord got on the boat and I imagine that Peter or someone helped him and pulled the boat a little from the shore. And then, from there, removed from the shore, He had the whole crowd in front of him and could preach effectively. And I imagine that many people could have been blessed, because Peter lent his boat to the Lord. And when the Lord had finished preaching, he said to Peter, "Now, Peter, come, get on and we're going to launch out into the deep." For me, sailing into the deep... the deep into the sea is the place of consecration, the place of surrender, the place where one withdraws from the crowd and from the world and is now alone with Christ Jesus. And then, there, withdrawn from the shore, the Lord says to him, "Now, Peter, let down your nets to weigh." You see, at all times the Lord was aware of Peter's needs. He knew that in that man who was there listening to him, there was a man who was perhaps worried about his family, because he was trying to fish, he hadn't gotten any fish, his profession was not bringing him any profit, he was thinking, "I'm going to lose my life." boat, I rented it, I leased it, I still have to pay for it and what will become of my family?

And many times we are like that. We are worried about our future, our career, our interests, and many times the Lord wants to use us in different ways, but we do not understand that the Lord wants to use our life, the Lord wants to take us as an instrument of his grace. The Lord wants us to surrender everything, turn everything over to Him and say, “Lord, here I am. What you want from me." That is what I am going to do. When Peter renders his profession to the Lord, he surrenders his ownership of that boat to the Lord, then Christ is free to bless Peter as well. And so, he tells Pedro, “Now, cast your net,” and what he is saying is, in brackets, and you are going to see the difference between fishing with me as your priority, and fishing with the fish as your priority. The word says that when Peter cast his nets, it says that a multitude of fish came out. I imagine that the word of Christ called all the fish that were hundreds of yards away and all those fish came to bless Peter's net. And remember that Pedro fished in not very good conditions. He had tried to fish at night when the fish are receptive, there are no people, there are no noises to scare them away. And there is also a teaching that Peter says to the Lord, "Lord, but all night we have tried to fish and we have not caught anything." How many of us here have tried to fish all night in good conditions and caught nothing? Because we have not put Christ in our priority, we are not allowing the Lord to use our economy, to use our resources, we have not given our entire being to the Lord. We have not forgotten ourselves so that the kingdom of Christ may be advanced.

And then, Peter gathers that great harvest of fish and the Lord tells him, "Peter, now you will not be a fisher of stinking fish, but you will be a fisher of men, of souls." Because? Because when you give yourself completely to the Lord, consecrate yourself, God blesses you materially, blesses you in your profession, blesses you in your family, and you change your status. You are converted from a merely biological being to an exalted being, like an angel that serves the Lord and is used for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. So, what Paul is doing here, brothers, is a call precisely to live that experience of the Apostle Peter. And I believe that the Lord is calling us to an experience of total consecration, to think about things of the spirit, because only a person who gives complete priority to Christ, to God in his life, can truly live free from condemnation. You cannot free yourself from the guilty conscience by your own works. The only way is by getting directly into Christ and letting the Lord occupy every corner of your being. Christ gets into you and you get into Christ. And when you then live like this, in Christ Jesus, not worrying about things of matter, not giving priority to material things, giving more importance to things of the spirit then, the grace of the Lord can flow freely through you. All the nutrients that the Gospel has, peace with God, spiritual power, the ability to bless others, victories over your bondages, a new status, a truly legitimate child of God, all these things begin to flow through you. . You are like the tree, attached to the ground, being nurtured, bearing fruit in due season because the life of Christ flows through your life.

In verse 9 Paul says, "But you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, if the spirit of God dwells in you." In other words, that is the alternative, he is taking for granted something that in many of us is not a reality. You should not live, it would be better to say, according to the flesh but according to the spirit. And if you live like this, brother, like a sacrifice on the altar slowly consuming yourself for the love of God, if you do not trust in your own justice, but trust in the justice of Jesus Christ, you can live free from condemnation. When a man or a woman loves God above all things, when a man or a woman is so filled with the presence of Christ in them that there is no room for anything else, then, look, when you make a mistake, when you sin like Paul, like me, like all of us here, the blood of Christ immediately comes and cleanses you from all sin. The blood of Christ restores you, restores you, but you have to have that intimate relationship with the Lord. You have to let the blood of Christ be continually flowing through you, that your interests be the interests of the Kingdom of God. And when you live like this, attached to the grace that is in Christ Jesus, attached to what He did on the cross of Calvary, knowing that He is your life and that your life is hidden in Christ Jesus, then you can be calm, you can sleep peacefully, you can live the life of grace that God has for you.

So, I'm done with that idea. That what Paul is establishing is that balance of loving God above all things, wanting to please him passionately, living a life of holiness, striving to be pleasing before God, continually burning like a sacrifice that is consuming, that God is polishing every day. God is crucifying every day, God is leading us through a series of experiences that are bringing us closer and closer and making us more like Christ. When we live that life of total surrender, but we also live that life of rest in the Lord, when you go to bed at night, you know that you have acquired a number of debts with God, but you can say, "but now I refer to the grace of the Lord." And the next day you will get up and do the same thing again, you will trust Christ, you will strive to serve him, but you will also relax and rest in what Christ did on the cross of Calvary. I hope that this afternoon is our move, that is our dynamic.

Let's bow our heads for a moment. Let's remember what the Lord is telling us this afternoon. To our young brothers I say, fall in love with the Lord, put Christ in the first place and always give him priority, and the Lord will take care of everything to which you aspire. To those who are already mature, who have time in the faith, those who are already in their career, in their jobs, I say, put Christ in the first place. Entrust yourselves to Him, live for Him, love Him, live in what He did on the cross of Calvary, do not live in your own sufficiency, always trusting in the grace that emerges from your cross. And make Christ something so real in your life that there is no room for anything else, neither the accusations of the devil, nor anything else. And then we are going to be able to live satisfied lives, lives of blessing, lives through which the grace of the Lord flows. There where you are, find me, Lord, I refer to your grace, I entrust myself to you. I dedicate my life to you. I surrender everything I have to you, Lord. I rest in what you have achieved on the cross, where you gave yourself for me, and today I ask you, come into my life, come into my heart, and that what you did on the cross becomes valid for me too. I surrender to you I accept you, I receive you, I confess you as my Lord, as my savior.

Can you say that? Lord, on your cross I have salvation. On your cross I have eternal life. In what you achieved through your sacrifice, I have eternal life, I have forgiveness of my sins. If you have done that this afternoon, you can say, I am free from all condemnation. Father, thank you for your goodness, thank you for your love, thank you for your mercy, thank you for what you achieved on the cross of Calvary. My brother, if you've done that today, even if it's the first time or even if you've done it before, if you want to confess that dependence on Christ Jesus, why don't you raise your hand right now. Be that as it may, if you have done it before, if you are doing it now for the first time, it does not matter, confess your surrender to the Lord, and your trust in the Lord. Rise your hand. Stand up, as you want. We are going to stand up and we are going to confess our dependence on the Lord this afternoon. Let's tell the Lord, Father, I trust what you have done on the cross this afternoon. We bless you, we thank you, Lord, we trust in your cross. We trust in your release. Thank you for what you have achieved, Lord, on the cross of Calvary. We adore you and bless you, Father. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen, amen, and amen. God bless you my brothers. We are going to live free lives to serve Christ and to do his will. Amen and amen. God bless you.