Despise your life to death!

Revelation 12:11, verse 11 in particular is going to be the center of support for my message because that was what appealed to me the most. But we're going to read the context around it starting with verse 7, but I'm going to read verse 11 first. I'm going to read verse 11 first. Verse 11, Chapter 12 of Revelation, says the word of the Lord, "...and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and despised their lives to the point of death...."

Let's go to verse 7 now of Chapter 12, it says there: “...then there was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven, and the great dragon was thrown out, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to the earth and his angels were thrown with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now salvation has come, the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out, the one who accused them before our God day and night, and they have overcome him through the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and despised their lives to death, for which rejoice, heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea because the devil has descended upon you with great wrath, knowing that he has little time....”

The Lord bless his holy word. I don't know how long this sermon is going to be or how short it is going to be, I say that because in reality what I have is a thought and a word that the Lord put in my heart while I was thinking about what to talk about and what to share with you in this tomorrow. I could have continued relatively easily with the series of sermons that I started a long time ago regarding the great truths of the Christian faith, the last time I remember that I spoke about the deity of Jesus Christ, which is one of the great, great teachings of the faith. orthodox christian. And we said that any religion that calls itself Christian that denies that Jesus is God that He has the essence of God and that He is the second person of the Trinity is not a faithfully Christian religion, it is not historically Christian, it is outside of Christian orthodoxy, and it is a very important truth.

And in a sense that passage that I am dealing with could also be considered, if we look at it in a certain way, as part of those important truths because it tells us about the second coming of Christ, the events of the last time. And I don't usually talk about it much and I think I should, and I know that at some point God is going to motivate me more to go in that direction, but while I was asking the Lord, because I don't like to just preach by inertia and choose any passage because I've preached another sermon and I'm just going to pick this because I know it and it's the word of God. I don't like to preach generically but about something that God truly puts in my heart.

When I asked the Lord while I was praying, a biblical expression came to mind, and they despised their lives to the point of death. That was all that crossed my mind quickly. And I did a mental math there, and where is that and I remembered that it was in Apocalypse. I looked up my concordance and found the passage and here it is in Chapter 12, verse 11 it says they despised their lives to the point of death.

There are in verse 11 there are three things in fact that are what allow those 'they'. Who are these 'they'? Obviously, the children of God, the saints of God, the church of Jesus Christ, those of us who follow Jesus, that people chosen by God healed and saved through Jesus Christ, they have defeated, who have they defeated? They have defeated Satan. And how have they defeated it? Through what instruments? What are the weapons that they, the church of Christ, the saints of God, have used to defeat Satan?

I see three things here, three elements, three weapons that the children of God use to defeat Satan's attacks. The first says the blood of the lamb. The second element says, the word of their testimony, says, and the word of their testimony. And thirdly it says also, and they despised their lives to the point of death. Three spiritual weapons with which we defeat the enemy.

Now let me put this in context so I don't push the word too hard either, although the text is beautiful text, it stands on its own as well. But for the information and education of all of us, the Apostle John in his exile on the island of Padmos has a vision as those of us who have read the book of Revelation know, he has an extended vision, a vision that we do not know how long it lasted or if it was a series of visions he had during his exile. We are not sure, the book of Revelation, in fact the word Apocalypse means revelation or to lift the veil, it is like an invitation that God gives us to look behind the veil at what is hidden there for the last times.

The Apostle John simply saw how on a screen, in ecstasy, he saw a number of images, he himself I think he did not know half of what he was seeing. Many times people have dreams, they have a vision, they hear a word of revelation and they don't know what it means, God simply gives a word and then we have to look for the revelation. Sometimes God gives us a message in tongues and we ourselves may not understand it and we must ask the Lord, as the Apostle Paul says, for the power to interpret what we are hearing or experiencing, or seeing.

And John saw a number of images and himself, what he did was faithfully record what he had seen and many of those revelations that we find in the book of Revelation are, some of them are quite clear Others are very mysterious. There is a tremendous amount of symbolism used, symbolic numbers in abundance, like all the symbology of the Bible is stuffed into the book of Revelation. Sometimes we don't know if the visions are in a logical sequence of time, one after the other, or if they are just like images that are not put in the correct chronological order and then one has, the reader, the explorer of Scripture has to ask the Lord to give you wisdom on how to concatenate, and how to put the different revelations in a logical order that agrees with each other.

The book of Revelation has been a very controversial book, men and women of God with a great understanding of the word have crashed many times against the symbolic images and mysteries contained in the book of Revelation.

I believe that no wise and prudent person should make too many very safe observations about the book of Revelation. I believe that we should be very humble and suggest things and respect those who differ from us as long as it is within the biblical framework. But there are many things that we will not be able to understand about that wonderful and mysterious book.

But here we have, yes something that tells us, there is a scene here that we can definitely say is already late in human history and on God's clock. Some think that it is the time of the great tribulation when believers and followers of Jesus Christ are going to be persecuted. One of the big controversies and I don't want to get lost in the controversy, but the problem with Revelation is that if you are going to teach it wisely you have to at least say something specific, a context, and often there are differences of opinion about it.

One of the great controversies surrounding the book of Revelation is about the great tribulation. Many Christians, especially evangelical Christians who have been evangelized by North American missionaries in our countries, the Pentecostal world, believe that the great tribulation happens after the church has been taken away, which is called the rapture. That the rapture comes first, the church of Jesus Christ is raptured to heaven and then the devil is released to persecute those who remain on earth and there many realize, when the church is supposedly raptured, they realize that they are they have made a mistake by not accepting Jesus Christ and they give themselves to the Lord and these are the ones who are persecuted by the devil while the church is up there, safe from the demonic persecution that that great tribulation that the book of Revelation says will come on earth already in the last times before the coming of Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you something, and again I shouldn't even get into that controversy because I don't want to cause too much confusion for a lot of you. Through the years I personally have preached, and not only I but many scholars of the word, who love the Lord and who are very biblical in many things and who have a great understanding of the word, I personally believe that the church is going to be on the earth during the great tribulation, and that that is part of it, and that biblically in my opinion there is no way that unless one has not previously been taught about the different doctrine that the church is not going to be in the great tribulation, when you read the text from Matthew especially, to Revelation, and even in the book of Daniel and in other parts of the prophets, you discover that the church is going to go through great persecution, and it does not take me away at all I am not sleepy nor does it make me doubt the mercy and goodness of God to think that the church will be here at that time. But God is going to give grace to his church so that it can withstand whatever may happen on earth.

Now, let me also tell you something else, I am objective enough on this to tell you the following, if you feel that believing that the church is going to be raptured before the great tribulation and that for you is a very important doctrine, don't let me take away your peace this morning. Just soak that in there and pray to the Lord and read a few good books, I've spent many years studying all these subjects. And when I began to read the Scriptures in a way that God put me, for about a year, he took me in and plunged me into reading the Bible, I would get up at 5 in the morning and read, and read, and read the Bible in a few weeks, and I read it again and I discovered something, for the first time in my life I said, wow, but if I clearly read all the texts that I read here, they indicate to me that the church is going to be here in the great tribulation .

And then I started reading books on all these topics and I discovered that many great men of God throughout history have taught that the church is going to be here during the great tribulation. In fact, the biblical doctrine through the centuries of the church until the 19th century has pretty much been that the church was going to be here during the great tribulation. The doctrine that the church would be raptured before the great tribulation is relatively new in the theological history of the church.

In any case, this is important because there are many things that we cannot understand about this passage and of course, there are other explanations that are given, who are they, the ones who are being persecuted then. Those who believe that the church is going to be raptured before the great tribulation teach that these are the people who are going to be converted after, but I don't see anything in the Bible that tells me about that group of people. That is simply in my opinion, something that they have to put in there to right a little that ship that is limping at the moment, and for me, it is an invention after the fact, it is after the fact. It seems much more natural to me to read the Bible assuming that the church is going to be persecuted and that this is part of God's plan and that God is going to give special grace and that God is going to shorten those days. Because says the Lord Jesus Christ, if they were not shortened even the elect would be deceived and would be overwhelmed by great suffering.

If they are up there drinking a Martini without liquor, what good is it, why shorten the time according to Jesus Christ. There are many such passages. Now, I don't want to get lost in that, I say this more for your education, theological education, biblical education. Please don't let this take away your peace right now. The important thing is this, that we see here two mysterious characters in this passage. One of them is a woman, he says, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.

John sees this vision of that woman. For me that woman, and for many also, represents the church, the church through the centuries and biblically has been represented in a feminine form, the wife, the wedding of the lamb. Christ comes to marry his wife finally, to consummate his courtship with the church.

Another thing we see here is that it says that she is pregnant. How interesting this of the 12 stars. For me those 12 stars can be, for example, the 12 Apostles. The number 12 is a number of something complete, something perfect in many passages of Revelation, of the Scriptures. On his head is a crown. The church has been based, has been founded on the doctrine of the Apostles.

Others might say they are the 12 tribes of Israel. Others believe that it is a character representing Israel. But Israel is rarely represented in the form of a woman, and there are other things here that don't make sense, they don't fit as naturally as when one assumes that this is an image of the church, this woman clothed with the sun and with the moon. The magnitude of the church, the dignity of the church, the real character of the church, its authority, and its power.

This woman is with child and cries out with great pains in childbirth. For me, throughout history the church has been in labor, the church of Jesus Christ God has impregnated it with his word, with a call. God has impregnated us as members of the church of Jesus Christ, each one of us has the call of God within us, to give birth to something, something in particular. The church collectively, the church with a capital I of Jesus Christ, especially in these times, I believe, is about to give birth. And what is the church going to give birth to?

Well, here in this passage she specifically gives birth to a son who is evidently the person of Jesus Christ. It says here, she gave birth to a male child, verse 5, who will rule all nations with a rod of iron. That is a clear image of Jesus, so says the word, and his son was taken up for God and for his throne.

In a sense I think the calling of the church, again, it's very difficult to put this in chronological order. The church does not give birth to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ gave birth to the church. but neither did Israel bring forth Jesus Christ anymore as it puts him here glorified with authority, and everything else. I believe that the church has been called, definitively, to present to the world a glorified Christ, a Christ of power. I believe that the church has been placed here on earth to subdue the nations, so that the world knows Jesus, that the world knows the power of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, that our lives reflect the glory of Jesus Christ, his authority, something the church has never been able to do in its fullness throughout the two thousand years it has been on earth. The church still needs to manifest the truth of God in all its beauty, in all its glory. And I believe that we are, in a sense, in labor, we are wanting to produce that glorious Christ that the world has to recognize. The church is placed here on earth to point towards Jesus, so that everyone who looks towards him and who believes in him will not be lost, but will have eternal life. That is God's call for the church.

I feel like I'm in labor at this time in my life. When I look around and see all the evil that there is in this world, when I see modern man moving further and further away from God every day, when I see humanity increasingly separated from God and the church of Jesus Christ more and more irrelevant, with less authority, less influence over society, the great countries of the earth every day, the most sophisticated, more educated countries move further and further away from God. And when we look at the evil that every day grows more and more on earth, our spirit burns.

I believe that there is something, there is a great mystery that God has for the end times and the church of Jesus Christ has within itself, in its womb, something very powerful that it has to give birth to. I believe that Christ will not come until the church of Jesus has fulfilled the mission that God has determined for it. Certainly, the Bible says, that Christ comes to look for a church without spot and wrinkle, and what this church has the most today is wrinkles and spots. And this church has to complete its call, God is not going to come looking for a rickety, impure, worldly church that does not know what it is doing, nor saying many times, it would be a failure for the Gospel.

And I believe that the church is in labor, there is something that we have to give birth to. What God wants for the last times has not been fulfilled and my concept of the last times and of eschatology has become very complex. I believe that there is something that we, our prayers, our intercession have to accomplish on this earth and we individually have to work for that to happen, so that the Church of Jesus Christ can reach its full destiny, everything that God wants it to that church complies.

Now, there's another character in this movie who's the bad guy. It says here in verse 3 that another sign also appeared in heaven. See here a great scarlet dragon, red, which had 7 heads, 10 horns and on its head 7 diadems, and its tail dragged the third part of the stars of the sky. Some think that they are the angels that Satan took with him that he deceived, that they are the demons that follow him. And threw them on the ground.

As you can see, this is something very symbolic, very convulsed here. A star is billions of times bigger than the earth. All those stars can't be thrown, it's something symbolic that he's talking about here. And there is a kind of competition between those stars, that truth that the woman, the church, has in herself and these false stars that the devil also drags along and that wants to compete. The devil always wants to compete, demonic truth with spiritual truth.

But it says that that dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth in order to devour her child as soon as it was born. It is interesting because there are many symbolic things here, when Jesus was born Herod wanted to kill him right away, and he ordered the killing of all the children of a certain age because he wanted to make sure that he was killing that king who was going to be born.

Whenever the truth of God has wanted to dawn in history, whenever the church has begun to stand up and do something powerful and transform history, there has always been opposition, there has always been, the The devil has always made war against the church, against the children of God. Satan has a continuing enmity against God's people. Satan does not want the church to come into its fullness. That is why it persecutes pastors and evangelists and those of us who work in the Gospel, that is why it persecutes the church with divisions, that is why it persecutes the children of God, every time a man or a woman is seeking God, every time that a man or a woman promises great things in the Gospel, the devil throws himself against that person, against that church to try to prevent that person from giving birth to the life of God that is in them. The church has an eternal enmity against Satan.

I believe that in the spirit of Juan they were playing a number of things. In the Old Testament in Genesis it says that he was going to see enmity continually against the woman and the child that was to be born of the woman, speaking of Jesus Christ, and here is this struggle too, again the dragon, the serpent fighting with this woman. And again, all these things are symbols. That woman who gives birth, Christ is born of the woman, from that Christ is born the most powerful defeat that Satan received, the definitive defeat through the cross, the crucifixion. The whole church and all the truth of God that is born of Jesus Christ is what has defeated the devil. and the devil has enmity against that truth of God, against his Son Jesus Christ, against the church that Christ has founded. There is always enmity between those two systems.

And what we see here is that when this church is ready to give birth to that last mystery, to unleash the last product, let's say, of the entire plan of salvation, there is the dragon waiting to destroy, waiting to kill and to weaken the truth of God.

And we, brothers, have to understand this, no matter the details of this passage, there is one big thing and that is that there is enmity among the children of God, there is a being called Satan, the devil , and this is put here in a very, very clear way.

It says here, and the great dragon was thrown out, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

This is one of the clearest descriptions of Satan in all of Scripture. Satan is a real being and Satan is a sinister being and the church of Jesus Christ is at war with that being. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6, our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against heavenly hosts of wickedness in heavenly places against the rulers of darkness of this century.

We need to understand that the devil is a reality. In the 21st century it sounds almost caveman-like to talk about Satan in that clear-cut way. But one of the things that we Christians have to do is rescue the idea that Satan exists, that demons exist, that we are at war, that you are at war against Satan and Satan is at war against you and that even in the midst of of a mall with all the sophistication of the 21st century in one of these commercial squares, with all the glass and cement and all the toys that are in a mall like Galería mall here in Cambridge, in that context of the 21st century there are demonic powers that want to destroy your life and who want to prevent the truth of Christ from being born in you and through you. Satan wants to kill the powerful Jesus, the victorious Jesus, the Jesus who is to rule the nations. Satan wants to kill that. he wants to prevent you from becoming a powerful Christian on an individual level and he wants to prevent the church of Jesus Christ collectively from coming into its full manifestation and from being used by God to unleash the last events of history through his intercession, through of his life and work here on earth.

We are at war and I believe that the Christians, perhaps what God wanted to tell me when he spoke about this mysterious statement, "disregarded their lives to the point of death", and I don't want to miss it, too bad I've had to spend so much time on these things, which are totally secondary in a sense, this great tribulation thing and all this, for the main thing is that the devil wants to prevent each of us from being a powerful Christian, a Christian who thinks in supernatural terms, a man, a woman of God capable of praying and healing the sick, capable of understanding the word of God, capable of living a holy life, capable of preaching the Gospel with anointing and of teaching and discipling others , to live for God and to give to the Lord what belongs to the Lord.

God wants a powerful church and Satan wants a rickety church. God wants men and women filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and Satan wants conventional men and women, comfortable with the world coming to church but not living the Christian life to the level that the Christian life is meant to be lived. Satan doesn't care about Sunday people going to church on Sunday and singing a couple of sodden hymns there, and then going home to live unconverted for the rest of the week, he doesn't care with big organs and lots of beautiful music and a poetic sermon but that there be no dent in people's lives and that these people then go home and make no difference to how society lives their lives. Satan doesn't care if there are churches as long as the church is rickety.

Pharaoh didn't care that there were Jews in Egypt, but he didn't want them to go to worship the true God. He said that they worship him from here, that they don't leave here, when he couldn't negotiate any more with Moisés, he said, well, that they don't go too far, that they stay here. Because what the devil does not want is for the people of God to come out of Egypt and enter into its greatness and fullness, that the church of Jesus Christ enter in all its power. When the church of Jesus Christ stands up and learns to live a supernatural and powerful life, brothers, the kingdom of hell will shake.

Let me tell you something, the problem with this time is not the world, the problem at this time is not the president chosen in this nation, that is important, the problem is the church. If the church gets its act together in a moment all this crap ends, you know. If the church of Jesus Christ lives as God wants it to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, brothers, the devil has no power over the church. the Lord Jesus Christ said that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church, listen to me well.

And it's interesting in this passage here at the end of the passage in verse 11 it says, and they have overcome him. Go? And in verse 7 it says, then there was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven.

Satan is defeated, brothers, Satan is doomed to defeat. There is no way that Satan will win this battle. This fight against evil in human history is simply a drama that God allows me to know about for his own purposes and when he feels like it, he will put an end to that drama. And we know who wins. And the church will never be defeated. The church has the power, the church has the authority. Christ said, all power is given to me in heaven and on earth therefore go and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.

He has given authority to the church. I believe that when Christ said go and make disciples, he was saying that this is the capacity that we have. We can disciple nations, governments, institutions, states, they must lower their heads before the tutelage of the spiritual nurse that is the church of Jesus Christ.

That powerful church that has to give birth to the Christ who is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron does not yet exist, nor has it ever existed. It has to exist and the devil opposes it, the devil and his demons oppose it every day. I think it's one of the things that clearly comes to mind now as I'm preaching and perhaps prophesying. You are at war, I am at war so that what God has declared about our lives does not come to light, does not emerge.

I look at many of you and I see people with great potential. God wants to do great things through you, but let me tell you with all pastoral humility that many of you do not understand the call you have in your lives and the devil has taken it upon himself to keep us asleep in a languid and pleasant sleep where we come to church We discuss certain things, we make certain gestures, we teach classes, we study classes, we even give our tithe, but we have not entered into the total spiritual greatness to which God wants to lead us.

God hates the lukewarm Christian. God hates spiritual mediocrity. In the same book of Revelation it says that God will spit out the lukewarm from his mouth because they are neither hot nor cold. God does not want a mediocre church, God wants a church filled with the Holy Spirit, God wants a church capable of revealing to the world the risen Christ, the Christ of power and Satan every day, do you know the problem? That Satan's war against the church is a subtle war, it is a daily war, it is a war that is waged through small events many times, a discussion there, a television program that you should not watch, a reading that you shouldn't have done, a murmur that you made against someone, a word that came out of your mouth that should not have come out, a thought that you cherished longer than you should have, a decision not to do something for God, an omission, something that you had what to say or do that you did not do, and through those subtle things, through upsets and through wounds that the devil puts in your life, through financial failures and things that happen in your life, the devil is killing little by little little enthusiasm for God, it is putting doubts in your heart about God's faithfulness, it is whispering in your ear: you see, you made an effort and not much came out of all that, so forget about fasting, forget about looking for God, after all, there's no need to be So fanatic, if God loves you anyway.

And then we are living mediocre, well-to-do lives and little by little that subtle war wears out the teeth in the church's saw. And it is creating wealthy people, people who do not understand that the Christian life has to be lived red hot, on the edge of the sword, that the Christian life is not a little hat that you put on Sunday and take it off when you go out in the evening. door of the church to the world. It's a 24 hour a day thing. And when the church of Jesus Christ is filled with such men and women, then the church will be able to give birth to the life of the Son of God. That church will then trigger the clock that has stopped to a certain point and that has to start working for the second coming of Jesus Christ to come and be fulfilled. Christ will not come until the church has completed what it has to complete here on earth, until the church has interceded, prayed, bled, lived up to the Gospel and their prayers have reached the throne of God and completed the amount that God has in his divine mind and then that triggers the coming of the Son of God. But the current church, you and I, how we live are not part of that powerful church that God wants. I say this with God's love, not to make you feel bad but to encourage you to seek more of God.

Now, let me go, because there is a lot in this passage, as I told you I did not know if the message was going to be short or long because I did not know what God had, he only had this that is there, “ despising his life to death."

Let me go to the end now, I'm going to land now. Verse 11, “..and they have overcome him through the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and the contempt of their lives unto death...”

What are the characteristics of that powerful church? That the Son of God is going to give birth in all his authority with that iron rod that is going to rule the nations. What is going to trigger Christ's assumption of authority in history and his entry into authority where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, what is going to come to that moment, what What kind of life does the church have to live, what kind of attitude, what kind of practices, against that demon, that powerful serpent that also drags its own stars and also moves in the cosmos with all its power and that also fights, its habitation it is in heaven. Do you know that Satan has access? Don't tell me how and why, or why God allows that, but Satan lives in heaven and has access.

Look at what it says there in that verse 7, "...after there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon..."

Michael He is one of the great archangels, he is one of the great warriors of God. Michael is perhaps the only angel of God powerful enough to fight directly against Satan. There is a controversy between Michael, that angelic general, and the demonic angels.

“... and they fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven anymore..”

That is, there were place for them, a rare place, don't tell me where, where in the sky but there is a place. Job, in the book of Job, Satan appears before God to accuse Job, that is the function of Satan and he has access to the throne of God.

Now, look at the inhabitants of heaven, it says in verse 12, they rejoice when Satan is cast out of heaven, “...rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them, but there is a problem is that Satan is cast out of heaven and now enters directly to the earth and is no longer exerting his influence from the air, as Ephesians 6 says, against the rulers of darkness, hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places where Satan dwells, where he moves Satan. No, now he is cast directly onto the earth and given authority for a time to exert direct influence and move directly over the inhabitants.

That is why in the last times the devil and God will take off their gloves and go bare-knuckle even though God has no controversy with the devil. the devil can never hold his own against God for a millisecond. But God will manifest himself with more power and the devil also with more power in the last times and there will be a great corruption that will take over all humanity, with great power.

But what will allow the church to resist that great onslaught, that last assault of Satan against her, is the following, they will defeat him through the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and the contempt of their lives to death.

Brothers, I tell you something, you and I do not have to wait, perhaps Christ is going to come before many of us die, before this current generation dies, but if not, let me tell you something, you You don't have to wait until that time to live this kind of life, so that you can become what God wants you to be. In order for you to become the man, the woman that God wants you to be, you have to demonstrate these three characteristics. The first thing says here, the blood of the lamb. You know, my brother, my sister, that the most powerful weapon that we have as children of God is the blood of Christ.

I have had encounters with the demonic many times throughout my life, demon-possessed people, as a pastor I have had to confront. And let me tell you something, I have confirmed something, the demons hate the blood of Jesus and they are afraid of it, they are horrified by the blood of Jesus. You utter the blood of Jesus against a demon and it is as if you poured hot water on his face. The blood of Christ has power. The blood of Christ is the very life of the Son of God that was shed. When that blood was shed, when a drop of that blood was taken from the body of the Son of God, that was what dethroned the devil. That was the legal, judicial blow that God delivered to all of Satan's illegitimate claims against God's people.

The blood of Christ is mysterious, it is mysterious, that is why the mind of the Christian has to be a supernatural mind as I have said so many times, because to understand that blood, that is something medieval, it's something primitive, but our fight is a spiritual fight, we inhabit an eminently spiritual and symbolic universe and you always embrace, and hold on to that blood shed by Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary, that is what has given you the right to enter the throne of God, that blood of Christ is what you have to use when the devil wants to hurt your life, you have to cry out for the blood of Jesus, you have to always remember that the cross that Christ climbed to her to die for her sins, that is the most powerful weapon you have in your fight against evil.

We have to learn to use the blood of Jesus, to accept the blood of Jesus. When the devil comes to accuse us of our sins and our faults, we have to say, the blood of Christ has set me free. And we must throw the blood of Christ to the demons when they come to attack our lives.

I oppose the blood of Jesus many times to the devil's attacks against my life, against my family, against my health, or my economy, may the blood of Christ be against you. You have to use the blood of Jesus. But the blood of the lamb, brothers, is the most powerful weapon we have. We have to acquire reverence and attachment to that powerful weapon that is the blood of Jesus Christ, what Christ has done, the sacrifice on the cross, and we have to know that this is the foundation of our life, it is not the theological truths that we preach. It is not our good works, it is not this church that God has given us, it is not anything we can do or say, but the blood of Christ is the foundation of the church. And the moment we mix that with other things that make us noble and accepted before God, and we take our eyes off the cross of Calvary, the blood that Christ shed, we have lost the battle.

We have to be very primitive people in that sense and be attached to the mystery of the cross. That is why there is no other name given to men through which we can be saved, but Christ Jesus, it is his blood shed on the cross of Calvary. Very important. We have to be people of the cross, people of the blood of Jesus, supernatural people.

The second weapon that we have to use is, he says, their testimony, their word. Here are two implications for me, number one, we have to witness to what Christ has done in our lives. We have to be people aware of what God has done. God has saved us, God has brought us out of darkness through Christ Jesus we have become men and women accepted before God. And I believe that here there is also an implication of suffering, their testimony, there is also an idea here that we have to be visible people so that the world sees us living the Christian life in all dimensions. If they see us suffer, that they see us suffer as Christians, if they see us celebrate, that they see us celebrate as Christians, that we live our lives publicly, that we bear witness to Christ, to what God has done in our lives.

One of the great powers that the church has is to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, each one of us has to be a witness of Jesus Christ, brothers, in the factory, in our neighborhood, wherever we go we have to bear witness to what Christ has done in our lives. A church that does not testify, a church that does not invite others to know Jesus Christ is a church that is not going to live as it has to live.

You are not a secret agent of the Kingdom of God, you are a public agent of the Kingdom of God, you have to be a Christian so that the whole world knows that you are a Christian, and you have to testify to another what Christ has done in your life. You have to be a person that when God does something good in your life you testify it to others, and that when you are suffering from a situation you find some way to give testimony to the world that you believe that God is powerful to get you out of your sufferings. The church of Jesus Christ has to be an active church that bears witness to what God has done. And you are an evangelist who has been called to live the Christian life publicly, militantly, evangelistically. You have to do everything in your power to make sure that others come to know Jesus Christ. This is very important.

And the third element here, which was what to me, that was the word that came to mind when I told him, Lord, what do you want me to talk about this morning, they belittled their lives to death.

For me that is the point of this whole sermon. A powerful church requires men and women who have died to the world and who live their lives as living sacrifices before God. You know what? In the church there is a lot of living flesh, there is a lot of flesh that has not been crucified, there are many feelings, aspirations, desires that are still alive and kicking.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, whoever loses his life for my sake will win it. He who tries to win his life will lose it. And you know what? The churches are full of people who want an evangelical life, of course they do, because religion is beautiful, religion brings order to life, religion allows you to dress well on Sunday and come to church. Maybe you don't have another day to wear a good suit, but you can come to church and wear it on Sunday. Religion adorns and orders. Religion is good and many people want religion simply to decorate their lives, to put a nice ending to their lives, but don't touch their profession, their sleeping time, their privacy, their family, their money, their work, their decisions. personal, his personal freedom. Don't touch that to them, because they are not willing to give it to God.

They are very comfortable being evangelicals but not being Christians at heart. They have not lost their life. You see? They have the luxury of choosing what they want and living the way they want and we all have a little bit of that inside of us. There are many things between us that have not died yet. I struggle many times as a pastor and so does my wife, many times we say to each other, why kill oneself so much, I am not telling you this to make me feel sorry, I share with you a drama of my life, there are many things that I would like to do in my life, there are many trips that I would like to take, and many possessions that I would like to have, and a lot of time that I would like to sleep and rest and watch a television program, or whatever. But continually I feel in my life, I say, God has done so much in my life that the only thing I can make sure is that these years of my life that I have here, I give them to the Lord and that I live for him and that my life is worth to the Lord. And I know my reward will come elsewhere.

And yet, I can tell you that I am a happy person and that I enjoy life so much and everything that God has given me. I think I can say that I am a happy person. It's not like I live sacrificed, many times we do anything for the Lord and we already believe that we have done the great thing, do you understand? And we are always protecting our lives and I have learned, brothers, that until one bleeds for God, there is no greatness, there is no blessing. Many times brothers, when one more gives things to God is when God makes more efforts to give them back to you.

When you enjoy life the most is when you have given the most to the Lord. When I'm there taking care of my time and my sleep and my little things, I discover that this is not the call that God has given me, that my security and my power lie in living with a warrior with a sword in hand. That is where I find my fulfillment as a human being, and it is where I find my joy, my vitality, my power, my happiness, God's provision for my family, for my church. The more I give to the Lord, the more God gives me, the more God enriches me and that is what you can experience in your life. Die to the desire to fulfill your life, die to the desire to be happy and then you will find happiness, death to the desire to keep things for yourself and give away and give and distribute and you will have more than you need. Give to the Lord, serve the Lord, die to this world and walk this life as a living dead so that Christ Jesus and you will be happy and you will leave a spiritual legacy for many, many more who will follow after you.

Despise your life to death. A church that loves your life is not the church that is going to give birth to the risen Christ, the powerful Christ who is going to rule the nations. The church was born under the sign of martyrdom and that was it, martyrdom was what brought down the power of Rome and threw Rome at its feet. The church in the first centuries was martyred, persecuted.

I often say, gosh, what am I complaining about. God has given me so many things, driving a comfortable car, all the things I want with all the clothes one needs, good food, a comfortable home, a blessed church, so many other things, how am I going to complain if God has been so merciful. There are so many people who have had to give so many things, there are missionaries who have had to go to Africa, to the Amazon, to Russia, to die there, to take their children who die of plague and other things, and they have been used so that his blood fertilized the earth and thousands of people could know Christ. What does one complain about if God has given so much for us and has blessed us in so many ways. I have not bled not even a thousandth part of what I could bleed for my God. and God is looking for a church that despises his life to death. Men and women, that this world no longer has anything to offer you, you know? That they live everything for God and say, I am going to leave everything I have here on earth so that God may be glorified, I am going to live my life for God, I am going to put aside my desires for glory, for fame , of wealth, of comfort and that God uses me as he wants, for his glory and his honor.

And I clarify, that does not mean that one does not have prudence, understand me well, and one lives a life of order and attends to the things that have to be attended to, but you and I are called, brothers, this church , Lion of Judah, as a shepherd I need men and women who despise their life until death. The destiny that God has for this church cannot be fulfilled unless it is as a militant people made up of warrior men and women, filled with the Holy Spirit, testifying of Christ, with an understanding of the power that is in the blood of Jesus, that Wherever you are told to go, go there in the name of Christ and for the glory of God.

If we are going to build that new sanctuary, brothers, we will not be able to do it unless there is a people that is willing to give to the Lord so that this sanctuary is completed, so that lives, thousands of lives that I know are going to come can come to that sanctuary to the Lord, as Christ wants him to be worshipped. It's not going to be because of people, I know what happens, when one talks about these things right away, many of us, not all of us, get stuck inside, and the devil begins to whisper thoughts in people's minds. This one is coming to ask, this one is coming to do... that is from the devil, rebuke him in the name of Jesus. It is a people that says, everything I have, everything I am, everything I live is for the Kingdom of God and what my God needs I give it to him, if he needs my health, I give him my health, if you need my body, I give you my body, if you need my money, my money; if you need my family, I give you my family; If he needs anything, it belongs to my God, I'm going to live for him, I'm going to despise my life until death. That is what defeats the devil, that is what the accusation of the enemy silences, a church, a man, a woman who has lost his life, the devil does not know what to do with him, what is he going to take from him if he is already dead .

I believe that when we enter the Gospel we have to sign a blank letter and say to the Lord, here it is, write what you want on that piece of paper. Give me what you want to give me, don't give me what you don't want to give me and take away what you want to take from me and I will kiss your hand and give you blessings for everything you want to do in my life.

That chorus that says, bless the Lord wherever, be it in affliction, be it in prosperity, be it wherever, bless the name of the Lord. Live for the Lord. Brothers, the church that is going to give... that is God's message for us this morning, the church that is going to give birth to the victorious Christ who will rule the nations with a rod of iron is a church that will have opposition from part of the devil, he will be at war against Satan and the only thing that will allow him to overcome the angry enmity of the devil is going to be the blood of Jesus, which is the only thing that stops Satan, the militant testimony of that church that says they are not going to shutting up, they will not prevent me from announcing the truth of God, and having put his life on the altar and saying, I want to be a living sacrifice for God, I already died and what God wants to die on this earth is I will give it, that the trail of my life, be a trail of blood, wherever I go leaving drops of blood because I am bleeding for God.

That is the man, the woman that God wants. Rebuke the spirit of conformity, rebuke the spirit of mediocrity. You are not a Christian if you are not red hot for God, let me tell you that. Perhaps I would say that differently if I had thought about it a little more, but I believe that, brothers, God hates men, lukewarm women. He says that the double-minded man should not expect that he will get anything from the Lord. God has controversy against lukewarm, mediocre people. The respectable Christian, type Simon the Pharisee, Christ in his house but treating him from afar. the only man, the only woman who honors God is the woman who lives red hot for God and who takes her faith as the most serious thing in the world.

You are the only ones who will survive Satan's terrorist attack in the end times, and I hope you take this message as God's prophetic word into your lives. Receive it in the name of Jesus and commit yourself right now, commit yourself again to the Lord to live a life of total surrender to the Lord.

Stand up right now and tell the Lord I give you everything, everything I have and everything I am, I place it at your feet, Lord. Reconsecrate your life to God, or consecrate it for the first time perhaps and renounce Christianity part time, renounce Christianity part time, listen to me. And surrender your life to Christ, or all or nothing.

If you are not willing to give your life completely to Jesus, look, brother, I tell you with all my love and with all my heart, stay home next Sunday or see another church. There are so many other churches. I say it with love before God and I will not regret saying it. Surrender your life to the Lord, live Christianity as it has to be lived completely, totally, this is just one of many passages in Scripture that clearly state that the Christian life has to be lived red hot, that the Christian life is not a thing, a religion that you put on like a dress, it is your very heart, it is the very fiber of your being, it is your nervous system, it is the very essence of what you are, that is the word of God penetrating every cell of your being, every fiber of your being, is the color of your skin, the color of your eyes, is the sense of your heart, is what your soul feels, is your will, is your emotions, is your feet , your hands, your mouth, that is Christianity, it is a totality, it is belittling your life until death, that is the man, the woman who is going to be dangerous to the devil, that is the man, the woman against whom the devil has no power. That is the man, the woman who can show the world a Christ full of power and glory.

I ask the Lord to help me to be that, I am far from it, Father, but I know that this is what you are calling me to, this is what God is calling this church. in the name of Jesus make a commitment now in your heart and say, Lord, I repent of being a half Christian, help me to be a radical and deep Christian and I commit to live like this, and I give my life to you today. I give my life to you today, tell the Lord, I give my life today, I place it at your feet, and what I live on this earth I will live for you, what years I have left I will make sure that I give it to you, that nothing I have, I can say this is mine. No, everything will be yours and if you allow me to use it and have it for a little while, I will enjoy it but knowing that you have the title, you are the owner. I simply use it because you allow me to use it and give the Lord everything. Give the Lord everything right now.

In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. If there is someone here who wants to give their life to Jesus Christ, they have not done it before and feel they need to give their life to Jesus Christ, invite Christ into their heart, I also invite you, raise your hand and we will pray for you this morning. . If there is someone who wants to give their life to Christ for the first time or if they want to come forward here, I invite you to do so too. I want to bless you in the name of the Lord, but above all make sure you don't leave here without saying, I'm going to be a radical Christian, a committed Christian, a Christian, come rain, shine or shine, shine, rain, whatever be I will live for him. And I will be an instrument for him, in the name of the Lord. That is our commitment, brothers, in the name of Jesus.

Raise your hand there and say so to the Lord. Raise your hand with me. If you are willing to enter into that commitment. Promise the Lord that you will seek him out and follow him that way. Thank you Lord, we adore you.

Lord, we yield our lives to you. We honor you, we glorify you.

Lord, we give our lives to you, we commit ourselves to you. We declare that nothing is ours, everything is yours. We will follow you, we will serve you, we will love you above all things and we will live seeking your face and wanting to do your will, striving in everything for you Lord, and for your glory.

Thank you Lord. We surrender to you, we surrender to you again, Father. Lord, I give you this church, make of it what you want, make of it what you want. Use it for your glory. Father, enter this church in the greatness in which you have called it, enter these men and women, Lord, to the level where you want to take them, Father, cut all the superficial fabric that prevents us from seeing you purely, Lord, and clear our eyes. We surrender to you, Father, we surrender to you, Lord, by this word that has been proclaimed, Father, I ask that you receive our request, that you enter this church on a new level of life, Father, and surrender to you.

Thank you, Lord. We adore you, we bless you, receive our request, Father. We offer ourselves before you, Lord, we surrender ourselves before you, we prostrate ourselves before you, Jehovah. Receive this church, Lord, receive my life, Father. Receive this congregation, receive this town, Father. Crucify them, Lord. Release your work on him, Father, in the name of Jesus, I release your work on this town, in the name of Christ, Father, I release the work of the Holy Spirit on this town, cutting and filing and testing in the name of Jesus whatever needs to be dealt with until this town becomes what God wants them to be, I include myself in that prayer, in Jesus name. Thank my Lord. We bless you, thank you, God. Thank my Lord.