When God gives you a stone

Today's message is going to require a lot of imagination on the part of all of us. The imagination, depending on how one uses it, can be harmful or can be constructive, but we know that I trust that today it will be something very edifying for everyone. It is a word that has come to my heart since the first time I reflected on it.

I shared a reflection on a Wednesday night, in one of the prayer services and people responded so affirmatively to this message that I felt in my heart that I wanted to develop it a little more. And it shocks me so much because there are times when as a preacher I think that the messages that are simpler and simpler are the ones that stick with people the most and it is in that simplicity of life, I believe, where there are the greatest and most profound teachings that we can have. So having said this I want you to accompany me to a passage from the Bible found in Matthew, Chapter 7, beginning in verse 7. I know that it is a passage that many of us know but today I am going to approach this passage from a slightly different perspective.

And the word of the Lord says thus “.... Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you because whoever asks, what does he say? Receive, and he who seeks, finds; and whoever knocks, it will be opened to him. Then he says, what man is there among you that if his son asks for bread, he will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, he will give him a snake? Well, if you, or if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”

Jesus, I thank you for your word, which is a living and effective word, sharp as a double-edged sword that penetrates to the depths of the soul and discerns the intentions of the heart and above all things leads us to your truth. I ask you Lord that the message that I am going to share with my brothers and sisters can be a blessing and edification, that we can have open hearts to receive that hidden message that you have for us. Give us discernment to receive it and my Lord, I put myself in your hands, use my words to bless my brothers and sisters who are here this morning and those who listen on the Internet as well. In your name Jesus we pray. Amen.

Well, this passage, brothers, we all know that it is found within what is known as the Sermon on the Mount and it is a well-known passage since it encourages us, Jesus himself, is teaching us and It encourages us to ask, search, knock on the door, that is, there is a well-intentioned action on the part of us as believers to be able to search for those things that we want to see happening in the midst of our lives.

And I also recognize that maybe there are people who approach this passage with a level of distance, so to speak, because maybe they're people who don't like to ask for a lot or don't like to be asked. see them as people who ask but rather they like to be seen more as people who can handle themselves. But what Jesus is doing, or is teaching us, is that it is good to ask. Asking us means that we are looking for the necessary things in order to bring stability to our lives, to our loved ones and to the people around us. One not only asks for a selfish desire, but one also asks to build the lives that are in the people around us, be it our main nucleus as our family, as well as friendships that we have around us as brothers and sisters in the church, or whoever it is. And I believe that God's blessing extends to that level.

Now, but there are times that I wonder the following, what happens when we do not receive what we ask for? What happens when we can't find what we are looking for? Or, what happens when we are knocking on a door and what happens is that the doors close completely, they close us in the nose? What's happening?

In the same passage there is an illustration that Jesus uses of a father's dealings with his son. Obviously he is talking about the earthly father but doing it in comparison with God and this illustration has to do with the fact that if his son asks a father for a piece of bread, that father is going to give him a piece of bread, he is not going to give him a piece of bread. stone. Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake, not even for a pet. And what Jesus is letting us know is that if we, when he uses that expression that we are bad, or in other words that we are imperfect, fallen human beings, imperfect that we do not have the world completely figured out. If within those limitations we know how to give good gifts to those around us, how much more can God supply us with those things that we ask?

But even so, I dare to go to a much further level, and I ask myself, what happens when those prayers that we make before God, what happens when we pray for bread and What we receive is a stone? We pray for bread and receive what looks like a stone. I am going to hold this stone in my hand. I believe that our initial reaction can be a complaint, a person seeing that those prayers are not being answered as expected, can complain and can even get frustrated as well. I can think that perhaps a person who has not been intentional, in deepening his relationship with God, in taking a time of intimacy with him, in being able to know and align himself with the will of God, when he sees that those prayers for bread do not they are answers, he gets frustrated and on some levels he strays from that path, he can end up thinking like this is a waste of time, this is not for me, I'm not going to continue with this.

Now, but, a person who has had the time to seek that intimacy with God, to grow in their relationship with God, to seek to align themselves with what God wants for him or her, when they receive to his prayers a stone, that person must realize that if he received a stone, there is a message hidden in that stone to which he has to pay attention. And that's where the title of this message comes from: treasures hidden in the stones.

I believe that if I give you this stone, I am an ordinary man, if I give you this stone, you are going to receive it and you are going to pretend that... to stop what do I want this? It may seem like something insignificant. Now, but if God gave you this stone, I think you would then be like,....mmm, why is God giving me this stone?

You know? I start to reflect, brothers. A stone may seem like something very insignificant, there are people who use stones to decorate their gardens. How many of you decorate your gardens with stones? Or it could be the opposite, there are times when what people do is take the stones out of their gardens and throw them away as garbage, because they don't want to have stones in their gardens, especially when they are passing the grass mower that goes like this , and suddenly they hear a prac... and they find a stone, and that stone went just. There are people who perhaps in your early years used rocks to play baseball, how many of you did? I'm not the only one, okay, I'm not the only one. Very good, very good, or maybe they used a Pepsi or Coke bottle cap, maybe. That's right. But when I was little, I used stones....

But it may be that there are people who used stones to scare away the cats or dogs that came to their house and..... poof, and there went the cat. How could it be that there are also people who used a stone to do damage, perhaps to break other people's property, as we heard that saying, 'this is one of those who throws the stone and hides the hand'. Who knows that there were people who used it for that purpose.

But I believe, brothers, that when God allows stones to come to our prayers it is because there is a purpose in it. There is a message hidden in that stone that God wants us to pay attention to and the only way we can find that message is if we are truly in tune with God so that we can discern what is the message that stone has.

I wonder, if the stones could talk, what would they tell us? There is a very beautiful song by a Christian singer named Ezequiel Colón, I don't know how many of you have heard of him, but Ezequiel Colón has a song by the same title, 'if the stones spoke, what would they tell us'. And I would like to teach you a portion of this song so that you can hear it, so that you can pay attention, how curious it is to listen to the voice of a stone.

Song:

If stones could talk,

If stones could talk,

What would they tell us? < p>They would tell the story step by step

Of life

If the stones could speak

They would tell Moses

Don't mistreat me please,

Control your anger

If stones could talk, oh,

what would they tell us?

One would shout with pride

I was strong, I was strong, because I defeated the giant

And there was no fear in me, no

And another would scream,

I don't want to become bread,

I want to remain a stone, flee from me

Flee from me Satan.

Say, you stones, those who felt freedom

When they fell on the ground and heard the Master

Go away, go away...?

And another stone that cried, felt guilty

For the blood that stained it was that of a just martyr

Just indeed,

If stones could talk

Oh what would they tell us?

But there is a stone, the one I want to question,

Come on, come on, stone, tell me your story now

And now tell me, the stone, what, what did you feel when he

He rose from the grave, if you couldn't do< /p>

If his mouth covered you, if you felt his power,

If...... his..... you had to move

It's just that just and put myself in your place,

Hey stone, I have to shudder.

How about that last stone. I hope that this silence is because you are meditating, brothers. That first stone, speaking of Moses, I imagine you know what it is: they were the two stones from the tables that he smashed against that altar that the Israelites had made when they rebelled against God.

The second stone that speaks is obviously the large stone that David used to defeat Goliath. A stone that, although it came out of David's hand, was remote-controlled by the spirit of God to nail it to the place where it had to arrive. Now, those stones that were about to stone a woman being accused of adultery, but in the presence of Jesus what those stones felt was freedom.

But it also speaks of the one who felt a level of guilt when it was used to kill a person like Esteban, filled with the spirit. If the stones could talk, what would they say to us?

But before that I have to ask myself what are the stones with which we find ourselves on the road. You know, we can have different types of stones. I myself can be a stone. Maybe some colleague at work can be a rock for me, maybe they make my life miserable all the time. It may be that there are brothers here within the church that there are others who are a stone for them too, when it should not be so, but there are those who feel that way. It may be that if I think of one of the most recent events of the decisions that were made in Congress this past Thursday not to vote on the issue of immigration, that response to what some expected would have been a piece of of bread, perhaps it appears to be a stone.

More however, brothers, I believe that in the power of God those stones have messages to speak to each one of us. And I want to encourage you today, brothers, to pay attention to what the stones in your path have to say. Usually when we go and find a stone our tendency is to remove them, or to avoid them. And I know that there are stones that must be avoided, but even if we dodge them, pay attention, brothers, because there is a message engraved on them that you have to pay attention to, because it is a message directed from God to each one of us.

And to more or less close my reflection I would like to direct you to another stone. There is a very precious passage in Revelation Chapter 2, it talks about a very particular stone. Revelation, Chapter 2, verse 17 says:

“... He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches; I will give the hidden manna to the one who wins and I will give him what? a little white stone, and on the little stone written a new name which no one knows except the one who receives it and therefore, I would say, the one who gives it...”

A little white stone. And that little stone is going to tell what I understand is the most important story in each of our lives, because that little stone is going to tell the story of all those who remained faithful in the Lord until the end, regardless of the situation, no matter what. regardless of circumstances. That little stone is going to have a new name that is going to be talking about the future story that is going to be unfolding for that person who receives it. A white stone.

Brothers, I believe what the Bible says, the Apostle Paul in Corinthians when he says that God has chosen the smallest, the vilest, the most insignificant things in this world to shame what is to shame the strong, to shame that which is exalted above other things. A stone may be something very insignificant, but nevertheless it is something that God uses to speak to us. And brothers, I want you to think, I am using a stone as well as something symbolic, but I want you to focus on those stones or the stone that you have found in your life.

Maybe you've been trying to get that rock out of your way for a long time because what you're looking for is bread. But, brother, my sister, I encourage you today, don't throw it aside so quickly, pay attention to what those stones have to teach us. I'm not saying keep the stone, I'm saying, pay attention, and once you hear that message and receive it and internalize it, then if you have to get rid of the stone, get rid of it. Or if you want to keep it as a memory, keep it. But let us pay attention, brothers, let us pay attention to the voice of God in those things that seem to be the most insignificant. There are treasures in the stones and the only way we can find it is when we let God give us the discernment to discover that treasure, brothers.

So, in a word as simple as this, I encourage you, do not be discouraged when the prayers you make for bread, perhaps what you are receiving is a stone. Ask God for discernment to see what the message is, the hidden treasure that is in that stone, so that his life can be enriched to the level that he only wants. And that in your fidelity to him, in your struggle in life as a believer, as a Christian, as a child of God, that you can remain firm and faithful, so that when you reach that final point you can be given a little white stone with his new name, a stone that only the Lord Jesus can give us. Believe me, we are not going to get that stone out of our way, but we are going to keep it as a trophy.

I invite my brothers to stand up. I want you to reflect on something: I don't want you to think, Hail Mary, Pastor Omar came here to talk to us about stones. I can say that as a pastor I have had moments in which I have found many stones to the answers to my prayers, stones with which I have hit hard, stones with which I thought my life was going to fall apart, like who says, but the Lord Jesus, in his power, in his fidelity to the promises and the pact that he has made with me, and that he has made with each one of you, has allowed me to discover a treasure, that if it were up to him I would I would not have discovered. I have managed to discover friendships that have enriched my life in an incredible way. What I thought was going to be a rock has turned into such a solid friendship. I have come across situations where I thought that stone was going to be a total destruction, perhaps to the ministry or to the situation in which I was, but nevertheless in the power of God, that stone has become an opportunity for growth. I never thought it would happen like this.

Brothers, think about what are the stones with which you have encountered on your way, an illness, a partner, a co-worker, or the boss at work, a study career that maybe it seems very difficult to complete, a relationship that maybe you are in it and instead of feeling peace what feels like a bit of discord and you don't know how to proceed, a sudden financial situation that has come into your life and you He doesn't know how to respond to it, he doesn't know which door to knock or which way to look, or whom to ask.

Stones in our path, my brothers, but if they are stones that God allows to come into our lives, they are stones that have a hidden treasure, like a diamond, that its original state looks like coal, `more however when polished and cut to size, it becomes one of the most precious and valuable jewels in the world. Who knows if there is such a treasure for you in those stones.

And I want to invite you to say a prayer. If you are one of those people who has found stones, but has not been able to discover that hidden treasure, the only way you can do it is by aligning yourself with God and asking him for the necessary discernment to be able to find that treasure. If you need that, if you need that discernment, that wisdom from God that allows you to discover that hidden treasure, I want to invite you to raise your hand to pray for you.

Lord Jesus, in a symbolic way I hold this stone in my hand, Lord, representing the stones that my brothers here today in this church are presenting before you, that perhaps they have not found the hidden treasure on those stones because perhaps that stone has hit too hard and it is difficult for us to think, it is difficult for us to seek clarity in the situation, but Jesus we are looking for you right now, because we know that wisdom and discernment are found in you for us to be able to discover those treasures hidden in the stones.

Spirit of God, please, I beg you to reveal yourself to my brothers and sisters who are raising their hands today, and as they have those stones before them, that you reveal to them each one the message hidden in each one of those stones, that you open our hearts, Lord, and that perhaps you remove the stone that covers our hearts, so that we can discover those messages that you want us to receive. Yes, Lord Jesus, I affirm this prayer. Help us to discover first the treasure of the stone in our hearts, which often gets in the way of us being able to receive what you want that we can receive from you, break those stones in our hearts, Lord, to be able to see the hidden treasures in other stones around us.

Jesus, this is something that can only be achieved through you, that our human forces are impossible, the stones are seen as something insignificant and of little value, but in you, Lord, the possibilities, Lord, are unlimited. Jesus, open our eyes, open our hearts to be able to see those treasures hidden in the stones, the stones that you allow to come into our lives, or the stones that you yourself bring.

And we know, Lord, that although we may be waiting for a piece of bread, we know that if we remain faithful to you, when we receive a little white stone with a new name, we will not only have bread but we will have a banquet that will last for all eternity, Lord Jesus. We await that banquet, Jesus, that you have prepared for each one of us, Lord, our faith and our hope is placed in that promise that you give us, a promise of life, Jesus, we await that trophy of a little white stone with our name new that will open the doors to a banquet that will last for an eternity.

Father, we give glory and honor only to you, because only you deserve it and allow that in the reflection of these simple and simple words our faith is enriched even more and our trust in you can reach a much higher level, Jesus, and that we can see miracles happening in the midst of our lives, Lord. To you we give glory and honor, forever and ever, Lord. Amen.