What do you think of yourself?

Romans 12, we come to the book of Romans, Chapter 12. So our pastor has spent a few months already preaching from the book of Romans. How many have these sermons been a blessing to? Amen. Amen. How many knows, if one wanted to see a sermon that he has preached, where can one be located, does anyone know? On the Internet, they are all stored there, so you can search for them from there and see everything that he has preached to us.

I'm just going to pick one verse from Romans and then I'm going to back it up with another text, which is one of my favorites. So Romans 12 and we are already in the part of the book of Romans that is the application of the book. So far God, or through the Apostle Paul, is explaining the Gospel. The book of Romans is a summary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how Jesus came to save us, to die for us, that it is not earned, that Jesus bought it for us, and that gives us peace and gives us new life. And he explained everything, everything in the book of Romans until Chapter 12 when it is time to talk about the application. Now what? Since Jesus died for me, since he bought me with his blood, now what?

And last week I understand that the pastor preached to us from Romans 12, 1 to 2, which is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices so that God uses us in his kingdom, in his purposes. And then he will talk about how we all have a role to play, that we are a body, very varied and very different, thank God. And each of us has something to contribute.

But before I think about my purpose, my service in the body of Christ, I have to think about how I see myself, how I see myself.

We are going to look at Romans 12, verse 3, we are there or you can look at it there, where it says I say. ".....I say then, by the grace that is given to each one of you who has a higher opinion of himself than he should have...."

Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought. That he does not have a higher concept of himself than the one he should have. But this is not, we are not guilty of that. I think we are all guilty of that at some point.

“... but think of yourself sanely”, sanity, “...according to the measure of faith that God distributed to each one....” That you think of yourself sanely, that you know yourself for who you are, that you know that you are not the navel of the universe. But that's okay, because you are special, and God has a purpose for you.

We are going to read another text that for me is going to support that in Mark, Chapter 5. There, and it connects, it may not be seen at first but later you will see how it connects.

Mark 5, one of the most precious stories, for me in the New Testament that I return to these stories a lot here. Mark 5, talks about Jesus and two connected miracles. Mark 5:21, says the word:

“... As Jesus passed in a boat to the other shore, a great crowd gathered around him and he was by the sea. And one of the rulers of the synagogue named Jairus came, and as soon as he saw him he fell at his feet and pleaded with him saying, 'My daughter is dying, come and lay hands on her so that she may be saved and she will live.' Well, with him, and a great crowd followed him and they squeezed him, but a woman who for 12 years had suffered from an issue of blood and had suffered a lot from many doctors, and spent everything she had, and nothing had benefited before, was going worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came from behind in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she said "if I only touch his cloak I will be saved," and immediately the fountain of her blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed from that scourge. Then Jesus, knowing in himself the power that had gone out of him, turning to the crowd said: 'Who touched my clothes?' touched?'. But he looked around to see who had done this. Then the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth, and he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has saved you. Have peace and be healed of your scourge. And while he was still speaking, they came from the house of the principal of the synagogue saying, 'Your daughter has died, why bother the Master any more? But Jesus, after hearing what was said, said to the leader of the synagogue, 'Do not be afraid, only believe.' And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw the uproar and those who were weeping and lamenting so much, and he went in and said to them, "Why are you making such a fuss and Are you crying? The girl is not dead, she is sleeping. And they made fun of him, but he kicked everyone out, took the girl's father, mother and those who were with him and entered where the girl was and taking the girl's hand said to her 'Talita cum,' that translated is 'Girl, I say to you, get up'. And then the girl got up and walked, because she was 12 years old and they were terrified, but he ordered them so that no one would know. And he said to give him something to eat.

Father, in the name of Jesus I ask that it be your Holy Spirit speaking to us today. Lord I want to hear your voice. I want my dear brothers and sisters to hear your voice. Lord, you are here, you are here, Lord. I ask that you be the one to minister to each heart in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.

Don't think more highly of you than is appropriate. What does it say in Romans again? I'm going to go back there for a moment, it says that 'no one has a higher opinion of himself than he should have'.

Why is it so important to emphasize this before talking about how we need to work as a team as the body of Christ? Because? That you believe? How many here have played on a sports team in your life? It could be baseball, it could be volleyball, it could be American football, gringo football, Latino football, I don't know what football, you've played a sport and you have someone on the team who thinks he's Maradona, right? It is believed that he can do everything. No, I can do everything through Christ who strengthens you. No, not that he can do everything, he doesn't have to share with others. There is a saying in English for that, it is called a ball hog, the one who hoards the ball for himself only, in basketball it is like that. He never lets anyone down, he always wants to be Michael Jordan... be there with his tongue out, throwing things out, he wants to be... be famous. Because he believes the big thing.

And because he thinks so highly of himself, he doesn't play well as a team with others. You know that if you have felt this way, you are in good company, because Moses himself began his life this way. How many remember the story of Moses? Moses when young, he did not grow up in the humble field. Moses grew up in Pharaoh's palace. He grew up a son of the king, privileged, with all the good things in life and then when he reached the age of a young man, he was there ready to conquer the world and he saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite and he Bush. And the next day he walks in on two Israelites who are fighting and Moses says, 'Look, stop fighting.' And they look at it and say, "And you, who do you think you are?" I think it's in Spanish, I don't know. In English there's a saying 'who do you think you are anyway?' Who do you think you are?'

He had a very high opinion of himself, so God sent him to a good therapy. How many know that when we are proud, when we believe the big thing, that God is able to place us a little? I don't know if some of you have had this experience. I do, I do. So Moses is sent to the desert for 40 years. Look, you the famous son of Pharaoh are going to be a nobody for 40 years, there in the desert, nobody is going to know you, you are going to be completely anonymous in that time. And then God appears to him, remember the story at the burning bush? And he calls Moses to great things, but then Moses was cured of his pride and he went to the other side, right?

How many of us know it's possible to be too humble? How many of us know that humility is not humility? Sometimes humility is an excuse for not doing what we have to do. Look what Moses says, when God says 'You are my chosen instrument, I am going to send you to Egypt to save my people'. Moses, now cured, says 'But who am I, who am I to do it?' So God says, 'Don't worry, Moses, I'll be with you?, and Moses says, 'But, but, but, what if I don't know your name, and they won't believe that this is my name and I I am the I am....'. 'Now go,' and he says, 'No, no, but, I don't speak very well, I don't speak Spanish well. I can't preach in León de Judá. I don't speak English well, I can't... I can't preach to my classmates from... I'm a tart, tart, stutterer and I speak with that stuttering, I can't...' And he says, 'Ok , good man, Moses finally comes to light with his cowardice there for free. He says, 'Look, send someone else, please, I don't want to go.'

The word says that God was angry with Moses, he was angry with him because he was not humble, he now looked too small. He knows that God does not bless an inferiority complex as much as a superiority complex. You are not the great things but you are not a zero to the left either. I love this saying, a zero. And if it's not enough to be a zero, a zero to the left. I love it, in English 'zero on the left' just doesn't work, but in Spanish it works.

God wants us to take a sane look at ourselves, who we are. And this now brings me to the text that I read before, because this text of those two miracles teaches me that my identity, the identity of people, does not have to be found in their social status, nor their gifts, nor talents, but in another place. Where do you look for your sense of value as a person? In what you do in your work, in your achievements?

I remember in school, I was a little obsessive with my grades, right? And one day in economics class, which was the worst for me, may my dad forgive me, I got a very ugly grade, well, well, very ugly. And the teacher says, 'well, in economics in this class you are the grade you get, so if you got A, you're an A, if you got B, you're a B, I thought then what am I? With this very ugly note that I found, that I took out. Life is like that, they are always evaluating us. Oh, this is good, this is not so good, ugly, pretty, fat, what do I know? The world is always evaluating us. And if we do not judge and know ourselves through the eyes of others, or of society, we are lost. God wants us to look elsewhere for our concept, our self-concept.

And in these parables we see how Jesus wants to give us our identity. Going back to the miracles, they are two miracles, right? One is a man who was, he says, the principal of the synagogue, he was the leader of the synagogue, a man of authority, a man of social resources, a man of renown, of good position, his name is Jairus. The other person is a woman who doesn't even have a name, a woman in the crowd, a marginalized woman, and Jesus says, 'You know what, Jairus? Teaching through their actions, because these two miracles, many times I would like to preach about one miracle or the other, but it is like a miracle sandwich, because it begins with Jairus, Jesus goes with Jairus to heal the daughter, and then all this thing in the crowd with the bleeding woman, and then he goes to Jairus's house. The two are connected.

And guess what? Another very interesting detail: the woman suffered from the issue of blood, for how many years? 12 years old, how old was the girl? 12 years, coincidence? I think not, God puts things together sometimes and he wanted to teach us something.

Guess what? I really like Jairo, he was a man of influence, but he came, I don't see any pride in him. He came on his knees asking Jesus for help. I don't see anything wrong, but imagine, he is accompanying an important person and the crowd starts looking for a person who touched him among hundreds of people who had touched him. If you were Jairo, how would you have felt? You're walking, in a hurry, in a hurry and then Jesus stops and says, 'someone touched me'. Now, 'how beautiful Jesus, if there are many who are touching you. Come on'. 'No, no, no, someone touched me,' and he stands there looking around. 'Ok, now, a lot of touching, what a pity, sorry. Come on'. Jesus says, 'No, no, no... I have something more important to do right now.'

It teaches us how God views the importance of people. Let's think about this woman for a moment. Thanks for sticking with me, I know we're covering a lot. The woman in the story suffered from an issue of blood for 12 years. I am not a woman but I imagine that this is not pleasant at all, very faithful, very difficult, and also at that time, at that time. It says that a person who suffered from such a disease officially became ceremonially unclean again. He did not have the freedom and right to enter the temple because of his weakness, because of his illness. He had to stay out. And also look at that, I am going to read you the law regarding this woman, in the book of Leviticus. And you don't have to look it up, but I read it, Leviticus 15, which says that:

“... a woman when she follows the flow of her blood for many days out of time, all the time of her flow it will be unclean, as in the days of its custom. And everything she touches, every bed she sleeps on during her discharge, every piece of furniture she touches will be unclean as the impurity of her habit....”

So she doesn't just have a label now, unclean , but everything she touched, unclean, everyone she touched, contaminated, all furniture. There were reasons for that. at that time I think it had hygienic reasons, but also a theological meaning that God was teaching at that time. But imagine being a person that you feel so ugly that everything you touch is poisoned, everything you touch... I don't know if you've ever felt like this in your life. Ah, true that everything I touch makes me sick, I don't know if some have felt that way.

That woman, imagine, 12 years of that filthy, filthy identity, isolated from her family, isolated from the community, isolated from the church, separated. How difficult it would have been for her! And he also says that she suffered a lot under many doctors. Let's see how it says, verse 26: "... and he had suffered a lot from many doctors.....", you know that, if it were not enough to suffer from the disease, he suffered from the doctors, how many here have suffered from the doctors? We love doctors, I thank God for doctors especially at this time in my life. But do you know how they ministered their medicine to the people? They thought if you are sick, you have something bad in your blood, so we are going to bleed you to heal you. How cute, how cute!

So sometimes medical treatments did more harm than the disease itself. She suffered for 12 years under many doctors and on top of that she spent everything she had on them. How many here have walked from thing to thing looking for help, spending money, money, until you have nothing left? There is a word that I learned in Puerto Rico "she was left peeled," peeled, scrubbed, nothing more, the bank was empty, she lost everything, everything. Desperate, a desperate woman.

Finally, I don't know how many here at some point have felt like this, in the desperate crowd. And she decides, no more. She says, 'I don't know much about theology or these things, but I do know one thing, this man Jesus will have something that I need, and I don't understand how or why, but I believe that if I only touched the mantle that he has, I'll be healed.’ So she did it. Pushing into the crowd touches it, and I don't know if some here have had that experience, but sometimes the power of Jesus is like an electric charge, like a zap, and you're healed. Some here have lived it. Sometimes it's a slower healing, sometimes there isn't, we don't understand why, but sometimes it's like an electrical charge being discharged. And in that moment she touched him and the power went out of her and she felt the healing within her.

So after that healing, after you're healed, receive a blessing, what do you do? Many times we want to celebrate it, right? But what does she do? what does she do after her healing? He hides again in the crowd. Jesus, you know what? Jesus is not satisfied with only healing the body, many times we come to church for a problem: I need provision for a financial need; I need solutions for a problem that seems impossible to me; I need healing; I need something. And it is good that we come to Jesus seeking help for our need. And there's power to you, but you know what? God does not leave you with only the blessing. Jesus wants more than to bless you. He wants to heal not only the body, he wants to heal the soul, the mind and the thoughts that we have as well.

That woman after 12 years of living with an unclean, unclean self-concept, how will she have felt after that? We don't know for sure, we can only imagine. But I imagine that perhaps I would have continued in life feeling that inside. He knows that there are so many voices that speak to us, the very word for devil, diabolos, means accuser. It is that Satan comes and reminds you of what you have done in the past, of what you have experienced, and he accuses you and there are voices that are in your head. How many sometimes listen to that internal conversation that tells you ugly things? It may be words we heard when young, 'you'll never amount to anything', 'why do you keep trying?' And God wants, not only to heal that body, he wanted to heal his heart, he wanted to heal his soul. He didn't want her to get lost in the crowd again.

Guess what? There are many in a large church who try to hide in the community, they want to be anonymous and this is fine in the beginning because one is just starting out and one just wants to investigate, but you know what? God is not going to let you hide much longer.

We serve a Jesus who stands in the crowd and searches for the soul that is suffering, and searches, and searches, but Jairus is waiting for you, the sick girl. He says, 'yeah, yeah, who touched me? There is something else I have to do. Jesus was looking for her, the Greek word indicates that he was looking, looking hard, and he finds her. Finally she comes and I can visualize in the crowd that there is a space opening up, and she comes and stands there, trembling and terrified. Why be in fear? That you believe? The unclean woman who touched Jesus, do you remember the law? Everything she touches is contaminated, so for her touching a religious man, she could get into trouble. And she was scared, she was terrified, she was restless, she felt bad, and Jesus, I love what he does.

Look at that, in verse 34, the real healing begins, what does it say to the woman? Verse 34, he told her “..... and said to her, 'Daughter, daughter, daughter, your faith has saved you'....”

You know what? When I am restless, when I am already in a difficult situation and there are anxieties, there is nothing that can calm me like the voice of the good shepherd, who looks at you and says, "My daughter, my son." You know that my child seemed very calm at first but now... he has found his lungs, he sometimes gets restless. And I try to calm him down, and I can sometimes and the mother-in-law, who is very good, is with that too. But sometimes nothing, nothing works, until my wife takes it and says 'Ah, Noah, what's wrong?' You know what, we serve a God that when we're there with eagerness inside God looks at us and says, 'My daughter, My daughter, you're not a great thing, you don't have to be a great thing, but you're not a zero either, you're my son and that's all that's important.'

Guess what? All this text has to do with Jesus calming things down with his love, fatherly love. At the beginning, a Chapter before, there is a big storm. Jesus rebukes the storm and calms it. Then he reaches the shore and a man possessed by a demon with a legion of demons, Jesus casts out the demons and the man, who could not even be controlled with chains, calms down, and is there dressed and in his five right mind listening to Jesus.

And now this woman trembling, worried, 'oh, what am I going to do? Jesus says, 'My daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace'.

But now we have another restless in the story, Jairo. The bad news is coming. And Jairo is there, how would Jairo have felt? We know perhaps, his concern should have even been visible, because Jesus tells him: 'Jairus, -and look at how he calms Jairus- verse 36, “.... he said to the principal of the synagogue, 'Don't be afraid, just believe '. And then he goes and there's a whole riot of people clamoring and yelling. And he says, 'Yeah, no more fuss, get out of here. We are going to enter a room quietly, calmly. And look at how she heals the girl 'Talita cumi', 'my girl I tell you, get up'.

Jesus with the heart of a father, you know that Jesus never in his earthly life had children of the flesh, but he had millions and millions of children in the spirit. Jesus, and look what he does next, when the girl gets up, what does Jesus do? What does it say? And now that.

He says “... to give him something to eat...' It is already definitive proof that Jesus was Latino, Italian or something like that, a good Jew who says, 'yeah, give him something to eat, he has to be hungry from all that time.' A tender heart, a helpful heart, a heart that heals us because it looks at us with the eyes of a father who loves his children.

I want to think about this example that we talked about this morning. A mother, let's say, a mother like Barbara Bush who has a son who is president, and what if she has another son who becomes a teacher in a school? A good job, and another child born with a mental handicap, down syndrome, who can never function in a public setting? Is that mother, that father, going to love the son who becomes president more than the son who becomes a teacher? And the value is going to value the son who becomes a teacher than the child who can never leave the house? Of course not, they are all... never mind. You can be the President of the Republic but you don't stop being my child, so behave yourself. And it's the same as the other.

Guess what? we are like that for God. We are children of God, nothing more and nothing less. Jairus was a successful man in society, but it doesn't matter, he was a child of God who needed the love of Christ. That woman was a rejected person, impure for the world, but God says, 'It doesn't matter, you are my daughter.'

And I want us to ask this question: are we living with this concept of ourselves that I am a child of God? How do you react when something is not going well for you in life? You try to do something and you make a mess, what do you look like afterwards? Or someone gets mad at you or says something ugly to you, how do we react?

Guess what? We often live in slavery to the influences around us and our self-concept goes up and down depending on our circumstances. God says there is another life for you.

Romans 8:15 says “...for you have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Aba, Father, and the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God...”

It doesn't depend on what you've done. For better or for worse, who are you? Who do you think you are? When asked this question I want you to be able to say, 'I am a child of the living God. I am an adopted son by blood. And you know what? I'm not a big deal, I don't believe the beginning, the end, the alpha and omega, there is already one, but I am a child of God, I am not a zero either.

I like how John the Baptist responded, when they came to John they wanted to make him a great Messiah, right? What does Juan say when they come to ask him who you are? He says, 'I tell you who I am not, I am not the Christ.'

You know that a pastor, a professor in my seminary preached this to us. You are going to minister, but you know what? You are not the Christ, you are not the savior, as much as you would like to remove pain from the hearts of the people, you cannot do it, because you are not the savior. There is already one. He already suffered, he already died on the cross, he already took upon himself. It is he who saves, not you. Thank God I'm not the Christ, but I'm not going to hide in false humility either.

John says, 'I am a voice crying out in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord.'

You know that you are not the Christ, but perhaps you are a voice to cry out the goodness of Jehovah in the world. You are not Jesus, but you are a unique person that God has made to do something in the Kingdom that another cannot do. You know what? There are some, I have a friend who told me, 'Gregory, I believe that I am part of the body of Christ', right? The church is compared to a body, alive, organic, pulsating. ‘I think I am part of the body, but perhaps I am a part not as important as an appendage that can be cut off and nobody notices, right? Maybe I am that part that is dispensable.

Many of us see ourselves like this. We think, 'I can be here, but if I'm not, what does it matter'. No, no, no, it matters a lot. You are a part of the body of Christ and God has a calling on our lives. But, Gregory, you don't know everything I bring.

Guess what? The Apostle Paul said something interesting, because before he was an Apostle, what did he do, does anyone remember? He was a Pharisee, a religious leader and dedicated himself to killing Christians, and for this reason he was sometimes ashamed afterwards and felt less than others. And look what he says, I'm going to read it, in First Corinthians 15, he says:

“.... because I am the smallest of the Apostles, I am the smallest of all, that I am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but –and then he says something precious- but, by the grace of God I am what I am...”

You know what ? I'm not the.... another saying I've learned: I'm not the last Coke in the desert. But, by the grace of God I am what I am.

There are others who are better than me, but it doesn't matter, I am a child of God and by the grace of God I am what I am. What I have lived, who am I? What I have to give is how God has made me for a purpose, and by that grace I am what I am. And that grace, says Paul, has not been in vain for me. Before I have worked more than all of them, but not me, but the grace of God with me.

You know what? You are important, you are not the navel, as we speak, the navel of the universe, but you are important, you are a key person in God's purposes. I am capable, you are capable of doing what God has given you. But you can't do it alone.

Our pastor is going to come in now this week and maybe next week, to preach about the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, various different ministries, and it all starts with offering yourself as a living sacrifice, but then to have a proper self-concept, to know that I am important here. If I'm not there, something is missing, if I'm not there doing what I can do. I'm not a big deal, but I do have something to do in the body of Christ.

God is speaking to us, brothers. No more living with the voices of the enemy that speak to us otherwise. You are not something else. You are the child of God, no more but no less, bought by his blood, sins are cleansed by his blood, renewed by the Holy Spirit, you are a child of God, raised and set for good purposes.

He knows that some are hidden and I feel that God is already going to separate from the crowd and he is going to start looking, because it is your time. It's your time to step out, maybe trembling, maybe worried, but to get out of the crowd and stand there before Jesus and let him tell you, 'My daughter, my son, I know you and it's okay, I have a purpose for you. It's time to stop seeing our reflection in the world and see ourselves reflected in the eyes of God. And these are eyes of love and eyes of power that can change us and lift us up and use us for great things, so let's accept that.

And I'm going to invite the musicians, if I encourage you today to say like Paul, by the grace of Jehovah I am what I am. Whoever likes me, whoever doesn't like me, I am who I am. And God is going to use you like this and if he doesn't leave you like this, he changes you and transforms you, but he uses you.

So we are going to pray and I invite you to stand up and we are going to take a moment in the presence of God and we are going to receive this word.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you, Lord, that our self-concept doesn't have to be too high or too low, but we can look at ourselves sanely, realistically. And Lord, I ask you in the name of Jesus for a ministry, Lord, of healing, of healing misconceptions. Lord, I ask that all of us Moses, who believe we are more than we are, that you, Lord, locate us with your love and your grace, that you teach us that we do not have to prove anything, that we do not have to be the big deal You are our Dad and we are children, and this is the greatest title we can have. Lord, I also ask you, and I believe that this is more common, Lord, for those who look at themselves, Lord, not with your eyes but with the eyes of the accuser, that those who look at themselves as filthy, as rejected, as incapable, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I ask you to look at them, to tell them 'my daughter, my son, I am with you.'

Oh, Lord, I ask you, Lord, to lift up, Lord, and I ask you for that as a congregation, Lord in this time I ask you to know how the Lion of Judah congregation, with all our bumps , with all our defects, Lord, and with all the good things too, that we are your church and you love us and one day Lord, I trust that you will give growth to this congregation and this ministry, Lord, ten, Lord, a hundred times but Lord, when this day comes, you will not love us more than you love us now. And so in our life, Lord, you will raise up, Lord, people to do great things but your love does not change. You love them as much today as you will love them when they become all that you have given them to do. We cannot raise or lower your love in our life.

Lord, I ask you to release that anointing, to release that anointing. Lord, that you have begun the good work, I ask you to perfect it. You who have begun the good work, perfect them, Lord, lift us up, Lord, I ask you in the name of Jesus. We rest in your arms today, Lord, as a group we do. Let's sing to the Lord.