Resilience: Traveling towards who we are

Free to be who we really are. That is the topic I started talking about three weeks ago. The word of God calls us to be free to be what we truly are. There is a contradiction there because if we are, we obviously do not have to become. That's very philosophical but that's how it is. The fact is that what I want to do is point out and continue with the sermon that I did not finish that time. And this is important, in light of what we're talking about in this sermon series on resilience, living victorious lives. How to live lives that, when trials and losses and struggles come, instead of giving in and being defeated, we come out stronger than ever, using the trials and difficulties and struggles of life rather as stepping stones to get there. to the greatness that God has for us. To be winners and not just winners but more than winners.

So we're talking about that, and within that topic, I've wanted to focus on the process itself. How can we mentally become the people we need to be in order to be winners? There is a process that we have to follow and sometimes I think that in the Christian life we preachers are very content to simply tell people, look, God has done that. God has said this about your life. You have to be this. You have to be the other. But we don't take the time to break down what that means. We don't take the time to zoom in and focus on a little bit of the process so that people can understand how we can become what God wants us to be. And that is what this sermon is about. And the first thing I said in the last part of this sermon is that the Christian life is a life of perpetual transformation and renewal, it should be, at least. We are called to convert and to be new creatures.

And I know Second Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18 in particular, or even 17th, Second Corinthians 3:17, "For the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Now, freedom for what? Freedom to be what God wants us to be, freedom to defeat our giants, freedom to grow more every day, freedom to better understand the word of the Lord, to be more mature, to be greater in spirit. Freedom. And he says, "Therefore, we all, beholding with unveiled face, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are transformed." In the original Greek the idea is we are being transformed, looking into the face of the Lord, “…we are being transformed from glory to glory into the same image as by the spirit of the Lord.” In other words, by contemplating the face of God, that image of the Lord's face is transferred to us and we are raised up, strengthened, perfected, sanctified in the image of the Lord, not of the world, not of some great philosopher, of some great theologian, but according to the norm that God establishes. He is the reference point for our growth and we must judge our growth in light of the character of Christ. For example, Christ Jesus is the powerful man that has existed on earth, man God, is the perfect being, and He is the one who must define how we should be. When I look at Jesus I see perfection, I see a perfectly polished and worked character. The Lord said that he who has seen me has seen the Father. So, when we contemplate the face of Jesus we can be like Him, learn to be like Him. He must be our norm and our point of reference.

So, we must always be in process. Son of God, daughter of God, you have been called to be a being in continuous process. The transformation process is difficult, it is tremendously arduous, demanding. Becoming what Christ wants us to be, the process of sanctification, the process of growth, of personal development, brothers, that is something that... there is no bigger company than that in the world. There is no greater battle, there is no more arduous journey than to become what Christ wants us to be. That requires a lot of effort. And one of the questions we ask ourselves is how we can change our way of seeing that process, our way of thinking, our way of seeing ourselves, our way of understanding God's call. There are attitudes that we must adopt to become what God wants us to be.

Number 1. I believe it all starts with an acknowledgment of our pain, our brokenness, our imperfection, our fallen nature. We must make a recognition, an exploration of our past experience. If you were abused as a child, for example, you should acknowledge that. Don't run from it, don't hide from yourself. If you were insulted or hurt by some teacher or someone who hit your psyche and gave you an inferiority complex, or whatever, you should acknowledge this. If you lost your mother when you were young or young and from there a depressive attitude began, you must understand that. If you had a failed marriage, or some academic failure, if your dreams weren't fulfilled in your youth, and you carry a sense of mourning, you have to recognize those things. Because that's the starting point. That is the enemy we are confronting. That is the giant or giants because sometimes there is more than one. If you have a complex about your body, or whatever, that's where you have to start.

We have to recognize what we need. We have to recognize where we are. You cannot be afraid to name our giants because that is where the healing process begins. We cannot have an ostrich attitude that sticks its head in the sand and pretends that the enemy does not exist. No, I find that people who are resilient, resilient, capable of winning in life, are people who are realistic and lucid and know what the world is and they know what the world is, and they also recognize the fight they have for in front of. We have to recognize who we are. We, as Christians, have to know that we live in a fallen and sinful world, that we have received wounds and damage, that we ourselves have often hurt others as well. This is part of human reality. This is part of a world that is permeated by sin and we have to recognize that. That acceptance of the negative in us and in our relatives and loved ones, our parents, is the beginning of emotional health and a positive outlook. At other times it came to my mind, I have told people, look, you don't have to pretend that your parents were perfect or hide their flaws to love and respect and revere them. On the contrary, I think it's good that we sometimes recognize the defects of our parents, the mistakes they made, the abuse that sometimes began in our lives, and then continue to love them and know that they did the best they possibly could, and forgive them. . But if you suppress the defects of your family, or of your past, what will happen is that then, you will not give God, so to speak, the opportunity to heal those problem areas in your life. So, it is important that you recognize that the world is imperfect and that you live in that world and that you are an imperfect creature and give yourself away.

Secondly, however, it must be recognized that there is another principle superior to that and that is that Christ has come to repair this broken world. He has come to undo the works of the devil. He has come to give you life and life in abundance. He has come to heal your wounds. He has come to take you from that point of falling to a point of victory in Him. Amen. And we must also recognize that because if we only stay in the fact that we are hurt, fallen, abused, etc., and we stay there, then we have lost the battle. You have to know that no. Christ, by entering me, has given me power to overcome in all things. And I can overcome my demons and I can overcome my defects with the power of God and the help of the Holy Spirit. That is important too. I am here basting one thing with the other. Actually, that higher principle is what should dominate our mind. The principle of fall and defect, and imperfection, is simply a starting point towards the idea that in Christ we are more than conquerors and that He helps us to go on. And now I have a new position.

When I was without Christ, when I was in the world or even when I was in Christ but did not know these things, I was a puppet in the hands of the devil and the world. But now that I am clear about who Christ is in me, I am more than a winner. And that is my true condition. That is the call of God in my life. Judicially, legally, it is not Satan or sin that now rules in my life, but Christ and his goodness, and his love and his good intention towards us. And we must continually meditate on this and repeat it to ourselves until it becomes our experience, our experience, our dominant expectation because the devil and the world will try to take that conviction away from us. When we go out there immediately, the world will try to take away that perspective from us and that is what happens many times... The Lord says that the sower went out to sow and one of the first seeds... he says that the birds ate the seed, he says that That is the world, that is Satan who is coming… There is a moment when we feel God's blessing but Satan wants to steal the blessing, steal the seed so that it is not fruitful. And we have to hold on tooth and nail to what God has said we really are.

So, the struggle, brothers, to win, to be a winner in life, to be resilient, to rebound from the afflictions and wounds of the world, is something come to grips, as we say, and it is something that requires that we let's reprogram our mind after years of sometimes living under a negative perspective. I know that there are many here who have lived in difficult, painful situations, and now they enter the Gospel and the pastor or the word tells them that, hey, God has great things for you. God has blessings he wants to give you. And it is difficult for them. I know how hard it is when you have your mind programmed, wow! How hard it is to believe what God says about us and what He wants us to do. How difficult it is after the traumas of life, which mark us like a burning seal, to find that perspective and hope that God wants to do something different and that God has already told us, “You are a winner. I have given you all the land that the soles of your feet tread on. No one will be able to face you all the days of your life.” Sounds very nice right? But one says, hey, but how do I get out of my brain, what my neurology tells me and that I know is true but I kind of can't reach it. It's like telling a paralytic, "Get up and walk," God does it, but many times we listen to it and they pray for us and we are there because we don't know... neurons cannot connect to that word. I am fascinated by that moment that... how to help my brothers and myself to access that truth of God.

And here I have some attitudes that I think help us. First, some attitudes that we must adopt. Number 1. The first thing we have to do is accept that it is possible to change in God. It's possible. You can change your depressive attitude. You can change your anxious condition. You can change your bad temper. You can change your sexual ties or whatever. God can do it. You can change your position of defeat, your economic situation, your marital situation, your relationship with your children, your addiction to whatever, it is possible to change in Christ Jesus. The Bible says that with God all things are possible. The Lord told Martha, "Martha, I have not told you that if you believe everything is possible." It is only required to believe. The disciples said, "Lord, then who can be saved?" after the Lord told them something. He told them, "Hey, for you it's impossible, but for God everything is possible." Amen. So, we have to believe, we have to ask the Lord to help us believe that everything is possible in Christ. Even psychologists who often do not believe in God tell us after examining the human brain and neurobiology that the brain is eminently plastic and flexible. The brain is the most wonderful thing in the world. Before, it was thought, for example, that if a nerve was cut or something like that, it could not be regenerated. And then they discovered that no, that nerves can still regenerate. The brain is tremendously flexible and therefore it is possible to change the habits of life. It takes time but it is possible. So the first thing we have to tell ourselves is possible, I can change.

Number 2. Realistically, it's important that we accept the fact that this is a difficult undertaking. It is possible but it is also difficult. And we have to adapt and get used to the idea that this is a demanding journey, not a trip around the park. No, I think it's important because if we don't recognize that it's difficult, we're going to get tired along the way. And when we have one or two setbacks or temporary failures, we are going to throw in the towel and stop believing and waiting on the Lord. I was reading a few days ago about Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the great generals in the history of Europe, and Napoleon had had a series of great victories against other countries and seemed invincible. And he led his troops to Egypt, from France to Egypt, to conquer Egypt. But he was too confident in his victories. Not enough reconnaissance of the territory was made, the long distance between France and Egypt was not taken into account. The warlike character of the enemy was underestimated and after a few months, it became entangled, as also happened to the Russians in Afghanistan, and even to the Americans.

When you underestimate how hard the battle is, you can often lose. So after a few months of not making much progress, Napoleon got fed up, left some troops there, went to Europe to fight other battles. And that group that stayed there were completely dismembered, defeated. In the end, only a handful of disheartened soldiers remained, and finally, the enemies came and wiped them all out, killed all the French soldiers. A complete defeat, because they did not take into account the length and arduousness of the battle. And the battle of personal transformation is a very difficult thing, even with God working in us. Not for God but for us many times. And there is a lot of cloth to cut there. I want to help them in that sense too. So you have to accept that this is a difficult undertaking, yet knowing that it is possible.

Third place. I have already said it, you have to accept that it will take a long time. Brethren, the journey to personal transformation and sanctification is the battle of a lifetime. I tell you that I have been pastoring for almost 40 years, 30-odd, 37 to be precise. And I tell you that I myself, who am preaching this sermon, understand that I still have so much to go, brothers, to reach the goal. A pilgrim brother tells them. And I can tell you that this is a battle of a lifetime. And do you know when that battle ends? When we die That is why there is no need to fear death. On the contrary, death is a liberation. That's where it all ended and God transforms us. The metamorphosis then becomes complete and real, and the worm becomes a winged butterfly that goes to the throne of the Father. But while we are here in life, says the Lord, "In the world you will find sorrow." We are in a continuous battle. You have to accept, therefore, that it will take the long term because you have to tear down old neurological structures, adopt new habits, you have to replace them with new things in the long term.

In fourth place. Therefore we must adopt and embrace that perspective that even with God's backing it will take time. So, I'm going for 4 things. Number 1 it is possible, number 2 it is difficult, number 3 it will take a long time, number 4 I have to take a long term perspective. Let me make a parenthesis here. Why is this fight so difficult, this battle towards what God wants us to be? Personal transformation. I would say that one of the reasons is because God never violates your freedom. God does not turn you into an automaton, he touches you with a magic wand and it sort of takes out all the bad memories, the pleasures you experienced, the internal temptations. God does not turn you into an automaton who does his will for Him, his nature or desire induced you and cut off your initiative. No, God works through our complexity. He respects who we are. He works around things that He can't violate, not because He can't but because He doesn't allow Himself to. It is like a surgeon who wants to cut out a tumor, but knows that if he cuts it in a certain way, he may cut nerves and veins that would kill the patient. So, you have to use intermediary means. You have to use radiation, you have to cut it in part, because it is conditioned to certain structural limitations of the person. And that happens when God tries to operate in us. He respects our free will, He respects our psychological makeup. So, himself, not because he can't, but because he doesn't allow it, he has to be very careful. And what he does is that he works through circumstances, he works through the Holy Spirit, he puts us in psychological dramas that we experience that help us to understand better, they break us, they soften us, they soften us so that we can then say to the Father, " Yes, Lord," and enter into that process that God wants.

I heard last Wednesday in the study about that vinedresser that the owner of the vineyard comes to the vineyard to look for fruit and does not find it. remember? And he says to him, “Look, I have come three years now to find fruit in this vineyard and I can't find it. Cut it off. What does it occupy the land for? And the worker, the farmer, says, "No, wait, give me one more year to dig around it and fertilize it, and then, if it doesn't bear fruit, I'll cut it down." The Holy Spirit is that worker who digs around us and fertilizes the land. I mean that God uses sometimes violent means, digging is violent, and sometimes he puts us through trials, failures, struggles, attacks that force us to understand who we are and what we need to give to the Father. And sometimes pay and send advice, send people around us. He speaks to us through his spirit. He speaks to us gently through the word. Digging is violent, fertilizing is gentle. And God uses both weapons to work in our lives, to lead us to be what He wants us to be.

Always remember that if God has a purpose for your life, He is not going to intervene directly and violently, but He is going to work around those ministrations of the Holy Spirit to little by little take you where He wants. And sometimes he has to prune us, the word also says, the one that bears fruit God will prune it so that it bears more fruit. And the Lord is always involved in this process of pruning us, working on us so that we bear more fruit. He does not do it in an absolutely unilateral way, but He works through us. And that's why the process takes a little longer. God does not violate your will but his will in you is perfected through the zigzagging nature of the process in which you are involved. Do you know that part of the dramas that we experience is for the glory of God? How many know that our life is made to glorify God and to bring pleasure to the Father? God is always looking at you and delighting like a novelist who is reading his own novel and delighting in what he wrote. There is something that delights the Lord about our personal journey in life. When we falter, when we fall, when we rise, when we overcome, when we worship, the substance of our life brings delight to the Father. Someone has said that we exist for the glory and pleasure of God. So, God delights many times in that zigzagging process even in our falls, brothers, God delights, because He knows that He can use it for His glory and for your blessing as well. God is not as fussy as we sometimes think. He uses all the materials of our lives to bring us to who He wants us to be. So that's why it takes so long, that's why this process is so arduous. That's why it takes long term, but it is possible. God is committed to you so that you come to victory.

So, I have talked about attitudes that you must adopt: know that it is possible, know that it is difficult, know that it is long term, know that it requires God's intervention in your life. Now let me say a few things that are important to do. What I said before are attitudes that we must adopt, recognition that we must embrace. Let me tell you some actions that we must take, things that we must do. One of the things that helps us, brothers, in the process of personal transformation is that we have to feed ourselves with the word of God. We have to understand that the word of the Lord, the Bible, is the starting point for every believer who wants to have a fruitful and healthy life. That's why that commitment we made at the beginning of the year to read the Bible in one year is so important to all of us. And if you haven't already, don't worry, get in there and get started. I tell you, I got so excited after so many years of reading the Bible that I decided that I am going to do it twice a year. That is to say, this year instead of reading it once, I am going to read it twice, because the word of God is nourishing. The word of God is the bread of life. God cleanses us through his word. God works in us through his living and effective word. The word of God when it enters our mind, our emotions, it is alive, that is, it becomes an energy that begins to work in us and to realign and reconfigure our emotions, our thoughts, he says, until bringing them into conformity with the character of God and the truth of God.

Never view word study as something passive. No, when you go in with the word in action, it is a fight like Jacob with the angel. She is fighting with you, you with her, there is resistance, there is a hug, but in the end God does his work in you. Become an assiduous consumer of the word of God. I would like to get inside of you and for you to feel the conviction that I feel that the study of the word of the Lord is essential for a fruitful and productive life. So if you are not a consumer of the Bible, become one today. Tell the Lord, "Father, I am going to live my life from now on, consuming your word and studying it." Feed yourself with the word of the Lord. And that is going to require a great commitment, a continuous lucidity, renewing that commitment. I have to read the word. And that brings me to the second thing. First, study the word, become a consumer of the word.

Second, live a fully committed and consecrated life. Brothers, in the Christian life victory is not achieved unless it is through a radical commitment. I believe that many of us in the 21st century have turned the Christian life into something… or also other parts of Christianity, it has become something external, of actions. You come, you see the preachers and the worshipers make faces. You listen to them and it's a piece of theater. But it's not like that. The Christian life requires continuous interaction with all the truths of God. You have to commit. It takes work, it takes commitment. The life of a winner, a winner, the life of a resilient and victorious person, is the life of an athlete, a soldier. Why do you think the Bible always compares a Christian to a farmer, a soldier, an athlete, or a marathon runner? Because those beings require complete consecration to their profession. Still a farmer, his life is conditioned around agriculture and he has to be careful to be aware of the times, he has to take care of the land, he has to observe the nature of the plants he plants, he has to water them, he has to be committed to his task, and such is the life of a believer, requires consecration. It is a 24/7 experience, especially if you are trying to overcome old habits and hurts. You have to then fully embrace a Christian way of life. If you're battling big, internal enemies, you can't afford to live a half life. You have to fully commit. I think it is one of the problems.

In ancient times, I always remember referring to my mother in the sense that when she converted, look, I was about 4 years old and I still remember when my mother converted. One of the things he said is… he called Nancy, Marina – I think she wasn't there. I think so, he was born – Virgil, and he said, “Look, I just converted. Don't make me say bad words because I just…” That was the first thing he said to us. "Don't make me say bad words." She was a radical change overnight. Those old Pentecostals in our countries, when they convert, they convert upside down. We have lost that. We have to get it back, brothers. You have to know that then, and the women... I think that sometimes that is important, they put on their long skirts, they did not cut their hair. That has nothing to do with holiness but sometimes it serves as a marker, right? for consciousness. It is like a discipline of a soldier who puts on a uniform because it helps him. Putting on a uniform helps the soldier to recognize that he is a soldier, that he has to walk in a certain way, that he has to speak in a certain way and many times these are aids, they are nothing more than that, they are aids. That doesn't make you holier or anything, but many times it helps the mind to identify how this is new, this is different. And we have often lost that sense of a radical transition, from what I was before and what I am now in Christ Jesus. We have to recover that sense that when you enter the Gospel you are entering a militia, you are entering a new and different identity. "Behold, old things have passed away, and behold, all things are made new." Let's not lose that sense of change, of transition.

The Gospels insist that the new followers of Jesus left everything behind and followed him. The Bible is full of such examples. Levi, I think it was the money changer, he was at his table exchanging money in the market and Jesus comes and tells him, "Leave your things and follow me." And for a businessman, brothers, to ask him to leave the money is the most difficult thing in the world. But it says that Levi left his table and followed the Lord. He said to Peter after the miraculous catch, “I have called you to be a fisher of men,” and he says they left their nets and followed him. Over and over again those images that we have to leave the old life behind and tell the Lord, “Now I am new. I want to change." And we have to help our brothers to understand that radical change to which God calls us in the Christian life. We have lost that in modernism, and with that God who is a tender grandfather who has already lost his masculinity, my son, my daughter, now... God is a virile God and he is a jealous God and shares his glory with no one. He takes himself seriously, he demands that we take him seriously and that we take his call, his militia seriously, because it is the only way we can achieve victory. So, it's a 24-hour experience. It requires consecration.

Number 3. You have to die to yourself and to the world, you have to die. It is a death. The Christian life is a dying to live. First you have to die to live. You have to say goodbye to the world and enter a new practice. And that's what sometimes we don't do enough of. Rather, for many of us entering the Gospel is like a smooth transition that we don't even realize has happened. But it's something like that, you have to die. The Lord says that if the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it remains alone. In order to bear fruit you have to die, you have to be like that grain of wheat that falls to the earth, rots with the humidity of the earth, interacts with the chemical solvents of the earth, the outer crust breaks and from that broken crust the life that is inside the grain arises. And from there arises a plant that bears many fruits. But if the grain of beans or beans or whatever, corn, stays whole, it doesn't bear fruit. It has to break. And we have to break ourselves, our external crust has to break so that the life of God emerges from within us and we can bear fruit for the glory of the Father. And for that you have to die. Many of us do not want to die. We are too alive and that is a problem. Your goal is to separate yourself from the world. You cannot love the world and please God. The Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. And there is a lot of cloth to cut. Rejecting the world is wow! long. But the Bible says, we are pilgrims and strangers.

The world is not our destiny nor is it our point of support. The Christian has to take the world very lightly. If your friends and their followers on Facebook matter more than Christ, don't dress like you're not going. Because the world is not your home. We have to separate. We kind of think too much about what our friends think. If we are eating a good meal in a restaurant, the first thing we do is, I want everyone to see the good food that I am eating. So we send you. Raise your hand, say, I am guilty. [Laughs] No, I'm playing. That attitude is not good, brothers, we cannot fall so much in love with the world. Friends have to be taken and left because friends are one day and one day they are not. Physical beauty is the same, one day the skin is very strong and taut and beautiful, and another day everything went to the south. And if you get too attached to the things of this world, you won't be able to be a good soldier. You have to reject the world. You have to be disappointed in the world. And the interesting thing is that when you become disillusioned with the world, then you are more alive than ever. I assure.

You are stronger, you have a better mood, you resist life's struggles more, you are happier, you sleep better, you are mentally healthier. What thing! That the more you cling to the world and yourself, the more unhappy you are. The more you let go of those things and surrender them to the Lord, the more productive it makes you, the more powerful. They are the paradoxes of the Christian life. So, we must separate from the world, we must separate from everything that ties us to the world, and to time and space. There can be no half decisions. There can be no lukewarm attitudes. That journey to healing has to involve all your faculties, consume your entire being. You have to become a knight-errant. Your only commitment is to please God and become everything God wants you to be. When you get up there, to eternity, then you can travel all you want to all the planets, invent all the things you want, live the greatest adventures in the universe. I believe that God is going to make our mind in such a way that we can travel through the galaxies, who knows what wonderful challenges God has for us up there? That's why look, if you sacrifice a few years here on earth, it's worth it, because one day you will have all eternity to celebrate the fruit of your sacrifice. So don't be afraid to sacrifice many things and give many things to the Lord.

Number 4. In your inner being you have to give up old habits and practices. In the Christian life, holiness is made up of both embracing and renouncing. Before embracing you have to renounce, you have to reject. So, we have to do an act of actively resigning. Often Christians fail to break old habits, because they secretly have not reached the point of completely giving them up wholeheartedly. They do not hate sin. We don't hate sin enough. And then we are surprised that there are still roots there that hold up. We cut off the top but we know that if we give the roots to the Lord, then there is no going back. We leave the roots there so that one day, if we need them, we can call them back to come. That's why the Lord said about the demons leaving, the house is cleansed, but they are turning around to see if you invite them again. And then they come back and they're stronger than the first time. So, we have to reject the old habits in a lively way. And I think that is why many times we say, oh, I want to be sanctified, I want to leave this, I want to leave that, but you know what? Sometimes we secretly play games with God and say, "Lord, do this and that, but not yet." And then, the Holy Spirit discerns the heart and that is why he does not work with more enthusiasm and intentionality, because we have not yet reached the point of total renunciation. And God is very wise and very understanding and He knows. We often secretly love our demons and don't want to leave them completely. We must ask the Lord to take us to that point of total renunciation in order to be what God wants us to be.

And lastly, you have to commit to being honest with yourself and with God. Growth in the Christian life, overcoming our defects require total honesty from us, a lucid life. And one sees so much, brothers, I fall into that mistake so many times too, we deceive ourselves. I believe that part of the Christian life is to find the clearest lucidity possible about ourselves, our environment, our past, the people we love. We must ask the Lord to make us honest. Because there are so many people who fool themselves. They put a different name to things. Oh no, it's not that I'm cruel and angry, it's that I'm honest. I don't mince words. So, we ennoble our flaws. No, you have to call things by their name. We have to recognize who we are. And there is no need to be afraid of that, because God already knows that you are a scoundrel anyway, why try to hide it. Give yourself away and then let God work in your life. It is important to be honest with ourselves. And you know something, parenthetically, that's why it takes merciful, compassionate, pastoral communities, so that people can be honest and vulnerable and transparent with one another. There are churches that if someone betrays himself, they reject him, they separate him, they mark him as deficient, and that is why people often do not want to be honest. So, we put on a lot of perfume without bathing. We are continually worshipping, speaking in tongues, falling down the bow, but we are not truly honest. God has not done this complete work in our being, because we do not want our brothers to see us for what we are, because they are intolerant.

I ask the Lord to always make the León de Judá Congregation a transparent church, a church of brothers that we become guardians of one another, a pastoral community. A community that, while acknowledging God's call to holiness, is tolerant of the pilgrims who go in that direction and who sometimes stumble along the way. Country people are required. This morning, there is a gentleman who is coming to the church in the service in English, at 9:00, a corpulent gentleman, so, he is a white American like milk, who looks like he has gone through all the battles of the life, and before beginning the service... he came with a little headdress or something, and he says to me, "Pastor, can I take off my jacket because I have some tattoos," he says, "and they are beautiful." And he did so and removed himself, there was one of a crucified Christ, and another here of something else Christian. "And I want people to see it." I said, "Look bro, of course you do, as long as you don't take your shirt off it's fine." But he took off his jacket and he was there in his sleeveless shirt sitting there.

And I feel proud that people like that are in our church, brothers, with tattoos and all. Because there are sanctimonious churches that when they see a person from the earth, at once their holiness is affected. And I believe that we Christians have to be open-minded, we have to be loose, we have to love the sinner, because how are people going to enter the church if they find a stuffy and legalistic community? Brothers, those walls are not as delicate as you think. The church of Christ is made of stainless steel. The church of Christ is strong, it is capable of resisting everything. We have to be a community open to humanity that we process. This is a hospital and sometimes the one who needs the most help is the psychiatrist who is treating everyone. This is a madhouse sometimes, brothers, here. And the first one who needs psychotherapy is the number 1 psychiatrist. That's true, churches are hospitals. That's why when people complain that this church is imperfect, I say to them, what did you expect? If since you walked through the door, you already made it imperfect.

We have to commit to being honest with ourselves and recognizing that I need God's grace. And we have to ask the Lord to make us honest with ourselves by then, have compassion on others, by the way. I wrote here, the journey towards self transformation, the transformation of the self, is a journey towards total honesty and lucidity, towards a deep knowledge of ourselves. This requires the illumination of the word of God and his spirit. We can't do it alone. Honesty towards ourselves, brothers, requires the help of the Holy Spirit, the illumination of the Holy Spirit. In the same way that I can't see my back completely no matter how hard I try, in the same way you can't see areas that are hidden in your life, wounds, traumas, things that you experienced that are so painful that you don't even know yourself. dare to admit yourself and then you need the Holy Spirit to enlighten you and teach you those areas of your life that need divine treatment and healing. In this process, the best helper is the Holy Spirit, because transformation and self-control require the illumination that only God can provide. The Holy Spirit has to be our best resource in the process towards sanctification. I always quote David's Psalm 139, after committing a terrible sin, David wrote that wonderful psalm that is Psalm 139, which is a total, exhaustive confession. And in verse 23 he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." That is what we have to be asking the Holy Spirit continuously.

Now, doesn't God know what's in you? Of course. I think what the psalmist is saying is, "Lord, search me so that I myself can understand my heart." And that is what the word says about itself. He says that the word of God is alive and effective and he says that it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart and there is nothing that hides from his scrutiny. One of the benefits of the word of God is that as you read it, by dint of those examples and those narratives, you confront yourself. When I see David, I see myself in his great love for God but also in his total imperfection and sin. And David helps me. When I see Jacob fighting with the angel saying, "I won't leave you until you bless me," I see him, he tells me, be demanding of God and ask him for big things, but I also see him manipulating his brother Esau and stealing his primogeniture. He was a manipulator, that's what the word Jacob meant. God had to change his name and call him Israel because he was a manipulative man. And I look at Jacob and I say, "Lord, have mercy on me, help me to be honest, more honest, more transparent."

That is, the word of the Lord is that resource. When the Holy Spirit illuminates you and points out areas of your life… the Holy Spirit is better than any psychiatrist in the world, let me tell you. The best psychiatrist is the Holy Spirit and you can save $125 an hour, by the way. And David says to him, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts." Because the most difficult thing for the human being is to know his own nature and see himself with that total lucidity. And then he says, “And see if there is any wicked way in me.” What is that path of perversity? It is all that we… the inclinations that we have towards sin, the defects that are in us, those that prevent us from being as God wants us to be. We are all involved in that process, brothers. And we have to continually ask the Lord, “Father, enlighten me, shine on my smelly areas, shine your light through the crack in that stone and look at the crickets that are under the stone and show them to me so that I can cleanse my inner being.” We have to continually ask the Holy Spirit because we ourselves cannot do it. And that journey towards personal growth requires total honesty, but only the Holy Spirit can lead us to that lucidity.

"And see if there is any wicked way in me, and guide me in the way everlasting." The path to lucidity, and the dependence we have on the Holy Spirit. That is one of the most exciting aspects of the journey towards holiness, the journey towards liberation from negative and destructive habits, because through that journey, we obtain one of the greatest treasures that any human being can handle. Do you know what it is? self-knowledge, self-knowledge, self-control, freedom from the hidden and misunderstood elements of our soul where our hidden, unexamined [sic] enemies can move with impunity and wreak havoc in our life because we don't even we know them and we don't know how they move. They operate on us but we don't know. It is an invisible enemy. It is an enemy that when you look, you do not know where it is. It operates, it affects you, it hurts you, because you haven't identified it, you don't know it. It is an opponent that when you look for it, it has already disappeared. But when the Lord enlightens you and teaches you what those things are, then you can fight against them. The path to personal healing requires the illumination of the Holy Spirit so that we can know the areas of our life that we need to address and present them to the Lord so that He then feels free to work on them. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I leave you with one last Scripture found in John, chapter 8, verse 32, famous Scripture. It says that the Lord told the Jews that they had believed in Him like we do. We are Jews who believed in the Lord. He says, "If you remain in my word, - remember what I told you about the Bible - then, you will truly be my disciples - a lot of cloth to cut there, but what interests me is this - and you will know the truth and the truth will will set you free.” You see that the way to freedom is through the knowledge of the word of God and our own nature, the truth of God in us. Sometimes we think that getting to freedom requires a sword continually fighting the devil. Know what? Many times what liberation requires is knowledge of the truth and confession and renunciation and the Lord then does the rest.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to be active in demon release sessions for demonized people. It helped me a lot in this process of working with people who need liberation, something that one of the best liberation practitioners that I know said, and he says that at the beginning he fought a lot with the demons and ended up tired, and returned again. that person after a while and was possessed again. He says that he realized that the first thing he had to do was understand where the demon had entered, what door he had used, what practices, what attitudes, what traumas, etc., the enemy had used to enter the person. And then, when he led the person to understand why, when he discovered with the Holy Spirit where the evil spirit entered, and led the person to an honest confession and rejection, he says it was like removing a loose tooth. the Liberation. He said, look, for me 80% of the work of liberation is the preparation of the person and perhaps 20% is the act of liberation itself. And I think that is very true. In my own practice, when I have been able to be in those moments, I have discovered that it is so, that sometimes we suffer so much and fight and end up exhausted. I say that sometimes the devil leaves because he is tired, he already wants to leave, we have had enough of him, not because we have actually been effective.

When you know the dynamics of confession, you stay calm, you don't suffer much, you let the Lord do his work, you declare, it leads the person to an understanding of the areas that led him to that moment, and then, When the self-admission, the conscience, the awareness of the person comes, the devil no longer has anything to hold on to, because the demons hold on to the sinfulness that is in us. Remember that always. They always wear something that looks like them inside of you. If you take that away from them, they have to leave because they no longer have the right. Demons are tremendously legalistic and they cling to what they know they have a right to be there. I have heard demons say, "She is mine and I am not going to leave her because she belongs to me and because she wants me to be here." And until that person is brought to that point of self-knowledge, they cannot be released. And so it happens in our life, brothers. We have to reach that point of freedom in Christ, to recognize that liberation that comes through the truth that is in us. When you know the truth of God in his intimacy, that truth sets you free. When you don't live in a life of deceit and self-delusion, you are free. Sometimes we suffer so much and we are continually battling, rebuking, doing this and that, if we only enter into God's truth and accept it, we would be free because the door is already open. What happens is that we deceive ourselves. So, as we know more about ourselves, and about God, his word, through truth and obedience to that word of God, then we become truly free. The word of Christ is fulfilled, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." So, we are free to be what we really are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen.

God bless you. Let's make a confession. Let's stand up for a moment, brothers. I am going to accompany you in my own experience. I'm there with you right now. And we are going to ask the Father that his truth penetrate deep into us. If there is something in your life that you have to confess right now, confess it. If you need to give your life to Jesus Christ, I would like to pray for you. Raise your hand wherever you are and I'd like to pray for you too. That is part of the process. My brothers can see if someone who needs prayer wants prayer, pray for them. There's someone over there, God bless you. I bless those hands. Someone else? That is part of the confession, the recognition that I need Christ, I need God. This is a mutual process. If there's anyone else, raise your hand. God bless you, my sister, amen. If anyone else over there. It's good that God knows us. Somebody there if you're seeing another brother, pray with them. There is no shame in this. Some hands there that go up. Being a redemptive community, these brothers there, how good brothers, I bless you in the name of the Lord. God knows your hearts, God knows what you need. If there is someone else. And those of you who are here also know that right now God is scanning your life. The spirit of God is looking at you, examining you, his light is shining within you. Submit your burdens, your ties to the Lord. Submit to them, as I do right now, whatever your need may be. Ask the Holy Spirit to work in you. If there is doubt, if there is fear, anxiety, depression, deep spiritual ties, ask the Holy Spirit, "Work in me, work in me." Work in this community, Father. Work on those who are in their homes right now as well.

Thank you Father because you are a deep, delicate God and your mysteries are so great. And you don't force us to do everything ourselves. Your Holy Spirit is a resource. I pray right now, Father, that if there's any repressed memory that's keeping anyone here from finding something that they have to surrender to you right now, Holy Spirit, shine. Shine on that need and bring that out and let go. Root it out, Holy Spirit. Root it out. Spirit of God, the origin of all knowledge, now illuminates our life. Light up that community, wherever they are. We want to be nice to you, Father. We want to be like you want us to be. We want to bring glory to your name. We want to be instruments in your hands and there is nothing we want more than your treatment and your scalpel entering our lives. I bless you in the name of Jesus, that little girl there. God bless you, sweetie. The Lord blesses you. We declare God's will and God's purpose in your life. A great lady is going to be one day, a servant of the Lord. we bless you We bless your sister too. Glory to the Lord. God is here. God is here. He is working in your life. Submit your life to the Lord right now.

We declare, Father, that Satan has no part or lot with this community. That you are moving powerfully in our ties, our struggles, our problems, oh God. Holy Spirit move with power. We want to see your glory, Father. We want to see your power manifested. We want to know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the living God. Oh Lord, manifest your transforming power in our lives. We declare your light shining on this town and doing transformative works, Lord, big changes in us, in our family, marriages, loved ones. Oh, Lord, glorify yourself, spirit of God, move now in a transforming modality for the glory of your name. Holy Spirit we embrace your truth. I bless this town, oh Lord. We love you and we love your deal. We are not afraid, Lord, of the touch of your spirit. We do not fear it because we know that what you bring is good. Spirit of God works in this town, work, transform us, O Lord, through your word which is a living and effective word, irrevocable, work, work Lord, in this community. Create for yourself a people that brings pleasure to your heart, a useful people, a transformed people, Spirit of God.

Evoke the Holy Spirit, let's not get out of this moment too quickly. Ask the Holy Spirit to complete his work now, Lord. Work, work, Father, work, work. Ask the Lord, fight for your healing, fight for that new level to which God is going to take you. Strive, invoke the Holy Spirit. Father, deal with us, heal us, O Lord, create a people pleasing to you. Oh, take us to another level, Father, even in our human nature you can work and bring us to be more and more like Christ Jesus. Listen to the cry of your sons and your daughters now, Father. Oh God, you are wonderfully delicate, but at the same time very deep. Penetrate deep. Deal with us. Deal with this community. Take her to a greater perfection, Lord. We present to you our families, our loved ones. O spirit of God, we cry out to you. We cry, we cry, Lord, do your work in us in the name of Jesus. Stay there, don't get out of that moment. God is working.

Father, create a community that is pleasing to you. Work on our brothers in their homes, work on our brothers wherever they are now, Father, those who are far away, those who are near, we ask for a radical healing for this town, Lord. Take us to another level, take us to another level, spirit of God. And thank you that you do not leave us where we are, Lord. Thank you that this word is doing its job, Lord. Oh God, we love you. We die to the world, Father, and we enter your life. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, we want to see your glory manifested, Lord. Thank you, thank you for working in us. I bless those lives that are receiving your treatment, those who have invited you into their hearts, we seal them with the presence of your spirit. We seal them with your yes, and your amen, your adoption, Lord, that it becomes real and effective in their lives. Thank you Holy Spirit. We praise you. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! You are in this place, Lord. Thank you. Thanks, Dad. Thank you. Amen.