Rejoice in the Lord always

Let's go to the word of the Lord, let's go to the Book of Philippians, the letter to the Philippians. I want to take a little parenthesis before we start our or re-start our series on the Holy Spirit and the gifts, to invite you to meditate with me on this very profound passage of Scripture. The word of the Lord says, in verse 4, “.... Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice, your kindness be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but let your requests be known before God in all prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus..." Bless the Lord his holy word, amen and amen. I have chosen this passage, brothers, because in reality I also want to preach it to myself and I also want to receive encouragement from God's people. Our family is going through a difficult time right now and we need the prayers of God's people, the strength that comes from God's people and we have found much rest; my wife, I, our daughters, we have found rest in the word, we have found comfort in the word of the Lord. And I want to share with you what God has done in my life in these days, while I have sought that refuge from the Lord. This is an eminently comforting passage, it is an eminently strengthening passage. And it was written by a man experienced in pain. The Apostle Paul was a man who went through tribulations and difficulties, but always somehow remained firm in the ways of the Lord, loving the Lord, serving the Lord. And because of that experience that he had, he could have the authority to speak to God's people and leave immortal words that help us and will always help us when we find ourselves in difficult situations. What does the son of God do, what does the daughter of God do when life's difficulties come, when problems come, when life's storms come? What do you do when the doctor tells you that you have a chronic illness and that you will probably have to be on pills for the rest of your life? What do you do when the economy goes down and you lose your job, or your salary is reduced in some way and you still have to pay the bills on the house or the car or whatever? What do you do when family or marital problems come? What do you do in your life when the things you need for your happiness are scarce? How does the believer face, how does one spend those times of dark clouds and tribulation that are coming and have come, and will come in the life of every child of God? One has two options, and these options are recorded here in this passage. But let me tell you for a moment about the Apostle Paul and why he is eminently suited to advise us on how we should get through life in general. This word here from verse 6 says, "... rejoice in the Lord always..." When the Apostle Paul writes these words he is writing them from a Roman jail. One would think that a man who says, "rejoice in the Lord always, once again I say rejoice..." is perhaps doing it from a resort, some vacation spot in Punta Cana or Acapulco, something like that, having a pineapple virgin cast, or is he in his mansion......wow these people think I really need more encouragement than I do. Thank you dear, thank you. He is not writing these words from a place of rest and rest, he is writing them from a Roman dungeon. Not like the prisons of our time that are close to having a high-definition color television. No, you are writing at the bottom of a difficult situation in your life. He wrote this epistle, this letter, to the church that was in the city of Philippi, that is why it is called Philippians, the people of Philippi wrote it from that place hoping to appear before Caesar, the emperor Roman and he did not know if he was going to get out of there without a head or with a head or if he was going to be sentenced to a long prison. I was in a really big bind. And in this context the Apostle Paul says 'rejoice in the Lord always', and repeats again '...again I say rejoice..' The Apostle Paul experienced many difficult situations in his life. In Chapter 11 of Second Corinthians, he talks about some of his sufferings, he says, "....I have been lashed without number....' He was lashed many times for his faith, for his preaching. "... in lashes without number, in jails more, in danger of death many times, from the Jews 5 times I have received 40 lashes, minus one,...", that is to say 39 lashes , 5 times, and they weren't lashes like that with a little rope, no, they were lashes with very terrible spikes that the Romans used, at the end of each lash.

“... three times I've been lashed with rods, once stoned, three times I have suffered shipwreck and one night and one day I have been shipwrecked on the high seas. On roads many times, in dangers of rivers, dangers of thieves, dangers of those of my nation, dangers of the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desert, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers, in work and fatigue , in many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and naked.....”

And one asks how this man did not shoot himself? And he simply left the Gospel because of so many things that had happened to him for serving the Lord and for preaching the Gospel. He could have said, look, if this is so, then I'm going to get out of here because I'm supposed to have at least some kind of protection from Christ, if I'm going to preach it, but the Lord allowed the The Apostle Paul went through all these humiliations, tribulations, anxieties and what amazes me about that man is that after all those years of so much struggle and so much tribulation he can write a letter with so much enthusiasm and conviction and tell the Philippians, 'rejoice in the Lord always, again I say to you, rejoice....” The letter to the Philippians is known as the letter of joy, imagine. First it says, rejoice in the Lord. Let me tell you something, when you are going through trials and tribulations you cannot and should not try to rejoice in the flesh or in the emotions, because the emotions will betray you, do you understand? Emotions are part of a biological system that wears down with pressure and anxiety and problems. The brain is a biological mechanism to some extent that burns out under stress. And when you are going through trials and difficult situations, what you least want is to enjoy yourself. But there is a joy to which the word of God alludes, which is that joy of the spirit, it is that objective joy that recognizes that in the midst of every situation God can always bring something good, that God is present even though You do not see it and even if you do not feel it, and that there is something that God is doing that you may not be able to understand and that this is for the blessing and good of your life. Then the believer, the first thing that one has to try to do when he is, is to look for that joy, to look for that exhilaration of the spirit, to look for that place and not be happy until you touch that place of comfort in yourself. the Lord, and that one can say, 'even though I am going through tribulations, but I know that I can rejoice because my passport is signed, I know that I am going with the Lord and I know that God is going to bring a blessing from this situation.' There is a joy that one always has, never give that up to the devil or to circumstances. You have to rejoice in the Lord and he says, always. It says, here in verse 5: “... let your kindness be known to all men....” Why does the Apostle Paul keep saying that our kindness be known to all men, after speaking of rejoicing in the Lord? Brothers, I believe that one of the most important things that the believer, the child of God, must do is show a contagious sympathy. I believe that the Christian should be known for his sympathetic and positive attitude, he should be known for his gentle attitude in the midst of situations, he should be known because when he is in the test, instead of becoming bloody and moody and impossible to bear, that he can be nice to others. Because I think, if we as Christians, when we are going through trials, cannot show the grace of Jesus Christ, then nobody can. I think what encourages people the most is when they see a son, a daughter of God going through difficult situations, but still retaining their good humor and moving forward in faith. That tells the world, 'this person is drinking from some waters I don't understand and they're there.' We have to ask the Lord, 'Lord, help us to be even-tempered in life.' Do you know what the word fair is? Even-tempered means that you can maintain more or less the same tone throughout life, that even though you are going through trials and difficulties but you can go ahead in the name of the Lord because the Lord is the one who strengthens me. And you can say, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'. And you can continue and that your sympathy does not wane, that you can continue serving your children and your wife or wife, that you can continue, if you have a position in the church performing it, that you can go to work and put on your good makeup and good cream under the eyes and present a nice face to others and that they can even look at it and say, wow, this person has something special inside them. Amen. Because we Christians have to distinguish ourselves for that, brothers. Because if we are like the others, that simply when the pressure comes on us we throw ourselves to the ground, and we become unpleasant little beasties, then where is the difference. What distinguishes the son of God is that affable character, that character that in the midst of the trial situation, can say as the Apostle Paul says, 'rejoice in the name of the Lord'. And if you get invited to a party instead of you going there and being a killjoy in a corner, you can smile with people, talk even if you're not doing too happy things, but you can keep that affability . Ask the Lord, let us ask the Lord to allow us to always have that sympathy, that generosity towards others. The word gentleness here is tricky, we don't have time to unpack it all, but I think the Apostle Paul was partly thinking of that. Rejoice, he says, that joy be the hallmark of your lives so that the gentle character, the beauty of Christ's character shines forth in you in such a way that it is evident to all the world.....

And he left you there...... getting all wet and helpless. The Lord says, 'behold, I am with you always until the end of the world....' Glory to the Lord. Christ is with us, the Lord is near. Hallelujah! And that is something that we have to constantly remember because it is very easy when everything is fine, and the bills are paid, and the bank account is juicy and we have all the terreques in the house that we need. Oh, we do think that..... But, look brother, the Lord is near objectively, whatever it is, know that the Lord walks with you. The Lord is there, the Lord has not left him at any time. The image of Elisha, the prophet Elisha, has come to my mind these days when the Syrians came and entered Israel because they wanted to capture him, because he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit and was imitative and harmful to the interests of Syria, which hated Syria. Israel. And Elisha, used by the Lord, always warned the king of Israel how to avoid the ambushes set by the Syrians. Then the king of Syria sent an elite, an elite force into Israel to capture the prophet. The prophet Elisha and his servant find themselves surrounded by this group that has entered to capture them. And Elisha's servant who did not have the spiritual discernment that Elisha had, looks around him, sees these armed men who are enemies and thinks, here they are going to kill us, here our life ended, here the ministry ended and it is filled with panic, and cries out to Elisha and begins to be filled with anxiety. And Elisha tells him to 'calm down, and pray to the Lord,' and he says, 'Father, open his eyes, open his eyes so that he can see on the spiritual level.' And the eyes of that servant were opened for a moment, the spiritual eyes were opened for a moment and this man could see that at all times, even when he only saw the Syrian army around them, there was an army of much more powerful angels with chariots of fire surrounding the Syrian army and protecting Elisha and his servant. And Elisha tells him, 'Don't be afraid, because there are many more who are with us than those who are with them.' Glory to the Lord. And you know what? my brother, many times you will be in situations of trial and difficulty. You are going to look around you and all you see is problems, failure, negativity, but if you had the eyes of the spirit you could see that around you there are angels of the Lord who are strengthening you and telling you, go ahead, continue, I I'm with you. The Lord is mighty. And we have to ask the Lord, Lord, help me always keep that awareness that you are close. This expression, the Lord is near, could be interpreted in two ways. It could be interpreted in the way that, well, the coming of the Lord is near; or the Lord is close to you. Either of the two interpretations should be a reason for encouragement for us. Because if it's about the Lord's coming being near, that's what he says to me, look, life's situations are fleeting, I am a citizen of eternity and one day God will wipe away every tear of his people, all illness will cease, all problems that seem right now are a solution, when one is aware of eternity, brothers, many of life's difficulties become much more bearable. But when you think that all there is is only here in time and space, in the now, then the world sort of pounces on you and everything that happens seems big and unbearable if it's negative. But the child of God who knows that the coming of the Lord is near and that either he goes with the Lord first, or Christ comes first, we belong to the Lord, we belong to eternity. We belong to a city not made with the hands of men, we are pilgrims heading towards an eternal homeland and therefore we cannot despair. The Lord is near. And if it is about the physical closeness of the Lord, even more important. The Lord is always with us. And when the Lord is near, that means that there is a solution for every situation and every problem. Glory to the Lord. On one occasion the disciples were in a boat, the storm began to roar around them. The boat looks like it is going to sink, there was no way that boat could survive that big storm. But what happened? That the Lord was inside the boat, he was close to the disciples. And the Lord was there sleeping soundly and not caring what was happening. I can tell you, brothers, that nowhere in the universe, at that time or in all of history, has there been a safer place than that boat in the middle of the storm, because the Lord was in it . And in your life, I want you to know that Christ is not only with you but also within you, and that with Christ you are more than a winner in every situation that life may throw at you. The Lord is close to you and I beg you not to take your eyes off, do not take your eyes off that close presence of Jesus because he will always make sure that you have a way out of any situation. It says here in verse 31 of Romans 8, “....what then shall we say to this: if it be for us, who against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things with him. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword, but in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for which I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels , nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, neither height nor depth, and no other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord...."

The Lord is near. That allows you and me to rejoice and also allows us to be affable, to be nice, to be generous, to be tolerant of others, to walk in the middle of the desert with a smile of hope on our lips and in our hearts, because he is with you. He is there, even if you don't see it, even if you don't feel it, the Lord is with you to strengthen you. It's been going through my mind, I didn't know if I was going to share it with you today or not, last night I had a little one. God speaks to me many times through dreams and I have never dreamed of an angel, ever. I have always told the Lord to let me see an angel one day and to prepare my heart well first, just in case. But last night in the dream I was in my house and for some reason in one of the corners of my house I felt in my spirit that there was an angel. I was like in a corridor, so I went to the corridor and looked around and there was an exit door and indeed.... however, look at how these things are.... again, there are codes that dreams have. But it was a woman and I knew that she was an angel... I don't want to get into theology here, no problem, because look what will happen later... but she was a very strong woman, tall, very strong, not in the sense of strong like a weight lifter, but she was a strong woman and very full of energy that emanated from her and I looked at her and she let me look at her for a few seconds. And then, and I knew that she was an angel and there was a great seriousness in her. She was letting herself be watched for a moment, but that was it. She was doing me a favor by letting me look at her for a moment. And then he left through the exit door, and I could see in the dream how he made some moves that a human being couldn't make, but in the end the last thing I could see in the dream was that that woman, in the end, somewhere moment what I saw was the back of a man, it became... it seemed like it assumed its true angelic form, and like the only thing I saw was a human appearance, but due to its divine spiritual nature it was another and when it left from my sight he recovered his normal nature. Now, that... that I've always believed is that there are angels in disguise in our lives all the time. Angels are ministering spirits of God, says the word. How many times in Scripture did angels come to minister to the children of God? To the same Lord Jesus Christ when he was in his agony, angels ministered to him. Angels have appeared throughout all of history. Who knows how many times we have been ministered to by an angel and we didn't realize it? Because? Because we live in a dimension now that God many times, the vast majority of times, does not allow there to be that level of rapport between the human world and the divine world, for many different reasons, because it is not time, because time has its limits. in that sense or whatever, but God sends his ministering spirits in different ways and sometimes they take on the appearance of human beings, but it is God saying to you, 'I am near and I minister to you, I strengthen you, I supply you, I I protect you, I keep you'. The Lord is near and we have to believe that, even if we don't see it all the time. The word says, 'the Lord is near...' Never doubt that. Even if you are going through whatever situation you are going through, believe, the Lord is close to you and confess it in the name of Jesus and here is the most powerful word of all. Verse 6 says '....be anxious about nothing but let your requests be made known to God in everything by prayer and supplication....' Be anxious about nothing. ... Everyone say nothing. Do you know what nothing is? Nothing, exactly. Zero. That means, brothers, look at the small things and the big things: a little headache, a trip on the exercise machine at night on the big toe, a chronic and difficult illness, a failure, a marital problem, a economic crisis, unexpected and difficult news. The word of the Lord tells you, 'Son, daughter, be anxious for nothing'. What does the word eager mean? The original Greek is the word 'merimnao' which refers to excessive anxiety and worry. It is the word that Christ also used to speak to Marta, when he said to her, 'Marta, Marta, you are busy in many things but only one is important'. How many of us are busy people? Don't raise your hand. But many of us tend to be eager. I tend to be eager and the Lord often takes charge of training us so that we learn to trust him. In other words, the Lord says, 'children, do not overload yourself with anxiety,' because instead of helping us solve problems, anxiety paralyzes us many times, weakens us and It then prevents us from having the strength and presence of mind we need to be able to deal effectively with problems. Notice the disciples, when the Master was ready to be arrested and crucified, the disciples understood that something serious was happening with their Master and that there was an imminent crisis. And you know what? These disciples were so worried that they became sleepy, weakened, and could not accompany the Master in his need. Because that's what anxiety does. Anxiety weakens, anxiety weakens your spirit, anxiety takes away your vision, anxiety prevents you from thinking correctly in times of crisis, of need. And the Lord tells you, 'be anxious for nothing, for nothing'. And by the way, in the original Greek from which we have the English translation, the word nothing is also at the beginning of the sentence, violating the rules of grammar. Because he could have said, 'do not be anxious about anything', but he says, 'be anxious about nothing'. The Lord says to you, he says to me, 'Look, don't let anything in this life fill you with anxiety, don't let anything in this life embitter your existence. Do not allow anything to keep you awake so that you are weak and sad from day to day, and that you are continually declining, and that lack of sleep prevents you, and that debilitating anxiety prevents you from carrying out the tasks of the life, express love to your family, do the things you have to do in life. Nothing in this world, brothers, deserves an anxiety condition. Some Bible commentators have wanted to say that this is a commandment, 'be anxious for nothing, and if they get anxious they are in sin and will be sentenced to 6 years in prison.' That is not the idea here. I see this as advice from the Lord, He says, 'son, don't worry about anything.' I remember my dad's words, the saying that I know is in many countries, he says 'if your illness has no cure, why are you hurrying, and if it has a cure, why are you hurrying'. Be anxious for nothing. Brothers, why? Because God has a solution for every situation. There is no situation that God cannot solve, listen to me. There is no situation in life that, if we spend it with God, does not result in something that is a blessing for our lives. We have to believe that, or we don't believe it, but that is what the word of the Lord says. The Apostle Paul in Romans says '...to those who love God all things work together for good..' I know that when one is going through crises, when you are at the heart of the crisis, that is hard for us to believe. And by the way, if you want to avoid a good slap in the face, don't say to anyone in crisis, "Brother, don't worry, all things work together for good to those who love God..." Because I think that's cruel. . I think that sometimes you have to go through, you have to go through... you have to feel the pain and let no one take you out of mourning prematurely, okay. Don't rob me, leave me alone because I want to enjoy this depression to the fullest. I want to, I'm going to smoke it to the end, as some out there say, and my pity party. I want to celebrate well, and then when I'm done I anoint myself and move on. You remember the story of King David. David had committed a terrible sin. This woman with whom he had had an adulterous situation, had become pregnant and that son was a sinful son, for that son a man had died, assassinated by King David as a result of rape, of abuse on the part of a man of God. And that son was marked. God did not want that son to be born in the light. And David, however, loved, it was a son that was going to be born, and David fasted and prayed and for days he refused to eat, he refused to bathe. He must have thought, maybe the bad smell will force God to give me this son or whatever and he'll get tired of me. But he did everything he could and while he was there in his monk's cell interceding for the life of that son, his officials came and saw him like this and said, 'imagine if he is this depressed now, what will it be, because the son had already died and they came to tell him that the boy was dead. But when they realized how he was so involved in his intercession, they said, if we say this to this man here he is going to die on us immediately. But David, who was a warrior, very aware of his surroundings, saw these men and realized that they had bad news for him. And he said, 'has the child died?' Yes, he did. So you know what David did? David got up, took a good bath, put on a little perfume from one of those men's brands, took his perfume, anointed himself well, dressed well and these men who were around him could not understand, why if When the child was alive, this man was lying there on the ground, suffering and crying out, and now his son dies, and then he gets dressed as if he were going to a party. What happened? And David said, 'My brothers, God has already given his judgment, my son has died and now he is not coming to me but I am going to go to him one day.' Do you get me? There's the aspect of eternity, you know? When one computes life in terms of eternity and spirit, one draws very different conclusions, because if David had not perhaps known that his son was where he needed to be in the Lord, and that the Lord simply reserved him for him, perhaps it would have been torn apart. But he knew that aspect that the Lord is near, that we are inhabitants of eternity, that there are other worlds and other dimensions beyond this one. And he said, I know my son has not come to me, but now someday I will go to him. And for this reason, I am calm, because when I was praying and crying out, I thought, well, maybe this will bring a solution, but there is no solution anymore. What do I do now? I just have to catch up with reality. And brethren, that's a great lesson for all of us. Look, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, as they say around there. When a situation comes into your life, you fight as much as possible to change it in the name of the Lord, but when you can't adjust, make adjustments, change things. Don't hold on to what you could have, no, you have to reset the world and move on, you understand? Because in the Lord there is always a new situation, there is always a new purpose, there is always a new configuration. We human beings, God has made us rubber, we bounce, even if we fall we can change, if we let the Holy Spirit do the work in us. But many of us when a difficult situation comes and God does not give us what we want, we throw a tantrum on the floor and cling to what was not and God wants to heal us and enter another dimension, even better, but we don't do it because we are attached to the old And God says, no, adjust. There are new things that I have for you. I didn't give you what you wanted but I have something better. Guess what? God told David, 'I'm not going to give you that son but I'm going to give you another son.' And do you know? From that encounter, David slept with his wife, now she was his wife, and from that union came a son named Solomon, the wisest man and one of the most glorious kings that has ever existed on all the earth. Because? Because when God.... God's consolation prizes are so much better than the original. That is something that I have clear in my mind. Remember that always. If God takes away something that you have loved and desired and you kiss God's hand instead of cursing it, God will bless you. God is going to give you something better, but that's the problem, we don't... that's why so many people, when they have a loss in life, often end up depressed for the rest of their lives, they never recover, never grow up. They don't come out of the loss because they didn't make it, they didn't understand that God has... God took that away from you but God can give you something much better and your call is to adjust and say amen, what do I have to give up? I have to let go of this, let go of the other, that, and now move on in the name of the Lord and God will reconfigure something better for your life. And you will have given glory to the Lord. When God always strikes, he also blesses and puts his blessing ointment if we have the strength to believe that he is good, even though his gifts come in somewhat bleak packages. The word says that after Job lost everything and stayed there worshiping the Lord, and blessing God, God in the end gave him much more than he originally had. Because it is so, brothers. God has made you stronger than you think. God has put in you eternity. God has put his Holy Spirit in you. And God is working out dramas through your life that you can't even imagine. And God is declaring things to hell and to heaven, and to angels and demons and to the world, that you may not explain yourself. You are living a drama that goes far beyond you, your preferences, your desires, your little schemes and you have to get used to the fact that God is sovereign, and that if he gives you you receive it with blessing, if he takes away , you bless him and say, 'ok, now where do I go, Lord? Here I am present, tell me what is the next stage of life that you want me to lead.' Many times pain is the most beautiful thing that God can give an individual. Pain sweetens us. Pain deepens us. Pain ennobles us, pain draws out the bitter and poisonous blood that we have within us. Pain reduces the false confidence of the male and pain shows the weak woman many times that she is stronger than she thought. Pain shows the woman that she does not need that man who thought if he left, he was going to die. No, the world didn't fall, it stays the same and she can survive. What's more, now he is happier than ever and can be everything God wants for his life. Pain is God's scalpel par excellence, it is the preferred one. Brother, God can never make a man or a woman powerful and profound if he doesn't put them through the trapiche of pain. That's how it is. If she doesn't bleed him, if she doesn't slap him a couple of times, even if it's symbolically, but she has to do it, to remind him that his blessing comes after that and that he doesn't deserve, nor she, what he gives her, because we are dust. But if you receive from the hand of God what he gives you, you can get out of any situation even the unthinkable, but you have to hold on there like a soldier and say, 'Lord, I'm going to wait. the answer and the explanation until it comes, but meanwhile I will bless you and I will declare that you are good and that your mercy is forever. '...Be anxious for nothing...' When the struggle comes into your life you can do two things, or you collapse and become bitter and deny God and lose your faith and convert into a barren monster, and the devil has his way; or you gird your loins, you tighten your belt and say, time to go into battle, time to put myself in the warrior's training regimen, time to go to my closet, where my weapons are and start taking out the ones I need to to blow the brains out of all the hells in the world, and to resolve things and do what has to be done in life. One of the most powerful that the child of God has in crises is prayer. If all your requests are not known in all prayer and I pray with thanksgiving. There is a chemical formula that we do not have time to explain. But the most important thing is that brother, when you are in crisis in your life, the first thing you should do is get into the prayer room, get into a prayer regimen. Like the soldier when he is in the fight, he has to put on his uniform, strap on all his weapons and know that now he is going to the jungle for a while. He doesn't know when they're going to return him from the jungle, but he's going to be stuck there for a while, and when he returns, he's going to come back with his medals and achievements so he can enjoy a well-deserved rest for a long time. And that is prayer. Prayer is war many times when you are in crisis, get into prayer, get into sweating the situation in prayer. Let the Lord know of your pain, let the Lord know of your need, let the Lord know of your perplexity. Let the Lord know of all the problems that need to be solved, put them one on top of the other and say, 'Father, look here is the situation. I don't know how to solve all this, but give me the way to do it and give me the strength. And you bring your cause to the Lord, you present your need to the Lord and God says, 'Son, you've done the right thing, come let's work together and I'm going to get you out of this mess, and we're both going to come out better together. never'. The word of God speaks about casting our burdens at the feet of the Lord, First Peter, 5:7 says, "... casting all your cares on him because he cares for you... ..' That same word is the same word for nothing be anxious, merimnao, “...casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you . ...” And now it became very clear to me, as I was reading that, look at what verse 6 says, it says, “...humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you when it is time....” You know what happens, brother, many times when things come to us that we did not expect, and one says, but how is this? If I serve the Lord, I love the Lord, I give to the Lord, I do this, I do that, how can this happen to me? And one is filled with anger against God and complains to God and begins to fight with him and question him. You know the only one who profits from that? The devil and the flesh. But if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and say 'Father, you gave, you took away. You are sovereign in my life, I am nothing. I have no right to ask you for anything. Everything I have is because you in your mercy give it to me, so if you take away a little of those matters, that is minimal. I deserve it all from you.' Kiss God's hand when trouble comes into your life. Kiss her as tears fall on the hand you are kissing and God will bless you for it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, humble yourself under the sovereignty of God, let God do what he wants in your life. He knows what he's doing and he knows why he's doing it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and cast your burden upon him until he says here, '...then he will exalt you in due time....' Brother, you don't know how long your crisis will last, or how long the grim consequences of the crisis will last in your life. It may be days, it may be weeks, it may be years. But you know what? That if you keep close to the Lord, he will exalt you when the time comes and your light will shine like the sun at noon because you blessed the hand of the Lord. Be patient with the Lord, wait for the Lord to show you why things are. Wait for the Lord to clean up the rubble and build a new house in your life. That may take as long as it takes, but be patient and walk with him, and the Lord one day then lifts you up and exalts you as Christ Jesus. He humbled himself, subjected himself to the Father, assumed a servant's form and says that God gave him a name that is above all names and raised him to the highest. And it says that today and always every knee will have to bow before the name of Jesus and every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because he humbled himself before the Father. When you have trials, difficulties, humble yourself, hold the meat. Your flesh will scream at you, curse God and die, as Job's wife told him, but in your spirit say, no, Father, I will bless you, I will thank you, I will adore you, I will confess that you are good and that you make sense even if nothing in me recognizes it and that will make the devil have to go with his tail between his legs to look for another or cry tears of rage because he did not get away with a son of God who knew how to bless the Father in his time of need. Brothers, we are going to bless the Lord, instead of being bitter, we are going to rejoice in the Lord, we are going to let the world see a gentle and nice Christian, a Christian who knows that his passport is stamped, his papers are arranged and he's going straight to heaven with shoes and all and he's going to be blessed and therefore he can afford to spend a few discomforts here, but the world is going to see a man, a woman who can continue, you can go forward. Let's go forward in the name of the Lord, brother, may this message bring hope to your life. No matter what you are going through, God has an answer for you, God has a company that he wants to show you. God wants to show you his faithfulness. And he wants you to enjoy this journey that is life, that instead of walking with your head down, sad, anxious, uncertain, that you enjoy the spring and enjoy your children, and enjoy your church, and enjoy the ministry , and enjoy the friendship of your companions and enjoy a good meal and enjoy yourself in the woman or man of your youth, or in friends, or relatives who love you, or in your church. Enjoy life, rejoice because the Lord is with you. The Lord is close to you, the Lord is in you. And pray to the Lord and sweat the ailments of life in prayer and pass them by the hand of the Lord and you will reach the other shore. Glory to the name of the Lord. Stand up, please stand up in the name of Jesus. Thank my Lord. Thank you Jesus, we adore you, Lord, we bless you. We received, Father, the word implanted in our spirit this afternoon. Lord, I receive it first in the name of Jesus and I bless it as it reaches the hearts of my brothers, Father. I bless this community called the Lion of Judah congregation with all its struggles and its dramas, with all its ailments and its absences, with all its sins and its imperfections, but I bless it in the name of Jesus, and I declare, Father, that you are forming a warrior people, a people that honors you, an exemplary people, and that Satan will not get away with it, but victory is ours, because we have the Lord with us. Father, let no one bring us down from this glory, but on the contrary, let this get better every day, Father, let more seasonings and more spices come to this church that enrich the flavor and smell it emits this congregation when their holocaust rises up and reaches your throne, Father, in the name of Jesus. Thank my Lord. We adore you. We bless you, Father. Receive hope from God for the road this afternoon, receive hope from the Lord. Glory to the name of Jesus.