We are the hands of God

First Corinthians Chapter 3. I'm going to read a verse here that captures the idea of something I want to share with you. Verse 9, look how this verse says; What's more, we are going to read them all in unison, let them know if we have it there in their bibles. We are going to get very traditional here read all at the same time. They were waiting for the text to be put up there. No one had opened the Bible, I know everything. Marlene they are putting pressure up there now. People have gotten used to it, you have to put the text on them now. OK.

It says: 'Because we are God's collaborators and you are God's farm, God's building'. Look at it there, let's all read it at the same time. Verse 9. Okay.

Yesterday, my brothers, I had the opportunity, the privilege, so to speak, of participating in a vigil that was taking place in front of Senator Kerry's offices. It was a vigil where different pro-immigrant agencies met to advocate for the reform that is taking place now but at the health plan level and more concerning the benefits that the immigrant community may or may not receive.

So yesterday God gave me the opportunity to be there as a pastoral figure and to be able to share a few words with the people who were at that meeting. So after at least the first three people spoke -who spoke more along these lines of the political side, of the political implications of this reform that is taking place- well, they asked me to bring some words of hope from that more spiritual perspective, more of God. Because some of the proposals that have already been made at the Congress level have been completely annulled; that it continues to be [so who says] restrictions that they place on the immigrant community here in the United States.

So I -obviously- said to myself 'Okay, Lord. inspire me Let's see what we can say here and now.

So I let the Lord move me and the most I remember was the following: at the end of everything they asked me to pray and I finished my prayer saying “Look, Lord, we do what we can. We fight, we make our efforts to ensure that the immigrant community has the benefits it needs. But in the end, everything is in your hands.

You have heard me say that many times in my prayers. At the end of it all, I ended up saying "Lord, look, I do what I can, the rest is in your hands." And I pray like this and it is a correct way to pray. I am not saying that it is something wrong.

But the thing was that after I finished praying –to my surprise- Senator Sonia Chand Díaz was in the group; I don't know how many of you know her. But she was in the group and the issue was that she was supposed to speak before me but by mistake they put me to speak before her and the issue was that when she began to speak -to my surprise- she made reference to the words of my prayer, but the words she said caught me by surprise.

She began by saying –obviously she was speaking in English- but she was saying: “Pastor Omar, I am glad that you have been here today because that prayer that you have said is very important”. And she began to talk about her upbringing, how her mother encouraged her by talking to her about how God works in our lives, and she shared a quote, a phrase that her mother taught her. And it was well connected with that idea that I said "Everything is in your hands, Lord."

And she says –she complemented what I said- “Yes, God everything is in your hands but we are your hands”. When she said that I was like, Wow! That was an epiphany, what I had at that moment from the person I least expected.

But the point was that those words that she said made me think so much about the mere fact, my brothers, that once again I was convinced that we are the instruments that God wants to use here in this world, in this time that He has given us. touched to live As difficult as it is, we are the instrument that God wants to use.

Say to the person next to you 'You are an instrument'. The instrument is not just the guitar or the piano or the drums. Those are musical instruments. But you are an instrument in God's hands. As this passage that I read says: ‘We are… what? Collaborators' and this is something I want to talk about today. That moment yesterday really made me, phew!

Look how this passage says. Let's go to verse 1, we're going to start by reading verse 1. It says: 'So I, brothers, could not speak to you as spiritual people but as carnal ones [it seems that there were a couple of people who were on the chop that day]. Like children in Christ, I gave them milk to drink and not food because some are not capable, nor are they capable yet [because they are still on the chop]' Put any type of meat you want to think of there.

'Well, since there are among yourselves...' look at this... 'jealousy, strife, and dissension.' Aren't they behaving in the cheat sheet? 'As do men who do not know me [God]. Because one says: Ah! I am from Pablo's team and the other says: No, no, no. I'm from the Apollos team. Aren't they being carnal with that?'

Think about this idea: what Paul was really trying to say is that obviously in that context in Corinth there were people who preferred Paul's ministry because Paul did more miracles and spoke with more authority, others were siding with Apollos who was another of the disciples back then who also fervently preached. And there were sides; people were splitting up.

It's as if some of you today were like, “Oh no! I prefer Pastor Roberto over Pastor Gregory”; or if this is my favorite over the other. You know what? That kind of conversations here should not exist. Because? Because of what this text says.

This text, look if we keep saying: “What then is Paul and what is Apollos? Only servants through whom you have believed and that according to what the Lord granted to each one. That phrase for me is key: according to what the Lord granted to each one.

If there is something that edifies me from being able to minister in this church, it is the diversity of gifts, of personality characteristics that exist among us Pastors. Obviously Roberto –Pastor Roberto- has his being, his character; Greg has his; Samuel has his and I think by now you guys know mine pretty well.

None of the four of us are the same. None. But that diversity that God has placed in each of us causes León de Judá to have a life, a vitality, a dynamic that distinguishes it from other churches. And it's not that I'm saying that other churches are worse or bad, I'm not saying that. Rather, they do something different from the dynamics of this church.

But where does that come from? That comes from God who forms in each of us that type of character and continues to form what God wants to do in us and through us to bless our church. And while I say this, the same can be applied to each one of us. Because in each one of us there is a grace that according to what seemed to him, what the Lord has granted him has been given to each one of you.

Nobody here can say that if "so-and-so is better than sultana" and that "perencejo is worse than zutanito". Nobody can say that here. Each of us, my brothers, are at different levels of life, at different stages and with that diversity that is here in our midst, that is the diversity that God wants to use to bless and impact the community in which He has placed us. put to us

Look, it is clear that if there is someone who, perhaps with their character, steps on our corns and makes us look like they say 'clinch the teeth', look, that is true. It also happens between the four of us sometimes. There are times when Pastor Roberto says something and if the three of us are like, 'Hm, no'. Or there are times when I say something that they look at me like: 'Omar no way. That's not gonna happen'. Or vice versa. In other words, we step on each other but the point is that we continue working together because we understand that each one of us contributes something to the purpose of the plan that God wants to do.

We are collaborators with God. You are collaborators of God, with God. You encourage each other in different ways, in different contexts you are working with God to bless each other. In the context of marriage a husband collaborates with God to bless his wife and vice versa. Whether it is in a relationship of parents with sons or daughters, it is the same: parents collaborate with God to bless their children. And children collaborate with God to bless their parents in one way or another.

Here relationships between brothers and sisters who see each other like this two, three times a week. Each of those opportunities that we have to see each other collaborate with God to bless the lives of each one of us and therefore you bless me by collaborating with God in what God has for my life. It is something that goes wide. It's something that goes both ways.

If one of those addresses is closed there is something that is happening. Because God intentional that those things can flow between the one and the other. Look how Paul continues to say (I'm in verse 6): "I planted and Apollos watered, but the growth has been given by God."

That to me is something so, so revealing. Because we have to understand that different people in our lives, at different stages, will serve a specific function. It may be that there is a person who at some point sowed the word of the gospel of God in your heart for the first time and at that time you received that word and you followed your life and along the way […] you can grow.

In some way or another God is the one doing the growth in you. It's not me, it's not Roberto, it's not Pablo, it's not Apollos… it's God. We are only doing our duty. Within the resources we have, we do what we can. What little we have we sow and trust that as I was saying in my prayer: 'Look Lord, the rest of the things are in your hands. My hands are available to you at any time, God. But the rest of the things you do.

There is a part that falls on my men that I cannot stop doing. The moment I stop doing that part, I am ceasing to be a collaborator with God. The moment I stop giving someone a word of encouragement, a word of correction, a word of peace, a word of comfort, the moment I stop doing that, I am failing to fulfill my purpose, I am stopping sowing my seed, I am not watering that seed.

One way or another I'm going to be delaying what God wants. […] years ago. Because there are times when we fall under the lie – I have to say it that way. We fall under the lie that there are times when we think that if one does not respond to God's treatment, God is going to take away what he has placed in you, the favor. As who says […]. There are times when I struggle with myself… because it is difficult for me to fit into my head that God is not going to want to do something with someone who is His creation.

Do they follow me where I go or did I lose them? There are times when I find it difficult to digest when I hear someone: 'Ah! If you do not want to respond to God's call, then God will take care of looking for another person. Fine, God can look for another person but it doesn't mean he's going to forget about you. God can look for another person.

Oops! Look for farmers who are needed in the harvest. Look for all the ones you want, but what is he going to forget about you? What is going to forget what He has put in you? What is he going to forget about the plan he has with you? That He is going to forget about that simple and simple letter that you have to write him? A letter that you have decided to write to someone, send it back? Because that letter will only be the difference in that person.

Do you think that God is going to forget about you, when perhaps all you have to do is pick up the phone and call a person and tell them 'Look, I'm thinking of you, I'm praying for you. I hope everything goes well'? That was all. That call alone can save someone's life.

Do you think that God is going to forget about you with the mere fact that maybe you can give 5 dollars to someone who needs to catch the bus and get to a medical appointment? Do you think that God is going to forget about you with the mere fact that you can do that? I do not believe. I do not believe. It's hard for me to digest that.

God everything is in your hands. But we are God's hands, we are God's collaborators. God has great intentions for each of us my brothers and sisters.

Look, the fight outside can get difficult, things in your family can turn the color of a fire ant and those of the Amazon that are even bigger. They can be put like this. Inside, it may be that you get depressed and that you think is like 'the only answer I have now is to strap a 20-pound weight around my neck and throw myself off the Toben Bridge and that's the end of it'.

You can go so far as to think that, but even in that moment God is saying like “No, you are my son; you are my daughter. I need you. I need your hands, I need your feet, I need your mouth, I need your eyes, I need your ears to be able to do something for someone. I need you. I have not brought you here so that you can come to finish everything because a wind suddenly came out there and you already want to hook the gloves and that's it.

Maybe God will say to you, “Do you want to hook up the gloves for a little while? Okay, a little while. Take a break, I'm going to blow you with the towel, I'm going to throw water at you, two or three things to get you up again and Okay, put your gloves back on and keep fighting. Okay, let's go forward. Now it gets good."

God struggles like this with us many times my brothers. It can give you a break. How many times have we said like: 'Oh! I feel in a spiritual desert. I feel that God is not speaking to me. I feel like God is so far away from me.

I don't know about you, but I have said it and I am sure that even though there is deathly silence here right now, I know that there are several people who have said that. And many times we think that these spiritual deserts is that God has moved away from us and it may be that he has. There are times when there is something in us that can cause something to God, like: “Hm”.

But there are times when these spiritual deserts can be a break that God is giving us as if to recharge our batteries. That loneliness that is felt many times does not mean that it is the absence of God, but it means a time that God is giving us to absorb and assimilate all the things that He has revealed to us beforehand. Because what comes after is going to be even more intense and we need time to process and assimilate things, so that when we are going to move to that new stage, look, we can then move at the pace that God wants us to move. .

So, those deserts, my brothers, when they arrive, give thanks to God. Thank God for those deserts even if you feel like garbage, don't think you are garbage because God doesn't see it that way. God sees him as one of his sons, of his daughters who are going through a time of trial, of formation, of -as they say- those words, those promises that we receive here on these occasions on Sundays, that advice that he gave me the Pastor or that piece of advice that Leonor gave me one night when I was there in the kitchen. She tells me: 'Pastor Omar, don't worry, everything will be fine'.

Those words, however simple they may be, that I can assimilate. That I can bury them in my heart. What's more, last night those words that this senator Sonia said to me –I mean, she didn't say them to me but- she said them to the group, but she was looking at me; those words 'God everything is in your hands but I am your hands'. Whoops! Assimilate that?

In times of solitude that I can meditate and that I can say 'Lord, I am your hands in this world, on this earth. How do you want me to serve you? What do you want me to do? How? When? Where? To whom? Tell me Lord. At what time, on what channel? That I can think of all those things.

When I manage to assimilate that treatment of God with me at such a level, look, you know what, my brothers? There is no heaven or earth that can get in the way of what God wants to do with you. Because we're not moving out of feelings anymore and [feeling sounds] we're moving out of conviction. And when you move out of conviction, look at how the devil himself can stand in front of you and you say: “Puck! I keep moving”, as if it were not with me.

Any comment that wants to come into your life, that wants to try that if before someone said to you 'Look, if you see yourself with your hair like this all in love' and that before you were like 'Ahh!'. If now they tell you, 'look, your hair is there', look, you do… [body language]: Thank you. "Look at me, how good I look now."

We are collaborators with God, my brothers. We are collaborators with God. Close your eyes and repeat that word to yourself: I am a collaborator of God and with God. Someone God has to use, who is going to collaborate with God's purpose, with God's fulfillment in my life. And I am going to serve to collaborate with God in the fulfillment of God's purpose in the life of that other person or other people.

So when you start to pick up your wallet, your bundle, that you start to put on your scarf and things like that and start mentally preparing yourself to receive the slap of cold that you are going to receive when you open that door... look, not even that cold slap take away from your mind and your heart the fact that you are a collaborator or collaborator of God. You are the hands of God.

We pray, yes: Lord everything is in your hands. That means: Lord, be with me. It is with you but it is with me. The answer is in you but it is also in me, so let's go ahead. We can say Amen to that. Amen, can you say Amen to that? Amen. Chévere got the message.

Let's stand up, my brothers and let's pray.

Listen, sister Leonor, you have blessed me so much; Can you come here and pray for us? I want you to give us the privilege of blessing, that you pray for us. You are the hand, you are the mouth of the Lord right now, Leonor. come. Come, come and pray. Bless the Church, my sister Leonor.

Hallelujah. I hope your family is watching online so they can see you too. Come on, come on Eleanor. bless us. You know what, my brothers? I say this with all humility and respect for my sister Leonor. I believe that Leonor is one of those women who has most blessed my life here. You see me standing here and it's because on several occasions, this woman, when I came here to church in the mornings that I peek into the kitchen down there and she's eating her coffee with her little piece of cookies and her little cheese, always has a word that encourages me. Always always always. She may be going through her stuff, but she always finds the grace, the power and the strength to share a word with one.

So Leonor, I want you to bless us. We are your church, we are part of that body and I want you to pray as God moves you, as God worries you for us who are your brothers and sisters. So let's pray, let's pray together.

Sister Leonor: Blessed God, [...] has given us. He has given us, Lord, these beautiful words, Lord. For my brother, Omar. Thank you Lord, may you remain in our hearts, Lord. Also, Lord, go with each of your children to your home, Father. Take care of him and protect him from all danger here, Lord; and may tomorrow be a new dawn for everyone, Lord. And those who are, Lord, sick in the hospitals, Lord, lift them up, Lord and give them comfort and may a word from you, Lord, reach them Father.

Lord, protect us, Lord. Protect our families, our children, our grandchildren, Lord, our pastors. Lord we ask you, Lord for mercy. Thank you, Lord, for this word, Lord, that you have given us tonight.

Thank you Lord for everything you give us and lift up Lord, the one who is fallen, Holy Father. Help us, Lord for mercy, we ask you, Lord in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus, thank you God.