My faith is like my radio...

Something that the Lord has put on my heart and I don't know how many of you were here on Sunday for the second service. Let's see, for example, brothers, how many of you heard the message of the second service? Amen. Okay, very good, very good.

Those who haven't listened to it and if you have access to the Internet or if you can buy the CDs of that second service, I recommend you buy it. If you consider yourself a vital part of the León de Judá Congregation, you cannot miss this message. That message needs to be in your Lion of Judah Shepherds Message Library, so please listen to it. Review it, listen to it, and review it one more time.

But the point is that I was not here last Sunday, I was preaching in another place, but Pastor Miranda gave me the task that I had to listen to that message. And, well, as a good student, as a good student, last night I went to bed at half past eleven listening to the message because I was prepared in case he asked me something in the staff meeting that we had so I wanted to be ready.

But the thing is that I didn't listen to it so much because of the sense of a task. I listened to it, my brothers, because I understand that God is doing something important; that God is doing something in the midst of this Church, in the midst of each one of you, it is because you are the church. When we talk about the church, my brothers, I stress to you: the church is not just this building, the church is each one of you. Each one of you makes up what is the León de Judá Congregation and each one of you plays a vital part in the call, in the purpose that God has for this church; each one of you is a piece of that puzzle that will form a scenario, a painting, a panorama that in the end when seen will be something great.

And thinking about that message, there are some things that Pastor Roberto mentioned inspired by the spirit and I understand that he said it in a prophetic way that I want to reflect on some of those things. It's like -I don't know how many times you have heard someone give a presentation and then other people come and give their response to what that person said- well, more or less I want to do something like that, but it's not that I am going to go from the line of what the Pastor said, it is clear.

And I would like to start by reading a little story that I came across today in a reflection that I was doing. The story of a character and I'm only going to read a few lines and I'm not going to read them all. But this character says, this is his story: 'I bought a radio for my office, turned it on and searched for my favorite station. All I heard was static. I thought maybe the radio was too close to the computer, so I moved it and the signal improved a bit, but I finally found a place where the reception was good and I could hear the station clearly.'

I don't know how many of you at some point have experienced that, that you have a radio with that little antenna that you kind of move around different places in the house to see where it works best and I don't know, it's something like "stay there, do not move".

I don't know, there are times in my house, I don't know why this was done, I still can't understand but my dad used to take aluminum foil and put it on the end and connect it to a window that supposedly it increased the reception or something like that, I don't know, I "one day you're going to get hit with a current, that's what that's going to give you."

Oh! One of those wires, a clothes hanger, was also connected to it so that it would have a better signal or something.

The thing is, he was looking for a better frequency to clearly hear what he was saying. Now this gentleman I'm reading about says, 'My faith is like my radio. God is always sending me messages but I'm not always in the right place to receive them.'

Here, let me read that line again, slow. Let's see let me say it like a poem:

“God is always sending me messages but I am not always in the right place to receive them. Sometimes my mind and heart are not in tune to hear the message. The worship services at my church can be a place where I can hear the voice of God. The company of other believers can help me tune in to hearing the voice of God. Reading the Bible and having time for reflection helps me to synchronize with the voice of God. But many of us, like the radio, need to be in the right place if we want to hear God's message clearly."

Each one of us needs to be in the right place if we want to hear that message, that word of God.

Now, that reflection made me think of something that I could connect with the message that the Pastor was bringing. One of the parts of that message, because that message was full of things, but one of the things was how the Pastor was identifying different populations that are within the church. People who are like that in different concentric circles where perhaps, there are people who still like the message of the Gospel, like it hasn't penetrated in such a way that their lives have been completely transformed.

And it caught my attention because in the recording of the message when the Pastor said that, I heard the echo of the people: "Amen, glory to God. Yes, that's true" and the Pastor was like, "No, no , no. Don't say Amen, don't say Glory to God because you could be one of those people."

Me when I heard that message, myself at home kind of heard it and "Ugh! Let me not say Amen because I can be one of those people too." The thing is, while I was meditating on this, for some reason the Lord directed me to the parable of the sower. The parable of the sower. And I want you to go with me to Matthew chapter 13. I want to just go over a few verses of this parable with you and see how there is a connection here.

Matthew chapter 13. And I'm going to start reading in verse 9. I'm going to read some verses, skipped like this. Verse 9. And please don't get me wrong, remember that I'm learning from this new version of the bible. This new international version in Spanish, so it's like reading the Bible again. This is how you learn something new.

But Matthew chapter 13 verse 9. I start reading here. Look how verse 9 says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Look where we started, Jesus is very direct. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." It's not like it goes in one ear and out the other. It is he who has ears to hear, let him hear. In other words, what you have to say is important, always.

“The disciples came to him and asked Jesus: Why do you speak to people in parables?”

Look at Jesus' response. I am fascinated by this answer: "Jesus answering said to them: Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given." A few verses further down – verse 16: “Blessed are your eyes for seeing and your ears for hearing. For I assure you that many prophets and other righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Now this is where the crux is.

Verse 18. Listen to what the parable of the sower means. 'When someone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown by the wayside'. This is example number 1.

Number 2: 'The one who received the seed that fell on the stony ground is the one who hears the word and is immediately ecstatic and euphoric. He says "Wow! This is yummy, how cool is this!"

He receives the word with joy but it is all superficial. But -look at that big but it says there- since it has no root, the euphoria lasts a short time. When problems or persecution arise because of the word, he immediately turns away from it.

Example number 3: 'The one who receives the seed that fell among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but -again the big but there- the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches drown it so that it does not arrive to bear fruit'.

Now verse 23, this is the fourth example. 'But the one who receives the seed that fell on good ground is the one who hears the word and understands it.'

Look at this how interesting, my brothers, example number two and example number three are the examples where he talks about the circumstances of life and how the circumstances of life came, slipped away and stole what had been planted there .

But example number 1 and example number 4 are the only examples that use the word "understands" or doesn't understand it or understands it.

There is something very important here, because I can hear something and as I said right now: that something that I hear can go in through one ear and out through the other and my understanding is going to be what? Null, zero, minimal, or superficial. It will be my understanding of what I heard.

If Bruno wanted to explain to me how an electrical circuit works, I am sure that he can explain it to me with all the technical words that exist in the engineering vocabulary and it will come in here and come out through there.

He can ask me: "Did you understand?" and I'm going to say: "Yes." "Okay, now you do it." The circuit burns when I touch it.

We can read a personal help book, a self-esteem book, a book that helps me lower my pipe a bit or something like that, but if I don't understand what I'm reading, it's just going to be one more book that I just finished. to read and I return it and put it in my bookshelf and there it stays.

The difference is, my brothers, that when I manage to understand something, there is something that happens inside. Because with understanding comes a sense of transformation. With the understanding comes a sense that, "Wow! The way I was doing things, it's not very good, so I'm going to consider this other option."

When they tell me: "Omar, look, the way you're managing your checkbook isn't very good. I'm going to explain how you should manage your numbers." And if someone explains it to me in such a way that I understand it, if that understanding is cemented in my head it will cause a change in how I manage my checkbook.

If I have been the type of person who has had interpersonal relationships with another and I am jumping from one girlfriend to another, from one girlfriend to another and never manage to get the ideal person; and if someone tells me: "Look, Omar, I think you have to adjust these things in your character and understand what relationship means and what a lasting life with another person means." If someone explains it to me and I can understand it, the necessary adjustments will be made in my life so that I can then have a healthy relationship with another person.

But there is a key to that part of being able to understand and being able to understand has to do with how my heart is.

Before I can understand the word I have to understand how my land is. And this is very important, my brothers, because there are times when we are so and so disconnected from what is in here that no matter how much the word is spoken, it will not have an effect.

Until there is no ground inside here that can truly receive that word, that transforms the heart, the effect will emerge in what was given in the other examples. It's going to grow for a while, but then it's going to dry up. It will grow again but the thorns, the circumstances will dampen it completely and growth will not occur.

I believe, my brothers, that... let me put it this way. There was a word the Pastor mentioned on Sunday that broke my heart, but in a good way, not a bad way. In a good way, because the Pastor was acknowledging that we as a church have reached a level of living in the Lord, but that it is an incomplete level. And we can see everything that God has allowed the León de Judá Congregation to have been able to do, what we have been able to achieve. The way that God has used this ministry to bless others, we recognize that.

But hearing the words of my Pastor, of his pastor, saying that we still lack, that we are not yet prepared for what God has for this church, that worked for me. Not in a bad way, remember, and notice that I am speaking in a Pastoral capacity, but I am speaking as if I were a parishioner just like you who is receiving the word of my Pastor, of your Pastor. That word made me think "what am I doing or what am I not doing so that this additional revelation that God wants to bring to our lives could be given." He used that example of having a veil.

Look, if you guys saw me last night, maybe you'd laugh. But last night I took a scarf from my wife that is kind of "citrus" if you will and I said to myself: "Okay, let me see what it means to have a veil," and I put it on my face like this and I could see the silhouette of my hand but I didn't see it completely. I started walking around the kitchen, the living room and I kind of tried to see. It wasn't that I was cheating under the thing I put on, but rather that I was looking to see how it felt.

And look, obviously I know my house, that is, I can move and I know where the corner is so I don't crash or anything like that. But the thing is, I wasn't seeing everything as it was. I was seeing everything in a hazy way. And that made so much sense to me, my brothers, because as a church, look, I know, I understand that God has allowed us to move in one dimension. God has allowed us as a church to experience some things.

There are people here who have experienced changes in their lives, miracles, provision of jobs, restoration of family, restoration of emotions, restoration of so many things, and this has been for the glory and mercy of God. But even when thinking about that, one dares to say that we are not there yet, that we are not yet at the point that God has intended for us; that there is still a veil that you have to take a scalpel, and cut it open like that, to be able to enter that dimension.

Hey, my brothers, I don't know about you, but that excites me and scares me at the same time. It excites me and scares me. And on the one hand I connect this with what I am reading here about this parable. Because on the one hand, in order for me to pass that veil and see what is on the other side, I have to make sure that my terrain is ready and prepared for what I am going to see on the other side.

A long time ago, I was speaking here, one of the words of Jesus in the book of John, that when He was saying goodbye to his disciples Jesus tells the boys: 'Boys I still have many things to reveal to you but it is not yet the time. They're not ready for it yet.'

Look at that, how interesting. The mere fact that Jesus himself says: 'I want to reveal something more to myself but it is not yet the time'. And I see this in two ways: it is not yet God's time for that revelation to arrive and it is not yet the time in his dimension because we are not yet ready to receive whatever God has for us.

What do I have to do to be able to be prepared? What do I have to modify in my life so that what that parable of the sower says can occur in me: 'That my fruit can be 30, 60, up to 100 percent, one hundred by one. May my life bear that fruit'.

And obviously, I know that our Pastor was fine-tuned in many things, that when I heard them I would go with a little notebook pointing: I am missing, here I am more or less, here I am fine; I'm missing this, here I am very bad. I am making my list.

Do you know why my brothers? There is a beauty about the God we serve. God has this side that is very gentle, which is all love, which is like everything is very cool, very nice. Like wow! how much I love you, how much I long for you, how much I want your life to experience all the abundance that I have for you.

There is that side that is very sweet, or as they say: 'the cherry on top of the frosting on the cake'. But God also has that side that is very cutting, it is very sharp, my brothers. And there are times that we forget about that and I know that for us to be able to enter that dimension that He has for us, look, there are rough edges in me. There are rough edges in all of us that have to be cut little by little, little by little in order to then be able to enter what God has for us.

It requires, on the one hand, a sense of vulnerability.

Do you remember when I spoke a few Wednesdays ago about vulnerability? From someone who says, to lower their defenses and let the other touch their buttons, as if to say: 'Look, I'm going to tell you something and you're going to get upset but let me tell you because I know it's going to be a blessing to you'.

And that one does not rebel against it, but rather that one can receive it, that one can accept it and likewise accept the blessing that God has for one. God's dealing in the realm of the heart, so to speak. About how God can put his hands in that land and fertilize our hearts, to remove rubble so that the seed that is planted can bear fruit and that from that fruit he provides another seed so that another type of product can be carried out in us.

I tell you, my brothers, I am sure that just as good times are coming, times of blessing, times of power, in the same way hard times will come. Strong times are coming because these changes are not very pleasant at times. The mere fact that Scripture says in Romans, as the Apostle Paul says: "Therefore, do not be conformed to the world in which you now live, but rather be renewed because the renewal, transformation of our mind, our understanding, our form of thinking".

Look, if they tell me: 'Don't be stubborn'. 'But if I'm not stubborn' and I know that I am stubborn and I began to be intentional in putting myself in situations where I can identify those things that are failing, that are faltering, that in one way or another are preventing, are holding back what God wants to do in my life.

And you know what, my brothers? The responsibility belongs to each one of us. Look how God works. I remember that message that I preached a few Sundays ago and now it's like flashing through my mind.

There was a Sunday where I preached a message that said: "I am responsible for my encounters with God." I cannot be depending on what others may be doing for me, I am responsible for how God can reveal himself to my life. I am the one who sets limits for God. God can have many things for me but if I start to set limits and say: "No, God, don't get involved here", "No, I can't let go of this", "No, God, here you don't know how to deal with this because I am the one who has struggled with that for my 30-odd years of life", or my 40-odd years or my fifty-something and my sixteen-something life that you have.

But the issue is my brothers, that there is a seed that the Lord wants to sow: a new seed. I see it that way. There is a seed that has been planted in us, that has grown, that has borne fruit, but I believe that there is a new seed that that sower wants to throw away and that the fruit of that seed take us to that new dimension. But we have to be very responsible with how the terrain of our hearts is.

And look, brothers, if I have to accept being told something strong, look, receive it in the name of Jesus. It is clear that I also know what the word says in First Telessalonians, Chapter 5. There is a word that is also crucial for me, that I also use in this message and it is that word that says: 'examine everything, hold fast what is good and cast off, reject the bad'.

Now, what is good and what is bad according to the lens through which you are seeing it? or what is good and bad according to God's lens? Which of the glasses am I going to wear to see? In order to understand and discern what is good and what is bad: the good with which I have to stay and the bad that I have to discard.

The good that I have to receive from those who come to me from the outside, the bad that I have to reject from what can come from the outside to me as well as what can come from the inside out. How good it is in me to retain it and how bad it is in me to reject it, throw it out.

My brothers, I tell you, the things that God has are strong, they are beautiful and pretty, but at the same time they are strong. And I know that the Pastor was talking about a percentage of people and within that percentage of people, look, it may be that there are some who enter this new dimension as it may also be that there are those who remain behind.

And you know what? I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised because Jesus himself says it: 'There are some who are going to listen to his voice and who are going to respond and they are going to throw themselves completely. But there are also going to be those who are going to be the complete opposite.' I wish it weren't like that. My pastoral heart is like I want to have everyone on the boat but if Jesus himself said that not everyone is going to be on the boat, I seek -as they say- to save as many as I can, put in the ship to as many as I can to fulfill my part of the call. My share of what God asks me to do.

The rest, it's up to him - depends on Him. He is the one who is in charge of touching hearts.

So in this, my brethren, I see it in a dual way. It is something that goes both ways. On the one hand, it is what God wants to do with me and on the other hand, it is what he asks me to do for him in return. That this time of comfort in which I find myself, that perhaps my comfort will have to be altered at some point, in some way for me to be able to discover and experience that new thing that God has, but at the same time that sacrifice will to bring its fruits. That sacrifice will bring fruit in your life.

And look, my brothers, I want to end this: Jeremiah. I know we all know this word but I want us to read it. Jeremiah chapter 33, verse 3. What's more, does anyone know it by heart just in case?

Look at that. "Call to me and I will answer you and I will show you small and exposed things that you already know." I confused you right? That is not what the passage says.

Now, but I said it intentionally because God can also reveal things to you that you already know, what happens is that you are not paying attention to him. But the thing is, God is putting it on a much more interesting side. God is telling you: "Call to me and I will answer you and I will show you great and hidden things that you do not know." Listen, I don't know about you, but when I read that word it gives me chills.

"Great and hidden things that you don't know", that I don't know. Big things that have to do with your life, big things that have to do with the world in which we live. Hidden things that are in you and that have to come out, hidden things that occur at the level of the air in which we live and that we see them, we do not know them, we cannot perceive them, but the time will come when God is going to bring that revelation and everything goes -as they say- to connect and fall into place.

When that moment arrives, I am sure that God will want a church, meaning: all of us, a church that can respond. A church that can -as they say- stand firm like that passage from Josaphat that was being read on Sunday, stand firm, maintain its position, be still; that God is their salvation, that God is the one who is going to be in charge of moving things. We are that instrument, that vessel, that conduit through which all that God has flows.

My brothers, I do not share these words with the intention of bringing a sense of insecurity, or with the intention of bringing a sense of frustration, or with the intention of bringing a sense of Wow! Well then I'm not part of. Quite the opposite. If I share this word, my brothers, it is because you are part of God's plan. It is because you, all of us, all, all, all are part of God's plan.

In some way or another, no matter how insignificant one thinks one is, one is part of God's plan. In the way that it is, in the way that it can be manifested. I think that is why I read that passage from Jeremiah: "Look, Lord, show me what are those things in which you want me to be able to move. What are those new things that you have for me? be the changes that I am going to have to make to be able to delve into those new things that you have?

God wants, my brothers, God wants us to be able to power our batteries and process these things, my brothers. May we not read this like this like crazy, but pay attention to what God is truly wanting to say to our lives, to our hearts; what we can hear and at the same time understand. Because it is in that understanding, my brothers, where we are truly going to experience the things that God has for our lives. That if perhaps, at some point, I perhaps fight with myself and I say to myself: "I don't understand why there are times that I get so negative, so pessimistic, if I know that I have a God who can do everything, that has abundant things for my life, why, why, why are there times when my mind becomes so negative?

It is the complete opposite of what God has. I am saying testimony because there are times when they are things that happen in me. What does God have to show me? What do I have to do? What new things do I have to implement so that those negative thoughts are completely removed from me?

Or perhaps it is not that they are torn away, but rather that I can apply what the Scripture itself says: "Submit them to the obedience of Christ" and that this negativity does not influence me, but that I can remove it from myself with the power and authority that God gives to my life so that I can live up to what God asks of me. That is my example. What is your example? You know him.

God is throwing a seed, God is going out into the field. Listen well: God is going out into the field and He is throwing a seed. It is sowing a seed in your heart, in your heart, your heart that you are seeing me on the Internet: God is sowing a seed. How do we have to prepare that ground so that that seed bears the fruit that God expects?

Father in the name of Jesus I bless your people right now. I can say that we are in the same boat, Mr. Jesus, that we see things by halves. We have experienced your power halfway, we have received your word halfway, but more to go, more to go. We need to know more, we need to understand more, we need to submit more, we need to obey more, we need to sacrifice even more, we need to surrender even more. It remains to look for you even more. missing, sir.

But this lack is not something negative, Lord, it is something that fills us and inspires us to be able to seek you, to be able to follow you, to be able to yearn for what you have in your heart for each one of us. Lord, deliver us from entering that dimension with selfish intentions, only with the intention of seeing how much you can do for me and nothing else. No, Lord, deliver us from it.

Help us understand that your blessing is not only for the edification of our personal lives, but also so that this fruit can be of benefit to others around us. Help us to be the type of church that you are calling us to be and that when your word begins to flow, Lord, that when that word rows, that fresh, new word at the right time when it begins to flow that we can have a heart receptible to receive it to let you deal with us, that you deal with our imperfections even if it hurts, Lord.

But it is better to suffer under your treatment than under anyone else's treatment. Help us to recognize what you are doing in the midst of our lives, Jesus, and that we do not turn our backs on you, Lord. That we do not ignore what you are wanting to do, but that we can enter, Lord, and keep up with you, God.

Teach us, Father.

I ask that you bring discernment into our lives to know how to receive this word, know how to understand it, know how to internalize it, how to apply it and let that word transform our entire being to truly reflect your character, your person, the person of Jesus .

I ask your blessing on each one of my brothers and sisters tonight who have made an appointment, who have endured until this moment, Lord. I ask that when they leave this place, that you take them safely to their homes. Father that at the rest of the night, that his body, his muscles, his tendons, his heart, his blood, my God can rest in you. That it can be renewed in you and that tomorrow if you allow it, we can get up with a new light, with a new reception to you, Lord.

With a new synchronization with you, that we can be in frequency with you to truly hear your voice and receive it, Lord. Thank you for this moment, Jesus.

We give all the Glory and all the honor to you, Jesus. Amen and amen. Thank you Lord Jesus, thank you God. Amen. Hallelujah.