A missionary church

Let's go to Luke chapter 10 and we're going to start with verse 1 through verse 12. Gospel according to Saint Luke. I want to talk about God's call to make a missionary Church. How interesting that our young people are going to visit Guatemala in a Missionary experience! We have a missionary here.

God puts it in my heart in reality, without there being a connection in my mind, but I realize now seeing all this, that there is a divine coincidence. God wants to reinforce our sense of calling to be missionaries, to be evangelists, to work for the Kingdom.

Say with me: "I am a missionary, or a missionary, I am an evangelist and God calls me to share his word with the lost." Can you say amen to what you have stated? There is a holy call from God to his people to share the word of the Lord and this is a beautiful passage that affirms and confirms us in that evangelistic call that each one of us has.

Luke chapter 10 verse 1 says here: "After these things the Lord also appointed 70 others." Why 'also'? Because He had already designated twelve in another part of the Gospel according to Saint Luke and in other parts of the Gospel, the Lord also sent the twelve. Those twelve were part of his inner circle, they later became the apostles, but he also sent others.”

These seventy, and for me it is important from that moment we are already entering the theme. Because notice that, if He had only sent the twelve, we could say: "well, that is an indication that evangelism is a matter for professionals, right?"

The pastors, the evangelists, the people that God gifted in an exceptional way, to preach the Gospel. But I believe that the Lord also wanted to point out through all time that the missionary work was not only for those super selected, but also for others and that is why he chose these seventy anonymous, completely anonymous, not we know their names. What's more, some Bible scholars think there were perhaps seventy-two.

There is a bit of ambiguity in the original Greek manuscripts from which the Spanish version comes. If they were seventy or seventy-two and I think that even in that ambiguity there is something of importance, they are anonymous, we don't know if they were seventy, seventy-one, seventy-two, because God doesn't want us to fall in love with that number 70 , nor let us assign something specific, they were part of the group of Jesus Christ and He also sent that group.

Interestingly the word "sent" is the word 'Apostoling' where the word Apostle comes from, right? An Apostle is a person sent for a specific mission, in that sense I believe that all of us, every son of God, every daughter of God has an Apostolic call, because we are sent. Amen.

You are sent, I am sent, the Lord Jesus Christ in his great commission in Matthew 28, said "Go" and sends us that is the great commission. God has commissioned us, Jesus Christ has commissioned us to preach his word.

Then He sent them, He apostolate them, we could say, to those other seventy, He sent them two by two ahead of Him to every city and place where He had to go and said to them "The harvest is truly great, plus the few workers. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest that I send workers into his harvest. Go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Do not carry a bag, nor a saddlebag, nor shoes, and greet no one along the way. In whichever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house' and if there is a son of peace there, your peace will rest on him and if not it will return to you.

“And rest in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, because the worker is worthy of his salary. Do not go from house to house. In whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal the sick who are there and tell them 'the kingdom of God has come near to you'. But in any city where you enter and they do not receive you, going out through its streets say, 'even the dust of your city that has stuck to our feet, we shake off against you'. But know this: 'The kingdom of God has come near to you, and I tell you that on that day the punishment will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that city.

May the Lord bless his holy and divine word.

There is a call for the people of God, it is a call to preach the Gospel. I believe that of all the great responsibilities that a daughter has, a son of God, I believe that one of the most sacred is to give freely what she has received freely, sharing the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.

We cannot withhold that, we do not have the right not to share the Gospel. When we enter the ways of the Lord when we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, when we enter the ranks of the army of Jesus Christ, a sacred responsibility falls upon us to proclaim the word.

Says the apostle Paul, "in season and out of season, on every occasion", in our jobs, our building where we live, the streets of our neighborhoods, our relatives, we have to share the holy word of Jesus Christ.

You are a missionary, you are an evangelist, you are an apostle in the sense that you have been sent, sent to proclaim the word of the Lord. On your shoulders rests that sacred obligation, on our church rests that sacred obligation to be a place where people have the opportunity to begin their personal journey in relation to Christ Jesus.

A church by definition has to carry out a continuous evangelistic work. A pastor, the Apostle Paul, tells Timothy to "do the work of evangelism." Because I am a Pastor does not mean, well, I leave the work of evangelism to the evangelists or even to the people of the church who have that gift. No! I always have to be there, doing my part too, and I feel that great responsibility.

You can't just become a professional pastor by ministering to the church and dealing with the administration, with the corporate affairs of the church. I have to continually attend to that call in my own life as well, and we want to be an evangelical church. Every day we feel more and more the call and the obligation to improve our systems, our ways of carrying out the evangelistic task in our church.

I like this passage because it teaches us how to do the work of evangelism. This passage for me is paradigmatic, to use a Sunday word, it is a passage that establishes clear guidelines of what are the hallmarks that should characterize a person or an evangelistic church. That is the center of my sermon.

I want us to analyze the directives that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to the seventy, and that we look at those things, those assignments that the Lord gives us as assignments, of how we should carry out the evangelistic task.

What constitutes an effective worker in evangelism? What are the qualities that should characterize a Christian community that wants to do the work of evangelism well? Notice that the Lord himself, the best evangelist and the best evangelism teacher that has ever existed, is sending these people, and is giving them a mini course, on how to behave and what attitudes to hold while doing the work of evangelism.

So I think it deserves us to pay attention, yes or no? If I want to be a good evangelist, if I want my church to be a good evangelistic church, I am going to analyze what the Lord told them to do, how he told them they should behave when doing the evangelistic work.

I believe that we should use these things for us to say: “Father help us to incorporate this. Help me to incorporate some of these qualities of character, of attitude, of behavior so that my life can be an attractive life and an effective life in the work of evangelism.

The first thing I see here is very clear, I have already pointed it out: the Lord appointed them and I believe that when the Lord appoints, when the Lord sends someone to execute something, I am sure that the Lord also enables them, yes? or not? Amen.

I do not believe that the Lord is going to command you to do something, knowing that you do not have what you need to do it. I do not believe that the Lord is going to send you to a place if He is not sure that He is giving you everything you need to complete that work, because the Lord is not wrong. When He says something: that's it. That kicks in with your mandate. There are also the nutrients that are required to execute the mandate.

That is why the Lord in the passage of the great commission says, before sending the disciples to go to the nations, he says: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth, therefore, go". Why does He say 'therefore'? Because that endowment of absolute power that was in Him, He was delegating it to them as well.

The disciples were linked in an intimate, indissoluble way with the person of Jesus Christ and by sending them He was saying: I also give you the power that I have so that you also do the work that God has given me to do. We are the extension of Jesus Christ and we also have the power of Jesus Christ within us, Amen.

Understand this: when you preach, when you share, you have the authority of heaven behind you, within you. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has given you this mandate, believe in it, do not look at yourself as a madman who has nothing to give, nothing to say.

Say: “I have the commission of Christ within me. Christ appointed me, Christ sent me, Christ has put his power, the power of his spirit. If I share something good with someone, I am going to leave a seed in their life, even if it is of concern”.

And share the word, because you walk in the authority of your Lord, you have the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is the one who has given the design, the order to send. I think it is interesting, the Lord designated, He is the owner, He is the one in charge, He is the one who has the power, He is the one who has the authority and He sends you. So move in that power, in that authority.

Interesting. Again I underline what it says: "Also seventy others" because he had already sent others. The Lord was training them, he was commissioning them to continue this missionary work, that is what mattered most to Him. Clearly leave his disciples prepared to carry out the missionary work. This was a work of learning, but it was also a work of actually doing evangelism. So it says here to those who sent: "Two by two."

It is interesting that if you read this passage, there are many things that would seem strange and even unnecessary and superfluous. There are things here that the Lord says that don't really make sense to us unless they don't have an application to our lives.

There are strange things here, that He tells them, because He tells them, for example: do not carry a bag, nor a saddlebag, nor shoes. This was not a coincidence, it was not that the Lord wanted to make them suffer, simply. There was a pedagogical reason, there was a teaching that He wanted to impart to them through this.

I hope I can shed some light on this. Everything that the Lord told them here had a spiritual missionary implication and that "he sent them two by two" is a principle of unity and harmony. Lone Rangers don't agree in the kingdom of God, brothers.

It is good when one shares the Gospel as much as possible. First be part of a Christian community. I have a little repulsion to evangelists out there who are not linked to a church.

People who have simply declared themselves evangelists or prophets and go from church to church are not linked to a community, there is no accountability as they say in English. They don't respond to someone and I think it's important when you do evangelism to be part of a community that nurtures, that instructs you. But more than that, I also think that it is something very beautiful when you do evangelism, especially in the streets, or in some place where there is an additional person with you who is your partner in the trenches, and that gives you strength, that gives you confidence to you.

I believe that in the Gospel one always sees this principle of praying for each other, strengthening each other, sharing with each other. That gives us more weight, when we share the Gospel. Being part of a community learning from the church of Jesus Christ how to do the work of evangelism.

The Lord always sent them two by two and that has a very powerful spiritual principle, it says: "Before Him to every city and place where He had to go." Interesting. Reading in the original Greek the translation into Spanish: "before Him", literally in the Greek it says: "he sent them two by two before his face, before his face, to the city and place where he was to go ”.

It is interesting that expression of the original writer that He sends them as they go before his face, proclaiming the word. That is one of the things that I think makes Jesus more powerful because the Bible… that face of God that no one can see. John speaks of that terrible face of Jesus that he saw in his vision in the book of Revelation. It's like it raises the dignity of Jesus Christ.

But there is also another important thing in this and it is that element that when we announce the Gospel to a person in a community, we are going before Christ, but in reality what we have to do is put that person in direct contact with Jesus Christ and then we step aside.

We can strengthen that person, disciple him, support him in his spiritual growth, encourage him and give him the benefit of the community, but there is an element that is like when a bride is getting married that her father accompanies her.

The minister says: Who delivers this woman? and her father says: "I'll give her up" and then he passes the bride onto her boyfriend's arm and then he kind of moves away in a sense. This couple now has a part of intimacy and married life that goes beyond the family itself and then it is already a relationship between the two of them.

When we preach the Gospel, our goal is to go ahead of Jesus Christ, to go before Him, a few steps ahead of Him. Introduce the person to Jesus' desire to come into their lives, become intimate with them, and when that person receives to Christ as Lord and savior we then introduce him to Jesus and that person now goes on a direct walk with Christ.

The Lord tells him: “Go ahead of me. I am going to that city in a few days, go and prepare the way. Talk about me, talk about my truth, my word." We are transmitters of the person of Jesus. What a great privilege brothers! We are introducing each individual to a life of personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Remember that when you preach the Gospel to a person, invite him to establish a personal, intimate relationship with the person of Jesus. It is not with a church, it is not with a system, it is not with a religion, it is directly with the person of Jesus. The Lord will tell you what He wants from that person. The Lord will enter into a personal relationship, He will take that person through a series of processes and experiences with Him.

Our part is to be intermediaries and initiate these people into their experience with Christ. 'He sent them ahead of Him two by two to every city and place where He had to go and told them' and here the Lord makes a prelude comment to the instructions that He is going to give them, He is giving it a context, He Brothers, the truth says: that the work is a lot, the harvest is a lot, the work is great, there are many people to whom to preach the Gospel and what a pity the workers we have to fulfill this mission are relatively few.

Pray to the Lord, to the owner of the work, pray to the Father to send more workers. And I believe that Christ's lament, that observation of Jesus is still standing. There are many people who need to receive the Gospel and very few people who give themselves to do so.

And not just because there aren't enough professional missionaries, but because there are really few people, few Christians, who take seriously their call to be evangelists.

I want to ask you there, you don't have to raise your hand, but when was the last time you led someone to the knowledge of Jesus Christ? Another question I can ask, has anyone accepted Jesus as a result of your intervention? Have you gone before Jesus? Do you go before Jesus at work, with your family, with your friends? There are no covert agents in the kingdom of God, brethren. There are no people around there with those rain jackets, with a coat, with a secret identification here of evangelists. We are Christians and we have to be obvious to the world.

It hurts me many times when I go through the city of Boston and go to places of influence, I discover Christians wherever I want. What's going on? They are always behind the closet, they are in the closet. They feel like they shouldn't share because the devil has sold us this demonic lie that we have to respect people's privacy, that we can't dictate our values.

Brothers, put a monkey wrench in it, whoever enters the kingdom of heaven, may they be saved, whatever it is. Push them in, push them into the kingdom of God, force the door a little even if it is. Share a word even if it is identify yourself, denounce yourself as a Christian because that is a calling.

We have to, there is urgency, time is short. The workers are few, the people are getting lost and the person you least expect is eager for someone to preach the Gospel to him or to invite him to church, or to give him something to read, a good document that worries him.

Gift someone, it doesn't have to be a treat; the tract is simply one form of thousands of forms that you can use to be creative in doing this urgent work of evangelism. There are so many good videos today that you can give to people, there are good books that you can give to a person on evangelism, a Bible.

In a conversation, you can, maybe have a conversation with someone and that person tells you about some problem they have in their life and says 'You know what? I'm going to pray for you', or 'Do you allow me to pray for you? Let's go somewhere discreet right now. Because people don't like that you start there next to the water machine to cry out to the Lord to send fire for this poor sinner, no! Be discreet. Take it to a discreet place.

Pray for that person or say, 'you know what? I am going to give you a Bible and I invite you to read the Gospel according to Saint John. You will find there word about Jesus Christ. And if you are more interested, let's talk, any explanation that you want.

There are many creative ways, brothers, many even elegant ways. Many organic, natural ways of doing evangelism work. I want you to feel involved, that you feel responsible before God because the truth is that there are many people.

I think the fields are definitely white for harvest. There are many people, the person you least expect, is quietly bleeding to death.

That boss you see there with a lot of money and who seems to be taking the world by storm, that person maybe has children who don't want to hear from him, maybe his marriage is falling apart, maybe he has cancer and hasn't dared to trust it to no one. A word, perhaps of encouragement and concern, can lead that person to know Jesus Christ.

Ask the Lord for wisdom and understanding because there is a great need. The world, I believe, is ready. The world has reached a dead end. Reason does not give heat, it does not feed the spiritual hunger of the people and today, this society that seems to be so hard and resistant, I have found that there are people who are willing to have the Gospel preached to them in a healthy way. and intelligent and full of grace. Because there is a great need.

And let us pray that the Lord will raise up more people, let us pray that there will be an evangelistic power that arises in the midst of the church.

"Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest." We are going to ask God and that is what Christ says, we are going to ask God, we are going to ask the Lord 'Lord, increase the number of people who do evangelism'.

Another thing I would say here is that Evangelism must be linked to prayer as well. If you do not pray, you will have no power in witnessing for Jesus Christ. Do you understand what I'm saying? You have to pray, you have to have a healthy devotional life.

When one prays to the Lord, when one feeds his spiritual life, opportunities to preach the gospel will come, God will open opportunities. God is going to put an authority in you, a very strong conviction and that is going to be possible. If you never pray, if you do not have a fellowship with Christ Jesus, you are not going to generate the power, the sense of urgency, the sense of authority and obligation to preach the word.

Every good evangelist, every good evangelist is backed by a prayer life.

Now He says: "Go, here I send you as a lamb in the midst of wolves." Why did the Lord say that? "I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves" I believe there is a spiritual principle involved here as well, and I would say it is the principle of spiritual warfare. When we appreciate the Gospel, especially in these modern times, there is a lot of hostility around the Gospel.

We are in a culture that to some degree, yes, is collectively hostile to the proclamation of the Gospel. There are demons, there are principalities and powers that want to shut the mouths of the children of God and that is why there is so much teaching today in the secular world about respecting people's privacy, about pluralism, about multiculturalism.

There are many people today who say that if you preach to someone about Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, you are denigrating other religions. You are being a fanatic, you are implying that you are the only one and that other religions are useless. Well, we believe that Christ is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

I am not saying that another region is not useful, but I am saying that only Christ is useful. And there they take the implications of that. I am not going to tell anyone 'Your religion is useless, you are a scoundrel, you are a thief and robber', but I am going to say, 'Christ is the only way. And if you want to say that, well that's what my word says. Do not be intimidated because I believe that the devil always tries to freeze the hearts of Christians, put fear. Sending doctrines of demons in the culture to shut our mouths, to turn off our evangelistic spirit. Make us doubt our spiritual calling, our spiritual endowment.

Brother, rebuke that in the name of Jesus. We are in war. Evangelism is war. Evangelism, there is an opposition. The Lord Jesus Christ says that no one plunders a strong man's house until he first binds him and then he can plunder his house. The devil has illegitimate control of these cultures. And he is not going to allow us to simply come and take their souls that he has illegally seized. That is why prayer, spiritual warfare, is so important.

Yesterday morning in the time of prayer with the men, in fact the men encouraged them; On Saturdays there are some very beautiful times of prayer that are taking place here at 5 in the morning. I know for many of you, five in the morning, you can't even conceive what that is. Saturday morning especially, but I encourage you in the name of Jesus, come and bring a thermos with -I think they brought chocolate yesterday morning- and when I wanted to get sleepy I drank my little chocolate.

Bring a thermos with coffee or chocolate and come and take care of the carpet please, if you are going to do it. I shouldn't even say that, I regret it. Be very careful.

But come and pray, it is a precious time when men gather and pray there is something very special when men are worshiping the Lord and praying and there is a beautiful fellowship between the men who gather to pray on Saturday mornings. Pray precisely for the Lord to send workers to his harvest, pray for our church to be more and more filled with the Holy Spirit, pray for the devil to be restrained and muzzled so that he cannot do work that impedes the preaching of the gospel.

But I believe that when the Lord says "I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves," he is talking about a world where the devil does not want souls to be saved and we have to cover ourselves with the blood of Jesus. We have to go with that awareness of the powerful name of Jesus that we represent. We have to stop the works of the enemy, we have to ask for protection over our lives and over our family.

What a brother who shared the word yesterday said that the first time he was asked to share the message before men and he is a person who has a certain ease with words, he expresses himself very well and he did not show any type of shy when he spoke.

But the first time brother Gilberto Sámano asked him to bring the word and he was going to speak precisely about the kingdom of God and all that. He says that such great emotional and spiritual discomfort entered him and he felt so inept and incapacitated and as if a spiritual coldness fell over him that on that first occasion he asked brother Gilberto to please forgive him - and when he arrived at the church he could not speak what he had to talk about- because he was going to talk about something serious: The kingdom of God, and precisely about filling ourselves with the power of God and the truth of God to proclaim the gospel and claim our inheritance.

The devil did not want these men to receive that and this brother who comes from a background, actually from a false sect and who has finally entered into the ways of the Lord – I think he was even more open, more fragile to demonic attack.

Thank God that this second time, now stronger, the brother was able to carry out his work in a very, very adequate way. But that's the way it is, when you want to spread the word, when you make an appointment with the person, the person's car breaks down, a tire over there, you change your mind, whatever. There are so many obstacles that the devil puts up and the same enemy has wanted to put in society itself and in its doctrine institutional contradiction against the Gospel.

And we always have to accompany the work of Evangelism with a lot of spiritual warfare. A congregation that is being effective in evangelism, a person that is doing evangelistic work must always be covered with the blood of Jesus. You must make sure that your prayer life is strong, that that person is strengthened. That he understands that he is going to war against that possessor of souls, that enslaver of souls who does not want a single person to be saved. And you are involved in that struggle.

Every time we talk about the kingdom of God in the Bible, we talk about something that goes against an illegitimate kingdom that is the kingdom of darkness. Between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness there is an opposition to death. And if you represent the kingdom of God, if you are trying to expand that kingdom, know that you are going against that kingdom of darkness that is going to make all kinds of oppositions.

And we have to be very aware of this. So the Lord says, "I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves." And then he tells them in verse 4: "Take no purse, no knapsack, no shoes." Leave the Mastercard and Visa at home. Leave the ATM at home, don't carry money in your wallet. Why did the Lord tell them this? Why did he want to make life difficult for them? No, I believe that He wanted to teach the disciples a principle of faith.

He told them: 'You know what? I'm going to make things difficult for you. Leave money at home, leave things very comfortable. He's not telling them to go barefoot, I think he's telling them not to bring an extra pair of shoes. Sisters, I know that for many of you, this is very difficult. Going on a trip like this without taking a suitcase full of things, although there are also some men who are as vain as the sisters, let me tell you.

Nowadays creams and things, the boys are just as corrupted as the sisters too. We have an amazing amount of metrosexuals out there!

But the Lord wanted to give these people a spiritual exercise. He tells them: 'I want you to see that I am your provider and that if you stop using these things I am going to provide for you on the way.' And that is very important, brothers. When we launch ourselves into a work of evangelism that we create, that the Lord is capable of providing me. The Lord is my provider, the Lord is my strengthener.

Without faith it is not possible to do work of evangelism. So we ask the Lord: “Lord, increase our faith. Strengthen my faith." Many times the lack of evangelistic work is because we lack faith. It is interesting when we dare in the name of the Lord to speak to someone, it is like we say 'brother, I would like to share something about Jesus Christ' and the person says 'Okay' and then one says 'What what? What if?' and we were like we don't know what to do because we didn't expect him to say yes.

Do it in the name of the Lord. Creates. Pray to the Lord, ask for faith, and then believe that the Lord is going to be there honoring your action of faith. And that He will provide for you on the way. It takes faith to be a proper evangelist, and when we then learn that God provides and that God opens doors, it further increases our faith.

It says “and greet no one along the way”. Did the Lord want his followers to be hateful and get a reputation for being cheeky? No, I think there was a principle there too and I believe that this is the principle of focus, of concentration. That preaching the Gospel is a serious thing. He didn't want them to be entertaining themselves with long talks on the road and things. AND

Or I think, when evangelism has to be something that captures our focus and that we understand that this is a sacred work that the Lord wants us to do and that we stay focused on it, that we practice it, that we learn about it, that we put it in practice in our lives.

I've talked before that when you're on a mission, people who are powerful in the spirit have this quality of—it's not that they're hateful, but there's a quality of seriousness in the business of God.

I believe that God wants more and more that his people acquire that sense of seriousness that is involved in the kingdom of God. We allow ourselves all kinds of liberties in the ways of the Lord and there is an attitude of laxity and relaxation that is not appropriate as a Christian.

If I want to evangelize, then I do it; if I want to tithe that is my business, if I want to go to church one Sunday and the other Sunday I want to stay at home watching television that is my business; if I want to live a life of holiness or not the Lord understands.

Brothers, the Christian life is a serious thing, the Christian life is a matter of concentration. The Christian life is so that when we are filled with the holy spirit we acquire a quality of seriousness and concentration and obedience and subjection to the things of the kingdom of God. I believe that as one grows in the ways of the Lord there is a prophetic element that takes possession of one.

And again, I think one can laugh, one can enjoy life, one can enjoy a good joke but there is also a sense that I am a 'soldier in the kingdom of God', I am in the business of Rey, I am focused and I don't have time to waste time in vain conversations and in matters that steal my time from what I have to do.

Brother, examine how you use your time and I am sure that there are things out there that you can cut and dedicate more to the things of the kingdom of God, learn more from the word. That novel that steals so much time, brother, sister, rebuke the devil, fast; put it aside and take time to learn about the word of God. Study more of the word of the Lord.

I am amazed at how many good Christian education videos there are today. So many resources out there on the internet. In these times that I have stopped watching television, brothers, I assure you I have learned so much, I have educated myself, I have said, you know what? During the time I'm going to be there - I've bought a number of videos on the history of the United States, the world, culture and so many other things. And I am getting very rich. It's like I'm back in college and I'm learning so much because I think that my time now, that time that I stopped watching television, I'm going to dedicate to the Lord and I'm going to learn and I'm going to prepare myself to be a better evangelist, a better servant, a better worker of God.

Use your time properly. You are on one thing, you are a servant of the kingdom of God, a representative of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Squeeze your life, focus on what it's worth, on eternal things. When you're up there in heaven you'll be able to interview movie stars and you'll be able to sing better than Beyoncé or JLo or whoever. Dedicate yourself here by serving the Lord. Up there you can do everything, you will have billions of years to improve your voice and you do all these kinds of things.

Focus now on redeeming the time because time is short. That hymn says 'soon the night comes, time is to work'. Let's concentrate on the things of the Lord. I think that was what the Lord wanted to imply in this: “And greet no one along the way. Go what you are going and get involved in what I have sent you.”

You have a mission, fulfill that mission. We have a mission while we are on Earth, we are going to dedicate ourselves to that mission, brothers and the Lord will then send his blessing. To whom much is given, then God will give more; to the one who does more, God will give more so that he can do even more. And from those who do not use the gifts they have, that little bit they have will be taken away, says the word.

Invest the time in what you have to do. It also says 'in any house you enter, first say "peace be to this house" and if there is a son of peace there, your peace will rest on him and if not he will return to you'.

What principle was there? Brothers, we carry as representatives of the kingdom of Jesus Christ a flow of blessings that we can utter on the people to whom we preach the gospel.

Let me tell you, when you enter a house and there is a feud, there is rancor, there is violence, there is disorder, the presence of the devil is there gagging and undoing and inciting those people so that they live like dogs eating each other - there are homes like that, Brothers- full of the evil of the enemy, music at its best, violence, all kinds of perversions, children are being trained to be wild animals when they are older.

Those people are slaves of the devil.

When a child of God enters, the order of the kingdom of God enters with him or her. When you enter, the enlivening power enters, the power that gives life, light, order, coherence to the universe with you. You wear that. And Christ has given you the power for you to declare that over those lives. When you enter a house and say "peace", the Hebrews used the word "shalom", and for the Hebrew shalom means well-being, blessing. It's not just peace like that in the generic sense of the word.

It was a word loaded with implications: physical, emotional, spiritual, material, financial, family well-being, all that was implied in the word. Then the Lord Jesus Christ gives a new authority to that word, he says: "when you enter a home, in your evangelistic modality, you enter and declare the peace of the Lord on that house where you enter and my support will be on that".

When you preach the gospel to a person, know that you have the power to pray that God bless that person. You have power to declare welfare. If that person is anxious, if there is disorder in his life, if there are ties in his life, look, pray, fill yourself with an apostolic and prophetic authority and declare as if you know what you are doing. The peace of the Lord on that person, pray for their problems, bless that home, bless that individual.

The Lord says that if that person has faith to receive what you are praying for and if there is something worthy of the Lord's approval in that person, that peace of his will rest on him or her.

I am impressed by what says "and your peace will rest on him." You share the peace that you have within yourself, the one that you share with that person. How interesting! It is as if you transfer your own essence of peace to that individual, to that person. If that person receives your prayer and is worthy of that prayer before God, that peace will rest and it is interesting -so that you see the mysteries of the spirit- if there is something in that person that rejects that peace, if there is any impurity, if there is something that is not of God in that person, your word of peace will rebound and come back to you.

mysteries. They are spiritual things. We move in a tremendously mysterious world. Our part, however, is to utter peace. The part of the Lord is to determine what is done with that peace.

Pray for someone, bless them, and then leave the outcome to the Lord. As the hymn also says “I will sow, I will sow, I will leave the result to the Lord”. The old Dominicans, those evangelicals from before know that hymn very well.

I will sow, I will sow,

I will sow, I will sow

I will leave the result to the Lord'

Hear me, how good are those old hymns! We have to learn them, that's why we can't forget them. They are hymns that reinforce us in that evangelistic value, right? You pray, you bless and leave the result to the Lord. Share the word, let it, then let the Lord take care of it.

If these people, if God has a purpose with them, when you preach the gospel to them, God will do what he has to do. If not, if God doesn't have purposes with them, that's up to God and them. You discharged your part as a watchman, as a watchman, if you warn of the coming disaster and that person continues sleeping and does not care what you said, that is his or her problem, you have already discharged your responsibility "if not it will return to you.”

It says “stay in that same house eating and drinking what they give you. Because the worker is worthy of his salary. It's interesting. There are two times when the Lord tells them to eat and drink what they give them. In this case, what the Lord is interested in is pointing out that you are doing an important work. These men and women were going to preach the gospel, He told them 'don't bring food,' don't bring a canteen with food or anything like that, depend on what they give you.

And then when you get to a house understand, you are doing a very important work and if they give you food, receive it and do not walk around with fear or shame because you are doing a very important work. And you deserve to be paid. The worker is worthy of his salary. He was pointing out the importance of preaching the gospel and not being afraid of it, not being falsely modest or fearful.

It says “Do not go from house to house”. There is a principle here of stability and character, I think. He was saying don't go around from place to place, creating a bad impression that you are lambos, ordering food wherever you want and asking people and taking advantage of people, right?

‘Stay in one home, build strong relationships in those homes, make yourself known. I believe that there is a principle of character here. People who have something to hide don't want to be known and go from place to place, jumping from place to place. But the Lord says 'Don't teach this skill! If there is a house that receives you, stay in that house and do evangelism from there.

Character is very important. Someone has said 'You can't preach morality in your underpants'. Many people are preaching the gospel and do not represent the character of the gospel. Then someone out there says 'your works speak so loud that I can't hear your words'. We have to have a stable character, we have to develop relationships that affirm what we are.

That is why it is so important. If I am going to preach to someone, it will be better for my behavior to confirm what I am saying. There are people out there and you see it on the roads, with a big poster: Christ loves you and they are getting into everyone on the road, honking at people, opening the window and cursing and then they put it up. Tremendous poster Christ loves you. Who will believe in such a gospel? No?

My daughter talks about one day that she went to Market Basket there in Sommerville and a lady -she was waiting to get into a parking lot- and this lady came and bump took her parking lot and she had a tremendous thing that said like this, 'God loves you' in the car. What kind of preaching is that? Our preaching has to have the backing of a life, a character that gives authority to what we preach.

I think the Lord was implying that, 'stay in a stable place.' Project an image of seriousness, sobriety. Do not do anything that casts doubt on your motivations for preaching the Gospel. So he says something very important here, he says [I'm finishing brothers] “Eat what is put in front of you”.

Again why did the Lord say that? We have to be humble. I believe that today there are so many evangelists out there staying in $5,000 a night hotels and what they are doing is denying the Gospel.

There is so much disrepute that so many people have fallen on the people of God, so many Pastors, so many evangelists who are shearing the sheep and taking advantage of the money of the people of God, with salaries of millions of dollars and everything goes through this business that 'I I am a servant of God. I have to embody the prosperity of God. What a good argument! So anyone, right?

Recently, unfortunately, one of the most well-known evangelists here in the United States, a man who I know is serious, loves the Lord, integrity, comes from an incredibly strong family background, and who I know is a committed person. But an exposé was made, a secular newspaper, [it's in a week] he complained that his salary is 1 million point 2; 1.2 million dollars. And it's interesting that he represents a wing of the American Gospel that wouldn't expect such a salary.

Because they attack the Pentecostals, the charismatics, like Joyce Mayer and others like that Paula White, this type of Charismatic Pentecostal evangelists, because they have large salaries. But this man, quiet there, is receiving 1.2 million dollars in salary. This man had the sagacity or the obedience to deliver one of the salaries and now he alone earns 500 thousand and a bit, the poor thing. Let us pray that the Lord will always provide for him.

But many times these evangelists who pride themselves on having so much money and who believe that they have to be paid royal sums, from kings, do not see these passages comfortably "eat what is put in front of them." They say “well, if they give me steak and lobster then I'm going to eat”. No! Eat whatever comes your way. A sample of being part of the community, of sharing the dramas of the people.

Many things.

The last thing "Heal the sick who are in it and tell them 'The kingdom of God has come near to you' ".

Brothers, we have to ask the Lord more and more for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the power of God. The Lord Jesus Christ has wanted, it has pleased him that the proclamation of the kingdom of God be accompanied by signs and wonders. He has given the gifts of the Holy Spirit to strengthen and support our proclamation of the gospel. I believe that God wants his church to acquire more and more power in these last days to proclaim an authoritative gospel.

The kingdom of heaven gives it the trick, it contradicts everything that the devil has established in the world. If the devil represents illness, the kingdom of Heaven represents health, if the kingdom of darkness represents dysfunction, neurosis, violence, conflict between human beings, the kingdom of Heaven represents emotional health, order, harmony, one's love for with the others.

If the kingdom of darkness represents slavery, ties, and habits that are possessed of us, the kingdom of God represents mental freedom, self-control, ability to control and tame and subject passions to God's order. It is quite the opposite. God has given us power. Christ said that these signs will follow those who believe in my name. "They will lay hands on the sick, they will recover."

Says the word: "We will raise the dead, we will free the captives of the devil, we will speak new languages."

All these things God has wanted to be part of our trousseau, our inheritance. I believe that there is no more manifestation of the power of God in the church because there is no more evangelism. Sometimes we are waiting for demonstrations so that then there is evangelism.

What do you think if we start doing evangelism so that there are demonstrations? Why is God going to give signs if there are no people who don't…? The signs are for evangelism. So every day we feel more and more the Lord has put in my heart.

I believe that this morning by having these young people here, by having the missionary Ira, God is telling us “my people, I have a blessing for you. I have a call, this is a harvest time”. I believe that we are in the last times and that God wants our church to flow more and more in the work of evangelism. So get that call.

Stand up this morning, we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to come down on us right now and an endowment of power will come down on this church and let's recognize this call.

And if there is someone this morning who has not yet received Jesus as Lord and Savior, we want to open that space to pray for you and introduce you to that beautiful relationship with Christ, as Lord and Savior.