Enough faith to take the extra step

We move on. What was it that I was saying last Wednesday? There is no enduring vocation that is not first shaken, in other words, there is no Christian life that does not have a sense of itself without first being shaken. We were reading in Luke, chapter 22, if you can go with me one more time to jog your memory. Luke, chapter 22, verse 31, is the event in which Jesus is in the process of instituting the dinner and is identifying the person who was going to betray him and suddenly he turns to Peter, in verse 31 and tells him :

“…Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked you to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you – sorry, I am in Luke 22, verse 31, to those who did not hear me before, he says -… Simon, Simon behold, Satan has asked them to sift them like wheat but I have prayed for you so that your faith does not fail and once you return that you can confirm your brothers..."

Last Wednesday obviously I was talking about this idea of how many times we have this ideal that if we enter into a Christian life, if we enter into a relationship with Christ, I don't know why but many times we have this utopian ideal, that Ah, well, if I become a Christian, everything is going to work out for me, and it's not necessarily like that. In fact, I would say that it is quite the opposite. When you give your life to the Lord, things get even harder and maybe someone out there, hey, but you are masochists so you throw yourself into chest pain. But no, it is a suffering that is worth it, it is a suffering that edifies life, so to speak, edifies the being, edifies the heart.

And of course, my brothers, that shaking, those jolts that occur in our being, can come in many forms and I was reflecting last Wednesday on the character of Pedro, how through the experience he had, the which was also measured by Jesus, and Jesus knew what was going to happen. That denial that was seen of Peter, when Peter himself threw himself as if to say, chest, ah, Jesus even if everyone abandons you, I will not abandon you, I am willing to go with you to jail and even die with you if necessary . And that's when Jesus himself told him, oh, Pedro, if you knew that right now in a couple of hours you're going to deny me 3 times before I sing in quiquiriquí. The thing is, that's how it happened.

And you know, it's very interesting because just last Wednesday when I finished speaking, Sister Clara, I don't know if Sister Clara is around, no, I don't see her, but Sister Clara approaches me and says, hey, pastor. Omar, how interesting what you said. And she started mentioning to me sort of, case after case in Peter's life of all the things that Peter experienced with the Lord, how first of all Jesus identified him out of nowhere, a man who was destined to be a sad fisherman in the corner Jesus identified him and chose him and began to make a great man out of him. Peter began to see miracles from Jesus, he began to see the multiplication of loaves, the multiplication of fish, the healing of the sick, the liberation of people possessed, demonized, chained in some way or another mentally, emotionally, physically, healing of sick, not only that, but I was listening to a teaching from the most important Master in history and not only was I listening to the teaching of a more important Master at a public level, but I also had the opportunity in privacy, as they say , to make a debrief of all those things and receive a more nourished teaching that touched his heart .

That was the interesting thing Peter sees, that on the mount of transfiguration, he not only saw Jesus change his garments to a white that glowed and his face also glowed, but he was also able to see two additional characters that he had never seen before. I had seen before, Moses and Elijah. Do you remember that he was referring to that passage where he himself, Jesus, was asking, and who do you say that I am? And nobody dared to say anything, and suddenly, Peter received this revelation and said, You are the Christ, you are the Son of God”.

So with all these manifestations of the power of God that Peter saw occur, not only in Jesus but through him as well, with everything and that, look at this secret, Peter denied it, Peter doubted who he was. Peter did not have enough faith to take that extra step. And you know what? I began to reflect on this because I told myself that we are also very similar to that character in many ways. There are so many things that we have seen from God in the midst of our lives, how God has moved in us, how God has given us words to animate our being and perhaps we are not saying that God himself speaks to us like this with a audible voice, that God can use other people at key and specific moments to say something to us that catches us in the loop and helps us move forward, that suddenly we didn't find that we were in a bind and we didn't know what we were going to do and it He opened a door and the provision arrived in a miraculous way. And with everything and that we see that form of God working in the midst of our lives, with everything and that we also deny him in different ways, we forget who he is, what he has done and what he can do.

But you know what? What gives me peace about what I am saying, no matter how dark and morbid it may sound, what gives me peace is that Jesus already knew it and Jesus knew that this had to happen. If it had to happen in Peter's life, I dare say that he also knows that things like this have to happen in us, so that we can truly verify who the person of Jesus is in the midst of our lives, so that we We can truly verify, as Pastor Greg said last Sunday, that we are clinging to a glory, to a fire, to a Shekinah that is dangerous, that has power, yes to strengthen us, to build us up, but it also has power to annihilate us. the same time.

And that is what God wants us to know about him. And for the record that I am not saying that God wants us to eliminate ourselves. No, no, no, but there is something that God does want to eliminate, and that is what was happening with the shaking that I was talking about last Wednesday. What shaking does is separate what is disposable from what is desired, separate what is bad from what is good, what can be eaten from what cannot be eaten. That's what shaking does.

And God in order to use us, to truly be able to show himself in the midst of our lives, he knows that we have to be dealt with, we have to be shaken in some way or another. And I look here throughout this room, and it is very interesting because some of us that shaking is given by external life circumstances, but for many of us that shaking comes from the people we love the most and love the most, the most close to our lives.

There are times that it comes like this too and that was what happened to Jesus with Peter. One of the disciples closest to him was the one who committed this misdeed, not necessarily, but who committed this one... he messed it up, okay, you understand me, he messed it up really bad and how he cried. It wasn't that he cried a little, oh, blessed, I betrayed Jesus and then he left. No, the Bible says that this man wept bitterly. Have you tried one of those sweets that are bitter? You who have children, perhaps your child comes with this ball that is that big and says, here, try this. And when you put it on your tongue, your face wrinkles completely. Well, crying like that was what Pedro lived through. His face did not wrinkle, his entire being wrinkled because he had betrayed a man who he himself had sworn would be there with him until the end.

But it was necessary. It is very interesting, my brothers, while I was thinking about this, there is something that the Lord put there in my head. And I'm going to say it very briefly and it's the mere fact that when something seems to be over, it doesn't mean that God is done with you. Let me say it again: when it seems that something has come to an end, that it is over, you cannot stop yourself, because God is not literally finished with you. The conclusion of an era, of a season in your life does not determine what your destiny is, what God has already established for you.

And I want you to record this because for Pedro at that moment it could have seemed that everything was over for him. I imagine that part of that anguished cry that he had was that look, now, here God completely discarded me, I am useless, he is not going to use me, everything is over here. More, however, God had other plans and very big that those plans were, very big.

And for me this was something very revealing, my brothers, because there are times when we get so attached to the situations that we are living, or seasons in which we can find ourselves that when it seems that these things have come to an end it is like if our full life had ended and we say, already here, my reason for being is over, my purpose is over. There is nothing else to look for.

And that happens in many ways, I mean, there are many ways, people experience it in many ways, some experience it perhaps when a marriage relationship reaches a point of divorce and perhaps one of the parties says, here it is gone. everything, there is nothing more to look for. Or when a loved one dies, suddenly, people kind of say, ah, this has taken me by surprise, I didn't expect this and we think that the death of that person already, that's where my life ended and you see that people get depressed, shut themselves up and it's like they already disconnect from the world, because they think that their whole life went with that person.

When someone loses a job or is laid off or retires or whatever, that the end of a season comes and there are already people who say, and now what am I going to do? I was a man, a woman so active and now I find myself doing nothing, well, it's all over. No, what it implies is that one season in life ends and another begins. There are times when there are seasons that end in very sad and very painful ways because they are also part of life. But even with that sense of sadness, another season will also begin that will bring its joys, it will bring its joys as well as its new tears and its new sufferings and desires as well.

But what I see in this, my brothers, is that this momentum of God, if you remember that I am talking about all this within that topic of the momentum of God. All of this occurs in our lives in some form or another. It's very interesting because I was listening to an illustration of something that happens many times at the airport. You realize at the airport when you are going to cross from the central parking lot usually to the Terminal where Delta or American is, you know what that is... it's not the stairs that go like this, but the stairs that are complete flat, which They move from one side to the other. I don't know if it has happened to you, but it happened to me once, obviously when you come standing on this leash, and you start moving and that's when you stop on the other side, it feels like you've stopped. of song, but does not know that one has to keep walking. I don't know if it has happened to you that you come on this leash, and you come with a group of people behind you and suddenly when you are going to get off, the person in front of you, when you get to the other side to dry, and I don't know if you've seen that then it's like… the momentum that other people bring seems to go with that person and fall on him too. I saw that happen once. It was quite funny but it was an old lady who was in front and like... all the people fell on the lady and I was there, Father, please.

But it is very interesting because that is a very good illustration to understand what I am telling you, that many times in life we can carry a momentum and suddenly if it seems that something has come to an end, that one kind of it cuts and cuts that momentum and we also cut the momentum of other people who are around us or of other plans that God has for us, because we think that everything is over there, when it is not necessarily over.

You get off the leash and stop, but you have to keep walking. So, many times the shaking can cause that in our lives, that causes us to stop, to lose perspective, but it is not what God wants. What God wants is that we can continue, that we can keep moving until there is one last breath left in your life, it does not stop.

Look, let me summarize with this. What are some areas in which we can be buffeted in our life? I am going to mention only a few of the hundreds that exist. And one of the first that I can mention is in the area of character. You know that I talk a lot about this, about one's character, the integrity that one may have, what one is in front of some people, what one is in front of other people, what one is when one is alone or alone, that's where character is measured a lot.

And I believe that God often allows the situations of our life to shake us in that area of us. There are times when we say, why does what happens to me happen to me? How many have ever said that? Why does this happen to me? TRUE? Be honest with me, I have said it, why does what happens to me happen to me? Because I? Nothing else happens to me, nobody else, nothing else.

And look, many times what happens to us because we seek it ourselves, we give and gentlemen. At a time in life when our momentum ran out, we stopped, lost focus, lost vision, and messed ourselves up with the decisions we made, and a lot of it is rooted in that sense of character that we have.

Many people, not you who are very hard-working, who are very stubborn, which is like no, once I decide to do something, I get out there. And look how interesting, this is also seen in the story of Pedro. That it was like even after he dared to say, no, Lord, I throw myself on the chest, I'm not going to deny you, I can even die for you. After having said a confession like that, it was so... I don't know how the hell he forgot that he denied Jesus, and what's more, the new Gospel says that he even cursed when they told him, you, you look like him. You talk like him, you smell like him. And the…. I don't know what curse word came out of his mouth in Hebrew but he cursed, the word says that he cursed, in Hebrew or in Aramaic, I don't know in which language, in one of those he cursed. If it sounds ugly in Spanish, imagine how it sounds in Aramaic.

But the thing is, it's things that are there in the character, and God needs to deal with that, my brethren. And look, you know what? A secret, look I'm warning you. One of the best ways that God shakes, well no, sorry, rewind, delete. One of the ways in which God allows this shaking to happen in our lives is that he does it through the people closest to us, my brothers. Put the seal on it, let it be your wife, your husband, your son, your daughter, your mother, your father, your grandfather, your grandmother, may she rest in peace, your brother, your sister.

There are times when the people closest to you are the ones who struggle the most in there. Because in some way or another they are the people who know what is there, and there are times when you want to try to hide it but look, don't hide it boy, girl, if they are telling you. Let's not be stubborn, and I include myself in this, let's not be stubborn but accept how God treats us through those people as well, how God treats us through other leaders in the church.

Look, if a leader in the church tells you with a lot of respect for your person, he says, look, I don't know about you but I notice that you have this and this and this, that I think you should work. But what does Pastor Omar think to tell me that? No one had ever said something like that to me. That's where pride comes out and gets in the way. And precisely God puts those people around you so that little by little they press your buttons, as they say, so that you can wake up to that reality that, wait, there are things that I have to work on.

So character is a very important area. I could elaborate more there, but let me move. Obviously the area of the family is also another of which is shaken, that one would like his family, his home, that everything is perfectly fine, as if to say, that everything is there perfectly. But many times things do not go perfectly as one would like. There are times when spouses, no matter how much they love each other, will always be pulling their hair in some way or another, it will always happen.

As much as you want your children to behave in the most appropriate way, they are always going to do something that will make you lose patience. No matter how much one tries to keep the bank account there, with a balance of 3000 dollars or something, here I am thinking utopianly too, but it will always cause something, there will always be something that will put the numbers in color red and I one is going to have to see black and one is going to have to say, okay, we have to adjust the budget. And look if it scares me that my voice even goes away when I talk about this.

It's hard, sir. But they are things that work for us. And even when we talk at the marriage level too, I don't know if I mentioned this last Wednesday but sometimes this also happens a lot at the marriage level when one of the two parties is not meeting the needs of the other or the other the expectations that are held. you know what? Our human nature is always going to have a tendency to start thinking like wow, how beautiful the greener grass looks on the other side. And I am going to speak to you very honestly and very sincerely, I could say that there would be a very tiny handful of couples who would dare to say, no, I have never thought like that, and even if they told me that, I would say, well, I I don't know but God knows, but I would keep my sense of doubt there. And for the record, it's not that I'm doubting people, but yes, I do.

But the thing is that when that doesn't happen, look, my brothers, the mind begins to work, it says oh, look at that boy, look at that girl. Or do we start with what if? And? What would my life have been with so-and-so or so-and-so? And if we let that fantasizing in the mind run too far, look, there the shaking is not coming from an external thing, there the shaking is coming because one allows it to enter. And one has to take care of those areas in life on a natural level.

If I put another area, your work area, in your neighborhood, things like that, look, people can show up who are going to kill you, so to speak. And maybe it's a word or a look or a hair move, or a show of arms or something, I don't know, whatever men or women do to get attention. They are things that if one is not very clear in his life, in his Christian life, in his values, in his marital relationship or in any other aspect.

What's more, I am going to take it to the business level, that is, if you are at work and you are trying to do a good job so that superiors are happy with your work, and suddenly there is another who is there whispering, look, what's licking the boss's eyes, as they say, to get higher, and if one gets carried away by those comments, look, one loses perspective.

And that is why, my brothers, one has to be very aware when these types of shaking occur, those times of situations that can put one in slightly compromising situations, then one has to evaluate oneself and then say Okay, wait, what's going on with this situation? What am I doing? What is causing this situation? Or what am I not doing that I should be doing? Also. And how this situation can take out of me what is not necessary at the level of character, at the level of thought, at the level of projection, at the level of personality. What things have to be taken out of me so that I can then become the kind of man or the kind of woman that God wants us to be?

Obviously, this often occurs at the level, the shaking occurs at the level of health. Look, when you receive bad news that look, you were diagnosed with something and it's like, hijale, now what? When things like that happen, look, that can be a situation that shakes our faith and you kind of believe or don't believe? What is going to happen now?

And likewise, my brothers, it also occurs here in the church. Here even more in the church. It's funny to me because there are times when we say, oh, that pastor looks so good, but the first time the pastor steps on a callus, it's like I don't like that pastor. I don't want to talk to that pastor, I'm going to talk to the other one, I prefer the other one. And we'll go with the other pastor, but when the other pastor steps on your callus, you too, oh, no, those pastors have a buddy, I'm going to go with another pastor.

Or yes, exactly, I'm going to another church. And when you get to the other church, you step on the corns of another person in that church, so they have to kick you out of there so you can go to another church.

Look, what is the final purpose of all this, my brothers, I understand that when those opportunities arise, or those situations where our lives are shaken in one way or another, I understand that what God is causing is polishing us, removing us from we what is disposable, what stinks, what is ugly, what is dirty, what God does not want to be there.

The image of the potter working with the clay comes to mind when he is preparing it and sticks his fingers in there, what they are doing is removing those dirty stones, bits of root wood that are in the clay, and there are They have to be removed so that the vessel has the necessary shape and that it does not break. That is what God does with each one of us. So look, my brethren, if you at any time from now on, I hope this is so. This is going to be my prayer, if at any time from now on you find yourself in a situation where you can say, like my life is being shaken, think about the following: that the Lord already knew it was going to happen. And that through that situation the Lord is bringing out the best in you so that you can become the person that God wants you to become. Do not think that the person or the situation through which this shaking is coming is not going to think, that is the devil, it is a devil that is attacking my life. Don't think so. Because we quickly blame the devil, and although the devil might have something to do with this, but look, focus, keep your focus, your mind, your heart, your spirit thinking, okay, Lord, what can I get out of this? this? Or what do you want to get out of this?

And this requires a well-intentioned effort, my brothers, because our tendency is going to be the same as Pedro did, that when the shaking arrives, we run like miles by knife. We get scared of the situation. Our faith is hidden, as the passage I was reading on Wednesday said, we follow Jesus from afar so they don't identify me, but no, that's not the type of disciple the Lord wants. He wants those who are truly close to him, who are there connected to him. And even if they do go through those times of shaking, with everything and that they remain firm because they know that this situation is going to lead them to something greater.

So remember that if you believe that this situation is bringing something to an end, think the next thing that after that end something new is going to begin. As I learned once, in fact from Miguel Pérez I learned this, that when one believes that a situation has ended, God's dreams with one do not end, God's dreams with one continue, I liked that.

God has dreams with you and he has a moment where he is working on each one of us. So you know, my brother, my sister, who listens to me, take this with you tonight. There is no call, there is no vocation, there is no ministry, there is no solid and enduring Christian life that is not shaken beforehand. So when your life is shaken up, don't be shaken up, don't get depressed, don't be choppy or anything. Stand firm and say, I fall but I have someone who can lift me up, and who can affirm me so that I can move on and who can teach my life how I should proceed.

So we're going to stand up, and we're going to pray. Father, we only give glory to you Lord, because you are the one in control of our entire life, Lord, you are the one who directs us, you are the one who marks our path, Lord, you are the one who allows them to arrive situations in our life that can shape us and that can bring us closer to you, Lord.

Your wish is not that we move away, on the contrary, your wish is that we get closer to you. And Father, I ask you for each one of my brothers and sisters tonight who have arrived here that these words that we have been meditating on, Lord, that they encourage our walk with you, that they encourage and strengthen our faith and that they allow us to know , Lord, that even despite the negative circumstances that may come into our life, Lord, that you are there too. And that you allow, Lord, that our being, our spirit, our mind go through difficult times on several occasions but it is to get something better out of us, Lord, for us to become someone much better, much more desirable in front of you.

So, Father, keep working with us, Lord, I affirm what the Scripture says, that you do not allow any temptation to come into our lives that we cannot bear. So if there is something or someone that tries to accuse us or tempt us in a way that does not come from you, Lord, look, free us from that, put angels to protect us at all times, Lord, and free us from those situations.

But if they are things that come from you, that are allowed by you, Lord, then help us to have the discernment and wisdom to be able to know how you are working on those things and to be able to trust you, Lord. I affirm this word, to be able to trust you, Lord, in your person, in your purposes for our lives that you know much better than we do what we need.

We bless your name tonight, Lord. Thank you for each one of my brothers and sisters that has come here tonight. I declare your blessing upon them and Father, that you allow us a deep, restful rest tonight and that tomorrow if it is your will we can get up, Lord, and give our hands to the day with everything it can bring us.

Bless us as we leave here in Jesus name.