An anointed and diverse community (Part 1)

Open your Bibles to First Corinthians chapter 12. We're going to make it bilingual today, thank you for your patience. Thank you, we know that many times these days can get a little bit difficult, but today we want to talk about why doing this is so important. You know the pastor has been talking lately about us being a supernatural community with a supernatural mindset and a very important part of that mindset is being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Now, a question who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit? When we baptize in water, the pastor is the one who does it. So many times when I was young I used to ask the pastor, can you now baptize me in the Holy Spirit? And they were like, no, I'm sorry that's beyond my check.

John the Baptist used to say that someone more powerful than him was coming after me. John said that he baptized with water for repentance of sins, the one who came after him would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Jesus is the one who baptizes us with his Holy Spirit.

Now, we pray for one another, we lay hands on each other, but we know where that power comes from. Now, what I want to talk about today is not the baptism in the Holy Ghost but the baptism that is by the Holy Ghost. It is a baptism that occurs in the person that comes only through the spirit and we read of this in First Corinthians 12.

We are reading in Spanish while I read in English.

Father, in the name of Jesus we thank you. Thank you for your call into our lives, and being part of that supernatural body of Christ. It is a spiritual membership and I ask you to please help us to rise to that height and be counted as part of it in Jesus name. Amen.

Baptism by the Holy Spirit in what, towards what? If you go with me to verse 13. We were baptized according to verse 13, we were baptized in water or baptized by spirit into one body. To understand that I am baptized by the spirit I have to understand this reality that the spirit has inserted me into a larger community of people. And that implies using the gifts that God has given me so that I can serve. It means being who I am to be a blessing to others. It doesn't mean that you're going to copy Greg… you know, I remember when I was new here and I said to myself, I have no clue why I'm here. So I started copying Roberto. You know when you wonder what Jesus would do? I told him what Roberto would do. And I quickly discovered that I was not fooling anyone. There is a saying that says, one has to be oneself.

But we do imitate the faith of our mentors hoping that their anointing will rub off on us as well. So Paul writes to the Corinthians that he did not want them to be ignorant about the gifts of the spirit. They are people who used the gifts of the spirit, spoke in tongues, moved in the miraculous, but Paul was concerned that they lacked a little bit of knowledge. It is possible to get caught up in spiritual gifts and be ignorant of what they really mean.

One of Paul's first concerns was that they could distinguish what was genuine Christian spirituality and what was not Christian spirituality. It was a pagan culture. People were used to worship other gods or idols. They were used to using different types of magic as well. And the Apostle Paul is very clear in emphasizing and saying that this has nothing to do with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

I think in our society, many people come to Christ after having practiced different kinds of spiritualities. Some go to have their cards read to tell them the future, or approach a mystic who looks at the palm of their hand and tells them what happens in their future. Or they are obsessed with some kind of astrology and are trying to figure out, based on the date you were born and the alignment of the stars, what your destiny is going to be.

The Bible makes it very clear that genuine, true Christian spirituality is focused solely on Jesus, it is focused on the glory of God. And the fundamental difference here is who is in control. This pagan spirituality the person who wielded this magic was the one in control to manipulate the type of reaction of the other person. But Christians under the grace and anointing of the spirit of God we say that Jesus is Lord, we tell him that he is the one in control and it is his supernatural power that flows through me but he is the one who does each of the moves, not me and he gets the glory. This is how we want it to be, Jesus is Lord and is the foundation of our spirituality.

Another difference from pagan spirituality is that you can be spiritual and do things in your own way. But by the Holy Spirit of God you have no choice but to use your gifts among other believers. I don't like them very much, I want to be at home and receive the prophecies and do my own thing at home. The thing is, there are no lone rangers here who are anointed by the true spirit of God. There are different gifts but it is the same spirit, different ministries but the Lord is the same; different operations but God is the same.

If you see here there is a beautiful image of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and the person of God, all three in one working together. Somehow God the Father is different from God the spirit. They do different things but they are still one, both are God.

There is a saying in English, it says try to understand the Trinity and you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul. It's true. I don't know how but it is real that God the Father, God the spirit and God the Son are real, each one works in its own way but they are only one.

Now this is kind of mysterious but it is possible. Somehow God takes people who are very, very different and makes them one. Now, I want to make a very important distinction, when we talk about gifts of the spirit, a spiritual gift is not the same as your innate talent that you are born with. There are many times that God takes your talent and he anoints it and consecrates it and uses it but just because we are talented does not mean we are endowed with those gifts. That's why I love the dance ministry that we hear we take people and teach them what it means to worship and be anointed by the spirit and take that dance and dedicate it to the Lord, that part of the dance is just part of the learning process. There are many gifts in the body of Christ.

There is the message of wisdom, of knowledge, now that does not mean that you went to school, anyone can do that. Now, but what we are talking about here is that God gives that knowledge, and that wisdom in a supernatural way to know how to proceed in particular situations. The gift of faith, and you're praying and you know, you know, you know there's something going to happen right now. It is the gift of faith.

I remember being in the Dominican Republic on a trip one time and there was a man who had some kind of mental retardation and we were praying because there was a period of famine near the Baní area and they were praying for just that, and this man like that with his mentality almost as a child was praying saying, Lord, I ask you to send rain today. And he then all of a sudden looks over and says, oh, Greg is visiting us and we don't want it to rain while he's here and says, Lord, let it rain when he leaves. And there is a candy store near Baní while one is leaving and we are leaving this store, leaving Baní and guess what happened? And it began to rain heavily. It is because this man had a gift of faith.

Maybe if he had had a few grades in school, he might not have had the faith of a child. Different gifts with different people and it's the same spirit. The list goes on, people who have the gift of healing, who pray for a specific person and they are healed. Gifts of prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues. The key in this text is that everything is given by the spirit as he determines and all given for the purpose for the common good of the entire body of Christ.

You are a christian? Yes you are, so whether you know it or not, you have a gift of the Holy Spirit, something, there is something in you, I don't know what it is but there is something, and if you use that gift we are all blessed. Now, if you don't use it, we all suffer. Here there is no way to hide, here there are no anonymous Christians and we are going to return to that.

Verse 12 and 13, this is where we get to this part of the baptism. And it says the body is one although it has many members, as the text says in verse 13, because with one spirit we were baptized into one body. God in his Holy Spirit, if you have it he will baptize you and include you in the body of Christ.

Have any of you been baptized in water? This is a day that you will not forget, because it is not just because you are completely drenched in front of hundreds of people, but it is because there is a moment in the baptism process where you have to let go and you are trusting your life in the person who is baptizing you. If that person drops you then you get to heaven faster. You let go and you allow that person to baptize you and introduce you to this new life.

In the same way, if we want to move in that supernatural anointing of the spirit, it means letting go of how I want to use that gift, letting the Holy Spirit take me and immerse me in a community of faith. There is no other way to do it.

Now, there are some people who want to be anointed there alone in their home and that's fantastic, maybe that gift has to do with being alone in their home for a period of time, but the true anointing is eventually going to include you. in community and the dynamics of the life of faith.

This is where things get more interesting in verse 13, it says, we are baptized by the spirit into one body it doesn't matter if we are Jewish or Greek, slaves are free, we are all given of one spirit. The Holy Spirit when baptizing one in that community of faith, at that time also did it with a diversity of cultures, the church was mixed between Jews and Greeks. A supernatural community is going to be a multi-ethnic community.

Do you know how many countries we have represented here today? There are easily like 25 countries represented here. Now naturally what happens when people continue with their natural impulse? You are going to join a club of people who are just like you, maybe people from the same country you come from, people who have common interests, people you would naturally feel comfortable sharing with, and there is nothing wrong with it's. But if you want to be part of a supernatural community it means that you end up rubbing shoulders with people who are not naturally the same as you, people of different cultures, different styles and different personalities. And it can get very interesting.

Now, but there's another part to this. It also says it doesn't matter if one is a slave or free. Back then there was obviously a slave system and they were invited to participate in that community as well. A supernatural community is also going to have an element of socioeconomic diversity. That means that people who perhaps have a lot of economic or material resources and combine with the same people if they want to move in the Holy Spirit of God, there is nothing like that. A supernatural community will mix all these people, and it's beautiful, it's complicated, it can get ugly at times, it can be like a riot but the glory of God is manifested in those aspects. We are baptized by one spirit into one body.

Now, and this is not optional either. If you want to move in the Holy Ghost you have to be baptized into that body. That means I redefine who my people are. Now, make no mistake, there is nothing wrong with celebrating our countries, or where we are from, and where we come from. You be you, be the person that you are culturally your person. God knew where you were going to be born. And he wanted you to be born into that culture, it's part of his purpose for your life.

I remember that there was a member here in the church, I asked the pastor if this person was Dominican or not. And he laughed and said, hey, is the Pope Catholic? There are some people who are like that, some people are purely Dominican. And that's beautiful, it's beautiful, we like that. I think that's why God calls some churches to be specifically one-ethnic churches so that they can reflect the glory of God in a specific rhythm, in a specific style, and that's beautiful.

There are some churches that are only Korean churches, or that are Greek, or are only Guatemalan churches, and there are some churches there in the countryside where they are just gringos. There is nothing wrong with a church having a particular cultural identity. It's like a stained glass window of all these different colored crystals through which God shines and reflects his glory. But even churches with specific ethnic groups, if they are moving in the Holy Spirit of God, there will be an urgency to connect with people other than who they are. They will feel uncomfortable. And you are going to see that those churches that move at that level are very good at building bridges with churches of other ethnic groups. You will see that with Pastor Roberto, he has many pastors who are friends with different ethnic groups. On any given day you may see an African American, or Chinese, or American pastor come into your office here because there is an urgency and need to connect with them, because we are part of the body of Christ.

Now, but we are not called to be a one specific ethnic church. Even though we were a more specifically Spanish church, we had people from all over Latin America. How many of you can say that you could tell the difference? For example, if you go to a church where everyone is Guatemalan or Salvadoran, you notice that you can feel that you are almost in that country. If you are from that background, you can arrive and feel totally comfortable with my people, but who my people are. My people if I am anointed by the spirit of God, they are the people of God. My country is the Kingdom of God.

Now, I celebrate who I am culturally but my citizenship is in heaven and if there is someone who is a son, a daughter of the living God that person becomes my brother or my sister. Sure, it gets complicated but this is the heart of God, the heart of Jesus for us.

Do you remember the moment in the Bible where Jesus gets most upset? Sure he got really upset with the Pharisees, but there was another time, but the moment he got upset enough to pick up a whip. It was when they were setting up sales tables in a specific part of the temple. Do you know where in the temple those tables were? There is a specific part of one of the courts, one of the courts, which was called the court of the Gentiles, and we'll read a little bit about this in Isaiah 56 because those tables were using up space in the courts of the Gentiles, and that court of The Gentiles was designed so that anyone who wanted to could come and seek to connect with the presence of God and worship him.

Says verse 3 of chapter 56; "... and the foreigner who follows the Lord does not speak saying, the Lord will totally separate me from his people and the eunuch does not say, behold, I am a dry tree..." Verse 4 says, "... for thus said the Lord, to the eunuchs who guard my Sabbaths and choose what I want and embrace my pact, I will give you a place in my house and within my walls and a name better than that of sons and daughters, I will give you a perpetual name that will never perish….”

Verse 7 says, "...I will take them to my holy mountain and recreate them in my house of prayer, their holocausts and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar because my house will be called a house of worship for all peoples..."

This great multitude that no one can count comes from every nation, tribe and language all standing before the throne of the living God. And that special part of the temple had to be a piece of heaven, and by placing those sales tables there, it was keeping them from getting to the house of God and that's why Jesus got so upset.

On the day of Pentecost. What happened on the day of Pentecost? In discipleship many times people don't know this. The day of Pentecost was the day that God sent his spirit manifested on the people with tongues of fire and the people began to speak in different languages and 3000 people came to know Jesus that day. And that text emphasizes all the nations that were represented at that time, on that day. And God says, where the spirit of God is poured out I will bring people to me. The people were not meant to be divided, the people were divided by their own arrogance when they wanted to build that tower that reached to heaven. And God confused their languages and separated each one by its place. But God said, in the last days when I pour out my spirit all the nations will be turned once more to one people, one nation. It is the anointing of God's spirit and is part of our calling as a church.

You know what? Pastor Roberto does many things that I am sure a large percentage of us do not know what he does. He is called to be a kingdom Christian with an apostolic calling which means he is much bigger than just one congregation. And God uses it to unify people from different cultural groups and churches and to pray for revival. Because to truly fight against those principalities and powers that Satan has established in this place we cannot do it alone. We need our brothers and sisters at the regional level to join us in prayer. So if you are called to be part of the Lion of Judah congregation you are called to the same ministry.

That can be very uncomfortable, it can be a little… you know what? I learned and I echo this, that in different countries a word that is used can be something totally normal, but in others it is a word that is like cursing someone. I learned something from the Colombians and the Puerto Ricans looked at me like wow, you just said a bad word. There are misunderstandings that occur and just because we are anointed by the spirit does not mean that misunderstandings will stop.

Even small things like physical space, it's like for example, when Americans speak there is a little space between them. So I'm new here in the church and a Latino person comes up to me to speak, so as a typical gringo, what am I going to do? And what is the Latino going to do? When you least expect it, you're already stuck there on the wall.

But these misunderstandings can happen. People can often even feel shocked by others. And many times we are going to have to face prejudices that we have. Perhaps you were raised in a family that views people from other countries as a culture as lower than your own. And it's time to repent of that. It is time to be a person, a particular people on the face of the earth. And these spillovers are going to happen.

You know, in the early church we usually think this church was perfect, we think it was heaven on earth with all this anointing. But you know what? One day they had a very big fight at the church level because the Greek widows were going over them when it was time to give the food and the food was being given to the Hebrew widows. And they said what's up, there's a second-rate dish here now.

It could be that maybe this was an accident, we don't know, because there were ethnic and cultural pensions, the first people maybe thought, oh, this is happening because I'm Greek. The Apostles got involved, prayed to identify deacons who could serve this meal. Guess what country all those deacons were from? They were all Greek. Because they knew that these were people who could easily be marginalized, so they were trusting that the Holy Spirit was going to raise up leaders in that community to manage that community. People like Felipe and Esteban.

God used these people and even used those small streams to bring blessing to each one of them. Now, going back to First Corinthians 12. Now I want to analyze that there are two main impediments that can limit our connection with that supernatural body. The first I would say is an inferiority complex. Perhaps you are called to be a tiny toe in the body, and perhaps you say, ah, because I am not the mouth, I am not part of the body. Or perhaps you are an internal organ, the liver for example, that no one sees, and you may think that I am not visible because I am not part of the body of Christ.

And God is saying that this inferiority complex has no place in the body of Christ. There is no way how to hide our talent in the dirt. You've seen that poster where Uncle Sam is pointing at you saying he loves you. God wants you, he needs you,…..in the body of Christ. That's why it's so important to get involved with discipleship or church cells, men's ministry, women's ministry, ushers. It's a way of saying that I'm going to get involved and connect with these people. And you may find that you don't have some gifts but if you're not moving, you'll never find out.

If you don't try to do something and fail at it, then how will you know what you can do? There is no inferiority complex. And finally there is the opposite, which is the superiority complex. The eye cannot tell the hands that I don't need you. The head cannot tell the feet that it does not need them. If anything the parts that seem to be weakest are the most valuable.

I am sure of this, that there are people sitting here that nobody knows, but they arrive and are connected to the body and pray who knows for hours for the Kingdom of God. And maybe you won't know but you do need them. Yes, you need them, each one and we need the people who seem to be the most different from us, the people whose style makes us a little uncomfortable, we need them more than you think.

That sense of discomfort is part of the anointing of a supernatural community. You are not going to be comfortable in León de Judá so give up in that sense. And that is something that you are going to notice, for example, in Latin America people greet each other with a kiss. Maybe we gringos don't do that. But even when Latinos come here to the United States, that gesture is often reduced, they wonder why? Because our guard kind of goes up. We are in a diverse community and one has to be aware that people are different. Sacrificing that kind of comfort is part of the price we have to pay in order to move into that true anointing.

Being uncomfortable but being filled at the same time with the joy of God's spirit. In 1906 the revival that took place in the street of Azuza Dios began to pour out his spirit in this nation in a way that the gifts of the spirit began to move. The spirit of tongues was fanned once more and one of the biggest scandals is that the black brothers and the white brothers and even the Chinese too, or Asians, were all praying together.

If we want Pentecost to happen once again, if we want that kind of revival through our particular calling, that's what it's going to look like.

So I would like to end with this call, verse 25 says “…so that there is no faintness in the body but that the members all care for one another…”

God is calling us to care for others, God is calling us to open our hearts. He says, "... so that if one member suffers, all members suffer with it, if one member receives honor, all members receive honor with it..."

God is calling you to open our hearts to be a diverse and anointed community. I invite you to stand up. Perhaps I don't do this much but I am going to do it today. I am going to ask you to pay attention to the person next to you and we are going to do a little language study. We are going to start in Spanish and that includes non-Spanish speakers as well.

Father, in the name of Jesus, Father, we welcome you. Your baptism through the Holy Spirit in one body. Spirit of God takes control. Do your wonderful work, do your supernatural work, even that difficult work, we are yours and we surrender to you in Jesus name.

Father, I pray that you will unleash a celebratory anointing in the months and years ahead as we say yes to your call, Lord for you are great, Lord and mighty.