In the book of Numbers, in Chapter 27, I want to preach and develop this topic in honor of our mothers, it is a topic that has to do with a group of women, the daughters of Zelophehad, a member of the Manasseh tribe in Israel.
The Book of Numbers is a book that tells the story of the Jewish people during their pilgrimage in the desert, when Israel was establishing itself, institutionalizing itself, establishing the laws, the institutions that were going to govern that nation upon entering the promised land. And this passage gives us an illustration of how that process of institutionalizing that nation was, and it is a very curious story. I stumbled upon it two or three days ago actually because I've been reading the book of Numbers in my devotional time, it immediately came to mind, wow! What a more appropriate and appropriate passage to preach during Mother's Day, because it shows us the power that women can have many times to sweeten life and bring justice to the world and even change the course of history. Chapter 27 of Numbers says:
“The daughters of Zelophehad came, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the family of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the names of the which were Maala, Noa, Hogla, Milca and Tirsa. And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the princes and all the congregation at the door of the tabernacle of meeting and said, 'Our father died in the wilderness and he was not in the company of those who gathered together. against Jehovah in Korah's group but died in his own sin and had no children. Why will our father's name be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us an inheritance among our father's brothers....”
There is the key to this passage: “... give us an inheritance among our father's brothers and Moses brought his cause before Jehovah and Jehovah answered Moses saying, 'The daughters of Zelophehad say well, you will give them the possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and you will transfer their father's inheritance to them and to the children of Israel you will speak saying, when someone dies without children you will transfer his inheritance to his daughter. If he does not have a daughter, you will give his inheritance to his brothers and if he does not have brothers, you will give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father does not have brothers, you will give his inheritance to his closest relative of his lineage and this will be his. And for the children of Israel this will be by statute of law as Jehovah commanded Moses....”
Bless the Lord his word. Amen. And as I tell you, I've been going through the book of Numbers in my personal devotionals every day and I stumbled upon this curious passage. I had never, actually, been shocked before. I'm sure I've read it because I've read all of these books several times throughout my life, but it kind of hit me a bit this time and I read it more carefully. I don't know if I'm more sensitive to these issues these days, or whatever, but reading it caused me a lot of intrigue. Because I had never heard preaching about this passage before, but after doing research about it, I realized that there is already a whole literature that has been written about these 5 women and it is a topic of preaching, especially in people who are very involved in women's rights and sometimes leftist wings of the church and feminism, this passage has had a lot of impact, because it shows something very interesting.
It shows 5 women who dared to question the status quo. They dared....., someone said amen, there, it seems that he liked what I said. Wow! They dared to question things as they are. They dared to question what many have called the establishment in the 60s, they talk about the establishment, things as they are. And they dared to be creative and to think of an alternative to the reality they inhabited. And to understand how radical the action of these women was, one must understand the historical context of the nation of Israel, the context in which they moved and that developed their heroic action.
It is the very beginning of the nation of Israel. We are talking about three thousand years or so ago that this event occurred. Women have absolutely no legal status, even centuries later in the history of Israel and in the Middle East and in many countries of the world, women, and even today in many countries of the world, the Arab Middle Eastern world, in In many African countries, in all Muslim cultures, in Asia, women have few rights and they are abused and oppressed and violated and there are no resources for them to use.
At the time this story is told, women did not have, as I say, legal status. They were less than... they were animals, we could say, the property of men and one of the ways this manifested itself was that they could not inherit. The only ones who inherited were men. There was an inheritance system in Israel regarding land, that every family could receive a portion of land, it was an agricultural society, therefore land was extremely important and was a sign of belonging and survival in the nation of Israel .
And God gave each tribe a large portion of land, and each family could receive a portion of land to have their house and their crops, etc. but women could not inherit land, and they could not inherit, period. what if a man died, a father? The inheritance went to his sons and the legal existence of the woman was so scarce that if there was no son to inherit, because the father had only had daughters, the inheritance simply passed over the daughters to another distant relative, but the women Even though it would have been natural to think, well, it's bad enough that men simply inherit, but even if there is no man to inherit then that inheritance is wasted and given to a nephew, or a brother or whatever, absolutely scandalous, absolutely unfair.
And these women did something very daring, heroic. His father had no children and I imagine that he was about to give the inheritance to one of his father's brothers and these women, I imagine that was the last straw for them. And I imagine them sitting by the light of a lamp perhaps, one night, and they began to talk and get upset about the situation and one of them said, 'sisters, we can't leave this like this. We have to talk to someone. You have to question this, this is an injustice." Perhaps one of the more timid women told her, "yes, but that's how it's been done and it's already been decided and it's been decided a long time ago and you know very well that we, Women don't have any rights. If we go there they are going to kick us out and insult us, and we can't. That's the way things are and that's the way it will be. You know the injustices in the world.'
But this girl kept insisting, perhaps insisting, and another took a little more courage and finally through perhaps a sustained dialogue, or perhaps it was several days, these women they finally came to the conclusion, 'you know what? We are going to present ourselves before the government of Israel. We will take our cause before Moses and the council of Israel. And the worst that can happen is that they just tell us, go away and tell us no and slam the door in our faces, but at least we can say, we've tried, and we've made an effort and at least maybe they'll listen. and they will realize that what they are doing is an injustice.'
How important it is, brothers, and here is the essence of what I want to share with you, how important it is that one questions things, if your conscience, if your understanding of God's law of morality, what is correct, what is appropriate harasses you and you believe that there is an injustice in the world, that something is not being done well, that someone is being oppressed, brother, sister, don't still that voice, don't cast it aside, just by saying, well, that's the world, that's the people, that's the law, that's the man. Listen to that voice and commend your cause to the Lord and try to do something about it.
And a lot of times it could be something in your family, it could be something at school where you work, it could be something at work where you are someone is being oppressed, someone is being treated badly, a boss is is carrying in an improper and oppressive way. Someone is abusing another in some improper way, and no one dares to question it, because oh, that's the way people are and this and that. How many times do we participate in things that could be changed if someone dared to say, that is not right.
And I believe that this word, brothers, is a call to all of us, among other things that it teaches us, right?, to listen to the voice of our conscience and not to do things simply because they are so been done since time immemorial, or to stop doing things because something simply has never been done. And if you, like me, there are many things like this that we can examine in our life, it can even be in our marriage, brothers.
How many families have I heard through the ages, a young woman, a girl, for example, being physically or sexually abused, or a boy being oppressed and a mother who never dared to question that. Or a family that is always silent, things were never discussed, justice was never done, a solution to the problem was never sought. Nothing unfair was ever questioned.
Brothers, I want to tell you, you are a daughter, you are a son of God, no one should ever violate your conscience. No one should violate you. Do not submit to any oppressive situation destructive to your life. Seek a sun in the name of the Lord. Amen.
These women remind us of that, in a very special way. And I came to mind some passages of Scripture where there is a call to appeal first to God. When we are in situations of difficulty and oppression, when we see something unjust, when we see something we want to question and when we know that our conscience is from God and no one else seems to share our idea, brother, instead of silence your voice, instead of letting yourself be carried away by the impulse of the people, listen to that voice, because you can be, perhaps through your action you can change the course of history.
There are tiny people who have changed the course of history. In these years, one of the most graphic images in all of modern history occurred when a man stood in front of a war tank in Tianaman Square a few years ago and stopped a column of tanks that, before international cameras, did not dare to run over him as they would have, and that photo served as an example for the civil rights struggle in China and has stood there as man's struggle against injustice and oppression, David against Goliath.
And one person can change, Martin Luther, in the 16th century changed the course of history, one man, a Catholic monk who questioned the injustices and corruption of the church and nailed his statements to the door of a cathedral in his native city and today we are sitting in those pews because that man dared to question an entire institution and risk his life for it. And history is made of normal, little men and women, like you and me, who dared to believe in the power of an ideal, an idea, an intuition that was born in their hearts and had the courage to say, hey, maybe my little idea, my little intuition is more powerful and fairer and more appropriate than all the people who are questioning. That requires incredible courage.
And so we, in smaller portions, every day live in environments where there are things that we can change if we dare to question, if we dare to believe in the power of our perceptions, that God has given us. wisdom to see things and improve the world. Sometimes a thought, a spark of thought that passes through your consciousness, if you stop for a moment to consider it and don't just let it slip from your mind, because it has never been done that way, can change the course of a life, a family. , a community, a block, a nation. So important to listen to the ideas.
This very morning, when the idea of inviting the mothers to come forward here, it was a fleeting thought that crossed my mind here, which I believe was from the Holy Spirit, but I could have say, well, it's too awkward. I looked up, I looked at the sisters who were on the balcony, and I looked over here and almost, what a great loss it would have been, because I had never done it before, but God blessed that moment, because one dares to meditate on things and then one launches in the name of Jesus.
And I made a detour, I made a turn, but what I was going to say is that, when we have those intuitions, when there is something that we look at that we say, this is not right, it could be done better, there could be some change in this situation, I must dare to say, this is not right, and to question the status quo to question authority.
Look, I always talk about submitting ourselves to the authorities, that's biblical, but you know what? There are also times when you have to question the authorities, with respect, with humility, but also firmly and with integrity, brother. No church, no pastor, no president, no leader is so free of error that they can say, I cannot benefit from someone's advice, or someone's questioning, or someone's opinion. At least one opinion can be heard and can slightly change the course of a leader or an institution. And that's one of the things we see here.
But what I want to say, stopping so much, is that when we feel something in our hearts and we know that we have a great institution, or a great machine in front of us that is preventing us from doing what we feel in our hearts, one of the first things we have to do is entrust our cause to the Lord, who is just.
When you have the Lord on your side, things even out. You remember a series years and years ago, which was called 'The Equalizer'. How many watched that series? Fess up, raise your hand right now. confess. It was the story of a detective-type man, very skilled in certain military arts, etc. that in cases of injustice, where they were being oppressed by criminals or by some corrupt official, these people appealed to him and he equalized things, the one who was a victim before now had a great defender. He was the equalizer. He brought things to a level where the fighting ground was more equal. And God is the great equalizer, he is the great equalizer of the causes of man.
That's why we can dare to be creative. And I want to broaden the scope of what I'm saying a little bit more, in a moment, but I want to say that it's important that if we're going to question the world, if we're going to question the things around us, if we're going to live original lives , and there I already have the title of my sermon, Original Lives, if we are going to live original lives we have to entrust our cause to the Lord, we have to seek wisdom from the Lord, we have to seek discernment from the Lord on how to frame our requests, our questioning, knowing when to speak, how to phrase things, whether to persist or not, whether to go beyond a first attack or approach and continue bothering until we see what we want. For all of this, the intervention of the Holy Spirit in one's life is needed, authority is needed, discernment is needed, wisdom is needed, the prudence of the Holy Spirit, but first we have to go and commend our cause to the Lord.
Psalm 37 says, “delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart, verse 4, it says, commend your way to the Lord and trust in him and he will do, display your righteousness like light, and your right hand like noon...." Glory to the Lord.
See, there's nothing like commending your cause to the Lord first, go and question and inquire, but do it with a humility that you know the power is not yours, the power is God's and you he is moving in power and in wisdom and according to the law of God.
There are many people who start causes but the spirit is not correct, there is a spirit of rebellion, there is a spirit of self-sufficiency, there is a spirit of glorifying questioning authority for the sake of questioning it, there is a spirit of criticism, there is a spirit of glorifying man and glorifying man's sense of justice.
This passage has been used in ways that I believe are improper to justify things that are not of God. I believe that the person, the man, the woman of God questions authority with fear and trembling, questions authority after having meditated well, questions authority after thinking and having entrusted himself to the Lord, entrusting his cause to the Lord, and then he stands with great humility and great dependence on God and shoots his cause like a projectile, directly to where it will take him. And that projectile has the power to break barriers, it has the power to do things that normally a man using only his own strength, or a woman, cannot do.
And we have to know, brothers, that when we are going to take risks in life, when we are going to do strange and different things, we have to first commend our cause to the Lord and then we dare.
I remember, it comes to mind now, years before I got married, imagine how many years ago that, we almost turned 25 next year, but I worked for the department of social services in the city of Lawrence, I took a year out of graduate school when I was at Harvard, but by some wonderful divine intervention, I ended up in that year working for the department of social services, by the way, God knew that I was going to be a pastor and I He gave training giving me 20 Hispanic and American families in Lawrence to work with them and pastor them for almost a year, as they were my group as a social worker.
The fact is that a Puerto Rican family, charismatic Catholic very devoted to the Lord, I met that family one day, as a social worker going to a meeting of parents. And that man impressed me because, first that I was a man at a parents' meeting, sometimes we are conspicuous by our absence, brothers, but this man was there, a man in his forties, and he was with his wife. I was impressed by the way he spoke out on behalf of his daughters to the school authorities. I liked his character, which because of him and for one reason or another, I saw him once more in another intervention and after that when I continued going to this meeting of parents, I never saw him again and that worried me, I intrigued, what happened, why we didn't see him more.
One day I was actually shopping with my mom at the Demulas supermarket in Lawrence. How many know Demulas back in Lawrence? Has anyone been there? I think many are going to travel to Demulas to buy. The fact is that Toña and I were in Demulas and I was in a cart, with the shopping cart and going through one of the shelves, one of the aisles of the supermarket, I only saw the back of this man. I was passing by and I saw his back and I recognized him, and what impressed me was that I felt there was a load on his back. I didn't know why, because I didn't know him that well, and I continued but something told me, go and look for him. And I went and looked for him and greeted him.
And then this man who knew I was a social worker started telling me his situation. In the time that I had stopped seeing him, they had come from Puerto Rico because their daughter at 15, 16 years old, when that often happens, had developed schizophrenia, a girl who had been perfectly normal, very pretty, at 14, 15 years she lost her mind, she became schizophrenic. And in Puerto Rico they did not have the care that she specifically needed and they knew that here in the US they could take care of her much better and that family, look at the dedication of this family, they moved with all their others, they had about 4 daughters, and they came to the City of Lawrence so that her daughter would receive the specific care she needed for her specific case.
And there they connected with the mental health department, and it's a bit of a long story, but it perfectly illustrates what we're talking about here. And with the department of social services they gave her care, they went to the house every so often, social services and mental health to care for the girl and these parents participating in everything with a lot of integrity, and a lot of involvement and one day, because the social workers and mental health had told her, 'tell us everything that's going on in your life, how it's developing, anything abnormal that you see,' and they told her of an event at home where the girl had picked up a razor and had done something that it seemed that he could be harmful to his physical health, with the razor. And they told mental health and the social worker, the thing was that they said, 'it's fine, there's no problem.'
One day while they were in the house, sitting eating, the police arrived, an ambulance arrived, they took their daughter from the house and put her in a mental institution. And these parents wanted to go crazy. It was put in here and they lived in Lawrence, they had no transportation, and they put it in a mental hospital in the suburbs, near Boston, in Hall Town, I think it was. And the fact is that this young woman, the authorities told her emphatically, "we have to keep this girl, protect her" and they accused them, in fact, of dealing with sexual abuse and other things. And they were told on one occasion where they said, well, we came from Puerto Rico to treat her here and what if we want to go now, back to Puerto Rico, and the words of the doctors there were resounding, they told them, 'you you can leave, but this girl doesn't leave here and forget about her, because now the state has custody of her.' And he told them, there in front of them he said, 'Well, I'm going to prove to you that the God I serve is more powerful than you and I'm going to have my daughter again.'
The thing was that when I heard this from this man, he was telling me all this in the supermarket aisle, a burden fell on my life about this girl, and I still move when I talk about it. The Lord put a burden on my life for that little girl and for weeks and weeks I prayed for her, did nothing but think about her and finally I, after calling psychiatrists and trying to see what could be done for her, everything this, I went to visit her. The girl was already relieving herself on her body, it had deteriorated incredibly. She didn't want to talk to the parents because she blamed them in her confused mind, what was happening, she thought they had abandoned her, etc. and had completely deteriorated physically, emotionally, mentally.
And after dealing I said, 'Lord, I'm going to take this cause in Jesus' name on and we're going to do what we can.' The case was that I contacted a lawyer, he never called me, but one day for one of those things the man calls me and says, 'Roberto, I have studied the case...' And by the way, the court had already given sole custody of the girl to the department of mental health. There was nothing to do apparently. The judge had given all custody to the department of mental health.
The fact is that this lawyer, after I spoke with him, told me, 'I think we have a case here. We are going to see what can be done.’ I called the mental health department and made an appointment, they did not know that I was in favor of the family. Since they thought I was a social worker, they thought I was in favor of them, because these agencies cover for each other unfortunately many times, and I made a court date and sought help from a church there in Lawrence and prepared my case. . The lawyer did not show up that day, but the judge did show up, due to something miraculous, they did not expect any of this, because they thought that it was still the same family and that it was simply to revive the case, they did not know what was happening.
God confused the authorities. The doctor, the representative, did not appear. No one from the hospital showed up, except for a very junior person. The judge appeared, I was there and her parents. And I presented the case to the judge, and I described the situation, and I told him 'judge, as a social worker I promise to help the family and the church so and so are willing to give them their support, these are people of honor They are hard-working people. And the judge when he asked who from the hospital is here, and was told that there was no one except a very low underling, he was furious with the hospital. He said, this is a great injustice, what has been done. And right there he ordered us to take the girl. At most what I expected was for them to say, let's review the case, and this and that. That day we took that girl out of the hospital, from her jail, and we took her home. The family couldn't believe it. Nobody could believe it.
When the department of social services, my department and the department of mental health, found out what had happened they were furious with me. And finally I got in touch with a Lawrence psychiatrist who told me, 'If you want to sue the department of mental health and social services, you can do it, because this has been a great injustice. They have done terrible damage to that girl psychologically.
Long story but let me just tell you the end of this, because this is very enlightening. Because the hand of God, the blessing was on this case. I lost contact with that family because since they could, since they resolved their legal situation, they were so terrified that they went back to Puerto Rico. I lost contact with them, never heard from them again. And it had stayed in my heart, 'Lord, I dared to do something that didn't seem to, I questioned mental health, I questioned psychiatrists, I questioned social services, have I done the right thing? I was wondering about that and couldn't answer because I didn't know where the family was.
Many months had passed, many months of that. At that time I had married Meche, her family is from Puerto Rico. We went to Puerto Rico to visit Meche's family and it had already been, as I said, a year, a year and a half, I don't remember how long it had been, but it had been many months now. And I always think of that family in my heart, the fact was that for a reason Meche's family left Mayahues for Guainabo, it is a long way to go, an hour and a half, two hours, the road is long.
I traveled alone from Mayahues to Guainabo, many details but what happened is interesting. I was on a lonely road, surrounded by country roads all around and I am driving in my car and on a road with about 3 lanes, and I pass by and see a back, again, 3 young people crossing the road and entering a small path field. And when I see them from behind, I say, "those look like the daughters of this family," and I say how in the middle of this open field here in Puerto Rico, on a highway, how is it possible. I drove about a mile, but it stuck in my heart, 'Lord, I asked you to resolve this question that I had.' I turned around, went down the road, caught up with them and it was them.
I was able to get to his house, I sat down with the family. For the girl, she was much better. The grateful family, a family reunited with their blessed daughter again, because God put something in my heart. There was a cause that had to be resolved, there was something that had to be questioned. Nobody wanted to take up the cause of a humble family.
But, brethren, maybe the sermon.... that's all just, in that illustration. We have to dare to question things. I thank the Lord, maybe God put me to work that year in the department of social services just so that I could bring justice to that family. And since my heart is moved by that, sometimes I don't tell it's history in public because the things that I experienced the emotions,..... but you have to dare, brothers.
You have to dare to live original lives and you have to dare to fight for the justice of others. And we must commend our cause to the Lord. If you are going through a difficult situation,... one of the things that this passage is so rich in so many ways, but one of the things that I see here is how God changed his mind, it is a horror to say that, but a man can change the opinion of God and the terrible, scandalous idea fits. A woman, a man can, in a situation, if you are in a situation of oppression, need, woman, many times mothers have difficult situations, there are difficult cases with a child, a situation, look, you are not alone. God is with you. You can come before your Heavenly Father, you can commend your cause to the Lord and he will display your justice like noon, no matter who is against you, no matter how difficult your situation is, present your cause to the Lord and do not doubt in questioning a situation, do not mold yourself to the situations and injustices of life, to the difficulties of life, to the oppressions of men, simply because no one has questioned, no one has ever done that before, perhaps you are the person that God has placed for things to change, for there to be a change in life, for justice to come. God can use you in your home, in your neighborhood, but it's all about you feeling, 'Lord, I want to do something.'
Let me have one last illustration. Just last night, thank you Samuel, there is a family two, three houses from my house, terrible, Americans bound by the devil. A very classy family, I don't like to say the word low, but they don't work, they are in a situation... and that family often has fights, they fight, one hears them from two, three houses. Last night the police arrived, a mess they had there and I have heard their voices sometimes from my house. Now in the summer, well, we open the windows and some of those things can be heard more clearly. And Lord, I have felt in my heart, I have been listening to them for 3, 4, 5, 6 months. I hear people bound by the devil. The devil makes them bitter and makes them fight like roosters in a galley, simply to give each other spurs. The devil delights in destroying lives and men many times only see the ugly, the harmful, they see the terribleness of a soul and they do not see the treasure that is hidden underneath and they do not see potential children of God, they do not see that person who is doing damage can simply be a person who is demonized, faced by the devil to destroy him until he dies to take his soul. And no one dares to intervene and what we do is that we despise many times, we resent and instead of saying, Lord, maybe I can do something, maybe I can change, maybe I can intervene, maybe you can use me to change A situation.
And I told him a few days ago, about 2, 3, 4 weeks ago, Lord, if you give me some way to get to know that family. Look, sometimes one is afraid to knock on a door and say, look, I am a pastor, I can help you with something. God has used me at times doing that. But in this case, I did not dare because it seemed so difficult, and I told him, Father, open a way for me, if you open the way for me, I am going to intervene because I felt mercy. I heard her one day like that from afar talking to her little son, and I heard tenderness in her, and I heard a devilish being trying to do the best she could.
Last night I'm sitting in my office and Meche tells me, 'shut up, there's someone here at home', and I hear a strange voice talking on the phone. They had had that tremendous mess. The police had arrived, the fire brigade, an ambulance, everyone had arrived there and after these people had left, she and her sister came up and asked if they could use the phone at my house. They don't have a phone, they don't have anything. Those people are terrible. And when Meche told me who they were, she didn't know that I had been praying, I left my office because I knew that God was telling me, well, you asked me, I'm going to put it there. What are you going to do now?
And we listen to them, we talk to them, they are open to the Gospel. I want to bring them to church. One of her, in fact, for a strange reason, speaks Spanish, white as milk but she speaks Spanish and I think her mom is half Portuguese and is married or together with a young Salvadoran that we have seen from time to time there, and they have a little boy. And there sensitivity in her soul, there is something special in that girl.
The fact is that they are lives, brothers, and I have felt a commitment from God. I have to do something now, because God took me seriously and there was that family. I told him, Father, if I can do something, we prayed for them and one told the other, you see, that's why I like evangelicals, look how they pray, they are talking to God. I told him, you can talk to God yourself at home. God can change your life. God can give you wisdom to educate your child. God can change your economic situation. It can turn you around, and that's why you came here. God brought you here.
They looked at me with wide eyes, listening. Brothers, God wants to make each one of us agents of change in the world. And it doesn't matter that you are a woman, that you are a child, that you are young, God can use you, if you dare to believe, 'with God I can change the world, I can make a difference in my neighborhood, wherever and commend your cause to the Lord. God can do it, what is missing is people who dare in the name of Jesus to believe. I can be that agent of difference in the world. With God by my side, I can face Goliath, I can change the world. I can make a difference.
So, brothers, God calls us this morning. Mothers, you have made a difference in the history of the world. Women, you have dared to do things. I see women, sometimes, perhaps some of them don't even know how to read or write, but God has used you as a woman and you have changed the history of the world. And God can continue using you, it is only that you dare to believe in the intuitions that God puts in your heart.
Sometimes God puts seeds of greatness in our spirit and we say, impossible, who, me?, no and we kill that seed. We don't let it flourish because we think, God can't use me. God can use you, God wants to use you. The smaller, the more God glorifies himself in using you and doing great things in your life. Believe it in the name of Jesus, commit your cause to the Lord, whatever it is.
If you commend your cause to the Lord and dare to present yourself before the throne of God, God himself will do something in your life. And you say, I am going to go and if I perish, I perish, as Esther said, but I am going to present my cause and perhaps the king will extend his scepter and tell you, what do you want? Up to half the kingdom of I will give, because you dare to do it.
Live an original life. Dare to do something different. Do not settle for any situation that you are experiencing. If it is oppressive, if it is destructive to your well-being, if it destroys someone, you have to do something in the name of Jesus. Commit your cause to the Lord and he will do, he will listen and exhibit your justice like noon.
Let's stand up in the name of Jesus. Thank my Lord. We adore you. We bless you, Lord. Thank you Jesus. Father, thank you because you are a God of mercy, a just God who incredibly bends down, Father, to listen to the cause of mere men. Your word says, I patiently waited for the Lord and he leaned down to me and heard my cry and made me get out of the pit of despair, from the miry mud. He put my feet on the rock, straightened my steps, then put a new song in my mouth. Many will see this and fear and trust in the Lord.
We believe that this morning, Father, in Jesus' name. Elizabeth, in the name of Jesus, we pray for your daughter now in the name of Jesus Christ we commend your cause to the Lord. Father, we ask that you surround that young woman there in El Salvador with your grace, with your protection. Listen to the cry of this mother and we ask that warrior angels, Lord, warrior angels surround that daughter with their wings, Father, in the name of Jesus and that family and no harm befall her, to the glory of your name, Father, because you are the protective God of the weak, of the victims, of those who suffer violence. Your word says, he has mercy on those who suffer violence. We believe that, Lord, this morning in Jesus' name.
Help us to be agents of change, Father, in the world. Help us to be lights, help us to be salt of the earth, Father. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to feel. Give us an original mind, Father. Give us great boldness knowing that if we are in alignment with you, no one can stop us because you are powerful to break any wall, Lord, of injustice or oppression.
Thank you because you have set us free, Father. We do not have to adapt to destructive or difficult situations in our existence because you are the God who removes the stone, as you did before the grave and you sit on it, Lord, and give victory to your children. Your word says, before in all these things we are more than conquerors, for that we praise you, Father, we glorify you. We are more than conquerors and that is why we dare to take up the battle in the name of Jesus.
And the people of God say: amen. Glory to the name of the Lord. Glory to God. Amen.
