transformed lives

As we were getting ready to do these graduation details and the different things that one has to do, I would think: 'Lord, wow! What is the center of all this? What is the ultimate goal of all these things? And of course, it is well in line with what I mentioned a few minutes ago and it is the mere fact that there are lives transformed, lives transformed by the power of God.

Lives transformed by the power of His Word working in our midst and they are lives that are not only transformed by knowledge but behind that knowledge there is -as I would say- a greater essence that injects the life of each one of these people.

And as I say these things, I would like to invite you to open your Bibles to First Corinthians, 13. There are some verses that I want to refer to here, meditating on this whole aspect of which we have been celebrating in this tomorrow.

And if we can start in verse number 8 -First Corinthians 13, verse 8- I would like to meditate on some things of the Apostle Paul that are very inspiring to me when I think about this aspect of the process of education and learning of the body of Christ, of each one of you, each one of us.

Verse 8 says: "Love never ceases to be, but prophecies will come to an end, tongues will cease, and science will end. Because in part we know and in part we prophesy more when the perfect comes..." -this is Christ himself Jesus- "... then what is in part will end. When I was a child I spoke as a child, I thought as a child and I judged as a child; but when I became a man I left what was as a child. Now we see through a mirror, darkly; but then shall we see face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know as I was known."

Let's leave it there.

Why do I refer to this text when celebrating this process of discipleship here in the León de Judá Congregation? And I think that one of the things that made me gravitate to that text the most was the mere fact that even when we invest time, effort, energy in being able to learn, in being able to know, our knowledge will always be limited. It will always have some limit that will not allow us to know the totality of things. In a certain respect, our human capacity is always limited to one level or another. Now, but as Paul says, that knowledge is going to become complete, it is going to become complete, once Christ returns and we can then see face to face the origin of that total knowledge.

We understand that it is in Christ Jesus where all this base of knowledge, teaching, learning is founded. Because? because everything originates in Him and everything ends in Him. Therefore, when I mention these things, my brothers, every effort that we make to be able to learn, every day that we set aside a moment to read even one verse, two verses, each day that we take apart from coming to a cell or coming to one of the discipleship classes or coming and exposing ourselves to the preaching here in this context on a Sunday; each of these opportunities is an opportunity to learn, to learn even more.

Now, but knowledge itself as such, knowledge itself in its basic form is something null. What good is it that I have a lot of knowledge and am not doing anything about it with that knowledge? What good is it that I know everything about adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, calculations, physics; that I know everything about numbers but I don't know how to apply that knowledge to the daily dealings with the people around me?

What good is it that I spend time learning about the laws or commandments that the Lord Jesus teaches us through His Word, but I don't take the time or the energy or the intention to live it or practice and apply it? The transformation, my brothers, does not occur only in me sitting in front of a teacher or a teacher and learning everything that person has to give me. The true transformation occurs when I once have all that knowledge, that I have it there cemented in my mind and I process it, chew it and digest it, when I then find myself in life situations that in some way or another that knowledge be forced to put into practice. That is when true life transformation takes place.

The reason why I start reading verse number 8 is something very key: "Love never ceases to be." There is something that I tell the class of level four every time we start; It is something that I say as a foundation for that class, because in that class, we obviously discussed everything that has to do with the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how these are seen in practice in our service, in our work. And something that I fundamentally talk about is that none of this works if it is not based on love.

It is not for nothing that the Apostle Paul begins verse 13 saying: "If I speak human and angelic tongues but I do not have love, I am like metal that makes noise and nothing else."

If I knew how to prophesy, if I knew how to see you right now and God gives me a supernatural revelation and I start saying to each one of you Wow! Look, each one of you is in sin. Go, repent, say 50 Hail Marys, walk 5 miles on your knees or something like that; but if I say all those things and many people are amazed. 'Wow! What a great and powerful prophet in our midst!'

But if everything I say is not covered by love... I am a null prophet. If I had all the Faith to do healings, if I had all the Faith to pray and that an immigration case would be "cleared", as if to say, in a matter of a week, if I had all the Faith to pray for that son rebellious who is giving his mother and father headaches and the rebellious son returns; if I had all the faith to pray so that three thousand dollars appear in your bank account or suddenly out of nowhere and you had it at zero; if I had all the Faith to do that... but if I do it without love... it's useless.

If I had all the goods on Earth, if my pockets were full of hundred-dollar bills and I start to line up right now; come one hundred bills for the whole world; If I distribute all my assets, I know that many would say "Yeah, throw them here, boy" and maybe some of them out there on the Internet would be saying it too. But if I start throwing all those hundred-dollar bills here at 'tutti li mundi', in addition to creating chaos, if I don't do it with love... those hundred-dollar bills won't last any of you .

Brethren, love becomes the essence of all things. It is a love that is founded on the person, on the very essence of God and then when we seek to connect - just in case they are imagining 'Omar, why are you going with this idea of knowledge and love?', brothers our seeking to know God is based on a love relationship.

What good is it - think about it - that I know this book from cover to cover, if there is no love in me? What good is it that I seek to know what is in the heart of God just for the mere fact of knowing it? What is the use of asking God about all the mysteries of life, if I am not going to have the love to know how to deal with it, to know how to share it with others, not just to give them a 7-point workshop and say 'These are the mysteries of the heart of God, here they go, do with them as you want? No, if there is no love in it, my brothers, I doubt that God is going to reveal that knowledge.

you know? God knows, God knows, God KNOWS... repeat after me, God knows why He allows us to learn and know in stages, why He allows us to know in levels.

The same Paul when he was speaking saying that... in Second Corinthians he was speaking about all the revelations that God had allowed him to have. There is a care that must be taken. In other words, the mere fact that we know does not mean that we are going to be exempt from not sinning in one way or another. And one of the greatest dangers when you think you know a lot is the danger of vainglory. From then on I think I'm a know-it-all and if I come across someone next to me who perhaps doesn't know as much as I do, then I start to look at the person over my shoulder: "You don't know what you're talking about." And who knows if Paul at some point suffered from this because he himself was saying "so that the revelation that God had given me would not overwhelm me in such a way" -I'm talking about Second Corinthians 12- what was it? What did God command him? A thorn in the flesh. He sent him that sting, as they say, to keep him humble, to keep him humbled that this revelation did not depend solely on him, but that this revelation depended on the power of God and God's plans to want to use him to make known those mysteries to others.

And that is why, that I understand, my brothers, that even for us in the knowledge that we may have; the knowledge that we can acquire must be done with a humble receptivity; with a humble heart, knowing that if those mysteries that God makes known to us come from God's heart, that is a very great treasure. That is a treasure that is not like who says, to hide it under the pillow, but it is a treasure to make it known. And make it known wisely. More in the time in which we are living, my brothers. If we think of opportunities like the ones that this group had that went there to Ecuador or perhaps the brothers from Lazos de Amor who are preparing to go there to Santo Domingo, or perhaps in the cell in which you meet, or maybe in his service as an usher, or maybe in his service with children in Agua-Naf or maybe in his service as simply decorating the altar with some plants or something.

Whatever we do, we are imparting something of God through what we do. We impart something from God and we have to do it with a conscious mind, with an intentional mind, with a clear mind, that all of this is based on God's love for each one of us. God wants, my brothers, God wants us to know Him as He knows us.

Can you imagine this? If I were to ask you how many of you know each other well? Let me see your hands, how many of you know each other well? In other words, you can say "I know who Omar Soto is one hundred percent." It's true, I'm lying, I don't know myself well, I raised my hand and I don't know myself well.

It is impossible, my brothers, there are times when we can say that I know myself well and suddenly I find myself in a situation where I behave in a way like "Come here, where did that come from? I thought I knew myself well. I thought that everything was fine with me, but nevertheless that came out like, poof! Where did that come from?"

The Bible says: "The heart is deceitful, more than anything else. Who can know it? Only God." God is the one with the latest model of MRIs that has ever existed. He's the only one who can see us like that completely and knows that in detail, he knows... and God's MRIs aren't black and white, okay? The MRIs are live and full color, high definition, 10 ad, LP whatever you want to put on it. So are the MRIs of God. And you know what? That can scare you. But the beauty of this is that God wants us to know him as he knows us and this is based on a love relationship. He wants that with the same detail that He, with each one of the hairs that He knows on Oscar's head, God wants Oscar to know God, God wants Oscar to know all the hairs that are on God's head, yes there is some, because the truth is that I do not know if it has them. But I imagine so.

This is how God wants Oscar to know Him and the rest of each one of us. And this my brothers, I believe that God has given us the privilege of being a people that is well educated. And a well-educated people, my brothers, no one can take that people for what they are not. In other words, no one is taken for fools. Today we live around a lot of people who are looking around trying to deceive people into 'if they believe this, if they believe this, if they believe that or the other' or as I said in a recent preaching 'you can make your own truth, do not believe in the truth that the Bible says'. Look, a well-educated people can get rid of many headaches.

There is a proverb that says: "My people perish for lack of knowledge." We cannot afford, my brothers, not to know the intentions that God has for us, for his chosen people, for a special people.

The knowledge that we can acquire from the Word of God, look, can function as a filter to be able to leave out all that residue of sin that many can cloud our understanding and that can cause such a sense of stubbornness, so to speak. Stubbornness, in the sense of one insisting on doing what one wants, knowing what is wrong, but one returns and falls into the mire. Or keep wallowing in the mud.

A people well educated in the Word of God, a people who do not - look how I am making a difference - a people who not only know but apply and live what they know, that is the people who knows how to live in the abundance of God .

That is a people who have learned to know what it means to live in a love relationship with God. Because that love relationship, my brothers, is not just one-sided like someone who says "Ah! God, I know that You love me so I live in peace and calm because I know that You love me." But how about me? Do I love God too? If God based on his love, if God based on that love that he gives to you that he gives to me, if God based on that love makes you know things that are in his heart for you, because He wants the best for you you, He wants the best for your life, He wants the best for your family and if He reveals these mysteries it is because He knows and desires and hopes that there may also be some kind of feedback from us, that there may be a kind of response from us.

It's not necessarily that "Ah! Well, God, I know how You treat me, I know how You love me, well, Okay, I'm still out there birding anyway or I'm still living life as I want." No, if God makes those mysteries known, my brothers, it is for us to have a greater sense of commitment to God.

A greater sense of commitment than I can know 'Wow! God, there are so many things that You have for my life, why should I not respond to that treatment of love that You have with me?' 'Why shouldn't I give up and dedicate my life to what You also have for me? And from me being able to seek to be reciprocated with you to that love.

Look, my brothers, when we enter into this dynamic, I believe that the level of transformation is much greater. That is God's purpose: that our lives be transformed. May our lives be transformed. Imagine how your life will be transformed. If you have already experienced transformation to this day, think that God is not satisfied with what you have experienced yet, but that you can have even more. And if it has even more, what then should I do to be able to continue experiencing that abundance that comes from God so that my life is transformed to the level that God wants and that God desires? Here knowledge is very important because it's not necessarily me having to say 'Wow! Well, yes Lord, I, well, okay, I already know these things, we are going to leave it there. I already learned what I needed.

No, that knowledge goes further. It is like someone who says there is an expression in English that says: "Faith seeking understanding", that is the title of a book.

What he says is "Faith in search of understanding." That is a constant search, our faith, that sense of knowing more and more and more of God has to be in constant growth. The moment I feel that I am stuck, that nothing is happening, I have to say "there is something that is happening here". Either God is on stand-by or I am on stand-by but something is happening here.

And there must be, my brothers, that sense of intentionality, of strength, of dedication to be able to move forward, knowing even more and remember that I am not saying that I know for the mere fact of knowing. I am saying to know in the sense that your life is even more abundant, much fuller. An even richer life so that you can share your life with those around you

That is the purpose that God has with a people that is well educated, with a people that has the knowledge as who says "in check", in a good place. So I want to encourage you my brothers, as the Apostle Paul says in this text. By now I partly recognize that our knowledge is always going to be limited in some way or another. As long as we are here on this earth we will never get to know how God truly knows us. We will only achieve that when the time comes when Christ reveals himself and comes to take away his Church once more. For that we have to be ready, we have to be prepared.

But meanwhile, my brothers, that knowledge that God gives us, that knowledge that God allows us to have is based on a relationship of love. It is based on a relationship of a sense that God loves you, that God wants the best for you, that God wants the best for your life and therefore He wants you to be able to spread that love to other people who are around you. your surroundings. Be it your spouse, be it your children, be it your neighbor, be it whoever the Lord longs for and wants us to be a reflection of that love that God gives us.

And how do we transmit that love, my brothers? when we have that knowledge in place, it comes out of our pores, so to speak. It is so impregnated in the middle of our hearts that everything we know about God, we seek to make it known to others.

So I encourage you my brothers. I want us to be able to meditate on this. When you hear that the church is launching again to recruit people for discipleship to sign up for level one to level four boarding schools or the Crown class, or the Parent class, whatever it is, my brethren, don't go to thinking like "there it comes again, again the routine of getting into discipleship, of that or if the other". No, no, no, see it as an opportunity that God gives you so that you can reach a higher level. So that you can be prepared and equipped in a way where you can feel much more useful with the people around you, so that you in some way or another can experience a sense of internal transformation of your heart, of your mind , of your thoughts and so you become the type of man, the type of woman that God has intended for you. That you are not a fly on a wall, but that you are a column, a person chosen by God, you are a special people, you are a people that makes a difference and makes a difference. So therefore, my brothers, let us not stop, let us not stop being that people that is educated in the word of the Lord; who maintains a sober sense of humility but at the same time seeks to grow in that knowledge because there is a God who loves us.

Because there is a God who wants to reveal the secrets of your heart to you and therefore we must also love God in order to experience the abundance of all those things that God has for his people.

So I encourage you my brothers. Let's stand up, let's pray. Thank my Lord.

And Lord Jesus, right now, I humbly Lord, I ask that Your Holy Spirit, Lord, bring a sense of conviction upon each one of my brothers and sisters, God. Bring a sense of conviction Father that there is a love emanating from Your heart Lord Jesus.

There is a love that You want to pour out on each one of us and that together with that love, Lord, comes a level of learning. You want us to be able to learn from You, Lord, that we can learn from Your heart the secrets that You have kept, Lord Jesus in Your heart.

And Lord I think of the word that You spoke to the disciples as You prepared them before the time You were arrested.

At one point, Lord Jesus, You told Your disciples that You still had many things to make known to them, but that it was not yet the time because they still could not bear them.

Lord in some way or other those words echo right now in my heart. Perhaps there are many people here listening to this message, who have been asking you to know something more for a long time.

For a long time they have been scrutinizing the mysteries of Your heart but they have not yet found the answer they want. For a long time there are people who have had questions about their life of Faith, perhaps there are people, Lord, who have even felt weakening because they have not found that answer that they long for and desire so much.

But I echo Your words now, those words that affirm to us that You still have many things that You want to share. You still have many things that you want to teach, there are still many things that you want us to be able to know but the time is not yet, Lord.

But likewise, You say that when the Spirit comes, the Spirit of truth He will make all things known to us. That this is the Spirit that knows what is in the heart of God and we have not received any spirit from human beings, but we have received Your Spirit in order to know what is in Your heart, Oh God!

Lord help us so that when that revelation arrives, my God, when that knowledge that we long for so much arrives, when that glimpse arrives, my God, that manifestation of what You have for our lives, allow us to be prepared to know how to respond, my God.

That we do not bury that treasure of Your knowledge in the earth, but that we can be confronted by it, that we can be encouraged, that we can be encouraged, that we can be empowered Lord Jesus with that knowledge that comes out of Your heart to lead a fuller life, to lead a life, Lord, complete before You lives transformed, day after day, hour after hour, minute by minute, Lord, for You by Your power and by Your love.

We thank you, Lord.

I declare Your blessing on each of Your sons and daughters and that this word may continue to echo in the midst of their hearts. We declare it so in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.