Worship Matters (Part 2)

Let's go to the word of the Lord, Acts, chapter 16. We said before today that we wanted to dedicate the entire service and what a beautiful spirit of praise, to meditate on adoration. And I want to do a little meditation on, I call this sermon, Worship Matters. Chapter 16 of the book of Acts. I just want to point out 3 or 4 important things about worship, why today we have spent so much time worshiping God and how the presence of the Lord has moved in our midst with such, such effectiveness and impact. Verse 16, Acts 16, verse 16. Since we're studying the book of Acts, I'm going to extract the base text, right there, from this book and then we'll go back and stay within the book of Acts. Because we have said that we are going to keep meditating as much as possible. And the book of Acts on many occasions points out the importance of worship as befits a book that expresses the energy of the Holy Spirit in such a graphic and clear way. Known passage of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas in Philippi, says the 16:

“It happened that while we were going to pray, a girl who had a spirit of divination met us….”

Did you know that bad spirits specialize, they go to the university of spirits and some come out of there with a degree in whatever, criminality, alcoholism? This spirit had a doctorate in divination, and therefore this girl reflected an ability to guess, she read people's minds, she prophesied. The devil prophesies too, you know? And that spirit gave him a special skill. There are diabolical gifts and there are also divine, spiritual gifts. She had this divining spirit.

“…. Which gave great profit to his masters…” -guessing, they took her around the city and exhibited her, she gave her a word. Who has ever heard, do not raise your hand, to a gypsy over there to read the cup or the tea leaves or whatever, the Lord rebuke that practice, no. A child of God has no place to be in any of those things, not the horoscope and nothing. Don't tell me that you, someone asked me, pastor what sign are you? I told her, sister, I already stopped that a long time ago. Interestingly, I am a Leo from the Lion of Judah. I'm not going there… but you don't have to be seeing any of those things. We believe in the Holy Spirit, he does give us a word. But these people took this girl to different parts of the city guessing, and gave them great profit, great money.

“…. And he is following Paul and us, those who accompanied Paul, he cried out, saying, these men are servants of the most high God who announce to you the way of salvation..."

Listen to me, you know that the devil knows that Christ is the Son of God and the devil knows those who serve the Lord too. You know that the devil knows that the lake of fire and brimstone awaits you, but you do not convert despite all that. It is bad. Satan is bad. He is inveterate, he does not have the grace of God in him and that is why he cannot be converted.

This girl in her very spirit of divination gave her the ability to discern in Paul her partner who was a servant of God, but since that confession came out of an unclean spirit, Paul discerned that fact and his spirit rejected that objective statement. I don't think she wanted to worship the Lord with that, but rather was compelled and compelled by the force of the spirit in them to point out that fact.

I don't know if you have had the opportunity, I have been in situations where I have been dealing with demon-possessed people and the spirits confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they have to confess it. They hate and loathe him but they know that Jesus Christ is Lord, and they confess the power of the blood of Jesus as well. If anything convinces me of the power of blood, it's when a demon confesses it, let me tell you.

And that girl was confessing that, she had to. Says:

“…. And this he did for many more days, displeasing Paul, through him he discerned the demonic nature of that confession, he turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her', and he left at that same hour …”

Do you know what happens? That when the spirit of God manifests itself, persecution also comes and it comes, that is what we were saying, that where the spirit of God is, you will remember a study that we gave some time ago, not only the gifts are manifested, there is effective evangelism, there is healings and miracles, there are prophecies, but there is also persecution. And look what happened here: when the spirit manifested itself, this girl was healed and set free. Says:

“…but when their masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and brought them to the forum before the authorities and presenting them to the magistrates said, 'These men, being Jews, disturb our city and teach customs that are not us. lawful to receive or do, since we are Romans'…”

They got very patriotic at the moment, you know? Money makes people patriotic right away and very spiritual.

“…and the people crowded against them –they roused the people-…and the magistrates, tearing their clothes, ordered them to be whipped with rods and after having beaten them a lot, they were thrown into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely, who received this The mandate put them in the innermost dungeon… -the man took the order seriously and put them alone-…. And he secured their feet in the stocks…”

What happened? He chained them and bound their feet in this dungeon where he put them. But look how interesting, he says:

“…. But at midnight praying Paul and Silas..." -what were they doing? They complained about God, Lord, why do you allow them to do this to us if we have served you? Lord, if we drive the demon out of that girl, now you pay us by allowing them to flog us and put us in jail. That is what we do when we go through trials. What's happening? We complain about God. But Lord, if I was in church on Sunday and gave my tithe, why are you kicking me out of work now, why did my car break down, why did I run out of gas in the middle of Route 93 and look at all the cars here honking at me. Father, why do you allow this? We complain and look at the circumstances instead of looking at God.

Pablo and Silas did something totally different, despite their blood flowing, despite the pain of the whipping, despite the humiliation, despite not knowing what was going to happen to them. Imagine how one would feel if this happened to them. Don't believe it, prisons in those days didn't have air conditioning, you know? They did not have high definition color television. They were terrible places. And I imagined that while they felt the paws of the rats on their feet, chained, Paul and Silas worshiped the Lord. I imagine that with the blood hardening on the places where they had scourged, they gave glory and honor to the Lord. And what happened when they chose to look up instead of down?

“…Then suddenly a great earthquake occurred, in such a way that the foundations of the prison were shaken and instantly all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were released. Waking up the jailer and seeing the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried out in a loud voice, saying, do yourself no harm, for we are all here. He then, asking for light, rushed inside and trembling fell at the feet of Paul and Silas, and taking them out he said to them, 'Gentlemen, what must I do to be saved?'….

Listen to me, what a change of situation, eh? 180 degrees. The man who was in total control of the lives of these missionaries, the man who had flogged them and put them in the last cell of the jail, now, the tables are turned and now he is saying, what do I have to do? Tell me.

Now, Pablo saves his life, saves him from committing suicide. That is what happens, brother, when you adore the Lord, when you get in tune with the dimension of the spirit, God changes the situation. That is the power of praise. That is the power of worship.

Listen, it occurs to me right now, I didn't talk about this this morning, but right now in this nation everything seems to be described here in the first part of that story. The devil seems to be in control. The flesh, the man, the pride, the arrogance of man is in control in this nation. The intellect dominates this region.

I was reading on the internet last night, at Disney World, which is supposed to be the place where you celebrate family, innocence, the simple things in life, this weekend, I think it's the first weekend, or the weekend of Last week, it is the day to celebrate homosexuality and 100,000 homosexual couples and people come trampling on innocence, precisely, at Disney.

The devil is ironic, you know? The devil is ironic. And as I always tell you, I have nothing against homosexuals. I say, brethren, let me say it again, if I could have all of you leave the church and the church be filled with homosexuals seeking Christ, I would not think twice about it. I love you very much, but I would tell you, brothers, find another church that they will stay and fill the seats, sincerely. Nothing would honor me more than working with my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Christ loves them and Christ wants to redeem them and Christ gave his blood for them. I would never dishonor a homosexual by making fun of him or her, most of them are people worthy of respect. And many of them are more ethical than us Christians, I tell you sincerely. But they are confused, they are tied up and they are under the control of Satan, and they are hurting themselves and others, and that is why the love of Christ compels us to denounce this. So I say that just so you understand.

But, one looks at this nation and one sees the opposite, one sees how everything would seem to be dark, it would seem that the church is in the stocks, with its feet tied by chains, its hands, its mouth covered with a plastic, metal placed on his mouth and he cannot announce the Gospel, he cannot give the word.

I'm reading a book right now by an author James Davidson Hunter, I think his name is, I can't remember right now, I'm bad at names a lot, professor of religion at the University of Virginia. And this book talks about why we shouldn't jump into trying to change culture, why we shouldn't talk about changing culture. Because it says, it's impossible, there are too many factors, it's too complex. It's called 'To change the world', if someone wants to read it, 'Change the world', it's an ironic title. And he gives many reasons, very deep ones, and that's why I'm reading the book, why, I agree with many of the things he says, that's why the book has captivated me, but I flatly reject his premise that for this reason, for how difficult it is, we should not try to change the culture and change the world.

And it would seem so, when one looks at this nation, and one sees that it is the governmental, financial, cultural, intellectual, scientific elites that control the world, and they are eminently secular. The church seems to be on the margin, to be in the stocks, stuck in the deep.

What will change that situation? How can a situation that is totally hopeless, gloomy, that does not seem open to change, how can it change overnight? With spiritual weapons, praising and glorifying in the name of the Lord. Worshiping in the name of the Lord, raising the glory of God to descend on the earth. A church that worships, a church that declares the name of Christ, a church that lives the Christian life and releases the power of God.

God can change this situation that we are seeing in this nation. Brothers, I dare to say overnight, with a powerful visitation of his spirit. This writer says that one generation will never be enough, he makes fun of others who say that one generation, 20, 30 years, is more, I believe brothers, that in one day God can change all things, in one day if the Holy Spirit truly visit his people. I know that he will not do it through the tricks of men, but he can do it through the move of the Holy Spirit, he can change the impetus, at least, the momentum of the demonized secular man and he can change things and put it in another turn.

And that is why it is important to worship the Lord. In a moment everything changed in this passage. And those who were victims became protectors and saviors. Those who were powerless went on to instruct those in power on how they should proceed to gain salvation and eternal life. And I say, brothers, that in a church that worships like we worshiped a while ago, it can change a nation. If the Lord is pleased to visit us with his power and release the anointing of God, God can change everything.

Let's not stop adoring the Lord, let's not underestimate the importance of praising the name of Jesus in this way, that our life, that this church is characterized... when God gave me that vision of the Lion of Judah, one of the things that Judah represents is the praise. The tribe of Judah is a tribe that worships, that praises the Lord. Look it up in the Bible, and the lion is the king of the jungle, the lion is the most royal animal in all of human mythology.

And Christ at this time needs to be worshiped as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the key that I believe will unleash the move of God's power is praise, adoration. That is the magic key that opens the presence of God.

And what happened here was this man asked them what I must do to be saved. I would like to see this culture turn around and fill the churches with people saying, how can we be saved, how can we find salvation. And that there would be churches prepared to lead him as Paul and Silas led this man.

“…And they said ‘believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you and your household will be saved. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all those who were in his house and he, taking us at that same hour of the night, washed their wounds and immediately he and his family were baptized. And taking them to his house he set the table for them and rejoiced with all his house for having believed God..."

The Holy Spirit tells me that here in this passage there is a paradigm. This is the second part of the sermon that I preached this morning. There is a paradigm here of how God changes things in an instant, that what seems impossible for man, for God is absolutely, as I said, comically easy. God can change the situation of this nation with a people that worship him, a people that challenges the devil, that declares the glory of God against all odds, that insists on declaring, yes, Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is Lord .

That was what I saw when I had that dream of the Lion of Judah looking over the city, over a herd of demonic beings, which covered all the skyscrapers in the city of Boston, from where I was on earth I pointed my finger towards the Lion of Judah who looked over them with authority and said three times, you are the Lord, you are the Lord, you are the Lord. And we are here in this city of Boston, in this place that I think is a magical place, this place here, this cult in the city of Boston is as if I were mystical, I would say that this place is like a button, there is something special here, in this place, in this area. Why do you think this area is full….

You know what they told me recently here in the prayer time that we have here every day in this group 333, not 666, 333, it's different, here, Chris Odow, he told me that a doctor from Boston Medical Center recently came to pray with them, he comes to a time of prayer here and he told them, the largest abortion center in all of New England is one block from us, behind the building where Gregory lived, that's the largest abortion center in all of New England . I don't know if they've changed it too but the biggest place for the mentally ill, the Salomon Carter Fuller Center is also two blocks from here.

I had a dream years ago when we just started working on this building, where…. The building was made of rubble, it was empty, it was hollowed out, there were only bricks in this place, in the dream I saw myself in the basement of this building, which at that time was a dungeon, the basement was scary. You see the basement now and you would never imagine what was there. There was a boiler there that was a monster, made of cast iron, that the architects who when we arrived told us, look, don't even try to get that out of there, because you won't be able to. Put a wall around it. Brother Mario Ulloa designed a form, and I believe that in less than half a day we disarmed it and removed it. We tamed the monster from the León de Judá basement.

And it was a place like that, full of water, the water was constantly pouring in. Well, an ugly place. So in the dream I found myself, I knew I was alone, I had entered the building and opened it with the key I had, the building was alone and I was in the basement. But for the moment in the dream I realized that there was company, that there were people in the place and that they were in the basement. So I asked myself, but how have people entered if the building is closed? And the first thing I saw was in a dream, a woman, I didn't know what this area of Southend was, later I understood that this place is the largest concentration of centers for social work.

Here they are, in this area is the major center for homeless people, the Pine Street Inn. It is the largest homeless center in the United States. I don't know if there is a bigger one now, but this is the first and the biggest of all. There's the first, right in our backyard here, there's the first shelter for women who have experienced violence and that nationally known Rosie's Place, right there in our backyard, a huge center for abused and homeless women. Some of the largest addiction treatment centers in all of New England are right here. There were some hospitals that served and still serve the poor, which is the Boston Medical Center, it has improved a lot but it was a place where you did not want to go if you had an accident or something happened to you. There was one of the biggest liquor centers, it was Blanchards, which, thank God, has now been turned into a pharmacy that sells medicine. How cute, right? Before, they sold liquor and now they sell medicine and things to improve hair and to heal one instead of making one sick. Praise God for that.

And there is also one of the biggest places where people gather to be taken to the island, I don't remember, Long Island where hundreds and hundreds of homeless people go to sleep, spend the night and then come back here, they are thrown out. the whole city in the rest of the day until the night and they are taken again right there too. You see them at Albany with Massachusetts Avenue.

So I saw at the moment when…. I didn't know anything about that because we're just beginning to enter the eastern neighborhood, we're talking about the year 1994 to be precise. So I'm in the basement and I told them it was going to be brief…. I'm going to finish, because this is the second part. Do you want me to continue or do I shut up? I'm being flirtatious.

The fact is that I see, I say, but if I am alone here, then a tall, thin woman with hair made of paste, straw materializes in front of me, or at a certain distance. You've seen the person when their hair hasn't been washed for weeks and weeks, it gets like straw, sticks together, a net more or less. I see this woman with her hair like this and with an empty look in the distance, simply and poorly dressed, and she comes walking towards me as if she didn't see me. And I understood that what was in her was a spirit of madness. And this woman is walking towards me, I panic inside the dream, I start to speak in tongues and she comes, does like this, and passes through me and continues walking, as if I did not exist.

And then I turn my gaze and see an extremely obese man sitting in a lazy chair, a very thick chair, very comfortable, but the chair was messed up, but it was one of those chairs that are called lazy chairs, it was a chair for lazy people, maybe one of you has one of those at home in front of the television. And that extremely obese man with a look of utter ennui and no purpose in life, sitting there in that seat, just an embodiment of meaninglessness and purposelessness in life. And I felt that there was also a spirit of failure that had settled on this man and that there was simply no future for him.

And all of a sudden the place was filled with people around me and I saw different types of spirits walking around. And then I understood in my mind that these spirits were not aware that there was a building here, for them the earth was a large square and they simply walked and they circulated around this place, they were simply walking from one place to another as if it were a park or a huge square. And this building had no materiality for them, nor did it prevent them from moving. I then understood that we were in a center of infection.

After that I understood, I knew that here was full of drug addicts, alcoholics, people with emotional and mental problems, and I understood what this place was, this area here. The Southend is known for all of those things. Now it's gentrified and there are all kinds of people, but when we got here it's still a very complex place. There are the rich and there are the outcasts of the earth. They are both here in this place, they live together.

So I believe that for some reason God chose this place so that his name would be exalted and adored here. So understand that you inhabit, you are in a very interesting place so to speak. and that our worship has a very significant quality, because it is a worship that is against the powers of the devil. It is a war worship like the lion. This is a congregation that God has called to be a warfare congregation. That's why you have to live up to your calling. This is not here for golfers, this is not for people who like picnics, this is for warrior people.

If you are not living as a warrior, you are not living up to your calling, your heritage. That's why God wants people, hear me, people who put their lives where they put their mouths. God does not want people just by mouth, speaking, speaking, worshiping him, raising hands and then live as they want or are not doing what they have to do for the Kingdom of God.

God wants you to live like a warrior, a warrior. You are royalty, you are noble people, you have to live up to your calling. You are in a holy place. I would dare to say, as they told Moses, remove the sandals from your foot because the place you step on is holy. This is a holy place. This place has a purpose, this place has been chosen by God, this congregation has been chosen by God for something. And that is why when we adore the Lord, when we exalt the name of the Lord, I believe that God has called us to change the circumstances. Our praise changes the situation.

This nation is under the powers of the devil. The church of Jesus Christ is as Paul and Silas were, imprisoned, gagged, prevented from moving. But one thing we can do and that is to adore and glorify the name of God. We can say, you are the Lord, you are the Lord, you are the Lord above principalities and powers, Christ reigns. Christ is on his throne.

And we can put pressure on the Kingdom of Heaven, if the expression fits, so that the Lord sends a time of refreshment for his people, so that the Lord removes the shame of his church, so that the Lord lifts up the head of his princess and put it where he wants to put it, which is a place of authority.

We have to keep saying, Lord, come, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. We have to declare that, we have to declare it over and over again. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. That is the essence of worship.

The essence of worship declares, you are the Lord. It is not the circumstance, it is not our sufferings, it is not our diseases, it is not even our sin, it is you, you are the Lord and you have control. I declare, God is not done with this nation. God can change circumstances if we simply give glory and honor to him, if we live the lives that honor him.

People of God, God calls you on this day. Become aware of the great responsibility that you have. You are in a chosen place. You are in a mysterious place. In this place your currency is worth much more than it normally is because you are in a magical, magnetic place. If it was those spiritist people or something like that, I would say magnetic. This is a magnetic place. This is a clear place where demons live and the presence of God also lives and we move in a radioactive place and that is why our praise has a lot of importance, a lot of meaning.

And God wants you to be a worshiper always, always. I want the musicians to come through here quickly. I want to capture there in your heart and in your mind and I am going to ask Ernst, these two sermons, they are part of a single sermon so let's put them both and Miguel, also that we put the two sermons on the radio because both are important , they complement each other. My first sermon talks about one thing, this sermon talks about another, and the Lord wants both to be part of a single whole.

But people of God, remember the following, when the walls of Jericho had to fall and it was impossible for the people of Israel to tear down the walls of Jericho, they did not have the weapons, they did not have the means, they did not have the equipment, God simply he said, turn around the walls. He didn't tell them, look around for some stone throwers or whatever to tear down these walls. He gave them a very simple formula: he told them to simply go around the walls. Do not throw stones at the walls, do not take sticks to try to tear them down. Don't throw spears at him. Don't take hammers to knock them down, just circle it around, circle it 6 times. One lap every day.

I imagine that they must have felt half ashamed. Imagine, there a few powerless Jews, turning around some walls, while from above…. Those walls were, they say the walls of Jericho, several carts with horses could run parallel to each other because they were so thick and high. And these poor Jews hanging around. And God told them, circle it 6 times and on the seventh day circle it 7 times and on the seventh time shout.

I believe that that cry was a cry of praise, it was a cry of obedience to the Lord. That was it. And what happened? God told them when they give that cry, the walls are going to fall. I know that my friend, the writer of that book, would laugh out loud if he had been there, he would have said, how impotent, how useless, how ridiculous, to shout at some walls. But it is precisely when man cannot do anything, I believe that the time has passed to change this culture with merely human efforts. This culture has already passed that point. If there is hope for this culture it has to be for a work of God. And then the only thing we can do is become wires through which the energy of God runs. That is the only thing that the church can be, a conductor of divine energy that we have to bring down from heaven with a cry of praise, with a persistence, with an insistence. You are the Lord, you are the Lord, you are the Lord. On the seventh day, round number 13, the walls of Jericho fell and God told them, now, go ahead, don't look anywhere, reach out and do what you have to do. And that day the people of God won a great victory. Everything changed in a single day, in a single day.

I believe that is what God wants at this time, that we believe him and that we adore, adore and live the Christian life and continue to persist, let us not stop announcing the word of God. Let's not chicken out. Let's do what the church always does, let's stay in our place.

The Apostle Paul says, when the bad day comes, be firm and having passed everything, be firm. And that is what the church does, in times of imprisonment and persecution, the church stands on the truth of God and worships and declares the glory of God. And the devil has to flee. At some point the spell is broken and the blessing comes.

People of God, let's worship the Lord. It is important to adore. Never think, we are taking too much time. If we were worshiping out of inertia and habit and religiosity, well yes, then yes, but if the spirit of the Lord is moving and there is gasoline to worship him, we have to worship him, until he tells us, ok, now, they did what they had to to do. God wants a brave people, an adoring people.

Lion of Judah God calls you. Be an adoring people, because adoration changes things. Worship matters. Worship, your worship is important. Glory to the Lord. Father, make us a people of worshipers. Give us eyes to see, give us a heart to feel, give us a mind to understand your truth.