Get rid of and you will receive

Philippians chapter 2 in verse 3 begins what some consider the first hymn or one of the first hymns of the church. There in verse 5 it is believed that this is a hymn that was sung in early Christian meetings. Because for the first Christians the Resurrection of Jesus was essential, it was the exaltation of Jesus, his exalted condition, his rising from the grave. Establishment as the Lord of lords, the King of kings. The fact that God raised him from his condition of humiliation when He emptied Himself of His Glory and assumed the form of a mere man - who was not a mere man but had the appearance of a man even though he was human - but was much more than just human.

And then as God raised him from the dead and put him in one place it is above all another place. And it seems that in his exaltation of the Risen Christ, the Lordship of Christ, his Messianic character, this is one of the first signs. Talk about that process that Christ lived through. But before entering the Apostle Paul in the Hymn which is in verse 5 he begins with some words of practice, application and explanations of life for Christian conduct. Actually this is what is important. Look, that wonderful hymn, that wonderful theological exaltation, because that text that begins with verse 5 is one of the key texts about the deity of Jesus Christ and his superiority over any other figure that we could mention in the economy of faith.

But what motivates the Apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, to exalt and point out that superior, messianic character of Christ is the two previous verses, where he is calling his readers and we are part of that generation and of that church to which the Holy Spirit directs this passage. He is calling them to a lifestyle, a behavior, a way of relating to one another. And that is actually what is on the mind of the Apostle Paul, behavior. The Apostle was not only interested in making a theological exposition –although that is always important- doctrinal. What interested the Apostle Paul was what implications the Resurrection has for the Christian life.

And how do we have to live our life? What kind of conduct? What kind of ethics should we live by as members of the family of Christian faith? So he begins in verse 3 with an exhortation to each one of us. Listen to that exhortation because that is for you and me. It says here: "Do nothing for strife or for vain glory." What is it that sometimes causes so many problems in the Christian life and in congregations? Precisely two things: pride and conflict. And sometimes pride leads to conflict.

And the Apostle Paul many times through his writings calls Christians because you know what? Conflict and pride are not diseases of the 21st century or of the León de Judá Congregation. That is something that comes from humanity itself but certainly the early church had its own problems and difficulties, its conflicts. The Apostle Paul in First Corinthians in chapter 2 talks precisely about -and in chapter 3 also- the conflicts between Christians and that they are filing lawsuits against each other and that there are fights and all this kind of thing .

In the Epistle to the Apostle Santiago, he also speaks about the things that rage within us, the internal conflicts that lead to wars, divisions and fights in the people of God and in the world in general. And in other letters also the Apostle Paul always called the communities to which he wrote to put aside the fights and the search for personal glory. I am thinking, for example, of Romans, I think it is in Chapter 12 if I am not mistaken, where Paul speaks precisely about preferring one another. Of not thinking more of ourselves than we have to think.

But let us think of ourselves sanely, with a sober mind. That we are not exalting ourselves more than necessary, but that we prefer one another, that we put others before ourselves. Because the conflict has always been in the churches and the conflict has always been in humanity. Then the Apostle Paul says "do nothing out of contention or vainglory." How many of us have done things simply to show someone that we can or cannot get away with it? Or that we have something, right? Because we have something to prove. contention, vainglory

He says “rather -with what?- with humility. Estimating each other as superior to himself. In other words, not looking at our own glory, our own preference, but being humble. It is more reaching the point of seeing the good that there is in others and appreciating a lot the virtues that there are in other people. I believe that if we spent more time looking at the good things that people have instead of the bad, I believe that we would solve at least fifty percent of the problems of the human race.

If we were able to focus on the gift of God in a person that sometimes we don't like or a person who is always putting his legs into something in church or something like that and we would see his good intention, his good desire, his love for God. Look, I think half the discomfort we experience would go away in no time. So, there is this idea of esteeming others. Of course, that does not mean that we look at ourselves as the lowest thing on Earth. There is one thing that we can also have low self-esteem and throw dirt on our heads and think "I am worthless", "I am nobody" and "everyone is better than me". That is not the idea.

The idea is 'Look, look at the virtues in others. Emphasize what a blessing others are. Not looking each one for his own but each one also for the others. Always thinking about the good of other people. Always attending and making sure that the people around us are blessed. If there is any need, if there is any deficit in your life, if I can be in any way an agent of God's blessing. An agent of grace, an antenna through which to descend the grace and blessing of God and the bounty of God; in any context, be it at work, at home, at church, on the street, on the bus, on the train, wherever whenever I am looking out for the well-being of other people.

Not thinking about my own good but about the good of other people. By the way, let me tell you, there are illustrations of that. On a day like today when there are so many people in the church and the first service was tremendously crowded, listen to me, how important it is that on occasions like this we Christians keep that in mind! How easy we forget Christianity when the keys squeeze us a little! or when someone takes our favorite space or someone is sitting where we regularly sit.

Or they ask us to give up a seat so that a person or a family can be more comfortable. How nice it is when one as a Pastor can ask the brothers: "Brothers, could you make yourself a little more comfortable?" And the brothers with that good face say: "Of course, Pastor." I saw two or three samples of that during the Service and what a joy that gives us, right? Because we are experiencing, we are carrying out what the Word of the Lord says.

But look, that practical call of the Apostle Paul which leads him to give an illustration of that. It is interesting that one of the most exalted declarations of the deity of Christ and of his lordship and of his exaltation came as a result of a humble meditation on Christian behavior, on Christian ethics; about how relationships should be between the children of God and also towards the rest of humanity. And he came because the Apostle Paul wanted to give an example of that attitude. He is saying 'Brothers behave this way, relate to each other in this way'.

'This is the attitude in each one of you, this is the way you should relate'. And I am going to give you an example of this, I am going to illustrate that attitude. Feel this that I am going to describe to you. Then he says: "Let there be in you this feeling that there was also in Christ Jesus." That is to say, brothers, that that attitude that was in Christ Jesus dwells in each one of us. Look, you know? The word that is translated into English 'feel' is actually more like 'mind' in the original Greek. "Let there be in you the same mind that was in Jesus Christ." We could say the same mentality, the same attitude, the same conviction, the same way of thinking that existed in Christ Jesus.

In other words, for Christ, what He did of stripping Himself of His glory and obeying the Father and becoming uncomfortable for us was the product of an essential attitude that was in Him. A governing principle of His person. And I think it's important to insist on that because sometimes saying "there is the same feeling in you" one thinks of an emotion, right? And sometimes emotions can be fleeting. One day I can feel like I want to be generous and another day I'm in a bad mood and 'look, whoever brought it takes it. I'm going to do what I have to do' and we don't care about other people, right?

But what he says here is that there has to be in us a mentality, an ethic, a way of thinking, a system that governs our lives, whether we like it or not. We feel that we want to do it or not, we like the person or we don't like it, we like it or we don't like it. It is a concept because that is what Christ did. Christ did not think about whether He wanted to strip Himself of His glory and come to Earth and become a man and release His benefits and privileges from God. He did it because the Father – so to speak, this is the complexity of the Trinity, isn't it? – did it because he wanted to solve the dilemma of this human race and his own dilemma of Justice and Mercy and the Sin of Humanity. , All this.

And the Lord Jesus, as we said last Friday, in our meditation, Christ was the answer and He simply humbled Himself in obedience, put privileges aside. He did not think about what He wanted to do, he thought about the need of a humanity that was lost in sin, condemned to death, abandoned. Because there was a separation between God and that sinful humanity. And humanity was completely devoid of hope, at the mercy of the enemy.

[Ushers, there is a sister there who –attend her please-] At the mercy of the enemy. And it says in one of the passages, I think it's in Ephesians, 'But God, when we are mired in sin, Christ died for us.' Look, it wasn't like we deserved. We did not deserve to be saved. It wasn't like God said, 'This poor humanity that is so eager to be reconciled to me needs me to send them a Savior. It wasn't like humanity was crying out to God for a Savior. It wasn't like humanity had evolved to a point where God said, 'You know what? Now they deserve a special work. No.

At the most undeserving moment in the history of humanity, at that moment Christ died for us. Christ stripped himself of his glory. That is to say that what God did was purely for his objective love, it was not because we deserved it. God decided to do it and Christ decided to obey the Father. I think about it, there is in us that mentality, that attitude, that governing principle of the Christian life that led Christ to strip himself of his glory. When I see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to the Father and he says "Lord, if You want, if it is possible, take this cup from me".

Do you remember that passage? It is a passage that is often preached on Good Friday, he was sweating drops of blood from such terrible tension that he felt because he knew what awaited him on that cross. He knew the Way of the Cross, the suffering that was before Him. And He said: “Lord, if it is possible, deliver me from this. I do not want that. I am terrified - in his humanity said the Lord - the idea of climbing that cross”. But that he said: “But your will be done and not mine”. In other words, he put aside his preferences, he put aside his terror, he put aside his feelings, and he just gave in to the beginning.

The principle of obeying the Father, humble yourself and be a servant and do what the Lord wanted Him to do, the Father wanted Him to do, right? So, that is why it says "Let there be in you this same feeling", this same mentality that was in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, did not estimate being equal to God as something 'to cling to'. Do you know that Jesus Christ is God Himself? That is one of the great truths of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ is God himself. In the mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Bible says over and over again that Jesus Christ is God. He was not created. The Son of that mystery that we call the Trinity was not created, He has neither beginning nor end, He is the very essence, He is made of the same essence as the Father.

He is God himself. Don't let anyone put you in a poke. Let no one ever cast doubt that Jesus Christ is God himself. That we cannot understand or explain that in rational terms I understand very well, but not all things of God are necessarily subject to reason. By faith we believe what the Bible says. But Jesus Christ was God, He is God and when He came into the world something magical – I don't know how to say it – happened and it was that He stripped Himself of His glory. He did not get rid of his deity because he continued to be God in man but he got rid of all the privileges and the glory and the effulgence of being God was not...

In his pure deity He was not subject to time, space, nothing. That is to say, He was God himself with all the privileges and all the powers of the deity of "who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to cling to." The word cling is a word that means 'like something I coveted', something to steal, something to snatch, something that was so valuable that one kind of wants to cling to it and no one is going to take it away from me because that's mine. And it says 'despite the fact that He was equal to God, He did not become attached to that unlimited glory, to that absolute, total comfort'.

How many of us cling to things, huh? And that's where the problems come from, right? We cling to our rights, we cling to our prerogatives, we cling to what we have studied, we cling to that person we love so much, we cling to a profession, a house, a car. In the church we cling to our position of leadership, we cling to the treatment that we are supposed to receive for everything we do for the church or we cling to what we believe God has to do for us, because we serve and we give etc.

We cling to many things. We get attached to things that are not valuable and I believe that part of Christian growth, maturity begins when we begin to detach ourselves from things that we love. You understand? When you think you should be given a certain treatment and sometimes you don't get it, you say, 'You know what? Amen. More was lost in the flood. And you don't get attached to that, you don't feel offended. When they don't give you that little Christmas gift that you knew they had to give you and you say 'Amen. It doesn't matter, I'm going to give even if they don't give me. If they don't celebrate your birthday, you don't get offended and feel like you're not loved and pout for the next year with the people around you.

But you don't get attached to those things, you don't cling. If you were sick and the Pastor didn't call you, don't pout the next Sunday when you see him. Amen? How many of us confess we cling, we get attached to the things we do? "They owe me that, they have to give me that." There are so many ways. In the family, at home, in relationships between husband and wife, at work. How many times the problem and the conflict come from secretly clinging to something? We say 'No, this is mine, I have it by right and if they don't give it to me there will be a problem'. So somehow we react.

The Bible says 'Don't be attached to things you think they owe you. Detach yourself from them as Christ detached himself from his glory. It says "Wherefore, being equal with God, he clung to none of these things"; but what did he do? He also stripped. That word "emptied" means to be emptied, hollowed out. It's like taking a spoon and taking a fruit and removing all the seeds inside. I don't know, well an avocado, I can put another. Does everyone know what a pumpkin or an uyama is? The Dominicans have uyama the others gourd, right? This week, in fact, I had been told that if you pick up a pumpkin, sisters, this is a recipe. I will not charge you for this. [laughs]. Do you know that pumpkin goes bad quickly? But I understand that if you take out all the seeds inside that rot more easily, the pumpkin will last much longer. So there is a secret in there for you.

I had a nice piece of uyama, pumpkin back in my house and I decided to do that. I took a spoon and scraped it all up inside. I removed all the seeds and the pumpkin was very clean. I would say that's kind of like what Christ did, right? He took, emptied, everything he had inside, all his deity, all his glory or privileges. He emptied himself, scraped all of that away, and remained simply a pruned tree and assumed human form. Sheared is the word. It is a very powerful theological word. He emptied himself, he stole from himself, we could say, in a sense.

He took away the things that He could have and gave them out of love for man, for humanity and for love of the Father. Because He lived under that principle of serving, of giving to others. But look, what is happening here and the connection that I see between the Resurrection Day, which is what we celebrate today, and this process that I am describing is that, brothers, the marvelous thing is that the Apostle Paul describes all this process of the Christ who emptied himself, who undressed himself of his glory, who emptied himself and undressed himself of everything that He had that gave him comfort and glory, because that is what we talk about incarnation.

These days we celebrate Friday where the Lord was crucified and even before being crucified he was whipped, he was ashamed, he was left alone. We were all scandalized by him, all his disciples left. He was alone to suffer, all this. And before this, he spent thirty years or so on Earth living as Clark Kent, just nobody knew, very few people knew that He was God. He was walking through the streets and 'Ah! He is the son, yes, of Mary and Joseph the carpenter. I know him. It was so unimpressive that people couldn't believe that He was who He was. And when he did miracles they were surprised. His own brothers could not believe that He...

His mother Mary never fully understood, it seems, what He truly was. It was a mystery. He walked those years, simply, humble, simple. When he entered Jerusalem, he did not ride on a huge war horse. He rode on a donkey, simple of heart. He lived his whole life like this. The Bible says “Unattractive”, so that we would say Wow! How attractive! Those pictures of Jesus as if he were Clark Gable or Robert Redford or another of those beautiful and very attractive actors… I don't think so.

When He emptied Himself, He emptied Himself. He was walking through the streets. What I saw was a medium-sized, average Jew there. That was all. He spent thirty-odd years in that existence. Tucked into the straitjacket of his humanity, but within him beat the power of God, the life of God. He was God too, he was God but inserted -in some mysterious way- on a fully human basis. God and humanity, in there, in perfect unity. And that ended on the Cross. And that is why the Apostle Paul says "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and being in the condition of a man - that is, it was not enough simply that He was a man, but that He was in that condition - humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death."

Not just any death, but death of what? Cross death. The worst death a person could experience. I mean, what are we saying here? The stripping of Jesus, his neglect of himself was absolutely total. There could be no greater way for one to lower oneself than what Christ did. And I remember what we were saying before, what does the Apostle Paul say? ‘Look, there is that same attitude in you. That same mentality that led Christ to do all this. And that's why he says 'I can't think, it's as if he was saying, in another example except Christ's.'

If you want to know what I mean, look at Christ and see what He went through. Now brothers, here's the thing. This is the important thing, listen to this. What the Apostle Paul is describing here is for me the central principle of the Christian life. Listen to this, it's what to me makes Christianity distinctive above any other religion. And it is the most mysterious and most contradictory and apparently most paradoxical thing that I know of in all the philosophical and theological principles of humanity. And it is this. The Apostle Paul says: “If you do that and if you live that way and if you let your life be governed by that principle of giving up what belongs to you and what you have a right to have and what you love and what you value and what people owe you.”

"If you are not willing to get rid of it, to detach yourself from it, to give it up for the love of others and for the well-being of others, the same thing that happened to Jesus Christ is going to happen to you too." The same result that Jesus Christ received as a consequence of his behavior and his obedience and living according to that principle, you will also experience in your own life. And what was the result that Jesus Christ received? Look at it here. After describing Friday, the process, the lowering, the suffering, he says; look at verse 9: “Therefore –say with me therefore, in other words: as a consequence, as a result of that behavior, of that action, of that conduct- God also –that is, God did one thing but He did the other thing. other.

God humbled him, lowered him, put him in a straitjacket, allowed him to be put on the cross, allowed him to go into the depths of the Earth and experience death and feel all the sin of humanity, get dirty with the total sin of humanity throughout all of history. Did that. But he also did the following: he exalted him to the highest. He exalted him to the utmost. He raised it up, glorified it in the most extreme way that we can consider. God highly exalted him and gave him a name that "is above all names."

In ancient times and always the name represented dignity, represented authority, represented the power of a family, of a person. That is still so. When you sign what do you sign? You sign your name. The name embodies the person. When you put your name on a check or a contract or a legal document, you are saying 'my person is in there. My life is implied in that name that I am putting in that document. In other words, everything that you are is in there. So here what it says is that: God gave him a name. In other words, it gave it an authority, it gave it a power, it gave it a personality, it gave it a representative character that is above all other representation.

In other words, you can give all the reality that potentially exists has a name. It may be a galaxy, it may be a star or a super star, it may be a fish, it may be an elephant, it may be a disease. Satan has a name, the principalities and powers of hell have names, the angels have names, the atoms in the very center of matter have names. The cells of the body have their name: cells. Everything has a name and if it doesn't have a name it's because it hasn't been discovered yet. But everything in the universe has a name.

The word says that Christ was given a name, that no matter what is mentioned, that His name is always more powerful, higher. All the diseases that we know of have a name, for example. You know what? The name of Christ is more powerful than any disease and that is why we in the name of Jesus pray for healing. [Applause]. Satan has a name, may the Lord rebuke him. Know what? The name of Christ is more powerful than Satan and that is why when you use the name of Jesus, you are clinging to the greatest power that exists in the universe, more powerful than ten thousand or one hundred thousand or billions of atomic bombs or any energy that man can imagine.

When you are plugged into the name of Jesus, you are infinitely powerful, potentially. When you live your life in the name of Jesus there is no concept, there is no problem, there is no difficulty, there is no challenge, there is no tragedy that can be above you because you have the name of Jesus in your favor. You are moving in the mighty name of Jesus. God gave him a name that is above every name, every concept, every principle, every being, every force, every energy, every situation. The name of Jesus.

As a consequence of his despondency, his humiliation, his stripping, his emptying of himself, the Lord told him: 'You know what? As a consequence of all this I am going to give you something that is above all else. I'm going to give you glory, I'm going to give you your power, I'm going to give you back everything you lost', supposedly. You know what? Let me even say this, when Christ went up he had something that he didn't have when he came down. One may think how can God have more? Because if it is God there is nothing more that can be added to it. If I were a philosopher I would say: God is the sum total of everything and God cannot be added to or taken away from. That's what a philosopher would say, right?

But you know what? When God came down and became a man, he acquired something he did not have: humanity. Yes or no? God was God, is God. But when Christ came down he assumed the form of a man. When he ascended He did not leave his humanity like a wrinkled garment and he no longer needed it. The skin of Christ did not stay down there as if it were 'Men in black' that the skin stays there. His humanity did not remain below, his humanity ascended with Him. The one who ascended is God and he is man, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, he has the marks of his crucifixion that prove it. When He rose again He ate fish to say 'I am a man, too'. [Applause].

So, I think the privileges… God gave something to the Lord that wow! I can't even think how big it was. When the Lord was resurrected, He had experienced something incomprehensible. God exalted him to the highest, gave him "a name that is above every name" so that in the name of Jesus every knee of those who are in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth should bow. If He could have said something more within the Earth, around the Earth, beyond the Earth, He would have said it.

But he said 'whatever is in Heaven, on Earth, under the Earth' is hell, whatever it is there is understood. A name. There is no other name greater than the name of Jesus and that every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You know what? Not yet every tongue has confessed, nor does it confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Around here in the South End there are some people who don't believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and there are also all over Boston and in the United States and in the history of mankind there are nations and there are people who…

But you know what? It says that 'one day every tongue will confess, every knee will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord'. [Applause]. And it's good that those of us here have gone before that, we know. And when he says that Jesus Christ is Lord - Curios in the original Greek, that is the word that is translated Lord - he is borrowing from the name that the Hebrews gave to Jehovah. The Hebrews think that the name of God is so sacred that they do not pronounce it with their mouths. So what they say is The Lord. Curios is the original Hebrew translation for the word Lord. The Jews speak of The Lord.

For example, when Isaiah saw the vision of God, he said 'I saw the Lord'. So when he says here that 'Jesus Christ is Lord' he is saying that he is God in his sovereign form, as ruler of all that exists. He dominates everything, He has power over everything, He governs the visible, the invisible, the microcosm and the macrocosm, everything is under the control, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. He has given everything to the son, he says. And one day when the Son has taken everything and has subdued every authority, every principality, every nation under his rule, he says that he will take everything and hand it over to the Father so that everything is one in one and then history will have been consummated in its entirety.

But God gave that right to the Son. But look, with this I promise that I close the story, and it is that God says "If you submit to the same dynamic that Christ submitted to, the same thing that happened to Jesus - of course, in a lesser way as a human being, in the human dimension, on the human scale - it's going to happen to you too." Because remember that this is how the Apostle Paul's meditation began: “Let there be in you this same feeling that in Christ Jesus. Love each other, don't think about yourselves, don't cling to things, don't be demanding of people." Do not be thinking first of your own comfort, of your own benefit, think of others. Don't be thinking of yourself as 'I'm the big deal'.

No! Think about what others have. I believe that if we thought about others and their attributes, there would be fewer self-confident people in the world. I believe that many people have the blessing of having security that I unfortunately do not have because someone who knows himself knows it. Hey! I don't have the right to be so sure of myself. You know what it is and when you look around you see so many people with more talent than you.

But there are people who are so ignorant that they think they are the greatest thing in the world. The last Coca-Cola in the desert, and they walk with security and confidence and take the world ahead. But it's because they're ignorant, not because they know a lot, you know? Because I believe that the more you know, the more insecure you become at a certain point. One understands less than one knows and less one can and the more dangerous is the world and the rougher one is and how many mistakes can we make in the world! The more fragile one feels.

I believe that the maturity of the Christian faith is that, the more one grows, the more one knows, the stronger one becomes in the Lord. As one more diminishes, brothers. That is why Paul says "I will boast rather in my weaknesses" because when I am weak then I am strong. The Lord told him "my grace is enough for you", "my power is perfected -in what?- in weakness". That's why I told you, brothers, listen, when I said a little while ago: the key principle of the Christian life, the number one principle; I would say the principle that runs from Genesis to Revelation, the principle that you will find in all the books of the Bible, in all the characters -I believe- of the Bible, in all the great stories of the Bible is that principle of that when we become small, when we strip ourselves of our rights, of our glory, when we think of others and not of ourselves, the power and grace of God is manifested in our lives. It's better for us.

The more success we have, the more power we have, the more authority we have against the devil, the more God covers us with his grace, the more mercy we find when we are wrong. The more the gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested through our life, the more glory we receive. Because that is the key to everything. When I said about Christ that he emptied himself for love of others, it immediately came to mind... Look at an example, for example, taken almost at random. Old Testament, because we think that these things are from the New Testament, God was already a little more mature and that is why the New Testament was invented. No, I think from the very beginning.

Take for example the life of King Solomon. When Solomon enters the kingdom and God appears to him in a dream and says “Son, ask me what you want. Out of love for your father David, I am going to grant you whatever you ask of me.” What did Solomon ask of him? He told him –wisdom-: “Look, Lord, I am an ignorant young man and I have a large, difficult people to govern. Big State challenges that I don't have a doctorate in politics or international relations or economics. I feel inadequate to do this job, I want to run it well. So I only ask you 'give me wisdom'”. And you know what? That request of Solomon pleased God so much, because God saw Solomon's heart. It's a pity that later, when he was old, he strayed from that truth.

There he is, he went after women, he went after power and glory and since he lost that truth, he ended up a destroyed man. It destroyed all his reputation and all his glory that he achieved as a young man. But when he stayed in the essential dynamic of Christ, the essential dynamic of the heart of God, when he asked God for that, God said to him, 'You know what, Solomon? I like what you have asked. Since you did not ask me for riches, you did not ask me for power, which is what a man would normally have asked me for, you did not ask me for the heads of your enemies, which is what a King who is just beginning would ask for. You know what, Solomon? I'm going to give you what you asked for. I am going to give you wisdom like I have not given to any human being. I will give you knowledge, I will give you understanding. But you know what? Not only that, I'm going to give you money, I'm going to give you glory, I'm going to give you power, more than any other man”.

Throughout history, proportionally, Solomon was the richest and most powerful man. His realm reached such a high level. God gave him, why? Because he did not think of himself, he thought of his people, he thought of pleasing God, he thought of doing a good job. He was worrying about his nation. And when God saw that dynamic -because that is what moves the heart of God, that is what excites God- when a man, a woman lives according to that principle 'Not me, but God and others'. When you live your life to please God and how you know that what pleases God the most is when we care about his creatures. When you take care of someone because they are a son of God, they are a daughter of God, that is what pleases God.

And you know what? When you live like this, God is out of his mind trying to bless you. He will find a thousand ways to bless you. If we understood that and each day we lived descending to ascend, dying to live eternally, stripping ourselves to receive glory. Making ourselves small to be great, not asking for anything to have everything, stripping ourselves of our rights to have people's esteem. Listen to me if you and I who am preaching this sermon, sometimes I preach things that I don't even believe myself, brother, I preach them because I know what the Bible is. I say sometimes, I am preaching something very exalted. I say 'Lord help me to live it'.

Because I assure you that if we understood that, we would be the most powerful, happiest and most successful people in the world. Today brothers, I wish in the name of the Lord that each one of us, that our church, this community of faith and that Christianity in general understands that, basic. If your father lives not to live through your children vicariously. How many parents want to fulfill themselves through their children? And we use children as an instrument for our dreams and solve our problems of the past. If you live so that your children become what God wants them to be and you give yourself to them; husband, you are the head of the home, you are the spiritual leader of your family. But if you live so that your wife reaches the maximum in Christ Jesus, if you serve her, if you serve her, if you bless her, if you love her as Christ loved the church.

If you become a spiritual leader, a mentor, a Jesus who serves and washes his wife's feet, how much glory will you receive! Son, if you submit to your father as Christ submitted to the Father and you venerate your father or your mother and you obey your father and your mother because they are your father and your mother, because the Bible says "Honor your father and your mother” and if you obey them even though you are not totally convinced of everything they are telling you but you give them preference and take care of them and treat them well and serve them, you know what? One day when you are a father, your children will bless you and serve you. And you will know what true glory is.

Head of an office or manager of a factory or owner of a company if you serve your employees, in the sense of not letting them do what they want with you, I'm not talking about that, but if you understand that you have a commitment With them to take care of them, to treat them well, to respect the dignity that is in them, to even help them to train and grow and develop more professionally, you are going to have people who are loyal and dedicated to you. Unless they are not scoundrels and they are there from time to time, but God will defend you from them because you are doing things according to what God says.

Brothers, if we in the church treated each other with that care, that attention, that affection, that consideration. If you were not thinking about how they are treating you, what they are giving you, if you simply give, you are a servant or a servant. You are here to bless your community, you are here to bless your church, bless your Pastors, bless the kingdom of God, you live that way. You don't care so much about yourself, your own rights, your own nature that demands consideration and you just live as an innocent child, let God care about you. Worry about others for the love of God and God will always be defending you. You will have esteem of others.

Do you know why we often have so much anxiety and insomnia? Because there is something secret inside of us that we have not solved. Something we haven't gotten rid of. Get rid of everything, give it all to God. Live for God, live in God, live for others and you will have mental and emotional health. And psychiatrists are going to starve. Glory to God for psychiatrists. [Applause] Because you're going to have peace in your heart. Nobody can take anything from you because you have nothing, everything belongs to God. You are going to have esteem, you are going to have respect, you are going to have influence.

People are going to come to you because the world is eager to find teachers, mentors, role models and they are going to look for you. They will want you to teach them, advise them. Look, God is going to give you materially, you are not going to lack anything because God is going to take care of what you give is returned to you more than anything. You will have knowledge of the things of the word and the mysteries of the Gospel. Because the mysteries of the Gospel depend on that main principle: “Drop off and you will receive, die and you will live, become weak and you will be powerful, give and you will receive more and more every day. Believe that you know nothing and you will know everything. Move in the power of God and you will have the power of the universe, not in your own power.

It is the main principle. All through Scripture, it's that principle. It is not with swords, it is not with armies, it is with the spirit. It is not with your strength, it is not with your talent, it is not with your skill, it is in the power of God. And the more you empty yourself, the more you strip yourself, the more you hollow out inside, the more God can put his anointing inside you, his glory inside you, his gifts inside you. And you will experience the blessing. That is the key, brothers. I believe that many of the problems of Christianity is because we have not understood that truth. Lots of suffering. And that is why we are going to have to insist again and again and again and again on this church and all of Christianity.

I believe that we have to be insisting on that truth, insisting, insisting. Because I tell you, I believe that the problem of the Christians through the centuries has been that the priests, the pastors have failed in that. And now we have churches everywhere and we have an evangelical or Catholic, semi-Christian culture where we teach people a lot of things but we are not teaching them the most important thing of all, which is to live life as Christ lived it. Feeling the same as Christ felt, thinking as Christ thought, combining life and human relationships as Christ combined them. In that dynamic of “the smaller I get, the bigger I am. The more I give, the more I receive, the more I love, the more loved I am, the more I strip myself, the more I have. The weaker I get, the stronger I am, the more I care about others, the more God cares about me."

If we learn that, brethren, you don't have to come to church. Stay at home and you will be a spiritual giant. I'm playing just in case. But it is the essential word. The real, the resurrection depends on the crucifixion. The power of resurrection Sunday is not reached except through crucifixion Friday. It is only reached through thirty years of anonymity and dispossession and poverty. But then you will have glory, God will give you a name. Do you want a name? Many people want a name and they kill themselves trying to get the name. Let God give you the name. If God gives you the name, that name will be excellent, it will be beautiful, it will be wonderful. God willing that this congregation, at least, among us today a desire is born or increases to have the same thought that Christ had. The same way of proceeding, the same governing principle of not thinking about myself but thinking about others and thinking about God above all.

I would like to live up to that teaching and I want you to also join in that desire this afternoon. Amen. We are going to lower our heads for a moment and we are going to ask the Lord to give birth to or strengthen that principle in our hearts, in our minds, in our whole being. Lord, I want to think like Christ, I want to think like Christ. I want to have the mind, the attitude of Christ, I want to be Christ walking on Earth. People will simply see an ordinary human being but Christ will be walking in me with his power, his authority, his discernment, his wisdom and I will receive from You what I long for and need.

You will give it to me. I want to be like that, I want to be like Christ, I want to live life like Christ. I would like to ask if there is anyone this afternoon who visits us or who has not yet taken a step of faith to give their life to the Lord Jesus. I don't want anyone to leave here without a desire perhaps to reconcile with the Lord or put their life in Jesus' hands or invite that Christ into their heart. If you have not done it before and want to do it now, we are going to take a moment to invite you to consider putting your life in the hands of Jesus and invite him to come into your heart and make the Lord your life so that He will teach you how to live like He lived and have the power that He has and had.

I want to ask if there is anyone here this afternoon who wants to invite Christ into their heart, if they haven't done so before. We would like to pray for you this afternoon before you leave. Will there be someone who has not done it before and who wants to give their life to Jesus this afternoon? The Lord says "Whoever comes to me I will not cast out." [He walks by] Glory to God. Perhaps there is someone else who has not given their life to the Lord and wants to do it now. It takes courage to be first, you know? Will there be someone, a brother, a sister, a young person, someone else who wants to take a step of faith this afternoon? I invite you to come here and start walking the way Christ walked. This is a long journey. If you have not done it before, I invite you to spend a moment here and on a day like today, which is a day of Resurrection, perhaps you want to take that step.

I invite you to come here. Will there be someone else who has not taken that step and wants to do it now? [Applause] Glory to God. Amen. Glory to God. There would still be time if someone wanted to do it, if they are restless there or restless in your seat, perhaps it is the Holy Spirit that is telling you “You are going to feel uncomfortable but it is part of the process that Pastor Miranda is describing in his sermon. You have to move not according to emotions but according to spiritual principles. Is there anyone else who hasn't taken that step yet who wants to do it now this afternoon? We make a call. Is there someone else up there or down there? We wait if they are on the balconies, if they are in the last seats of the place. Will there be someone else? Let's pray for these brothers.

Let's thank God for them. Lord we thank you for these wonderful men who have given their lives to You. We bless this young woman. Lord, we thank you for this young woman, who we have here before us. There are a couple of sisters that please come with me too. And we give thanks Lord, thanks for this life are precious in front of you. They are worth stars, they are worth galaxies, they are worth the world Lord. They are worth to you infinitely. I bless each one of them in the name of Jesus. And Lord Jesus we offer them to you as trophies of your Resurrection. We offer them to you as trophies of your Crucifixion and of your life of suffering and sacrifice. We ask you to enter their hearts as your word promises that you have to do, Lord. Go in with them, sit with them and be intimate with them.

I bless them and declare your Lordship, your healing, your blessing, your name over their lives and over this church, Lord, we also establish the principles of the Kingdom of God. I want this church in your name, Lord -I say it like this- I want this church to exemplify that central principle of the Christian life: love, humility, dedication to others, obedience to the Father, mutual submission, mercy, goodness, meekness, forgiveness , grace, patience, benignity. Those principles, Lord, we embrace as men and women and God. We are not going to live for ourselves, we are going to live for you and your creatures. We will be instruments of your grace. We want this church, this family to be characterized by these principles. It starts with me and goes through every person, Lord.

And we ask that Your church throughout the Earth know that He served others even though He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Establish Your person, Lord, in this place and in this family of faith. Today we ask for it and we commit ourselves to live in this way for the glory of your name. To you the glory, not to us. Thanks thanks. Keep up with this family of faith, Father. And thank you for all that we have experienced on this day, Lord. Seal it in our hearts and our lives. Thank my Lord. We love you. In the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.